Officials to unveil budget plan today

University administrators will hold an open forum this afternoon for students, faculty and staff to unveil details of the University's preliminary budget for the 1995 fiscal year. The preliminary budget impacts all aspects of University life and maps out the path for planning virtually every part of next year's finances, from increasing student fees and tuition to outlining sources of revenue and allocating funds for faculty salaries. Interim President Claire Fagin, Interim Provost Marvin Lazerson and Acting Director of Resource Planning and Budget Benjamin Hoyle will be on hand to present the preliminary budget and take questions from faculty and students. Hoyle cautioned last night that the numbers being released in today's preliminary budget are subject to change before the University Board of Trustees approve them. The Trustees will vote this Friday on the proposed budget and changes in tuition and general fees for graduate and undergraduate students. Hoyle said that although Friday's vote is essentially a rubber stamp move by the Trustees, there have been votes in previous years when the Trustees refused to approve large tuition and general fee hikes. Last year, the Trustees approved a 5.9 percent increase in undergraduate tuition and fees without incident, raising them to $17,838. Undergraduates faced a total increase of more than $1,300 last year, including costs from Dining Services and Residential Living. Hoyle said the increases were still less than the tuition increases made by all the other Ivy League schools. "Tuition-wise, we expect Penn to still be at the bottom of Ivies next year," Hoyle said. The Trustees will vote on the rest of the 1995 budget sometime in May or June, Hoyle added. Today's meeting will be the first time that students and faculty will hear the announcement at the same time. "We thought that the students might also be interested in hearing some of the concerns that the faculty had," Hoyle said. Previously, administrators held two separate meetings for faculty and students. This year's change in format is also based on the extremely poor student turnout that marred last year's student meeting. "It just made more sense to combine them this time," Hoyle said. The forum will be held at the Nursing Education Building auditorium from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.