Embattled law prof Amy Wax vows to remain at Penn days after the school sanctioned her

University of Pennsylvania law professor Amy Wax, who was sanctioned this week for a major infraction of the school’s behavioral standards, said she intends to remain at Penn and asserted that “allegations I abuse or discriminate against students are totally bogus and made up.”

Wax, a professor at Penn for more than two decades, made her comments in the New York Sun.

Penn said Monday that Wax — who has called into question the academic ability of Black students, invited white nationalist Jared Taylor to her classroom, and said the country would be better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration — would be suspended for one year at half pay, with benefits intact, effective for the 2025-26 academic year. But Penn did not fire her or strip her of her tenure.

» READ MORE: Penn will sanction Amy Wax, the law prof who invited a white nationalist to speak to her class

She also was publicly reprimanded in a letter by provost John L. Jackson Jr. published in Penn’s Almanac on Tuesday. The sanctions include 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.

Wax told the Sun that she estimates the sanctions will cost her more than a half-million dollars.

“These findings are now final,” Penn said in a statement Monday, noting the five-member hearing board’s determination that Wax “violated the university’s behavioral standards by engaging in years of flagrantly unprofessional conduct within and outside of the classroom that breached her responsibilities as a teacher to offer an equal learning opportunity to all students.”

» READ MORE: Penn hearing board recommended sanctions against Amy Wax in June, but her appeal means the process isn’t over

The punishment came after more than two years of faculty senate proceedings and stands as the first time in at least 20 years that a tenured professor has been sanctioned after the full faculty senate process was followed. Proceedings against Wax, 71, began in January 2022 when former Carey law dean Theodore Ruger invoked the faculty review process, asserting that Wax’s “racist speech” was escalating and multiple complaints about her promotion of white supremacy had been lodged.

Wax will remain teaching this year and has already invited Taylor to speak to her class again on Dec. 3. He is scheduled to deliver a guest lecture in Wax’s class on “Conservative and Political Legal Thought,” the Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn’s student newspaper, reported earlier this month.

Wax told the Sun that she intended to remain “a conservative presence on campus.” She called the university’s actions “performance art” and asserted that the administration “doesn’t want conservatives like me on campus.”

» READ MORE: Penn law professor Amy Wax enraged people with her comments about Asians. Now, she may face sanction.

She also told the Sun that Penn’s allegations that she discriminated against students were “fabricated and tacked on as a cover for penalizing me for standard-issue, conservative anti-’woke’ opinions and factual observations that are not allowed on campus.”

Wax said that she faces a “hostile” environment at the law school and that conservative students regularly seek her support. She told the Sun 12 students are enrolled in her seminar on conservatism.

The sanctions against Wax initially were handed down by a Penn hearing board in June 2023 and upheld by former Penn president Liz Magill, but Wax appealed the decision, which kicked off a review by Penn’s Senate Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility. That group decided that the hearing board followed proper procedures, the university said, which allowed the sanctions to take effect.

» READ MORE: The Amy Wax case explained: Here’s what preceded the controversial law professor’s university sanctions

Jackson wrote in his letter of reprimand to Wax that while academic freedom is broad, “teachers ... must conduct themselves in a manner that conveys a willingness to assess all students fairly. They may not engage in unprofessional conduct that creates an unequal educational environment.

“The Board has determined that your conduct failed to meet these expectations, leaving many students understandably concerned that you cannot and would not be an impartial judge of their academic performance. It is imperative that you conduct yourself in a professional manner in your interactions with faculty colleagues, students, and staff. This includes refraining from flagrantly unprofessional and targeted disparagement of any individual or group in the university community.”

Wax’s conduct, according to a letter by Magill upholding the sanctions, “included a history of sweeping, blithe, and derogatory generalizations about groups by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and immigration status.” She also, according to the letter, breached “the requirement that student grades be kept private by publicly speaking about the grades of law students by race and continuing to do so even after cautioned by the dean that it was a violation of University policy.”

Wax also, both in and out of the classroom, repeatedly and in public made “discriminatory and disparaging statements targeted at specific racial, ethnic, and other groups with which many students identify,” the letter said.

When the Inquirer called her for comment Monday, she said: “Please don’t call me.”