Just last week, 74 members of Congress signed a letter written by Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida and Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York.
Their goal was to call the attention of board members to the subtle spread of antisemitism on campuses of some Ivy Leagues. Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of Pennsylvania are the three institutions whose boards received the letter.
However, the leadership seat at Penn seems to be the hottest. It turns out that the board of Wharton Business School, the University of Pennsylvania, is also calling for the replacement of the institution’s president.
Liz Magill, president at Penn, has come under fire for her comments on the issues of harassment of Jewish students. So far, no official statement from MIT and Harvard boards has been made.
However, the Wharton School board seems to be threading along the lines of the lawmakers’ suggestion. The three presidents in question recently made an appearance before Congress. Stefanik and some other lawmakers were not satisfied with the presidents’ testimonies as to what constitutes harassment on a university campus.
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The lawmakers’ letter expressed their displeasure about the three presidents’ indifference. There are reports of harassment of Jewish and Israeli students on their campuses. To this end, they recommended that the school boards replace the presidents. Likewise, the boards are to recommend steps to curb such harassment.
The advisory board of Wharton School equally sent a letter to Penn’s universitywide committee last week.
Wharton’s board made suggestions about a review of Penn’s code of conduct some weeks before. So, in the recent letter, the committee passed what we can assume is a vote of no confidence in the University leadership.
Wharton’s board consists of notable business executives. These executives represent some of the largest organizations on Wall Street and in the US.
There are even reports of the chair of Wharton’s board, Marc Rowan, publicly calling out President Magill. He disagrees with Magill’s indifference about the impact of antisemitism on her campus.
The universitywide board of Penn has yet to respond officially to the Wharton letter. However, insiders report that they are already having virtual meetings to deliberate on the ongoing controversy. It is said that members of the universitywide board showed massive support for Magill during the virtual meeting.
However, the meeting must be official and physical before board members can vote on removing the seating president. Also, the universitywide board will need a two-thirds majority vote to remove a seating president.
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Indeed, the presidents of the three institutions did not give a definitive response as to whether a verbal assault on Jews could be seen as harassment. However, Magill posted a video message online after the widespread backlash.
The statement was largely to redeem her image. Likewise, she resolved to bring an end to every trace of antisemitism at Penn.
So far, there has been no record of physical assault on Jewish students at Penn. However, some of them are afraid of the verbal onslaught that comes with pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
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