Penn imposes major sanctions against controversial law professor Amy Wax, including suspension

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The University of Pennsylvania has sanctioned a controversial law professor.

Action News obtained the letter that detailed the decision against Carey Law School professor Amy Wax.

A faculty senate committee concluded that Wax engaged in "flagrant unprofessional conduct," and had a history of making sweeping and derogatory generalizations about groups based on their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and immigration status.

The university also found that Wax "on numerous occasions in and out of the classroom and in public, [made] discriminatory and disparaging statements targeting specific racial, ethnic, and other groups with which many students identify."

The Faculty Senate Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility released a report Tuesday confirming sanctions against the tenured professor, which includes a one-year suspension with half-pay, the loss of her named chair and an inability to represent Penn in public appearances, among other measures.

Read the full statement sent by a University of Pennsylvania spokesperson below:

"Last year, a five-member faculty Hearing Board determined that Professor Amy Wax violated the University's behavioral standards by engaging in years of flagrantly unprofessional conduct within and outside of the classroom that breached her responsibilities as a teacher to offer an equal learning opportunity to all students. These findings are now final, following a determination by the Faculty Senate's Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility that the proper process was followed.

As is required by the Faculty Handbook, further information on the case will be shared with the University community in the University of Pennsylvania Almanac."

Back in 2022, Action News covered the backlash after Wax came under fire for anti-Asian comments.

Dean of Penn Carey Law School Ted Ruger had initiated governing sanctions against Wax in January 2022. A hearing board conducted an evaluation in May 2023 and confirmed misconduct from Wax, which she appealed.

The Senate Committee's decision Tuesday strikes down Wax's appeal, and Interim President J. Larry Jameson confirmed that he will be upholding this "final decision" and implementing the sanctions recommended.

Provost John L. Jackson, Jr. also issued a public reprimand Tuesday, telling Wax that it is "imperative" that she "conduct [herself] in a professional manner in [her] interactions with faculty colleagues, students, and staff," which includes "refraining from flagrantly unprofessional and targeted disparagement of any individual or group in the University community."

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

"Professor Wax teaches a conservative thought seminar, and she is vocal on social media in expressing conservative ideas," Shapiro said in a 2023 op-ed. "My client must defend herself against scurrilous charges 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.

He also went on to attack the university for what he considered to be hypocritical policies.

While Penn's sanctions constitute major action against a tenured faculty member, students had previously expressed desire for Wax to be fired.

Law student Soojin Jeong told ABC News in 2022 that Wax's comments were "egregious," and added, "we really need to fire Amy Wax."

Also speaking to ABC News in 2022, law student Apratim Vidyarthi pointed to the double standard. "If I had said something like that, or you said something like that, or an NFL coach said something like that, they'd be fired off the bat," he said.

Students had advocated for Wax to be suspended while the investigation was ongoing. Vidyarthi told ABC News in 2022 that Wax "shouldn't be allowed to come on campus, she shouldn't be allowed to interact with students while this investigation is ongoing."

Jeong and Vidyarthi helped write a petition calling for university action against Wax, in which they stated that "Wax's racist comments have become a semi-annual ritual that receives temporary furor and temporary consequences."

In one example cited by the students, Wax in an April 2022 interview disparaged Indian Americans and said "on some level, their country is a s--thole."

In December 2021, Wax told Brown University professor Glenn Loury on his podcast "The Glenn Show" that "as long as most Asians support Democrats and help to 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 this a "very inconvenient fact."

In the letter from June 2022 initiating the disciplinary action against Wax, she was also accused of making homophobic and sexist remarks, including "commenting in class that gay couples are not fit to raise children" and telling students that "women, on average, are less knowledgeable than men."

Wax has repeatedly defended her rhetoric as free speech.

"Make no mistake, the goal and effect of these charges is to demolish - to totally gut - the protections for extramural speech and free faculty expression, and to drive dissenters like me out of the academy," she told free speech advocacy group FIRE Faculty Network last year.

ABC News contributed to this report.