Elon Musk is calling for Harvard's defunding

• Elon Musk is now calling for Harvard's defunding.
• Musk said it's "the only thing that will work" amidst the backlash toward president Claudine Gay.

Elon Musk thinks he has a way to end the controversy Harvard's been embroiled in — defunding the college.

Musk made the recommendation in response to another user's post on X about the college's president, Claudine Gay, and her congressional testimony.

"The Harvard Board is now stuck between a rock & a hard place: if they fire Gay (also now accused of plagiarism) the faculty will be in revolt; if they keep her, the university will be saddled with a national disgrace," C. Bradley Thompson, a political science professor at Clemson University, wrote.

"@Harvard is gone. It cannot be saved. Harvard has a $50 billion endowment. It should never again receive a penny of taxpayer money. #defundHarvard," Thompson wrote.

"Defunding Harvard is the only thing that will work," Musk replied.

Musk then called for the entire Harvard's governing board to be removed.

"Shame on the board. They all need to go," Musk wrote on X, referencing a post by Bill Ackman which said that the school's governing boards were retaining Gay as president.

Gay has been heavily criticized over her remarks at last week's congressional hearing on on-campus antisemitism.

During the hearing, Gay was repeatedly asked if calling for the genocide of Jews violated her university's rules on bullying and harassment.

Gay, as well as her counterparts from MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, did not give answers that unequivocally condemned the genocide of Jews.

Their evasive responses were panned by Musk and other business executives like hedge fund manager Bill Ackman.

"Let me help them out here: 'Calling for the genocide [death] of anyone obviously constitutes harassment,'" Musk wrote on X on December 5.

Musk may have felt strongly about the matter, being an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania himself. The billionaire graduated from the university with dual degrees in physics and economics in 1997, per The Daily Pennsylvanian.

"I am a Penn alum and this is indeed shameful," Musk said in an X post on December 7.

On Saturday, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, Liz Magill resigned from her position after alumni and donors called for her removal.

In the case of Harvard, faculty members as well as the school's alumni association have come to Gay's defense.

According to the student newspaper, more than 500 current faculty members have signed an open letter urging Harvard's board not to remove her. The Harvard Alumni Association Executive Committee also asked the school's governing boards to back Gay.

"President Gay is the right leader to guide the University during this challenging time. We are confident President Gay will address antisemitism, and other forms of hate, effectively and courageously," read the letter from the alumni association, per The Harvard Crimson.

But Magill's resignation has emboldened Gay's critics, who are mounting a pressure campaign calling for her ouster.

"1 down, 2 to go," an anonymous source who sent billboard trucks calling for Gay and Magill's resignations to their respective college campuses told Fox News Digital.

On Sunday, Ackman penned his third open letter to Harvard's leadership, where he reiterated his call for Gay to resign.

"In her short tenure as President, Claudine Gay has done more damage to the reputation of Harvard University than any individual in our nearly 500-year history," the Harvard alumnus wrote.

Ackman's letter also got Musk's support. Musk said on Monday that Ackman's letter "simply articulated, with great clarity, the severe concerns held by many."

Incidentally, Musk did get into trouble in November himself for endorsing what people said was an antisemitic post on X.

Musk later apologized for his conduct during an interview at The New York Times DealBook Summit in November, calling it "one of the most foolish things" he'd done at X.

"I handed a loaded gun to those who hate me, and arguably to those who are antisemitic, and for that, I am quite sorry," Musk said.

Representatives for Musk and Harvard did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.