Penn faculty protest against Wharton donor’s attempt to influence academic agenda

Faculty and staff at the University of Pennsylvania on Monday railed against a megadonor’s campaign to exert influence over the curriculum and urged school administrators to stand up for academic freedom.

Over 100 people gathered outside the Van Pelt Library on Penn’s snow-strewn campus with signs that said, “Hands off our university.” And the hands in question were no mystery.

Last month, Marc Rowan, the deep-pocketed university donor who successfully started a campaign to oust former Penn president Liz Magill and board chair Scott L. Bok, sent a letter to university trustees that questioned whether the school should eliminate unnamed academic departments and implement new qualifications for faculty.

The letter sent a shockwave through the University City institution as well as other Ivy League schools amid a nationwide reckoning over antisemitism and political expression on campus.

Speaking at the foot of a bronze statue of Benjamin Franklin, tenured and nontenured faculty cast Rowan’s campaign as an attempt to undermine educators’ freedom to study and research. They said his effort would harm the diversity of academic life at one of the nation’s oldest universities.

» READ MORE: Penn faculty fear the donor who started the effort to oust Liz Magill is attempting to set the agenda for trustees

“We’re here to stand up for some very simple principles that make a university a university,” said Amy C. Offner, an associate professor of history. “Universities are not autocracies, and we are not subjects. Decisions about academic life are ours to make as educators and researchers — and don’t belong to CEOs, trustees, or politicians.”

Speakers urged interim president J. Larry Jameson, school provost John L. Jackson, and trustees to reject Rowan’s attempt to influence the academic agenda. A spokesperson for Rowan said Rowan reiterated his position that he was merely asking questions of the trustees, not making specific suggestions: “In no way is it what Marc wants. Ultimately, it is what the trustees and faculty want.”

Penn did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the rally. But in an interview posted on Penn’s website last week, Jameson spoke to the issue of academic freedom and the school’s code of conduct.

“In addition to establishing policies, it is important that they are communicated, understood, and clear, while leaving room for judgement since you cannot anticipate every possible circumstance,” Jameson said. “While our values are steadfast, we revisit our policies on a regular basis, for example to align with government regulations or to adapt to emerging technologies, such as AI or social media.”

The CEO of the New York-based private equity firm Apollo Global Management, Rowan co-leads Wharton’s board of advisors and, in 2018, donated the single largest gift in the elite business school’s 143-year history. But in recent months, his influence at Penn has raised alarm among faculty and staff who feel the billionaire investor has sought to wrest control from the board of trustees.

Rowan sent near-daily emails to trustees leading up to Magill and Bok’s ouster. But his Dec. 12 letter to trustees amounted to what speakers at the rally described as a “hostile takeover” by a nonacademic of an academic institution.

“The stakes became disturbingly clear,” Offner said.

The controversy over donor influence at Penn is not limited to Rowan and predates the Israel-Hamas war. A Palestinian literary festival in September — which included speakers who had a history of making antisemitic remarks — sparked one of the most voluble backlashes from donors in the university’s history.

Over the last three months, concerns have ballooned over antisemitism, Islamophobia, and censorship on campus. Organizers with the progressive Jewish student group Penn Chavurah were threatened with discipline in November for screening a film critical of Israel, an incident that was followed by the abrupt resignation of the university’s Middle East Center director.

Jack Starobin, 21, a member of Penn Chavurah, said the school should be held accountable about bowing to outside political pressure. “They told us the film was not right for the climate on campus,” Starobin said. “If a film screening is off limits, ... what else are we not allowed to talk about?”

» READ MORE: Penn’s antisemitism case dismissed by U.S. education department, citing a lawsuit containing same allegations

Rowan’s letter to trustees did not specify which departments he believed the university should target for elimination, nor what types of new standards he felt should be placed on faculty. But many faculty viewed the suggestion as an assault that would ultimately hurt the university.

“Academic freedom has never been easy,” said Margo Crawford, chair of the English department. “It has never been safe.”

Speakers on Monday shared a nearly century-old anecdote to that point. In 1915, progressive economist and former Wharton director Scott Nearing was fired by Penn trustees due to his opposition to child labor and other then-radical views on economics.

Eric Orts, a professor at Wharton, said history may not be repeating itself yet. But it may be starting to rhyme, he said, borrowing a quote often attributed to Mark Twain.

“Like our democracy, it’s easy to take our academic freedom for granted,” Orts said. “But also like our democracy, it’s worth fighting for.”