Spinelli gets irritated as he thinks back: It was too random . . . should have had something to do with his college courses . . . didn't seem logical.
So he is overhauling academics at the East Falls university that used to be called the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Sciences, when it reflected the used-to-be American apparel-manufacturing economy.
Next fall, Philadelphia University will introduce a College of Design, Engineering, and Commerce. It will combine existing design, engineering, and business majors, put students from all three into some of the same classes, and make them tackle real-world projects for the new, if uncertain, economy.
"I don't believe someone comes and sprinkles: 'OK, Steve will be the lucky guy and John won't be,' " Spinelli said with the high-volume and hand-waving passion that has made him known across campus to students as, simply "Spinelli."
Lucky breaks? "That's crazy! That's not democracy," said the rags-to-riches entrepreneur whose parents, he points out, didn't even finish junior high school but put four children through college. "Taking hold of your own destiny: That's luck."
If a furniture manufacturer wants a new product to attract customers, the university will put marketing, design, and engineering students on the case for credits. It did so last year as a pilot class.
The idea of integrating expertise is ripe in today's times, when unemployment and outmoded business models are painful proof that expertise in one area - no matter how sparkling - no longer guarantees success.
"I want people who are not going to be a cog in the machine," Spinelli said in a campus interview last week. "I want them to create new machines."
