UPenn President Liz Magill resigns after fallout from House antisemitism hearings
Magill had been criticized by the university's board after her performance at congressional hearings last week.
University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill has resigned after blowback following her performance at a congressional hearing last week.
Magill stepped down from her post leading the Ivy League college Saturday afternoon.
Her departure comes after calls for her ousting had built up from the university's board, national and state lawmakers, and wealthy donors who threatened to pull their funding.
Many criticized her comments at a House hearing Tuesday, where she and other top university leaders said that whether or not calling for the genocide of Jews counts as bullying and harraassment depends on "context."
"It has been my privilege to serve as President of this remarkable institution," Magill said in a statement. “It has been an honor to work with our faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community members to advance Penn’s vital missions."
READ MORE: Billionaire hits out at Ivy League presidents over campus 'antisemitism' fears
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In a letter to faculty and staff, UPenn board chair Scott Bok confirmed Magill's resignation and said she would remain a tenured professor of law.
But soon after, Bok resigned too.
"While I was asked to remain in that role for the remainder of my term in order to help with the presidential transition, I concluded that, for me, now was the right time to depart," he said in a statement.
Bok clarified that Magill is "not the slightest bit antisemetic" despite her "dreadful" 30-second soundbite at the hearing.
“Former President Liz Magill last week made a very unfortunate misstep—consistent with that of two peer university leaders sitting alongside her—after five hours of aggressive questioning before a Congressional committee," Bok said. "Following that, it became clear that her position was no longer tenable, and she and I concurrently decided that it was time for her to exit."
The campus leadership shake-up comes days after Magill walked back her initial comments.
In a video posted online, Magill acknowledged her initial failure to promptly condemn antisemitism and clarified that it is unequivocally "evil, plain and simple."
She attributed her delayed response to being overly focused on university policies aligned with the US Constitution, which typically safeguard free speech.
Odds were stacked against Magill before her resignation.
More than 70 lawmakers on Friday signed a letter demanding her ouster along with that of the presidents of Harvard and MIT, where critics say antisemtism has run rampant during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Nonprofits and FBI Director Christopher Wray both say that reports of Islamophobic and antisemitic hate crimes are up in the weeks after the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
Prominent donors had threatened to pull their funding from UPenn following Magill's equivocation, and some state lawyers said they would freeze $31 million in funding for the school unless she was out.
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