Announcements

Over the past six months, Penn staff, faculty, and students have faced the formidable task of navigating life in a new and uncertain context. We thank every Penn faculty and staff member for your commitment and dedication to the work that is moving the University forward during one of the most challenging chapters in our history.

With an abundance of caution, Penn’s fall semester will be conducted online, and students will not be living on campus, save for those seeking on-campus housing exceptions.

Dear Graduate Nursing Students, Faculty, and Staff: We regret to inform you that a beloved member of the Penn Nursing Community, Andrea Leah Wiest-Weidman passed away July 30. Andrea, 38, lived in Lancaster, PA. She is survived by her husband, Tim; her parents; and three siblings. Before starting graduate school, Andrea worked as a breast care nurse coordinator, a transplant nurse coordinator, and a financial analyst. She earned undergraduate degrees in nursing and business from Penn State, and she served in the Air Force for six years.

Dear Students: With a heavy heart, we share the news of the passing of Jerry Sun, Wharton ’23, who was killed in a car accident in Colorado July 25. Jerry, 19, lived in College Point, N.Y.

Since our June 25 message, 1.5 million new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the United States, with the confirmed case count soaring from 2.4 million on June 25 to 3.9 million on July 22. Against this backdrop and as the pandemic continues to progress, the University’s planning has evolved on several fronts.

John Lewis was the truest of American heroes. He lived a life of the utmost courage, standing up to Jim Crow and countless assaults on the inalienable rights of Black Americans. He fought tirelessly for civil rights and social justice for all, and became the conscience of the United States Congress. It was a personal honor to know him, and present him with an honorary degree from Penn. When you were with him, you knew you were in the presence of greatness. What a glorious life he lived, and how blessed we are as a country by the sacrifices he made and the positive change he brought about.

International students and scholars have been an integral part of the University of Pennsylvania from its earliest days. They are treasured members of our community who contribute to the diversity, vibrancy and intellectual excellence of Penn in countless important ways. 

We are today announcing that a statue of George Whitefield that was erected in the Quad in the early twentieth-century will be removed from our campus. We make this change after careful consideration of what it means for our campus community, both now and into the future. The case for removing Whitefield is overwhelmingly strong. He was a well-known evangelical preacher in the mid-eighteenth century, who notably led a successful campaign to allow slavery in Georgia. This is undeniably one of Whitefield’s principal legacies.

The University’s plans for the fall semester reflect the communal responsibility to preserve the shared health and safety of the community, while sustaining our commitments to teaching, learning, research, and service.

The United States is at a moment of national reckoning, confronting a long history of racist policies and practices that have perpetuated heinous injustices and have prevented our nation from achieving the ideals of justice, freedom, and equality we proclaim to the world.