Harvard President Claudine Gay, Photo: Harvard University/Bill Ackman on The David Rubenstein Show, Dec. 6th on Bloomberg Television
In recent weeks, Harvard University has found itself at the center of a heated debate involving diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, presidential appointments, and the response to antisemitism on college campuses. This controversy has been fueled by billionaire hedge fund manager and Harvard graduate Bill Ackman, who accused Harvard President Claudine Gay of being a product of DEI policies and called for her resignation, along with the presidents of two other prestigious universities.
Ackman, the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, took to social media to voice his concerns about DEI policies and their impact on the selection of university leaders. Ackman suggested that a source with insider knowledge had informed him that the presidential search committee at Harvard would only consider candidates who met the DEI office’s criteria. He argued that narrowing the pool of candidates based on race, gender, or sexual orientation criteria was not the right approach for selecting university leaders.
Ackman wrote on X that “someone with first-person knowledge” of Harvard’s presidential search had informed him that “the committee would not consider a candidate who did not meet the DEI office’s criteria.”
“Shrinking the pool of candidates based on required race, gender, and/or sexual orientation criteria is not the right approach to identifying the best leaders for our most prestigious universities,” Ackman wrote. “And it is also not good for those awarded the office of president who find themselves in a role that they would likely not have obtained were it not for a fat finger on the scale.”
The controversy escalated when Ackman, during a House committee hearing on the rise of antisemitism on college campuses, demanded the resignations of Gay, along with the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and MIT, Fox Business reported.
Harvard’s involvement in this controversy also draws attention to its use of affirmative action in admissions as part of its DEI policies. The institution faced a lawsuit alleging discrimination against Asian American students due to its race-based admissions system. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Harvard’s admissions practices were unconstitutional over the summer.
Harvard has faced severe criticism since 34 student organizations signed a statement issued by the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups that began by blaming the “Israeli regime” for “all unfolding violence” in the hours after the unprecedented attack.
On Nov. 4, Ackman sent a letter to President Gay voicing his concerns over antisemitism, free speech, and the impact of the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (OEDIB) at Harvard. On Dec. 3, he sent a follow-up letter to Gay sharing feedback he had gathered from senior members of Harvard faculty, noting that she had not replied to or acknowledged his previous letter.
Gay, who became the 30th president of Harvard University in July 2023, has a distinguished academic and professional background. She spent years leading Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and has a track record of addressing issues related to diversity and inclusion on campus. She is founding chair of the Inequality in America Initiative, a multidisciplinary effort launched in 2017.
Prior to her presidency, as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences she announced a series of initiatives to address racial and ethnic equality—including faculty appointments and the addition of an associate dean of diversity, inclusion, and belonging, Harvard Magazine reported.
She has also face prior controversy, when she was a professor she was accused of plagiarism on her 1997 PhD thesis. She denied the allegation, The Daily Beast reported.
Harvard, M.I.T., and the University of Pennsylvania faced threats from donors, demands that their presidents resign and a congressional investigation as repercussions mounted over the universities’ responses to antisemitism on campus, The New York Times reported.
Harvard President Claudine Gay, Photo: Harvard University/Bill Ackman on The David Rubenstein Show, Dec. 6th on Bloomberg Television, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdGs9sQd4XY
