Former Harvard President Claudine Gay has resigned, but that does not mean the university’s troubles are over.
The school is still the subject of an antisemitism investigation by the House Education and Workforce Committee, with Chairwoman Virginia Foxx threatening to subpoena Harvard for documents it requested. While Harvard turned over more than 1,000 pages of material requested that was in the public domain, Foxx said not all the requested documents were included, such as the internal communications discussing the response to the anti-Israel letter from student groups in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack and foreign donations.
Additionally, Harvard’s finances are taking a hit as major donors are still pulling the plug. Influential alum Bill Ackman said in a December letter that he personally knew at that point of more than $1 billion in terminated donations. That list is apparently growing, as billionaire megadonor Kenneth Griffin announced he, too, is pausing donations over its handling of antisemitism.
“[U]ntil Harvard makes it very clear that they’re going to resume their role as educating young American men and women to be leaders, to be problem solvers, to take on difficult issues, I’m not interested in supporting the institution,” he said during a speech in Miami, reports The Harvard Crimson.
“Will America’s elite university get back to their roots of educating American children – young adults – to be the future leaders of our country or are they going to maintain being lost in the wilderness of microaggressions, a DEI agenda that seems to have no real endgame, and just being loss in the wilderness?” Griffin wondered.
He also said his firms Citadel LLC and Citadel Securities would not hire any Harvard student who signed the anti-Israel student group letter.
According to the Crimson, Griffin has donated more than $500 million to Harvard, making him the biggest donor to date who has publicly stated he will not continue his giving over the university’s handling of antisemitism on campus.