Northeast
Harvard must rid itself of ‘cultural rot’ in wake of Gay resignation, says advocate for Jewish students
Following the resignation of Harvard President Claudine Gay, the CEO of a pro-Israel student-focused organization told Fox News Digital that the university must commit to remedying antisemitism and ridding the school of “cultural rot” when a new president is hired.
“Harvard’s leadership doesn’t just have a plagiarism problem. It has a moral problem. Many of Harvard’s students and faculty don’t see what’s wrong with Hamas or its brutal murders and rapes of Israelis. The next leader of Harvard needs to fix the deeper cultural rot at that once great university,” Israel On Campus Coalition (ICC) CEO Jacob Baime told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
“Not only do Harvard students and faculty cheer the murder of Israelis, they have made life unbearable and unsafe for Jewish students and faculty on the Harvard campus,” he said, noting that the ICC describes itself as an organization that works to inspire American college students and pro-Israel college groups to “see Israel as a source of pride and empower them to stand up for Israel on campus.”
News broke Tuesday afternoon that Gay was expected to resign amid mounting allegations of plagiarism and her handling of antisemitism on campus since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7. She officially announced her resignation in a letter to the school’s community, saying the decision did not occur “easily.”
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Harvard President Claudine Gay, foreground, faced backlash after she and the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and MIT appeared before Congress and were grilled about their handling of antisemitism on their campuses. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Gay came under fierce condemnation last month after she and the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and MIT appeared before Congress and were grilled about their handling of antisemitism on their respective campuses. Simultaneously, the Harvard chief battled accusations of repeated plagiarism, including claims that she plagiarized almost 20 authors in four of her 11 peer-reviewed academic papers, including her doctoral dissertation.
HARVARD PRESIDENT CLAUDINE GAY RESIGNS AMID ANTISEMITISM, PLAGIARISM CONTROVERSIES
Israel On Campus Coalition (ICC) CEO Jacob Baime. (Israel On Campus Coalition)
“Once it became clear that the plagiarism in President Gay’s work was part of a clear pattern, it was simply too damaging to the reputation of the university and its students for her to stay on,” Harvard student Charlie Covit told Fox News Digital.
Covit added that allegations of plagiarism should not “overshadow” antisemitism on campus, which he said must be addressed by the next president.
News broke Tuesday that Harvard President Claudine Gay was expected to resign amid mounting allegations of plagiarism and her handling of antisemitism on campus since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)
“I hope that the plagiarism, while serious, will not overshadow what remains a serious issue on our campus: antisemitism and an obsessive hatred of Israel. The next president must address the concerns of the Jewish community on day one.”
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Harvard announced that Provost Alan M. Garber will serve as interim president until the school finds Gay’s replacement, the Harvard Crimson reported.
People look at a truck and its signs that demand the firing of Harvard President Caludine Gay. (Fox News Digital)
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced an investigation into alleged antisemitism on Harvard’s campus in November amid students staging “die-ins” that blame Israel for the war and anti-Israel protesters marching across the campus since the war began.
Gay’s resignation marks the shortest tenure a president has ever held at Harvard, the student newspaper reported. She served six months and two days on the job.
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Gay, along with UPenn’s and MIT’s respective presidents, came under fire from lawmakers, and subsequently viewers at large, last month when they were grilled about whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violates the respective school’s codes of conduct.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced an investigation into alleged antisemitism on Harvard’s campus in November. (Getty Images)
“At Harvard, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment?” Republican New York Rep. Elise Stefanik asked Gay.
“It can be, depending on the context,” Gay responded.
“Antisemitic speech when it crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation … is actionable conduct, and we do take action,” Gay said when pressed to answer “yes” or “no” if calls for the genocide of Jews breaks school rules.
“So the answer is yes, that calling for the genocide of Jews violates [Harvard’s] code of conduct, correct?” Stefanik asked.
“Again, it depends on the context,” Gay said.
