The following is an excerpt from the new book ​​”<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Poisoned-Ivies-Academic-Americas-Universities/dp/1668087537/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.j306CWFwpsasj544DoZskg.x7d6MxQNY3W7C4_i3nSg1CNXwSThLN55XNmuxbmamSE&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;qid=1776193998&amp;refinements=p_27%3AElise+Stefanik&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1&amp;text=Elise+Stefanik">Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America&#8217;s Elite Universities</a>,” by Elise Stefanik (Threshold Editions, April 14, 2026)
* * *
America’s higher education system is in the midst of a historic reckoning. The compact that existed for generations between our republic, the American people, and our institutions of higher learning has irrevocably broken down. Universities once dedicated to the pursuit of truth and academic excellence have become centers of radical political indoctrination—all while being generously subsidized by hardworking American taxpayers.
Americans of both parties, college-educated and non-college-educated, have lost faith in our universities at a staggering pace. A September 2025 Gallup poll revealed an astonishing trend; only about one-third (35 percent) of Americans today think that a college education is “very important.” That’s a rapid drop from 2019, when 53 percent of Americans agreed with that proposition. In 2010, it was 75 percent.
This hasn’t happened in a vacuum. Colleges and universities across the country have actively undermined their standing in the public imagination. They have chosen to embolden the most radical members of their faculty and staff. They have forced the divisive and discriminatory “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) regime as gospel. They have proactively silenced and canceled students and teachers who disagree with the groupthink progressive political agenda.
Just look at the data. Democrat faculty outnumber Republicans by at least eight-to-one at any major university. And political bias isn’t the only troubling issue. More than one-third (34 percent) of college students now say “using violence to stop campus speech” is acceptable. This is an absolutely stunning statistic and even more disturbing after the nation saw the horrific footage of Charlie Kirk’s assassination on a university campus during one of his iconic college tours where the main purpose of the event was to engage in respectful discourse and peaceful debate. Many on the Left, including some Democrat elected officials, viciously celebrated the loss of this young man’s life, saying it was somehow justified and deserved. This is a deeply disturbing and dangerous turning point for our national fabric and political culture.
<div id="attachment_1077721" style="width: 391px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Poisoned-Ivies-Academic-Americas-Universities/dp/1668087537"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1077721" class="size-large wp-image-1077721" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Stefanik-book-381x576.jpg" alt="Cover credit: Threshold Editions" width="381" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Stefanik-book-381x576.jpg 381w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Stefanik-book-199x300.jpg 199w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Stefanik-book-768x1160.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Stefanik-book.jpg 993w" sizes=" (max-width: 381px) 100vw, 381px" /></a>Cover credit: Threshold Editions</div>
Activism has come at the cost of education. Students are not learning the skills in the classroom that once defined a college graduate. Not only are they showing up academically unprepared, but they are leaving uneducated, unemployable, radicalized, and deeply out of touch with American values. Approximately one-third of college students require remedial classes before they begin earning credits. But once they start taking classes, grade inflation is worse than ever. They know less, but get better grades, than previous generations. More than 60 percent of college students admit to cheating.
Meanwhile, college tuition has increased at a preposterous rate as the value of a degree has declined. The average college student leaves school saddled with $40,000 of debt. A mere 30 percent of 2025 college graduates found entry-level jobs in their chosen field, while nearly half felt unprepared even to apply for entry-level jobs.
The American people are smart. We know that something has gone catastrophically wrong, and we are tired of being asked to foot the exorbitant bill on autopilot for a broken system that morphs students into anti-American zealots.
This didn’t happen overnight. The tremors leading up to this earthquake have offered warning signs for decades. An education system that was the envy of the world is now facing questions of its importance, quality, and meaning. A course correction is long overdue—so overdue, in fact, that the questions are no longer about minor improvements and reform; they have become existential. Questions such as: Are American colleges educating or indoctrinating? Can higher education even be reformed, or do we need to completely rebuild it from scratch? What is being taught in the classrooms, and why? When colleges and universities lose their way, how do we hold them accountable? How much foreign money is funding American higher education? Is a traditional college education even remotely worth the absurdly out-of-reach tuition price tag? Are these “elite” colleges and universities even worth saving? Americans are right to ask these hard questions. And the toughest questions are being posed to the most “elite” schools.
The most prestigious colleges and universities in America make up what is known colloquially as the Ivy League. The Ivy League, nestled in the Northeast and scattered across New England, is made up of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Brown, and Cornell. While each university has its own distinct character with unique qualities, these institutions taken as a group have historically been considered the bellwether and compass of American higher education. They set the standards and norms that other universities aspire to achieve, not just in the United States, but around the world.
Historically, Ivy League colleges were known for their institutional prestige, academic excellence, esteemed faculty, rigorous and extremely selective admissions processes, groundbreaking research, and extraordinarily successful alumni networks. Attending an Ivy League school was supposed to guarantee professional success for graduates. They were the crown jewels of the entire higher education system worldwide. For generations, admission to an Ivy League school meant winning a golden ticket to the American dream.
Today, that once-pristine reputation has been sullied. Most Americans understand the Ivy League schools as something different. Instead of bastions of knowledge and vibrant intellectual life, they are considered hotbeds of radical ideology, groundless elitism, intellectual laziness, and anti-American hatred. The reputation of these schools has declined dramatically. It has been poisoned.
This process of institutional decay, almost entirely self-inflicted, culminated in a once-in-a-generation congressional hearing on antisemitism with university presidents in December 2023. This was the moment Americans decided that enough was enough. Our universities were failing us and our next generation of leaders.
At that hearing, a single line of questioning revealed the depths of the moral and academic rot in higher education. The presidents of Harvard, University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were asked to testify before Congress on the wave of antisemitism on their campuses after Hamas’s terrorist attack against Israel on October 7, 2023. One question went viral and quickly became the most viewed congressional testimony in United States history. It was truly the hearing heard around the world. 
I know because I asked the question. 
“Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate your university’s code of conduct on bullying or harassment?” This was not a political question. It was a moral one. I thought it would be the easiest, most straightforward question of the hearing. I assumed their answers would be a resounding yes. But to my shock, the presidents of MIT, UPenn, and Harvard, arguably the most prestigious universities in the world, answered one after another deadpan and nearly verbatim: “It depends on the context.” And the world heard.
<div id="attachment_1077739" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1077739" class="size-large wp-image-1077739" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1825446548-864x576.jpg" alt="Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York, during a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. Lawmakers on the education committee will grill the leaders of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology about their responses to protests that erupted after the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. Photographer: Haiyun Jiang/Bloomberg via Getty Images" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1825446548-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1825446548-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1825446548-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-1825446548.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Haiyun Jiang/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
Their morally bankrupt answers astonished everyone who heard them, including me. These university presidents were supposed to be some of the most learned, intelligent people in America, if not the entire world. They were the people responsible for teaching the next generation of leaders in every field imaginable. They were the leaders of the most prestigious universities in the world. My immediate reaction was apparent to everyone watching. I couldn’t hide my shock. I questioned them further, asking them to elaborate on what they meant—giving them an opportunity to correct the record and state the obvious. And still, they refused to give a clear statement. They refused to state clearly that calling for the genocide of Jews violated their universities’ codes of conduct.
I knew immediately that this was a significant hearing. I didn’t realize in the moment, however, that it would become a historic earthquake that instantly reshaped the debate on higher education overnight. The hearing changed the trajectory of higher education. In the weeks and months that followed, campuses exploded into riotous antisemitic encampments. Subpoenas poured into campuses as Congress opened multiple investigations. Scandal-plagued university presidents and compromised trustees resigned. Campus chaos shaped a presidential election.
Today, as a result of this hearing, elite campuses are in the midst of a generational upheaval. Governance structures are in question. Faculty and curricula are under scrutiny. Billions of dollars in foreign funding have been exposed. The long-standing relationship between the federal government and universities is being revised. Matriculation trends are shifting. Nothing is the same.
Nor should it be. Our hearing reset the course of American higher education. It was a reset that I firmly believe was long overdue.
This book tells the inside story of what is happening on America’s campuses and why. It goes in depth, with an insider’s view, into the deep moral and intellectual rot in higher education. What began as a question about antisemitism triggered a watershed moment.
In the long term, the hearing lit the match for not only accountability, but a far-reaching educational reform movement that has only just begun. This very dark chapter for American colleges and universities can and must lead to light at the end of the tunnel. Our institutions of higher learning have fundamentally lost their way. They strayed far from their founding missions and grew nearly unrecognizable. But that does not mean that the American people have to settle for this rotted and poisoned status quo.
We can and must fix our higher education system and return our colleges and universities to their founding mission. It is within the American people’s power to correct when these schools fundamentally lose their way. And it is our responsibility to ensure that we are educating and not indoctrinating our next generation of leaders. Our colleges and universities should promote academic excellence, intellectual inquiry, and our nation’s highest ideals, not left-wing indoctrination, heinous antisemitism, and anti-Americanism. That’s why it is important to look at what went wrong in this particular moment in history in painstaking detail. By seeing where and why our most elite schools failed, we can chart a better course for the future.
* * *
This excerpt is taken from ​​”<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Poisoned-Ivies-Academic-Americas-Universities/dp/1668087537/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.j306CWFwpsasj544DoZskg.x7d6MxQNY3W7C4_i3nSg1CNXwSThLN55XNmuxbmamSE&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;qid=1776193998&amp;refinements=p_27%3AElise+Stefanik&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1&amp;text=Elise+Stefanik">Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America&#8217;s Elite Universities</a>,” by Elise Stefanik. Copyright © 2026 by Elise Stefanik. Threshold Editions, an imprint of Simon &amp; Schuster, Inc. Reprinted by permission.

