Report: Embattled UPenn Law Prof. Amy Wax Appealing Hearing Board Sanctions Quietly Recommended Over The Summer
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that dissident UPenn Law Professor Amy Wax is appealing sanctions quietly recommended against her by the faculty hearing board this past summer.
We’ve covered Wax’s ongoing conflict with PennLaw from the very beginning, when she triggered the woke campus mob by unapologetically expressing conservative views in a 2017 op-ed:
As we wrote earlier, it was not long before the dean caved to the students’ demands and took up their cause in the conflict that escalated as Wax continued to voice her unorthodox views over the years. Finally, as we wrote here, in June 2022 he submitted a letter to the Faculty Senate calling for a review of Wax’s conduct for violation of University policy under the Faculty Handbook and a “major sanction” including possible termination.
The faculty hearing board’s subsequent decision this past June, reportedly rubber stamped by then-President M. Elizabeth Magill in August, came to light for the first time in the Inquirer’s February 20th story:
[S]ources close to the investigation confirmed a university hearing board made up of tenured faculty recommended in June that Wax should face sanctions, including a one-year suspension at half pay with benefits intact, but stopped short of calling for her to be fired and stripped of tenure.
The hearing board also recommended: a public reprimand issued by university leadership, the loss of her named chair and summer pay, and a requirement to note in her public appearances that she is not speaking for or as a member of the Penn Carey Law school or Penn, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak on the matter.
The paper also reports that Wax has “appealed the ruling, alleging proper procedure wasn’t followed.”
The paper says that Penn declined to comment. Nor had Wax or her lawyer responded to their immediate requests for comment.
Wax’s appeal will be reviewed by Penn’s Senate Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility, the article explains, adding that if the committee “rules that procedures were not followed in Wax’s case, then the matter would be remanded to the hearing board for further review, according to procedures outlined in the Senate handbook.”
But if the committee agrees with the board and imposes sanctions, Penn is going to have a lot of explaining to do. While the school was quick to condemn Wax for wrongthink, it has tolerated numerous acts of antisemitism on its campus in the name of “free speech.” As we reported recently here, Penn is under federal scrutiny for that antisemitism, over which Magill resigned in disgrace last December.
The House Committee investigating antisemitism at Penn called the school out for its hypocritical mistreatment of Amy Wax: “Penn has demonstrated a clear double standard by tolerating antisemitic vandalism, harassment, and intimidation, but suppressing and penalizing other expression it deemed problematic,” it said in its letter to the school.
As we wrote earlier, it’s hard to see how the school can justify sanctioning Wax for her controversial views while giving a free pass to the destroy-Israel chants and threats of actual violence its Jewish students are subjected to on campus:
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” “Zionism is racism,” “Penn funds Palestinian genocide,” and “From West Philly to Palestine, occupation is a crime.”
And if it does, it will have to own up to having one set of rules for antisemites and another for Professor Amy Wax.
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