Billionaire hedge fund manager and Harvard alumnus Bill Ackman, who is among the many powerful voices leading the charge against Harvard’s soft policies on antisemitism, plagiarism, and racial discrimination, has signaled that he — and others — are working to ‘fix’ Harvard.

“It goes far beyond replacing President Gay,” wrote Ackman on X, linking to a thread by Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) that outlined the organization’s intention to make campus leaders “re-establish their institutions as communities devoted to the discovery, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge.”

This is a superb platform for fixing @Harvard (and other universities that have lost their way) and restoring it to excellence.

I am working with some others on how we can accelerate necessary change at Harvard et al.

It goes far beyond replacing President Gay.

I will have… https://t.co/WpoY43spjT

— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) December 21, 2023

Ackman, alongside Manhattan Institute’s Christopher Rufo, Elon Musk, and other luminaries are actively fighting to end woke diversity, equity and inclusion policies now prevalent across various academic and social institutions.

In the FIRE thread, the organization described the crisis in academia as an “opportunity,” suggesting that the universities “must reflect on their truth-seeking mission and use it to ground their response. College leaders who stray from their institution’s mission and try to please everybody, please nobody.”

The organization outlined a 10 point plan that includes protecting free speech, adopting institutional neutrality, centering free speech values in hiring and admissions, and eliminating political litmus tests.

The organization also called for universities to crack down on disruptive and violent conduct, such as been witnessed across colleges well before October 7, 2023. Over the past decade, numerous speakers have faced violence in these institutions for merely showing up with the wrong opinions, including Dr. Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, and others.    

“Disruptive conduct is often used to enforce orthodoxy and punish dissent on campus,” FIRE stated. “Violence, shout-downs, vandalism, classroom occupations, and blocking passageways are all examples of unprotected conduct that threatens an institution’s values of free inquiry.”

“Too often such behavior goes uninvestigated and unpunished — or is even encouraged by college administrators. Behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated. Colleges must have the greatest tolerance for opinion and no tolerance for violence.”