Bill Ackman, the billionaire founder of hedge fund Pershing Square, wrote a letter to the President of Harvard calling for disciplinary actions against antisemitic students on campus.
Ackman is an alum of Harvard and has donated millions of dollars to the university. He made his letter to President Claudine Gay public by publishing it to social media platform X.
Gay created an advisory group to combat campus antisemitism in response to backlash it has faced over its statement on the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, which many supporters of Israel saw as mealy-mouthed. Shortly after the attack, Ackman called on Harvard to release the names of students who signed a letter solely blaming Israel for Hamas’ terrorism.
But his new letter takes things up a notch by calling for the suspension of specific students and backing up his claims about Harvard’s biases with evidence.
“I am writing this letter to you regretfully,” Ackman began. “Never did I think I would have to write a letter to the president of my alma mater about the impact of her actions and inactions on the health and safety of its student body in order to help catalyze necessary change.”
Please see my below letter to the President of Harvard University sent today:
November 4, 2023
Dear President Gay,
I am writing this letter to you regretfully. Never did I think I would have to write a letter to the president of my alma mater about the impact of her actions…
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) November 5, 2023
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He went on to make a series of demands. His first proposal was the immediate suspension of the student who harassed and allegedly physically assaulted an Israeli Harvard Business School student on Oct. 18.
His second was to engage in disciplinary action against protestors chanting “intifada” and other “eliminationist statements” about Israelis.
His third was to engage in disciplinary action against students posting antisemitic content in the university’s Slack channels.
His fourth was to reach out to students and ask them to submit examples of antisemitism on campus.
His fifth was to investigate whether Harvard’s Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (OEDIB) was discriminating against Asian and Jewish students. Notably, Ackman’s bachelor’s dissertation at Harvard was about the admissions experience of Asian and Jewish students at the University.
His sixth was to publicize the results of Gay’s new antisemitism task force.
His seventh was to have the university vocally condemn hate speech and calls for violence from student protestors.
To back up his claims that Israeli students are afraid to speak up, Ackman cited a recent study from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) that claimed Harvard was the worst school in the U.S. for free speech.
Ackman concluded his letter by directly addressing President Gay:
As Harvard’s leader, your words and actions are followed closely. As a result, the steps you take to address antisemitism at Harvard will be recognized around the world, and can contribute greatly as an example to other institutions seeking to eliminate antisemitism in all of its forms.
History has taught us that when the sparks and initial flames of antisemitism emerge, we must promptly put out the flames before a conflagration begins. It is therefore critically important you act with alacrity in addressing these issues. I encourage you to act boldly and promptly to eliminate this scourge at Harvard.
[…]I would be delighted to help in any way that I can to enable you to succeed in this mission and as Harvard’s president. Please let me know what more I can do to help.
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