M.I.T.’s President Has Weathered the Storm, for Now

As the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania were pushed out of their jobs in recent weeks, it was an open question whether the president of another prestigious institution, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, would suffer the same fate.

But Sally Kornbluth, who testified alongside her two colleagues in a tense congressional hearing last month on antisemitism, has avoided much of the ire directed at Claudine Gay, who resigned this week as Harvard’s president, and Elizabeth Magill, who stepped down as Penn’s president just a few days after her testimony.

Some are still calling for Dr. Kornbluth’s resignation, including Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, the Republican who led the most pointed questioning at the hearing. But Dr. Kornbluth has so far not faced the kind of concerted effort from angry donors and alumni that helped bring down the other university presidents.

Notably, an organization of Jewish alumni at M.I.T. that has been critical of the university for not doing enough to address antisemitism on campus — and criticized the congressional testimony as “disastrous” — has not called for Dr. Kornbluth’s resignation.

Matt Handel, a founder of the M.I.T. Jewish Alumni Alliance, said he believes it is more constructive to work with the university administration than to begin demanding people lose their jobs. He and the alliance have taken other steps to register their discontent, including encouraging alumni to reduce their annual donations to $1.

“As alumni, we are dissatisfied with the approach the administration is taking,” Mr. Handel said in an interview. But, he added, “We as an organization are still trying to facilitate change in culture and policy.”

A spokeswoman for M.I.T. did not