Bill Ackman Is Now Training His Fire on Harvard and MIT’s Presidents

• Bill Ackman is reiterating his calls for Harvard and MIT’s presidents to resign.
• UPenn’s Liz Magill has resigned after alumni and donors panned her congressional testimony.
• Ackman earlier called for the presidents of the three universities to “resign in disgrace.”

One down, two to go. Bill Ackman appears to have a scorecard tracking which college presidents lose their jobs for their congressional statements on on-campus antisemitism, and now he’s training his full fire on the two university leaders who remain.

The billionaire investor called for the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania to “resign in disgrace” on Tuesday.

And Ackman’s quest seems to be picking up after Liz Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, resigned from her position on Saturday.

On Sunday, Ackman penned an open letter to Harvard’s governing boards of directors, where he reiterated his call for Claudine Gay to be removed.

“In her short tenure as President, Claudine Gay has done more damage to the reputation of Harvard University than any individual in our nearly 500-year history,” the Harvard alumnus wrote on X, adding that Gay had “catalyzed an explosion of antisemitism and hate on campus that is unprecedented in Harvard’s history.”

Besides focusing on Gay’s handling of on-campus antisemitism, Ackman’s letter also accused her of presiding over “discriminatory hiring practices at Harvard.”

“The faculty have been told in no uncertain terms that candidates that do not meet DEI criteria will not be considered for certain faculty positions,” Ackman wrote.

The past two months have seen Ackman waging a highly public, pressure campaign on his alma mater’s approach toward antisemitism. Sunday’s open letter marks the third time Ackman has written to Harvard’s leadership.

“Knowing what we know now, would Harvard consider Claudine Gay for the position? The answer is definitively ‘No,'” Ackman said in his X post.

“With this simple thought experiment, the board’s decision on President Gay could not be more straightforward,” Ackman continued.

It’s not just Harvard. Ackman hasn’t forgotten about MIT.

“Let’s make a deal. If you promptly terminate President Kornbluth, I promise I won’t write you a letter,” Ackman wrote in a separate X post that was addressed to MIT’s governing boards.

Representatives for Ackman, Harvard, and MIT did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.