University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned from her post Saturday after facing intense criticism from the White House, lawmakers and alumni for appearing to dodge a question at a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism.
“I write to share that President Liz Magill has voluntarily tendered her resignation as President of the University of Pennsylvania,” Scott L. Bok, the chair of the Penn Board of Trustees, wrote in a message to the Penn community Saturday. “She will remain a tenured faculty member at Penn Carey Law.”
Shortly after Bok announced Magill’s resignation, he announced he would also step down from his position, according to a statement from Bok published by the Daily Pennsylvanian student newspaper. “I concluded that, for me, now was the right time to depart,” Bok said in the statement.
A university spokesman confirmed Bok’s resignation.
In a five-hour House hearing Tuesday, Magill and her counterparts at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were grilled over how their institutions responded to the rise in anti-Jewish hate since Oct. 7.
In their testimonies, the three university leaders each condemned antisemitism. The outcry centered on a contentious exchange with Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who asked whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate each school’s code of conduct.
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