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INSIDE: BEST OF PENN

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA • FOUNDED 1885

PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 2025

VOL. CXLI

NO. 11

Penn releases regular decision results for Class of 2029 after receiving 72,000 applications

Fran McCaffery takes charge of men’s basketball Former Iowa assistant coach Tristan Spurlock will also join McCaffery’s staff, sources told The Daily Pennsylvanian WALKER CARNATHAN AND SEAN MCKEOWN Senior Sports Reporter and Sports Editor

Over 72,000 students applied to Penn this year, marking an increase from last year’s applicant pool of over 65,000

Fran McCaffery will serve as the next head coach of Penn men’s basketball, Penn Athletics announced on March 27. McCaffery, a 1982 Wharton graduate and Philadelphia native, served as head coach at Iowa for 15 seasons, with previous stops at Lehigh, North Carolina Greensboro, and Siena. He will replace Steve Donahue at the helm of the program and serve as the team’s 21st head coach. His 12 career NCAA tournament appearances are the most of any Ivy League basketball coach at the time of their hiring in history. “I am excited and honored to return to my alma mater and the city of Philadelphia to lead the Penn men’s basketball program,” McCaffery said in a statement. “It is a program that I have fond memories of from my previous time there as a student-athlete and assistant coach. My vision is to return Penn to prominence in the Ivy League and beyond and bring an exciting style of play to The Palestra.” Earlier this month, McCaffery was dismissed as the Hawkeyes’ head coach after the team’s second-straight season without a tournament berth. He leaves Iowa City as the winningest coach in the program’s history with 297 total victories. Under McCaffery, Iowa ranked as high as No. 3 nationally in 2016 and 2021. McCaffery began his playing career at Wake Forest in 1977 before transferring to Penn, where he played from 1979-1982. After spending the 1982-83 season as an assistant for the Quakers, McCaffery became an assistant at Lehigh, where he later served as head coach from 1985-1988 and took the Mountain Hawks to the NCAA tournament in his final season. McCaffery then spent 11 years as an assistant at Notre Dame from 1988-1999 before head coaching stints at UNC Greensboro from 1999-2005 and Siena from 2005-2010. In his final three seasons with Siena, McCaffery led the Saints to three MAAC titles, three NCAA tournament berths, and two tournament wins. McCaffery was hired at Iowa in 2010 and coached there for 15 seasons before being dismissed on March 14 of this year. During his tenure, the Hawkeyes earned seven trips to the

DIEMMY DANG Staff Reporter

Penn announced regular decision results for the Class of 2029 in another historic application cycle. Over 72,000 students applied to Penn this year, marking an increase from last year’s applicant pool of over 65,000. Results were released to students at 7 p.m. on March 27. According to a press release from Penn Admissions, the Class of 2029 includes students from over 100 countries and all 50 states. The University chose not to immediately share further demographic data about accepted students. Penn also did not share its acceptance rate, continuing a decision to withhold admissions data during the regular decision admissions cycle. “What stands out most about this class?” Vice Provost and Dean of Admissions Whitney Soule wrote in the announcement. “Their boundless curiosity, enthusiasm for making our world more sustainable, and commitment to making a positive impact.” The announcement comes after recent executive orders from 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump have posed what Penn President Larry Jameson called an “existential threat” to the University. Following a proposed $240 million funding cut from the National Institutes of Health, Penn has reduced admissions across its graduate programs. On March 19, the Trump administration announced a $175 million freeze in federal

See COACH, page 10

See 2029, page 2

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PENN MEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM

Trump returned to office 10 weeks ago. Here’s how his policies have reshaped Penn Ten weeks into Trump’s second presidential term, The Daily Pennsylvanian compiled the impacts of federal policy changes on Penn and examined how the University has responded AYANA CHARI AND ANVI SEGHAL Staff Reporters

