Biden Claims He was a ‘Full Professor’ on the College of Pennsylvania. Right here Are the Information

Declare:

U.S. President Joe Biden was a “full professor” on the College of Pennsylvania for 4 years.

Ranking:

What’s True:

From 2017 to 2021, then-former Vice President Joe Biden was the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Observe Professor on the College of Pennsylvania. Throughout his time there, he collected greater than $900,000. Nevertheless …

What’s False:

… this function was honorary. He gave lectures and talks to college students on campus, however didn’t educate a full semester’s course load throughout that point.

In mid-to-late 2023, a number of posts on X and TikTok circulated exhibiting U.S. President Joe Biden saying he taught “political concept” at the College of Pennsylvania (UPenn) for 4 years. The posts argued that Biden was mendacity, and that he “by no means taught a single class at UPenn.”

Questions on Biden’s function at UPenn have circulated for years. In mid-April 2022, as an example, his critics latched on to a speech wherein he claimed to have been a “full professor” for 4 years on the college.

Biden as soon as held an honorary professor place at UPenn, from 2017-2021, after being vp in Barack Obama’s administration. Nevertheless, he didn’t teach a semester’s value of programs; he primarily gave talks and lectures to college students, and he led the Penn Biden Middle for Diplomacy and International Engagement in Washington, D.C. As such we price this declare a “Combination.”

After his time as vp, Biden became the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Observe Professor, the primary to carry such a job. Over the primary few years of holding this place, Biden earned greater than $900,000 from the college for talking at numerous occasions. In keeping with a report by the Philadelphia Inquirer, he “collected $371,159 in 2017 plus $540,484 in 2018 and early 2019 for a vaguely outlined function that concerned no common courses and round a dozen public appearances on campus, principally in huge, ticketed occasions.”

Biden’s professorship did contain him delivering quite a few talks and lectures. In 2017, quickly after the place was introduced, his spokesperson Kate Bedingfield advised UPenn’s newspaper The Day by day Pennsylvanian that he wouldn’t be educating conventional courses.

Alongside his professorship title, he officially held joint appointments within the Annenberg College for Communication and the College of Arts and Sciences, with a secondary affiliation within the Wharton College.

A February 2019 checklist compiled by the Day by day Pennsylvanian detailed the extra public-facing talks and lectures Biden did over roughly two years. Throughout this time, he did ship one lecture to Wharton Enterprise College graduate college students in a extremely selective course run by the Lauder Institute that provides a joint Worldwide Research diploma with an MBA. This checklist didn’t embody the work he could have achieved behind the scenes.

In April 2019, when Biden turned the candidate for the U.S. presidency, the college launched the next assertion:

It ought to be famous that Jeb Bush, former Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate, additionally held the title of presidential professor of observe on the college from 2018 to 2020, and took part in talks, lectures, and even made appearances with Biden. His compensation was non-public, in line with the Inquirer.

In keeping with UPenn, Biden now not holds the title. His time within the function lasted from 2017 to 2021.

This was additionally not his first professor function. In 1991, Joe Biden turned an adjunct professor at Widener College Delaware Regulation College and taught occasional programs on constitutional legislation for roughly 20 years.

On condition that Biden was an honorary professor for round 4 years, incomes near $1 million, however didn’t educate an precise full course throughout that point, we price this declare as a “Combination.”

Sources:

A Message to the Penn Group Concerning Vice President Joe Biden. https://almanac.upenn.edu/articles/a-message-to-the-penn-community-regarding-vice-president-joe-biden. Accessed 15 Apr. 2022.

Coudriet, Rebecca Tan, Carter. Joe Biden Got here to Penn for the Fourth Time in 2018. This is His Function on Campus, Defined. The Day by day Pennsylvanian. https://www.thedp.com/article/2017/12/joe-biden-year-in-review-upenn-philadelphia-faculty-politics. Accessed 15 Apr. 2022.

Did Biden Educate Constitutional Regulation for 21 Years? Snopes.Com, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-constitutional-law-teach/. Accessed 15 Apr. 2022.

Jeb Bush | The Andrea Mitchell Middle for the Research of Democracy. https://amc.sas.upenn.edu/about/professors-practice/jeb-bush. Accessed 15 Apr. 2022.

Joe Biden | The Andrea Mitchell Middle for the Research of Democracy. https://amc.sas.upenn.edu/people/senior-fellow-joe-biden. Accessed 15 Apr. 2022.

Kumar, Hari. No One Is Actually Positive What Joe Biden Will Be Doing at Penn. The Day by day Pennsylvanian. https://www.thedp.com/article/2017/02/what-is-biden-doing-at-penn. Accessed 15 Apr. 2022.

Sousa, Tori. Biden’s Declare of Being a “trainer” at Penn Drew Scrutiny. This is What His Function Actually Was. The Day by day Pennsylvanian. https://www.thedp.com/article/2020/04/biden-penn-president-trump-wharton. Accessed 15 Apr. 2022.

Tamari, Jonathan. “Penn Has Paid Joe Biden Greater than $900K since He Left the White Home. What Did He Do to Earn the Cash?” Philadelphia Inquirer, https://www.inquirer.com/news/joe-biden-penn-salary-lectures-20190712.html. Accessed 15 Apr. 2022.

Vargas, Chase Sutton, Biruk Tibebe, Sophia Dai, Eliud. Picture Essay | A Look Again at Joe Biden’s Visits to Penn since Changing into a Professor. The Day by day Pennsylvanian. https://www.thedp.com/article/2019/02/joe-biden-upenn-philadelphia-2020-gutmann-photo-essay. Accessed 15 Apr. 2022.