Campus Watch December 14, 2023

UPenn President Liz Magill Resigns

University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) President Elizabeth Magill resigned on Dec. 9.

UPenn Board of Trustees Chair Scott Bok, who also resigned from his position, announced that Magill’s resignation was voluntary and that Magill said in a statement, “It has been my privilege to serve as President of this remarkable institution. It has been an honor to work with our faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community members to advance Penn’s vital missions.” Magill will stay on as a tenured faculty member at Penn Carey Law School.

Magill, as well as Harvard University President Claudine Gay and MIT President Dr. Sally Kornbluth, all came under fire after they said during Dec. 6 congressional testimony that calls for genocide against Jews would depend on the context as to whether it violated university policy.

Harvard Says Claudine Gay Will Remain President

Harvard University’s governing board announced on Dec. 12 that Claudine Gay will stay on as the university’s president despite calls for her removal.

The Harvard Corporation said in a statement that “our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing” and that she has the unanimous support of the board. The board noted that Gay “apologized for how she handled her congressional testimony and has committed to redoubling the University’s fight against antisemitism.”

In her apology, Gay told The Harvard Crimson that she “got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures. What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged. Substantively, I failed to convey what is my truth.” 

NY Governor Threatens “Aggressive Enforcement” Against NY State Colleges That Fail to Take Action Against Calls for Genocide

New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) issued a letter to New York state colleges and universities on Dec. 9 warning that her office will aggressively enforce state law against such schools that fail to crack down calls for genocide on campus.

Hochul wrote in the letter that she was “shocked” that many presidents of prestigious universities have failed “to clearly and unequivocally denounce antisemitism and calls for genocide of the Jewish people on their college campuses.” She spoke with SUNY Chancellor John King and CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos-Rodriguez, and they both assured her that calls for genocide “would lead to swift disciplinary action.”

“Failure to address such activity would constitute a violation of New York State Human Rights Law and as well as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act,” Hochul wrote. “Under Title VI, any recipient of federal funds is responsible for keeping students free from a hostile environment based upon their ethnicity or national origin – a standard that has been applied to antisemitism.” She added that “colleges and universities not in compliance with federal and state laws protecting students against discrimination can be deemed ineligible to receive state and federal funds.”

Friends Co-Star David Schwimmer Denounces “Morally Bankrupt” University Presidents

David Schwimmer, one of the co-stars of the hit sitcom “Friends,” condemned the university presidents of Penn, MIT and Harvard as being “morally bankrupt.”

In a Dec. 7 Instagram post, Schwimmer wrote that the presidents were “incapable of answering even the most direct basic ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions” in their congressional testimony. “Watch them duck and smirk at the unbridled anti-Semitism and calls for genocide on their campuses,” he continued. “Where is the outrage among students, faculty and alumni demanding their resignations, an official apology and enforcement of the codes of conduct? Silence is complicity.”

Pro-Palestinian Columbia Student Group Holds Teach-In After University Cancels It

A pro-Palestinian student group at Columbia University’s School of Social Work held a “Significance of the October 7th Palestinian Counteroffensive” teach-in on Dec. 6 even though the university canceled it.

The Columbia Daily Spectator reported that the teach-in was held in the lobby of the Social Work building and drew counterprotesters. The pro-Palestinian group holding the teach-in, Columbia Social Workers for Palestine, told the Spectator that the school had never told them directly that the event was canceled; the school had issued a statement a couple days earlier announcing the event’s cancellation.

The school said in a statement posted to social media that “school and university administrators informed the students of the possibility of disciplinary action and urged them to disperse, which they did. The matter is under review.”