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Columnist Jason L. Riley writes:  Why did the University of Pennsylvania hold Liz Magill to a higher standard than Harvard is holding Claudine Gay? Both presidents were guilty of indulging antisemitism on campus, repeatedly equivocating on what should have been a straightforward response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, and embarrassing their institutions when testifying before Congress. Yet Ms. Gay has kept her job and Ms. Magill has been shown the door. You don’t need a Harvard degree to understand that Ms. Gay, the school’s first black president, advances the diversity imperatives of her institution in ways that Ms. Magill, who is white, doesn’t.

Jeannie Suk Gersen, contributing writer to The New Yorker and a professor at Harvard Law School, writes: 
On a wet afternoon in late September, Claudine Gay, the first Black president of Harvard University, delivered her inaugural address. Gay, who had previously been the dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said that knowledge is best served “when we commit to open inquiry and freedom of expression as foundational values of our academic community,” adding that a diversity “of backgrounds, lived experiences, and perspectives” enables “the learning that happens when ideas and opinions collide.”
 

As they submit grades for the fall semester, some tenured faculty members at Manhattan College are wondering if they’ll still have jobs come the end of the academic year. Administrators have earmarked at least 34 faculty positions — the majority of which are tenured — for elimination as part of a planned restructuring that would see the college’s six schools merge into three, according to several faculty members who spoke to The Chronicle.

Sam Betsko figured out fast that being a resident assistant in a college dorm would demand more than helping locked-out students and pleading with sophomores to, for the love of God, turn down the music. In her role at Boston University, there were days of compulsory, unpaid training, and the specter of arbitrary discipline from bosses. She had to prepare to respond to emergencies like a student’s anxiety attack or sexual assault. Then she learned that some resident assistants had been assigned to work far more than others — without extra compensation — in a gig that offered no more than housing, a meal plan, tickets to school events and a weekly stipend that could barely buy a drink. The resident assistants, she thought in 2021, needed a union. 

The ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hamas and the aftermath of the Congressional testimony by three Ivy League presidents continue to reverberate in the media.
 
Below is round-up of news and opinion from the national media.
 
Harvard President Corrects 2 Articles
Inside Higher Ed (December 18, 2023)
 
How a 6-Second Video Turned a Campus Protest Into a National Firestorm
The New York Times (December 18, 2023)
 
Campus Crackdowns Have Chilling Effect on Pro-Palestinian Speech
The New York Times (December 17, 2023)
 
Donors Pushing Around School Presidents? Higher Education Has Become College Football.
The Wall Street Journal (December 17, 2023)
 
Donors, Alumni Helped Take Down an Ivy League President. Is This a Moment or a Movement?
The Wall Street Journal (December 17, 2023)
 
 
Feeling Alone and Estranged, Many Jews at Harvard Wonder What’s Next
The New York Times (December 16, 2023)
 
Criticism of Harvard’s President Is Growing. Some See Race as a Factor.
The Washington Post (December 15, 2023)
 
Applications for Early Harvard Admissions Dip
The New York Times (December 15, 2023)
 
Harvard Early Applications Fall 17% to Four-Year Lows
CNN.com (December 15, 2023)
 
 
Did Claudine Gay Plagiarize or Not? Harvard Should Be Clear. – Editorial
The Boston Globe (December 18, 2023)
 
Who Should Prep University Presidents? Crisis Managers, Not Lawyers. - Commentary
The Boston Globe (December 18, 2023)
 
Claudine Gay and My Scholarship - Commentary
The Wall Street Journal (December 17, 2023)
 
Harvard Is Big Business at Its Worst – Commentary
The Wall Street Journal (December 17, 2023)