Inaugural Address

Full text of address

Members of the Drexel Board of Trustees; faculty, students, staff, and friends of our University:

I have one central thought today, and it is this: “E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.”

Every person educated in the Italian school system knows this line. So too do any who admire the world’s great works of literature. It’s the final line, in the last stanza, of the first canticle in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, The Inferno.

E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle. — “And then we emerged to see the stars again.”

As a student at university — first at Bocconi University in Milan and subsequently in doctoral studies at NYU — I was drawn to political economy, to the intersections of politics and economics. I find myself curious to understand how people behave — whether it’s voting or buying things or joining organizations or working together in higher education. Like a good mechanic, I want to look under the hood to see how the engine runs.

My curiosity and my studies have taught me this: to best know where you are, and to most successfully map where you are going, you first need to remember where you have been. You need to understand from where you have come. You have to know your roots.

Drexel’s roots tap into a deep well of optimism in American higher education. One hundred and thirty-five years ago, our University was founded in the belief that through study and application and expanding our minds, any one of us — and every one of us — can not only better ourselves, but better the society in which we live, better our planet for all humankind. Education has been described as “the movement from darkness to light.” That’s what we do.

It is through education that from the darkness we emerge to see the stars.

This spirit of optimism and belief in education dates back even prior to the founding of our University. Even then, it was the manifestation of a deeper and older current, an outlook that defined our great city of Philadelphia and molded the very creation of this country 250 years ago. Benjamin Franklin described good education “as the surest foundation of happiness” both for individuals and for our commonwealth.

Eminently sensible, Franklin argued that the best higher education should prepare students for leadership in business, government, and public service by focusing on useful knowledge. We should, he said, prioritize the practical over the ornamental.

Anthony J. Drexel carried this same philosophy forward. Committing a significant portion of his fortune, he set out to create something entirely new: an institution grounded in his belief that, as he put it, “an education should not only be good, but good for something.”

Mr. Drexel was proclaiming a remarkably bold and forward-looking vision. At our founding, Drexel was a deliberately nonsectarian institution. Open to both men and women. Focused on urban practical forward-looking education and to prepare people for modern economic life.

Unlike traditional schools at that time, we emphasized applied knowledge. It served the working and middle classes and from the beginning admitted not only women, but people of any race. It connected directly to the needs of industry and business.

From our founding, Drexel has been — deeply and profoundly — an optimistic undertaking.

That same spirit that defined the institution then, sustains us in the present. Most importantly for today, at key moments in our history it has informed our decisions and guided our actions. Deep in Drexel’s DNA is this belief in the future and willingness to change with it — always in the direction of building a better, more effective, more inclusive university.

So, I begin my remarks today with one such pivot point in our University’s history.

The year is 1919. In a public presentation, our second president, Hollis Godfrey, addressed the Drexel community. Describing the situation before him, and almost as if he were counting off on his fingers, he ran through the enormous challenges they faced. He began by noting a survey conducted just a few years earlier had found the institution suffered from mounting financial challenges, coursework not standardized across schools, and much, much more.

That was just the start of what was, he told his audience, “Unquestionably the most trying period of the history for educational institutions everywhere.”

It had been only seven months since the signing of the Armistice and the end of the First World War. A generation of Europe and America’s best and brightest young men filled cemeteries across Europe. Compounding those horrors, during the prior year the global influenza pandemic had begun, killing in this country at twice the rate of COVID-19.

These problems seemed to be nearly insurmountable. It was difficult to know where to begin.

The effects of such massive disruption shook the foundations of society. The purchasing power of the dollar collapsed under the pressures of war, disease, and currency devaluation. We have seen inflation, but nothing like this. Simply maintaining what was then the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry at its previous level of operation required an extraordinary effort.

“Two years ago,” President Godfrey said, “We entered into a national struggle for existence that day after day brought staggering shocks to every educational institution in the land.”

Yet despite all this, President Godfrey spoke not in despair, but in a voice of sure and steady optimism.

Society was exhausted, unsettled, uncertain of what would come next. But he offered a simple truth: if ever there was a time to test the practical value of an institution’s ideals, it’s in the face of the difficult years. The secret, he knew, was that the University had to be constantly willing to reinvent itself. As AJ Drexel advised in making his founding gift, “The world will change and therefore the University must change with it.”

