This past Saturday, women everywhere very deservingly swelled their chests in pride as we commemorated International Women’s Day. I wanted to focus on a certain group of women in particular, women who don’t seem to get much credit for what they go through: teen moms. We don’t really think about them much when we talk about things like feminism and female advocacy. In fact, we hardly think about how teenage mothers are the ones facing possibly the two toughest times in their lives simultaneously: teenage adolescence and motherhood. In 2011, there were over 300,000 babies born to mothers from ages 15 to 19 in America, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fifty-seven percent of those births were comprised of black and Hispanic youths. Compared to the rest of the world, the U.S. has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy among the western industrialized nations.

Now, that is not to say that I want teenage pregnancy to happen. I recognize that it can be very detrimental to young women’s lives. According to the CDC, only 50 percent of teen mothers receive a high school diploma, as opposed to the 90 percent that do when they haven’t given birth. Children of teen mothers are more likely to do worse in school, drop out, be incarcerated, have health problems, be teen parents themselves and be unemployed. Luckily, however, in 2011, the CDC also reported that birth rates also declined by 11 percent for women ages 15 to 17 and seven percent for women 18 to 19, most likely due to increased knowledge about birth control and options for pregnant teens.

What I want to focus on, though, is with how we treat teenagers after they become mothers. Women who go through pregnancy and eventually birth suffer all types of ridicule and abuse. The entertainment industry, and MTV in particular, even profits from them. With shows like “Teen Mom” and “Teen Mom 2,” MTV gets incredible ratings. This past January, the season five premiere of “Teen Mom 2” had the highest ratings of any of the top 100 television shows on the air, according to Nielsen Ratings. Teenage motherhood, according to MTV, has become a show in the circus for onlookers to gawk at and laugh.

Shows like “Teen Mom” shame women. They shame motherhood. According to a Feb. 11, 2011, ABC News report on the former MTV show “16 and Pregnant,” MTV purposely created drama for the pregnant teen, Whitney Purvis, in order to create a false image of what the effects are of becoming pregnant. “Teen Mom” is also an exaggerated portrayal of being a teen mom, as MTV exaggerates with many of its shows and feeds off it for profit and viewings. If that wasn’t enough, tabloids like TMZ will further feed the flame by making invasive and probably untrue articles about the mothers’ lives. There were thoughts that these shows encourage young women to get pregnant.

MTV likes to give off a vibe that it only has shows like “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom” in order to make sure girls either stay away from underage sex altogether or are careful if they do engage in it. However, MTV’s portrayal of these women as aggressive, trashy and irresponsible women has contributed to the hostile stigma concerning teen moms. Gaby Rodriguez, currently a 20-year-old college student studying psychology at Columbia Basin College, learned this firsthand when she faked a pregnancy at high school in 2011. It was part of a social experiment that she kept up for nearly seven months. She published a memoir on the experiment called “The Pregnancy Project.” Rodriguez, who was one of the top students in her class, suddenly had her teachers and peers look down on her, saying that her pregnancy was a “waste of life.” Even her siblings and her boyfriend’s parents came down on her.

One of her close friends even said, “Her attitude is changing, and it might be because of the baby, or she was always this annoying and I never realized it.” Rodriguez ended this experiment at the end of the year and revealed the truth to her classmates. She gave out cards with all the hurtful comments she received during the experiment because of her pregnancy.

Think about what people say when an adult woman gets pregnant. People are supportive. Often times, she’d get gifts and compliments about her baby. People would want to try and feel her growing belly for a kick from the new life. They tell her how she glows, and they always tell her about the best parts about being a mother. They also sympathize with all the hardships about being a mother: morning sickness, cravings, mood swings, stretch marks and, worst of all, postpartum depression.

Now compare that to how we treat teenage mothers. We shame them for getting pregnant. We call them “sluts” and “stupid.” And the most popular question: “Couldn’t you close your legs?” We take advantage of them for our entertainment in “Teen Mom” and gossip. We have online pages dedicated to making fun of pictures of pregnant teens. But at the same time as all of this, teen moms still have to get good grades, go to clubs and try to get into college along with all the symptoms of pregnancy and motherhood.

