U. Trustees to meet at Penn this week

The Trustees will elect a successor to outgoing chairperson Roy Vagelos. As the University Trustees prepare for their annual summer meetings this week, they will be faced with the standard issues of faculty appointments, budgetary policy and facilities planning -- in addition to the challenge of replacing outgoing Chairperson Roy Vagelos. Vagelos, who has served as chairperson since November 1994, will officially step down at tomorrow's all-inclusive Stated Meeting of the Trustees at 2:30 p.m. in the Faculty Club. The former chief executive officer of Merck and Co., Vagelos will turn 70 -- the required age of retirement according to statutes of the Trustees -- in October. A new chairperson will be elected tomorrow, but both Vagelos and University Spokesperson Ken Wildes declined to reveal the name of the new chairperson. "His contributions as chair of the Trustees have been extraordinary, especially his attention to the enhancement of the scientific research and teaching enterprise of the University and his deep commitment to undergraduate financial aid," University President Judith Rodin said Tuesday. The Trustees meet three times a year -- once each during the fall and spring semesters and once during the summer -- to discuss and vote on important issues pertaining to the University community. This week's meetings marks their final gathering of the current fiscal year. Although seven standing committees of the Trustees will meet this week, only three -- Budget and Finance, External Affairs and Academic Policy -- will open their sessions to the public. At the Budget and Finance committee meeting, which will take place today at 2:30 p.m., the operating capital budgets for both the University and the University's Health System will be discussed and then voted on at tomorrow's Stated Meeting. Last June the Trustees approved a total operating budget of $2.871 billion. University Budget Director Mike Masch was unavailable for comment this week. Other highlights of this week's events include tomorrow's Academic Policy meeting -- scheduled for 10 a.m. in the Faculty Club -- in which Medical School Vice Dean of Education Gail Morrison will present a resolution on Curriculum 2000, an innovative program first introduced in 1997 and designed to expose Penn's Medical students to a more integrated, broad-based approach to medical education. "We had to really take down everything, start over and say 'What is medicine going to look like in the 21st Century?'" said Morrison, the curriculum's chief architect. And School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston will present two resolutions -- one encouraging the closing of the beleaguered Folklore Department and the other calling for the creation of a master of chemical education degree for students interested in teaching chemistry. "There is no source of contention as far as I can see," Preston said of the department's elimination, noting that Folklore will become an academic center and will remain a graduate group, while the department's professors will join other undergraduate departments. Although some of the issues to be discussed at the Trustees meetings are decidedly complex and multifaceted, McManus said she expects little heated debate during the sessions. "We spend a lot of time making sure that there are no surprises," she said. Other bodies scheduled to meet this week include the Development, Facilities and Campus Planning and Investment Board committees. And, as always, there will be a handful of academic appointments made this week. Jon Huntsman, a 1959 Wharton graduate and primary donor and namesake of the soon-to-be constructed Huntsman Hall, will be named chairperson of the Board of Overseers of the Wharton School. And former Trustees Chairperson Alvin Shoemaker will be tapped as the chairperson of the athletics advisory board, while Marjorie Rendell, U.S. Circuit Court judge and wife of Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, will serve as the board of overseers of the Nursing School. Tonight the Trustees will take a break from their discussions with a party in honor of the recently-created Abramson Family Cancer Institute. Katie Couric, a co-anchor of the Today show, is the event's featured speaker.

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