Photo Credit: Philadelphia Police

On Oct. 13, Municipal Judge James DeLeon held for trial former West Philadelphia handyman James Harris, who stood accused with Drexel graduate Jasmine Wright’s rape and murder.
An eyewitness account from Tanya Giebus provided circumstantial evidence that placed Harris at the base of Wright’s apartment building on the 50th and Locust block around the estimated time of Wright’s death. Giebus, a neighbor who had lived on the same block as Harris for two months, testified that she had talked with “Jimmy” daily since moving into the neighborhood and that he’d talked to her about his handyman work for two apartments.
Giebus was able to identify Harris on the stand. She told the court that she’d seen him the day of Wright’s July 15 slaying. She placed him on the porch of one of the apartment buildings at 5:45 p.m., after he’d told her his employment had been terminated there. She also noted that he backed away upon seeing her.
Authorities assert that shortly before Harris was seen on the porch, he was inside the third floor of the apartment building brutally raping, beating, and strangling 27-year-old Wright.
Harris’ sperm was identified by DNA analysis inside Wright’s genitals, as well as on a towel and pillow in her apartment.
According to Assistant District Attorney Gail Fairman, the Medical Examiner’s Office determined Wright’s death to be the result of manual strangulation. The report also stated that Wright sustained blunt-force-trauma injuries to 12 parts of her body including her forehead, eye, lips and four hits over the top of her head.
A statement that Wright’s mother, who was not present in court, gave the authorities was then recounted Fairman to the judge. Paulette Wright was the last known person to speak with her daughter. They were speaking by phone at 5:29 p.m. July 15 when she heard nothing but background noise and hung up. Although she tried to call back repeatedly, her daughter did not pick up.
Wright’s body was discovered the following day at 2:15 p.m. July 16 when Mary Umbrell, an agent at Realty World Properties who manages Wright’s former apartment building, let herself into Wright’s apartment. Umbrell had received a call from Wright’s father who was concerned because he could not get in contact with her by phone.
“I seen Jasmine laying in the bed,” Umbrell testified. “It looked like she was sleeping.”
Umbrell said that she thought Wright was sleeping at first and yelled, “Jasmine, Jasmine wake up,” and then called 9-1-1 when Wright did not respond. Wright was pronounced dead by emergency responders upon their arrival.
Umbrell testified that she knew Harris under the name James Camp, a man whom the apartment building’s owner had hired for cleanup work.
Fairman argued the circumstantial evidence was enough to prove Harris guilty of raping, beating, and strangling Wright.
On behalf of Harris, public defenders Thurgood Matthews and Geoffrey Kilroy argued the possibility Harris engaged in consensual sex with Wright and that the timeframe of Wright’s murder wasn’t clear. They asserted that someone else could have strangled Wright after Giebus’ account of him at the apartment building.
Harris was arrested in July on charges of Wright’s rape and murder after determined that he had access to her apartment building a week after his employment’s termination, when Wright was slain. He has served state prison time before. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, slaying his reportedly abusive father, James Washington in 1982. Harris has also previously been convicted, separately, on charges dealing with criminal trespass and drugs.

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The FBI has warned all Philadelphia area colleges and universities to be on alert after a recent social media post threatening violence at a Philadelphia college or university at 2 p.m. eastern time Oct. 5. There have been similar social media posts across the country since the mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon on Oct. 1.

A picture of the threat, made on 4chan.org, can be seen below.

“On October 5, 2015 at 1:00 CT, a fellow robot will take up arms against a university near Philadelphia,” the threat reads. “His cries will be heard, his victims will cower in fear and the strength of the Union will decay a little more.”

The threat was not specific to any Philadelphia college or university. However, Drexel Public Safety will take precautionary measures by increasing patrols Oct. 5.

“The safety of our students, faculty and staff is our highest priority and we are taking every possible precaution to keep our campus safe,” Drexel’s campus safety notification read.

The release also stated that all Drexel police officers and Allied Security officers will be on high alert for suspicious packages, persons or activities.

