The University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) has just lost a whopping $100 million donation over the college president’s anti-Semitic remarks.
Ross Stevens, the founder and CEO of Stone Ridge Asset Management, is withdrawing the massive donation as a protest against the college’s handling of anti-Semitism on campus and the controversial testimony by UPenn President Liz Magill on the subject.
Stevens donated to UPenn in 2017 a gift that consisted of partnership units in the firm which are now valued at around $100 million.
The donation was to help the university establish a financial innovation center.
Attorneys for Stevens sent the university a letter indicating the school violated Stone Ridge’s limited partnership agreement through its failure to adhere to anti-discrimination and anti-harassment rules.
The news was first reported by Axios.
The letter said that Stevens and Stone Ridge “are appalled by the University’s stance on antisemitism on campus.”
It added that UPenn’s “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 of rules that prohibit harassment and discrimination based on religion, including those of Stone Ridge.”
It also took issue with Magill’s testimony before the House Education and Workforce Committee this week.
During the hearing, she said that whether anti-Semitic chants and calls for the genocide of Jewish people are prohibited speech on campus are “context-dependent” and would violate UPenn’s rules against bullying and harassment if it was “directed,” “pervasive” and “severe.”
The letter from Stevens and Stone Ridge noted that Magill’s testimony and her subsequent clarification posted on social media seemingly conceded that such anti-Semitic rhetoric would violate UPenn’s rules as harassment and discrimination.
“President Magill’s December 6, 2023 post on X admitted as much when she belatedly acknowledged — only after her Congressional testimony went viral and demands for her termination amplified — that calls for genocide of the Jewish people constitute harassment and discrimination,” the letter said.
Stevens’ letter to UPenn indicated that he and Stone Ridge would be willing to reconsider the withdrawal of his donation only after the university has replaced Magill in the role of president.
Magill, along with Claudine Gay and Sally Kornbluth, the presidents of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively, testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
During the hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) asked all three women if calls for Jewish genocide constituted harassment.
All three college leaders gave waffled answers that were both cold and insipid to the more significant issue of the anti-Semitism facing Jewish students amid the war in Gaza.
The self-righteous, arrogant smile on Liz Magill of @Penn says it all. Shocking testimony from this so-called educator. What is going to happen to our incredible country with someone like this shaping the hearts & minds of our students? All those involved with @Penn MUST SPEAK… pic.twitter.com/vpbCtSfLnn
— Jason D. Greenblatt (@GreenblattJD) December 6, 2023
All three presidents essentially stated that such actions must be placed into context.
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