On August 10, Drexel University Communication officials announced Laura N. Gitlin will be the next dean of the College of Nursing and Health Professions beginning Feb. 2018.

Gitlin is an applied research sociologist and distinguished professor from Johns Hopkins University, who focuses on patient- and family-centered approaches to medicine and research. As dean, Gitlin will lead a college that has more than 4,500 students.

“As the College of Nursing and Health Professions makes major strides to enhance community healthcare access, expand its robust online-learning presence and attract critical resources for cutting-edge research, we are so very pleased to announce the appointment of this dynamic new leader,” Brian Blake, university provost, said.

Gitlin is currently a distinguished professor in the Department of Community Public Health at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She also holds joint appointments in the Department of Psychiatry and Division of Geriatric Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and is the founding director of the nursing school’s Center for Innovative Care in Aging.

Gitlin completed her bachelor’s at Temple University, earning a degree in Anthropology and completed her M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology at Purdue University. Her first teaching assignments were in the Philadelphia area at St. Joseph’s University and Rutgers University-Camden. She also joined the faculty of Thomas Jefferson University in 1987, leaving for her Johns Hopkins post in 2011.

Gitlin has written or co-authored nearly 300 scientific publications and published six books. She is currently working on a seventh about transforming dementia care and services.

Drexel University President John A. Fry’s name appeared in a recently amended lawsuit that identified Philadelphia leaders against the City’s new “wage equity law” — a law that prevents companies from inquiring about prospective employees’ salary histories.

The wage equity law has yet to take effect in Philadelphia. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the City will continue to delay enforcement until “there is ruling on a motion for a preliminary injunction.”

The lawsuit against the City, filed by the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia (of which Drexel is a member), was previously dismissed June 1 by a judge of the federal District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for failing to name businesses that would be negatively impacted.

The lawsuit’s amendment identified several organizations and business leaders opposed to the legislation including Drexel University, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Comcast. It stated that it would inhibit these businesses’ ability to recruit new hires and offer competitive job packages.

Part of Fry’s statement read: “Drexel believes the Ordinance will have no meaningful impact on eliminating gender-based wage disparities, while at the same time restricting legitimate hiring practices and employers’ First Amendment rights. … Basing a salary offer in part on an applicant’s current compensation is essential to Drexel’s ability to attract world-class faculty from other institutions.”

The law aims to close the gender pay gap in the city.

A professor filed a complaint against Drexel University June 23, alleging that the university falsely advertised his former position in contract negotiations, resulting in his subsequent resignation.

Irvin Peckham moved to the Philadelphia area in the fall of 2014 to work as Drexel University’s director of first year writing. He had previously worked as a full, tenured professor at Louisiana State University where he had been directing the required writing program for 10 years.

The complaint states that Peckman was interested in coming to Drexel from LSU, as long as the salaries were comparable, in order to live closer to his daughter and grandchildren.

According to Peckham’s complaint, Drexel advertised a tenured associate professor position. However, during contract negotiations, university officials told Peckham that “due to an administrative issue,” it was forced to list him as a teaching professor rather than a tenured professor.

“The university promised Dr. Peckham that he would be treated for all intents and purposes as if he were a tenured professor, despite the title of ‘teaching professor,’ and that he would be considered for tenured professor when the administrative issue was resolved,” the complaint reads.

“Drexel increased the agreed-upon salary level by $10,000 in order to induce Dr. Peckham to accept this change,” the complaint continues.

The complaint contends that when Peckham accepted the position, he thought he would be teaching two courses at the university his first year and three courses per year thereafter. However, in January 2016, Drexel assigned Peckham a course load of nine courses per year, which led Peckham to resign.

Peckham is currently asking that the court force Drexel University to honor what the complaint refers to as “the implied contract” between the parties. He also seeks compensatory and expectation damages.

This case is being tried by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Case number 2:17-cv-02849-AB.

Vue32, located at 3201 Race St., procured a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy June 29, allowing residents to move into the 17-floor building’s first nine floors July 5 — the remaining eight floors are scheduled to open Aug. 1.

Vue32 will offer 164 units — a mix of one, two and three bedrooms — for graduate students, faculty and staff. It also has 32 underground parking spaces and will host a 165-child daycare facility on its first and second floors.

“We view Vue32 as a boutique apartment building,” Dave Yeager, President of Radnor Property Group, said.

The Radnor Property Group, a privately-owned real estate company based out of Wayne, Pennsylvania, owns and developed this residential project. Radnor Property Group signed a 99-year lease with Drexel University for the land on which the complex was built in 2015. Previously, this site held a parking lot and a small apartment complex.

