Alexandra Jones The Triangle

Philly may not have held a VegFest this year, but in its wake, Home Brewed Events and EatYourPHL presented a new Sustainable Everyday Edibles and Drinkables (S.E.E.D.) festival geared toward the city’s vegan populace. As a Philly vegan myself, I was revved and ready for this event and had been looking forward to it since June.

This was the festival’s first year, so there were bound to be some kinks, but I wasn’t counting on a lack of food being one of them. To comprehend this festival’s shortcomings, you’ll first need to understand vegans. Vegans, for those readers who remain unaware, are individuals who choose not to consume animal products for ethical and environmental reasons. This means no meat, no dairy, no eggs and no honey because we perceive the industries that harvest these products to be cruel and we value the fair treatment of animals. Most of us think about being vegan as a religious choice. One where we’re shoving a shoe into the crotch of society. For justice.

The average omnivore does raise a valid point about veganism, however. It can be difficult to find places we feel comfortable eating. If we go to a restaurant with friends, we usually only have one or two choices. Sometimes we even need to modify things on the menu in order to create a dish that falls within the confines of our diet. We don’t mind this daily strife, but it’s a large reason why vegan festivals, where we can eat whatever we want without inquiring about ingredients, mean the world to us.

I was hype for S.E.E.D. fest. I figured it’d be a ton of tasty vegan food in one area, that I’d encounter a few new restaurants and walk away with a stomachache and a bag of free giveaways. In actuality, what happened Aug. 14 was that I knocked back eight sample-size cups of macaroni like shots and then Ubered off to HipCityVeg to get myself some real food.

The event began at 2 p.m. for V.I.P. guests, an hour before the joint opened to general admission plebeians. My dad and I hustled up to the check-in counter and grabbed our special S.E.E.D. beer-tasting glasses, the Humane League’s 2016 Veg Dining Guide and a map of the venue, which detailed the various vendors’ locations.

At this point, I hadn’t eaten anything that morning and was ready to stuff myself senseless. S.E.E.D. was advertised to vegans as if it would be a smorgasbord with food and drink galore, but unfortunately for me it only had drink.

Unlike my predecessor, editor emeritus Justin Roczniak, I know nothing about beer. Nothing. I was actually drinking a peach sage tonic during the event at one point and had to ask my dad if it was beer. That’s the level of alcohol ineptitude we’re dealing with here. (It shouldn’t be surprising then that I am unable to provide any sort of review for the alcohol portion of the fest.)

The event organizers set up the venue to showcase two little rectangles of beer vendors in the center, all manning their stations from their respective tables. My father, who reacts to beer the way my dog reacts to squirrels, immediately lunged at the Sly Fox Brewery station, eager to check out some sort of brew. He said it was “great stuff,” for what it’s worth and that the place was “an excellent brewing company.”

After five long minutes of chit chat, I yanked him away from the table and we took a lap to look for food.

Shortly thereafter, I spotted Soy Cafe’s stand. Soy Cafe is a cute and colorful little eatery located in Northern Liberties that serves all sorts of vegan food, drinks and desserts. They quickly became my favorite vendor at the event. They served teeny scoops of mac and cheese.

The mac and cheese was going so fast it rarely hit the serving tray. It went from scooper to server to consumer most of the time. Not because the dish was overwhelmingly spectacular or anything, but because it was one of the only stands at which you could get actual food at the event.

Lest I forget, there was also a vendor called Pb&Jams beside them serving “food.” They pushed small Trisket-like crackers with peanut butter and jelly spread on top and thin banana slices covered in 90 percent dark chocolate, a strawberry slice and a bit of mint. It felt to me more like something your mom would make you and your friends after school when she hadn’t gone to the grocery store than something to show off at a booth.

I admit their peanut butter was pretty damn good, and their jam killed it too. It was just such a tiny portion at an event with so little food that it seemed ridiculous.

