Wharton School Board Urges University of Pennsylvania President to Step Down

The Wharton Board of Advisors, which oversees Penn’s prominent business school, sent a letter Thursday to university President Liz Magill asking her to resign in the wake of her testimony on Capitol Hill earlier this week.

The letter came on the same day as an emergency meeting of Penn’s Board of Trustees.

Multiple media outlets reported the walls are closing in on Magill, who repeatedly was unable to classify calls for the genocide of Jews as speech that would violate the university’s code of conduct in testimony Tuesday in front of the House Education and the Workforce Committee.

“[The Board] has been, and remains, deeply concerned about the dangerous and toxic culture on our campus that has been led by a select group of students and faculty and has been permitted by University leadership …” the Wharton Board wrote in the letter, according to Axios. 

“As a result of the University leadership’s stated beliefs and collective failure to act, our Board respectfully suggests to you and the Board of Trustees that the University requires new leadership with immediate effect.”

Earlier Thursday, Stone Ridge Asset Management founder and CEO and Penn alum Ross Stevens withdrew a $100 million donation over Penn’s response to rampant antisemitism and Magill’s congressional testimony.

Magill, along with presidents of Harvard and MIT, would not classify calls for the genocide of Jews as bullying or harassment, with each saying “it depends on the context” as an initial response.

Magill tried to do damage control Wednesday, releasing a 2-minute video to clarify her comments, with Penn’s policies as a backdrop.

“I want to be clear, a call for genocide of Jewish people is threatening — deeply so. It is intentionally meant to terrify a people who have been subjected to pogroms and hatred for centuries and were the victims of mass genocide in the Holocaust. In my view, it would be harassment or intimidation,” she said, in part.

A Penn spokesperson said Magill remained president as of Thursday night, with CNN reporting the university does not have an interim president lined up if Magill were to step down.

“There is no board plan for imminent leadership change,” the spokesperson said.