Trustees to convene at meeting today

The full University Board of Trustees will be on campus today and tomorrow for its traditional round of winter meetings. But six new Trustees -- four alumni and two Commonwealth of Pennsylvania officials -- are already immersed in the issues affecting campus life after having attended a day-long orientation program yesterday at the Faculty Club. University President Judith Rodin described the orientation program as an "institutional briefing" that allows the new Trustees to get an overview of the role they now play in University decision-making. The group of six also had the opportunity to meet deans of the various schools, Faculty Senate leaders and senior officers of the University. They will return to campus later this semester to meet student leaders and other faculty members. University Secretary Barbara Stevens said the entire Board of Trustees will be briefed on many aspects of campus life during the next two days -- listening to everything from student life and University responsibility to external affairs and budget and finance. Discussion of the strategic importance of the University's "mutually beneficial" partnership with federal, state and city government, to be led by Vice President for Community and Government Affairs Carol Scheman, is also on the schedule, Stevens said. And a first-of-its-kind plenary session on "The University in the Information Age" will be held today, so that faculty, staff and students with electronic expertise can share their knowledge with Trustees. Rodin said other topics of interest to the Trustees are the Coopers & Lybrand report on administrative restructuring and the 21st Century Undergraduate Education Initiative, which will be explained in-depth both during normal committee meetings and some special joint sessions. This cycle of meetings is the first full set that Trustees' Chairperson Roy Vagelos, who took office last fall, will lead.