Drexel to pull out of California

Unveiled in 2009, Drexel's Sacramento campus was supposed to be the first of five new locations in growing cities around the country that would help the university expand its reach for new students and build fund-raising among alumni.

And it was supposed to be a toe in the water for a larger plan to open a 5,000-student undergraduate campus on a large swath of land in Placer County, Calif.

That's what late Drexel President Constantine "Taki" Papadakis envisioned.

But no other centers have been opened, and on Thursday, Drexel said it was pulling out of California, following a "comprehensive evaluation" by its board of trustees.

"I just don't think putting a lot of capital in these remote sites is the way to go," said Drexel President John A. Fry, who has been at the helm since 2010 and inherited the Sacramento campus. "I don't want to put capital dollars in any other place than Philadelphia."

The Sacramento campus, which offered primarily graduate programs but also an undergraduate business program for professionals, will be phased out over 18 months, allowing current students to graduate, he said.

The center, Fry said, which operates on a $5 million budget, had been losing money until it finally broke even in 2013. Its current enrollment, 215 students, was not up to expectations, he said. The programs had yielded about 500 alumni.

"I would have hoped it would have been more signicant, but even then, the idea of having a graduate center in Sacramento. What's the point?"

Drexel, he said, is investing in construction and improvements on its West Philadelphia campus, including new engineering labs, an expanded health services center and a Jewish life center.

"We're doing really well," Fry said, "…and I need every last resource I have to keep that going. I can't divert anything away from our core mission and frankly our hometown."

The decision to scrap the campus is one of several major changes the university has announced in recent months. In December, Drexel ended partnerships with local community colleges that allowed students to earn four-year degrees at discounted tuition rates while remaining on their community college campuses. The university in January said it was overhauling its admissions process by scrapping its VIP fast application and beginning to charge a $50 application fee; the goal, officials said, was to reduce an applicant pool that had grown unwieldy and attract truly interested students.

Fry said he made the decision to scap the plan for the Placer County undergraduate campus several years ago. It would have taken too much time and effort to make that plan succeed, he said, when he could better use those efforts locally.

The University of Warwick, a British university, is now pursuing that site, according to an article last month in the Sacramento Business Journal.

Fry acknowledged that some universities have decided on putting campuses elsewhere, such as New York University's Abu Dhabi venture.

But he'd rather invest in online programs and research partnerships, such as the "Drexel-SARI" center that opened in 2012 in Shanghai, he said.

In the case of the graduate campus, he said he didn't want to nix it without giving it a chance - and feels Drexel did that.

"I think Drexel went more than the extra mile in trying to make the campus succeed," agreed Carl "Tobey" Oxholm III, a former Drexel administrator who ran the Sacramento campus and now works for Rowan University. "…To my mind, the local business leaders never fully appreciated the opportunity Drexel was offering to the city and the Region, didn't understand that Drexel is a not-for-profit that depends upon financial partnerships and philanthropy of the host community, and failed to provide what was needed to keep a top ranked comprehensive university thriving. I think it's a great loss for Sacramento."