Divest from 76ers arena: Penn students rally and attempt to disrupt board of trustees meeting in protest against Chinatown arena

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Taryn Flaherty is mayoral candidate Helen Gym’s daughter, and Kaia Chau is the daughter of Asian Americans United co-founder Debbie Wei.

University of Pennsylvania students protested against the 76ers’ new arena proposal at a board of trustees meeting Friday.

The students entered the meeting after leading a rally in opposition to the arena that would be situated on the border of Chinatown, but were quickly removed.

Outside the Inn at Penn, where the meeting was taking place, dozens of students gathered to demand the university remove arena developers David Adelman, Josh Harris, and David Blitzer from their appointed positions on the board of trustees of Penn, the Wharton School, and Penn Medicine.

The students also demanded the university divest from corporations involved in financing the arena, and issue a statement in support of the Chinatown community’s stance against the arena.

“What students have realized is that Penn is complicit in the gentrification and displacement of a lot of communities of color,” said Kaia Chau, cofounder of Students for the Preservation of Chinatown (SPOC) and niece of Asian Americans United co-founder Debbie Wei. “This is the most tangible way that students can get involved: challenging their university, especially when your university, like Penn, is one of the most influential institutions in Philadelphia.”

“Chinatown’s future is being decided right now.”

When a group of nine students attempted to enter Friday’s meeting, they were initially barred from doing so and told the room was full, said SPOC cofounder Taryn Flaherty, who is also mayoral candidate Helen Gym’s daughter. The students eventually entered the room and spoke about their concerns over the university’s involvement in the arena and its negative impact on Chinatown. Hotel management then came and notified the students that police were downstairs, Flaherty said, asking whether they wanted to be escorted out.

“We weren’t doing anything against the rules. They were the ones who closed the meeting,” Flaherty said. “They’re definitely trying to suppress us. They’re definitely scared of us.”

A spokesperson for Penn didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on why students were turned away from the meeting and whether the university would consider their demands.

Since the Sixers announced plans to build the new arena last summer, community members in and outside of Chinatown have vigorously rejected the plan, citing concerns about gentrification, displacement and quality of life issues.

“Chinatown’s future is being decided right now,” said Flaherty. “That is why we’re choosing this time to let administration know and educate them about how people, students especially, are thinking about this arena and to ask them to look at what they’re investing in.”

» READ MORE: Meet the women who lead the fight for Chinatown’s existence in Philly

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Penn isn’t the only local university being pressured by its students to rethink board appointments.

Drexel University students have also been protesting Adelman’s spot on that university’s Real Estate Advisory Board. Over the past week and half, students with Drexel Community for Justice (DCJ) have staged a sit-in at the university’s main building to demand a $10 million pledge to the UC Townhomes impacted by development plans, as well as the removal of Adelman from the university’s board.

“Our motto right now is, ‘Same struggle, same fight,’ ” said Winter Schneider, an organizer with DCJ and former adjunct at Drexel. “What we’re trying to call out is the way that people like Adelman, corporate developers, billionaires, are generating revenue for themselves, and not pouring back into these neighborhoods.”