Billionaire CEO demands UPenn leaders quit and donations halt over alleged failure to address antisemitism on campus

By Matt Egan, CNN

New York (CNN) — Wall Street CEO Marc Rowan is calling for the leaders of the University of Pennsylvania to resign and donors to close their checkbooks over an alleged failure to condemn antisemitism and hate.

Rowan, the CEO of private equity giant Apollo Global Management, wrote in an op-ed posted online Wednesday that UPenn failed to condemn an event held on campus last month that the university acknowledged included speakers with a history of making antisemitic remarks.

“Why is UPenn repeating tragic mistakes of the past? Words of hate and violence must be met with clear, reasoned condemnation, rooted in morality from those in positions of authority,” Rowan wrote.

Rowan, whose fortune is estimated by Forbes to be nearly $6 billion, is one of the university’s wealthiest donors and supporters. He chairs the board of advisors at the university’s famed Wharton School and is the latest business leader to slam an Ivy League school over its handling of antisemitism in the wake of Hamas deadly attack on Israel.

UPenn leaders said in a statement Tuesday they were “devastated by the horrific assault on Israel by Hamas.”

“These abhorrent attacks have resulted in the tragic loss of life and escalating violence and unrest in the region,” UPenn President Elizabeth Magill and UPenn Provost John Jackson, Jr., said in that statement.

But the billionaire CEO argues UPenn leaders failed to condemn the “hate-filled” Palestine Writes Literature Festival, a multi-day event that took place at the university’s campus last month.

“The polarizing Palestine Writes gathering featured well-known antisemites and fomenters of hate and racism and was underwritten, supported and hosted by various UPenn academic departments and affiliates,” Rowan said.

The Apollo CEO, who is also a parent of UPenn graduates, demanded all UPenn alumni and supporters “who believe we are heading in the wrong direction to ‘Close their Checkbooks’” until Magill and Board of Trustees Chair Scott Bok both step down.

Rowan also alleged that instead of condemning the event, Magill and Bok have been “working to purge all Trustees with dissenting points of view by explicitly and aggressively demanding” the resignation of those who signed an open letter calling for Magill to resign.

In response, UPenn issued a statement from Julie Platt, vice chair of the school’s board of trustees and past president of the Penn Alumni board of directors, who said she has “full confidence” in the leadership of Magill and Bok.

“I join with the many members of the Penn family in expressing solidarity with all those who have been impacted by the horrific assault on Israel by Hamas and in condemning these hateful acts of terror,” Platt said. “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. The Executive Committee of Penn’s Board of Trustees has unanimously endorsed the actions taken by the University.”

Bok, who is the CEO of investment bank Greenhill & Co., said in a statement provided by the University that the trustee executive committee decided not to force anyone to resign even if board members publicly opposed decisions.

“Mr. Rowan is a respected alumnus and benefactor of the University and is entitled to his views,” Bok said. “But it is a falsehood for him to say that the University sought to ‘purge’ dissenting Trustees from Penn’s Board in relation to the Palestinian Writes Literature Festival.”

A controversial festival

UPenn leaders issued a statement last month ahead of the Palestine Writes Literature Festival that acknowledged some of the speakers have a history of antisemitism and condemned antisemitism broadly, though not the festival specifically.

“While the Festival will feature more than 100 speakers, many have raised deep concerns about several speakers who have a documented and troubling history of engaging in antisemitism by speaking and acting in ways that denigrate Jewish people,” read the September 12 statement from Magill, Jackson, Jr. and Steven Fluharty, dean of the School of Arts & Sciences.

“We unequivocally – and emphatically – condemn antisemitism as antithetical to our institutional values,” the UPenn leaders wrote. “As a university, we also fiercely support the free exchange of ideas as central to our educational mission. This includes the expression of views that are controversial and even those that are incompatible with our institutional values.”

Organizers of the Palestine Writes festival denied that it embraced antisemitism, according to UPenn student newspaper The Daily Pennsylvanian.

In an interview on CNBC on Thursday, Rowan argued the central issue was not hosting the festival, but failing to forcefully condemn it.

“That condemnation should not be so hard. Unfortunately, if you lack moral courage, it is hard,” Rowan said, adding there is a “climate of fear” at UPenn where professors are afraid of being canceled or ostracized.

Rowan’s UPenn op-ed was praised on Wednesday by Bill Ackman, the hedge fund billionaire who earlier this week called for Harvard University to publicly release the names of students who belong to organizations that signed a letter blaming Israel for last weekend’s deadly attacks by Hamas.

“We see sickening parallels between Harvard leadership’s inaction against Harvard’s antisemitism and the failure by UPenn’s leadership to take a stand against hate,” Rowan wrote in his op-ed.

The Apollo CEO argued the “embrace of antisemitism and other forms of discrimination by these institutions legitimizes and reinforces hate, racism and, ultimately, violence.”

Rowan warned there will be financial repercussions for UPenn’s handling of the situation.

In his op-ed, he called for alumni and supporters to send UPenn $1 donations in place of their normal contributions “so that no one misses the point.”

“I think the fundraising impact from this will be overwhelming,” Rowan told CNBC on Thursday.

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