Constantine Papadakis

Drexel University soon will launch a national search for a new president to replace the late Constantine Papadakis, the chairman of the board of trustees said yesterday. The university plans to create a Web site to help with the search "with people giving us ideas and recommendations," said chairman Richard Greenawalt. The trustees, who met in Philadelphia yesterday, also are considering hiring a search firm. Greenawalt is consulting with other universities around the country.

At Drexel University's convocation ceremony, Harald Rafdal, chief executive officer of Kvaerner Philadelphia Shipyard, is given the Drexel Presidential Medal by college president Constantine Papadakis. In his speech, Rafdal said Kvaerner would become a work-study partner with Drexel.

Veterans Day ceremonies at Drexel University yesterday included the rededication by university president Constantine Papadakis (displaying the 316th's colors) of the affiliation between the 316th Infantry Division and the university's ROTC unit. At left, the U.S. flag is reflected in the chrome helmet of honor guard cadet Jimmy Biggs. Meanwhile, in Carlisle, home of the Army War College, Gov. Ridge and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., both Vietnam veterans, conducted a wreath-laying ceremony in the town's square.

Drexel University, which has competed in the America East conference since 1991, will take its 18-sport athletic program to the Colonial Athletic Association for the 2003-2004 school year. Drexel is one of four America East schools that are leaving for the CAA. The others are Delaware, Hofstra and Towson. They will join current association members George Mason, James Madison, North Carolina-Wilmington, Old Dominion, Virginia Commonwealth, and William and Mary. The official announcement on the addition of the teams to the CAA will be made tomorrow during a news conference in Washington, D.C. "Drexel is pleased to be joining the Colonial Athletic Association because of its record of strong academic performance combined with its great athletics," said Constantine Papadakis, Drexel's president.

"The sense of a ball falling off a table, which is what the economy has felt like since the middle of last fall, I think we can be reasonably confident that that is going to end within the next few months, and we will no longer have that sense of a free-fall. " - Lawrence Summers, President Obama's top economic advisor "The downturn is still intense, but it's no longer intensifying. " - Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com "We are profoundly stunned at the early passing of a good man. " - Mace Security International CEO Dennis Raefield, on the death of company director and Drexel University president Constantine Papadakis "It's certainly going to help their bottom line, but it's not the great victory they had hoped for. " - psychiatrist Daniel Carlat, on an FDA panel's recommendation for limited expanded use of the AstraZeneca drug Seroquel "People are always less likely to pay after the fact.

The Philadelphia Democratic presidential debate, scheduled for Oct. 30, will take place at Drexel University. The event, part of a six-debate series sanctioned by the national Democratic Party, is to be televised by MSNBC. In a statement issued yesterday, university president Constantine Papadakis said that hosting the debate was "an excellent expression of Drexel's mission of education, public service and civic engagement. " Drexel officials said their expectation was that the debate would be held in the Main Building Auditorium at 32d and Chestnut streets.

Drexel University is launching a wireless Web service to let students retrieve grades, class schedules and campus news over cell phones, handheld computers and pocket organizers with Internet connections. The system, called DrexelOne Mobile, was switched on Wednesday and will be formally announced by university president Constantine Papadakis during commencement activities tomorrow. It may be the first system of its kind at a university, but it is similar to some commercial services set up to deliver, say, airline information or stock quotes no matter what device the customer is using to make the online connection, said John A. Bielec, Drexel vice president and chief technology officer.

Louis Marciani says he was hired to take Drexel University's athletic program to the "next level. " It turns out that the next level means installing items like soccer and hockey fields and finding the money to pay for them. Marciani, a former director of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and athletic director at Southern Mississippi and Western Kentucky, was introduced yesterday as the AD at Drexel. The 50-year-old native of Tenafly, N.J., said he hopes to improve both the on-field performances of the university's 18 varsity programs, and the fields on which they play.

It was a festive occasion yesterday for the Drexel University community as well as University City. Drexel president Constantine Papadakis and Gen. Jessica L. Wright of the Pennsylvania National Guard signed a 50-year lease that gave the school the go-ahead to turn the Philadelphia Armory into a basketball arena and convocation center. The event was held at the armory, which is on 33d street, across the street and one block up from the 2,300-seat Daskalakis Athletic Center, where the Dragons' men's and women's teams now play.