Students are encouraged to report any suspicious packages, persons, or activities immediately by calling Drexel Public Safety at 215-895-2222 or 911.

Find more information here.

Updated 10/4/15, 7:26 p.m.

Correction: an earlier version of this article indicated that the post was made on a Philadelphia sub-reddit, and not to 4chan.org. The Triangle regrets this error.

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The Philadelphia Police have taken a 14-year-old boy into custody, charging him with 15 armed robberies that happened off Drexel University’s campus. The suspect’s name has not yet been released.

He was arrested Oct. 2, caught riding a purple bicycle tied to several of the robberies. The suspect lives close to the community where the robberies took place, on the 700 block of North 37th Street. All robberies took place between August and September of 2015, the most recent of which occurred Sept. 30.

The victim of the last robbery was a female who had been walking south on North Preston Street at approximately 6:45 a.m.. The suspect approached her, pulled out a black handgun and warned the female not to scream.

The victim stated that when she began to scream, the suspect grabbed her purse and pushed her into a parked vehicle, the force of which knocked her to the ground.

The strap of her purse broke and the suspect fled with the bag in hand around the corner of the 4000 block of Spring Garden Street, hopping onto a bicycle.

The victim followed in pursuit of her purse. She attempted to push her attacker off the bike. In response, the suspect pushed the victim to the ground and punched her twice in the face before making his getaway in eastward down the 4000 block of Spring Garden Street.

Police have stated that many of the robberies involved accounts of violence. This includes one incident involving a student who resisted robbery being pistol-whipped.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams has not yet revealed whether the suspect will be charged as an adult.

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Mayor of Philadelphia, Michael A. Nutter arrived July 29 at Gerri C. Lebow Hall to speak at the third “Leadership Matters” event in Drexel LeBow’s Frank Linnehan Executive Breakfast Series. More than 200 students, alumni and local professionals crowded into one of LeBow’s rooms to hear Nutter share what he has learned about leadership as the mayor of the fifth largest city in America.

“He’s been tried tested many many times and I think today he’s going to reflect on the lessons he’s learned in a career that has been really focused on serving the public,” Frank Linnehan, Dean of the Lebow College of Business and organizer behind the event, said in the mayor’s introduction.

Allison Liu

Nutter’s talk emphasized the power of implementing goal setting, connection and collaboration. He outlined his campaign for mayor eight years ago in summer 2007 and told the crowd how he came to win as the underdog candidate.

“What I said eight years ago and what I say today is that we had to be a safer city, a smarter city and a more sustainable city; and a government that runs with integrity and transparency. That’s what I said eight years ago as a candidate who had no prospect of possibly winning mayor’s office when I ran,” Nutter began, describing his chances of winning as difficult but not impossible.

“On the day I announced, as the first person to announce that I was running for mayor in the city, the press wrote: he’s probably fifth in a five way race,” Nutter said as he laughed with the crowd. He continued, “I said, ‘I’m the only announced candidate. I have to at least be first today.’”

He walked the audience through the environment of Philadelphia in the 2000s. The city had rising crime, violence and homicide rates, a 52 percent graduation rate in its high schools, few jobs being created, and the mayor’s office had been dealing with the aftermath of one of the largest corruption scandals of recent times for the last four years. The FBI put a listening device in the mayor’s office and around 20 people had been indicted and convicted for a variety of things going on within the city government.

In his campaign, Nutter spoke about fixing these four issues to build the foundations of a stronger Philadelphia. He recounted that those who saw this vision began to fall in line behind him.

“Everyday people said that vision that you have laid out for this city is something that I’d like to support,” Nutter said.

“Leadership is about telling people what you wanna do, why you want to do it and tapping into a base of support that says ‘I see where you’re trying to go, I want to support that,’” he continued.

The mayor said that his collaboration with other strong leaders helped him to achieve his goals while in office. His recruitment of Charles Ramsey as Philadelphia’s Police Commissioner brought about a 38 percent reduction in homicides. Working with school officials and communities brought the graduation rate in Philadelphia public schools to 82 percent.

