The future of Harvard University’s president, Claudine Gay, was on the line on Monday as the school’s governing body met amid calls for her removal following the widely criticized comments she made last week about antisemitism on campus.

As donors ratcheted up a pressure campaign to oust Dr. Gay, about 700 members of Harvard’s faculty came to her defense in several open letters. One, from Black faculty members, called the attacks on the president “specious and politically motivated.” The letter, which was drafted and signed by some of Harvard’s most prominent professors, said that Dr. Gay “should be given the chance to fulfill her term to demonstrate her vision for Harvard.”

Dr. Gay, who assumed the university’s top job in July, is Harvard’s first Black president.

Critics of Dr. Gay, too, pressed their case publicly. One of the most outspoken, William A. Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager, wrote on the social media site X on Sunday evening that “President Gay’s mishandling of October 7th and its aftermath on campus have led to the metastasis of antisemitism to other universities and institutions around the world.”

A letter expressing “no confidence” in Dr. Gay was also gaining support on Monday. Signed by Harvard students and alumni, it urged her to resign or be relieved of her position. “It is not appropriate for Claudine Gay to serve as President of Harvard, as she does not represent our collective values or the Harvard that we have come to know,” that letter said.

The Harvard community has been plunged into one of its deepest crises in years, forcing it to reckon with difficult questions of race, religion and tolerance. Similar debates are playing out on college campuses across the country as school administrators face accusations that they have ignored or downplayed incidents of antisemitism following the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza.

Underpinning these debates is a tension between, on the one hand, students and many professors who say their freedom of expression is being stifled, and on the other, alumni and politicians who complain that universities have allowed intolerance to grow unchecked.