Claudine Gay, ex-President at Harvard University, finally stepped down after coming under heat for the antisemitism and plagiarism scandal. Harvard alum and billionaire Bill Ackman played a significant role in Gay’s abdication of her seat. However, it does not end there, as Ackman is also calling for the resignation of the school’s board.
Yes, he was not directly behind the investigations that revealed Gay’s plagiarism. However, Ackman was a major whistle-blower in the playout. Before the buildup that saw Gay stepping down from office, Ackman advised the University’s Board to oust the ex-president. Unfortunately, they refused and declared their unflinching support for the embattled Gay.
Seeing the resoluteness of the Harvard Corporation to keep Gay as president, Ackman personally took to X to start a campaign. Initially, the billionaire’s bone of contention was the sudden spread of antisemitism at Harvard.
Ackman did not take action until some 30 student organizations signed a letter blaming Israel for the October 7 attack by Hamas. As if that was not enough, a private investigation revealed that Gay is guilty of plagiarism in three of her academic publications.
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Despite all the evidence presented, Penny Pritzer, Chair of Harvard Board, and other board members refused to sack Gay from her seat. However, Gay eventually chose to resign last week.
Ackman has also called into question the process of Gay’s appointment. According to him, Gay rode into office on the wave of the DEI initiatives sweeping through the nation since the Black Lives Matter movement.
Furthermore, Ackman has come out to state that the DEI office at Harvard is partly responsible for the rise of antisemitism and unconventional racism on the school campus.
However, not everyone agrees with Ackman’s opinion of DEI initiatives. For example, David Thomas, president of Moorehouse College, said calling Gay’s appointment process flawed because she is black and female is highly discriminatory.
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According to Thomas, it is okay to penalize Gay for her inability to put antisemitism on reins and her plagiarism crisis. However, the process that brought her into office should not be run through the mud.
Pritzer is not showing any indications of stepping down from the Harvard Board. Interestingly, Ackman is not stopping with the board. He is suggesting that the DEI office at Harvard should be shut down and their staff laid off.
On the other hand, Ackman wants Gay removed from the Harvard faculty. Right after her resignation, ex-president Gay returned to her seat as a faculty member.
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Ackman claims he is not interested in calling for all the personnel reshuffling at his alma mater. According to him, he simply wants to bring Harvard back to its heydays.
“Harvard must once again become a meritocratic institution which does not discriminate for or against faculty or students based on their skin color, and where diversity is understood in its broadest form so that students can learn in an environment which welcomes diverse viewpoints from faculty and students from truly diverse backgrounds and experiences.” This is a snippet of a 4000-word X post by Ackman from January 3.
However, it is all interesting, as Ackman’s wife, Neri Oxman, is also under investigation for plagiarism in her MIT thesis.
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