“And Philadelphia has experienced population growth,” the mayor said, detailing further that more businesses and people have been moving to Philadelphia in recent years.

To tackle the integrity issue the mayor created a chief integrity officer and recruited two accomplished U.S. attorney’s officials to catch corruption early.

“That’s where we started. and for me that’s what leadership is all about. Do what you say you’re going to do, finish what you start, stand tall in the face of opposition. That’s called leadership,” Nutter concluded, as the crowd applauded.

After his talk, audience members were invited to ask questions, some of which detailed the Pope’s upcoming visit, what he would be doing next and what he hoped for the next mayor of Philadelphia.

“When he said that [Philadelphia] is my hometown and that he hopes the next mayor will do well — that kind of touched my heart,” Weiwan Zhao, a business and engineering major who attended after being intrigued by one of Nutter’s prior speeches at a global business conference, said.

Isabelle Di Nallo, a marketing major who had previously met Nutter at a Hillary Clinton campaign, was encouraged by the part of his speech that detailed resilience. “It was very encouraging to hear his story,” she said. “I thought it was inspiring how everybody kept telling him he was going to come in fifth and he ran anyway.”

As the event came to a close, Nutter greeted and shook hands with some of the students who attended.

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Drexel University cut the jobs of about 36 administrative employees as a result of this upcoming fall’s smaller incoming freshman class. Drexel officials said that the layoffs as well as other tactics such as reducing travel, printing expenses and use of consultants, are part of a budgeting initiative that will save about $18 million for the university overall. The employees were dismissed July 1.

According to university officials, 20 percent of the university’s savings are accounted for by the elimination of vacant positions, 30 percent by layoffs and the remaining half consists of the expense reductions made in other areas. The incoming freshman class currently sits at about 2,900 members compared to last year’s class which veered closer to 3,100. The full price of tuition paid by one student over the course of their freshman year amounts to $48,756 for academic tuition and fees alone. Consequently, an incoming class about 200 students smaller ends up costing the university about $9,751,200 in losses without taking into consideration fewer housing and dining fees.

President John A. Fry sent an email to staff June 26 explaining the University’s thoughts behind the move. “To achieve a better fit among enrolled students so that we can retain them at a rate acceptable to a top-caliber university, we needed to change our enrollment strategy while holding firm to higher admissions standards. The result is a smaller but stronger class this fall,” Fry wrote.

The letter detailed that while the university was pleased with the smaller, better fit class, the reality of fewer students meant a smaller budget. In order to retain the university’s academic quality and remain competitive with tuition rates, the university made the decision to restructure the administrative staff. It was emphasized that the budget cuts would have no effect on academics.

“These realities required us to take steps to build a more efficient and less expensive administrative structure,” Fry wrote. “We therefore made the decision to significantly reduce the number of administrative positions across Drexel,” he continued.

According to Fry’s letter, many of the layoffs occurred in the Division of Enrollment Management and Student Success, accompanied by others in the finance, institutional advancement and human resources department, as well as the provost’s office and the president’s office.

“Vacant positions were eliminated first wherever possible,” Fry emphasized. “But a number of current employees also saw their positions eliminated.”

These layoffs preceded an announcement earlier this year in May, when the university voiced that it would not be giving any raises in order to save funds. Subsequently, in an email sent to his staff June 8, Fry expressed that the university would be restructuring its administration.

“Given Drexel’s dependence on tuition, a smaller freshman class means that we will operate next year with less revenue than we have historically experienced,” Fry wrote, adding that in the following weeks he would be collaborating with senior leaders across the university and developing a plan to reduce expenditures without compromising the university’s academic quality.

“Difficult decisions will be made in the coming weeks, including the possibility of reorganizations in some of our administrative units,” Fry hinted.

