Kevin Kiley: “Harvard University's leadership today announced that they will be retaining President Claudine Gay, despite…”

“Harvard University's leadership today announced that they will be retaining President Claudine Gay, despite acknowledging President Gay's repeated failures to adequately condemn terrorism and anti-Semitism. Now, the university will have to answer for why it takes these matters less seriously than the University of Pennsylvania, which recently forced out its president. As disappointing as this is, the refusal of one university to make a needed personnel change is not going to stop the momentum for far-reaching reform that we are seeing in higher education. This is a moment of reckoning for higher education in this country, where the true character of our universities has been laid bare for the world to see. Even before last week's shocking testimony by the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and Penn, many in this country were asking the question: How is it that our leading academic institutions have been gripped by such an ancient and retrograde prejudice as anti-Semitism? How is it that institutions that have been suppressing free speech for years suddenly discovered the First Amendment as a reason not to condemn terrorism or to stop Jewish students from being bullied and harassed? How is it that university leaders who have waded into every political issue of the day suddenly felt bound by institutional neutrality when it came to the murder of children?…”