Philadelphia University’s mission is to be the model for professional education in the 21^st century.  Bob Reichlin, class of 1947, helped frame that mission in his 61 years as an alumnus and 17 years of service on the Board of Trustees.  Bob passed away in 2008.  On thursday November 12, the University named our administration building the Robert J. Reichlin House.

If you stand on the pathway between Hayward Hall and the Kanbar Center the sightline will take you across the beautiful Ann Gallagher garden to “Bob’s new building” and your eyes will rise to the newly inscribed “Robert J. Reichlin House”.  That simple experience is a metaphor for Bob’s legacy at Philadelphia University.  He told me that when he served as chairman of Zukerman-Honickman he could spot a real professional by their leadership skills and their burning aspirations to achieve.  He chose people who saw across the terrain and lifted themselves through hard work.  Bob’s legacy and the naming of this building are testimony to a life well led and a reminder to the occupants of this building, now and in the future, that they stand on the shoulders of giants and have the responsibility to lead, aspire and achieve.To Bob Riechlin and a life well led.

Walking through Hayward Hall on the campus of Philadelphia University is like entering a time tunnel. You are immediately struck with a sense of the history and knowledge in textile manufacturing and design that this school was built on.  Then you are swept into the 21st century at the sight of our new Biomedical Textile Structures Lab.

Students in one studio design the styles that define fashion.  One floor below, industrial design students create the next generation of products aimed at improving our quality of life and, down the hall, our one-of-a-kind nanofibers structure loom weaves complex medical platforms to support stem cell development for cutting-edge medical applications.

Past, present and future…Philadelphia University.

Bob McNellis, MPH, PA, Vice President, Science and Public Health, American Academy of Physician Assistants, made an insightful address to our recent Physician Assistant graduates.

He challenged them to change our expensive and wasteful “disease care” system to a more cost-effective, higher quality, accessible “health care” system.  He believes we don’t really have a health care system, but mostly a series of fragmented and uncoordinated subsystems.  As I watched the students’ faces react to the speech, I thought, “They can do this.  They are better prepared and more committed to improving health care delivery in this country than any politician I’ve ever met.”

I am struck that our five-year, world-class Physician Assistant BS/MS program is a wonderful example of Philadelphia University as “the professional university of the 21st century.”  Student awards included published research, acute patient relationship management, clinical excellence and collaborative medicine.  The new health care professionals wore their white coats and boldly discussed their medical specializations in fields as diverse as neurosurgery, primary care and emergency medicine.

Students come to Philadelphia University with a title in their head.  They leave prepared to take on that title, but also empowered to be leaders in their profession.

On a recent trip to California, a Philadelphia University contingent presented our strategic plan to a major information technology company.

We discussed our perspective and progress in developing the University’s curricular structure around creating the educational pathway to innovation.

Engaged and assertive discussion ensued for more than an hour.  Then, a senior vice president from the technology powerhouse proclaimed our plan clear, concise, bold and just crazy enough to inspire.

I smiled but also expressed a bit of concern. 

“Crazy?”

“Yes,” he replied.  “If you look at the pictures of the people on our walls, they were all called a little crazy…and ultimately created breakthrough technologies, philosophies and business models. It takes a little insanity for us to see an idea as a game changer.”

For more information about our educational pathway to innovation, click here.

To watch the video, click here.

Philadelphia University conducted a series of cultural, intellectual and social events in April. We called it “Unity Week”  (although it lasted 9 days!). I found the impact on the community to be exhilarating. There were many programs during Unity Week.  Open classes on disco and gay discrimination, Zoot suits and Latino culture; great international cuisine and a wonderful Asian fashion show. Our choir, the Philau Singers, sang 2 South African songs at the opening showcase. After a great deal of discussion with students, faclty and staff, I have centered my learning on the articulation of the experience by Dean mark Govoni. I loosely interpret his perspective below.

The fact that we celebrated diversity as a mechanism for unity is a new paradigm in diversity education: inclusion, unity and harmony. Effectively, the principal is that we are all human, and we all have a ways to go in owning our histories, our heritages, our cultures, our identities and how they impact and interrelate to others not like us.

I asked “Why did Philadelphia University seemed to naturally embrace the celebration and the process?”

Of course, I could opine about an educated mind and an environment of quality and high character. I believe Phialdelphia University is all of that. But I also think the creative mind seeks diverse inputs to craft a more interesting and provocative solution to problems. Our curriculum and the students it attracts is based in creativity and collaboration.  The benefit is superb education. The contribution to society may be much more.

Historically, each design discipline at Philadelphia University staged its own senior show event.  This year’s senior show, on campus May 15-17, will be the first show in which design disciplines in three of our schools will be presenting together. The potential for creating a wider community of ideas and interdependencies is momentous.

The decision earlier this year to present together and the planning that ensued unleashed exciting connections between disciplines.  The mingling of faculty, students and guests created community. This community invested in a shared set of ideas. It led to collaborations between those faculty and students. The most fertile territory for discovery is between disciplines, not within one’s own discipline.

While the original thinking focused on the year-end senior show, we have seen the results of this discovery in so many of the shows on campus. Upcoming events include design/business this Wednesday April 15, then our famous fashion show on April 30 (at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music) and the Digital/Industrial Design show in the Kanbar Campus Center at 2 p.m. on May 1.

