Penn has always wanted to be the nation's leading university and it finally is -- in chickenshit cowardice I guess when your most famous alums are Donald Trump and Elon Musk you have a legacy to live down to www.inquirer.com/education/un... - ThreadSky

willbunch.bsky.social • 7 days ago

Penn has always wanted to be the nation's leading university and it finally is -- in chickenshit cowardice

I guess when your most famous alums are Donald Trump and Elon Musk you have a legacy to live down to https://www.inquirer.com/education/university-pennsylvania-dei-donald-trump-order-20250215.html

Comments

kennollett.bsky.social•7 days ago

In my experience, everyone above the department chair level at US universities is a careerist who believes that the mission of the university is to make them important and wealthy.

verwirt.bsky.social•7 days ago

Never forget

iveyjanette.bsky.social•7 days ago

Guess a lot of Black and Latino students will be going to Temple,West Chester and Cheyney instead of Penn.

mightyani.bsky.social•6 days ago

Elon Musk is NOT an alumnus of Penn, as he did not graduate with an earned degree.

Stop repeating Musk's personal propaganda! He lied!

juju71.bsky.social•7 days ago

Disgraceful.

joeboruchow.bsky.social•7 days ago

Indeed!

wordsandnerds.bsky.social•7 days ago

Let's not forget the *well documented* patient abuse and badly done cover ups. Ask me how I know ;)

monkeyes2.bsky.social•7 days ago

Why assume cowardice to orgs who did not even attempt to fight it. These are obviously organizations who never wanted to embrace diversity in the first place. Never thought women, people with disabilities, people of color or lower socioeconomic backgrounds deserved a chance in the first place.

monkeyes2.bsky.social•7 days ago

Malice. It’s pure malice.

joegordon.bsky.social•7 days ago

Yep. Withholding further donations as an alum until they change course. Which might take something, they built this cowardice and moral vacuum over a number of years.

wordsandnerds.bsky.social•7 days ago

As an alum, were you aware of their years long sagas of horrific patient abuse and attempted cover ups?

It's a very open secret in healthcare and academia.

tonyc007.bsky.social•7 days ago

Perhaps it’s time for Penn alums to suspend their donations to the University? @upenn.bsky.social

debforsure.bsky.social•7 days ago

I would but I stopped donating years ago bc they really don’t need what I can give! But I am enraged by this. Cowards.

dougwar40k.bsky.social•7 days ago

I mean, if this shit doesn't lead to a strike of the History, Law, and Poli Sci departments, I don't have much hope for the ethical pencilnecks in administration. "Leadership" in academia, as in so much else, is just a Darwinian race to the bottom selecting for those who punch exclusively down.

goodhand.bsky.social•7 days ago

I was the lead donor for the Carriage House, the building that houses Penn’s LGBT Center. 25 years ago, I waived naming rights so any queer student could look at a campus map and find themselves. Penn and I will have an interesting conversation if they remove the “T” from the LGBT Center.

riehledad.bsky.social•7 days ago

That probably should be a preemptive call you make to let him know. Cash is king with these ghouls...

observerbs.bsky.social•7 days ago

Thanks for this.

adambstrassberg.bsky.social•7 days ago

Unfortunately that’s one of the only tools left at our disposal to fight back. Just as Marc Rowan, Lauder etc did a couple years ago. (The difference being those guys suck)

hansklocker.bsky.social•7 days ago

Please have that conversation with Penn. PLEASE. Thank you for your generous advocacy and for speaking up.

kieranblake.bsky.social•7 days ago

Thank you so much for your gift, and I hope you will use your influence— I doubt they will listen to anyone other than donors. ❤️ love from a born and raised Philadelphian.

pissyrabbit.bsky.social•7 days ago

Kudos to you for doing such an amazing thing for those students. ❤️❤️❤️
I’m sorry they are that legacy

jlynch13.bsky.social•7 days ago

Thank you for your continuing gift of responsible stewardship. PLEASE continue to put pressure on Penn to live up to their loudly proclaimed values. Donors are the only people they listen to.

ericabyoungmd.bsky.social•7 days ago

Gross

lindarn.bsky.social•7 days ago

Pathetic!

nwayne66.bsky.social•7 days ago

For shame.

msljy.bsky.social•7 days ago

Shame on Penn.

rickclark.bsky.social•7 days ago

To Penn: We will survive this and we see your acquiesce to these heartless bullies. We will remember your lack of principles when integrity and setting an example of good leadership was truly needed. File this in the growing list of spineless corporations, institutions and people. #cowardice

feministbuzzzkill.bsky.social•7 days ago

I have to reinvest in my subscription to the inquirer. It's not letting me read anything. ONe of the few newspapers not yet bought by a billionaire.

bookjackie.bsky.social•7 days ago

Here’s a gift link for my PA friends. My son is a Penn alum. The diversity of the faculty and the students was a hallmark of his time there. “Chickenshit cowardice” indeed
@willbunch.bsky.social

https://share.inquirer.com/8LERyv

mksu44.bsky.social•7 days ago

Thank you for the article.

