I think they're getting fired. I think the money, as you pointed out in your tweetstorm, is going to cause that. They're going to lose a lot of donations.View on YouTube
Evidence shows that, following the December 5, 2023 congressional hearing on campus antisemitism where the presidents of Harvard (Claudine Gay), the University of Pennsylvania (Liz Magill), and MIT (Sally Kornbluth) testified, at least one of those presidents was indeed forced out within the ensuing months in the context of donor and political backlash.
-
Liz Magill (University of Pennsylvania)
- Magill resigned as Penn’s president on December 9, 2023, just four days after the hearing. Multiple reports explicitly tie her resignation to the uproar over her testimony and related donor reaction, including the withdrawal of a $100 million gift by major donor Ross Stevens and intense criticism from politicians and Penn’s own advisory boards. (time.com)
- TIME and other outlets describe her resignation as a direct consequence of the backlash to her congressional remarks about whether calls for genocide of Jews violated university policy. (time.com)
-
Claudine Gay (Harvard)
- Gay resigned as Harvard president on January 2, 2024, roughly four weeks after Magill. Coverage consistently links her departure to a combination of plagiarism allegations and backlash from the same Dec. 5 antisemitism hearing, noting that she became the second Ivy president to step down in the wake of those testimonies. (theguardian.com)
- Reporting also notes pressure from donors and major political figures, as well as paused donations pending Harvard’s response to antisemitism concerns. (washingtonpost.com)
-
Hearing context and chain of events
- At the Dec. 5, 2023 House hearing, Gay, Magill, and Kornbluth were all criticized for legalistic answers about whether calls for genocide of Jews violate campus conduct codes. This testimony triggered widespread public, political, and donor backlash; more than 70 members of Congress called for the presidents to be removed. (washingtonpost.com)
- MIT’s Sally Kornbluth, by contrast, received a statement of full support from her board and remained in office. (washingtonpost.com)
Because at least one of the presidents who testified (Magill, and later Gay as well) resigned within weeks to a month of the hearing under intense donor and political pressure, Jason’s prediction that at least one would be removed/forced to resign in the ensuing months due to donor backlash is substantively correct.