The 2023-24 academic year was defined by administrative turmoil, including the midyear resignation of former Penn President Liz Magill and subsequent appointment of Interim President Larry Jameson.
Magill resigned on Dec. 9 of last year amid backlash over antisemitism controversies — making her the first Penn president to resign for reasons other than government appointment. She had the shortest tenure in Penn history. The University Board of Trustees appointed Perelman School of Medicine Dean Larry Jameson three days later.
Additionally, half of Penn's 12 academic schools have seen or will see leadership changes between 2023 and 2025.
Magill's abrupt resignation at the end of last semester prompted shock, relief, and concerns over free speech among Penn students. Months of mounting scrutiny that began in September 2023 with the Palestine Writes Literature Festival were compounded by donor and politician calls for her resignation. The pressure before her eventual resignation presented the campus with questions over the role that alumni, donors, and political leaders should play in administrative decisions at Penn.
Almost five months have elapsed since Magill resigned, and the Board of Trustees has yet to announce any progress in the search for the University's next permanent president.
The Board of Trustees has not yet made an announcement on the status of the presidential search process for Magill’s replacement, nor have members of the committees involved in the search been named. This marks a change from the three most recent previous searches, when the Board of Trustees started the process within two months of the former president’s resignation announcement.
Penn is one of four Ivy League universities currently in some stage of leadership transition, after Cornell University President Martha Pollack announced her resignation on May 9.
As Penn searches for a new permanent president, administrative changes have taken place — or will take place next school year — at most of Penn's schools.
On the same day as Jameson's appointment to interim president, Jonathan Epstein was named interim dean of the Medical School. In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Epstein said that he will "serve [in his interim role] as long as they want [him] to serve," but said that, by policy, the University will conduct a national search for a new dean.
On April 10, an email to the Penn community announced that College of Arts and Sciences Dean Paul Sniegowski would be leaving the position leading Penn's largest undergraduate school on Aug. 1 to assume the Earlham College presidency. According to the email, which was sent by School of Arts and Sciences Dean Steven Fluharty, the search for Sneigowski’s successor will begin “immediately."
Three deans — Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication Sarah Banet-Weiser, Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Sophia Lee, and Dean of the Graduate School of Education Katharine Strunk — just finished their first full academic year in the positions after being appointed last summer.
Lee — who is the law school's first woman dean — and Strunk both began on July 1, 2023, and Banet-Weiser assumed the role on Aug. 14, 2023.
In March of this year, Jameson and Provost John Jackson Jr. announced the formation of consultative review committees to support the reappointment processes for two Penn deans.
The committees will oversee the reappointment processes for School of Dental Medicine Dean Mark Wolff and School of Veterinary Medicine Dean Andrew Hoffman. Per University policy, a committee must be formed to advise the president and provost whenever they are considering reappointing a dean.
Fluharty, the SAS dean, will end his second term in 2025. He was first appointed in 2013. According to the Faculty Handbook's Policies Concerning Academic and Administrative Officers, deans shall normally "serve no more than twelve years."
Dean of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design Frederick Steiner's term also ends in June 2025, after he began the role in 2016.
It remains unclear when Penn will find and announce a permanent new president, presenting the question of whether an interim president will oversee the appointment of a new dean to two of Penn's schools.
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