Penn President, Board Chair Resign After Furor Over Comments on Campus Antisemitism

The president of the University of Pennsylvania and the chairman of its board of trustees resigned Saturday, capping a tumultuous week at the Ivy League school stemming from statements the president made about antisemitism at a congressional hearing Tuesday.

President Liz Magill will stay on until an interim president is appointed, and afterward will remain a member of the law school faculty, according to a letter sent from board chairman Scott L. Bok Saturday afternoon.

Soon after sending that letter, Bok announced he had tendered his own resignation, effective immediately.

The resignations mark a stunning fall for college leaders while raising questions about the power major donors have over institutions and just where schools should draw the line on protecting free speech, generally considered a bedrock of academia.

Magill and Bok are the highest-profile college leaders to be ousted in a controversy that has swept campuses around the country since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, and Israel retaliated in Gaza.

The presidents of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have also faced calls to resign, and leaders at other schools are under intense scrutiny regarding how they balance the rights of pro-Palestinian protesters with the safety of students on campus. Rallies often featured chants such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which many interpret as a call for the elimination of Israel as a Jewish country. Attendees have carried posters likening Zionism to Nazism, and accusing Israel of pursuing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

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