UPenn president resigns in wake of antisemitism hearing

WASHINGTON – University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill has resigned amid an uproar over her recent congressional testimony that raised questions from the White House, donors and alumni about how the elite school handles antisemitism on campus.

In a campus email Saturday afternoon, Scott Bok, chair of Penn’s board of trustees, announced Magill, Penn’s ninth president, voluntarily submitted her resignation. Magill will stay on as president until an interim president is appointed, and she will remain a tenured faculty member at Penn Carey Law, Bok wrote.

In a statement shared by Bok, Magill said, “It has been my privilege to serve as President of this remarkable institution. It has been an honor to work with our faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community members to advance Penn’s vital missions.”
 

Magill and the presidents of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology all have faced a fierce backlash over their testimony on Tuesday before the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which is examining the rise of antisemitism as campuses have become hotbeds for protests, anti-Jewish graffiti and harassment of students.

The furor directed at the three college leaders was triggered partly by their response to questions about whether calling for the genocide of Jews violates their schools’ code of conduct against bullying and harassment that has touched off a firestorm.

Magill and the other two presidents – Harvard’s Claudine Gay and MIT’s Sally Kornbluth – gave carefully worded responses that danced around the question despite repeated attempts by Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to get them to answer.

“If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment. Yes,” Magill said.

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Critics argued the vague response suggested the university would not adequately stand up to antisemitism. Even the White House weighed in, with President Joe Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, saying calls for genocide are “counter to everything this country stands for.”

Two days after the hearing, the House panel announced it will investigate the policies and disciplinary procedures at Penn, Harvard and MIT.

Magill walked back some of her comments, saying a call for the genocide of Jewish people would be considered harassment or intimidation. She also called for a review of Penn’s policies, saying they have long been guided by the U.S. Constitution but need to be “clarified and evaluated.”

But pressure for her to resign ramped up after a major donor, Ross Stevens, a Penn alum and chief executive officer of Stone Ridge Holdings, threatened to withdraw a gift valued at $100 million to the university unless Magill was replaced.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, also called Magill’s testimony “unacceptable” and urged trustees there to consider Magill’s job. He later joined Jewish students at Penn to mark the start of Hanukkah with a menorah lighting on campus.

Harvard’s Gay apologized for her testimony, telling The Crimson newspaper that she got caught up in a combative exchange about policies and procedures and failed to properly denounce threats of violence against Jewish students.

“What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged,” Gay said.

Contributing: Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY, The Associated Press

Michael Collins covers the White House. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @mcollinsNEWS.