US agency drops bid to force Penn to provide names in antisemitism probe

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has withdrawn its legal effort to compel the University of Pennsylvania to provide names and contact information for Jewish faculty and students. The agency had issued a subpoena last summer as part of an investigation into alleged antisemitism at the Ivy League school, following the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Penn had challenged the subpoena, citing privacy and safety concerns for Jewish individuals, and appealed a federal judge's ruling that ordered compliance. The university stated it provided nearly 900 pages of documents and offered to notify employees about the investigation but declined to share personal information. U.S. District Judge Gerald Pappert had initially ordered Penn to comply, finding the subpoena directly related to the EEOC's obligation to investigate discrimination complaints, though he paused the decision pending Penn's appeal. The EEOC's withdrawal of the subpoena does not end its broader investigation into the university, which is part of wider efforts by the Trump administration to examine universities for alleged promotion of ideologies critical of Israel.