Who is Liz Magill? What to know about the former Penn president, who resigned facing intense controversy.

Liz Magill has resigned as the president of the University of Pennsylvania Saturday in the wake of intense bipartisan pressure.

The calls for a leadership change came after a congressional hearing on antisemitism during which she was asked repeatedly whether calling for genocide of Jewish people violates Penn’s rules or code of conduct. In response, Magill said that “it is a context-dependent decision.”

Her testimony generated significant backlash, including from Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a White House spokesperson, and the leaders of Jewish student group Penn Hillel. Magill walked back her comments, saying in a video that she does view it as harassment or intimidation and would launch a review of Penn’s policies.

Magill took over as president of Penn in July 2022, succeeding Amy Gutmann, who left the school after 18 years to become U.S. ambassador to Germany. At the time, Magill was referred to as the “clear consensus” candidate, according to the school newspaper, the Daily Pennsylvanian.

Magill joined Penn following a stint at the University of Virginia, where she was executive vice president and provost dating to 2019. Before that, she led Stanford’s law school for seven years, overseeing a hiring push that brought in nearly 30% of the school’s faculty, The Inquirer reported last year.

In addition to her administrative academic work, Magill also formerly worked as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and Cambridge University, and held a fellowship in law and public affairs at Princeton.

A native of Fargo, N.D., Magill earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University in 1988, and graduated from the University of Virginia’s law school in 1995, according to a Penn biography. In between, she worked as a senior legislative assistant for energy and natural resources for then-Sen. Kent Conrad, and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Magill told The Inquirer last year that she first visited Philadelphia in 1976 with her family for the United States’ Bicentennial celebration. She described herself as a “fan” of the city, having spent time visiting friends and colleagues who attended and worked for Penn.

She and her husband, attorney Leon Szeptycki, have two children.

On Tuesday, members of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce questioned three college presidents regarding their handling of antisemitism on their campuses after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

The Penn president’s testimony came amid questioning from Rep. Elise M. Stefanik (R., N.Y.). At issue was the point at which hate speech is considered incitement of violence, and when students and faculty ought to be disciplined for it. Magill said that “it is a context-dependent situation.”

“That is not bullying or harassment?” Stefanik said. “That is the easiest question to answer yes, Ms. Magill.”

“If the speech becomes conduct, it can be harassment,” Magill said.

“Conduct, meaning committing the act of genocide?” Stefanik asked. “The speech is not harassment?”

“It can be harassment,” Magill responded when repeatedly pressed.

After Magill’s testimony, a number of high-profile figures leveled criticism at her and Penn.

“If that doesn’t violate the policies of Penn, well, there’s something wrong with the policies of Penn that the board needs to get on, or there’s a failure of leadership from the president, or both,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said.

Bucks County State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, a Penn grad, called for Magill to step down. Rabbi Gabe Greenberg, executive director of Penn Hillel, as well as its student co-presidents, Lauren Krasilovsky and Olivia Domansky, rebuked Magill as well.

“President Magill repeatedly equivocated, refusing to characterize calls for the genocide of Jews as a breach of Penn’s code of conduct,” Greenberg, Krasilovsky, and Domansky said in a statement. “If there is any ambiguity with respect to the Code’s application to this type of threat, it should immediately be amended. We are appalled by the need to state the obvious: Calls for genocide against Jews do not depend on the context.”

A Change.org petition calling for Magill’s resignation garnered nearly 16,000 signatures as of Thursday evening.

On Thursday, the congressional committee that held the hearing announced that it has opened an investigation into Penn’s policies and disciplinary procedures. And Ross Stevens, founder and CEO of Stone Ridge Asset Management, withdrew a $100 million donation to the school, Axios reported.

That news came following an emergency session held by the school’s board of trustees that ended with Magill keeping her job, multiple sources said.

Magill released a video statement Wednesday walking back her statements. She said that during the hearing, she was “focused on our university’s long-standing policies aligned with the U.S. Constitution, which say that speech alone is not punishable.”

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

Magill added in the video that Penn’s policies have long been guided by the Constitution, but amid “signs of hate proliferating across our campus and our world,” they would need to be clarified.

“As president, I’m committed to a safe, secure, and supportive environment so all members of our community can thrive,” Magill said. “We can and we will get this right.”

The call for Magill’s ouster is the latest controversy Penn has experienced in recent months. In September, a swastika was painted on the wall of a spray booth at Meyerson Hall. And a man who Penn police said was “experiencing a crisis” broke furniture inside Penn Hillel while shouting antisemitic slurs.

There was no evidence connecting the incidents, the university said at the time. But school officials acknowledged that the vandalism occurred close to the start of the Palestine Writes literary festival, which itself would go on to cause controversy.

That festival drew ire over the inclusion of speakers who had made antisemitic remarks, including Roger Waters, a founding member of the rock band Pink Floyd. In a statement, school officials, wrote that the university supports “the free exchange of ideas as central to our educational mission,” including “the expression of views that are controversial and even those that are incompatible with our institutional values.”

The university’s handling of the festival prompted donors to declare they would withdraw their financial support. Magill later said that the university “should have moved faster” to oppose speakers with a history of antisemitism.

Tensions escalated further after Hamas’ attack on Israel in October, and Penn faced criticism for not doing enough to address the situation. In a statement following the attack, Magill said that she and the university were “horrified by and condemn Hamas’s terrorist assault on Israel and the violent atrocities against civilians.” That prompted a walkout by several hundred university faculty, students, and other supporters of Palestinians. Participants cited Magill’s failure to mention Palestinians or the deaths of people in Gaza in her statement.

In November, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a nonprofit aimed at advancing civil and human rights of Jewish people, filed a federal complaint against the university alleging that it had failed to address instances of harassment and discrimination against its students. And later that month, the school denied a progressive Jewish group permission to screen on campus a film critical of Israel, prompting a protest from students.

That month, the school unveiled a plan to combat antisemitism that included the creation of a task force and a student advisory group. Magill said she was “appalled by incidents on our own campus.” Magill also acknowledged that “our Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab communities feel unseen.”

“They have also been targeted with harassment and horrific threats,” she said. “This is unacceptable and must be addressed with equal vigor.”