This summer will mark the completion of the two-and-a-half year effort to build the mixed-use property. In order to build on this site, the Radnor Property Group had to obtain 14 property variances, which it accomplished by working closely with the Powelton Village Civic Association and Drexel University.

According to Yeager, the Radnor Property Group worked with the members of the Summer Winter Community Garden to design a high-rise that would account for the sun and shadow lines the building would cast on the garden.

The building is expected to appeal to those working at Drexel University, the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania, the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Medicine, Yeager said. He also stated that several employees of Vanguard, an investment management company, have already contacted the Radnor Property Group about leasing apartments.

The Radnor Property Group signed an agreement with University City that it will not lease to undergraduates.

Located across from the Philadelphia skyline, Yeager said Vue32 was constructed at an angle to optimize the view of the city from the 17th floor’s outdoor deck.

“We cocked the building. It was more expensive for us but it was something we felt very strongly about,” Yeager said.

He noted that the heavy equipment operators strike against contractors in Philadelphia, which began June 27, is currently holding up the building’s completion.

Family and friends of graduates, professors and potential employers packed into Drexel University’s Leonard Pearlstein Gallery June 12 for the Westphal College of Media Arts & Design annual Graphic Design Senior Show.

This year 38 students displayed their work, presenting everything from logos to packaging created in product design courses to interactive senior projects. The newly minted graduates each stood beside displays presenting their best creations over the last four years.

“This was a publications project,” Brent Jones said, describing his favorite creation, a collection of booklets called “Pieces.” “It focused on typography.”

“Pieces” consists of one folder containing four original booklets displaying a new typeface Jones created, a famous typography book, a famous typographer and an alphabet.

“Figuring out the size and dimensions and fitting them all in this thing was definitely the trickiest part,” Jones said of the project, explaining that each booklet fits precisely into the publication until removed for viewing.

Another student, Eric Bush, described a project he enjoyed — recreating the movie poster for the film “Ex Machina.” His iteration used precisely-placed Post-it notes to outline a human’s profile against a black backdrop.

“It was so many elements combined into one,” Bush said, explaining that he originally placed Post-its on a wall to photograph and then played with the file in photoshop.

Bush also designed “Grow,” a simple pepper-growing kit with user-friendly packaging.

“The whole idea is easy-to-grow packaging,” Bush explained, noting that it was compostable as well.

Stacks of personally-designed resumes and business cards were piled at each student’s station. The event lasted from 7 to 9 p.m., giving attendees two hours to inquire about projects and circle through the exhibit.

Crowded into the Black Box Theater June 17, more than 140 people witnessed the instrumental debut of a new, magnetic instrument called Drumhenge, invented over the last year at Drexel University’s ExCITe Center.

“This project is the collaboration between an engineer and an artist,” Jeff Gregorio, co-creator of Drumhenge and a Ph.D. candidate at Drexel’s Music and Entertainment Technology laboratory, said. “At every step. From concept to implementation.”

Gregorio conceived of Drumhenge in collaboration with Peter English, a musician and film director who joined the ExCITe Center as its first Artist in Residency in 2016.

Funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s arts program, Drumhenge consists of 16 drums arranged in a circle, rigged with an electromagnetic mechanism that induces vibrations, combining music and technology.

“We wanted a combination of different perspectives to produce outcomes that we might not have produced if it had been just an engineer working on the project,” Gregorio said.

Drumhenge operates in two ways: harmonizing with notes played by instruments around it and synchronizing its component drums — wireless communication between the individual toms allows a strike on one drum to trigger a sequence of sounds around the circle.

When struck, typical drums create two distinct noises — the initial striking noise and the strike’s reverberations, echoing throughout the body of the drum. English and Gregorio created a way to initiate the drum sound without an acute strike by positioning magnets finely controlled by electricity near the drumhead and gluing steel foil to the drumhead itself. The magnets produce noise within the drum by turning on and off, rapidly attracting and repelling the steel foil, and consequently the drumhead, to create a vibration that echoes through the drum’s body.

On drums, saxophone and bass, three local musicians performed onstage alongside English, who played the drums with a keyboard when Gregorio was not controlling them from his laptop. As each drum emitted a sound, it lit up in color using LED lights beneath the drums’ heads. Colorful lighting for the performance was offset by theatrical smoke, creating an immersive experience.

The band played several original compositions for the audience, written to showcase Drumhenge’s capabilities, as well as one cover — The Working Hour by Tears for Fears — for the hour-long show.

