Members of the Penn community criticized the University\u2019s draft Guidelines on Open Expression on Thursday at the first of two listening sessions on the proposal.<\/p>\n
The April 23 session was held at Perry World House and was moderated by University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor and former Faculty Senate Chair Eric Feldman. The session comes after Penn released<\/a> its first draft of revised open expression guidelines last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n Outside the event, the University of Pennsylvania chapter of the American Association of University Professors gathered nearly 25 people in opposition to the University\u2019s most recent draft.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s totally unacceptable that students, faculty, and staff are not being given a real, meaningful voice in approving these guidelines,\u201d Math professor and AAUP-Penn Communications Secretary Phil Gressman told The Daily Pennsylvanian before the session began. \u201cA listening session is nice, but it\u2019s not the same as actually following the process, which is in writing and should have been followed.\u201d<\/p>\n Second-year Perelman School of Medicine Ph.D. candidate Maya English, a member of Graduate Employees Together \u2014 University of Pennsylvania, called the guidelines \u201cextremely vague\u201d at the demonstration. She argued that the University has attempted to \u201cmuddy the waters\u201d of what \u201cis and isn\u2019t appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n The demonstrators moved inside PWH\u2019s forum once the event began.<\/p>\n Feldman opened the session by explaining that the discussion was a \u201crare opportunity\u201d for the Penn community to come together and provide feedback on the guidelines. He told attendees that he had \u201czero authority\u201d over the final draft and that comments would be shared with the University administrators as part of the revision process.<\/p>\n Attendees were informed that two note-takers would document both the substance and tone of remarks, emphasizing the importance of \u201cnot just what was said, but how it was said.\u201d<\/p>\n Recording devices were not permitted, and cameras were disabled to encourage participants to openly share their views.\u00a0<\/p>\n Throughout the session, many speakers expressed dissatisfaction with the draft guidelines. Several attendees described the document as \u201cunsalvageable\u201d in its current form.\u00a0<\/p>\n Multiple participants said that the proposal requires a fundamental revision rather than incremental changes, arguing that the draft was written through an \u201cillegitimate\u201d process.<\/p>\n Attendees also pointed to the absence of senior University leadership at the session \u2014 such as Penn President Larry Jameson and Provost John Jackson Jr. Much of the discussion centered on concerns about administrative authority<\/a> under the proposed guidelines.\u00a0<\/p>\n One faculty member raised questions about changes to the Committee on Open Expression<\/a> and its role under the draft, particularly about its advisory function and reporting structure.<\/p>\n Others outlined concerns about the draft\u2019s language, with a graduate student citing the University\u2019s motto \u2014 \u201cLaws without morals are useless\u201d \u2014 to emphasize how the guidelines have \u201ca lot of rules,\u201d but not \u201ca lot of soul.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Speakers also discussed how the guidelines may affect protests on campus. Multiple attendees questioned how expectations of advance notice for demonstrations would function in practice.<\/p>\n \u201cProtests happen organically,\u201d one faculty member said.<\/p>\n While several attendees discussed a \u201cchilling effect\u201d on speech at Penn in recent years, some also warned that the new guidelines could spark intense backlash once finalized in September.<\/p>\n \u201cI see faculty who are mobilized and galvanized,\u201d one graduate student said. \u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to take this lying down.\u201d<\/p>\n Transparency in the feedback process emerged as a recurring theme. Several speakers said that comments from the listening sessions should be accessible to the larger Penn community rather than shared only with administrators.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat about the community that\u2019s only been given 22 days to review these guidelines?\u201d one faculty member questioned.<\/p>\n Several students noted that the listening sessions had received very little \u201cadvertising\u201d and said that the Thursday session \u2014 which took place at 4 p.m. \u2014 conflicted with class schedules of many of their peers.<\/p>\n During the session, Feldman commented that \u201ca lot of folks have noted the timing\u201d as \u201cunsatisfactory.\u201d He indicated his willingness to \u201carrange opportunities\u201d for further feedback.<\/p>\n Penn will continue collecting feedback through May before presenting a final version of the guidelines to the University Council later this fall.<\/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 Staff reporter Luke Petersen covers national politics and can be reached at petersen@thedp.com<\/a>. At Penn, he studies philosophy, politics, and economics. Follow him on X @LukePetersen06<\/a>.<\/p>\n Senior reporter Ananya Karthik covers central administration and can be reached at karthik@thedp.com<\/a>. At Penn, she studies communication and economics. Follow her on X @ananyaakarthik<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of the Penn community criticized the University\u2019s draft Guidelines on Open Expression on Thursday at the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-174539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-philadelphia","9":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","10":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}