UPDATED
National free speech group blasts decision as attack on academic freedom
The University of Pennsylvania will move forward with its historic punishment of conservative Professor Amy Wax.
The law professor will be suspended for the 2025-26 school year and only receive half her salary for that duration, according the the punishment published in the Penn Almanac.
She will also be stripped of her named chair and lose her summer pay in perpetuity. She has also been given a “public reprimand” and a requirement “that you note in public appearances that you speak for yourself alone and not as a University or Penn Carey Law School faculty member.”
Provost John Jackson, in his sanctions letter to Wax, stated that while the university supports free speech, scholars “may not engage in unprofessional conduct that creates an unequal educational environment.”
“The Board has determined that your conduct failed to meet these expectations, leaving many students understandably concerned that you cannot and would not be an impartial judge of their academic performance.”
The Ivy League university has been investigating Wax, a legal scholar, for years now following a variety of comments she has made over the years about crime, IQ, and immigration. She has also invited white nationalist speaker Jared Taylor to address her class several times.
The “public reprimand” from the university accused Wax of “a history of making sweeping and derogatory generalizations about groups by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and immigration status.”
Wax has said “family breakdown,” “high crime rates,” and “educational underachievement” are what hold black Americans back more than racism or discrimination, as previously reported by The College Fix. She also has suggested black law students underperform at the university.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a black student graduate in the top quarter of the [law school] class, and rarely, rarely in the top half,” Wax said in 2018. Penn never disproved her allegation, as previously reported by The Fix.
The punishments have been years in the making, as reported earlier this year, originally decided upon in June 2023. Wax appealed the sanctions, citing procedural problems.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression criticized the punishment.
“After years of promising it would find a way to punish professor Amy Wax for her controversial views on race and gender, Penn delivered today — despite zero evidence Wax ever discriminated against her students,” Vice President of Campus Advocacy Alex Morey stated.
“Faculty nationwide may now pay a heavy price for Penn’s willingness to undercut academic freedom for all to get at this one professor,” Morey stated in a news release. “After today, any university under pressure to censor a controversial faculty member need only follow Penn’s playbook.”
The sanctions follow years of leadership at the university trying to get Wax punished, as noted by FIRE.
“Academic freedom for a tenured scholar is, and always has been, premised on a faculty member remaining fit to perform the minimal requirements of the job,” law school Dean Ted Ruger wrote in 2022. “However, Wax’s conduct demonstrates a ‘flagrant disregard of the standards, rules, or mission of the University.’”
The Daily Pennsylvanian previously praised Ruger for investigating Wax.
“Ruger spearheaded multiple initiatives to make a law school…education more accessible,” the newspaper wrote in a 2023 profile of the dean, citing his investigation of Wax.
Brown University economist Glenn Loury has defended Wax, saying her comments about crime and black culture, among other related topics, are “arguably true” as facts or reasonable opinions.
“Here’s what I find to be absolutely shocking: Those statements are demonstrable statements of fact or legitimate statements of opinion, some of which I’ve made myself,” he said during an April 2024 interview with Wax. “You can’t say that, you cannot say that without violating the standards.”
“…That’s very distressing to me.”
Editor’s note: This post has been updated to include more details on Wax’s punishment.
MORE: Check out the Campus Cancel Culture Database
IMAGE: Greg Piper for The College Fix
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