Dave Portnoy doubles down and says he will ‘never hire a Harvard grad again’ after President Claudine Gay keeps her job: ‘Your diploma is useless to me. The entire country should do the same’

Barstools Sports founder Dave Portnoy doubled down on his pledge to never hire Harvard graduates again after the Ivy League board announced its support for President Claudine Gay.

“I will say it again: I will never hire Harvard graduates again. Your diploma is of no use to me. The entire country should do the same,” Portnoy wrote on X on Tuesday after Harvard said it would not fire Gay over allegations of anti-Semitism and plagiarism.

Portnoy, who is Jewish, shared an excerpt from a Fox Business interview in which he said he would block graduates from Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania until their presidents apologized for their congressional testimony.

“If you can’t condemn genocide, then you don’t deserve to be in power,” Portnoy said in an interview, adding that “there’s a difference between free speech and hate speech.”

On Tuesday, the Harvard Corporation finally gave an answer regarding Gay’s fate at the Ivy League following calls for her resignation following her disastrous congressional testimony. Gay told Congress that it depends on the context whether calls for genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules.

As pressure mounted on Gay to resign, allegations of plagiarism emerged, alleging that the scientist had improperly rejected the work of other scientists. However, in a statement, Harvard said it reviewed the allegations in October and found no wrongdoing.

But to many on social media, mostly on the political right, Harvard has failed to hold gays accountable.

Dr. Carol Swain, one of the authors who allegedly plagiarized Gay, wrote on X: “This is a terrible blow to civil rights and academic standards. What message does this send to young people and the world? Shame on Harvard!…The Harvard Corporation did not have the courage to admit and correct its mistakes regarding Dr. Gay.

“Despite evidence of plagiarism throughout her career, she will remain at the helm of the university. There is no accountability at Harvard.”

Elon Musk, for his part, responded to Gay keeping her job with the hashtag #DefundHarvard.

Free Beacon contributor Noah Pollack said: “Exempting her from plagiarism rules is part of the message: Harvard is now Animal Farm, and some ‘scholars’ are more equal than others. The President may be a dark, corrupt DEI apparatchik, but publicly we will call her a brilliant scientist.”

The Harvard Corporation, the college’s 10-member executive board, said in a statement: “Our extensive discussions reaffirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and address the very serious social challenges we face.” “

The board acknowledged Gay’s failures in combating anti-Semitism on campus, adding: “So many people have suffered enormous harm and pain due to Hamas’ brutal terrorist attack, and the university’s initial statement should have been an immediate, direct and unequivocal condemnation.

Billionaire hedge fund alumnus Bill Ackman, who led the campaign to oust Gay, said Harvard’s board did not want to be seen as favoring him.

In a statement Tuesday, Harvard’s board responded to allegations that Gay plagiarized part of her dissertation, saying they had launched an investigation at Gay’s own request.

“At the end of October, the university became aware of charges under three articles. At President Gay’s request, the fellows promptly initiated peer review by distinguished political scientists and reviewed her published work.

“On December 9, the fellows reviewed the results, which revealed several cases of inappropriate citation. Although the review found no violation of Harvard’s standards for research misconduct, President Gay actively requests four corrections to two articles to insert citations and quotation marks that were omitted from the original publications.”

The Harvard Corporation, formally the president and members of Harvard College, has 12 members, including Gay, Amherst College President Biddy Martin and former American Express CEO Kenneth I. Chenault.

Gay, the school’s first Black president, was appointed to the post in July 2023. She drew fury during a congressional hearing last week when she said it depends on the context whether calls for genocide of Jews at Harvard constitute harassment and a violation of the rules.

She was subsequently forced to apologize after a hearing that cost Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania her job over a similar response.

Despite the backlash, Gay maintained institutional support at Harvard.

On Monday, the executive committee of the Harvard University Alumni Association announced its full support for the scientist and asked the school’s leadership to publicly support her, The Harvard Crimson reports.

The group wrote: “President Gay is the right leader to lead the university through this difficult time… She is thoughtful. She is kind. She is strongly committed to the growth and well-being of our very diverse community. We acknowledge that her testimony last week was disappointing. “President Gay pointed this out and apologized for all the pain her testimony caused, which was a powerful demonstration of her integrity, determination and courage.”

Bill Ackman responded to the alumni group’s letter by saying, “How did the Association support President Gay without polling its members first?”

In addition, more than 700 Harvard faculty members signed a letter in support of Gay, calling on the school to resist calls to fire her, calling attacks against her “politically motivated.”

Harvard legal scholar Lawrence Tribe, who previously called Gay’s testimony “deeply troubling,” told CNN he signed the petition because “as soon as external pressure, whether from super-rich donors or from politicians pursuing their ideological agendas, prevails over the internal decision-making processes of universities, we are on the path to tyranny.”