Emergency meeting

University of Pennsylvania board of trustees holds emergency meeting after president Liz Magill’s disastrous testimony

By Matt Egan

The University of Pennsylvania’s board of trustees held an emergency meeting Thursday as school president Liz Magill faces scathing criticism over her performance at a House hearing earlier this week.

A university spokesperson told CNN the board of trustees gathered virtually. Although it wasn’t a formal board meeting, it was organized at approximately 2 pm ET Wednesday. That came just hours after Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro condemned Magill’s testimony as “shameful” and urged the board of trustees to meet and decide whether that testimony lives up to the school’s values. Despite its name, Penn is a private school and is not run by the state.

The hastily arranged meeting, which concluded by midday Thursday, comes as Magill faces intense pressure following Tuesday’s hearing in the House. Magill and the presidents of Harvard and MIT struggled to answer questions on Tuesday about whether calling for the genocide of Jews violates their respective school’s code of conduct on bullying or harassment.

It is unclear whether the board gathering Thursday is related to Magill’s future at the school, but that topic is sure to be on the minds of board members.

A disastrous hearing

During Tuesday’s hearing, none of the school leaders explicitly said that calling for the genocide of Jews would necessarily violate their code of conduct. Instead, they explained it would depend on the circumstances and conduct.

Magill attempted to clarify her message on Wednesday, posting a video on X where the Penn leader said she should have focused on 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.”

Magill said that Penn’s policies “need to be clarified and evaluated,” adding that in her view: “It would be harassment or intimidation.”

Still, the hearing on Tuesday drew strong criticism from business leaders, donors, politicians and even the White House weighed in.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, called the testimony “catastrophic and clarifying” and said Magill’s attempt to clean-up her testimony “looked like a hostage video, like she was speaking under duress.”

“I understand why the governor of Pennsylvania and so many of the trustees don’t have confidence in her. I don’t have confidence anymore that Penn is capable, under this leadership, of getting it right,” Greenblatt told CNN’s Kate Bolduan, adding that he has spoken with Magill.

The ADL CEO said his organization did not have a position on whether or not the university presidents should step down – until Tuesday’s hearing.

“But when I watched these presidents flail and feebly, with leglal-ish answers respond to a simple line of questioning, we have lost confidence with them,” he said.