Penn has a plan.
By Interim President J. Larry Jameson
Four years ago this spring, COVID-19 upended the world. We raced to adjust our ways, adopt new tools, and pivot our plans. To save lives and protect livelihoods, we adapted at top speed.
More recently, the events of the past several months have tested and continue testing many of us, globally and here at Penn. We’ve again had to adapt, responding to great challenges and addressing pressing needs.
Some might wonder, then, what’s the point of planning at all? Why strategize five years, 10 years, or even further down the road when some new global reality could so disrupt the route? Why invest energy, engage in a community-driven planning process, and implement a strategic framework for Penn’s future like In Principle and Practice?
Two Penn examples help illustrate why.
The world now knows the extraordinary story of Drs. Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, Penn scientists who won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their mRNA breakthroughs [“Gazetteer,” Nov|Dec 2023]. Their research made possible the COVID-19 vaccines that got the world moving again. Their work on mRNA technology continues opening new frontiers of medical science.
When Drs. Karikó and Weissman first met in 2005, though, this future could not have been predicted. While we could not foresee their specific breakthrough discovery, Penn Medicine had prioritized research on gene therapy, focused on translational research that linked basic discovery to clinical applications, and created a culture that valued collaboration.
These features, combined with the creativity and persistence of the scientists, laid the groundwork for their discovery and the lightning-fast development and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines— the speed of which ranks among the most incredible accomplishments in modern medicine.
My second example stretches across 1,600 acres of former farmland in central Pennsylvania. On those acres sit an amazing number (485,000) of new solar panels, the largest solar power project in the state.
Called the Great Cove I and II facilities and now fully operational, these panels will produce enough energy to meet 70 percent of Penn’s power demand across our campus and Health System in the Philadelphia area. We recently celebrated this milestone and the Power Purchase Agreement that made it possible, signed in February 2020.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change cautions that the world must limit global warming to 1.5°C by the end of this century. To heed this call, the world’s greenhouse gas emissions must decline by nearly half by 2030.
As the sun shines on those 1,600 acres in central PA, Penn not only takes an enormous step toward our own institutional goal of 100 percent carbon neutrality by 2042. We prepare for an unpredictable global future that can and will be met with Penn leadership. Such leadership was also on full display at the 28th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference in December, attended by an interdisciplinary delegation of more than two dozen Penn researchers.
It’s no coincidence that Penn’s strategic framework names climate and health among the great challenges that our University is uniquely equipped to tackle. Across our relatively compact campus, we bring expertise in policy, engineering, design, chemistry, health, and animal science in ways that are both distinctive and empowering.
We cannot know with certainty the contours of the next great healthcare crisis or paradigm shift in medical treatment, just as we cannot predict with finality what the world’s climate-related realities and needs will be in 2050. This, though, we do know. Penn’s planning today positions us for tomorrow, whatever it might bring. Penn’s actions now ensure that the world’s finest faculty, students, alumni, and staff are well-prepared and supported to lead.
In Principle and Practice announces and advances Penn’s values and strengths. It channels our academic missions and the power of our world-class schools, centers, and Health System. It also encompasses how we’re combating hate and ensuring safety and wellbeing on campus. We are moving with speed and care to ensure that Penn is a higher education leader on these issues in the short and long term. I am grateful to the members of the University Task Force on Antisemitism and the Presidential Commission on Countering Hate and Building Community, as well as our Student Advisory Groups for their time and dedication.
In a rapidly changing world, Penn must adapt rapidly as well. We are called—as Penn has always been—to bring our missions to bear for humanity. This is why In Principle and Practice is critically important to Penn’s future and why I strongly encourage all our alumni and everyone who loves Penn to read it and see themselves in it.
Of course, that’s the one thing driving all our strength, all our goals, all the good we do in the world: Our people and especially our global alumni community. I am profoundly grateful for the close ties you keep with Penn and with each other.
The future may be unpredictable. But Penn has a plan. I look forward to doing all that I can and partnering closely with you to bring In Principle and Practice to life.