If the Drexel Trustees vote to merge in February, when will the merger actually take place?
“Merger” means “coming together”. While the two universities would legally come together as of July 1, 2002, the actual merger is not a single event that will occur on that one day, but a process that will take time. It took two years, for example, for the two Universities’ psychology departments to come together, and they are still working out the relationships between them. Other departments will experience the same transition. Many administrative functions have already been consolidated – personnel, accounting, fundraising, security, IT, and the like – and there have already been some significant collaborations, like the establishment of the Institute for Healthcare Informatics. Some changes will occur before the July 1 date; others will take time to implement; and still other ideas will still be on the drawing boards. Once the Drexel Trustees vote to merge, there will undoubtedly be even greater efforts to integrate the two universities.
