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Elizabeth Magill: UPenn loses $100m donation after House antisemitism testimony
In a shocking turn of events, the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) has lost a $100 million donation following the recent testimony on antisemitism in the House of Representatives. The donor, who remains anonymous, decided to withdraw their generous contribution after being deeply concerned about the university’s response to the issue.
The Testimony
Elizabeth Magill, the provost of UPenn, recently appeared before the House Judiciary Committee to discuss the rise of antisemitism on college campuses. Her testimony highlighted the need for universities to take a strong stance against hate speech and discrimination.
Magill emphasized that universities have a responsibility to foster an inclusive environment where all students feel safe and respected. She acknowledged that antisemitism is a serious problem that needs to be addressed head-on.
The Donor’s Concerns
The anonymous donor had initially pledged the $100 million donation to UPenn to support various initiatives, including scholarships and research programs. However, after hearing Magill’s testimony, they became concerned about the university’s commitment to combating antisemitism.
The donor felt that UPenn’s response to the issue was inadequate and lacked a clear plan of action. They believed that the university should have taken a stronger stance against antisemitism and implemented more proactive measures to address the problem.
As a result, the donor decided to withdraw their donation, expressing their disappointment in UPenn’s handling of the issue. This decision was undoubtedly a significant blow to the university, as the $100 million would have made a substantial impact on the campus community.
UPenn’s Response
Following the loss of the donation, UPenn released a statement expressing their regret and disappointment. They acknowledged the importance of addressing antisemitism and committed to taking immediate steps to strengthen their efforts in combating hate speech and discrimination.
The university emphasized its commitment to fostering an inclusive and welcoming environment for all students, regardless of their religious or ethnic backgrounds. They recognized that they had work to do to regain the trust of their community and potential donors.
The Impact
The loss of the $100 million donation is undoubtedly a significant setback for UPenn. The funds would have allowed the university to expand its scholarship programs, support groundbreaking research, and invest in initiatives that would benefit the entire campus community.
Furthermore, the incident raises concerns about the potential impact on future donations. Donors may hesitate to contribute to an institution that is perceived as not taking a strong stance against antisemitism or other forms of discrimination.
MSD Partners lends $100M on Carnegie House land
MSD Partners is teaming up with David Werner and Rubin Schron at a 57th Street parcel that has been plagued by a ground lease dispute.
The Michael Dell–backed merchant bank affiliate is lending the duo $100 million secured by the property underneath a 324-unit land lease co-op called Carnegie House, according to PincusCo.
Werner and Schron bought the land below the co-op for $261 million in 2014 and have been in a legal battle with residents of the building since last year.
Shareholders involved in the lawsuit are contesting the terms of the ground lease, which is set to expire in March 2025. The rent is about $4 million, but the complaint estimates it will soar to more than $27 million when the land is reappraised in accordance with the reset.
MSD’s infusion likely means the firm does not consider the lawsuit or pending legislation in the New York State Assembly as a major threat to Werner and Schron’s ability to raise the rent, according to Pincus.
Werner and Schron offered residents the option to purchase the underlying land for $280 million in 2019, but shareholders declined, as many were concerned they wouldn’t be able to afford it, according to the lawsuit.
The building’s impending financial distress prompted some owners to put their homes on the market despite prices being depressed by the predicament. Since 2019, few apartments at the co-op have sold for more than $200,000.
MSD Partners is an affiliate of BDT & MSD Partners, led by Byron Trott and Gregg Lemkau. MSD Partners was backed by the billionaire founder of Dell Computer and merged with BDT & Company last October.
MSD Partners declined to comment on the deal. A spokesperson for Schron did not immediately respond for comment.
Schron, whose firm is Cammeby’s International Group, is one of the largest residential landlords in the city, a developer and a significant investor in apartments across the country. His assets include the Woolworth Building and Industry City, and he’s working to develop a three-tower project in Coney Island.
Werner is a prolific real estate investor whose assets include Pfizer’s Midtown East headquarters.
UPenn under fire after anti-Semitic slogans are beamed onto the school’s buildings and it’s branded a ‘magnet for anti-Semites’ as it faces civil rights complaint
- It’s just the latest concerning incident at the Ivy League following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks
- The prestigious school increased security and contacted the FBI after a string of reports of threats against Jewish students
- The Brandeis Center said it will file a civil rights complains it will file a complaint
The University of Pennsylvania is under fire again over anti-Semitism on campus after anti-Jewish slogans were projected onto three of the school’s buildings.
