concluded his service<\/a> to the system on Oct. 11, 2024.<\/p>\nAbout Chancellor Fiorentino<\/h2>\n
Fiorentino was president of West Chester University, the largest university in the State System, from 2017 until retiring on June 30, 2024, after more than 40 years of dedicated service to the institution. Known as a transformational leader who embraces challenges, Fiorentino led the university through the pandemic and inspired a culture of innovation and ownership that empowers students, faculty and staff.<\/p>\n
During Fiorentino\u2019s presidency, the university developed new programming for first-generation college students, placed student success coordinators in each of the university\u2019s six colleges and two schools, engaged in a national student-success mission to help underserved students to graduate, founded a program to support degree-seeking students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and oversaw the construction of the largest building on campus.<\/p>\n
Prior to serving as president, Fiorentino was the university\u2019s interim president for a year and vice president for external operations for three years. He also spent nearly 20 years as dean of the university\u2019s College of Business and Public Affairs (now the College of Business and Public Management) and was chair of the Department of Economics for four years.<\/p>\n
Fiorentino has received numerous awards for his leadership in higher education. In July 2024, the PASSHE Board of Governors conferred on him the status of President Emeritus. West Chester University’s Council of Trustees\u00a0last week conferred on him Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus status.<\/p>\n
The Philadelphia Business Journal named Fiorentino to its Power 100 list in 2021, 2022 and 2023, and the Chester County Economic Development Council inducted him into the Chester County Hall of Fame in May.<\/p>\n
Fiorentino earned his baccalaureate, master\u2019s, and Ph.D. degrees in economics from Temple University. He and his wife, Sue, reside in Chester County.<\/p>\n
PASSHE\u2019s upward trajectory<\/h2>\n
Fiorentino will become chancellor of Pennsylvania’s state-owned, public university system, which has undergone transformative changes in recent years and is on an upward trajectory with improved financial stability, enrollment trends and an improved partnership with state leaders.<\/p>\n
A 30% increase in state funding in recent years has enabled the Board to freeze tuition since 2018, which benefits students and families and supports stable enrollment despite headwinds confronting all of higher education and acute in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
With over 80,000 students, 90% from Pennsylvania, PASSHE universities collectively enroll the most in-state students of any four-year college or university in the commonwealth. The universities are vital to Pennsylvania\u2019s workforce and economy, awarding nearly 20,000 degrees annually and providing the talented and innovative graduates that employers need.<\/p>\n
Each university partners with major employers to ensure that students acquire the skills necessary to meet current job market demands and provide tremendous educational value to students. Two-thirds of graduates earn degrees in STEM, healthcare, education, business and other areas with in-demand jobs.<\/p>\n
About PASSHE<\/h2>\n
Pennsylvania\u2019s State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) is the public university system of the commonwealth with a mission to provide a high-quality education at the lowest possible cost to students. The State System annually confers more than 20,000 degrees and has more than 800,000 living alumni, most of whom live in Pennsylvania. The State System universities are Cheyney, Commonwealth (Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield), East Stroudsburg, Indiana, Kutztown, Millersville, PennWest (California, Clarion and Edinboro), Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester universities of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dr. Christopher Fiorentino, current interim chancellor and former president of West Chester University, was selected as the chancellor of Pennsylvania\u2019s State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) today by the Board of Governors. Fiorentino will be PASSHE\u2019s sixth chancellor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[143,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-news-release"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24091"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24091"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24097,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24091\/revisions\/24097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}