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“Just trying not to get sued”: Student Experiences with Weingarten

Disabled students at the University of Pennsylvania describe Weingarten and the way they treat students saying, “It feels like they’re just trying not to get sued because of an ADA violation.” What a way to sum up a resource center supposedly meant to take care of hundreds of Penn students!

Physical Inaccessibility at Penn

A lone masked man with black short hair and a blue coat and sneakers walks down the steps outside the Weitzman School of Design toward 34th St.

Although Penn’s historical buildings are not exempt from adhering to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, they only need to be made accessible by the bare minimum of standards. This access often hinders students from engaging in social contexts as they cannot easily commute throughout the largest dormitory for Freshmen housing.

Understaffed, Underfunded, and Undersupported: Medical Services at Penn

Penn’s Student Health Services (SHS) claims to help students with both their physical and mental health, but their mission towards student wellness has come under much scrutiny due to accessibility issues, insurance policies, and poor mental health services.

The Reality of Mental Health Resources at Penn

Penn breeds a culture of toxic ambition and perfection, as a commonly held belief among Penn students is an expectation to succeed, manifesting from an endless list of LinkedIn brag posts to students’ failure to be candid about inevitable struggles with their academic, social, or personal lives.

Student Experiences with Confidential Resources at Penn

Penn Women's Center, one of the University's confidential resources, is on Locust Walk. It is a brown building, and there are fallen leaves around the building. Photo courtesy of The Daily Pennsylvanian

Many students have had traumatizing experiences when trying to speak to a confidential resource about their experience with sexual violence. Similarly, students have had negative experiences with confidential resources provided for other issues, those of which we discuss in this article.

Inside the Fight for a Grad Student Union

Photo shows a black paper sign with white lettering that reads "GET UP" on a bulletin board with other posters. Photo courtesy The DG

Graduate students serve as teaching assistants, instructors, and research assistants that carry out operations essential to university life and experiences. However, despite the amount of work that graduate students do in order to ensure that undergraduate education and research goes smoothly, the University does not recognize them as workers.

How Penn and Other Universities Are Turning Teaching into Temp Work

Protestors stand in solidarity in front of the Ben Franklin statue on College Green with signs about justice for workers.

What are the labor conditions of the tens of thousands of people whose work makes Penn work? As a faculty organization AAUP–Penn advocates for the university workers employed in teaching and research, though our commitments don’t stop there.

Penn’s Problematic History of Union-busting

Many University-affiliated staff members have said that Penn has promoted union-busting strategies to their advantage. Photo shows white, male protestor with a sign that demands a fair contract for custodial staff and housekeeping workers. Photo courtesy of The Daily Pennsylvanian

Penn has been faced with allegations of union-busting tactics and remained silent in the face of labor organizing in Philadelphia. Corporations and institutions implement common union-busting strategies to keep workers divided, demoralized, and controlled.

The Erosion of Asian American Studies

Six student protestors stand in front of the Ben Franklin statue on College Green with other protestors demanding more resources for the ASAM program. Photo courtesy of The Daily Pennsylvanian

AM Program was the result of countless and constant efforts on part of students and faculty, and its existence holds an important place not only for academic enrichment but for students who fall under the AA+NHPI label at Penn. While it is important to celebrate the program’s tenacity, it is equally important to understand the program’s past, specifically Penn’s consistent institutional disregard of the program and its students and faculty.

Cultural Houses at Penn: A Decades-long Deadlock

Photo of the ARCH Building and a portion of Locust Walk in front of it on a cloudy day. Currently, the three major race-based cultural centers are housed in the ARCH building's basement. Photo courtesy of The Daily Pennsylvanian.

For those who are not already aware, the University of Pennsylvania is a predominantly-white institution. This detail is overlooked by some who are aware of Penn’s strong history of establishing some of the nation’s first Cultural Resource Centers (CRCs) on college campuses. However, many remain unaware of the history behind these spaces and the war that their student leaders have continuously waged in their journey to advocate for students of color at this institutions.