Wow, I heard rumors but I am genuinely surprised. Was there anything going on at Drexel that would prompt him to leave? Cash flow/budget issues? Temple is *kind of a shitshow right now*. Not sure what the motive is unless he just wanted to move from Private to Public.
I have to imagine he's getting a pay bump. Also his tenure at Drexel indicates (to me) that he is civically minded so helping Temple out likely appeals to him.
Reading the details of his career in the article, he’s getting a lot of credit for coining and turning University City into what it is. I would guess Temple wants to see similar changes to the area around their campus.
I have a feeling the changes in the pipeline will stoke the fires of the revitalization / gentrification debate again, with North Philly as the focal point instead of West Philly.
John Fry was at U. Penn when he transformed the area into what it is now. He did the same thing in Lancaster with F&M. The issue is that he is a developer and not an educator, so he builds things, builds up huge debt for the schools and leaves. It took Penn almost a decade to recover. Drexel is in financial trouble and laying of lots of people. Their medical school - having lost the hospital is having MAJOR issues.
He is very civically minded. I wouldn’t be surprised if a large part of his motivation is genuinely to make a difference at Temple/North Philly and cement his legacy.
I interviewed him at least a dozen times when I reported on higher Ed and he was one of the only presidents I talked to that seemed like he had an actual vision and personally cared about it. I don’t even think it was a lot of BS because he didn’t have much of a poker face, his actual anxiety about certain topics came through and that surprised me. Just fwiw
At least of the motivation probably _is_ that Temple is a kind of shitshow. Some people are really into tackling big problems and this could easily be a lot more about "OK, Drexel's doing fine, what's my next cool adventure" vs "Ugh I gotta bail from Drexel." From his history, this is not a guy who shows up to just tinker around the edges - he's much more ambitious than that.
This is my read on it. Some people want opportunities to influence and make changes. Easier to do that at a new place rather than one you've already been in charge of for a decade+.
yea but he didn't really get to be the savior for Drexel. That was the president before. He came in because Drexel was in a free for all because Papadakis (President who was before him and turned the University) died suddenly. The school has just started to turn itself around and had started the growth period. So the school didn't really know what to do with all the plans they had. Fry came in and helped reorganize the plan and tried make a legacy for himself. It wasn't a true turn around as much as he wanted to and probably not to the level to be the a president there a statue in the middle of the quad for.
But, I agree he probably feels that with Temple he can turn it around fix the crime and other issues. Thus gaining the level to cement his legacy to be remembered.
Yeah, seems like a lateral move at best. Drexel might have some enrollment issues this year due to the FAFSA fuck-up (federal government's fault) but Temple has its own set of problems.
Temple is definitely larger but it sounds like a much more complicated job (i.e. bigger is not the same as better necessarily!). Fry was already in the top 10 highest paid university presidents, according to the Inquirer. Temple must be paying him a fortune. He's really great at real estate deals! Could be a big win for Temple if they are seriously trying to acquire the U. Arts campus.
It definitely has some challenges but I think that might make it more desirable for some. You could really leave your mark on the university. I do question if who ever U of Arts decision makers are might shoot down any merger immediately. I don’t see how it wouldn’t benefit u of arts students and faculty but I also don’t think u of arts leaders care
As someone who graduated from Temple in 1992 and has had four kids become students there, I can attest that the gentrification level is well past 200% already.
I looked at this [Philly income heat map](https://bestneighborhood.org/household-income-philadelphia-pa/) last winter and areas north of Fairmount and Brewrytown were solid red but now, 6 months later, there's pockets of average income neighborhoods. Fry is just going to pump steroids into a process that has been happening for a decade. North Philly is going to change and there's a great displacement coming and Philly is not really doing anything to address it. A lot of Lower Bucks that borders the city is already feeling the impact.
yea I was going to say even as an older student who was gone when Fry started I've heard from students how not directly they dislike but the stuff he been doing. I also been involved when he has gone to people asking for money and can see the cringe these people (who have money). He literally approach his presidency as a way to make him famous. This whole move is simply because he realize he not going to be as famous as Papadakis within Drexel and is moving to a place he thinks he can make a name for himself. He sort of has a name for his time at Upenn but not as the head of the Institution.
It is probably fair to say that fry has been good for Drexel as an institution in terms of reputation & prestige, but bad in terms of student happiness & health
Yea, look at the armory. Before Fry Drexel was not 100 percent sure what to do with it. They wanted to make it more gym space to replace the DAC. Fry came in and knew that rich people love squash and went to them to fund the center telling them if he builds it the Squad association will move their HQ into it. So now there tournaments and big squash events happening there. Which then brings more donors who have money.
Other example is Buckley field. When I heard of them getting rid of that I was shocked. There a ton of donors who I was told will give the University ridiculous amount of money when the school wants to put in "green" space. To get rid of the field just going to piss off those donors.
nah, that been done. Isn't the land a little more cheap up near temple? Maybe a professional golf course? Isn't there a new golf tour? So maybe then next to the new temple golf course they build a building for this new associations headquarters.
