Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman added fuel to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology fire this week, targeting the prestigious school in a plagiarism investigation amid calls for its president to resign.
Pressure on MIT President Sally Kornbluth has been growing since she testified before Congress last month and drew ire from conservatives who found her responses to pro-Hamas protests on her campus inadequate.
She remains the only university president still standing after Liz Magill and Claudine Gay, the former presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard, respectively, gave similar testimony and ultimately resigned in the aftermath. Gay faced additional pressure after multiple allegations of plagiarism surfaced.
It is unclear if Congress will pursue additional steps against the universities, but a spokesman for the House Education and Workforce Committee hinted at using financial threats to federal aid, which private schools like MIT receive, to pursue change.
“The committee’s oversight on these issues is designed to yield accountability from taxpayer-funded institutions of higher education and will help inform if and when we need to have additional legislative solutions,” the spokesman told the Washington Examiner. “Given that MIT and other institutions participate in federal student aid programs, there is a federal hook to address institutional policies while also respecting constitutional rights and principles of federalism.”
Criticism of Kornbluth and others intensified this week as Ackman, a Harvard alumnus who was a key player in the ouster of Gay, set his sights on MIT, launching an artificial intelligence-powered plagiarism investigation against Kornbluth, faculty, and board members.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), whose questioning led to the academics’ blunders in the hearing, also called for Kornbluth’s ouster, saying on Friday, “Sally Kornbluth should be fired immediately.”
MIT spokeswoman Kimberly Allen responded to an inquiry about the criticism Monday evening, telling the Washington Examiner that the school’s “leaders remain focused on ensuring the vital work of the people of MIT continues, work that is essential to the nation’s security, prosperity and quality of life.”
Allen also pointed to an update page published by the school regarding its actions in response to charges of antisemitism at the school.
The site documents updates to items including a “Standing Together Against Hate” initiative designed to “use our problem-solving skills to address antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate,” the school’s disciplinary process concerning issues related to the Israel-Hamas war, and expansions of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
While both Gay and Magill issued apologies after their testimonies, Kornbluth, who is Jewish, did not. Rather, MIT Corporation Chairman Mark Gorenberg issued a statement saying Kornbluth “has done excellent work in leading our community, including in addressing antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate, all of which we reject utterly at MIT. She has our full and unreserved support.”
Ackman announced his intention to investigate MIT faculty and leadership over the weekend after his wife, Neri Oxman, was the subject of two Business Insider articles alleging plagiarism in her dissertation. Oxman is a former MIT professor who was born and raised in Israel, and Ackman has claimed that the allegations against his wife are both motivated by antisemitism and came from inside MIT.
“We have new information that strongly suggests that the Business Insider source(s) is at @MIT,” Ackman posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“We do not yet know whether this initiative against my wife @NeriOxman and family is led by the @MIT board, its Chairman Mark Gorenberg and/or the administration or certain member(s) of the faculty … but we have good reason to believe this to be true,” Ackman clarified.
Despite the criticism, MIT has faced the same pressure from donors and alumni organizations as Magill and Gay. The MIT Jewish Alumni Alliance, which criticized Kornbluth for her testimony, has called on donors to cut their contributions to the school to $1 in a show of dissatisfaction with MIT leadership.
But the group has not called for Kornbluth’s resignation.
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To the contrary, MIT Jewish Alumni Alliance founder Matt Handel said the group believes it is more fruitful to work with the existing leadership, telling the New York Times, “As alumni, we are dissatisfied with the approach the administration is taking.”
“We as an organization are still trying to facilitate change in culture and policy,” Handel said.