In a stunning downfall for the leader of one of the world’s most prestigious universities, Liz Magill, the president of University of Pennsylvania, voluntarily stepped down from the helm of the Ivy League school on Saturday following a torrent of criticism for her testimony about antisemitism on Capitol Hill Tuesday.
“It has been my privilege to serve as President of this remarkable institution,” Magill said in a statement. “It has been an honor to work with our faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community members to advance Penn’s vital missions.”
Magill will remain on Penn’s faculty as a tenured professor at Penn Carey Law School.
“On behalf of the entire Penn community, I want to thank President Magill for her service to the University as President and wish her well,” Penn’s board chair Scott Bok said in a statement.
Magill will stay on as interim president until a new interim leader is appointed. Penn did not have a succession plan in place despite a flood of calls for Magill’s resignation this week, a source told CNN.
The resignation marks a sudden and surprising downfall for the longtime academic. Although Magill had been under fire for months over her handling of antisemitism on campus, the final straw was her disastrous testimony before Congress on Tuesday.
Magill struggled to answer questions about whether calls for genocide against Jews would violate UPenn’s code of conduct. She and other university presidents failed to explicitly say calls for genocide of Jewish people constituted bullying and harassment on campus. The exchange went viral and prompted a flurry of business leaders, donors and politicians to demand Magill step down.
Her resignation comes a day before the University of Pennsylvania’s board of trustees planned to gather virtually Sunday, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Penn student newspaper, the Daily Pennsylvanian, and the Philadelphia Inquirer had earlier reported the news of the emergency board meeting, which was set to take place at 5 pm ET Sunday.
It was not clear whether Magill’s future was to be discussed at that meeting, but considering the flood of rebuke, it’s hard to imagine that Magill’s future wasn’t set to be a central focus.
A bipartisan group of more than 70 members of Congress sent a letter to board members of Penn, Harvard and MIT on Friday demanding Magill and her counterparts get removed.
“Given this moment of crisis, we demand that your boards immediately remove each of these presidents from their positions and that you provide an actionable plan to ensure that Jewish and Israeli students, teachers, and faculty are safe on your campuses,” the lawmakers wrote. “The university presidents’ responses to questions aimed at addressing the growing trend of antisemitism on college and university campuses were abhorrent.”
That echoed calls from the powerful Wharton Advisory Board and former US Ambassador Jon Huntsman, who exclusively told CNN removing Magill is not “even debatable.”
One mega donor, Ross Stevens, is threatening to cancel a massive gift, now valued at about $100 million worth of shares, if Magill doesn’t leave.
Magill, along with the presidents of Harvard and MIT, faced widespread condemnation for her congressional testimony this week.
The House committee hearing was focused on antisemitism on campus. The presidents have previously faced criticism that they have not done enough to ensure the safety of Jewish students and others at their respective schools.
But the criticism from donors, politicians, alumni and business leaders has been reserved mostly for Magill, even after she attempted to clarify her remarks Wednesday.
“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. It’s evil. Plain, and simple,” Magill said in a video posted on X. “I want to be clear: A call for genocide of Jewish people … would be harassment or intimidation.”
Magill never apologized for her testimony.
This is a breaking news story. It will be updated.
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