Trustees approve $200 mil. in loans

The University's Board of Trustees gave the go-ahead to $200 million in loans, approved numerous job appointments and said goodbye to Provost Stanley Chodorow at its quarterly on-campus meeting Friday in the Quadrangle's McClelland Hall. Thanking his colleagues for "3 1/2 extraordinary years of achievement," Chodorow said he hopes to carry his Penn experience "into my future career." He announced his resignation October 31 in conjunction with his being named a finalist for the presidency of the University of Texas at Austin. University President Judith Rodin, who took office with Chodorow in July 1994, praised him for his "wonderful leadership." "Stan has a tremendous understanding of the meaning and nature of universities -- not only as medieval institutions, although he reminds us often and well that that is the case -- but also in a sense of universities as communities, as places where people learn and grow and cry and come together," Rodin said of Chodorow, a medieval scholar. In other business, Trustees authorized the University to borrow up to $200 million to finance projects such as renovations to buildings ranging from the Perelman Quadrangle to the new Wharton School building, which will be built next year on the current site of The Book Store. Vice President for Finance Kathy Engebretson urged the Trustee Committee on Budget and Finance to borrow money now in order to take advantage of long-term interest rates that are near a five-year low. Associate Comptroller Kenneth Campbell told the committee that "the University is in very good financial shape," noting that the value of its endowment increased to $2.5 billion in June 1997 from $2.1 billion in June 1996, an increase of about 20 percent. Trustees approved $4 million to fund renovations of several facilities at the School of Veterinary Medicine's New Bolton Campus in Kennett Square, Pa. The buildings will be used for genetic research. Also, Trustees approved $2.04 million to fund the final phase of renovations of the Van Pelt Library, bringing the total cost of library renovations to $6.24 million. The funds will go towards refurbishing the first-floor circulation and periodicals areas. In real estate, the University will buy the vacant, 25,000-square foot property at 38th Street and Woodland Avenue for a maximum of $1.2 million. And the Trustees approved the $1.15 million sale of a 22-acre property in Radnor, Pa., bequeathed to the University by Isaac Norris' estate in 1996.

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