Bill Ackman demands MIT fire its president: ‘I promise I won’t write you a letter’
Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman wants the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to fire its president — pledging that if it does so, he “won’t write you a letter.”
In a social media post on his X account, Ackman, the Harvard alum who has been among the more vocal critics of Ivy League presidents who in his view have not done enough to stamp out campus antisemitism, addressed MIT’s board on Sunday.
“Let’s make a deal. If you promptly terminate President [Sally] Kornbluth, I promise I won’t write you a letter,” Ackman wrote.
Ackman’s wife, Neri Oxman, headed the Mediated Matter Group at the MIT Media Lab and was a professor of architecture and design at the Cambridge, Mass.-based campus.
An MIT spokesperson told The Post that Oxman, who appears alongside her husband in the main photo he uses on his X account, left MIT “years ago” and now does design work out of Manhattan.
While the Israeli-born Oxman has not weighed in on the controversy over antisemitism at MIT, she has pos🐼ted links on her X account to pro-Israel messages as well as video testimonials of allege💮d sexual violence committed by Hamas terrorists against Israeli women on Oct. 7.
The Pos💧t has sought comment from Ackman as well as Oxman, who before her marriage to Ackman was once
Kornbluth was one of several Ivy League presidents who testified before Congress last week about the rise in antisemitic incide꧅nts on college campuses.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) asked Kornbluth if calling for genocide against the Jewish people was tantamount to harassment on MIT’s campus.
Kornbluth responded that she had not heard anyone calling for the genocide of Jews on MIT’s campus, and that speech “targeted at indꦆivi🥃duals, not making public statements,” would be considered harassment.
Similar answers from Univers🔜ity of Pennsylvania president Liz Ma🧜gill and Harvard president Claudine Gay sparked outrage.
“The presidents’ answers reflect the profound educational, moral and ethical failures that pervade certain of our elite educational institutions due in large part to their failed leadership,” Ackman wrote in response to their answers. He demanded that they all “resign in disgrace.”
Magill and the chair of UPenn’s board of trustees, Scott Bok, resigned over the weekend under pressure from donors who were upset over her remarks as well as the administration’s handling of alleged antisemitic incidents on the Philadelphia campus.
MIT’s board released a statement Thursday expressing support for Kornbluth.
“The MIT Corporation chose Sally to be our president for her excellent academic leadership, her judgment, her integrity, her moral compass, and her ability to unite our community around MIT’s core values,” the executive committe💙e of the MIT Corporation said in a statement.
“She has done excel💯lent work in leading our community, including in addressing antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate, all of which we reject utterly at MIT. She has our full and unreserved support,” the board said.
Gay, who has faced similar pressure to resign, also received a vote of confidence from Harvard faculty ove🔯r the weekend.
Harvard’s governing board is due to meet later on Monday to decide Gay’s fate.
Ackman on Sunday posted an open letter to Harvard’s governing board urging it to dump Gay, who “has done more damage to the reputation” of the school “than any individual in our nearly 500-year history.”
He also posted a link alleging that Gay plagiarized parts of her doctoral ꦇdissertation about minority representation in politics.
In an interview on Friday, Gay, who was stung by criticism from campus Jewish leaders who said they don’t trust her to protect students, apologized for her testimony last week.
“I am sorry,” Gay told♏ the Crimson. “Words matter.”
Gay pledged that the school would punish calls for genocide against Jews.
Ackman, who has called for private companies to shun students who circulated an open letter blaming Israel♔ for the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas, has kept the pressure on Harvard.
Ackman♉ last week accused Harvard of hiring Gay solely because of its Diversity, Equity and Inc🍃lusion initiative — instead of “identifying the best leaders for our prestigious universities.”
The Post has sought comment from MIT and Harvard.
