SAS gets $10 million from deceased U. donor

The funds will be dispersed throughout the School of Arts and Sciences at the direction of its dean, Samuel Preston. The coffers of the School of Arts and Sciences are $10 million richer thanks to the bequest of a late Philadelphia philanthropist, University President Judith Rodin announced yesterday. When 1931 Wharton School graduate John Merriam died at the age of 87 in 1994, he directed that his $95 million estate be divided among his widow, Betty Merriam, Penn and three other area institutions. In the months after Merriam's death, the University used its first share of the estate -- an $8 million trust -- to fund several academic initiatives. The latest windfall comes from the recent sales of several parcels of real estate Merriam left to Penn, who made his fortune developing land in the greater Philadelphia region. The bulk of Penn's share of his estate came through land holdings, mostly in Montgomery County. Merriam did not specify how the beneficiaries of his estate should use his money, leaving it to the discretion of Rodin and Interim Provost Michael Wachter. In a letter to SAS faculty members, Rodin and Wachter announced that SAS Dean Samuel Preston would have sole control over how to use the $10 million to best fulfill the school's strategic priorities. "We are very pleased to inform you? that we are creating a special new fund for the Dean to use for strategic programs, appointments, fellowships and other purposes that will most clearly advance excellence in SAS," they wrote. "We are eager to see it put to great use." The only minor limitation on the money's use, according to Rodin, is that it be used in accordance with SAS's goals under 1995's Agenda for Excellence, the University's five-year strategic plan for turning Penn into a high-tech, globally oriented institution with expanded academic and research opportunities. "It's an unrestricted fund and we're going to use it in a variety of ways," Preston said, adding that he expects to use a large portion of the money to enlarge the school's depleted faculty ranks. There are currently 450 professors in the school, down from 480 a decade ago. "Recruitment and retention of faculty are certainly essential issues of the school," he said, adding that one or two new endowed chairs -- at $2 million each -- may be created. Preston emphasized that no definite decisions on how SAS will spend the money have been made yet, with the school's deans and the SAS Planning and Priority Committee not having met yet to discuss the issue. SAS Vice Dean for External Affairs Jean-Marie Kneeley said a gift of this size for SAS is large but not unusual. The last time the school received a gift so large was in November 1997, when University Board of Trustees Chairperson Roy Vagelos donated $10 million for an undergraduate program in the molecular life sciences. "The school routinely receives gifts of a million dollars or more," Kneeley said, though "not as often as Wharton does." Rodin said that more money from the Merriam bequest will be on the way as more area land holdings are sold, though she could not estimate a dollar figure for the future amount. Over the last four years, the fate of Merriam's estate has been a source of legal and financial contention. Merriam did not rewrite his will after marrying his second wife in 1992, a requirement under Pennsylvania law. As a result, the estate's four principal beneficiaries -- Penn, the University of the Arts, Bryn Mawr College and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts -- sued the Merriam estate. Under a 1996 agreement, 40 percent of the assets would go to Merriam's widow, while Penn would reap the largest share of the 60 percent bequeathed to the four schools.