Bill Ackman’s Clash With Harvard Over Stock Gift Reveals the Messy World of Big Donations

Prestigious universities are learning the costs of the big gifts they receive from prominent donors. The strings that fund managers Bill Ackman and Ross Stevens attached to sizable donations to Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, respectively, show the degree to which wealthy benefactors expect to have a continuing say in administrative matters. This inevitably causes chafing at universities, which pride themselves on resisting outside pressures in their unfettered pursuit of higher learning. The delicate relationship between schools and their biggest donors has contributed to their continuing clash over addressing antisemitism.