At the other end of the room were some desserts. Sweet Freedom is a little bakery on the 1400 block of South Street that makes goodies for the most difficult customers imaginable. Their treats are not only vegan, but also gluten-free and kosher. And they somehow make everything without corn, wheat, peanuts or soy. I really can’t wrap my head around what kind of voodoo they must work to get their treats to taste as good as they do. They served up bite-sized samples of their “magic bar,” which was an aptly named piece of chocolate-maple perfection.

MOM’s Organic Market was there to give out free samples of pre-packaged foods. They sent one of their guys to walk around with a crate of bananas like he was selling peanuts at a baseball game, which humored me greatly. Oh, vegans.

There were also cocktails, and beer, and more beer, and this surprisingly good kombucha.

I can’t emphasize enough that the vendors, venue and idea weren’t bad; the overarching flaw was that there was not enough food available for everyone in attendance to sample, let alone get enough to equal a full meal.

Vegans were also a little angry with a few vendors like Angry Orchard and Chocamo Cookie Cups, who offered samples of dishes with animal products in them, as that violates the sanctity of a vegan festival. All Angry Orchard brews have honey in them and Chocamo Cookie Cups offered a version of their cookie cup with milk, making both products vegetarian rather than vegan.

People paid anywhere from 35 to 65 dollars for tickets to this event and when you shell out that much cash, you expect to at least come home on a full stomach.

SugarHouse Casino’s brand new event center, where S.E.E.D. was held, was surprisingly nice. There was no smoke smell and there were balcony views of the Ben Franklin Bridge and the Delaware River that I enjoyed in between macaroni samples.

Although the event ran until six, I could only make it to about 4 p.m. At 3:30, they’d run out of macaroni and I still wasn’t full. There was a line that extended the entire length of the room for slivers — yes, slivers — of vegan cheesesteak.

Full of frustration instead of food, I made the executive decision to flee and after knocking back a few more beers, my dad reluctantly followed.

The silver lining is that a portion of the proceeds from this benefit went to the Humane League of Philadelphia, which works to reduce animal suffering. My question is how big of a portion? And what else did I pay for? Because it certainly wasn’t for dinner.

Alexandra Jones The Triangle

Philly may not have held a VegFest this year, but in its wake, Home Brewed Events and EatYourPHL presented a new Sustainable Everyday Edibles and Drinkables (S.E.E.D.) festival geared toward the city’s vegan populace. As a Philly vegan myself, I was revved and ready for this event and had been looking forward to it since June.

This was the festival’s first year, so there were bound to be some kinks, but I wasn’t counting on a lack of food being one of them. To comprehend this festival’s shortcomings, you’ll first need to understand vegans. Vegans, for those readers who remain unaware, are individuals who choose not to consume animal products for ethical and environmental reasons. This means no meat, no dairy, no eggs and no honey because we perceive the industries that harvest these products to be cruel and we value the fair treatment of animals. Most of us think about being vegan as a religious choice. One where we’re shoving a shoe into the crotch of society. For justice.

The average omnivore does raise a valid point about veganism, however. It can be difficult to find places we feel comfortable eating. If we go to a restaurant with friends, we usually only have one or two choices. Sometimes we even need to modify things on the menu in order to create a dish that falls within the confines of our diet. We don’t mind this daily strife, but it’s a large reason why vegan festivals, where we can eat whatever we want without inquiring about ingredients, mean the world to us.

I was hype for S.E.E.D. fest. I figured it’d be a ton of tasty vegan food in one area, that I’d encounter a few new restaurants and walk away with a stomachache and a bag of free giveaways. In actuality, what happened Aug. 14 was that I knocked back eight sample-size cups of macaroni like shots and then Ubered off to HipCityVeg to get myself some real food.

The event began at 2 p.m. for V.I.P. guests, an hour before the joint opened to general admission plebeians. My dad and I hustled up to the check-in counter and grabbed our special S.E.E.D. beer-tasting glasses, the Humane League’s 2016 Veg Dining Guide and a map of the venue, which detailed the various vendors’ locations.

At this point, I hadn’t eaten anything that morning and was ready to stuff myself senseless. S.E.E.D. was advertised to vegans as if it would be a smorgasbord with food and drink galore, but unfortunately for me it only had drink.

