Penn president vows to review 'genocide' policy in campus Israel-Gaza clash

7/12/2023 12:16

                University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill on Wednesday promised to review the university's code of conduct after she faced calls to resign for declining to say whether advocating genocide was a violation of the policy.
        
        Penn students and alumni stepped up calls for Magill to step down after she declined to say outright during a congressional hearing that calling for the genocide of Jews would violate Penn's code of conduct.
        
        In a video statement posted online, Magill said she should have focused more on the "evil" of advocating genocide instead of framing the matter as an issue of free speech in line with the U.S. Constitution and the traditions of on-campus debate.
        
        "I want to be clear. A call for genocide of Jewish people is threatening, deeply so," Magill said.
        
        "It is intentionally meant to terrify a people who have been subjected to pogroms and hatred for centuries, and were the victims of mass genocide in the Holocaust. In my view, it would be harassment or intimidation," she added.
        
        Magill said she and Provost John Jackson would begin a process to evaluate and clarify campus policy, saying, "We can and will get this right."