THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA • FOUNDED 1885
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2024
VOL. CXL
Although no vote has been scheduled yet, Penn Vet and Pennsylvania House Democrats remain hopeful that the school will continue to receive funding JESSICA WU Senior Reporter
State funding for Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine has yet to be restored following the Pennsylvania House of Representatives’ decision to withhold funding over concerns about antisemitism. Uncertainty over state funding has continued to loom over Penn Vet since state House Republicans struck down $31 million in funding in a December 2023 vote. Although no vote has been scheduled at this time, Penn Vet and Pennsylvania House Democrats remain hopeful that the school will continue to receive funding — including both the withheld funding and proposed funding for the next fiscal year — as it has since 1889. Penn Vet’s Chief Communications Officer Martin Hackett wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian that Penn Vet has remained engaged with the General Assembly since the vote in December 2023, in hopes of regaining the $31 million withheld for fiscal year 2023-24 and implementing proposed funding for fiscal year 202425. Hackett added that Penn Vet has continued to provide services to Pennsylvania throughout the impasse. “Given our role in protecting animal and human health from threats — such as avian influenza in poultry and, more recently, dairy cows and humans — we remain hopeful that state officials will see the benefit of continued investments in our work,” Hackett wrote. In a statement to the DP, Nicole Reigelman, press secretary to state House Speaker Joanna McClinton (DPhiladelphia), wrote that “[state] House Democrats remain hopeful that a vote may still succeed to get 2023/24 funding to the veterinary programs and students at our only veterinary school, however House Republicans continue to block those funds.” Reigelman added that state House Democrats recognize the important role that Penn Vet plays in Pennsylvania’s “thriving agricultural sector.” In a December 2023 floor debate about the funding,
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Sheldon Hackney
DAYS TO LAUNCH SEARCH COMMITTEE FOR SUCCESSOR
6th president
*Measured by days after resignation announcement
Judith Rodin
75
7th president
DAYS TO LAUNCH Amy Gutmann
67
8th president
DAYS
DESIGN BY SOPHIA LIU
State funding for Penn Vet remains in flux amid antisemitism concerns, legislative ‘envoy’
NO. 12
TO LAUNCH
Why Penn may be waiting to start the search for Magill’s successor Interim President Larry Jameson has led the University since Liz Magill resigned in December 2023 ELEA CASTIGLIONE AND MAX ANNUNZIATA Senior Reporter and Staff Reporter
Four months have elapsed since former Penn President Liz Magill resigned, and the Penn Board of Trustees has yet to announce that the search for Penn’s next president has started. The Board of Trustees has not yet made an announcement on the status of the presidential search process for Magill’s replacement, nor have members of the committees involved in the search been named. This marks a change from the three most recent previous searches, when the Board of Trustees started the process within two months of the former president’s resignation announcement. A University spokesperson and Board of Trustees Chair Ramanan Raghavendran declined to comment. The Daily Pennsylvanian could not verify whether students, faculty members, or staff have been contacted about involvement in the search process. The process begins when the Board of Trustees chair convenes a Consultative Committee, which is composed of trustees, deans, faculty, and students. The Consultative Committee identifies “priorities, issues, challenges, candidate qualifications, and other factors important to the constituencies represented by the members of the committee,” according See PRESIDENT, page 7
Liz Magill
130 DAYS LATER
9th president
Penn yet to announce search for next president
See PENN VET, page 3
AAUP-Penn rallies alongside Penn workers in favor of graduate student worker union
Magill’s shadow looms large over Columbia leaders’ congressional testimony on antisemitism
Over 200 faculty have expressed support for graduate student workers’ unionization effort after the election was postponed to May 1 and 2
Columbia appeared to avoid the pitfalls that felled former Penn President Liz Magill and former Harvard President Claudine Gay in December
ALEX SLEN Staff Reporter
Over 50 people expressed their support for Penn graduate student workers’ unionization movement at a rally in front of College Hall on Wednesday. The rally was led by GET-UP in conjunction with the Penn chapter of the American Association of University Professors, Penn Museum Workers United, and United RAs at Penn. The groups organized their demonstration in response to an “eleventh-hour attempt by the university administration to thwart the graduate workers’ union election.” Earlier this week, the DP reported that the unionization election for graduate student workers would be rescheduled to May 1 and 2, a two week postponement from the original scheduled date. The rescheduling came two days after the election was postponed indefinitely. “There’s sort of two sides to my feelings right now,” sixth year Biology Ph.D. candidate and GET-UP organizer Luella Allen-Waller told The Daily Pennsylvanian. “It’s excitement for the new election, and its ever-deepening frustration with Penn’s attempt to delay this democratic decision making.” A University spokesperson said the election was rescheduled due to the National Labor Relations Board’s issuance of an Order on April 10, which stated that an additional group of Ph.D. students is not permitted to vote in the union election. The NLRB determined that the election needed to be postponed from its original date because of the time needed to comply with SEND STORY IDEAS TO NEWSTIP@THEDP.COM
CALEB CRAIN | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Penn’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors hosted a rally for the National Day of Action for Higher Education on April 17.
