New York
CNN
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Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, who has donated greater than $500 million to Harvard College through the years, has halted contributions to his alma mater and claimed elite colleges produce “whiny snowflakes.”
Griffin, one of many richest individuals on this planet, joins a rising listing of donors to Harvard, the College of Pennsylvania, Columbia and different prime colleges who’ve determined to shut their checkbooks.
At a convention in Miami on Tuesday, Griffin expressed deep frustration with the state of American universities, together with the disastrous testimony earlier than Congress by the presidents of Harvard, MIT and UPenn.
Griffin, the founding father of hedge fund Citadel, mentioned he’s now not supporting Harvard financially however would love that to vary.
“Till Harvard makes it very clear that they’re going to renew their position as [educators of] younger American women and men to be leaders, to be downside solvers, to tackle troublesome points, I’m not concerned about supporting the establishment,” Griffin informed CNBC’s Leslie Picker in the course of the MFA Community Miami convention.
Harvard didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The donor backlash at Ivy League colleges raises questions in regards to the sway rich people maintain over academic establishments.
Simply final April, Griffin made a $300 million gift to Harvard’s College of Arts and Sciences (FAS). On the time, the billionaire praised Harvard as a “nice establishment” and hailed FAS for being “dedicated to advancing concepts that may form humanity’s future, whereas offering essential perception into our previous.”
Throughout 4 many years, Griffin has donated greater than $500 million, Harvard mentioned on the time. That features a $150 million contribution to monetary support in 2014 that Harvard mentioned holds the document for the “largest single reward to undergraduate monetary support and to Harvard School.”
Griffin, who has constructed a fortune that Bloomberg estimates is $37 billion, is now expressing important concern in regards to the course of elite colleges and variety, fairness and inclusion (DEI) insurance policies.
“Will America’s elite universities get again to the roots of training American kids — younger adults — to be the long run leaders of our nation or are they going to take care of being misplaced within the wilderness of microaggressions and a DEI agenda that has no actual endgame,” Griffin mentioned.
DEI insurance policies have emerged as a flashpoint at major universities and within the enterprise world, with some arguing they’ve gone too far.
Griffin recommended that college students at elite colleges are “simply caught up within the rhetoric of oppressor and oppressee and… similar to whiny snowflakes.”
The billionaire additionally reiterated that he won’t hire students who signed an anti-Israel assertion issued by Harvard organizations in October. Nevertheless, Griffin mentioned it’s “simply unsuitable” to lump all college students who belonged to teams that signed the assertion collectively, saying: “Don’t paint all of them with the identical brush.”
A variety of different main Harvard donors have halted their donations to the varsity, together with former Victoria’s Secret billionaire Leslie Wexner and billionaire Len Blavatnik, whose household basis has donated a minimum of $270 million to Harvard.