Reflections on Climate Week 2025

Something about Climate Week at Penn 2025 felt different. From the beginning in 2020, Climate Week has been a bottom-up, grassroots, big-tent affair. A small core organizing team made up of students, staff, and faculty, whom no one tasked to do so, do everything they can to set organizers across the University in motion. This year there were more than 50 events. For the many who walked past the Climate Week tent on College Green, who stopped to catch a bit of the conversation, Climate Week was a visible expression of Penn’s resolve to support climate science, policy, and action. For the students who got their hands dirty building bee hotels or got their feet wet tallying biodiversity in the BioPond; or the hundreds of students who heard their childhood science idol Bill Nye in conversation with Penn’s own Mike Mann, Climate Week sent a clear signal about climate action.  

Penn’s central institutions—the Offices of the President, the Provost, and the Executive Vice President, as well as the Schools—have always been supportive, but this year they physically showed up. We were delighted to see President Jameson at the 1.5* Minute Climate Lectures, just as we were thrilled to see Provost Jackson and Vice Provosts Composto and Perna in attendance. Vet School Dean Andy Hoffmann has been a stalwart contributor to Climate Week, but this year we saw deans from other schools as well. It felt like Penn now recognizes Climate Week as a vital expression of the Penn community’s transdisciplinary spirit, its global citizenship, and its engagement with Philadelphia and the world. 

— Simon Richter, Class of 1965 Endowed Term Professor of German, Chair, Department of Francophone, Italian, and Germanic Studies