How do any of our attitudes toward teen moms help anything? When you call her a “slut,” does it feed her baby? Does that teacher telling her that it was a “waste of life,” help her get her diploma? That teenager is taking up more responsibility than you, for herself and for her child that she wants to protect and keep healthy and happy. You can bet that all the CDC statistics of consequences of teenage pregnancy aren’t helped when we ridicule her and make her life more difficult.

Our stigma toward pregnant teens doesn’t stop future teenage pregnancies; it just hurts the ones struggling with it now. The real way to prevent teenage pregnancy is increasing sex education, but that’s not the point. Teen moms and pregnant teens deserve so much support from their environments in school and at home. We need to stop making them commodities for our viewing pleasure with MTV shows. The current representation of teen pregnancies in the media needs to be dismantled. It should be replaced with an acknowledgement that being pregnant and a mother at that age is not ideal and has consequences, but that doesn’t mean teen moms should be shunned. We should actively engage in support and compassion for them, just as we would for a mother who became pregnant as an adult.

Azwad Rahman is a biology major at Drexel University. He can be contacted at op-ed@thetriangle.org.

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Photo Courtesy: Drexel University

Eleventh Street Family Health Services of Drexel University, at 850 N. on the eponymous street, received a $2.5 million donation from the Sheller Family Foundation Feb. 17. The health center is expected to use the money to help add a new wing to its building, which is to be renamed the Stephen and Sandra Sheller 11th Street Family Health Services Center.

Currently, the center provides primary care services from nurse practitioners as well as integrated behavioral health consultations. The new wing, which will continue that mission, is expected to be completed in two years.

“It’s giving us more of an opportunity to bring in more of the [College of Nursing and Health Professions], more faculty and students,” Patricia Gerrity, associate dean for Community Programs and director of the 11th Street Center, said. “There are a couple things. One, we have no capacity for more people. People love coming here because [of] word of mouth; because of the care that they get. So we can see more patients, but we can also change the flow, change the practice and continue to be on the cutting edge of that.”

According to Gerrity, all of the primary care is going to move into the new building. There will also be an expansion of different units to the center, from pediatrics to art therapy.

“We are going to add a couple of the family therapy programs from our college,” she said. “We are going to expand the creative arts therapy program. Right now, we have one big activity group that people have to schedule at different times. We’re now going to have different sessions [for the different types of therapy].”

The expansion will also include a new yoga studio and an expanded fitness center.

Currently, three Drexel co-op students are employed at the center. These students are from multiple fields of study. The expansion will add new classrooms, video supervision, and other opportunities for students and research in the new wing. Before this expansion, co-op students would not have the opportunity to be taught all of the different fields of therapy, Gerrity said.

“We’ve had a long-term relationship with the Shellers,” Gerrity said of the couple that donated the funds.

Sandra Sheller, co-founder, director and president of the Sheller Family Foundation, is a Drexel alumna in creative arts therapy (‘04) and couple and family therapy (‘05) from the College of Nursing and Health Professions. Her husband, Stephen Sheller, is a co-founder of the foundation, a Drexel trustee and an attorney.

“[Sandra Sheller] has a great deal of expertise on maternal detachment and traumas, so she’s worked with us, headed programs here and helped staff [to] develop programs. She’s helped supervise creative arts students here. She’s gotten to know us over the years,” Gerrity said.

The Shellers have donated money to the 11th Street Center on other occasions and have gathered other supporters for the health center.

The health center was opened in 1996 under the College of Nursing and Health Professions. The site was temporary until the building where it resides today was built in 2002. Originally opened with a staff of five people, the health center has expanded to 55 employees.

“We’re totally out of space. We see about 6,000 patients a year. We had 32,000 clinical visits last year,” Gerrity said.

The health center, along with offering primary care from nurse practitioners, has a physician co-operator provided by Drexel. The center also works in education and research.

“We don’t separate the mind and bodies like most places do,” Gerrity continued. “For other places, the mind is carved out into a different system. Here we integrate behavioral and primary care. We think it’s an essential part of your care.”

The health center also has a teaching kitchen, a nutritionist, cooking classes, an urban farm, a fitness center, a full-time health coach, physical therapists from the CNHP, nursing faculty who make home visits, general social workers, some connections to the Drexel School of Law, mind-body therapists who work with things like yoga and stress-relief, prenatal care, midwives and child care. It works with Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program in order to provide the best care for the neighborhood around it.

