May 25, 2023

Dear Colleagues,

On April 17, I informed you about an exciting opportunity for Drexel University: a prospective merger with Salus University, a highly regarded institution that offers a wide range of non-overlapping graduate degree programs in the health sciences and operates four clinical facilities in Philadelphia and Montgomery counties. Today, I am pleased to announce that the respective Boards of Trustees of Drexel and Salus have approved a path toward a merger of our two universities. We anticipate formalizing this merger agreement with Salus the week of June 12.

While the merger will still require regulatory and judicial approvals, we are one step closer to completing a process with Salus that would bring together the complementary strengths of both institutions in graduate health sciences education and clinical practice. This merger would strengthen Drexel’s place as a leader in preparing future interprofessional health sciences practitioners by adding renowned Salus graduate degree programs such as optometry, audiology, blindness and low vision studies, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, and orthotics and prosthetics. In addition, a merger with Salus would expand our physician assistant program, graduate enrollment and promote interdisciplinary research opportunities in new areas.

In the coming weeks, Salus President Michael Mittelman and I will form an Integration Council comprising faculty and professional staff from both universities that will address how and when academic programs and operational units will become part of Drexel’s structure. The work of the Integration Council is the next step in moving this opportunity forward and will take a year or more to fully complete.

I will continue to provide regular updates on important milestones throughout this process and look forward to working with you and our colleagues from Salus to expand Drexel’s offerings and bolster its academic reputation in the health sciences.

Sincerely,

John Fry
President