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Dan Rottenberg's avatar

From reader Michael Zuckerman (retired Penn professor):

I’ve savored and loved so many of these notebook entries. I write to you about this one and not the others because it is as brilliant and delicious as the others and also wonderfully timely. I laughed myself silly thinking of a Penn president trashing Wharton as you do.

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From reader John Owens (Penn '64):

I like Liz Magill. I was not impressed with her response when some idiots took over Franklin Field during homecoming in 2022, expressing their right to free speech but infringing on the rights of players and spectators. I gave her a pass since she was new to the job.

Her response to the gotcha question would have been fine if she had left out the “context“ comment, which parroted the lame response from Harvard’s weak president. She couldn’t win at home; either side would condemn her no matter her response.

I agree that she shouldn’t have lost her job over it, and a strong board would have had her back. It appears that only Bok had the guts.

Sad chapter in Penn history, but hopefully our next president will be strong enough to change the intolerance on both sides of many divergent views. We could start with possibly allowing some faculty with more conservative views to express those views without fearing for their jobs.

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