University of Pennsylvania president steps down amid criticism of antisemitism testimony

University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned from her post Saturday after facing intense criticism from the White House, lawmakers and alumni for appearing to dodge a question at a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism.

“I write to share that President Liz Magill has voluntarily tendered her resignation as President of the University of Pennsylvania,” Scott L. Bok, the chair of the Penn Board of Trustees, wrote in a message to the Penn community Saturday. “She will remain a tenured faculty member at Penn Carey Law.”

Shortly after Bok announced Magill’s resignation, he announced he would also step down from his position, according to a statement published by the Daily Pennsylvanian student newspaper. “I concluded that, for me, now was the right time to depart,” Bok said in the statement.

A university spokesman confirmed Bok’s resignation.

In a five-hour House hearing Tuesday, Magill and her counterparts at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were grilled over how their institutions responded to the rise in anti-Jewish hate since Oct. 7.

In their testimonies, the three university leaders each condemned antisemitism. The outcry centered on a contentious exchange with Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who asked whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate each school’s code of conduct.

Instead of directly replying to Stefanik’s yes-or-no question, Magill said that decision would be “context-dependent.”

“If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment,” she said.

Bok said in his statement that Magill “made a very unfortunate misstep” in her testimony but praised her leadership skills and insisted she was “not the slightest bit antisemitic.” He went on to say that Magill was “worn down by months of relentless external attacks” and “provided a legalistic answer to a moral question,” making for a “dreadful 30-second sound bite.”

Harvard President Claudine Gay responded to Stefanik’s line of questioning in similar terms. She testified that when “speech crosses into conduct, that violates our policies.”

MIT President Sally Kornbluth said she had not heard of students on her campus calling for the genocide of Jews, adding that such rhetoric would be “investigated as harassment if pervasive and severe.”

In a two-minute video message posted Wednesday night on the social media platform X, Magill elaborated on her answer and condemned calls for the genocide of Jewish people in more unequivocal terms.

“I was not focused on, but I should have been, the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate,” she said in the video.

“It’s evil, plain and simple,” Magill added.

Gay has apologized for her remarks. In an interview with the Harvard Crimson student newspaper, she said in part: “I got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures.”

“I failed to convey what is my truth,” she added.

Following Bok’s resignation, the board’s vice chair, Julie Platt, was named interim chair. She will serve until a successor is appointed, the university said.