UPenn board member Vahan Gureghian who quit in disgust after October 7th calls on embattled president Liz Magill to resign after failing to confirm calling for genocide of Jews broke campus rules
The billionaire charter school entrepreneur who resigned from the University of Pennsylvania's board of trustees over claims of rampant anti-Semitism has told DailyMail.com that under-fire President Liz Magill should resign today.
Top businessman Vahan Gureghian resigned from the position he held since 2009, a week after the October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians by Hamas terrorists.
He accused Magill of not doing enough to protect Jewish students, including failing to condemn speakers at the Palestine Writes Literature Festival who had expressed hatred of Jews.
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, the 69-year-old said Magill's disastrous testimony to Congress this week meant she had to leave at the end of Friday.
Vahan Gureghian, the founder and CEO of education consulting firm CSMI, blasted Magill for her failure to address anti-Semitism on UPenn's campus and said she had to quit late Friday.
Magill, a prominent legal scholar, has come under fire after she failed to confirm under questioning by Republican lawmakers whether the call for the “genocide of the Jews” violated Penn's rules or code of conduct.
“She should resign today,” Gureghian said. “I was shocked by her answers, and it just proves that everything I was thinking the whole time was right: She really doesn't belong in this job.”
The GOP donor said Magill presided over a campus culture in which Jewish students were “afraid to go to class” and feared “being ostracized or even attacked” amid a wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
The Ivy League school made headlines two weeks after the massacre in Israel, after a group of students posted a series of posters that appeared to mock Israelis taken hostage by Hamas.
They compared the prisoners to 'missing cows' and claimed to offer a reward in the form of 'a box of chalk and a can of beer' if they could be found.
“Everyone is free to demonstrate and say whatever they want as long as it does not rise to the level of hate speech,” Gureghian said.
UPenn President Liz Magill said the school had demonstrated its “unyielding commitment to combating anti-Semitism,” but also refused to categorize calls for the genocide of Jews as harassment or a violation of the school's code of conduct.
A group of UPenn students came under fire for posting a series of posters mocking Israeli hostages held by Hamas terrorists, likening them to “missing cows.”
UPenn President Liz Magill said the school had demonstrated its “unyielding commitment to combating anti-Semitism,” but also refused to categorize calls for the genocide of Jews as harassment or a violation of the school's code of conduct.
Her lukewarm defense of UPenn's Jewish students has already sparked backlash, with a slew of donors calling on the 57-year-old to resign from the position she has held since July 1, 2022.
Gureghian also admitted he was “angry” that Magill had ignored two very wealthy UPenn donors, billionaire Ron Lauder and Law & Order creator Dick Wolf, who demanded the Palestine Writes event be shut down.
They “had urged President Magill to cancel the festival weeks before it took place, and she had refused,” he said, adding that the decision to resign was “not taken lightly.”
The graduate of Villanova University and Delaware Law School had weighed in on his position, which was appointed by the state General Assembly, before an emergency Oct. 13 meeting.
But the founder and CEO of CSMI, an education consulting firm that operates charter schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, resigned the next day after a promised presentation on how to fix the mess at UPenn never took place.
Palestine Writes, the self-proclaimed celebration of Palestinian culture, included disgraced ex-CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill and Israel-bashing Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters.
The event featured pro-Palestinian Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters, who has been accused of making anti-Semitic comments in the past
CNN fired former commentator Marc Lamont Hill in 2018 for inflammatory comments seen as calling for the destruction of Israel. The former political pundit was listed as a speaker at the Palestine Writes event on campus
Lamont Hill was fired from the left-wing news network in 2018 for calling for “a free Palestine from the river to the sea,” a chant widely seen as a call for Israel's destruction.
“There was anti-Semitism not only because of that Palestinian celebration and (Magill's) response to the Hamas attack, but also because of the actions of the Board of Trustees, or lack thereof, in disciplining her or instructing her or to take violent action against her,” Gureghian told DailyMail.com.
“It was just a board-level scenario that existed the entire time I was there… where board members just put their stamp on what the chairman (Scott Bok) and the president say,” he added.
The Palm Beach resident, who was honored by a local synagogue for his stand against UPenn, also blasted Joe Biden for continuously promoting “the liberal woke agenda” since taking office three years ago.
'Under that umbrella of that agenda, anti-Semitism is now clearly embedded.
'It all starts with the government in Washington and with politics in America today. You have all these liberal views being pushed on the general public.
'If you don't agree with the view on trans or whatever, you will be excluded. So you have a silent majority that says nothing.
The businessman said it would be a “betrayal” of the American Jewish community if he had not spoken out.
'My grandfather was born in Turkey and escaped the genocide (at the beginning of the 20th century at the hands of the Ottoman Empire) and fled to America via Ellis Island.
“I am of Armenian descent,” he explained. “I'm passionate about the fact that we shouldn't let that happen to anyone. I feel passionate because this is the right thing to do.”
Gureghian said chants like “the river to the sea” made Jewish students afraid to attend classes because they thought they might be attacked by pro-Palestinian protesters
The billionaire, a donor to the Republican Party, said the Biden administration's continued promotion of what he called “the liberal woke agenda” had allowed anti-Semitism to flourish on American campuses.
Gureghian's intervention comes just hours after the influential Magill called for him to go after him wealthy alumnus withdrew a $100 million donation.
Her comments were roundly condemned by the ADL, the White House and politicians across the board.
On Thursday, as the House Education Committee said it was now investigating the issue further, the board of Wharton — the world's first business school, founded in 1881 at the University of Pennsylvania — said Magill should resign.
In a letter to her, they said the university's leadership needed to change “with immediate effect.”
“As a result of the expressed beliefs of the university's leadership and its collective inability to act, our administration respectfully suggests to you and the board of trustees that the university is in need of new leadership, effective immediately.”
The administration, in a letter first obtained by The Daily Pennsylvanian, detailed their concerns about the “dangerous and toxic culture” at Penn that they said the university's leadership has allowed to exist.
The letter adds that the university's leadership 'does not share the values of our board'.
DailyMail.com has contacted a University of Pennsylvania spokesperson for comment.