Bill Ackman: Harvard Refused to Kowtow and Fire Gay

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman says he was told Harvard refused to fire President Claudine Gay because the university's board didn't want people to think it was "kowtowing" to him.

Ackman, a Harvard alum, wrote an open letter to Harvard's board on Sunday demanding Gay's ouster for her remarks about on-campus antisemitism during a House committee hearing.

"I have been told now by two reporters that one of the factors that made it challenging for the @Harvard board to fire Gay was that they were concerned it would look like they were kowtowing to me," Ackman posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday night.

"In other words, the reporters explained, quoting the trustees: Had Bill just stopped tweeting, we would have come to the right answer. So much for Veritas."

Ackman followed up with another post on Tuesday morning.

"How did the @HarvardAlumniAssociation support President Gay without polling its members first?" Ackman said while sharing a story from The Harvard Crimson with the headline, "Harvard Alumni Association Executive Committee Asks Governing Boards to Publicly Back President Claudine Gay."

Harvard's governing board unanimously stood by Gay on Tuesday, saying that she would remain in her post despite anger over her Dec. 5 testimony before the congressional committee probing antisemitism.

On Thursday, Gay apologized for her remarks.

During the hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., pressed Gay for a yes or no answer about whether calls for the genocide of Jews constitute a violation of Harvard's policies.

"Antisemitic speech when it crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation — that is actionable conduct and we do take action," Gay said.

University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, who joined Gay, American University Professor Dr. Pamela Nadell and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth before the House panel, resigned on Saturday.

"Now the focus turns to Presidents Gay and Kornbluth and the boards of @Harvard and @MIT," Ackman posted Saturday on X.

Even before the presidents' appearance on Capitol Hill, Ackman had commented on antisemitism on campus, especially in light of the Israel-Hamas war.

"It's pathetic that we need to rely on law firms and corporations to police antisemitism on campus. None of them will hire racist students or those that support terrorists," he said in a Nov. 1 post.

"Every one of these universities, law schools and business schools have made massive recent investments in DEI initiatives, staff and faculty. Where are they? What are they doing?"

• Report Alleges Harvard's Gay Engaged in Plagiarism
• Heat Turns Up on Harvard's Gay, MIT's Kornbluth