Bill Ackman and Mark Zuckerberg fail to appoint candidates to Harvard's Board of Overseers

It's hard to get into Harvard, even if you've done it before.

Mark Zuckerberg, head of Meta, and Bill Ackman, head of the Pershing Square hedge fund, discovered the same thing in their failed attempt to get dissident candidates onto the Harvard Board of Overseers, one of the university's two governing bodies.

The candidates — a list of four backed by Mr. Ackman and one candidate backed by Mr. Zuckerberg — said Friday that they had not collected enough petition signatures to appear for election to the board in April.

“We are disappointed but greatly appreciate all the support,” Zoe Bedell, an assistant U.S. attorney who was on Ackman's list, said in a statement Friday. “We look forward to trying again next year.”

Their failure raised questions about how much support there was in recent months for Mr. Ackman's sustained campaign against Harvard's leadership.

Mr. Ackman praised the candidates' military experience, and Mr. Zuckerberg's candidate, Sam Lessin, is a venture capitalist and a former employee of Facebook (as Meta was previously known).

But they couldn't overcome the first hurdle: collecting the 3,238 signatures of Harvard alumni to get their names on the ballot for the April election.

On Friday evening, Mr Lessin posted on social media that he had received 2,901 write-in nominations, 337 short of the required 3,238.

“As far as I know, no write-in candidates were left,” Lessin wrote in a message to supporters posted on X on Friday evening.

He blamed technical problems in Harvard's petition process. “I easily have the 337 and many more in my inbox from alumni who tried to submit but were blocked!”

The candidates ran on a platform of protecting free speech, overhauling management, guarding against anti-Semitism and ensuring academic rigor. These issues have boiled over at Harvard in recent months, when Claudine Gay resigned as Harvard president after battling accusations of plagiarism and tolerating anti-Semitism.

The thirty-member Board of Overseers serves primarily as an advisory group to the more powerful Harvard Corporation. But the regulators do have a veto over presidential appointments, a crucial power as Harvard searches for Dr. Gay. And their consent is also required for new members of the Corporation, which currently has twelve members and one vacancy.

Only Harvard alumni can serve as trustees, and only alumni can vote in the annual elections for the board. There are five open seats for a six-year term.

As Mr. Ackman tried to collect signatures, he complained bitterly that Harvard had made the process opaque and cumbersome. Alumni had to navigate a somewhat confusing online system, requiring them to register to sign a petition at least 24 hours before the deadline. Mr. Ackman said Harvard appeared to have changed the format just days before the signing deadline.

“If this isn't election interference, I don't know what is,” Mr. Ackman said posted on X before the signatures were counted.

Harvard and Mr. Ackman declined comment after the results were announced. Mr. Zuckerberg could not immediately be reached.

Overseer candidates are traditionally nominated through Harvard's alumni association. But candidates put forward through a petition have been on the ballot before, especially those calling for divestment from the fossil fuel industry or from apartheid-era South Africa.

There have been notable losers: Barack Obama has secured enough petition signatures in 1991, on a platform for divestment from South Africa, but did not win a seat.

Mr. Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are major donors to Harvard, most recently to artificial intelligence research. They went to YouTube to introduce Mr. Lessin, who met Mr. Zuckerberg at Harvard. Ms. Chan, a Harvard graduate, is eligible to vote in the election, but Mr. Zuckerberg, who has withdrawn, is not.

In their video discussion, Mr. Lessin, class of 2005, argued that the superintendents could take a more active role. “They have a veto over a lot of important things,” he said, adding, “They haven't used it much lately.”

Mr. Ackman's list included Ms. Bedell, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia; Logan Leslie, founder of Northern Rock, an investment firm; Alec Williams, an investment fund manager in Boise, Idaho; and Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter.

Ms. Bedell said the slate emerged from a core group of friends with a commitment to service. Mr. Ackman had hired one of them — Mr. Williams — and they contacted him for support, she said.

Even if they had managed to get on the ballot, only two of the petition candidates could have won seats. Harvard has set a limit of six supervisors who can be nominated via petition at any one time, and four already sit on the board. Voting for the elections starts on April 1 and lasts until mid-May.

Another petition hopeful, Harvey Silverglate, the co-founder of FIRE, a free speech group, received 457 signatures in his third attempt since 2009 to get on the ballot.

Mr. Silverglate said that without access to a master list of Harvard alumni, it was very difficult to tell people about his candidacy. “This was an insider's game,” he said. He wants to participate again next year.