What Biden omits in his repeated claim about teaching at the University of Pennsylvania

President Joe Biden likes to tell stories about his past that at times are exaggerations, wrong or misleading.

He made a Pants on Fire claim that he was "arrested with our U.N. ambassador on the streets of Soweto trying to get to see (Nelson Mandela) on Robben Island." He falsely said, "I’ve been in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan over 40 times." On 9/11’s 22nd anniversary, Biden falsely said "Ground zero in New York — I remember standing there the next day." Biden was at ground zero nine days after the attacks.

In remarks Sept. 14 at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Maryland, Biden repeated something he previously said about his time at the University of Pennsylvania. 

"Our democracy is under attack, and we got to fight for it," Biden said. "I taught at the University of Pennsylvania for four years, and I used to teach political theory. And, folks, you always hear every generation has to fight for democracy." 

Is Biden right about teaching for four years at the University of Pennsylvania?

We asked the university for more information, but did not hear back.

A White House spokesperson pointed PolitiFact to a university webpage that said Biden was a presidential professor of practice from 2017 to 2021. Nothing on that page mentions any curriculum or topics Biden covered at the University of Pennsylvania. But we know he served in this role for about two years, not four, and his duties generally involved speaking events, not typical classroom teaching.  

The University of Pennsylvania named Biden as Benjamin Franklin Presidential Professor of the Practice in early 2017, after his vice presidency ended.

The university’s faculty handbook says a practice professor’s "primary" activity is teaching, but the job may also involve supervising independent studies and internships, serving on committees and attending school faculty meetings.

Biden served in his position for about two years because he went on leave for his 2020 presidential campaign. Biden was paid more than $900,000 for this university role from 2017 to 2019, according to tax forms he’s filed.

Shortly after Biden’s University of Pennsylvania appointment was announced in 2017, Kate Bedingfield, then a Biden campaign spokesperson, told the university newspaper The Daily Pennsylvanian that Biden would not be teaching regular classes.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 2019 that Biden’s post "involved no regular classes and around a dozen public appearances on campus, mostly in big, ticketed events."

The Daily Pennsylvanian tallied several of Biden’s university appearances:

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• Biden participated on a February 2017 panel about the fight to cure cancer with Penn President Amy Gutmann and medical experts. 

• In March 2017, Biden joined Gutmann for a question-and-answer session on topics ranging from international policy related to China and Russia to President Donald Trump. 

• In September 2017, former Mexican President Felipe Calderón sat down with Biden to discuss their personal relationship and the ties between their countries.

• In a November 2017 onstage interview with the dean of Penn’s communication school, Biden discussed his memoir, "Promise Me, Dad," which followed the death of his son Beau. Biden told the students that there had never been a conflict for him between his personal and political lives. "All politics is personal, it’s about understanding the other guy. The same values I brought to raising my family and later them raising me are the same values I bring to my public life."

In 2019, Biden participated in a university panel discussion on the opioid epidemic.

"People show up in the emergency room with a sprained ankle, 25% of them get an opioid prescription," Biden said during the discussion. We rated his statement Mostly True.

PolitiFact previously asked the University of Pennsylvania about the differences between Biden’s position and those of rank-and-file full professors.

"Penn has many different models of professorships," Ron Ozio, the university’s media relations director, told PolitiFact. "Not all are tenure-track and involve teaching regular classes. Some are clinicians, some are researchers, and others are professors of the practice, the category that applied to President Biden."

Ozio said in 2022 that Biden helped expand the university’s global outreach "while sharing his wisdom and insights with thousands of Penn students through University-wide events, talks and classroom visits."

A White House spokesperson also told PolitiFact that Biden was a constitutional law adjunct professor at Widener University-Delaware Law School for 17 years. That was from 1991 to 2008, when he resigned to accept Barack Obama’s offer to join the Democratic ticket as his vice presidential running mate.

Biden said, "I taught at the University of Pennsylvania for four years."

Biden served as a "professor of the practice" at the University of Pennsylvania. Although the university lists his service from 2017 to 2021, his position was closer to two years because he was on unpaid leave while running for president.

Biden’s role involved panel discussions and other public appearances, but not classroom teaching. 

We rate his statement Half True.

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