It’s just the latest concerning incident at the Ivy League following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks, with the school now facing a civil rights complaint as it is accused of being a ‘magnet for anti-Semites.’
‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ read one message splashed across the John M Huntsman hall on Wednesday night. The slogan demands the land from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea, meaning the end of the State of Israel.
Slogans projected on Penn Commons read: ‘Zionism is racism’ and demanded UPenn president Liz Magill call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Another message declared: ‘Penn funds Palestinian genocide.’
The University of Pennsylvania is under fire again over anti-Semitism on campus after anti-Jewish slogans were projected onto three of the school’s buildings.
The above slogan demands the land from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea, meaning the end of the State of Israel
It comes after the prestigious school increased security and contacted the FBI after a string of reports of threats against Jewish students.
The Brandeis Center saying it will file a complaint against the school, stating it ‘has allowed its campus to become a hostile environment for its Jewish students as well as a magnet for anti-Semites.’
The complaints ‘seek immediate and specific action to address increasing discrimination against and harassment of Jews in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.’
UPenn said on Monday that several of its staff members received ‘vile, disturbing anti-Semitic emails’ threatening violence against Jews on campus, particularly in Penn Hillel, an on-campus Jewish organization, and Lauder College House.
University president Liz Magill wrote: ‘These messages also included hateful language, targeting the personal identities of the recipients. Penn’s Division of Public Safety was immediately notified and responded. Penn Police also notified the FBI of this potential hate crime and a joint investigation is underway.
Magill has also acknowledged ‘swastikas and hateful graffiti’ and ‘chants at rallies, captured on video and widely circulated, that glorify the terrorist atrocities of Hamas, that celebrate and praise the slaughter and kidnapping of innocent people, and that question Israel’s very right to exist.’
A slogan projected on Penn Commons read: ‘Zionism is racism’
One of the messages demanded UPenn president Liz Magill call for a ceasefire in Gaza
The school is working with the FBI to ‘identify the individual or individuals who are responsible for these hateful, threatening emails and to ensure they are apprehended and punished to the fullest extent of the law,’ per Magill.
Earlier this week, a clip emerged purportedly showing a UPenn student praising Hamas’ ‘glorious October 7’ incursion into southern Israel.
The clip, shared by Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres, apparently shows a student addressing a crowd and urging them to remember the scenes in Israel a month ago today.
She described the ‘joyful and powerful images which came from the glorious October 7’, adding she remembered ‘feeling so empowered and so happy’.
The speaker concluded her speech saying, ‘Hold that feeling in your hearts… channel it through every action you take… go down to the streets every day and don’t ever let them feel like you quietly accept this genocide.’
Israeli civilians and military personnel were targeted in a series of attacks, with over 1,000 dead and more than 200 were believed to have been taken back to Gaza as hostages.
Israel has responded with a brutal bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip, killing more than 10,000 Palestinians since October 7, per the Palestinian Health Ministry.
At a trustees meeting on Friday, UPenn President Liz Magil said: ‘Antisemitism is resurgent in our society. There have been swastikas and hateful graffiti on our campus — here in our home.
Earlier this week, a clip emerged purportedly showing a UPenn student praising Hamas’ ‘glorious October 7’ incursion into southern Israel
‘There have been chants at rallies, captured on video and widely circulated, that glorify the terrorist atrocities of Hamas, that celebrate and praise the slaughter and kidnapping of innocent people, and that question Israel’s very right to exist.
‘There are other examples from other campuses, and there will be more. It is difficult to fully convey how sickened, and how horrified, and how angry I am.
‘I condemn personally these hateful – hateful – antisemitic acts and words, which are nothing but inhumane. And I assure you that Penn has and will investigate any act of hate on our campus and take full action in accordance with our policies and our laws.’
The University of Pennsylvania was last month accused of hypocrisy for trying to oust a controversial law professor who said ‘America would be better with fewer Asians’ while claiming free speech means it cannot punish anti-Semitic students.
The Ivy League college has spent two years trying to discipline tenured professor Amy Wax over her remarks and other comments, which include arguing that some ethnicities have lower IQs than others.
But amid a backlash to the Palestine Writes festival last month that invited speakers who have made anti-Semitic remarks, Penn reaffirmed its commitment to upholding free speech.
People gather to protest against Israeli airstrike on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza as Israeli attacks continue, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States on October 17
The conflict in the Middle East has prompted strong international reactions, ranging from peaceful protests to acts of violent anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
The Anti-Defamation League reported a nearly 400 percent spike in incidents in the US between October 7 and October 23.
