Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images
- Bill Ackman can't wait for the University of Pennsylvania to fire its president.
- "One down," Ackman wrote on X, referencing a CNN report about the president's potential ouster.
- The university said there is no "plan for imminent leadership change" but Ackman is still hopeful.
Billionaire Bill Ackman isn't hiding his glee about the possible ouster of the University of Pennsylvania's president, Liz Magill.
"One down," Ackman wrote on X on Thursday, referencing a recent story by CNN on Magill's potential departure.
The outlet, citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter, said the chair of the university's board of trustees could ask Magill to step down on Thursday or Friday.
Ackman, who has been a vocal critic of on-campus antisemitism in US colleges, earlier panned Magill's Tuesday congressional testimony about on-campus antisemitism. Magill was testifying alongside Harvard president Claudine Gay and MIT president Sally Kornbluth.
During the hearing, Magill was repeatedly asked if calling for the genocide of Jewish people would violate her university's rules on bullying and harassment.
"If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment," Magill answered.
Gay and Kornbluth gave similar answers at the hearing when asked the same question.
The response from the three presidents drew immediate backlash from business executives like Ackman and Pfizer's CEO Albert Bourla. Bourla said in an X post on Wednesday that he thought the hearing was "one of the most despicable moments in the history of US academia."
On Thursday, the University of Pennsylvania's student newspaper said it had obtained a letter calling for Magill's resignation from the business school's advisory board.
In the letter, Wharton's board of advisors said they were "deeply concerned about the dangerous and toxic culture on our campus."
"As a result of the University leadership's stated beliefs and collective failure to act, our board respectfully suggests to you and the Board of Trustees that the University requires new leadership with immediate effect," the letter said.
The university, however, told CNN that "there is no board plan for imminent leadership change."
The clarification didn't seem to dampen Ackman's spirits, who said in a subsequent X post on Thursday night that there's still plenty of hope, where he's concerned, that the university will fire its president.
"I give this a 95% probability. It is not yet a certainty," Ackman said in a later post.
Representatives for Ackman and the University of Pennsylvania did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.