The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke with several incoming members of the Class of 2029 about their perspectives on 1968 Wharton graduate and President Trump's administration decision to freeze over $175 million in federal funding to Penn.
According to a White House tweet, the March 19 decision to pause the funding was a result of Penn’s “policies forcing women to compete with men in sports.” The funding freeze comes after a Feb. 5 executive order from Trump that threatened to remove federal funding from universities allowing transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports.
The freeze came just eight days before the release of regular decision admissions decisions for the Class of 2029. A record-breaking 72,000 students applied to Penn this application cycle.
Several students shared concerns about how areas outside of sports — such as research opportunities and financial aid — could be affected because of the funding pauses.
“I just don't think that that drastic of a funding cut is an appropriate response just because something that big is very blatantly going to affect more than just the athletics department,” incoming Wharton first year Ariana Singh said. “It's going to affect all kinds of programs within Penn.”
Incoming College first year Cyrus Nininger — a QuestBridge Scholar — said that before regular decision results came out, he was concerned Penn and other schools facing federal funding freezes would reconsider some admissions offers because of the financial aid obligations tied to programs like QuestBridge, which guarantees full financial support for selected students.
“It made the competition seem even more fierce because a lot of us realize now that we're competing for a limited number of scholarships and that we're competing for spots at schools that might have to take less and less kids because they have their funding frozen,” Nininger said.
Several incoming students said they felt conflicted about how they believe Penn should respond to the funding pauses.
“That’s a really tricky road to go down, because in the end, we do depend on a lot of federal funding, so it might be better to kind of listen to what the Trump administration has to say for now,” incoming College and Wharton first year Srinjoy Ghose said. “But I know as a collective community, Penn can definitely try to stand up.”
Nininger noted that he believes that Penn has taken the steps to support the LGBTQ+ community as someone who is transgender himself.
“Personally, I am transgender, and I love to see the fact that Penn has kind of held out against the demands of not letting trans athletes compete,” Nininger said. “It just breaks my heart, as much as the fact that this is being pushed onto Penn, I really do think that they've done what they can to try to resist what they can.”
Incoming Wharton first year Thomas Nguyen said that he hopes Penn takes a clear stance as to what their position is on transgender participation in sports. Nguyen added that he would like to see Penn “not give in so easily” through potential lawsuits or “a formal discussion with Trump's administration.”
“I think that Penn can still work to find a way to include transgender athletes in sports in such a way where they aren't discriminated against,” Nguyen said. “There are a lot of bigger issues that [Trump] should be taking care of at this moment, rather than cutting funding toward these kinds of universities for such small issues, and some of them aren't really even issues.”
Ghose similarly shared that he thought the Trump administration should direct its focus to other policy areas.
“I think it's kind of stupid,” Ghose said. “Taking away funding because you're unhappy with a university's stance on progress or liberalism is, I think, very unfair,” Ghose said. “I think it's part of a bigger initiative that Trump might be wanting to push onto universities and how liberal universities are in general.”
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
Donate
