April 4, 2025

Thank you, Chairman Morgan, Trustee Perkins and the Temple University Board of Trustees for calling me to lead this venerable Philadelphia institution. I am honored to follow two of the most distinguished and devoted leaders in Temple’s history, not to mention two of the wisest Owls I know—our 13th president, JoAnne Epps, and our 14th president and chancellor, Richard Englert.

This is an extraordinary time for American higher education.

On March 16, the New York Times published an editorial with this headline: “Colleges are under attack. They can fight back.” The editorial urged university leaders to, quote, “help themselves, and the country, by emerging from their defensive crouches and making a forthright case for inquiry, research, science and knowledge.”

So let’s start by remembering who we are as a university and the values for which we stand.

From our beginnings as a night school in Reverend Russell Conwell’s church, access and diversity have been embedded in our institutional DNA. Temple’s mission has been—and always will be—to open doors and minds to worlds of discovery and opportunity; to be an inclusive community where all are welcome; and to provide students of all backgrounds with affordable pathways to an excellent, life-changing educational experience.

Through the liberal arts, we celebrate and nourish the life of the mind. Through our creative work, we enrich our community with the fine and performing arts.

Through our research in health and across all sciences and humanities, we catalyze innovation, economic growth and societal progress.

We change lives.

And we save lives.

We are proudly urban—and we proudly serve the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

We embrace our civic mission to build economic, social and health equity in urban neighborhoods and cities everywhere, starting here in North Philadelphia.

We are a microcosm of humanity, drawing strength from the diversity of backgrounds, viewpoints and life experiences that our students, faculty and staff bring to our community. We are a proud global family of more than 370,000 living alumni who bleed cherry and white.

And we are bound together by fundamental values. Today we are called upon to uphold and fight for those values.

Let’s not kid ourselves. American higher education has never faced headwinds like these. The future of the 80-year partnership between the federal government and higher education, which has made the United States the world leader in scientific research and discovery, and benefited all Americans, now hangs in the balance. It is impossible to exaggerate the dire consequences of powering down our country’s mighty university-based research engine.

If we do nothing, imagine the countless discoveries, the creative works and the life-saving breakthroughs that will never see the light of day. It is also impossible to exaggerate the stakes for American higher education and for our democracy if we fail to protect academic freedom and free expression, and if we ignore members of our communities who have felt unsafe, threatened or abandoned.

So, how do we “spring up from our defensive crouches,” and stand up for higher education? We cannot flinch in the defense of our values.

First, we will defend the academic freedom of our faculty to teach; to engage in research; to publish; and to speak their minds responsibly without fear of censure, retaliation, or outside interference of any kind.

Second, if we genuinely cherish free speech and inquiry, then we all must work, every day, to create a climate of civility and mutual respect in which free speech can flourish.

Let’s discover, or rediscover, the art of thoughtful deliberation. Let’s create spaces for difficult but productive conversations. Let’s engage respectfully in robust debate. Let’s protect the right to peaceful protest. And let’s give no quarter to intolerance in any form or discrimination or harassment against any group of fellow human beings.

Third, we need to be unequivocal in our support of all members of our community. Whatever your race, religion, background, gender identity and expression, or country of origin and residence, you have a place here at Temple. Temple is stronger because of who you are, and what you bring to our university community.

Fourth, we must redouble our efforts to remind the federal government of the direct connection between university-led scientific research and America’s future greatness and economic prosperity. And we need to meaningfully engage the public to demonstrate how our institutions help to create a safer and healthier future for everyone.

All of us have a shared responsibility to be the stewards of a most precious resource: those acres of diamonds surveyed by Conwell.

I believe our people are ready to do what it takes to make Temple even more consequential than it already is. Temple’s mission is clear, compelling and distinctive. In the five months I have been here, I have witnessed a culture that unapologetically upholds that mission. And there is no other place I’d rather be to do this important work.

So: Here are the questions I am asking myself, and that I ask you to consider today.

What do we want Temple’s impact as an anchor institution to be in the decades ahead?

What are we, as Philadelphia’s largest university and only public university and hospital, capable of accomplishing to move the needle on our city and region’s most endemic problems?

What should Temple University aspire to be known for and accomplish academically, creatively, clinically and civically?

I see Temple as the prototype of a new “urban land-grant university” that embraces and practices a place-based form of extension. What does that mean?

The original land-grant universities were established by the Morrill Act in 1862 to advance two ambitious objectives: to expand access to postsecondary education; and to promote practical innovation in agriculture and engineering to serve the growing economy of an expanding nation. Temple and other public urban research universities must extend our expertise and know-how towards unlocking the extraordinary potential that cities and their people have to offer.