America’s most prestigious universities have found themselves in hot water after allowing controversial pro-Palestine protests that some have called pro-Hamas following the group’s terrorist attacks.
Rights groups have warned that Jewish and Israeli students are facing abuse on campuses, where left-leaning student groups and professors often side with the Palestinians and rail against Israeli oppression.
In some cases, the rhetoric has extended into vocal support for an armed resistance against Israel, and clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protestors have led to violence.
Days after Hamas’ attacks, Columbia’s Students for Justice in Palestine said that Hamas’ actions were a ‘counter-offensive against their settler-colonial oppressor.’
The statement sparked furious scenes, which were replicated at colleges and universities across the country – roiling students and staff and seeing donors threaten to withdraw their funding.
Some students who publicly defended Hamas have had their job offers rescinded. Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman has threatened to cut off donations to his alma mater over student support for Palestine.
The school saw a wave of anti-Israel protests after the terror attack, with an Israeli student beaten with a stick by a teenager who was reportedly taking down posters of Jewish hostages taken by Hamas.
Meanwhile, nearly 300 staff at Columbia signed a letter condemning their colleagues for defending students who said Hamas’ terror attack of October 7 was justified. They said they are ‘astonished’ and ‘horrified’ that anyone could condone the murders.
The letter came 24 hours after more than 100 staff at the Ivy League college spoke out in support of the students from Students for Justice in Palestine. The letter claims that students are looking at the ambush within the larger framework of Palestinian oppression at the hands of the Israeli government.
Michigan State hires UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz as president, sets start date
It’s official: UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz will depart the university to become the next president of Michigan State University.
The Michigan State Board of Trustees unanimously voted to hire Guskiewicz as the university’s 22nd president in a special meeting Friday morning. Guskiewicz attended the meeting, which was held virtually. He was reported more than three weeks ago to be the sole finalist for the job and said he was “weighing” the opportunity.
He will start his new role March 4.
Guskiewicz has spent almost 30 years as a faculty member and administrator at UNC and has held the chancellorship since 2019. He filled the role on an interim basis beginning in February that year, before being named the university’s 12th chancellor in December.
He has seen the university through a tumultuous four-plus years, first inheriting the years-long controversy over the Silent Sam Confederate monument upon becoming chancellor, then leading UNC through the COVID-19 pandemic and national controversies, including whether journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones would be offered tenure to teach at the university. More recently, he confronted the tragedy this fall of an on-campus shooting that left a professor dead.
He will take the helm at Michigan State at a time of turmoil, with infighting among its Board of Trustees and national controversies, including the Larry Nassar scandal, thrusting it into the spotlight in recent years. The university’s previous president resigned over actions by the university’s trustees, saying he had “lost confidence” in the governing board.
Guskiewicz wrote to Michigan State faculty in mid-November that he would only take the new job if there was no “undue interference” from the university’s governing board.
Guskiewicz is a renowned expert on sports concussions and athletic training, receiving a MacArthur “genius grant” fellowship for that work in 2011. He joined the faculty at UNC in 1995 and rose through the ranks of the exercise and sport science department before becoming the dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, the university’s largest academic unit, in 2016.
Story continues
A search for a new chancellor at UNC is expected to begin after UNC System President Peter Hans selects someone to serve in the role on an interim basis, though no timeline for such a decision has been announced as of Friday morning.
A 13-member committee, selected by Hans and UNC Board of Trustees Chair John Preyer, will lead the search for the university’s 13th chancellor, gathering input from the campus community and interviewing candidates. The Board of Trustees will submit three finalists to the system Board of Governors. Hans will make the final nomination for consideration by that board.
The system expects “a competitive search that will attract a wide range of great candidates from all over the country,” system spokesperson Andy Wallace told The News & Observer Tuesday.
The search process is confidential, but the final vote to hire a chancellor must take place in a public meeting.
Conclusion
The loss of the $100 million donation serves as a wake-up call for UPenn and other universities to address the issue of antisemitism on their campuses. It highlights the importance of taking a proactive approach to combat hate speech and discrimination.
UPenn’s commitment to strengthening Universities must create efforts itsin this area is a step in the right direction, but it will take time to rebuild trust and secure future donations. It is crucial for universities to create an environment where all students feel safe and supported, regardless of their background or beliefs.
By learning from this unfortunate incident, universities can work towards creating a more inclusive and tolerant society, one that values diversity and actively fights against all forms of discrimination.
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