Jordan Quad and the Graduate School of Business (GSB) may soon have new homes, if all goes according to University architect David Lennox’s 20-year-plan. Lennox unveiled his projections for campus architectural additions and alterations at yesterday’s Faculty Senate meeting.

He said that he planned to work largely from the guidelines of the Olmsted Plan, the original 19th century design for the University.

“At the turn of the century, we realized we had kind of strayed from [the Olmsted plan] and we wanted to try to get back to that plan,” Lennox said.

He explained that future architectural changes will largely be made in deference to the original concept of an east-west axis aligned down the center of campus.

He said Jordan Quad will likely be replaced with another quad nearer to the axis and that the GSB may be moved to the end of Serra Street. He added that various Medical School buildings might be extensively renovated to give the University a stronger aesthetic sense of unity.

“We have to be careful that we don’t just become a series of insular villages,” Lennox said.

The architect also said that some administrative offices could be moved to new buildings located on University-owned land in Redwood City. Lennox called himself and his associates “caretakers of a legacy” laid down in the original designs for the University.

Provost John Etchemendy Ph.D. ‘82 also revealed his budget report for the 2007-2008 academic year at last night’s meeting. He was optimistic about the University’s financial situation and projected a surplus of $59 million for the coming year.

“I think the University is stronger academically than it has ever been, and it’s doing very well financially,” Etchemendy said. “On the fiscal side, it’s due largely to investment returns.”

The provost also addressed the need to keep salaries for professors high in order to retain top faculty members. He also discussed the University’s commitment to providing additional scholarships for both undergraduate and graduate students.

Though Etchemendy’s analysis of next year’s financial prospects was generally positive, he also stated that the future is “not all rosy.” He pointed to the concern among school officials about declining research revenues across departments. Once the school’s leading source of revenue, funding from University-conducted research has been surpassed by returns from business investments in the last few years.

Medical School Dean Philip Pizzo also touched on the failure of a resolution at the May 17 Faculty Senate meeting that would have barred tobacco companies from funding University-sponsored research. He suggested that the Medical School could institute a smoking ban in the vicinity of its buildings.

Pizzo did add, however, that the Medical School would not take its own measures to support a ban on tobacco-funded research.

“We’ve worked very hard to be a single University,” he said, “and I think we should remain a single University.”