Mackenzie Fierceton speaks at a campus-wide walkout and rally in solidarity with Fierceton on April 13, 2022.
Credit: Samantha Turner2021 School of Social Policy & Practice graduate and 2020 College graduate Mackenzie Fierceton reached a settlement with the University on Jan. 15 following years of legal proceedings.
In December 2021, Fierceton filed a lawsuit against the University after it questioned her status as a first-generation, low-income student and survivor of abuse. She alleged that her Master of Social Work degree from SP2 was wrongfully withheld following the University’s attempt to discredit her past in an investigation conducted by the Rhodes Trust.
Fierceton’s lawsuit also claimed that the University’s actions were connected to Fierceton’s efforts to investigate whether the 2018 death of Cameron Driver — a graduate student also enrolled in SP2 — was linked to insufficient accessibility in campus buildings.
A request for comment was left with a University spokesperson.
“I feel absolutely ecstatic that the lawsuit I brought against Penn has concluded, and I am very excited to be beginning a whole new chapter of my life,” Fierceton wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian.
“I have felt exceptional support from many Penn students and faculty, and I will remain forever grateful for that love and support,” Fierceton added.
While the details of the settlement remain confidential, Fierceton declined to sign a nondisclosure agreement restricting her public discussion of the case, according to Stacey and Henry Jackson President’s Distinguished Professor of Political Science Anne Norton — who wrote one of Fierceton’s recommendation letters for the Rhodes Scholarship.
Christopher H. Browne Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Political Science Rogers Smith, who has supported Fierceton since the beginning of her trial, told the DP that the University likely recognized it couldn’t effectively defend all of its actions in open court, prompting its decision to settle. He believes the University’s desire to avoid further negative attention also served as a key factor in the timeline of when the settlement agreement was proposed.
“Penn, which was facing huge amounts of adverse publicity because of our former president’s congressional testimony, wanted to get this case settled before the start of the 2024-25 academic year,” Smith said.
Both Norton and Smith told the DP that the settlement was decided in terms favorable for Fierceton.
In an interview with the DP, Norton recalled how she first came to know Fierceton during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when Fierceton was struggling with housing insecurity. She described Fierceton’s “vulnerable” situation, noting her emancipation and upbringing in an abusive household. Norton said that during this time, the University “did not provide for her.”
The University’s initial legal response in January 2022 alleged that Fierceton’s narrative in her Rhodes Scholarship application was “replete with falsities, including but not limited to a fictitious account of abuse by her mother.”
Penn administrators — including Eduardo D. Glandt President’s Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering and Deputy Provost Beth Winkelstein, Senior Vice President and General Counsel Wendy White, and former Interim Penn President and Provost Wendell Pritchett — gave depositions throughout June and July 2023, according to court records. Other Penn faculty who testified include Norton and Smith. The depositions of SP2 professor of social work Amy Hillier and University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor of Law Catherine Carr took place in September 2023.
Norton added that she believed the University actively sought to suppress any public discussion of the trial.
“We had been pressured by Penn all the way along and in a particularly nefarious way,” she said. “We were continually told that if we made anything public [or] if we contacted any member of the press, Mackenzie would be punished.”
She remarked that this approach persisted throughout the trial, openly labeling Penn administration’s “thuggish behavior” in their attempts to preserve secrecy as “truly astonishing.”
Smith, who also testified, similarly criticized the University’s actions throughout the trial. He described the disciplinary proceedings as having been conducted in an “unusual fashion” that prioritized “avoiding scrutiny of the central administration’s own actions” over fairness.
“Penn wanted to distance itself from its own actions, not take responsibility, and instead, scapegoat Mackenzie,” Smith said. “If anything, I am more persuaded that Penn acted shamefully than I was at the time.”
Beyond the specifics of Fierceton’s case, Norton described a “climate of fear” at Penn, where students and faculty alike hesitated to publicly support Fierceton — including tenured professors.
“Students would say, ‘I’m a FGLI student, and I would really like to support Mackenzie, but I’m afraid they’ll take my aid away,’” Norton said. “That’s not what a university is meant to be.”
Fierceton is currently finishing up her Ph.D. at the University of Oxford, where she is studying the connection between child welfare and the criminal legal system. An anonymous Penn professor offered to pay for her first year of tuition after she withdrew from the Rhodes Scholarship.
In her written statement to the DP, Fierceton said that universities and other institutions of power often speak “the language of lawsuits” and that legal action can often function as a pathway to change.
“I don’t necessarily feel that litigation is a great platform for telling one’s story, but in some cases, litigation can be a measure of accountability and justice,” she wrote.
Fierceton also wrote that her case has also influenced her to seriously consider law school as a future endeavor — but in the meantime, she remains dedicated to finishing her Ph.D.
After The Philadelphia Inquirer profiled Fierceton in November 2020 when she was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship, Penn and the Rhodes Trust received anonymous tips suggesting Fierceton had been dishonest about aspects of her past on her application.
Penn and the Rhodes Trust both launched separate investigations into Fierceton’s undergraduate and scholarship applications, which detailed her alleged experiences of abuse.
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