Harvard student says the decision to keep the president is 'part of a really large toxic culture' on campus

A Harvard student told Fox News Digital Tuesday the decision to keep President Claudine Gay after her controversial testimony at a congressional hearing and plagiarism allegations is part of a toxic culture on campus.

"I think what is happening is horrible for the institution, horrible for many members of our community, including our Jewish brothers and sisters," Harvard Law student Matias Mayesh said.

Harvard University’s top brass backed the embattled president following intense backlash to her comments about antisemitism and accusations of plagiarism.

"As members of the Harvard Corporation, we today reaffirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University. Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing," Harvard Corporation wrote in a statement posted Tuesday morning.

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Mayesh said the decision to stand by Gay was about the left protecting its own.

"We have to recognize that this is not about hypocrisy anymore. This is a very hierarchical system," Mayesh said.

A truck on Harvard's campus demanding President Claudine Gay be fire for her handling of antisemitism on campus.  (Fox News Digital )

Mayesh, who is vice president of Harvard Law School (HLS) GOP explained further, "They get different treatment than us because they are different from us. The leftists will always be loyal to each other and the right will not ever be loyal to itself. The left always protects itself, and it is a perfect example in this situation."

Harvard's definitive backing came after Gay’s testimony drew ire from Congress, alumni, and students. During congressional testimony last week at the House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing, Gay faced fierce questioning from Republicans about whether people calling for the genocide of Jews was against Harvard policy.  

She appeared to equivocate on the issue by repeatedly saying it depended on the "context." 

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Mayesh said his Jewish classmates appeared to be frustrated by Gay’s statements. Furthermore, Mayesh, a Catholic, added that the targeting of "White students and White Christian students" had happened on campus for a long time.

"This is just a very direct and ugly manifestation of this horrible ideology. And so there are a lot of students who recognize that this is horrible and rightly so, and we're all talking against this," Mayesh said. 

"But there's a lot of people who also recognize that this is only part of a really large toxic culture on campus that is corroding the institutions and corroding a lot."

Mayesh hopes to add to the discussion with the Harvard Law School Conservative and Republican Conference on Feb. 10, 2024, which will feature notable speakers like Peter Thiel on key issues such as antisemitism on college campuses, free speech, and education reform.

Claudine Gay, president of Harvard University, during a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023.  (Haiyun Jiang/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Following intense backlash, Gay issued a statement clarifying the university has a clear position against calls for violence against the Jewish community. 

On top of taking heat for her testimony at a Congressional hearing, reports about Gay's academic writings were also addressed by Harvard officials.

The Washington Free Beacon reported Monday that Gay "paraphrased or quoted nearly 20 authors "without proper attribution," according to an analysis by the investigative news site. 

Furthermore, the Manhattan Institute’s Christopher Rufo and journalist Christopher Brunet published instances of what they said were problematic sections of her Ph.D. dissertation that "violate Harvard’s own stated policies on academic integrity."

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Harvard Corporation's statement said their investigation "revealed a few instances of inadequate citation." However, they went on to say, their "analysis found no violation of Harvard’s standards for research misconduct." 

"President Gay is proactively requesting four corrections in two articles to insert citations and quotation marks that were omitted from the original publications," the statement said.

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Mayesh said if any student at Harvard did this, "it would be called plagiarism" and it is hard to believe that one of the most vetted positions on the planet would’ve missed this.

"I think it sort of speaks for itself in a lot of ways,and I think it's a stain on Harvard–it’s a great institution, I really do adore my school," Mayesh said.

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"I think it's a privilege that I go there. I will never discourage that. It's a great opportunity and there's a lot of good people there," he added. "But what's going on has to do with the administration, has to do a lot with the faculty, and a lot of the bias. There's a lot of good people there, and we shouldn't discourage that either."

Jacob Miller, a Jewish junior at Harvard and president of Harvard Hillel, also reacted to the latest development.

"President Gay needs to signal she takes the Jewish community’s concerns seriously. As the Corporation wrote in their letter, violent chants and classroom disruptions must not be tolerated at Harvard—I look forward to the administration upholding that commitment."

After Gay would not say that the calls for the genocide of Jews violated the Ivy League university's code of conduct, the local campus Jewish organization, Harvard Hillel, called on the president to "take action" to protect Jewish students.