The private-equity billionaire wrote an op-ed for the student newspaper of his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. The guest column hasn't yet been published but was viewed in full by Insider. In it, he demanded the school's president, Elizabeth Magill, and the chairman of its board of trustees, Scott Bok, both step down.
He urged his fellow alumni to "close their checkbooks" until the university's top brass resigned. "Join me and many others who love UPenn by sending UPenn $1 in place of your normal, discretionary contribution so that no one misses the point," he wrote.
Rowan's letter points to the Palestine Writes Literary Festival, which was hosted at the university last month and has been a lightning rod of controversy. The festival prompted more than 4,000 people, including Rowan, to sign an open letter to Magill, saying that "platforming of outright antisemitism without denunciation from the university is unacceptable."
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At the time, the university responded, saying in a statement that "we unequivocally — and emphatically — condemn antisemitism as antithetical to our institutional values."
"As a university, we also fiercely support the free exchange of ideas as central to our educational mission," the statement continued. "This includes the expression of views that are controversial and even those that are incompatible with our institutional values."
But, in light of the attack by Hamas on Israel, Rowan said the response was not enough.
"President Magill's allowing of UPenn's imprimatur to be associated with this conference, and her failure to condemn this hate-filled call for ethnic cleansing, normalized and legitimized violence that ranged from the targeting of Jewish students and spaces here at UPenn to the horrific attacks in Israel," Rowan wrote in his op-ed this week.
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Bok responded Thursday, denying Rowan's claims that following the letter regarding the Palestinian Writes Literature Festival, Penn was "working to purge all Trustees with dissenting points of view by explicitly and aggressively demanding those who signed the open letter resign."
Bok, who is the CEO of boutique investment firm Greenhill & Co, said it had been out of line for Rowan to denounce the board and university's stance on the festival.
"Once a leadership team has done appropriate consultation and reached a decision, it is extraordinarily unusual in a corporate, university or nonprofit context for a board member to publicly oppose that decision, let alone solicit others to join their dissenting view," Bok said in his statement. "We did make known to two Trustees pursuing that unusual step that they could consider voluntarily resigning, thereby freeing them from all the constraints involved in serving on a board. Those individuals chose not to resign, and they remain welcome as members of Penn's board"
Penn didn't directly respond to Rowan's letter in an emailed response to Insider, but a spokesman forwarded responses that university leaders had sent to the campus community after an antisemitic incident on campus and after Hamas's attack on Israel.
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Organizers of the festival have been quoted by The Daily Pennsylvanian as denying it embraced antisemitism. The organizers didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider. The Daily Pennsylvanian reported some Jewish students and groups on campus objected to some of the event's speakers, which included the Pink Floyd frontman, Roger Waters, whom the Anti-Defamation League and others have accused of being anti-Jewish.
Rowan, who chairs the Wharton School's Board of Advisors, and his wife, Carolyn, donated $50 million to Penn's business school in 2018. He is the latest Wall Street titan — and big-money donor — to condemn an alma mater for a response, or lack thereof, to the crisis in Israel.
On Tuesday, Pershing Square Capital Management CEO Bill Ackman called on Harvard to release the names of students in groups holding Israel solely responsible for Hamas' violence. Ackman said he didn't want to "inadvertently hire" students who were part of the organizations. Several CEOs voiced their agreement, including Jonathan Newman, the cofounder of the salad fast-food chain Sweetgreen, and Dovehill Capital Management CEO Jake Wurzak.
"We see sickening parallels between Harvard leadership's inaction against Harvard's antisemitism and the failure by UPenn's leadership to take a stand against hate," Rowan wrote in his letter.
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Ackman has tweeted his support of Rowan's letter.
Update: October 11, 2023 — This story has been updated with a response from the University of Pennsylvania.
Update: October 12, 2023 —This story has been updated with a response from Scott Bok, the chairman of University of Pennsylvania's board of trustees.
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