1991 YEAR IN REVIEW: March

And in the week following Spring Break, the University faced the deaths of two students and two highly-regarded faculty and discussion of the University's "need-blind" admissions policies. College sophomore Jennifer Koons and College and Wharton sophomore Matthew Blau were killed in a car accident while traveling with the a capella group Penny Loafers, marking the second consecutive year students have died while traveling over the spring vacation. Koons and Blau were traveling in a caravan of three cars from Jacksonville, Fla., to Orlando. During Spring Break, Director of Freshman English Dianne Hunter and Senior Lecturer Nora Magid also died. Near the end of March, University administrators announced that financial troubles would jeopardize the University's "need-blind" admissions policy. The administration, reacting to Gov. Robert Casey's proposal to slash the University's state funds and continuing decreases in federal aid, suggested that the Class of 1995 would not be admitted on a need-blind basis. Under the policy, students are admitted to the University regardless of need and receive aid to make up for the amount of tuition and fees they cannot pay. Because of the proposed cuts, administrators speculated the Veterinary School may need to close within the next five years. The administration also suggested increasing tuition by 6.9 percent to compensate, but the Trustees lowered the tuition increase to 6.7 percent, the same increase as the 1990-91 academic year and the lowest percentage increase in 15 years. Budget Director Steven Golding announced reconsideration of the need-blind policy and the proposed tuition increases during the annual budget presentation. The University also suggested drastic cutbacks in construction, cutting 300 positions through reassignment, retirement and attrition and lower-than-expected salary increases for faculty. However, many of those proposals were not adopted after the University received the same amount of money from the state as it did the year before. -- Emily Culbertson

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