COLUMN: What are you ready to lose?

From Josh Callahan's, "Under Construction," Fall '99 From Josh Callahan's, "Under Construction," Fall '99William Kelley, chief executive of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, said it himself: "Because of the magnitude of our financial challenges, our recovery strategy must include some very necessary but painful actions." All of that has many parents and students wondering why Penn doesn't just sell the troubled institution, which gobbled up 55 percent of Penn's budget and lost at least $150 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30. After all, the theory goes, what do we lose if Penn throws in the towel and the whole system, even HUP, gets a new owner? The Nursing School? Although the school isn't funded by UPHS, Nursing is intricately tied to the resources derived from Penn-owned hospitals -- without a Health System, the school simply wouldn't have the necessary facilities or support system. It would have to go. But so what? We can probably survive without it. Losing 250 undergrads is actually slightly more than needed to solve the University's current campus housing crunch. And no more students living at the Sheraton means more hotel guests, which means more revenue for Penn. So, we lose the Nursing School -- a school you never took a class in and never knew much about. If that's it, maybe it is an acceptable price to pay for ridding ourselves of the dangers of being tied to a failing multi-billion dollar health system. But separating what is Penn education from what is UPHS is exceedingly difficult. It's not as if everything at Penn can be put on one team or the other, with some seemingly inconsequential programs being left off both teams in order to cut costs. What about the Biology Department? Are they non-essential? And all the pre-meds whose applications depend on jobs in HUP's labs and independent research projects done under the supervision of Medical School faculty? Do we need to axe that? We can sweep through most of Penn's science-related programs -- Chemistry, Psychology, the popular Biological Basis of Behavior major. Will that all disappear if the Health System craps out? The cost to Penn students of losing the Health System doesn't seem so little anymore. Quite simply, it is huge. It doesn't even stop at health-related issues. Last week, Executive Vice President John Fry said that while the rest of the University is not currently facing cutbacks due to UPHS's losses, the health system's financial state will have a "major impact" on future important and costly building plans. Also, University bonds have been downgraded by Moody's due to their higher risk of default. This means higher interest rates for the University, which of course means more cash moving out of Ben Franklin's pockets. While we all await the final report due in the coming months from the Hunter Group -- the consulting firm brought in to advise Penn on solutions for UPHS -- it's time to get serious about the financial problems of the Penn Health System. It does matter, to everyone, that the Health System will spend $500,000 more than it takes in today. And so, everyone in the University community needs to voice their opinions, think of creative solutions or at the very least become more aware of the intricate relationship between UPHS and the rest of Penn -- a relationship whose implications extend beyond the legal firewall that is in place to protect University assets in case of a UPHS default.