UPenn Donor Calls for Boycott, President's Resignation Over Israel, 'Preferred Speech'
The latest wave of terrorist violence unleashed on Israel was a wake-up call for many. If anything good can come out of the atrocities committed by Hamas, the best results might be if the world can no longer pretend that people who proudly proclaim monstrous hatred and ambition are not actually monsters.
This world-changing shift in attitudes will be the result of countless individuals experiencing a moment of clarity about the reality of good and evil and adjusting their behaviors accordingly. Opposing evil requires a mass movement, and there are signs some leaders are stepping forward to confront the nurturing of evil by our corrupted cultural institutions.
Marc Rowan, the billionaire CEO of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management, is speaking out against his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, for not standing up for Israel on campus and allowing anti-Semitism to fester.
In an opinion piece sent to the student newspaper, Rowen called for the resignations of the university’s president and board of trustees chairman and urged donors to withhold funds because of the toxic messaging UPenn not only tolerates but seems to actively promote.
He appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box to discuss why he made those demands.
Host Andrew Ross Sorkin introduced Rowan as not only a graduate of the Ivy League university but also chairman of the board of advisers for its Wharton Business School, the alma mater of both President Donald Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr.
Support for violence and anti-Semitism has found a home on the same campuses that condemn microaggressions, according to Rowan.
In his piece submitted to The Daily Pennsylvanian, he called for school President Elizabeth McGill and Chairman Scott Bok to step down, pointing out their silence regarding anti-Semitic content at a university-supported festival in September.
Rowan described the event in the opinion piece, which wasn’t published in the newspaper as of Wednesday but was posted online.
“The polarizing Palestine Writes gathering featured well-known anti-Semites and fomenters of hate and racism, and it was underwritten, supported and hosted by various UPenn academic departments and affiliates,” he wrote. “At a gathering supposedly focused on Palestinian arts, culture and poetry, the presenters focused on Jews, Israel and Zionism.”
In the CNBC interview, Rowan faulted McGill for not condemning the hatred the event featured, even if the festival was allowed to proceed on free speech principles.
“President McGill is just not capable of exercising moral leadership here because she feels academic pressure, peer pressure,” he said.
Far from encouraging free speech, Rowan said, university officials were trying to silence dissent by asking critical trustees to leave the board.
“We are, at Penn, a bastion of preferred speech,” not free speech, he said.
The school stood by its president and chairman Thursday and rejected Rowan’s demands, according to Bloomberg.
“The university has publicly committed to unprecedented steps to further combat antisemitism on its campus, reaffirmed deep support for our Jewish community, and condemned the devastating and barbaric attacks on Israel by Hamas,” Vice Chairwoman Julie Platt said in a statement.
In addition to calling for McGill and Bok to step down, Rowan encouraged university boosters to write $1 checks instead of their normal contributions so the impact on donors stands out.
This a good strategy to bring consequences home to university officials for the actions they encourage. Despite their hoarded wealth, far-left institutions like the Ivy League school are dependent on tax dollars and donors.
Universities need to feel the squeeze from donors if they continue to cultivate radical stances that alienate decent human beings, and some on the left.
Hamas showed us the face of evil. Its supporters around the world, from Harvard to Black Lives Matter, don’t deserve to be able to spread the hate without repercussions.
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