Drexel University’s John Fry expected to become Temple’s next president, sources say

Drexel University president John A. Fry is the leading finalist to become Temple University’s next president, multiple sources with knowledge of the process say.

Temple University’s board is expected to act soon on the candidacy of Fry, 64, who has led the 21,700-student Drexel for 14 years — more than double the average tenure for a university president.

Fry was the unanimous choice of the selection committee, according to sources.

It would be an extraordinary move for Fry, who also has been president of Franklin and Marshall in Lancaster and got his start in university leadership under former University of Pennsylvania president Judith Rodin. It was at Penn that he served as the chief architect of the plan to revitalize the university’s West Philadelphia neighborhood, and his work at colleges since then has included a focus on urban planning.

» READ MORE: Five years in, a look at Drexel's high-flying Fry

For the 30,530-student Temple, the entrepreneurial Fry would be a known and proven quantity at a pivotal time in the university’s history, with enrollment down 24% since 2017 and the resignation of prior president Jason Wingard after less than two years on the job. Richard M. Englert has been president since JoAnne A. Epps died in September while serving as acting president.

Fry would have to deal with faculty unrest over university leadership and, for the first time in his career, faculty unions — they don’t exist at Penn, Drexel or F&M.

And he’d have to hit the ground running, with contract negotiations between the administration and the Temple Association of University Professors well underway. Last spring, graduate student workers staged a six-week strike, which also led to problems for Wingard’s leadership.

It’s not Fry’s first time to be in the running for Temple president: In 2006, he was a finalist for the job but withdrew.

» READ MORE: John A. Fry’s contract extended to lead Drexel another five years

Neither Fry nor Mitchell L. Morgan, chairman of Temple’s board of trustees, would comment on Fry’s presidential prospects at Temple. The selection committee said earlier this year that it had unanimously narrowed the list to a small group of candidates.

The news came as a shock to many in the Drexel community.

“Our heads are spinning, at least in my circle,” said William Lynch, a tenured professor of education. “There were a few rumors but no prewarning.”

He noted that Drexel is amid many positive initiatives, including a planned merger with Salus University, and questioned what will happen with all that momentum.

“In general, he has moved the university in a very positive direction,” Lynch said of Fry. “He definitely did a superior job in terms of fundraising and catalyzing the confidence people had in Drexel and in Philadelphia.”

Charles Cairns, senior vice president of medical affairs and dean of Drexel’s college of medicine, called Fry a “phenomenal leader” whose support of the medical school has been key to its success.

“Drexel is on a remarkably good path going forward and a large part of that has been due to John’s leadership and impact,” he said. “If Temple gets him, they are very lucky.”

Among the leadership ranks at Temple, including several who asked not to be named because Fry’s selection hasn’t been formally approved, Fry’s candidacy was generally embraced, with several citing his inherent understanding of Philadelphia and ability to navigate complicated community relations and the local political scene.

“He certainly can move an institution, and Temple needs to move,” said Ronald C. Anderson, formerly dean of Temple’s Fox School of Business. “Temple needs a long-term president right now, someone to set a strategy, execute it and get it stable.”

Jeffrey Doshna, president of the Temple Association of University Professionals, said he has some concerns, but declined to elaborate.

“But I want the guy to succeed,” he said. “We want a good president who is going to do the job well.”

He said he hopes the university and union can settle a new contract before Fry arrives: “It’s in everyone’s interest to have this settled.”

Steve Newman, an associate professor of English and former president of the faculty union, said the trust between faculty and the administration needs to be rebuilt, as well as the trust between the university administration and its North Philadelphia neighbors. While Fry has had a lot of experience with development in his university communities, Newman said “that also raises very complex questions about the needs of the people who live in those communities and the importance of their having a voice in these decisions.”

But he said he’s optimistic that Fry “will bring the needed leadership and vision we need and also the respect for faculty governance, the need for better working conditions and a real collaborative spirit in working with our neighbors in North Philadelphia.

“That’s what we’re rooting for. That’s what we need.”

It was just a couple years ago that Fry received a five-year contract extension from Drexel, which, if completed, would have given him 18 years at the helm, making him one of the longest-serving college presidents in the region and matching former Penn president Amy Gutmann’s tenure there.

