Convocation Promises | The Triangle

Convocation Promises

A hot, crowded auditorium crammed full of students and faculty in their heavy robes is not the most ideal place to be during a gorgeous fall day, but the new and exciting information revealed during this year’s convocation more than made bearing the heat worthwhile.

President John A. Fry spoke extensively about the benefits that come from Drexel’s partnership with the Academy of Natural Sciences, which includes much, much more than free admission to the institution for students. This is a partnership that we can get behind, not just because it provides students in the sciences amazing opportunities for study, but because acquiring a truly world-class institution like the Academy provides our school with access to some of the most fascinating fossils and specimens we’ve ever seen.

It’s not just the sciences that will be able to take advantage of this resource. Students of the Westphal College of Media Arts and Design will get a chance to partner with the Academy to fuse their creative backgrounds in media with the Academy’s material and exhibits, and members of the Goodwin School of Education will partner with Academy educators to create and develop programs for students and teachers.

We applaud Fry’s ability to expand our partnership with the Academy into something that benefits more than just students within the colleges of engineering or arts and sciences. It would have been easy and expected for the affiliation to aid only the students within specific science disciplines like chemistry or biology, but that didn’t happen, and we’re grateful for that.

At the 2010 convocation, the keynote speaker was Fry himself. He was the freshest and most exciting thing to happen to Drexel in recent memory, and he had only been at the University for a couple months prior to his speech. Comparing his speech from last year with this year’s speech we see a long list of accomplishments from our president that include successes like the Employee Home Purchase Assistance Program.

This year’s keynote speaker, Robert McCracken Peck, represented the Academy of Natural Sciences, We can’t help but get excited by the opportunities that our partnership with the Academy can provide. We also friendly remind President Fry that he made good on his promises from last year and he’s expected to keep up the same great work.

We’ll be keeping a keen eye on the growing Academy as it’s integrated into the rest of the University, but from what we’ve seen so far, our hopes are high.