Liz Magill, President of the University of Pennsylvania, and Scott L. Bok, Penn Board of Trustees Chair, resigned on Saturday.
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Magill, along with the Presidents of Harvard and MIT, testified on December 5 before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a five hour hearing. At the hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., asked whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate each school’s code of conduct. Magill responded that it would be “context dependent.”
Her response drew criticism from Deputy White House Press Secretary Andrew Bates, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, 70 members of Congress, hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman and many Penn donors. The House Committee announced a formal investigation of all three universities. Even David Portnoy, President of Barstool Sports, announced that it would no longer hire students from the three schools so long as their presidents did not resign. The Advisory Board of the Wharton Business School met on December 6, and called for Magill to step down.
Magill and Harvard President Claudine Gay both walked back some of their testimony on Wednesday, but in the case of Magill, it was not enough to save her job. In fact, the move toward censoring calls for Jewish genocide drew criticism from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
Magill will continue as a tenured Penn law professor. The terms of her severance package were not disclosed. Her salary as President was $1.2 million.
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The task of leading MIT’s response to the Israel-Hamas demonstrations has been delegated by President Sally Kornbluth (who happens to be Jewish) to Suzy M. Nelson, Vice Chancellor and Dean of Students. Nelson previously led Cornell’s Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life.
Unlike Penn, large Cornell donors have been noticeably avoiding public criticism of President Martha Pollack on this issue. However, on Saturday, the Cornell Free Speech Alliance (CFSA) sent out a spam email to alumni stating “One Ivy Pres down…..7 to go.” – implicitly calling for the resignation of all Ivy League presidents, including Pollack. CFSA had not previously called for her resignation.
