Magill, along with Harvard President Claudine Gay and MIT President Sally Kornbluth, engaged in controversy, more than five hours at the grill of the legislators Tuesday for its response to anti-Semitism on its campuses.
They faced backlash for dodging a question from the MP. Elise Stefanik (RN.Y.) who asked about pro-Palestinian student protesters' calls for “intifada” or “the genocide of the Jews.”
“Calling for the genocide of the Jews violates Penn's rules or code of conduct, yes or no?” Stefanik asked Magill on Tuesday, to which Magill replied, “If speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment.”
Stefanik criticized the response, saying: “Conduct that amounts to committing the act of genocide? Isn't speech harassment? That's unacceptable.”
The other presidents responded similarly to the question. They said they personally disagreed with the rhetoric used by those students and pledged to preserve free speech on campus.
Stefanik, who led the toughest questioning on Tuesday and has called for all presidents to be fired, wrote to X that Magill's “forced resignation” is just the beginning of addressing anti-Semitism on college campuses.
“One down,” Stefanik said. “They make two.”
Magill is the first president to resign in response to anti-Semitism on campus. Several lawmakers and senior officials across the aisle criticized the leaders for refusing to say that calls for “Jewish genocide” violate their codes of conduct on bullying or harassment on Tuesday.
Magill has faced searing criticism from his state's top Democrats and other lawmakers. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) cried Magill's comments “offensive,” and said “calling for the genocide of the Jews is anti-Semitic and harassment, period.” Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) Magill's testimony said it was “disgraceful to a venerable Pennsylvania university.” And Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a first-term Democrat, he also criticized Magill's testimony as a “failure of leadership”. Hundreds of Penn alumni, donors and students have also called for Magill's resignation.
Shapiro, who is a non-voting member of Penn's board, had called the university's board of trustees to meet to determine whether Magill should be asked to resign.
Magill released a video statement Wednesday apologizing for his testimony amid intense backlash. The video, published on X, has been viewed more than 37 million times.
In the video, he said that during his testimony he focused “on our university's long-standing policies aligned with the United States Constitution, which say that speech alone is not punishable.” Magill also said his school would “initiate a serious and careful look at our policies.”
“I didn't focus, but I should have, on the irrefutable fact that a call for the genocide of the Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence that human beings can perpetrate,” he said.
Wharton's Board of Advisors called for new university leadership Thursday, according to reports a letter obtained by The Daily Pennsylvanian. The Board of Trustees also held an emergency meeting that morning, according to the student newspaper, and had an executive committee lunch.
More than 70 lawmakers on Friday urged the boards of trustees at Harvard, MIT and Penn to remove their presidents. About a dozen Democrats, however, urged the boards to fix their campus policies on bullying and harassment to ensure that anti-Semitism was included.
House Education and the Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx (RN.C), who held the hearing, said he “welcomed” Magill's resignation.
“President Magill had three opportunities to set the record straight when asked whether calling for the genocide of the Jews violated UPenn's code of conduct during our hearing on anti-Semitism,” Foxx said in a statement. “Instead of giving a resounding yes to the question, he chose to be wrong.”
Magill had been in the role for about a year and a half. He previously held positions at the University of Virginia and Stanford University.
He will remain a tenured professor at Penn Carey Law.
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