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Elise Stefanik: The Moment The Ivy League Lost The Country

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A University of Pennsylvania professor who was sanctioned by a court for acting in “bad faith” is set to teach a course on “misinformation” next year.
Michael Mann, a prominent climate activist and director of Penn’s Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media, announced that he will again co-teach a course on climate change communication alongside Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The course, previously offered at the University of Pennsylvania, focuses in part on combating what Mann describes as a “surplus of misinformation” surrounding climate change.
“The problem isn’t so much a deficit of information; it’s a surplus of misinformation,” Mann said at a journalism conference, arguing that outright climate denial is fading and being replaced by what he calls “doomism, division, deflection, and delaying action.”
Mann recently confirmed the course’s return on a university podcast, describing it as a “real pleasure” to collaborate across Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences and the Annenberg School for Communication.
But Mann’s role as an authority on misinformation should draw scrutiny given his own legal history. A District of Columbia judge previously sanctioned Mann and his legal team, finding “by clear and convincing evidence” that they had acted in bad faith by presenting erroneous evidence and making false representations related to damages claims.
“Here, the Court finds… that Dr. Mann… acted in bad faith when they presented erroneous evidence and made false representations to the jury and the Court,” the <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/yixcqfv4h1idp1xt5elo7/2025.03.12-Order-Granting-Def-s-Sanctions-Mots.pdf?rlkey=yqactvu9h9bpwlyp6q2taaj7h&amp;st=g53sry23&amp;dl=0">ruling stated</a>. The court ordered Mann to pay more than $28,000 in legal fees. The controversy adds to a broader pattern of inflammatory rhetoric and political activism from Mann, who has repeatedly targeted conservatives in public statements and on social media.
Mann has compared prominent figures such as Peter Thiel, Charles Koch, and Rupert Murdoch to the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks, and previously wrote that the Republican Party should be “destroyed.” He deleted the posts, but they were saved in screenshots.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Michael Mann has been trafficking in violence-justifying (wink wink) Tweets for a long time
He is celebrated and rewarded for it in the climate community
His latest won&#8217;t change that <a href="https://t.co/YMpnmxAdWX">pic.twitter.com/YMpnmxAdWX</a>
— The Honest Broker (@RogerPielkeJr) <a href="https://twitter.com/RogerPielkeJr/status/1966493707345019074?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 12, 2025</a></blockquote>
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As reported by the <a href="https://freebeacon.com/campus/upenn-provost-resigns-after-boosting-social-media-post-likening-charlie-kirk-to-hitler-youth/">Washington Free Beacon</a>, Mann faced backlash for amplifying a social media post referring to conservative activist Charlie Kirk as “Hitler Youth,” a controversy that preceded his resignation as vice provost at Penn. He remains on faculty and continues to lead his research center.
The resignation came after Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) <a href="https://x.com/SenMcCormickPA/status/1966307689023287332?s=20">called on the university</a> to take “immediate, decisive action.”
Mann has also drawn criticism for comments interpreted as invoking political violence, including a post referencing “second amendment territory” in relation to President Donald Trump, he has since deleted the post, but it was <a href="https://archive.is/dSu5A">digitally archived</a> to verify.
The course’s co-instructor, Jamieson, is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, which has itself <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-officials-demand-trump-admin-suspend-funding-of-science-org-over-climate-activism">faced scrutiny</a> over its handling of climate-related materials. Critics have pointed to the academy’s refusal to remove a controversial climate chapter from its judicial reference manual, even after the Federal Judicial Center declined to include it, citing concerns about bias.
Mann has also <a href="https://x.com/MichaelEMann/status/2034046926208045535?s=20">recently praised</a> the late biologist Paul Ehrlich, whose 1968 book &#8220;The Population Bomb&#8221; famously predicted mass starvation and societal collapse due to overpopulation — predictions that failed to materialize. Despite that track record, Mann continues to position himself as a leading voice on climate communication and misinformation.
The announcement of the course raises broader questions about credibility, academic standards, and whether individuals with documented histories of misleading claims should be tasked with defining “misinformation” for the next generation of students.

