William Parshall, Director of Temple University Center City, will be retiring September 30 after twenty years of managing Temple’s downtown campus.
Parshall began his Temple career in April 2001 as the campus was moving from 1616 Walnut Street to its present location at 1515 Market Street.
“Relocating from Walnut Street to our present location marked a significant improvement in the quality of the classroom experience,” said Parshall.
The move allowed Temple to move a significant number of
undergraduate classes from Main Campus while Alter Hall was being built, he said. After the completion of Alter Hall, TUCC increasingly became a focus for graduate and continuing education programs.
“We probably would never have been able to receive the two
$1 million endowment grants from the Bernard Osher Foundation had Temple not had a facility in center city,” he said.
The campus is now home base for several programs, including the Fox Professional MBA, the Masters of Public Policy and the Executive Doctorate in School Leadership. The campus also hosts specialized facilities such as Philadelphia Neighborhoods.org, a program of the Journalism Department of the Klein College of Media and Communication, and a specialized Mac lab for the Film and Media Arts program.
In addition to his service in Center City, Parshall also managed the Ambler Campus from 2010 to 2013.
“It has been very rewarding to be part of Temple University and work with such a committed staff and outstanding faculty,” he said.
Parshall has also been a strong proponent of the TUCC Scholarship Fund. This fund supports adult students who take a majority of their undergraduate classes at the center city campus. The first scholarship was awarded this year and fundraising has begun to continue these scholarships in the future. To support the fund, visit https://giving.temple.edu/GivetoTUCC.
After his retirement from Temple, Parshall intends to stay involved in Philadelphia civic life by serving on the board of the Pathways Housing Wellness Corporation and with the PA Voter Protection Hotline. He and his wife, Marilyn, plan to do some traveling once the pandemic is over.