The University of Pennsylvania Medical School plans to solve committees related to diversity, equality and inclusion as well as all roles that implement such efforts.
It was the Roy Hamilton, deputy for the inclusion, diversity and justice in the Perelman School of Medicine, gave to a group of leaders of the medical school diversity program at the meeting this week, according to the source that participated, but asked not to be an identified fear of being identified revenge.
The source stated that his diversity websites are also verified by the university committee and will probably be deleted or significant modification. Even the school pipeline programs that introduce candidates from various communities to the medical school in the field of programming will be evaluated to make sure that they do not discriminate against anyone, including not -to -axis. These programs can also be changed or resolved, the source provided.
This movement represented one action to which Penn undertakes to answer Executive Order of President Donald Trump threatening funds for universities that employ diversity. Penn Medicine is far from the only school at the Ivy League University, taking such means. Hamilton told the participants that the directives came from College Hall, the main administrative building of Penna.
While Penn is a private university, he is based on federal subsidies to support his research and in recent years he faced great pressure on political issues. But some members of the department express concern about rapid removal of diversity.
»Read more: Penn may lose $ 250 million from threatened cuts to scientific research funds under Trump
“It seems to me that the alleged values ​​of the university and their investments in these efforts were charges and it seems to me that the university has no values ​​other than the value of its equipment,” the source said.
“What next? Will they say that we have to stop conducting vaccine research because RFK does not believe it? “The source added, referring to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was confirmed as the Secretary of Health on Thursday and was skeptical about vaccinations.
Over the past week, Daily Pennsylvanian, student Gazeta Penn, meticulously documents changes in the variety of websites in other Penn schools, including Wharton, Penn Engineering, The School of Dental Medicine, Stuart Weitzman School of Design, Penn Library, Library, Library, Penn Libraries, Penn libraries libraries, and athletics.
“We are browsing websites and programs to make sure that they are in line with our non -discrimination policy and federal law,” Penn said in a statement this week.
Trump’s order, entitled “Ending illegal discrimination and restoring possibilities based on merits”, says: “The illegal policy of Dei and Deia not only violates the text and the spirit of our long -time federal civil rights, but also undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit and undermine Traditional American values ​​of hard work, perfection and individual achievements in favor of the unlawful, corrosive and disastrous system of spoils based on identity. Hard -making Americans who deserve a shot in American sleep should not be stigmatized, humiliated or cutting off the possibilities from breed or sex. “
Neither Penn Medicine nor Hamilton, a dean of diversity, did not respond to requests for comment.
Removal of references to the “affirmative action”
Universities’ leaders also changed Penn’s policy regarding equal opportunities and non -discrimination this week, referring to Trump’s order.
Penn leaders, including the transient President J. Larry Jameson, noticed in the campus message that Trump repealed the executive order, which required the recipients of federal funds, wrote leaders to apply “affirmative action to promote equal opportunities in employment.”
They He issued a modern policy This no longer covers the “affirmative action”, and also removed the reference that the University “values ​​diversity” was found and that “diversity is valued in Penn”, According to Gazeta Studencka. Instead, he now says that Penn’s figure “is reflected in a wide range of origin, experiences and perspectives of the Penn community.”
These movements caused concern among some lecturers who oppose the administration’s decision to direct lecturers to “change the name, limitation and change of academic programming,” said Amy Offner, president of the Penn American Association of University of University Professors chapter. “This is the right of lecturers to make decisions regarding academic programming.”
In addition, the university should not change its policy, but fight for its rules, she said.
“The most important thing is that this is not time for expected obedience when it comes to the university’s involvement in anti-racist and not discrimination,” said Offner. “The purpose of these orders is to check which parts of our society are the weakest, which parts will celebrate threats. … The only answer is to be able to explain the public value of research and teaching that is happening … throughout the university. “
National AAUP this week joined the trial opposing Trump’s ordinance.
“The elimination of Dei programs and initiatives in public academic institutions is a threat to the democratic goals of higher education as a public good,” said in a statement President AAUP Todd Wolfson, a professor of journalism and media studies at the University of Rutgers.
Other schools in the field of Philly do not work too quickly
Penna’s movement seems to be in a clear contrast with several other local schools, including the universities of the temple and Drexel, which stated that they did not take any steps to remove references to diversity or programming.
“We are continuing our work,” said Timothy Welbeck, executive director of Temple’s Center for Antiracism. “Our leadership repeated its commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion as values ​​in accordance with the mission of our university and in many respects are a continuation of the vision [Temple founder] Russell Conwell to create an institution that gives the possibilities to those who usually do not have them. “
Drexel said in a statement that although he did not introduce changes in response to executive orders, “the university still monitors the situation.”
»Read more: Temple kept her involvement in the opening of the anti -rocker center. Penn state no. What does it mean?
However, at national level, some universities have taken steps since the executive ordinance of Trump attacking Dei.
Public System of the University of North Carolina Suspended at the beginning of this month All “general education and main requirements related to diversity, equality and inclusion”, citing Trump’s order, in accordance with the chronicle of higher education. The Vanderbilt University this month has removed messages related to diversity from its website, He reported a banner in Nashville. Similarly Northeastern University, reports CBS messages. Rutgers University Center for Minority Serving Institutions last month canceled the upcoming The conference is indirectly financed The US Department of Work, in response to Trump’s order.
Penn is already facing the pressure of the federal government
Penn He had previously been in the eye of a political storm.
For about a year and a half, since the confusion in Palestine has been a festival of literature, which took place in the campus in September 2023, the university found control by donors and high -power legislators; His former president, Liz Magill, gave up bilateral opposition to his congress testimonies regarding the behavior of anti -Semitism, sinking the school into perhaps the greatest leadership crisis for decades.
Among local universities, Penn may lose the most at national health financing institutes – about $ 250 million – as part of another Trump directive, which aims to reduce the returns of universities and medical institutions from the Agency for general costs related to research. Both Trump and one of his closest allies, Elon Musk, are Penn Alums, perhaps making the university in the spotlight, as he copes with executive directives.
The school already feels pressure. Department of State, in a letter to Penn on Thursday, which was obtained by Inquirer, said that the grant conditions for the Penn Museum were modified and the school had five days to prove that he did not “conduct any programs promoting diversity, justice and inclusion that violate All applicable federal discrimination provisions. “
The subsidy was in relation to the “project of cultural freedom / counteracting false narrative”, but it did not mention the amount. According to E -Mail, none of the funds can be used for purposes that are not in line with Trump’s executive order.
»Read more: Penn’s Medical School formalizes cooperation with HBCUS in the pursuit of greater diversity
Penna efforts to scratch the language of diversity language, as DP documented, began last week. . form a website For Wharton – a business school – now he notices commitment to “equal opportunities”. Marc Rowan, deeply infecting the donor who led the campaign to Ousta Magill and former chairman of the management board Scott L. Bok, Chairman of the Council of Advisors Wharton.
“We initiated an overview of our efforts in this field to make sure that they are fully in line with the new guidelines established by the Federal Government,” says the site.
The former website of the DEI Penn library is now died. Instead, the Dei of the Engineering School leads to the Cora Ingrum Center for Community and Outreach.