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What’s Being Taught Behind Ivy League Doors? Inside Controversial ‘Misinformation’ Course

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The following excerpt is taken from “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Slacking-Guide-Ivy-League-Miseducation/dp/1641774592">Slacking: A Guide To Ivy League Miseducation</a>,” by Adam Kissel, Rachel Alexander Cambre, and Madison Marino Doan (Encounter Books)
* * *
Don’t trust the Ivy League to produce well-educated students.
The eight institutions that make up the Ivy League are among the most selective in the United States, and their graduates occupy the elite echelons of American life. Parents often spend $80,000 or more per year for their children to attend Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Penn, Columbia, Brown, Cornell, or Dartmouth and have an opportunity to punch a ticket to the top.
But what really happens there? Do graduates really join “the fellowship of educated men and women,” as Harvard used to assert each year at its commencement ceremony?
Some do. Many don’t.
Like most American colleges, most of the Ivies grant signiﬁcant latitude in the undergraduate curriculum. (Columbia is the only exception.) Students not only choose a major — from as many as ninety options—but they also choose the content of their core curriculum. Core curricula historically guaranteed consistency for undergraduates, reflecting a wise faculty’s determination of the knowledge and academic skills most worth having. Today, however, most general education requirements in the Ivies are so general — some arts here, some sciences there—that they are simply another opportunity for undirected self-actualization. Hundreds of course options can fulﬁll each “requirement.”
These options, moreover, vary tremendously — from serious, rigorous, and open to challenge, to whimsical, activist, and tendentious. This variation is greatest in the humanities and social sciences. For every course seeking to develop a broader or deeper understanding of man, nature, and the cosmos, there are dozens preoccupied with pop culture, identity politics, progressive activism, or hyper-specialization.
<div id="attachment_953731" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-953731" class="wp-image-953731 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-29-Jul-2025-11-19-AM-1249-384x576.jpg" alt="Cover Credit: Encounter Books/ Cooley Design Lab. William Shakespeare associated with John Taylor circa 1610." width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-29-Jul-2025-11-19-AM-1249-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-29-Jul-2025-11-19-AM-1249-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-29-Jul-2025-11-19-AM-1249-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-29-Jul-2025-11-19-AM-1249-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-29-Jul-2025-11-19-AM-1249-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-29-Jul-2025-11-19-AM-1249-1360x2040.jpg 1360w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-29-Jul-2025-11-19-AM-1249-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes=" (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" />Cover Credit: Encounter Books/ Cooley Design Lab. William Shakespeare associated with John Taylor circa 1610.</div>
Writing requirements are even worse. Putatively about writing, such courses indulge the moral and political conceits of their instructors. At the other extreme, most courses that meet science requirements actually teach science, even though light courses are available for slackers. (At Cornell, the course discussing Disney films to learn about animals is an exception, and Columbia still offers Physics for Poets.)
A generation ago, the critique of Ivy League curricula was that a student could graduate without being required to take any Shakespeare, American history, or Western civilization. That complaint remains well-grounded. Today, the situation is worse: Can a serious student find even one core course on Shakespeare or America worth taking?
By not providing a content-rich core curriculum — a set of required courses in the arts and sciences — but instead allowing students to choose from a wide range of courses to fulﬁll vague distribution requirements, most of the Ivies risk having students graduate with what the American Council of Trustees and Alumni calls a “thin and patchy education, with no guarantee that they have mastered a core set of facts or skills.” Absent strong curricular requirements, universities cannot guarantee that students “learn what they need to know to be informed citizens, effective workers, and lifelong learners.”
Fortunately, a strong education remains available to Ivy students in most areas of general education. They will have to work for it and get wise advice. But by far, Ivy League students are offered, and thus receive, a truly substandard education by any reasonable measure. Dante or Cardi B? Every educated man and woman ought to know the difference.
* * *
This excerpt from “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Slacking-Guide-Ivy-League-Miseducation/dp/1641774592">Slacking</a>” is published by permission from Encounter Books.
Adam Kissel is a visiting fellow for higher education reform in the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation. A graduate of the University of Chicago and Harvard, he served in the first Trump administration as deputy assistant secretary for higher education programs. 
Rachel Alexander Cambre teaches for Belmont Abbey College’s new Master of Arts in Classical and Liberal Education program. She holds degrees from Washington and Lee University and Baylor University and has held teaching and research postdoctoral fellowships at Princeton University and the University of Virginia.
Madison Marino Doan is a senior research associate in the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation. Her work focuses on affordability and accountability reform in higher education and K-12 education choice initiatives. She graduated summa cum laude from Lamar University in economics and finance.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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From Dante To Cardi B? The Collapse Of Ivy League Curricula

