Commentary
The ongoing fallout from American college presidents being called to testify about anti-Semitism in their schools has exposed an interesting shift in how activism is playing out at elite universities.
For many years, woke activist students and faculty have ruled the roost. Now, that appears to be changing. The past couple of weeks, prominent donors have stepped forward with demands for what they want to see on campus. And those demands are mostly running counter to the woke activists. The tide may be turning.
Shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, it became clear that the place you were most likely to find Hamas apologists and even outright supporters was on a university campus. This is no surprise. The campus environment has long been host to some of the most passionate debates and protests related to Middle East politics.
The concerns around campus anti-Semitism had initially revolved around the antics of students. But they have recently shifted to focus on whether college leaders are doing enough to condemn and confront the problem. This exploded following the Dec. 5 testimony by a handful of prominent university presidents before a congressional committee.
The most controversial moment was when Harvard University President Claudine Gay was asked whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate the university’s code of conduct. Gay didn’t outright say no. Instead, her response was that it depended on the context.
This led to immediate calls for her to resign or be fired. But the calls weren’t just coming from voices on social media. And it wasn’t just some students and grads who added their voices to the mix. They were coming from—in fact being led by—very prominent donors.
One of the most prominent among them is Bill Ackman, a billionaire activist investor and Harvard grad who sits on the law school’s board. He’s been pushing heavily for outraged donors to pull their support from the school, including via an open letter that’s been widely shared.
“President Gay’s failures have led to billions of dollars of cancelled, paused, and withdrawn donations to the university,” writes Ackman. “I am personally aware of more than a billion dollars of terminated donations from a small group of Harvard’s most generous Jewish and non-Jewish alumni.”
After calling for Gay’s firing, Ackman adds: “Let’s make sure that we use this opportunity to fundamentally repair our beloved institution for it is incumbent upon us as the current stewards of Harvard.”
This tactic so far hasn’t worked with Harvard. Many faculty and senior leadership are rallying behind Gay, despite the additional attention placed upon her alleged academic plagiarism. It has, though, led to the ouster of one of the other leaders who testified in front of Congress.
Former University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill got the boot last week after a donor threatened to pull a $100 million gift due to her comments, similar to Gay’s, made at the committee appearance. In Magill’s case, the board sided against her.
What’s interesting here is that Ackman is basically using the techniques from his professional life as an activist investor. How he has earned his billions is by taking a stake in companies that he sees as in need of reform and then aggressively pushing for change based on the strength of his holdings.
Instead of being an activist investor, he’s now being an activist donor. Ackman’s actions are inspiring others to do the same. And they may serve as the model for future actions on different issues that arise on campuses.
If donors aren’t happy with what college senior leaders say, they may speak up more and try to set conditions on their funds. No more cutting cheques with no strings attached.
This isn’t necessarily a good thing. Academic freedom is a broadly shared value. Do we want donors increasingly calling the shots? No. But then again, we also shouldn’t be happy with student activists getting their profs censured and fired for politically incorrect wrongspeak. Yet there are plenty of examples of woke activist students conducting power plays on campuses in recent years.
In that light, donor activism is arising out of necessity, to balance the excesses of woke student activism.
This whole saga is yet another sign of the continued tragic erosion of our institutes of higher learning.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
