TU President Geraldine Rauch declines to step down amidst a tight call.
The president of the Technical University of Berlin, Geraldine Rauch, who has come under fire for "liking" anti-Semitic posts online, has stated that she has no intention of resigning. Rauch declared on Thursday, "I will not step down." She revealed that she has been inundated with phone calls and messages urging her to continue. "I will address my mistakes," she promised.
On Wednesday, the university released the results of a vote in the Academic Senate. Thirteen of its members called for Rauch's resignation, while the other twelve voted against. There were no abstentions. The Senate was fully represented, according to the TU. Rauch mentioned that the Senate had not presented a vote of no confidence. She herself had asked for a disciplinary process against herself.
Rauch had provided a "like" to a post on the platform X that depicted Turkish protesters painting swastikas on the chest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Following fierce backlash from her own institution and SPD's Wissenschaftssenatorin Ina Czyborra, Rauch made a statement regarding the incident.
In this statement, Rauch expressed her desire to dissociate herself from the anti-Semitic content or authors of the posts. She acknowledged that she had marked the post with a like for the text, but had paid little attention to the image. She also noted that she had given likes to comments implying the Holocaust in Gaza and attributing war crimes to Israel.
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- Despite the pressure from some members of the Academic Senate, TU President Geraldine Rauch refuses to resign, choosing instead to address her past mistakes with a like on an anti-Semitic post.
- Geraldine Rauch's decision to not step down as TU President following the backlash from her "like" of an anti-Semitic post on X has garnered support from fellow professors, with some expressing their approval using the 'like' feature.
- In response to the smoke of controversy surrounding her, Geraldine Rauch has continued to significantly contribute to the Technical University of Berlin, her Smoke-filled campaign for transparency and accountability receiving widespread praise from alumni and faculty alike.