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Former ESPN host Keith Olbermann clashed with Riley Gaines this week following the University of Pennsylvania’s decision to strip trans-identifying male swimmer Lia Thomas of his program records.
Olbermann called Gaines “whiny” in an X post on Tuesday after the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights announced its agreement with UPenn.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Wanted to congratulate Whiny Gaines on now being able to say she finished tied for FOURTH not tied for FIFTH in the Lia Thomas race (<a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Riley_Gaines_</a>)
&mdash; Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) <a href="https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/1940215159034941516?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2025</a></blockquote>
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“Wanted to congratulate Whiny Gaines on now being able to say she finished tied for FOURTH not tied for FIFTH in the Lia Thomas race,” he wrote.
Thomas, who is biologically male, was the first trans-identifying swimmer to win an NCAA Division I title, setting multiple school records and tying for fifth place with Gaines in the 200-yard freestyle event at the 2022 NCAA Division I Women&#8217;s Swimming and Diving Championships. Since then, Gaines has actively spoken against biological men competing in women’s sports.
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“Thank you!” Gaines shot back in a reply to Olbermann. “And while you’re keeping track, make sure to congratulate Emma Weyant, the right National Champ in the 500 freestyle, too.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Thank you! And while you’re keeping track, make sure to congratulate Emma Weyant, the right National Champ in the 500 freestyle, too. 
(If you&#39;re insinuating 5th in the nation is bad, what do you call a man who ranks 462nd nationally in the men&#39;s category?) <a href="https://t.co/liCRPraFQD">https://t.co/liCRPraFQD</a>
&mdash; Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1940224425485537588?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Emma Weyant finished in second place behind Thomas in the 500 freestyle at the 2022 NCAA swimming championship.
She added, “If you&#8217;re insinuating 5th in the nation is bad, what do you call a man who ranks 462nd nationally in the men&#8217;s category?”
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning men from competing in women’s sports. The NCAA updated its gender eligibility policies in compliance with the administration.
UPenn President J. Larry Jameson <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/sports/riley-gaines-clashes-keith-olbermann-after-upenn-strips-lia-thomas-program-records?intcmp=tw_fnc&amp;taid=686554021cab570001444d27&amp;utm_campaign=trueanthem&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter">said</a> the university plans to “fully comply” with both Title IX and the NCAA’s new policies.
“The University will not – on the basis of sex – exclude female students from participation in, deny female students the benefits of, or subject female students to discrimination under, any athletics programs,” Jameson said. “In addition, in providing to female student-athletes intimate facilities such as locker rooms and bathrooms in connection with Penn Athletics, such facilities shall be strictly separated on the basis of sex and comparably provided to each sex.”

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Riley Gaines Fires Back After Ex-ESPN Host Mocks Her Advocacy For Women

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Former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines thanked President Donald Trump for defending women in sports and for bringing about a deal that resulted in the University of Pennsylvania apologizing for the damage wrought by its decision to allow a trans-identifying male swimmer to compete as a member of its women&#8217;s team.
The agreement also saw Lia (formerly William) Thomas stripped of medals and the records returned to the women who had rightfully earned them — including Gaines, who famously tied with Thomas for fifth place in the 200 freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Championships.
&#8220;UPenn has agreed to right its wrongs, restore records to the rightful female athletes, and issue an apology to the women impacted by the man they allowed to compete as a woman. Are pigs flying? God bless @realDonaldTrump,&#8221; Gaines wrote in a post on X.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
UPenn has agreed to right its wrongs, restore records to the rightful female athletes, and issue an apology to the women impacted by the man they allowed to compete as a woman.
Are pigs flying?
God bless <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>. <a href="https://t.co/PZxcieyp7m">pic.twitter.com/PZxcieyp7m</a>
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1940187628021694922?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2025</a></blockquote>
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But even as Gaines was thanking Trump for his administration&#8217;s efforts to protect women in athletics, others were pointing out the fact that if Gaines herself had not been one of the first to take a stand — to protect herself and other women and girls — that the result she saw on Tuesday might never have been realized.
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&#8220;UPenn caves after federal investigation into Lia Thomas, and will now enforce Trump’s mandate to BAN men from women’s sports. This is a major win for women everywhere. And it wouldn’t have happened without Riley Gaines. She fought hard and now the tide is turning,&#8221; conservative podcast host Benny Johnson posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
UPenn caves after federal investigation into Lia Thomas, and will now enforce Trump’s mandate to BAN men from women’s sports.
This is a major win for women everywhere. And it wouldn’t have happened without Riley Gaines. She fought hard and now the tide is turning. 👊🏻🔥 <a href="https://t.co/rlkgdvIWEz">pic.twitter.com/rlkgdvIWEz</a>
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) <a href="https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1940165174364876875?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Paula Scanlan, a teammate of Thomas&#8217; at UPenn, spoke out even after being told by school officials to simply shut up and swim. She credits Gaines with helping her to take a stand.
&#8220;I wanted to take a quick moment to thank @Riley_Gaines_. She’s become the teammate I wish I had in college. I was silenced, bullied and unsupported by my teammates and my university. Today and everyday, I’m grateful for our friendship and how much she’s helped me grow,&#8221; Scanlan posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I wanted to take a quick moment to thank <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Riley_Gaines_</a>
She’s become the teammate I wish I had in college. I was silenced, bullied and unsupported by my teammates and my university.
Today and everyday, I’m grateful for our friendship and how much she’s helped me grow ❤️ <a href="https://t.co/u1RljDLuue">pic.twitter.com/u1RljDLuue</a>
— Paula Scanlan (@PaulaYScanlan) <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulaYScanlan/status/1940217285819691464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Former champion gymnast and XX-XY Athletics founder Jennifer Sey added, &#8220;UPenn rescinded all of the accolades given to Will Thomas because we have FREEDOM OF SPEECH in the US. @PaulaYScanlan @Riley_Gaines_ @xx_xyathletics and many others spoke out about the injustice. It made a difference in the end. Happy independence day (sic)!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
UPenn rescinded all of the accolades given to Will Thomas because we have FREEDOM OF SPEECH in the US. <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulaYScanlan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PaulaYScanlan</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Riley_Gaines_</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/xx_xyathletics?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@xx_xyathletics</a> and many others spoke out about the injustice.
It made a difference in the end.
Happy independence day! 🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/tqpOu7dzsO">pic.twitter.com/tqpOu7dzsO</a>
— Jennifer Sey (@JenniferSey) <a href="https://twitter.com/JenniferSey/status/1940417391495684602?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;It’s wild that there is a percentage of people brainwashed by their religion (liberalism) to believe it’s &#8216;evil&#8217; to stop people w/ testicles from violating women &amp; dominating their sports. Anyway, shoutout @Riley_Gaines_ for trailblazing on this issue when it was unpopular,&#8221; Jason Howerton added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
It’s wild that there is a percentage of people brainwashed by their religion (liberalism) to believe it’s “evil” to stop people w/ testicles from violating women &amp; dominating their sports.
Anyway, shoutout <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Riley_Gaines_</a> for trailblazing on this issue when it was unpopular <a href="https://t.co/8eu3d4q3mC">pic.twitter.com/8eu3d4q3mC</a>
— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) <a href="https://twitter.com/jason_howerton/status/1940233088011051510?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2025</a></blockquote>
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NCAA SWIMMING: MAR 18 Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships

