The University of Pennsylvania’s top two leaders resigned Saturday amid an uproar over rising antisemitism on campus, calls that surged last week after President Liz Magill’s widely panned testimony before a House committee.
Scott L. Bok, chair of the Penn Board of Trustees, said Saturday that Ms. Magill has “voluntarily tendered her resignation,” but will remain on the faculty of the law school. The university plans to announce its interim leadership in the next few days.
Less than an hour later, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported that Mr. Bok submitted his resignation as board chair of the prestigious Ivy League university “effectively immediately,” which was confirmed by a Penn spokesperson.
“While I was asked to remain in that role for the remainder of my term in order to help with the presidential transition, I concluded that, for me, now was the right time to depart,” Mr. Bok said in a statement obtained by the student newspaper.
He acknowledged that Ms. Magill made a “very unfortunate misstep” at last week’s disastrous House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing, after which “it became clear that her position was no longer tenable.”
“The world should know that Liz Magill is a very good person and a talented leader who was beloved by her team. She is not the slightest bit antisemitic,” Mr. Bok wrote. “Working with her was one of the great pleasures of my life. Worn down by months of relentless external attacks, she was not herself last Tuesday.”
Ms. Magill, who assumed the presidency in July 2022 after previously serving as dean of Stanford Law School, issued a brief statement.
“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,” she said.
At the hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik, New York Republican, asked Ms. Magill, Harvard President Claudine Gay and MIT President Sally Kornbluth whether expressing support for “genocide of Jews” would violate their codes of conduct. All three replied that it would depend on the context.
Ms. Magill and Ms. Gay later walked back their comments, but the damage had been done.
The committee launched an investigation into the “learning environment” at the three colleges. More than 70 members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, called for the three presidents to resign in a Friday letter, while Ross Stevens, a prominent Penn donor, threatened to cancel a $100 million donation.
“One down. Two to go,” Ms. Stefanik said in a Saturday statement. “This is only the very beginning of addressing the pervasive rot of antisemitism that has destroyed the most ‘prestigious’ higher education institutions in America.”
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She added: “Harvard and MIT, do the right thing. The world is watching.”
One down.
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) December 9, 2023
Two to go.
This is only the very beginning of addressing the pervasive rot of antisemitism that has destroyed the most “prestigious” higher education institutions in America.
This forced resignation of the president of @Penn is the bare minimum of what is required.…
Ms. Gay and Ms. Kornbluth have also faced blowback over their testimony, but of the three university leaders, Ms. Magill was the most vulnerable.
Even before the Oct. 7 attack, she faced heavy criticism over the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, a conference held on campus in September that featured speakers accused of being anti-Israel at best and antisemitic at worst.
They included Roger Waters, the Pink Floyd lead singer, a vocal supporter of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement whose “activism has increasingly been characterized as playing into antisemitic tropes,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Ms. Magill said she found the decision to invite Mr. Waters “deeply offensive” while citing Penn’s commitment to “open expression.” Critics were quick to point out that Penn ranked next-to-last in the 2024 Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s free-speech college ratings.
Billionaire Marc Rowan, a Penn grad who donated $50 million to the Wharton School of Business in 2018, called for her resignation days after the Oct. 7 attack and urged donors to “close their checkbooks” until she and Mr. Bok stepped down.
“At UPenn, the embrace of double standards and the unacceptable status quo, which privileges antisemitism, did not begin on President Magill’s and Chairman Bok’s watch, but they are the protectors of it,” Mr. Rowan said in an Oct. 11 op-ed.
Ms. Magill issued multiple statements condemning antisemitism and vowing to foster “a safe and inclusive environment,” but the drumbeat of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel demonstrations created what Jewish students described as a fraught and potentially dangerous campus atmosphere.
Penn senior Eyal Yakoby described the situation as a “full-blown crisis” at a press conference last Tuesday held by House Republicans.
“Thirty-six hours ago, I along with most of campus sought refuge in our rooms as classmates and professors chanted proudly for the genocide of Jews while igniting smoke bombs and defacing school property,” Mr. Yakoby said.
While Ms. Magill was under the greatest pressure, Ms. Stefanik made it clear that she plans to keep the heat on Ms. Gay and Ms. Kornbluth.
“In the case of Harvard, President Gay was asked by me 17 times whether calling for the genocide of Jews violates Harvard’s code of conduct. She spoke her truth 17 times. And the world heard,” Ms. Stefanik said.
“In the case of MIT, Dr. Kornbluth answered the question. “If targeted at individuals” [i.e.] dehumanizing the Jewish people in her answer,” she said.
Billionaire Harvard grad Bill Ackman, a prominent critic of the university presidents, said Saturday that now “the focus turns to Presidents Gay and Kornbluth and the boards of @Harvard and @MIT.”
“I wouldn’t want to be a member of the board of the university who goes last in dismissing its president,” Mr. Ackman wrote on X. “They already have all of the information they need to be decisive about this decision.”
Alex Miller contributed to this report.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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