Q&A; WITH PENN ATHLETIC DIRECTOR: Steve Bilsky

DP: What is the need for and feasibility of updating Penn's current facilities?DP: What is the need for and feasibility of updating Penn's current facilities?Bilsky: I think the path I took is more or less the same as that taken by the President and the Provost. There's such a gamut of possibilities that instead of looking at individual projects and making decisions on them alone, we have to look at what the overall facilities needs are. The bottom line is that quantity and quality of facilities on this campus are not adequate for athletics or recreation. That's a strong statement and a true statement. Now, the question is what to do about that. We've looked at all the facilities and what I'm going to recommend to the University is that over the next five years or so, we raise the monies necessary to take care of those facilities worth renovating -- then the ultimate is that we need a new field-house on this campus. We are one of the few schools that doesn't have a multi-purpose facility on campus. It would increase the quality of life here. It would help sell the University. This is something we've been thinking about for 30 years. It's something I hope I can be forceful enough to accomplish in my tenure here. It would take a major fund-raising campaign. Let's do it -- for the next generation. Right now, facilities are one of the big deficits as far as this program is concerned. Hopefully you look beyond today. You try to visualize what the needs will be 10-20 years down the road from now. DP: What is the need for and feasibility of updating Penn's current facilities?Bilsky: I think the path I took is more or less the same as that taken by the President and the Provost. There's such a gamut of possibilities that instead of looking at individual projects and making decisions on them alone, we have to look at what the overall facilities needs are. The bottom line is that quantity and quality of facilities on this campus are not adequate for athletics or recreation. That's a strong statement and a true statement. Now, the question is what to do about that. We've looked at all the facilities and what I'm going to recommend to the University is that over the next five years or so, we raise the monies necessary to take care of those facilities worth renovating -- then the ultimate is that we need a new field-house on this campus. We are one of the few schools that doesn't have a multi-purpose facility on campus. It would increase the quality of life here. It would help sell the University. This is something we've been thinking about for 30 years. It's something I hope I can be forceful enough to accomplish in my tenure here. It would take a major fund-raising campaign. Let's do it -- for the next generation. Right now, facilities are one of the big deficits as far as this program is concerned. Hopefully you look beyond today. You try to visualize what the needs will be 10-20 years down the road from now.DP: What have you accomplished in your brief time here and what is your agenda for the future?DP: What is the need for and feasibility of updating Penn's current facilities?Bilsky: I think the path I took is more or less the same as that taken by the President and the Provost. There's such a gamut of possibilities that instead of looking at individual projects and making decisions on them alone, we have to look at what the overall facilities needs are. The bottom line is that quantity and quality of facilities on this campus are not adequate for athletics or recreation. That's a strong statement and a true statement. Now, the question is what to do about that. We've looked at all the facilities and what I'm going to recommend to the University is that over the next five years or so, we raise the monies necessary to take care of those facilities worth renovating -- then the ultimate is that we need a new field-house on this campus. We are one of the few schools that doesn't have a multi-purpose facility on campus. It would increase the quality of life here. It would help sell the University. This is something we've been thinking about for 30 years. It's something I hope I can be forceful enough to accomplish in my tenure here. It would take a major fund-raising campaign. Let's do it -- for the next generation. Right now, facilities are one of the big deficits as far as this program is concerned. Hopefully you look beyond today. You try to visualize what the needs will be 10-20 years down the road from now.DP: What have you accomplished in your brief time here and what is your agenda for the future?Bilsky: My agenda comes the same way you would develop an agenda. I was a student here. I was an athlete here. I worked here. I've been an alumnus for twenty-some-odd years. My agenda is based on sitting around and thinking, 'Well, why don't we have this or why don't we do that?' So, now I'm in a position to do something about that. That's what drives my agenda. What I didn't want to do is come in here so sure that I was right that I issue an edict saying let's just go ahead an do all these things. That would be wrong too. So, I've spent every minute since I've been here talking to people and assessing where they think we are and ultimately I going to deliver recommendations to the President and the Provost on what we need to do. Facilities is a major one. Finances is a major one -- to what degree should a university support an inter-collegiate program that has 30 sports and 1,100 athletes? We should be tremendously proud of that. It's so much larger than just about any other program in the country that it requires a tremendous amount of resources. Then, some of the other areas I'm looking at more specifically affect sports. Recruiting. Admissions. Financial aid. Obviously gender-equity is a major component of all of this. The entire recreation and intramural program -- if we have 1,100 athletes, we must have 10,000 recreational users. What are we doing about intramural programs? Rather than come right at the get-go and say, 'Based on my 25 years of experience this is what I think we should do,' I spent this time to really assess it and make sure my opinions match with reality. And in some cases they did and in others they didn't. I hope what I present is well perceived because we need