Police survey Penn President Larry Jameson’s personal residence on March 21. (Photo by Joe Piette | CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Penn President Larry Jameson had not pressed charges against the individuals who staged a protest at his off-campus residence as of Tuesday morning, a spokesperson for the Lower Merion Public Information Office told The Daily Pennsylvanian.
The March 21 demonstration — which drew around 50 Penn students, alumni, and Philadelphia community members — criticized the University’s “complicity in Palestinian genocide, violations of free speech, and refusal to protect Penn’s non-citizen community from invasive I.C.E. raids.” The spokesperson added that Lower Merion Police officers responded to the protest and that demonstrators dispersed without incident. In a statement to the DP from the day of the protest, a University spokesperson wrote that Penn intends to “take whatever legal and disciplinary action that is available to address this conduct.”
According to the statement, the University is working with local law enforcement and coordinating with Penn’s Center for Community Standards and Accountability on “any applicable disciplinary actions” to determine next steps.
The spokesperson rebuked the characterization of the event as a “protest,” instead calling it “an unlawful intrusion and a deliberate act of intimidation.”
“The right to protest does not include the right to threaten and harass,” the statement read. “This is not protected speech. These actions are not acceptable, and certainly not from members of our university community.”
The DP was unable to confirm if any other disciplinary action has been taken against Penn students present at the demonstration.
During the demonstration, organizers demanded that Penn disclose its endowment portfolio, divest from “all corporations profiting from the ongoing Nakba,” and defend the University community from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. Pro-Palestinian student organizers have made similar demands since last fall — including during the Gaza Solidarity Encampment that took place on College Green in spring 2024.
In a letter addressed to Jameson that was “plastered” around the property, the organizers criticized Jameson’s implementation of the University’s Temporary Standards and Procedures for Campus Events and Demonstrations, as well as Penn’s use of police force against students on campus. The organizers described the University's response as “stifil[ing] community governance and open expression.”
“You stonewalled student negotiators and then had your cops throw them to the ground,” the organizers wrote. The letter also referenced the Penn Police Department’s October 2024 search of an off-campus student residence belonging to pro-Palestinian organizers.
“When Penn Police sent 13 armed police in full tactical gear into the homes of students, pointed guns at their heads, and searched their homes, you were at the top of their chain of authority," the letter read.
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