Some faculty members at the University of Pennsylvania are under the impression that the school is experiencing a ‘hostile takeover’ as alumni and donors withhold support due to the anti-Semitism scandals at the school and trustees attempt to fix the problem.
The resignation of former President Liz Magill was apparently a tipping point for many of these folks.
The Daily Mail reports:
UPenn staff warn of ‘hostile takeover’ by trustees and donors after billionaire investor Marc Rowan called on all alumni to cease donations in the wake of anti-Semitism scandal on campus before President Magill’s resignationStaff at the University of Pennsylvania have expressed concern about a ‘hostile takeover’ by trustees and donors after billionaire alum Mar Rowan asked the school’s board to consider its policies.More than 900 members of the Ivy League’s faculty have accused alumni and donors of meddling with the school’s academic policies in an open letter to the University Board of Trustees.The letter by the Faculty Senate comes after Wharton Board of Advisors Chair Rowan sent an email where he described a campus ‘culture’ that ‘distracted from UPenn’s core mission of scholarship, research, and academic excellence.’In his email titled ‘Moving Forward,’ Rowan asked trustees to consider whether the school should eliminate certain unnamed departments and examine ‘the general policies for the admission of membership into the Faculty,’ as reported by The Daily Pennsylvanian.Rowan was one of the alumni who called on president Liz Magill to resign after she failed to say calls for a genocide of Jews violated UPenn’s policies. He also led a campaign to end donations to the school over its response to anti-Semitism on campus.
The letter Marc Rowan sent in October said, “The antisemitic rot in academia is unmistakable.” and he was right. If that weren’t true, the school wouldn’t be in need of a hostile takeover.
Here is the text of the letter these faculty members just sent to the board of trustees via the Daily Pennsylvanian:
Penn Faculty Letter to Trustees (December 2023)To the Members of the Board of Trustees:The undersigned faculty members of the University of Pennsylvania unambiguously reject the view that the Board of Trustees, the Schools’ Boards of Advisors, alumni, or donors should determine Penn’s academic priorities or governance policies. The Faculty Handbook makes abundantly clear that the Board of Trustees delegates the management of the University to the President and the decision-making process to the shared governance of faculty, staff, and students (Section 1.A.). The current efforts of some members of the broader Penn community to reverse our longstanding governance structure threatens the freedom of the faculty to conduct independent and academically rigorous research and teaching. Penn’s academic excellence is built upon decades of shared governance in which the faculty play a central role in crafting policies around teaching, research, and all other aspects of our University’s academic mission, grounded in the principles of academic freedom and open expression. These principles and policies strengthen our process of knowledge creation and dissemination, while making our institution one of the foremost leaders in higher education in the U.S. and globally. We oppose all attempts by trustees, donors, and other external actors to interfere with our academic policies and to undermine academic freedom.
As I noted in a recent quick take on a related topic, it’s fascinating how many people in academia are suddenly discovering the importance of academic freedom and free speech on campus.
Would any of these faculty members defend a student who was disciplined or mobbed for using the wrong pronouns?
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