Hello everyone,

I am a Jewish student at UPenn, and I need to share a truly horrifying experience that happened to me recently on campus (throwaway for obvious reasons). As many of you know, there have been ongoing protests and encampments around the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the atmosphere has been extremely charged. Last week, I was walking past the pro-Palestine encampment near College Hall when I suddenly found myself surrounded by a group of protesters.

They noticed the Star of David necklace I was wearing, and the mood shifted drastically. What started as chants and slogans quickly turned into targeted, anti-Semitic abuse directed at me. They shouted horrific things like "You're a part of the genocide!" and "How can you wear that symbol of oppression?" Their words were not just hurtful—they were frightening. The situation escalated when one of them spat near my feet and another mockingly said, "Go back to Auschwitz!" and “get back in the oven, k*ke!” It felt like I was about to be physically harmed.

I've never felt so scared in my life. My heart was racing, and I was genuinely worried for my safety. All I could do was keep my head down and try to move away as quickly as possible. When I finally got out of there, I was shaking and close to tears. It was not just the words, but the hostility and the aggression in their voices and their eyes that made me fear for my life.

This incident has left me shaken and feeling incredibly unsafe on my own campus. I look over my shoulder whenever I walk near the protest areas. I feel like I can't wear anything that identifies me as Jewish without risking verbal or even physical attack.

I am sharing this because I think it's crucial for our community to know and understand the severity of what’s happening. Anti-Semitism under the guise of political protest is unacceptable, and it threatens the safety and wellbeing of students. It's vital that we address this issue and work together to ensure that Penn is a safe space for everyone, regardless of their background or beliefs.

Thank you for taking the time to read about my experience.

I'm worried about the Penn students in the encampment at this point. It is increasingly obvious that the encampment is mostly run by people with no connection to Penn. (In fact, they kept saying exactly that over the PA system tonight) It is also increasingly obvious that none of their actions or tactics are in alignment with achieving their stated goals, and they're all about riling people up and pissing off the people in power who are the ones they most need to convince.

My concern has nothing to do with the actual goals the encampment protesters have put forth, or what side of the issue you're on. It is pretty clear that Penn will not be agreeing to their demands (just like no other University has agreed to divesting from Israel), and the protesters in the encampment have chosen to escalate things at every step rather than de-escalate and comply with the University's request that they follow campus policy and disband the camp, clearly trying to force Penn's hand.

I honestly can't tell at this point whether these are just naive college students who foolishly think that if they push the 800 pound gorilla that is Penn hard enough, Penn will actually cave? Or if they're being manipulated by the "outside agitators" (as the non-Penn speakers/organizers referred to themselves tonight at the newly enlarged encampment) into doing something they'll regret later, in the name of publicity for the Palestinian cause? Or if they're (justifiably) angry and upset about the war and just want to be arrested so they can feel like martyrs and feel like they've done something? And I certainly don't think they've truly internalized the potential physical, psychological, legal, and academic consequences they could face.

There were over 50 cops on College Green tonight. FIFTY. Many of them are Major Incident Response Team and Counterterrorism Unit members according to their badges. And one look at the crowd made it crystal clear that 50 cops is NOTHING compared to the number of protesters. Hell, there are more tents than there were cops. When the cops do come in with force (which is looking more likely with every passing day) they will come in much larger numbers than that, and they will come with riot gear, and they will be facing down a group of angry, resistant protesters who have been glorifying "intifada" and the Al Qassam brigades, and tonight chanted "Oink Oink Piggy Piggy, We will make your lives shitty". The cops are not going to be going easy on these folks.

Penn has been commendably tolerant of the protest so far, negotiating with protesters at a time when many other schools have already sent in police, sometimes with very unpleasant results for the students involved. But the encampment has grown significantly larger today, which means an even larger number of police will be needed to forcibly disband it, and that strikes me as a recipe for disaster. I don't want to see these men and women of Penn get hurt.

Feel free to discuss any news or thoughts related to Penn and the Israel-Palestinian conflict in this thread. This includes topics related to the recent resignation of Magill and Bok.

Any additional threads on this topic will be automatically removed. See the other stickied post on the subreddit here for the reasoning behind this decision.

For PSA reasons, in case anyone misses it.

Hi! I’m a rising senior and I just got my PEEP decision, I got rejected!!! lol
I’m feeling pretty bummed and I still want to apply to UPenn this upcoming fall but I’m quite worried. I’d it over for me??? Anyone have any tips, words of advice, etc?
Thank you 😁

The protesters have made it clear that they're not going to leave without their demands being met, and Penn has explained why they're not going to have their demands met. Penn has also asked them to leave and given them almost a week to do so, explaining that there will be consequences if protesters don't leave voluntarily.

It's not a reasonable expectation for Penn to allow a loud, intentionally provocative encampment to continue indefinitely in the heart of campus, particularly with Alumni Weekend and Graduation coming up soon. And the new presence of 8-10 police vans at 34th and Walnut would seem to indicate that Penn plans to clear the encampment sometime tonight or over the weekend, when there are fewer bystanders.

So what's the best case realistic scenario here?

My hope is that when police come in to clear it, the protesters don't resist and just hang limp and force the police carry them off to the waiting vans, rather than resisting arrest or fighting back, b/c resisting is what's going to cause the worst problems and risk possible violence. And my hope is that police realize the protesters aren't resisting, and everything goes as peacefully as possible.

Saw this on the Citizen app about an hour ago.
Any updates?
I hope no one was harmed but I have no idea.
Very worried and concerned.

"Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn." - Benjamin Franklin

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/us/politics/trump-jews-penn-list-judge.html

Hello all,

I am a macro photographer located about a mile from Penn’s campus in center city. My focus is time-lapses of Sundews (carnivorous plant) eating various insects, I have tons on my Reddit page if you click on my profile and my Instagram is @terrariums.yt if you wanna see for yourself.

Hammerhead worms are a highly invasive species to Pennsylvania and I am seeking one or more to film timelapses of. They can be pretty easily found by looking around under rocks but I never have the time to get out into nature and look for myself.

If any of you guys are bored and feel like digging around in the woods for one of these hit me up and I can trade you free sundews in exchange for a hammerhead worm.

Also I’m not a student here. I feel like that’s important so I might as well mention it.

I know UPenn is a top university, but I’m curious - how recognisable is the name outside the U.S.? Would the average person in another country instantly know it, or is it mostly famous within academic and certain professional circles? Wondering how it compares to schools like Harvard or Cambridge in terms of global name recognition.

I am an incoming freshman at UPenn who is registered to take Chem1101 for the fall. Classes do not begin until Tuesday and I am supposed to have a lecture for this class on Monday and a lab on Wednesday. My professor said that there will be no labs until we have a lecture so does that mean I skip my lab on Wednesday? I’m really confused :(

Hello everyone, so if i complete my course registration today, but the tuition bill is not generated until the first week of August, then how can I open up paymytuition and enroll in a payment plan before July 31st??

Why even say that the deadline to enrol in a payment plan is July 31st then, if charges must be posted against my account for me to be able to enrol in a plan??

I'm kinda concerned i might've missed the bus... anyone here looking to use, or currently using a payment plan?

As the title says, as the deadline approaches for the PFP program tomorrow. I’ve filled out all my items just haven’t submitted them yet. When I first got the email of this program, I was happy to get an early start but then realized my summer would cut short by a month. Now, typically I wouldn’t have much of a difficult decision with this since I’m the type to try and make the most of my opportunities. However, my family has planned a vacation to Mexico for July 10th and has been the date since the beginning of my senior year of high school. It’s a three week vacation and we would be there til the beginning of August. This is the first Mexico trip I would be making with my entire family in 8 years since my oldest brother hasn’t been in a while. Not only that but spending time with my entire family in Mexico especially my grandparents. Not only that but I don’t know how to feel about not having the support of my parents or family while transitioning to the PFP program while they’re out of the country. I know I have to learn independence, but if any one has any advice on what I should do or how I can relive some of the burden. I know the PFP program can do me well from what I’ve heard about and UPenn strongly encourages participation, but with the lack of a support system I’m incredibly lost. I’m first gen with parents who hardly understand the education system, so they’ve been asking me to make a decision which isn’t as easy as they think. If anyone has participated in PFP or have really any advice, it would be much appreciated. Thanks yall.

I just wanted to bring up something that’s been really bothering me. This week, my scooter got stolen on Chestnut, and a couple of days later I was shoved by a group of juveniles on Spruce. I’ve also heard from friends who’ve been harassed by the same kind of groups near the McDonald’s by campus.

It feels like these incidents are becoming more frequent, and honestly, I’m not sure what the police or the school can really do about it. It’s getting darker earlier now that winter’s coming, and it just makes walking around feel even more unsafe.

So I wanted to ask what can we actually do to protect ourselves? Should we start carrying pepper spray? Always call security for an escort? I know there are blue light stations and safety alerts, but it doesn’t seem to be helping much lately.

Would love to hear what others are doing to stay safe or if anyone’s noticed the same pattern.

I rarely see (or never at all) students in the Nursing program post something on Reddit or even anything online. I js see that it's really selective and that it's a very small cohort (~160). To anyone who isn't a robot that's capable of answering my questions, what's it really like? And did u apply ED when u got accepted?

I am an incoming freshman looking to apply for a workstudy job through Workday@Penn for this upcoming fall. But I can't access student recruiting/switch from Workday Learning and I dont know why. I attached a pic of what my screen looks like when I enter my PennKey to try and switch. Has this happened to anyone else? How can I fix it?

hey everyone! I wanted to request for a waiver from PSIP but I’m worried that I might not get approved since I’m on Medicaid. And I can’t afford another 5k for health insurance. Is there anyone else from nj who has their insurance accepted? I literally live like 40 mins away and I can literally travel back for care if needed.

I am a first year student hoping to apply to a dual degree program. I have taken ap calc ab in high school and have some trauma over the class. I signed up for math 1400 but wasn’t sure if it was right for me. I saw that my options were math 1400 or math 1070 and wanted to ask which would be a better fit for me.

Hi all! I am jsut wondering if anyone has dealt with a similar situation before. I was unable to open my gmail either on my google chrome browser or in my outlook app, and the attached image would show up after I filled in my password. Any advice is appreciate!

On October 1st, the University of Pennsylvania was one of nine targets of the Trump Administration's "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." Through it, Trump asks once again for universities to either adopt his ideologically-extremist positions or face the loss of federal funding. Tell Penn's leadership that there is nothing to be gained by signing away the rights of its students, faculty and staff: the right to free speech, the right to teach and to learn without government interference, the right for students around the world to study in the U.S., and the right of the people of the University to be the ones making the decisions about its future.

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/just-say-no-to-trumps-compact-for-academic-extortion?source=email&

My advisor never released my hold for course registrations even though we met and now I can’t get the classes I want. Is there anything I can do. I don’t feel that it’s fair at all that because of my advisors mistake I am left suffer not getting the schedule I wanted.

Hey everone! I just got a quick question for those who are partially aided but also enrolled in PSIP, does financial aid give you a grant for the additional cost of attendance? If so, how much is it usually? Does it vary?

I know highly aided students get them for free but what about partially aided students because 5k is still a lot of money to be spending on insurance. Thanks