“This was a necessary process that allows us to set our sights together on the academic year to come. I will not minimize how difficult this process has been for the talented professionals who lost positions and the colleagues who valued them,” Fry’s most recent email continued, ending with his reiteration that these decisions have positioned Drexel for sustainable excellence as the institution moves forward.

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The end of the Spring Quarter 2015 brought the completion of W. W. Hagerty Library’s newest study area. Officially labeled the Silent Area, this space replaced an administrative conference room and staff breakroom with more than 25 new seats for students.

Now, a long table, complete with dividers, lies against the area’s adjacent window and serves as a place for students to reflect on their work while they enjoy a view of Market Street. New individual chair pods also offer comfortable and secluded options for students looking to study solo. Low tables with modern high-back chairs are now set in place for quiet group studying and cohesive collaborations when working in groups. They also allow students to turn 360 degrees and change perspectives easily.

One last asset of this new study area that has yet to be added is table outlets, which should be fixed in soon according to the signs placed over their expected locations.

The new space’s classification as an official silent area brings the count up to two for silent student zones in the Hagerty.

In contrast to the other silent zone in the library’s basement, the second floor zone has an open layout with more natural lighting and gives off a more modern feel.

“It’s nice that it is an additional quiet room. It will be useful during Finals Week to have the extra space. It is nice to look out the window, because the area downstairs feels like a dungeon,” Danielle Cole, graduate student in the Physician Assistant Study Program, said.

The extra light is not the only big difference in this new room. The color differentiates severely from that of the downstairs area. In this room, one still finds the grays, blacks and whites found elsewhere in the building, but with an additional splash of red.

Construction for new study space began in April 2015 and was completed without much interruption to the student body that makes use of the library.

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Watching someone enter the corporate life is like watching a toddler jump into the big kid pool for the first time without water wings. You see the same expression on their faces. Their brows show a convoluted montage of excitement and absolute horror. There’s a difference, however. In general, we don’t let children jump into the pool by themselves because we’re afraid they’d end up at the bottom. We teach them to swim first — to tread water, to loop their arms in circles, to stick their faces in the water and blow bubbles and tilt their heads to the side to breathe. To kick to get where they want to go. There’s a lot of preparation involved in one’s first solo entrance into the pool but we don’t take the same precaution in preparing young professionals for their entrance into the workforce.

In my experience, day-to-day routine is a lot like water. It’s just as dense. Just as encompassing. And while it may look placid on the surface, it’s inherently dangerous to someone with no idea what they’re doing in it. Jumping into the corporate world without knowing how to keep one’s head above water is a disaster. If you don’t know how to kick, you sink under the water’s weight and next thing you know you’re bobbing back up on the surface, stuck traveling in the currents stirred by those around you.

I took my first internship in the Fall 2013. I logged ancient data into excel worksheets from nine to five for two months. I was a human processor, reading numbers and punching them into the keyboard. It wasn’t a job that required brain power. I got a big office to myself but it felt more like a small terrarium that some invisible force would routinely fill a little more with water each day until it was above my neck.

And I looked around to see how other people in the office were dealing with this submersion in their own little terrariums. Some of them had giant pictures of family members on their desk they’d climbed on top of, trying to ignore the whole scenario in and of itself. A few had snorkels and seemed genuinely unbothered. Some of them had allowed themselves to go under and had risen on their backs lifelessly hovering on the surface. But the ones that caught my eye were kicking. And I watched how they kicked, stayed afloat and maintained control of what direction they were going in. I kicked myself for not doing so earlier.

Day in and day out is a poison. Being unprepared to deal with monotony, routine and the unconscious nature that accompanies these felons can be as deadly to a young professional as large increments of water are to a toddler’s lungs.

I see so many people in my work tower who look stuck in their waterlogged terrariums and utterly miserable about it. Worse, some are unaware that if they kicked hard enough, they could get out. I talked to a woman at my last job who held a lab position. She had spent the last 20 years performing the same tasks in a job she originally settled for desperate for employment, but her dream was to work a medical position for the Navy.

