Wharton donor dip
Campus antisemitism, free speech concerns
Donations have dropped at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School since Hamas’ October attack on Israel sparked tensions between the Ivy League business college and its donors, who have raised concerns over antisemitism and freedom of speech on campus.
The Wharton School’s dean, Erika James, told the Financial Times that gifts from funders dropped in recent months, though the losses were offset by extra revenues from tuition and income from the school’s other activities.
James wouldn’t give precise figures ahead of the end of the university’s fiscal year in June. Because Penn is a private institution, its financials aren’t public.
“There has been a dip in donations,” James told FT. “In any year, one [income source] will underperform. Now philanthropy is coming back. We weathered the storm.”
Wharton’s tuition costs — as well as fees, housing, food, class supplies and other personal expenses related to living on campus — totaled $92,228 for the 2023 school year, according to the university’s website.
A decade ago, undergraduate programs at Wharton cost roughly $61,000
This past school year, Wharton reportedly touted a mere 4.5% acceptance rate, meaning it admitted just 665 students out of nearly 11,000 applicants.
To bolster donations, James has launched a fresh round of discussions with donors, to whom she’s been stressing Wharton’s commitment to “creating knowledge useful to society” and strengthening its lessons on conflict management, productive engagement and civil discourse, according to FT.
The business school has had a strong reputation in finance since its founding as the world’s oldest collegiate business school in 1881. Notable graduates since then have included former President Donald Trump, JD Power of his eponymous data analytics giant, Pepsi CEO John Sculley and Wall Street legend Peter Lynch, among others.
Fellow alumnus Marc Rowan, who went on to become the billionaire chief of Apollo Global Management, was one of the most outspoken critics of Wharton since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, calling for tougher rules around students protesting against Israel.