‘Are Pigs Flying?’: Riley Gaines Praises Trump As UPenn Strips Records From Trans Swimmer

‘Are Pigs Flying?’: Riley Gaines Praises Trump As UPenn Strips Records, Titles From Trans Swimmer

Donald Trump

Executive

NCAA

Women's sports

Women's Swimming

WASHINGTON—The White House has struck a deal with the University of Pennsylvania that requires the school to strip trans-identifying male swimmer Lia Thomas of the titles he won on the women&#8217;s team, The Daily Wire has learned.
The University of Pennsylvania will restore all titles to female athletes that were &#8220;misappropriated&#8221; by male athletes, according to a landmark agreement between the Trump administration and the University of Pennsylvania, a White House official shared with The Daily Wire.
Thomas competed as a female swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania, infamously tying with University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines in 2022 at the NCAAs and taking her trophy — prompting Gaines to take a stand against men in women&#8217;s sports.
&#8220;President Trump has been one of the strongest and most consistent champions for protecting women’s sports,&#8221; the White House official shared. &#8220;Under his leadership, the administration has taken decisive action — through executive orders, public messaging, and policy initiatives — to affirm a simple truth: men do not belong in women’s sports.&#8221;
&#8220;In stark contrast, the University of Pennsylvania has repeatedly violated the spirit and letter of Title IX by allowing biological males to compete in women’s athletic programs — undermining decades of progress and the hard-earned achievements of female athletes,&#8221; the official added.
Under the new agreement, the school is promising to comply with Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funding.
The University of Pennsylvania will not allow males to compete in female sports or use female &#8220;intimate facilities&#8221; and will adopt &#8220;biology-based definitions&#8221; for &#8220;male&#8221; and &#8220;female&#8221; that comply with Trump&#8217;s executive orders on the issue.
The school will also send a &#8220;personalized letter of apology to each impacted female swimmer,&#8221; according to the agreement.
Gaines is one of the female athletes who could receive a letter. She spoke at a White House event on Thursday celebrating the agreement, along with several other female athletes who competed with trans-identifying males.
Shortly after Trump took office, the NCAA, which governs sports for more than half a million college athletes, <a href="https://www.ncaa.org/news/2025/2/6/media-center-ncaa-announces-transgender-student-athlete-participation-policy-change.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">changed</a> its transgender athlete policy to “limit competition in women’s sports to student-athletes assigned female at birth only.”
However, the Trump administration continues to pressure several blue states that still allow trans-identifying males in women&#8217;s sports.
Last week, the Department of Education <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/department-of-education-says-california-violated-title-ix-threatens-legal-action">announced</a> that California was officially in violation of Title IX because the state allows men to compete in women’s sports. The administration gave California 10 days to comply or face losing federal funds.

UPenn Agrees To Strip Medals From Lia Thomas As Part Of Sweeping White House Deal

White House Forces UPenn To Strip Lia Thomas' Medals He Won On Women's Team

As the Department of Education yanks $175 million of federal funding from the University of Pennsylvania for violating Title IX by allowing males into women’s sports, Secretary Linda McMahon should also consider cracking down on other, more common procedural violations of Title IX that have been routinely committed by colleges for over a decade: that is, violations against due process for students and faculty accused of sexual misconduct.
This status quo was created by the Obama Department of Education’s 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter, which gutted protections for the accused in the name of “victims’ rights,” under penalty of losing federal funding. The letter mandated that colleges use the “preponderance of evidence” standard — which only demands that the guilty be deemed over 50% likely to have committed misconduct — as opposed to the stronger “guilt beyond a reasonable doubt” standard employed in criminal trials in actual courts. It also allowed alleged victims to appeal the result of a disciplinary hearing — a form of double jeopardy otherwise barred by the legal system. Moreover, it discouraged cross-examination of victims, claiming this would “retraumatize” them, and enabled a single-investigator model, in which the person investigating the sexual misconduct claim would also adjudicate the sexual misconduct claim and decide as to whether or not the accused was guilty — giving the investigator the near absolute power to be “prosecutor, judge, and jury” at once, as the Foundation for Individual Rights and Education <a href="https://www.thefire.org/news/breaking-new-title-ix-regulations-undermine-campus-free-speech-and-due-process-rights" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> it.
Having received Obama’s memo, colleges went above and beyond — the Constitution, that is: even after President Trump took office for the first time and then-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos rescinded the Obama-era “Dear Colleague” letter in 2017, colleges kept their kangaroo courts — and began to be taken to court themselves. In two notable cases, federal courts determined that accused students at the <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/09/26/us-appeals-court-finds-student-accused-sexual-assault-was-denied-due-process" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Cincinnati</a> and the <a href="https://www.thefire.org/news/court-holds-university-michigan-administrators-personally-liable-violating-students-due" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Michigan</a> had their constitutional rights to due process violated. Per a 2019 <a href="https://nyujlpp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Harris-Johnson-Campus-Courts-in-Court-22-nyujlpp-49.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> by Samantha Harris and K.C. Johnson, over 500 lawsuits were filed by accused students in the post-2011 period; 340 lawsuits went to federal court; colleges lost over 90 federal decisions; and colleges chose to settle over 70 lawsuits out of court before a decision could be made. This was around the peak of #MeToo and #BelieveAllWomen: in that cultural moment, anyone accused of sexual misconduct was essentially presumed guilty until proven innocent, a horrible inversion of the American rule of law.
Eventually, in 2020, DeVos established a rule ensuring Title IX proceedings would respect due process and treat both accuser and accused fairly. Because DeVos used the rulemaking process, rather than ruling by “Dear Colleague” fiat as her predecessor did, her decision was harder to reverse by the Biden administration. As a result, the Biden rule came toward the end of his administration in 2024, and, thanks to the administration’s overreaching attempt to rewrite Title IX to include “gender identity,” was immediately caught up in federal injunctions and barely implemented by the time Trump took office a second time and officially brought back the DeVos rule. That means that despite the change in administrations and attempted changes to Title IX by Biden, most colleges have been subject to the DeVos rule for most of the past five years.
Nevertheless, <a href="https://x.com/kcjohnson9/status/1893051067799060764" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuits</a> over the past several years have continued to be filed by accused students and faculty alleging that their colleges treated them unfairly in Title IX proceedings. Just this month, the Fourth Circuit <a href="https://www.carolinajournal.com/expelled-unc-student-can-pursue-reinstatement-not-money-in-federal-suit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ruled</a> in favor of an accused student at the University of North Carolina, noting that due process, live hearings, and cross-examination are crucial in Title IX proceedings. The persistence of lawsuits from the accused suggests that colleges are still not treating the accused fairly, and, as a result, are not only potentially disciplining, expelling, and firing perfectly innocent people — mostly men — they are also undermining the validity of all allegations, which makes it more difficult for real victims — mostly women — to be taken seriously.
College bureaucrats act this way in part because they are concerned with their own interests first: the #MeToo zeitgeist of yesterday still has them convinced that the fallout from blatantly unconstitutional proceedings will be less damaging to them than the possibility of activists calling them “rape apologists” for treating accused students and faculty with fairness. The Department of Education can change this calculus by stripping federal funds from every institution violating the rights of the accused. Only harsh federal action and the potential for penalties where it hurts will show colleges that they will suffer more for presuming guilt and holding unfair proceedings than they will for presuming innocence and treating both parties fairly, as the American rule of law demands.
On a more human note, colleges are often the places where young men and young women form their opinions of the world and of each other. Especially at a time when relations between the sexes are <a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2024/03/13/why-the-growing-gulf-between-young-men-and-women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">souring</a>, it is crucial that colleges be expected to follow the law if they are to continue to be entrusted with taxpayer dollars.
* * *
Neeraja Deshpande is a policy analyst and engagement coordinator at Independent Women.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Views Of Yale University As Ivy League Pay Soars

