In what could be the first of several major dominoes to fall, the embattled president of the University of Pennsylvania has resigned after a tumultuous week.
In a Saturday letter to the “Penn community,” Scott Bok, chair of the Penn Board of Trustees, announced that Liz Magill had “voluntarily tendered her resignation.”
Magill will remain a tenured faculty member at Penn’s Carey Law School, Bok said.
“It has been my privilege to serve as President of this remarkable institution,” Magill said in a statement included in the letter. “It has been an honor to work with our faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community members to advance Penn’s vital missions.”
UPenn President has just resigned. pic.twitter.com/xZAgjY2dii
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 9, 2023
According to CNN, Magill will serve as interim president until a permanent replacement is found.
Magill’s resignation comes just a year after she became president and follows a disastrous five-hour congressional hearing on Tuesday.
Is there growing anti-Semitism at elite American universities?
Magill and her counterparts from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were grilled by members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on the rise of anti-Semitism on their respective campuses.
Magill drew particular ire during an exchange with Rep. Elise Stefanik in which the New York Republican asked her a simple yes-or-no question.
“Ms. Magill, at Penn, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s rules or code of conduct?” Stefanik asked.
“If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment, yes,” Magill answered.
Stefanik pressed Magill a bit further before the Penn president described the answer to Stefanik’s question as “context-dependent.”
That response drew widespread condemnation, and the heat forced Magill to offer a quick apology on social media:
A Video Message from President Liz Magill pic.twitter.com/GlPE3QZU4P
— Penn (@Penn) December 6, 2023
Harvard president Claudine Gay also apologized for making similar comments in Tuesday’s hearing.
