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The president of the College of Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Magill, resigned on Saturday, 4 days after she got here below fireplace for her responses at a congressional listening to on Tuesday during which she was pressed, together with the presidents of Harvard and M.I.T., on whether or not college students calling for the genocide of Jews must be disciplined.
Ms. Magill appeared to evade the query and drew intense criticism from donors, college students and others, a few of whom have been already indignant that she had allowed a Palestinian writers convention to be held on campus in September.
Ms. Magill is the primary president of a significant college to step down due to the fallout from the protests which have engulfed campuses for the reason that Oct. 7 Hamas assaults on Israel and the next conflict in Gaza.
Right here is a few background on her determination.
What occurred on the Dec. 5 congressional listening to?
At a listening to of the Home Committee on Training and the Workforce on Tuesday, Ms. Magill testified alongside Claudine Homosexual, the president of Harvard, and Sally Kornbluth, the president of M.I.T. All of them stated they have been appalled by antisemitism and have been taking motion in opposition to it on campus. When requested whether or not they supported the appropriate of Israel to exist, they answered sure with out equivocation.
The three college presidents testified that latest protests on their campuses had grown ugly, with clashes between college students supporting Israel and people supporting Palestinians.
However on the query of disciplining college students for statements about genocide, they gave lawyerly responses involving free speech.
Free speech teams stated they have been legally appropriate. However for a lot of Jewish college students, alumni and donors, the statements by the college leaders failed to obviously and forcefully condemn antisemitism.
Consultant Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, stated that college students had chanted assist for intifada, an Arabic phrase which means rebellion and that many Jews hear as a name for violence in opposition to them.
She requested, “Calling for the genocide of Jews, does that represent bullying or harassment?”
Ms. Magill replied, “Whether it is directed and extreme, pervasive, it’s harassment.”
Ms. Stefanik responded, “So the reply is sure.”
Ms. Magill stated, “It’s a context-dependent determination, congresswoman.”
Ms. Stefanik replied: “That’s your testimony right now? Calling for the genocide of Jews is relying upon the context?”
Ms. Homosexual and Ms. Kornbluth made related statements to these made by Ms. Magill.
Ms. Magill’s remarks set off a wave of criticism, together with from Pennsylvania’s governor, Josh Shapiro, and its two senators, John Fetterman and Bob Casey, all of whom are Democrats.
Ms. Magill apologized on Wednesday night for her testimony.
“In that second, I used to be targeted on our college’s longstanding insurance policies aligned with the U.S. Structure, which say that speech alone just isn’t punishable,” she stated in a video. “I used to be not targeted on, however I ought to have been, the irrefutable truth {that a} name for genocide of Jewish folks is a name for a number of the most horrible violence human beings can perpetrate. It’s evil — plain and easy.”
She added, “In my opinion, it might be harassment or intimidation.”
On Friday, greater than 70 members of Congress signed a letter demanding Harvard, M.I.T. and Penn’s boards “instantly take away” the three faculty presidents, who attended the listening to, and “present an actionable plan to make sure that Jewish and Israeli college students, academics and college are protected in your campuses.”
One in all Penn’s donors who has criticized the varsity’s response to antisemitism on campus and Ms. Magill’s testimony, hedge fund supervisor Ross L. Stevens, additionally had stated that he would pull again a donation to the varsity value roughly $100 million.
By Saturday, greater than 26,000 folks had signed a petition opposing her management.
After she resigned as president, Scott L. Bok, the Chair of the Penn Board of Trustees, stated in a press release that Ms. Magill will function Penn’s chief till the college settles on an interim president and that she’s going to stay a school member within the regulation faculty.
Mr. Bok additionally introduced his resignation on Saturday, shortly after Ms. Magill’s announcement.
Who’s Elizabeth Magill?
Ms. Magill, a lawyer and a champion of free speech, turned the college’s president in July 2022.
Earlier than accepting the place, she served as government vice chairman and provost on the College of Virginia, and earlier than that as a professor and dean at Stanford Legislation Faculty.
Earlier than becoming a member of Stanford, Ms. Magill, who grew up in Fargo, N.D., was a professor and vice dean on the College of Virginia Faculty of Legislation, the place she additionally obtained her regulation diploma.
After acquiring her bachelor’s diploma in historical past at Yale College, Ms. Magill, a scholar of administrative and constitutional regulation, served as a senior legislative assistant for vitality and pure sources for Senator Kent Conrad. After graduating regulation faculty, Ms. Magill clerked for a number of judges, together with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the USA Supreme Court docket.
What criticism did Ms. Magill face earlier than the listening to?
Over the summer season, donors had requested Ms. Magill to cancel a deliberate Palestinian literary convention on campus, citing a variety of audio system who they thought-about objectionable. Ms. Magill, citing free speech, stated that it might go on in September as deliberate.
In response to the objections, Ms. Magill met with college students, college and campus organizations, and pledged to extend coaching in antisemitic consciousness and to bolster safety throughout Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
On Oct. 7, Hamas attacked Israel, and a number of the college’s largest benefactors have been livid with what they stated was Ms. Magill’s gradual response in issuing a press release condemning the assaults.
On Oct. 10, Ms. Magill issued her first assertion condemning the Hamas assault, which some critics stated was insufficiently forceful. Within the weeks after, the college issued a sequence of statements, together with a stronger condemnation of Hamas.
These statements additionally confronted criticism, together with from some pro-Palestinian alumni who wrote in a letter on Oct. 18 that Ms. Magill’s statements “failed to acknowledge the numerous struggling and lack of Palestinian life.”
Stephanie Saul and Anemona Hartocollis contributed reporting.
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