As Drexel’s John Fry gets voted in as Temple’s next president, here’s what he plans to do

For John A. Fry, only one word can describe the decision he’s had to make: agonizing.

The Brooklyn native who got his start in academia at the University of Pennsylvania has led Drexel University in West Philadelphia for 14 years, more than twice the average tenure of a college president. And now, in a remarkable move, he has decided to cross town to North Philadelphia to become Temple’s next president. Temple’s board of trustees unanimously voted to hire him at a meeting Wednesday morning.

Fry spent last weekend calling 150 Drexel board members and donors so he could personally explain his reasons for leaving: He was attracted to Temple’s historic mission of making education widely available at an accessible price, its deep commitment to first-generation and underrepresented students, and the embrace of its position as Philadelphia’s public university.

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“This is not a moment of elation for me,” Fry, 64, said during an exclusive interview this week. “This is ... difficult. ... On the one hand, I’m looking forward to leading this great, amazing university, and on the other hand, I already lead a great, amazing university. So it’s poignant. The thing that gives me a lot of comfort, though, is staying in Philadelphia.”

Fry has already put a lot of thought into the new job: Campus safety, which has been a challenge for Temple in recent years, will be an “early priority,” he said. He also envisions a focus on commercial development, similar to the work he’s done near Drexel and earlier at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, where he was president from 2002 to 2010. He sees the potential in Temple’s vast research enterprise to spur a “North Philadelphia innovation corridor,” running up Broad Street from Temple’s main campus to its health system campus about 1½ miles away.

He also cited the importance of Temple’s athletic program, which he sees as “the gateway” to the university for many people; its hospital and health system, which serve many of the city’s low-income residents; and relationships with faculty and its unions and the university’s North Philadelphia neighbors.

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“I feel like if Temple can position itself as a constructive, unifying force among neighbors as a neighbor, that would be a terrific thing,” he said. “Work needs to be done there, starting with really deep listening and understanding about what neighborhood interests, issues and needs are.”

Fry said he’s prepared to do that. But his work at Temple won’t start, he said, until Drexel finds a new president. Drexel is expected to launch a search this week.

“My commitment to the [Drexel] board is to stay while they run a search,” Fry said. “I’m not going to shortchange my transition from Drexel. I need to make sure we find a great new person.”

He declined to estimate a timeline, but said he likely won’t start at Temple until after the new academic year is underway.

While many new presidents hesitate to say much at all about their early priorities, wanting time to learn about their new environment, Fry has had the benefit of proximity to Temple, with decades spent in the city.

And although Temple is a state-related school and Drexel is private, they are both high-level research universities serving large enrollments — Drexel at about 21,700, while Temple has 30,530. At Temple, he will oversee 17 schools and colleges, eight campuses, and 8,700 faculty and staff for a university that has nearly 360,000 living alumni.

For Temple, Fry is the clear choice, said Mitchell L. Morgan, chair of the university’s board of trustees.

“He is a proven leader,” Morgan said. “He is a team builder. People love working with him. He’s smart. He can think on his feet. He’s got it all.”

The university started its search by listening extensively to what its campus community wanted, and Morgan said repeatedly they cited experience, “a known commodity.” When he asked them for a name that fit the description, at least a half-dozen times the response was “someone like a John Fry,” Morgan said.

Shohreh Amini, a biology professor, president of the faculty senate and member of the search committee, said Fry was the unanimous choice of the committee. She liked that Fry was interested in every aspect of the job and knows Philadelphia well.

“He can get up and running the first day,” she said.

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Fry, Morgan said, has been on his radar for a while; he reached out to Fry before the last presidential search about four years ago and Fry wasn’t interested, citing his loyalty to Drexel. When The Inquirer wrote about Fry’s candidacy last week, Morgan said he received about 150 messages, all positive, including a call from Gov. Josh Shapiro and an email from a prominent alumnus who wrote: “Greatest pick since Chamberlain!!!,” referring, of course, to Wilt.

But Morgan said he also understood Fry’s loyalty to Drexel — “this is not the Mets vs. the Phillies” — and he’s supportive of Fry continuing to help Drexel transition, even after he starts at Temple.

Fry has been offered a five-year contract, but has said he would like to stay 10, which he sees as necessary for meaningful progress. He would replace Richard M. Englert, who has been president since JoAnne A. Epps died in September while serving as acting president.

Temple does not plan to release Fry’s salary until it is legally required in tax forms, Morgan said. At Drexel, Fry 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. In 2022, his total compensation was about $2.2 million, with a base salary of more than $886,000.

Jason Wingard, the former Temple president who resigned after less than two years on the job, earned nearly $1.4 million in 2021-22, according to Temple’s most recent tax form.

Fry, Morgan said, is on board with Temple’s pursuit of a merger with the recently shuttered University of the Arts. Morgan said he updated Fry on the talks Monday to make sure he was in support of proceeding.

» READ MORE: The University of the Arts is closing June 7, its president says

“He said, ‘completely, yes,’” Morgan said.

Drexel about two years ago had explored a possible merger with UArts, Fry said recently, but UArts wanted only a partial partnership, and Drexel didn’t think that was significant enough.

For the first time, Fry will have to deal with faculty unions, which were nonexistent at Drexel, Penn and F&M. In spring semester 2023, Temple experienced a six-week strike by its graduate student worker union. The Temple Association of University Professors, the faculty union, is amid negotiations with the administration.

“That will be a learning-curve issue for me,” Fry said. “I look forward to getting to know the union leadership and understanding their perspective on things.”

Fry did have dealings with other unions at Penn, and Drexel also has some unions.

He said he hopes that Temple faculty and the administration can come to an agreement soon.

“That would be the best thing for the university that doesn’t need any additional distractions or anxiety,” he said.

Fry has developed a reputation as an urban planner, as much as a college president. At Penn, where he worked from 1995 to 2002, he helped bring a movie theater and grocer to the neighborhood, create the public Penn Alexander School, and launch the University City District, fostering relationships among colleges, retailers, and residents.

And at Drexel, 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.

He acknowledged that any development around Temple would have to be carefully connected to the neighborhoods and not displace residents. Affordable housing would have to be part of the plan, he said.

Fry also cited Temple University Health System’s important role in addressing health equity issues, but also the challenge the system has faced, given that 86% of its patients are covered by government health programs, both Medicaid and Medicare.

Giving Fry a leg up, he already has a long relationship with Mike Young, CEO of Temple’s health system, whom he called “incredibly gifted.” They worked together when Young led Lancaster General Hospital and Fry was at F&M.

As for Drexel, Fry said he plans to continue to oversee initiatives already under way, including the merger with Salus University, which was approved by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education this week and a gradual move from a quarter system to semesters.

“That’s the best way for me to end my time at Drexel, with my foot still on the accelerator as it’s been and not easing off on anything,” he said.

Staff writer Ryan W. Briggs contributed to this article.