Penn board of trustees convenes after school president’s House comments

The University of Pennsylvania’s (Penn) board of trustees held an informal virtual gathering Thursday following Penn President Liz Magill receiving bipartisan condemnation for her comments at a House hearing on campus antisemitism.  

The trustees had a virtual call that began Thursday morning at 9 a.m. EST and ran for a couple of hours, a source familiar with the matter told The Hill. After the virtual meeting, the executive committee for the board had an informal lunch at noon.  

It is unknown what was discussed at these informal events, but they follow backlash Magill faced after she was asked at the House hearing if calls for Jewish genocide would be considered harassment on campus.  

She responded “If the speech becomes conduct, it can be harassment,” which prompted Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to counter, “Conduct meaning committing the act of genocide?” 

The source familiar contested media describing it as an “emergency meeting,” saying, “an emergency meeting would be the same day. This meeting was called yesterday and didn’t happen until 18 hours later.” They also said an official meeting between the trustees has certain requirements that were not met for this gathering.

The virtual gathering was planned the same day Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) called on the board to meet “soon” to have a “serious discussion” if Magill’s comments represented the university. Both Democratic senators for Pennsylvania also condemned Magill for her testimony.

“That was an unacceptable statement from the president of Penn,” Shapiro said. “Frankly, I thought her comments were absolutely shameful. It should not be hard to condemn genocide.”   

Magill did release a statement Wednesday that sought to clarify her comments, saying in her view a call for Jewish genocide “would be harassment or intimidation.” 

“In that moment, I was focused on our university’s long-standing policies, aligned with the U.S. Constitution, which say that speech alone is not punishable,” she said in a video. “I was not focused on, but I should have been, the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate.” 

Some free speech advocates have noted they agreed with the college presidents’ responses at the hearing that calls for genocide might not violate the First Amendment depending on the context, but they said that universities are facing backlash for hiding behind the Constitution after, arguably, ignoring it for other viewpoints.