Schwarzman College at MIT Spurs Backlash as Group Scolds School

(Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Group LP Chief Executive Officer Steven Schwarzman was criticized by a group of students and faculty from the Massachusetts Institute Technology, who asked the school to cancel a celebration of a new computing center named for him.

Schwarzman’s work as an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, opposition to an affordable housing bill in California and his hosting of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman were cited as reasons for the protest in an opinion piece in The Tech, a campus newspaper. Signed by 18 students, faculty or alumni, it raised concerns about the school accepting Schwarzman’s donation of $350 million.

“Schwarzman’s alliance with the Saudi crown prince represents an agenda of profit at any cost, a far cry from the pious statements about ‘ethics’ pronounced in public,” the group said in the op-ed.

At issue is the Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing. Schwarzman’s gift was announced in October, and was described then as the largest personal donation by the 72-year-old billionaire.

Blackstone and MIT didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

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