Rodin hits Health Sys. troubles in 'State of U.'

Judith Rodin also addressed the issue of campus bicycle safety in her annual Council address. University President Judith Rodin addressed the Health System's fiscal crisis, bicycle safety on campus, endowment fundraising and several other issues in her annual "State of the University" address to University Council yesterday. Provost Robert Barchi and Deputy Provost Peter Conn delivered the academic section of the annual report at Council's monthly meeting in McClelland Hall, which was attended by about two-thirds of the body's 92 members. Rodin said the large deficits experienced by the Health System in recent years have been a cause of major concern. While saying that the Health System's recent budgets have included planned deficits, Rodin acknowledged that the last fiscal year's $198 million loss was startling to administrators who had planned for a much smaller shortfall. "Certainly the challenges facing the Health System have been central to everyone's concerns during the last few months," Rodin said. She noted that the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 significantly reduced Medicare payments to teaching hospitals. Health insurance companies, meanwhile, are refusing to reimburse hospitals for all or part of the cost of care. Rodin also noted that Pennsylvania does not reimburse hospitals for the costs of treating patients without the means to pay for their care. The treatment of indigent patients cost the Health System $60 million last year, she said, and the University has been lobbying Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge to use part of the money the state will reap from the recent tobacco settlement to subsidize this care. "We are very active on the state and federal scene" to get legislative help for UPHS, Rodin said. She also noted that the Health System has now repaid $25 million of the $100 million it borrowed from the University to pay for facilities and utility costs. Rodin called this month's layoff of 515 Health System employees "a very, very sorry situation for the University of Pennsylvania." It was the second part of a three-round process that will see UPHS reduce its workforce by 20 percent. Addressing the recent "terrible, tragic deaths" in bicycle accidents of an undergraduate student and a senior citizen enrolled in a Penn continuing education program, Rodin noted that bicycle lanes will be created on Walnut and Spruce streets by the end of next semester. She said she has formed a small committee of faculty members and students to look at the bike lane proposal in the coming months to make sure it will adequately protect pedestrians and bicyclists around campus. And Rodin also said the University is working on fundraising to expand the size of its endowment, noting that the administration does not want to deny funding to projects that would benefit current students in an effort simply to build the endowment up for future programs. In his address on the University's academic progress, Barchi noted that while helping his own high-school-aged son look at colleges, he has found that "Penn is hot" among high school students as a school of choice. Barchi talked about the continual increase in the number of applicants in recent years and said he expects the University's undergraduate admission rate -- which last year fell to a record-low 26.6 percent -- to decline again this year. He added that the University has seen a strong and consistent upward trend in the amount of grant money it receives from outside sources, including the $467 million in sponsored research grants it received last year. But Barchi cautioned that the costs of conducting research using the most modern technologies are rising as well. Barchi also addressed the ways in which Rodin's Agenda for Excellence is being implemented in various schools and in the programs initiated by the schools independently. Reflecting on comments made earlier by Rodin about the significant strides being made in facilities in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, funding and other areas, Barchi said the University will continue to offer support to improve Engineering programs. "We can accomplish a lot by taking a good school and making it excellent," he said.