Unlike my predecessor, editor emeritus Justin Roczniak, I know nothing about beer. Nothing. I was actually drinking a peach sage tonic during the event at one point and had to ask my dad if it was beer. That’s the level of alcohol ineptitude we’re dealing with here. (It shouldn’t be surprising then that I am unable to provide any sort of review for the alcohol portion of the fest.)

The event organizers set up the venue to showcase two little rectangles of beer vendors in the center, all manning their stations from their respective tables. My father, who reacts to beer the way my dog reacts to squirrels, immediately lunged at the Sly Fox Brewery station, eager to check out some sort of brew. He said it was “great stuff,” for what it’s worth and that the place was “an excellent brewing company.”

After five long minutes of chit chat, I yanked him away from the table and we took a lap to look for food.

Shortly thereafter, I spotted Soy Cafe’s stand. Soy Cafe is a cute and colorful little eatery located in Northern Liberties that serves all sorts of vegan food, drinks and desserts. They quickly became my favorite vendor at the event. They served teeny scoops of mac and cheese.

The mac and cheese was going so fast it rarely hit the serving tray. It went from scooper to server to consumer most of the time. Not because the dish was overwhelmingly spectacular or anything, but because it was one of the only stands at which you could get actual food at the event.

Lest I forget, there was also a vendor called Pb&Jams beside them serving “food.” They pushed small Trisket-like crackers with peanut butter and jelly spread on top and thin banana slices covered in 90 percent dark chocolate, a strawberry slice and a bit of mint. It felt to me more like something your mom would make you and your friends after school when she hadn’t gone to the grocery store than something to show off at a booth.

I admit their peanut butter was pretty damn good, and their jam killed it too. It was just such a tiny portion at an event with so little food that it seemed ridiculous.

At the other end of the room were some desserts. Sweet Freedom is a little bakery on the 1400 block of South Street that makes goodies for the most difficult customers imaginable. Their treats are not only vegan, but also gluten-free and kosher. And they somehow make everything without corn, wheat, peanuts or soy. I really can’t wrap my head around what kind of voodoo they must work to get their treats to taste as good as they do. They served up bite-sized samples of their “magic bar,” which was an aptly named piece of chocolate-maple perfection.

MOM’s Organic Market was there to give out free samples of pre-packaged foods. They sent one of their guys to walk around with a crate of bananas like he was selling peanuts at a baseball game, which humored me greatly. Oh, vegans.

There were also cocktails, and beer, and more beer, and this surprisingly good kombucha.

I can’t emphasize enough that the vendors, venue and idea weren’t bad; the overarching flaw was that there was not enough food available for everyone in attendance to sample, let alone get enough to equal a full meal.

Vegans were also a little angry with a few vendors like Angry Orchard and Chocamo Cookie Cups, who offered samples of dishes with animal products in them, as that violates the sanctity of a vegan festival. All Angry Orchard brews have honey in them and Chocamo Cookie Cups offered a version of their cookie cup with milk, making both products vegetarian rather than vegan.

People paid anywhere from 35 to 65 dollars for tickets to this event and when you shell out that much cash, you expect to at least come home on a full stomach.

SugarHouse Casino’s brand new event center, where S.E.E.D. was held, was surprisingly nice. There was no smoke smell and there were balcony views of the Ben Franklin Bridge and the Delaware River that I enjoyed in between macaroni samples.

Although the event ran until six, I could only make it to about 4 p.m. At 3:30, they’d run out of macaroni and I still wasn’t full. There was a line that extended the entire length of the room for slivers — yes, slivers — of vegan cheesesteak.

Full of frustration instead of food, I made the executive decision to flee and after knocking back a few more beers, my dad reluctantly followed.

The silver lining is that a portion of the proceeds from this benefit went to the Humane League of Philadelphia, which works to reduce animal suffering. My question is how big of a portion? And what else did I pay for? Because it certainly wasn’t for dinner.

The parking lot wasn’t huge. I stretched out one tiny foot over the edge of my car and prepared to jump; goggles in one hand, pool pass in the other, eyes on the prize — the check-in desk.

