Generally speaking when a college has famous alumnus, it’s a good thing for the school. As you could imagine most schools would revel in the notion that they could tell future students and board members the President of the United States, the highest office in the world, is a former student. Obama went to Harvard, Bush went to Yale and Tump went to Penn and so goes the tradition of American presidents going to Ivy League schools.
But Donald Trump landing atPenn University in Philadelphia doesn’t seem to be what the good old Quakers had hoped for, as the Ivy League school has been somewhat silent about Trump’s years at the Wharton School of Business.
There have been a host of tell-tale signs that Trump isn’t well liked amongst the Penn University administration, as both the students and the staff have tried to distance themselves from his platform.
According to a stunning reveal in The Atlantic, “shortly before the Republican National Convention in 2016, nearly 4,000 Wharton students, graduates, and relatives signed a petition telling Trump, “You do not represent us.”
But it doesn’t stop there, administrators also sent Wharton faculty a memo asking them not to speak on issues regarding Donald Trump with the media.
And, while administration officials say they remain non-partisan when it comes to political issues, they have had Presidential key note speakers at graduations in the past.
“We just don’t comment on individual politicians,” Stephen MacCarthy, Penn’s vice president of university communications, told Joe Pinsker of the Atlantic in an email. “We are non-partisan, and try to limit any comments in the political sphere to specific issues that have an impact on the University.”
Amy Gutmann, the President of Penn University, even released a statement after the 2016 election. ““It is my hope that ideals that we hold dear at Penn—inclusion, civic engagement and constructive dialogue—will guide our nation’s new administration.”
Check it out below as she speaks out against his executive order to ban visitors from 7 Muslim nations below:
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