On April 13, 2024, the AAUP-Penn Task Force on Health, Safety, and Disability with the support of the Executive Committee wrote Associate Dean Jeffery Kallberg, as well as Dean Steven Fluharty, Provost John L. Jackson, Interim President Larry Jameson, and the Board of Trustees, to urge the university administration to pay Deaf Lecturers in the American Sign Language (ASL) Program at a level commensurate with their qualifications and experience. We await their response.
This semester, the Presidential Commission on Countering Hate and Building Community asked the AAUP-Penn Executive Committee to meet with them to share perspectives and recommendations. We responded by sending the commission all of our statements issued this year, accompanied by the list of recommendations shared here.
This morning on April 12, 2024, we met with the commission to answer questions about these recommendations. As you’ll see, these recommendations are based on the discussions we’ve had in our membership meetings this year, and they distill key recommendations of our past statements. We encourage you to read and share them widely, and we welcome your thoughts.
An important update on GET-UP’s union election and our demonstration on April 17—a part of the National Day of Action for Higher Edinvolving more than 90 campuses across the U.S.:
As you know, a supermajority of graduate workers filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in October 2023, and they have waited half a year to vote because of Penn’s obstructionist tactics. In late March, the NLRB finally ruled that the election could go ahead and set a date: April 16-17. In an unprecedented show of support, over 240 faculty members signed a public statement of support for graduate unionization, and four campus labor organizations—GET-UP, AAUP-Penn, Penn Museum Workers United, and United RAs at Penn—announced a joint rally on April 17.
In a twist of events, the election date was changed with less than a week’s notice. On April 10, the NLRB ruled that a group of graduate student workers whom Penn had tried to exclude could vote in their election—a victory for the grad union. It then postponed the election by two weeks to provide the administration time to produce a list of eligible workers. In response, on April 10, Penn asked the NLRB to delay the election until the fall—a shameless attempt to deny workers their legal right to vote. The NLRB rightly rejected Penn’s proposal and is trying to reschedule the election for May 1–2 (dates to be confirmed).
Penn’s eleventh-hour demand to postpone the election indicates that the administration’s anti-union campaign is not over: the University intends to fight its own research and teaching assistants straight through the election, and likely beyond.
In the face of Penn’s anti-union campaign, our April 17 demonstration for grad workers’ right to vote for their union is more important than ever. As we approach the end of an academic year during which we have also faced serious attacks on freedom of assembly, academic freedom, and shared governance, GET-UP members’ vote for a collective voice at Penn also represents a vital step toward democratizing our institution. The demonstration will go ahead as planned on April 17 at 1pm at the Button. The message of the day remains: Unions belong at Penn. Democracy belongs at Penn. We stand with grad workers as they prepare to win their union. So please come on April 17 at 1pm to the Button to show your support, and to stand up and be counted on this National Day of Action. Your participation is important as a show of unity across job categories in support of the rights of grad workers—and as an expression of broad-based support for the principle of democracy at our institution and in our society.
Members of many higher ed unions, AAUP chapters including AAUP-Penn, Higher Ed Labor United, and student organizations are coming together across the country to plan a national day of action for higher education on April 17, 2024. The aim is not just to beat back the current attacks on academic freedom, DEI bans, and devastating budget cuts to public institutions in many states. We will mobilize around a unifying national message that links our local struggles with a set of positive demands we can fight for together, including publicly funded higher ed for all, freedom to learn, job security and fair pay, and democratic governance of our institutions. This statement outlines the future we stand for.
The centerpiece of the day will be simultaneous actions on every campus that can organize one: a teach-in, demonstration, tabling event, or whatever would be useful and feasible for you, oriented to the key issues that you are already organizing around. There will also be a national event focused on the function of higher education for democracy. If you are interested in getting involved:
April 17 Day of Action Events: How to Participate and Next Steps 1) Make a plan with your unionfor a campus/local action on April 17 2) Have your union endorse the statement The Future We Stand For (members: AAUP-Penn has already endorsed) 3) Important: Register your union’s participation and endorsementby filling out this form!
National Teach-In In addition to the campus actions that will be the main focus of the day, there will be a live-streamed National Teach-in on the function of higher education for democracy at 5pm EST on April 17 (click here to register).Many campuses are organizing watch parties with live discussion, either in addition to a local action or as their event.
Upcoming Planning Meeting on 3/29 If you’re looking to get involved or if you have questions, join the next open meeting on Friday, March 29 at 1pm EST via Zoom (click here to join). Learn about the National Day of Action, discuss what you’re experiencing on your campus, and think about the kind of action you could organize on April 17.
