- More than 900 Ivy League faculty members have accused alumni and donors of interfering in the school's academic policies
- It comes after alumni Rowan asked the school board to reconsider its policy
- Rowan, one of the alumni who called on President Liz Magill to resign after failing to say that calls for genocide of Jews were against UPenn policy
University of Pennsylvania officials have raised concerns about a “hostile takeover” by trustees and donors after billionaire alum Mar Rowan asked the school's board to reconsider its policies.
More than 900 Ivy League faculty members have accused alumni and donors of interfering in the school's academic policies in an open letter to the University's Board of Trustees.
The Faculty Senate letter comes after Rowan, chair of Wharton's Board of Advisors, sent an email describing a “campus culture” that “distracted from UPenn's core mission of scholarship, research and academic excellence.”
In his email titled “Moving Forward,” Rowan asked administrators to consider whether the school should eliminate certain unnamed departments and examine “the overall policy for faculty membership admissions,” as reported by The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Rowan was among the alumni who called on President Liz Magill to resign after failing to say that calls for the genocide of Jews were against UPenn policy. He also led a campaign to end donations to the school over its response to anti-Semitism on campus.
Employees at the University of Pennsylvania have raised concerns about a 'hostile takeover' by trustees after billionaire alum Mar Rowan asked the school's board to consider its policies
More than 900 Ivy League faculty members have accused alumni and donors of interfering in the school's academic policies
The CEO of Apollo Global Management Inc., and one of the biggest benefactors at UPenn, asked donors to “close the checkbooks” over the college's failure to condemn Hamas' terror attack on Israel.
In their letter, the faculty members said they oppose “attempts by administrators, donors, and other external actors to interfere with our academic policies and undermine academic freedom.”
It comes after the UPenn chapter of the American Association of University Professors issued their own statement on December 12 warning of a “hostile takeover of the core academic functions of the University of Pennsylvania” by people with “no academic expertise.”
The statement read: “Today, unelected administrators without academic expertise are apparently attempting a hostile takeover of the University of Pennsylvania's core academic functions – functions related to curriculum, research, and faculty hiring and evaluation.
“The questions being considered by the trustees represent an attack on the principle of academic freedom, first articulated a century ago to safeguard the educational mission of universities.”
Rowan was among the alumni who called on President Liz Magill to resign after failing to say that calls for genocide of Jews were against UPenn policy
“Any attempt on the part of Penn's trustees to close academic departments, restrict hiring, discipline faculty members for political reasons and without due process, censor the faculty's intramural or extramural speech, or impose new McCarthyist speech codes on teachers and students would be the most egregious. conceivable violations of core principles of academic freedom and faculty governance.”
Magill was forced to resign earlier this month under pressure from donors and criticism of her testimony in Congress.
The chairman of the Ivy League school's board of trustees, Scott Bok, also resigned just hours after announcing Magill's departure as president in her second year.
Criticism of Magill came from the White House, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, members of Congress and donors.
One donor, Ross Stevens, threatened to withdraw a $100 million gift because of the university's “position on anti-Semitism on campus” unless Magill was replaced.
A day later, Magill addressed the criticism, saying in a video that she would consider a call for genocide against Jewish people to be harassment or intimidation and that Penn's policies should be “clarified and evaluated.”
It could not suppress the criticism.
Even before her testimony, Magill was under fire from some donors and alumni this fall. Some had also called for the resignation of Bok, who had defended Magill amid criticism over the university's handling of several perceived acts of anti-Semitism.
That included hosting a Palestinian literary arts festival on campus in September with speakers whose previous statements about Israel had drawn accusations of anti-Semitism.