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(11/03/99 10:00am)
Law School Professor Heidi Hurd resigned this summer from the 11-member Law School dean search committee, a move that now makes her eligible for the vacant position. "I can't confirm or deny" that Hurd is a candidate, Wharton School Vice Dean Richard Herring, head of the search committee, said yesterday. Members of dean search committees cannot be considered for the position themselves. Hurd refused to comment for this article, but the Law School's monthly student newspaper, The Penn Law Forum, reported that Hurd had left the committee for "personal reasons." Law School Professor Sarah Barringer Gordon took Hurd's spot on the committee in early September. "It was not a disagreement with her colleagues," Herring said, denying the existence of any internal strife among committee members. The search for a permanent replacement for former Law School Dean Colin Diver has been ongoing since last January. Herring said the committee has reviewed over 100 internal and external candidates since that time. The committee is currently meeting as frequently as twice a week and conducts all of its interviews in various off-campus locations so as to maintain absolute privacy. Herring would not say how many candidates are currently on the list, nor would he comment on how many of the remaining candidates are from within the University. He said several candidates have struck the committee as particularly viable options. "It's fair to say that there's several names around which there is considerable enthusiasm," Herring said. It is not clear whether the actual person chosen will be an internal or external candidate or when the search will conclude. "We're still in session," Herring said. "We're grinding away. The committee, more than anyone else, wants it to be done." Herring said yesterday that the committee is searching for people who are "intellectual leaders" who possess "enormous energy" and solid fundraising skills. Several Law School faculty members, including members of the search committee, reached for comment over the past week have declined to speak about the search. The committee had hoped to submit a list of between three and five candidates to University President Judith Rodin by last July, the date when Diver had initially said he would step down. When it became clear that the search would not end by that date, Diver agreed to say on for the remainder of the summer. Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi named Charles Mooney, the Law School's associate dean for academic affairs, the school's interim dean in early August. Mooney said recently that he has no interest in serving as permanent dean. Once given the short list by the committee, Rodin and Barchi will interview each of the candidates and will make the final decision. During his 10-year tenure at the helm of the Law School, Diver expanded the school's facilities and academic support services and raised more than $100 million for its endowment and activities. He announced his resignation in October 1998 on the same day as former Wharton Dean Thomas Gerrity, whose position, too, remains vacant.
(11/02/99 10:00am)
The four hospitals owned by penn laid off 515 workers yesterday. Officials say every department was affected. In its second round of massive layoffs, the University of Pennsylvania Health System told 515 employees that they were out of jobs yesterday and eliminated about 600 additional positions. The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, the Health System's flagship hospital, laid off about 160 of its employees yesterday and cut another 180 empty positions. The layoffs affected employees in each of the Health System's four wholly owned area hospitals. Pennsylvania Hospital laid off 135 workers, Presbyterian Medical Center cut 128 employees and Phoenixville Hospital lost 10 workers. "We really went into every department, area and division and looked at the staffing levels," Health System spokesperson Rebecca Harmon said. "I think it's a safe bet that every department and every division was affected." The $1.9 billion Health System's financial woes have been rapidly spinning out of control. UPHS posted a stunning $198 million loss in the most recent fiscal year. Last week, Moody's Investor Service downgraded the Health System's bond rating -- a measure of the likelihood that its debt will be repaid in a timely fashion -- while predicting that the system would sustain more large losses in upcoming years. The cuts come mostly in support staff positions and include nursing jobs as well. No physicians lost their jobs as a result of the layoffs, spokesperson Lori Doyle said. The exact number of employees laid off in individual divisions was not immediately available. Health System officials have long stressed that patient care would not be adversely affected by the layoffs, though some experts suggest that certain negative changes are inevitable. Health Care Systems Department Chairperson Mark Pauly, for one, said he anticipated that lower levels of staffing might make for a "less pleasant" hospital experience for outpatients and too demanding a workload for the employees who remain. "The real question here is whether labor markets will accommodate a faster pace of work," Pauly said. "Paradoxically, all of the people who complain about being fired might be more miserable if they weren't fired." Yesterday's cuts marked the second time in five months that the Health System has doled out pink slips to hundreds of its employees. In late May, UPHS eliminated 1,100 positions and laid off 450 employees. And the Health System is expected to slash an additional 725 paid positions from the books before June 30, 2000, meaning that 2,800 positions -- or 20 percent of the entire workforce -- will have been eliminated in a 14-month span. Most of the third wave of staff cuts will likely come through attrition and retirement, according to Harmon. The cuts come at a time when the Health System is treating more patients than ever before, including a high number of patients who cannot pay for their care. The Health System reported that it spent $66 million on such services last year. The layoffs follow a comprehensive review of national benchmark statistics at comparable nationwide health systems. Aided by the Hunter Group, the outside consulting firm retained during the summer, Health System officials have spent the last few months determining which departments are overstaffed and could function with fewer workers. One HUP division chief said he had to fire about about 20 employees -- including nurses, receptionists and business administrators -- from his outpatient clinics at HUP and Presbyterian Hospital. He predicted a "higher frustration index" for both patients and doctors. "There will be more work to do, and people are already maxed out in terms of effort," the physician said. There are currently no plans to eliminate any medical departments, though some -- including the widely praised Health and Disease Management program -- will be significantly scaled back and will operate with fewer employees and resources.
(10/29/99 9:00am)
From creating more aesthetically pleasing "gateways" into campus to providing more academic space around the University, Penn officials are in the process of establishing a long-term vision of exactly how the campus should look over the next few decades. Five University-wide committees, each charged with evaluating key areas of concern for Penn's physical campus, are expected to present their research to a steering committee by the end of the semester. The steering committee, chaired by Provost Robert Barchi, will then present the committees' findings to University President Judith Rodin. The committees -- Academic and Scholarly Purpose, Student Life, Heritage and Historic Buildings, Transportation and Maintenance and Operations -- have each identified more specific goals that they have been focusing on since they were appointed in late April, according to Vice President for Facilities Omar Blaik, one of the members of the campus development steering committee. The Academic Policy Committee, for instance, is examining the current space needs of each of the University's 12 graduate and undergraduate schools. It is also determining the role that learning should play in the college houses and discussing the impact technology can have on classroom learning. "The physical environment of campus is driven largely by the different priorities of the different schools," Blaik said. "Schools, at the end of the day, are dependent upon their resources." In addition, the Transportation Committee, chaired by City and Regional Planning Professor Eugenie Birch, is examining access to campus and hoping to make what Executive Vice President John Fry called the "pedestrian experience" as easy as possible. "We are dealing with how to get to campus," Blaik said. "When you're approaching campus, what kind of gateways, what kind of message are we giving to people?" University officials have long expressed interest in improving the "gateways" on the eastern edge of campus -- such as those on Spruce and Walnut streets. To that end, Penn will convert the former General Electric building at 31st and Walnut streets into a $55 million luxury apartment complex. But Fry said that Penn administrators hope to make sure that all entranceways to campus -- not just the ones from the east -- are accessible and convenient. "Do we have the gateways coming in from University Avenue right?" Fry said, giving an example of one issue that is under consideration. Transportation on and around campus has been an important topic of late, as a Wharton freshman and a 70-year-old man were involved in fatal bike accidents in the past month. The University has also hired Olin Partnership Ltd. -- a local landscape and architectural design firm founded by Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning Professor Laurie Olin -- to help conduct a review of the entire Penn campus for future development. Administrators are stressing that these committees are exploring truly broad-based, sweeping topics. The University might not feel the effects of their research for several years. Barchi said the campus development committee will use tables of data, diagrams, maps and other such methods to present their research. There are two public fora scheduled to take place in the next several weeks. "The fora will provide an opportunity to inform the University community about the committees' specific recommendations and to invite comment and suggestions about them," he added.
