The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is seeking to reassure rattled donors upset by the school’s failure to quickly condemn the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, and its earlier decision to host the controversial Palestine Writes Literature Festival.
“It’s our responsibility to repair those relationships,” said Wharton Dean Erika H. James, in response to an audience question at an Economic Club of New York luncheon talk Tuesday.
Dean James said she is working to address the “reputational damage that is happening … within the area of control that I have, which is the Wharton School.” She said colleagues around the university are working toward the same goal.
In September, powerful Penn alumni, such as Marc Rowan, cofounder and CEO of private equity giant Apollo Global Management, called for Penn president Liz Magill to cancel or strongly condemn the Palestine Writes Literature Festival that took place on campus. Magill declined to stop the event, citing free speech, while acknowledging that some speakers had a history of remarks considered to be antisemitic.
In a wide-ranging interview in front of an audience of businesspeople and students, Wharton’s James added that it’s been “a really difficult period” at Penn because perceptions that the school historically welcomed Jewish students have shifted.
“I think the thing that has been most difficult for Penn is that it has for so long been seen as a school that was very committed to Jewish students,” she said. The perception that that dynamic has changed is what has fostered “the attention that Penn is getting right now.”
Billionaire Ronald Lauder, a powerful financial supporter of Penn, threatened to cut off donations if the school didn’t do more to fight antisemitism.
“I’ve spent the past 40 years of my life fighting antisemitism all over the world,” Lauder said in a speech at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, quoting a letter he had written to the Penn president. “And never, in my wildest imagination, thought I would have to fight it at my university, my alma mater, my family’s alma mater.”
According to The Daily Pennsylvanian Lauder is halting his donations to Penn, due to the university’s response to the festival and the October 7 attack.
College campuses across the country have erupted in protests since the war between Israel and Hamas began a month ago. In mid-October, Columbia University closed its campus to the public in mid-October due to safety concerns in the wake of demonstrations while Stanford Law School moved classes online for a day due to concern for student safety.
More recently, Cornell University cancelled a day of classes after an engineering student was arrested on a federal criminal complaint for making online threats to Jewish students. While not occurring on a campus, a Jewish protestor died earlier this week after an altercation between dueling protests in a suburb outside of Los Angeles.
In recent remarks at a meeting of trustees, Penn president Magill said, with regards to the university’s response to recent events, “I’ve heard from some that I have not been as effective as I could or should have been. This left room for doubt – doubt about my convictions, what our University believes, and how Penn moves forward from this. I regret that, and I am listening.”
She added, “For our alumni who have made clear their anger, pain, and disappointment … I hope, with time and progress on our goals, that they will once again engage with Penn.”
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