Two Penn schools scrub websites for diversity offices, initiatives

This article was first published in The Daily Pennsylvanian.

The University of Pennsylvania’s School of Dental Medicine and Stuart Weitzman School of Design appear to have recently shut down central offices and initiatives related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The Dental School’s diversity email address returned an automated “address not found” message on Thursday, and the websites for the school’s Office of Faculty Diversity & Mentorship and Student Diversity & Inclusion are no longer active. Meanwhile, a web page for the Weitzman School’s Inclusion and Belonging initiative began directing to an “Access Denied” message around 5 p.m.

"We are reviewing these websites and programs to ensure they are consistent with our nondiscrimination policies and federal law," a University spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian.

A Dental School spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. The Dental School's Associate Dean of Faculty Diversity & Mentorship Hydar Ali, whose title has been changed to “Associate Dean for Faculty Mentorship and Advancement” online, could not be reached for comment.

“As you can imagine, things are fluid in many places across the University currently,” Christopher Gary Simmons, the School of Design's director of inclusion and belonging wrote to the DP.

The changes mark Penn’s most significant steps to date suggesting a backpedaling of some of the DEI initiatives that the school championed in recent years. They come a week after the University announced a review of its programs, policies, and practices in an email from Interim Penn President Larry Jameson.

Jameson's email followed an executive order from President Donald Trump which requires federally funded universities such as Penn to terminate any DEI programs that could be in violation of federal civil rights laws.

Also on Thursday, the University removed a transgender inclusion policy from its Athletics website, along with a page home to the Quaker Forward Committee — which was committed to “making Penn a leader in [diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging] within collegiate athletics.”

Offices, initiatives, and web pages related to DEI at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, the Graduate Student Center, and the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs have also been renamed to eliminate references to “diversity,” minorities, and “underrepresented” students. The DP could not immediately confirm when these naming changes took place.

At the School of Engineering and Applied Science, web pages listing the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering’s DEI initiatives and committee members now direct to error messages.

The Dental School's Office of Multicultural Affairs & Inclusion offered student support, mentorship, and recruitment initiatives intended to bolster diversity at the school, according to the now scrubbed site. The Office of Faculty Diversity & Mentorship focused on faculty development and diversity.

Other Dental School webpages that were scrubbed listed a commitment to “equitable and culturally competent” healthcare, the school’s diversity policy, a Black History month gallery, and an overview of antisemitism.

The Dental School’s fiscal year 2025 budget pledged to recruit an Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The status of this recruitment remains unclear.

The School of Design's Inclusion and Belonging initiative included a school-wide committee to generate and implement DEI programs, a “restructuring” of school curriculum to “represent more diverse perspectives,” an effort to recruit more diverse faculty and students, and partnerships with communities across the Philadelphia region to “implement neighborhood improvement initiatives" according to an archived version of the web page.

Media: Carly Zhao | The Daily Pennsylvanian