J. Larry Jameson, the University of Pennsylvania’s newly installed interim president, called the past few weeks of turmoil a “profoundly painful chapter” for the Ivy League school.
Jameson, UPenn’s longest-serving dean, was tapped Tuesday to replace Liz Magill on an interim basis after she stepped down over her controversial testimony last weekend.
“The last few weeks have been a profoundly painful chapter for our institution, for higher education, and for the world,” Jameson said in a message on Tuesday. “I know these recent leadership transitions have been distressing and destabilizing. I feel it myself. There is pain, fear and uncertainty in our community.”
Jameson stressed that “every person at Penn should feel safe and be secure in the knowledge that hate has no home here.”
UPenn’s interim president called for the school community to come together and turn the page on the recent period of turmoil.
“All of us – faculty, students, staff, alumni, caregivers, and the many friends of this University – can contribute to a new chapter in Penn’s nearly 300-year history,” Jameson said.
Both of UPenn’s leaders as of a few days ago – board chair Scott Bok and Magill – departed Saturday just a week after Magill’s disastrous testimony before Congress on antisemitism.
Magill stepped down under immense pressure on Saturday after struggling to answer whether calls for genocide against Jews violates university rules. Magill will remain on Penn’s faculty as a tenured professor at Penn Carey Law School.
Criticism of Penn’s response to antisemitism escalated even before Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Donors lashed out against administration in the wake of the Palestine Writes literature festival held at Penn in September, an event that the administration acknowledged features speakers who had made antisemitic statements in the past.
As incidents of antisemitism rose on campus in recent months, Magill and the Penn administration struggled to respond to and put a stop to hate speech.
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