Trustees’ Meeting Coverage

At the meeting of the Executive Committee of the Trustees last Thursday, Chairman James Riepe commented on the fact that President Amy Gutmann filled some very key positions in her first year as president and now the senior team is complete.  Provost Ronald Daniels (Almanac April 26, 2005) was welcomed to his first Trustees’ meeting.

Dr. Gutmann saluted the Penn community for its swift response to Hurricane Katrina which put both “individual and institutional character to the test.” She noted that Penn has welcomed guest students, offered extra counseling to Penn students from the effected area, allowed paid leave to faculty and staff to volunteer, and numerous groups have organized events and drives to raise money and collect goods.

Dr. Gutmann mentioned some of the key priorities for this year:

• developing a timetable for revising the campus development plan to incorporate the transformation of the postal properties;

• global engagement which will be explored by a Presidential Global Task Force, overseen by Provost Daniels and co-chaired by Dean Susan Fuhrman and Dean Patrick Harker;

• Penn Integrates Knowledge, aggressively recruit world-renowned scholars;

• financial aid, raise more funds for student aid;

• fundraising Campaign, plan for a five-year capital campaign.

President Gutmann then presented the resolution to appoint Vanda B. McMurtry as vice president for Government and Community Affairs (Almanac September 6, 2005), noting that he is a “very valuable addition to Penn’s team.”  The Trustees approved the appointment.

Provost Daniels reported that the Law School is involved in four new student/faculty exchange programs and that the Penn Law’s entering class is the most racially diverse entering class among law schools. The Library’s renovations are underway for the Information Commons which is due to open next semester.

EVP Craig Carnaroli said Penn had a very successful year financially in FY05, noting that Development and Alumni Relations had been effective in securing philanthropic support. He also reported that Penn’s investments had a return of 8.5% in FY05. The endowment, as of the end of June, was $4.4 billion.

In giving the Penn Medicine report, Dean Arthur Rubenstein mentioned that Penn doctors and nurses were involved in the Philadelphia Airport triage for the Hurricane evacuees who came to Philadelphia as part of the Project Brotherly Love,  and others are helping in the Gulf area hospitals’ intensive care units.

The Trustees passed two resolutions: one for the School of Veterinary Medicine and the other for the School of Medicine to construct imaging facilities: one is for the design and construction of the Rosenthal Imaging Center, Ryan Hospital ($5.54 million) and the other is for the design and construction of the John Morgan Building Small Animal Imaging Facility ($1.181 million) for a total revised budget of $3.728 million.