Ivy League School

Bowing to tradition, new University of Pennsylvania president Judith Rodin walked the campus with trustees and deans. And she got a kiss from Larry Gross, a professor of communications. Yesterday's unanimous vote by the board of trustees makes Rodin, 49, Yale provost and Philadelphia native, the first woman to hold a permanent presidency of an Ivy League school.

Matt Minoff, a senior shooting guard at Cherry Hill East, has made an oral commitment to attend Yale University and play basketball. Minoff said yesterday that he made his decision after visiting the Ivy League school last weekend. He said he chose Yale over Penn. Last season, the 6-foot-5 Minoff averaged 9.9 points a game for the Cougars, but his game greatly improved over the summer, when he averaged 18 points and helped East win the Cherry Hill Recreation League championship.

Scott Greenman, an Inquirer third-team all-South Jersey point guard from St. Augustine, has made an oral commitment to attend Princeton. Greenman had wanted to attend Princeton since the fall, but he waited until he was accepted by the Ivy League school to announce his plans. He received his acceptance notice Wednesday and announced his plans yesterday. A four-year starter, Greenman averaged 13 points and five assists last season for the 24-3 Hermits, who won their fifth straight South Jersey Parochial B title.

Brie Cokos, a first-team all-South Jersey basketball selection from Haddonfield High, says she will attend Columbia University. Cokos, a 5-foot-11 forward who helped lead Haddonfield to a 29-2 record and the state Group 2 championship, said she committed to the Ivy League school earlier this month. "I just fell in love with the school when I visited there," said Cokos, who visited the campus in November. "Columbia is great academically, and the basketball program is in the rebuilding process and I wanted to be part of it. " Cokos, who is ranked No. 8 in her class and has scored 1,410 on the Scholastic Assessment Test, said she hopes to major in biology.

The Bo Wood era at Cherry Hill East appears to have come to at least a temporary conclusion. Wood, who completed his 21st year as East's football coach with yesterday's 19-6 win over rival Cherry Hill West, said he would like to take a year off to watch his son, Erick, play for Maryland next fall. Erick, who will be a fifth-year senior next year, was a starting linebacker for the Terrapins this season. "I'm not sure if it is possible, but I'd like to take a year's sabbatical from coaching," said Wood, who has a 131-62-5 record at East.

Academy Park field hockey coach Kay Stuart had to make a decision. Her team lacked scoring punch, so she moved senior co-captain Anita Roberson from her defensive center back position - where she's played since a freshman - to the offensive forward line. It was a move that brought glittering results. Roberson has figured in all of the Knights' 7 goals this season, scoring 6 and assisting on the other. "I felt she could give us some extra punch on offense, and I'm extremely pleased with the results," said Stuart, whose team owns a 1-4 Del-Val League record (1-8 overall)

An Ivy League presidency comes with an Ivy League-caliber salary. Among private universities in the region, University of Pennsylvania president Judith Rodin and Princeton University president Harold Shapiro ranked one and two in the size of their salary during the 1997-98 academic year. The next highest paid president was nearly $100,000 behind, an Inquirer review of university tax forms shows. Rodin's $529,677 and Shapiro's $376,120 far outstrip the $293,353 that Temple University president Peter J. Liacouris earned that year.

Yale University has a tradition in track and field, but it doesn't run quite as deep as Sarah Smith's family history at the Ivy League school. Smith, an Episcopal Academy senior, is a direct descendant of Yale's first president. In 1701, the Rev. Abraham Pierson became the rector of Collegiate School. The school's name was changed to Yale College in 1718. Her maternal grandfather, Gordon Hurlbut, played ice hockey at Yale. And her mother's sister, Annie, also attended Yale.

Robert L. Barchi, president of Thomas Jefferson University, has big plans. He wants to transform the way the medical university trains future generations of doctors, nurses, and other health-care providers. And he wants to remake the university's urban campus so it is more welcoming to students, patients, doctors and faculty - and area residents. Fulfilling that vision won't be cheap. But Barchi insists the decision to sell Thomas Eakins' masterpiece, The Gross Clinic, was not intended as a shortcut to raising the more than $400 million to $500 million he expects to spend.

It's another summer of learning for Mike Maxim, and it has not been an easy one for the slender, 6-foot-11 senior. So far, Maxim's West Chester Henderson team is winless in the Coatesville Adult Basketball League, and Maxim has received his fair share of knocks from some of the league's bigger, more experienced players. Maxim is a target every game. When you're that big, opposing teams almost automatically double-team, but Maxim likes it. He knows with each elbow comes another notch upward in his basketball learning curve.

