Billionaire CEO and Republican megadonor Ken Griffin advised Harvard University to change its value system away from the “cultural revolution” of other schools.
Griffin had a lot of criticisms for his alma mater in an interview with the Financial Times. The hedge fund owner lamented that a “narrative on some of our college campuses has devolved to the level that the system is rigged and unfair, and that America is plagued by systemic racism and systemic injustice.”
The billionaire paused his own donations to Harvard after giving $500 million due to its lackluster response to antisemitism on campus. Harvard currently as an “F” grade per the Anti-Defamation League’s “Campus Antisemitic Report Card.”
Griffin gave a suggestion for how Harvard can improve.
“Harvard should put front and centre [that it] stands for meritocracy in America and will educate the next generation of leaders in American business, government, healthcare, and the philanthropic community,” Griffin said. “Harvard will embrace our Western values that have built one of the greatest nations in the world, foster those values with students, and ask them to manifest these values throughout the rest of their life.”
This interview comes as some students on college campuses launched demonstrations to protest Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza. Student protests are calling for their respective universities to divest from Israeli companies. Griffin is unconvinced by protesters.
“The protests on college campuses are almost like performative art, and we’re not actually helping Palestinians or Israelis with these surreal protests,” Griffin said.
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Harvard lost multiple donors and even recruitment opportunities following the congressional testimony of its then-president, Claudine Gay, late last year. Gay appeared before the House Education and Workforce Committee and avoided questions regarding students who advocate the “genocide of Jews” and whether they violate the school’s code of conduct.
Alan Garber is currently serving as the university’s interim president since Gay resigned.