Trustees discuss potential of Internet

Although most of them traveled to campus by plane for the traditional two-day round of winter meetings, members of the University's Board of Trustees also found time for a trip on the information superhighway during their visit last week. While much of their time was consumed by committee meetings and briefings on the financial and academic state of the University, the Trustees attended a plenary session on Thursday entitled "The University in the Information Age." At this program, Engineering School Dean Gregory Farrington offered the Trustees an audio-visual glimpse of the Internet's potential for innovation in education, focusing on how technology has dramatically changed the processing, transmission and storage of information. Classics Professor James O'Donnell, who taught a seminar exclusively on the Internet this fall, and English Professor Alan Filreis, who created a computer listserv to encourage continuous discussion in his Literature of the Holocaust course, showed the Trustees how the use of information technology has expanded the frontiers of the classroom. Filreis, who is also the English Department's undergraduate chairperson, said he hopes the World Wide Web component of the Internet will help the department to become "paperless" by June 30, 1996 -- and to solve the problems of "uncreative course-taking" by students and "weak advising." Dental School Dean Raymond Fonesca said he anticipates using the Internet to develop a "life-long learning" and continuing education program to keep alumni involved in the Dental School's affairs. Farrington summed up the Internet as a combination of the best of the American educational system -- because it teaches large numbers of students at reasonable cost -- and the British Oxbridge model that emphasizes personal contact with faculty. Trustee Myles Tannenbaum called the demonstration "mind-blowing." "It's incredible," he said, referring to the Internet. "[Its] opportunities and what it will mean are every bit as significant as the printing press in terms of implication." At Friday's Stated Meeting, the Trustees approved the minutes of their October 20, 1994 meeting along with resolutions providing for an increased number of term trustees until December 31, 1996. The Trustees also heard reports from University President Judith Rodin and Provost Stanley Chodorow on the current status of administrative restructuring, action on recommendations made last year by the Commission on Strengthening the Community, results of recently-completed dean searches and the 21st Century Project on Undergraduate Education. Acting Executive Vice President Jack Freeman said the University expects to break even financially this fiscal year, with the Schools of Nursing, Social Work and Graduate School of Education posting surpluses and the Annenberg School and Athletics Department running deficits. General Counsel Shelley Green updated the Trustees on the University's compliance with anti-trust laws, stemming from litigation first brought against the Ivy Overlap Group in 1989 that was related to the sharing of financial aid data for admissions purposes. The Budget and Finance Committee approved resolutions creating the TeleQuest radiology consortium, to be based at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, in addition to capital improvements to a planned Convention Avenue SEPTA stop near the Penn Tower Hotel. Purchases of computer equipment for the National Scalable Cluster Project and of several residential properties near campus were also ratified. Before adjourning, the Trustees discussed the proposed student judicial charter and the increasing internationalization of the University's student body. Rodin said she was pleased with the accomplishments that occurred during this cycle of meetings. "We always get a good deal of hard questioning and wise counsel from the Trustees," she said, adding that the Board now includes four new alumni Trustees and two Trustees appointed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. "This meeting was typical," she added. Trustees Chairperson Roy Vagelos agreed with Rodin. "When you're a Trustee it's your job to worry, because you're fiscally responsible," he said. "[But] this meeting went exceedingly well.?I'm always exhilarated by my time at Penn."

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