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Billionaire Harvard donor Ken Griffin says elite colleges produce ‘whiny snowflakes,’ stops donations
The Hill ^ | Jan 31, 2024 | Lexi Lonas

Posted on 02/02/2024 4:07:30 AM PST by Conservat1

Billionaire Harvard University donor Ken Griffin said Tuesday he has stopped financially supporting the university, accusing elite institutions of creating “whiny snowflakes” instead of focusing on education.

Griffin, the founder of Citadel and worth more than $30 billion, has contributed some $500 million to Harvard in his lifetime.

At the MFA Network Miami conference, he told CNBC in an interview he has stopped the donations but would “like that to change.”

“And I’ve made that clear to members of the corporate board. But until Harvard makes it very clear that they’re going to resume their role as educating young American men and women to be leaders, to be problem solvers, to take on difficult issues — I’m not interested in supporting the institution,” Griffin said.

He went further to chastise all elite universities, saying they create “whiny snowflakes” and raised concerns they are “going to maintain being lost in the wilderness of microaggressions, a DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] agenda that seems to have no real end game.”

Griffin previously said he would not hire any Harvard student who signed the infamous open letter at the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war that blamed Israel solely for the Oct. 7 attack.

In the interview, he condemned antisemitism and expressed his displeasure with former Harvard President Claudine Gay for her answer at the December House Education Committee hearing on whether calls for genocide against Jewish people would be considered harassment.

“This is a simple answer: ‘You can ask my lawyers, but I’m going to tell you as the president of fill-in-the-blank university, there is no tolerance for calls to genocide on my campus,’” Griffin said.

... Griffin is far from the first donor to cut ties.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: dei; harvard; kengriffin; snowflakes
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1 posted on 02/02/2024 4:07:30 AM PST by Conservat1
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I omitted the word “Islamophobia “ which is often inserted by prigresuve” media to describe a false “balance”


2 posted on 02/02/2024 4:08:33 AM PST by Conservat1
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To: Conservat1

They’re just realizing this now?


3 posted on 02/02/2024 4:23:07 AM PST by STJPII ( )
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To: Conservat1

The Ivies make snowflakes
Few are Christian or Jewish
but some flakes are Muslim
and Yale ones are bluish.


4 posted on 02/02/2024 4:26:23 AM PST by golux
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To: Conservat1

Someone is about to have their life destroyed. Good for him to stick his neck out, but very few will have his back.


5 posted on 02/02/2024 4:28:14 AM PST by CatOwner (Don't expect anyone, even conservatives, to have your back when the SHTF in 2021 and beyond.)
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To: CatOwner
Ken Griffin is worth $37 billion. The entire Harvard endowment fund is only worth $50b.

He will not be destroyed...he will destroy.

6 posted on 02/02/2024 4:37:10 AM PST by RoosterRedux (A person who seeks the truth with a strong bias will never find it. He will only confirm his bias.)
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To: Conservat1

THEN STOP GIVING THEM MONEY KEN!


7 posted on 02/02/2024 5:03:13 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (The Truth is like a lion. You don't need to defend it. Let it loose and it will defend itself.)
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To: Conservat1

How long did it take for him to figure that out?


8 posted on 02/02/2024 5:07:38 AM PST by SMARTY ("A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies." Tennyson)
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To: Conservat1
The first step to ask for forgiveness would be for Harvard to fire their lying, cheating, plagiarizing DEI Director...


9 posted on 02/02/2024 5:09:35 AM PST by moovova ("The NEXT election is the most important election of our lifetimes!“ LOL...)
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To: RoosterRedux
The problem with any person, endowment, or institution that has 50 billion dollars is that they cannot be changed or influenced by anyone. Even this guy.

The reason Harvard is so out of control is because they have had this kind of money for several generations.

One doofus telling them that he is taking his marbles and going home means absolutely nothing to them.

10 posted on 02/02/2024 5:12:12 AM PST by caddie
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To: Conservat1

If Griffin truly expects Harvard to change because of getting money, he knows they are street walking whores. There are hundreds of small independent colleges and universities that would so appreciate donations, however small or great.


11 posted on 02/02/2024 5:14:06 AM PST by healy61 (.)
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To: Conservat1

I’ve never heard of this guy until yesterday. I think he also cut off his donations to Nikki Haley


12 posted on 02/02/2024 5:22:07 AM PST by cyclotic (Don’t be part of the problem. Be the entire problem)
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To: Conservat1
As with all commerce, once a brand name begins to be sullied, the erosion of a reputation costs much more to rebuild, than to build.

The useful idiot Left has patiently come to be resident in many "choke points" so as to promote lunacy of all sorts, but, in Adam Smith's sense of "invisible hands," all the "nudging" and "messaging" and "manufacturing consent" cannot stem a walkaway as it happens and builds. Individuals make themselves noticed one by one.

13 posted on 02/02/2024 5:24:00 AM PST by Worldtraveler once upon a time (Degrow government)
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To: Conservat1; All

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/02/sherri-ann-charleston-diversity-and-inclusion-head-at-harvard-and-plagiarist


14 posted on 02/02/2024 5:28:10 AM PST by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: Conservat1; All

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/02/sherri-ann-charleston-diversity-and-inclusion-head-at-harvard-and-plagiarist


15 posted on 02/02/2024 5:28:14 AM PST by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: caddie

Some hungry, ambitious schools might be created and funded that actually offer high-quality educations to the best and brightest. Harvard ought to be concerned about their reputation going down several notches, and losing status as an “elite” university. Smart kids might no longer be drawn there, and brilliant researchers might turn down positions there, regardless of compensation. All that would be left there would be pampered dunces, with no hope of employment outside of government and NGOs.


16 posted on 02/02/2024 5:31:17 AM PST by rightwingcrazy (;-,)
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To: Conservat1
Ha! "Baird Man. What does that mean...Baird man? What are you doing here? You're building a rat ship...a vessel for sea-going snitches!"


17 posted on 02/02/2024 5:31:42 AM PST by know.your.why (<>)
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To: Conservat1

They are weak snowflakes who resort to using government in the form of the administrative state to get their way.


18 posted on 02/02/2024 5:33:24 AM PST by inchworm (al )
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To: rightwingcrazy

There are a couple hundred small colleges that have had shrinking enrollment for years. I think if they decided to go full anti woke and marketed themselves, as such, they could turn themselves around by getting conservative kids to attend. We could definitely use more Hillsdale type schools.


19 posted on 02/02/2024 5:38:13 AM PST by Betty Jane
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To: cyclotic

No he didn’t.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/citadel-ceo-and-billionaire-ken-griffin-donated-5-million-to-nikki-haley-super-pac/ar-BB1hvua4


20 posted on 02/02/2024 5:41:44 AM PST by Beowulf9
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