As a kid, I never wore shoes in the summer. It was a point of pride for me. I didn’t want their protection or constraint when I was outside. What I wanted was to be as free as possible, and shoes were a clunky, unnecessary accessory that inhibited cartwheels and climbing trees and chasing rabbits with my dog.

But as much as I despised them, even I couldn’t deny that shoes would have probably spared me the pain of going up against the parking lot pavement. The sun would heat the black mass enough that it burnt with every step.

Over the years I’ve gotten better at accessorizing with footwear and countless other things that only appear to limit freedom in lieu of functionality. But in no way does anything that seems unnecessarily structured come naturally to me.

Let me lay it out for you — we’re told to turn up the heat in college and push ourselves to our limits. To me, this means doing everything to the limit of my ability. I sacrifice my sleep schedule, what I’m sure would otherwise be an extremely healthy diet and my social life, in rotation, for my commitments. But I never really think it through. I live too much in the moment, sacrificing my current goals for my future ambitions, and frankly, as of late I’ve found this to be a questionable pattern that sometimes leaves me feeling like an unwilling participant in my own self-destruction.

It’s not a cycle I think I’m trapped in alone. I think there are a bunch of us in here all whirling around like socks trapped in a washing machine. So even though I’m not sure which choir I’m preaching to, I want to make the point that it’s important to be more careful with ourselves as we make our day-to-day decisions.

I took a philosophy class a few terms ago in which we learned about Aristotle’s golden mean and the art of achieving the middle between the two extremes of excess and deficiency. We discussed how excess seems to be more highly regarded than balance in this modern age. How those that ‘do’ more than average are the heroes of our everyday lives. We put them on pedestals because they push themselves to defy their human limits and we portray excessive achievement as admirable, rather than unhealthy. When we determine what we’re going to do, or how much we’re going to take on, I think we often base these decisions off of what we perceive other people’s judgments will be.

What should be admirable, and what we should base these decisions off of is how they will affect our personal health; and I want to make a point of stating that health is a compilation of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not a mere absence of disease.

It’s no easy task. College is an atmosphere in which we feel compelled to cast aside our well-being in favor of the current hour. Sometimes it’s necessary to pull an all-nighter or skip breakfast in order to make everything else work. But sometimes, taking better care of ourselves is easily achievable.

Watch fewer Netflix episodes. Skip Facebook stalking your ex, and the next day of trauma it will cause you. Eat when you’re hungry. Exercise when you have time. Don’t stay inside all day, explore the world around you. Be more spontaneous. And, most importantly, don’t forget to think about yourself.

In our endless drive to achieve something more, to do something more, to be more successful, there will eventually come a time when you will reach your breaking point. I’m only droning on and on about it because it happened to me pretty recently. I piled on commitment after commitment until one night I found myself in the sole company of a lit computer screen overstressed, undernourished and so sleep-deprived I was barely functioning on the level of Ozzy Osbourne. I closed my laptop and thought to myself how horrible it felt to be twenty years old, full of potential and devoid of energy.

I’m lucky because I’m young. I’m elastic. We twenty-somethings turn around from all-nighters and accidental episodes of near starvation like boomerangs. But that doesn’t mean that we always will.

Remember that overexertion can be a form of self-harm. Push yourself to your limits, but never past them. Don’t forget how hot the ground beneath you can get if you let yourself forget what’s important.

The post How far are you willing to bend until you break? appeared first on The Triangle.

Photo courtesy: Drexel University Communications

On March 2, Drexel University announced its partnership with Brandywine Realty Trust for University City’s new innovation neighborhood. The 20-year, $3.5 billion real estate development project dubbed “Schuylkill Yards” will bridge Drexel’s main campus with Brandywine’s Cira Centre and Amtrak’s 30th Street Station by dedicating five million gross square feet of mixed-use buildings towards a master planned community.

“It’s a delight to see so many good friends and faces in one place,” President John A. Fry said to around 400 attendees at the Schuylkill Yards announcement. “That place for the moment is a parking lot transformed for today into an elegant venue, but there’s a much bigger transformation coming. This parking lot that we’ve pitched our tent in is going to become a world-class open space in the tradition of Philadelphia’s iconic public squares,” he continued, explaining that the 14-acre district will serve as a network of public spaces, individual in character, but unified by their urban design’s focus on green urban spaces.

