“"My teammates and I were forced to undress in the presence of Lia, a 6-foot-4 tall biological male, fully intact with male genitalia, 18 times per week. Some girls opted to change in bathroom stalls, and others used the family bathroom to avoid this.
“When we tried to voice our concerns to the athletic department, we were told that Lia’s swimming and being in our locker room was a non-negotiable, and we were offered psychological services to attempt to re-educate us to become comfortable with the idea of undressing in front of a male.”
UPenn’s response to these horrors was to dig a deeper hole. In 2022, UPenn nominated Wiliam Thomas for the ‘2022 NCAA Woman of the Year award’. How crazy can you get? Nominating a man for ‘Woman of the Year’? If it wasn’t true, it would be something out of the Onion or the Babylon Bee.
So Marc Rowan is discovering now that UPenn is a bad place? Better late than never.
I refuse to allow my senior in an American high school to be educated here in the US. What the woke have done to our university system began a decade ago, and I fear the chickens are still not coming home to roost, but when it does, it's going to be very disheartening. This maybe the tip of the iceberg. If this is a symbol of our brightest kids, maybe they need to go live in one of these countries and see how little they understand..
The moral equivalency platitudes have been utterly sickening. Often talking with one’s wallet is the only way to get attention of those who prefer to ignore the hard truths of their moral and ethical failures. You are a beacon of hope for our progeny.
Dear Mr. Rowan, I have closed my checkbook and am opening my mouth to agree with your position. I, too, am a Wharton alum, and deeply disappointed in the University's response to the situation on campus with the Palestine Writes conference. There should absolutely not be a blurry line between free speech and inciting violence and promoting hatred of Jews; it is very clear. Also, I am grateful for the platform that the The Free Press affords and that there are journalists at work, who are not pontificators. Continue!
All these donors should choose one institution to transfer their attention to, in a focused effort to overturn a specialty at the schools they are targeting (Ben Sasse's University of Florida comes to mind...)
Losing donations is one thing. Losing your ranking to a state school as the best school for (fill in the blank) because that school now has the money to pursue the best professors, labs, equipment and students would cut so much deeper.
I write as a former Trustee and Board Chair of a university, an institution that I was proud to have served for many years. The Board of Trustees has the primary responsibility for establishing the fundamental direction and policies of a university. The President, the staff, the deans, the faculty, the alumni and the students, while they should all have a voice, do not finally establish the strategic direction of the university nor do they have the final say in the fundamental policies of the institution. It is the fiduciary duty of the Board of Trustees to do this. Sadly, the Boards of most universities are composed of marquee names and big donors who see their role as largely honorary, not as actually carrying the responsibility for governing the institution, as even a cursory review of the university's by-laws and the relevant foundational statutes would make clear. When university boards assert their prerogatives and direct, rather than passively accept direction from, the President and the other stakeholders of the university, then and only then will higher education regain the trust and moral standing that it has largely forfeited.
These people have been cowards for way too long. Good to see them finally saying enough. We really need some adults in the room and they are nowhere to be found in the halls of academia. But as with most things in life, follow the money...when the big donors stop donating they may all realize that college is where young people should be learning to be an adult, not coddled and told they are victims....those DEI departments will be the first to go but these professors with their perverted ideologies need to go right along with them. Get back to the basics of educating, not indoctrinating...college will be much cheaper and the kids will be way better adults and employees.
Northwestern got it’s last check from me after the Karl Eikenberry incident back in 2015–and that check only because it was the last of the multi-year pledge. Told the development officer at the time it would be the last they’d see from me and was able to put a last minute restriction on the use of the funds. I was frankly ashamed to see the Deering Library illuminated in the Palestinian flag colors last week. And the president’s statement was simply mush-mouthed. I hope that one positive that emerges from this is the liberal Jews that one finds supporting these leftist organizations now calling for their extermination get a grip and cease doing so. Can’t count the number of times I’ve gently suggested to Jewish acquaintances that they are funding and supporting the very people that would like to see them dead. Reminds me of the “Kadet” political party in Czarist Russia, whose members loved to flirt with and financially support “radical chic”. Post the October Revolution, those were among the first people the Cheka rounded up and shot. Get after it, Mr. Rowan, before it’s too late.
UPenn went south long ago. Alumni that were paying attention to Penn's woke policies long ago stopped supporting the institution. From racial discrimination in undergraduate admissions, horrific treatment of Law Professor Amy Wax who dared to publish thoughts championing bourgeois values such as child-rearing within marriage, hard work, self-discipline on and off the job and respect for authority, to the equally horrific treatment of retired medical school dean Stanley Goldfarb who points out how racial discrimination rather than merit in medical school admissions and residency matches is reducing the quality of our physicians and of our healthcare, Penn signaled its decline to those paying attention. Mr. Rowan is correct; the inattention of Penn's Trustees is largely responsible for this latest outrage.
