Officials tackle budget issues at U. Council

Stabilizing UPHS is among the priorities for Penn's next fiscal year. At a special additional University Council meeting yesterday afternoon, University President Judith Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi reviewed Penn's budget and listened to a number of committee reports. The session brought about 30 of the advisory group's 92 members to McClelland Hall for the last regular meeting of the academic year. In a joint presentation, Rodin and Barchi gave a broad overview of the University's next fiscal year's budget and explained a number of the financial issues that Penn faces. According to Rodin, around 44 percent, or $1.3 billion, of the University's $3 billion budget goes to Penn's 12 academic schools and resource centers. The remaining funds are used to support the non-academic part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. But she said the University faces the significant challenges of stabilizing the Health System -- which has lost nearly $300 million over the past two years -- and finding more money to support facility maintenance costs and construction projects such as the $137 million Huntsman Hall and a proposed $90 million life sciences building. Both Barchi and Rodin said the University must increase the undergraduate and graduate financial aid budget by about $100 million to stay competitive with peer institutions. "We are trying to increase the size of the awards and decrease the loan component," Rodin said. But unless the University receives more donations, that increase will add pressure to Penn's operating budget, where financial aid already consumes 11 percent of the total. "We take 6.7 percent of financial aid from our endowment and 93.3 percent from the operating budget," Barchi said, noting that peer institutions use a greater portion of their endowments for financial aid. Besides making the budget presentation, Rodin and Barchi used the meeting to announce the contract extensions of Dental School Dean Raymond Fonseca and Annenberg School for Communications Dean Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who both agreed to remain in their current positions until 2003. The Council also heard reports from the Bookstore, International Programs, Communications and Personal Benefits committees. Bookstore Committee Chairman Daniel Raff, a Management professor, suggested that the Council recommend ways to encourage more faculty to submit book orders earlier in order to avoid the "perennial problem of getting the books on shelves for students at the beginning of the semester." He also said the Bookstore Committee had received requests asking that the Barnes and Noble University Bookstore not sell Playboy and Penthouse magazines, but the committee concluded not to act on it. International Programs Committee Chairman and Biology Professor Eric Weinberg recommended a new international center on Locust Walk. The facility would house internationally focused academic and social campus groups, provide areas for international scholars and students and be a resource for study-abroad programs. And Communications Committee Chairman and Physiology Professor Martin Pring reported on his group's recent work, which included examining the modem pool policy, making the PennCard easier to use and reducing the amount of mail incoming freshmen receive. The Communications Committee has also spent much of the year formulating the University's electronic privacy policy, which Council plans to debate further next fall. Council will convene again next Wednesday for its annual transition meeting, when its new members will hear year-end committee reports to familiarize them with the issues they will face next year.