Penn president Liz Magill has resigned following backlash over her testimony about antisemitism

University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill has resigned amid growing bipartisan backlash against her congressional committee testimony on antisemitism and a semester marked by near-weekly protests, complaints by deep-pocketed donors, and widespread accusations of mismanagement since a controversial literary festival was held on campus earlier in the fall.

And minutes later, Scott L. Bok, chair of the board of trustees, announced that he was stepping down, too.

“It has been my privilege to serve as president of this remarkable institution,” Magill said in a statement shared by Bok. “It has been an honor to work with our faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community members to advance Penn’s vital missions.”

Bok said Magill, who will stay on as interim president until another interim is appointed, voluntarily offered her resignation.

Trustees held an informal gathering at 5 p.m. and, less than a half-hour later, Bok said he submitted his resignation, effective immediately.

“While I was asked to remain in that role for the remainder of my term in order to help with the presidential transition, I concluded that, for me, now was the right time to depart,” said Bok, an alumnus and New York City investment banker who has led the board for 2½ years.

Magill will remain a tenured faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, he said.

Late Saturday evening, the university announced that Julie Platt, a full-time volunteer fundraiser in Los Angeles who had been vice chair of the board, will step in as interim chair. Platt took over the meeting after Bok said he was resigning, wished the board well, and left the call, according to sources who attended the session.

Platt, four of whose five children attended Penn, has deep ties to the Jewish community and currently is chair of the Jewish Federations of North America. She is also past-chair of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation’s Women’s Campaign, according to her bio on Penn’s website. And she serves on the board of Penn Hillel.

There was discussion that L. Larry Jameson, executive vice president of the health system and dean of the medical school, would be an ideal candidate to step in as interim president, one source said, but no one had approached him yet. There was no timetable set for a selection, but the process has begun, the source said.

The announcement of Magill’s resignation followed an informal virtual gathering of the board of trustees Thursday.

The news comes as the Ivy League university, which has more than 28,000 students, faces perhaps its greatest leadership crisis in decades, which has drawn national attention. Its prior two presidents served for 10 years and 18, respectively; Magill has been in the job less than 18 months, making her tenure the shortest in Penn’s more than 260-year history.

There were calls for her resignation earlier this fall, but things hit a fever pitch when she testified on Tuesday before the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

» READ MORE: Liz Magill is in a ‘perilous’ situation. Can she still lead Penn?

When asked repeatedly whether calling for genocide of Jewish people violates Penn’s rules or code of conduct, Magill, 57, a legal scholar and former University of Virginia provost, said to Republican Rep. Elise M. Stefanik of New York: “It is a context-dependent decision.”

Though she walked that back in a video she released Wednesday night, saying she does view it as harassment or intimidation and vowed to review Penn’s policies, it wasn’t enough to quiet a groundswell of criticism that included harsh comments from the White House, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, more than 70 members of Congress, and others inside and outside Penn.

It also came on the heels of an investigation opened by the congressional committee into Penn’s policies, as well as policies at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose presidents also testified Tuesday.

Bok said in his statement that Magill “made a very unfortunate misstep” during her testimony and that “it became clear that her position was no longer tenable, and she and I concurrently decided that it was time for her to exit.”

He spoke highly of Magill and said he hopes another university will give her a chance.

“The world should know that Liz Magill is a very good person and a talented leader who was beloved by her team,” Bok said. “She is not the slightest bit antisemitic.”

He said she was “worn down by months of relentless external attacks.”

“She was not herself last Tuesday,” he said. “Overprepared and over-lawyered given the hostile forum and high stakes, she provided a legalistic answer to a moral question, and that was wrong.”

Meanwhile, Virginia Foxx, the Republican congresswoman who chairs the committee where Magill testified, welcomed her departure.

“President Magill had three chances to set the record straight when asked if calling for the genocide of Jews violated UPenn’s code of conduct during our hearing on antisemitism,” Foxx said in a statement. “Instead of giving a resounding yes to the question, she chose to equivocate. What’s more shocking is that it took her more than 24 hours to clarify her comments, and even that clarification failed to include an apology to the Jewish students who do not feel safe on campus.”

Reaction was fast from all corners.