(10/28/99 9:00am)
Parents will be told of student drug and alcohol offenses in fewer cases than had been recommended. A revised parental notification policy, released yesterday by top Penn administrators, calls for parents of students who have had "previous" and "significant" drug or alcohol-related violations to be notified by the University. Under the terms of the announcement, which comes after weeks of campus-wide debate surrounding a committee's proposal to notify parents of students involved in "frequent" or "serious" alcohol-related incidents, the University will also have the option of notifying parents of students whose alcohol-related misconduct leads to personal injury, property damage or expulsion from their college house. The new terms, which were altered from "serious" to "significant," lessen the probability that parents of students involved in alcohol-related incidents would be notified of their children's actions. University officials say they will determine what constitutes "significant" misconduct on a case-by-case basis. "What we don't want to do is lock anybody into a knee-jerk reaction," Provost Robert Barchi said. "What we're trying to do here is remove any concern that a trivial episode of alcohol abuse would necessarily trigger an action because of the way it was written." The original committee, chaired by College of Arts and Sciences Dean Richard Beeman, released its report late last month. It was charged last spring in response to federal legislation that permitted universities to notify parents of students who are found in violation of their school's drug and alcohol policies. The committee's recommendation to consider developing a voluntary "consent to be notified" form -- which would be signed by both students and their parents and would provide parental notification for lesser violations -- has been discarded and is not included in the final policy. Those students guilty of alcohol and drug-related misconduct will have the opportunity to contact their parents before University officials do so. Penn will maintain its policy of only notifying parents of students whose lives are seriously endangered by their alcohol use. As had been the case before, no student will be punished for coming to the emergency room and a visit to the ER itself will not automatically merit parental notification. "We've had several ER incidents this fall, none of which resulted in anything that was serious enough to trigger the usual parental notification," University President Judith Rodin said. "So just coming to the ER isn't the trigger. It really is the severity of the episode and the health risk to the student." In addition to cases that are "frequent" and "significant," as well as those that cause personal injury or property damage, parents could also be notified if their children are evicted from one of the 12 college houses. That situation, however, is "very rare" and only happened once last year for a controlled-substance case, according to Director of College Houses and Academic Services David Brownlee. "What we would expel students for would be a serious behavior that was destructive of property or harmful to others," Brownlee said. After Beeman's committee submitted its report, Rodin and Barchi received commentary from various constituencies of the Penn community, including students, parents, faculty members and Trustees. The Undergraduate Assembly held an open forum late last month, at which some students expressed their confusion about what kinds of behavior would and would not warrant parental notification. The UA largely supported the recommendations made by Beeman's committee, with the exception of the body's disapproval of the consent-to-be-notified form. Rodin said many of the parents with whom she had spoken were interested in more extensive parental notification policies. She said that she, as the mother of a son who is bound for college next year, would want to know "more than this policy provides me the options to know." But, she added, "We very strongly feel that our responsibility in this community is to expect and then support the mature behavior of our students." "If we come to feel that we can't have that expectation, then we may have more stringent regulations," Rodin said. "But we have high expectations for our students."
(10/27/99 9:00am)
'Ladies' Home Journal' namedJudith Rodin as one of the most improtant women in America. University President Judith Rodin was named one of America's 100 most important women in the November issue of the Ladies' Home Journal. The magazine ranks women in eight categories, ranging from "Arts and Letters" and "Media" to "Government and Politics" and "Entertainment/Sports." First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Ally McBeal actress Calista Flockhart, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd and eBay Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman were all included in the list. Rodin is recognized in the "Law/Education" category, along with Supreme Court justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O'Connor, among others. Rodin, 55, is the only university president named and one of few academics included in the list. "It is an honor to be recognized in this way," Rodin said. "The biographies of the other women listed in Ladies' Home Journal clearly remind us how far women in this century have come and how much they have contributed. I am delighted to be in such esteemed company." This is the first -- and likely only -- year that the magazine has ranked women in this capacity, according to Ladies' Home Journal Assistant Editor Sarah Smith, who did much of the research for the piece. Smith said the magazine editors were looking for those women "who are agents of change right now" in America. The contributors for the piece pored over hundreds of people in different career categories. They then submitted a list to the magazine's editors, who made the final cuts. Rodin attracted the magazine's attention as the first and only female president of an Ivy League institution, Smith said. "We would think of it as a big deal," she said. "We hope that people consider this an honor because we're certainly honoring them in it." The blurb under Rodin's headcut also makes reference to her career as a renowned psychologist, calling her "highly regarded for her research into obesity and eating disorders." She has written dozens of books and journal articles. Earlier this year, Vanity Fair named Rodin as one of the most powerful women in the country. And last fall, Rodin was listed among the top 20 women leaders by a group called The White House Project seeking to find a woman to win the presidency. Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell has said before that Rodin would have been a "dynamite candidate" for mayor had she decided to run. But even though her name has long been circulating around Washington, D.C., circles, Rodin has repeatedly denied having any political ambitions. "I really haven't considered the next job," Rodin said last month. "I came very late to administrative roles." "Never did I set out early in my career to be a university president," she added. And in September, Rodin submitted a non-binding "letter of understanding" to the University Board of Trustees, indicating her intention to stay on as Penn's chief executive through the next five years.