Her eyes lit up when she talked about how she finally had the freedom to leave her home. Her children had grown up, her husband had become her ex and these things meant she could finally adventure; but before she could do any of this, she had to take a certification test. This was thwarting to her. She saw this test standing in between her and her dream, her routine and her adventure and her legs, which had been twitching in her little lab pool, stirring ripples and itching to give her body some direction slowed to a stop. I was practically on my knees outside her tank, banging on the glass trying to get her to move. If you don’t kick you’ll never get the position you want, the dream you chase, the accomplishment you crave. She couldn’t hear me.

Everyday when I walk into work and sit down at my tiny little two-by-three feet co-op’s desk, I’m reminded of my mortality. This is it. This is life. And this is surely not what I want to be doing for all of it. Yet, as I see it, eight hours a day, five days a week, the majority of humanity spends their days under water. I almost go under myself sometimes. But then I look at the silly little clock, in the corner of my computer screen where the numbers roll over every minute and I kick. I kick because I don’t want to become brainless and spineless and stuck. I kick because I want some sort of control in where I’m going. I kick because I know there must be somewhere the water’s not so high. Somewhere my feet can touch the ground. I kick because I was taught to swim and I’ve watched others drown and get so caught up in the dreariness of their routine they never make it to their destination. I kick because I want a better job tomorrow. And if you do too, I encourage you to do the same.

The post When you feel like you’re stuck, just keep swimming appeared first on The Triangle.

After observing noted American companies H&M and Dove’s successful use of plus-size women models in their advertising campaigns, Hoori Rafieian, a doctoral business administration student in the Lebow College of Business at Drexel University, was curious about the business value these companies saw in this strategy and decided to investigate the conditions in which fuller sized models resulted in better profits for firms.

Photo courtesy Hoori Rafieian

“Given the excessive use of slim models in all sorts of advertisements and for all types of products, it only makes sense that our society, consciously and unconsciously, equates attractiveness with slim body shape,” Rafieian wrote in an email to The Triangle. However, this study suggests that the success behind full-body advertisement campaigns lies not in the beauty customers see in the model, but in how the customers themselves feel after looking at the advertisements.

To conduct her study, Rafieian used Photoshop to edit three versions of a female model to show to 90 female study participants from Drexel’s undergraduate program. A thin model, an average-sized model and a plus-sized model appeared in mock advertisements, which were blocked into two clothing lines: luxury and non-luxury. No matter the clothing lines, Rafieian’s

Photo courtesy Hoori Rafieian

final data pointed to the same conclusion.

“The results of this research show that women will have a higher self-esteem and a significantly more accurate evaluation of their bodies after exposure to average-sized models than slim-sized models,” Rafieian wrote, noting that the results also showed a significantly more favorable attitude toward ads that featured average-sized models.

After viewing the ads, Rafieian also gave her participants a body-mass-index-based display of female body silhouettes and asked them to place a checkmark under the figure that best represented their own body. Compiling these results, he found that the participants’ checked silhouettes were much closer to the participants’ true BMIs after viewing the average-sized models.

Photo courtesy Hoori Rafieian

Indicating that the participants’ viewing average-sized model advertisements showed higher self-esteems and more realistic body evaluations than participants who looked at slim and plus-sized models, this research points to the conclusion that the best way for a company to maximize its advertising campaign is to invest in average-sized models.

“As a business student, I’m aware of the fact that businesses’ first and foremost goal is to maximize their profit,” Rafieian said, “My objective is to show that there are several simple yet powerful socially-driven activities that firms can undertake in order to both benefit the society and make money,” she continued.

Rafieian’s work on this project won her the 2015 Business Research Award for Graduate Students at Drexel University’s Research Day in May 2015, but she expressed that she’s not done yet.

“I suspect that using average-sized women in ads and calling them ‘plus-sized’ may do more harm than good. It may be wrongfully shaping the standards of what should be considered a plus-sized woman. Besides, this tactic may be perceived as hypocritical by consumers,” Rafieian said, hinting at her future research investigations.

