Penn President Larry Jameson sat down with The Daily Pennsylvanian last week to discuss the recent surge of federal scrutiny and administrative turnover.<\/p>\n
Jameson \u2014 who was appointed<\/a> as Penn\u2019s 10th President on March 13 after a 15-month interim tenure \u2014 spoke with the DP about the Trump administration’s crackdown on higher education and the University\u2019s executive decision-making process. He additionally addressed allegations of administrative mismanagement from both inside and outside the University.<\/p>\n In the wake of a July settlement to resolve a Title IX investigation<\/a> and Penn’s recent <\/a>rejection of the preferential federal funding compact<\/a>, Jameson declined to comment on the University’s ongoing conversations with the federal government. He described Penn’s relationship with the White House as \u201cpowerful, amazing, and valuable,\u201d but stated that commenting further would \u201cundermine the next time\u201d governmental negotiations took place.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur sense is that funding should be based on competing for the best ideas,\u201d Jameson said about Penn\u2019s compact rejection. \u201cSo those principles make sense. We identified some areas of separation \u2026 but I haven’t had any further contact about this. I don’t know what steps they will take and follow up on.\u201d<\/p>\n He also emphasized the significance of academic freedom in the feedback<\/a> he gave the White House, calling it the \u201cbedrock of what makes American universities so effective in their creativity and innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe ability to not always follow conventional wisdom, but to think differently, has allowed us to innovate and create,\u201d Jameson added. \u201cTo me, this is just a critical function of our identities as universities. I think if we were asked to be conformist, it would limit our ability to pursue these innovative ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n Jameson addressed Penn\u2019s \u201cfaithful\u201d response to \u201ccomplaints and inquiries\u201d from various sources of scrutiny.<\/p>\n He confirmed that Penn sent a “congratulatory letter\u201d to 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump when he was elected, but clarified administrators have sent letters to its affiliates \u201cregardless of political party,\u201d citing the University’s policy of institutional neutrality<\/a>.<\/p>\n The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently alleged in a lawsuit<\/a> that the University failed to provide documents for an antisemitism complaint investigation. Jameson said that Penn has, in fact, \u201cproduced hundreds and hundreds\u201d of documents.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re always cooperative, but when there are situations that we feel that we need to stand up for the rights of either students or faculty or employees here, then we also take that position,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n Jameson discussed the \u201cadvice\u201d he has received from outgoing Wharton School Board of Advisors Chair Marc Rowan, who was a chief architect<\/a> of the preferential federal funding compact. He emphasized that Rowan maintains \u201cpublic positions of his own choice” while remaining involved in University decisions.<\/p>\n \u201c[Rowan] is very close to what goes on at the University, and like many of our alumni, has views, as he shares privately and publicly about things we should do or don’t do at the university,\u201d Jameson said. \u201cI tend to listen to equal viewpoints and take them into consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n He further explained that decision-making at Penn is a \u201cstep-wise process\u201d rather than centralized actions.<\/p>\n \u201cI think people use that term of governance as though it all happens here, in the President or the Provost\u2019s Office,\u201d he said. \u201cIn reality, it\u2019s distributed very broadly through the University, which allows people who know the most about these topics to be the ones who are managing the content and the processes and procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n