The center is partnering with the Philadelphia Public Housing Authority to create a community center and make a “health campus,” which  would include green space and apartments for homeless veterans.

“Our patients have suffered a great deal of trauma, both family trauma and community trauma and violence,” Gerrity said.

Drexel President John A. Fry is supplying the health center with funds to receive a sanctuary certification, to provide an organizational approach to trauma healthcare.

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A University press released announced Feb. 17 that Drexel was selected to receive a $1.45 million grant from the National Math and Science Initiative, a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming education in the United States from grades three through 12.

The grant was received in order to replicate the UTeach program that was created in the UTeach Institute in The University of Texas at Austin, which created a national network of K-12 educators, research and clinical faculty. The UTeach program aims to improve science, technology, engineering and math education across the country and is implemented in 35 universities with 6,000 students. The program allows for students to earn a degree in their major and a teaching certification within their four-year program.

“The United States’ position as a global leader is, in part, a result of the innovation and discovery of our scientists and engineers. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics impact our daily lives in many ways, from advances in medicine that increase the average human lifespan, to new forms of interaction and communication and discoveries that unlock the mysteries of the universe,” Jason Silverman, associate professor of mathematics education and the director of the mathematics learning and teaching program, said.

“This grant solidifies Drexel’s position within the vanguard of efforts to increase the ranks of those qualified to teach STEM in today’s schools,” President John A. Fry said in the press release.

The UTeach program at Drexel will be known as “DragonsTEACH” and is an interdisciplinary initiative between the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and the School of Education. The program will be codirected by Silverman, associate professor of physics Luis Cruz, and professor of electrical and computer engineering Adam Fontecchio.

According to Silverman, the DragonsTEACH program will allow for features such as creating an interdisciplinary undergraduate STEM teacher education program led by a team of STEM subjects and STEM education faculty. The program will actively recruit undergraduate STEM majors with financial benefits and other incentives to consider teaching, and a pathway to complete both their major and a secondary teaching certification. Students in the program would have more career options by completing the program, according to Silverman.

“Teaching certification opens doors beyond teaching. For example, medical school admissions place a priority on students with education backgrounds, in part because of the role that advanced medical students serve in residency,” Silverman said.

“I’ve always considered educating in physics as a possibility, like as a fallback or if I find myself wanting to do that. If I had the opportunity to get certified in that, it would be while I was here studying physics in general. It’d be really advantageous,” David Georgeanni, a sophomore physics major, said.

The program is expected to start at the beginning of the next academic year, with two introductory recruitment courses, featuring introduction to inquiry-based instruction and mentored development of inquiry-based learning activities. Participants will be required to go to local schools. Each of these courses is worth 1.5 credit hours and students who complete them will receive a stipend into their DragonDollars account.

The program is predicted to have more than 250 undergraduates enrolled in it, producing more than 50 teachers per year by the program’s fifth year, according to Silverman.

“Drexel has made and continues to make considerable efforts in the preparation of STEM teachers, producing teachers primarily through graduate certification programs that emphasize teaching in urban contexts and experiential learning, the appropriate use of technology in teaching and learning, and other best practices in education. However, given the size of Drexel’s undergraduate population and its strong emphasis in STEM fields, we produce a very small number of undergraduate STEM teachers,” Silverman said.

Silverman will begin recruitment this spring. “We will be recruiting incoming freshmen during campus visit days during the spring and the summer, as well as other forms of outreach to accepted students. For current students, project staff will be visiting introductory science, engineering, and mathematics classes and sharing information about the program and its benefits. We will also be reaching out to students via University 101 experiences and being present around campus and at campus events,” Silverman said.

Sophomores will be allowed to join the introductory courses as well. Juniors and pre-juniors will be able to enter the program  once online courses become available. Juniors and seniors will most likely need additional time after graduation in order to complete the program.

“Too often in the United States — and especially in urban and other under-resourced schools —STEM teachers are teaching out of their area and/or are underprepared for their specific teaching assignments,” Silverman said.

According to a 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment study, 29 nations’ students performed better than U.S. students in mathematics and 22 nations’ students performed better than U.S. students in science.

