The major donor revolt at University of Pennsylvania over its response to the Israel-Hamas war is getting worse

• The megadonor revolt at the University of Pennsylvania is getting worse as the Israel-Hamas war intensifies.
• At least half a dozen wealthy benefactors have pulled or threatened to pull funding from the elite university over its response to what they characterized as antisemitism.

University of Pennsylvania's megadonor revolt isn't showing signs of slowing down.

As the war with Israel intensifies in Gaza, UPenn's benefactors are slamming the school for its response and actions before and after Hamas' terrorist attacks in Israel.

The latest figure to pull funding from the Ivy League school is billionaire hedge fund manager Clifford Asness, who said he decided to withdraw funding in response to the Palestine Writes Literary Festival at Penn, which he described as an "antisemitic Burning Man festival."

"What has been going on at Penn is unacceptable," Asness said in an email to the school's president Liz Magill that was shared by American Council of Trustees and Alumni fellow Steve McGuire. "The problems began well before the recent horrors. I have long been dismayed at the drift away from true freedom of thought, expression, and speech at our best Universities, very much including my beloved alma mater Penn."

"Then, a few weeks ago, Penn's hosting an antisemitic Burning Man festival pushed matters further," he wrote. "I'm 100% for free speech but not asymmetrical free speech where some have it and some don't."

Asness follows a long string of Penn donors who have sharply criticized or pulled funding from the university since Hamas carried out its attacks in Israel and Israel responded by heavily bombarding the Gaza Strip.

The first to speak out was Apollo Global Management's Marc Rowan, who tore into school leaders for not taking a stronger stance on what he characterized as antisemitism. In a guest column for Penn's student newspaper, Rowan urged alumni to "close their checkbooks" until Magill and the chairman of the board of trustees, Scott Bok, resigned.

"Join me and many other who love UPenn by sending UPenn $1 in place of your normal, discretionary contribution so that no one misses the point," he wrote. Like Asness, Rowan's column also pointed to the Palestine Writes event as factoring into his decision to pull funding.

Another Penn alumnus, the television producer Dick Wolf, supported Rowan's call to stop donating to the university until top leaders stepped down.

"Sadly, their leadership has inadequately represented the ideals and values of our university and they should be held to account," he said in a statement to the Daily Pennsylvanian.

The former US diplomat Jon Huntsman also pulled funding from Penn after describing the school as "unrecognizable."

He said in an email to Magill that the Huntsman Foundation will "close its checkbook" to Penn, adding that "moral relativism has fueled the university's race to the bottom and sadly now has reached a point where remaining impartial is no longer an option."

The billionaire Ronald Lauder followed suit, threatening to stop donating to the university if it doesn't mount a stronger response to antisemitism.

And David Magerman, who helped build Renaissance Technologies, piled on this week, accusing Penn of having a "misguided moral compass" in a letter to Magill that cited the Palestine Writes festival and the school's response to the Hamas attacks.

In response to the backlash, Magill said in a statement that she and the university stand "emphatically against the terrorist attacks by Hamas in Israel and against antisemitism."

"I've said we should have communicated faster and more broadly about where we stand, but let there be no doubt that we are steadfast in our beliefs," she added.

Penn isn't the only elite US institution facing backlash following the terror attacks.

The billionaire Bill Ackman made headlines last week for demanding that the names of every student who signed on to a letter blaming Israel for the Hamas attacks be released to the public.

"The names of the signatories should be made public so their views are publicly known," Ackman, the CEO of Pershing Square, wrote online.

And at Cornell University, students are calling for a history professor to be fired after he described the Hamas attacks as "exhilarating" and "energizing."