Douglas Belkin and Melissa Korn
Allegations that Gay plagiarized some of her work has weakened some of the initial support Gay enjoyed from the faculty following calls by conservative lawmakers to sanction her.
One faculty member has even suggested pulling a lever buried deep in the Massachusetts constitution to appoint a state member to the board.
The Harvard Corporation, the 12-member governing body, is the oldest corporation in the Western Hemisphere, according to its website. Its current members include a former U.S. commerce secretary, a former CEO of American Expressand the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Its stewardship over the centuries has led Harvard to become one of the world’s greatest and wealthiest research universities, with an endowment in excess of $50 billion.