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Noel Forte

Drexel University has made some major changes in their recruitment and admissions strategies this past year in an effort to increase student retention and graduation rates. In a move to attract more interested students, Drexel cut its VIP application last fall and became common application exclusive, requiring an essay, SAT scores, two recommendation letters and charging an application fee of $50. Now that official commitments have been made, the number of freshman students enrolled for next year sits at 2,929 — only a little less than the 3,100 students that were set to enroll at Drexel this time last year despite the fact that the University received about 25,000 fewer applications. According to Randall Deike, Drexel’s senior vice president for enrollment management, the University is pleased with the numbers and is busy making other changes in Drexel’s recruitment strategy, continuing the University’s mission to increase student retention rates.

Deike said the idea was that despite the decrease in volume of applicants, the University would have a higher retention rate and that the 28,727 applicants this year were presumably more interested in Drexel and applying to the school based on its academic reputation and renowned co-op program rather than its free application.

In comparison to last year, where some student applicants didn’t even know what city Drexel is in, this year’s applying students seemed to do more research. Natalie Frost, who will be enrolled as a Public Health major in the fall, commented that she did a fair amount of research before applying, becoming aware of what factors make up the Drexel experience. “What set Drexel a part from the other schools was its different approach to a college education. The co-op program and an urban campus along with many opportunities within the Philadelphia area were major selling points for me,” she said.

Attracting informed students like this was one of Deike’s initiatives. “Our long term goal is to make sure that we’re attracting students who know us well and who are committed to the University. That’s part of the reason we eliminated the VIP app,” Deike expressed.

There were about a thousand less attendees at accepted students day this year — 2,600 compared to the average 3,600 that attended in years past. Deike said that of the students that attended and the yield who enrolled was actually higher and jumped from about 47 percent to 64 percent.

There several other statistical changes, including a three-point change in average SAT scores, and a rise in the average applicant’s GPA from 3.47 to 3.55.

Deike also credited this year’s 4.9 percent increase in applicant yields to the University’s renewed commitment to better representing itself to high school guidance counselors, who he said can represent hundreds to thousands of high school students and making sure these counselors understand the Drexel model.

“The big change is really in how we’re recruiting not in how we’re admitting students,” Deike said, expressing that Drexel recruiters have been more active than ever this year traveling to high schools and sharing what he called “the Drexel story.”

“There are other things that we’re doing in order to influence retention and graduation. We’re looking at a ‘first year experience,’” Deike continued.

The first year experience encompasses things like combining what had previously been Drexel’s nine separate summer orientation sessions into one giant one at the beginning of the school year and creating what Deike called a “welcome week.”

Here, first year students, transfer students and international students will all be able to come together at the same time. He said that although official plans haven’t been set yet, the University hopes to make the week into a giant celebration that Deike hopes will foster a sense of belonging at the University for students and their families. Hopefully this sense of belonging will help retention as well.

Deike described changing Drexel’s rankings among other universities and increasing the yields as an “offshoot” benefit because rankings focus heavily on retention and graduation as Drexel’s retention and graduation rates increase the rankings should be better.

“Where [the ranking] absolutely has value is that people pay attention to it. Whether the methodology is perfect or not, people pay attention to it, which is important,” Deike said,

Brendon Agaraj, an incoming business major commented on his consideration of Drexel’s national rankings, saying, “I did consider Drexel’s rankings but its job placement rates were great. Regardless of its university rankings, I know that Drexel will offer a good education and how I will perform later in life depends mainly on myself. I know I’m in good hands regardless of the actual rankings of the school.”

Deike expanded that enhancing retention also means encouraging students to take full advantage of the Drexel experience — in the classroom, through co-op, working with peers, colleagues, faculty and staff.

“That’s my definition of success — that’s our primary goal. And if we do those things well, more students will graduate. It will impact our rankings, all of those things will come through, but for me its not motivated by rankings, it’s motivated by the fact that our retention rate, our graduation rate is not as high as it should be for a place like Drexel and we’re doing lots of different things to help affect change,” Deike said.

