The University of Pennsylvania’s Board of Trustees unanimously elected J. Larry Jameson its next president on Thursday.

Jameson has been Penn’s interim president since 2023. His term will now run through June, 30, 2027, according to a news release. 

“The challenges facing higher education today are among the most significant ever encountered by American universities,” Ramanan Raghavendran, the chair of the board of trustees at Penn, said. “Given Penn’s complexity, size, location, and visibility, these issues have profound implications for our community.

“Penn has been very fortunate to have Larry Jameson at the helm during this time. I am pleased that our Board can recognize his exceptional performance, and acknowledge his inspirational leadership and vision, by formally extending his appointment to June 30, 2027.”

Jameson became Penn’s interim president amid a tumultuous time at the university in 2023. 

Jameson stepped into the role after former Penn president Liz Magill resigned following her comments in a Congressional hearing on campus antisemitism. Board Chair Scott Bok also resigned. 

In 2023, Magill was one of three college presidents who testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce about how they’ve handled antisemtic incidents on their campuses since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel.

In the hearing, Magill got in an exchange with New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik about whether calling for the genocide of Jewish people violates the Ivy League university’s code of conduct. 

“If it is directed and severe and pervasive, it is harassment,” Magill said during the hearing.

“So the answer is yes?” Stefanik replied.

“It is a context-dependent decision, Congresswoman,” Magill answered.

Bok said in a statement after the two stepped down that Magill made a “very unfortunate misstep” in the House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing.

Before he became the interim president in 2023, Jameson was Penn’s executive vice president for the health system and the dean of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine since 2011. 

Jameson was the dean of the dean of the Feinberg School of Medicine and vice president of medical affairs at Northwestern University before joining Penn.

“I am profoundly honored by this vote of confidence from our Board of Trustees,” Jameson said in a statement. “I look forward to continuing the vital work of our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community members to uphold Penn’s mission of utilizing knowledge for the greater good. I am confident that our University’s future is bright as we prioritize our core values of excellence, freedom of inquiry and expression, and respect. I am deeply committed to this extraordinary institution, and it is an honor to serve as Penn’s President.”  

The Pennsylvania lawyer representing Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is seeking to dismiss the criminal charges he faces in the state.

The Ivy League graduate is accused of gunning down Thompson near a Midtown Manhattan hotel on December 4. Authorities believe he then escaped the crime scene by foot, bike, cab, and bus to Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he was arrested nearly a week later, concluding a manhunt that gripped the nation.

Police violated the law during its stop, arrest, and seizure of Mangione in December at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania on December 9, 2024, his lawyer Thomas Dickey argued in a motion Monday.

The charges he faces in the state were based on evidence “received as a fruit of an illegal stop, seizure, detention, and/or arrest,” the filing stated. Mangione has not yet made a plea in Pennsylvania.

Mangione is seeking to dismiss numerous state charges: forgery, firearms not to be carried without a license, tampering records, possessing an instrument of a crime, and false identification to law enforcement. He’s also asking the court to suppress evidence, search warrants, statements made at his arraignment, as well as the reference to his so-called “manifesto.” This label was “improper” and was done “solely for the purpose to prejudice the Defendant and put him in a negative light before the public,” Dickey argued.

The Altoona Police Department “lacked reasonable suspicion” to arrest and detain Mangione at that time, the attorney said.

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Before the McDonald’s employee made the 911 call that led to Mangione’s arrest, the police had “no paperwork, photograph, warrant, communication, or other information in its possession corroborating the speculation that Defendant was in fact the person being sought in New York,” the filing says.

They also lacked “probable cause” to conduct a Terry frisk, since it was done despite “no factual basis to form a reasonable belief” that Mangione may be armed and dangerous.

Police officers blocked him from leaving the fast food restaurant; he didn’t know that he was free to go, the lawyer argued.

The “unlawful detention” spanned about 20 minutes while police tried to identify Mangione as the suspect wanted in New York. Although officers also sent a photo of the defendant to agents at the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office and FBI.

“No official identification of the Defendant, as being the suspect from New York, was ever made by any law enforcement personnel from the State of New York; the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, or the FBI,” Dickey argued. The purported identification as the wanted person in New York was “speculative and based on a hunch.”

Mangione was also not given any information as to why he was being held, the filing says.

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After 15 minutes of “unlawful detention,” he was told he was “officially under a police investigation” but was not immediately read his Miranda rights.

Police also searched his belongings, including his backpack, without a valid warrant to search these items, the lawyer argued. They discover a 9mm handgun, a mechanized upper receiver, a suspected 3D-printed suppressor, some handwritten notes and a red notebook, dubbed by police as a “manifesto.”

Any and all items obtained from Magnione on December 9, 2024 should be suppressed, the lawyer argued.

This filing comes weeks after Karen Friedman Agnifilo, the attorney representing him in his New York state case, told the court during a pretrial hearing that she believes there were search and seizure violations during his Pennsylvania arrest.

She argued that he was “treated differently than other defendants,” since he was being held in federal custody despite the state case proceedings coming first.

He faces 11 criminal counts in New York, including murder as an act of terrorism, in connection with the December 4 killing; he has pleaded not guilty.

He also faces murder and stalking charges at the federal level. He has yet to make a plea in this venue.

Mangione is due back in federal court in New York on March 19.

A GiveSendGo legal fund, created by the December 4 Legal Committee, has garnered more than $720,000 as of Thursday. Mangione’s defense team last month said he would be accepting the funds.

“Luigi is aware of the fund and very much appreciates the outpouring of support. My client plans on utilizing it to fight all three of the unprecedented cases against him,” Agnifilo said.

The Trump administration took the first step in dismantling the Department of Education, as reports say more than 1,300 staff members were let go
.

According to the teachers, these cuts create a trickle-down effect, impacting services, including those for children with special needs. The move is setting off alarms for educators.

“Everybody has a different learning process and we need to make sure that all of our students are getting the delivery of education that they need,” Pennsylvania State Education Association vice president Jeff Ney said.

The PSEA said the state receives about $1.6 billion in federal money. According to it and the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, the bulk of it helps low-income schools and special needs students.

“This harms students. It’s anti-worker, and it’s really reprehensible the way the Trump administration is handling it,” Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers president Billy Hileman said.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly said his plan is to give the power back to the states.

“We’re trying to get the schools back into the states. Let the states run the schools. And I’ll tell you, you’ll see something that’s going to blow your mind, it’s going to be run so well,” Mr. Trump said.

Union leaders feel that the cuts to staff could delay how quickly the money comes down to school districts.

“It’s not just a simple click of a button,” Ney said.

The PSEA said this funding supports the work of 7,000 teachers and staff who could lose their jobs.

“School districts are going to have to make some very difficult decisions because they don’t have the resources that are coming down because of the cuts that were made to those staff,” Ney said.

Right now, schools are left in a waiting game to see how this will impact them.

For student loans
, the president has tossed around the idea of those being covered by a different department.