On Saturday, Liz Magill announced she would step down as President of the University of Pennsylvania.
Magill's resignation comes four days after her disastrous Congressional testimony in which she could not bring himself to suggest that threats of genocide against Jews violated the school's code of conduct calling it a "context-dependent decision." Her attempt to walk back the testimony the following day did not help matters.
However, Magill will not step down until an interim president is found. Additionally, UPenn Board of Trustees Chair Scott Bok also tendered his resignation.
The question remains if Magill's successor will be any better equipped or prepared to combat anti-Semitism at UPenn. Magill's problems began before her testimony on Capitol Hill. She faced considerable criticism after permitting the Palestine Writes Festival on campus back in September which featured anti-Semitic speakers and content.
As ineffectual as Magill's leadership was on the question of anti-Semitism, the fact remains that anti-Semitism on university campuses in this country run far deeper than Liz Magill or for that matter Claudine Gay at Harvard and Sally Kornbluth at MIT. While Magill's resignation is warranted that alone won't solve the problem as anti-Semitism is seeped into academia.
In order to counter this culture, UPenn would need to name a President from outside academia to shake things up. The same would be true should Gay and Kornbluth step down at Harvard and MIT, respectively. Naturally, there is no guarantee this will come to pass.
Even if UPenn does have a successful change in leadership, the level of anti-Semitic indoctrination absorbed by students will take years to deprogram. As it stands, the damage has already been done as anti-Semitism is out in the open while Jews who want to combat anti-Semitism must meet in secret.
Liz Magill's resignation is a step in the right direction. But sometimes one step forward is followed by two steps back.
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