College of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned from her place Saturday, following feedback she made about antisemitism earlier this week.
“It has been my privilege to function President of this exceptional establishment,” Magill wrote in a statement. “It has been an honor to work with our school, college students, workers, alumni, and group members to advance Penn’s very important missions.”
Her resignation comes simply days after outrage over feedback she and different tutorial leaders made at a congressional listening to centered on holding campus leaders accountable and addressing antisemitism on school campuses went viral.
In the course of the listening to, Magill and different college presidents mentioned whether or not requires the genocide of Jewish folks would violate scholar conduct codes. This dialog arose from a divide on whether or not sure pro-Palestine phrases reminiscent of “intifada” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will likely be free” is equal to calling for the genocide of Jewish folks.
When requested whether or not such chants would qualify as bullying or harassment, the presidents of Harvard College, UPenn and the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how mentioned that it will rely on the context of the language and whether or not or not it was focused.
The school leaders repeatedly condemned antisemitism of their remarks, however outrage was nonetheless sparked on-line.
“The board at Penn has a severe resolution they should make, and that’s does the testimony below oath of their president in entrance of Congress symbolize the values of the College of Pennsylvania and the views of the board,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said in a press convention on Wednesday, referring to Magill’s testimony as a failure of management.
In a statement on Wednesday following the backlash, Magill clarified her feedback: “There was a second throughout yesterday’s congressional listening to on antisemitism once I was requested if a name for the genocide of Jewish folks on our campus would violate our insurance policies.”
She continued, “In that second, I used to be centered on our College’s longstanding insurance policies aligned with the U.S. Structure, which say that speech alone isn’t punishable. I used to be not centered on, however I ought to have been, the irrefutable truth {that a} name for genocide of Jewish folks is a name for a few of the most horrible violence human beings can perpetrate. It’s evil — plain and easy.”
The listening to adopted weeks after the Division of Justice launched an investigation into the three universities, together with a number of others, over the rise of antisemitic and Islamaphobic reviews because the Israel-Hamas warfare broke out on Oct. 7.
In current weeks, UPenn, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how have established initiatives to combat antisemitism on their respective campuses.
Magill didn’t particularly point out the backlash or listening to in her resignation assertion, despatched in an e-mail to the UPenn group from Scott Bok, who resigned as chair of the board of trustees shortly after Magill’s resignation was introduced, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported on Saturday.
The e-mail said that Magill will stay president of the college till an interim president is appointed, after which she is going to stay a tenured school member of Penn Carey Regulation.
“The world ought to know that Liz Magill is an excellent individual and a proficient chief who was beloved by her staff. She isn’t the slightest bit antisemitic,” Bok wrote in his resignation letter obtained by the Day by day Pennsylvanian.
“Working along with her was one of many nice pleasures of my life. Worn down by months of relentless exterior assaults, she was not herself final Tuesday,” he continued, explaining that Magill made an “unlucky misstep” through the listening to on Tuesday and that the 2 of them “concurrently” determined that it was time for her to step down as president.
