Dean of the medical school is chosen to lead Penn as interim president
Dr. Lawrence Jameson, dean of the medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, was named interim president of the institute on Tuesday, three days after his predecessor resigned amid an uproar over elite colleges’ handling of anti-Semitism on campus.
Dr. Jameson replaces M. Elizabeth Magill, who resigned Saturday after an intense campaign by donors and alumni who said she did not do enough to protect Penn’s Jewish students.
Demands for Ms. Magill’s ouster began bubbling in September after she allowed a Palestinian writers’ conference to take place on Penn’s campus, an event that featured speakers accused of anti-Semitism. But the criticism came to a boil last week after Ms. Magill’s cautious and sometimes legalistic answers to questions about anti-Semitism on campus during a December 5 congressional hearing.
On Saturday, less than two years after she was named president, Ms. Magill announced her resignation. Scott L. Bok, the chairman of Penn’s board of trustees and one of Ms. Magill’s supporters, announced he would also resign.
The board’s executive committee met briefly on Tuesday to welcome Dr. Jameson as interim president of the university, with Julie Beren Platt as interim president. Ms. Platt, who is also chairman of the board of the Jewish Federations of North America, was chosen for the position on Saturday.
Dr. Jameson, 69, is the longest-serving dean among Penn’s schools and is also executive vice president of Penn Medicine, the university’s health care system, which, combined with the medical school, accounts for the bulk of Penn’s budget. The medical school employs more than 2,600 full-time faculty, according to the university’s website. Before joining Penn, Dr. Jameson, a molecular endocrinologist, was dean of the medical school at Northwestern University.
According to The Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn’s student newspaper, Dr. Jameson and the CEO of the university’s health system sent a letter to the medical school community said last week that calls for genocide “violate our standards of conduct and remind us that we must strongly condemn, prevent and respond to hatred in all forms.”