{"id":33830,"date":"2023-12-10T15:26:46","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T15:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/top-us-university-president-quits-after-anti-semitism-uproar\/"},"modified":"2023-12-10T15:26:46","modified_gmt":"2023-12-10T15:26:46","slug":"top-us-university-president-quits-after-anti-semitism-uproar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/top-us-university-president-quits-after-anti-semitism-uproar\/","title":{"rendered":"Top US university president quits after anti-Semitism uproar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>The president of an Ivy League university stepped down on Saturday in the wake of a firestorm of criticism after a congressional hearing on the rise of anti-Semitism on US campuses.<\/p>\n<p>University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill \u201cvoluntarily tendered her resignation,\u201d the chair of the university\u2019s board of trustees Scott Bok announced.<\/p>\n<p>Bok also stepped down himself, a university spokesman confirmed to <em>AFP<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Magill was among three presidents of elite universities who faced withering criticism following their testimony on Tuesday during a congressional hearing on campus anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n<p>The trio gave long, legalistic and seemingly evasive answers at the hearing when asked whether students who call for the \u201cgenocide of Jews\u201d on their campuses violate codes of student conduct.<\/p>\n<p>Blowback was rapid and intense.<\/p>\n<p>Seventy-four lawmakers wrote letters demanding the immediate removal of Magill and the presidents of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1790187\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Pennsylvania\u2019s Democratic governor called Magill\u2019s performance \u201cabsolutely shameful\u201d and a major donor said he would rescind a $100 million gift to the university\u2019s Wharton School of Business.<\/p>\n<p>At Tuesday\u2019s hearing, Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik asked each of the presidents if calling for the genocide of Jews violated university rules or codes of conduct.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment, yes,\u201d Magill responded, according to a transcript on Stefanik\u2019s office website.<\/p>\n<p>Stefanik pressed on: \u201cI am asking, specifically calling for the genocide of Jews, does that constitute bullying or harassment?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it is directed and severe, pervasive, it is harassment,\u201d Magill said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo the answer is yes,\u201d Stefanik queried.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a context-dependent decision, congresswoman,\u201d Magill responded.<\/p>\n<p>When Stefanik heard similar answers from the others, she erupted: \u201cIt does not depend on the context. The answer is yes, and this is why you should resign.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harvard\u2019s president, Claudine Gay, apologized afterwards for failing to more strongly condemn threats of anti-Semitic violence on her campus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen words amplify distress and pain, I don\u2019t know how you could feel anything but regret,\u201d Gay later told the <em>Harvard Crimson<\/em> newspaper.<\/p>\n<p>Bok, who helms the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s board of trustees \u2014 a body that handles major governance issues \u2014 said Magill made \u201ca very unfortunate misstep\u201d as he announced her departure, student newspaper <em>The Daily Pennsylvanian<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was not herself last Tuesday,\u201d Bok said in a statement published by the school paper.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOver prepared and over lawyered given the hostile forum and high stakes, she provided a legalistic answer to a moral question, and that was wrong,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt made for a dreadful 30-second sound bite in what was more than five hours of testimony.\u201d He said his own resignation was \u201ceffective immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Board vice chair Julie Platt replaces him temporarily, the executive committee announced on Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p>In Bok\u2019s note to the campus, he said Magill would stay in her post until an interim president is appointed and would remain on the faculty of the university\u2019s law school.<\/p>\n<p>With Magill gone, Stefanik turned her sights on Harvard and MIT, tagging both schools in a post on X, formerly Twitter. \u201cDo the right thing,\u201d she said. \u201cThe world is watching.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anti-Semitism and hate crimes targeting Jewish and Muslim people have risen in the United States and on university campuses since Israel began bombarding Gaza after the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.<\/p>\n<p>With passions inflamed on campuses, a broader debate has taken place about the boundaries between freedom of speech and deeply offensive, even inflammatory language.<\/p>\n<p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Jewish community was countering this current trend of anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe important thing that is now happening is that friends and leaders in the Jewish community are finally standing up,\u201d he said at the weekly cabinet meeting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the only way to fight it: With pride and honor, not with bowed heads,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The president of an Ivy League university stepped down on Saturday in the wake of a firestorm of criticism after a congressional hearing on the rise of anti-Semitism on US campuses. University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill \u201cvoluntarily tendered her resignation,\u201d the chair of the university\u2019s board of trustees Scott Bok announced. Bok also stepped [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/12\/10195752e6e37c1.jpg?r=195843","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}