The trustees of the University of Pennsylvania have not called for President Liz Magill's resignation but will meet Sunday to discuss her future following her disastrous testimony in Congress, a new report shows.
However, between six and eight trustees urged Magill, who is facing massive backlash after she said the call for genocide of Jews did not necessarily violate UPenn's rules, to “think long and hard” about the question of whether she can 'function effectively in her role'. by six to eight curators.
The curators told the academic: 'If the answer is: that is not possible [function]“We need to know, and you need to resign,” the Daily Pennsylvanian said.
The local newspaper's report contradicts a CNN report that claimed Board of Trustees Chairman Scott Bok would talk to Magill about his resignation. The university said Thursday it had no plans to change leadership and another denied Bok and Magill met, saying the board was not about to call for Magill to step aside.
A source told DP that there have been at least a dozen “explicit calls” for Board of Trustees Chairman Scott Bok to resign. In October, multiple donors and former trustees called on both Bok and Magill to resign over their handling of anti-Semitism on campus after the war between Israel and Hamas broke out.
UPenn President Liz Magill faces massive backlash after saying calls for genocide of Jews didn't necessarily break UPenn's rules
According to a report, Scott Bok, chairman of the Board of Trustees, is said to be talking to Magill about his resignation
DailyMail.com has contacted UPenn for comment on this story.
Magill, MIT's Sally Kornbluth and Harvard President Claudine Gay, who testified at the same congressional hearing this week, have come under fire from Jewish communities and others at their schools who feel they have not done enough to stand against anti-Semitism.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackerman quoted the CNN report and celebrated what he said was Magill's impending resignation, tweeting: “One down.”
Magill tried to salvage the situation on Wednesday by posting a groveling video statement in which she tried to explain her failure to condemn calls for genocide against Jewish people on campuses.
She said she was not “focused” on the issue, and said she wanted to “be clear” that calls for genocide were “evil, plain and simple” — though she said the blame was more likely to lie with her university's policies and the constitution was then with her.
'At that moment I was focused on our university's long-standing policy – in line with the American Constitution – which states that speech alone is not punishable.
It was too late.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackerman cited a report claiming Magill would be asked to resign on Friday, tweeting: 'One down'
The university president's weak responses caused widespread uproar, with one UPenn donor threatening to withdraw his $100 million gift unless Magill resigned.
On Thursday, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff denounced rising anti-Semitism amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas and the “presidents of some of our most elite universities.”
Speaking at the lighting ceremony of a massive menorah in front of the White House to mark the first night of Hanukkah, Emhoff criticized university presidents who testified on Capitol Hill this week, saying they were “incapable of answering the call for genocide against the Jews to be denounced as anti-Semitic'. -Semitic.'
“The lack of moral clarity is unacceptable,” he said.
The governing body of UPenn's influential Wharton business school also joined a growing chorus calling on Penn's president to resign over what they see as her failure to condemn anti-Semitic rhetoric on campus.
Harvard President Claudine Gay will appear before the House of Representatives Education Committee on Tuesday to discuss anti-Semitism
MIT President Dr. Sally Kornbluth was also questioned about her school's response to protests. She also failed to outwardly condemn the calls for genocide against the Jews
In an undated letter, they called on the university's Board of Trustees and Magill to initiate a change in leadership.
“As a result of the expressed beliefs of the University's leadership and its collective inability to act, our administration respectfully suggests to you and the Board of Trustees that the University is in need of new leadership, effective immediately,” the letter said.
Wharton's Board of Advisors is led by Apollo Global Management's billionaire CEO Marc Rowan, who donated $50 million to Wharton in 2018 and has urged donors to refrain from donating to the school until Magill and the chairman of the Board of Trustees to resign, according to media reports. reports.
UPenn was already under fire for anti-Semitism on campus, including anti-Jewish slogans projected onto three of the school buildings.
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” read a message that splashed across the John M Huntsman Hall on Wednesday evening. The slogan claims the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, meaning the end of the State of Israel.
Claudine Gay of Harvard, for her part, apologized Friday for claiming in her testimony that calls for genocide of Jewish people would only be wrong “depending on the context.”
UPenn was already under fire for anti-Semitism on campus, including anti-Jewish slogans projected onto three of the school buildings
The above slogan demands the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, meaning the end of the State of Israel
The comment sparked outrage as Gay was condemned, including by the White House, prompting the educator to issue a groveling apology to The Harvard Crimson on Thursday.
'I'm sorry. Words matter,” she said. “When words add to the sadness and pain, I don't know how you can feel anything but regret.”
Meanwhile, MIT issued a statement Thursday saying it stands with President Sally Kornbluth following her equally ambiguous testimony about anti-Semitism on campus.
“The MIT Corporation selected Sally as our president because of her outstanding academic leadership, her judgment, her integrity, her moral compass and her ability to unite our community around MIT's core values,” the school said in a statement.
“She has done an outstanding job leading our community, including addressing anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other forms of hate, which we at MIT completely reject. She has our full and unconditional support.”
