A Message to the Annenberg Community on the Supreme Court Affirmative Action Ruling

Dear Annenberg Community,

As all of us think through the implications of today’s affirmative action decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, I want to assure all of you that Annenberg remains firmly committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

As President Magill and Provost Jackson shared in their message to the community, the University of Pennsylvania and each of its schools — the Annenberg School for Communication among them — will continue to comply with our nation’s laws, while finding allowable ways to ensure that our community remains diverse. 

We remain steadfast in our conviction that a diversity of people and ideas are essential in achieving our school’s mission of educating the next generation of communication scholars and practitioners, producing the highest level of impactful scholarship, and serving the local, national, and global communities of which we are a part. We also strongly believe that it requires creating an environment in which all members of the Annenberg School community feel welcomed, valued, and treated equitably. 

Although we may need to alter some of our admissions considerations, we will continue to work diligently to attract a diverse pool of highly qualified applicants, and to support doctoral students whose diverse experiences have equipped them to engage in scholarship and make meaningful contributions to the wide range of communication-related problems facing our world.

Sincerely,

Michael X. Delli Carpini

Interim Dean
Faculty Director, SNF Paideia Program
Oscar H. Gandy Emeritus Professor of Communication & Democracy
Annenberg School for Communication
University of Pennsylvania