Temple University President Jason Wingard recently completed the first year of his tenure as the university’s president. Over the past year, he has created multiple task forces devoted to campus safety and mental health, launched a campuswide effort to boost Temple’s vaccination rate, and identified several strategic priorities that will guide the university moving forward.

In taking time to reflect on his first year in this key role, Wingard recently met with Susan Snyder, higher education reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer. The two discussed his strategic vision, his priorities for Temple and also looked back at everything that transpired during year one in office.

During their conversation, Wingard and Snyder also had a chance to discuss the president’s new book, The College Devaluation Crisis: Market Disruption, Diminishing ROI, and an Alternative Future of Learning, which takes a close look at how the industry of higher education must adapt and remain relevant moving forward.

Following the interview, the Inquirer published two stories on Sunday, July 31, “A critical voice on higher ed from an unusual place: Temple president Jason Wingard lays out what needs to change in a new book,” and “From favorite food to motto to live by, Temple president Jason Wingard shares some of his favorite things.”

Within the stories, Snyder touches on some of Wingard’s strategic priorities, including the need for Temple to be more intentional in how it engages with the community.

“He said he intends to push the campus to engage more with the community, spend money and staff time to do it, and develop metrics to assess the effort. Wingard, along with other Temple executives, took a bike tour through the community a few months ago during which he said he heard that as much as Temple does, it needs to do more, including providing more mentors to local community centers,” Snyder writes.

Snyder’s second piece offered a rare, personal look at Wingard and some of his favorite interests and hobbies.

Who knew that the president’s favorite musical artist was Ledisi? Apparently not Ledisi, but she does now. Following the release of the Inquirer story, Ledisi thanked President Wingard for the shoutout and shared a screen grab of the story to her Instagram account and her 928,000 followers. The Temple president was quick to respond, even inviting the 12-time Grammy-nominated artist to come visit campus.