Multiple billboard trucks calling for the resignation of Harvard President Claudine Gay assembled outside her home this week, drawing backlash from even her most ardent critics.
Months ago billboard trucks began displaying the names and faces of students who had even the loosest connection to pro-Palestine campus groups at several Ivy League campuses, drawing widespread condemnation for putting a target on students’ backs.
Right-wing group Accuracy in Media later claimed responsibility for the invasive tactic—including the trucks blanketing the block outside Gay’s home.
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Now, even Bill Ackman, a big-money donor to the prestigious institution who in recent weeks has emerged as a sharp critic of Gay and the school at large, said on Wednesday that the billboard trucks have taken it too far.
“We can agree or disagree with @Harvard, and we can support or criticize President Gay’s leadership,” Ackman posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. “But to disrupt her home with these trucks is unfair to her and her family, and an insult to all of us.”
Gay was one of three university leaders who faced heavy pushback over their testimony before Congress last week. All three declined to say whether calls for the “genocide” of Jews would violate their school’s code of conduct, infuriarating critics who said that the schools were not doing enough to fight an alleged rise in antisemitism on their respective campuses.
Ackman subsequently called for Gay’s ouster and blasted her as a diversity hire.
Earlier this week, however, Harvard declined to remove her from the position.
“Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing,” Harvard wrote on Tuesday.
