The Harvard Crimson editorial board wrote an op-ed on Thursday addressed to the university, suggesting that they use right-wing donor Ken Griffin’s massive donation to fund a slew of liberal causes.
The editorial board of The Crimson expressed discomfort at Griffin’s donation, stating that it could, “produce undue influences.” The editorial board slammed the university’s decision to name a building after Griffin, citing his support for Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“Naming a school after Griffin was a mistake. By adorning its schools with the names of donors, Harvard condones these individuals and their values,” The Harvard Crimson reads. (RELATED: Harvard, NYU Law Journals Use Race And Sex Discrimination, Lawsuit Claims)
The editorial board claims that Griffin’s support of DeSantis helped the governor suppress African American Studies and LGBT content in schools. DeSantis criticized The AP African American Studies course in Feburary, which caused College Board to change some of the curriculum’s content. The Florida legislature also passed legislation in 2022 to ban teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation topics from grades K-3. It has since been expanded to K-12.
The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will be renamed the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences https://t.co/2p3Npl779C
— Harvard University (@Harvard) April 11, 2023
“Unless Harvard publicly issues a rejection of these positions, it is implicitly telling its Black and queer students that it sees nothing wrong with campaigns to sensationalize, slander, and erase their identities,” The editorial board wrote.
The editors called on the university to explicitly denounce these policies and use Griffin’s donation to counteract DeSantis’ policies by researching “contemporary challenges” such as “climate change” or “decline of democracy.”
“Best of all, Harvard should distribute Griffin’s money to academic departments that support the communities of color and queer people most affected by the renaming and DeSantis’s education policies,” the Crimson added.