The University Board of Trustees will gather at the Inn at Penn today for its first official meeting since Amy Gutmann assumed the presidency in June.
Comprising prominent alumni and successful professionals, the trustees have significant power in shaping the direction of the University.
Topics to be addressed by the committees of the board range from civic engagement and athletic branding to the University's investments and current financial state.
The eight committee meetings -- held in overlapping hour-long slots from 8:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. -- will be conducted in a condensed format, due to Friday's inauguration events.
All meetings are open to the public, except the 8:45 to 9:45 a.m. session of the Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity. Because the committee is not a standing committee, it has the ability to hold closed-door sessions.
Many of the broader overarching goals of the trustees will not be articulated in this initial meeting due to the recent presidential transition.
"For the year, the exciting work of the board is going to be hearing about the new administration's articulation of the strategic plan," Director of Trustee Affairs Molly Roth said, adding that the trustees "are not really getting under way with that yet," as "these are the first committee meetings since Amy Gutmann's tenure."
The trustees seemed eager to begin work with Gutmann.
"Obviously, Dr. Rodin is a tough act to follow, but I think if anyone is up for the task, you know Amy Gutmann certainly is," Trustee Mitch Quain said.
Among the more specific issues to be addressed, global and political themes are prominent.
The Academic Policies and Procedures Committee will examine "the implications of the current regulatory environment on foreign students and scholars," Roth said, citing an issue that affects many of the University's almost 4,000 foreign exchange students.
The final session will include Investment Committee Chairman Howard Mark's annual report.
The Budget and Finance Committee will supplant the monetary analysis aspect of the trustee meeting by presenting a "quick preliminary financial report for the first two months of the fiscal year," Roth said.
Other decisions of financial bearing are set to be approved by the trustees tomorrow, such as the initial $2 million that is being authorized to begin funding the Penn Informations Common.
The project is a joint undertaking by the School of Arts and Sciences and Van Pelt Library, and it aims to create a place "where students [can] come to learn how to do improved research techniques," according to University Secretary Leslie Kruhly.
The Neighborhood Initiatives Committee session will serve mainly to recap some of the previous work done in the surrounding community.
"It's going to be a review of what we call the West Philadelphia Initiatives -- which is the whole program of involvement in West Philly," Roth said.
The committee will then move to introduce a discussion about future planning steps for the next phase of the initiative.
"This meeting is a key opportunity for us to say, 'This is what's wrong, this is where you've messed up, this is where we need more answers,'" said Bradley Breuer, a College senior and student representative to the Neighborhood Initiatives Committee.
Both the Student Life and External Affairs committees will entertain reports from Registration, Education, Voting Events and Activities at the University of Pennsylvania, highlighting the work of students who are trying to mobilize their peers in the sphere of politics.
"The trustees, I think, will be extraordinarily impressed by the work the students have done with REV UP and getting out the vote," Kruhly said.
Roth said that "nothing brand-new" will be introduced in the Facilities and Campus Planning Committee meeting. The members will have the chance, however, to respond to "a set of updates on ongoing construction projects and retail projects."
The final meeting, which runs from 2:15 to 3 p.m., acts as the "official business meeting for the trustees," according to Roth. "It's where the resolutions that may have been discussed in committees are formally presented for action."
