The days of shootings in front of Smokey Joe's and muggings on Locust Walk seem a distant memory. Penn is now consistently ranked among the top 10 universities in the nation. The University has raised nearly $1 billion in funds. Guided by the Agenda for Excellence, Penn has made some significant headway over the past five years of University President Judith Rodin's tenure. Now, the plan responsible for all of this is coming under review. And as the University reviews these successes, as well as the Agenda's failures, it may very well develop a new strategic plan for the next five years. Though what Penn will focus on in an upcoming strategic plan is not certain, there are certainly some topics on which it will have to focus, and some things it can leave behind as past successes. The past five years of the Agenda have certainly been speckled with numerous successes. But in order to succeed in the future, the University will have to face some important issues in order to draft its next plan. Relations with the West Philadelphia community, while slowly improving, still remain a point of contention. In recent months, the community group Neighbors Against McPenntrification has repeatedly accused Penn of encroaching upon the surrounding neighborhood. And last fall, area landlords charged that the University's partnership with the real-estate company Fannie Mae was little more than a ploy to fix housing prices. Penn will have to find a way to appease local residents while furthering University initiatives if it is to succeed in the future -- especially given its plans for the future of campus. Campus development, which has been extensive during the Rodin administration, now has an ambitious 25-year plan intended to eventually unite Penn with Center City. Such a project will require tremendous amounts of fundraising, assuming Penn is even able to buy the neighboring lands held by the U.S. Postal Service to fulfill its dreams of eastward expansion. Because of ongoing financial difficulties, the Postal Service will not move off the lands east of Penn as soon as originally planned. And then there's the issue of financial aid. Though the University has raised $903 million of a target $1 billion for the entire plan in the past five years, it has raised only $131 million of a target $200 million for financial aid. This is an area the University must address if it hopes to compete with the Harvards and Princetons of the world, which fund their financial aid systems largely from their endowments. Currently, Penn relies almost entirely on its operating budget to fund financial aid. Though Penn's finances -- with the exception of the endowment -- are doing well as a whole, the University has suffered some heavy losses in recent years. Most notably, the University of Pennsylvania Health System lost more than $300 million in the 1998 and 1999 fiscal years. The Health System has since made modest recoveries, but Penn still has much of the loss to recover. Such financial issues will undoubtedly plague the University's mind as it chooses what to focus on in the future.
*
But in spite of the issues that remain to be addressed, most people at Penn praise the last five years as a time of great change for the better. And according to Public Policy and History Professor Ted Hershberg, perhaps the biggest improvement made on campus since Rodin assumed office in the summer of 1995 is the improvement of the campus itself. "What Rodin and [Executive Vice President John] Fry have done to the physical plan of this campus has been stunning," Hershberg said. "On that I give them an A-plus. This place looks a heck of a lot better." And Rodin herself named some of these physical improvements as great achievements that resulted from the Agenda. "Clearly, Perelman Quad, Sansom Common -- all of those were planned in this plan and have moved forward," Rodin said. Furthermore, Penn and its student body have been praised throughout the nation in recent years, most notably in U.S. News and World Report's annual rankings. Stephen Smith, the editor of U.S. News and a Penn alumnus, said that the University has become a highly attractive school. "Penn is a hot school," Smith said. "The quality of students at Penn now is much higher than it was five years ago." And despite continuing conflict, tensions with the surrounding neighborhood have eased. According to English Department Chairman John Richetti, that can be measured by the number of Penn professors who are now choosing to live in West Philadelphia. "I do think [Penn's relationship with West Philadelphia] is improving somewhat," Richetti said. "Some of my colleagues live in West Philadelphia, more than did 10 years ago." And Rodin has tried to address the idea that Penn pushes its own goals over and above those of the community. She said that the University has been trying to better align its goals with the needs of the West Philadelphia neighborhood. "I actually think that what we've tried to do is reduce the competition across those interests and indicate that they are more aligned," Rodin said. But perhaps the Agenda's greatest success concerns academia. For instance, academic centers and research organizations have been major additions to Penn in the past five years. Rodin said that it's "hard to imagine now what Penn was like without Kelly Writers House, Civic House, [and] CURF [the Center for Undergraduate Research Fellowships]." And Provost Robert Barchi said that the academic environment at Penn has improved significantly. "The quality of the academic product, the research product, again, I think has ratcheted up tremendously at the University of Pennsylvania," Barchi said.
*
But while the changes at Penn have been quite significant, administrators and faculty are saying that the University still has a few specific projects to address. Though the Agenda review is not yet complete, the administration has already identified a few areas that it intends to target in its next strategic plan. Rodin, the architect of the Agenda, and Barchi admit that the University still has much to do in terms of globalizing Penn and integrating technology into campus life. Furthermore, some members of the Penn community feel that the most lauded accomplishments of the past five years -- such as the development of the physical plant and the college house system -- still need a good deal of work. According to History Professor Alan Kors, making every residence on campus a college house is a mistake and prevents students from participating in a true "college house" experience. "I think that putting everyone in the same residential system makes absolutely no sense," Kors said. "I was disheartened to see the attempt to force all freshmen to eat in dining halls." And while the development of Penn's campus may receive a great deal of praise, not everyone thinks that all parts of campus have met the same level of development. Richetti said that the humanities have not received as much attention as have other departments. "Most of the improvements to the academic physical plant as far as the School of Arts and Sciences is concerned are still in the future," Richetti said, citing specifically the need for renovations to Bennett Hall and College Hall. Furthermore, Richetti said that while the $380 million dormitory and dining renovation project is making headway on the Quadrangle, the three high rises are still in major need of repairs. "The high rises, which contain 2,700 students, they need work," Richetti said. "We've been waiting like Moses in the desert for these buildings to be renovated." Barchi said that these concerns are also the concerns of the central administration, particularly the renovations that need to be completed on humanities facilities. "We share the frustration that some of the faculty have that these things don't move as quickly as we'd like, but they're certainly right in the middle of our radar screen," Barchi said.
