Two Days in the Life
It’s a Sunday morning in March, and I’m sitting on an airplane that’s headed south just in time to miss yet another snow event in Philadelphia. I’m spending this little bit of downtime reflecting on what it means to be a dean at Drexel University. It occurs to me the answer could be found in a 48-hour span this past week, during which I attended four Drexel LeBow events:
Wednesday, 10:30 a.m.: At our first quarterly “Donuts With the Dean” event, the LeBow management team and I spent 90 minutes answering students’ questions and posing for selfies (none of mine crashed Twitter). My only regret was that we couldn’t spend more time with each student. I would have enjoyed talking more with the junior from Burma; I wonder if she ever discusses Burma-China relations with some of our Chinese students?
Wednesday, 6 p.m.: A Finance Week event brought alumni and students together at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. Our ambassador for the evening was David Penn ‘82, executive vice president and director of Janney Montgomery Scott’s wealth management division. He told the students a story about how three employees reacted to a recent layoff: One complained about having more work; another predicted he would be let go in the next round of layoffs; the third saw an opportunity to learn new things. David’s final question to the students: “Which one of these employees do you think was given the largest merit increase?”
Thursday, 12 p.m.: Business Leader of the Year luncheon, our largest annual fundraiser for student scholarships. Nearly 400 people attended to recognize Ira Lubert, a Philadelphia investor known for funding bold real estate projects while shying away from publicity. My role is relegated to shaking hands, speaking for three minutes (no more, no less) and presenting the award.
Thursday, 6 p.m.: Finance Week continued with an alumni-student networking event in Manhattan. Professors Mike Gombola and Diana Sandberg introduced current students to former students; it was evident that many alumni appreciated Professor Sandberg’s trademark hug. Our ambassador in New York was Greg Gaffney ‘00, vice president of the securities division at Goldman Sachs. Also in attendance, much to the students’ delight, was Bennett S. LeBow.
We’re about to touch-down in Tampa, and I’m heading to an alumni event at Phillies spring training (someone’s gotta do it). I’ve come to realize that as dean, my role is to build high quality, mutually beneficial relationships across constituents: students, alumni, faculty, staff and the business community. I guess this job is actually pretty easy, and fun.
Please don’t tell the provost.
