In deference to the magnitude of Tuesday's attacks on New York and Washington, the annual fall meeting of University Board of Trustees has been postponed.
The University announced yesterday that the meetings, which had been scheduled for today, would be put off indefinitely. Yesterday's scheduled University Council session was also canceled due to a conflict with the University's memorial service at Irvine Auditorium.
The decision to postpone the meetings was made Tuesday afternoon by University President Judith Rodin, Chairman of the Trustees James Riepe and Secretary of the University Leslie Kruhly.
"This is a very unusual circumstance, but there is nothing so urgent that the meetings had to take place," Kruhly said. "The trustees understood completely that this was the appropriate thing to do."
Today's meetings would not have involved all of the University Trustees, as the full board is still scheduled to convene in November.
The campus development, budget and finance and executive committees were all scheduled to meet today.
No firm date has been set to make up the scheduled meetings, but Kruhly stressed that the committees would meet sometime this fall.
Kruhly said that Tuesday's terrorist attacks would have made transportation to the meetings much more difficult for trustees. Most airports were not open for business yesterday, and travel through New York was sluggish.
"We have a number of trustees who need to travel, including one internationally," Kruhly said. "Clearly, logistically, it would have been hard to hold the meetings."
But Kruhly added that although many of the Trustees called on Tuesday to check in with the University, the decision to cancel was not made based on their requests.
"It was not a matter of trustees calling and saying that they could not attend," Kruhly said.
In addition, the Middle East Center canceled its first study seminar, which was planned for today.
On Tuesday, Rodin said that Penn would be open for businesses and classes on yesterday, citing "a sense of trying to resume normalcy."
Festivities for "No Place Like Penn Weekend" are still scheduled to go off as planned, including a drive-in movie tonight and a performance by comedian Dave Chapelle in Irvine Auditorium tomorrow.
