Penn’s College Houses and Academic Services will not renew the appointments of two Hill College House Fellows for an additional two-year cycle, alleging they undermined house leadership and made decisions that posed risks to their student residents.
According to emails obtained by The Daily Pennsylvanian, Robert and Elizabeth Scheyder — who have served as House Fellows at Hill since 2020 — were first contacted by CHAS Executive Director Jen Ciaccio on Feb. 11 to schedule a meeting to discuss their potential reappointment. The email gave no indication that the discussion would address the possibility of their dismissal.
A University spokesperson and a Hill spokesperson both declined to comment. Requests were left for CHAS and a spokesperson for the Provost’s Office.
“They said we weren’t to be trusted with students — that we were a liability to the University,” Elizabeth Scheyder recalled in an interview with the DP. “That was the first time, at that meeting, that we were told that we would probably not be renewed. It was out of the blue.”
After the Feb. 24 meeting, the Scheyders were notified that their appointments would not be renewed.
“Our concerns centered on several areas: the consistency of programming, ongoing friction with — and at times actions that have been perceived as undermining — the House Director’s leadership, and patterns of decision-making that may introduce risk for students, the College House, and CHAS,” Ciaccio wrote in a March 5 email obtained by the DP.
According to the Scheyders, the primary incident cited by CHAS took place when a fourth-year student whom they had “known as a first-year” came to their apartment at Hill around “two o’clock in the morning” feeling “suicidal.”
“There had been a suicide on campus, and that had just been the little bit extra that made them have an active plan,” Elizabeth Scheyder said. “We talked them down.”
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She explained that she offered to call the Medical Emergency Response Team, but the student said they “would run if we called police.”
Instead, Scheyder called Penn’s psychiatric emergency center. The student requested that she turn on her phone’s speaker so they could hear that she wasn’t “calling police.” She explained that she then accompanied the student to the center, where they were seen by a psychiatrist.
“I put in an incident report, which is our mandated reporting, and put in capital letters at the bottom ‘please do not send police to follow up on this,’” she stated. “Two cops showed up at their dorm the next day and perp walked them across campus.”
Robert Scheyder said that it felt as though CHAS took an “extra, unnecessary step.”
According to Elizabeth Scheyder, the couple was told during the February meeting that their decisions were “putting the University at risk” because they “didn’t follow protocol.”
She added, however, that “when the student graduated a few, several weeks later, the parents particularly wanted to meet us to thank us for saving their student’s life.”
“I would absolutely do it again,” Robert Scheyder said. “If it led to the same outcome, it doesn’t matter.”
He stated that the couple was met “with a lot of malice and anger” during the meeting.
“They just outright fired us,” Robert Scheyder said.
“We couldn’t even defend ourselves from the allegations,” Elizabeth Scheyder added. “There was no opportunity to defend ourselves.”
Students at Hill told the DP that they received no official communication from the college house about the Scheyders’ departure.
College first-year Erika Olsen, who lived on the same floor as the Scheyders, said she learned of the termination through signs the couple “had posted all over their door.”
“It seemed like it was done really sudden and with no notice, which is especially hard for them,” Olsen said. “That’s their home.”
Olsen highlighted that Elizabeth had personally helped her move out during a health-related leave of absence in fall 2024 and welcomed her back this academic year.
“It was quite a shock to lose that connection with absolutely no announcement, no explanation from the head of the college house at all,” Olsen said.
Engineering and College sophomore Ellen Hu — who lived in Hill last year as part of the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research program — also spoke to the couple’s role on campus.
“There is a very specific niche of addressing crises, addressing mental health issues that really only a resident faculty fellow could do,” Hu said. “If you’re a faculty advisor, you wouldn’t choose to live in the student dorm unless you seriously care about your students.”
In an interview with the DP, another student in the VIPER program — who requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation — echoed Hu’s sentiment, adding that the Scheyders stood apart from other faculty.
“Elizabeth and Robert really invited us to be a part of their family,” the student said. “A lot of the things that the University does nowadays feels like they’re avoiding risks rather than doing what’s best for the students.”
The Scheyders said they plan to stay connected to students and hope to remain involved with the VIPER program even as they move off campus.
“Penn has been our home literally for six years,” Elizabeth said. “This is just traumatic.”
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Senior reporter Christine Oh leads coverage of student life and can be reached at oh@thedp.com. At Penn, she studies English and philosophy. Follow her on X @ChristineOh_.
