New York
CNN
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Harvard University, like many campuses across America, continues to struggle in its contention with hate speech, protests and unrest over the Israel-Hamas war. One of its most prominent donors said Harvard needs to take urgent action to fix the problem, or it could risk a massive donor exodus.
Billionaire hedge fund CEO Bill Ackman called on Harvard to take steps to tackle a rise in “blatant antisemitism” and “anti-Israel attacks” on campus.
“The situation at Harvard is dire and getting worse, much worse than I had realized,” Ackman said in an open letter to the university’s president, Claudine Gay, posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday.
Ackman, who received his undergraduate degree and MBA from Harvard, added that the failure to take action would put “important sources of Harvard’s revenues” at risk.
He said that Jewish and pro-Israel students have felt unsafe on campus since the October 7 surprise attacks on Israel and subsequent Israel-Hamas war.
Ackman, who met with a group of more than 200 Harvard students and faculty last week, said the university’s administration is not doing enough to protect them.
“Jewish students are being bullied, physically intimidated, spat on, and in several widely-disseminated videos of one such incident, physically assaulted,” he wrote, referring to a video that shows a clash at an on-campus “stop the genocide in Gaza” demonstration.
Harvard Business School Dean Srikant Datar said in a statement that the confrontation was “troubling” and left “many of our students shaken.”
“Reports have been filed with (the Harvard University Police Department) and the FBI, the facts are being evaluated, and it will be some time before we learn the results of an investigation,” Datar wrote.
But in his letter, Ackman said further action was necessary. The students involved in the incident, he said, should face immediate suspension regardless of the pending investigation.
“Harvard student disciplinary actions should not be outsourced to the police department,” he wrote.
Ackman added that students, who chanted “intifada” and what he called “eliminationist” statements towards Israel during protests in support of Palestine, should also be subject to disciplinary action.
Harvard’s Slack chats, where some students have allegedly been posting antisemitic statements and images, should be closely monitored and those who post such things should be disciplined, he said.
When contacted, Harvard directed CNN to earlier statements from Gay and Harvard’s Executive Vice President Meredith Weenick about community conduct.
In a previous statement, Gay said she had convened a group of advisors to come up with a plan to combat antisemitism on campus.
“As we grapple with this resurgence of bigotry, I want to make one thing absolutely clear: Antisemitism has no place at Harvard,” Gay said on October 27 in a speech at Harvard Hillel. “For years, this university has done too little to confront its continuing presence. No longer.”
Tensions at Harvard’s campus began shortly after the attacks on October 7 when a coalition of student groups released an anti-Israel statement. That letter blamed solely Israel for the deadly attacks by Hamas, although a spokesperson for the group later wrote in a statement that the group “staunchly opposes violence against civilians — Palestinian, Israeli, or other.”
The letter set off a firestorm of criticism, doxxing of students and prompted some student groups to withdraw their endorsements of the letter. (Some students said they had not seen the statement until after it was released.)
Ackman and others suggested there should be employment consequences for students who had signed the letter.
Last week, a group including some of the nation’s most powerful law firms warned America’s elite…
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