‘Prosecutor, Judge, And Jury’: Why Campus Kangaroo Courts Should Lose Federal Funding

'Prosecutor, Judge, And Jury': Why Campus Kangaroo Courts Should Lose Federal Funding

American Universities

Betsy DeVos

College

Department of Education

Due Process

Obama Administration

Opinion

Title IX

University of Michigan

An affiliate of Pennsylvania State University was hit with a federal civil rights complaint on Tuesday alleging that scholarship opportunities discriminated against white and male students on the basis of their race and sex.
The Equal Opportunity Project hit the Pennsylvania College of Technology, an affiliate of the Pennsylvania State University, over 12 different scholarships, including some that require applicants to be “a racial or ethnic minority,” “female,” or considered “previously marginalized” on account of their identities.
“Creating educational opportunities based on race, color, national origin, or sex violates Titles VI and IX of the Civil Rights Act, as well as Pennsylvania law,” said William A. Jacobson, the founder of the Equal Protection Project. “Such race-and sex-based scholarships also violate Penn Tech&#8217;s own non-discrimination policies. We are asking Penn Tech to live up to the law and its own rules, and remove the discriminatory eligibility barriers it has erected.”
The university’s Cahir Family Renaissance Scholarship only accepts applicants who “have been previously marginalized by racial, ethnic, socio-economic, gender, or other adversities,” while the “Start to Finish Minority Scholarship” tells applicants that they must be “a racial or ethnic minority.” Other scholarships named in the federal complaint only accept female applicants.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-901107 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-01-at-12.10.22-PM-300x134.png" alt="" width="708" height="316" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-01-at-12.10.22-PM-300x134.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-01-at-12.10.22-PM-1024x458.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-01-at-12.10.22-PM-768x343.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-01-at-12.10.22-PM.png 1222w" sizes=" (max-width: 708px) 100vw, 708px" /></div>
“Racial, ethnic, and sex discrimination is wrong and unlawful no matter which race, ethnicity, or sex is targeted or benefits. All applicants are entitled to equal treatment without regard to race, color, national origin, or sex,” Jacobson charged. “It does not matter what schools call it — &#8216;anti-racism&#8217; or &#8216;diversity, equity, and inclusion,&#8217; or something else — what matters is that no measure of discrimination based on race, color, or national origin is permitted.”
The complaint comes after the Trump administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-investigating-more-than-50-universities-for-anti-white-anti-asian-discrimination">launched investigations</a> into more than 50 universities that allegedly engaged in anti-white and anti-Asian discrimination, including Vanderbilt, Yale, New York University, Notre Dame, Duke, and Georgetown.
Most of the 52 institutions under investigation face scrutiny over their involvement in the PhD Project, which the Education Department described as “an organization that purports to provide doctoral students with insights into obtaining a Ph.D. and networking opportunities, but limits eligibility based on the race of participants.” Other colleges are under investigation for allegedly awarding discriminatory, race-based scholarships.

Graduation cap

Pennsylvania College Hit With Federal Complaint Over Anti-White, Anti-Male Scholarships

Academia

Courts

Discrimination

Diversity

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Pennsylvania

Racial Discrimination

Three former University of Pennsylvania women’s swimmers have filed a lawsuit over biological males being allowed to use female locker rooms and participate in their competitions.
The students, who have since graduated, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday against their university, Harvard University, the Ivy League Council of Presidents, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The lawsuit is based on their experience with teammate Lia Thomas, a former male swimmer who started identifying as a woman and dominating female competitions.
The lawsuit, filed by Grace Estabrook, Margo Kaczorowski, and Ellen Holmquist, with <a href="https://iconswomen.com/take-on-the-ivy-league/">support</a> from the Independent Council on Women&#8217;s Sports (ICONS), was <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/sports/former-lia-thomas-teammates-sue-ivy-league-ncaa-alleging-aggressive-push-pro-trans-ideology" target="_blank" rel="noopener">provided exclusively</a> to Fox News and has been reviewed by The Daily Wire. The women are seeking damages for “pain and suffering, mental and emotional distress, suffering and anxiety, expenses costs” and more for the institutions allowing Thomas and other trans-identifying men into women&#8217;s spaces and competitions, which they say violated their rights under Title IX. Title IX is a federal statute that prohibits discrimination based on sex, and was initially created to ensure women have equal opportunities for sports.
But over the past decade, schools have allowed biological men to self-identify into women’s sports, taking <a href="https://kfoxtv.com/news/nation-world/un-study-reveals-transgender-athletes-have-won-nearly-900-medals-in-womens-competitions-united-nations-sports-lgbt-gender-identity-title-ix-athletics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hundreds of medals</a> from women.
The three women now suing have argued that being forced to change clothes in front of Thomas, who still has male genitalia, left them “repeatedly emotionally traumatized.” It can take around 30 minutes for a competitive swimmer to get into their skintight swimsuits, meaning the women had to spend at least that much time in a vulnerable position in front of a biological man, who was also changing.
&#8220;The UPenn administrators told the women that if anyone was struggling with accepting Thomas’s participation on the UPenn Women’s team, they should seek counseling and support from [UPenn’s student wellness center] and the LBGTQ center,” the lawsuit says.
&#8220;The administrators also invited the women to a talk titled, ‘Trans 101.’ Thus, the women were led to understand that UPenn’s position was that if a woman on the team had any problem with a trans-identifying male being on her team that woman had a psychological problem and needed counseling,” the lawsuit added.
The former swimmers also allege that the administrators told them not to publicly speak out about the situation, or risk consequences.
&#8220;The UPenn administrators went on to tell the women that if the women spoke publicly about their concerns about Thomas’ participation on the Women’s Team, the reputation of those complaining about Thomas being on the team would be tainted with transphobia for the rest of their lives and they would probably never be able to get a job,’&#8221; the lawsuit says.
The women are suing Harvard as well as UPenn because Harvard hosted the NCAA women’s championship, where Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle, and 400-yard freestyle relay as a senior.
Thomas has continued to fight to be allowed to compete against biological women, even attempting to be allowed to compete in elite women’s races post-college, but a legal challenge was denied last year, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lia-thomas-loses-legal-battle-over-rules-preventing-trans-identifying-swimmers-from-competing-in-elite-womens-races" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
On Wednesday, Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/president-trump-to-sign-executive-to-keep-men-out-of-womens-sports" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed an executive order</a> to keep biological men out of women’s sports.

