(NewsNation) — The presidents of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are facing growing calls to resign after a disastrous House hearing this week regarding how their schools are handling the rise of antisemitism.
Congresswoman Kathy Manning, D-N.C., the first woman to serve as board chair of the Jewish Federations of North America and a graduate of Harvard University, joined “The Hill on NewsNation” to discuss increasing calls for their resignations.
“It’s not my job to decide whether she (Claudine Gay) needs to stay or go,” Manning said. “It is the job of the board of trustees of Harvard University.”
“I would advise them,” she continued, “No. 1, they need to understand what’s really going on on their campus. And they need to understand why the president was not able to just say that calling for the genocide of the Jewish people is wrong, and it violates their code of conduct. If it does not violate their code of conduct, then they need to take another look at it.”
Harvard posted a statement on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, from Gay on Wednesday further clarifying that “calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile” and have no place on campus.
Now, Congress has opened an investigation into MIT, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard, and some donors have said they will withdraw major gifts to the institutions.
“Title VI of the Civil Rights Act requires schools not to discriminate or allow discrimination or a hostile atmosphere against students based on ethnicity or national origin,” Manning said. “There are also criminal statutes that they ought to be looking at. So I think the board of trustees has to do its own evaluation and investigation.”
According to the Anti-Defamation League, 73% of Jewish college students have experienced or witnessed some form of antisemitism since the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year.
“All three of them (university presidents) answered that same question with hesitation, with invasion, talking about context,” Manning said. “There is no context in which calling for the genocide of the Jewish people is acceptable.”