Penn students and faculty expressed relief and optimism in the wake of the University\u2019s resolution agreement with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over lists of Jewish employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The resolution<\/a> \u2014 which included Penn and the EEOC but not the intervening groups \u2014 stated that the federal agency would not enforce the subpoena in exchange for the University dropping its appeal of the district court ruling. In conversations with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn community members reflected on the last development in the yearlong legal battle<\/a> and its future implications on the EEOC\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n Vice president of the Penn chapter of the American Association of University Professors and bioengineering professor Lorena Grundy characterized the ruling as \u201ca win.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump administration wanted to get a list of Jews at Penn, and they are not going to be getting a list of Jews at Penn,\u201d Grundy said. \u201cI think we should be really happy \u2014 not only that we got that win, but also the organized coalition of effort that got us there.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Jacob Naimark, outgoing co-president of the Jewish Law Students Association at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, it \u201cfelt like the law was so strongly on our side\u201d that \u201cat some point\u201d the group \u201chad this confidence that, hopefully, this outcome was an inevitability.\u201d<\/p>\n Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n Still, after the district court ruling<\/a> in the EEOC\u2019s favor, Naimark said it felt like the legal proceedings were \u201cgoing to be an uphill battle.\u201d<\/p>\n Religious studies professor Steven Weitzman called the resolution \u201ca great victory for the University\u201d \u2014 but noted that the EEOC \u201chas not withdrawn the subpoena; it\u2019s suspended it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUntil the investigation is complete, it could reactivate it,\u201d Weitzman said. \u201cThe immediate threat has been removed, but we\u2019re still concerned about the long-term implications.\u201d<\/p>\n Weitzman was one of several members of Penn\u2019s Jewish Studies Program contacted<\/a> by the EEOC through a personal cell phone number.<\/p>\n He said that although the district court ruling \u201cdoesn\u2019t have legal force on other courts,\u201d the EEOC could still \u201cuse it to pressure other universities in the way that it tried to pressure Penn.\u201d<\/p>\n On Aug. 4, the intervenors \u2014 which include the Penn Association of Senior and Emeritus Faculty, AAUP-Penn, JLSA, and other groups affiliated with the University \u2014 filed a motion<\/a> to vacate the district court opinion.<\/p>\n If granted, the motion would essentially erase federal Judge Gerald Pappert\u2019s ruling from the record \u2014 meaning it would have no effect on legal proceedings if a similar subpoena was filed in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mitch Marcus, the former president of the PASEF, said he was \u201cdelighted\u201d the motion had been filed, as the University\u2019s resolution agreement did not stop similar lawsuits from occurring in the future.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat it doesn\u2019t do is preclude the federal government from coming to Penn or anywhere else and asking for home phone numbers and addresses of people with particular political views, people of any sexual preference you choose, people of any race you choose,\u201d he said. \u201cThe original agreement is wonderful, and extending it much more broadly really is an important thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Grundy added that she was \u201creally heartened\u201d by a shift in Penn \u201clistening to the collective opinions of the community and being willing to stand up for what\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing it now that they were willing to fight this fight and not just give in to what the government wanted,\u201d she said. \u201cI really think that the way in which we have banded together and stood up for what we believe in \u2014 that made a difference in shaping the University\u2019s actions.\u201d<\/p>\n Naimark said he was \u201cproud\u201d that JLSA intervened in the lawsuit, alongside other Penn organizations.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would have been a lot easier for JLSA and the other campus groups that got involved to just continue with our busy lives as students and hope that someone else was taking up this cause,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead, we decided to put our hearts into it, and I think our efforts made a difference because we were able to tell the story from the student perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n Amid the Trump administration\u2019s tenuous relationship with the higher education institutions, Grundy said that conflicts with the federal government are \u201clike playing a game.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey are continually trying to get a stronger foothold in higher education and coerce higher education institutions into adhering to their ideology,\u201d Grundy said. \u201cWe really need to stand together \u2014 not just as different pieces of the Penn community \u2014 but also across institutions, across higher ed.\u201d<\/p>\n Grundy added that Penn \u201ccan\u2019t comply in advance\u201d with the Trump administration\u2019s next move.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever this next threat or ask is, we can fight it and we can win,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Staff reporter Lavanya Mani covers legal affairs and can be reached at mani@thedp.com<\/a>. At Penn, she studies English. Follow her on X @lavanyamani_<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penn students and faculty expressed relief and optimism in the wake of the University\u2019s resolution agreement with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-262368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262368","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=262368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}