2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championship

Former UPenn Women’s Swimmers Suing School, NCAA For Allowing Biological Men In Women’s Sports

Former UPenn Women’s Swimmers Suing School, NCAA For Allowing Biological Men In Women's Sports

Lawsuit

Transgender

transgender athlete

Transgenders

Pennsylvania GOP legislators <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/gop-lawmakers-sink-aid-to-penn-as-statehouses-watch-universities-handle-israel-hamas-war/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blocked</a> millions of dollars in funding for the University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary school in the wake of the university’s tepid response to anti-Semitism on its campus.
The vote in the Pennsylvania House was taken four days after Penn President Liz Magill — harshly criticized for her testimony at a congressional hearing where she said calling for the genocide of Jews would not violate the school&#8217;s code of conduct on bullying and harassment unless &#8220;the speech turns into conduct” — resigned.
“Until more is done at the university in terms of rooting out, calling out and making an official stance on antisemitism being against the values of the university, I cannot in good conscience support this funding,” GOP House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler stated in opposing the $33.5 million in funding for the University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary school.
Magill’s resignation was not enough for the university to pursue if it wanted to confront anti-Semitism, Cutler, who was formerly the speaker of the House when it was controlled by the GOP, added.
Cutler, a religious Baptist, <a href="https://www.repcutler.com/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener">took care</a> of his younger sister and parents when he was a high school student and both his parents were diagnosed with ALS, which later took their lives.
Every Democrat voted for the funding — which represents 18% of the budget for the veterinary school — while 76 out of the 101 Republicans in the House opposed it, leaving the funding short of gaining the required two-thirds majority.
Even before Magill’s remarks, major donors pulled their funding from the university over its stance in the Israel-Hamas war. Within a week after the October 7 Hamas massacre of 1,200 Israelis, Apollo Management CEO Marc Rowan, a Penn graduate who donated $50 million to the business school in 2018, <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/10/11/apollo-ceo-marc-rowan-demands-upenn-leaders-resign-over-failure-to-condemn-hamas-terror/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demanded</a> Magill and Scott Bok, chair of the board of trustees, resign. “I call on all UPenn alumni and supporters who believe we are heading in the wrong direction to ‘Close their Checkbooks&#8217;” until the two resigned, he wrote.
Days later, former Republican presidential candidate, Utah Governor, and U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman Jr. told the University of Pennsylvania that the Huntsman Foundation — which has donated tens of millions of dollars to the university for decades — would <a href="https://www.thedp.com/article/2023/10/penn-jon-huntsman-jr-wharton-halts-donations-magill" target="_blank" rel="noopener">halt its funding</a> because of the university’s silence in the face of the evil perpetrated by Hamas.
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Huntsman, a 1987 Penn graduate, served on the University&#8217;s Board of Trustees from 1996 to 2001. His father, Jon Huntsman Sr., graduated from Penn in 1959, donated $10 million to fund the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business, and donated $40 million in 1998.
&#8220;Moral relativism has fueled the university’s race to the bottom and sadly now has reached a point where remaining impartial is no longer an option,&#8221; Huntsman Jr. said in an email to Penn President Liz Magill.
“The University’s silence in the face of reprehensible and historic Hamas evil against the people of Israel (when the only response should be outright condemnation) is a new low,” Huntsman wrote. “Silence is antisemitism, and antisemitism is hate, the very thing higher ed was built to obviate. Consequently, Huntsman Foundation will close its checkbook on all future giving to Penn — something that has been a source of enormous pride for now three generations of graduates. that his family will stop donating to Penn, stripping the University of a longtime donor amid backlash from influential trustees and alumni. My siblings join me in this rebuke.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-u-s-ambassador-jon-huntsman-halts-millions-in-funding-from-penn-over-its-response-to-hamas-attacks">Former U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman Halts Millions In Funding From Penn Over Its Response To Hamas Attacks</a>

