This is the third and final part of a multi-part series about Penn's Gaza Solidarity Encampment. Read the first part of the series here and the second part here.

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Larry Jameson spent his first weeks as Penn's interim president putting out the many fires which had sent the University into a state of turmoil: mounting criticism about antisemitism and Islamophobia, debates over free speech and academic freedom, and waves of national and political scrutiny. 

Jameson quickly turned to the most powerful official in the state, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, for help. Documents acquired by The Daily Pennsylvanian indicate that Shapiro's office seized the opening to claim increased influence over Penn. 

The documents, acquired under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know law, demonstrate Shapiro's push for power during Penn's year of controversy — from appointing a representative of his on the University's antisemitism task force to privately interrogating Penn's approach to the pro-Palestinian encampment last spring. 

It is unclear whether Shapiro, a rumored 2028 presidential contender, directly forced the University's hand on any issues. But the documents show his office inserting itself early on into key discussions on antisemitism concerns, culminating in regular contact during the encampment on Penn's campus in the spring. 

In the days and months that followed, Shapiro stepped into Penn's affairs, gaining intimate knowledge of the University's actions while publicly exerting pressure on administrators and placing himself at the forefront of the national debate over the demonstrations. 

A University spokesperson, Shapiro's office, and Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker's office declined requests for comment for this piece. An encampment spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. 

Penn's weakness — and Shapiro's opening

Long before the nationwide pro-Palestinian encampments this spring, Shapiro took a hands-on approach to addressing antisemitism on Penn’s campus, even when it required becoming deeply enmeshed in the University's activities.  

Over five days last December, Shapiro — who frequently invokes his Jewish faith — denounced a pro-Palestinian protest outside an Israeli falafel restaurant in Philadelphia as antisemitic, celebrated Hanukkah at Penn Hillel, and decried anti-Jewish hate at a rally in the city. 

Shapiro, also a nonvoting member of Penn's Board of Trustees, used those opportunities to heap criticism on Magill after her "shameful and unacceptable" testimony before Congress the same week, describing a "failure of leadership." He urged the board to decide whether her testimony “reflect[s] the views and values" of Penn. 

Days later, Magill resigned. 

Shapiro's public comments suggested a loss of faith in Penn's leaders, even after he had spoken with Magill and former board Chair Scott Bok multiple times that fall over potential solutions to antisemitism on campus. In the weeks and months that followed, Jameson worked to assure Shapiro of Penn's response to antisemitism — and Shapiro maintained involvement in the University's affairs at multiple levels. 

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On Jan. 3, Jameson provided Shapiro directly with student, faculty, and staff disciplinary statistics on a phone call. Later that month, Penn's Senior Director of Commonwealth Relations, Michael Smith, forwarded Shapiro's office a copy of a letter sent by Jameson to Pennsylvania House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) — seeking to address concerns over antisemitism which had led the state legislature to withhold $34 million in funding from Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine. 

Jameson informed Cutler that the University was investigating eight reported incidents, had separated with two Penn employees due to their behavior, and provided additional security to 17 religious centers and traditionally Jewish fraternity and sorority residences on campus. He also noted that three individuals, including two Penn students, had been arrested and charged for their actions. 

In response to Cutler asking the question which led to Magill’s downfall at the congressional hearing, Jameson also marked a different tack from his predecessor. 

“To be clear, calls for genocide do violate our standards,” Jameson wrote. “Penn's Code of Student Conduct unequivocally affirms a student's right to freedom of thought and expression, but also a right to be free from discrimination.” 

Shapiro extended his reach into the University's crisis management as the spring semester began. Jameson coordinated the appointment of Robert Fox — his designee on the Board of Trustees — as a non-voting member of the University's antisemitism task force. Fox, a Philadelphia-based attorney, liaised frequently with administrators and students on the Penn Israel Public Affairs Committee. 

Fox first met with the task force on Jan. 17 and continued to work afterwards with chair and School of Dental Medicine Dean Mark Wolff. Shapiro's director of external affairs, Amanda Warren, later connected Fox with two students involved in PIPAC with whom she had held "ongoing conversations" and received materials.  