“President Fry has implemented a dynamic vision for how an urban university can attract and inspire excellent students, conduct pathbreaking research and serve the surrounding neighborhood,” Drexel board chair Richard Greenawalt said in a message to the campus community in announcing Fry’s extended contract in 2022. “He continues to transform the university, while also navigating the university through a pandemic, creating a more inclusive institution and confronting the many challenges of the rapidly changing higher education landscape.”

Fry has been one of the highest-paid private college presidents in the nation, placing ninth in the most recent survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education. He earned $2.6 million in total compensation in 2021, including $765,000 in base pay and the rest in bonuses, benefits, and deferred compensation, which he received after he completed a five-year contract.

Wingard earned nearly $1.4 million in 2021-22, according to the university’s most recent 990 tax form.

» READ MORE: Former Temple president Jason Wingard earned about $730k in his first six months on the job, according to tax forms

Fry is not the typical college president. He does not have a doctoral degree, has never been a dean or provost, and has not conducted research. With a bachelor’s from Lafayette College and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business, he started his career in the auditing division of what is now KPMG, and then moved to Coopers & Lybrand to run a Philadelphia consulting operation dealing with colleges.

His biggest client was Penn, which hired him as executive vice president. From 1995 to 2002, he helped bring a movie theater and grocer to the Penn neighborhood, create the public Penn Alexander School, and launch the University City District, fostering relationships among colleges, retailers, and residents.

When Fry arrived at F&M, a liberal arts college deep in Amish country, in 2002, he continued his work as an urban planner. He soon launched a $75 million redevelopment project, one of the largest in Lancaster’s history. It involved demolishing a factory and moving half of a railroad yard on the college’s rim to a site less than a mile away, freeing dozens of acres for development.

» READ MORE: College president as urban planner

A landfill that occupied the new rail site had to be relocated, which meant excavating and redisposing of 104,000 tons of trash.

He secured state funding and worked with local employers.

“It was a lion’s roar driving confidence in the city,” Lisa Riggs, then president of the Economic Development Co. of Lancaster County, said reflecting on the development project in 2016. “It wouldn’t have happened without F&M’s leadership and knowledge, and John’s persuasiveness. That magnitude of redevelopment was beyond what most people could have thought was possible at that time.”

During his eight years there, he also built a $50 million life science and philosophy building and renovated a center for business, government and public policy.

Fry also brought more students back on campus with new student residences, called College Houses.

Moving to Drexel in 2010, he partnered with Brandywine Realty Trust to launch a multibillion-dollar project to turn parking lots and industrial buildings between Drexel’s campus and 30th Street Station into a neighborhood of businesses, retailers, parks, and residential towers, called Schuylkill Yards. He launched a center for neighborhood partnerships and a school of entrepreneurship.

Also under his leadership, he upgraded Drexel’s campus, once named the nation’s ugliest, and in partnership with the Philadelphia School District, opened a new building near campus to house two public schools. He has been credited with boosting fundraising, including bringing in two major gifts: $50 million from Thomas R. Kline for the Kline School of Law, and $45 million from Dana and David Dornsife for the Dornsife School of Public Health.

Fry negotiated Drexel’s merger affiliation with the Academy of Natural Sciences, and last year, Drexel announced it would proceed with a merger with Salus University, a small, private health sciences university based in Elkins Park. The two institutions are awaiting approval from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the accrediting body.

» READ MORE: UArts had explored a possible merger with Drexel two years ago — but it didn’t materialize

Early on in his tenure, some students complained that their clubs and programs were displaced by renovation and construction, and some employees were concerned that too much was changing too quickly. But other faculty gave Fry credit for being more transparent and willing to involve faculty in decision-making.

He led Drexel through the pandemic, and although the university has lost enrollment — it’s down about 10% from 2017 — that’s nowhere near Temple’s enrollment loss during the same period. Drexel’s peak enrollment year came several years into Fry’s tenure in 2014-15 when it had 26,539 students; it’s down about 18% from then.

» READ MORE: Pro-Palestinian encampment is cleared at Drexel University

Fry most recently had to deal with a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus, which city and university police ultimately moved in to disband, though protesters by then had begun to leave on their own. The encampment had been up for less than a week.

Fry in 2021 told The Inquirer that 2021-22 could be his last full year at Drexel, but that changed.

Now, Fry, once a Penn Quaker and currently a Drexel Dragon, may soon touch down in North Philadelphia as the newest Temple Owl.