Amy Offner, president of Penns chapter of American Association of University Professors has it right:

pippioldstocking.bsky.social•5 days ago

Thank you for sharing!!

revdrcheryll.bsky.social•7 days ago

It was of mine as well. It’s infuriating that I know this started with a coordinated effort to oust the last university president due to her support for freedom of speech, which used to be Penn DNA. I don’t recognize my school.

pissyrabbit.bsky.social•7 days ago

My wife has always refused to donate to them and she’s really glad now.

willbunch.bsky.social•7 days ago

In the most clueless and unaware irony you'll find on the internets today, this as Penn opens an 18th-century style coffeehouse to honor the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution

douglaswmartin.bsky.social•7 days ago

To be fair, it would have only been white males debating there at that time.

r5-to-philly.bsky.social•7 days ago

They thought they would be protected if they pushed out the president and board members and sent the police on those against a genocide......that just signaled they were weak and willing to abandon any morals or integrity

r5-to-philly.bsky.social•7 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/theintercept.com/post/3lhmjeslx3m2m

r5-to-philly.bsky.social•7 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/nkalamb.bsky.social/post/3li7zlvbt5k2i

r5-to-philly.bsky.social•7 days ago

https://theintercept.com/2025/01/31/nyu-gaza-protesters-deport-maca-antisemitism/

r5-to-philly.bsky.social•5 days ago

As the article notes, they are a private university/business

As they abandon any little social good they did offer, can they at least pay fucking real estate taxes and drop this nonprofit illusion?

https://bsky.app/profile/bookjackie.bsky.social/post/3li7zgxppik27

holleya.bsky.social•7 days ago

OMG thanks @willbunch.bsky.social for calling out this travesty 😱 As a proud @inquirer.com subscriber I’m happy to share a gift link to this #IronyIsDead piece https://www.inquirer.com/entertainment/penn-colonial-coffee-house-libraries-kislak-center-20250215.html?utm_source=social&utm_campaign=gift_link&utm_medium=referral

stickybunny.bsky.social•7 days ago

Sounds like a drag.

capitolhunters.bsky.social•7 days ago

Isn't it time now for an investigation asking Penn what classes Elon actually took, that left him without any degree after 5 UG years? He couldn't even finish a Wharton degree in that time. Elon's claimed UG degree was the foundation of his career: it got him his first job, made him seem special. 1/

capitolhunters.bsky.social•7 days ago

Elon's academic fraud isn't a single instance of lying, it's the foundational Big Lie that let him build his image as a superhero. It's why his assistant committed perjury for him. Debunking the Big Lie in 2022 might have staved off what we're undergoing now. Debunking it now can still help. 2/

brentlythomas.bsky.social•7 days ago

@alt-text.bsky.social

alt-text.bsky.social•7 days ago

Alt text retrieved

crone42.bsky.social•7 days ago

I suggested that they put up giant statues of Trump and Musk as an act of placation.

I guess statues aren’t enough.

anniejr.bsky.social•7 days ago

Hey U of Penn, rise up! You can, at least, do what University of Colorado did!

bsteels.bsky.social•7 days ago

Kudos to the universities that don’t do this and instead file lawsuits. Lawsuits they would easily win in a just world, but will likely lose at the corrupted SCOTUS. But even with that as the most likely outcome, that’s still a path of resistance well worth fighting (understatement).

bsteels.bsky.social•7 days ago

To be clear, stripping federal funding from universities or denying them future funding because they have DEI initiatives is blatantly, thoroughly, unquestionably unconstitutional.

rheumecraig.bsky.social•7 days ago

I can’t see the article (paywalled and despite repeated efforts to subscribe to inquirer the website has managed to fool me repeatedly), but from other articles it seems it’s Dental school and Design? Googling around, Penn Med DEI sites still up.

mobtob.bsky.social•7 days ago

https://share.inquirer.com/rwmHB7
Gift link

wordsandnerds.bsky.social•7 days ago

Thank you :)

rheumecraig.bsky.social•7 days ago

Oh FFS, had no idea that Elon came here.

philadelphiaaf.bsky.social•7 days ago

Compliance in the short term will bring shame in the future. MAGA are bad guys in US history.

hrlatinam.bsky.social•7 days ago

I would love to see massive protests over this.

voweldriver70.bsky.social•7 days ago

The obedience is sickening

srubin5190.bsky.social•7 days ago

Obeying in advance, corporations without courage. Where have we seen this before?

ceemonster.bsky.social•7 days ago

As a current student who is also queer, disabled, and a woman, I’m definitely reconsidering that “current” really hard

air-conditioned.bsky.social•7 days ago

We will survive this and, unlike your acquiesce to these heartless bullies, we will remember your cowardice and lack of principles. File this in the growing list of spineless corporations, institutions and people. #cowardice

mathandstuff.bsky.social•7 days ago

If they're complying, it's because they want to.