(10/26/99 9:00am)
Health System employees fear the worst, hope for the best in the face of announced layoffs. Come Monday, several hundred employees of the University of Pennsylvania Health System will receive their pink slips, head home and have to look for jobs somewhere else. For now, though, all UPHS workers are going about their business each day, unsure whether their names will be included on the list of laid-off employees, uncertain when the layoffs, budget cuts and the financial problems will end. UPHS Chief Executive Officer William Kelley announced last week that the financially troubled Health System will cut 975 administrative positions from each of its four wholly-owned hospitals in five days. An additional 725 positions in specialty facilities, physicians' practices and home care, will be eliminated by June 30, 2000, the last day of the current fiscal year. But those employees who will be laid off will not be notified until Monday. Though UPHS has refused to release any information about what departments will be hit until then, some workers say they have already had conversations with their supervisors and department heads, many of whom were told how many people to fire from their divisions and then left to make the choices. Yesterday, as an air of apprehension hovered above the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, the Health System's flagship hospital, many employees expressed their collective anxiety about their fate. "Everybody's basically on pins and needles," said one female employee who has worked in the gastroenterology division since February. "It's just a wait -- a long, agonizing wait." Another employee, who asked that her name not be used, said she thought "everybody should feel nervous" about their job security. "It's their jobs. It's their income." One man who works as a cleaning person in the hospital said he had been told by his supervisor to "be prepared to have more work added on and [to] be versatile," the employee recalled. Still, the workers are resigned to the fact that their futures at the Health System, though uncertain, rest with a higher power -- be it God, their division heads or even Kelley himself. "It's in the Lord's hands," said one female employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "I worship my God to no end. If they close one door, God'll open another door." Two other female employees said they considered themselves entirely powerless in this situation and, therefore, were doing their best not to think about their futures until absolutely necessary. "If I am [fired], I am. There's nothing you can do, but go look for another job," said one pregnant female employee. "I'm just not worried," said one nurse while standing in line at a food truck adjacent to the hospital. "I can always get another job. I can't get stressed out about that." The layoffs, designed to put the Health System back on the long road to financial recovery, come five months after UPHS eliminated 1,100 managerial positions and laid off 450 employees. The forthcoming layoffs, coupled with the May cuts, represent a whopping 20 percent workforce reduction in the Health System. Health System officials have maintained that the cuts will not directly affect those involved in patient care, like doctors and nurses. "You might have to wait a little longer to see a doctor or a nurse but the doctor and the nurse are still going to be there," Health System spokesperson Rebecca Harmon said yesterday. The cuts come out of a recommendation made by the Hunter Group, a Florida-based consulting firm called in to help the Health System slash its expenses. UPHS' financial difficulties have become increasingly steep over the past few years. In Fiscal Year 1999, for example, the Health System posted a stunning $198 million deficit. The year before, it lost about $90 million. Kelley has previously said that he is willing to reduce or even eliminate entire medical programs in order to reduce costs. In fact, the Health and Disease Management program, one of the Health System's most widely praised endeavors, is likely to be scaled back significantly with the implementation of the recovery plan. Health System officials have long blamed their fiscal woes on decreased Medicare payments from the federal government and delayed reimbursements from private insurers. But yesterday, some workers said they believed that the Health System's difficulties start with management itself. In particular, employees felt angry that Kelley was still earning a seven-figure annual salary. In FY 1998, the last year for which such statistics are available, Kelley's salary and benefits totaled $1,204,508. He has already announced that he will not receive a salary increase in FY 2000. "I don't care what anybody says – it's all [Kelley]. All that money he's making, get rid of him. Then there won't be any layoffs," said one female employee who has cleaned the hospital for the past 10 years. Still other employees said they felt completely secure in their jobs, mainly because their departments and divisions cannot afford to be undermanned. "I work in cardiology. We bring in more money than anyone," said Elizabeth Lehman, a secretary in the division. And one man who works as a scrub nurse in the operating room said he was virtually positive that his position would be unaffected. "We're part of the OR and we're understaffed as it is," the worker said. "So, if they try and cut us," he said, chuckling, "there's going to be trouble."
(10/25/99 9:00am)
Following an external committee's "very critical" review of Penn's academic advising system this summer, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Richard Beeman said Friday that major changes in the way that students and their advisors interact could be implemented for next fall. At a meeting of the University Trustees' Academic Policy Committee, Beeman told the Trustees that he and other administrators are seriously considering doing away with summer course registration for incoming freshmen and lengthening New Student Orientation for freshmen and transfer students. Administrators from Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Washington universities came to Penn this summer and issued what Beeman called a "very constructive" report evaluating the University's advising system. The report, Beeman said, confirmed Penn administrators' concerns that the current system is inefficient and ineffective. "There is no other subject about which I hear both a greater quantity and intensity of complaint than advising," Beeman said. Under the current system, incoming freshmen are assigned one faculty advisor, one peer advisor, one advisor from their college house and one advisor from the College office. The review committee found that academic advising had not yet been adequately integrated into residential life and that students were often confused about which advisor they should see when. "It's become increasingly apparent to me that far, far too many undergraduates move through the University without developing the relationships they should," Beeman said. Upon choosing majors in the spring of their sophomore years, students then receive advisors within their majors -- meaning that the advising debate revolves primarily around freshmen and sophomores. "It's the undifferentiated student who has the largest problem and the one we're most concerned with," Provost Robert Barchi said at the beginning of Friday's meeting. The review committee also offered a "scathing" critique of Penn's practice of allowing freshmen to register for courses before arriving at Penn, which, Beeman said, "does not uniformly lead to initial good course choices." "The challenge for college students to do that over the summer without help is significant," Beeman said. The committee was one of several -- including Student Life and Facilities and Campus Planning -- that met on Friday morning. At Thursday's Budget and Finance Committee meeting, Health System Chief Executive Officer William Kelley announced that 1,700 Health System employees will be laid off in the next six months. The entire board passed three resolutions at Friday afternoon's Stated Meeting. The first resolution -- calling for a $12.75 million renovation of the fourth and fifth floors of the Johnson Pavilion Center for AIDS/HIV research for the School of Medicine -- sparked minor debate when it was first presented at the Budget and Finance Committee meeting the day before. Former Trustees Chairperson Alvin Shoemaker said he thought it was "sending the wrong message" for the Health System to be spending money at the same time that it was laying off employees. He voted against the resolution at the committee's meeting. But Trustees Chairperson James Riepe told the board Friday that "it was felt by the Health System and the University that these monies were important monies and should be spent even in the context of the Health System's financial situation." The Trustees also approved resolutions calling for the construction of a new classroom and amphitheater in place of the existing Steinberg Conference Center garage. Another passed resolution called for the Health System to become a jointly and severely liable co-tenant with Pennsylvania Hospital on the leases of its subsidiary, the Delancey Corporation.