Warren told the students that Fox would be able to discuss their concerns, his work on the antisemitism task force, and "how we can work together towards our common goal of a better, safer Penn." 

PIPAC, on behalf of the two students, declined a request for comment on their apparent meeting with Fox. Fox, too, did not respond to a request for comment. 

An interrogation of Penn's encampment response

Shapiro and his office, which positioned itself in opposition to pro-Palestinian activism, exerted pressure over Penn in public and private as it responded to the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. The Governor's Office obtained negotiation documents, names of protesters, and key operational details — at times, in advance of plans being enacted. 

Even before any pro-Palestinian encampments had sprouted on college campuses in Pennsylvania, Shapiro sought to position himself as a leader in the national debate over how to handle the demonstrations. 

“What we’re seeing in some campuses across America, where universities can’t guarantee the safety and security of their students, it’s absolutely unacceptable,” Shapiro said on April 24, adding that it is “incumbent upon a local mayor or local governor or local town councilor, whoever is the local leadership there, to step in and enforce the law.” 

The close contact between officials in College Hall and Harrisburg began the morning after Penn's encampment formed, on April 26, when Smith quickly forwarded Warren the first University-wide email Jameson sent about the demonstration.  

That email was cited by Shapiro's team in its first public statement on the encampment, in which spokesperson Manuel Bonder called on leaders to maintain student safety while defending demonstrators’ right to peaceful protest. 

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"University leaders must follow through on their word and live up to that standard," Bonder wrote. 

Later the same morning, Penn Board of Trustees Chair Ramanan Raghavendran asked the University's vice president of governmental affairs, Jeffrey Cooper, to call Warren and share with her the estimated number of protesters and whether Penn or police officers had asked students to show identification. Raghavendran said that he was in California and “not fully enmeshed in the operational details” at the time. 

Ten minutes later, Cooper indicated to Raghavendran that he had responded to Warren, the communications show. 

"[W]e’d like to know what the current plan is to deal with the growing number of tents on campus, whether or not they are students," Warren wrote in a message to Cooper, where she said she was awaiting a follow-up call. 

While Penn had made no attempt to check identification of those in the encampment at the time of the message, they would repeatedly do so later in its 16-day duration. 

The University later previewed its plan for handling the encampment, providing Shapiro's team with a list of “the general categories of Penn codes and guidelines that will be cited to encampment protesters as potential areas of violation.” 

Smith detailed six main categories of violations: “Potential instances of harassment, threats and/or intimidation; using campus space for a group event without having reserved it; erecting structures on campus, using unpermitted signage, and not providing “required security coverage;” noise violations and disruptions of campus operations; trespassing by non-Penn community members; and failure to provide identification."

The evening of April 26, Jameson sent a message to the University community in which he called for protesters to disband the encampment immediately. The message, which Smith also forwarded to Warren, followed the plan laid out in Smith’s earlier email.  

Jameson cited “harassing and intimidating conduct,” violations of Penn’s facilities policies, and the demonstration preventing students from accessing portions of campus “without fear of harassment or being subjected to discriminatory comments or threats.” 

Penn followed this game plan in public and private messaging for the remainder of the encampment. The University frequently referenced alleged instances of harassment by encampment members, the unauthorized use of campus space, noise violations, the presence of non-Penn affiliates on campus, and the demonstrators’ repeated refusal to hand over PennIDs. 

On April 28, the two students involved with PIPAC who had previously met with Fox emailed him and Warren with various concerns about the ongoing encampment. The students alleged that the protesters were violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, citing “harassing and intimidating actions” by the group. 

They also attached a harassment and intimidation reporting form sourced from Penn’s Jewish community, called for the University to make a stronger statement against the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, and requested a meeting to “sync up and discuss next steps.” 

It is unclear if such a meeting ever took place.  

A different tack from Philadelphia's mayor

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As Shapiro's office kept in touch with Jewish students, the governor at times took a stronger tack against the encampment than his partner at the local level, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker.  

On May 2, Parker’s office pushed back against a request from Jameson for PPD assistance in managing the demonstration, instead advocating “that a peaceful resolution is the best solution.” Parker noted that she had met with several relevant stakeholders who agreed — including the Philadelphia Police Department, District Attorney Larry Krasner, City Council President Kenyatta Johnson, City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, and other individuals — but notably did not mention Shapiro. 