the support of the entire administration to accomplish what we hope to. DP: What is the need for and feasibility of updating Penn's current facilities?Bilsky: I think the path I took is more or less the same as that taken by the President and the Provost. There's such a gamut of possibilities that instead of looking at individual projects and making decisions on them alone, we have to look at what the overall facilities needs are. The bottom line is that quantity and quality of facilities on this campus are not adequate for athletics or recreation. That's a strong statement and a true statement. Now, the question is what to do about that. We've looked at all the facilities and what I'm going to recommend to the University is that over the next five years or so, we raise the monies necessary to take care of those facilities worth renovating -- then the ultimate is that we need a new field-house on this campus. We are one of the few schools that doesn't have a multi-purpose facility on campus. It would increase the quality of life here. It would help sell the University. This is something we've been thinking about for 30 years. It's something I hope I can be forceful enough to accomplish in my tenure here. It would take a major fund-raising campaign. Let's do it -- for the next generation. Right now, facilities are one of the big deficits as far as this program is concerned. Hopefully you look beyond today. You try to visualize what the needs will be 10-20 years down the road from now.DP: What have you accomplished in your brief time here and what is your agenda for the future?Bilsky: My agenda comes the same way you would develop an agenda. I was a student here. I was an athlete here. I worked here. I've been an alumnus for twenty-some-odd years. My agenda is based on sitting around and thinking, 'Well, why don't we have this or why don't we do that?' So, now I'm in a position to do something about that. That's what drives my agenda. What I didn't want to do is come in here so sure that I was right that I issue an edict saying let's just go ahead an do all these things. That would be wrong too. So, I've spent every minute since I've been here talking to people and assessing where they think we are and ultimately I going to deliver recommendations to the President and the Provost on what we need to do. Facilities is a major one. Finances is a major one -- to what degree should a university support an inter-collegiate program that has 30 sports and 1,100 athletes? We should be tremendously proud of that. It's so much larger than just about any other program in the country that it requires a tremendous amount of resources. Then, some of the other areas I'm looking at more specifically affect sports. Recruiting. Admissions. Financial aid. Obviously gender-equity is a major component of all of this. The entire recreation and intramural program -- if we have 1,100 athletes, we must have 10,000 recreational users. What are we doing about intramural programs? Rather than come right at the get-go and say, 'Based on my 25 years of experience this is what I think we should do,' I spent this time to really assess it and make sure my opinions match with reality. And in some cases they did and in others they didn't. I hope what I present is well perceived because we need the support of the entire administration to accomplish what we hope to.DP: We heard that you were in favor of using athletic scholarships in the Ivy League. Where do you stand on this issue?DP: What is the need for and feasibility of updating Penn's current facilities?Bilsky: I think the path I took is more or less the same as that taken by the President and the Provost. There's such a gamut of possibilities that instead of looking at individual projects and making decisions on them alone, we have to look at what the overall facilities needs are. The bottom line is that quantity and quality of facilities on this campus are not adequate for athletics or recreation. That's a strong statement and a true statement. Now, the question is what to do about that. We've looked at all the facilities and what I'm going to recommend to the University is that over the next five years or so, we raise the monies necessary to take care of those facilities worth renovating -- then the ultimate is that we need a new field-house on this campus. We are one of the few schools that doesn't have a multi-purpose facility on campus. It would increase the quality of life here. It would help sell the University. This is something we've been thinking about for 30 years. It's something I hope I can be forceful enough to accomplish in my tenure here. It would take a major fund-raising campaign. Let's do it -- for the next generation. Right now, facilities are one of the big deficits as far as this program is concerned. Hopefully you look beyond today. You try to visualize what the needs will be 10-20 years down the road from now.DP: What have you accomplished in your brief time here and what is your agenda for the future?Bilsky: My agenda comes the same way you would develop an agenda. I was a student here. I was an athlete here. I worked here. I've been an alumnus for twenty-some-odd years. My agenda is based on sitting around and thinking, 'Well, why don't we have this or why don't we do that?' So, now I'm in a position to do something about that. That's what drives my agenda. What I didn't want to do is come in here so sure that I was right that I issue an edict saying let's just go ahead an do all these things. That would be wrong too. So, I've spent every minute since I've been here talking to people and assessing where they think we are and ultimately I going to deliver recommendations to the President and the Provost on what we need to do. Facilities is a major one. Finances is a major one -- to what degree should a university support an inter-collegiate program that has 30 sports and 1,100 athletes? We should be tremendously proud of that. It's so much larger than just about any other program in the country that it requires a tremendous amount of resources. Then, some of the other areas I'm looking at more specifically affect sports. Recruiting. Admissions. Financial aid. Obviously gender-equity is a major component of all of this. The entire recreation and intramural program -- if we have 