At the University Council open forum meet- ing on Wednesday, February 22, Associate Vice Provost for Global Initiatives Amy Gadsden made a presentation titled Penn Global in its 10th Year.

Penn Global consists of six areas of responsibility—Penn Abroad, International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS), Perry World House, Finance & Administration, Global Initiatives, and Global Support Services. As of 2022, there are almost 7,000 international students from more than 130 countries enrolled at Penn. Additionally, there are more than 1,500 international scholars and more than 60 centers and institutes at Penn with a global focus. Semester-long and short-term global programs are available to students, and Perry World House is a campus hub for global policy engagement and a catalyst for global policy solutions. Penn Global supports faculty research initiatives and ISSS guides international students, scholars, staff, and faculty as they integrate into University life. Penn’s three pillars of global engagement include ensuring every Penn student has a meaningful global experience; producing research for global impact; and advocating for global engagement, rebuilding, and strengthening global networks.

During the open forum portion of the meeting, speakers discussed the following topics:

• Given the high cost of graduate degrees, a speaker asked Penn to institute a tuition increase freeze and offer no-interest student loans.
• Opposition to vaccine mandates from the Penn Anti-Coercion Coalition.
• Concern about Penn’s student financial aid packages being offset by outside grants and scholarships.
• International postdoctoral training policies and the burden placed on international postdocs.
• Concern about compensation, including benefits, offered to postdocs.
• Penn’s Open Expression Policy and a petition to dismiss disciplinary cases against students who participated in Fossil-Free Penn, Students for the Preservation of Chinatown, and UC Townhome eviction protests.
• Reinstatement of DEI training for teaching assistants in Penn Engineering. Also, a call for a non-voting student member on faculty search committees.

During the new business portion of the meeting, members of council discussed:

• The need for intentional support and inclusion for students from minority backgrounds, including spaces for graduate and professional students.
• International students with disabilities often need to obtain a new diagnosis in the United States to receive accommodations from Penn. This speaker requested that Penn rely on the original documentation.
• International students are too often grouped with domestic students when their respective needs differ greatly.
• The need for free menstrual products on campus.
• A student-initiated web-based guide to interpersonal relationships at Penn will soon be launched. It seeks to help students understand a variety of policies and procedures.
• A call to add a new agenda item to the next University Council meeting was denied for lack of quorum (33 members were present, but 35 are needed). The new agenda item, which concerned addressing housing and food insecurity by providing additional access for students with a large financial burden, will need to be submitted to the steering committee for possible inclusion at an upcoming meeting.

The next meeting of the University Council is scheduled for Wednesday, March 29.