Several groups at the University of Pennsylvania representing Jewish students, faculty, and staff are seeking to protect their names and personal information from beingturned over to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is suing Penn for the data.
The EEOC filed suit in November after the Ivy League university refused to comply with a subpoena seekinginformation for an investigation it began in 2023 over the school’s treatment of Jewish faculty and other employees regarding antisemitism complaints.
In its quest to find people potentially affected, the commission demanded a list of employees in Penn’s Jewish Studies Program, a list of all clubs, groups, organizations, and recreation groups related to the Jewish religion — including points of contact and a roster of members — and names of employees who lodged antisemitism complaints.
In a legal filing in federal court this week, several groups argued that their personal information should be kept private.
“In effect, these requests would require Penn to create and turn over a centralized registry of Jewish students, faculty, and staff — a profoundly invasive and dangerous demand that intrudes deeply into the freedoms of association, religion, speech, and privacy enshrined in the First Amendment,“ the groups charged in the filing. {read}