EEOC v. University of Pennsylvania:
Unsettled Questions about Religious Protections, Privacy, and American Democracy Today
PCPSE Auditorium (Room 010)
Reception to follow
In July 2026, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Penn settled a dispute over a controversial subpoena requiring the university to provide contact details and membership rosters tied to Jewish campus groups. While the settlement resolved the immediate conflict, it left open important questions that bear on the future of freedom, privacy, and education. In this program, a panel of legal experts and stakeholders will reflect on the case itself and explore its implications for the struggle against antisemitism, the future of higher education, and the future of civil liberty. Katz Center director Steven Weitzman will moderate.
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Learn More about the 2026-27 Faculty Workshop Series, "Intimations of a New World Order"
Speaker Biographies
Randi Weingarten
American Federation of Teachers
Randi Weingarten is president of the 1.8-million-member American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which represents teachers; paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; higher education faculty and staff; nurses and other healthcare professionals; local, state and federal government employees; and early childhood educators. Prior to her election as AFT president in 2008, Weingarten served for 11 years as president of the United Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 2, representing approximately 200,000 educators in the New York City public school system, as well as home child care providers and other workers in health, law and education.
Weingarten holds degrees from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Cardozo School of Law. She worked as a lawyer for the Wall Street firm of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan from 1983 to 1986.
Amanda Shanor
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Amanda Shanor is an associate professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who teaches and writes about constitutional law, particularly the freedom of speech. Shanor’s research explores the changing meaning of the First Amendment and the forces that affect it—democratic theory, illiberalism, and equality—and the intersection of constitutional law and economic life. Prior to joining the academy, Shanor was a practicing lawyer in the National Legal Department of the American Civil Liberties Union who worked on the organization’s Supreme Court litigation and national strategy. This included Masterpiece Cakeshop, a case involving a bakery that declined to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple. Shanor is a graduate of Yale Law School and Yale College and holds a Ph.D. in law from Yale University.
Britt P. Tevis
Syracuse University
Britt P. Tevis is an assistant professor of history and the Phyllis Backer Professor of Jewish Studies at Syracuse University. Tevis’s research focuses on modern Jewish history. Her volume, Sanctioned Bigotry: A Documentary History of Antisemitism in the United States was published by Yale University Press in May. She is currently completing a monograph about early twentieth-century Jewish lawyers.
Olivia Haynie
University of Pennsylvania
Olivia Haynie is a current Ph.D. Student in Sociology. She attended Penn as an undergraduate student from 2020–2024, during which time she served in various leadership roles for Penn Hillel and Penn Chavurah. For the past two years, she worked as a culture writer for The Forward, America’s oldest Jewish publication, and is the co-author of the forthcoming book, A False Image of History: Perspectives on Confederate Commemoration from the Black Press.