United States Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) — who grilled former Penn President Liz Magill in front of Congress about the University’s 2023 response to antisemitism on campus — released a book on April 14 detailing her account of the hearing.
The book — titled “Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities” — offers Stefanik’s perspective on the December 2023 congressional hearing, where Magill testified alongside former Harvard University President Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth. Stefanik described Magill as having “hedged and smiled” when asked whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violates Penn’s code of conduct.
In excerpts of the book released by Newsweek, Stefanik wrote that she expected the question to be the easiest of the hearing, having prepared follow-ups about disciplinary action.
“Not in a million years did I imagine their response,” Stefanik wrote.
As she recounts in the book, all three university administrators characterized the issue as dependent on context.
“The leaders of America’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning flunked the most basic moral test imaginable,” she wrote, adding that she was “stunned” and “truly astonished.”
A request for comment was left with Stefanik. A University spokesperson declined to comment.
In a separate excerpt released by the Daily Wire, Stefanik described the Ivy League as having once been “the crown jewels of the entire higher education system worldwide.” Since then, according to Stefanik, this reputation has since been “poisoned” by “self-inflicted” institutional decay.
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Stefanik recalled the answers as a symptom of “decades of moral decay, intellectual laziness and dangerous radical groupthink.”
She wrote that while she immediately recognized the hearing as significant, she hadn’t anticipated that it would become “a historic earthquake that instantly reshaped the debate on higher education overnight.”
The book also outlines the rapid fallout of the hearing at Penn, highlighting the pressure on Magill to resign as “intense.”
Ahead of Magill’s resignation, dozens of prominent donors announced they would halt contributions to the University. High-profile alumni and donors including Marc Rowan, Henry Silverman, and Jon Huntsman Jr. publicly criticized the University and senior administration.
Stefanik wrote that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro — who has weighed in on Penn’s handling of campus antisemitism on multiple occasions — publicly declared that Magill had failed “the simple test” of moral clarity.
In a Newsweek interview published alongside the excerpts, Stefanik addressed Magill’s trajectory after Penn. When asked about Magill’s recent appointment as dean of Georgetown University Law Center, Stefanik said the move reflected a “revolving door in higher education” and that all the institutions involved “have deep, deep problems.”
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Staff reporter Riana Mahtani covers national politics and can be reached at mahtani@thedp.com. At Penn, she studies political science. Follow her on X @Riana_Mahtani.
