University of Penn Law School Listed Precisely One (1) Female Native American Professor, Too

Exclusive, and scoop, I believe.

Here's what we already knew: Elizabeth Warren was listed as a "Minority" at UPenn.

The University of Pennsylvania, where Warren taught at the law school from 1987 through 1995, listed her as a minority in a “Minority Equity Report” posted on its website. The report, published in 2005, well after her departure, included her as the winner of a faculty award in 1994. Her name was highlighted in bold, the designation used for minorities in the report.

But now another piece of the puzzle falls into place. Someone at UPenn Law School was listed as a "Native American female" in its official 1992 Affirmative Action reporting.

Morgen Richmond, who is really an ace researcher (not an Ace researcher, but an extremely good one) has dug up the University of Pennsylvania's old diversity filings.

Now, before 1992, they didn't list Native Americans as their own category. See, for example, 1990's report, listing White, Black, Hispanic and Asian hires.

But now in 1992, Penn does have a Native American column.

There are a lot of schools at U Penn, but only one law school. And way over there in the right hand column, you see "1" as the number of Native American faculty at Penn Law. In fact, the one Native American female at Penn Law is the only Native American, period, at all of Penn.

Here, way over on the right.

Now it's hard to prove a negative, but while Morgen (and now I) have searched for another female Native American law professor at the University of Penn in this time frame, we haven't found one.

So who was UPenn's solitary Native American Female?

If it was Warren -- and so far neither Morgen nor I can find any other Native American female law professor -- how did Penn get this idea that she was Native American?

Surely Penn's EEOC reporting officers don't use some kind of racial divining rods?

Surely it came from Warren herself.

And if not not her -- who then?

Who, precisely, was calling up Elizabeth Warren's employers and tipping them that she might be, maybe, 1/32nd Cherokee?

Have you ever had a stranger dial up your employer to inform him that you were 1/32nd Cherokee, or 1/16th Lenne Lenape, or 1/8th Hungarian?

Who, apart from the individual himself, informs other people that despite not appearing to be Native American, despite not having the sort of name that would be recognized as likely Native American, despite not being listed in any Cherokee records as Native American, that the employee is in fact Native American, and entitled to certain level of cache and promotion for that dubious status?

Who, exactly, is going around spreading incredibly helpful and career-boosting false claims about Elizabeth Warren, if not Elizabeth Warren herself?

posted by Ace at 07:02 PM

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