Recent History

In the fall of 2019, Penn Violence Prevention was moved from a Locust office to SHS, making the resources offered significantly less convenient for most students. After widespread student backlash, which involved pointing out that frats had spaces on locust, and Penn was choosing to prioritize certain groups of students, PVP returned to a satellite, limited-capacity office. Only in February of 2020 did they reopen the new space. In an overlapping period, for 7 months between spring 2019 and November, the office was left without a director. (see: Rape Culture at Penn article)

Not merely once but TWICE, the College Republicans brought the former ICE director Thomas Homan to campus, a hateful harmful move that the school naturally supported. At the first event, protestors completely shut down the event within seconds of Homan opening his mouth. The second time around, protest chants echoed in the hall throughout the event. Penn has demonstrated its total support at platforming fascists at the expense of marginalized students; only we can shut them down. (see: Thomas Honan article)

11/8

After Penn refused for years to hear student and faculty concerns about the investment in the fossil fuel industries of their endowment, Fossil Free Penn decided to take action by vocally disrupting and shutting down the Board of Trustees biannual meeting.

1/29

For the very first time since the beginning of FFP’s campaign in 2014, while refusing to acknowledge the influence of student activism, Penn announced that they were going to consider the long-term effects of investment decisions on the climate crisis. The announcement remained vague and less than satisfactory but it showed the power of student organizing. (see: Fossil Fuels article)

The 6B – a coalition of groups representing marginalized students at Penn – demands proper space for three of Penn’s cultural centers on campus. La Casa Latina, Makuu: the Black Cultural Center, and the Pan-Asian American Community House are currently packed into the small rooms in the basement of the ARCH building, rooms that barely accommodate their members. Responding hastily to student pressure, the administration has promised their expansion to ARCH’s upper floors, but the persistence of shared space leaves the cultural houses in the shadows of the fraternities’ spacious buildings on Locust Walk and other construction projects.

The Penn Law Israel Society invited the fascist IDF border security commander Amir Ebstein to lecture on Israel’s “adapting military.” He attempted to give a propaganda-filled presentation on Israel’s military technology and inclusion of women in their armed forces (read: pinkwashing), but was largely drowned out by the chants of Penn Law and undergraduate protestors. Fascists should not be able to spread fascism on campus!

The inaugural BARS Conference entitled Breaking Chains, Building Coalitions: Diversifying the Face of Criminal Justice Reform brought together an array of stakeholders in the fight for criminal justice reform, centering marginalized voices. The conference provided participants with background on criminal justice reform efforts in Philadelphia and beyond, as well as with the resources to become more involved in their communities. Through a speaker series of formerly incarcerated activists, interactive workshop, engagement with practitioners and local organizations, and a short film screening, participants gained a deep understanding of the current fight for reform and helped craft solutions for the future, followed by an evening keynote by Cyntoia Brown Long.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Penn has been acting harmfully at each turn, attempting to abandon their workers, disregarding student needs, failing to support their professors, and generally acting without transparency or accountability to its community (see: COVID article).

May 31st: Philadelphia police responded to “looting” on 52nd Street by calling for “all available units”; both Penn and Drexel’s police departments sent their own officers outside their jurisdiction to respond to this call. Penn and Drexel officers were present and participated in the violence against 52nd Street residents, which included tear-gassing Black and Brown neighborhoods, as well as pepper spraying and shooting rubber bullets at bystanders.

On June 21st, 2019 the 1300 acre oil refinery in South Philadelphia owned by Philadelphia Energy Solutions exploded, releasing 676,000 lbs of hazardous hydrocarbons and 3271 lbs of hydrofluoric acid. Philly Thrive has organized campaigns against the refinery with South Philly residents since 2015. Recently they have succeeded in guaranteeing that the site will never again be used as an oil refinery. Additionally, due also to Philly Thrive advocacy, the school board has rejected a proposal to grant significant tax-cuts to HILCO Redevelopment Partners, the company who has taken over the refinery land.

Since June hundreds of houseless individuals have taken over sites outside the Philadelphia Housing Authority and on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Through community organizing and solidarity they have secured food, tents and other needed materials, set up a community garden and a childcare facility. Although the city has now given three eviction notices, the camps have held strong to their 1st demand that the city turn over vacant lots to a community trust operated by Philadelphia Housing Action.