Following a Congressional Testimony that took place on December 5, 2023, the University of Pennsylvania’s President Liz Magill is under pressure from donors to resign from her position as head of the Ivy League institution. Magill is accused of failing to directly identify calls for a Jewish genocide as harassment or a violation of the university’s policies. Similar backlash is hitting the president of Havard University, Claudine Gay, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sally Kornbluth.
The congressional hearing took place as tensions continued to rise on college campuses across America following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza. The meeting, which was meant to address the rising threat of antisemitism across American college campuses, ended up being an hours-long debate where the three presidents were questioned on whether they were doing enough to protect Jewish students.
Previously, on November 16, 2023, the United States Department for Civil Rights launched a federal investigation into possible violations of Title VI committed by some of America’s top institutions. Title VI prohibits all forms of discrimination for institutions accepting federal funding.
On November 7, 2023, Brandeis University banned its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, or SJP. Columbia University has since suspended SJP under allegations of student misconduct following an “unauthorized event.” On the Bi-College campuses, many students who advocate for Palestinian rights are concerned that this effort is infringing on student’s free speech.
The public outrage against Magill occurred after a series of questions from Congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York during the congressional proceeding, during which Magill attempted to answer the question of whether or not a call for Jewish genocide would constitute a violation of UPenn’s student conduct policy.
Stefanik asked the same question to all three presidents: “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules on bullying and harassment?”
Magill replied by saying “If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment, yes.”
Stefanik then asked a follow-up question: “I am asking, specifically, calling for the genocide of Jews, does that constitute bullying or harassment?”
“It is a context-dependent decision, congresswoman” answered Magill.
Gay, Harvard’s president, answered similarly: “It can be, depending on the context,” she stated.
Stefanik’s anger was apparent in her tone following these responses. “It does not depend on the context,” she stated, “the answer is yes. And this is why you should resign. These are unacceptable answers across the board.”
The House passed a resolution on December 6, H. RES. 894, which stated that “anti-Zionism is antisemitism.”
On December 8, President Gay of Harvard University apologized for her comments in an interview with the Harvard Crimson: “I am sorry, words matter…when words amplify distress and pain, I don’t know how you could feel anything but regret.”
Magill of UPenn released a video on December 7, in which she issued an apology: “I was not focused on, but I should have been, the irrefutable fact that the call for genocide for Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate. It’s evil, plain and simple.”
As major donors of UPenn pull out their funding, there have been bipartisan calls across Pennsylvania’s elected officials calling for Magill’s resignation. Both students supporting Palestinian causes and Zionist causes have expressed frustration with Magill’s administrative approach previously.
Senator John Fetterman referred to Magill’s statements as “embarrassing,” while Governor Josh Shapiro, who is a non-voting member of UPenn’s board, has stated that “[if calling for the genocide of Jews] doesn’t violate the policies of Penn, well, there’s something wrong with the policies of Penn that the board needs to get on, or there’s a failure of leadership from the president, or both.”
