Restructuring plan yields impressive savings

With the end of the summer drawing near, the University's proposed restructuring plan is proceeding at full force. According to Executive Vice President John Fry, "Penn has made substantive progress this past year in implementing its administrative restructuring program for the University." Fry said that many of the goals of the program have already been met. New projects such as the partnership with Barnes & Noble to build a "superstore" on campus will provide increased revenue to the University of at least $1 million annually. Fry also said that the administration will "continue to build on those initiatives already underway, and undertake new projects." The new projects will focus on generating significant savings or will attempt to improve the quality and responsiveness of service. Fry announced several areas of focus -- including a market analysis of the University's Dining Services, designed to determine the level of student, faculty and staff satisfaction with services and "how we can best serve the campus community's needs. He said the analysis of Dining Services will be overseen by the University's Business Services. "[Business Services] is in the process of identifying an independent, non-food service consultant to conduct the analysis," he explained. Fry also said the restructuring program is to improve human resources at the University. Administrators have already begin to study the University's total compensation package, with the goal of reducing costs while remaining competitive in the primary employment market, Fry said. He also said he is looking at reengineering the University's research administration support processes to improve the delivery of service to faculty. "It is important to keep in mind the results of our restructuring efforts," Fry said. "Those results? are beginning to yield savings thus far in excess of $12 million." He added that the savings have been reinvested in projects such as he Barnes & Noble superstore and the Perelman Quad. Among the other accomplishments so far are new energy conservation strategies which will deliver annual savings of $4.2 million and the reengineering of the University's purchasing practices to leverage Penn's buying power. Fry mentioned the new Financial Management Information System (FinMIS) as an improvement made through restructuring, as well as citing the implementation of new strategy and delivery system for computing services designed to make services easier and more cost-effective. He also mentioned the new Public Safety Strategic Plan that is currently underway. Fry would not comment on the number of jobs phased out through restructuring but said that restructuring is a "long-term process" which requires the University to make "hard choices -- for example, when programs and services are revamped and as a result positions are eliminated." "The important thing to keep in mind is that when jobs are eliminated, we have strong programs in place to assist people who are impacted," he explained. "It will take the involvement and commitment of the entire University community to succeed in this important effort."

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