Harvard Affiliates Slam GSAS Renaming

BY RAHEM D. HAMID AND ELIAS J. SCHISGALL CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences is now $300 million richer, and its Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has taken a new name — that of billionaire hedge fund CEO and Republican megadonor Kenneth C. Griffin ’89. Not everyone is thrilled.

Following University President Lawrence S. Bacow’s Tuesday announcement of Griffin’s unrestricted donation to FAS, some students and faculty celebrated the donation, while others blasted his support of Republican political candidates.

Griffin gave nearly $60 million to Republicans in the 2022 election cycle and has publicly backed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for president in 2024. DeSantis has not announced a presidential bid.

Griffin has also given to some Democratic politicians and donated $500,000 to President Joe Biden’s inaugural committee.

In total, Griffin has given more than half a billion dollars to Harvard, including a 2014 donation of $150 million largely to bolster financial aid at Harvard College. The College’s financial aid office was renamed after Griffin following the donation. Theda R. Skocpol, a Government and Sociology professor and former GSAS dean, slammed the decision in an email to The Crimson.

“I am absolutely disgusted at the sale of the GSAS name to a multi billionaire who works in US politics today to undermine the foundations of liberal civil society, including free speech, and to eviscerate the essential trans partisan features of fully representative US democracy,” she wrote.

“This is a shocking and unnecessary sell out by Harvard and FAS leaders who, at the same time, claim to be worried

Freeman into question.

“The Salata Institute asserts it ‘will not accept funds from, or partner with, any company that does not share the goal of moving our global economy away from fossil fuels,’” the letter reads, according to the Guardian. “We ask: why does this policy not exclude awarding funds to a board member of one of the world’s most intransigent fossil fuel merchants?”

In a statement on her personal website, Freeman wrote that she serves on ConocoPhillips’ board of directors because of her belief in “the value of broad engagement during the energy transition.”

“My role as an independent director on the board of ConocoPhillips is about helping to advance the transition to a low-carbon economy,” Freeman wrote. “I work in my role to help the company deliver on, and strengthen, its climate commit- ments.”

Freeman denied that the role creates a “conflict of interest” with her work at Harvard.

“My role on the board is entirely consistent with the other work I do — teaching, researching, writing, advising, and advocating for climate policy, at Harvard and elsewhere,” Freeman wrote. “I wear one hat — as an advocate for positive change to address the climate challenge.”

In an April 11 letter addressed to Freeman, 24 of her former students in the Law School Class of 2025 urged her to resign from her position on ConocoPhillips’ board of directors.

“We are disappointed and ashamed that ConocoPhillips is capitalizing on the Harvard Law School credential to

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