Ivy League universities are the breeding ground for American elitism. The actual kind, based on money, not the fake kind, based on "being smart".

itsjohn.bsky.social•5 days ago

agreed; read Bloch's Strange Defeat

sailbarque.bsky.social•7 days ago

Amy Wax must be living the dream.

wildlandspainter.bsky.social•7 days ago

Jesus

gwensnyder.bsky.social•7 days ago

The most Penn thing they've done since cowering for Ackman

lisaiannucci.bsky.social•7 days ago

FU Penn. Cowards. How is this serving your students? Do they feel safe? Who do you think is going to apply here now?

cge0506.bsky.social•7 days ago

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, Article 7) bans torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

This means retributive practices like corporal punishment and excessive sentencing violate human rights norms.

ronmexico007.bsky.social•7 days ago

One thing we still seem to manufacture in the US is consent - far too much. Full of cowardice & deserve every bit of self-inflicted pain on the horizon.

sciteacher78.bsky.social•7 days ago

Disgraceful and the fact that those 2 and trump’s spawn are alums speaks volumes

newroadwarrior.bsky.social•7 days ago

We are taking it to the streets Monday in Philly. Monday at McCormick’s and rally at City Hall. Please join us and make our voices heard.

anneeliot.bsky.social•7 days ago

Details?

eisch.bsky.social•7 days ago

Here are flyers for Monday’s protests - one at Harrisburg and one at Philly City Hall. Follow @50501movement.bsky.social for more.

anneeliot.bsky.social•7 days ago

Thanks!

bonnjny.bsky.social•7 days ago

Didn’t Trump threatened to sue Penn if they disclosed his grades? Who doesn’t he threaten to sue?

dcscribe.bsky.social•7 days ago

So where are all the donors/trustees who were decrying antisemitism on college campuses, threatening to withdraw financial support and demanding resignations when it comes to attempts to delete trans people?

gramilton.bsky.social•7 days ago

I’m subscribing to my former home-town paper because of you. It seems y’all are the most honest legacy media. Keep up the honest work.

readriderock.bsky.social•7 days ago

Don't forget Penn luminary Michael Milken who gave us junk bonds and bullshittery!

cardcatcher.bsky.social•7 days ago

In 1973, my younger brother was offered a 4 year NROTC Scholarship to Penn. He turned them down. He took his scholarship to Texas A&M, where i was entering my Sophomore year. We both have been disgusted with A&M for sometime now, he regrets not going to Penn. He can close that chapter now.

davidjonfurbish.bsky.social•7 days ago

@dougjerolmack.bsky.social

revdrcheryll.bsky.social•7 days ago

As an alum, I am furious.

hcharlesm.bsky.social•7 days ago

Why would a university with an endowment of $22B need to be afraid of cutting cut off from Federal funding?

mathandstuff.bsky.social•7 days ago

Because, as with all the Ivies, the money is in charge and the university is only secondary.

4seasonstl.bsky.social•7 days ago

Pathetic.

ckbhope.bsky.social•7 days ago

Shame on you @penncssm.bsky.social

ignuit.bsky.social•7 days ago

Disgusting

jashsf.bsky.social•7 days ago

In 2024, Penn received nearly $15.8 billion from the Feds, which was the highest in the Ivy League.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System accounted for about two-thirds of Penn's total revenue.

jashsf.bsky.social•7 days ago

UPenn wouldn’t last 3 months without that money.

traubwest.bsky.social•7 days ago

I was at a dinner party in 1983 hosted by a new assistant or deputy Dean at Wharton. He mentioned that he wanted Wharton to have bldg named after trump. I laughed & asked, “Why on earth?” (He fired my husband months later.) Still no bldg named after Trump at Penn. But maybe now it’s on its way.

traubwest.bsky.social•7 days ago

This is something for the students to protest. But will they?

willbunch.bsky.social•7 days ago

And get suspended?

ginamarie295.bsky.social•7 days ago

So what’s the answer then? And would Penn really suspend them?

traubwest.bsky.social•7 days ago

We all have to take some risks now. Wonder if some “underground classes” can be organized.

traubwest.bsky.social•7 days ago

Yes. Yes. Yes.

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