Still under scrutiny for handling of antisemitism concerns, Penn president Liz Magill releases strategic plan

University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill on Thursday released a strategic plan for the Ivy League institution still reeling under criticism over its handling of antisemitism complaints and lack of support for Palestinian, Muslim and Arab students and faculty.

But Magill, who is in her second year as president, said it’s exactly the right time to roll out a plan, focusing on Penn’s role as both a good neighbor and global citizen and calling for its leadership on “the great challenges of our time,” including climate change, health challenges made more visible and urgent by the pandemic, data-driven research, and democracy and trust.

“Articulating our ambitions for the future is especially crucial now, when urgent global challenges are provoking anguish, fear, and testing our community,” Magill said in a message to the campus.

» READ MORE: Penn students who screened film on Israel face possible discipline

“Just as we are launching urgent university-wide efforts to combat antisemitism and interconnected forms of hate, including Islamophobia, and identifying ways to strengthen our bonds with one another, this strategic framework emphasizes strengthening community, deepening connections, cultivating service-minded leadership, and collaborating across divisions and divides.”

The university said Magill — who has been called along with presidents from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to appear before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Tuesday to discuss their schools’ handling of antisemitism —- was not available for an interview on the plan.

Called “In Principle and Practice: Penn’s Focus on Tomorrow,” the “strategic framework” is the result of a yearlong planning process led by provost John L. Jackson Jr., involving a committee of students, professors and administrators.

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It succeeds the prior strategic plan, Penn Compact, set by former president Amy Gutmann, initially unveiled at her inauguration in 2004.

The new plan, which also calls for more interdisciplinary work, will become the guiding document for Penn’s initiatives under Magill. It also emphasizes the strength of diversity.

“The more ideas and people from all backgrounds we bring to the table — and the more interconnected and less siloed our community — the more rigorous, more resourceful, and more effective Penn is,” the plan said.

It also emphasizes the importance of Penn’s stature as an inventor — two of its scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine in October for their research that paved the way for COVID-19 vaccines — and an “engaged” institution that “seeks dialogue and collaboration across differences and divides.”

The university, the plan said, must do more to combat climate change, which for years has been a refrain from student groups who have called on Penn to further divest from fossil fuel industries. Penn has taken steps to address concerns, including setting a goal of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions from its endowment investments to zero by 2050.

The plan also emphasizes Penn’s role in “driving conversations about and promoting democratic values and institutions as well as the truth-seeking approach foundational to all universities.

“This feels more challenging than ever right now. And even more necessary.”

The past semester has been challenging for the former University of Virginia provost, who has faced backlash from some donors unhappy with the holding of the Palestine Writes literature festival on campus in late September featuring some speakers with a history of making antisemitic remarks and the school’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

» READ MORE: Penn’s donor backlash raises questions about how much influence philanthropists should have

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights earlier this month launched a probe into Penn’s handling of antisemitism following a complaint lodged by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. The department simultaneously began investigations at several other colleges. Penn has experienced several antisemitic acts this semester, including the drawing of a swastika inside Meyerson Hall and vandalism at Penn Hillel.

» READ MORE: Under pressure from Jewish community, Penn president unveils plan to combat antisemitism

Earlier this semester, Magill rolled out a plan to combat antisemitism on campus and also a presidential commission to deal with the “interconnectedness of antisemitism and other forms of hate, including Islamophobia.”

Meanwhile, a petition signed by more than 500 academics and writers from inside and outside the United States has called on Penn to defend its students, faculty, and staff against targeted harassment for speaking in support of Palestinians.

Most recently, the university ordered a progressive Jewish student group not to screen a film critical of Israel on campus this semester, and when it did anyway, on Tuesday evening, the school said it would refer the students to its Office of Community Standards and Accountability. That action could result in sanctions.