I also envision Temple as an “urban innovation engine.” Temple is Philadelphia’s public research university. Our identity is more than a statement of fact; it is a declaration of purpose.

Temple exists to drive innovation that is both aspirational and practical. We must leverage the rich resources of Philadelphia and the region to fuel groundbreaking research and discoveries that improve lives.

I see Temple as a “networked university”—a university that relies on internal and external partnerships to advance its competitive position.

As a fully networked university, Temple will foster cross-disciplinary research that bridges theory and real-world application. We will collaborate with industry and governmental partners to address complex, contemporary challenges. And we will further bolster Philadelphia’s status as a global hub for scientific, technological and cultural innovation.

Next, Temple University and Temple Health are arguably Philadelphia’s most important anchor institutions. We proudly serve as a community catalyst by actively partnering with local organizations to meet the needs of our neighborhoods and region. We offer our neighbors access to excellent educational opportunities, healthcare and other resources. And we invest in initiatives that promote inclusive economic development, upward mobility and shared prosperity.

Finally, Temple is a global university that serves as a bridge between Philadelphia and the world. Our responsibility extends beyond the borders of our city and the Commonwealth. We embrace a global perspective that enriches our understanding and informs our actions.

Through our curriculum and our campuses in major urban centers such as Tokyo, Kyoto and Rome, Temple fosters international partnerships that enhance research and learning. And, as a global university responsible for preparing our students to live and lead in an interconnected and interdependent world, Temple will continue to celebrate diversity by welcoming students, scholars and new ideas from around the globe.

By making the most of who we are, Temple not only can become a model urban land-grant university; over time, we can also become one of the top 10 public urban research universities in the United States. To fulfill that aspiration, we must distinguish ourselves in three important areas: student success; discovery, creativity and innovation; and comprehensive place-based work.

First, Temple’s future success is tied to an unwavering commitment: Every student we admit will have the support and the opportunity to graduate. To make good on our commitment, we will build an ecosystem of services and supports that empowers each student to achieve their highest aspirations.

Over the next decade, Temple will intentionally expand access to a world-class education that is equitable, affordable and transformative.

Through initiatives like Temple Future Scholars, we are reaching into Philadelphia middle schools to build clear and supported pathways from seventh grade to college to career.

With Temple Promise, we are eliminating financial barriers for talented, Pell-eligible students across the city. These initiatives reflect our fundamental belief that access to higher education should be determined solely by aspiration, talent and determination.

Our commitment to our students will deepen the moment they arrive. To ensure their long-term success, we are building a coordinated support network that leverages data and insight to proactively connect students to the right resources—academic advising, financial assistance, faculty support and wellness services—all at the right moment.

And through our membership in the University Innovation Alliance, a national coalition committed to increasing the number of college graduates in the United States, we will pilot and scale high-impact, evidence-based practices—such as success coaching, completion grants and career-connected advising—that support first-generation and low-income students throughout their Temple journey.

All told, Temple will be a university designed not just to welcome students—but to see them through to graduation. This is a promise—a promise that will shape how we invest our resources, organize our systems and define our impact.

And make no mistake—we will keep this promise.

Our second priority is to go all in on discovery, creativity and innovation at Temple.

We will optimize our R1 research enterprise to make Temple University a national leader in life-saving, life-enhancing and mind-expanding discoveries. Temple currently conducts more than $300 million a year in sponsored research—more, incidentally, than several well-known research universities that are members of the Association of American Universities, an association that I believe Temple will one day earn membership in.

Led by the groundbreaking work at the preeminent Fox Chase Cancer Center, Temple translates that sponsored research into major scientific discoveries and breakthroughs, and into advanced training of the next generation of great STEM researchers and practitioners, and into significant economic activity for our city and commonwealth.

Temple already has demonstrated research and innovation strengths in the biomedical space that spans the health system and the university. Furthermore, our intellectual property portfolio and stable of spin-out companies are linked predominantly to our biomedical research. We must therefore build on all our strengths in the life sciences, technology and biomedical sectors. We also need to expand the entire innovation funnel, and develop and commercialize more medical devices, therapeutics and prevention programs.

And there’s so much more room for Temple to expand its research portfolio and impact. Societal challenges such as disease; poverty; climate change; vanishing species; geopolitical conflicts; and the scourges of racism, sexism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, discrimination and bias in all its forms are complicated problems that require multidisciplinary teams of experts to move coordinated solutions forward.

Temple can and should play a much larger role in finding those solutions. Indeed, we have the capacity to bring together an astonishing breadth of interdisciplinary expertise under one institutional roof.

