Penn’s 10th president will end his term in June.
Over the summer, J. Larry Jameson confirmed that he would be ending his tenure as Penn’s president on June 30, 2027, after what will be three and a half years in office. “Although I greatly enjoy serving as President, now is the right time for Penn to begin its next chapter under new leadership,” he stated in a June 12 message to the Penn community.
“When I accepted the honor of leading Penn, my goal was to help restore stability during unanticipated leadership transitions, refocus our community on Penn’s mission, and strengthen Penn for the future during a challenging time for higher education,” Jameson wrote. “With your partnership, resilience, and dedication, we have accomplished these objectives and much more. Penn has tremendous momentum and is exceptionally well positioned for the future.”
Jameson, who had previously spent a dozen years as executive vice president for the health system and dean of the Perelman School of Medicine, was thrust into the presidency in December 2023 following the resignation of Penn’s ninth president, Liz Magill, after controversies culminating in her testimony at a Congressional hearing on antisemitism. Jameson served in an interim role until March 2025, when the University’s trustees voted to make the appointment permanent and extended his term to June 30, 2027.
Early in his tenure Jameson confronted continuing tensions when a pro-Palestinian encampment was set up on College Green. After 16 days of negotiations, he ordered its disbanding by police. His administration also settled a Title IX investigation by the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights that had suspended $175 million in research funding arising from the participation of transgender athlete Lia Thomas C’22 on the women’s swim team in 2021–22.
Both actions were criticized by faculty and others within and outside the University, but more generally Jameson is credited with restoring a sense of normalcy to campus and a renewed focus on the University’s core missions. In September 2024, he announced a new policy limiting institutional statements under which “the University will issue messages on local or world events rarely, and only when those events lie within our operational remit.” He presided over the relaunch of Penn’s strategic framework, Of Principle and Practice, and led the development of a further planning structure, Penn Forward, aimed at enabling the University to continue to thrive in the current period of “historic change,” when the “headwinds Penn and higher education face are fierce,” as he once wrote in the Gazette [“From College Hall, Sep|Oct 2025].
“Together, we have built upon a foundation of academic excellence,” Jameson said in his June message. “We have made education more accessible and affordable, witnessed multiple medical breakthroughs, championed recognition of faculty and students, and strengthened a culture of inclusion, collaboration, respect, and thoughtful debate.”
He pledged to build on Penn’s momentum in his remaining time in College Hall. “Penn Forward has launched an ambitious set of actionable initiatives that will further enhance access, catalyze discovery, and extend our reach, nationally and globally, positioning Penn to lead in a rapidly changing world for years to come. I look forward to continuing that work with you while partnering with the Board of Trustees to ensure a seamless leadership transition.”
In a separate message, Board of Trustees Chair Ramanan Raghavendran EAS’89 W’89 LPS’15 wrote that the board “respects his decision” and praised Jameson for stepping in at a “pivotal moment” in Penn’s history. “What he has accomplished in two and a half years has been simply extraordinary,” Raghavendran added.
The search for a new president is under way, beginning with the formation of a consultative committee that includes trustees, deans, students, faculty, and staff. For more information, visit president.upenn.edu/presidential-search. —JP
