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

Pressure on University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill is mounting in the wake of an appearance before Congress on Tuesday that incited rebuke from the White House, Gov. Josh Shapiro and donors who have contributed tens of millions of dollars to the Ivy League university.

By dusk Thursday, the university faced threats of more lost gifts and increasingly loud calls for Magill’s resignation and saw the start of a congressional investigation into university policies. Trustees remained quiet about Magill’s future at the school following gatherings of the board and university leadership. “There is no board plan for imminent leadership change,” a university spokesperson said Thursday evening as Shapiro criticized her while marking the start of Hanukkah at a menorah lighting held on campus.

Standing outside Penn Hillel, the governor, for the second time in 24 hours, criticized Magill’s comments, this time calling them “shameful and unacceptable.”

But he did not call for her resignation, saying that was the call of Penn’s board of trustees.

“The board here at Penn needs to determine whether or not those comments reflect the views and values of the board and of the university, and I’ve urged them to meet and meet soon and deliberate on that question,” he said. “I know they had a brief meeting this morning and I expect they’ll be meeting again in the coming days. I expect them to carefully weigh that question.”

The trustee gatherings were held in the face of bipartisan backlash over president Liz Magill’s testimony on antisemitism Tuesday before the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Multiple sources say the gathering ended with Magill still in the job, despite renewed calls for her resignation.

When asked repeatedly if calling for genocide of Jewish people violates Penn’s rules or code of conduct, Magill testified: “It is a context-dependent decision.” She walked that back in a video she released Wednesday night following criticism from the White House and Shapiro, saying she does view it as harassment or intimidation and would launch a review of Penn’s policies on free speech.

The House committee said it also would investigate Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose presidents testified along with Magill.

“This investigation will include substantial document requests, and the committee will not hesitate to utilize compulsory measures including subpoenas if a full response is not immediately forthcoming,” said committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina, in a news release on the committee’s website.

In a statement, Penn pledged to cooperate fully.

A spokesman for the committee said it’s not unusual for the committee to launch investigations into the agencies it oversees, but it is unusual to target colleges, all three of which are private. It’s unclear what could come out of the probes, but information gathered could be used to issue recommendations or shape legislation.

» READ MORE: Penn President Liz Magill is facing criticism from Gov. Shapiro, White House and others for comments at a congressional hearing on antisemitism

Magill’s testimony on Tuesday came during intense questioning by Republican Rep. Elise M. Stefanik of New York at the hearing called to discuss antisemitism concerns on college campuses.

“If the speech becomes conduct, it can be harassment,” Magill said in response to Stefanik.

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

Questioned further, Magill said, “It can be harassment.”

» READ MORE: Penn president Liz Magill got grilled by Congressional committee over the university’s response to antisemitism

Shapiro said he has not spoken to Magill since first vocalizing his dissatisfaction with her remarks outside of Goldie, an Israeli falafel restaurant, on Wednesday after protesters gathered there in support of Palestinians.

Ahead of Shapiro’s arrival, marking the first night of Hanukkah, Penn band students played animated renditions of “Dreidel Dreidel” and other festive songs as students flowed into the building, passing the Israeli and American flags hanging side by side.

Shapiro, after speaking with the students, said he was there to let them know they weren’t alone.

”They shared with me that they don’t feel safe, and they shared with me that they don’t feel supported by the administration, Shapiro said. “Some of them said they didn’t feel supported in their classes based on some of what their professors say to them.”

Criticism came swiftly after Magill’s testimony, from the White House , Bucks County State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, a Democrat and Penn grad who called for Magill to step down, Penn Hillel leaders and others.

Critics also targeted Harvard president Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology president Sally Kornbluth for their answers to the same question at the hearing.

All three presidents are relative newcomers to their jobs. In the presidency for about a year and a half, Magill, a legal scholar, is the most senior.

“In that moment,” Magill explained of her testimony in the video, “I 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. It’s evil — plain and simple.”

Magill also took heat on social media including renewed calls for her resignation, seeming to reignite heavy criticism, including a donor backlash, that the school has faced over its handling of antisemitism in recent months.

Ross Stevens, founder and CEO of Stone Ridge Asset Management, is apparently attempting to withdraw a $100 million gift to the university, according to a letter sent Thursday by his legal representatives to Penn general counsel Wendy White, as reported by Axios. The gift was given to Penn in December 2017 to help establish a center for innovation in finance.

“Mr. Stevens and Stone Ridge are appalled by the University’s stance on antisemitism on campus,” said the letter, posted by Axios.

A change.org petition calling for Magill’s resignation had garnered more than 16,300 signatures by early Thursday evening.

Magill also was under criticism for not standing up staunchly enough in support of academic freedom and faculty and students who have been protesting in support of Palestinians.

The Penn chapter of the American Association of University Professors cited Magill’s failure to “fulfill her responsibility to condemn targeted harassment.” The group had been calling on Magill to publicly condemn harassment of faculty for participating in the Palestine Writes Literature Festival in late September and for speaking in support of Palestinian civilians.

“During the hearing, Republican Congressmen Joe Wilson and Jim Banks breathed new life into a months-old campaign of targeted harassment by making false and inflammatory claims about individual Penn faculty members’ political views, affiliations, and activities,” Penn’s AAUP said in a statement. “They called on the university to commit flagrant violations of academic freedom: they suggested that Penn fire faculty members for protected extramural speech and challenged one faculty member’s right to teach classes and make curricular decisions within their area of scholarly expertise.

“President Magill failed to respond to these instances of targeted harassment that unfolded before her eyes. ”

The Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression blasted Magill for releasing the video in which she promised a review of free speech policies.

“This is a deeply troubling, profoundly counterproductive response to yesterday’s congressional hearing,” FIRE said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter. “Were Penn to retreat from the robust protection of expressive rights, university administrators would make inevitably political decisions about who may speak and what may be said on campus.”

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.

Scrutiny of Penn began in late September when the Palestine Writes literature festival was held on campus 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.