At the time, the committee claimed it would work with the Faculty Senate and University Council to review the guidelines \u2014 but instead, Penn implemented the temporary guidelines and announced that a faculty-led task force<\/a> would evaluate the standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n The Wharton School professor Eric Orts, a committee member from 2022 to 2025<\/a>, told the DP that the temporary guidelines were \u201cbasically just decided by the University\u201d because \u201cthey felt that this was kind of an emergency situation.\u201d<\/p>\n Fourth-year physics Ph.D. candidate Will Chan, who previously served as the president of the Pan-Asian Graduate Student Association, received an invitation to join the 2024-25 committee for a one-year term in July 2024.<\/p>\n The University officially announced the charge<\/a> of the newly formed Task Force on Open Expression in August 2024. Chaired by Executive Vice Dean of Perelman School of Medicine Lisa Bellini \u2014 who was also the chair of the COE at the time \u2014 and SNF Paideia Program Faculty Director Sigal Ben-Porath, the Task Force consisted of 12 individuals, including faculty, students, and one staff member.<\/p>\n The committee met seven times<\/a> from September 2024 to February 2025, including \u201cmeetings focused on building out the principles and recommendations from the TFOE into a revised draft of the Guidelines on Open Expression,\u201d according to the group\u2019s year-end report in May 2025.<\/p>\n Chan said that the committee and the Task Force went through a \u201cback-and-forth process\u201d while drafting the revised guidelines. He added that the committee provided its \u201cvisions\u201d while the Task Force indicated \u201cwhat they felt was appropriate and not appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t all see eye to eye,\u201d Chan said.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the committee anonymously voted 9-1 to approve a draft of the Task Force\u2019s recommendations in February 2025.<\/p>\n The Task Force continued the revision process afterward, but Chan noted that the committee did not meet again.<\/p>\n \u201cIt felt like the vote was the conclusion of the work,\u201d he said. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a follow-up saying, \u2018People have asked for these changes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n During the 2024-25 academic year, \u201ca small number of individuals reached out to the COE chair for guidance but did not wish to advance their concerns further for full committee review,\u201d according to the University Council report.<\/p>\n Chan confirmed that the committee did not discuss any mediation of open expression violations at its meetings.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile that may be true that no students had come to the committee, it also begs the question: Are we functioning well as a University in terms of open expression?\u201d he asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was very disappointing to go through all that work, and we didn\u2019t hear anything,\u201d Orts stated. \u201cThen finally, to be presented with this new draft that obviously had been prepared internally to the administration but without consulting anyone who is on the faculty.\u201d<\/p>\n Chan said that, under the \u201cdraconian\u201d temporary guidelines, demonstrations and events were conflated in a \u201cfalse equivalence\u201d \u2014 echoing concerns<\/a> raised by other Penn community members.<\/p>\n \u201cEvents, sure, they should be registered. Demonstrations, protests, vigils \u2014 those are not events,\u201d Chan said. \u201cThey will be spontaneous very often. They will not happen in ideal scenarios and ideal circumstances. They are meant to be disruptive.\u201d<\/p>\n He noted that, in the new draft, there was ambiguity between the two that \u201cwas not in the final draft submitted by the COE.\u201d According to Chan, protest registration is \u201cnot necessary\u201d but Penn has \u201cleverage in shutting down\u201d demonstrations.<\/p>\n A \u201cquick\u201d 2025-26 turnaround<\/p>\n In response to a request for comment on the formation of the 2025-26 committee, a spokesperson for the Provost\u2019s Office directed the DP to a University Council website<\/a>, which published updated information this month.<\/p>\n Orts wrote in a statement to the DP that he had first been invited to rejoin the committee for 2025-26 in \u201clate summer 2025,\u201d but was apprehensive about doing so with multiple versions of the guidelines in effect. At the time, Orts was told that the administration would release the updated guidelines \u201csoon.\u201d<\/p>\n He was contacted again in December about rejoining the committee \u2014 and despite signaling that he would not return, he received an email in March notifying him of his appointment. Four days later, he resigned.<\/p>\n Other members of the 2025-26 committee were also invited to join in March. College junior Ben Woods \u2014 the Undergraduate Assembly\u2019s academic initiatives director \u2014 confirmed his appointment last month in a statement to the DP.<\/p>\n According to a report from the Faculty Senate\u2019s office, its executive committee voted on <\/a>\u201ca roster of eight faculty members\u201d to the 2025-26 committee during March and April. The report states that \u201cone candidate resigned from committee membership\u201d and was replaced by another faculty member during the voting period.<\/p>\n One faculty member still listed as a member of the committee on the University Council\u2019s website \u2014 History and Sociology of Science professor Harun K\u00fc\u00e7\u00fck \u2014 noted in a statement to the DP that he has \u201crecently stepped down from the COE.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t feel that much could be said or done with the proposed guidelines,\u201d K\u00fc\u00e7\u00fck wrote. \u201cI\u2019ve been living with some version of whatever this is, day-in day-out, since 2022. Just trying to recuperate from 4 very rough years now.\u201d<\/p>\n Communication professor Jessa Lingel \u2014 a member of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and the president of Penn\u2019s chapter of the American Association of University Professors \u2014 told the DP that the Faculty Senate has continually sought \u201cclarity\u201d from the administration regarding open expression.