We have outstanding professional schools in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, podiatry, law, business and education. And we have exciting new investments underway to build on our strengths in the life sciences, public health, physical sciences, engineering and social sciences.

Temple is in a strong position to embark on its next chapter of consequential research that will deliver solutions that benefit our community, drive economic growth along the North Broad Street corridor and save lives.

I also believe Temple is well-positioned to take the lead in accelerating scientific discovery, creativity and innovation by harnessing the powers of generative AI. Not only does this revolutionary technology afford us the opportunity to transform our operations and more effectively tailor instruction to the needs and strengths of each student, it also can place Temple at the forefront of accelerating the development of new drugs and therapies, where Temple already has considerable strength.

Our third priority and aspiration for Temple is the best way I know how to win back the public’s trust and confidence in higher education. Put simply, we have a generational opportunity to transform Temple by reimagining its role as a place-based institution.

We can become a full partner in community problem-solving and an unstoppable force for innovation that seamlessly connects our North Philadelphia campuses and neighborhoods to the entire city. We can become a powerful engine for social progress and inclusive economic growth that leaves no neighborhood behind. And we can grow from a good neighbor to a great neighbor that partners to help our community flourish.

Temple already has all the necessary ingredients to achieve this transformation, including our incredible health system and all our educational, creative and research assets. Many of our schools and colleges, along with our libraries, have innovative programs around community-engaged research and student civic engagement.

Our Community Gateway is organized to help connect our neighbors with resources and programs that Temple offers in job training and placement, youth engagement, academic enrichment, and adult education.

And I love our location in North Philadelphia.

Our Main Campus is ideally located between our Health Sciences campus to the north and our soon-to-be arts-infused Center City campus that is taking shape at Terra Hall, only two miles south of where we meet today.

We have committed neighbors who care about this city as much as we do, and who I believe embrace our enthusiasm to partner with them in creating inclusive economic growth and enhancing the vitality of North Philadelphia.

Our comprehensive place-based strategy will focus on further improving public safety, creating a more vibrant campus and neighborhood and developing a dynamic innovation corridor along Broad Street.

As we deepen our commitment to public safety, we must make certain that Temple’s dedicated police officers, detectives, security officers, dispatchers and administrative staff have the resources they need to protect our campus and our North Philadelphia communities, and to do so with the highest levels of professionalism and respect.

We have made meaningful progress through technological and operational enhancements. Our community has proven to be great partners with our police officers and the Philadelphia Police Department by making good use of our safety services. And all the safety indicators for Temple are moving in the right direction. We intend to keep it that way—but we know there’s still much more work to do.

That leads to the second element of our place-based strategy—creating a more vibrant campus and supporting neighborhoods so that everyone can flourish.

Over the next few years, major capital projects will enhance our campus and North Broad Street, bolster our academic reputation, and help to maximize our civic impact. Temple’s College of Public Health is moving into a spectacular new home in the heart of campus when Paley Hall opens this fall.

Then there’s our marquee 200,000 square-foot project planned for the intersection of North Broad and Polett Walk, a brand-new gateway to Temple. In two years, Temple’s future journalists, media scholars, filmmakers and performing artists will hone their craft in facilities that are state-of-the-art. And once it opens, the gleaming home of the Klein College of Media and Communication and the Center for the Performing and Cinematic Arts will cement the reputation of Temple and North Philadelphia as an arts and culture destination for the city and for the region.

These projects will generate momentum to execute a bold physical plan to further transform our Main Campus into a greener and more student-friendly, neighborhood-friendly urban oasis.

New academic buildings and residence halls will be designed to promote community, encourage interdisciplinary learning, and stimulate innovation. Adding more green spaces, including a magnificent new campus quad adjacent to the Bell Tower, will further beautify the campus and boost everyone’s sense of belonging and well-being.

We will revamp and rejuvenate the Health Sciences campus, creating warm, inviting and engaging spaces for everyone there, along with growth for our clinical and academic work.

The third piece of our place-based strategy is developing a vibrant, multidimensional innovation corridor along Broad Street extending from Temple’s Health Sciences campus to Main Campus, and then south to the Avenue of the Arts. We envision that the area between the Health Sciences campus and Main Campus will focus on innovation in the life sciences and technology; and the area from our Main Campus to Terra Hall in Center City will galvanize innovation in the fine, creative and performing arts.

The Broad Street innovation corridor will be developed in the spirit of the great innovation districts in University City and the Navy Yard, and hopefully one day all three will be connected into one great Philadelphia research and innovation triangle.

I am very excited about joining with all our partners in enacting this place-based strategy. Through our partnerships to promote engagement, extension and innovation with impact, we will deliver big wins for our neighbors, our partners and for ourselves.