“On the national level, we are unable to produce enough STEM students to fill the strong and evolving demand for STEM jobs. For these reasons and others, there is a clear need to improve the quality of STEM education in the United States,” Silverman said. According to Silverman, President Obama endorsed the STEM movement, committing to prepare 100,000 new STEM teachers.

Drexel was one of five universities to receive this grant. The expansion of the UTeach program is predicted to create 9,000 more math and science teachers by 2020, 10 percent of the predicted 100,000 STEM teachers by 2021. The other four schools that received the grant are Florida International University, Oklahoma State University, University of Alabama at Birmingham and University of Maryland, College Park.

“It is important to note that this isn’t just about teaching. STEM students that concurrently explore teaching have higher retention rates in their majors, higher graduation rates and overall higher GPAs. While there is no empirical research on the reasons for this, it is widely believed that students who think deeply about understanding and supporting others’ development themselves become better learners,” Silverman said.

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There were multiple benefits to Drexel’s third and a half snow day. I think the benefit we most enjoyed was not going to class, but the snow was a little concerning for those of us who had a concert to go to that day. Luckily, the concert was still on and living only a block away from the concert venue really made things much easier. Seeing LP and Kodaline perform at World Cafe Live was a fun and great experience, especially because the snowstorm took away most of the crowd.

World Cafe Live has two main areas for their concerts. We had the pleasure of having the concert in the lower level, with an intimate floor space, a bar in the back and balcony seating upstairs. The small crowd allowed my friend and me to get really close to the stage. The lighting was dim and colorful, a perfect setting for the slow indie tunes of LP and Kodaline.

LP, also known as Laura Pergolizzi, is a short, pop-indie rocker from New York with a preference for the ukulele and whistling in her songs. She came on to the stage with a relaxed and funny demeanor, making jokes with the audience. She was clearly very comfortable on the stage. Her singing was incredible in the sense that her vocal range was almost magical. Singing in a deep alto at one point and then taking the audience by surprise with a fierce high note that lasted for at least thirty seconds, LP was easily a crowd favorite, even as the opener. Her songs “Tokyo Sunrise” and “Into the Wild,” her most popular, really demonstrated her vocal range. Her whistling wasn’t just a cute addition to her song, but rather an integral part of the feel and effect of her songs that made you want to have a picnic in a park. She also played songs from her new EP that is expected in the coming months. LP, with her amazing hokey tunes, was definitely a pleasure and was called out for again as she was leaving. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to her, you’re missing out.

Kodaline, a soft rock indie band from Dublin, had a very business-like attitude with their performance, which was expected considering their stage time was cut down due to weather conditions. The crowd was very excited to see them nonetheless. The band mates, vocalist Steve Garrigan, lead guitarist Mark Prendergast, bass guitarist Jason Boland, and drummer Vinny May, had a brotherly bond evident in their song “One Day,” in which Garrigan talks about the relationship the band members have had since they were kids. Garrigan himself is a great singer with a variety of skills on other instruments such as the guitar, banjo and harmonica, all of which he used in his songs. One of the best parts of being in a crowd with Kodaline’s fans was the clear loyalty to the music. Though rife with EPs, Kodaline’s discography only boasts one studio album, “In a Perfect World.” Despite a lack of mainstream presence in the U.S., a majority of the crowd knew the words to all their songs. In one instance, Garrigan was taken aback as he was about to start singing a song and the crowd took over for him.

Another thing about Kodaline that I really enjoyed was that every band member could sing well and participated in the vocals. Prendergast and Boland provided great backup vocals to Garrigan. Even May participated in some singing for certain songs. May’s drumming skills were something of note; his drumming tricks and beat effects added a serene feel to the performance. Kodaline also maintained a good relationship with the crowd, talking about their inspirations and welcoming audience participation. They were genuinely happy that so many people were able to make it to the show in the snow.

The lighting for their show was also phenomenal; World Cafe used a disco ball to bring their songs to life. They also brought a collaboration song to life. Kodaline came down into the audience and sang “Bring it On Home to Me” by Sam Cooke. Kodaline always had a good attitude on stage, even when Prendergast broke a guitar string. They are just as fun to listen to as they are to see on stage. They have an amazing ability to change their soft sweet songs to banjo solos filled with energy, which can remind you of a Mumford & Son’s single. Kodaline ended the night with a two-song encore including their extremely popular “All I Want.”