The parking lot in front of One Drexel Plaza will become “Drexel Square” under the plan, serving as a community green near between 30th Street Station and Drexel’s campus. This area will serve as an adaptable space with an iconic elliptical patch of green grass, sidelined by alleys and trees that will block off this space from sun and traffic. The front of One Drexel Plaza will be transformed with a dynamic front screen panel. The square is designed to serve as the center of activity for Schuylkill Yards and a gateway to University City.

Photo courtesy: Drexel University Communications

Schuylkill Yards will also develop JFK Boulevard to link 30th Street Station with Drexel’s Armory building. The street will be completely redesigned to integrate both bikes and cars safely and provide a rich new greenway for the public. Market Street will also receive a facelift, with dedicated bike and pedestrian lanes and three rows of trees to reduce noise and pollution.

Below the West Philadelphia Elevated, better known as the “High Line,” 31st Street will be extended and revitalized, with commercial establishments and further connectivity to Penn Park.

Finally, surrounding One Drexel Plaza, Drexel and Brandywine will build eight new high rises, with interior spaces reserved for traditional offices, “innovation spaces,” laboratories, residences, hotels and retail establishments.

Photo courtesy: Drexel University Communications

With this development initiative, Fry hopes to make Schuylkill Yards the country’s foremost up-and-coming innovation district.

“[University City is] one of the most exciting spots in America to create a new neighborhood built around innovation. We are on the 50-yard line of the East Coast, in a major transportation hub directly opposite the nation’s third-busiest train station and seamlessly connected into Philadelphia’s business center and networked into the incredible research and technology ecosystem of University City,” he stated.

“For years, Drexel has been looking for a higher purpose for this Schuylkill property and Schuylkill Yards is that higher purpose,” Fry continued.

Drexel’s selection of Brandywine as a partner developer on this initiative was the result of a national search. The company is one of the United States’ largest integrated real estate companies. In the Philadelphia area, they are known for their work on the Cira Centre, EVO and FMC Tower at Cira Centre South. Brandywine’s president and chief executive officer and trustee, Gerard H. Sweeney, spoke on behalf of his development company for the formal announcement.

“There are moments that define a day. There are moments that define a month. There are moments that define a year,” Sweeney began. “Well, this is one of those rare moments that will help define a generation with many more developments to come as each stage in this transformation is completed,” he continued.

“Schuylkill Yards will be a community. Not a corporate campus.”  Sweeney went on to emphasize. “Not a Monday to Friday lifestyle but rather a fully engaged ecosystem where big thinking is the order of the day and of the night… Where magnificent physical spaces are simply the framework to accelerate creativity, academic research, commerce and community engagement,” he continued.

This huge-scale project will create over 10,000 construction jobs and employ around 15,000 employees, involving the efforts of architects, planners, researchers, community groups, academics, and business persons. The project will also generate tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue.

Fry and Sweeney also emphasized that Schuylkill Yards will maximize the hiring of West Philadelphia residents – specifically in Powelton and Mantua, where unemployment rates currently sit at around 15 percent and nearly 50 percent of families live below the poverty line.

“All of our team members share the same DNA– the DNA to believe that you can shape the future by doing the right thing today, that buildings are in fact bridges to communities and that physicality helps to define culture and our brand. That’s our quest,” Sweeney explained, on Schuylkill Yards’ mission.

The project thus far has garnered support from local Philadelphia officials such as Senator Vincent Hughes, Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney.

“Schuylkill Yards is a big step forward in University City’s transition to a next-generation business district. It will provide our region’s current and future innovators with a central hub for collaboration and signal to the world that Philadelphia is ready for business in the 21st century’s new economy,” Mayor Kenney said in a statement. “Drexel University and Brandywine are creating one of the most valuable assemblages of real estate in the nation, and all of Philadelphia’s residents, institutions, businesses and visitors will share in the prosperity generated by this new center of innovation,” he continued.

