We Did It Guys! Change.org Petition Signed By 139 Underclassmen Cited In Gutmann Paycut

We did it, guys! The long bemoaned reign of President Amy Gutmann’s ridiculously high salary has finally met its demise thanks to a good old fashioned grassroots movement and Change.org.

UTB secured an interview with the brilliant organizer of the Change.org petition, Samantha Farkin (C’ 24), for some comments: “I was just like, seeing all of these amazing Change.org petitions going around, like for saving the rainforests and ending the Cali wildfires, and I just like thought to myself, ‘Wow, we could like totally make big big changes here!’ Like… here like at UPenn… where I go to school now.”

Samantha decided that Amy G’s $3.9 million salary should be rolled back—not to pay for PILOTs or student organizations or anything, just because “that’s too much money, it’s like almost three times what my dad makes.”

The link to the petition was conveniently sent out via a huge GroupMe chat with over 1,600 members—wow! The 139 politically-minded students who didn’t silence the chat back in August were the ones to make their voices heard, and boy oh boy did the administration listen.

Thanks to the dedication of these students, Gutmann’s salary is presumably being reduced to a much more modest $3.8 million for the 2021 fiscal year! The official number hasn’t been released yet, but UTB is absolutely confident in the power of underclassmen polisci majors and Change.org’s 100% success rate. Efficacy FTW!