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Dean of the Pennoni Honors College Dave Jones announced at the end of January that he is stepping down from the position, which he has held since 2008.

“I thought that this was my sixth year and I thought that I’ve accomplished a lot. I probably feel like I’ve peaked. You like to go out on top, while things are good, rather than when people are trying to kick you out,” Jones said. “It’s good to have someone coming in with fresh ideas.”

Photo credit: Pennoni Honors College

Jones was appointed to the position after Provost Mark Greenberg, the previous dean of the Honors College, moved into position of interim provost. Stephen W. Director was the provost at the time, but abruptly stepped down and was replaced by Greenberg. Greenberg then approached Jones with the deanship, who accepted.

Jones has been a part of Drexel University since 1978. He started at Drexel as an associate professor of film. He also served as the department head for the former humanities and communications department, the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design as well as the College of Arts and Sciences, according to the June 2008 memorandum from the provost’s office announcing his deanship.

“At the time, I didn’t know much about it. I taught [honors students] often, there were many teachers that taught for the honors [program], but I didn’t know about the overall thing. I hoped to raise the academic standard of the honors program and that means offer more diverse courses, better courses, a little bit better teaching, because we claim to offer the best teaching, but we don’t always. So I tried to upgrade all of that,” Jones said.

Before Jones took office, an honors student needed only seven credits to graduate with honors. This was increased to sixteen under Jones’ deanship. He also started an Honors College award for Excellence in Teaching, one of the incentives to get more teachers involved in the Honor’s College.

“I think a challenge for being a dean of this college is that you can’t do too much without getting all of the other deans to go along with it. They’re not our students … anything we do infringes on someone else’s territory a little bit. The challenge is to come up with ideas that won’t encroach [on] other people’s areas, but enrich them,” Jones said.

Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Professionals Gloria Donnelly wrote in an email, “It has always been a pleasure to work with Dean Jones. In fact, Dean Jones and I co-designed an honors course, ‘Experiencing Mental Illness Through Film.’”

She continued, “Dean Jones has a wonderful grasp of the learning needs of honors students and how to challenge them.”

As posted by the provost, Donnelly will head the search for a new dean of the Honors College who is to be chosen from within the University. Candidates can either apply or be nominated. The search committee will then review the candidates and present three to four nominees to the provost.

“The position demands a creative scholar with great collaborative skills who can promote the goals of the [University’s] strategic plan through the honors program, particularly interdisciplinary work, increased research opportunities for students and compelling, issue oriented coursework,” Donnelly wrote.

“I’ve loved [being the dean of the Honors College]. It’s really been fun. It’s been a challenge, but I’ve liked it a lot,” Jones said.

As the dean, Jones has changed much about the Honors College. For example, he facilitated giving away the writing program, originally run through the honors college, to the Drexel Writing Center, which is run by the Department of English and Philosophy. Jones facilitated the creation of the Center for Civic Engagement, which became so large that it is now an integral part of the University. He also created the Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry, which runs the Custom Design Major program at Drexel and only accepts 10 students a year.

The Honors College, under Jones’ leadership, also created the Center for Cultural Outreach, which creates publications that represent Drexel, such as The Smart Set and Table Matters. The Students Tackling Advanced Research Scholars Program was also started at the Honors College during his deanship, which now runs through the Office of Undergraduate Research.

“The Honors College has grown considerably in size and importance. In fact, when I was researching honors colleges on the Internet, I discovered that Drexel University was ahead of the curve in having a well-defined honors program with its own dean and infrastructure. Dean Jones has done a wonderful job in developing the college and engaging faculty to teach honors students. And, he is interested in seeing the college develop even further,” Donnelly wrote.

Jones has been assisting in the search to find the best candidate for the position by sharing the Honors College strategic plan with the committee.

“First of all, you have a great staff. You really do. They’re dedicated and they work very hard. They themselves come up with a lot of the ideas. Over my six years, a lot of good ideas were what the staff came up with. Trust your staff and always think of the students. If you’re thinking about what you should do, you should think ‘Is it good for the students or is it not?’ And if it’s not, then you shouldn’t do it. On the other hand, don’t be afraid to spend money [on programs] that will be exciting for students,” he said.