The next day, Smith responded to a request from Warren for an updated list of the demonstrators’ demands. His email included the encampment’s three initial demands of disclosing its financial holdings, divesting from companies with ties to Israel, and defending Palestinian students on campus, as well as three more recent demands focused on discipline and preventing law enforcement involvement.  

In a follow-up email to Warren that night, Smith cited “the Governor’s engagement with Mayor Parker’s office” and forwarded several documents previously sent to Parker’s office. The documents included a list of nine contacts associated with the encampment — six students and three faculty members — documentation of negotiations between Penn and the encampment in which the University offered to pause disciplinary action and revisit its disciplinary process, and an Instagram post by Penn Students Against the Occupation of Palestine. 

Shapiro largely remained quiet for the next several days. In the meantime, Jameson and other Penn officials continued to push Parker’s office to authorize the PPD to assist with limiting campus to only Penn affiliates and to disband the encampment “in the event that we deem it necessary for the health and safety of our community.” 

After sending Parker’s office an addendum detailing how Penn would sweep the encampment, Vice President for Public Safety Kathleen Shields Anderson formally emailed PPD Commissioner Kevin Bethel at 11:43 a.m. on May 9 to request assistance with its impending sweep. Her email also cited a conversation and request to Bethel on the evening of May 8. 

Later on May 9, Shapiro — before Penn’s plans to disband the encampment the following day were public — jumped ahead of the planned police action by publicly stating it was “past time” for the University to do so during an unrelated speech in Pittsburgh. 

Shapiro, referencing the encampment’s expansion the night prior, said that “the situation has gotten even more unstable and out of control” over the past 24 hours and described the situation as “absolutely unacceptable.” He also called called on universities to use their police departments or work with local police to handle the demonstrations. 

At 6 a.m. the next morning, Penn and Philadelphia Police officers disbanded the encampment and arrested 33 protesters. In a community-wide email, Jameson explained his rationale for ordering the sweep, citing the need to “take action to protect the safety and rights of everyone in our community” and prevent “further disruption of our academic mission.” 

The interim president thanked the City of Philadelphia and the PPD in the email, but did not mention Shapiro and his office. Smith, however, forwarded the email to Warren ten minutes after it was sent out. 

Shortly after noon, Bonder wrote in a statement on behalf of Shapiro that Penn “made the right decision” in disbanding the encampment. 

“Unfortunately, the situation at Penn reached an untenable point – and as the University stated publicly, the encampment was in violation of University policy, campus was being disrupted, and threatening, discriminatory speech and behavior were increasing,” Bonder wrote. 

The statement from Shapiro’s office after the sweep marked a starkly different tone from that of Philadelphia's mayor. Parker did not praise or criticize Penn’s decision, instead writing that she was “thankful that the clearing occurred without violence” and expressing gratitude to the PPD officers involved. 

Continuing close contact

The communications show that Penn and Shapiro’s office remained in contact after the encampment. A few weeks after the sweep of College Green, Smith forwarded Warren the announcement of the final reports from the antisemitism task force and task force on countering hate. 

Shapiro and Parker maintained public rapport despite any disputes about Penn's handling of the encampment. Parker publicly endorsing Shapiro to be Kamala Harris' vice presidential nominee despite concerns from pro-Palestinian activists — including those on Penn's campus — over his apparent staunch opposition to the wave of demonstrations.  

"[I]f selected as VP, Josh Shapiro would succeed at a near impossible task—pushing the Democratic Party in an even more genocidal direction," a leader of Penn’s encampment told WHYY at the time in a denunciation of Shapiro's opposition to pro-Palestinian encampments. 

Above all, Jameson and Shapiro’s cordial relationship appears to have continued beyond concerns of antisemitism on campus. On June 21, Jameson penned a message to Shapiro wishing the governor a happy belated birthday. 

“As a fellow child of the summer solstice season, I have always appreciated having a birthday this time of year — warm weather, summer vacations with family and friends, and extra daylight to ‘GSD,’ as you and your team might say,” Jameson wrote. “I wish you all the best in the coming year and a joyous summer with your family.”