Preceding the performance, audience members were treated to a tour of the instrument. Split into groups of 25, audience members were given a chance to play Drumhenge and see its wireless communication controls in action as English and Gregorio explained the musical theory and technology behind it.

“The purpose of the introduction was to give the audience an idea of what they were looking at since the average person isn’t probably familiar with augmented acoustic instruments,” Gregorio said. “Otherwise it could just kinda look like these weird sounds are coming from somewhere as the drums are lighting up.”

Gregorio said that the Drumhenge team is currently looking at doing a performance in New York in the fall and also considering performing at festivals that have a musical technology component.

“We would definitely like to continue the project and continue expanding on the tech, especially the ensemble communication aspect of it,” Gregorio said.

Due to Drexel University’s projected enrollment of 3,100 students for fall 2017, Myers Hall will remain open for the 2017-2018 academic year, Drexel University’s Department of Campus Services announced June 7.

Myers Hall, which was previously slated to be demolished and replaced with green space, is now expected to house select College Learning Communities. Freshmen will also be able to choose from Caneris Hall, Kelly Hall, Millennium Hall, North Hall, Race Street Residences, Towers Hall or Van Rensselaer Hall.

Further plans are currently being formalized to house the large number of incoming freshmen. The Triangle will provide additional updates as soon as this new freshman occupancy plan is complete.

More than 3,500 students have submitted enrollment deposits to join Drexel University’s incoming freshman class.

Even accounting for “summer melt,” a term that refers to students who submit deposits in the spring but do not enroll in the fall, this freshman class is expected to be around 3,100 students — much larger than Drexel’s target of 2,400.

“Candidly, it was not our goal, necessarily, to be at 3,500 students,” Vice President of  Enrollment Management and Student Success Randy Deike said.

“But if you make assumptions about yield rate increases, and you’re wrong — if you assume no increase and you have an increase — [the class is] going to be larger than anticipated,” Deike explained.

Drexel received almost the same number of applications as last year.

“A little over 28,000,” Deike said.

Because the number of students who decided to come to Drexel after being accepted last year was lower than usual, around 2,600, Deike said the University made a conservative estimate as to how many would choose to come this year.

Drexel offered around 22,000 students admission and around 15.8 percent of accepted students submitted enrollment deposits — a 43 percent increase over 2016 freshman deposits. Deike said this is probably the highest yield rate Drexel has seen in a decade or more.

Deike said the high yield is evidence of response to Drexel’s new enrollment strategy, implemented in 2015, which made numerous changes to Drexel’s admissions process, including adding $50 application fees and requiring an essay, SAT scores and two recommendation letters.

The university has also drastically changed its messaging.

“We’d become way too vocational in how we talked about Drexel — it was all about co-op. Co-op is critically important to the Drexel experience, but it’s not everything,” he said. It is only one part of Drexel’s academic curriculum.

Drexel has also increased the number of representatives sent to high school visits and college fairs — attending only 75 of them in 2014 and 3,075 in 2017.

In addition, the admissions department has been working more closely with high school guidance counselors and communicating more closely with prospective students’ families.

Provost Brian Blake has also asked each college to have ten touch points, from a recruitment perspective, where they individually engage with high schools.

“It’s hard to estimate how much of that had an impact this year,” Deike said. “But [yield] is up 7.1 percentage points from 2014.”

Deike said the yield rate piece is almost impossible to predict because all the changes in the admissions process are happening at once.

“We’re not just changing one or two things, we’re changing everything,” he said.

While there are models to predict how many accepted students Drexel University will yield, they aren’t necessarily very accurate — because these models use student enrollment data sets from Drexel’s previous admissions strategy.

Deike said there are many pieces in the admissions process including budgets and revenue, academic profile, enrolling right-fit students and student diversity.

“When you’re trying to manage all of those pieces and increase yield, there’s going to be some volatility,” Deike explained.

In addition to increasing Drexel’s yield, another goal with the new admissions strategy is to increase student retention. Approximately 89.1 percent of the fall 2015 freshmen returned to class for sophomore year — higher than Drexel’s average return rate of 84 percent.

Deike said this may be, in part, due to a shift in Drexel’s financial aid.

“We’re focusing more on need-based aid, and that’s had a significant impact on retention,” Deike said. “So not only have we seen the 7 percent increase in yield over three years, we’ve seen an over 4 percentage point increase in one-year retention for the fall 2015 class, which is unheard of.”

Prior to 2015, the majority of aid Drexel awarded was merit-based, according to Deike.