Save the date: follow-up meetings We hope this first National Day of Action will be a springboard for ongoing mobilization together! So after April 17, join us for two follow-up meetings to plan next steps:
As the historic unionization wave continues on our campus, especially as Penn graduate student workers in GET-UP gear up to vote for their union this spring after a highly successful organizing campaign, now is a crucial time for faculty as well as Penn employees across job categories to educate ourselves and each other on the right to organize.
AAUP–Penn is honored to host a lecture and conversation on February 27th with an expert on the subject, Janice R. Bellace, Samuel Blank Professor Emerita of Legal Studies in the Wharton School and past Chair of the International Labor Organization’s Committee of Experts, who will discuss freedom of association and unionization as human rights. Join us on 2/27 at 4pm ESTon zoom to hear Janice R. Bellace speak on “Graduate Student Workers’ Human Right to Organize.”
On Thursday, February 8th, the Executive Committee of AAUP–Penn responded to yet another campaign of targeted harassment directed against a Penn colleague, Annenberg faculty member Dwayne Booth, with the aim of silencing and punishing him for protected extramural speech. We encourage all faculty to read and circulate this message. We also commend the many faculty members who have stood up to defend the principles of academic freedom and have resisted calls for the university to discipline Booth.
We note that we sent this letter five days ago to the President, Provost, General Counsel, Chair and Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees, Chair of the Committee on Open Expression, Chair of the Faculty Senate, and Chair of the Faculty Senate Committee on Academic Freedom. We have received no response.
Interim President Larry Jameson Provost John Jackson Tulia Falleti, Chair, Faculty Senate Raina Merchant, Chair, SCAFR Wendy White, General Counsel Lisa Bellini, Chair, Committee on Open Expression Ramanan Raghavendran, Chair, Board of Trustees Julie Beren Platt, Vice Chair, Board of Trustees
Dear Colleagues,
We write to express our concern about the targeted harassment of Annenberg faculty member Dwayne Booth, as well as Interim President Jameson’s dangerous and unwarranted response to it. Both constitute serious threats to academic freedom and to Penn’s own written policies.
The targeted harassment of Booth was instigated by the Washington Free Beacon, a publication known for political provocation whose activities conform to a well-known pattern: it singled out a faculty member who had criticized the war in Gaza and portrayed him as an antisemite, which predictably generated threats of personal violence against him and calls for the university to discipline him. In publishing the date of Booth’s next class, the newspaper endangered the physical safety of both Booth and his students.
Such harassment must be understood and publicly condemned as a threat to academic freedom, which includes the right of faculty to freedom in extramural speech—that is, speech made as a member of the public on issues of general concern. Penn’s Faculty Handbook, drawing on the AAUP’s 1940 Statement of Principles, contains strong protections for extramural speech: “When speaking or writing as an individual, the teacher should be free from institutional censorship or discipline.” This policy applies equally to all faculty members, whether tenure-track or non-tenure track. By definition, extramural speech does not constitute grounds for discipline except in the extremely rare case where such speech demonstrates that a faculty member is unfit to do the teaching and research that their job entails. The only way to make that determination is through a careful, formal review of the colleague’s entire record by their fellow faculty members in accordance with AAUP principles and the Faculty Handbook.
The purpose of targeted harassment is to intimidate all faculty into silence and to goad universities into violating their own policies on academic freedom by condemning and disciplining faculty for protected speech. Administrators, to act in the best interest of their institutions, must resist all such pressure. The national AAUP’s position is clear: “The AAUP urges administrations, governing boards, and faculties, individually and collectively, to speak out clearly and forcefully to defend academic freedom and to condemn targeted harassment and intimidation of faculty members.”
Unfortunately, Interim President Jameson has endangered academic freedom by publicly condemning Booth’s political cartoons as “reprehensible” and suggesting that he should not have published them. Jameson’s public rebuke of a faculty member for protected extramural speech imperils the academic freedom of every faculty member at Penn, and it adds fuel to the fire started by those who are actively campaigning to damage our university’s reputation and to destabilize its basic academic functioning. It gives all of us reason to wonder whether the Interim President respects the university’s own written policies, and under what circumstances he might violate them outright.
To be clear: any attempt to discipline Booth for protected extramural speech, and any attempt to do so unilaterally—denying him due process—would constitute unambiguous violations of Penn’s Faculty Handbook and the principles of academic freedom. Such action would result in an investigation of the University of Pennsylvania by the national AAUP.
We share with you guidance for administrators from Faculty First Responders, a resource created with support from the national AAUP by scholars who have studied targeted harassment as one key element of organized attacks on higher education in recent years. As their guidance makes clear, it is dangerous and self-defeating for administrators to condemn faculty members who are subject to targeted harassment:
[R]ight-wing outlets are waging a culture war against higher education in general. They are not concerned with the specifics of what happens on your campus. In fact, they will be outraged whatever you do. And, likewise, they will soon forget about this story and move on to the next one. So will the online trolls, angry alumni, and others who, in the moment, might appear to be deeply concerned about this issue. Your faculty, staff, students, and community, however, will remember how you respond to these attacks for years to come. Therefore, a strong, public defense not only demonstrates true academic leadership but also likely earns the support and gratitude of the campus community.
