University Council Opening Remarks

By Liz Magill

November 29, 2023

Hello and thank you for being here. Before we begin, I want to address the horrific shooting in Vermont over the weekend, the victims of which include a Haverford College student.

The attack is so fresh, and the investigation is ongoing, so we do not know much. But I’m aware of the close-knit ties between the Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab communities at Haverford and our own here on campus. I’m told that just a couple of weeks ago, Haverford students joined the Penn Muslim Student Association at their annual skate night at the Penn Ice Rink. With this closeness especially in mind, on behalf of Penn, I want to share our heartbreak and our most fervent wishes for full recoveries for the wounded.

This violence compounds the pain—the fear—that our Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab communities are feeling so acutely. I hear the same fear from our Jewish community. Fear of being targeted for your faith, culture, or citizenship. Fear of wearing your keffiyah or your yarmulke proudly and safely in public.

At our last Council meeting, Vice President Anderson rightly observed that safety is more than a physical fact. Safety is a feeling. Nobody should ever be made to feel unsafe anywhere due to their appearance or identity, and especially not on our campus.

If you or anyone you know feels any threat to your physical safety or you’re being harassed online, please, right away, call Penn’s Emergency Call Center at 215-573-3333. And if you have experienced harassment because of bias here on campus, please report it through Penn’s online Bias Incident Reporting form. I have no higher priority than the safety and security of every member of our university.

We are equally dedicated to opposing hatred and building community. Very soon, I will announce the membership of a new Presidential Commission whose charge will focus on these issues. Provost Jackson and his team are launching two new programs, Conversations for Community and Dinners Across Difference, which I encourage people to learn more about. And I look forward to continuing to meet with our student leaders.

This work will take all of us to make the kind of difference we all want to see. We must come together. We must resist what might seek to divide us.  Most of all, we must look after one another. Community requires conscience and it requires care.

Thank you for everything you are already doing to help this cause. Now, I invite our moderator, Dr. Wilde, to begin our meeting.