U., city report new plan for scholarships

Mayor Ed Rendell and University President Sheldon Hackney reaffirmed their agreement on the number of scholarships the University must give Philadelphia students at a City Hall press conference yesterday. "Penn has come to understand its commitment to the city in a slightly different way," Hackney said at the press conference yesterday. "We need to be a Philadelphia institution." At the conference, Rendell and Hackney also disclosed a new Mayor's Scholarship package that will take effect for next year's freshman class. Rendell, in announcing the package, said "this is probably the single best need package offered by any Ivy League institution." The package was a component of the city-University agreement, which states the University's obligation to provide and maintain scholarships to Philadelphia students. The package also includes enhancements for future Mayor's Scholarship recipients and sets higher Philadelphia recruitment expectations. The plan states that starting next year, the University's new Mayor's Scholarship package will substitute grants for the loan component. The proposed program states that "the University will meet its obligation of 125 full-tuition scholarships, or the financial equivalent, by significantly increasing the grant component of the program." The issue of how many Mayor's Scholarships the University is actually required to distribute annually is the subject of contention in litigation filed against the University in October 1991 which is scheduled to go to trial in Common Pleas Court on November 23. The lawsuit, filed by labor unions, student groups and several individuals, claims that a 1977 city ordinance requires the University to award Philadelphia high school graduates 125 scholarships a year for a total of 500 at a time. But the University maintains that it is required by the disputed ordinance to provide a total of 125 scholarships at a time in return for rent-free city land. Another provision of the package is that the University will initiate an enhanced recruitment effort designed to increase the total number of Philadelphia undergraduate students at the University -- including Mayor's Scholars -- to 500 by the 1997 academic year. This recruitment effort, according to the agreement, is already in effect, and consists of extensive on-campus admissions fairs, Philadelphia high school visits and mailings. And the agreement also states that Philadelphia students who are not selected as Mayor's Scholars who matriculate at the University will each receive $500 more of scholarship aid than they would have received had they not been from Philadelphia. According to a University statement, the University "anticipates that its total aid to Mayor's Scholars and other Philadelphians will be at least the equivalent of 315 full tuition scholarships." The press release states that "at the current tuition rate of $15,198, this program would be valued at $4,787,370." Director of Student Financial Aid William Schilling said that the agreement provides for "a considerably more attractive package." "Our Mayor's Scholarship obligation represents the 'floor' of our support for Philadelphia students, and not the 'ceiling,' " Hackney said. "I believe today's agreement is clear evidence of our ongoing commitment." Although yesterday's announcement is only a month before the trial date, Rendell, Hackney and the agreement itself asserted that there was no relationship between the agreement and the lawsuit. "I don't think there was ever a quid pro quo that the litigation [against the University] would be terminated," Rendell said. "[The agreement] is not related to the lawsuit in the sense that it was not designed to settle the lawsuit," Hackney said. "The city is our partner in the Mayor's Scholarship program."