Even if you have taken the exam before, it is difficult to get into Harvard.
Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Meta, and Bill Ackman, the head of the Pershing Square hedge fund, are trying to get dissident candidates onto Harvard’s oversight committee ( The same was found after efforts by one of Harvard’s two governing bodies) failed.
The candidates — four backed by Ackman and one backed by Zuckerberg — said Friday they had not collected enough petition signatures to be on the April board election ballot.
“We are disappointed but grateful for all the support,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Zoe Bedell, who is on Ackerman’s slate, said in a statement Friday. “We look forward to trying it again next year.”
Their failure raises questions about how many supporters Mr. Ackerman has in his ongoing campaign against Harvard’s leadership over the past few months.
Ackman touted the candidate’s military experience, and Zuckerberg’s nominee, Sam Lessing, is a venture capitalist and former employee of Facebook, the predecessor to Meta.
But they couldn’t overcome the first hurdle: collecting 3,238 signatures from Harvard alumni to put their names on the April election ballot.
Lessing posted on social media Friday night that he had received 2,901 nominations, 337 short of the 3,238 requested.
“As far as I know, no by-election candidate has more,” Mr Lessing wrote in a message to supporters posted on Friday night.
He blamed technical difficulties in Harvard’s petition process. “I had 337 easily in my inbox along with many other emails from alumni who tried to submit but were blocked!”
Candidates ran on a platform of protecting free speech, reforming governance, guarding against anti-Semitism and ensuring academic rigor. These issues have boiled over the past few months at Harvard University, where Claudine Gay resigned as president after battling accusations of plagiarism and tolerating anti-Semitism.
The 30-member Oversight Board serves primarily as an advisory group to the more powerful Harvard Corporation. But the overseers do have veto power over presidential appointments, a crucial power as Harvard searches for Dr. Gay’s successor. Their consent is also required for new members of the company, currently the company has 12 members and 1 vacancy.
Only Harvard alumni can serve as supervisors, and only alumni can vote in the annual election of the Board of Trustees. There are five open seats with six-year terms.
While Ackerman worked to collect signatures, he complained bitterly that Harvard had made the process opaque and cumbersome. Alumni must navigate a somewhat confusing online system that requires them to register at least 24 hours before the deadline to sign the petition. Mr. Ackerman said Harvard appeared to have changed its form days before the signing deadline.
“If this isn’t election interference, I don’t know what is,” Mr. Ackerman Posted on X before counting signatures.
Harvard, Ackman and Zuckerberg declined to comment after the results were announced.
Candidates for oversight are traditionally nominated through the Harvard Alumni Association. But candidates put forward through petitions have been on the ballot before, particularly those calling for divestment from the fossil fuel industry or apartheid-era South Africa.
There were some clear losers, too: Barack Obama, who ran on a platform of divestment from South Africa in 1991, got enough petition signatures but didn’t win a seat.
Mr. Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are major donors to Harvard University, most recently to artificial intelligence research. They introduced Mr. Lessing, whom Zuckerberg met at Harvard University, through YouTube. Dr. Chen, a Harvard graduate, is eligible to vote in the election, but Zuckerberg, who dropped out, is not.
During the video discussion, Mr. Lessin, Class of 2005, argued that supervisors could take a more active role. “They have veto power on a lot of really high-level, important things,” he said, adding, “They haven’t been using it a lot lately.”
Ackerman’s list includes Ms. Biddle, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Logan Leslie, founder of Northern Rock Investments; Alec Williams, an investment fund in Boise, Idaho Manager; and Julia Pollak, Chief Economist at ZipRecruiter.
Ms. Bader said the list is made up of a core group of friends dedicated to service. She said Mr Ackerman hired one of them – Mr Williams – and they turned to him for support.
Even if they manage to get on the ballot, only two of the petition candidates will win seats. Harvard limits the number of supervisors nominated by petition to more than six at a time, and there are already four on the board. Voting for the election is scheduled to begin on April 1 and last until mid-May.
Another person hoping to petition is Harvey Silverglate, co-founder of the free speech group FIRE, who made his third attempt to get on the ballot since 2009 and received 457 signatures.
Silverglett said it would be difficult to tell people about his candidacy without access to a major list of Harvard alumni. “It’s an insider’s game,” he said. He plans to run again next year.