Since being sworn in for his second presidential term, 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump and his administration have targeted higher education institutions across the country — including Penn — through a series of funding changes, executive orders, and policy measures. On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to abolish the Department of Education, ban the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports, cut funding for scientific research, and protect conservative speech on college campuses. Just 70 days into his second term, his administration has aggressively delivered on nearly all of those promises. Penn President Larry Jameson wrote in a Feb. 24 email that the University is closely monitoring the “existential threat” posed by recent federal actions to higher education and reaffirmed its commitment to academic freedom, inclusion, and compliance with the law. “The future of higher education may alter dramatically depending on how courts rule, how agencies implement new policies, and how future orders and legislation are enacted,” Jameson wrote at the time. “The anxiety and frustration many people feel at this moment is deep and often quite personal.” On March 7, Penn launched a webpage — titled “Federal Government Updates” — tracking federal policy changes and their impacts on the University dating back to Jan. 28. The site intended to centralize updates on ongoing federal actions impacting higher education, research funding, immigration, and other essential areas of Penn’s operations. Ten weeks into Trump’s second presidential term, The Daily Pennsylvanian has compiled the impacts of federal policy changes on Penn — and examined how the University has responded. Diversity, equity, and inclusion On his first day back in office, Trump signed an

executive order mandating all federally funded universities to eliminate programs centered around diversity, equity, and inclusion that could be in violation of federal civil rights laws. In response, Penn quietly revised longstanding University policies and began implementing widespread changes to its DEI initiatives. On Feb. 6, Penn’s School of Dental Medicine and Stuart Weitzman School of Design shut down central offices, initiatives, and web pages related to DEI. That same day, Penn Athletics took down its DEI webpage — which housed an inclusion policy toward transgender studentathletes — following the launch of an investigation into Penn’s alleged Title IX violations that allowed 2022 College graduate and transgender athlete Lia Thomas to compete with Penn’s women’s swimming and diving team. Four days later, Penn announced plans to revise its nondiscrimination and affirmative action policies as part of its broader effort to comply with the executive order. On Feb. 13, Penn continued its overhaul by removing DEI content from additional websites — including the DEI page for the Wharton School and Penn Libraries — and relabeling Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science Office of DEI website to the Cora Ingrum Center for Community and Outreach. The next day, Penn scrubbed its central Diversity and Inclusion website, renamed it “Belonging at Penn,” and replaced detailed DEI content with a three-sentence statement affirming Penn’s “commitment to equal opportunity.” By Feb. 24, Penn’s four undergraduate and 12 graduate schools had all systematically removed references to DEI from their websites. Among those changes were the revisions of more than a dozen titles of Penn staff members formerly associated with DEI. On March 20, Wharton’s undergraduate concentration and MBA major in DEI were both renamed to “leading

DESIGN BY YVAN PHAN

Ten weeks into Trump’s second presidential term, the DP compiled the impacts of federal policy changes on Penn and examined how the University has responded.

across differences.” Federal funding In January, the Trump administration restricted National Institutes of Health funding, external communication, and activity, affecting health and research systems, including Penn Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. A month later, the Senate Commerce Committee flagged 15 Penn research grants, totaling nearly $11 million in funding, alleging that the initiatives promoted DEI and “neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda.” On March 4, Trump announced that he would pull federal funding from educational institutions that “allow illegal protests.” Trump issued an executive order on March 14 dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which

awarded Penn Museum over $1 million in the fiscal year 2024. On March 19, the Trump Administration froze over $175 million in federal funding from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense. The White House attributed the decision to Penn’s failure to bar transgender athletes from women’s sports. Penn has 21 active contracts and 596 active grants that receive funding through the two agencies — totaling hundreds of millions of dollars — according to a DP analysis of the Department of the Treasury fiscal year 2025 data. On March 20, Trump signed an executive order to eliminate the Education Department. The federal action attempted to dismantle the department, which manages federal student loans through its Office of Federal Student Aid and funds Penn through grants. A 50% reduction See TRUMP, page 8

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