{"id":139515,"date":"2023-12-28T00:03:31","date_gmt":"2023-12-28T05:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=139515"},"modified":"2023-12-28T11:45:59","modified_gmt":"2023-12-28T16:45:59","slug":"penn-affiliates-want-merit-intellectual-diversity-to-guide-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/penn-affiliates-want-merit-intellectual-diversity-to-guide-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn affiliates want merit and \u2018intellectual diversity\u2019 to guide university"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATED<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

‘This proposal for a new constitution for Penn calls for the sort of ideal place of research and learning that Penn should be,’ signer and former administrator says<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The University of Pennsylvania should reorient itself to support \u201cintellectual diversity\u201d and merit, according to some students, faculty, and alumni.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Vision for a New Future of the University of Pennsylvania,\u201d comes after Penn\u2019s former president, Liz Magill, resigned<\/a> earlier this month following remarks<\/a> she made regarding antisemitism on campus in a hearing with federal lawmakers.<\/p>\n

The constitution calls<\/a> for a return to the values of the university\u2019s founder, Benjamin Franklin. The petition supporting the new constitution has garnered the signatures of over 200 professors, alumni, and other Penn community members.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe propose a future for Penn that, while modern in its ambitions, is true to Franklin\u2019s enlightenment values,\u201d the \u201cNew Constitution,\u201d states. \u201cMany institutions today deliver research and teaching mixed with other social and political agendas, somewhat like the religious agendas of elite Universities of the 1700s.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter contrasted Penn\u2019s founding with that of once-religious universities, Harvard University, Yale University, and Princeton University.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntellectual diversity and openness of thought,\u201d should be prioritized, the signers wrote. They also want \u201crigorous and meritocratic selection based on objective and measurable criteria,\u201d for new faculty hires. The university should also maintain \u201cinstitutional neutrality\u201d on \u201csocietal and political events.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stanley Goldfarb, former associate dean of Penn\u2019s medical school and founder of Do No Harm, an anti-woke healthcare reform group, signed the letter.<\/p>\n

Goldfarb told The College Fix<\/em> in an email statement that the new constitution lays the framework for the type of institution Penn should strive to be and said that Magill\u2019s response to antisemitism on campus showcases a \u201cdouble standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis proposal for a new constitution for Penn calls for the sort of ideal place of research and learning that Penn should be,\u201d Goldfarb said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem with the response by former president Magill was that it demonstrated the double standard that currently exists on Penn\u2019s campus as well as throughout academia: Some speech is allowed, other speech is decried,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was cancelled from the Penn community simply because I raised a question about the quality of work of a minority group that was documented in the medical literature,\u201d Goldfarb said. \u201cThis is a far cry from calling for genocide, something that former president Magill could not bring herself to absolutely condemn,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n