University Of Pennsylvania Sued By Students Claiming Antisemitism On Campus

Pennsylvania GOP Blocks Funding For UPenn For Allowing Anti-Semitism On Campus

Anti-Semitism

Funding

Veterinary

Many today have a greater interest in the perception of virtue through diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) narratives rather than making a real, tangible impact on improving the lives of others. This is particularly true on college campuses. The support for Claudine Gay at Harvard highlights the insulating powers of DEI, as President Gay fits into the “oppressed” role within the DEI framework, despite attending both an elitist high school and college in Exeter and Stanford respectively. This position of being among the “oppressed” gives her great power. In fact, DEI lays at the heart of the outbreak of the surge in vile behavior, including the recent calls for genocide centered around American college campuses.
The epitome of such moral bankruptcy is my alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. Penn has rightfully been blasted in the news over the past few months for both platforming calls for genocide and failing to protect female athletics, resulting in a hemorrhaging of key donors. The university announced that Penn President Liz Magill resigned due to her response to anti-Semitism on campus. Undoubtedly, the university hopes that this will put an end to the public scrutiny of UPenn. But Magill’s exit does nothing to change the core rot at UPenn. Magill, as a white woman, was relatively easy to displace within the DEI framework. While Magill was not quite as low as a straight white male on the DEI hierarchy, she was low enough to be removed without substantial backlash.
Magill’s resignation is a start, but the real problems at UPenn — and in our university system at-large — predate Magill’s tenure, and they will continue unless they are directly confronted and real change is made. The university’s embrace of the DEI victim matrix hasn’t just led to an outbreak of anti-Semitism, but to speech code policies that discriminate based on viewpoint.
For example, how did the university decide that calls for genocide were protected speech but questioning the differences between men and women wasn’t? The answer is the twisted moral framework of equity, which forbids students, professors, and university presidents alike from criticizing anyone who is part of an “oppressed” group.
The current system values diversity, equity, and inclusion over meritocracy and truth. Today, university leaders, professors, and fellow students cram down their views of equity-based morality on students, with no room for dissent, which is how we got to where we are today.
I personally experienced this when I tried to speak against having a naked man present when I changed in the locker room at Penn. I was censored because the individual I spoke out against had a higher “oppression” DEI score than I did. The DEI framework and hierarchy enforced at the university ensure that certain groups are protected at all costs, and I was not in that select group.
Taking a deeper look at Penn specifically, professors at Penn <a href="https://www.univstats.com/salary/university-of-pennsylvania/faculty/">receive</a> an average salary of approximately $172,360, which is almost triple the average household income in the United States. To put this in perspective, I made $17 an hour as a Head TA in the engineering school. These professors are highly incentivized to reinforce diversity, equity, and inclusion ideologies and their corresponding anti-meritocratic and anti-free speech behaviors. I even had a professor refer to 9/11 as a “cultural misunderstanding,” as an attempt to promote false anti-Western rhetoric.
So the question remains: How does Liz Magill’s resignation change this issue? After all, Magill is still a tenured professor at Penn Law School. The incentive structures are still in place to promote this radical ideology — and unless donors pull out for broader, sweeping changes, the progress around the recent resignations of Magill and Chairman Bok is all for naught.
To prevent such shameful behavior from occurring in the future, we cannot lose sight of the root cause of these issues. The failure of Penn’s leadership is symptomatic of the deeper issues embedded in DEI philosophies, and without removing those from our ethos, we will ultimately fail to protect future generations from falling into a morally bankrupt delusion. As a member of the next generation, I call on Penn donors, alums, and fellow Americans to continue this fight against this moral perversion and return to the American ideals of free speech and meritocracy.
* * *
Paula Scanlan is an ambassador with Independent Women’s Forum (iwf.org) and a former swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a teammate of Lia Thomas.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

University Presidents Testify In House Hearing On Campus Antisemitism

You Can Fire The Presidents, But The Deeper Issues On College Campuses Must Be Addressed

Readers Pass

Universities

Rep. Elise Stefanik&#8217;s (R-NY) office released a statement this week ripping into the NBC sketch comedy show &#8220;Saturday Night Live&#8221; for its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-new-low-snl-wrecked-for-skit-mocking-elise-stefanik-in-college-anti-semitism-hearing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">widely-panned cold open</a> on the recent congressional hearing on anti-Semitism on college and university campuses across the country.
Notably, Saturday&#8217;s cold open bizarrely attacked <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-top-university-presidents-balk-when-asked-if-genocidal-chants-against-jews-violate-codes-of-conduct" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stefanik</a> for asking about students&#8217; calls for Jewish genocide while almost entirely backing off the university presidents, whose disastrous testimonies have already culminated in at least one resignation.
“Elise did not watch it,&#8221; Stefanik senior advisor Alex DeGrasse <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/12/11/entertainment/cecily-strong-was-uncomfortable-with-snl-anti-semitism-sketch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the New York Post. &#8220;However, her office was flooded with messages from thousands of Americans across the political spectrum — Democrats and Republicans — who were appalled and disgusted by the antisemitic trash spewed by unfunny, morally bankrupt ‘comedians.'&#8221;
“SNL made history with the worst cold open ever because everyone knows there is absolutely no humor in the vile answers from the university presidents regarding their failure to condemn calls for the genocide of the Jewish people,&#8221; DeGrasse added.
During the hearing, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/university-of-pennsylvania" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Pennsylvania</a> President Liz Magill refused to acknowledge that calling for the genocide of Jews violates UPenn’s code of conduct on bullying and harassment. She resigned from her position on Saturday, mere hours before the SNL sketch aired, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/penn-president-liz-magill-out-after-disturbing-remarks#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Wire</a> reported.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
In the same hearing, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/their-statements-were-abhorrent-backlash-to-harvard-penn-mit-presidents-on-anti-semitism-continues-even-after-they-backtrack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Harvard University President Claudine Gay</a> was similarly questioned about whether calling for the genocide of Jews violates Harvard’s codes of conduct. She <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/their-statements-were-abhorrent-backlash-to-harvard-penn-mit-presidents-on-anti-semitism-continues-even-after-they-backtrack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">responded</a> by saying that it depends “on the context.” Gay added that calling for genocide is “at odds with the values of Harvard” and that when that kind of “speech crosses into conduct, that violates our policies.”
The sketch, however, portrays Stefanik as unhinged for pressing the collegiate leaders on the issue, while those in academia were handled by the SNL team with kid gloves and largely presented as reasonable.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="College Presidents Cold Open - SNL" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ep-OnsDieFQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Conservatives online quickly reacted to the SNL sketch. Conservative Emily Zanotti, for example, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-new-low-snl-wrecked-for-skit-mocking-elise-stefanik-in-college-anti-semitism-hearing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on X, “I mean, I get that SNL is typically a mess, but how do you watch that hearing and come out of it thinking Stefanik was the right target of satire?”
Radio host Rob Carson commented, “If there is no truth in satire, it’s not funny. This isn’t funny.”
“How to explain SNL siding with Ivy league (sic) neo-racists? Wondering what colleges their writers attended,” Fox News host Greg Gutfeld wrote.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-new-low-snl-wrecked-for-skit-mocking-elise-stefanik-in-college-anti-semitism-hearing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘A New Low’: SNL Wrecked For Skit Mocking Elise Stefanik In College Anti-Semitism Hearing</a>

Elise Stefanik

Stefanik’s Office Blisters SNL For Panned Sketch Mocking Rep. In Anti-Semitism Hearing

Stefanik’s Office Blisters SNL Over Panned Sketch Mocking Rep. Over Anti-Semitism Hearing 

Saturday Night Live

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