PENN ON THE HILL: Cuts to NEH, NEA funds may hurt U.

President Clinton increased funding for the National Endowments for the Humanities and the Arts in his budget plan released this week. But the future of these programs -- which are responsible for funding many departments at the University -- is by no means secure. Under Clinton's plan,the NEH would receive $182.8 million, a $5 million increase, and the NEA would receive $173 million, up $1 million from last year. While the NEH and NEA make up a fraction of the federal budget, Republicans in Congress who are determined to cut spending have targeted the agencies as wasteful. Many in Congress have argued that only the "elite" benefit from the NEH and NEA and that the projects the agencies support do not merit the money -- citing NEA funding for such controversial artists as Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano. Hoping to eliminate funding altogether, several legislators say that cultivating the humanities and the arts is not the government's responsibility. If the Republicans manage to substantially reduce or eliminate appropriations for the NEH and NEA, the result could prove disastrous for some departments within the University. The NEH, headed by former University President Sheldon Hackney, helps finance programs across the University, including faculty fellowships, seminars and restoration of special collections. The NEA subsidizes about half of the Department of Architectural Archives' budget for exhibitions and stabilizing old documents. Because of this support, the department was able to restore and catalogue the drawings of Louis Kahn, the late University professor who is often called the most influential architect of the past 50 years. Legislators have also threatened to abolish the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which subsidizes the University's radio station, WXPN. English Professor Bob Perelman determined that Americans pay 65 cents a year for the NEA, in an article he wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer. And other faculty members said that the fact that the allocations for the NEH and NEA are so small in proportion to the federal budget demonstrates that the Republican drive to cut the agencies is motivated more by politics than economics. Each year the NEH funds 2,200 projects, approximately one of every five applications the agency receives. Professors who are granted fellowships receive $30,000 to finance a leave of absence while conducting a year of research. "We're easy targets," said English Department Chairperson John Richetti, who received an NEH fellowship a few years ago to write a book. Without NEH support, the University, which prides itself on its research, could suffer financially and intellectually. Many Republicans have proposed that private foundations should support cultural projects. But Graduate School of Fine Arts Interim Dean Malcolm Campbell said not enough foundations exist to compensate for a total loss of NEA funding. Hoping to pressure legislators to sustain the agencies, organizations throughout the city and members of the University will hold a forum tomorrow. The event will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Great Hall of the University of the Arts in Center City.

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