The University of Pennsylvania has recently been making sweeping changes to how it handles diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives -- including scrubbing a page on diversity and inclusion from its own website, as documented by the school's newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian.
And, after the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Penn's medical school "plans to dissolve committees having to do with diversity, equity, and inclusion and any roles that implement such efforts," elected officials from across the city gathered on Tuesday morning to call for the school's board of trustees to reverse course.
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WATCH HERE"If you wonder why sometimes, people in my generation, sometimes in 2025 feel like we are still a second class citizen this is why. You cannot rationalize fighting a racist. That’s understood," said State Senator Anthony Williams (D-8th dist.) during an event on Tuesday morning.
Williams was joined by a number of elected officials all calling for the board to preserve DEI programs at Penn Medicine, saying that a hasty decision to follow an order from President Donald Trump to end these kinds of programs, was illegal and unconstitutional.
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SIGN UP “They made a decision to move so swiftly, proactively, in front of what courts have decided to be an illegal, if not unconstitutional act," Williams said of the school's board of trustees.
Yet, Williams insisted that the lawmakers weren't at the University of Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, to talk about the president's decisions or orders. Instead, they wanted to remind the school that laws preventing discrimination are still in place and should be obeyed.
“We are not here because of Donald Trump or his actions, we are here because of the actions of the University of Pennsylvania," Williams said. "This is not a moral plea. 'Do us a favor.' This is requirement that you follow the law. There’s a constitution which is written, laws which are propagated, and we should be following them.”
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In a letter to the community that was published on Penn's website on Monday, the school's interim president, J. Larry Jameson, addressed the recent changes, saying that the school "must both respond and adapt to this rapidly shifting landscape" as there have been shifts in federal guidance, oversight and public opinion.
"Cuts to federal funding loom, from financial aid to research funds, and proposed legislation to increase endowment taxes. These elements, along with changing rules related to cultural norms of higher education, are among the most significant of our challenges and represent an existential threat across our University and American higher education," Jameson wrote. "We are acting to protect our missions, our operations, our people, and our values."
In the letter, Jameson said the school is working on advocating to "ensure that Penn's mission is preserved," convening a working group to evaluate the impact of the new federal directives and planning what to do under certain "financial scenarios."
Yet, lawmakers argued that these moves do little to protect some of the most vulnerable members of the school's community.
“We don’t want to hear words about how we protect our values. We want to see action so that students here can feel safe, like other students wanted to feel safe last year," said Williams, hinting at prior antisemitism issues at the school. "What actions they are going to take for faculty members who want to be respected in their classroom and not feel like they were DEI hires.”
Just what specific funding or initiatives have been targeted for cuts at Penn, officials didn't say on Tuesday.
But, Philadelphia City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier (D-3rd dist.) argued that by not challenging the president's decree, school officials showed that at the first sign of danger, unlike school founder Benjamin Franklin who stood up against the king of England, Penn ran for the hills.
“Penn abandoning equity and inclusion the second it became an inconvenience is a choice," said Gauthier.
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