GOP lawmakers sink aid to Penn as statehouses watch how universities are handling Israel-Hamas war

By MARC LEVY
Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania are rejecting legislation to send more than $33.5 million to the University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary school over criticism that the Ivy League school has tolerated antisemitism. The bill’s defeat is perhaps the starkest example of how some lawmakers and governors are trying to keep universities from taking sides in the Israel-Hamas war and to toughen the schools’ responses to acts of hate and discrimination, including antisemitism. The vote late Wednesday night came four days after Penn’s president resigned amid pressure from donors. The Pennsylvania House’s Republican floor leader, Bryan Cutler, says Penn must do more to make it clear it opposes antisemitism.