Messages from the Dean

It’s now official: Drexel University has truly arrived in Sacramento!

On January 5, 2009, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson cut the ribbon to our Center for Graduate Studies at One Capitol Mall. He and philanthropist Angelo Tsakopoulos welcomed our inaugural students – 53 strong – into our first four master’s degree programs. Mayor Johnson and Mr. Tsakopoulos remarked that opening the Center for Graduate Studies was truly an impressive achievement, especially since Drexel’s Trustees had authorized our Sacramento initiative less than eight months earlier. Do you know of any other university that could have moved so quickly?

Fast forward – very fast! – to September 16, 2009. When the academic year started at our Convocation and New Student Orientation, California Secretary of Education Glen W. Thomas welcomed almost 130 new students into the nine graduate degree programs we now teach in Sacramento – eight master’s and one doctorate. We know of no other top-tier national university that has done such a thing.

In a blink of an eye, Drexel has tripled in size, enrolling more than 180 graduate students from the Greater Sacramento region – some from as far away as Truckee and Oakland. We are providing them with nationally-ranked academic programs in one of the state’s most high-tech learning facilities. We are helping to give these working professionals the knowledge and skills they will need to lead this region to a bright future.

Over the same short period, Drexel University again raised its national standing. Ranked among the top 50 private universities, Drexel went from 6th to 4th in the country among the most innovative schools for 2010, according to U.S.News & World Report rankings. The programs we teach here, and the Drexel colleges that are offering them, continue to receive many other honors and local leaders applaud our vision and commitment to this community.

Drexel’s Graduate Center in Sacramento is backed by 118 years of success, a long tradition of breaking tradition, a brand of education built upon experiential learning and a network of 120,000 alumni worldwide. Our students here in the capital of the world’s eighth largest economy are the up-and-coming leaders of the region – successful in their collegiate careers, years into their professional careers, and ready to take their next steps toward a greater level of responsibility and success.

We are honored to have students of such excellence and we thank their businesses, non-profit organizations and government agencies for the confidence they have demonstrated in us. We are very proud to be part of such a wonderful community.

Carl "Tobey" Oxholm III, JD, MPP
Senior Vice President and Dean
Center for Graduate Studies, Sacramento

What on earth is Drexel up to?

After 119 years of providing a "practical education ... for men and women equally" in Philadelphia (see Drexel University/A Brief History), you'd think we'd be content to rest on our laurels as a private, non-profit institution of higher education with an international reputation.

But when we opened our doors in Sacramento in January 2009, less than eight months after our Board of Trustees approved the plan, we added yet another "first" to our university's long resumé: first nationally-ranked doctoral university to offer a range of top-ranked graduate programs not just in another state, but on another coast!

We have a tradition of revolutionary thinking and taking bold steps. Drexel was the first university in the country to have all of its students use computers (1983), the first to go completely wireless (2000), and the first to offer a Web portal to University information for wireless devices (2002). Today we have 21,000 students, 7,300 employees, an endowment of almost half-a-billion dollars, and a bond rating (even in these economic times) of A+ stable from Standard & Poor's.

When we decided to plant our flag in Sacramento, 3,000 miles away from home, people on both coasts were scratching their heads — especially because now seemed to be the worst economic time to attempt something so bold.

We look at it differently. Sacramento has experienced substantial growth over decades. It is today a destination city, and will only become more so. It has a quality of life other centers of commerce can only aspire to. It is united in its vision for its future as a center for the clean and green economy, high-tech industry, entrepreneurial business, health care, and education.

Those are Drexel's time-proven sweet spots. The 10 master's degree and one doctoral programs that we are offering at our Center for Graduate Studies this September have all been carefully chosen to support this region's strategic plans, and help ensure that we have the educated workforce we need to propel this region into its bright future.

And the timing? Think about it. Now is the very best time for this region to be investing in its work force. We are not as busy now as we are during boom times, so there is the time to go back to school; and our students will be emerging with their new expertise and practical abilities at precisely the time that the economy is once again taking off.We have invested $1 million in state-of-the-art technology in our 20,000 square feet Graduate Center, and are investing $10 million in tuition support for those whose academic credentials prove they are ready for a fast-paced education that is at the cutting edge.Drexel is investing in Sacramento now because we are confident about the future. Come visit our Graduate Center and see how we are proving it each and every day, to our students and to the business, civic and government leaders who are using it every day to help build a first-tier economy here in the Sacramento Valley.

We want to thank our community partners for having given us such a warm welcome to this wonderful region. We are proud and excited to call it home.

Carl "Tobey" Oxholm III, JD, MPP
Senior Vice President and Dean
Center for Graduate Studies, Sacramento