Law & Order creator Dick Wolf implores UPenn president to quit
By Matt Egan, CNN Business
New York (CNN Business) — Dick Wolf, the creator of “Law & Order,” wrote a letter to Liz Magill pleading with her to step down as president of the University of Pennsylvania.
Wolf, the namesake of UPenn’s Wolf Humanities Center, is among a growing list of powerful donors vowing to cut off financial support to the Ivy League school over concerns about a Palestinian literature festival held on campus last month.
“President Magill, I implore you and [chair of the board of trustees] Scott Bok to step down from your UPenn positions before any more unnecessary damage to UPenn,” Wolf wrote in the letter, obtained by CNN on Friday.
The Emmy award-winning producer said he will “end all donations to UPenn” until both leaders resign.
The catalyst for the donor backlash is the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, which was held at UPenn last month prior to the Hamas terror attacks on Israel. UPenn leaders acknowledged prior to that multiday event that it would include speakers with a history of making antisemitism remarks.
“The notion that the Wolf Humanities Center contributed to this hate fest, otherwise known as the Palestine Writes Festival, is an abomination,” Wolf wrote in the letter, which has not been previously reported.
Organizers of the Palestine Writes festival denied that it embraced antisemitism, according to UPenn student newspaper The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Wolf’s letter goes further than a statement he gave to The Daily Pennsylvanian last week saying Bok and Magill “should be held to account” because their leadership has “inadequately represented” the university’s ideals and values.
UPenn did not respond to a request for comment on Wolf’s letter.
Magill, who became president of UPenn last year, issued a statement on Wednesday saying “hateful speech has no place at Penn.”
“I categorically condemn hateful speech that denigrates others as contrary to our values,” Magill said. “In this tragic moment, we must respect the pain of our classmates and colleagues and recognize that our speech and actions have the power to both harm and heal our community. We must choose healing, resisting those who would divide us and instead respect and care for one another.”
Bok, who chairs UPenn’s board of trustees and serves as CEO of investment bank Greenhill & Co., said earlier this week that Magill has “unanimous” support from current and former UPenn trustees who gathered in recent days.
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