When Scott Bok resigned as the chair of the University of Pennsylvania’s board of trustees in December 2023, he didn’t know that he was about to become one of the first casualties in a broader political war over higher education in America.
At the time, Penn was embroiled in what was publicly cast as a bitter fight over allegations of antisemitism on campus — stoked, in part, by Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik’s grilling of three university presidents, including Penn’s Liz Magill, at a congressional hearing.
But Bok sensed early on that something deeper than a fight over antisemitism was brewing on campus…