March 02, 2024
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
A group of 12 protesters disrupted a board of trustees meeting, which ended about four minutes after it began. Freedom School for Palestine claimed that Penn Police followed the protesters out of campus property after the interruption.
A Friday meeting of the University of Pennsylvania's board of trustees was cut short by student protesters.
At 11:33 a.m., 12 students from the group Freedom School for Palestine stood up during the meeting and raised their red-painted hands, chanting "endowment transparency now" and "divest from genocide," the Daily Pennsylvanian reported.
The chanting interrupted the prepared opening remarks from Penn's interim president J. Larry Jameson. "People work very hard to get to Penn, and they’re exhilarated to be here," said Jameson before the protesters disrupted his remarks. The meeting, which took place at The Inn at Penn, was Jameson's first public address to trustees.
Jameson was due to tout the "all-time high" in applications — 65,230, an increase of 10% from last year. Jameson was also going to acknowledge the University Task Force on Antisemitism, the Presidential Commission on Countering Hate and Building Community and Student Advisory Groups.
After four minutes of chanting, board of trustees chair Ramanan Raghavendran adjourned the meeting, which was originally scheduled to conclude at 12:30 p.m. According to an Instagram post by Freedom School for Palestine, Penn Police threatened to arrest the protesters and followed them off campus property.
"The 12 student activists, who disrupted today’s Stated Meeting of the Board of Trustees, were heard and acknowledged three times by the Chair of the Board," a University spokesperson said. "Their ongoing disruption of the meeting violates the University’s Code of Student Conduct and Guidelines on Open Expression."
On Instagram, the activist group's post read: "This action comes as the result of the ongoing genocide and educide in Palestine, which is enabled by UPenn's relationship with Israel, including study abroad programming, donations to the IDF, and a recent faculty trip to Israel."
The group refers to a three-day January trip by about 30 Penn faculty members to Israel in an act of "friendship and support." The trip was organized independently from Penn, The DP reported.
Penn has been in the national limelight since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began in October 2023. The university appointed Jameson to replace then-university president Liz Magill after her criticized testimony to Congress resulted in her resignation.
Two Jewish students filed a lawsuit against Penn in December, calling the school an "incubation lab" for antisemitism. In February, Penn requested that the lawsuit be dismissed.