Schuylkill Yards’ development is set to take place in multiple phases within the next two decades. The first phase will be the creation of a 1.3-acre park at 30th and Market Streets called Drexel Square, which is set to begin in late 2016.

As the project develops, more information on plans and initiatives for Schuylkill Yards can be found at  www.schuylkillyards.com.

Photo courtesy: Drexel University Communications

The post $3.5 billion, 20-year project will change face of Drexel appeared first on The Triangle.

Campus Activities Board’s annual Crystal Ball welcomed more than 300 attendees Jan. 30. In accordance with the dance’s location at the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the theme was Ancient Adventure.

“The draw of the museum was really its atmosphere,” CJ Kraft, a member of CAB’s traditions committee said.

“Being able to come in here and see this giant dome and all of the artifacts adds a new element to the event. People can eat and dance and then explore as well,” he continued, referencing the magnificent 90-ft. dome in the Chinese wing of the museum.

Ann Haftl: The Triangle

While Kraft helped out with CAB’s 2015 Crystal Ball at Citizen’s Bank Park, Ancient Adventure was his first time planning the night’s theme and decorations.

The main activities of the night — dining, dancing and exploring — took place on the museum’s third floor. Underneath the dome in the Chinese hall, CRA Catering set up white-clothed, buffet-style serving and dining tables. CAB decorated with chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil and commemorative “Ancient Adventure” plastic cups. A large archway connected this wing to the Egyptian hall, housing a dance floor and DJ. To encourage maximum interaction with all of the its exhibits, the museum provided a scavenger hunt, which led attendees through Etruscan Italy, Rome, Greece, Ancient Iraq, Canaan and Israel exhibits in search of answers to questions, hidden in the text of artifact descriptions.

Ann Haftl: The Triangle

Senior Johsvie Santos thought the museum’s exhibits added a valuable academic experience to the dance.

“I’ve always been fascinated by Egypt and, being a graphic designer, I like the way they’ve set up this section,” Santos said of the Egyptian Hall.

“It makes learning and acquiring knowledge a very friendly experience,” he continued.

Ann Haftl: The Triangle

Other students, like sophomore Chris Negro, came to the event as a fun social outing and an excuse to dress up, “I came here because my girlfriend asked me to go,” Negro said.

“I liked the dancing,” he went on. “I feel like [CAB] gave us a lot to do and it was organized really well,” he finished.

According to Allison Pitts, another member of CAB’s board of traditions, the event’s organization was easier than normal due to the museum’s proximity to campus and interesting exhibits.

“The museum just worked out so perfectly. It’s close by, so people could walk, which is nicer than having buses,” Pitts said, noting that this decision saved both CAB’s money and students’ time.

“We did the venue tour in week two of Fall term, settled on the location, and really figured out all the fine details in the past month or two,” she continued.

After arranging party favors and tea-light candles around the museum’s Chinese and Egyptian Halls, Pitts and fellow traditions committee member Sam DiFabio got to relax and enjoy the event.

“The dance floor is going crazy,” DiFabio said, referring to the large group of students jiving and jamming to remixes of modern pop tunes alongside the mummies in the adjacent hall.

Assistant Director of Campus Engagement Sarah Olsen thought the night went over well and said that the event’s popularity wasn’t out of the ordinary for CAB.

“[The Crystal Ball] has a good reputation of selling out. This event always does well and we always have to find spaces that can fit 350 people,” Olsen said.

“For people that aren’t in sororities or fraternities, it allows that social aspect of bringing together people from different dynamics to get together and dress up,” she continued, expressing that the event’s good name may be a large contributor to its annual success.

Ann Haftl: The Triangle

The post Crystal Ball 2016: Ancient Adventure appeared first on The Triangle.

Drexel University has reorganized commencement for 2016, President John A. Fry announced Jan. 21. Rather than attending individual college ceremonies like in previous years, graduates will take part in an inaugural university-wide commencement at Citizens Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies, June 11. There, Fry will confer Drexel University degrees completed during the academic year.
“[Citizens Bank Park] is the perfect venue to help us celebrate the accomplishments of our graduates as an entire University community,” Fry wrote in a letter to the University community.

