Drexel’s new president calls for $200 million in improvements

Drexel University’s new president, John Anderson Fry, has hit the ground running.

In an interview with the Inquirer before his installation yesterday, he called for $200 million in improvements in an effort to catapult the institution into “world-class” standing.

Right now, he said, the quality of the campus would send no one the message that Drexel is a contender among the world’s leading institutions.

Fry replaces Constantine “Taki” Papadakis, who died two years ago. Papadakis is credited with raising the profile of the university beyond its previous reputation as a small engineering school.