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INSIDE: ADVANCE REGISTRATION GUIDE

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA • FOUNDED 1885 VOL. CXLI

PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2025

NO. 25

Penn hit recordhigh lobbying expenditures in third quarter of 2025 According to a recently filed disclosure, Penn lobbied the federal government on topics including the National Institutes of Health, research, international student visas, and student financial aid LAVANYA MANI Contributing Reporter

Amid the Trump administration’s ongoing higher education reform efforts, Penn spent $360,000 on in-house federal lobbying this quarter — its highest single-period expenditure on record. According to a recently filed disclosure, Penn lobbied the federal government on multiple issues, including topics related to the National Institutes of Health, research, international student visas, and student financial aid. The University spent and additional $260,000 during this fiscal quarter retaining the services of several external lobbying firms: BGR Group, Mehlman Consulting, and Cassidy & Associates. Penn listed Associate Vice President for Federal Affairs William Andresen and Penn Medicine Corporate Director for Government and Community Relations Kristen Molloy as individuals who lobbied on behalf of the University in its disclosure report. A request for comment was left with a University spokesperson. The quarter — which spans from July 1 to Sept. 30 — included a tumultuous time for the University, which has remained a continued target for the Trump administration. In July, Penn entered into a resolution agreement with the White House to settle its Title IX violations and recoup $175 million in frozen funding. The University removed 2022 College graduate and former Penn swimmer Lia Thomas’ individual records and issued a public statement specifying that Penn Athletics “will adopt biology-based definitions for the words ‘male’ and ‘female’ pursuant to Title IX and consistent with President Trump’s Executive Orders.” Earlier this year, an analysis conducted by The Daily Pennsylvanian projected that the University would spend record amounts on federal lobbying during the 2025 fiscal year. So far, in this fiscal year Penn’s internal lobbying expenditures have totaled $810,000. Penn has continued to retain BGR Group — one of Washington’s largest lobbying firms — which it first contracted in May to advocate on its behalf with federal policymakers. According to a form filed in May, the four BGR lobbyists representing Penn were David Urban, Daniel Murphy, Remy Brim, and Bob Wood. Urban — who serves as a managing director at BGR and also received a Master of Public Administration from Penn in 1994 — was a senior advisor to 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and is credited with securing Trump’s victory in Pennsylvania. “Penn regularly engages with policymakers and diverse partners to advance work that helps power economic opportunity, drive medical and scientific breakthroughs, and expand access to learning and wellness for communities across the country,” a University spokesperson wrote to the DP at the time. Penn paid the firm $140,000 this fiscal quarter. Mehlman Consulting, another prominent Washington consulting firm, and Cassidy & Associates were paid $40,000 and $80,000 by Penn respectively.

CONNIE ZHAO | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Penn spent $360,000 on federal lobbying this quarter, marking its largest single-period spending to date.

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KYLIE COOPER | DP FILE PHOTO

PENN REJECTS COMPACT A spokesperson declined to answer whether the University would continue to negotiate with the White House or consider signing a later draft of the document ISHA CHITIRALA, ALEX DASH, RIANA MAHTANI, AND FINN RYAN Senior Reporters

Penn has rejected the White House’s proposed preferential funding compact, which would have provided the University with enhanced federal benefits in exchange for a commitment to sweeping governance and policy reforms. Penn President Larry Jameson informed the community of the decision in an Oct. 16 message, which came after the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education — initially offered to Penn and eight other universities on Oct. 1 — received swift condemnation from across the Penn community. Penn was the third university to decline the proposal. “Earlier today, I informed the U.S. Department of Education that Penn respectfully declines to sign the proposed Compact,” Jameson’s email read. “As requested, we also provided focused feedback highlighting areas of existing alignment as well as substantive concerns.” A spokesperson declined to answer whether the

University would continue to negotiate with the White House or consider signing a later draft of the document. In the days preceding and following Penn’s rejection of the compact, a total of seven of the nine universities initially asked to sign the White House proposal declined to sign on. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology rejected the compact on Oct. 10, and Brown University followed suit on Oct. 15. Following Penn’s refusal, four additional schools — the University of Southern California, Dartmouth College, the University of Virginia, and the University of Arizona — also declined. Only the University of Texas at Austin indicated receptivity to the proposal, while Vanderbilt University said it would continue providing feedback rather than issue an outright acceptance or rejection. The rejections come as the White House has sent mixed signals about the consequences of refusing to sign.

