Academic leaders fall victim to their own totalitarian policies
University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill and Board of Trustees Scott Bok Saturday announced their resignations following widespread outrage over Magill’s remarks before Congress last week.
Over 70 lawmakers have called for the resignation of Magill, along with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) President Sally Kornbluth and Harvard President Claudine Gay. In a congressional hearing Tuesday called to address rampant Jew hatred on college campuses, the three Ivy League presidents told Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) that calling for the genocide of Jews would not be considered bullying or harassment.
Stefanik, visibly shocked, repeated the question several times. But each of the university heads said that calling for the genocide of Jews would only constitute bullying or harassment “depending on the context,” as it is constitutionally protected speech. Magill, who drew the most ire, smiled as she said that it would only be considered harassment if the genocide was actually carried out.
Following intense domestic and international backlash, Magill posted a video in which she claimed that during the hearing she was “focused on our university’s long standing policies aligned with the US Constitution which say that speech alone is not punishable.”
Gay and Kornbluth put out similar statements which also failed to temper the fallout, and public pressure is mounting for their resignations as well.
Magill will stay on as interim president until a new one is appointed. Bok’s resignation took effect immediately.
The outrage came not only from those who believe calls for genocide should be considered bullying and harassment, but even from free speech advocates who do not. Those who have witnessed the totalitarian cancel culture on college campuses — particularly the Ivy Leagues — are calling for the administrators who cultivated such an authoritarian climate to be subjected to their own rules.
“As a professor who favors free speech on campus, I can sympathize with the ‘nuanced’ answers given by U. presidents yesterday, about whether calls to attack or wipe out Israel violate campus speech policies,” wrote New York University Stern School of Business Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership on X.
“What offends me is that since 2015, universities have been so quick to punish ‘microaggressions,’ including statements intended to be kind, if even one person from a favored group took offense. The presidents are now saying: ‘Jews are not a favored group, so offending or threatening Jews is not so bad. For Jews, it all depends on context.’ We might call this double standard ‘institutional anti-semitism.’
“University presidents: If you're not going to punish students for calling for the elimination of Israel and Israelis, it's OK with me, but ONLY if you also immediately dismantle the speech policing apparatus and norms you created in 2015-2016.”
Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon similarly wrote, “The point isn't that universities aren't censoring enough. The point is that they ordinarily censor far too much but suddenly became free speech absolutists when Jews were the target.”
“At Harvard, ‘fatphobia’ constitutes violence. But ‘globalize the intifada’ requires context,” journalist Bari Weiss posted Thursday.
When MIT found out that University of Chicago geophysicist Professor Dorian Abbott had once argued that universities should hire based on merit, the school canceled his guest lecture.
In 2020 when MIT Chaplain Father Daniel Maloney suggested George Floyd may not have died from racism, he was asked to resign.
Fifty-nine percent of MIT students are afraid their reputations would be destroyed because someone misunderstands something they may have said or done, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
"One of my graduate professors gave me a bad grade on my paper because my take on the prompt was against his beliefs, and he took it personally and attempted to critique my abilities rather than the content of the paper,” said a student.
At University of Pennsylvania, law professor Amy Wax is still facing termination for comments she made about Black people and for inviting American Renaissance Editor Jared Taylor to lecture. Taylor is considered a “White supremacist” for comments he also made about Blacks. UPenn initiated disciplinary action against Professor Wax last year.
According to FIRE, there were nine attempts made at UPenn last year to cancel individuals for their views, which included sanctioning students and disinviting lecturers.
It is not only the living who are forced to toe the line. In July 2020 the university announced plans to remove a statue of Great Awakening Preacher George Whitefield because of comments he made supporting slavery in the 1700s. Whitefield was one of the founders of UPenn, alongside Benjamin Franklin.
In a free speech ranking of nearly 250 colleges across America, Harvard came in last. Speakers, scholars or students who express diverse ideas are often sanctioned by the university, and over 70% of students feel it is acceptable to shout down speech they do not find permissible. Only “39% of students say they are not worried about damaging their reputation because someone misunderstands something they have said or done.”
Students at Harvard describe being forced to introduce themselves using pronouns and being ostracized for stating an opinion. Some students report abstaining from posting to social media under their real names for fear of reprisal from other students.
In August, Harvard Environmental Law Professor Jody Freeman was forced to resign after it became known that she sat on the board of oil giant ConocoPhillips.
Last year Harvard canceled a lecture by feminist Dr. Devin Buckley after the university learned about her belief that men should not be allowed in women’s sports and prisons, even if they claim to be women.
Harvard also canceled a course on policing techniques, which it called “tools of oppression” and “supporting violence against marginalized communities.” The professor who was slated to teach the course, Kit Parker, told Fox News in September that service members at Harvard are afraid to admit they served in the military.
After the October 7th Muslim massacre of Israelis, over 30 student organizations at Harvard signed a letter blaming Israel. Over 100 faculty members also signed a letter defending the phrase “From the river to the sea,” a Muslim chant calling for the elimination of Israel.
A recent FIRE survey found that one in ten college students across the country has been punished or threatened with punishment for speech.