At the beginning of the fall term, the Drexel Veg Club, then only a few weeks old, created a petition stating that student dining halls need more healthy options for students.

More fresh fruits, vegetables and a wider variety of plant-based options were all part of the  platform, as well as Meatless Mondays.

But nearly three terms later, the petition has only 52 signatures, equivalent to the support of 0.4 percent of Drexel students.

Freshman Elizabeth Calio, a vegan and an active member of the Veg club, doesn’t think this is because there isn’t widespread support for the petition’s goals — rather, she thinks the light response is due to a lack of publicity.

“Being vegetarian can be really hard for students on the meal plan. I know some of my friends were vegetarian, and they went away from that just because at the dining hall it’s really hard [to find vegetarian options],” Calio said.

Many of the Veg Club members are freshmen, Calio said, so good dining hall options are very important to them.

But the options have gotten a lot better since Aramark took over as Drexel’s food service provider, Calio said.

“At the [Handschumacher Dining Center], they actually have a vegan station now, which is really cool,” she said. But she noted there’s still progress to be made: less fried food, more vegetables and fruits, dairy-free salad dressings, and more filling vegetarian options at Northside Dining Terrace.

She says that the organization’s goal is to get signatures from mainly freshmen because they pay $1,895 per term for dining hall service.

In the fall of 2017, Calio said Drexel Veg will have a table at the freshman dorms to garner more support for the petition.

Photograph courtesy of Paseidon at Pixabay

You wouldn’t wear a cap and gown out and about on just any given day; it’s an ensemble reserved for one occasion and one occasion only — graduation.

In 2016, Drexel University reorganized its commencement practices when President John A. Fry announced that students could participate in both their individual colleges ceremonies and a university-wide commencement, where students from all colleges could celebrate their accomplishments together.

Held in the Philadelphia Phillies’ Citizen’s Bank Park, this larger venue provided graduates the opportunity to invite more family and friends to commencement. But there was still something bogging down many of the graduating students — before they could get to the day they’d celebrate the tons of hard work and thousands of dollars they’ve paid to earn their University degrees, they must pay for their caps and gowns.

They must be newly purchased. You cannot rent or borrow your gown from another student or organization, and you cannot just buy the hood specific to your college. If you have not newly purchased your cap and gown, you are not allowed participate at Drexel’s graduation ceremonies.

And it’s a steep price for a flimsy piece of polyester — $83 if you’re receiving a Bachelor’s degree, and $96 for a Master’s candidate.

When you include service and shipping fees, the total comes to $104, according to Lauren Gross, a senior Anthropology major.

Doctoral students have the option of renting their regalia. But for Master’s and Bachelor’s candidates, purchasing new is the only way to participate in their graduation ceremonies.

“Drexel makes you pay the full price for something that you use once. Even if you could borrow the items from a friend or relative,” Gross said, noting that she has friends from previous years, who no doubt could have lent her their regalia.

“My boyfriend graduated last year, as well as many friends who are still in the city would have definitely let me use their caps and gowns. In that case, I would have just had to get a new hood to represent my college, which would have been a fraction of the cost and would have been more economically and environmentally responsible than buying the whole package,” she continued.

And she makes a good point.

Thousands of Drexel graduates each year are required to buy new caps and gowns that they’ll only use once. After the ceremony, they’ll end up in closets or trash cans. For most, paying over $100 for a cap and gown seems absurd and unfair.

“My family is going through a rough financial situation. I know that I cannot walk without a cap and gown. Because money is tight, I was hoping to be able to rent our borrow the regalia to save some cash. However, since it seems I have to pay for them,” Cindy Landmesser, a senior photography major, told me.

“I may have to decide if I pay for regalia and miss some bills or not buy regalia and not walk at graduation, which I have worked for and earned,” she added.

I spoke to a woman on the phone earlier this week at the end of the “Drexel Commencement” hotline. She told me that students who might have trouble paying for their regalia could reach out to their respective college’s dean for financial help.

But honestly — why should they need to?

Participating in your graduation ceremony shouldn’t have to be something that students have to weigh. It should be a day that all Drexel students — regardless of their financial situation — can take part in.

It is possible to arrange such a thing. With just a quick search I found that at both Lehigh University and Cornell University, bachelors and masters graduates are afforded the option of renting their regalia.

Last year, the University took a major step forward in creating a University-wide Commencement where students across colleges could celebrate earning their degrees side-by-side. Next year, I propose it take another in making commencement more accessible to students financially by allowing us to re-use or rent our regalia.