In responding to any crisis, what leaders say and do about the situation—and how they say and do it—matters.
The latest example is the resignation Saturday of Liz Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, who faced backlash over her testimony Tuesday at a congressional hearing concerning antisemitism.
Faced Intense Pressure
“The announcement [about her resignation] in an email sent to the Penn community from Scott L. Bok, the chairman of the board of trustees, followed months of intense pressure from Jewish students, alumni and donors, who claimed that she had not taken their concerns about antisemitism on campus seriously,” the New York Times reported.
”I write to share that President Liz Magill has voluntarily tendered her resignation as President of the University of Pennsylvania,” Mr. Bok wrote. He included a note from Ms. Magill, who had been Penn’s president since 2022.
“It has been my privilege to serve as president of this remarkable institution,” Ms. Magill wrote. It has been an honor to work with our faculty, students, staff, alumni and community members to advance Penn’s vital missions.”
Crisis Response Lessons
When publicly addressing a crisis, business leaders need to get it right— and get it right the first time.
The day after her congressional testimony, Magill expanded on one of her responses to the committee, saying a call for the genocide of Jewish people would be considered harassment or intimidation.
“I was not focused on, but I should have been, the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate,” Magill said in a video statement released by the university. “It’s evil, plain and simple,” according to the Associated Press.
Magill had an opportunity to issue a call for action or reforms when she spoke to Congress. But it was not until the next day that she “called for a review of Penn’s policies, which she said have long been guided by the U.S. Constitution but need to be ‘clarified and evaluated’ as hate spreads across campus and around the world ‘in a way not seen in years,’” the wire service reported.
When crafting a statement or answers to possible questions, think through what brief snippet or excerpt news organizations may use. That sound bite, which could only be a few seconds long, could be all people hear or see about what you said about a crisis.
Bok acknowledged in his statement that “Magill erred during her disastrous testimony, describing a “dreadful 30-second sound bite” following a lengthy hearing,” according to CNN.
“Former President Liz Magill last week made a very unfortunate misstep—consistent with that of two peer university leaders sitting alongside her—after five hours of aggressive questioning before a Congressional committee,” Bok said. “Following that, it became clear that her position was no longer tenable, and she and I concurrently decided that it was time for her to exit.”