Jones cited the new travel courses among things that were spent on in order to excite students. “The ideal course is fun but it is also intellectual. It’s supposed to stretch your mind,” Jones continued.

Before his time at Drexel, Jones attended graduate school at Stanford University for communication research and taught in Australia for three years, where he was a part of Film Australia. He also spent some time in Canada where he helped form the National Film Board of Canada.

The post Honors dean will resign from office appeared first on The Triangle.

Mason Payonk, a sophomore legal studies major from Scranton, Pa., will be opening for this year’s Homecoming Dance Party Jan. 25 under his stage name Mason IV Real.

According to Payonk, he has been a rapper since his sophomore year of high school.

Source: Mason Payonk

“I started it as a joke my sophomore year with a bunch of friends, then I start[ed] doing it seriously,” he said.

Payonk got his chance to perform at the annual homecoming concert after his manager from Eclectic Management, an alumnus of Drexel University, contacted Associate Dean of Student Engagement John Cooke.

“I actually played at the Theatre of Living Arts Dec. 12 and I put together a video of the show and stuff like that, along with my SoundCloud page and stuff like that,” Payonk said, describing his selection experience.

“When I got the news that I was on, I was ecstatic. Trinidad James is fun. Schoolboy Q is awesome. Griz — I’m not a huge [electronic dance music] fan, but I saw Griz at the TLA. He’s awesome. His funk music is dope. Carnage kills it. He’s awesome,” Payonk said.

“I told my close friends, but I wasn’t allowed to announce it until the night that they announced [the performers]. I got a lot of text messages. At home, back [in] Scranton, I felt like I had no hometown support but that’s because when I started I was obviously terrible. My music was bad; I thought I was good. So, no one really took me seriously. So now, I feel like people take me seriously. Like, ‘Wow, he’s opening for this artist and this person’ and then they check out my stuff,” he continued.

Payonk described his music as “new-age” and “contemporary.”

“It’s not like the classical, lyrical stuff. It’s fun stuff related to it,” he said.

He also reported having rhythm and blues influences in his rap. He listed other artists as influences, such as Drake, T. Mills and G-Eazy.

Payonk has played other shows, opening for other artists such as Lil Debbie in October at The Note in West Chester, Pa.

He also opened for Chris Webby in his December show at the TLA, and homecoming will be his next performance. It was after his first show that he came in contact with a promoter who will help him book more shows in the future.

This March, Payonk hopes to have a mini-tour: one show in Scranton, one show in Stroudsburg and another at the TLA, where he hopes to open for T. Mills.

Payonk has nine tracks available for free download on his SoundCloud page and four music videos on YouTube. The three most downloaded songs from his SoundCloud are “Do You,” featuring artist W.E.S., “Alone” and a freestyle rap called “Versace.” Payonk also has one mixtape called “The Rendition” from his senior year of high school and one from last year called “Commercial Break.” He has an eight-song extended play coming out Jan. 31 called “The Variety.” According to Payonk, however, he has written 200 songs since his start in high school, only 20 of which he likes to perform live.

Payonk recorded all of his music in his Drexel residence hall room and one of his videos was filmed in a Drexel residence hall. He has done a collaboration song on his new EP with another Drexel artist, Kid Riz, a freshman.

“After I graduate, I want to go to law school. I want to do entertainment law. I’m looking at schools like [University of California, Los Angeles] and [New York University]. Ultimately, I want to be like an agent for people. I like to argue with people, so being a lawyer is the perfect job for me, I feel like. Anywhere in the law field, I’d be content with, but right now I’m looking at entertainment law,” Payonk said.

“I can’t even put it into words how excited I am [for Homecoming]. It’s [going to] be crazy,” continued Payonk.

He said he has made a set list of seven songs and is going to give away free merchandise to the audience. “It’s just cool to have someone from the school, opening up for these big name artists,” he said.

President John A. Fry released an official statement Dec. 27 on behalf of Drexel University, stating that the University will not be following the example of the American Studies Association in boycotting Israeli universities.

