Penn donor who gave $50 million calls for university leaders to resign over ‘embrace of antisemitism’

A heavyweight Penn donor who chairs Wharton’s board of advisors has asked that Penn’s president and its board chair resign after their handling last month of the Palestine Writes festival, which he said was emblematic of their “embrace of antisemitism.”

Marc Rowan, a Wharton graduate and CEO of Apollo Global Management based in New York, called on alumni and supporters to “close their checkbooks” until President Liz Magill and Chairman Scott L. Bok step down, he wrote in a letter published online Wednesday.

Soon after, alumnus Dick Wolf — the namesake of the Wolf Humanities Center at Penn — endorsed Rowan’s call for alumni to cease donations until Magill and Bok resign.

“Sadly, their leadership has inadequately represented the ideals and values of our university and they should be held to account,” Dick Wolf wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn’s student newspaper.

Julie Platt, the vice chair of the board of trustees, said in a statement provided by the university that she has “full confidence” in Magill’s and Bok’s leadership.

“The executive committee of Penn’s Board of Trustees has unanimously endorsed the actions taken by the university,” she said.

Rowan was one of more than 4,000 people, describing themselves as alumni and supporters of Penn, who last month sent an open letter to Magill challenging Penn’s handling of the Palestine Writes literature festival. Philadelphia 76ers managing partner Josh Harris was also among the signers.

“The fact that University of Pennsylvania academic departments are co-sponsoring the festival and its platforming of outright antisemitism without denunciation from the university is unacceptable,” they wrote.

Controversy ensued on campus last month after critics complained about the festival scheduled to end just before the start of Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar. The conference, billed as celebrating Palestinian culture and arts, invited speakers with a history of having made antisemitic remarks, including Roger Waters, co-founder of Pink Floyd; the U.S. State Department said he has “a long track record of using antisemitic tropes” and a concert he gave in Germany in May “contained imagery that is deeply offensive to Jewish people and minimized the Holocaust,” according to the Associated Press.

Magill released a statement in response to the criticism on Sept. 12, condemning antisemitism. Then, after two acts of antisemitic vandalism leading up to the festival, Penn officials, including Magill, acknowledged their proximity to the “controversial speakers” and pledged the university’s commitment to the “free exchange of ideas as central to our educational mission. This includes the expression of views that are controversial and even those that are incompatible with our institutional values.”

The conference took place without disruption.

Rowan’s recent letter also cited Hamas’ attack on Israel, showing “words and ideas matter.”

“It is time for the trustees to begin moving UPenn in a new direction,” Rowan wrote. “Join me and many others who love UPenn by sending UPenn $1 in place of your normal, discretionary contribution so that no one misses the point.”

In an interview on CNBC Thursday morning, he said that he and three trustees who signed the letter were being pressured by Bok and Magill to relinquish their positions — for exercising their right to free speech.

“I was strongly encouraged to reconsider my chairmanship of the Wharton board to which I told them ‘no thanks,’” he said, adding that the three trustees said the same. He noted that all four of them are Jewish.

Bok disagreed that they were pressured to resign and said that the executive committee had decided it would not force anyone who signed to resign.

“We did make known to two trustees pursuing that unusual step that they could consider voluntarily resigning, thereby freeing them from all the constraints involved in serving on a board,” Bok said. “Those individuals chose not to resign, and they remain welcome as members of Penn’s board.”

He further said that everyone is entitled to their views but when they become a member of a board, “they implicitly commit to participating in a confidential and deliberative decision-making process, where all views are welcome in the debate. Once a leadership team has done appropriate consultation and reached a decision, it is extraordinarily unusual in a corporate, university or nonprofit context for a board member to publicly oppose that decision, let alone solicit others to join their dissenting view.”

Rowan also said during the CNBC interview that on Wednesday “his text blew up” with people sending him photocopies of a $1 check to Penn. He also said that “we’ve already seen $150 million that would have come to the university move away from the university.”

Emilio Bassini, a Penn alum who had signed the earlier alumni letter, said Penn’s handling of the festival “certainly will” affect his future giving, and he expects others will either decrease or stop altogether.

In response to that letter, Bok had said the trustees “are reflecting on the range of views expressed by various members of our community.”

The DP reported in 2018 that Rowan gave $50 million to Wharton, at the time the largest single gift to the school.