- Business leaders are criticizing the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT following a botched congressional hearing.
- At the hearing earlier this week, the presidents evaded questions on Jewish genocide.
Business leaders, many who double as donors, are unleashing fury on the leadership of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, and MIT after a botched congressional hearing earlier this week.
In their December 5 testimony on antisemitism, the presidents of the three elite institution failed to answer a question that asked if calling for a Jewish genocide was against each school's code of conduct.
The response from Wall Street and tech leaders — some who had previously condemned or pulled funding from the schools following incidents of antisemitism on campus — mounted throughout the week.
The day of the hearing, Clifford Asness, the cofounder of money management fund AQR Capital, criticized the remarks of Elizabeth Magill, Penn's president. In October, the billionaire had announced he would halt donations to his alma mater following its response to the October 7 attacks on Israel.
"The presidents are flat out evil and deeply mediocre. They aren't even good at hiding their evil. Maybe they just don't care. I wish I could quit giving twice," he wrote on X, along with a clip of the hearing.
By Wednesday, the hearing seemed to go viral.
Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, a Harvard alum who has been critical of the school's president, Claudine Gay, and her response to antisemitism on campus, also slammed the university presidents.
"If a CEO of one of our companies gave a similar answer, he or she would be toast within the hour," he posted. "They must all resign in disgrace."
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla condemned the presidents, invoking his own family's history and the killing of his relatives during the Holocaust.
And Patrick Collison, the CEO of Stripe and an MIT alum, wrote that "something seems very broken." Dan Loeb, the CEO of hedge fund Third Point, responded,"you did well to flee," referencing the fact that Collison dropped out of MIT after six months.
Even Elon Musk, a Penn alum who himself has been criticized for trumpeting antisemitic theories, called the universities "shameful."
The pile-on continued Thursday.
Megadonor and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr., whose family had previously announced it would be halting donations to Penn, doubled down on his criticism of the school's leadership, calling on Magill to step down.
The criticism turned to real consequence when Wall Street CEO Ross Stevens threatened to pull an existing $100 million gift if Penn's leadership did not change.
Donors who had previously threatened to pull funding, like Ronald Lauder, didn't respond to Business Insider's requests for comment about whether they would indeed pull their funding in the wake of the hearing.
Even those who hadn't before publicly commented on the ongoing tensions on college campuses chimed in.
"For a long time I said that antisemitism, particularly on the American left, was not as bad as people claimed. I'd like to just state that I was totally wrong," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote, though he did not specifically point to the congressional testimony.
Following widespread criticism, the presidents have walked back their comments, but the pressure has continued.
Wharton's board, which is chaired by Apollo CEO Marc Rowan, has called on Magill to step down. Rowan had previously called on fellow Penn alumni to halt donations until the school's leadership stepped down.
There will be an emergency board of trustees meeting on Sunday to further discuss the matter, the school's newspaper The Daily Pennsylvanian, reported.