Arcadia University President Announces Retirement Plans, Notes Six Years of Rapid Change and Growth
GLENSIDE, Pa., Monday, Nov. 15, 2010─Having established Arcadia University as a leader in international education, President Jerry M. Greiner has announced his retirement plans for the end of the academic year.
“The past six and a half years under my leadership as president of Arcadia have been years of great change. The most important changes have been in the academic arena: nearly 30 new full-time faculty, much greater quality of incoming students, applicant pools two times larger that allow greater selectivity, numerous new majors and programs (mostly with an international theme), a nationally recognized new general education curriculum, and a well-designed academic plan. And we have begun to restructure the University into schools and colleges for a more effective focus on quality improvement,” says Greiner.
“Under President Greiner’s leadership, Arcadia has established a clear brand as a leader in global education,” says Margaret Wright Steele, Chair of the Arcadia University Board of Trustees and a 1980 graduate of Arcadia University. “We are grateful for his leadership and his vision that have set Arcadia on this upward trajectory. For the last two years, U.S.News & World Report, based on nominations from our peer universities in the North, has put Arcadia on the short list of Top Up-and Coming universities. The Board’s goal is to ensure that Arcadia, which in 2011 commemorates the 158th year since its founding and ten years since its renaming as Arcadia University, continues to accelerate this momentum begun with President Greiner’s vision for Arcadia’s future.”
Greiner notes that “there have been many other changes at Arcadia: a campus master plan, new buildings, renovations of nearly every structure on campus, a long-awaited student center, and a campus that is dramatically more beautiful and inviting.” The new student center is under construction and will open in the fall of 2011. Greiner describes an early visit to Arcadia when he listened in on a campus tour. “One of the students asked a guide, ‘Where is your student center?’ That was a very telling experience and told me how important it was for our students to have a place where they can gather together and enjoy the experience of being on a college campus.”
At Home & In the World—The Campaign for Arcadia University, has played a key role in advancing the student center and other plans. “We have revamped our fund-raising operations and launched a comprehensive campaign that is now very close to goal, and we are inviting alumni and other friends to help us achieve our goal,” says Greiner. “And we have expanded in very strategic ways into new academic markets that will bring resources we need to continue to enhance the academic quality that makes for a great university.
“Arcadia now is well known nationally and regionally as a leader in global education. We have infused a focus on global learning throughout students’ experience. We are sending at least three times more Arcadia students abroad than we did in 2003, and our College of Global Studies has expanded its offerings by 40 more international programs than we had that year,” he adds.
About Arcadia University: Arcadia University is a top-ranked private university in metropolitan Philadelphia and a national leader in study abroad and international education. The 2010 Open Doors report ranks Arcadia University 1st in the nation among master’s universities in the percentage of undergraduate students studying abroad. U.S.News & World Report ranks Arcadia University among the top master’s universities in the North, as one of the top study abroad programs in the nation, and a “Top Up-and-Coming” school. The Physical Therapy program is ranked 7th in the nation. Arcadia University promises a distinctively global, integrative and personal learning experience that prepares students to contribute and prosper in a diverse and dynamic world.
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