More jobs here than those with degrees in tech, engineering and math: Campus Philly annual meeting

Addressing the group's annual meeting at WHYY is Campus Philly board chairwoman Joan McDonald, who is Drexel University's Senior Vice President of Enrollment.

Better tying employer needs with degrees conferred at regional universities is a major next step in a broad, years-long effort to bolster retention at and broaden awareness of higher learning opportunities in and around Philadelphia.

That was a primary claim from Deborah Diamond, the president of regional brain drain combatant Campus Philly, at the nonprofit’s annual meeting held at WHYY Thursday morning. Diamond was joined in Old City by Mayor Nutter, CEO for Cities President Lee Fisher and others in trumpeting the successes of the region and calling for greater heights.

“Education is economic development,” said Nutter in his address, calling for regional universities to do more outreach in the city’s poorer communities, offering summer programs and campus awareness seminars for city neighborhoods. “It will benefit us all.”

[Full Disclosure: This news site's parent company led the new redesign of Campus Philly's website, and this reporter was involved in the effort.]

In backing her claim, Diamond used three data points showing differences in the region between where the jobs are and where the job candidates are:

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Fifth more college graduates will stay today than in 2004: Links

• Shout Out: New Campus Philly Study Reveals That More Students Are Staying In The Region After Graduation [uwishunu]  — “From an April-May survey of 4,600 students, 48
% 
of 
non‐native
 Philadelphian college students
 reported 
staying
 in
 the 
region compared
 to 
29
%
 in 
2004.

 And 83% of respondents said they would 
recommend
 Greater
 Philadelphia as a place to go to college.” This follows a wave of Cliff Lee-inspired pride like here and here.
• Download the Phrequency 2011 mobile app! [Phrequency] — from the Philly.com music blog
• Frank Baldino Jr., 57, founder and chief of biotech firm Cephalon [Inquirer] — Biotech entrepreneur Frank Baldino passed on.
• Why Philadelphia should leave PA and join NJ [Philly Deal: Inquirer]
• Tow Truck Operators Angry Over City Council Measure [CBS]
• Gadgets That Defined The Past Decade [Geekadelphia]
• Dorman soars, while Wilmington Trust sinks among local stocks [PhillyInc:Inquirer]
• Pa., N.J. each losing 2 House seats [Philadelphia Business Journal] — After 2010 Census figures
• North Jersey firm acquires Quinnova Pharmaceuticals [PhillyInc: Inquirer]
• Special Report: How the city serves Eastern North Philadelphia [PlanPhilly] — If you value Philadelphia, you must read the latest installment of Patrick Kerkstra’s Desolate to Dynamic project. It’s the best journalism in Philadelphia outside of the Inquirer’s consistently strong work and features data visualization from our own Brian James Kirk.
• Philadelphia Inquirer names Wischnowski editor [Philadelphia Business Journal] — Stan Wischnowski,48, who has been at the Inqy since 2000, will be “embracing and accelerating digital innovation” as the Inquirer’s leader.
• Ten local governments lack websites – and some towns have no plans to create a Web presence for residents [Press of Atlantic City]

David L. Cohen, Comcast Executive Vice President, talks Comcast, taxes and startups

David L. Cohen doesn’t run Comcast.

He didn’t run the Rendell mayoral administration either, and he doesn’t run the University of Pennsylvania or the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, nor does he have any of the titles that put him as the figurehead of any of the organizations that his fingerprints are on.

But he’s always in the conversations.

The Comcast Executive Vice President who spent much of the early 1990s as Ed Rendell’s mayoral chief of staff — as immortalized by Buzz Bissinger’s noted book ‘A Prayer for the City‘ — and before it had a private law career is as well-connected as they come.

So, Cohen, who is also the chairman of both the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and the University of Pennsylvania, has a unique vantage point on the region’s technology, political and cultural vanguard. Below, Cohen talks to Technically Philly about bolstering college graduate retention, the true affects of the NBC deal and why that purchase has something to do with Vietnam.

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