Penn donors are hosting a fundraiser for the representative who called on Magill to testify

Two prominent University of Pennsylvania donors, both vocal critics of former president Liz Magill over her response to allegations of campus antisemitism, are hosting a fundraiser for the House Republican who summoned Magill before a congressional committee this month, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported.

Penn alumni and billionaires Marc Rowan and Ronald Lauder signed on to support U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.), who is up for reelection next year, according to an invitation obtained by the student newspaper. The chair of the House Committee on Education has branded herself as a hawk on antisemitism within elite schools after Magill’s Dec. 5 testimony that ultimately contributed to her resignation.

Six others are hosting alongside Rowan and Lauder, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported, including a leader of the Manhattan Republican Party.

The Jan. 22 rooftop event at the Kimberly Hotel in New York will feature a Q&A discussing antisemitism on college campuses, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian. Tickets range from $1,000 to $6,600.

Facing sharp questioning from U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.), Magill drew national rebuke when, pressed on whether calling for genocide of Jewish people would violate Penn’s rules or code of conduct, she said it was “a context-dependent decision.”

The aftermath saw deep-pocketed donors and alumni call for Magill to step down, some threatening to withhold donations to the university. Magill resigned within days, along with Scott L. Bok, chair of Penn’s board of trustees.

Faculty have since raised alarm bells over the influence of wealthy alumni over academic freedom at the Ivy League school. After Rowan peppered the board of trustees with questions about the future of some programs in a Dec. 12 email, over 900 academics signed a letter to oppose “attempts by trustees, donors, and other external actors to interfere with our academic policies and to undermine academic freedom,” referring to Rowan’s efforts to rally other donors as a “hostile takeover.”

The CEO of New York-based investment group Apollo Global Management, Rowan spearheaded a campaign against what he described as “hate and racism” by pro-Palestinian scholars at Penn this fall.

Rowan, who also chairs the Wharton Board of Advisors, publicly questioned Magill’s leadership after Penn agreed to host the Palestine Writes Literature Festival in late September. After Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Rowan ramped up those criticisms, appearing on CNBC to detail an op-ed he penned over the “inability of leadership” at Penn “to exercise any moral clarity” by condemning festival speakers who had a history of antisemitic comments.

As campus tensions roiled during subsequent student demonstrations, Rowan launched a daily email campaign to mobilize donors against Penn’s leadership.

In an email after Magill’s departure titled “Moving Forward,” Rowan offered complaints, suggestions, and articles for the 47 members of Penn’s board of trustees.

Lauder, of the Estée Lauder cosmetic company, has risen alongside Rowan as a vocal critic of Penn’s leadership this semester.

After a trip to Philadelphia to meet with Magill, who cited academic freedom and free speech in refusing to cancel the Palestine Writes festival, Lauder signed on to an Oct. 16 letter saying he would reexamine his contributions to Penn, which number in the multimillions since his 1983 funding of the Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies.

“Let me be clear as I can,” Lauder wrote. “I do not want any of the students at the Lauder Institute ... to be taught by any of the instructors who were involved or supported” the festival.

A spokesperson for Rowan’s Apollo Global Management declined to comment on the Foxx fundraiser. Spokespeople for Lauder and Foxx did not return requests for comment.

After the North Carolina lawmaker pledged that her congressional committee would probe Penn along with Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Foxx expanded that list to include Columbia, Cornell, and a handful of other institutions where pro-Palestinian protests have been deemed antisemitic by some.

“... [T]he administrations have not reacted against those and kept their students safe,” Foxx told The Hill this month, suggesting that she would be open to bringing Harvard president Claudine Gay — who testified alongside Magill and weathered similar pressure from megadonors — back before Congress for further questioning.

Meanwhile, other influential Penn alumni have taken alternative approaches to the shake-up at their alma mater.

This week, Stewart Colton — another Wharton alumni and major donor to Penn — announced he would donate to the university an unrestricted $1 million to “let the healing begin” under interim president J. Larry Jameson.