tmt play Penn Suspends Amy Wax, Law Professor Accused of Making Racist Statements
The University of Pennsylvania is suspending Amy Wax, a tenured law professor accused of making racist, sexist and homophobic remarkstmt play, for a year with half pay. It is a significant sanction but one that falls short of the firing that some students wanted.
The university issued a “public letter of reprimand” to Dr. Wax describing the terms of her suspension, which will begin in the fall of 2025 and which also includes the loss of her named chair and the loss of summer pay in perpetuity.
Disciplinary proceedings against Dr. Wax tested the tenure protections of professors and whether such protections allow them to voice opinions that many might find inappropriate or downright insulting. Many students said that they could not trust Dr. Wax to grade students without bias. But many professors — even those who found her comments profoundly racist — objected to disciplining her on the grounds of academic freedom.
Among allegations against her were that she had described some non-Western countries as “shitholes” and had said that “women, on average, are less knowledgeable than men.” She has said that Black people from the United States and people from non-Western countries feel shame for the “outsized achievements and contributions” of Western people, and has derided as unrealistic television ads depicting “Black men married to white women in an upper-class picket-fence house.”
Dr. Wax denied making some of the comments and said that others were taken out of context.
She has also invited a white nationalist, Jared Taylor, to class.
In a 12-page complaint filed in 2023, Theodore Ruger, the law school dean at the time, wrote that Dr. Wax had demonstrated “callous and flagrant disregard” for students, faculty and staff, subjecting them to “intentional and incessant racist, sexist, xenophobic and homophobic actions and statements.”
Her statements, the complaint added, “have led students and faculty to reasonably believe they will be subjected to discriminatory animus if they come into contact with her.” Mr. Ruger declined to comment on Monday.
Dr. Wax declined to comment on the decision. She has previously warned that she will sue the university if she is disciplined. A lawyer for Dr. Wax, David J. Shapiro, also declined to comment.
For several free speech groups, the case represented a threat to one of the key tenets of academic tenure — the right of faculty members to speak freely, without fear of punishment, whether in public or in the classroom.
Reacting to the suspension, Alex Morey, an official with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech group, said that Penn’s decision “should send a chill down the spine of every faculty member, not just at Penn but at every private institution around the country.”
Ms. Morey, the group’s director of campus rights advocacy, argued that Penn had altered its customary disciplinary procedure to prosecute Dr. Wax. She added that she was gratified that Penn had not revoke Dr. Wax’s tenure, which she said was evidence of how flimsy the accusations were.
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