The reputation of Harvard University has suffered substantially in recent months, and it is costing the school applicants and millions of dollars in donations.
The Ivy League institution has spent the final months of 2023 embroiled in a controversy that has shrouded university President Claudine Gay in allegations of plagiarism, raised questions about the culture of the college, and prompted a congressional investigation.
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Following the terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack against Israel that killed more than 1,200 people, a coalition of student groups released a statement blaming Israel for the bloodshed and celebrating the attack. The statement was one of many released by student groups across the nation, but it immediately raised questions about the proliferation of antisemitism at the university.
After significant public outcry, Gay released statements condemning antisemitism and the attacks, but questions about the culture of the university persisted. In early December, she found herself the subject of controversy after she refused to say whether calling for the genocide of Jews was a violation of the university’s rules against targeted harassment.
To compound it all, Gay has also been forced to request corrections to her published work after allegations surfaced that she committed plagiarism on several occasions throughout her academic career, including in writing her doctoral thesis. And this week, new questions were raised about research she conducted in 2001 that she refused to share with other academics who questioned her conclusions.
The Harvard Corporation, which governs the university, has stood by its president, who took the job in July. Gay has also rejected calls for her resignation.
The cascade of bad headlines has had a noticeable effect on Harvard’s bottom line and institutional reputation. A number of high-profile individuals from the business world, including Barstool Sports’s Dave Portnoy, have vowed to cease hiring Harvard graduates. Meanwhile, the number of early applicants to the Ivy League university declined by 17% this year, boosting the acceptance rate from 7.6% to 8.7%.
A business school in Vienna cut ties with Harvard this week by withdrawing from an academic partnership it had participated in with the embattled university since 2014. Lauder Business School officials said they ended the relationship to show “solidarity with the Jewish student community at Harvard.”
The soiled reputation also has driven away donors. Earlier this month, billionaire Len Blavatnik, who, according to CNN, has donated more than $250 million to the school, announced that his foundation was suspending donations to the Harvard Business School.
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Other billionaire donors such as Bill Ackman, who has publicly excoriated the institution online, have also stopped donations. Ackman has been vocal about his desire for Gay to lose her job.
Some alumni have even taken the step of cutting their donations to $1 as a sign of protest, according to Fortune.
