Convocation Address 2024

Interim President Denis O’Brien addresses the Drexel community during Convocation in October 2024.

Thank you, Provost Jensen, and good morning, everyone.

It is a privilege and an honor to have been called to serve this University as interim president.

And I am grateful for this opportunity to speak at Convocation today.

It gives me a chance to express my commitment to Drexel and Confidence in its future.

Since this is the Provost’s event … and since the main purpose of Convocation this year is to showcase and celebrate academic excellence … I will be brief.

I care deeply for Drexel. As a trustee of nearly twenty years and as an alum, I am grateful for the impact that Drexel has had on my life.

I admire Drexel for the way it infuses our shared values of innovation and inclusion into its teaching, research, and partnerships for the benefit of society.

And I especially am in awe of the superb job Drexel does in preparing our students with the real-world, problem-solving skills and experience to adapt to change and thrive in any economy.

There really is no University in the world quite like Drexel.

And one big reason for that is also Drexel’s saving grace: Its self-correcting, self-improving and resilient nature.

Whenever the ground has shifted beneath its feet or whenever adversity has struck without warning, Drexel has always regained its footing, bearings and strength to keep moving true north.

And whenever the world changes, Drexel not only has changed with the times; it also has embraced change and reinvented itself to keep getting better and better at fulfilling its mission.

Today, Drexel is in the thick of big changes along two tracks: strengthening our academic enterprise and building financial resilience.

We have a bold plan for academic transformation that Provost Jensen spoke about a moment ago. As he shared, it was guided by our dynamic strategic planning process and developed through broad collaboration across our community, the plan is perfect for Drexel.

It gives our University a blueprint not just to prevail in today’s volatile and ferociously competitive environment, but also to lead for decades to come.

At the same time, some hard choices we are making to strengthen our academic enterprise and build financial resilience are going to be more unsettling, difficult, and even painful.

I won’t pretend otherwise.

But I can promise you three things.

First: In everything my senior leadership colleagues and I do, we will strive to earn your trust by leaning into the first of Drexel’s shared values — Integrity.

We will embrace transparency in sharing information and giving reasons for every decision we make.

We will try to leave no daylight between what we say and what we do.

Second: Everyone, including senior leadership, will be asked to work together to ensure the success of our dual missions to build financial resilience and achieve academic transformation.

Third: Drexel WILL emerge from these experiences stronger in every way. Examples of exceptional achievement by our faculty, by our students, and by our professional staff will be the rule at Drexel.

By building trust, by working together, and by learning together, we can make great things happen at Drexel. I am excited about our shared future. I hope you are, too.

Thank you.