Campus protests are not usually directed at a single person. But last week at the University of Pennsylvania, professors organized a demonstration against Marc Rowan, the New York private equity billionaire.
Rowan, a Penn alumnus and major benefactor of the university, deployed his formidable resources in a relentless campaign against Penn President M. Elizabeth Magill, leading to her resignation in December.
But it was what happened next that sparked the protest. Rowan sent a four-page email to university administrators titled “Moving Forward,” which many faculty members interpreted as a blueprint for a more conservative campus.
Amy C. Offner, a history professor who led the protest, called the document a proposed “hostile takeover of the university’s core academic functions.”
The protest by about 100 people was a sign that discord on campus would likely continue despite Magill’s resignation, which many members of the Penn community hoped would quell outrage over testimony she gave at a hearing at the Congress that seemed ambiguous about whether students would be disciplined if they called for the genocide of the Jews.
Instead, Penn, now operating under an interim president, Dr. J. Larry Jameson, faces a host of alumni, donors and students who argue that the universities have been taken over by a liberal orthodoxy that tolerates or even promotes antisemitism.
Penn is now being attacked from many sides. He is the defendant in a lawsuit brought by Jewish students and partially funded by anonymous donors, and the subject of a congressional investigation with subpoena power. Republican state lawmakers have threatened to withhold $31 million for its veterinary medicine program, the only state allocation the private university receives.
Two alumni, Mr. Rowan and Ronald S. Lauder, the cosmetics heir, were prominent among the sponsors of a fundraiser for the reelection of Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., whose House committee is investigating Penn and other universities. over accusations of anti-Semitism.
Rowan and Lauder did not attend the fundraiser, but the event’s organizer (Andrew Sabin, a New Yorker who made a fortune recycling metals) said the sponsors shared an opposition to anti-Semitism and hoped to pressure Congress to eliminate the federal funding and the tax-exempt status of some universities.
A seperation investigation The House Ways and Means Committee has questioned whether campus anti-Semitism jeopardizes the nonprofit status of Penn, as well as Cornell, Harvard and MIT.
“We have a very, very aggressive path forward,” said Mr. Sabin, who did not attend Penn.
Some university professors say the attack on Penn is part of a conservative effort, started by governors like Ron DeSantis of Florida, to reform American higher education, an effort that is now spreading to dozens of universities, including Penn, Harvard and Columbia. who are now under investigation by the federal government for reports of anti-Semitism.
“This is an undemocratic attack that is unfolding, not just at Penn, but across the country, including public universities in Florida, Texas, Ohio and beyond,” said Dr. Offner, president of the university chapter of the American Association of University Professors, a professional teaching organization.
Penn, he said, had become “ground zero for a coordinated national attack on higher education, an attack organized by billionaires, lobbying organizations, and politicians who would like to control what can be studied and taught in the United States.”
On Wednesday, two days after the fundraiser, which raised approximately $60,000 for her campaign, Ms. Foxx filed a 14 page letter to the university, demanding documents that may reflect the concerns of some Penn donors that the number of Jewish students at Penn has declined as the university has admitted more Asian, black and Latino students.
The lawsuits made by Ms. Foxx cited figures from the Jewish organization Hillel International that suggested Penn’s Jewish undergraduate population had fallen to about 1,600, or 16.4 percent of the student body, in 2023, compared with about of 2,500 students, or 25 percent, in 2013. Jews make up just over 2 percent of the U.S. population.
Mr. Rowan’s proposal, which was published in its entirety by The Philadelphia Investigator, was framed in a series of questions about the direction of the university. He asked whether some academic programs should be eliminated and whether merit and academic excellence should be the primary consideration in hiring and admissions, which many interpreted as a call to eliminate diversity considerations.
The document sparked an immediate and strong push back of faculty members, and more than 1,200 of them signed a letter sent to the trustees on January 16. “We oppose all attempts by trustees, donors, and other outside actors to interfere with our academic policies and undermine academic freedom,” the letter said.
The faculty, however, disagrees. Michael J. Kahana, professor of psychology, responded directly in an email to the faculty senate.
“Your letter specifically mentions Marc Rowan’s questions, which I have studied and found reasonable and helpful,” wrote Dr. Kahana, who shared his email with The New York Times. Dr. Kahana recently hosted a journey to Israeli universities by Penn professors, as a show of solidarity with academic colleagues in Israel.
Rowan, who serves as chair of an advisory panel at Wharton, Penn’s prestigious business school, suggested through a spokesman that the school had misinterpreted his intent.
“Marc is saying these are the questions, he’s not trying to give answers,” said Steven Lipin, the spokesman. “It’s in no way what Marc wants. “Ultimately, it’s what the trustees and faculty want.”
At last week’s rally, just after the start of Penn’s spring semester, professors and others stood outside in frigid temperatures for nearly two hours and said they hoped Dr. Jameson, Penn’s interim president, would assure them that Rowan’s ideas would apply. not to be hugged. About a dozen faculty members, as well as several students, said they were concerned that donors were on a crusade to attack Penn’s traditions of diversity, academic freedom and free speech.
So far, the university administration has not issued what faculty view as a forceful repudiation of Mr. Rowan. But in a recent question and answer document aware To the university’s website, Dr. Jameson, an endocrinologist who served as dean of Penn’s medical school, It reaffirmed the idea that the role of trustees was to delegate management to academic leaders and faculty.
Neither Dr. Jameson nor the university’s new board chairman, Ramanan Raghavendran, an investor, were available for comment for this article.
Raghavendran, who holds three degrees from Penn, including one from Wharton, was appointed following the resignation of Scott L. Bok, a Magill ally. Mr. Raghavendran’s selection to lead the board was seen as a hopeful sign by some faculty members, who cited his support for Penn’s liberal arts college, the School of Arts and Sciences, where he has been a part of the advisory board.
Dr. Harun Kucuk, associate professor of history and sociology of science, said professors could be prepared for even greater activism. The AAUP, the professor’s group, said membership is growing on Penn’s campus.
Dr. Kucuk recently resigned as director of the university’s Middle East Center to protest the university’s attempt to block the screening of a film critical of Israel.
“There is a window of time to get things right,” he said, “and I don’t think it will be a year from now.”
