University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill’s job is more and more in danger as college donors, lawmakers in each events, alumni and Jewish teams have piled on criticism after her disastrous congressional testimony on antisemitism this week.
The Penn Board of Trustees will maintain a gathering on Sunday at 5 p.m., the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, the place Magill’s future with the college could also be determined.
The query going through the board is whether or not Magill can proceed to successfully fundraise and lead the college after the backlash in opposition to her dealing with of antisemitism on the faculty because the October 7 assault on Israel. Pressure is constructing on Magill to resign after she declined to outright state that requires the genocide of Jewish individuals represent bullying or harassment below UPenn’s code of conduct throughout a congressional listening to on Tuesday.
Magill, together with Harvard President Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth, was summoned to Capitol Hill to present testimony about rising antisemitism on their campuses earlier than the House Education and Workforce Committee.
74 HOUSE MEMBERS ISSUE LETTER CALLING ON MIT, HARVARD, UPENN BOARDS TO ‘IMMEDIATELY REMOVE’ PRESIDENTS
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Liz Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, throughout a House Education and the Workforce Committee listening to in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, December 5, 2023. (Haiyun Jiang/Bloomberg by way of Getty Images)
At the listening to, Magill informed Congress that if requires Jewish genocide had been to show into conduct, they might be thought-about harassment, including that it was a “context-dependent” scenario that might represent bullying and harassment if “directed,” “pervasive” and “severe.” Gay and Kornbluth gave related oblique solutions that sparked widespread public outrage and have led to requires every college president to resign.
Magill particularly has acquired scathing condemnation from Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, the board of the Wharton School of Business and distinguished donors, together with an alumnus who threatened to rescind a $100 million donation to the college except there’s a change in management.
The Penn Office of the President and Office of the University Secretary didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Dr. Claudine Gay, President of Harvard University, Liz Magill, President of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Pamela Nadell, Professor of History and Jewish Studies at American University, and Dr. Sally Kornbluth, President of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, testify earlier than the House Education and Workforce Committee on the Rayburn House Office Building on December 5, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
In a video assertion posted Wednesday on X, Magill tried to stroll again her congressional testimony.
“There was a moment during yesterday’s congressional hearing on antisemitism when I was asked if a call for the genocide of Jewish people on our campus would violate our policies. In that moment, I was focused on our university’s long-standing policies aligned with the U.S. Constitution, which says that speech alone is not punishable,” she stated.
“I was not focused on, but I should have been, on the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate,” the college president defined.
“It’s evil. Plain and simple,” she said.
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The University of Pennsylvania has confronted heavy criticism over its response to the Hamas assault on Israel and to pro-Palestinian scholar teams. (Left: Hannah Beier/Bloomberg by way of Getty Images Right: (Photo by Paul Hennesy/Anadolu by way of Getty Images))
But the clarification has not glad Magill’s detractors. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), who’s Jewish, stated Wednesday that her feedback had been “unacceptable” and that the college was below “failed leadership,” Jewish Insider correspondent Gabby Deutch reported on X.
The board of Penn’s Wharton enterprise faculty demanded Magill’s resignation on Wednesday in a letter that cited her remarks and “collective failure to act” in response to anti-Israel and antisemitic protests on Penn’s campus.
“Our Board has been, and remains, deeply concerned about the dangerous and toxic culture on our campus that has been led by a select group of students and faculty and has been permitted by University leadership,” the board stated. “As confirmed in your congressional testimony yesterday, the leadership of the University does not share the values of our Board.”
On Thursday, Ross Stevens, founder and CEO of Stone Ridge Asset Management, threatened to drag a $100 million donation to the college in a letter from his attorneys that stated the college violated Stone Ridge’s restricted partnership settlement by means of its failure to stick to anti-discrimination and anti-harassment guidelines.
A billboard truck on Penn’s campus calling for President Magill’s firing. (Fox News Digital )
“Mr. Stevens and Stone Ridge would welcome the opportunity to discuss this matter further and give the University a chance to remedy what Stone Ridge believes are likely violations of the LP Agreement if, and when, there is a new University President in place,” the letter stated. “Until then, there can be no meaningful discussion about remedying the University’s ongoing failure to honor its obligations.”
That identical day, the UPenn Board of Trustees held an emergency assembly, the place some board members reportedly requested Magill to resign if she can not successfully operate in her position because the college’s president, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported.
“If the answer is you can’t [function], we need to know that, and you ought to resign,” the trustees informed Magill, based on the outlet’s supply, who attended the assembly.
Then on Friday, greater than 70 House lawmakers despatched a bipartisan letter to the governing boards of UPenn, Harvard and MIT, calling on all three to take quick motion to take away the respective presidents of every establishment.
UPENN BOARD MEMBERS TELL PRESIDENT TO ‘RESIGN’ IF SHE CAN’T PERFORM ROLE EFFECTIVELY: REPORT
“There is no context in which calls for the genocide of Jews are acceptable rhetoric. Their failure to unequivocally condemn calls for the systematic murder of Jews is deeply alarming. It stands in stark contrast to the principles we expect leaders of top academic institutions to uphold,” the bipartisan letter states. “It is hard to imagine any Jewish or Israeli student, faculty, or staff feeling safe when presidents of your member institutions could not say that calls for the genocide of Jews would have clear consequences on your campus.
“If requires genocide of the Jewish individuals are not in violation of your universities’ insurance policies, then your universities are working below a transparent double customary.”
While Magill appears to be losing support from the Penn board, the governing board of MIT is standing behind President Sally Kornbluth with “full and unreserved assist.”
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Harvard President Claudine Gay addressed the backlash against her remarks on Thursday, apologizing for what she had said, in an interview with the Harvard Crimson.
“When phrases amplify misery and ache, I don’t know the way you would really feel something however remorse,” Gay said. “I obtained caught up in what had change into at that time, an prolonged, combative change about insurance policies and procedures.
Amid the nationwide controversy, Stanford University on Friday issued an announcement unequivocally condemning requires Jewish genocide.
“In the context of the national discourse, Stanford unequivocally condemns calls for the genocide of Jews or any peoples,” the college posted on X. “That statement would clearly violate Stanford’s Fundamental Standard, the code of conduct for all students at the university.”
Fox News Digital’s Adam Sabes, Eric Revell and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.