Funding is priority for PSU's provost By.BILL FERRELL Collegian Staff Writer One of the University's most obvious problems is that the University is seriously underfunded, the new University executive vice president and provost said Friday. Although all large universities experience financial difficulties, Penn State's financial problems are of a different character, William C. Richardson said. William C. Richardson Richardson assumed the offices of executive vice president and provost last Monday. Although a major effort was made by the state legislature this year to increase the appropriation to the University, the increase was not large enough to make more than a beginning, Richardson said. The erosion of support in state appropriations to the University goes back much further than at other institutions, he said. Therefore, the University has further to go to compensate for the underfunding. "The future of the Commonwealth is going to be heavily influenced by the degree to which the Commonwealth recognizes the need to invest on a per student basis at a level, at this institution and at the other Commonwealth universities, that is much higher than what it is now," RiChardson said. It is important for the state to recognize the kinds of things the University can do with enhanced funding, he said. For example, with enhanced funding, the University could initiate collaborative relations with industry. • . Penn State receives less funding per student than the other two state-related institutions (The University of Pittsburgh and Temple University), Richardson said. This history of underfunding has a "double-barrelled negative impact," he said. It results in increased tuition and a reduction of needed services and in salaries. As both provost and executive vice president, Richardson will be tying the academic side of the University to the broader management side, he said. The combination of the roles of executive vice president and provost places an emphasis on the academic dimension of the University, Richardson said. "The role of provost is in and of itself a full-time job in a place as large and complex as Penn State," he said. Richardson said he has set inside • Bull riding was only one of seven events that stirred dust and spectator amazement at the Bellefonte rodeo this weekend. Page 2 index Arts Opinion Sports State/nation/world weather Mostly sunny, warmer and more humid today with a high of 87. Partly cloudy and mild tonight With a shower or thunderstorm possible. Low of 62. Partly sun• ny tomorrow with scattered thunderstorms. High near 86. by Glenn Rolph the daily program development and strengthening of academic programs as a major priority. Richardson will first examine the strengths and weaknesses of the University's academic programs, he said. The next step will be to look for ways to build on the strengths and to strengthen areas which have become eroded. Richardson said he is in favor of the merit system for salary increases recently adopted by the Board of Trustees. "I think it's very important to be in an environment where outstanding performance is going to be rewarded in an outstanding way," he said. Richardson said he hopes that his experience and exposure at two other major research universities will be helpful in his new position. Before arriving at the University, Richardson had served as dean of the graduate school and vice provost for research at the University of Washington since 1981. He entered the University of Washington in 1971 as a faculty member in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine Richardson also served on the faculty of the Graduate School of Business at the University of . Chicago. Richardson said he noticed some differences between the University of Washington and Penn State 'The state of Washington appears to take a greater sense of financial responsbility in assisting its universities, Richardson said. However, Penn State seems to have more flexibility in terms of budget, finance and personnel than the University of Washington, he said. Richardson decided to come to the University largely because of its enviable national reputation as a major research institution, he said. He said he is well acquainted with the service role of the University and he finds the land grant mission of the institution appealing. Although he has no experience with agriculture, Richardson said he does have experience in the related areas of environmental health and marine sciences. "I was also aware of the emphasis that this institution places on its undergraduate programs, " Richardson said. "It's well accepted that it is a leading institution in that sense." The University has a major role to play in the cultural and economic advancement of the state, he said. "The spirit at Penn State is a very impressive and infectious one," Richardson said. "The idea of being a Penn Stater was very attractive to me." The transition has been a comfortable one, Richardson said. Hart M. Nelsen, dean of liberal arts, said he was impressed by Richardson's reputation. "Dr. Richardson's reputation is one of being a skillful administrator who takes everything into consideration," Nelsen said. Nelsen said he had heard of Richardson's reputation through colleagues at institutions where Richardson had served. Library renovations on hold because of low funds By NAN CRYSTAL ARENS Collegian Staff Writer The planned renovations to Schlow Memorial Library, 100 E. Beaver Ave., may have to wait a few more months because the. library's Board of Trustees voted Friday to reject all current bids on the project. Barbara Minard, president of the library's board of trustees, said yesterday: "What the board decided to do was reject all current bids and rebid the project in the late fall probably December." . The board's decision was based on a lack of funding, Minard said. "We just don't have the money right now," she added. Elizabeth Rodgers, library director, said the lowest bid received on the library renovation project was $670,000, which was 20 to 30 percent higher than the library had expected or can afford. The board should know in December whether it will receive a matching grant from °lle • ian Waiting for a ride • Kevin Brown, Keedysville, Md., is on the edge of his saddle as he awaits his team roping competition at the Championship Rodeo sponsored by the Undine chance to ride into the rodeo ring. Brown was one of several participants in the Fire Co., Bellefonte, this weekend. Please see related story, Page 2.. Kidnappers By. BARTON REPPERT 'Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON Edith Rosenkranz, kidnapped from the bridge tournament•she was attending with her multimillionaire husband, was released by her captors from a van Saturday night after two days in captivity without food. Three suspects were arrested minutes later and an unspecified ransom reported as $1 million recovered. One of those arrested was described by a contestant as a concert pianist, music teacher and friend of the regular bridge partner of Rosenkranz's husband "Mrs. Rosenkranz is safe and