University of Pennsylvania
PA-6: Assessing Diversity and Equity

Penn 2019 Faculty Inclusion Report highlights progress on the following topics: Penn’s Financial Investment under the Diversity Action Plan; Faculty Hiring and Departure Rates; Growth of Women and Minorities on the Standing Faculty; Penn’s Standing Compared to Peers; Diminution of the Gender Pay Gap; Significant Increase in Diversity of Academic Leadership; Results of the Faculty Survey; Faculty Development, Climate, and Retention; Pre-doctoral and Post-doctoral fellowships; LGBTQ and Sexuality Studies; Responses to Sexual Misconduct; Support for Families; Veterans on Penn’s Faculty; Individuals with Disabilities; Religious Diversity; Global Engagement; and the Work of the Faculty Senate, University Council, and Penn Students.
See: https://almanac.upenn.edu/uploads/media/11-12_Faculty_Inclusion_Supplement.pdf
Previous reports were issued in 2017, 2014, 2013, 2009, 2006, 2005, 2003, and 2001.
The Perelman School of Medicine recently launched Act: Action for Cultural Transformation: Developing Strategies to Ensure Equity, Mitigate Bias and Eliminate Racism at Penn Medicine https://www.med.upenn.edu/inclusion-and-diversity/act-action-for-cultural-transformation.html. The School of Arts and Sciences also launched an Inclusion and Anti-Racism Initiative (https://www.sas.upenn.edu/about/inclusion) and other Schools are planning similar efforts.
The Penn Compact 2022 affirms inclusion as a means toward the essential ends of higher education: equalizing opportunity, educating leaders for all sectors of society, and enriching the experience of all members of the University community. The Penn Diversity website states: “Across 12 Schools, more than 25,000 students, and more than 4,000 faculty members, we become one university: a wide-ranging, ever-changing community that draws its strength from a multitude of races, ethnicity, genders, sexual orientations, historical traditions, ages, religions, disabilities, veteran status, interests, perspectives, and socioeconomic backgrounds.”
The cornerstone of Penn’s initiative to increase access for students from all socioeconomic backgrounds is its grant-based financial aid program. Since 2004, the University has awarded $2 billion in undergraduate aid to more than 22,000 students. Forty-six percent of undergraduate students received grant-based financial aid in 2018-19, with an average package of $54,301, with 100% of student financial needs met. The Power of Penn Campaign is expanding Penn’s robust undergraduate grant-based financial aid program and growing graduate and professional student aid to minimize the burden of debt.
The Penn First Plus initiative resulted from an executive planning progress lead by Provost Wendell Pritchett which resulted in significant recommendations to President Amy Gutmann for the increasing the support provided to students who were the first in their families to attend college or were from low-income families. The charge to the group was to identify changes that would increase the already exceedingly high graduation rates for students in these groups to match that of the University and to facilitate the recruitment and retention of students through inclusive pedagogy, holistic advising, programming to help navigate financial and academic challenges and opportunities, and promote the important of socioeconomic diversity to Penn’s aim of inclusive excellence. Penn First Plus is a hub that coordinates academic, social and financial resources for students (https://srfs.upenn.edu/financial-aid/highly-aided).
Additionally, surveys are conducted of various campus constituencies periodically and among the analyses of responses for internal use by Penn’s leadership team is by race, gender, and other dimensions of difference (https://www.upenn.edu/ir/surveys.html).

Survey results are reviewed by the Office of the Provost, the Office of the President, and Deans and relevant consultative groups to help shape policy, programs and initiatives.

The results of the surveys are published on the website of the Office of Institutional Research and Analysis which is responsible for the administration of University wide-surveys (https://www.upenn.edu/ir/surveys.html).

Reports from various consultative committees for example the University Council Committee on Diversity and Equity, the Economic Status of the Faculty, are also published in Almanac, the University’s journal of record, (https://almanac.upenn.edu/) and are available online via the Penn Diversity website.

The University of Pennsylvania is a major research institution, with over 3,000 degrees granted annually from twelve professional and academic schools at the Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate levels. Penn is committed to reducing emissions and energy use, as stated in the 2019 "Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 3.0." This submission documents Penn's efforts during the FY20 year and compares them to the FY09 baseline year which corresponds with the University's "Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 3.0." The submission relies on information related to the main, academic, West Philadelphia campus, but to more fully document efforts across the Penn system, information related to the Morris Arboretum and New Bolton Center has also been referenced and noted as outside the boundary in descriptions. The information is used to enrich examples of University efforts and is not intended to be the primary justification for credits. The responses for each of the questions and sub-questions are drawn from University materials, both internal and public documents. Each section notes the website where the information can be found.