Pro-Palestinian protestors interrupt Jameson at Board of Trustees meeting, forcing adjournment

This story is developing and will continue to be updated.

Interim President Larry Jameson's first University Board of Trustees meeting as president adjourned within minutes on Friday after protestors disrupted the meeting. 

The Board of Trustees meeting was scheduled to take place from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Inn at Penn. At 11:33 a.m., a group of 12 pro-Palestinian protestors affiliated with the Freedom School for Palestine started calling for "endowment transparency." Their chants went on for four minutes, until the Board of Trustees meeting was adjourned at 11:37 a.m, having quickly passed its agenda items. 

"The resolutions are grouped as we are unable to continue," Board of Trustees Chair Ramanan Raghavendran said as the meeting adjourned, approving items such as tuition for the next school year and a reaffirmation of Penn's commitment to the repatriation of Native American cultural objects.

A University spokesperson told The Daily Pennsylvanian that the protestors have been referred to Penn's Center for Community Standards and Accountability for disciplinary action.

"The 12 student activists, who disrupted today’s Stated Meeting of the Board  of Trustees, were heard and acknowledged three times by the Chair of  the Board," the spokesperson said. "Their ongoing disruption of the  meeting violates the University’s Code of Student Conduct and Guidelines on Open Expression."

The meeting had begun just minutes before disruption with an emphasis on unity and diverse dialogue from University Chaplain Charles Howard.

“There's a lot of division in the world, much hate and distrust,” Howard said. “But some of our students are trying to remind us in a different ways. In small and quiet ways, they're trying to understand or at least humanize the other side.”

Just as Jameson was beginning his remarks, the protestors interrupted.

“People work very hard to get to Penn, and they're exhilarated to be here,” Jameson said before the protestors began chanting.

“Endowment transparency now,” the protestors, who rose from their seats, shouted. “Divest from genocide.” 

In response to a request for comment, the protestors directed the DP to their chants. The protestors were wearing keffiyehs — a symbol of Palestinian nationalism. Several individuals also had their hands painted red.

The Freedom School for Palestine released a statement shortly after the meeting, which said that it condemns the Board of Trustee’s support for Israel, and that its intentions were “to demand endowment transparency amid the genocide of Palestinians.”

“This action comes as the result of the ongoing genocide and educide in Palestine, which is enabled by UPenn’s relationship with Israel, including study abroad programming, donations to the IDF, and a recent faculty trip to Israel,” the statement wrote.

The DP could not confirm that the University has made donations to the Israel Defense Forces. A Penn spokesperson told the DP that "Penn does not donate to the IDF." 

According to the statement, Penn Police threatened to arrest the Freedom School protestors and followed them to the end of campus after they had left the Inn at Penn. In February, the Freedom School hosted two study-ins in Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, seeking to draw attention to the Israel-Hamas war’s toll on Gaza’s education system.

In his prepared remarks — which were cut short by the protestors — Jameson spoke about taking office amid tensions on campus, reaffirming what he said he has “always known: Penn does amazing things.”

"A narrative of crisis, however, can distort our sense of Penn, the true Penn that we experience on campus every day," Jameson said. "That is the University I have been seeing and hearing most."

Jameson added that he is taking concerns about challenges to the University “seriously," citing the University Task Force on Antisemitism and the Presidential Commission on Countering Hate and Building Community.

The remarks also included several examples of what he said were Penn’s strengths, announcing an all-time high in applications — 65,230 for the Class of 2028 — and referring to the University's new artificial intelligence major.

“Penn’s strength also means upholding our commitments to combat hate and ensure safety and wellbeing,” Jameson's remarks read. “We are moving with speed and care to ensure that Penn is a higher education leader on these issues in the short and long term.”

According to the University's open meeting policy, Board of Trustees meetings are open to the public. Members of the public however, “shall be admitted to such meetings only for the purpose of observation."

According to the stated agenda which was published before the meeting, Jameson was planning on bringing forth multiple resolutions, including appointing Jonathan Epstein as the interim executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and as dean of the Perelman School of Medicine. Epstein took over the role as interim executive vice president of Penn Medicine following Jameson’s appointment as interim president.