The ASA, of which Drexel is not a member, is one of the largest associations of interdisciplinary studies of American culture and history with almost 5,000 individual members. On Dec. 4, the association passed and announced a resolution stating that it would participate in an academic boycott against Israeli institutions in a meeting of 745 ASA members. They also held an election later in December that was attended by 1,252 voters, with 66 percent voting to endorse the decision of the resolution, 30 percent voting against it and almost four percent abstaining. The voting body for the election was said to be the largest in the organization’s history.

Source: panoramio.com

According to the press release on the ASA website, serious discussion of a boycott began about a year ago in response to the U.S. support of Israel despite Israel’s violations of international laws and U.N. resolutions. Also mentioned was the harmful impact of occupation on Palestinian scholars and students. The ASA claims that Israeli academic institutions’ actions often reflect state policies. The resolution had been debated within the ASA since December 2012 until it was recently passed.

“The recent action by the American Studies Association to boycott Israeli universities threatens to undermine this core commitment and the collaborations and intellectual inquiry through which it operates. We oppose it in sprit and in practice and encourage our faculty to range freely in their scholarship and creative work,” Fry wrote in the online press release.

Other academic institutions that have responded similarly to Drexel in rejecting the boycott include Columbia University, the University of California, Harvard University, Indiana University, Johns Hopkins University, Smith College and the University of Pennsylvania.
Provost Mark Greenberg said, “We felt that it was necessary to become a part of the conversation.” Drexel has many strong ties with several Israeli institutions. Most recently, Drexel, along with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, signed an agreement with Hebrew University in Jerusalem to form a consortium in biomedical research. According to Greenberg, “Potentially lifesaving research would be jeopardized if we said we don’t want to work with you anymore.”

“The fundamental reason is that universities are special places. They are sites of free and open inquiry. We believe anything is open to research, commentary, criticism. That’s why we have tenure for our faculty so they can engage in free and open inquiry,” Greenberg continued. “We wanted to go on record and say we were going against any restriction.” Drexel has also had partnerships with Palestinian institutions, namely Al-Quds University, with which, according to Greenberg, they are trying to have collaborations along with Israeli institutions.

According to Greenberg, instead of boycotting Israeli institutions, Drexel scholars should be open in their criticisms of violations found in Israel and their relations to Palestine. “We should be writing articles, being critical of what they’re doing, holding forums,” he continued, saying that if the ASA were to have a boycott on Palestinian institutions, the University would likewise refuse to be part of it. “If you want, you can see human rights violations … in North Korea, in some parts of Africa. It is the University’s job to look at the world with open eyes.”

Dragons for Palestine co-founder Arhama Rushdi, a senior political science major, said, “I was actually surprised [after reading Fry’s announcement]. I know the way Drexel leans, but I didn’t think that he would outright come out and say it, especially since we’re a typically politically apathetic campus, so I thought that it was interesting that he would choose this instant to come out and speak in favor of Israel.”
Rushdi also spoke about how she heard of students finding it difficult to get a co-op in Palestine because it was too dangerous but have found co-ops in Israel much more easily.

“I think they thought it was in their best interest to come out against it. They didn’t want to lose [Israeli relations], and they thought maybe infuriating or hurting a few pro-Palestinians that don’t have the same resources as Israelis is worth losing the Israeli contacts they have by not speaking out against it,” Rushdi said.

Dragons for Palestine is a group that began this past fall in response to the large presence of the Dragons for Israel group on campus, according to Rushdi. The group has hosted several dialogues, including events that have had audiences take roles of people on both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict at random, in order to help them understand the viewpoints of both sides.

Although the group tends to lean in favor of Palestine, viewing Palestinians as victims in the conflict, Rushdi said that the group has no defined mission statement and that it solely wishes to raise awareness and increase dialogues on the issues regarding the conflict and Palestine. “Even if you’re pro-Israeli, come to our organization and talk about it,” Rushdi said.

“I can see why the University said that. There are a lot of universities that said that. I mean, Harvard’s president recently gave a statement. That doesn’t mean I agree with it. I think that something good that’s come out of it is that it’s increased dialogue about the issue, and that’s always a plus no matter which way it goes,” Rushdi said.

In reference to the boycott itself, Rushdi continued, “I think the most important part of the boycott is the symbolism. A lot of people are comparing it to what happened when U.S. policies shifted toward South Africa during apartheid. That’s why people find this to be a landmark decision. It shows a shifting public opinion, at least from scholars.”

