Last updated Nov 29, 2025
Prediction
Friedberg
politicsgovernment
Of the university leaders involved in the campus antisemitism controversy discussed in the December 2023 hearings (e.g., presidents of Harvard, MIT, Penn, etc.), at least one will be fired or will resign under pressure within the near term (on the order of months following the hearing).
I think of the four. If I were to just have to make a bet, I'd say probably at least one of them's getting fired.View on YouTube
Explanation

Multiple university presidents who testified in the December 5, 2023 House hearing on campus antisemitism (including leaders of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania) resigned within weeks to a month of the hearing, under intense political and donor pressure.

  • Liz Magill (University of Pennsylvania), one of the presidents at the hearing, resigned on December 9, 2023—four days after the testimony—amid heavy backlash from donors, lawmakers, and others over her comments at the antisemitism hearing. Reports describe her departure as coming "amid pressure from donors and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing" on antisemitism. (cnbc.com)
  • Claudine Gay (Harvard), another president who testified, resigned on January 2, 2024, less than a month after the hearing. Coverage notes that she stepped down following mounting criticism of her congressional testimony on antisemitism and additional plagiarism allegations, explicitly identifying her as the second Ivy League president to resign after the hearing. (theguardian.com)

Both resignations occurred within the "near term" (weeks to a month) after the December 2023 hearing, and both were clearly linked to the fallout from that hearing and the surrounding antisemitism controversy. Since Friedberg’s prediction was that at least one of these leaders would be fired or effectively forced out, and in fact two resigned under pressure, the prediction was right.