the NLRB’s voter list requirements. On April 15, the University and the union agreed to a stipulation rescheduling the election. “The election has been postponed for administrative reasons beyond the control of any party to the election,” the spokesperson wrote. “Since receiving the NLRB’s April 10 Order, Penn has fully cooperated with the NLRB to identify alternative dates for the election this semester. Penn encourages all students who are eligible to vote to learn as much as possible about this significant issue and to vote.” On April 9, over 200 Penn faculty members affirmed the graduate students’ right to organize by signing a support statement drafted by the Penn chapter of the AAUP, History and Sociology of Science professor Harun Küçük highlighted the significance of ensuring fair wages for graduate students. “The hardest topic to talk about is also the most important, which is monetary compensation,” he told the DP. “Although Penn has recently increased the graduate stipends by a substantial margin, we are still relatively behind our peers. This calls for something to be done, and our students have decided to take matters into their own hands.” Professor of Russian and East European Studies and Political Science Mitchell Orenstein expressed optimism for GET—UP’s future achievements. “I think that the best proof that the unionization efforts have worked at Penn is the
responsiveness of the administration before the union is officially voted on,” he said. “The student group has already made a major impact and I believe they will continue to do that.” GET-UP has been pushing for a fixed election date since last October, when over 3,000 student workers filed union authorization cards with the NLRB. Since then, the organization has faced multiple delays to the election, including last week, when the election was abruptly postponed days before students were scheduled to vote. Kyla Mace, a fifth-year graduate researcher in the Biomedical Graduate Studies program and GET-UP organizer, spoke about her disappointment due to the election postponement at the rally. “My union was supposed to have our election today. I should have cast my ballot already. I should be escorting people to the polls,” she said. Clancy Murray, a fourth-year Ph.D. student and GET-UP organizer, expressed similar disappointment with the slowdown. They criticized the administration for “trying to delay and deny our rights to this democratic process.” “The recent union organizing surge in high education speaks to a need for more democratic representation,” Murray added. “We need more democracy in universities, the decision making should not be in the hands of trustees and donors, but rather should be in the hands of the people who make this university run.”
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JASMINE NI Staff Reporter
Columbia University’s leadership underwent questioning from the United States House Committee on Education and the Workforce during an April 17 hearing about antisemitism concerns on campus. In many regards, the hearing resembled the December 2023 hearing in which Education Committee members grilled former Penn President Liz Magill about the state of antisemitism on Penn’s campus. While Columbia President and former Penn professor Minouche Shafik avoided responses similar to those that contributed to Magill’s resignation, she was charged with allowing Columbia to become a “hub of antisemitic behavior and thought” in recent months. In the hearing, which lasted more than three hours, four Columbia University officials — Shafik, Board of Trustees Co-Chairs Claire Shipman and David Greenwald, and antisemitism task force Co-Chair David Schizer — sought to quell critics who allege that the institution has transformed into a center for antisemitic behavior and ideology. While Shafik was originally asked to testify at the December 2023 hearing alongside Magill and the presidents of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, her testimony before Congress was moved due to scheduling conf licts. Claudine Gay, the former Harvard president, resigned less than a month after the See COLUMBIA, page 6 CONTACT US: 215-422-4640