Last Tuesday, actor Kal Penn was scheduled to give a speech on the Homewood campus as the third installment of the Milton S. Eisenhower Symposium’s (MSE) fall speaker series. However, upon learning that Penn would not be able to attend, MSE announced to the Hopkins community that Penn’s talk is to be postponed.
“Due to an unforeseen family matter, Kal Penn would be unable to come to Hopkins for his scheduled appearance on Tuesday, October 8th,” Aaron Tessler, Finance Chair of MSE, wrote in an email to the community.
The MSE chairs and university administrators are working to reschedule the event to a date later in the semester.
“We will update the campus community as soon as details become available. We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding as we work to reschedule the event,” Tessler wrote.
Penn, most famous for his work in the Harold and Kumar movie series and the popular TV show House, has also become active in the public sector, working for the Obama administration in the White House Office of Public Engagement as an Associate Director.
Many students expressed disappointment that Penn’s talk was postponed.
“I was really looking forward to seeing him as a study break. Hopefully his talk can be rescheduled soon,” sophomore Yara Gorashi wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
Some students, however, were pleased that the talk was postponed because of time conflicts with the original Oct. 8 date.
“I was actually really excited that they postponed it because the original date conflicted with my macro exam, so hopefully now I’ll get to see him,” freshman Alex Sadler wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
Other students had no interest in seeing Penn speak in the first place.
“I haven’t watched much of his stuff. What I have watched, I wasn’t super impressed with. His work at the White House doesn’t really interest me, especially compared to other speakers like Jon Favreau,” junior David Israel wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
One student even expressed his discontent with Penn’s career choices.
“For someone who is so supportive of recreational marijuana use (or at least, profits tremendously off a franchise and culture that promotes it) I think it’s seriously messed up to work for a president who has expanded the drug war so aggressively,” sophomore Daniel Takash wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “To work for someone who produces policy so antithetical to that which you believe in on a significant issue in this country? That’s my objection.”
Despite his disagreements with Penn, Takash still plans to see him speak when he comes to campus.
“I’ll still see him speak. Not going to see someone because you disagree with what they said is stupid,” Takash wrote.
