Penn's law school pauses scholarship honoring its first Black female graduate, plans to close equal opportunity office

PHILADELPHIA — The University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law school has paused a full tuition scholarship program named for its first Black graduate and plans to close its office of “equal opportunity and engagement” this month, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the decisions.

The changes come as President Donald Trump’s administration pushes for an end to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at universities nationwide. The White House has threatened to pull federal funding from those that do not comply.

Penn Carey Law in 2021 launched its Sadie T.M. Alexander scholarships, which have been open to entering law school students who want to focus on racial justice and honoring Alexander’s legacy. The program was initially suggested by members of the Black Law Student Association and initiated under the leadership of former dean Ted Ruger. It came as the law school coped with fallout from comments made by professor Amy Wax, questioning the academic performance of Black students and as the nation’s racial and economic inequities were thrust into the spotlight during the pandemic and after the 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

The scholarship’s website states that the school will not be accepting applications for the 2025-26 admissions cycle.

Penn Law in a statement to the law school community Thursday morning acknowledged the closing of the office at the end of the summer. Dean Sophia Z. Lee said while the office is closing, the school remains committed “to ensuring access and opportunity for all.”

“These values guide how we teach, learn, and work together, and will continue to be deeply embedded in the life of the Law School,” the school said in a statement to The Inquirer.

The office’s work, which included helping law school members “dialogue across difference” and supporting the community, will be “integrated into broader, school-wide initiatives,” Lee said in the campus message.

She did not say what would happen to the few staff members who work in the office, including interim associate dean Josie B.H. Pickens, formerly the chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer for Philadelphia.

“It’s frustrating that Penn is capitulating in this way,” said a source familiar with the decision who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal. “This programming is essential for keeping people motivated and engaged in ways that we haven’t seen in the past.”

In a statement to The Inquirer, the law school did not say why it made the decisions to close the office or pause the scholarship. Current Sadie Alexander scholars will continue to receive funding and “programmatic support,” the school said.

“Details about the program’s future will be shared as the Law School continues to assess next steps,” the school said.

The law school’s equal opportunity office formerly was called the office of equity and inclusion, but was changed last semester as part of a university wide effort to scrub diversity language from Penn’s website.

Penn, like some other colleges nationally, began removing references to diversity initiatives in February in response to Trump’s executive order threatening funding for colleges that employ diversity efforts. The U.S. Department of Education also issued a “dear colleague” letter that ordered schools to stop using racial preferences as a factor in their admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, and other areas.

At the time, Penn’s medical school began planning to dissolve committees having to do with diversity, equity, and inclusion and reviewing its pipeline programs that bring candidates from diverse backgrounds into the medical school for programming.

The Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper, meticulously documented changes regarding diversity to websites at Penn schools, including Wharton, Penn Engineering, the School of Dental Medicine, the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, Penn Libraries, and athletics.

Last month, Penn reached a deal with the Trump administration over having a trans athlete compete during the 2021-22 women’s swimming season, agreeing to apologize to other female swimmers and to adhere to definitions of the words sex, female, male, women, and men as spelled out in a Trump executive order. As a result, $175 million in paused federal funding was restored to the university.

At the law school, the now-paused scholarship is named for civil rights activist Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, the first African American woman to receive a PhD in the United States who later graduated from Penn’s law school in 1927. As an undergraduate at Penn, she was not permitted to check out books from the library and was refused service by restaurants and bookstores near campus, according to Penn’s Almanac. At the law school, then-dean William E. Mikell tried to stop her from participating on the university’s Law Review, the oldest and one of the most prestigious law journals in the country, even though her high grades meant she should have been allowed.

But through the support of her classmates and professors, she became the first Black woman to serve on the Law Review’s editorial board.

“Dr. Alexander embodied cross-disciplinary, groundbreaking academic and professional success in the face of overwhelming obstacles and discrimination,” the school says on its website page for the scholarship. “With resilience and determination, she knocked down doors of race and gender that would not willingly open, paving the way for future generations....”

The law school announced its first group of Sadie Alexander scholars in the spring of 2022.

“It is an honor to carry on Dr. Alexander’s legacy, and the opportunity to do so is evident of the BLSA students who go above and beyond to make Penn Law an equitable and inclusive environment for the entire community,” recipient Angel Reed said in a statement to Penn’s Almanac. “I hope to make them proud and continue to break down barriers for those who come after me, as they did for me, and as Alexander did for so many generations of Black women.”

The law school in recent years has been embroiled in controversy over Wax. Former dean Ruger in 2022 invoked a review process in an effort to have her disciplined for her comments, which also included saying that the country would be better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration.

After winding its way through the academic disciplinary process for several years, the university last year announced it would sanction Wax. She appealed, but a federal judge recently declined to pause the disciplinary action and Wax’s suspension with half pay is in effect this academic year.