Alex Wong via Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images
- UPenn alumnus and donor Jon Huntsman Jr. says his alma mater needs to fire its president.
- Liz Magill has come under fire for her congressional testimony about on-campus antisemitism.
- "At this point it's not even debatable. Just a simple IQ test," Huntsman said of her removal.
Megadonor Jon Huntsman Jr. wants his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, to remove its president.
"Let's make this great institution shine once again. We are anchored to the past until the trustees step up and completely cut ties with current leadership. Full stop," Huntsman, whose family has donated millions of dollars to the university, told CNN in an exclusive statement on Thursday.
"At this point it's not even debatable. Just a simple IQ test," the former governor of Utah and ex-US ambassador added.
Liz Magill, who assumed the university's presidency in July 2022, faced backlash this week over her congressional testimony about on-campus antisemitism.
"If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment," Magill said when she was repeatedly asked if calling for the genocide of Jewish people would violate her university's rules on bullying and harassment.
Magill has since clarified her remarks to Congress, but calls for her resignation have only grown louder.
Huntsman's statement on Thursday comes two months after he said his family would be halting donations over the university's response to the Israel-Hamas war.
"To the outsider, it appears that Penn has become deeply adrift in ways that make it almost unrecognizable," Huntsman wrote in a letter to Magill back in October, where he criticized the administration's nonchalance toward on-campus antisemitism.
"Silence is antisemitism, and antisemitism is hate, the very thing higher ed was built to obviate," Huntsman said in the letter.
Three generations of Huntsmans have studied at the University of Pennsylvania. Huntsman's late father attended Wharton on a scholarship before becoming the CEO of chemical giant Huntsman Corp. Huntsman Jr. himself graduated with a degree in political science in 1987.
The Huntsmans have donated tens of millions of dollars to the university over the past three decades. The family funded the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business, a dual degree program in liberal arts and business, per the university's student newspaper.
Representatives for Huntsman and the University of Pennsylvania did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.