In an effort to encourage more faculty inventions and commercialize discoveries, the University of Pennsylvania has hired the guy doing that job at another Ivy League school - Columbia University. Michael J. Cleare for the last seven years has been in charge of Columbia's technology-transfer strategy, handling licensing deals with business, getting industry-sponsored research collaborations, creating tiny start-up firms, and building rapport with Columbia faculty. Starting Aug. 1, he will do the same thing at Penn, where he will be associate vice provost for research and executive director of the Center for Technology Transfer.

Robert L. Barchi, president of Thomas Jefferson University, has big plans. He wants to transform the way the medical university trains future generations of doctors, nurses, and other health-care providers. And he wants to remake the university's urban campus so it is more welcoming to students, patients, doctors and faculty - and area residents. Fulfilling that vision won't be cheap. But Barchi insists the decision to sell Thomas Eakins' masterpiece, The Gross Clinic, was not intended as a shortcut to raising the more than $400 million to $500 million he expects to spend.

The presidents of the eight Ivy League schools have agreed to study early-decision admissions, to determine whether criticism of the practice is warranted and whether the schools should abandon it. "But it's far too early to say what their review will bring, or what that will mean for us," Marilyn Marks, Princeton University spokeswoman, said yesterday. Earlier in the week, Yale University president Richard Levin caused a stir when he said he would like to end early-decision admissions, a practice that has accelerated the already hectic application process at selective U.S. colleges.

Scott Greenman, an Inquirer third-team all-South Jersey point guard from St. Augustine, has made an oral commitment to attend Princeton. Greenman had wanted to attend Princeton since the fall, but he waited until he was accepted by the Ivy League school to announce his plans. He received his acceptance notice Wednesday and announced his plans yesterday. A four-year starter, Greenman averaged 13 points and five assists last season for the 24-3 Hermits, who won their fifth straight South Jersey Parochial B title.

An Ivy League presidency comes with an Ivy League-caliber salary. Among private universities in the region, University of Pennsylvania president Judith Rodin and Princeton University president Harold Shapiro ranked one and two in the size of their salary during the 1997-98 academic year. The next highest paid president was nearly $100,000 behind, an Inquirer review of university tax forms shows. Rodin's $529,677 and Shapiro's $376,120 far outstrip the $293,353 that Temple University president Peter J. Liacouris earned that year.

Matt Minoff, a senior shooting guard at Cherry Hill East, has made an oral commitment to attend Yale University and play basketball. Minoff said yesterday that he made his decision after visiting the Ivy League school last weekend. He said he chose Yale over Penn. Last season, the 6-foot-5 Minoff averaged 9.9 points a game for the Cougars, but his game greatly improved over the summer, when he averaged 18 points and helped East win the Cherry Hill Recreation League championship.

It's another summer of learning for Mike Maxim, and it has not been an easy one for the slender, 6-foot-11 senior. So far, Maxim's West Chester Henderson team is winless in the Coatesville Adult Basketball League, and Maxim has received his fair share of knocks from some of the league's bigger, more experienced players. Maxim is a target every game. When you're that big, opposing teams almost automatically double-team, but Maxim likes it. He knows with each elbow comes another notch upward in his basketball learning curve.

In front of WFIL's former studio at 46th and Market Streets is a handsome historic plaque reminding passersby that this is the place American Bandstand called home. Back in 1957, the wonders of broadcast television enabled Dick Clark to transform what had been a local rock-and-roll show into a national phenomenon that was beamed to TV sets in teenagers' living rooms across the country. Today, across the hall from Bandstand's legendary Studio B, the University of Pennsylvania is using satellite and Internet technology to transmit freshman-level courses to high school students in places such as Boston, Dallas, Atlanta, Minneapolis and San Jose, Calif.

Yale University has a tradition in track and field, but it doesn't run quite as deep as Sarah Smith's family history at the Ivy League school. Smith, an Episcopal Academy senior, is a direct descendant of Yale's first president. In 1701, the Rev. Abraham Pierson became the rector of Collegiate School. The school's name was changed to Yale College in 1718. Her maternal grandfather, Gordon Hurlbut, played ice hockey at Yale. And her mother's sister, Annie, also attended Yale.

Brie Cokos, a first-team all-South Jersey basketball selection from Haddonfield High, says she will attend Columbia University. Cokos, a 5-foot-11 forward who helped lead Haddonfield to a 29-2 record and the state Group 2 championship, said she committed to the Ivy League school earlier this month. "I just fell in love with the school when I visited there," said Cokos, who visited the campus in November. "Columbia is great academically, and the basketball program is in the rebuilding process and I wanted to be part of it. " Cokos, who is ranked No. 8 in her class and has scored 1,410 on the Scholastic Assessment Test, said she hopes to major in biology.