Is Harvard is going broke–straight-up? It’s been all over the news–as many of your have seen–but the chorus announcing just how bad Harvard’s recent actions (and inactions) have harmed its most treasured asset: the Almighty Harvard Brand has been growing louder.
And, of course, by extension: the money it rakes in annually from donors and alumni.
The most alarming of the various news stories–especially if you’re a graduate student at Harvard–was a recent piece by The Harvard Crimson, announcing that the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is straight-up broke.
Bear in mind that the Graduate School of Arts of Sciences at Harvard had–with much pomp and circumstance–announced the outright renaming of the largest school at the University, in perpetuity, after Kenneth C. Griffin ’89 just a few short months ago, in April 2023, because of his extraordinarily large donation to the University. We all got the “big news” in our e-mail even.
To make matters worse, Griffin’s withdrawal of his deep pockets was only part of a large phalanx of wealthy donors making their exodus from any association with Harvard University’s exchequer.
Setting politics aside–which, as I emphasize throughout my posts and videos, will not be part of the discussion in this campaign (see: our Site Policies)–Harvard President Alan Garber has had this on his mind (with good reason) for a while. (NB: Garber is an old personal/academic friend, who helped “recruit” me to Harvard in the first place; when he was still serving as University Provost and I was an admitted, but not yet committed, candidate.)
This is only a portion of the financial and public-relations problems plaguing the University over the past months. None other than the United States Department of Education has opened an official investigation into Harvard–ostensibly over one issue but, no doubt, over a long list of misconduct with federal funds.
As you’ve all seen, I point out some of these–briefly–in previous video posts. However, I plan on elaborating on that subject in coming posts and videos–pending some very important, and interesting, details to be revealed soon.
In short, this explains–but certainly doesn’t excuse–some of the further misconduct, sudden “new [and selective] policies” from the Financial Aid Office at Harvard, and their actions against me (after saddling me with hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars in federal loans, to pay for Harvard’s own mistakes) in recent months. (See: Intro Video for more details.)
These update videos and/or articles will be coming shortly.
So. Stay. Tuned.
