House committee challenging Penn tax-exempt status demands documents amid antisemitism investigation

The United States House Committee on Ways and Means requested additional information from Penn on Thursday as part of its ongoing investigation into the University's tax-exempt status.  

On March 21, committee Chair Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) sent a letter to Interim President Larry Jameson inquiring about disciplinary actions taken against students, administrators, faculty, or student organizations whose antisemitic activity violated University policy. Smith requested the University submit answers, as well as relevant documents, to seven questions listed in the letter by April 4. 

"The focus of the Committee’s inquiry and questions is to understand what universities like yours are doing, if anything, to change course drastically and address what has gone unaddressed for years," Smith wrote to Jameson in the letter. "Doing so is essential to justifying the generous tax-exempt status that the American people have provided institutions like yours for decades." 

"We have received the letter from the House Ways and Means Committee and will cooperate,” a University spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian. 

Smith also wrote to the presidents of Cornell University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as the interim president of Harvard University, requesting similar information about each university's response to antisemitism on campus and allegations of foreign influence. 

In addition to information about disciplinary actions taken against individuals and organizations on campus, the letter demands each university explain why they believe antisemitism has been able to “flourish” on their campuses, furnish any drafts or final versions of statements concerning unprotected speech or violence, and disclose any donations or funding received from foreign sovereignties or governments.

Smith claimed in the letter that a “pervasive culture has created a hostile environment for Jews on campus,” adding that “antisemitism appears to be rampant at Penn.”

The letter cites multiple incidents, including a January die-in organized on the steps of College Hall by Penn Faculty for Justice in Palestine and the Houston Hall sit-in hosted by Freedom School for Palestine, as well as the lack of disciplinary action from the University in response to the political cartoons of Annenberg School for Communication lecturer and cartoonist Dwayne Booth. 

One of Smith's questions asked whether Booth was disciplined for his "antisemitic cartoons," additionally requesting an explanation if he had not been.

“It is troubling to me that it’s not just students disrupting the University’s educational purpose, now a group of faculty and staff, are participating in these efforts as well,” Smith wrote.

The letter also references student protests on campus, including the disruption of a University Board of Trustees meeting on March 1. Both the lawsuit filed by Penn students against the University — which claimed that Penn's actions in response to antisemitism on campus were inadequate — and Wharton and Engineering junior Noah Rubin’s testimony at a congressional roundtable on Feb. 29 were quoted in the letter. 

Thursday's letter is the newest development in the Ways and Means Committee's investigation into Penn’s tax-exempt status over alleged negligence in safeguarding Jewish students on campus. On Jan. 10, Smith sent a letter to Jameson, claiming that University leadership has failed to adhere to anti-discrimination laws that make Penn eligible for tax exemptions. 

The U.S. House Committee on the Education and the Workforce also launched its own investigation into Penn's handling of antisemitism on campus in January.