UPenn President Resigns Following Antisemitism Congressional Hearing

“It has been my privilege to serve as President of this remarkable institution. It has been an honor to work with our faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community members to advance Penn’s vital missions,” Magill said in a statement, according to Bok’s letter.

The letter also stated that Magill will continue to serve as President until an interim is appointed and that she will remain a tenured faculty member at Penn Carey Law. Her resignation came less than a year and a half after being appointed President at Upenn, NPR reports. 

Calls for Magill’s resignation were made following her congressional testimony on Tuesday, where she and the presidents of Harvard and MIT testified on how they are protecting students from antisemitism. During the hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., repeatedly asked Magill whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate the school’s code of conduct.

“If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment, yes,” Magill replied. 

Stefanik further pressed Magill, saying, “It is a context-dependent decision, congresswoman.”

Harvard President Claudine Gay and MIT President Sally Kornbluth also responded similarly to Stefanik, as noted by Bok. 

Magill 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 the hearing, Magill received widespread backlash from the White House, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Congress members, and donors. Per Axios, Ross Stevens, founder and CEO of Stone Ridge Asset Management, withdrew a $100 million gift in protest to Magill’s response to antisemitism and called for her resignation.

The following day, Magill posted a video addressing the criticism and said she would consider a call for the genocide of Jewish people to be harassment or intimidation and that the school’s policies need to be “clarified and evaluated.”

On Saturday, Stafanik said Magill’s “forced resignation” is the “bare minimum of what is required” and said Harvard and MIT’s presidents should do the same. 

“One down. Two to go,” Stefanik wrote, adding that “this is only the very beginning of addressing the pervasive rot of antisemitism that has destroyed the most ‘prestigious’ higher education institutions in America.”

Several hours after Magill’s resignation, Bok immediately announced his resignation during a trustee meeting on Saturday evening. 

“While I was asked to remain in that role for the remainder of my term to help with the presidential transition, I concluded that, for me, now was the right time to depart,” he wrote in his resignation letter. 

Bok added that he defends Magill, whom he called a “good person” and “not the slightest bit antisemitic.”

“Over-prepared and lawyered, given the hostile forum and high stakes, she provided a legalistic answer to a moral question, which was wrong. It made for a dreadful 30-second sound bite in more than five hours of testimony,” Bok wrote.

He also noted that he and Magill “concurrently” agreed it was time to resign. 

Photo Courtesy: ‘University President Resigns after Testimony’/Reuters via YouTube/12/11/23@11am

Video Courtesy: Reuters via YouTube

Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for Christian Headlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.

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