On Thursday, May 11, the University of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees held a Budget and Finance Committee Meeting as well as a Stated Meeting. Trustees’ Chair David L. Cohen commented that Duke’s gain is Penn’s loss as Vincent Price prepares to become president at Duke (Almanac December 6, 2016).

The Trustees elected Robert M. Levy to a one-year term as vice chair of the Board to succeed Andrea Mitchell who is now an emerita trustee.

They also passed a resolution concerning the faculty and student liaisons to standing committees; the two faculty members and two students (one undergraduate and one graduate) will serve for one-year non-voting appointments, July 1-June 30; faculty will be eligible for reelection up to three terms. They will be nominated by their constituencies.

President Amy Gutmann mentioned that Wendell Pritchett will be Penn’s 30th provost (Almanac May 2, 2017) calling him a “worthy successor to our beloved Vince.”

Provost Price noted that Rebecca Stein will become the executive director of the Online Learning Initiatives effective June 1 (Almanac March 28, 2017).

EVP Craig Carnaroli gave the financial report for the nine months ended March 31, 2017. For the Consolidated University there was an increase in total net assets of $1.1 billion over the prior year driven largely by strong investment performance and strong operating performance at the Health System. Total net assets were $416 million higher than budget.

On the Academic side, the net operating income reflected a decrease of $64 million versus an increase of $68 million the prior year and a budgeted increase of $14 million. This was primarily due to decapitalization of the June 30, 2016 library book balances totaling $86 million which were previously capitalized and amortized over 10 years. New contributions totaled $261 million, an increase of $32 million, or 14% over the prior year. Capital expenditures include renovations to Hill College House and Stemmler Hall as well as the construction of the Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics.

The Health System reported adjusted admissions through the second quarter were higher than budget and the prior year; inpatient admissions were consistent with the budget, while outpatient activity in high intensity services was mixed.

EVP for the Health System and PSOM Dean J. Larry Jameson reported that the groundbreaking for Penn Medicine’s Pavilion took place earlier this month (Almanac May 9, 2017). At the groundbreaking, President Gutmann called it the “most ambitious project in Penn history.” Dr. Jameson noted that the 250th class of Penn medical school graduates had the lowest debt burdens in the country.

Two resolutions were approved: one to authorize the PSOM to purchase a cryo-electron microscope to be maintained by the biochemistry-biophysics department in the Krishna Singh Center for Nanotechnology, for $6.25 million. It is being purchased as part of the establishment of the Beckman Center for Cryo-Electron Microscopy which will support at least 10 labs at PSOM.

The other authorizes the Human Capital Management (HCM) Transformation Project, $57.4 million for total implementation, to improve Penn’s HCM processes and replace its supporting systems. It is expected to be transformational in faculty recruiting, personnel administration, benefits, compensation, payroll, time management, and the tenure process through to post-retirement.