Trustees hold fall meetings

Penn's Board of Trustees, the 90 men and women who oversee the University's long-term strategies and approve all major funding and hiring decisions, congregated yesterday for a series of meetings on pressing issues of finance and campus planning. The meetings -- the trustees' first of the semester -- were held at Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. The ever-expanding Sansom Common retail and hotel complex dominated the discussion at the Budget and Finance Committee meeting, with Executive Vice President John Fry briefing the Trustees on the timetable for the completion of the $90 million project. Trustees also approved several construction projects and were briefed on the financial status of the University and the Health System. Fry updated the budget committee members on the summer's on-time openings of the new University Bookstore and the Xando coffeehouse-bar, while predicting October openings for Sansom Common's Urban Outfitters and Parfumerie Douglas cosmetics stores. Fry also confirmed that the University is in the late stages of negotiations with Eastern Mountain Sports to occupy the space formerly slated for City Sports, which chose not to join the complex. The Trustees' Executive Committee approved more than $17 million in new funding for the first two phases of Sansom Common, above the $73 million pledged last summer. The relocation of the Faculty Club to the new Inn at Penn, the addition of more hotel and retail space at the complex's northwest corner and the construction of Steve Murray's Way -- the roadway bridging Chestnut and Sansom streets behind the Inn -- account for the majority of the approved expenditures. Murray's Way is being paved through the former plaza between the graduate towers at a cost of $6.3 million, over the site of a former parking garage deemed unsafe over the summer by University and city officials. Fry said that it would have cost Penn at least $4 million to renovate the garage space. "Things weren't going to get better, so we really didn't have the option of not doing anything," he said. The street is being named for the University's late vice president for business services, who died in April. The three capital additions to Sansom Common have been in progress for several months, but were only in the "conceptual design" phase during last summer's Trustees meeting, requiring official approval yesterday. Fry emphasized that the increased costs did not mean that the construction project was over budget, but rather reflected the cost of the additional items. The Trustees also approved two other capital projects: the $1.5 million renovation of the fourth floor of the Veterinary School's Rosenthal Building and $11.2 million in renovations to Law School facilities. The budget committee also addressed the issue of the University's $800 million in debt, including the possibility of refinancing the existing debt and the effect of the Moody's Investor Services' decision to downgrade Health System bonds over the summer. University Trustee James Riepe, vice chairperson of T. Rowe Price Associates, gave his first report to the Executive Committee since taking over for longtime Investment Board Chairperson John Neff this summer. He reported that while the endowment jumped 13 percent this last fiscal year, to approximately $2.9 billion, Penn's investments "lagged its competitors" in total return. Riepe added that the Standard & Poor's 500 -- a benchmark index of 500 leading U.S. stocks -- was down 15 percent since he took over, leading to a loss in the value of Penn's endowment. Official figures were not available as of yesterday.

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