The new student welcome week will begin Sept. 12, the week before classes begin and will encourage current students, alumni, faculty and staff, to welcome this year’s incoming class.

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The city of Philadelphia has begun preparations for Pope Francis’ two-day visit in fall 2015. The World Meeting of the Families is the organization in charge of making the appropriate accommodations for the official visit. The group consists of the world’s largest Catholic gathering of the families every three years. With Philadelphia chosen as this year’s venue, the WMOF are now furiously busy assembling materials for the expected 1.5 million visitors who will come to see the pope speak on Benjamin Franklin Parkway September 26 and 27.

Donna Farrell, the executive director of the WMOF of Philadelphia commented on the pope’s specific itinerary in an email, “It is anticipated that the Holy Father will participate in the closing events of the eighth World Meeting of Families.”

“There are a wide variety of locations, beyond the Parkway, being evaluated for possible papal events, but the decision regarding Pope Francis’ itinerary lies solely with the Vatican. Rest assured, we will be ready to welcome him wherever he chooses to go,” Farell commented.

Among the list of things to prepare are two million Mass booklets in multiple languages, which must be designed and printed for the event, organize at least 7,000 volunteers with clean background checks and stock millions of Holy Communion wafers.

When Mayor Michael Nutter announced the pope’s visit November 2014 he expected large crowds. “This will be the largest event in the city’s modern history. The pope’s visit to Philly is something for all of us to be prayerful about and to be excited about,” Nutter said in a press conference.

Estimates made by the Philadelphia Convention Center and the Philadelphia Visitor’s Bureau have placed the amount of expected revenue the city will garner from the pope’s visit at about $417 million. Tourism sites like Visit Philadelphia began laying out itineraries months ago. Earlier this month on May 8, neighboring Montgomery County held an mini-expose with a papal theme during national tourism week that featured things for tourists to do in their area while staying in town for the pope’s visit. Officials marketed that the pope is expected to stay in St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Lower Merion.

The local church officials in the city are greatly anticipating the pope’s arrival and are making the necessary preparations and expecting a great many visitors to the city as well.

“A hallmark of Pope Francis’ ministry has been a genuine love for all people of good will and he has maintained a keen focus on the many diverse challenges that families face globally,” Charles J. Chaput, the archbishop of Philadelphia, said. “I’ve loved and admired him since we first met at the Synod for the Americas in 1997. I know that the Holy Father’s charisma, presence and voice will electrify our gathering. Regardless of confessional differences, billions around the world have been drawn to this pope. Our gathering in Philadelphia is open to all who have a generous heart. It has the power to transform, in deeply positive ways, not just the spirit of Catholic life in our region but of our entire community. It will be a moment unlike any other

“As I’ve said many times before, Pope Francis’ presence will bring all of us — Catholic and non Catholic alike — together in tremendously unifying and healing ways. We now eagerly anticipate Pope Francis’ arrival in Philadelphia [in] September,” the archbishop continued.

Even the Philadelphia International Airport reports the replacement of carpets, chairs, lighting, signage and other expenditures in preparation for the pontiff’s visit as well as an increase in security. Philadelphia is experienced in holding events for crowds of one million-plus, however, the future event is unique not only in size but in the number of security organizations involved: the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the CIA, the Secret Service, the Italian police force, the Swiss Guard, as well as city and state police.

“In terms of transportation, our team is dedicated to building a highly accommodating transportation plan for all visitors — and residents — within of the city of Philadelphia. We have been working closely with many regional authorities including SEPTA, Amtrak, NJ Transit, PATCO and the Philadelphia International Airport, among others, to ensure a convenient, enjoyable travel experience for all traveling to, and through, Philadelphia for this once-in-a-lifetime event,” Farrell commented.

The two-day event on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway will be open and free to the public to attend. More information about the event is available on the WMOF website.

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