healthy," FBI agent Norman A. Zigrossi told reporters. He said she had been taken to a hospital for a checkup and was "meeting with her family." Later she returned to the tournament hotel from the garage of which she was taken at gunpoint late Thursday night. Zigrossi said a ransom had been recovered, but declined to say how much had been paid. Washington television stations said it was $1 million George Rosenkranz, retired founder of Syntex Corp., the pharmaceutical company, is abridge expert and well-known player. David Statter, a reporter for radio station WTOP, said he and two colleagues learned what was afoot by listening to FBI radio frequencies. They watched the pickup of the ransom in a hospital parking lot,in suburban Alexaodria, Va., he said, and started to follow FBI agents trailing the pickup van. Statter said they were detained by the FBI, then released and, monitoring the FBI frequency again, caught up in .time to watch the arrests after Edith Rosenkrantz was freed from a van on busy Constitution Avenue five blocks from the White House about 10 p.m. She "looked all right," said Statter, and the suspects were spread-eagled on the ground. Police identified two men arrested as Glenn I Wright, 42, of Houston, Texas, and a man using the name Eddie Jackson but who was really the National Endowment for the Humanities to aid in the renovation funding, Minard said. At that time the board will make a decision on rebidding the project, she said. If the grant is received, the library renovations will be rebid. If the grant application is turned down, the project will be scaled down and rebid, Minard said. Schlow Library applied for the federal grant this spring. The grant would provide up to $125,000 in aid to match any additional income to the library for the renovation project, Minard said. "I've heard from talking to federal officials that we have a 66.66 percent chance to receiving the grant," Minard said. "That would give us $125,000 more to work with, which is about what we would need." Aside from the grant, the library renovation project has three sources of funding, Minard said. First, the library has raised $311,000 in public donations as of last Tuesday. The goal is $350,000. "I'm sure we'll be able to reach that goal by release Rosenkranz Dennis Moss, 26, of Cocoa, Fla. A third man, Orlan Dwain Tolben of Houston, was arrested in a motel about 12 blocks away. They will be charged with kidnapping, police said. WDVM-TV, which had a technician and a camera operator with Statter, showed a brief film clip of Edith Rosenkranz in the back seat of a car, looking tired. Another clip showed officers searching a room in a motel where she was said to have been kept. Zigrossi said Edith Rosenkranz was escorted from the van to the side of the street and left there, her captors returning to the van and driving off. "Primarily our concern was about getting her fed," Zigrossi said. Her husband left the ransom in the parking lot and took a taxi back to the hotel, according to the account of events by Zigrossi and Washington police officials Isaac F. Fullwood and Alphonso Gibson.. Asked how carefully the kidnapping had been George and Edith Rosenkranz December," Minard said. Second, the library renovation project has also been allocated $127,000 in Community Development Block Grant money from the borough, Minard said. "This is basically government money that is funneled through the community," she added. The CDBG money is earmarked to help provide better handicapped access to the library, Minard said. "That is one of the things the CDBG money can be used for," she said. Third, the library has received a $207,000 loan , from the Centre Region Council of Governments. "The library normally gets a yearly allocation from COG," Minard said, "for the next 20 years that allocation will go toward paying off the loan." Rodgers said the renovations will include elevator access to the second floor, a new second floor meeting room, improved public restrooms with handicapped access, a Monday, July 23, 1984 Vol. 85, No. 23 12 pages University Park, Pa. 16802 Published by students of The Pennsylvania State University ©1984 Collegian Inc. planned, Zigrossi replied, "carefully enough to ,keep us busy night and day for two days." During that time, Rosenkranz received more than 10 telephone calls from the kidnappers, starting shortly after his wife was taken, the officials said. During one of those, he spoke with his wife. The ransom demand was made by telephone; no note was ever delivered. Asked how the kidnappers knew they could find Edith Rosenkranz in the hotel garage at 11:50 p.m., Zigrossi replied, "That's one of the purposes of the ongoing investigation." Zigrossi said it appeared that "there is some indication" that one of the suspects was involved in the tournament, but the nature of that involvement was not clear and he declined to say which one he was talking about. One of the bridge players, Mimi Hagedorn of Houston, said she knew a Glenn Wright, a concert pianist and music teacher from Houston who had been friends with a bridge partner of George Rosenkranz, and was surprised to see him at the tournament because he had not played for five or six years. Describing the Wright she knew as a "very nice, polite, well-mannered person," Hagedorn said he told her, "I'm taking it (the game) up again" when she eked him why he was at the tournament. The Houston address in tournament records for Wright was the same as the address released by police. Word of the release caused "absolute pandemonium" at the tournament of more than 6,000 players sponsored by the American Contract Bridge League, said Henry Francis, editor of the league's magazine. "Some people were crying; some people were laughing; some people were jumping around," said Francis, who was in one of the ballrooms where play was in progress as word of the release spread. "Some people who were enemies for years were smiling at each other." Although retired, George Rosenkranz, 68, is still a director of Syntex, a Palo Alto, Calif.- based company that helped develop the oral contraceptive. consolidated lending desk and a new addition to the front of the library that would add 6,000 square feet to the facility. The new addition would allow expansion of the children's portion of the library, Rodgers said. Minard said the consolidated lending desk would improve security at the library and reduce staff hours "We are not saying we are going to cut back on the staff," she said, "the staff will just have to spend less time manning two desks." The upstairs meeting room will also improve library security because it would allow the main library to be locked even when evening meetings were going on, Minard said. "Before, a staff person had to stay around and make sure only authorized people got into the library, with the new addition we can lock the doors to the library area and keep people from walking in, and walking off with things," Minard said. New staff offices are also part of the planned renovations.
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