Staff discusses Coopers plan

Although its implementation will dramatically alter the way they do their jobs, University employees seem to have embraced the recommendations made by the Coopers & Lybrand administrative restructuring report. University officials briefed members of the Penn Professional Staff Assembly earlier this week about the restructuring effort, PPSA Chairperson Drita Taraila said. "It was a very positive session, I think," she said. "Everybody went in there with [feelings of] fear and trepidation, but went away with a very different feeling. The openness shared by three senior-level administrators was a very positive experience." Provost Stanley Chodorow, who attended the PPSA meeting, shared similar sentiments. "We got good feedback from everybody," he said. "There's plenty of anxiety out there, but I expected it to be expressed in a more forceful manner." Chodorow said he knows certain segments of the campus community are skeptical about what the restructuring process will actually achieve. However, the administration is confident that all of the benefits of restructuring can be realized, he added. "We want to make Penn the best-run place on the planet," he said. "The purpose of this whole operation is to make Penn the most effective, efficient organization it can possibly be." Acting Executive Vice President Jack Freeman said PPSA members were especially pleased that he and other University administrators responsible for changes associated with restructuring were taking an open approach to the process. "We were able to respond to expressions of interest and concern," he said. "It was not at all an antagonistic meeting. Everyone there seemed to recognize and appreciate the need for and reasoning behind the need to restructure." Taraila agreed with Freeman's assessment, adding that she and the PPSA are "optimistic" about the prospects of restructuring precisely because it is being handled in an open fashion. She said this treatment is in contrast to similar administrative initiatives she has experienced during a 20-year career as manager for administration and finance in the Medical School's Pharmacology Department. Jean Morse, deputy to University President Judith Rodin, said the success of the University's restructuring efforts depends on the involvement of the entire campus. For this reason, Rodin, Chodorow, Freeman and Janet Gordon, executive director of the Executive Vice President's Office, will be meeting with various constituencies -- including the A-3, Undergraduate Assembly, and Graduate and Professional Student Assembly -- in the next few weeks to get suggestions and feedback on implementation of the administrative restructuring plan.