White House spokesperson Liz Huston told The Daily Pennsylvanian after the University’s rejection that “any higher education institution unwilling to assume accountability and confront these overdue and necessary reforms will find itself without future government and taxpayers support.” In a conflicting statement, a White House official told The Washington Post that universities will not lose their federal funding if they decide not to engage with the compact. Wharton School Board of Advisors Chair Marc Rowan was a central author of the initial proposal and advocated for universities to “adhere to the compact’s principles of fairness, civility, neutrality and transparency.” On Oct. 17, university leaders who had not yet made a decision joined senior White House officials in a meeting, which Secretary of Education Linda McMahon described See COMPACT, page 2

AAUP-Penn alleges Title VI office summoned faculty over ‘unsubstantiated’ antisemitism accusations A statement from the group alleged that Penn’s Office of Religious and Ethnic Interests engaged in unlawful discrimination ANVI SEHGAL Senior Reporter

The Executive Committee of Penn’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors accused the University’s Title VI office of overstepping its authority and threatening academic freedom in a statement released on Wednesday. The Oct. 22 statement alleged that Penn’s Office of Religious and Ethnic Interests engaged in unlawful discrimination, adding that faculty were called in for meetings over “unsubstantiated accusations of antisemitism.” The Executive Committee wrote that these meetings have discouraged free speech while promoting an overly vague definition of on-campus antisemitism. “Even when meetings do not result in further investigation or disciplinary action, summoning faculty members every time the office receives a complaint, however unsubstantiated, chills faculty members’ research, teaching, and intramural and extramural speech,” the Executive Committee wrote. The office was established in December 2024 in response to rising incidents of antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other religious biases at Penn — as well as on recommendations from the University Task Force on Antisemitism and the Presidential Commission on Countering Hate and

Building Community. OREI’s title — which originally stood for “Office of Religious Equity and Inclusion” — was changed in spring 2024 amid University-wide rollbacks of diversity, equity, and inclusion language, initiatives, and programs responding to federal directives. In the statement, the Executive Committee asked OREI to “clarify and modify its procedures to ensure the transparency, consistency, and fairness essential to carrying out the office’s mission,” posing 18 questions for the office to answer publicly. A University spokesperson declined a request for comment. A request for comment was left with OREI. “During these meetings, faculty members, who in some cases had already been subject to targeted harassment, were expected to … express contrition or offer some concession to their unidentified accuser, or face the possibility of disciplinary action,” AAUP-Penn wrote. The statement cited examples of actions that have prompted meetings with OREI, including assigning readings, conducting research, and engaging in personal acts that were viewed as pro-Palestinian or political in nature.

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The Executive Committee added that OREI has initiated meetings based on “surveillance of [faculty] social media, without having received any complaint, and has warned them preemptively not to criticize the Israeli government.” In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, a member of AAUP-Penn’s Executive Committee stated on behalf of the group that “the Title VI office has not defined how it is interpreting antisemitism, and that leads to this vagueness and broad interpretation that is hard to figure out.” “If someone could interpret [something] as antisemitism … then they have to investigate that, and I don’t think that we should be uncritically accepting whatever definition different people use,” the member said. “It is clear to us that it’s been speech in favor of justice in Palestine and against Israel that has been disproportionately silenced.” They added that “there should not be an administrative office deciding what can get published and what cannot.” The statement similarly highlighted that OREI’s practices “pose threats to … academic freedom” because even complaints can intimidate faculty and See AAUP, page 3