Medical School Dean Is Chosen to Lead Penn as Interim President

Dr. J. Larry Jameson, the dean of medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, was named the institution’s interim president on Tuesday, three days after his predecessor resigned amid an uproar about how elite colleges have handled antisemitism on campus.

Dr. Jameson replaces M. Elizabeth Magill, who resigned on Saturday after an intense campaign by donors and alumni who said she did not do enough to protect Penn’s Jewish students.

Demands for Ms. Magill’s ouster began bubbling up in September after she allowed a Palestinian writers conference to meet on Penn’s campus, an event that included speakers who had been accused of antisemitism. But the criticism came to a boil last week after Ms. Magill’s cautious and at times legalistic answers to questions about campus antisemitism at a Dec. 5 congressional hearing.

On Saturday, less than two years after she was named president, Ms. Magill announced her resignation. Scott L. Bok, the chairman of Penn’s board of trustees and one of Ms. Magill’s supporters, announced that he was stepping down as well.

The board’s executive committee met briefly on Tuesday to approve Dr. Jameson as the university’s interim president, with Julie Beren Platt, presiding as the interim chair. Ms. Platt, who is also the chair of the board of the Jewish Federations of North America, was chosen for the post on Saturday.

Dr. Jameson, 69, is the longest serving dean among Penn’s schools and is also executive vice president of Penn Medicine, the university’s health system, which, combined with the school of medicine, accounts for the largest share of Penn’s budget. The medical school employs more than 2,600 full-time faculty members, according to the university’s website. Before coming to Penn, Dr. Jameson, a molecular endocrinologist, was dean of the medical school at Northwestern University.

According to The Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper at Penn, Dr. Jameson and the chief executive of the university’s health system sent a letter to the medical school community last week saying that calls for genocide “violate our behavioral standards and remind us that we must forcefully condemn, prevent, and respond to hate in all forms.”