Billionaire investor Ken Griffin has suspended donations to Harvard over the school’s handling of anti-Semitism on campus during the war between Israel and Hamas.
Griffin, the founder of hedge fund Citadel, graduated from the Ivy League in 1989 and is one of the institution’s largest donors. Last year he gave the school another $300 million. Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences was even named after him.
But on Tuesday, he said at the MFA Network conference in Miami that he will no longer support Harvard until it “resumes its role in educating young American men and women to be leaders and problem solvers.”
Griffin, who has a net worth of $36.8 billion, explained his concerns about former Harvard President Claudine Gay’s testimony in Congress in which she failed to say that calling for a genocide of Jews on campus violates the rules of the school.
He said he told the Harvard Corporation, the Cambridge school’s governing body, that his donations are on hold unless something changes. He accused the country’s elite universities of producing “whiny snowflakes.”
Billionaire investor Ken Griffin has decided to suspend his donations to Harvard over the school’s handling of anti-Semitism on campus during the war between Israel and Hamas
Griffin said he is done supporting Harvard until it “resumes its role in educating young American men and women to be leaders and problem solvers.” Supporters of Palestine gather at Harvard University on October 14 to express their support for the Palestinians in Gaza
“Where are we going with education at elite schools in America?” Gryffin added. “Or will they remain lost in the wilderness of microaggressions and a DEI agenda that seems to have no real endgame.”
DailyMail.com has contacted Griffin’s representatives for comment.
Griffin, who previously said he would not hire Harvard graduates who signed a letter blaming Israel for Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel, joins a growing list of billionaires who have quit in the aftermath financially supporting Harvard and other top schools.
Last month, Len Blavatnik, whose family foundation has given Harvard at least $270 million, halted donations to his alma mater until something is done about what they see as “rampant anti-Semitism on campus.”
Leslie Wexner, the former CEO of L Brands, the parent company of Victoria’s Secret, also said his foundation halted donations to Harvard after pro-Palestinian protests broke out at the school after Oct. 7.
Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer and his wife Batia similarly withdrew support from Harvard in October after 31 school organizations signed a letter blaming Israel for Hamas’ attacks.
The couple said they would stop donations “in protest of the shocking and insensitive response of the university’s president, who did not condemn the letter from student organizations that blamed Israel for the massacres.”
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who has donated hundreds of millions to his alma cause, also halted donations after the outbreak of war.
Harvard is in trouble for both its handling of anti-Semitism on campus after the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas and the plagiarism allegations against former President Gay.
Protesters gather under statue of John Harvard in support of students participating in University Hall sit-in organized by a student collective called Harvard Jews for Palestine
Griffin, who has a net worth of $36.8 billion, expressed concern about former Harvard President Claudine Gay’s testimony in Congress
Earlier this month, the school shed new light on the ongoing investigation into plagiarism allegations against Gay, including an independent body recommending a broader review after substantiating some of the complaints.
In a letter to a congressional committee, Harvard said it learned of the plagiarism allegations against its first black female president on October 24 from a New York Post reporter. The school contacted several authors Gay is accused of plagiarizing, and none objected to her language, the school said.
Gay’s academic career first came under scrutiny after her testimony in Congress about anti-Semitism on campus. Gay, Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and MIT President Sally Kornbluth came under criticism for their legal responses to New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who asked whether “calling for genocide of Jews” would violate comply with the codes of conduct of the universities of applied sciences.
The three presidents were called before the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce to respond to allegations that universities were failing to protect Jewish students amid rising fears of anti-Semitism worldwide and the fallout from the increasingly intense Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
Gay said it depended on the context, adding that when “speech turns into behavior, that’s against our policy.” The response resulted in a swift response from Republican and some Democratic lawmakers, as well as the White House.
The House committee announced days later that it would investigate the policies and disciplinary procedures of Harvard, MIT and Penn.
The company initially sided with Gay, saying a review of her scientific work found “a few instances of inadequate citation” but no evidence of research misconduct.
The plagiarism allegations continued to surface in December, and Gay resigned this month.