Wow, who saw this coming? UPenn President Liz Magill backtracked from statements she made during Tuesday’s congressional hearings on anti-Jewish hate on her campus.
Well, she sort of backtracked. I mean, you didn’t really expect a high-and-mighty, elitist, hoity-toity Ivy League president to actually apologize to the rabble, did you?
In case you missed it, Rep. Elise Stenanik (R-NY) took Magill to the woodshed during the House Education Committee hearing where the presidents of Harvard and MIT also received grillings. The Committee wanted to know what their schools were doing to protect Jewish students on campus, a question none of these presidents (all women, for the record) wanted to answer.
Magill smirked her way through Stefanik’s enquiry, claiming that calling for the genocide of Jews was a “context-dependent decision” as to whether or not it violated UPenn’s code of conduct. She probably thought that Stefanik lacked the sophistication to understand the intricacies of a “context-dependent decision.”
Magill’s answer reminded me of another time when a former president equivocated during a hearing by discussing the semantics of the word “is.”
Bill Clinton was able to hang onto his job despite those weasel words, and even won another term as US President. However, it didn’t go so well for Magill.
After the hearing, the Penn Israel Public Affairs Committee expressed its outrage at Instagram:
Calling for the genocide of Jews doesn’t necessarily violate Penn’s rules, but these 5 things do…
Their post went on to list such activities as having scooters within University buildings or playing drinking games. But not threatening Jewish students, apparently.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro also had words for the UPenn president:
That was an unacceptable statement from the president of Penn. Frankly, I thought her comments were absolutely shameful. It should not be hard to condemn genocide.
Shapiro also told reporters that the school’s board of trustees have a “serious decision” to make regarding Magill’s comments:
They have seemingly failed every step of the way to take concrete action to make sure all students feel safe on campus. And then the testimony yesterday took it to the next level.
But a petition calling for the resignation of Magill was already in the works, and had accumulated 2500 signatures by Wednesday afternoon. The letter stated: This equivocation sent a chilling message to Jewish students.
And speaking of students, UPenn student Eyal Yakoby published an article at National Review condemning his school’s inaction concerning threats to him and other Jewish students. Adapting the comments he and others made prior to Tuesday’s hearing, Yakoby wrote:
Why doesn’t the university hold the perpetrators of such acts accountable? Is the university fearful that it may offend those who wish to intimidate and harass their fellow students? Penn’s ambivalence fuels a crisis that has shattered my academic sanctuary. Policies meant to safeguard us have become hollow promises. And let’s be clear: If the university fails Jewish students today, tomorrow, it will fail others.
Nonetheless, I refuse to go back to 1939 when Jews had to hide their religious symbols and hide who they were because of the intimidation and harassment of others. I used to think the idea that Jews today might ever have to resort to this was nonsense, fear-mongering, until I was made aware that Penn recommended to students that they “not wear clothing/accessories related to Judaism….”
Luckily, there are policies in place to protect students from the heinous acts I described. Unluckily, the university seems to have no interest in upholding those very policies.
It’s time for the soul of our university to reclaim its integrity. And it’s time for me — and my classmates — to stop worrying for our lives.
After the backlash, Liz Magill apologized. Sort of.
First, it was Harvard’s president Claudine Gay who withered under the heat, as Nina wrote on Wednesday. Gay tweeted, in part:
Let me be clear: Calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account.
Then Magill folded. On Wednesday evening she issued a half-baked mea culpa while reading a teleprompter and looking for all the world like someone was pointing a gun at her off-camera.
I was not focused, but should have been, on 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.
A Video Message from President Liz Magill pic.twitter.com/GlPE3QZU4P
— Penn (@Penn) December 6, 2023
It’s telling that the only people who can reply to this disingenuous statement are people who have UPenn accounts. What a coward.
Are these elite women really repentant? Nah. They just want to keep their cushy jobs. They want to keep the sweet moolah coming into UPenn and Harvard from rich donors and alumni. Whether or not they follow through on their promises to “do better” has yet to be seen.
Waiting now for MIT President Sally Kornbluth to complete the trifecta of self-flagellation. Expect it to arrive soon, because courage is not part of any of these women’s DNA. If it were, they would’ve stood up to the shit-for-brains children who apparently run their campuses.
Featured image: M Elizabeth Magill photographed at her Inauguration/East End Quaker/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped.
Cameron says: It’s amazing how quickly they change their behavior when donations are on the line.
Bob says: At one time, most college presidents had principles and knew that there are absolute standards of right and wrong. In the 1960s, during the Vietnam campus violence, many college presidents folded under student pressure, all for lack of principles.
Obviously, not much has changed in 60 years.
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