community – Page 2 – Penn Disorientation Guide

Penn Can do More to Support FGLI Students

Despite receiving varying degrees of financial aid, many FGLI students still struggle with their financial circumstances while attending Penn. Only 3.3 percent of students at Penn are from America’s bottom 20 percent of family income, while 71 percent are from the top 20 percent and 19 percent are from the top 1 percent.

The Undocumented Experience at Penn

Penn prides itself on its “commitment to inclusion,” but when it comes to students living on the cusp of legality, how much does Penn really live up to its promise?

A Fragmented Oneness: Investigating Penn Hillel, Pro-Israelism, and the Jewish Experience

Penn Hillel is an organization for the Jews that are in positions of authority, and one that is not for the Jews that question it. Penn Hillel fragments the oneness of the Jewish people by means of indoctrination and status.

Editors’ Letter

Penn students protest the construction of Meyerson Hall on campus. These protests were one of the many free speech cases that the University has dealt with in its history. Other instances include the “water buffalo” incident, race-based protests and, more recently, Occupy protests. Photo courtesy of The Daily Pennsylvanian.

The Disorientation Guide is an annual project that attempts to paint an honest picture of life at Penn.

A Recent History of Organizing at Penn

The Penn community rallies in response to injustice on- and off-campus. Among some of the most notable events that occurred in the past year were pushes for unionization from multiple groups, organizing against Penn’s role in gentrification, large protests regarding climate justice, and student protestors facing disciplinary actions and arrests from the University.

The Ongoing Fight for RA Unionization at Penn

by an organizer with United RAs at Penn On March 14, 2023, the residential advisors (RAs) of Penn’s college houses filed for unionization, a historic first for student workers. The unionization effort was an inevitable response to Penn’s relentless and shameless mistreatment of its workers. We intend to use our collective power to create aContinue reading “The Ongoing Fight for RA Unionization at Penn”

Queerness at Penn

Navigating college as a queer person can be particularly challenging, but we’ve written this article to break down some of the most important things to know.

Defanging Radicals

Penn continuously undermines its own students and community members to preserve its institutional power. Here are some of their strategies, so you can label and successfully oppose them.

How to Organize Protests at Penn

Student and community-led protests have been an integral part of Penn’s history, and they will continue to be for decades. However, when planning a protest, it’s important to be mindful of the physical and emotional wellbeing of all participants, as well as set a concrete set of realistic goals.

Tying it All Together

Antiwar demonstrators following the Penn marching band during Hey Day in 1972. Students rallied to protest the U.S.'s involvement in the Vietnam War and Penn's role in funding the war effort. In a black and white photo, students with signs and a megaphone confront band members playing their instruments. Photo courtesy of Penn Archives.

Hopefully, now at the end of this guide, you have a clearer understanding of Penn as an institution. You’ve seen how Penn’s foundation was dependent upon displacing indigenous peoples and using enslaved labor, how it exploits its workers today, how it fails to meet the needs of its students, how it intensifies racial inequalities, and how it deprives us all of an environmentally sound future.