The University Board of Trustees will convene today and tomorrow in their final meeting during University President Judith Rodin's tenure.
In addition to typical June agenda items -- including budgets for the following fiscal year and capital improvement projects -- the trustees will also take some time to celebrate Rodin's decade in office.
As Rodin prepares for her final Trustee meetings -- two weeks before she officially departs College Hall -- she is focused on planning for the usually rigorous annual gatherings.
"As I always do, we're preparing all of our agendas and working hard with the senior officers to get all of our programs for the meetings out and prepared successfully," Rodin said. "We want these meetings to be at least as successful as they always are."
Typical of the Trustees' annual June meeting -- one of three meetings per year of the full board of over 60 members -- a number of financial resolutions are on the table.
According to University Secretary Leslie Kruhly, the trustees will be authorizing the fiscal year 2005 operating budget and capital plans for the University and for the Health System.
The Trustees will also discuss upcoming and ongoing construction projects, including a renovation of the Nursing Education Building, the WXPN World Cafe and road reconfiguration near the School of Veterinary Medicine. The recently completed plaza in front of the Annenberg School for Communication will also be dedicated.
Resolutions to approve the sale of the Phoenixville Hospital -- a member of the University of Pennsylvania Health System -- will also go before the board, including some refinancing and restructuring of Health System debt.
Updated figures for the University endowment will also be released along with other financial data.
In addition to budget and funding approvals, annual Trustee elections will take place.
Last night, the trustees arrived a day earlier than usual to celebrate with Rodin.
"I'm having a private [dinner] with the trustees and spouses and my husband and my son on Wednesday night that [the trustees] have planned," Rodin said last week.
Tonight, a more formal gathering of about 550 guests will honor Rodin at a celebration themed "The Spirit of Daring." Rodin, trustees and other administrators will join people from around the country with whom Rodin has worked closely during her time at Penn.
The event -- which will take place at the National Constitution Center in Center City -- will feature guest speakers from around the University community and a performance by Mask and Wig alumni.
Also in attendance will be members of Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania -- a group seeking recognition as a union -- who will protest outside of the Constitution Center.
"We're basically showing the administration that we're not going away just because the summer's here," said GET-UP Co-Chair and School of Arts and Sciences graduate student Joe Drury.
"We're also here to show the trustees once again -- as we did last year -- that we know that they're the people who are making decisions and that they have a responsibility to deal with this situation."
After Friday, Rodin will begin to close out her term before she leaves her office on June 30.
"My days have been extremely full," Rodin said. "Even after the Trustee meeting I have a lot of appointments the following week, a lot of things that we're just trying to close in terms of projects."
"I'll continue meeting with the officers and with president Gutmann," Rodin added. "We're trying to carve out as much time as we can in the next few weeks."
