COVER STORY As a key component of the latest strategic plan, Weisenstein also encouraged partnerships with community groups, businesses, and universities from across the region and world. The University has cooperative agreements with more than a dozen foreign universities—and more in the offing—and has had collaborations with more than 100 corporations, including Endo Pharmaceuticals, Campbell Soup, and State Farm Insurance. Weisenstein has particularly focused on building international affiliations, attracting more international students, and providing opportunities for more WCU students to study abroad. Previously, for the U.S. Department of State, Weisenstein led the restructuring of higher education in Moldova, was the chief negotiator for international educational agreements in Europe and South America, and held direct talks with former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. “When I was having lunch with my counterpart at Trinity University in Dublin, which is one of the world’s top universities,” reports Weisenstein, “he told me: ‘We’ve studied West Chester University and you’re a University we want to do business with.’” Adds Peter Loedel, professor of political science, director of the Center for International Programs, and a co-chair of the Strategic Planning Assessment and Advocacy Committee: “One of the strategic plan’s chief objectives is to make West Chester students global citizens, and given his long career in international education, it didn’t take any convincing to get Dr. Weisenstein’s support.” In just two years the number of students studying abroad nearly doubled, to 453 in 2014-15. Meanwhile, thanks to Weisenstein’s role in forging student exchange agreements with overseas universities, during that same period the number of international students from such countries as Japan, Germany, and Ireland doubled, to 150. Their on-campus presence, he says, heightens the global awareness of even WCU students who do not study abroad. Agreements that Weisenstein signed will further internationalize the campus by paving the way for future students to come from France, Germany, Norway, Turkey, China, India, Japan, Russia, Central America, and the Caribbean. “We’ve had tremendous growth in the study abroad programs, distance education and the branch campus in Philadelphia,” says Mary Braz, associate professor of communication studies, founder of WCU’s Grandparents University, and Loedel’s strategic planning committee co-chair. For that, she credits Weisenstein’s collaborative leadership style. “He has been a wonderful example of shared governance, in which everybody—students, faculty, staff and administrators—gets a voice and a chance to participate.” 20 WEST CHESTER UNIVERSITY
BUILDING AN ECONOMIC ENGINE Rapid growth in enrollment and outreach activities has made WCU an economic catalyst for the region. West Chester is now the fourth largest university in southeastern Pennsylvania and employs approximately 1,800 faculty and staff. As a result, the University has grown to be one of Chester County’s ten largest employers with an annual economic impact exceeding $500 million. The University is also building the region’s workforce. Since President Weisenstein took office, the number of students graduating annually has jumped by 32 percent to 4,274. More than 70 percent of these graduates accept their first job in greater Philadelphia.
Activities to expand the University’s academic partnerships globally increased during President Weisenstein’s tenure, including signing agreements with China’s Guizhou University (top) and the University College of the Cayman Islands
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“He has been a wonderful example of shared governance, in which everybody—students, faculty, staff and administrators—gets a voice and a chance to participate.” --Mary Braz, associate professor of communication studies
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