The fundamental duty of the university administration in a time of war and political conflict is to protect academic freedom. That means reminding the university community and the wider public in clear, unequivocal terms that faculty members’ extramural speech is protected and that harassment will not be tolerated.
We are closely monitoring this case and reporting it to the national office of the AAUP.
Sincerely, Executive Committee, AAUP-Penn
CC: Sarah Banet-Weiser, Dean, Annenberg School for Communication Litty Paxton, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies, Annenberg School for Communication Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Director, Annenberg Public Policy Center
On January 22, 2024, Penn faculty, students, graduate workers, staff, and allies from across campus, across local higher ed unions, and across Philly stood out in the cold together to rally for the basic principles that make a university a university: academic freedom, shared institutional governance that represents us all, open expression, and equity and diversity, all of which enable higher education to serve the purpose of generating new knowledge for the public good. “Universities don’t exist to serve private interests,” as AAUP–Penn President Amy Offner said in her opening remarks; “They are not tools for the business interests or political agendas of donors and trustees.’”
The lineup of speakers—including tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty from many departments and schools across Penn from Arts & Sciences to SP2 and from Wharton to Veterinary Medicine, as well as undergraduate students, medical students, grad workers in GET-UP, and colleagues and allies from other universities—spoke out powerfully in support of academic freedom and shared governance, open expression, and diversity and equity, all of which are under assault across the U.S. and at our own university.
Without academic freedom, higher education is impossible. This right—a right defined by the American Association of University Professors from its founding in 1915 and won through past mobilizations by faculty across higher education—has long been enshrined in Penn’s policies, but it is not self-enforcing. That is why so many members of the Penn community have committed to standing together in solidarity to insist that the freedom to teach is essential to the freedom to learn, and to claim academic freedom and practice it as a collective right.
Yesterday’s public demonstration marked the start of a campaign by faculty across the University of Pennsylvania not just to beat back the current assault by billionaire CEOs, trustees, and politicians, but to fight for and win positive institutional changes that will strengthen academic freedom and the forms of job security meant to protect it and that will democratize our university’s governing structures in order to make the freedom to teach and learn a reality for all of us who study and teach at Penn.
AAUP–Penn is organizing a public demonstration on Monday, January 22at 2pm in support of freedom to learn, teach, and study; shared institutional governance; and diversity and racial justice. We are calling on faculty, staff, students, workers, and allies from across Penn, across institutions, and across Philly to stand together to defend and strengthen these principles.
This is a crucial time to push back against billionaires and politicians who are threatening all of us who work and study at Penn. You have undoubtedly seen that Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo Global Management and co-chair of the Wharton Board of Governors, has circulated a memo suggesting that unelected Penn trustees assume powers to unilaterally close departments, impose McCarthyite speech codes clearly aimed at suppressing protest, and change hiring and admissions policies to turn back the clock on gains in diversity and racial justice. These are serious threats to our institution’s educational and research mission and to the work that all of us do.
Now is not a moment to stand on the sidelines. Your participation is vital in demonstrating that the majority of Penn faculty, students, and staff believe in academic freedom, shared governance, open expression, and diversity. So come out to the button (in front of Van Pelt) on Jan. 22 at 2pm to say loud and clear that we will not let CEOs and politicians destroy these principles, and we intend to win positive institutional changes strengthening them.
Penn colleagues and students, please mark your calendars for a January 19 Open Forum on Academic Freedom and Shared Governance, featuring remarks from invited guest speakers Joan Wallach Scott and Hank Reichman—former chairs of AAUP’s national Committee A on Academic Freedom. This will be an opportunity to learn more about academic freedom and shared governance—principles that AAUP defined over a century ago and that are written into Penn’s Faculty Handbook—and to discuss together how we can strengthen them at Penn.
Join via zoom on 1/19 at 1pm; email for the meeting link if you haven’t received an invitation. Sign language interpretation will be available throughout the session.
Penn is currently applying for reaccreditation—and to be accredited, universities must demonstrate adherence to principles of academic freedom, freedom of expression, faculty governance, and diversity. The recent actions of unelected trustees and donors have put the University’s accreditation at serious risk. A letter circulated among the trustees by a private equity billionaire suggests that they might unilaterally close departments, change hiring criteria (with the aim of destroying diversity and equity initiatives), and impose a speech code to discipline students and faculty for political expression. Attempts by donors and trustees with no academic qualifications to control curriculum and research, silence speech that they disagree with, shutter departments, interfere in faculty hiring, and end DEI policies are an assault on higher education, and they clearly threaten Penn’s accreditation.