We will help to spark more educational opportunity and equitable community wealth in North Philadelphia. We will help create the next great innovation economies in the health sciences, technology and the arts. North Philadelphia will be a more accessible, inviting destination with more great places to live, work and play. And Temple itself will be seen as one the country’s most innovative—and most inclusive— comprehensive public urban research universities with far-reaching impact.

Temple’s people have the right stuff to take us there.

In her book, What an Owl Knows, author Jennifer Ackerman writes that, “Owl populations have within them variation, adaptability and resourcefulness that allow … individuals to respond to environmental change.” And that’s who we are: diverse, resourceful and adaptable to change.

To accomplish our goals, we will need to cultivate supporters and generate financial resources like never before.

We are deeply grateful for the generous funding we receive from Governor Shapiro, Secretary Monson, commonwealth legislators, such as Trustee and Senator Tina Tartaglione, Sharif Street and Tracey Pennycuick. And, of course, our great mayor, Cherelle Parker, along with City Council President Johnson, Councilmember Young, Councilmember Bass and the rest of City Council.

And by the way, let’s give all of them a hand.

I also want to acknowledge three extraordinary public servants and friends who are here today—former Governor Tom Wolf and his incredible wife, Frances, and former Lieutenant Governor Jim Cawley.

Let’s give them a hand.

And we have always appreciated the federal government’s wisdom to support university research and affordable access to college. However, Temple must now raise significantly greater sums of money just to stay where we are, let alone become one of the nation’s foremost urban public research universities.

So, in other words, we must raise our game at philanthropy.

I will soon announce the largest and most ambitious fundraising campaign in Temple’s history. This campaign will run to 2034, when we celebrate Temple’s 150th anniversary. Once our alumni and other friends discover what Temple is becoming and the impact that it is having on its students, the city and the world, I believe they will rally to support our university with unprecedented amounts of time, talent and treasure.

To prove my point, I am delighted to announce today the largest donation in Temple’s 141-year history: a $27.5 million gift from philanthropists Sidney and Caroline Kimmel to name the new home for the Klein College of Media and Communication and the Center for the Performing and Cinematic Arts.

In recognition of their historic gift, this brilliant new academic and performance space will be named the Caroline Kimmel Pavilion for Arts and Communication.

So, let me read you this beautiful note from Sidney, a love letter to Caroline and to Temple.

“This gift to Temple is very important to me for several reasons. First, it is a demonstration of my tremendous love and affection for Caroline, who is so very deserving of this honor. I am grateful to her beyond words.

“Second, Temple is Philadelphia and Philadelphia is Temple. I love the city and have invested heavily in it. How terrific is it to invest in Temple at this inflection point in its history? The campus, the community and the city all win.

“Last, but in no way least, I cannot think of a more important time to stand up, loudly and clearly, to support Temple as it opens this new chapter in its storied history. Temple is the embodiment of diversity and inclusivity: No matter who you are or where you are from, Temple is opportunity, a launching pad for those with drive who are willing to work hard.

“Forty percent of its most-recent class are first generation college students. That was me decades ago and, although I was drawn too fast into the working world and never graduated, I have always held ‘cherry and white’ in my aspirations. Now is a most fitting time for Caroline and me to make a statement with our commitment to Temple’s mission and point the way for others to follow.”

Let’s hear it for Sidney and Caroline!

And congratulations to Deans Boardman and Stroker, and the faculties from Klein College; Boyer College; and the School of Theater, Film and Media Arts, all of whom worked so hard for us to get to this moment.

In closing, the past five months have only increased my admiration, my appreciation and my love for all our campuses, all our schools and colleges, all of our programs in athletics and the arts, and all of our people.

My wife Cara and I, along with our children Mia and Evan, Nat and Phoebe, and our precious little granddaughter Grey—she is some cutie—are blessed and honored to join this incredible Temple family.

And I am so grateful that the rest of my family is here today: Laurie and Tim; Kate and Chris; Caroline and Jack; Cathy and Jim; and my dad watching from home, and my mom watching over all of us from above.

So to close, I would like to ask my daughter Mia to join me to read a poem by Alberto Rios, Arizona’s inaugural poet laureate, suggested by our colleague Dr. Jena Osman, professor of English in our College of Liberal Arts.

[Mia Fry reads “A House Called Tomorrow” by Alberto Rios.]

Thank you, sweetheart.

One line of Alberto’s poem is worth repeating: “Be good, then better. Write books. Cure disease. Make us proud. Make yourself proud.”

I am so proud of Temple, and I look forward to our work ahead.

Thank you.