{Photograph}: Charles Krupa/AP
Harvard College will rename its graduate college of arts and sciences after the billionaire hedge fund government and Republican megadonor Kenneth Griffin, the establishment introduced on Tuesday, after a brand new $300m contribution introduced Griffin’s complete help of his alma mater to greater than half a billion {dollars}.
Griffin, 54, is the founder and chief government of Citadel, a $59bn hedge fund, and Citadel Securities, which trades securities. He’s the thirty fifth richest individual on this planet, with a web price of $34.9bn, in accordance with the Bloomberg billionaires index.
Griffin can be simply the fourth particular person to have a faculty at Harvard named after him in change for a donation, in accordance with the Harvard Crimson pupil newspaper. His title will carry controversy due to Griffin’s stature as a significant political donor to rightwing politicians and his firm’s investments in firearm and ammunition producers.
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Griffin’s corporations held investments in gun and ammunition producers price greater than $139m as of March 2022, in accordance with Chicago NPR affiliate WBEZ. These included shares in US gun producers Smith & Wesson and Sturm Ruger, in addition to US ammunition makers Olin Corp, Vista Outside and Ammo Inc. As of 31 December 2022, the worth of Citadel’s holdings in these 5 corporations had elevated to greater than $200m, in accordance with a Guardian assessment of SEC filings.
The investments turned a matter of public debate in 2022 when Griffin poured hundreds of thousands right into a Republican candidate for the governorship of Illinois. Griffin accused the sitting Democratic governor, JB Pritzker, of failing to fight crime in Chicago, the place Griffin’s corporations had been primarily based. He subsequently moved his corporations’ headquarters to Miami.
A WBEZ evaluation of firearms recovered by Chicago police from violent crime incidents over 5 years discovered that just about one in 4 had been produced by corporations through which Citadel invests.
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On the time, Citadel disputed the significance of the investments, telling WBEZ that they made up “lower than .01% of our portfolio” and arguing {that a} connection to gun violence was “fairly a stretch”.
Griffin rejected a name by the Chicago Solar-Instances newspaper for his corporations to divest from gun and ammunition makers, writing in a letter to the editor that “40% of American households personal a gun” and that “the violence destroying our metropolis is just not the results of … authorized gun purchases, however quite a failure to prosecute criminals, a scarcity of help for police, and progressive left laws that prioritizes criminals forward of law-abiding residents”.
Ken Griffin. {Photograph}: Mike Blake/Reuters
He added: “I can’t embrace in the present day’s cancel tradition nor have interaction in amateurish virtue-signaling primarily based on blind ideology.”
Griffin can also be a significant political donor and one of the distinguished backers of the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, whom he has urged to run for president in 2024. A one-time fundraiser for Barack Obama, Griffin gave practically $60m to Republican candidates for federal positions in 2022, in accordance with Politico.
Griffin’s shut affiliation with DeSantis is one other potential reputational concern for Harvard. The Florida governor has staked out excessive positions on training and LGBTQ+ rights, together with by signing the so-called “don’t say homosexual” invoice that restricts Florida academics from discussing matters associated to sexuality and gender id and banning the state’s public excessive faculties from instructing a brand new superior placement course in African American research.
This yr, DeSantis unveiled a legislative proposal to remake Florida’s public faculties and universities that included banning crucial race principle – an educational principle developed by Black students at Harvard Regulation Faculty – and variety and inclusion packages and drastically lowering the protections afforded by educational tenure.
Requested to remark about Griffin’s affiliation with DeSantis and his insurance policies, a spokesperson for Citadel mentioned: “Ken respects and employs folks of all backgrounds.”
Griffin’s present to Harvard was unrestricted, the varsity mentioned, and can go to the school of arts and sciences, which incorporates the undergraduate faculty and PhD packages. In 2014, Griffin made a $150m donation to the elite personal college, primarily to fund monetary support. On the time, it was the most important single donation within the establishment’s historical past.
“Ken’s distinctive generosity and steadfast devotion allow excellence and alternative at Harvard,” mentioned Harvard’s president, Larry Bacow, in an announcement. “I’m deeply and personally appreciative of the boldness he has positioned in us – and in our mission – to do good on this planet.”
Harvard didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
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