The accreditation process gives us an opportunity to act.
We are calling on all colleagues, allies across higher education, and concerned members of the public to participate in the comment period between now and January 12.
Penn faculty, staff, and students: Write to Penn’sSelf-Study Steering Committee, which is charged with writing a report to the external accrediting agency. Comments are due by January 12, 2024:
Urge them to tell the truth in their report to the accrediting agency (MSCHE): academic freedom, shared governance, open expression, and DEI policies are gravely endangered at Penn and must be strengthened. The accreditation process is an instrument of accountability: we must use it. (The current draft of the report does not contain a single mention of “academic freedom.”)
Please share this call widely with all those who care about the future of higher education. We ask everyone—faculty, staff, students, alumni, and the public—to submit comments and sound the alarm:
Penn must uphold the principles of academic freedom and shared governance in order to retain its accreditation, and to remain a university in anything more than name.
Below is a sample message you can use when you submit your comment:
Sample message on accreditation:
I write to express my grave concern that Penn’s accreditation is threatened by donors, trustees, and administrators who are attempting to undermine academic freedom, shared governance, open expression, and DEI policies at the university.
Penn’s self-study must tell the truth about the crisis at our university: academic freedom, shared governance, and open expression have already been compromised, and Apollo CEO Marc Rowan’s recent questions to the Penn trustees raise the specter of their total destruction. To preserve the educational and research mission of the university, we must use the reaccreditation process as intended: it must be an instrument of accountability.
Penn’s self-study must clearly state that the following principles and standards required by Penn’s accrediting agency, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, are gravely endangered at the university today:
“academic freedom, intellectual freedom, freedom of expression”
“fair and impartial practices in the hiring, evaluation, promotion, discipline, and separation of employees”
“student learning experiences that are designed, delivered, and assessed by faculty”
“a general education program that…offers a sufficient scope to draw students into new areas of intellectual experience, expanding their cultural and global awareness and cultural sensitivity”
“graduate…opportunities for the development of research, scholarship, and independent thinking, provided by faculty and/or other professionals with credentials appropriate to graduate-level curricula”
“a climate that fosters respect among students, faculty, staff, and administration from a range of diverse backgrounds, ideas, and perspectives”
“a clearly articulated and transparent governance structure that outlines roles, responsibilities, and accountability for decision making by each constituency, including governing body, administration, faculty, staff and students”
The AAUP-Penn Executive Committee, as well as national news outlets, have documented numerous threats to these principles and standards. To name just a few:
In September, under pressure from donors and lobbying organizations, administrators unilaterally changed curricular requirements in the Department of Near East Languages and Civilizations without the knowledge or consent of the faculty teaching the classes.
In November, the university refused to allow a Jewish student organization, Penn Chavurah, to screen the award-winning documentary Israelism, which follows young Jewish Americans who traveled to Israel and Palestine and developed critical perspectives on Israeli government policies. When Penn’s Middle East Center volunteered to host this screening and reserved a room for that purpose, the university administration pressured the center’s director to cancel it, and the director resigned in protest. The university has since threatened to discipline the students for screening the film.
The university administration has failed to publicly condemn, and has even contributed to, the targeted harassment of faculty members who have been defamed as antisemites and threatened with violence for voicing criticism of Israeli government policies and warfare, for expressing solidarity with Palestinian civilians, and for speaking out in grief and anguish about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The harassment of individual faculty members appears to have been systematic, coordinated, and has included highly publicized attacks by members of Congress. As the national AAUP has made clear, targeted harassment undermines the academic freedom of all faculty members, as it exerts a chilling effect on protected extramural speech, research, and teaching. It is the responsibility of university administrators to condemn targeted harassment in order to protect academic freedom.
In December, Apollo CEO Marc Rowan circulated a list of questions to Penn’s Board of Trustees that seem to suggest that trustees with no academic expertise carry out a hostile takeover of the core academic functions of the university—functions related to curriculum, research, and the hiring and evaluation of faculty. Rowan’s letter asks, “Should any of the existing academic departments be closed?” It seems to propose unilateral changes by trustees to “instruction of students,” changes in “criteria for qualification and admission for membership in the Faculty,” and a “Code of Conduct” to constrain campus speech. And it raises the possibility that the university might discipline faculty for “promoting a particular viewpoint.”
The accreditation process presents us with an opportunity to defend and strengthen the principles of academic freedom, faculty governance, open expression, and diversity and equity. It presents us with an opportunity to stand up to the threats of donors who neither understand nor respect the educational and research mission of the university. We must use this opportunity to ensure a strong faculty voice in the governance of the university, protect the integrity of research and teaching, and safeguard policies that promote diversity and equity.
