The University of Pennsylvania issued a statement late Saturday announcing that acting president Liz Magill has resigned from her position at the educational institution. The chairman of the Ivy League school's board of trustees, Scott Bok, also resigned just hours after Bok announced Magill's departure as president in just her second year.
Magill has resigned amid pressure from donors and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say under repeated questioning that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school's conduct policy.
"It has been my privilege to serve as president of this remarkable institution. It has been an honor working with the faculty," Magill said, with the statement adding she will remain in a tenured position following her replacement.
Scott Bok issued a statement saying that following the resignation of the University of Pennsylvania’s President and related Board of Trustee meetings, "I submitted my resignation as Chair of the University’s Board of Trustees, effective immediately. While I was asked to remain in that role for the remainder of my term in order to help with the presidential transition, I concluded that, for me, now was the right time to depart. The world should know that Liz Magill is a very good person and a talented leader who was beloved by her team. She is not the slightest bit antisemitic," he added. "Working with her was one of the great pleasures of my life. Worn down by months of relentless external attacks, she was not herself last Tuesday."
He also expressed his hope "that some fine university will in due course be wise enough to give her a second chance, in a more supportive community, to lead. I equally hope that, after a well deserved break, she wants that role."
Magill's resignation comes following her appearance in the U.S. Congress where she was asked about her university's inaction against the growing antisemitic sentiment on campus since the beginning of the war in Gaza, and her controversial statements at the hearing, during which they had a hard time deciding whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” is bullying and harassment according to their school's codes of conduct.
Even before Tuesday's hearing, Magill had been under fire from some donors and alumni this fall. Some also had called for the resignation of Bok, chairman and CEO of investment bank Greenhill & Co., who had defended Magill amid criticism over the university's handling of various perceived acts of antisemitism.
That included allowing a Palestinian literary arts festival to be held on its campus in September featuring speakers whose past statements about Israel had drawn accusations of antisemitism.
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In the hearing held Wednesday, Liz Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, also said that categorizing public calls as harassment or violence depends on their context. New York Rep. Elise Stefanik was astonished by the response and interjected: “Calling for the genocide of Jews is dependent on the context? That is not bullying or harassment? This is the easiest question to answer ‘yes,’ Ms. Magill.” Still, Magill didn’t give a definite answer, saying: “If the speech becomes conduct it can be harassment.”
After being asked once again, Magill admitted that a call for murder could be considered harassment.
Following backlash against her words in the hearing, Magill issued a statement on Penn’s official website, in which she appeared to walk back her testimony in the hearing.