After the first day of the winter meeting of the University Board of Trustees, Penn seems to be in good shape: The endowment is performing well, budgets are more accurate and facilities improvements will continue to dot the campus in the future.
The University's endowment has seen stable returns of 11.7 percent against a benchmark of 11 percent. At this point last year, the endowment was down 4.1 percent.
University Treasurer and Senior Vice President for Finance Craig Carnaroli noted the "substantial growth in our net assets in the first six months of the fiscal year compared to what we reported over a year ago."
"This is what I call 'what a difference a year makes,'" he said.
The University Health System is also performing well, seeing an increase in patient activity and receiving budget relief funding from the state.
The University is making progress in yearly budgets as they strive for accuracy in reporting. After encouraging the various deans to account for grants more comprehensively, budget figures more closely match actual expenses and revenues than in previous years.
"When we see something go up or down, we're now able to measure it against a budgeted number" that is more accurate, Carnaroli said.
The meeting also addressed several campuswide facilities improvements.
The Nursing Education Building will receive major renovations, beginning the first phase of an anticipated multi-step process designed to upgrade the building. The $8.15 million project will be funded entirely through gifts and grants, with 80 percent of the money already secured through pledges.
The Nursing Education Building was constructed in the 1970s and has never been fully renovated. The first phase of the project will work toward the goals of "connectedness, coherence, interaction [and] the development of a community of scholars," School of Nursing Dean Afaf Meleis said. All of the renovations will take place on the ground floor of the building.
Meleis and Nursing Assistant Dean for Development and Alumni Relations Wylie Thomas worked together to raise the money almost entirely in the form of small individual donations, with one large gift of $2 million.
"There were times when we were told there was no fundraising potential in the School of Nursing," Carnaroli said.
Several college houses will see improvements in the near future, with Harnwell College House receiving the most dramatic facelift. The $28.5 million revamp is slightly higher than the packages the trustees approved for the other two high rises. The increased cost will be incurred when office spaces are relocated to create space for additional student rooms.
Sprinklers will be installed in Hill College House -- as well as an update to the building's fire alarm system -- at a cost of $3.95 million. Carnaroli noted that this cost is higher than anticipated due to the physical constraints of the building.
"Hill is very complex given the way the student rooms are configured, and under city regulations, we need to have a sprinkler head in each room," Carnaroli said. "However, there have been favorable variances in other projects such that we don't anticipate any strain on the capital budget."
Stouffer College House will also receive new sprinklers, as well as a renovated basement. Campuswide sprinkler installations are a "high trustee priority" in student residences, according to Carnaroli. The project is nearly complete, with only Sansom Place East and Sansom Place West still awaiting sprinklers.
Rounding out the college house projects was the approval of the second phase of the Campus Residence Perimeter Security Project, which includes new door alarms, security cameras and video monitoring on several college houses. The project continues after favorable results in the first phase, which included the installation of current security measures in the Quadrangle.
"Essentially, it will impede the type of piggybacking that goes on late at night when students are coming back from, I think, studying on Friday and Saturday nights at 2 in the morning," Carnaroli said, noting that the project was "a very high priority of our public safety group."
In addition to development on campus, the trustees also discussed West Philadelphia outreach. The Committee on Neighborhood Initiatives discussed the development of the Urban Institute, which trustees hope will make Penn an innovator in the field of urban research. The trustees also focused on continuing development along 40th Street and community reaction to such development.
