Penn trustees meet after backlash on university president's Hill testimony on campus antisemitism

The University of Pennsylvania’s board of trustees is holding an emergency meeting Thursday, two days after school President Liz Magill's congressional testimony on campus antisemitism that resulted scathing criticism. 

The meet is virtual and was scheduled very recently, a university spokesperson told CNN.

Magill testified before a House Education and Workforce committee along with MIT President Sally Kornbluth and Harvard President Claudine Gay.

The meeting of Penn's board has sparked speculation that Magill will be fired or asked to resign.

Calls for her resignation were already being made before Tuesday's hearing, over her handling of antisemitism on the Philadelphia campus following Hamas' terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, then Israel declaring war on the militant group. 

The criticism about the school presidents' testimony is large about their answers to committee members' questions on whether calling for the genocide of Jews violates their respective school’s code of conduct on bullying or harassment, CNN also reports.

None of them explicitly said that calling for such genocide would necessarily violate their code of conduct. They instead said it would depend on the circumstances and conduct and attempted to balance the matter with that of free speech. 

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on social media that he was “ashamed” to hear the testimony, calling it “one of the most despicable moments in the history of US academia," also according to CNN.