While the boards of trustees of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania weighed the fate of their presidents in tense closed-door meetings this month, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s board immediately issued a statement of dubious support for its president, Sally Kornbluth.
Faculty leaders, department heads, and deans at MIT soon followed with their own endorsements of Dr. Kornbluth, who along with the presidents of Harvard and Penn gave evasive, legalistic responses to a congressional hearing on campus anti-Semitism. Donors are not flocking to social media to demand her removal. many students, busy with exams, paid little attention to the spectacle.
Dr. Kornbluth, who arrived at MIT less than a year ago, did not appear to face a serious threat to her leadership, although her testimony at a hearing last week drew the same harsh criticism as that of the other two presidents, Claudine Gay of Harvard. and Elizabeth Magill of Penn. The three leaders have drawn fire for how they responded to questions about whether they would discipline students who called for the genocide of the Jews and for placing a strong emphasis on protecting free speech.
Ms Magill resigned on Saturday. Dr. Gay stayed in her job, but only after Harvard’s board of trustees spent many hours discussing the situation.
Although the fallout at MIT appeared to be contained, tension and frustration still simmered among some students and alumni.
A letter from “a growing group” of Jewish alumni and their allies, sent Monday to the university’s administration and its board of trustees, the MIT Corporation, expressed concern over the “devastating” testimony of Dr. Kornbluth and the fact that he hadn’t apologized. the. The letter also criticized the board’s endorsement of her leadership.
“We are concerned to see MIT gaining a national reputation for anti-Semitism on President Kornbluth’s watch, rather than academic excellence,” said the letter, signed by hundreds of alumni.
He called for “concrete actions” to “right this sinking ship,” including discipline for students who violate university rules — for example, by protesting “in areas that MIT specifically said were off-limits for protest.” The letter also called for the creation of a task force to ensure the safety of Jewish students.
A second letter, sent to university leaders by student members of the MIT Israel Alliance, also demanded action, including public acknowledgment of an “existential anti-Semitism problem on campus” and the removal of board members “who tacitly or otherwise support the appeals. for the genocide of the Jews”.
On MIT’s Cambridge campus, which has been quiet this week ahead of final exams, there were few signs of unrest. Many students remained glued to their laptops. social interaction shrank to bare essentials. The largest campus newspaper, The Tech, had no new coverage of the uproar over the hearings.
Some faculty members described a muted reaction.
“I haven’t received an email today or yesterday that really addresses this issue,” Phillip A. Sharp, professor emeritus of biology and Nobel laureate, said in an interview Tuesday. “I was at a dinner last night, a biotech dinner, and it wasn’t the main topic of conversation.”
The lack of distraction was in the name of MIT, the elite science and technology school about two miles from Harvard, which enrolls 4,700 undergraduates and accepts just 4% of applicants. Students and alumni are proud to point out that MIT does not do legacy admissions. they describe the school as having a culture of meritocracy, where hard work and ideas trump money and tradition—qualities that some see as distinguishing it favorably from Harvard.
An MIT spokeswoman said Wednesday that Dr. Kornbluth “focused on keeping the campus safe and functional” while engaging in “many conversations” with students, faculty, staff and alumni. Next semester, the spokeswoman said, senior leaders will be trained to combat anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
Some students say much more is needed to restore balance on campus.
Talia Khan, a graduate student and president of the MIT Israel Alliance, said the group was formed in response to rising anti-Semitic rhetoric on campus following the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel, as well as the administration’s failure to discipline protesters who violated the campus. rules or to protect Jewish students who felt threatened.
Ms. Khan described feeling “overwhelming disappointment” as she listened to Dr. Kornbluth before Congress and then saw the school board offer unwavering support.
“They don’t want to believe that what’s happening on campus is actually happening,” he said. “I know the president and I think she has a heart, but I didn’t see that in her testimony.”
In her opening statement at last week’s hearing before the House Education and Workforce Committee, Dr. Kornbluth acknowledged the fear and pain felt by Jewish students in response to the recent protests, while stressing the difference between “what we have a right to say and what we have to say.”
“Those who want us to shut down the language of protest are actually advocating a speech code,” he said. “But in practice, speech codes don’t work. The problem speech must be addressed with another speech and with education.”
Dr. Kornbluth, 62, a cell biologist and former Duke University Jewish professor, became the second woman to lead MIT in January. The two other presidents under fire for their testimony were also relatively new to their positions: Dr. Gay, 53, became Harvard’s first black president in July, and Ms. Magill, 57, began her presidency at Penn last year .
On Wednesday night, the House passed a resolution condemning the testimony of the three presidents, who failed to state clearly that calls for the genocide of the Jews constituted harassment and violated their institutions’ codes of conduct.
The resolution, led by Representative Elise Stefanik, R-New York, said Dr. Kornbluth and Dr. Guy must resign. Eighty-four Democrats joined nearly all Republicans in voting for the measure.
Ms. Stefanik, who aggressively questioned the presidents at the hearing, followed up by launching an investigation into the universities, as well as sending a letter to their governing boards calling for the presidents to be removed.
All three leaders inherited a long-running debate over free speech on campus and the lingering fallout from past controversies.
The predecessor of Dr. Kornbluth, L. Rafael Reif, acknowledged several years ago that MIT administrators quietly accepted repeated donations from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from 2002 to 2017, despite concerns about the relationship.
Bill Ackman, the billionaire Harvard graduate and donor who lobbied hard to oust Dr. Gay, too he called MIT to expel Dr. Kornbluth. Mr. Ackman’s wife, Neri Oxman, an Israeli-born architect and designer, earned a PhD from MIT and taught there while directing research in materials ecology.
According to the Jewish student organization Hillel International, about 6% of undergraduates at MIT are Jewish, as are about 10% of undergraduates at Harvard.
Some Jewish students at MIT said this week that they believed concerns about their safety were overblown.
“I’ve always felt safe here,” said Gabriella Martini, a graduate student who is Jewish and helps lead MIT’s Jews for Ceasefire, a campus group that says its advocacy for a “free Palestine” and criticism of of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza are not anti-Semitic. “The idea that anything that has happened here should lead to the resignation of the president, who is basically being bullied by members of Congress who I think have a political agenda in what they’re doing, would set a terrible precedent,” Ms. Martini said.
Several students, faculty members and alumni declined to speak about the controversy or did not respond to interview requests for this article.
Dr. Sharp, the professor emeritus, said he supported Dr. Kornbluth. “He has been transparent about supporting open dialogue on campus while protecting individuals from threats, harassment and interference with daily activities,” he wrote in an email.
Professor Mary Fuller, the chair of the faculty at MIT, referred a reporter in her letter of support to Dr. Kornbluth, signed by more than a dozen former chairs. “Let me point you to something solid,” he wrote in an email, “instead of trying to describe the mood of thousands of people on the eve of finals (and winter break).”
Mable Chan contributed reporting from Cambridge, Mass., and Annie Karni from Washington.
