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

Hours after University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill testified before a congressional committee about the campus’ plans to address antisemitism, Gov. Josh Shapiro, a White House spokesperson and the leaders of Penn Hillel were among those who expressed serious concern about aspects of her testimony.

Critics have pointed to Magill’s response when asked repeatedly if calling for genocide of Jewish people violates Penn’s rules or code of conduct. “It is a context-dependent decision,” she said.

“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,” Shapiro said, speaking Wednesday at a press conference at Goldie, a falafel shop in the city, offering support to the business after it was singled out during a ceasefire march over the weekend.

Rabbi Gabe Greenberg, Penn Hillel’s executive director, and its two student co-presidents, Lauren Krasilovsky and Olivia Domansky called out the behavior, too.

“President Magill repeatedly equivocated, refusing to characterize calls for the genocide of Jews as a breach of Penn’s code of conduct,” wrote Greenberg, Krasilovsky, and Domansky. “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.”

Magill Wednesday evening released a short video, saying she does view a call for genocide of Jewish people as harassment or intimidation and promising an evaluation of Penn policies.

“In that moment,” Magill, a lawyer, said of her testimony at the hearing, “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.

“For decades, under multiple Penn presidents and consistent with most universities, Penn’s policies have been guided by the Constitution and the law. In today’s world, where we are seeing signs of hate proliferating across our campus and our world in a way not seen in years, these policies need to be clarified and evaluated.”

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

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. A change.org petition calling for her resignation had garnered nearly 2,400 signatures by 4:15 p.m.

And State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, a Democrat from Bucks County, called on Magill to resign and said he won’t vote for any state appropriation for Penn until she does.

“President Magill was given several chances to clearly state what should be obvious: that should any student call for the genocide of the Jewish People they would not only violate university policy but would be condemned in the strongest possible terms and face expulsion,” Santarsiero said.

Penn’s board now has to decide if Magill’s testimony reflects the views of the university, said Shapiro, who floated the idea of getting involved.

“I’d like to see what they do first before I determine my next steps,” he said. He didn’t elaborate on what those steps could entail.

Board chair Scott L. Bok did not respond for comment.

Shapiro said he’d spoken to Magill multiple times and made “concrete recommendations” on what he thought would be necessary to ensure all students feel safe on campus, which he said the school failed to do. He said Magill’s testimony Tuesday “took it to the next level.”

“Leaders,” he continued, “have a responsibility to speak and act with moral clarity and Liz Magill failed to meet that simple test... Whether you’re talking about genocide against Jews, genocide against people of color, genocide against LGBTQ folks, it’s all wrong. And it needs to be called out and it shouldn’t be hard. And there should be no nuance to that. She needed to give a one-word answer and she failed to meet that test.”

Magill’s comments came during intense questioning by Republican Rep. Elise M. Stefanik of New York at the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Tuesday.

Pressed further, Magill said, “if the speech becomes conduct, it can be harassment.”

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

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

» READ MORE: Under pressure from Jewish community, Penn president unveils plan to combat antisemitism

Stefanik asked the same question of Harvard president Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology president Sally Kornbluth, who both used the word “context” when answering whether they thought calling for the genocide of Jewish people constituted bullying or harassment.

“It can be, depending on the context,” Gay said.

“What is the context?” Stefanik asked.

“Targeted at an individual,” Gay responded.

Pressed further, Gay said: “Antisemitic rhetoric when it crosses into conduct amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation, that is actionable conduct and we do take action.”

Kornbluth said she had not heard calls for genocide of Jewish people on her campus.

“But you have heard chants for intifada?” Stefanik asked.

“I have heard chants which can be antisemitic depending on the context when calling for the elimination of Jewish people,” she responded.

The White House also was critical of the three presidents for their comments.

“It’s unbelievable that this needs to be said: calls for genocide are monstrous and antithetical to everything we represent as a country,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement, according to NBC News. “Any statements that advocate for the systematic murder of Jews are dangerous and revolting — and we should all stand firmly against them, on the side of human dignity and the most basic values that unite us as Americans.”

Another change.org petition called for the resignation of all three presidents.

Meanwhile, groups of students at both Haverford and Swarthmore colleges this week began sit-ins, calling on their colleges to do more to defend Palestinians and speak out against the harassment they have faced.

At Swarthmore, students, who began the sit-in at Parrish Hall Monday, are calling for the school’s “divesting from the Israeli occupational state” and releasing of a statement condemning anti-Palestinian racism, among other demands. A group at Haverford calling itself Haverford College Students for Peace began a sit-in at Founders Hall Wednesday, demanding the college administration “calls for a ceasefire and takes accountability for its harmful actions towards the Palestinian community.”

» READ MORE: Haverford College student one of three Palestinians shot near University of Vermont campus, officials say

At Penn, Hillel leaders called on Magill “to set the record straight and “move with urgency” on initiatives to address Jewish life on campus and combat antisemitism.

“President Magill’s failure to properly characterize this speech leaves many Jewish students on Penn’s campus feeling that they are not protected by the administration,” they wrote.

Magill rolled out a plan to combat antisemitism on Nov. 1, 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.

Meanwhile, a petition signed by more than 500 academics and writers from inside and outside the United States has called on Penn to defend its students, faculty, and staff against targeted harassment for speaking in support of Palestinians.

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.

Staff writer Andrew Seidman contributed to this article.