(10/21/99 9:00am)
An "important announcement" will be made today about possibly massive Health System layoffs. University of Pennsylvania Health System officials are expected to make an "important announcement" today that could reveal the extent of the Health System's imminent layoffs, officials said last night. Health System officials will reveal their exact deficit from the fiscal year that ended in June -- reportedly as high as $200 million -- at a University Trustees committee meeting this morning at the Inn at Penn. There are expected to be massive layoffs across the $2 billion system. "They will lay out the whole financial recovery plan and workforce reduction will likely be part of it," Health System spokesperson Lori Doyle said last night. Doyle refused to comment on what the specifics of the plan would be, but it was reported earlier this month that up to one-sixth of employees at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania alone could be laid off. Health System Chief Executive Officer William Kelley sent an e-mail to all UPHS employees earlier this month notifying them that widespread layoffs would be made by the end of the month. The cuts are part of ongoing attempts to return the Health System --Ewhich includes the School of Medicine, HUP and three other wholly-owned hospitals, to some form of financial stability. Kelley has pledged to eliminate the deficit by the end of the current fiscal year. The Trustees, Penn's main decision-making body, are holding their fall meetings today and tomorrow. Besides discussing the Health System, the Budget and Finance Committee will also hear from top Penn officials about the fiscal health of the University as a whole. Tomorrow, Provost Robert Barchi will update the members of the Trustees' Student Life Committee on the new alcohol policy and College of Arts and Sciences Dean Richard Beeman is expected to speak to the Academic Policy Committee about academic advising. The Trustees' Stated Meeting, in which the entire board reviews the individual committees' resolutions, will take place tomorrow from 2 p.m. until 3 p.m. at the Inn at Penn. This week's meeting is the first time that the full board will gather together under the new leadership of James Riepe, the vice chairperson of the T. Rowe Price investing firm in Baltimore, and the newly elected chairperson of the University Trustees.
(10/21/99 9:00am)
Friends remembered Michael Yang, 18, for his outgoing, gregarious nature and tireless work ethic. A poem written by a fellow hallmate entitled "Nothing Seems Important Now That You're Gone" hangs on the white wall of Michael Yang's second-floor Hill College House suite, preserving the memory of a young man described by friends as compassionate and friendly, intelligent and worldly, easygoing and jovial. Yang, an 18-year-old Wharton freshman from Korea, died Tuesday after the bicycle he was riding collided with a truck at the corner of 33rd and Spruce streets. He was pronounced dead at 3 p.m. upon arrival at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The students on Yang's floor yesterday recalled a friend who was so hardworking that he spent many a night asleep on the study lounge couch, and so helpful that he once spent 45 minutes helping a suitemate catch a cockroach. The hall's designated computer wiz, he was, according to those who knew him, a friend to everyone on the floor and an indispensable part of the suite's social life. "Everybody seemed to know him. He seemed to be well-known around campus," Wharton freshman Aaron Shapiro said. "He was pretty much friends with everyone. He'd just walk into peoples' rooms and start up a conversation," said College freshman Elizabeth McWhorter, who lived on the same floor in Hill as Yang. She recalled a recent conversation she had with Yang in which he entered her room, took a poster on her wall and used it as the basis for a long philosophical debate. "He was always really caring. If you needed to talk to someone, you could talk to him and he'd be mature about it," College freshman Leslie Evans said. Evans said she, Yang and several other students from the suite had recently gone to Chinatown and dined on Thai food. Like others on the floor, Evans said she is finding it hard to deal with the fact that her friend is actually gone. Friends described Yang, who spent time rowing on the freshmen heavyweight crew team and listening to his downloaded MP3s, as a hard-working student who liked to stay up late studying but still enjoyed hanging out -- and joking around -- on the weekends. "He was very talkative and just a cheerful guy," said College freshman and Daily Pennsylvanian staff member Jon Rosen, who also rows on the crew team. Most students received word of Yang's death as they returned to the dormitory Tuesday afternoon. Many described themselves as being totally "shocked" when they first heard. "Even though I didn't know him as well as other people [did], it could have been me. That's just so terribly frightening to think about," said College freshman Marilyn Arenas, who lives in a different suite in Hill. "I went down to Dining and someone just said, 'Did you hear what happened?' I immediately knew it was him. He was the only one on the floor with a bike," Shapiro said, adding that the death is still "not sitting in." Students in Yang's suite went to the intersection last night where he was killed and placed flowers and letters there. Cheryl Gross, Yang's graduate associate in Hill, said the accident was easily the "worst experience" that she has had in her three years at Penn. "His face has been in my memory ever since this happened," Gross said. "We'll never forget Michael. He was such a good-hearted, good-natured guy." The entire floor attended a special counseling service Tuesday night with representatives from Counseling and Psychological Services and University Chaplain William Gipson. University officials notified Yang's family, who live in Cairo, Egypt, late Tuesday afternoon. They are expected to attend today's funeral, which will take place at 2 p.m. at the Keeho Kim Funeral Home at 5800 N. 5th Street. Hill House will be providing transportation.
(10/20/99 9:00am)
The female bartenders may not perform stripteases or lap dances for their customers, but whatever they're doing these days at Mad 4 Mex seems to suit the editors of Playboy magazine just fine. In its November issue, Playboy honored the weekday "Happy Hour" at Mad 4 Mex, the Mexican restaurant in the 3401 Walnut Street complex, as "worth skipping class for." The only other bar to receive the honor was El Arroyo at the University of Texas in Austin. Max 4 Mex's happy hour, which takes place Monday through Friday from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., offers half-price margaritas, beers on tap and 10 cent wings to its customers. The Friday happy hour is typically the most crowded, drawing scores of students, faculty, staff members and Philadelphia residents. Mad 4 Mex owner Juno Yoon, who said the Playboy mention was a huge surprise to him, added that the national recognition could draw a more diversified crowd. "Besides the students, hopefully it'll become more of a regional thing," Yoon said, attributing the publicity to Mad 4 Mex's various specials. This month's issue of the men's magazine includes a two-page spread entitled: "The Campus Buzz: Our Way to Get an A." Colleges and universities are ranked in more than 25 categories, ranging from "Superhot Sex Spot" -- in your absent roommate's bed -- to gambling, the best "Hot Moneymaker." The "Happy Hours Worth Skipping Class For" category is the only one in which Penn was mentioned. According to Playboy Assistant Editor Alison Lundgren, the magazine relied on a "word-of-mouth" system in compiling its lists. She said Playboy had contributors from all over the country -- including many college students and alumni -- and received several hundred suggestions. "It's to be taken with a grain of salt, of course," Lundgren said. "It's not like we're saying, 'Don't go to class.' But if you were to miss a class, this would be worth it." Lundgren said she personally had first heard about Mad 4 Mex from a cousin who attends a nearby college. She noted that this issue was the first -- and possibly only -- time that the magazine had ranked schools using these categories. Regardless, Penn watering holes are no strangers to Playboy rankings. In the September 1997 issue, for instance, Smokey Joe's was ranked among the top 100 college hangouts. While Smoke's may hold the rights to the "Pennstitution" title, the 2-year-old Mad 4 Mex has developed a loyal following of its own, some of whom say the restaurant's regular customers -- coupled with frequent specials and deals -- make it quite possibly the best place to drink around campus. "I can come here and see all sorts of people and, on top of that, my professors too," said College junior Damian Gutierrez, who estimated that he goes to Mad 4 Mex about three times a week. Gutierrez jokingly suggested that the restaurant have a party for all of its loyal patrons. "We're the people who made this happy hour great. I want bunnies in here," Gutierrez said. And College junior Duff Blair, who has worked at Mad 4 Mex as a bartender for two months, suggested that the cheap prices for quality beer made the Max 4 Mex happy hour a "hard deal to beat." "I don't think you can beat the prices. You come in here and get a margarita or two and start your night off," Blair said.
