[Billionaire Jewish] Donor and Zionist Cabal have spoken, Magill resigns as President of Penn. Right Speech, Academic Freedom on Jeopardy

Antisemitism unhinged part 7892779715829373 after October 7th. There is no joy in this. This was failure by an institution AND an individual person and this won’t solve the underlying problem.

Pennsylvania 5.55pm

After other Pennsylvania native to be TIME People of the year [Taylor Alison Swift], back again Penn. 32 teachers fired in 1953 McCarthyism purge after House UnAmerican Activities Committee came to Philly. Same kind of witch hunt led to ouster of Mary Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Magill today.

Liz will remain a tenured faculty member at Penn Carey Law. There is no joy in this. This was a failure by an institution AND an individual person and this won’t solve the underlying problem.

She was dealt a bad hand and was ill-served by her PR team. Found her to be a warm and genuine leader--traits that aren't omnipresent in the rarified air of university administration. If she returns to Penn's law faculty full-time, a lot of young potential - progressive and anti-war lawyer to be lucky.

The worst part of her much deserved resignation is that it will be used not to fight the extremity of antisemitism on Penn's campus and the threat it has posed to students and faculty, but as an excuse to ramp it up and further target both Jews and Muslims. Magill's exit will be used to declare that some "Zionist cabal" forced her out, instead of her own ineptitude and her repeated failure to provide a safe campus for Jewish and Muslim students, and before that controversy, queer and trans students, who she's also failed.

In reading off her cue cards at the House hearing which Magill was only at because she had already failed, as had the other two women being grilled with her who should also resign from Harvard and MIT, Magill also was unable to explain academic freedom and the need to protect it.

Contrary to the belief of right-wing Harvard-grad ideologues like Elise Stefanik, the job of university president is hard. That Magill and her compatriots at Harvard and MIT have also failed at the job yet might escape resignation--alas--it indicative of how hard. The JOB of universities is to educate. The job liberal arts Ivy League colleges like Penn is to provide students a safe environment in which to learn and expand their view of the world to include those POVs unlike their own.

The highly delicate balance of protecting free speech whilst also literally providing in loco parentis protection of students from violence and hate must be prioritized at college campuses. That is not happening. As a consequence real students and academic freedom are under threat. Unfortunately, the performance of the presidents in these hearings shows why hiring university leadership because off their donor connections, political connections, and perhaps business acumen is a horrible mistake.

In addition to [resignation] President Liz Magill, the Chairman of Penn's Board of Trustees Scott Bok has resigned. Bok announced his resignation from the position minutes after Bok announced Magill's resignation.

Bok — a 1981 College and Wharton graduate, and 1984 University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School graduate — began serving as chair on July 1, 2021, succeeding David Cohen, who had served as chair since November 2009. Bok oversaw the presidential transition between Amy Gutmann, who is now the United States ambassador to Germany —- the country which very weird right now about antisemitism discourse after Israel - Palestine war in Gaza, and Magill, who has served as president since July 2022.

Penn's Liz Magill had problems - not just her testimony but her wishy-washy commitment to academic freedom But make no mistake: This scalping will be used by the worst people who want to crush not just free speech but academia itself.

From ‘Goebbels of Netanyahu’, Eli David:

Bok allegedly pressured Wharton Board of Advisors Chair Mark Rowan and at least three trustees to step down after they publicly criticized the University's response to the Palestine Writes festival, The Daily Pennsylvanian reported in October. 

In a statement to the DP on Oct. 12, Bok disputed Rowan's allegations, saying that the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees told two trustees who signed onto a public letter criticizing the University that “they could consider voluntarily resigning, thereby freeing [them] from all the constraints involved in serving on a board.”

On Oct. 16, Bok wrote a guest column for the DP where he responded to Rowan's allegations and called on the Penn community to work together and move forward in difficult times.

Also in October, Vice President of the Board of Trustees Julie Platt released a statement to the DP in response to Rowan's allegations, saying that she has had "full confidence" in the leadership of Bok and Magill.

In her statement, Platt added that the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees had “unanimously endorsed” the steps Penn has taken to respond to acts of antisemitism.

Plestia Alaqad. Anne Frank

“The University has publicly committed to unprecedented steps to further combat antisemitism on its campus, reaffirmed deep support for our Jewish community, and condemned the devastating and barbaric attacks on Israel by Hamas," Platt wrote.

Vahan Gureghian, who resigned from the Board of Trustees in protest of University leadership, wrote to the DP that the action plan "is a good first step in the University’s road to recovery from the terrible controversy that has crippled this once great institution.”

However, he said that it took too much time and pressure for Magill to announce the plan. 

“The silence over the past few weeks is indicative of these leaders just hunkering down and waiting for the storm to pass,” Gureghian wrote.

A meeting of the trustees was scheduled for Sunday, according to the source, who also estimated that there were approximately a dozen "explicit calls" for Bok to step down. Bok extended a previously scheduled meeting of the trustees for next Thursday from one to two hours, although he did not foresee how a decision on Magill's future could be made before then, the source said.