Founded, Again, on a Good Idea
I don’t believe in growth for its own sake. Jefferson’s growth is always strategic — we expand where we have genuine strengths and where the job market is headed. That discipline is how we maintain an over 92% placement rate.
And it turns out to be deeply consistent with who we have always been.
Consider how this University was founded. In 1824, George McClellan looked at Philadelphia and saw a city that needed more physicians. So, he established Jefferson Medical College. Sixty years later, Theodore Search, a Philadelphia woolen manufacturer, surveyed the American textile industry and noticed that European competitors were outpacing us, in large part because Europe had textile schools and we didn’t. So, he founded one himself: the Philadelphia Textile School, which would eventually become part of the Jefferson family. Two extraordinary institutions, now one, founded on the same premise: Identify a real need, then build something exceptional to meet it.
We are at a similar inflection point today. And we are responding the same way. This summer, we announced the creation of three distinct colleges: the College of Business; the College of Fashion & Textiles — honoring our legacy as the nation’s first textile school — and the College of Architecture, Design & Engineering. This isn’t reorganization for its own sake. It’s clarity of identity, depth of focus, and expanded opportunity for our students and partners. Each college reflects a field that is growing, that employers are hungry for talent in, and that Jefferson is already exceptionally well positioned to lead.
What’s more, Sidney Kimmel Medical College is expanding its reach in ways that would have made George McClellan proud. We are establishing a four-year regional campus in Allentown, Pennsylvania — right in the heart of the Lehigh Valley — where a newly constructed, 54,000-square-foot facility will train the next generation of physicians beginning in 2029. And in Delaware, we have been selected to establish that state’s first four-year medical school. Physicians, research consistently shows, are more likely to practice where they train. These campuses will build physician pipelines where communities need them most.
Together, these developments — three new colleges, two new medical campuses — reflect a single coherent vision: a university designed for the future of the professions, the future of healthcare, and the future of the regions we serve. Each expansion aligns directly with our Strategic Plan 2030, which commits us to professions-focused education, student success, collaborative discovery, and the kind of Jefferson synergy that creates new employment pathways for our graduates.
We’re not merely growing. We’re building something worth growing into.
You are part of that.
One of the genuine joys of my role is meeting the alumni whose expertise makes our reputation and whose support makes all of this possible. I look forward to seeing many of you at Homecoming this fall. Come find me — and let’s talk about our exciting future.
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