(10/15/99 9:00am)
President Rodin said she hopes to make a decision on the policy by the end of the month. Today is the last day of the designated University-wide consultation period in which students, parents and other members of the University community can express their opinions about the proposed new parental notification policy. More than two weeks ago, a committee of Penn administrators and students -- chaired by College of Arts and Sciences Dean Richard Beeman -- recommended to University President Judith Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi that the University be authorized to notify parents of students whose alcohol-related behavior endangers themselves or others or results in property damage. A final policy decision on whether to notify parents of students involved in major or frequent alcohol-related incidents will be made later this month, Rodin said yesterday. Beeman said he has received "very little feedback" over the past weeks. He noted that most of the input that he has received comes from a recent Undergraduate Assembly-sponsored forum. "The suggestions for modest revision in the language of the recommendations made by the UA were helpful in clarifying some of the potential ambiguity in those recommendations," Beeman said. At the forum, some students expressed their confusion about what kinds of behavior would and would not warrant parental notification. Beeman has said repeatedly that the committee deliberately avoided imposing rigid guidelines. UA Chairperson Michael Silver told University Council members Wednesday that the UA was in support of the recommendations -- but only if carried out in a certain way. "We urge the University to use this policy judiciously and never in a punitive fashion," said Silver, a College senior. In response to the UA's support of the recommendations, the Penn chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union yesterday submitted a petition -- signed by 400 students -- to administrators, stating that parents of students should in no way be informed without student consent. "'Repeated' or 'serious' for them could involve breaking a window five times or it could mean getting kicked out of your college house," said College sophomore Yonaton Rosenzweig, the president of Penn's ACLU chapter. "We were very worried that the terms would remain vague." Rodin declined to discuss the specifics of any suggestions that she or Barchi had received. Under the proposed recommendations, Office of Student Conduct Director Michele Goldfarb and her staff would use their discretion and make individual decisions about when to notify parents. The recommendations do not address alcohol-related hospitalizations and Penn will maintain its policy of only notifying parents of students whose health is seriously endangered by alcohol use. A minor infraction would not lead to notification. The committee was charged last year after Congress passed legislation allowing universities to notify parents of students who violate their respective school's drug and alcohol policies.
(10/14/99 9:00am)
At Council yesterday, top officals noted problems Penn faces in raising aid. Undergraduate financial aid is the "No. 1 University priority," Penn President Judith Rodin stressed at yesterday's University Council meeting. Rodin and Student Financial Aid Director William Schilling spoke at Council's second meeting of the semester to discuss the state of undergraduate financial aid. They said the University is working aggressively to increase its endowment in order to improve students' financial aid packages. The University is hoping to raise $200 million in financial aid dollars by 2003, a target set in 1996. Penn has raised about $86 million of that so far, and administrators say they intend to raise an additional $30 million this year. Rodin said the University currently spends $55 million on undergraduate financial aid this year. Most of that amount, she explained, is taken from the University's operating budget because of the University's relatively small endowment. Peer institutions with much a much larger per-student endowment spend heavily from that fund to support financial aid programs. But only about 6 percent of Penn's undergraduate financial aid is taken from endowment funds. Princeton University, by contrast, offers financial aid packages that are funded 95 percent through the school's endowment -- resulting in less strain on that school's operating budget. "All of the funds that we receive have donor designations. They are given for the Religious Studies program or the Wharton School or the Humanities Forum. You name it," Rodin said at the meeting. "We could not, even if we raised the spending rule, take money that was generated through those restricted funds and put it towards undergraduate financial aid," she added. Rodin also discussed numerous financial aid fundraising initiatives that Penn has implemented. The University is actively soliciting donations from faculty, staff members and alumni and is encouraging reunion classes to earmark reunion gifts for financial aid. In addition, Penn hosts annual regional dinners for scholarship donors and recipients, events that Rodin lauded as "incredibly successful." "There's nothing that's more compelling to a donor than hearing from a recipient what that donation has meant," Rodin said. Following Rodin's talk, Schilling presented a slide-show presentation which showed that Penn, despite its comparatively small endowment, is able to offer competitive financial aid packages. "Once we have determined what we feel the student's need is, we meet 100 percent of it," Schilling said. A problem, though, is that while Penn's tuitions and fees have increased 341 percent over the past 20 years, its federal and state grants have increased only 10 percent. According to Schilling, this "virtual absence of growth" shifts the burden of meeting students' financial needs almost entirely from the government to the University -- and this difficulty is compounded by Penn's inability to cover most of its financial aid expenditures through its endowment. "What is unique about us is the extent to which we're dependent on unrestricted sources to fund our [financial aid] program," Schilling said. The remaining 40 minutes of the Council meeting were divided between brief reports from five committees -- Communications, Student Affairs, Pluralism, Community Relations and International Programs. Council, the 92-member board of students, staff and faculty that advise the president and provost and which meets monthly, normally hears Rodin's State of the University address in its October meeting. But Rodin approached Council's steering committee two weeks ago with the request that the financial aid discussion take place this month instead. The State of the University address will take place at the November meeting.
(10/13/99 9:00am)
Financial aid, one of Penn's most pressing areas of concern in recent years, will be discussed in detail at today's University Council meeting, the second gathering of the year for the 92-member advisory board to the president and the provost. University President Judith Rodin and Student Financial Services Director William Schilling are scheduled to make a 35-minute presentation on the status of undergraduate financial aid at today's meeting, which will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Quadrangle's McClelland Hall. The idea for the presentation arose at last month's Council meeting, when several members requested specific information on how financial aid is allocated to students and exactly what its sources are. Rodin approached Council's steering committee -- headed by Faculty Senate Chairperson John Keene -- with the suggestion that the financial aid presentation happen this month. The "State of the University" address, traditionally scheduled for the October meeting, will be given at next month's meeting instead. "[Rodin] felt that there were so many issues in University Council involving minority students? that it would be a good idea for Council to understand the basic facts of how financial aid is figured," said Keene, a professor of City and Regional Planning. "This is the groundwork for future discussion of what we can do to improve [the financial aid situation], whatever that might be," he added. Penn has typically offered smaller financial aid packages due to its low endowment. At $3.29 billion, the University's endowment is significantly smaller than the endowments of rival institutions like Harvard and Princeton. As a result, Penn takes most of its financial aid payments out of its $1.329 billion academic budget rather than its endowment. Princeton, on the other hand, is able to pay for about 95 percent of its financial aid through endowment income reserved especially for that purpose. "They tell me in the Development Office that that's not usually [the donor's] favorite thing," said Earth and Environmental Science Professor Robert Giegengack, the newly appointed chairperson of Council's Admissions and Financial Aid Committee, in reference to giving money just for financial aid. Five other Council committees -- Communications, Student Affairs, Pluralism, International Programs and Community Relations -- will give 15-minute year-end reports at the meeting. Martin Pring, chairperson of the Communications committee, said he would brief Council on several issues on which his committee has been working in the past year, including a comprehensive review of the University's radio station, WXPN, and an examination of Penn's existing privacy policy. "In the past, when I've presented more general things, I'm sorry to say that I've had rather little feedback from Council on those things," said Pring, a Physiology professor in the Medical School. At its meeting last month, Council formulated its year-long agenda, which will include safety and minority recruitment and retention. Only 38 people attended the meeting last month, a number that Keene said is "par for the course" for Council gatherings. "The problem is a lot of professors have things that come up or they're traveling in a given month," Keene said.