Youtube: Drexel IRT Video Collaboration And Production

“This much larger venue will also provide our graduates the opportunity to invite more family and friends to join in the celebration. If you are planning to graduate in June, this is an especially momentous occasion, as you will take part in the inaugural Commencement ceremony of what we hope will be many at Citizens Bank Park,” he continued.
Fry explained that the reorganization of commencement is an extension of the University administration’s goal of strengthening the University community.
“For our incoming class, we introduced Fall Welcome Week, where new students engaged in activities and programs across campus and in Philadelphia,” Fry wrote.
“This new approach to orientation helped to lay a foundation for student success. In the same way, we want to re-envision our graduation experience by bringing the Drexel community together to honor the accomplishments of our graduates and celebrate them as our newest alumni,” he continued.
College- and school-specific ceremonies will take place in the two days prior to this commencement, though the locations have not yet been announced. As is customary, ceremonies for the Kline School of Law and the Drexel College of Medicine will be held in May.

The post Fry announces University-wide commencement appeared first on The Triangle.

Photo courtesy: Drexel.edu

Philadelphia restaurant inspectors cited the Handschumacher Dining Hall, managed by Sodexo, with 22 violations during a food safety inspection between 10:25 a.m. and 3:00 p.m on Nov. 24. Nine of these citations were foodborne illness risks. 

For dishes such as hamburgers, cheeseburgers, stuffing and sushi, workers neglected to take the temperature of the food after storage to ensure that the climate did not promote growth of bacteria. The Handschumacher also failed to provide temperature logs displaying records for the temperature hamburgers on the cookline had reached.

Another temperature violation included a baked turkey dish that had not been cooled properly. It was removed from the walk-in refrigerator, sliced, and then placed back into the walk-in to cool, which is against protocol.

The report also noted there were issues with covering food properly for storage. This included vegetable stock, which was left uncovered in the walk-in refrigerator, and pizzas, for which the cover used had not been sanitized.

There were also several issues with proper labeling. The dining hall neglected to have a “raw animal product” advisory statement for the sushi. The inspector also noted that bulk storage containers lacked common food name labels.

More issues concerned self-serve contamination within the cafeteria. Food items on display, such as the salad and grain bars were noted to be unprotected.

Mouse droppings were also found on the floor and on a food shelf in the catering section of the dining hall.

“This inspection has revealed that the establishment is not in satisfactory compliance and that current management practices have allowed unacceptable public health or food safety conditions. Corrective action is required to eliminate these violations,” Delores Brokenborough, the city health inspector summarized in the report.

The Handschumacher was one of dozens of restaurants that city health department sanitarians inspected  the week of Thanksgiving. The results of these inspections were the among the first to be released within 24 hours of the inspections themselves. Prior to this, Philadelphia had been the only major city in the country to abide by a 30-day release policy.

View the Food Establishment Inspection Report.

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Philly Mag’s Nov. 6 ThinkFest attracted a conglomerate of students, professionals and educators to Gerri C. Lebow Hall’s auditorium, including La Columbe’s owner and founder, Todd Carmichael.

“I’m famous for doing nutty things,” Todd Carmichael said. Carmichael is a man known for walking from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole, crossing deserts and drifting for years in the South Pacific. Recently he’s taken on different kind of challenge: running his own business.

Carmichael is the proud owner of La Columbe, a Philadelphia-based coffee company that pioneered in a cafe location at 130 South 19th Street, beside Rittenhouse Square. On-stage at Thinkfest he presented his theory that the big business enterprises so prevalent in the United States present smaller businesses, like his own, with revolutionary opportunities.

Carmichael highlighted that startup businesses center around anxiety and exhaustion, much like the stressors he faced during his global survival expeditions,. The rapid development and quick-paced nature of the business today only allow for opportunities if one can recognize the revolution going on in their target field. For Carmichael, this meant examining the shift in the food and beverage industry.

