Pennsylvania GOP legislators blocked millions of dollars in funding for the University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary school in the wake of the university’s tepid response to anti-Semitism on its campus.
The vote in the Pennsylvania House was taken four days after Penn President Liz Magill — harshly criticized for her testimony at a congressional hearing where she said calling for the genocide of Jews would not violate the school’s code of conduct on bullying and harassment unless “the speech turns into conduct” — resigned.
“Until more is done at the university in terms of rooting out, calling out and making an official stance on antisemitism being against the values of the university, I cannot in good conscience support this funding,” GOP House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler stated in opposing the $33.5 million in funding for the University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary school.
Magill’s resignation was not enough for the university to pursue if it wanted to confront anti-Semitism, Cutler, who was formerly the speaker of the House when it was controlled by the GOP, added.
Cutler, a religious Baptist, took care of his younger sister and parents when he was a high school student and both his parents were diagnosed with ALS, which later took their lives.
Every Democrat voted for the funding — which represents 18% of the budget for the veterinary school — while 76 out of the 101 Republicans in the House opposed it, leaving the funding short of gaining the required two-thirds majority.
Even before Magill’s remarks, major donors pulled their funding from the university over its stance in the Israel-Hamas war. Within a week after the October 7 Hamas massacre of 1,200 Israelis, Apollo Management CEO Marc Rowan, a Penn graduate who donated $50 million to the business school in 2018, demanded Magill and Scott Bok, chair of the board of trustees, resign. “I call on all UPenn alumni and supporters who believe we are heading in the wrong direction to ‘Close their Checkbooks’” until the two resigned, he wrote.
Days later, former Republican presidential candidate, Utah Governor, and U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman Jr. told the University of Pennsylvania that the Huntsman Foundation — which has donated tens of millions of dollars to the university for decades — would halt its funding because of the university’s silence in the face of the evil perpetrated by Hamas.
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Huntsman, a 1987 Penn graduate, served on the University’s Board of Trustees from 1996 to 2001. His father, Jon Huntsman Sr., graduated from Penn in 1959, donated $10 million to fund the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business, and donated $40 million in 1998.
“Moral relativism has fueled the university’s race to the bottom and sadly now has reached a point where remaining impartial is no longer an option,” Huntsman Jr. said in an email to Penn President Liz Magill.
“The University’s silence in the face of reprehensible and historic Hamas evil against the people of Israel (when the only response should be outright condemnation) is a new low,” Huntsman wrote. “Silence is antisemitism, and antisemitism is hate, the very thing higher ed was built to obviate. Consequently, Huntsman Foundation will close its checkbook on all future giving to Penn — something that has been a source of enormous pride for now three generations of graduates. that his family will stop donating to Penn, stripping the University of a longtime donor amid backlash from influential trustees and alumni. My siblings join me in this rebuke.”