Wax is impressive. Met her at an NAS function several years ago and in her talk she foreshadowed a lot of what has crawled out from under the rock the past few years. Tough woman.
It is heartening that someone in your position sees the error in not accepting the responsibility. I fear that you are far too late, but rather than closing a checkbook - consider opening it for other institutions, like Hillsdale College, that are not infected with the rot that you allowed to propagate.
The institutions that you, Bill Ackman, and so many others have provided so much money have built a war chest that will allow them to resist your proposed measures. Why not give students who don't want to brave the cesspool other places to go. To take Bill's view hiring views further, hire from these new, better institutions as a preference to the decrepit puss that emanates from the Ivy League and its ilk.
I will say after working for a state college that the rot is everywhere in higher ed. The humanities wherever you go are explicitly left, anti-West, anti- Israel, with all that implies. We must now make a point and take a stand: stop donating to all of them, stop going to games, stop enrolling your children. It's the only way they will reform.
One other observation: you get ONE opportunity to manage a crisis and rise to the challenge as a leader - or as president of a college or university. If you consult 20 people and test the waters before issuing a statement, it will be obvious- and it has been with the new generation of female presidents.
One of two things happens when you fundamentally fail to show leadership, and issue weak and neutered statements comforting students etc etc - you damage your position and reputation, people remember that you had no core values or convictions, and everything you do thereafter is under a microscope. You parried when you could have been a Ben Sasse. So, you have now permanently damaged your reputation and either folks expect you to fail, or they hope you won't but you're on a very short leash. These schools are EXPECTING you to manage them out of a crisis and the newly appointed president of our kids small but elite Ivy, utterly failed to do that. The others cited by Bari Weiss and Nellie Bowles were no better - either bigoted, afraid or incompetent. As a Wellesley graduate, I'm utterly disgusted.
Hmmm... Now that the radical mob is goring your Ox you are willing to do something about it. Why am I not surprised? “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out…”, Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)
UPenn has been a very extreme place for a long time. Marc Rowan is only discovering this now? UPenn was already a black legend for putting a man (William Thomas) on the women’s swim team. UPenn declared his presence was ‘non-negotiable’. Quotes from “Swimmer Tells Congress UPenn Told Team Lia Thomas Being in Locker Room was ‘Non Negotiable’” (https://themessenger.com/news/swimmer-tells-congress-upenn-told-team-lia-thomas-being-in-locker-room-was-non-negotiable)
“"My teammates and I were forced to undress in the presence of Lia, a 6-foot-4 tall biological male, fully intact with male genitalia, 18 times per week. Some girls opted to change in bathroom stalls, and others used the family bathroom to avoid this.
“When we tried to voice our concerns to the athletic department, we were told that Lia’s swimming and being in our locker room was a non-negotiable, and we were offered psychological services to attempt to re-educate us to become comfortable with the idea of undressing in front of a male.”
UPenn’s response to these horrors was to dig a deeper hole. In 2022, UPenn nominated Wiliam Thomas for the ‘2022 NCAA Woman of the Year award’. How crazy can you get? Nominating a man for ‘Woman of the Year’? If it wasn’t true, it would be something out of the Onion or the Babylon Bee.
So Marc Rowan is discovering now that UPenn is a bad place? Better late than never.
I refuse to allow my senior in an American high school to be educated here in the US. What the woke have done to our university system began a decade ago, and I fear the chickens are still not coming home to roost, but when it does, it's going to be very disheartening. This maybe the tip of the iceberg. If this is a symbol of our brightest kids, maybe they need to go live in one of these countries and see how little they understand..
The moral equivalency platitudes have been utterly sickening. Often talking with one’s wallet is the only way to get attention of those who prefer to ignore the hard truths of their moral and ethical failures. You are a beacon of hope for our progeny.
Dear Mr. Rowan, I have closed my checkbook and am opening my mouth to agree with your position. I, too, am a Wharton alum, and deeply disappointed in the University's response to the situation on campus with the Palestine Writes conference. There should absolutely not be a blurry line between free speech and inciting violence and promoting hatred of Jews; it is very clear. Also, I am grateful for the platform that the The Free Press affords and that there are journalists at work, who are not pontificators. Continue!
Good!
All these donors should choose one institution to transfer their attention to, in a focused effort to overturn a specialty at the schools they are targeting (Ben Sasse's University of Florida comes to mind...)
Losing donations is one thing. Losing your ranking to a state school as the best school for (fill in the blank) because that school now has the money to pursue the best professors, labs, equipment and students would cut so much deeper.