1,100 athletes, we must have 10,000 recreational users. What are we doing about intramural programs? Rather than come right at the get-go and say, 'Based on my 25 years of experience this is what I think we should do,' I spent this time to really assess it and make sure my opinions match with reality. And in some cases they did and in others they didn't. I hope what I present is well perceived because we need the support of the entire administration to accomplish what we hope to.DP: We heard that you were in favor of using athletic scholarships in the Ivy League. Where do you stand on this issue?Bilsky: Actually I was misquoted on that. What I am interest in is examining the financial aid packaging. I'm very concerned with financial aid limiting the amount of available athletes to a program like this as the costs get higher and the self-help package continues to skyrocket with the amount of loan that's necessary to pay. The pool of people that can afford to Penn or any other Ivy schools is going to shrink so much that the character of the program is going to suffer tremendously and I think that's a problem that's exists and will only get worse. What I really think is important is that we look at the packaging of the financial aid. So that if somebody has a need that most of that is paid off in the form of cash rather than loan so that we compete with other grant-aid schools and other schools that don't have financial need policies. At a lot of schools that are on financial need -- if you have a need of $10,000 its' all grant, it's all cash. here, a significant part of that is made up of loans and work-study grant. It's very hard to be an athlete -- practice four hours a day and then work another three hours. Just imagine how difficult it is to do justice to all the things you need to do -- most importantly academics. This is something that needs to be looked at. Both in terms of fairness, but it needs to be looked at in terms of competitiveness with the Ivy League versus the rest of the country. It's an area I think we need to be a little more aggressive about as league, from a competitive standpoint.DP: What is the need for and feasibility of updating Penn's current facilities?Bilsky: I think the path I took is more or less the same as that taken by the President and the Provost. There's such a gamut of possibilities that instead of looking at individual projects and making decisions on them alone, we have to look at what the overall facilities needs are. The bottom line is that quantity and quality of facilities on this campus are not adequate for athletics or recreation. That's a strong statement and a true statement. Now, the question is what to do about that. We've looked at all the facilities and what I'm going to recommend to the University is that over the next five years or so, we raise the monies necessary to take care of those facilities worth renovating -- then the ultimate is that we need a new field-house on this campus. We are one of the few schools that doesn't have a multi-purpose facility on campus. It would increase the quality of life here. It would help sell the University. This is something we've been thinking about for 30 years. It's something I hope I can be forceful enough to accomplish in my tenure here. It would take a major fund-raising campaign. Let's do it -- for the next generation. Right now, facilities are one of the big deficits as far as this program is concerned. Hopefully you look beyond today. You try to visualize what the needs will be 10-20 years down the road from now.DP: What have you accomplished in your brief time here and what is your agenda for the future?Bilsky: My agenda comes the same way you would develop an agenda. I was a student here. I was an athlete here. I worked here. I've been an alumnus for twenty-some-odd years. My agenda is based on sitting around and thinking, 'Well, why don't we have this or why don't we do that?' So, now I'm in a position to do something about that. That's what drives my agenda. What I didn't want to do is come in here so sure that I was right that I issue an edict saying let's just go ahead an do all these things. That would be wrong too. So, I've spent every minute since I've been here talking to people and assessing where they think we are and ultimately I going to deliver recommendations to the President and the Provost on what we need to do. Facilities is a major one. Finances is a major one -- to what degree should a university support an inter-collegiate program that has 30 sports and 1,100 athletes? We should be tremendously proud of that. It's so much larger than just about any other program in the country that it requires a tremendous amount of resources. Then, some of the other areas I'm looking at more specifically affect sports. Recruiting. Admissions. Financial aid. Obviously gender-equity is a major component of all of this. The entire recreation and intramural program -- if we have 1,100 athletes, we must have 10,000 recreational users. What are we doing about intramural programs? Rather than come right at the get-go and say, 'Based on my 25 years of experience this is what I think we should do,' I spent this time to really assess it and make sure my opinions match with reality. And in some cases they did and in others they didn't. I hope what I present is well perceived because we need the support of the entire administration to accomplish what we hope to.DP: We heard that you were in favor of using athletic scholarships in the Ivy League. Where do you stand on this issue?Bilsky: Actually I was misquoted on that. What I am interest in is examining the financial aid packaging. I'm very concerned with financial aid limiting the amount of available athletes to a program like this as the costs get higher and the self-help package continues to skyrocket with the amount of loan that's necessary to pay. The pool of people that can afford to Penn or any other Ivy schools is going to shrink so much that the character of the program is going to suffer tremendously and I think that's a problem that's exists and will only get worse. What I really think is important is that we look at the packaging of the financial aid. So that if somebody has a need that most of that is paid off in the form of cash rather than loan so that we compete