Wax — who has called into question the academic ability of Black students, invited white nationalist Jared Taylor to her classroom, and said the country would be better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration — will be suspended for one year at half pay with benefits intact. She also will face a public reprimand issued by university leadership, the loss of her named chair and summer pay, and a requirement to note in her public appearances that she is not speaking for or as a member of the Penn Carey Law school or Penn.
But she will not be fired or lose her tenure.
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Wax’s conduct, according to Magill’s letter, “included a history of sweeping, blithe, and derogatory generalizations about groups by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and immigration status.” She also, according to the letter, breached “the requirement that student grades be kept private by publicly speaking about the grades of law students by race and continuing to do so even after cautioned by the dean that it was a violation of University policy.”
Wax also, both in and out of the classroom, repeatedly and in public made “discriminatory and disparaging statements targeted at specific racial, ethnic, and other groups with which many students identify,” the letter said.
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The decision is likely to reignite scrutiny over Penn’s handling in September of the Palestine Writes literature festival, which critics say included speakers with a history of making antisemitic remarks, and for resisting calls to discipline faculty and students for remarks some called antisemitic in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the country’s subsequent military response in Gaza. The campus continued to be roiled last spring after a pro-Palestinian encampment was erected on the College Green and eventually removed by university and city police. The encampment — one of dozens on campuses around the country — was up for more than two weeks.
The U.S. congressional committee that investigated Penn’s handling of antisemitism complaints, a lawsuit filed by two Jewish students at Penn, and Wax’s lawyer all have pointed to the proceedings against Wax as evidence that Penn is willing to attempt to take action against some professors for some speech.
“Penn has demonstrated a clear double standard by tolerating antisemitic … harassment, and intimidation, but suppressing and penalizing other expression it deemed problematic,” Virginia Foxx, the Republican congresswoman who heads the House Education and Workforce Committee, wrote in January.
Tenure is—and should be—powerful. UPenn is an R1 institute; if her research is good, it will be hard to do anything until it becomes a significant issue. Like now.