The Penn Compact

In 2004, President Amy Gutmann presented the Penn Compact, a vision to propel the University of Pennsylvania from excellence to eminence in the core endeavors of teaching, research, and service. Two key elements outlined in the Penn Compact are:

Increasing access: We must make an excellent Penn education available to all outstanding students of talent and high potential who can benefit from and contribute to our University.

Engaging Locally and Globally: Through our collaborative engagement with communities all over the world, Penn is poised to advance the central values of democracy: life, liberty, opportunity, and mutual respect.

Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Programs: Nondiscrimination Statement >>

Diversity at Penn website >>

Engineering Student Groups:

National Society of Black Engineers

Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE)

Society of Women Engineers (SWE)

Women in Computer Science (WICS)

Commitment to Diversity

Penn Engineering remains strongly committed to initiatives that support the University’s efforts
to achieve an educational and employment environment that is diverse in race, ethnicity, gender,
sexual orientation, interests, abilities and perspectives. Penn Engineering exemplifies the
University's commitment to diversity outlined in the Penn Compact. We strive to attract a diverse
community of students and faculty, to provide an accessible, rigorous engineering education, and
to improve our local and global communities through engineering. Read the Penn Engineering Diversity Plan.

Penn Engineering Increases Access:

Penn Engineering’s Office of Multicultural Programs holds as its core mission the commitment to celebrating and increasing the representation of underrepresented minorities in the faculty, staff and student body of Penn Engineering. Learn more.

Our Advancing Women in Engineering (AWE) program is dedicated to recruiting, retaining, and promoting women in Penn Engineering. This program aims to develop and support initiatives to increase the number of women interested in studying engineering at Penn and elsewhere; enhance the overall academic experience of female students in Penn Engineering via targeted curricular development and increased research and professional opportunities; and create and support social and networking opportunities for women in engineering. Learn more.

Outreach Activities at Penn Engineering stem from programs like Girls in Engineering Math and Science (GEMS), which strives to engage middle-school girls in science and engineering and technology, to the Innoworks Academy at Penn, a one-week day program in the summer for underserved Philadelphia middle school students providing a hands-on experience in science and engineering.

Penn Engineering Engages Locally and Globally:

CommuniTech is a student organization at Penn that aims to assist neighborhoods in need by supplying them with computers and teaching technology skills to their residents. As computers become more and more prevalent in society, it is imperative that those without access to computers be exposed to their benefits. Although CommuniTech is based in Philadelphia, its impact is global through projects in New Orleans, Ghana, Cameroon and India, as well as other sites around the world. Learn more.

Engineers Without Borders (or PennEWB) is a non-profit humanitarian organization established to partner with developing communities worldwide in order to improve their quality of life through sustainable projects. EWB works to enable sustainable development, both through awareness locally and implementation globally. Learn more.

The Global Biomedical Service Program (GBS) seeks to provide students with the opportunity to have a hands-on technical and cultural experience while using their engineering skills to help an underserved community abroad. The program consists of a 9-week preparatory course and a 16-day trip to the onsite location where students will apply their technical knowledge to a clinical environment. Learn more.