Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity is not only a public good—it is also very good for Penn. Our quest for eminence depends on great minds that represent a wide array of perspectives and backgrounds.

President Amy Gutmann

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, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, historical traditions, ages, religions, disabilities, veteran status, interests, perspectives, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

President Gutmann’s Statement on Diversity

Understanding and appreciating diversity is foundational for success in today’s world.  It is fundamental to the education we provide at Penn and one of our University’s most important priorities.

Read statement on Diversity

DACA and Undocumented Student Resources

Penn benefits greatly from the rich diversity of all undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. As part of that commitment to inclusion, Penn provides access and support to undocumented students, including those with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) status.

DACA and Undocumented Student Resources Website

35 Years of Service - Greenfield Intercultural Center

For 35 years, the Greenfield Intercultural Center has served as Penn’s resource for enhancing student’s intercultural knowledge, competency, and leadership. The GIC offers experiential courses for credit, signature intercultural programs, and other services related to diversity and intercultural education.

Greenfield Intercultural Center

Supplier Diversity & Inclusion

Fueling Business Growth is tied to a multi-faceted action plan aimed at strengthening relationships, and expanding access to resources, with local, diverse and minority-owned businesses.

Supplier Diversity & Inclusion

Pan-Asian American Community House - 20 Years

For twenty years, the Pan-Asian American Community House has been a hub of academic, personal, and professional growth for Penn students interested in Asian American culture and the Asian American Diaspora. Through advising, leadership development, advocacy, social and cultural programming we expand student access to the University’s resources.

Pan-Asian American Community House

iCommunicate Intercultural Trainings

ISSS (International Student & Scholar Services) offers 3 tracks of iCommunicate trainings. Request a training for your group, office or department. Open to all Penn students, scholars, faculty and staff.

iCommunicate Intercultural Trainings

Penn & Slavery Augmented Reality App

The Penn & Slavery Project's student-developed app takes users on a tour of slavery's legacy at Penn in six stops, each telling a story through an augmented reality (AR) experience. The tour relates to specific locations on Penn's University City Campus.

Penn & Slavery Augmented Reality App
John E. Dowell: Paths to Freedom

EVENTS

September 10 - December 18, 2022

John E. Dowell: Paths to Freedom presents 26 photographs, an immersive installation, and soundscape by Philadelphia artist John E. Dowell. Staged in cotton fields at night, Dowell’s photographs conjure the spirits of his enslaved ancestors as they sought freedom, imagining the landscape they encountered in that search.  As Dowell notes in his artist statement this body of work responds to an auditory apparition, he experienced in 2017 while looking at a cotton field and contemplating his ancestral legacy of slavery: “Would you have had the courage, the strength, the wisdom to break for freedom?”

The largest of Dowell’s meticulously rendered panoramic photographs, Night Before the Run, is monumental in scale, measuring over six feet. The exhibition unfolds as a series of signs and ancestral visions through the darkness towards freedom.

Go to all events
Supplier Diversity & Inclusion

PROGRAMS

Fueling Business Growth is tied to a multi-faceted action plan aimed at strengthening relationships, and expanding access to resources, with local, diverse and minority-owned businesses.

Go to Supplier Diversity & Inclusion Website

ACTION PLAN FOR FACULTY DIVERSITY AND EXCELLENCE

Faculty Inclusion Report (PDF)

Penn Medicine Service in Action - Community Impact Report

Read the annual report

Tomorrow, Together

Penn's Next Century
 graduate at ceremony using wheelchair

Diversity at Penn

Penn has a number of policies and initiatives that support its efforts to foster inclusive excellence.  Diversity and inclusion related data, progress reports on initiatives, a timeline of selected milestones, and stories about members of the Penn community are available here.

Policies, Reports, Data and more
female in headscarf with friends

Academic Programs

Academic departments and centers offer research and talks that explore issues related to diversity and inclusion.  Additionally, the University’s schools, programs and centers offer programming to educate and support inclusive excellence and the intellectual and interpersonal development of its students, faculty, and staff.

Programs and Resource Offices
Male telling nursing story

Videos of Diversity

Inclusion and diversity are the focus of a number of videos that illuminate the University’s commitment and the journeys of members of the community.

Diversity Videos
Four dancers with colorful flags

Administrative Offices and Co-curricular Resources

Students, faculty and staff belong to organizations and affinity groups that provide opportunities to explore dimensions of diversity, share their stories,  offer support and mentorship, and educate themselves and others about particular dimensions of inclusion.

Affinity Organizations and groups

Towards Inclusion: Diversity at Penn


ACE Honors Penn President Amy Gutmann with 2015 Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award | View Transcript