U.S. Gov't shutdown has little effect on U.

Despite another federal shutdown and the continuing lack of a budget agreement for 1996, the University's day-to-day operations have not been affected by the impasse, University financial officials said. "We were very lucky," said John Fry, the University's executive vice president. He said the University would have had a "cash flow problem" if the shutdown continued for 4-5 weeks. But they added that the future of the University's research and medical programs are at stake in the budget talks and that the University's ability to plan for the future is hampered until an agreement is reached. According to Fry, the University's federal grants were not affected despite the shutdown. Fry said the University submitted several bills to the government in late December and was reimbursed within "the normal 4-5 days." Ironically, Fry presented an analysis of the impact of the shutdown to University President Judith Rodin and Provost Stanley Chodorow just two days before an agreement was reached to put federal workers back to work. According to Stephen Golding, vice president for finance, the biggest ongoing issue for the University is the effect of the budget talks on the University's research programs. Golding says the University is closely monitoring reimbursements for grants already received as well as the speed with which pending grant proposals are processed. And University officials said they cannot plan for future budgets without a federal budget agreement on which to base those plans. "It looks like we are going to have to get used to a certain amount of uncertainty and chaos, which is not easy for a large research university," said Carol Scheman, vice president for government, community and public affairs. While the University escaped the last shutdown without any problems, officials say are concerned about the future of Penn's research and medical programs. "Clearly, over time, there will be no more resources in the aggregate [than there are now given] to research universities," Morse said. Morse also predicted that the National Science Foundation, the University's second largest research sponsor, will receive level funding over the next seven years which "will hurt the physical sciences." Scheman agreed and said that the University will have to find a way to pay for research, medical training and infrastructure costs when federal funds become less available. "The question is: Will the University be able to keep up with the thoughts and ideas of our students and professors in the future?" Scheman said. Morse said Congress is currently debating over how much funding to allocate for the training of medical residents and treatment of indigent and Medicare patients at hospitals. While University officials are concerned about the effects of a budget agreement, there was some good news from Washington, D.C. when the last shutdown ended. Currently, all federal agencies are funded through January 30, including passport and visa services which will allow foreign students to return to the University as well as travel to abroad programs in time for the next semester. In addition, the University's largest source of federal funds, the National Institute of Health, received a 5.7 percent budget increase through next September. Financial aid has also fared relatively well in the recent budget talks. The University has already received its student aid monies for the '95-'96 school year because the program is funded in advance. And University officials say they are not concerned with the level of federal funding for student aid. Morse explained that the debate over student loans is over how they are administered, not their availability or financing. Morse, who lobbies for Penn in Washington, said that while Congress has been conducting business as usual, the lack of an agreement "casts a pall over everything else." "Nobody can tell you how it's going to end up," Morse said. "There's a strange feeling, I describe it as almost surreal."