University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigns after backlash over antisemitism testimony

She and her Harvard and MIT counterparts didn’t give a definitive answer on whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate the schools’ codes of conduct

Jewish students and alumni have accused the schools of tolerating antisemitism, especially in statements by pro-Palestinian demonstrators

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Liz Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, testifies before the House Education and Workforce Committee in Washington on Tuesday. Photo: TNS

Published: 8:05am, 10 Dec 2023

University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, who came under fire for her stance on antisemitism on campus, has resigned, the Ivy League school said on Saturday.

Magill was one of three top university presidents who were criticised after they testified at a congressional hearing on Tuesday about a rise in antisemitism on college campuses following the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war in October.

She has agreed to stay on until an interim president is appointed, Scott Bok, chair of the Philadelphia-based university’s board of trustees, said on Saturday in a statement posted on the university’s website. Bok also stepped down.

“I write to share that President Liz Magill has voluntarily tendered her resignation as President of the University of Pennsylvania,” Bok said in the announcement released by the university. Magill will remain a tenured faculty member at the university’s law school, Bok said.

Claudine Gay, president of Harvard University, testifies before the House Education and Workforce Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Magill, Harvard University President Claudine Gay, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth testified before a US House of Representatives committee on Tuesday.

As they tried to walk a line that protected freedom of speech, they declined to give a definitive “yes” or “no” answer to Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik’s question of whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate their schools’ codes of conduct regarding bullying and harassment.