“It does not depend on the context. The answer is yes, and this is why you should resign,” Stefanik responded. “These are unacceptable answers across the board.”
A truck on Harvard’s campus shows signs demanding that President Claudine Gay be fired for her handling of antisemitism on campus. (Fox News Digital)
Gay apologized shortly after, as critics sounded off, saying “words matter.”
“When words amplify distress and pain, I don’t know how you could feel anything but regret,” Gay added in her apology.
Harvard and Penn subsequently saw billboard truck protests that demanded the firing of Gay and Penn President Liz Magill in light of their responses to Congress. Gay’s resignation comes after Magill resigned her position last month.
Harvard did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
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State Treasurer Erick Russell achieved a 14% increase last year investing Connecticut’s pension fund assets, gaining roughly $8.3 billion for retirement programs for state employees, teachers and other municipal workers.
The state, which oversees nearly $69 billion in pension assets, aims for an average annual return on pension investments of 6.9%.
Expectations for bigger gains grew throughout the past year as key stock market indices surged. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges, grew by more than 13% in 2025. And the S&P 500, which follows 500 traded companies, topped 16%.
Among peer states and other entities that manage public pension funds holding more than $10 billion in assets, Connecticut’s 2025 performance ranks in the top 17%, Russell said.
But the treasurer, who also announced this week he will seek a second term, said the latest big earnings stem from more than the big gains Wall Street enjoyed in 2025.
“Markets certainly have been strong, but a lot of this is about our overall asset allocation,” said Russell, who updated the Investment Advisory Council Tuesday on the state’s portfolio. “The progress we’ve been making … is a good sign that we’re set up for future success.”
Russell also reported investment gains of 10.3% for the 2024 calendar year and 12.8% for 2023.
State officials particularly have focused on improving investment returns since a May 2023 report from Yale University researchers found Connecticut’s results badly lagged the nation’s over the prior decade.
That only compounded an even larger pension problem that state officials began to address in the early 2010s. According to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, Connecticut governors and legislatures failed to save adequate for pension benefits for more than seven decades prior to 2011. This deprived the state treasurer of huge assets that otherwise could have been invested to generate billions of dollars in revenue over those seven decades.
The treasurer’s office under Russell has put more funds into private and domestic markets and curbed reliance on investment managers who receive large fees for their work.
Gov. Ned Lamont and the General Assembly also have greatly assisted efforts to bolster the fiscal health of pension programs in recent years. Since 2020, they have used $10 billion from budget surpluses to make supplemental payments into pensions for state employees and municipal teachers. That’s in addition to annual required payments that currently approach $3.3 billion in the General Fund.
“These returns highlight the impressive work of Treasurer Russell and his team in increasing investment returns,” Lamont’s budget spokesman, Chris Collibee, said Tuesday. “Gov. Lamont’s focus has been on building a sustainable Connecticut for the future. Every dollar in additional investment revenue is funds the state can use to cut taxes and provide more resources for essential programs like education, child care, housing, and social services safety nets.”
Russell, a New Haven Democrat, said he has tried to make the office both “disciplined and forward-looking.”
“Over the last several years, we haven’t just changed how the office works, we’ve changed who it works for. We’re ushering in a new era of fiscal responsibility, making significant payments on long-term debt that has allowed us to invest in the residents of Connecticut and begin to lift up communities across our state.”
Russell also brokered a key compromise in 2023 between Lamont and the legislature that salvaged the Baby Bonds program, an initiative that invests long-term funds in Connecticut’s poorest children when they’re born to help finance educational and business opportunities later in life.
Keith M. Phaneuf is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (https://ctmirror.org). Copyright 2026 © The Connecticut Mirror.
A person was hit by a vehicle Tuesday morning in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Police responded just after 10 a.m. to the crash at the intersection of Elm Street and Carter Street.
Officers began treating the pedestrian, who was then taken to an area hospital with unspecified injuries.
The driver stayed at the scene, the Waltham Police Department said.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
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