Liz Magill's ouster at Penn will help the worst people take down free speech, higher ed

[Nevilledog]

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/magill-resigns-penn-free-speech-20231210.html

No paywall link
https://archive.li/uuXHt

A band of raiders never stops at just one scalp. Just minutes after the University of Pennsylvania’s president Liz Magill pulled the plug on her stormy 17-month tenure, under intense pressure for her handling of antisemitism questions on Capitol Hill, her chief inquisitor — GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York — was back on the battlefield calling for more.

“One down. Two to go,” a clearly ebullient Stefanik posted on X/Twitter, urging on her dream of an academic Saturday Night Massacre that would also take down the two college leaders who testified last week along with Magill — MIT’s Sally Kornbluth and Claudine Gay of Harvard, which, in a controversy with more ironies than a Jane Austen novel, happens to be Stefanik’s alma mater.

But what Stefanik promised on Saturday night, and what her allies are cheering on, goes well beyond a few high-profile resignations. She promised the current crisis — over what constitutes antisemitism on college campuses, and how administrators like Magill have been handling it — will lead to more congressional hearings on “all facets of their institutions’ negligent perpetration of antisemitism including administrative, faculty, and overall leadership and governance.”

This weekend, Magill’s resignation — urged on by some of Penn’s billionaire donors withholding massive donations, amid intense criticism from both political parties including the Biden White House — has been the lead national story everywhere. It’s bumped back coverage of Israel’s intensifying strikes on Gaza that have killed hundreds every day while taking out top Palestinian scholars and journalists, as well as holy sites. And it’s drowned out the Biden administration’s international pariah move of vetoing a UN ceasefire resolution backed by 13 out of 15 Security Council members. No wonder some folks prefer to keep the focus on a college campus 11,000 miles west of this carnage.

*snip*

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. I don't think the University of Pennsylvania is "11,000 miles west of this carnage."

Other than that, Will Bunch is right.

[Quakerfriend]

2. Jamie Raskin skewered Stefanik this am.

He said “Where was she when Trump was having dinner with Nick Fuentes?”

Despite the poor performance by these provosts, I see this as more theater by the Repukes &
more attempts to degrade our finest schools.

[yardwork]

3. They're presidents, not provosts, but other than that I agree.

As other DUers have pointed out, the presidents' biggest mistake was agreeing to testify to a hostile Congress in the first place.

When Virginia Foxx and Elise Stefanik are questioning you in a public forum, their goals and motivations are not to promote justice or truth. Far from it.

[Quakerfriend]

4. Yes, thank you for the correction.

I didn’t know that they could refuse to show up.

[yardwork]

5. They weren't subpoenaed, so they could have declined.

However, even that choice would be problematic. Higher education is under sustained assault by Republicans. They hold the purse strings in the House. It's a bad situation.

[malaise]

14. Predisely

Rec

[gulliver]

6. Those three presidents showed they shouldn't be presidents.

They had Stefanik just sitting there, and there were three of them. And she beat them. Unforgiveable.

Dream exchange that should have happened but didn't:

Stefanik: "Does calling for genocide of Jews violate your code of conduct?"

Any of them: "Yes, I'm sure it does. The Constitution doesn't protect speech that deliberately incites violence. The Constitution is a document you may be familiar with, Congresswoman Stefanik, because (as many have argued in exercising their free speech), you violated an oath you swore to protect that Constitution."

[mopinko]

9. the fact they didnt see this coming from a mile away is just more proof.

i cant even imagine lil ole me going b4 these clowns w/o a pocket full of zingers.
wtf is wrong w them.
all 3 of them laid down like dogs after a 5 mile hike.

[redqueen]

16. "wtf is wrong w them"

Maybe those billionaire donors pressured them?

It is curious why they'd choose to go.

[mopinko]

19. it's a dirty damn shame

how often that is the most plausible explanation for soooo much bullshit these days.

[Wingus Dingus]

7. Mrs. Potato Head lobbed an easy question--just got lucky that

these three ladies are apparently incapable of producing an obvious, easy, no-brainer answer against calls for Jewish genocide.

[yardwork]

8. "These three ladies" are highly accomplished, intelligent women.

Liz McGill clerked for Ruth Bader Ginsberg, among many other accomplishments. I doubt she's antisemitic, stupid, or cruel.

The other two presidents, of Harvard and MIT, are highly accomplished scholars. Google them.

It's way too simplistic to cast them as "ladies" who were "incapable" of answering a "no-brainer" question.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. While Accurate....

...they undoubtedly fumbled in their response to that questioning.
Even if they weren't 100% certain, "I'm not certain as to the exact wording, but it sure seems it should be covered."
Some wiggle room in the verbiage, but not interpretable as condoning antisemitism.

[yardwork]

11. I'm not excusing their poor responses.

They walked into a political set- up and used lawyer language when they should have used political language. They bombed, on national TV, as we used to say.

However, I doubt the reason they bombed is because they're stupid, antisemitic, or cruel. There's a lot wrong in higher education now, but the Republican Party is not riding to the rescue. Far from it.

[ProfessorGAC]

13. We Agree On All Of It

It seems they forgot the environment they were walking into, and the nature of the questioners.

[yardwork]

15. The reasons for why they bombed are worth exploring.

As I said, there's a lot wrong in higher education right now. Presidents are being forced out, sometimes being replaced with right-wing politicians, other times replaced with right wing political appointees, conservative businessmen, etc. We're losing public trust in these institutions. There are a lot of reasons for this. It's complex.

This incident could yield a lot of interesting and illuminating information if folks take a close look. It's much too simplistic to view this as "dumb ladies who couldn't bring themselves to say the right thing."

[redqueen]

18. Hear fricking hear

I look forward to hearing more about it that's for sure.

[walkingman]

12. I think it just another example of the "cancel culture" that seems so popular these days.

[Elessar Zappa]

20. Nothing wrong with cancelling people who make excuses for terrorists.

People have a constitutional right to free speech i.e. they can’t be jailed. But they and should face societal consequences when they make racist, sexist, homophobic, or anti-semitic remarks and one of those potential consequences is losing your job. They deserve what they got.

[walkingman]

22. I thought they were canceled for what they did not say? The irony to me is that

the GOP only had private universities to testify before congress because they know that is it were public universities they have would have protected speech under the First Amendment. Whether I agree with it or not this is cancel culture.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

17. K&R

[tenderfoot]

21. The same people celebrating this are the same that celebrated ACORN going down and are stone silent

about racists/white supremacists that either teach at the universities in question or are invited to speak there.

[TheKentuckian]

24. Celebrating? Nothing to pop corks or launch fireworks about

but I do think they need to get the fuck out for their shitty, Nazi coddling responses and almost as much for being outwitted by a rotting rutabaga.

But if that counts, I was one of the few that stood behind ACORN and had very little back up here. Certainly not zero but precious little is how I recall it.

[The Mouth]

23. Either everyone has free speech or no one does.

The standard should always be 'what if the other side said something just as bad'.

To not condemn Hamas and the people who support it, to tolerate *anyone* saying 'From the river to the sea', is to be every bit as anti-Semitic as any tiki torch carrying Nazi. To condone calls for genocide from one side is to condone genocide, period.

As long as there is one hostage being kept.....