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Harvard

bill ackman
William D. Cohan • October 9, 2024

Ackman’s Big Harvard Short

After a topsy-turvy year in both the public markets and his personal life, Bill Ackman has returned to a familiar activist target: his alma mater, its fiscal mismanagement, woke mind virus, and illiquid investment portfolio.
Dylan Byers • January 10, 2024
A Season of Ackman’s Life
Bill Ackman responded to the B.I. pieces by essentially placing the media company, which is owned by Axel Springer, at the center of his next activist campaign.
News and notes on the media holy war of our time: Bill Ackman’s pressure campaign to persuade Business Insider’s investors and executives to disavow a report detailing improper attributions in his wife’s academic work.
Baratunde Thurston • December 17, 2023
Old School
Harvard president Claudine Gay, University of Pennsylvania president Elizabeth Magill, and M.I.T. president Sally Kornbluth responding to a line of congressional questioning about antisemitism at elite universities.
The public scandal around Claudine Gay and Liz Magill, among others, has distracted us from the real problem here: Elite institutions should focus less on press releases and more on their power to convene experts and host well-facilitated discussions. This is hard work, but it is desperately needed.
Bill Ackman was as critical of Harvard’s admissions policies when he was an undergraduate as he is today as a billionaire tweeter.
William D. Cohan • December 17, 2023
Ackman’s Harvard Admissions
Wall Street’s most voluble hedge fund macher is very publicly denouncing university presidents for their inability to police (and outright condemn) antisemitism on their campuses, while also supporting and investing in Elon Musk’s media company. Is this a contradiction, or just Ackman’s unique logic?
Baratunde Thurston • July 9, 2023
The End of Affirmative Action and the Attempt to Erase Race
A candid conversation with Anurima Bhargava, a top civil rights litigator and education advisor, about a Supreme Court earthquake.