Penn imposes severe sanctions on controversial law professor Amy Wax, including a one-year suspension

The University of Pennsylvania will impose severe sanctions on Carey Law School professor Amy Wax after an investigation concluded that she was “guilty of ‘blatant unprofessional conduct.'” This included “a history of making sweeping and derogatory generalizations about groups based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and immigration status.”

The university also found that Wax “on numerous occasions inside and outside the classroom and in public, [made] discriminatory and derogatory statements directed against certain racial, ethnic and other groups with which many students identify.”

The Faculty Senate’s Committee on Academic Freedom and Accountability released a report Tuesday upholding sanctions against the tenured professor, which include a one-year suspension on half pay, loss of her professorship and a ban on representing Penn in public appearances.

“Last year, a five-member hearing panel ruled that Professor Amy Wax violated the university’s standards of conduct by engaging in blatantly unprofessional conduct in and out of the classroom for years, thereby violating her responsibility as an educator to provide equal learning opportunities for all students,” a university spokesperson told ABC News.

Wax has been criticized for years for her controversial comments about minority groups, particularly black and Asian people.

Penn Carey Law School Dean Ted Ruger initiated regulatory sanctions against Wax in January 2022. A hearing panel conducted an evaluation in May 2023 and confirmed misconduct by Wax, which she appealed.

With the Senate committee’s decision on Tuesday, Wax’s appeal was dismissed, and interim President J. Larry Jameson confirmed that he would uphold this “final decision” and implement the recommended sanctions.

Provost John L. Jackson Jr. also issued a public reprimand to Wax on Tuesday, saying it was “imperative” that she “ [herself] in a professional manner in [her] Interactions with faculty, students, and staff,” which includes “refraining from blatantly unprofessional and targeted denigration of individuals or groups in the University community.”

Wax and her attorney, David Shapiro, did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

In a 2023 opinion piece in the Daily Pennsylvanian, Shapiro defended her comments, saying, “Professor Wax teaches a seminar on conservative thought and is vocal about conservative ideas on social media.”

“My client must defend herself against the slanderous accusations of ‘racism’ and ‘white supremacy’ because, as a white Jewish conservative, she dared to question the liberal orthodoxy about the lives of many African Americans,” Shapiro added. He also attacked the university for what he saw as its hypocritical policies.

While Penn’s sanctions represent a serious infringement on the legal status of a tenured professor, students had previously expressed a desire to fire Wax.

Law student Soojin Jeong told ABC News in 2022 that Wax’s comments were “outrageous,” adding, “We really need to fire Amy Wax.”

Law student Apratim Vidyarthi also pointed out the double standard in a 2022 interview with ABC News. “If I had said something like that, or you had said something like that, or an NFL coach had said something like that, they would have been fired immediately,” he said.

Students had lobbied for Wax to be suspended while the investigation was ongoing. Vidyarthi told ABC News in 2022 that Wax “should not be allowed to come on campus, she should not be allowed to interact with students while this investigation is ongoing.”

Jeong and Vidyarthi helped write a petition calling on the university to take action against Wax, stating, “Wax’s racist comments have become a semi-annual ritual that generates temporary uproar and temporary consequences.”

In one example cited by the students, Wax expressed denigration of Indian Americans in an April 2022 interview with Fox News, saying, “On some level, their country is a shithole.”

In December 2021, Wax told Brown University professor Glenn Loury on his podcast “The Glenn Show”: “As long as most Asians support the Democrats and help advance their positions, I think the United States is better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration.”

Wax also told Loury in 2017, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a black student graduate in the top quarter of the class, and rarely, rarely in the top half,” calling it a “very inconvenient fact.”

In the June 2022 letter initiating disciplinary proceedings against Wax, she was also accused of making homophobic and sexist remarks. For example, she “commented in class that homosexual couples were not suitable to raise children” and told students that “women, on average, know less than men.”

Wax has repeatedly defended her rhetoric as an expression of free speech.

“Make no mistake, the goal and effect of these charges is to destroy — completely undermine — protections for free speech outside the university and free expression among faculty members and to drive dissidents like me out of the academy,” she told the free speech advocacy group FIRE Faculty Network last year.

ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.