(Daily Mail) Bill Ackman has claimed that Harvard president Claudine Gay was only appointed because she fitted the DEI office’s criteria, after her shameful refusal to denounce campus protests calling for a Jewish genocide.
The 57-year-old billionaire hedge funder has been heavily involved in the debate after expressing his views about Gay clearly on social media and calling for her resignation.
Gay and the presidents of UPenn and MIT were eviscerated for telling congress that calls for the genocide of Jews do not violate their codes of conduct, sparking a huge backlash.
Ackman today wrote on X, formerly Twitter: ‘I learned from someone with first person knowledge of the @Harvard president search that the committee would not consider a candidate who did not meet the DEI office’s criteria.
The same was likely true for other elite universities doing searches at the same time, creating an even more limited universe of DEI-eligible presidential candidates.
Billionaire hedge funder Bill Ackman wrote another message on X today expressing his views on Claudine Gay after slamming her in an earlier post and calling for her resignation
Claudine Gay, president of Harvard, is seen on Tuesday appearing before the House education committee to discuss antisemitism
‘Shrinking the pool of candidates based on required race, gender, and/or sexual orientation criteria is not the right approach to identifying the best leaders for our most prestigious universities.
‘And it is also not good for those awarded the office of president who find themselves in a role that they would likely not have obtained were it not for a fat finger on the scale.’
He continued: ‘I have been called brave for my tweets over the last few weeks. The same could be said for those called out Joseph McCarthy during the Red Scare.
‘I don’t think it will be long before we look back on the last few years of free speech suppression and the repeated career-ending accusations of racist for those who questioned the DEI movement.
‘We are all shortly going to realize that the DEI era is the McCarthy era Part II.
‘History rhymes, but it does not repeat’.
MailOnline has contacted Claudine Gay and Harvard University for comment.
It comes as the president of the University of Pennsylvania has published a groveling video statement attempting to explain her failure to condemn calls for the genocide of Jewish people on campuses.
Liz Magill was one of three university chiefs asked during a hearing of the House Committee on Education and the Workplace to answer for the rise in antisemitism on their campuses.
Magill, along with the presidents of Harvard and MIT, equivocated when asked if calls for the genocide of Jews counted as hate speech, arguing instead that it depended on context.
On Wednesday amid widespread outrage at her remarks, she published a video – but refused to apologize directly for her answer.
She said she was not ‘focused’ on the issue, and said she wanted to ‘be clear’ that calls for genocide were ‘evil, plain and simple’ – although she said the blame lay with her university’s policies and the constitution, rather than with her.
Liz Magill, president of University of Pennsylvania, on Wednesday tried to explain her equivocation when asked if calling for the genocide of Jewish people was hate speech
UPenn President Liz Magill said the school had demonstrated its ‘unyielding commitment to combatting antisemitism’ but also refused to categorize calls for the genocide of Jews as harassment or a breach of the school’s code of conduct
Magill said: ‘There was a moment during yesterday’s Congressional hearing on antisemitism when I was asked if a call for the genocide of Jewish people on our campus would violate our policies.
‘In that moment, I was focused on our university’s long-standing policies – aligned with the U.S. Constitution – which say that speech alone is not punishable.
‘I was not focused on, but I should have been, the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate. It’s evil, plain and simple.’
Magill said she hoped to draw a line in the sand, and clarify her position.
‘I want to be clear: a call for genocide of Jewish people is threatening, deeply so,’ she said.
‘It is intentionally meant to terrify a people who have been subjected to pogroms and hatred for centuries, and were the victims of mass genocide in the Holocaust.
‘In my view it would be harassment or intimidation.’
But, Magill said, it was not officially classed as harassment – a policy she said was outdated and needed review.
Magill pledged to work to update the existing rules.
‘For decades under multiple Penn presidents and consistent with most universities, Penn’s policies have been guided by the Constitution and the law,’ she said.
‘In today’s world, where we are seeing signs of hate proliferating across our campus and our world in a way not seen in years, these policies need to be clarified and evaluated.
‘Penn must initiate a serious and careful look at our policies.’
She concluded that she was ‘committed to a safe, secure and supportive environment so all members of our community can thrive’.
‘We can, and we will, get it right,’ she said.
Harvard also attempted to limit the damage from remarks by their president, Claudine Gay.
MIT President Dr. Sally Kornbluth was also grilled for her school’s response to protests. She too failed to outwardly condemn calls for the genocide of Jews
🚨🚨🚨Presidents of @Harvard @MIT and @Penn REFUSE to say whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” is bullying and harassment according to their codes of conduct. Even going so far to say it needs to turn to “action” first. As in committing genocide.
THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE AND… pic.twitter.com/hUY3SgoOOi
— Rep. Elise Stefanik (@RepStefanik) December 5, 2023
Gay, asked the same question, also equivocated.
On Wednesday, the university published a statement from Gay on X.
‘There are some who have confused a right to free expression with the idea that Harvard will condone calls for violence against Jewish students,’ she said.
‘Let me be clear: Calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account.’
All three said on Tuesday calling for the genocide of Jews was anti-Semitic hate speech but didn’t necessarily break their school rules.
They would act, they said, if such hate speech crossed over into ‘conduct’.
An incredulous Elise Stefanik asked: ‘Conduct being committing genocide?’
Ackman – who gave $26million to Harvard in 2014 – is calling for the resignation of all three women. Elon Musk agreed that it is time for their departure, and said the hearing crystalizes their liberal bias.
Harvard Hillel, the school’s leading Jewish organization, said it was ‘appalled by the need to state the obvious’.
The Harvard Alumni Association and the school’s Board of Overseers are yet to address Gay’s remarks.
The Hillel said: ‘President Gay’s refusal to draw a line around threatening antisemitic speech as a violation of Harvard’s policies is profoundly shocking given explicit provisions within the conduct code prohibiting this kind of bullying and harassment.
‘We are appalled by the need to state the obvious: A call for genocide against Jews is always a hateful incitement of violence.
‘President Gay’s failure to properly condemn this speech calls into question her ability to protect Jewish students on Harvard’s campus.
‘President Gay’s testimony fails to reassure us that the University is seriously concerned about the anti-Semitic rhetoric pervasive on campus.
‘We call on President Gay to take action against those using threatening speech that violates our community standards.’
The three universities have been roiled by a series of pro-Palestine marches on their campuses in the wake of the October 7 attack, with students blaming Israel for Hamas‘s terrorist outrage, and saying the country deserved it.
Some academics have expressed rabidly anti-Israel opinions, and threats have been made against Jewish students on campus.
All three presidents have admitted they were slow to distance themselves from student groups justifying the October 7 massacres.
But they insisted that they wanted to preserve an environment of free speech – and refused, to Stefanik’s fury, to give a ‘yes or no’ answer to questions about condemning certain rhetoric.
‘I am asking, specifically calling for the genocide of Jews, does that constitute bullying or harassment?’ asked Stefanik.
Gay told her that it depended on the context.
Stefanik responded that it was ‘the easiest question’, then answered for them: ‘The answer is yes.’
Stefanik pressed Gay over whether Harvard would punish students or applicants who advocate for the murder of Jews.
At today’s hearing, Harvard’s President shamefully refused to say whether the calling for the mass violence and genocide of the Jewish people is considered harassment or bullying according to Harvard’s own code of conduct.
Claudine Gay should resign immediately. pic.twitter.com/gjzmTHUcec
— Rep. Elise Stefanik (@RepStefanik) December 5, 2023
