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

PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2025

VOL. CXLI

ANISH GARIMIDI | SENIOR DESIGNER ABHIRAM JUVVADI | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

NO. 8

Penn Trustees discuss political challenges, approve tutition increase at annual winter meeting The Board of Trustees met over the course of two days on Feb. 27-28 at The Inn at Penn for one of three annual stated meetings GABRIEL HUANG AND AYANA CHARI Senior Reporter and Staff Reporter

session. “From those initial bargaining demands, we crafted a series of articles that we’ve been passing to Penn’s management team,” Herrmann said. Each of the proposals, which are available on GETUP’s bargaining portal, was deemed “high priority” by the committee, Herrmann said. The group has put forward 27 articles, including proposals on severability, health and safety, and employment records. At the time of publication, GET-UP and the University have reached a tentative agreement on just five articles.

The University Board of Trustees discussed recent political challenges to higher education and approved tuition increases and financial aid expansions at their annual winter meeting. The Board of Trustees met over the course of two days on Feb. 27-28 at The Inn at Penn for one of three annual stated meetings. During committee sessions, the Board of Trustees approved campus renovations alongside a new Master of Applied Economics program, discussing the importance of academia as well as the current political environment’s hostility to higher education. At the stated meeting of the full Board of Trustees on Friday, Interim Penn President Larry Jameson emphasized Penn’s mission amid challenges in higher education. Jameson reaffirmed Penn’s commitment to academic excellence, inclusivity, and open discourse. “Penn and American higher education face challenges that we haven’t seen in our lifetimes, both fiscal and philosophical,” Jameson said. “While Penn has always upheld the law and will continue doing so, we must be clear-eyed about our future, which may alter dramatically depending on how these developments unfold.”

See UNION, page 3

See TRUSTEES, page 7

Penn strikes antidiscrimination protections in graduate student union contract bargaining The bargaining committee first signed its ‘Prohibition Against Discrimination, Unlawful Harassment, and Abusive Conduct’ proposal, including demands against harassment and discrimination, in October 2024 FINN RYAN Senior Reporter

Penn struck out multiple provisions against discrimination and harassment during negotiations with graduate student union representatives, which one organizer called an “attack on DEI.” After voting to unionize by an overwhelming majority in May 2024, Graduate Employees Together — University of Pennsylvania, which represents 3,700 student workers, began negotiations with Penn administration. The bargaining committee first signed its “Prohibition Against Discrimination, Unlawful Harassment, and Abusive Conduct” proposal, including demands against harassment and discrimination, in October 2024. In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian,

Lauren Perry, a fourth-year JD/Ph.D. student and a member of GET-UP’s bargaining committee, described the group’s initial bargaining demands on behalf of the committee. “Over 2,300 graduate workers ratified those demands, and it was a huge show of support for what we’re fighting for and what we hope to win through this process,” Perry said. “Since October, we have been meeting about every week — three out of four weeks — with the administration in bargaining sessions that last about six hours.” Religious Studies Ph.D. candidate Sam Herrmann, who also spoke on behalf of the bargaining committee, noted the group’s preparation before its first bargaining

Trump threatens to withhold federal Philadelphia to install statue funding from universities that allow honoring Penn alum, first Black ‘illegal’ protests woman to receive Ph.D. in economics In a March 4 post on Truth Social, Trump said that non-citizen student protesters who participate in ‘illegal protests’ would be imprisoned or deported and promised to expel or arrest American student protesters

In 1921, Alexander earned her Ph.D. in economics, and in 1927, she graduated from Penn Carey Law. She was also the first national president of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

ALEX DASH AND ANVI SEHGAL Staff Reporters

KATE AHN AND SARAH SHAHED Staff Reporter and Contributing Reporter

1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he would pull federal funding from educational institutions that “allow illegal protests” in a Truth Social post. In the March 4 post, Trump said that non-citizen student protesters who participate in “illegal protests” would be imprisoned or deported and promised to expel or arrest American student protesters. The announcement comes following a January executive order directing federal agencies to identify and deport noncitizen participants — including college students — in pro-Palestinian protests.

Trump did not clarify what classifies a protest as “illegal.” A request for comment was left with a University spokesperson. In a statement on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression — a nonprofit aimed at protecting free speech on college campuses — called the message “deeply chilling.” “Today’s message will cast an impermissible chill on student protests about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the group wrote. “President Trump needs to stand by his See PROTEST, page 2

JEAN PARK | MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

Trump stated that federal funding would be pulled from educational institutions that “allow illegal protests.”

The City of Philadelphia will honor Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander — the first Black woman in the United States to receive a Ph.D. in economics and the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School — with a statue at Thomas Paine Plaza outside the Philadelphia Municipal Services Building. The statue will be the second art piece dedicated to a Black woman in Philadelphia. In 1921, Alexander became the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in economics and the second to earn a Ph.D. in the United States when she received her degree from Penn, and in 1927, she became the first Black woman to graduate from Penn Carey Law. She was also the first national president of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. In an interview with CBS News, Alexander’s youngest daughter, Rae Alexander-Minter, spoke about the challenges her mother faced as one of the only Black students at Penn. “She experienced racial isolation,” Alexander-Minter noted. “It wasn’t that she wanted their friendship. She wanted respect.” After graduating from Penn, Alexander served as assistant city solicitor for Philadelphia from 1928 to 1930 and then from 1934 to 1938, simultaneously practicing law at her own law firm while serving on the National Bar Association. “She was interested in helping those people who were feeling unrecognized,” AlexanderMinter told CBS News. “She talked about, as an economist and a lawyer, the inequities of

women, particularly women who were working, and the child care.” Alexander was also a prominent civil rights activist, serving on former President Harry Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights. In 2018, then-Philadelphia City Councilmembers Cherelle Parker, Blondell Reynolds Brown, and Jannie Blackwell pushed for a resolution to honor Alexander’s legacy with a statue. Creative Philadelphia, an organization dedicated to advancing “public access to arts and culture” and celebrating “the city’s cultural assets,” created the Sadie T. M. Alexander Statue Selection Committee to ensure a proper representation of Alexander’s legacy through the statue by recognizing her background at Penn. The committee invited representatives from Penn Carey Law and the Penn Black Law Students Association to work alongside Alexander’s daughter. Penn affiliates on the committee include Nigel Davis, co-president of Penn’s Black Law Students Association and Iliana Odette Harris, assistant director for community and engagement at Penn Carey Law. Creative Philadelphia described Alexander as “a pioneering African American civil rights activist and native Philadelphian who broke barriers in academia and law and fought to protect the civil rights of underserved communities.” The group described the project, in turn, as a “priority” for 2016 Fels Institute of Government graduate and Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle See STATUE, page 2

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