with other grant-aid schools and other schools that don't have financial need policies. At a lot of schools that are on financial need -- if you have a need of $10,000 its' all grant, it's all cash. here, a significant part of that is made up of loans and work-study grant. It's very hard to be an athlete -- practice four hours a day and then work another three hours. Just imagine how difficult it is to do justice to all the things you need to do -- most importantly academics. This is something that needs to be looked at. Both in terms of fairness, but it needs to be looked at in terms of competitiveness with the Ivy League versus the rest of the country. It's an area I think we need to be a little more aggressive about as league, from a competitive standpoint.DP: How different is Penn from your previous job at GW?DP: What is the need for and feasibility of updating Penn's current facilities?Bilsky: I think the path I took is more or less the same as that taken by the President and the Provost. There's such a gamut of possibilities that instead of looking at individual projects and making decisions on them alone, we have to look at what the overall facilities needs are. The bottom line is that quantity and quality of facilities on this campus are not adequate for athletics or recreation. That's a strong statement and a true statement. Now, the question is what to do about that. We've looked at all the facilities and what I'm going to recommend to the University is that over the next five years or so, we raise the monies necessary to take care of those facilities worth renovating -- then the ultimate is that we need a new field-house on this campus. We are one of the few schools that doesn't have a multi-purpose facility on campus. It would increase the quality of life here. It would help sell the University. This is something we've been thinking about for 30 years. It's something I hope I can be forceful enough to accomplish in my tenure here. It would take a major fund-raising campaign. Let's do it -- for the next generation. Right now, facilities are one of the big deficits as far as this program is concerned. Hopefully you look beyond today. You try to visualize what the needs will be 10-20 years down the road from now.DP: What have you accomplished in your brief time here and what is your agenda for the future?Bilsky: My agenda comes the same way you would develop an agenda. I was a student here. I was an athlete here. I worked here. I've been an alumnus for twenty-some-odd years. My agenda is based on sitting around and thinking, 'Well, why don't we have this or why don't we do that?' So, now I'm in a position to do something about that. That's what drives my agenda. What I didn't want to do is come in here so sure that I was right that I issue an edict saying let's just go ahead an do all these things. That would be wrong too. So, I've spent every minute since I've been here talking to people and assessing where they think we are and ultimately I going to deliver recommendations to the President and the Provost on what we need to do. Facilities is a major one. Finances is a major one -- to what degree should a university support an inter-collegiate program that has 30 sports and 1,100 athletes? We should be tremendously proud of that. It's so much larger than just about any other program in the country that it requires a tremendous amount of resources. Then, some of the other areas I'm looking at more specifically affect sports. Recruiting. Admissions. Financial aid. Obviously gender-equity is a major component of all of this. The entire recreation and intramural program -- if we have 1,100 athletes, we must have 10,000 recreational users. What are we doing about intramural programs? Rather than come right at the get-go and say, 'Based on my 25 years of experience this is what I think we should do,' I spent this time to really assess it and make sure my opinions match with reality. And in some cases they did and in others they didn't. I hope what I present is well perceived because we need the support of the entire administration to accomplish what we hope to.DP: We heard that you were in favor of using athletic scholarships in the Ivy League. Where do you stand on this issue?Bilsky: Actually I was misquoted on that. What I am interest in is examining the financial aid packaging. I'm very concerned with financial aid limiting the amount of available athletes to a program like this as the costs get higher and the self-help package continues to skyrocket with the amount of loan that's necessary to pay. The pool of people that can afford to Penn or any other Ivy schools is going to shrink so much that the character of the program is going to suffer tremendously and I think that's a problem that's exists and will only get worse. What I really think is important is that we look at the packaging of the financial aid. So that if somebody has a need that most of that is paid off in the form of cash rather than loan so that we compete with other grant-aid schools and other schools that don't have financial need policies. At a lot of schools that are on financial need -- if you have a need of $10,000 its' all grant, it's all cash. here, a significant part of that is made up of loans and work-study grant. It's very hard to be an athlete -- practice four hours a day and then work another three hours. Just imagine how difficult it is to do justice to all the things you need to do -- most importantly academics. This is something that needs to be looked at. Both in terms of fairness, but it needs to be looked at in terms of competitiveness with the Ivy League versus the rest of the country. It's an area I think we need to be a little more aggressive about as league, from a competitive standpoint.DP: How different is Penn from your previous job at GW?Bilsky: It's very different. Not just from scholarships, from from a recruiting standpoint. At an athletic scholarship school, once you get somebody to commit, and they're admitted -- it's over. At an Ivy League school once somebody commits and is accepted, the fun has just begun. Now you have to convince them to make the invest and reach into their pocket and put a lot of money in. Why go to penn when you can go to Duke? Recruiting is a key part of what we're going to do futuristically.