“I hope this signals a new start for Penn,” Jonathan Greenblatt, national director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Campus administrators must protect their Jewish students with the same passion they bring to protecting all students.”

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said it hoped that Penn would recommit championing free expression.

“A change of leadership could be exactly what Penn needs — as long as the new leadership prizes dialogue, ideological non-conformity, a culture of free speech that takes seriously the search for truth, and the process of debate and discussion that will get students there,” the group said.

The Penn chapter of the American Association of University Professors warned about the influence of donors, Congress and others that it said have misrepresented the words and actions of faculty and students who have been supportive of Palestinians.

“The ability of donors, lobbying groups, and members of Congress to destabilize the University of Pennsylvania reveals the need to restore a strong faculty voice in the governance of the institution,” the group said. “The next president must defend the principles of shared governance and academic freedom, which protect the educational mission of the university. And they must correct what has become a dangerous myth suggesting that the defense of academic freedom and open expression is in any way contradictory to the fight against antisemitism.”

On campus Saturday evening, students walked around as if everything were normal, most declining to talk to a reporter.

“I couldn’t care less,” said freshman Sebastian Winfield, 18. “Honestly, I haven’t been following any of this and it just feels like it doesn’t impact me.”

But Lucia Gonzales, 22, had mixed feelings but said Magill’s departure was to be expected.

”[Magill] was already so one-sided,” she said. “She rarely ever mentioned Palestinians or Islamophobia. To see someone so pro-Israel was pretty much forced to resign makes me question who the university is going to put in place next.”

» READ MORE: Penn President Liz Magill faces mounting pressure to resign from Capitol Hill as university backs her

Magill arrived at Penn on July 1, 2022, replacing longtime president Amy Gutmann, who had led Penn since 2004 before being named the U.S. ambassador to Germany. She was inaugurated as Penn’s ninth president in October 2022, overseeing Philadelphia’s largest private employer, with its 12 schools and more than 23,000 full-time and more than 4,600 part-time undergraduate, graduate, and professional students and a health system.

At the University of Virginia, Magill served as executive vice president and provost for three years, the first woman to hold the post that oversees all academics. She previously had served as dean of Stanford’s law school.

» READ MORE: Penn president Liz Magill’s testimony ignited a political firestorm ahead of 2024

A native of Fargo, N.D., she is one of six children and grew up in a Catholic family, one that yielded many lawyers. She once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whom she credits with helping to shape her career.

Trouble began for Magill earlier this year after the Palestine Writes literature festival was held on campus in late September and criticized by some for including speakers with a history of making antisemitic remarks, including Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters. Powerful donors have withdrawn financial support over the university’s handling of the festival and its response to antisemitism, and called for Magill’s and Bok’s resignations. Tensions escalated following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, with frequent protests by groups calling for more support for both Palestinians and Jewish students.

In November, Magill rolled out a plan to combat antisemitism, including a task force that is expected to issue its report this spring, and a student advisory group on the Jewish student experience.

Penn has experienced several antisemitic acts this semester, including the drawing of a swastika inside Meyerson Hall and vandalism at Penn Hillel. Complaints also surfaced after messages the university called antisemitic were light-projected on several Penn buildings, including Penn Commons, Huntsman Hall, and Irvine Auditorium.

Magill previously acknowledged that she should have acted faster in condemning the speech of some of the speakers at the festival and the board of trustees backed her, following a spirited speech she made at a meeting in early November, vowing to regain the trust of alumni.

Then at the congressional committee hearing, critics seized on a particular exchange. When Stefanik asked whether calling for the genocide of Jews violates Penn’s rules or code of conduct, Magill responded: “It is a context-dependent decision, Congresswoman.”

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

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

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

Repeatedly pressed, Magill answered, “It can be harassment.”

Harvard president Claudine Gay and MIT president Sally Kornbluth also used the word “context” at the hearing and face calls for their resignations.

After the congressional testimony, another backlash ensued, this one started by the Republican-led committee but then becoming bipartisan with Democrats, including Shapiro, also criticizing Magill’s testimony.

The university also faces an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights into complaints of antisemitism on campus.

Staff writer Michelle Myers contributed to this article.