Turmoil at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) was heightened this week as a top donor walked away, and calls to oust President Elizabeth Magill intensified. But it is not new.
High-profile contributors have been walking away for months, leaving a trail of letters outlining, as one letter said, a “broken moral compass.”
In a Dec. 7 letter to UPenn, sent through attorneys, donor Ross Stevens announced he was withdrawing his gift of the Stone Ridge Units, valued at approximately $100 million, which had been slated to fund the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance. The Founder and CEO of Stone Ridge Asset Management said his company follows anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies
“Mr. Stevens and Stone Ridge are appalled by the University’s stance on antisemitism on campus. Its permissive approach to hate speech calling for violence against Jews and laissez-faire attitude toward harassment and discrimination against Jewish students would violate any policies of rules that prohibit harassment and discrimination based on religion, including those of Stone Ridge,” the letter said.
Ms. Magill, along with Harvard President Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) President Sally Kornbluth testified on Dec. 5 in front of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce about how each is responding to anti-Semitic protests on campuses.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) asked whether calling for the genocide of Jews violates UPenn’s code of conduct when it comes to harassment or bullying.
It’s a context-dependent decision, Ms. Magill held during the hearing. But after public outcry in response to her testimony, she released a video the next day on social media clarifying that a call for genocide of Jewish people is threatening and intentionally meant to terrify a people.
“In my view, it would be harassment or intimidation,” Ms. Magill said in the video.
The next-day video didn’t cut it for Mr. Stevens and his attorneys.
“President Magill…belatedly acknowledged—only after her congressional testimony went viral and demands for her termination amplified—that calls for genocide of the Jewish people constitute harassment and discrimination,” their letter said, before calling for her dismissal.
“Mr. Stevens and Stone Ridge would welcome the opportunity to discuss this matter further… if, and when, there is a new University President in place. Until then, there can be no meaningful discussion about remedying the University’s ongoing failure to honor its obligations.”
Jon Huntsman, former Utah Governor and retired U.S. Ambassador to Russia, China, and Singapore, wrote s similar letter to UPenn in October.
“Penn has become deeply adrift in ways that make it almost unrecognizable. Moral relativism has fueled the university’s race to the bottom and sadly now has reached a point where remaining impartial is no longer an option,” Mr. Huntsman wrote. “The University’s silence in the face of reprehensible and historic Hamas evil against the people of Israel (when the only response should be outright condemnation) is a new low. Silence is antisemitism, and antisemitism is hate, the very thing higher ed was built to obviate. Consequently, Huntsman Foundation will close its checkbook on all future giving to Penn—something that has been a source of enormous pride for now three generations of graduates.”
Also in October, Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo Management, Inc., pulled his support.
Jonathon Jacobson of HighSage Ventures, who gave tens of millions to UPenn sent an annual donation check of $1 in October, promising his giving would stay at that level until Ms. Magill finds employment elsewhere.
Trustee Trouble
Longtime UPenn Trustee Vahan Gureghian, founder and CEO of CSMI Consultant Group, resigned from the board in October. Mr. Gureghian was upset by the extreme anti-Israel hate rhetoric that was espoused at the September Palestinian Writes Literature Festival hosted on the Penn Campus.
He was further troubled after learning that two prominent members of the Penn community, billionaire donor Ron Lauder and Law & Order creator Dick Wolf, had urged Ms. Magill to cancel the festival weeks before it occurred, and she had refused to do so, Mr. Gureghian told The Epoch Times, adding that Mr. Lauder made a special trip to Philadelphia to meet with Ms. Magill, and in that meeting, he presented evidence that participants and speakers scheduled to appear had well-known histories of anti-Israel rhetoric. He followed up that meeting with a letter urging the cancellation.
Mr. Wolf sent a letter in advance voicing the same concerns as Mr. Lauder.
Mr. Gureghian believes Ms. Magill and Scott Bok, Chairman of the board, should both step down. The Epoch Times asked for comment from Ms. Magill and Mr. Bok
“I was appalled, by the way that the chairman and the president, Magill, treated the whole Palestine festival, and then the subsequent response to the attacking by Hamas,” Mr. Gureghian told The Epoch Times. “I was also upset with my fellow board members because, you have a scenario at the University of Pennsylvania, and I don’t know if it exists at these other Ivy League schools, where everything is a rubber stamp, and nobody speaks out any kind of negative basis, and every vote is a unanimous vote.”
He knew, as a board member, that he had to keep certain parts of meetings confidential, and by leaving the board, where he has served since 2009, he could speak out.
“So I felt like I could do the most to effectuate change by resigning from the board and, letting the public know what really goes on behind closed doors at University of Pennsylvania, and, also as a former board member, expressing my discontent with the way the president had been handling things as it related to antisemitism on campus. The poor Jewish kids on campus feel intimidated and are afraid to go to class. It’s appalling.”
Mr. Gureghian is an Armenian American whose own ancestors were victims of genocide at the beginning of the last century. He has always felt a deep connection to the Jewish people and has been an outspoken defender of Israel and Jews around the world.
“You need to protect the Jewish kids at the school from the harassment, and you need to make an example of any of these kids that are harassing them and are effectively committing hate crimes on them,” Mr. Gureghian said.
He believes Ms. Magill and Mr. Bok should resign and allow new leadership to chart the path forward. By not resigning, he says, they are doing a disservice to the University and the students as their continued presence erodes philanthropic financial support of the university.
“I urge you to take a hard look at the direction the school is headed and the externalities of its broken moral compass. It is time for universities across our nation to reassess the values they demonstrate to the young minds they are shaping,” Gureghian wrote in his resignation letter.
At least 16 mega-donors– have withdrawn financial support from UPenn.
President’s Fate Not Determined
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, is a member of the UPenn board. He has not come out and specifically said Ms. Magill should be removed, but he did say during an unrelated press conference on Friday that the board met Thursday and would continue meeting over the weekend, and he intimated that the discussion was about her continued employment.“Leaders have a responsibility to speak and act with more clarity. The President Magill and, for that matter, the other university presidents failed that test,” Mr. Shapiro said. “I think the board at Penn needs to now make a determination as to whether or not the views that she stated under oath, reflect the views and values of the Board at the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Pennsylvania as an institution. I made it clear to them that they need to act, and they need to act swiftly. The board had a brief meeting yesterday. I understand they will be meeting again later this weekend, and presumably into next week, and they have to make that determination.”
