Answer: Because their president knew when to shut up.
It’s been a month or so since the presidents of Penn, Harvard and MIT made fools of themselves in their congressional testimony. The President of Penn resigned that week, the President of Harvard, being a woman of color, needed a month and massive evidence of plagiarism to get her out the door.
Now as we near the end of the Christmas Season only Sally Kornbluth the President of MIT remains and although Bill Ackman has turned his attention to her and a lecturer has resigned this week over their response to antisemitism on campus Kornbluth still stands.
Why because after her disastrous performance before congress she did the one thing that neither Gay of Harvard nor Magill of Penn did, she managed to keep her mouth shut and her head down.
Both Gay and Magill put out videos declaring loudly once they were not under oath what they should have said under oath. Kornbluth remained silent. In fact if you do a google search for news stories with the word “Kornbluth” and sort by date you will note very few stories concerning her during the period from the time between Magill’s resignation and Gay’s. In fact the most significant story in play was this from the Times of Israel:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology president Sally Kornbluth, who came under fire after her testimony on the university’s response to antisemitism, attended a screening of a compilation film showing Hamas atrocities carried out on October 7, Prof. Retsef Levi says on X, formerly Twitter.
Levi, a critic of Kornbluth, says he also attended the screening, as did chairman of the MIT board Mark Gorenberg and other faculty.
The screening of the tightly controlled film, which was put together by the IDF, was hosted by the MIT Chabad house
This silence clearly paid dividends. A full month has passed since the base hearing, she can point to her attendance of the screening above while still staying married to the narrativeTM as demonstrated by this memo which came out yesterday:
We will soon announce a new Vice President for Equity and Inclusion (VPEI). With this new role, we have an important opportunity to reflect on and comprehensively assess the structures and programs intended to support our community and create a welcoming environment.
While we address the pressing challenge of how best to combat antisemitism, Islamophobia and hatred based on national origin or ethnicity in our community, we need to talk candidly about practical ways to make our community a place where we all feel that we belong.
While she doesn’t have the advantages of Gay’s racial bona fides she also doesn’t apparently have any of the plagiarism issues to worry about. Combine that with her pushing of DEI along with repeating the canard that “Islamaphobia” as an issue that needs to be combated on campus and she has put the left on notice that she is on board and no amount of Hamas atrocities are going to derail her from the cause.
Given her history at Duke university this is no surprise.
So while the focus might turn to MIT and some may put some effort in bringing heat toward MIT in general and Kornbluth in particular I’m predicting that Kornbluth will still be president of MIT when this year’s class graduates and the next semester’s class enters.
After all there is nothing that draws those arab billions to a US college like a Jewish president willing to play ball and smart enough to dodge the consequences of same.
Unexpectedly of course.
Bonus Thought: Harvard and Penn are both known for their Law Schools, You would think people who run law schools would know the first rule of law, particularly if you know you’re guilty is to SHUT UP! MIT may not do law but as a school known for more practical skills and thus figured this out.
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