Liz Magill, who will become the dean of Georgetown University Law Center on Aug. 1, left her position as president of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) following a congressional hearing on antisemitism. 

Magill, who served as president of Penn from July 2022 to December 2023, faced widespread backlash for her testimony at a congressional hearing covering antisemitism on college campuses following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel. Magill was criticized for declining to directly say that calling for the “genocide of Jews” violated Penn’s code of conduct during the hearing, which ultimately led to her resignation as president of the university. 

At the December 2023 congressional hearing, in response to a question by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Magill said calls of genocide against Jewish people constitutes harrassment only in certain contexts.

“If it is directed and severe, pervasive, it is harassment,” Magill said at the hearing.

“It is a context-dependent decision,” Magill added.

Magill received significant, bipartisan blowback following the hearing, including from students, faculty and politicians, such as Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-Pa.) and Rep.Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.).

Shapiro said Magill’s testimony was embarrassing.

“That was an unacceptable statement from the president of Penn,” Shapiro said during a visit to a prominent Jewish eatery in Philadelphia days after the testimony. “Frankly, I thought her comments were absolutely shameful. It should not be hard to condemn genocide.”

Facing significant pressure from public figures, Magill resigned just four days after the Dec. 5, 2023 hearing. Harvard University’s then-president, Claudine Gay, who testified alongside Magill, resigned a month later after facing similar backlash.

Magill, who did not reference her testimony in her resignation announcement, said she was grateful to be a part of the Penn community.

“It has been my privilege to serve as president of this remarkable institution,” Magill wrote in her resignation statement. “It has been an honor to work with our faculty, students, staff, alumni and community members to advance Penn’s vital missions.”

Foxx, chair of the committee that held the December 2023 hearing, said in a statement following Magill’s resignation that Magill had ample opportunity to say calls for genocide violated Penn speech and expression policy.

“Three chances,” Foxx wrote in the statement. “President Magill had three chances to set the record straight when asked if calling for the genocide of Jews violated UPenn’s code of conduct during our hearing on antisemitism. Instead of giving a resounding yes to the question, she chose to equivocate. What’s more shocking is that it took her more than 24 hours to clarify her comments, and even that clarification failed to include an apology to the Jewish students who do not feel safe on campus. I welcome her departure from UPenn.”

Penn guarantees students the right to assemble and speech in their guidelines on open expression, as long as the speech does not cause imminent danger or violence.

Connor Murnane — the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s (FIRE) chief of staff for campus advocacy — said university leaders like Magill use a double standard in expression policy. 

“At the congressional hearing, Magill was largely correct that whether speech crosses the line into unprotected categories like discriminatory harassment, true threats or incitement is often context dependent,” Murnane wrote to The Hoya. “The larger problem was credibility. Too many university leaders have enforced speech rules through double standards in recent years. They censor unpopular views and then invoke free expression only when it’s convenient.”

Magill said in a video apology posted to Penn’s website that she was not focused on the call for genocide against Jewish people.

“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,” Magill said in the video. “It’s evil — plain and simple.” 

Magill also said expression policies need to be evaluated to better reflect hate speech.

“In today’s world, where we are seeing signs of hate proliferating across our campus and our world in a way not seen in years, these policies need to be clarified and evaluated,” Magill said in the video.

Murnane said Magill’s subsequent apology compounded the situation because she did not defend free speech protections.

“Magill’s follow up after the hearing did not help,” Murnane wrote. “After stressing that Penn’s policies had historically been ‘guided by the Constitution and the law,’ she announced those same policies needed to be ‘clarified and evaluated’ immediately. In context, it suggested that free speech commitments are too often negotiable when outside pressure intensifies.”

Murnane also said campuses are not safer because of speech restrictions.

“You don’t strengthen the campus climate by restricting protected expression,” Murnane wrote. “You enforce rules against unprotected conduct evenhandedly and in a viewpoint neutral manner, and you maintain space for civil dialogue, criticism and debate.”

Jonathan Friedman — director of free expression and education at PEN America, a nonprofit aimed at raising awareness for free speech and expression — said universities must strive to protect minority groups and enable free expression.

“President Magill’s resignation is testament to the dilemmas of maintaining a campus that both upholds uncompromising free speech protections and facilitates an open, equitable environment for all students, regardless of race, religion or nationality,” Friedman wrote in a statement following Magill’s resignation. “We have long stressed the importance of the university using its institutional voice to denounce denigration and dehumanization and stand in solidarity with those targeted by hatred. Doing so forcefully need not and must not mean backing away from free speech protections.”

Friedman said universities have a responsibility to protect both the campus community and free speech.

“It’s hard to do the two things at once, but ultimately for our universities to play their role in knitting together our polarized society, they need to get it right,” Friedman wrote. “We should not hold university leaders to impossible standards, nor reward combative approaches by campus constituencies that overlook the genuine challenges involved.”

“We hope that this development does not serve as an invitation for politicians or donors to try to exert undue control over our higher education institutions,” Friedman added. “Rather, it should spur a recommitment from universities to more forcefully embrace this dual responsibility, creating campuses where bigotry is rejected and free speech can thrive.” 

Nearly a year after her resignation, Magill said she could have responded more effectively to antisemitism on Penn’s campus while speaking at a University of North Carolina panel on speech on university campuses.

“It was a mistake not to do that, and I don’t think that’s who I am,” Magill said at the panel. “I am empathetic and could definitely understand and have stepped in the shoes of someone who hears something like that on our campus.”