PHILADELPHIA — At a special meeting of the University of Pennsylvania faculty senate executive committee early this week, members expressed differing views about the pro-Palestinian encampment but concurred that the university should work to "de-escalate tensions" and "find a negotiated resolution."

That’s according to a summary of Monday’s meeting published in the university’s almanac. No formal action was adopted, though proposals were discussed. Another meeting is scheduled for Thursday.

But separately, faculty senate chair Tulia Falleti, concerned about mounting tension and the university’s request to the city for police resources if necessary, wrote an op-ed Saturday urging Penn to follow the example of other colleges that have negotiated agreements with protesters in recent days. Rutgers, Brown and Northwestern universities are among those that have struck agreements, though in some cases they are already facing criticism from some Jewish groups and legislators for doing so.

“Today, I am proud to be a professor at Penn and not a professor at Columbia, at Emory, or any of the other universities who have sent riot police to forcefully remove and arrest their students, staff and faculty from their encampments and lawns,” Falleti wrote, emphasizing that she is not speaking for the faculty senate, but as an individual.

More than 2,000 students have been arrested nationwide since the protests started last month, according to the New York Times.

Falleti’s comments come as the encampment continues for the 10th day, amid a swirl of speculation over whether Penn will pursue a negotiated agreement, move to end the encampment with force or allow it to continue. No matter its course, the university likely will face criticism, with some urging that the school allow the encampment, with about 35 tents and 60 protesters, to stand and others calling for its ouster.

On Friday morning outside Falleti’s campus office at 36th and Walnut streets, a billboard truck played a video loop of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, she wrote in her piece.

“These were horrific and painful images and sounds,” said Falleti, a political science professor and director of the Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies.

But she said that what also keeps her awake at night is that the same kind of billboards were on campus last semester, which ended with the resignation of former Penn president Liz Magill after a bipartisan uproar over her congressional testimony about the university’s handling of antisemitism on campus. It was never clear who was paying for the digital billboards calling for Magill’s resignation, which came amid one of the greatest crises in leadership that Penn has ever experienced and also coincided with former board chair Scott L. Bok’s resignation.

“I fear that it forebodes another traumatic crisis on campus,” Falleti wrote. “The billboard trucks at Penn, just like the airplane that flew over the Harvard and MIT campuses in early December, are part of a concerted external political campaign against higher education institutions, against academic freedom, against open expression, and in the case of our University against a peaceful protest of students, staff, faculty, and local community members.”

...continued

©2024 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.