“The companies that fed my parents will not feed my children,” Carmichael said to the audience. “That’s not an evolution. That is upheaval. And this is where I believe the biggest opportunities for us as a city, for you as a person, for my company—can be harvested. It’s in revolutionary times.”

Detailing the fact that many of today’s biggest companies see their large size as an advantage, Carmichael, described how he saw this characteristic as a weakness when entering the business. To him being big is a liability, because in order to be successful, he stresses that every company should have two things: vision and values.

“That vision thing is tough to hold onto when companies get bigger,” he emphasized, talking about how the popular phrase “too big to fail” can easily transition into “too big to lead.” These are the ideals from which his company La Columbe got their start.

“If your company values transportability and shelf life overnutrition you’re probably too big to lead,” he highlighted.

Referring to those with dreams of dabbling in entrepreneurship, he concluded his speech, acknowledging that placing his startup in Philadelphia was critical to his business’s successful cultivation.

“We’re going to find our opportunities in upheaval. We’re going to find our opportunities by applying our ideas and our values and our visions to a time of revolution,” Carmichael said.

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Drexel University’s Board of Trustees unanimously passed a five-year extension of John A. Fry’s contract as president of the University Sept. 30. This contract runs until August of 2020, and includes a boost in Fry’s pay for good performance although the amount has not yet been specified.

Fry, 55, has served as president of Drexel since 2010. He previously led a fundraising campaign culminating in a total of $455 million. Currently he is leading a campaign for the University in pursuit of $900 million. During his term, the University has completed construction projects on campus buildings such as the Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building, the URBN Center and the Gerri C. Lebow Hall.

Fry has also been instrumental in securing a $50 million donation towards the Drexel’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law and a $45 million donation toward the Dornsife School of Public Health—both schools receiving the namesakes of their benefactors. Fry has also been on board for transformative projects such as The Summit, Chestnut Square and The Study at University City.

Fry has also made moves such as eliminating Drexel’s satellite campus in Sacramento, California and pulling a program that allowed students to earn four-year Drexel University degrees taking courses at their local community colleges.

Along with Fry’s contract extension, Drexel University’s strategic plan—established in 2012—has been extended to 2019. The plan includes initiatives such as defining Drexel as an academic leader in higher educational research and further extending the University’s connections across the globe. Other initiatives include improving the University’s retention rates and encouraging students to be active alumni.

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Most people would think that the government funding that Planned Parenthood receives goes toward abortions. They’re unsure what percentage, but they figure some portion of it is put toward the controversial medical procedure. They’re wrong.

The debate surrounding the defunding of Planned Parenthood has lately been simplified into two camps: pro-life and pro-choice. The general misconception seems to be that defunding Planned Parenthood will stop abortions all together, and supporting Planned Parenthood’s existence is supporting abortions in practice. Hello, no. In 1980, the Supreme Court restricted the use of federal funding for abortion. Let’s rephrase that: the government has not federally funded abortion for 35 years. Making the argument that defunding Planned Parenthood will somehow have an effect on abortions—you guessed it—invalid.

All the money that Planned Parenthood puts toward abortion services comes from private donations. The government money pushed towards Planned Parenthood allows it to operate as a publicly funded family planning service. These practices provide affordable family planning tools such as oral contraceptives, injectables, condoms and contraceptive pills for women that wouldn’t be able to access birth control otherwise. They also provide pap smears, pelvic exams, STI treatments and HIV testing. Nothing inherently evil. In fact, it is everything inherently necessary to offer women the choice to attend to their reproductive health. These are the kinds of Planned Parenthood programs currently funded by our government.

Now, I’ll expand on this to say that the majority of the women using Planned Parenthood would not have had access to healthcare otherwise. In 2013, there were an estimated total of 38 million women in need of contraceptive care. Of these women, 20 million sat below the poverty level in need of publicly funded services and supplies. 1.6 million more were teenagers, who arguably don’t have funding to see medical professionals on their own.

Defunding Planned Parenthood wouldn’t make a statement about our government’s stance on abortions. The statement would read more that our government is incapable of understanding the importance of providing women with adequate and affordable health care. And frankly, that’s preposterous.

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