Pennsylvania governor slams University of Pennsylvania president’s ‘absolutely shameful’ House testimony

Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) slammed University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill’s testimony in front of Congress this week as “absolutely shameful” after she gave a controversial response on punishments for antisemitism on campus.

Magill appeared in front of the House of Representatives on Tuesday alongside the presidents of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During her testimony, Magill refused to state whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violated the university’s policies on bullying and harassment, claiming it was a “context-dependent decision.”

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When pressed further by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) for a “yes” or “no” answer, Magill refused to respond. The other college leaders have also refused to explicitly state whether the calls for genocide violated their school’s policies.

“The simple answer is yes, that violates our policy,” Shapiro told Jewish Insider on Wednesday. “Leaders have a responsibility to speak and act with moral clarity, and Liz Magill failed to meet that simple test. That was an unacceptable statement from the president of Penn. Frankly, I thought her comments were absolutely shameful. It should not be hard to condemn genocide.”

The Ivy League president has since tried to clarify her response, claiming on Wednesday that she was focusing on speech policies when testifying and saying that calls for genocide of the Jewish people “would” be considered bullying or harassment.

Shapiro said he called for UPenn’s school board to discuss whether Magill’s statements on Tuesday represent the school’s “views and values” before taking any action himself. Shapiro also said he has spoken with Magill and the board several times since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7.

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“I’ve made concrete recommendations to them on the kind of steps that I thought they needed to take to make sure that all students feel safe on their campus,” Shapiro said. “They have seemingly failed every step of the way to take concrete action to make sure all students feel safe on campus. And then the testimony yesterday took it to the next level.”

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which is led by Republicans, has since launched an investigation into the three universities following the testimonies. Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) said committee members have “deep concerns” over the leadership in the schools and their alleged “failure to take steps to provide Jewish students the safe learning environment they are due under law.”