{"id":30239,"date":"2023-12-09T16:25:44","date_gmt":"2023-12-09T23:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/university-of-pennsylvania-president-resigns-amid-backlash-to-antisemitism-testimony\/"},"modified":"2023-12-09T23:25:44","modified_gmt":"2023-12-09T23:25:44","slug":"university-of-pennsylvania-president-resigns-amid-backlash-to-antisemitism-testimony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/university-of-pennsylvania-president-resigns-amid-backlash-to-antisemitism-testimony\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Pennsylvania president resigns amid backlash to antisemitism testimony"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"University
University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill listens during a hearing of the House Committee on Education on Capitol Hill on Dec. 5 in Washington. Mark Schiefelbein\/The Associated Press<\/span>Mark Schiefelbein<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>Liz Magill has faced pressure over the university\u2019s handling of various perceived acts of antisemitism\n

HARRISBURG, Pa. \u2013 The University of Pennsylvania\u2019s president has resigned amid pressure from donors and criticism<\/a> over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say under repeated questioning that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school\u2019s conduct policy.<\/p>\n

The departure of Liz Magill, in her second year as president of the Ivy League school, was announced by the school late Saturday afternoon. The statement said Magill will remain a tenured faculty member at the university\u2019s Carey Law School. She has agreed to keep serving as Penn\u2019s leader until the university names an interim president.<\/p>\n

Calls for Magill\u2019s resignation exploded after Tuesday\u2019s testimony<\/a> in a U.S. House committee on antisemitism on college campuses, where she appeared with the presidents of Harvard University and MIT.<\/p>\n

Universities across the U.S. have been accused of failing to protect Jewish students amid rising fears of antisemitism worldwide<\/a> and fallout from Israel\u2019s intensifying war in Gaza<\/a>, which faces heightened criticism for the mounting Palestinian death toll<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"From
From left, Harvard President Claudine Gay, left, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth on Capitol Hill Dec. 5. Mark Schiefelbein\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Mark Schiefelbein<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The three presidents were called before the committee to answer those accusations. But their lawyerly answers drew renewed blowback from opponents, focused particularly on a line of questioning from Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who repeatedly asked whether \u201ccalling for the genocide of Jews\u201d would violate Penn\u2019s code of conduct.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the speech turns into conduct it can be harassment, yes,\u201d Magill said. Pressed further, Magill told Stefanik, \u201cIt is a context-dependent decision, congresswoman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Criticism rained down from the White House, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, members of Congress and donors. One donor, Ross Stevens, threatened to withdraw a $100 million gift because of the university\u2019s \u201cstance on antisemitism on campus\u201d unless Magill was replaced.<\/p>\n

A day later, Magill addressed the criticism, saying in a video that she would consider a call for the genocide of Jewish people to be harassment or intimidation and that Penn\u2019s policies need to be \u201cclarified and evaluated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Magill had been under fire from some donors and alumni this fall over the university\u2019s handling of various perceived acts of antisemitism.<\/p>\n

That included allowing a Palestinian literary arts festival to be held on its campus in September featuring speakers whose past statements about Israel had drawn accusations of antisemitism.<\/p>\n

A former U.S. Supreme Court law clerk, Magill, 57, is the daughter of a retired federal judge and was dean of Stanford University\u2019s law school and a top administrator at the University of Virginia before Penn hired her as its ninth president last year.<\/p>\n

Earlier Saturday, New York\u2019s governor called on the state\u2019s colleges and universities to swiftly address cases of antisemitism and what she described as any \u201ccalls for genocide\u201d on campus.<\/p>\n

In a letter<\/a> to college and university presidents, Gov. Kathy Hochul said her administration would enforce violations of the state\u2019s Human Rights Law and refer any violations of federal civil rights law to U.S. officials.<\/p>\n

Hochul said she has spoken to chancellors of the State University of New York and City University of New York public college systems who she said confirmed \u201cthat calling for genocide of any group\u201d or tolerating antisemitism violates codes of conduct on their campuses \u201cand would lead to swift disciplinary action.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s letter doesn\u2019t address any specific incidents. Her office didn\u2019t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.<\/p>\n

A popular chant at pro-Palestinian rallies at Penn and other universities has been falsely misrepresented<\/a> in recent months as claiming to call for \u201cJewish genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experts and advocates say the chant, \u201cIsrael, we charge you with genocide,\u201d is a typical refrain heard at pro-Palestinian rallies. Jewish and Palestinian supporters both acknowledge protesters aren\u2019t saying \u201cWe want Jewish genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, New Jersey, and Phil Marcelo in New York contributed to this report. <\/em><\/p>\n

\"New
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks at the state Capitol, Feb. 1, 2023, in Albany, N.Y. Hans Pennink\/The Associated Press<\/span>Hans Pennink<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Liz Magill has faced pressure over the university\u2019s handling of various perceived acts of antisemitism<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30239"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}