The Nursing School may be disbanded on July 1, 1996, if a proposal authored by Provost Stanley Chodorow and Admissions Dean Lee Stetson is approved by the University Board of Trustees at an "emergency" meeting tonight. In an effort to "streamline the University," Chodorow and Stetson have proposed that all funds allocated to the running of the Nursing School be transferred to the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. And Trustees Chairperson Roy Vagelos said he does not expect the proposal to be contested at tonight's meeting. "It's a matter of priorities," Chodorow said of the plan. "Of course, I respect the leadership and brilliance of our Nursing faculty. But the Engineering School is nationally renowned -- truly up-and-coming. "You can say many fine things about the Nursing School, but you can't say that," he added. According to the plan, Nursing professors and administrators would be relocated to Drexel University, where a "Professional Nursing Center" would be constructed. Nursing graduates and undergraduates would be given the option of transferring to the Professional Nursing Center or to the Community College of Philadelphia -- at which a "highly acclaimed" nursing and medical assistants program exists, Chodorow said. If the plan is approved -- as Chodorow expects it will be -- Nursing courses would be offered for the last time at the University during the spring 1996 semester, he added. Nursing Dean Mary Naylor refused to comment last night. But Nursing Dean Emerita Claire Fagin said she is "crushed and flabbergasted" by Chodorow's proposal. Chodorow said he and Stetson began planning to close the school when they discovered that there was a 25 percent decrease in applications to the Nursing School this year, while there was a five percent increase in the number of high school seniors applying to the Engineering School. "This may seem a bit drastic, but it's necessary," Stetson said last night. "We are an excellent University, and we should strive towards even more excellence. Excellent excellence, if you will. And the Nursing School was more in the 'slightly excellent' category." University President Judith Rodin described the proposal as "necessary and enchanting." She said she saw the plan as a means to improve the surrounding University City community. "With the relocation of our fine Nursing School, we are spreading a little bit of ourselves to the intellectually-needy academic environment at Drexel," she said. "It is a strengthening of the University of Pennsylvania, and a gift to our less-privileged neighboring college." But many Nursing students are outraged by possibility of being uprooted from the school they have come to think of as their home. "Oh, please say you're joking!" Nursing sophomore Kathleen Vaccine shrieked to this Daily Pennsylvanian reporter when informed of the plan. "This has to be the joke issue." But, sadly, Vaccine was wrong. And the Nursing Undergraduate Advisory Board is planning a candlelight vigil on College Green at 8 p.m. tomorrow night to protest what UAB members see as "a proposed Holocaust of health-care workers." "This is nothing short of blatant sexism, racism and homophobia from a group of straight white males," UAB member and Nursing junior Therma Mometer said. "I'm so sad, I may just blow up College Hall." But Engineering Dean Gregory Farrington said the plan is "just what we need to succeed." "It's a shame that it's come down to an us-against-them type of mentality [between the Engineering School and the Nursing School]," he said. "But the tension has always been there, albeit subtly, and I'm really glad that those damn nurses will soon be gone. It's about time."
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