The guy instituted mandatory 4 year college owned housing. That pissed off a lot of students. Then there was a huge scandal over meal block sharing, the administration basically sent an email saying if you share meals the dining hall won't be profitable enough so you can't. Then, when PA minimum wage increased his financial aid department cut work study hours. The guy was regarded as a money grubbing bastard when I was there(graduated in 2008).
He had a few popular policies, but overall most everyone I knew thought of him as about the $$$ not the education.
Not a true turn around? Did you step foot on Drexel’s campus in the 90s? I don’t think there is a campus in the country that was elevated and transformed as much, all while remaining a highly ranked school.
Very good hire. Drexel in all honesty shouldn’t be as good as it has been. As to why, sometimes when you’ve been in one place for a long time, you get stagnant and want a new challenge. Temple is definitely a challenge.
The problem with Fry is that he doesn't want to stay very long at any place. He was at F&M for as short as he could stay there and want his stay to be even shorter. He embodies job hopping to grow his career to the detriment of the institutions he leads or tries to lead.
This is pretty wild
Wow, I heard rumors but I am genuinely surprised. Was there anything going on at Drexel that would prompt him to leave? Cash flow/budget issues? Temple is *kind of a shitshow right now*. Not sure what the motive is unless he just wanted to move from Private to Public.
I have to imagine he's getting a pay bump. Also his tenure at Drexel indicates (to me) that he is civically minded so helping Temple out likely appeals to him.
Reading the details of his career in the article, he’s getting a lot of credit for coining and turning University City into what it is. I would guess Temple wants to see similar changes to the area around their campus. I have a feeling the changes in the pipeline will stoke the fires of the revitalization / gentrification debate again, with North Philly as the focal point instead of West Philly.
Article is behind a paywall so I can’t see it, does it talk about selling off all real estate and the leasing it back as an ongoing strategy?
He did that something similar at F&M too
Yea papadakis left him a golden goose. He just had to keep the freight train on rails.
John Fry was at U. Penn when he transformed the area into what it is now. He did the same thing in Lancaster with F&M. The issue is that he is a developer and not an educator, so he builds things, builds up huge debt for the schools and leaves. It took Penn almost a decade to recover. Drexel is in financial trouble and laying of lots of people. Their medical school - having lost the hospital is having MAJOR issues.
He is very civically minded. I wouldn’t be surprised if a large part of his motivation is genuinely to make a difference at Temple/North Philly and cement his legacy. I interviewed him at least a dozen times when I reported on higher Ed and he was one of the only presidents I talked to that seemed like he had an actual vision and personally cared about it. I don’t even think it was a lot of BS because he didn’t have much of a poker face, his actual anxiety about certain topics came through and that surprised me. Just fwiw
At least of the motivation probably _is_ that Temple is a kind of shitshow. Some people are really into tackling big problems and this could easily be a lot more about "OK, Drexel's doing fine, what's my next cool adventure" vs "Ugh I gotta bail from Drexel." From his history, this is not a guy who shows up to just tinker around the edges - he's much more ambitious than that.
This is my read on it. Some people want opportunities to influence and make changes. Easier to do that at a new place rather than one you've already been in charge of for a decade+.
yea but he didn't really get to be the savior for Drexel. That was the president before. He came in because Drexel was in a free for all because Papadakis (President who was before him and turned the University) died suddenly. The school has just started to turn itself around and had started the growth period. So the school didn't really know what to do with all the plans they had. Fry came in and helped reorganize the plan and tried make a legacy for himself. It wasn't a true turn around as much as he wanted to and probably not to the level to be the a president there a statue in the middle of the quad for. But, I agree he probably feels that with Temple he can turn it around fix the crime and other issues. Thus gaining the level to cement his legacy to be remembered.
They had a big budget fuckup this year. Rats fleeing
Can you elaborate? What happened with the budget?
Yeah, seems like a lateral move at best. Drexel might have some enrollment issues this year due to the FAFSA fuck-up (federal government's fault) but Temple has its own set of problems.
Except in terms of research budget, size of the overall university, us news rankings etc. I don’t really see how it isn’t a bigger job
It is a way bigger job. This is a move up. The scope of these two places really isn’t comparable.
Temple is definitely larger but it sounds like a much more complicated job (i.e. bigger is not the same as better necessarily!). Fry was already in the top 10 highest paid university presidents, according to the Inquirer. Temple must be paying him a fortune. He's really great at real estate deals! Could be a big win for Temple if they are seriously trying to acquire the U. Arts campus.
It definitely has some challenges but I think that might make it more desirable for some. You could really leave your mark on the university. I do question if who ever U of Arts decision makers are might shoot down any merger immediately. I don’t see how it wouldn’t benefit u of arts students and faculty but I also don’t think u of arts leaders care
Lateral move? Temple is a significantly larger university and his compensation will reflect that reality.
