United Way satellites on pledge card

University officials announced last week that 13 organizations -- including seven United Way satellite groups -- will participate in the 1991-92 Penn's Way campaign. The controversial campaign has sparked a two-year-long debate at the University which culminated last April when President Sheldon Hackney announced the University would abide by a faculty advisory referendum that voted in favor of a fully combined campaign in which all charities have equal status. Earlier this month, the United Way was questioned by combined campaign members for creating 11 dependent satellite organizations, seven of which were applied to the Penn's Way campaign to be entered individually on the pledge card. United Way administrators said the organizations were formed to deal with the "combined campaign environment." Combined Campaign advocates this month said they wondered why the United Way was dividing since the United Way had argued for two years that a single United Way-only campaign is the most efficient system. "I think that the United Way in abandoning the position it so forcefully made last year . . . [and] is attempting to manupulate the combined campaign," David Rudovsky, a senior law fellow and member of the Committee for a Combined Campaign at Penn said Tuesday. The satellites have not completely fulfilled all of the pre-requisites to be included in the campaign, which include obtaining 501(c)(3) status, a tax classification for charitable federations. "We expect everything to be in place by the deadlines," United Way Spokesperson Joe Divis said Tuesday.

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