From that sure knowledge it was in this same year — in a separate announcement made that month — that President Godfrey introduced the co-op system. Drexel’s co-operative education model was formally initiated as a four-year plan for mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering students. Here, in the midst of the most dire and challenging circumstances, was the spark of a new vision. This was the light of a new idea of how Drexel would work. It transformed the University and remains a defining characteristic of Drexel’s experiential education today.

The world will change and therefore the University must change with it. Let us take this moment of Drexel’s past and hold it up in light of what we see today.

As then, we face challenges. Yet here are the numbers that uniquely define the Drexel experience today. They are numbers of which we are so proud. Fully 30 percent of our student body — that’s nearly a third of each class — will be the first in their family to earn a college diploma. And the education they receive here will change the trajectory of their lives and that of all the generations that follow.

Nearly all our students participate in co-op or an experiential learning opportunity. Our employer partners consistently report that Drexel students are not only well prepared for work but that they would consider hiring them. So, in fact about half get a job offer from their co-op employer. Within a year of graduation, 96 percent are employed or enrolled in graduate school. Those who go into the job market find their situations not just satisfying but rewarding. Within a year of graduation, they are already making measurably more than the national average. As any good economist will tell you, early gains of this nature are particularly powerful because they compound across a lifetime of earnings. This is why our graduates, Drexel graduates, are among the top three percent in lifetime earnings of all university students across the country.

Fundamentally, a Drexel education delivers something more. Here, we are dedicated to preparing students not just for their first job, but for their culminating last job as well. And most importantly – what has defined us from the beginning and makes us so very different than most other universities – is that first and foremost, we are dedicated to an education accessible and available to anyone willing to work for it. This once again comes directly from our founder, who said that he hoped “to create a university where education is accessible to all.”

A university where education is accessible to all. This is particularly important to me and to my personal story. I was the first in my family to receive a college education. In fact, my parents didn't even go to high school. I am the living proof of the transformative power of higher education. Since we were not a family that sent people off to college, there was an agreement: I had to keep up my grades. It was an amazing gift this opportunity to study but it was made clear that I must work hard and deserve it. That, too, is a defining characteristic of a Drexel education.

And it is for this reason I feel not just honored and privileged to lead this University, but more than that, I feel a sense of homecoming here. Drexel speaks to my heart. It was created to educate the children of those who did not have wealth, who did not have rank. It focused on a practical, do-good curriculum and made the riches of an educated life available to anyone willing to put in the time and serious effort for it.

The term I learned growing up is “olio di gomito.” That’s the Italian way of saying ‘elbow grease,’ good old fashioned hard work.

This matters in particular today. It matters especially in this moment when value of what we do goes beyond the importance of individual success to encompass the critical importance of what we provide to society.

Two years ago, a poll by the Wall Street Journal found that well over half of Americans no longer believe a college education is worth the price. Universities were once counted among the nation’s most trusted institutions, praised as a reliable engine of opportunity. But the level of confidence in higher education in this country has fallen from a strong majority just 10 years ago to barely a third today.Americans are skeptical about college’s cost, cultural influence, and public mission.

This is where our University is called upon not just to respond, but to step up and lead. This moment in history is especially suitable for what Drexel can offer. A university steeped in our rich heritage of making education practical, and useful, and accessible to all has a powerful voice and a special place in helping build a better future not just for ourselves, but for all of higher education. We need to be out front on this. And we need to lead in a way that is ambitious, yet humble.

Fortunately, in this area I have some expertise. As the first in my family to go to college, I honored the agreement I had made with my father to work hard. I did so, and I was successful. One day as my undergraduate career was coming to an end, I remember telling my dad that I had this wonderful opportunity to go to the U.S. to earn my PhD. There was a pause. My father looked at me. And then dad asked, “When are you going to get a real job?”

In a sense, his response framed my challenge when I came to the States. I arrived wanting to figure out just how good I was. I thought, either I will be successful, or I will go back to Italy and, in the words of my father, get a real job. So, along the way I learned to be ambitious but humble. I was successful earning my PhD. And, after applying to dozens and dozens of jobs, I was able to find employment as a college professor. My first job was at the University of Minnesota. In that milieu, no less than five colleagues in my department went on to earn Nobel prizes. That’s not five colleagues across the university. That’s five colleagues just in my own department. Talk about a lesson in humility!

Over time, I have come to understand just how powerful and important that can be, especially in the current climate. There is a sense, within the academy and outside of it, that somewhere along the line American higher education has lost its way. It is very like, seven centuries ago, how the poet Dante began his story: “Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita...”

“Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark / For the straightforward pathway had been lost.”

At this moment, higher education in America needs wayfarers and path finders, schools and universities willing and able to travel in new directions and find new destinations. And today I believe, Drexel University is poised to do just that. By our focus on practical skills and applicable education, Drexel sits at the apex of the Industry, Science, Arts triangle.

Over the course of my time here I want to double down on that space, which makes us so distinct. Our unique brand has always been an experiential education. Our core program includes meaningful work experience while at college — experience that enhances understanding. It gives our students a real-world perspective to bring back into the classroom and share with others. Months and months of meaningful work experience while in college is an education unto itself. It provides the unparalleled opportunity to reflect on what is meaningful to you and to your career.

The second part of an experiential education is providing research opportunities. The third is civic and community engagement. Drexel’s special magic is the ability to bring all three into the student’s lifecycle. The unique educational opportunity here is that we teach our students how to meet people where they are. How to coordinate and integrate and involve people and learning from all walks of life. In that way, West Philadelphia and the city at large is not just our home, it’s our environment to learn in. We bring community inside our walls, and we take our coursework outside of them.

This is all part of an experiential education. It is project-based learning acquired through project-based courses. It’s immediate, it’s relevant, and it’s current — connecting the theoretical to the practical. It’s setting up the future based on our experiences and our expertise, tied directly to student success and student outcomes. It’s broad-based and inclusive, producing a uniquely global perspective.

Today is the day that I am especially inclined to celebrate the many unparalleled advantages of this unique opportunity to lead Drexel, to count my blessings as it were. Chief among them is this: that the need for our periodic re-invention, the impetus to change with the world as our founder so rightly anticipated, has already been acknowledged and the process is already far along. Academic Transformation is well under way. Our amazing faculty and professional staff are hard at work bringing true vision to the process and I am immensely grateful for the time, insight, and deep thinking they contribute.

I will say this about what special perspective I bring to this process, once again by recalling the words of our founder AJ Drexel. Looking ahead to what he hoped his University would provide to future generations of students, he said, “I want them to lead happy as well as useful lives.”

To that I offer the heartiest ‘Amen!’

During my time here, student success will always be our North Star. My goal is to make Drexel even more student-centered and more student-focused; I want to have a student-first administration. This is a reflection of who I am; I have always been first and foremost an educator. I believe that what makes us the university we want to be is our students. And so, from the start, I am embracing this challenge of determining how to make the student experience at Drexel second to none. We will focus on providing for our students an education and an experience unmatched at any other university. I believe this comes best through passion and purpose.

For that, we will need to continue to invest in talented faculty and staff who bring that very passion and purpose to our students every single day. We want to bring excitement and engagement to the classroom while promoting research that makes the world a better place. We want to infuse meaning into our students’ studies, in their experiences, and so in their lives.

My friends, today we find ourselves at another pivot point in the history of this great institution. This is another moment of reinvention. In light of these and other challenges we cannot yet foresee, Drexel will do what it has always done. What is written in its DNA. We will look plainly, clearly, and fearlessly at the situations presented to us. We will adapt for an evolving future. And, without pause, without hesitation, without regret, Drexel will reimagine itself.

In part, my role in this process will come as adviser, mentor, and coach. Education is a team sport. No one does this on their own. I spent many years playing and coaching water polo. As much as my academic training in economics and social science may count, it is my skills in coaching that I am especially pleased to bring to the role of president.

As any successful coach will tell you, you learn as you go; you focus on the goal; and you remain willing in the fourth quarter to change plans as needed. Good coaches build on strengths. They balance optimism with realism. They understand everyone’s contributions to be important and mission critical. As such, it is my goal, my intention, and my solemn commitment to be there to the end, to the completion, to the fulfillment. To walk across the finish line of Academic Transformation with you all and continue pressing ahead.

Today, we celebrate, recognizing that challenging pathways of Drexel’s journey still lie ahead. Seven centuries ago, Dante began his great progress in a forest dark without a straightforward roadway to guide him. Thanks to the unwavering dedication and determination of this wonderful community, we see our way out of the woods, as the path before us is unquestionably brighter. We are building something new, something special, something uniquely Drexel. So that one day soon, all of us working together — e quindi emergeremo tutti a riveder le stelle — when we emerge to see the stars, oh how the sky will glitter with all that our students have achieved!

Thank you.