University of Pennsylvania president resigns

The president of the prestigious American private university of Pennsylvania UPenn, in Philadelphia, and the head of its board of directors announced their resignation on Saturday evening after a criticized hearing before Congress in Washington concerning anti-Semitism on campuses in the United States .

“It has been an honor to serve this remarkable institution“, wrote Elizabeth Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania since the summer of 2022, in a brief message from “resignation» made public by the president of the board of directors of the establishment, Scott Bok.

“Former President Liz Magill made an unfortunate misstep last week – as did her two university president pairs (Claudine Gay of Harvard and Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT) after five hours of aggressive hearing before a committee of Congress“, explained Scott Bok in a press release. “After that it was obvious that her position was no longer tenable and she and I decided it was time for her to leave“, he wrote while also announcing his own resignation “with immediate effect“.

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Congress opened a parliamentary investigation Thursday into what it called “endemic anti-Semitism» on American campuses. Since Tuesday, the three university presidents have been called upon to resign, notably by dozens of parliamentarians, after their hearing – deemed “absolutely shameful» by the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania – before a congressional committee on the rise in anti-Semitism on campuses since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas on October 7.

Apologies

The three women responded Tuesday to questions from Republican parliamentarian Elise Stefanik who likened the students’ calls to “intifada» to an exhortation to “a genocide against the Jews in Israel and around the world“. When the elected official asked if “Calling for the genocide of the Jews violated Harvard harassment regulations, yes or no?“, Claudine Gay replied: “this can, depending on the context”, before adding: “if it is directed against a person“.

Friday, the head of Harvard said to herself “Sorry» that its «words (have) amplified distress and pain” and Elizabeth Magill released a video message of regret after a donor threatened to withdraw $100 million in funds from the university. In this message, she acknowledged that calls to “a genocide of the Jews» constituted, «in his opinion,” “harassment or intimidation.”

Since Hamas’ bloody attacks on Israel on October 7, followed by deadly Israeli reprisals, the conflict has shaken East Coast universities like Harvard near Boston, UPenn in Philadelphia and Columbia in New York.