Penn Unions To Rally Against Anti-DEI Executive Orders Thursday

PHILADELPHIA — Members of the University of Pennsylvania's faculty and staff are holding a rally Thursday in an effort to get the institution to uphold commitments to international students and workers and recommit to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility policies.

American Association of University Professors Penn, Graduate Employees Together at the University
of Pennsylvania, Penn Libraries United, Research Associates and Postdocs United at Penn, Penn Museum Workers United, and the Committee of Interns and Residents members across Penn will rally on campus against the University’s advance compliance with executive orders aimed at dismantling those policies.

The rally will be held from noon to 1 p.m. at the corner of 34th and Walnut Streets on Penn’s campus.

Speakers include Cooper Schwartz (CIR), Cris Juarez (PMWU) and Rep. RickKrajewski, alongside other faculty, graduate workers, postdocs, medical residents and museum workers.

"The Penn administration has chosen the path of anticipatory obedience," Sam Layding, a PhD. candidate in chemical and biomolecular engineering and GETUP-UAW member, and Amy Offner, associate professor of History and president of AAUP-Penn, said in a statement. "But we are encouraged by the resolve among our colleagues who recognize that it’s up to us to push back together, acting in solidarity with each other, our students, our patients, and our communities."

Attendees and speakers will issue four key demands and will deliver a petition, which currently has roughly 1,000 signatures from Penn faculty, staff and students, explaining these demands to the University Administration.

The petition demands:

1. Penn administration must uphold research and counteract federal funding cuts.
2. Penn administration must uphold its 2016 sanctuary policy and the rights of immigrant faculty, staff, and students.
3. There must be no anticipatory obedience on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, and no censorship of programs addressing these goals.
4. The university and its healthcare system must maintain equal treatment for transgender and LGBTQ+ members of our community.

"We are very protective of our community," Jessa Lingel, association professor in Penn's Annenberg School for Communication, told Patch Wednesday.

Lingel, director of both the Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies Program and Center for Research in Feminist, Queer and Transgender Studies at Penn, said Thursday's rally will be a place where the community can come together and say what's important to them about the work they do.

The demands in the petition aren't even asking Penn to take on additional measures, but rather to hold the line on its existing stances regarding potentially vulnerable members of the community.

Namely, international students and members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

"The best research and scholarship comes from a diverse community," she said.

The unions rallying Thursday are concerned about members of those communities, including faculty, staff, and students, and many of whom are in the United States on green cards or student visas.

"We want more recognition of how vulnerable they are," Lingel said of those community members. "I can't convey how uncertain people are to continue their research or if students be traveling home over summer."

One victory the coalition has secured recently was Penn's clarification on its relationship with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

She said Penn reaffirmed that it will only comply with ICE when presented with warrants.

The school will not grant ICE agents access to buildings that are inaccessible by the public, she said. That includes dorms and some education buildings.

"People are being attacked for basic science," she said.

With the National Institute of Health funding freeze, Lingel said people trying to study cancer in women, diseases that targeted LGBTQIA+ people, or even grants with the word "trans" in them face funding freezes.

She believes this stems from two factors.

"First, it's a shock and awe strategy," Lingel said. "They're trying to deliver as many flashy policy statements as possible to generate change they think they want.

And the other factor is inexperienced bureaucrats in entities such as the Department of Government Efficiency taking a chainsaw approach to funding cuts, when in reality it needs a more precise approach, which likened to using a scalpel.

As for Thursday's rally, Lingel said she is expected a large turnout.

"We have basic demands," she said. "Funding for science, equal opportunities, and protecting LGBTQIA+ people. We're asking Penn to hold the line."