(10/13/99 9:00am)
Former Dean Thomas Gerrity announced his resignation last October. And then there were six. The Wharton dean search committee has narrowed its choices to six of the nation's top business executives and academics and will present its list to University President Judith Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi by the end of the month. Graduate School of Fine Arts Dean Gary Hack said the 12-member committee, which has been meeting since November, has finished conducting its off-site interviews and is now making final decisions about how many of the remaining candidates to recommend to Rodin. Once the committee submits the list, the candidates will be interviewed by Rodin for a final decision. It is not clear how long it will take for an appointment to be made once Rodin receives the list. "Our job isn't to choose the candidate. That's the president's," Hack said yesterday. If the committee submits the list to Rodin this month, then a new dean could ostensibly be appointed by the end of the semester, both Hack and Rodin said. Hack confirmed yesterday that the list still includes academics and businesspeople. He declined to say whether a favorite of the six had emerged among members of the committee. "My guess is that not everyone will feel uniformly enthusiastic about the candidates we recommend," Hack said. As has been the case throughout the nearly year-long process, Hack was tight-lipped yesterday about the identities of the remaining candidates. He declined to comment on whether any of the candidates are currently deans at other business schools. He also would not say how many of the candidates were from the business sector and how many were from other academic institutions. Hack said the six candidates cannot be "pigeon-holed" into one category or another, since at least several of them have worked in both education and in business. "If the person comes from the business world, they have to have sufficient comfort in the academic world that they can work effectively with the students and the faculty," Hack said. Conversely, he added, those candidates with a more academic background need to show a solid understanding of the business marketplace and should have important connections for networking with prospective donors. The committee has retained the help of Spencer Stuart, an international executive search firm. Wharton has been without a permanent leader since July 1, when Thomas Gerrity officially stepped down from the post. That following month, the business school named Deputy Dean Patrick Harker as its interim head. The timetable for the search has been delayed several times since the committee was charged last November. Its members initially hoped to end the search in late May and then before Gerrity -- who announced his intention to resign more than a year ago -- officially stepped down. Hack pointed out that the committee has lost several otherwise qualified candidates who were unwilling to leave their current positions and come to Penn. "Every candidate looked at has transitional issues because they're not sitting on their hands," he said. Rodin said such losses are common to any search process and should be taken in stride. She noted that it is frequent that committees will add more candidates to their list as the search progresses. "We shouldn't lose hope because some group is unavailable," Rodin said. "The first people that you try are just the easiest." Gerrity announced last October that he would resign from his position in July to return to the faculty, ending a 10-year tenure as dean. He currently serves as director of the Wharton Forum on Electronic Commerce.
(10/13/99 9:00am)
Despite earning national awards, the program will be hurt by UPHS's woes. It's an award-winning program and a unique initiative that has gained national prominence and attracted the attention of health care providers across the country. But even the 3-year-old Health and Disease Management Program, a crown jewel of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, is unlikely to escape the proverbial chopping block. The program and several others are soon likely to undergo significant workforce reductions as part of a series of sweeping cost-cutting measures intended to remedy the Health System's deepening financial crisis. UPHS is expected to post losses approaching $200 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30. The potential cuts to the program -- a favorite of Health System Chief Executive Officer William Kelley -- underscore the depth of cost-cutting measures the Health System is willing to take. "I think it helps to demonstrate the seriousness of the situation," Health System spokesperson Rebecca Harmon said. The Disease Management Program writes sets of treatment protocols for common diseases in an effort to provide all Penn Health System patients with the same level of care. The protocols are used mainly by primary care physicians to decide which tests to perform for a patient experiencing certain symptoms and when to refer a patient to a specialist. Associate Disease Management Program Director Mark Miani would not say how extensive the cuts to his program would be or when they would occur, but he did say that he was not surprised that his program was among the ones affected. "Even a program as unique as Health and Disease Management is not immune from budgetary realities," Miani said. "We were preparing for this day. It just arrived sooner than we had hoped." Two weeks ago, Kelley sent an e-mail to all Health System employees notifying them of cuts that could affect employees from every corner of the $2 billion Health System. The layoffs come out of initial recommendations made by the Hunter Group, the Florida-based consulting firm that the Health System hired in July to help slash its costs. Officials expect to announce a round of massive layoffs by the end of the month. It is not yet clear which other programs will be affected by the cuts and to what extent, but Kelley has pledged to do whatever is necessary to balance the budget this fiscal year. Despite a potentially smaller workforce, Miani said he is optimistic that the quality of the program will not suffer. Instead, he said the program may become more "efficient" if it succeeds with fewer resources. Specifically, he said the program was developing "revenue-enhancing" programs that would complement the reduced expenses that come with layoffs. "Programs need to be reimbursed or supported more than they've previously been," Miani said. Miani said that the Health System is in talks to partner with other health care providers in use of the program's protocols. While UPHS would generate revenue from these partnerships, outside insurance companies would reap an "economic benefit" from the program's cost-effective standards of care. "It enlarges the program but it diversifies the funding," Miani said. "The goal here is not to get money back to the Health System but it's to be an enhanced program that needs to pay for itself." The Health System signed a contract with a Texas-based health care network about 10 months ago to use the program in hospitals nationwide. The program has written protocols for more than 20 diseases so far. The ones for asthma, diabetes and congestive heart failure are considered among the best. The Disease Management program won three major industry awards last year, including the National Quality Health Care Award, for its combination of patient satisfaction and clinical benefits.
