Identity of Speakers
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M. Elizabeth Magill
Faculty/Staff
OtherFormer President of the University of Pennsylvania and a tenured professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.
Resources
Additional Information
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Incident Nature:
Rally or protest
Other
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Incident Political Orientation:
Not Clear -
Incident Responses:
Rally or Protests
Other
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Incident Status:
No litigation
- Did not involve Speech Codes
Summary
On December 9, 2023, Liz Magill resigned as president of the University of Pennsylvania amid intense backlash over her testimony at a congressional hearing on antisemitism on college campuses. During the hearing, she declined to definitively say whether calls for the genocide of Jews would violate Penn’s code of conduct. Her remarks were sharply criticized by officials across the political spectrum, including Republican U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik, Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Casey, and Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, as well as by alumni, students, and donors, who argued they were insufficiently critical of antisemitism. She remained a tenured faculty member at Penn Carey Law after stepping down. The board of trustees appointed J. Larry Jameson as interim president on December 12, 2023, and he was later named permanent president in March 2025.
Nearly three years after stepping down from Penn’s presidency, Magill was named the next executive vice president and dean of the Georgetown University Law Center on February 13, 2026, with her term beginning August 1, 2026. She acknowledged the controversy surrounding her congressional testimony and expressed a commitment to ensuring all students, especially Jewish students, feel secure and supported in academic environments.
