Universities are feeling the financial pain of having their staff and students support the Hamas terrorists, who brutally murdered 1,400 Israelis on October 7, as donors pull millions of dollars in planned funding.
Billionaire benefactors, including Apollo Global Management's Marc Rowan and Limited Brands founder Leslie Wexner, are calling for universities to have tougher consequences for staff and students supporting Hamas. Ronald Lauder, the cosmetics heir, said he would pull funding. Other wealthy donors include venture capitalists David Magerman and Jonathon Jacobson, as well as Jon Huntsman (the former US ambassador to China and ex-governor of Utah), who said he was "closing his checkbook."
Some universities are quickly trying to shift course. Liz Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, said:
"Penn stands emphatically against the terrorist attacks by Hamas in Israel and against antisemitism", but acknowledged "we should have communicated faster and more broadly about where we stand".
Others are trying to have their cake and eat it too, like Harvard president Claudia Gay, who wants to emphasize the university's condemnation of Hamas's actions but also stand up for free speech.
However, Gay's placations weren't enough for Leslie Wexner, who has his name on one of the buildings at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
He said that his foundation would be
"formally ending its financial and programmatic relationships" in view of its "dismal failure . . . to take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of Israeli citizens".
Idan Offer, an Israeli billionaire who also has his name on a building, stepped down from the board of directors at Harvard, citing
the lack of clear evidence of support from the University's leadership for the people of Israel . . . coupled with their apparent unwillingness to recognise Hamas for what it is, a terrorist organisation.
In addition to pulling funding, corporations and law firms are rescinding job offers for students involved in the demonstrations.
Billionaire Bill Ackman asked Harvard for a list of names of the students who supported Hamas, so that he and other CEOs don't accidentally hire what is the modern equivalent of an antisemitic Nazi.
The Davis Polk law firm rescinded offers to students in pro-Palestinian groups from Harvard and Columbia Law saying,
The student leaders responsible for signing on to these statements are no longer welcome in our firm.
Lynn Pasquerella, head of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, said:
"There's a demand for people to pick sides. I've talked to many [college] presidents saying we knew we would anger some, but the vitriol is extreme. Doxxing students to never hire them, and threatening to withdraw money because of a viewpoint is antithetical to American higher education which is grounded in the unfettered pursuit of truth and the free exchange of ideas."
If you've been paying attention for the last decade, you have to be shaking your head at all these calls for free speech and the free exchange of ideas coming out of the universities.
I mean, Harvard recently rated 0 out of 100 for free speech protections when it came to things like being pro-life or being anti-crime.
But when it comes to defending terrorists that ruthlessly slaughtered, raped, and kidnapped the innocent, they're all for free speech on campus.
The fact that it took the gruesome deaths of 1,400 Israelis to wake donors up to the evils of progressive ideologies on campus says more about the donors than the universities in my opinion.
Still, the question for conservatives now becomes do we stand up for the free speech of these evil people on campuses, or do we cheer as they fall into the cancel-culture traps they've set for themselves?
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