The University of Pennsylvania's (UPenn) board of trustees convened for a virtual meeting on Thursday, following the widespread criticism of their President, Liz Magill, for her remarks during a House hearing on campus antisemitism.
The meeting, which began at 9 a.m. Eastern time, lasted for several hours, according to an insider. Subsequently, the board's executive committee held an informal lunch at noon.
The content of these discussions remains undisclosed. However, they occurred in the wake of the controversy surrounding Magill's response to a question at the House hearing about whether calls for Jewish genocide would be deemed harassment on campus. "If the speech becomes conduct, it can be harassment," she replied, leading Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to retort, "Conduct meaning committing the act of genocide?"
The insider refuted media claims that the meeting was an "emergency," stating, "an emergency meeting would be the same day. This meeting was called yesterday and didnt happen until 18 hours later." They also pointed out that the gathering did not fulfill the prerequisites for an official trustees meeting.
The virtual meeting was scheduled on the same day Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro urged the board to convene "soon" for a "serious discussion" about whether Magill's comments accurately represented the university. Both Democratic senators for Pennsylvania also criticized Magill for her testimony.
"That was an unacceptable statement from the president of Penn," Shapiro declared. "Frankly, I thought her comments were absolutely shameful. It should not be hard to condemn genocide."
On Wednesday, Magill issued a statement to clarify her remarks, asserting that a call for Jewish genocide "would be harassment or intimidation." She explained, "In that moment, I was focused on our Universitys long-standing policies, aligned with the U.S. Constitution, which say that speech alone is not punishable. 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."
However, some advocates of free speech have noted their agreement with the college presidents' responses at the hearing, suggesting that calls for genocide might not infringe upon the First Amendment, depending on the context. They also criticized universities for ostensibly hiding behind the Constitution after arguably disregarding it for other viewpoints.
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