(10/11/99 9:00am)
Jay Baker, a 1956 Wharton School graduate, will use part of his fortune to fund a lecture hall and undergraduate scholarships. Jay Baker, a 1956 Wharton School alumnus and philanthropist, will donate $11 million to the University to fund undergraduate financial aid and a lecture hall in Huntsman Hall, Penn officials announced Friday. Eight million dollars of the gift will support construction of the Baker Forum, a 500 seat-capacity lecture hall inside the new $128 million Wharton building, slated for completion in 2002. The two-story classroom will be the only Wharton facility large enough to accommodate an entire undergraduate class. It will be located at the center of the facility, near undergraduate computer labs and study spaces. The remaining $3 million -- among the largest financial aid donations ever to the University -- will endow the Baker Leadership Scholars Program, a scholarship initiative that will provide financial support to 12 undergraduates throughout the University each academic year. The first three Baker Scholars will be chosen from the Class of 2004. "In making this generous gift, the Bakers will greatly enhance the student experience at Penn and provide essential scholarship support," University President Judith Rodin said in a statement, adding that the scholarships are entirely need-based. Baker -- the president of Kohl's Corporation, a Wisconsin-based specialty department store -- said he has regularly donated money to the University, but his $11 million gift is by far his largest contribution. "I think [Wharton's] a great school and I've always been proud that I went there," Baker said. "It's been very beneficial to my career and I wanted to give back." Baker and his wife traveled to Penn about six months ago to meet with Rodin and then-Wharton Dean Thomas Gerrity to discuss possible uses of the donation. "We just wanted to hear what the different opportunities were," Baker said. Rodin said Baker had "really involved himself" in the University and it recently became "very clear to them that they wanted to do more." As a Wharton alumnus, Baker said he had wanted to give money to the business school and decided on the financial aid aspect of the gift after speaking to Rodin. "In her mind, that is one of the biggest things that Penn needs," Baker said of increased financial aid. Rodin's Agenda for Excellence, Penn's overall strategic plan that was released in 1995, identified undergraduate financial aid and improved academic facilities as two of the University's top priorities in the coming years. The Admissions Office will select the scholarship recipients each year but Baker said he plans to meet with all of the scholars. "I have great faith that the University is going to pick the right people," Baker said. Together, the Bakers -- Wisconsin philanthropists who have long supported performing arts in Milwaukee -- created The Patty and Jay Baker Foundation, which supports charities in both Milwaukee and Naples, Fla. The couple raised more than $10 million for the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, which has since been named in their honor. Baker will resign from his role as president of Kohl's later this year but will stay on as a member of the store's board of directors. He said he does not yet know whether he will make future large contributions to the University. Huntsman Hall, which is currently under construction at 38th and Walnut streets, is named for 1959 Wharton graduate Jon Huntsman, whose unrestricted 1998 donation of $40 million was applied toward the building's construction. The six-story, 320,000 square-foot building will house classrooms for Wharton undergraduate and MBA students, as well as administrative offices and four academic departments.
(10/08/99 9:00am)
Mary DiStanislao takes over as the No. 2 official in Penn's Athletic Dept. Mary DiStanislao isn't exactly a stranger to big-time college athletics. DiStanislao, Penn's newly appointed associate athletic director, has coached high-level women's basketball teams at Northwestern and Notre Dame during the past 20 years. Not that she misses Big Ten basketball, though. Having grown up in New Jersey, DiStanislao spent many a night at the Palestra watching current Athletic Director Steve Bilsky lead the Quakers to national prominence in the early 1970s. Now, working in the Athletic Department and sharing a Weightman Hall office across from Bilsky himself, DiStanislao is enjoying a homecoming of sorts. "The Palestra is a fixture of my youth," she said. "I came from a family that was very basketball-oriented, to say the least." "I don't know if you could call a packed, sold-out Penn-Princeton game any less exciting than a packed, sold-out Michigan-Ohio State game," she added. In her new position, DiStanislao oversees the off-the-court operations -- including budgeting, recruiting and eligibility -- for about half of Penn's varsity athletic squads. "There are certain sports that are more capital intensive than others. There are certain sports that are more operationally complex," DiStanislao explained. DiStanislao fills the void left by Carolyn Schlie Femovich, who worked at Penn for 17 years before leaving to become the executive director of the Patriot League this summer. Prior to coming to the Athletic Department, DiStanislao served as assciate director of the Wharton School's MBA Career Management Program, where she helped MBA students consider job opportunities and improve interview techniques. As a basketball coach at Northwestern from 1976 to 1980, DiStanislao's Wildcats won two Big Ten championships. Her Notre Dame squad later won three conference championships. From her experience as a coach, DiStanislao said she better understands what it takes to be a successful coach and is fully aware of the responsibilites and duties that today's coaches face. "I understand the stresses of the daily life of a coach as well as the other directions that a coach gets pulled," she said. "An administration is really around to make the off-the-court life a coach easier." DiStanislao noted that although she currently has no plans to pace the sidelines as a coach in the near future, she can't help feeling pangs of nostalgia every basketball season. "My internal clock always goes off come the 15th of October and I have to say I always get a little nostalgic at the end of March," she said. DiStanislao's appointment is the third major hiring in the Athletic Department in the past two years. Associate Athletic Director Earl Cleghorn and Assistant Athletic Director Rosemarie Burnett were both appointed last fall. One of the current main areas of focus for the Athletic Department is the issue of student-athlete eligibility, which exploded two years ago when star defensive tackle Mitch Marrow was discovered to be academically ineligible. "We have to be very attentive to making sure that nothing falls through the cracks," DiStanislao said. "The idea behind all the checks and double checks in eligibility is to make sure there are no errors of omission." Bilsky said he expected DiStanislao's experience in college athletics to benefit the Athletic Department. "We had some very talented applicants, but Mary stood out because of the diversity of experiences she has had in her career," Bilsky said in a statement. "She has the talent and sensitivity to relate well to coaches, staff and student-athletes and the confidence to manage our extensive intercollegiate program."
