Members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly’s Legislative Black Caucus on Tuesday urged Penn State leaders, including President Neeli Bendapudi, to “recommit to and invest in the university’s racial justice efforts,” after recent decisions they called “troubling.”
The statement from the caucus’s 26 state representatives and five senators comes after the university’s decision in October to allow a student-organized event featuring two far-right speakers to move forward (it was canceled an hour before it was scheduled to start “due to the threat of escalating violence”) was followed by the revelation that Bendapudi had scrapped plans for a Center for Racial Justice after a search had already begun for its founding director.
“Many of us were encouraged by the university’s decision in 2020 to establish the Center for Racial Justice only to learn with great disappointment that those plans were recently sidelined due to budgetary concerns,” the caucus wrote. “The fact that this decision was made just days after a founder of the Proud Boys was scheduled to speak at the university is even more troubling.”
More than 400 faculty members have since signed a letter questioning the commitment of Bendapudi and the university to racial justice issues, calling the cancelation of the Center for Racial Justice “a broken promise,” and the recent actions “a reminder of why Black faculty are leaving the institution at four times the rate of any other group and why so many students, faculty, staff, and alumni have concluded that they don’t matter to Penn State.”
The recent incidents brought to a head concerns that have been roiling for years, as illustrated in a landmark two–part report in 2020 and 2021 that detailed decreasing tenure rates for and stagnant overall hiring rates for Black faculty at Penn State over a 15-year period while non-Black faculty rates increased, as well as racial discrimination faced by university faculty.
The authors of that report convened a meeting of Black Penn State faculty on Oct. 17 to discuss “multiple concerns and disappointments” about the university’s limited response to their report.
Two weeks ago, faculty members led a protest outside Old Main.
The Legislative Black Caucus called on university administrators to work with those faculty members moving forward.
“The university’s recent actions appear to undermine, dilute and divert from the racial and social justice initiatives championed by professors, administrators and students on campus in recent years. At a minimum, the decisions have caused great division on campus. We strongly urge university officials to work with the more than 400 professors and lecturers who have signed onto a recent letter regarding these decisions and the diverse student body who deserve a welcoming campus. Together, we believe Penn State can foster an environment that invites diversity, believes in equity and implements systems for real inclusion.
“As the flagship university in our commonwealth, we expect nothing less.”
In confirming the cancelation of the Center for Racial Justice, Bendapudi said the university instead would invest in existing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives with funding that will be “at least as much as would have been committed to the Center for Racial Justice over the next five years.” That funding, the university later confirmed, is about $3.5 million.
Speaking at Friday’s Board of Trustees meeting, Bendapudi said she would not apologize for making difficult decisions that she believes are right for the university, but did apologize to those who were hurt by the decision.
“But I do sincerely apologize — I really do, from my heart — because the decisions that were made… I’m not saying, ‘If you were offended’… I do know that for many, many parts of our community, the decisions came across as a lack of commitment to racial justice and equity work writ large across all different components. That hurts me because I know that is not true for me, but that’s not important. I also know that is not the stance of this board.”
Bendapudi is scheduled to take part in a town hall with the Penn State faculty senate on Friday.
