
That was the message from a Wall Street executive to the University of Pennsylvania president regarding his $100 million donation to the school.
Ross Stevens’ ultimatum comes after Penn President Elizabeth Magill fumbled through a congressional hearing on antisemitism.
Magill, along with Harvard President Claudine Gay and MIT President Sally Kornbluth, skirted questions from Rep. Elise Stefanik over whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated their universities’ rules on bullying and harassment.
“If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment,” Magill said.
The backlash was swift and fierce. Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, a vocal critic of Harvard’s response to the Israel-Hamas war, called for all three presidents to “resign in disgrace.”
And while each president issued a statement after the criticism, there was no going back for Stevens.
In a letter to his firm’s employees, Stevens, who is a Penn alum, said he planned to pull $100 million of Stone Ridge shares he had previously gifted the school “due to the conduct of President Magill” unless there was “a change in leadership and values at Penn in the very near future.”
