Penn president gets 5-year extension

Amy Gutmann will stay on as president of the University of Pennsylvania for another seven years under a contract extension, the board of trustees announced Tuesday morning.

The trustees will vote on the five-year extension at its meeting on June 15, board chairman David L. Cohen said in a statement.

The extension would keep Gutmann as president until June 2019, making her the second-longest serving president in the Ivy League school's history.

"The trustees feel very strongly that Amy Gutmann is simply the best university president in the country," Cohen said in a prepared statement.

Gutmann has led the school since 2004. While promoting greater interdisciplinary learning, she has hired more than a hundred specialized faculty and spearheaded the school's recent $3.5 billion fundraising campaign, reaching the goal 16 months ahead of schedule.

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