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have raised the issue of the open expression guidelines every time there\u2019s a representative from leadership, whether that\u2019s Provost John Jackson or President Larry Jameson,\u201d Lingel said. \u201cThey\u2019ve never really been able to provide explanations as to why this process is so divergent.\u201d<\/p>\n Orts commented on the \u201cquick\u201d nature of the new and upcoming revisions to the guidelines.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the end of the semester, but they want to be done by this summer,\u201d Orts said. \u201cWhere\u2019s the time students have to take?\u201d<\/p>\n Chan echoed this sentiment, stating that the community listening sessions are \u201cparticularly poorly timed\u201d and \u201cnot in favor of getting student input.\u201d He felt that past open expression listening sessions were merely \u201ca chance for people in the University administration to give their opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Provost\u2019s Office declined the DP\u2019s request for comment, writing that \u201cwe will let the community input be the community input.\u201d<\/p>\n The sessions \u2014 one at Perry World House on Thursday at 4 p.m. and another virtually on Friday at 12 p.m. \u2014 are set to be moderated by University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor and Past Chair of the Faculty Senate Eric Feldman.<\/p>\n \u201cMy role is to ensure that Penn students, faculty, staff, and postdoctoral trainees have an opportunity to express their views on the proposed revisions to the Guidelines on Open Expression, and to ensure that those views are clearly and accurately conveyed to Penn\u2019s senior administration,\u201d Feldman wrote in a statement to the DP.<\/p>\n \u201cThe listening sessions will emphasize anonymous feedback and privacy and acknowledgement of transparency concerns and distrust stemming from the review process and timeline to-date,\u201d according to the Faculty Senate\u2019s April 15 report<\/a>.<\/p>\n Wharton professor and committee chair Phil Nichols wrote in a statement to the DP that Penn \u201cshould develop its support for and understanding of the meaning of open expression as a community\u201d and that \u201cone important role for the Committee is participating in this critically important community exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe real work begins once the members of our community \u2013 students, staff, faculty, and all \u2013 have had a chance to provide input through the two listening events, on Thursday and Friday, or through the confidential online portal,\u201d Nichols added.<\/p>\n Changes to the committee and shared governance<\/p>\n When the Committee on Open Expression called for a review of the guidelines in May 2024, Orts told the DP<\/a> that there was a \u201cgeneral sense\u201d that the structure and authority of the committee needed to be reformed.<\/p>\n At the time, he explained that the committee\u2019s role was \u201conly advisory\u201d under the Vice Provost for University Life and noted that some believe \u201cthis committee should have more power than that and should be able to tell the VPUL what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, the updated draft places the committee \u2014 previously \u201csemi-independent from the Provost and the administration\u201d \u2014 in an even smaller role.<\/p>\n \u201cThe administration is taking over control,\u201d Orts said. \u201cIt\u2019s a purely advisory body to the administration.\u201d<\/p>\n Previously, the committee was an independent committee of the University Council and operated in an advisory role under the VPUL, as clarified by interpretive guidelines<\/a> adopted in 2023.<\/p>\n Orts told the DP that the committee previously agreed to move away from the University Council \u2014 which he called \u201chighly dysfunctional\u201d \u2014 to fall under the Faculty Senate.<\/p>\n \u201cBut now the new [draft] says the Senate and the Provost,\u201d Orts said. \u201cThat\u2019s a much different thing because then you\u2019re not independent anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Orts expressed his belief that the draft guidelines show \u201cthat the administration is afraid of having some independent body.\u201d<\/p>\n Lingel also voiced concern about the administration\u2019s influence over open expression.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m concerned that these guidelines concentrate so much power in the Provost\u2019s office rather than in some sort of entity that has more representation across different campus stakeholders and much more transparency,\u201d Lingel told the DP.<\/p>\n The new Executive Director of Open Expression<\/a>, for example, reports to the Provost with \u201ca dotted line report to the Faculty Senate Tri-Chairs.\u201d Under the draft guidelines, the Provost also names staff and students to the committee after being given \u201cadvice and recommendations\u201d by respective constituent bodies.<\/p>\n The process for faculty is described differently, involving nominations by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee \u2014 though the Provost \u201cmay request alternative individual nominations\u201d and ultimately must approve committee members.<\/p>\n \u201cIt gives this air of the Provost reserving the right to swap out anyone that they don\u2019t particularly want to have on the committee,\u201d Chan said.<\/p>\n Woods told the DP that he is concerned there is \u201cno guarantee that any sort of protections won\u2019t just be thrust to the side when it is expedient\u201d \u2014 such as the implementation of the temporary guidelines.<\/p>\n \u201cOn that front, it seems to me that any promises or any wins that are made on these new guidelines are kind of meaningless,\u201d Woods said. \u201cI hope that we get more absolute, ironclad speech protections for students and that we get some kind of institutional guarantee not to encroach on expression.\u201d<\/p>\n Staff reporter James Wan covers academic affairs and can be reached at wan@thedp.com<\/a>. At Penn, he studies communication and computer science. Follow him on X @JamesWan__<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"visualization\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776920592_643_thumbnail.jpeg\")
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