EDITORIAL: Steps toward excellence

The administration's newThe administration's newacademic priorities areThe administration's newacademic priorities areforward-looking andThe administration's newacademic priorities areforward-looking andimpressive.The administration's newacademic priorities areforward-looking andimpressive.________________________ Together with the efforts of the Collegiate Planning Board and the Provost's Council on the Undergraduate Experience, these newly articulated priorities will help define the Penn experience for the conceivable future. Because the six priorities are broad in scope and based on strengths identified by deans and faculty members from each of the University's schools, they have a high probability of attracting interest and generating enthusiasm and creative new ideas. The priorities are also structured to build on Penn's strengths, including the "cross talk" among our schools and institutes and the physical proximity of our graduate and undergraduate students. They may help in recruiting the most talented students to fill Penn's classrooms in the upcoming years, regardless of our U.S. News & World Report ranking, by giving students additional interdisciplinary program options that combine undergraduate and graduate training. However, the Agenda for Excellence is also realistic, in that it identifies the University's academic and other weaknesses, including student and faculty flight from West Philadelphia, campus safety and the future of retailing and vending in the community. Rodin believes that because of these new priorities, Penn as a whole will be programmatically and physically transformed within the next five years. Raising the money to make this goal reality is her next hurdle.