Trustees Executive Committee Coverage

At Thursday's meeting of the Executive Committee of the Trustees, President Judith Rodin mentioned the two new sets of awards, one for teaching assistants, the TA Awards (Almanac May 2), and the other for staff, the Models of Excellence Awards (Almanac April 18).

The Trustees approved the resolutions on extending the appointments of Dr. Raymond Fonseca as dean of the School of Dental Medicine and Dr. Kathleen Hall Jamieson as dean of the Annenberg School for Communication, for an additional two years beginning July 1, 2001.

The Trustees enthusiastically passed a resolution of appreciation (CLICK HERE) for Bruce E. Montgomery who has led the Glee Club for 44 of his 50 years at Penn. Commenting on his upcoming retirement next month, Monty said it will be the first time he will be in a non-academic environment since kindergarten.

Provost Robert Barchi said that applications have been coming in for the new summer waiver program which will enable students on financial aid to take internships or other low-paying positions for a summer. He said that the Alcohol Report will be published in Almanac in the fall.

EVP John Fry gave the financial report for the University for the period July 1, 1999 to March 31, 2000. He said that overall, net assets have increased $31.8 million since the beginning of FY2000. This increase can be attributed to nonoperating gifts of $132.2 million, including a bequest from the Delaplaine Estate of $22.8 million. However, it was offset by a net loss on investments of about $109 million. Mr. Fry said that the efforts to restructure Penn's asset allocation in order to improve investment returns are continuing aggressively.

In the Health System Report, Dr. Peter Traber said that they are pursuing an aggressive strategic planning process and have experienced improvements in revenue and productivity.

The Budget and Finance Committee, introduced ten resolutions which were all approved. Several dealt with facilities: design and construction for general mechanical and elevator upgrades in Chestnut Hall Apartments ($2 million); design and construction for interior, electrical upgrades to Hill College House ($1.4 million); design and construction of renovation to the Levy Center of Oral Health Research ($1.2 million); design and installation of a central public address system in the highrises for audio communication in the event of an emergency ($1.3 million); design and construction of façade renovations to Sansom Place Towers ($2.2 million); expanded practice office space for cardiology in the Farm Journal Building at Pennsylvania Hospital ($1.1 million); and equipment to provide radiation oncology services at Phoenixville Hospital ($2.5 million). Another resolution pertained to various retirement benefit plans for Penn employees, amending an existing plan to extend coverage to weekly paid employees and adopting the FOP plan for the Penn police.

Several appointed to boards were approved: Dr. Arthur Asbury to the Trustee Board of UPHS; Jonathan Z. Cohen, Richard P. Jaffe and Debbie Feith Tye to the Advisory Board of the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies; Alan Jacobs to the Libraries Board; Edward C. Friedrichs to the GSFA Board. Three final resolutions conferred chair emeritus status: Natalie Koether, as chair emerita of SAS's Board; Susan Catherwood as Chair Emerita of the Museum's Board and Saul Steinberg as Chair Emeritus of Wharton's Board.


Almanac, Vol. 46, No. 33, May 16, 2000

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