Harvard officials have announced that they will rename the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences after giant GOP member Kenneth Griffin who recently donated $300 million.
Griffin, 54, and Harvard are now facing criticism over the move, as Griffin Citadel LLC and Citadel Securities acquired $200 million in investments in guns and ammunition.
The gift drew criticism from right and left, as well as op-eds from outlets like hill And New York timescondemnation of the renaming.
“By accepting Griffin’s money and name, the storied school has joined the mass murder industry,” Jonathan Lowe wrote for The Hill.
Thanks to the Griffin-supported lobby, a background check is no longer required to buy guns in the United States, including assault weapons: the gun of choice for mass shooters. Lowe apparently wrote that they did not need to buy universities.
Griffin, a hedge fund manager and 1989 Harvard expert, had previously donated $200 million to “the oldest institution of higher learning.”
Harvard officials have announced that they are renaming the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences after fellow Republican superstar Kenneth Griffin made a $300 million donation.
Griffin and Harvard University (pictured) are now facing criticism over the move as the Griffin Companies – as of December – had about $200 million in weapons and ammunition investments.
It was Griffin’s investment holdings in gun manufacturers Smith & Wesson and Sturm Ruger—which both make and sell assault weapons—that piqued the public’s interest.
A Ruger assault pistol was used to kill 10 people in a Boulder, Colorado supermarket in 2021. Smith & Wesson AR-15 assault rifles were used in a mass shooting that killed 17 children and a teacher at a high school in Parkland, Florida, Seven showrunners in Highland Park, Illinois, a 16-year-old at a community center in San Bernardino, California, and congregation at a synagogue in Poway, California, to name a few, wrote Lowe, a fellow Harvard graduate student.
Louie criticizes the school for even taking an uninhibited gift of $300 million, which comes just as Jessica is celebrating her 150th anniversary.
According to the Harvard CrimsonThe school’s renaming is only the third in the university’s nearly 400-year history.
For the past 150 years, GSAS has nurtured and expanded the ambitions of students who have changed the world through their broad and diverse scholarly endeavors. Now, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Kenneth C.
A press release from the school states that the donation will support “long-term excellence in teaching and research.”
“Harvard’s College of Arts and Sciences is committed to advancing ideas that will shape the future of humanity, while providing important insight into our past,” said Griffin.
“I am excited to support the impactful work of this great organization,” he continued.
Griffin’s name is also on the Harvard Undergraduate Financial Aid Office after a $150 million donation in 2014.
Griffin and Harvard University (pictured) are now facing criticism over the move as the Griffin Companies – as of December – had about $200 million in weapons and ammunition investments.
Harvard University President, Lawrence S. Paco, Griffin for his donation in a statement
The financier made his money after he founded the investment firm Citadel LLC in 1990.
Today, the company manages about $57 billion in assets.
In 2022, the Republican giant made headlines after announcing that it would move business from Democratic-run Chicago to Miami, Florida.
Griffin did not mention the city’s soaring crime rates, but senior executives said at the time that he likely had a major role in the decision to relocate the company.
Lowe, in his article for The Hill, specifically called for Griffin’s move of Castle from Chicago to Miami, citing lower crime rates in the Florida city.
These are the companies Mr. Griffin has benefited from. He took at least one measure to prevent gun violence: He moved his headquarters from Chicago to Miami in search of safer streets, Lowe wrote.
In his article for The New York Times, Ross Dothat said the gift was valued by those on both sides of the aisle.
According to Douthat, leftists believe Harvard is hypocritical for receiving a huge donation from a man with ties to arms manufacturers whose products have caused many deaths.
However, Griffin on the right, having coughed up a lot of money for an “awake” institution like Harvard, is very talkative about his priorities, the writer claims.
“At best, you could describe Griffin as a tacky, more extreme version of the many right-leaning donors who grumble about getting up at their universities but keep writing checks out of a sense of misplaced loyalty,” Douthat writes.
In 2022, the Republican giant made headlines after announcing that it would move business from Democratic-run Chicago to Miami, Florida.
According to the Harvard Crimson, the school’s renaming is only the third in the university’s nearly 400-year history.
The Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences isn’t the first time a controversial figure’s name has been attached to a prestigious building on the college’s campus.
A 2022 Harvard Gazette article found that many of the buildings are decorated with the names of notable slave owners of the past.
At least two undergraduate housing units on the university’s campus—Winthrop and Mather—were named after slave owners.
A report on the impact of slavery on the school also found that Harvard enslaved people working on campus for nearly 150 years.
The findings in the report prompted Harvard officials to announce a controversial $100 million compensation fund.
Even today, the early philanthropists of Harvard who accumulated their fortunes through slavery are memorialized all over campus in statues, buildings, student homes, and professorships awarded—and indeed in other educational, civic, and cultural organizations throughout Massachusetts.