(10/05/99 9:00am)
The Penn Health System hired the firm, known for its dramatic cost-cutting recommendations, this summer. They're the doctor's doctor, the ones whose medication may be effective, but is never easy to swallow. They are the Hunter Group, a Florida-based consulting firm that specializes in helping financially troubled hospitals better manage their resources, and they were hired this summer by the University of Pennsylvania Health System to remedy an deepening fiscal crisis. Composed of senior health care executives and clinicians, the Hunter Group has been charged with finding ways to cut the Health System's budget wherever possible and increase its revenues. Its final report, likely to come next month, may recommend radical changes to UPHS's management team and the way in which the system does business. The Hunter Group has a reputation for dramatic cost-cutting recommendations. Hired in July, the Hunter Group has spent the past two months brainstorming money-saving and revenue-enhancing measures for the Health System. The firm has presented Health System administrators with personnel data and financial information from comparable institutions to help gauge how similar hospitals use their resources. The Hunter Group's arrival has provoked anxiety among UPHS employees who feel their jobs might be in the balance. Health System Chief Executive Officer William Kelley has written several letters to employees explaining the necessity of having an objective observer find ways to reduce expenditures. "[The Hunter Group has been] very helpful to us in identifying costs we can reduce while we maintain outstanding quality," Kelley said last week. The Hunter Group will take at least another month to examine the hospital's departments -- ranging from radiology to food services -- in order to determine which ones are over-staffed and which ones can function sufficiently with fewer employees. "I don't think any department is immune from scrutiny here," Health System spokesperson Lori Doyle said. The Health System is expected to post a loss of more than $150 million for the fiscal year that ended in June. Kelley has pledged to balance the system's budget by the end of this fiscal year. The members of the Hunter Group have conducted regular interviews with a wide variety of Health System employees. They have also worked with three Health System committees of top UPHS executives, select physicians and other lower-level administrators. After about seven weeks on campus, the Hunter Group has already made its presence felt. In response to an initial suggestion made by the firm, Kelley announced last week that there would soon be a series of potentially massive layoffs that could affect each of the Health System's four wholly owned hospitals. "I think that there's a lot of anxiety and almost a sense of purpose that we really have to do this," said Medical School Professor Stanley Goldfarb, who sits on a committee working with the Hunter Group. Besides the flagship Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, the $2 billion Health System also owns Pennsylvania Hospital, Phoenixville Hospital and Presbyterian Medical Center and is affiliated with several others. It also controls an extensive network of primary-care physician practices. Members of the 14-member Physician Advisory Work Group said the firm is discussing ways that patients can move through the hospitals quicker, enabling the hospital to see more patients and increase its revenue. The firm also wants to do whatever possible to avoid large-scale layoffs, committee members said. "I don't think they're sitting here saying, 'OK, we're going to cut this person's job and that person's job,'" Goldfarb said. Still, it is the consulting firm's often Draconian cost-cutting measures at hospitals across the country -- including the University of California at San Diego, George Washington University and Northwestern Medical Center -- that have earned the Hunter Group its reputation and have also provoked anger among health care employees. Last spring, for example, the Hunter Group recommended that the Detroit Medical Center eliminate 2,000 positions. In May, Hunter Group executives even assumed temporary command of the system in order to provide new leadership. And at the UCSF Stanford Health Services this summer, a group of 200 union workers protested the involvement of the Hunter Group in the hospital's affairs. Daily Pennsylvanian staff writer Naomi Blivaiss contributed to this article.
(10/01/99 9:00am)
The Executive Committee of the University Board of Trustees yesterday approved plans to convert the former General Electric building at 31st and Walnut streets into a $55 million luxury apartment complex. Dranoff Properties, a real estate development company, will lease the vacant warehouse building for 40 years and pay for the entire project. The resolution also called for the University to pay about $3 million in "transactional expenses" for the property. Penn officials expect to earn back the sum through rent payments once the building is operational. "The $55 million cost of developing the building is [Dranoff President Carl Dranoff's] cost, not ours," Vice President for Facilities Services Omar Blaik said. He explained that the deal is beneficial to Penn in that it will not have to "invest its own money" but will reap the benefits of the nearby upscale housing -- and will eventually regain control of the property. This resolution and four others were presented yesterday morning at a meeting of the Trustees' Budget and Finance Committee. All five were approved in the afternoon by the Executive Committee, a group comprised of the 10 Charter Trustees and heads of key Trustee committees. The Trustees will meet in full in three weeks. In February, as part of their continual effort to expand the campus eastward, Penn officials announced their plans to gut the warehouse and construct an apartment and retail complex. The new Westside Commons, slated for completion in the fall of 2001, will have 285 apartment units, a fitness center, 17,000 square feet of retail, one floor of office space and a 1/4-mile rooftop track. "It was a building that had remained vacant for many years," Executive Vice President John Fry told the Trustees yesterday, adding that it seemed like a logical -- and profitable -- decision to buy the building. Preliminary drawings of Westside Commons show two tall pillars outside the building which, administrators say, serve as literal and figurative "gateways" into Penn's campus. The long-term lease is contracted for 40 years, after which point Dranoff will have a 10-year renewal option. The University will maintain full ownership of the building and the land. "If anything, the lease is less in duration than anything you would see for a transaction of this size," said Tom Lussenhop, the University's top real estate official. The interior of the building will be gutted but the structure itself will be left standing. Officials say none of the renovations will affect the historical value of the warehouse, which was built in the 1920s. In order to orchestrate all the environmental remediation work needed for construction, Dranoff Properties will receive a $3 million loan from Progress Bank that it is expected to repay by December. The University will control the disbursement of the money and approve the company's expenditures. Penn is also mortgaging the building, providing what the resolution called "additional security." "We're such partners in this in that our objective is so aligned," Vice President for Finance Kathy Engebretson said. "We're really not concerned at all" that the company may not make good on its payment. Studio apartments in Westside Commons will start at $800, one-bedroom units at $1,000 and two-bedrooms at $1,500 per month. It is designed for graduate students and young faculty members. Dranoff also designed the recently opened Locust on the Park complex at 2400 Locust Street, which administrators say will serve as a model for the new building.
(10/01/99 9:00am)
Among the highlights at yesterday's meeting of the University Board of Trustees' Executive Committee were resolutions calling for the construction of the $20 million Pottruck Health and Fitness Center -- the current Gimbel Gymnasium -- and the creation of a bioengineering laboratory for the School of Engineering and Applied Science. The Pottruck Health and Fitness Center, paid for primarily by a $10 million donation from 1970 College graduate and Trustee David Pottruck, will provide an estimated 70,800 square feet for free weights and cardiovascular equipment. It is part of the University's ongoing efforts to increase fitness and recreational space on campus and provides the first large-scale expansion of fitness facilities in recent memory. The pool, basketball courts and shower and bathroom facilities will be renovated as part of the project. Of Pottruck's donation, $5,873,059 has already been paid and the remainder will be paid by December 31, 2000. "The David S. Pottruck Health and Fitness Center is intended to supplement current facilities to meet campus needs for a comprehensive self-directed health and fitness program," the resolution stated. Vice President for Facilities Services Omar Blaik said the University is "within a week or so" of selecting an architect for the project. The $2 million bioengineering laboratory will be built in the Towne Building and is intended to provide more opportunities for cellular engineering research. The space will use 7,000 square feet for a microscopy laboratory, tissue culture facility, a dark room and associated administrative spaces. The project will be funded by the National Science Foundation, Facilities Renewal Funding, the Engineering School and the Research Facilities Development Fund. The Executive Committee, comprised of the 10 Charter Trustees and heads of key Trustees committees, approved one resolution on the purchase and installation of an open MRI for the Wayne MRI site, a satellite of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania located in suburban Philadelphia. The system costs about $690,000. The Trustees also approved a resolution calling for the construction of a state-of-the-art pediatrics clinic on the first floor of the Evans Building in the School of Dental Medicine. The construction is expected to cost $1.7 million and will provide support spaces, receptionist and waiting room and related office space. These four resolutions are in addition to one passed yesterday calling for a 40-year term lease period of the General Electric Building -- located at 31st and Walnut Streets -- to Westside Commons Associates, L.P., an affiliate of Dranoff Properties.
