M. Elizabeth Magill Quotes

Our Jewish community is afraid. Our Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian communities feel unseen and unheard. I condemn the death threats and doxing that many at Penn are experiencing based only on their identity, their affiliations, or their views of the suffering in this war.

Rep Elise Stefanik: I am asking, specifically calling for the genocide of Jews, does that constitute bullying or harassment?
Magill: If it is directed and severe, pervasive, it is harassment.
Stefanik: So the answer is yes.
Magill: It is a context-dependent decision, congresswoman.

In that moment I was focused on our university's long-standing policies aligned with the U.S. Constitution which say that speech alone is not punishable.

In today's world where we are seeing signs of hate proliferating across our campus and our world in a way not seen in years, these policies need to be clarified and evaluated.

It has been my privilege to serve as president of this remarkable institution. It has been an honor to work with our faculty, students, staff, alumni and community members to advance Penn’s vital missions.

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 [...] It's evil, plain and simple.