Couldn’t read it. For Fortune subscribers only.
Sorry. If you google it you will get a free story. Apollo CEO asks fellow Wharton alumni to withhold donation to school until president and trustee chair resign due to school’s antisemitism.
Israeli / Palestinian politics strike again, with bigotry and/or accusations of bigotry exploding all over the place.
Original source: Marc Rowan: University Donors, Close Your Checkbooks
Comments I’ve herd over the past few days on CNBC make sense to me: wealthy donors have, for too long, simply made large donations to schools without due diligence on what the school supports on campus. I hope this changes.
The DP is running the story too.
Have been simmering, occasionally hotly debated among activist students, on some campuses for many years – e.g., disinvestment campaigns. Many more colleges than those who made the news in recent days.
Typically, valid points being made by both sides. But, some acts ought to be recognized as wholesale unacceptable/inexcusable - regardless of the actor and one’s sympathies for either cause?
Problem is, Israeli / Palestinian politics draws in extremists who tend to drive everyone else out (and indoctrinate naive joiners to extremist points of view). So no surprise that some “pro Palestinian” groups are more “anti Israel” (in a bigoted anti Jewish sense) and some “pro Israel” groups are more “anti Palestinian” (in a bigoted anti Arab / Muslim sense).
But also has the opposite effect:
One might censor one’s selective/specific pro-… view,
because one is immediately accused of being generally an anti-… bigot.
Fill in either side.
At the end, I found it easier to just blame the Brits (but I’m dating myself).
Actually, that is the effect of extremists driving everyone else away, since (bigoted as they are) they call everyone who disagrees with them bigots.
You don’t have to call anyone an anything, to “call out” the barbarism of killing children in their beds, or parading the naked body of a female hostage (in a country where women wear headscarves out of modesty) and recording it and posting it on social media.
The incessant labeling gives a lot of people an excuse not to recognize terrorism when they see it.
I was watching a Houston TV station raw feed of a pro-Palestinian protest on YouTube today. A producer or reporter was interviewing a guy who looked like a college student, or at least one of college student age, who was a supporter of the cause. He was trying to sound like Jean-Jacques Rousseau or Thomas Hobbes, but you could tell he had no idea what he was talking about. A lot of fancy words and phrases with no meaning behind them. When the interviewer asked him about Hamas, he looked genuinely confused - “I’m sorry, I don’t know who Hamas is.” When the interviewer asked him to comment on the recent attacks on Israel, he again looked genuinely confused - “I’m sorry, I don’t really follow what’s going on over there.” Sheesh.
Penn President in damage control mode:
A Message from President Liz Magill
Dear members of the Penn community,
In the past days and weeks, I have heard from and spoken with many of you, with gratitude for your openness and candor. The University has made public statements denouncing acts of antisemitism on our campus and the terrorist attacks in Israel. Today, as Penn’s President, I want to speak directly and personally to all of you, to share my thoughts and to offer what I hope is some measure of clarity and comfort in this difficult time.
I want to leave no doubt about where I stand. I, and this University, are horrified by and condemn Hamas’s terrorist assault on Israel and their violent atrocities against civilians. There is no justification—none—for these heinous attacks, which have consumed the region and are inciting violence in other parts of the world.
I am heartbroken by the suffering of families and communities being ripped apart. Hostages are in peril. Thousands of lives have been taken, each a world lost. The war will take many more, with no end in sight.
Here on campus and across our Penn community, people are hurting. They are angry and scared. They are thinking of loved ones and friends—constantly checking email and texts for news, terrified for those threatened by violence. These events, and the anxiety and uncertainty of the unknown that lies ahead, weigh heavily on us all.
Penn will continue monitoring threats of violence here, in our city, and in other parts of the world. As part of our planning, Penn’s Division of Public Safety has further increased security and support for centers of Jewish life on and near campus. We will continue our outreach and support for faculty, students, and staff and will keep our entire community updated.
At Penn, we are confronting these events in the wake of recent antisemitic acts on campus and individuals, with a public history of speaking out viciously against the Jewish people, appearing on campus as part of the Palestine Writes Literature Festival.
Many have voiced their anger and frustration about this event. Please know that I hear you. I know how painful the presence of these speakers on Penn’s campus was for the Jewish community, especially during the holiest time of the Jewish year, and at a University deeply proud of its long history of being a welcoming place for Jewish people. The University did not, and emphatically does not, endorse these speakers or their views. While we did communicate, we should have moved faster to share our position strongly and more broadly with the Penn community.
I stand, and Penn stands, emphatically against antisemitism. We have a moral responsibility—as an academic institution and a campus community—to combat antisemitism and to educate our community to recognize and reject hate. I look forward to continuing to work with Jewish leaders, faculty, students, and staff at Penn and elsewhere to ensure we are fostering a safe and inclusive environment.
This is a hard moment in the world. Recent events on Penn’s campus make it that much harder. But at vigils held in front of the LOVE statue and across campus to honor and mourn innocent lives lost, I have seen people connecting and comforting one another. In all this anguish, there is hope.
Wherever you are, I hope you find comfort in this community we share. You are not alone. I stand with you. Penn stands with you. We will continue to work for meaningful and enduring change, together.
Sincerely,
Liz Magill
President
Trustees University Professor and Professor of Law
University of Pennsylvania
Rule #1: Dont take sides and hope issue goes away.
Rule #2: If enough important people or media won’t let it go away, offer ambiguous statement of condemnation followed by sympathy and promises of unity and togetherness.
Rule #3: Go back to Rule #1 and hope it goes away.
A devastating blow to the endowment. Jon M. Huntsman Hall, which houses The Wharton School, was funded in part by a $50 million donation from the Huntsman Foundation.
Rule #4-- hope that another externality or black swan type event occurs so nobody remembers you fumbled the ball the last time. Wag the Dog- love that movie!
Yes.
Maybe Taylor Swift will announce she’s retiring.
Or a Kardashian will get a DUI…
I thought that the issue of the Palestine Writes conference was that they invited known anti-Semites as key speakers and included literature that updated the blood libels trope, that the festival sponsors were essentially unrepentant and defiant, and, the university basically condoned it via inaction. Not clear you could have a similar event on campus for other minorities.
I suspect if all the alumni who were offended systematically withheld donations, university presidents would be more responsive. But, they will still have to balance the left wing/progressive groups/faculty on campus that have latent or explicit anti-semitic views.