Eventually all disciplines on campus might be displaying together, showing the full potential of interdisciplinary, experiential education; showing innovation in the “middle ground” between disciplines.

It is worth traveling the extra mile for a show like that. Where else can employers meet many multidimensional graduates showing off their innovative interdisciplinary work? Where else will one find an engineer with design understanding, a young entrepreneur who is a design champion or a designer who understands what it means to design furniture for a new kind of architecture?

A letter to the editor of the New York Times

To the editor:

In response to Kelley Holland’s article (“Is it time to retrain business schools” March 14)

I taught at Babson College for 15 years before coming to Philadelphia University, whose roots are in the design fields.  My experience with designers (architecture, fashion, industrial, et al) has brought to the surface many of the issues in Kelley Holland’s piece (“Is it time to retrain business schools” March 14).  The simple answer to Kelley’s question is a resounding, “Yes”.  But that’s where the simplicity ends.

I found a vast majority of MBA students have serious core beliefs rooted in fairness, ethical behavior and serving society.  They also want to share in the value they create.  Certainly, we can do more to embed ethics in commercial behavior, but teaching values is not the core issue. Also, I humbly submit that the problem is not framed by territorial parochialism or too much emphasis on analytics.

The problem may be structurally created by the formation of the business school as a distinct entity.  In pursuit of business as a profession, higher education may have built social and curricular walls that define problems in disciplinary terms instead of human terms.  No one has a finance or marketing problem; they have a problem that may need the tools of finance or marketing…or design and engineering…to solve the problem.

Business Schools need basic redesign that embraces the multi-disciplinary approach to every problem and opportunity.  Otherwise, I believe business education will devolve to skills training in support of other professional endeavors and titles.

Maybe “retrain” is too simple a solution for business schools.  Reform might be the better strategy.

Stephen Spinelli Jr., Ph.D.
President
Philadelphia University

Like many schools, Philadelphia University has a tradition of honoring senior athletes before their last home game.  The athletes are introduced with comments by their coach followed by an underclassman’s statement about the senior.

On Saturday this ritual happened on Herb Magee Court.  A unique circumstance was senior basketball player Amanda Brennan being honored with a tribute from her sophomore sister Kate.  Kate’s heartfelt connection with Amanda was beautifully articulated and emotionally charged.

Then the game was played. http://www.philau.edu/today/headlines/?p=543

In a triple overtime win the Brennan sisters each had career performances totalling 60 points.  The connection between these young women seemed to infuse the team with exceptional inspiration.  Let me be clear.  It was a team win with virtually everyone making a contribution to a 114-104 thrilling marathon.  Did the connection between these sisters, exhibited in the pre-game ceremony, correlate with the team’s performance?

It is difficult to go through a day without some thought about the global economic crisis.

The reasons for the meltdown range from sub-prime lending behavior, to complex financial derivatives and credit default swaps.

I think there may be another less complex but equally vexing reason. 

The ability to create, accumulate and distribute information is incalculably greater today than ever before and the pace of each of these activities is breakneck and increasing.  No one knows how to effectively manage and discern the value and complexity of this information. 

Might the flow of capital and the creation of complicated “packages” of capital and capital related instruments  ($62 trillion of credit default swaps diffused through global markets) match our capacity for information flow?  If so, it is clear there is a lack of ability for due diligence to keep pace with the flow of capital.  Simply stated, there was too much money and assets, assembled with too much information for even the most sophisticated capitalist to correctly assess the risk.  It is a massive game of musical chairs, played in a room so large you don’t know how many seats exist or how many people are playing the game.  The music is played faster and faster and when it stops there simply are not enough seats for the players.

Universities play a crucial role in the creation and dissemination of knowledge and information.  We must gain greater understanding of the impact of information overload and teach parsing and assimilation skills.  This is a time for careful reflection and we have to make sure students are capable of that thoughtfulness.

Last May I suggested to our graduates that they live in interesting times. They’ve become even more interesting…and serious. The world economy’s capital infrastructure is undergoing seismic change.  At the same time, and in part because of the financial disruption, the U.S. economy is in recession.  The length and depth of the recession is likely tied to the extent of the credit debacle.  While overall corporate earnings, lower consumer demand and the weakness of the auto industry all contribute to recession, I believe it is the flow and accessibility of capital that is the larger economic issue.  And, all of this is impacting higher education. Two-thirds of lending institutions who previously made college loans are exiting or will exit that business.  Unemployment is likely to rise and family income growth may suffer. Yet, with all of that as a backdrop I am more bullish on Philadelphia University than ever. We have just completed a world class strategic plan that is unequivocally focused on taking what we do best to the next level – educating students to be professionals and leaders ready to address the emerging challenges in the workplace, both today and in the future.  Interdisciplinary, collaborative work on real-world issues is central to the strategic plan and our faculty and staff are actively engaged in its implementation. We have record enrollment and continued strong applications for the coming year.  Moreover, the University is operating on a solid financial base. I have been through several recessions (with 1976-1980 a particularly challenging time during which indexed gas prices, interest rates and unemployment were all higher than they are today).  Well-managed institutions that focus on their core mission will emerge stronger and grow healthier when the recession ends.  And it will end. Philadelphia University is poised for greatness.