Drexel holds final Sacramento graduation

Drexel University’s Sacramento campus is set to hold its final graduation Friday, although the school will continue operating in Sacramento for another year.

Seven years after Drexel set up shop in Sacramento, 100 students are scheduled to receive their diplomas at a 7 p.m. ceremony at the Crocker Art Museum courtyard. Pat Fong Kushida, president of the CalAsian Chamber of Commerce, was the scheduled speaker at what would be the sixth graduation for the Sacramento campus.

The Philadelphia university announced in March 2015 that it was closing the Sacramento campus but allow current students to finish their studies. After struggling to gain visibility in Sacramento, Drexel officials decided to concentrate their resources on the home campus in Philadelphia.

Drexel needed to “better focus on pressing priorities,” university President John Fry said in an email to students the day of the announcement.

Drexel opened in Sacramento in January 2009 primarily as a graduate business school but eventually offered degrees in multiple fields, including public health. In 2013, it launched its first undergraduate degree program, in business administration, for students completing the last two years of their undergraduate education.

The Drexel campus moved in January from its original Old Sacramento site to the University of the Pacific’s campus in Oak Park. Drexel’s remaining 40 students in Sacramento will attend classes at the UOP campus, taught by Drexel faculty, but there won’t be another Sacramento graduation. Those students will have the option to graduate at a ceremony in Philadelphia next year.

This story was originally published June 17, 2016 at 4:16 PM with the headline "Drexel holds final Sacramento graduation."