U. Council discusses Quad mail problems

Almost a year after the University announced a massive administrative restructuring program, plans and goals were discussed at length at yesterday's University Council meeting. Executive Vice President John Fry, who will lead the administrative restructuring strategy, presented the first in a series of regular reports to Council on the progress of the project. He said he expects all the restructuring efforts to be finished within three years. Council also heard a report from University President Judith Rodin on the mail delivery problems which have been plaguing students who live in the Quadrangle this year. Rodin said she and Vice President of Business Services Steven Murray have been meeting with post office authorities and postal inspectors in an effort to find the postal workers responsible for University mail being delayed, opened or lost. And she announced that last weekend, a postal worker was arrested for his alleged involvement in the University's problems. But Charles McManus, the leader of the postal inspection team working on the problem, denied that any arrest was made, calling Rodin's report "totally erroneous." "No arrests have been made," he said. "It is a total rumor. We have narrowed it down a little bit, but I don't know of any arrests this service has made over the weekend." Postal Police officers said last night they could not confirm Rodin's report. The second half of the Council meeting was devoted to Fry's presentation of the process and goals of administrative restructuring. He began his report by discussing the reasons the University has embarked on the reengineering process. Fry said massive restructuring is usually associated with universities in financial difficulty. But he explained that Penn's restructuring project was motivated by a desire to improve an already strong institution. The basic goals of restructuring are to maintain control of costs and to ensure that the maximum amount of money is invested in academic-related matters, he said. In order to maximize what he called "mission-relevant" expenditures, the University must examine each office for unnecessary costs or positions, Fry said. He said restructuring will seek to reduce the overall costs of administration, both centrally and among the University's 12 schools. According to Fry, 70 percent of administrative costs arise from school-based offices, not central ones. Part of restructuring will also focus on generating more University revenue, Fry added. By aggressive management of the University's funds, more money becomes available to spend on academic programs. He also said the administration will make an effort to provide more friendly service and to create better communication between University staff and students. By the end of Fry's report, little time remained for members of Council to ask questions. But Karen Wheeler, president of the A-3 Assembly, said her constituents were concerned that they might not know when staff dismissals arising from restructuring would begin. Fry said he will take the interests of University employees into consideration when planning staff cutbacks. But he said there definitely will be layoffs. "You'll never come in here and pick up the Daily Pennsylvanian and find out that hundreds of jobs have been eliminated," he said. "No one wants to tell people they're going to lose their jobs, but you can't bury your head in the sand and pretend it's not going to happen." Also at yesterday's meeting, Council voted to distribute its minutes and agendas over electronic mail and the World Wide Web. A Council home page will be designed so that minutes can be posted for review by the University community. Council also approved preliminary agendas for its remaining meetings this year and charged its committees with specific issues to investigate.