University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill has resigned after receiving criticism for her testimony at a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism where she struggled to answer a question about whether calling for the genocide of Jews qualifies as harassment.
UPenn announced on Saturday that Magill decided to “voluntarily” tender her resignation but will remain a tenured faculty member at the university’s law school.
Magill has faced mounting pressure to resign over the past few days after she wavered on whether calls for the genocide of Jews would violate Penn’s code of conduct at a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing.
Over 70 House representatives signed a bipartisan letter on Friday calling for the resignation of Magill, along with Harvard University President Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth, who similarly floundered on the question.
“One down. Two to go,” said House Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-NY, the congressmember who posed the question at Tuesday’s hearing. “This is only the very beginning of addressing the pervasive rot of antisemitism that has destroyed the most ‘prestigious’ higher education institutions in America.”
The House committee has also launched an investigation into the three colleges due to the presidents’ responses.
At the hearing, Stefanik asked the three presidents for a “yes or no” answer about whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated the rules of their respective universities.
“If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment,” Magill testified. “It is a context-dependent decision, congresswoman.”
Kornbluth and Gay similarly responded that whether those calls qualify as rule violations would depend on the context.
Major donors and alumni of the colleges have since spoken out against the leaders.
Hedge fund executive and Harvard alumnus Bill Ackman said in a social media post that the presidents’ testimonies reflect the “moral and ethical failures” of elite institutions of higher education.
“They must all resign in disgrace,” Ackman added.
The White House also condemned the university leaders, though at a briefing Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre would not call for their resignation because they are private institutions.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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