Billionaire Columbia donor Leon Cooperman slams student protesters

• Leon Cooperman, a billionaire Columbia donor, weighed in on the crisis on the university's campus.
• He called the student protesters ignorant but expressed his support for the school's president.

The Wall Street titan Leon Cooperman is the latest billionaire to weigh in on student protests over Israel's war in Gaza.

But unlike the megadonor Robert Kraft, Cooperman said he'd continue to give to Columbia even as he trashed student demonstrators.

During a CNBC interview on Tuesday, Cooperman, a Columbia University donor, was asked about the demonstrations on the school's campus, which have grown heated over the past week and resulted in more than 100 arrests.

"Many of the college kids have shit for brains," he said, doubling down on comments he made last year and adding that the students were "ignorant."

(He apologized for his language during the interview, saying: "I grew up in the Bronx when it was more of an accepted terminology.")

"They are advocating for the destruction of Israel," he said. "Israel is the only reliable ally the United States has in the Middle East, the only democracy in the Middle East."

Cooperman also said Israel was the only country in the Middle East that "allows gays and lesbians to practice what they want to practice." While LGBTQ+ people experience discrimination in many countries, some nations in the region — including Cyprus, Jordan, and Turkey — have not criminalized same-sex activity.

Cooperman blamed part of the unrest on people unaffiliated with Columbia who "are getting access to the school and creating this hoopla."

He added that he believed Columbia's president, Nemat "Minouche" Shafik, and leadership were "trying to do the right things."

Shafik appeared before Congress last week and took a strong stance against antisemitism, denouncing a professor who voiced support for Hamas and another who called the October 7 terror attacks "awesome."

The same day as her remarks on Capitol Hill, a coalition of student groups — Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, and Jewish Voice for Peace — set up "Gaza Solidarity Encampments" on Columbia's campus, protesting the war in Gaza, which has claimed thousands of civilian lives, and demanding the university divest financially from Israel.

The groups say the protests were peaceful and within their rights.

When the students would not move as requested, Shafik requested the New York City Police Department break up the protest, which led to the arrest of more than 100 protesters. Columbia and Barnard College suspended students involved with the protest.

That move sparked increased tensions, with separate, antisemitic demonstrators taking to the area surrounding the campus, according to videos posted on social media. Jewish leaders at the school allege that Jewish students have been targeted with hateful rhetoric by demonstrators.

On Monday, Columbia announced classes would be held virtually, and the campus has been closed to the public.

Cooperman, who attended Columbia Business School, donated $25 million to the school in 2012 and has said he's donated closer to $50 million in total.

"I try to give money to those schools that have made a difference to me in my lifetime. I don't think it's right, but I probably couldn't have gotten into Wall Street from Hunter College, where I got my undergraduate degree," he said. "I got an MBA from Columbia, and the very next day, I joined Goldman Sachs."

He said he would continue to give to the school but earmark his gifts to stay within the business school.

Kraft, the billionaire owner of the Patriots and another Columbia alumnus, announced he would be pulling all donations to the school "until corrective action is taken."

He did not specify what he meant by "corrective action." Kraft said he'd continue to support the school's Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life, which is named after him.

Representatives for Cooperman and Kraft did not respond to requests for comment before publication.

The conversation around giving and the relationship between billionaire donors and universities has been reignited in recent weeks following protests at Columbia, Yale, and New York University.

After the October 7 attacks, tensions on college campuses erupted, prompting megadonors to criticize the responses of various university administrators. At Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, billionaires including Apollo CEO Marc Rowan, the Estée Lauder heir Ronald Lauder, and the former Victoria's Secret owner Les Wexner pulled funding.

Eventually, the presidents of the schools, Claudine Gay and Liz Magill, respectively, stepped down.