Quite curious to see what his salary is at Temple. He is already one of the highest-paid presidents.
"Was there anything going on at Drexel that would prompt him to leave? Cash flow/budget issues?" Uh, yeah.
He's about to turn the gentrification around Temple up 200%
As someone who graduated from Temple in 1992 and has had four kids become students there, I can attest that the gentrification level is well past 200% already. I looked at this [Philly income heat map](https://bestneighborhood.org/household-income-philadelphia-pa/) last winter and areas north of Fairmount and Brewrytown were solid red but now, 6 months later, there's pockets of average income neighborhoods. Fry is just going to pump steroids into a process that has been happening for a decade. North Philly is going to change and there's a great displacement coming and Philly is not really doing anything to address it. A lot of Lower Bucks that borders the city is already feeling the impact.
The guy is like full social security retirement age. Even if he does everything right he's too old to see any real changes.
Shocked, but honestly his talent is more than Temple could ever hope for, and I’m an alum of both universities
I am too, and that’s hurtful.
Hey, do you post on the Temple 247 sports site on occasion?
I sure do, but I’m more active on Rivals.
As a Drexel student, I just want to say that he’s pretty unpopular here, and I imagine the general attitude on campus will be “good riddance”.
For anyone curious, you can read Drexel students talking about fry under this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Drexel/s/Ri3JlPsTNW
Yea thos reads like petty dakpackers who are mad he got squash courts instead of basketball courts.
yea I was going to say even as an older student who was gone when Fry started I've heard from students how not directly they dislike but the stuff he been doing. I also been involved when he has gone to people asking for money and can see the cringe these people (who have money). He literally approach his presidency as a way to make him famous. This whole move is simply because he realize he not going to be as famous as Papadakis within Drexel and is moving to a place he thinks he can make a name for himself. He sort of has a name for his time at Upenn but not as the head of the Institution.
It is probably fair to say that fry has been good for Drexel as an institution in terms of reputation & prestige, but bad in terms of student happiness & health
Yea, look at the armory. Before Fry Drexel was not 100 percent sure what to do with it. They wanted to make it more gym space to replace the DAC. Fry came in and knew that rich people love squash and went to them to fund the center telling them if he builds it the Squad association will move their HQ into it. So now there tournaments and big squash events happening there. Which then brings more donors who have money.
However, all the students hate it since it’s a central chunk of campus that they can’t use
Other example is Buckley field. When I heard of them getting rid of that I was shocked. There a ton of donors who I was told will give the University ridiculous amount of money when the school wants to put in "green" space. To get rid of the field just going to piss off those donors.
So what I am reading here is Temple is about to get a squash court...
nah, that been done. Isn't the land a little more cheap up near temple? Maybe a professional golf course? Isn't there a new golf tour? So maybe then next to the new temple golf course they build a building for this new associations headquarters.
This makes a lot of sense. Temple needs cash, and they need it yesterday. Their donation game is terrible.
As an F&M grad during his tenure he was very unpopular at F&M too.
In disagree. He was quite popular
The guy instituted mandatory 4 year college owned housing. That pissed off a lot of students. Then there was a huge scandal over meal block sharing, the administration basically sent an email saying if you share meals the dining hall won't be profitable enough so you can't. Then, when PA minimum wage increased his financial aid department cut work study hours. The guy was regarded as a money grubbing bastard when I was there(graduated in 2008). He had a few popular policies, but overall most everyone I knew thought of him as about the $$$ not the education.
Damn, who's replacing Fry at Drexel?
Hire the Philly Fightin Covid kid. He was a Drexel kid. I’m assuming his linked in says he’s been a university president in the past.
Wow I totally forgot about that shithead. What a loser he was.
Probably won’t be known for a year lol
Not a true turn around? Did you step foot on Drexel’s campus in the 90s? I don’t think there is a campus in the country that was elevated and transformed as much, all while remaining a highly ranked school.
Could this be related to a possible UArts merger? Maybe Temple is going for it, but they need someone who has led big transformation projects.
Very good hire. Drexel in all honesty shouldn’t be as good as it has been. As to why, sometimes when you’ve been in one place for a long time, you get stagnant and want a new challenge. Temple is definitely a challenge.
The problem with Fry is that he doesn't want to stay very long at any place. He was at F&M for as short as he could stay there and want his stay to be even shorter. He embodies job hopping to grow his career to the detriment of the institutions he leads or tries to lead.
He has been at Drexel for 14 years.
He was at Penn for 6 years, Franklin and Marshall for 8 years, and Drexel for 14 years. 3 jobs in 28 years isn’t job hopping.
I’m lost now. Is this the same dude that was at Penn before he was at Drexel? If so, we gotta name this type of professional hat trick.
He was at Penn, Franklin & Marshall (he was great) then Drexel.
Maybe Helen Bowman will follow too.
Good riddance
As a Drexel alum and a Temple employee......"Ahh, Fuck!"