Kimmel Center president Anne Ewers will never forget the first time she met George M. Ross, who, as a member of the search committee, was interviewing her for the post in 2007. He was describing the Kimmel's gala opening night in 2001, and his eyes began to well with tears. "It meant the world to me to know how passionate he was about the Kimmel Center," Ewers said. "If George believed in something, he put all his energy, his focus, his support behind it. " Mr. Ross, 77, an investment banker and one of the city's most dedicated philanthropists and civic leaders, died Friday, July 8, at his home in Bryn Mawr.

A top Drexel University administrator who oversees the school's graduate campus in Sacramento, Calif., will become president of Arcadia University in Glenside. Carl "Tobey" Oxholm III, senior vice president and dean of Drexel's Center for Graduate Studies in California, was selected unanimously by the board of trustees Thursday. Chosen from 90 candidates, he will start this summer at Arcadia, which enrolls about 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Oxholm replaces Jerry Greiner, who retired in February after seven years as president.

When you find a plan that works, it's best to stick with it. That's exactly what Drexel University's new president, John A. Fry, proposed this week in an attempt to enhance the neighborhood surrounding the West Philadelphia campus. This is a good move that will benefit the university, its neighbors, and the city. Fry's five-point plan to improve safety and offer incentives to employees who buy homes in the neighborhood resembles the plan he largely designed and implemented as an executive at the University of Pennsylvania in the late 1990s.

Talk-show host Missy Stein has publicly battled cancer, so she says a little thing like getting fired from her radio show after eight months is not a huge deal. After her one-hour morning program Monday on WHAT-AM (1340), Stein was told that she was being let go. Station management did not my return calls for explanation, and she said she was not sure of the reason. Stein's program, which followed Mike Bowe and Elaine Soncini's show (6 to 9 a.m.), was a curious interlude in the station's lineup of standards music.

West Philadelphia's big institutions worked for decades to cleanse their streets of any trace of indigenous urban life - and they very nearly succeeded. Along Market, Chestnut, and Walnut Streets, block after block fell to a generic, corporate style of architecture that favored block-long facades, daunting setbacks, and inscrutable, windowless walls. It was a scary place, indeed. Having belatedly recognized the error of their ways, those institutions - Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University City Science Center - have been trying to repair the damage, punching in a new door here, installing a corner cafe there.

Two months before former Drexel University president Constantine Papadakis died, he met with John A. Fry, president of Franklin and Marshall College, to discuss starting a Drexel medical school campus near Lancaster General Hospital, where Fry is on the board. The two - who had known each other since Fry's days as a University of Pennsylvania executive - were enthusiastic about the project, still in its early stages. Fry said Friday that he was interested in pursuing the idea, only now as the incoming president of Drexel.

Elected Drexel University's next president by unanimous vote yesterday, John A. Fry overcame initial skepticism about his lack of a doctorate and won people over with his inclusive leadership style, personable approach, knack for urban development, and Philadelphia experience. Fry, 49, a former University of Pennsylvania executive who is in his eighth year as president of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, starts at the 22,000-student Drexel on Aug. 1. Chosen from among 150 candidates and four finalists - all sitting college presidents - Fry replaces Constantine Papadakis, who died in April after a prolonged battle with lung cancer.

Drexel University trustees today are planning to name John A. Fry - president of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster and a former University of Pennsylvania executive - the school's new president, sources said. Trustees have called a special meeting for 11 a.m., and staff members and other key university officials have been invited to a 4:30 p.m. reception to meet the new president and his family. Fry was on campus this week, sources said. Fry, 49, has been at Franklin and Marshall for nearly eight years, a tenure marked by growth, construction, and improved finances.

John A. Fry - president of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster and a former University of Pennsylvania executive - is among the finalists to become the new president of Drexel University, sources said yesterday. Drexel board chairman Richard Greenawalt, who also chairs the search committee, said the names of the candidates were confidential and no decision had been made. The identity of other finalists could not be determined. Fry, 49, whose nearly eight-year tenure at Franklin and Marshall has been marked by the college's growth, construction, and improved finances, also declined comment through a spokesman.