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Healey defends former Harvard President Gay, calls out GOP Rep. Stefanik
Gov. Maura Healey said that she was "disappointed" to see Claudine Gay step down and issued a "warning" about conservative efforts to target higher education institutions.
One week after Claudine Gay resigned as president of Harvard University, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey defended Gay and said that members of the far right were systematically targeting higher education.
Healey specifically singled out GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik, whose questioning of Gay and other university presidents at a congressional hearing ignited a firestorm that contributed to Gay’s resignation.
“The hypocrisy of Elise Stefanik, who openly praised a candidate who has praised Hitler, I mean give me a break,” Healey said when asked about the situation during an appearance on GBH’s “Boston Public Radio” Tuesday. “[Stefanik] referred to the January 6 insurrectionists as hostages. Someone who is an election denier. I mean, the idea that the likes of someone like Elise Stefanik is going to call into question higher education and the value of higher education in this country really galls me.”
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Stefanik, an outspoken ally of Donald Trump, echoed the former president recently when referring to those who have been jailed for their role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Stefanik claimed credit for Gay’s resignation.
During an early December congressional hearing, Gay failed to say unequivocally that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate Harvard’s conduct policy. She later apologized, saying that calls for violence against Jews or any religious or ethnic group have no place on campus.
Healey did criticize Gay’s performance at the hearing alongside University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill and MIT President Sally Kornbluth. It was right for Gay to apologize, she added.
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“[The presidents] really missed the moment in terms of where we need to be. Because it’s absolutely clear we need to denounce genocide and denounce antisemitism and denounce islamaphobia, and we need to make sure that students are safe on campus,” Healey said on GBH.
The hearing led to increased scrutiny on Gay, and allegations of plagiarism were made public by conservative activists. A Harvard review found “examples of duplicative language without appropriate attribution” in Gay’s 1997 doctoral dissertation and “inadequate citation” in two of Gay’s published academic articles.
When asked about the allegations of plagiarism, Healey said she believed that Gay had properly addressed them and could continue to lead Harvard.
Healey said she was “disappointed” to see Gay step down and how the process that preceded her resignation unfolded.
The governor, a Harvard graduate herself, spoke at Gay’s inauguration in late September. Healey said she had gotten to know Gay personally, and praised Gay’s scholarly achievements in her remarks. Healey later told The Harvard Crimson that she had spoken with Gay about improving collaboration between Harvard and the state government.
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Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who also graduated from Harvard, similarly defended Gay last week.
Healey issued a “warning” about conservative strategies to target colleges and universities across the country.
“There is a systematic effort right now by some on the far right to go after higher education. That’s what you see playing out with the calls to defund higher education, to eliminate some of the programming,” she said. “This is a problem because we have to be strong about our academic institutions.”
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