Harvard graduate and hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman on Monday called for the university to put aside its “arrogance” and comply with nine requests made by the Trump administration early last month.
In a lengthy post to X, Ackman urged Harvard’s leaders to end their feud with the Trump administration and abide the “nine reasonable and straightforward requests.”
Ackman cited the administration’s April 3 letter, not the April 11 letter sent in error.
“It has saddened to me watch @Harvard, a university that I love from which I have greatly benefited, self-immolate through gross mismanagement, poor governance, and ideological capture that have occurred over the last 15 or so years, and that have been brought into clear focus beginning on October 8, 2023,” Ackman began the post.
He took aim at Harvard’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies that have “poisoned Harvard admissions practices.”
DEI “has led to the decline of excellence and meritocracy at Harvard, both in the student body and in the faculty. It has allowed antisemitism to explode on campus,” Ackman wrote, adding later: “Why is Harvard in this mess? The answer I believe is arrogance.”
He wrote, “Rather than engage with the Administration and attempt to negotiate a resolution of these issues, Harvard has chosen to dismiss the Administration’s attempt to enforce the law as pretextual.”
Ackman urged Harvard to comply with the administration’s requests, writing none of them are “unreasonable” and “all appear to be lawful.”
In the April 3 letter, three officials from the General Services Administration and departments of Education and Health and Human Services laid out reforms it expected to see from Harvard, including the shuttering of DEI programs.
“DEI programs teach students, faculty, staff, and leadership to make snap judgments about each other based on crude race and identity stereotypes, which fuels division and hatred based on race, color, national origin, and other protected identity characteristics,” the letter read.
The officials wrote that the reforms were necessary for Harvard “to remain a responsible recipient of federal taxpayer dollars.”
Ackman wrote: “The answer to what Harvard should do is therefore obvious and straightforward. Harvard must commit that it will promptly accept the Administration’s requests and take all necessary steps to immediately implement its requirements.”