Drexel administrator named Arcadia University president

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. James Gallagher, a former president of Philadelphia University, had been interim president. "This is the dream job for me," said Oxholm, 57. "It allows me to be in Philadelphia working in the field of higher education, which I'm passionate about, close to family and friends, and reengaging again in the civic life of the city that I love."

He had worked closely with longtime Drexel president Constantine Papadakis, who died in 2009.

Oxholm, who has spent most of his professional life in Philadelphia, said he would aim to involve students and faculty more in the life of the city. He also is excited about Arcadia's broad-based international program, he said. For years, it has topped national lists for the number of study-abroad experiences for its students. Last year, Arcadia announced it would begin offering three-year degree programs to help students save money. It also opened a campus in King of Prussia this spring. Oxholm joined Drexel in 2001 as general counsel and played a major role in the development of its online-learning subsidiary and the acquisition of MCP Hahnemann University, now Drexel's College of Medicine. He also was pivotal in the creation of Drexel's School of Law.

He most recently led the creation of the Center for Graduate Studies in Sacramento, where he has worked for 21/2 years. Even if he were not joining Arcadia, Oxholm said, he was planning to return to the region. He was going to take a six-month sabbatical, he said, and then work in the cabinet of Drexel's new president, John Fry, in Philadelphia.

Before Drexel, Oxholm was a city lawyer for 22 years and served as chief deputy city solicitor from 1984 to 1989. A 1979 graduate of Harvard University Law School, Oxholm has a bachelor's degree from Amherst College and a master's in public policy from Harvard.

Margaret Wright Steele, chairman of Arcadia's trustees, cited Oxholm's "energy" and "entrepreneurial spirit."

"He sees [this] as a wonderful opportunity to continue to globalize our campus here in Glenside and around the world," Steele said.