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Two University of Pennsylvania professors and the Penn Faculty for Justice in Palestine group are suing the private institution, asking a judge to stop it from giving the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce documents for its antisemitism investigation.
“The committee first sent a letter to Penn demanding the production of many categories of information, including private FERPA [Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act]-protected student files and documents pertaining to an annual scholarly event produced by plaintiff [Huda] Fakhreddine focusing on Palestinian literature,” says the lawsuit, filed Saturday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The Daily Pennsylvanian student newspaper previously reported on the suit.
Fakhreddine, an Arab American and an associate professor of Arabic literature, has said she helped organize Penn’s September Palestine Writes literature festival, which garnered controversy even before the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. The other professor suing is Eve Troutt Powell, the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of History and past president of the Middle East Studies Association.
“Since this was not a subpoena but a letter requesting voluntary compliance, Penn would have been within its rights to protect its community by refusing compliance,” the suit says. “Instead, Penn, its trustees off balance and frightened by the accusations of anti-Semitism, announced it would comply with the committee’s letter, and, on information and belief, has begun producing documents.”
A spokesman for the House committee said it “does not have a comment at this time.” A university spokesman said Tuesday that Penn had yet to be served and had no further comment.