I write as a former Trustee and Board Chair of a university, an institution that I was proud to have served for many years. The Board of Trustees has the primary responsibility for establishing the fundamental direction and policies of a university. The President, the staff, the deans, the faculty, the alumni and the students, while they should all have a voice, do not finally establish the strategic direction of the university nor do they have the final say in the fundamental policies of the institution. It is the fiduciary duty of the Board of Trustees to do this. Sadly, the Boards of most universities are composed of marquee names and big donors who see their role as largely honorary, not as actually carrying the responsibility for governing the institution, as even a cursory review of the university's by-laws and the relevant foundational statutes would make clear. When university boards assert their prerogatives and direct, rather than passively accept direction from, the President and the other stakeholders of the university, then and only then will higher education regain the trust and moral standing that it has largely forfeited.
These people have been cowards for way too long. Good to see them finally saying enough. We really need some adults in the room and they are nowhere to be found in the halls of academia. But as with most things in life, follow the money...when the big donors stop donating they may all realize that college is where young people should be learning to be an adult, not coddled and told they are victims....those DEI departments will be the first to go but these professors with their perverted ideologies need to go right along with them. Get back to the basics of educating, not indoctrinating...college will be much cheaper and the kids will be way better adults and employees.
Bravo - thank you.
Northwestern got it’s last check from me after the Karl Eikenberry incident back in 2015–and that check only because it was the last of the multi-year pledge. Told the development officer at the time it would be the last they’d see from me and was able to put a last minute restriction on the use of the funds. I was frankly ashamed to see the Deering Library illuminated in the Palestinian flag colors last week. And the president’s statement was simply mush-mouthed. I hope that one positive that emerges from this is the liberal Jews that one finds supporting these leftist organizations now calling for their extermination get a grip and cease doing so. Can’t count the number of times I’ve gently suggested to Jewish acquaintances that they are funding and supporting the very people that would like to see them dead. Reminds me of the “Kadet” political party in Czarist Russia, whose members loved to flirt with and financially support “radical chic”. Post the October Revolution, those were among the first people the Cheka rounded up and shot. Get after it, Mr. Rowan, before it’s too late.
UPenn went south long ago. Alumni that were paying attention to Penn's woke policies long ago stopped supporting the institution. From racial discrimination in undergraduate admissions, horrific treatment of Law Professor Amy Wax who dared to publish thoughts championing bourgeois values such as child-rearing within marriage, hard work, self-discipline on and off the job and respect for authority, to the equally horrific treatment of retired medical school dean Stanley Goldfarb who points out how racial discrimination rather than merit in medical school admissions and residency matches is reducing the quality of our physicians and of our healthcare, Penn signaled its decline to those paying attention. Mr. Rowan is correct; the inattention of Penn's Trustees is largely responsible for this latest outrage.
Wax is impressive. Met her at an NAS function several years ago and in her talk she foreshadowed a lot of what has crawled out from under the rock the past few years. Tough woman.
Corollary: stop sending your kids there!
It is heartening that someone in your position sees the error in not accepting the responsibility. I fear that you are far too late, but rather than closing a checkbook - consider opening it for other institutions, like Hillsdale College, that are not infected with the rot that you allowed to propagate.
The institutions that you, Bill Ackman, and so many others have provided so much money have built a war chest that will allow them to resist your proposed measures. Why not give students who don't want to brave the cesspool other places to go. To take Bill's view hiring views further, hire from these new, better institutions as a preference to the decrepit puss that emanates from the Ivy League and its ilk.
Bless you.
I will say after working for a state college that the rot is everywhere in higher ed. The humanities wherever you go are explicitly left, anti-West, anti- Israel, with all that implies. We must now make a point and take a stand: stop donating to all of them, stop going to games, stop enrolling your children. It's the only way they will reform.
One other observation: you get ONE opportunity to manage a crisis and rise to the challenge as a leader - or as president of a college or university. If you consult 20 people and test the waters before issuing a statement, it will be obvious- and it has been with the new generation of female presidents.
One of two things happens when you fundamentally fail to show leadership, and issue weak and neutered statements comforting students etc etc - you damage your position and reputation, people remember that you had no core values or convictions, and everything you do thereafter is under a microscope. You parried when you could have been a Ben Sasse. So, you have now permanently damaged your reputation and either folks expect you to fail, or they hope you won't but you're on a very short leash. These schools are EXPECTING you to manage them out of a crisis and the newly appointed president of our kids small but elite Ivy, utterly failed to do that. The others cited by Bari Weiss and Nellie Bowles were no better - either bigoted, afraid or incompetent. As a Wellesley graduate, I'm utterly disgusted.
Hmmm... Now that the radical mob is goring your Ox you are willing to do something about it. Why am I not surprised? “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out…”, Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)