Penn loses $100M donation after school president's Hill testimony on campus antisemitism

The University of Pennsylvania lost a $100 million donation following school President Liz Magill’s congressional testimony Tuesday about how antisemitism and hate speech are handled on campus.  

Attorneys for Ross Stevens, founder and CEO of Stone Ridge Asset Management, wrote a letter to Penn's Senior Vice President, saying he would be withdrawing his donation.

“Mr. Stevens and Stone Ridge are appalled by the University’s stance on antisemitism on campus,” the letter reads. 

“Its permissive approach to hate speech calling for violence against Jews and laissez faire attitude toward harassment and discrimination against Jewish students would violate any policies or rules that prohibit harassment and discrimination based on religion, including those of Stone Ridge.”

Magill has been called to resign 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. 

While Magill and the other Ivy League presidents didn't explicitly say calling for genocide of Jewish people would violate their schools' code of conduct. They instead essentially said it would depend on the circumstances and conduct and attempted to balance the matter with that of free speech. 

“Absent a change in leadership and values at Penn in the very near future, I plan to rescind Penn’s Stone Ridge shares to prevent any further reputational and other damage to Stone Ridge as a result of our relationship with Penn and Liz Magill,” Stevens wrote in a statement to his staff Thursday, according to The Hill. 

“I love Penn and it is important to me, but our firm’s principles are more important," he added.