Tensions can only increase at Penn following Magill's resignation

Campus protests are usually not directed against one person. But last week, professors at the University of Pennsylvania organized a rally targeting New York private equity billionaire Marc Rowan.

As a Penn alumnus and a major benefactor of the university, Mr. Rowan deployed his formidable resources in a ruthless campaign against Penn's president, M. Elizabeth Magill, leading to her resignation in December.

But it was what happened next that sparked the protest. Mr. Rowan sent a four-page email to university administrators titled “Moving Forward,” which included many professors interpreted as a blueprint for a more conservative campus.

Amy C. Offner, a history professor who led the protest, called the document a proposed “hostile takeover of the university's core academic functions.”

The protest by about 100 people was a sign that campus discord was likely to continue despite Ms. Magill's resignation, which many members of Penn's community hoped would quell outrage over the testimony she gave at a Congressional hearing which seemed to cast doubt on whether students would do so. be punished if they call for the genocide of the Jews.

Instead, Penn, now operating under interim president Dr. J. Larry Jameson, faces a series of alumni, donors and students who claim that universities have been taken over by a liberal orthodoxy that tolerates or even promotes anti-Semitism.

Penn is now under attack from many sides. It is the defendant in a lawsuit brought by Jewish students and funded in part by unnamed donors, and the subject of a congressional investigation with subpoena power. Republican state lawmakers have threatened to withhold $31 million from its veterinary program, the only state appropriation the private university receives.

Two alumni, Mr. Rowan and Ronald S. Lauder, the cosmetics heir, were notable among the sponsors of a fundraiser for the reelection of Representative Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina, whose House committee is investigating Penn and other universities about claims of anti-Semitism.

Mr. Rowan and Mr. Lauder did not attend the fundraiser, but the event's organizer — Andrew Sabin, a New Yorker who made a fortune in metal recycling — said the sponsors shared an opposition to anti-Semitism and hope to apply pressure calling on Congress to eliminate federal funding and tax exemption from some universities.

A special one research by the House Ways and Means Committee has questioned whether anti-Semitism on campus threatens the nonprofit status of Penn, as well as Cornell, Harvard and MIT

“We have a very, very aggressive path forward,” said Mr. Sabin, who did not attend Penn.

Some university professors say the attack on Penn is part of a conservative effort, started by governors like Florida's Ron DeSantis, to overhaul American higher education — an effort that is now spreading to dozens of universities. including Penn, Harvard and Columbia, which are now under federal investigation for reports of anti-Semitism.

“This is an anti-democratic attack unfolding not just at Penn, but across the country, including at public universities in Florida, Texas, Ohio and beyond,” said Dr. Offner, chairman of the American University chapter. Association of University Professors, a professional faculty organization.

Penn, she said, had become “the ground zero of a coordinated national attack on higher education, an attack orchestrated by billionaires, lobbying organizations and politicians who want to control what can be studied and taught in the United States.”

On Wednesday — two days after the fundraiser, which raised an estimated $60,000 for her campaign — Ms. Foxx filed a Letter of 14 pages at the university and demanded documents that could reflect the concerns of some Penn donors that the number of Jewish students at Penn has declined as the university has admitted more Asian, black and Latino students.

Ms. Foxx's demands cited figures from the Jewish organization Hillel International showing that Penn's Jewish student population had fallen to about 1,600, or 16.4 percent of the student body, by 2023, compared to about 2,500 students, or 25 percent, in 2013. . a study A few years ago it turned out that nationally about 9 percent of students are Jewish.

Mr Rowan's proposal, published in its entirety by The Philadelphia Inquirer, was formulated as a series of questions about the direction of the university. It asked whether some academic programs should be eliminated and whether merit and academic excellence should be the overriding considerations in hiring and admissions, which was interpreted by many as a call to eliminate diversity considerations.

The document attracted an immediate and strong response push back of faculty members, more than 1,200 of whom are one letter sent to trustees on January 16. “We oppose all attempts by trustees, donors and other external actors to interfere with our academic policies and undermine academic freedom,” the letter said.

However, the faculty does not agree with this. Michael J. Kahana, professor of psychology, responded directly in an email to the faculty senate.

“Your letter specifically addresses Marc Rowan's questions, which I have reviewed and found reasonable and helpful,” wrote Dr. Kahana, who shared his email with The New York Times. Dr. Kahana recently hosted one trip at Israeli universities by Penn professors, as a show of solidarity with academic colleagues in Israel.

Mr. Rowan, who chairs an advisory panel at Wharton, Penn's prestigious business school, suggested through a spokesman that the faculty had misinterpreted his intentions.

“Marc says these are the questions, he's not trying to give answers,” said Steven Lipin, the spokesman. “This is absolutely not what Marc wants. Ultimately, that is what the administrators and faculty want.”

At the meeting last week, just after the start of Penn's spring semester, professors and others stood outside in freezing temperatures for nearly two hours and said they were seeking reassurance from Dr. Jameson, Penn's interim president, that Mr. Rowan's ideas would succeed. not to be embraced. About a dozen faculty speakers, as well as several students, said they were concerned that donors were on a crusade to attack Penn's traditions of diversity, academic freedom and freedom of expression.

So far, the university board has not made any statements that, according to the professors, are a strong rejection of Mr. Rowan. But in a recent Q. and A. document Posted on the university website: Dr. Jameson, an endocrinologist who was dean of Penn's medical school, reiterated the idea that the trustees' role was to delegate management to academic leaders and faculty.

Neither Dr. Neither Jameson nor the university's new chairman, Ramanan Raghavendran, an investor, was available for comment for this article.

Mr. Raghavendran, who has three Penn degrees, including from Wharton, was named following the resignation of Scott L. Bok, an ally of Ms. Magill. Mr. Raghavendran's selection to lead the board was seen as a hopeful sign by some faculty members, who cited his support for Penn's liberal arts college, the School of Arts and Sciences, where he served on the advisory board.

Dr. Harun Kucuk, associate professor of the history of sociology and science, said professors could be ready for even more activism. The AAUP, the professor's group, said membership on Penn's campus is increasing.

Dr. Kucuk recently resigned as director of the university's Middle East Center in protest at the university's attempt to block the screening of a film critical of Israel.

“There is still time to put things right,” he said, “and I don't think that will be for another year.”