“A big term that has come up since the boycott started is this phrase of ‘academic freedom,’” Rushdi said. “A lot of people, including President Fry, have argued that by doing this we are hindering the academic freedom of Israeli universities, and what I hope to achieve is to get people thinking. We are making such huge statements that we’re taking away Israeli academic freedom, but we’re not thinking that every single day Palestinians don’t have basic freedoms. I feel like academic freedom is a higher order of freedom. Before that comes the right to be an equal citizen, the right to travel without constantly being frisked or being within a wall. Before academic freedom comes the freedom to have access to institutions of higher education.”
Dragons for Palestine is hosting a series of events for Palestine Awareness Week beginning Jan. 19. The events will feature a Palestinian scholar, international lawyers, movies and debates.

–Updated January 16 at 11:16 p.m.–

Boaz Levin, a marketing student, wrote in an email, “I fail to see how cutting off ties to Israeli universities furthers the interests of peace and coexistence. The [American Studies Association] is not making a move that will create peace but one that will continue to embrace hate and war.”

In contrast, the president of Dragons for Israel had a different opinion on the matter. “I first heard about the American Studies Association from [Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America], a nonprofit organization which specializes in media-monitoring and research to ensure accurate reporting about Middle East topics in America. At first, I was shocked and horrified that an academic institution that advocates for free thought would hold a discriminatory boycott of the state of Israel, a country that was recently ranked the second most educated country in the world and recently honored Mais Ali-Saleh, a female Arab student from Nazareth who was named the Valedictorian of Israel’s top medical school,” Asher Breverman, a pre-junior mechanical engineer, wrote in an email.

He also believed that the idea of academic integrity was at risk because of the boycott and that it was unfair to single out Israel.

“Furthermore, the boycott puts all of the blame of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Israel’s shoulders. There is no mention, on one side of the spectrum, [of] Palestinian terrorism and, on the other side of the spectrum, collaborations between Israeli and Palestinian universities,” Breverman said.

“As a student of Drexel University, I could not be more proud to see President John [A.] Fry come out in rejection of ASA’s boycott. Boycotting a country’s academic institutions does absolutely nothing to progress peace. Instead, it fosters animosity and further separation between the two peoples,” Breverman continued. Dragons for Israel will be having an event Jan. 28, featuring keynote speaker President John A. Fry on Drexel’s initiatives in Israel.

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Two Drexel students launched their new lifestyle app, goPuff, on the Android and the iOS platforms Oct. 16. This app was created by co-founder junior business majors Rafael Illishayev and Yakir Gola for their delivery company, a retail and wholesale company that specializes in hookahs and hookah supplies. The app also includes categories such as college essentials, hookah accessories, munchies and more.

There is a $1.50 delivery charge added to the bill, which is payable by cash or credit, according to Illishayev. The company is open for deliveries seven days a week from noon until 4:20 a.m.

“This idea started in Russia. I’m Russian, and this idea started off expanding the college experience for students and getting everything for them in a convenient manner. College students at, say, 10 [p.m.], can’t get their hookah supplies. Ninety percent of college students don’t have cars, and at 2 [a.m.] everything is closed. So we thought, to make it more convenient, let’s make an app that can do this. It expanded to everything that a college student needs, to condoms, to party cups. We recently got 180 cups with shots at the bottom,” Illishayev said.

According to Illishayev, the cups were invented by Solomon Falls and introduced on the show “Shark Tank” and are now sold by goPuff in the Philadelphia area. The 180 cup is a cup that, when flipped over, has a compartment for shots of drinks as well.

GoPuff also has services in providing hookahs to clubs in Philadelphia for a commission to the club for their older patrons.

“This app has been in Philadelphia for over two weeks now, and it’s growing and growing, little by little,” Illishayev said. Before their retail services, goPuff was a wholesale company. According to Illishayev, however, they are moving toward expanding their retail end of business and expanding this service to three other cities within the next two months.

“We have a factory in [New] Jersey accepting all the shipments from China. We have shipments from China, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and America,” Illishayev said. It is from this same facility that they make shipments to areas outside of the delivery zone. According to their website, goPuff will send deliveries outside of their zone through FedEx. For deliveries within the delivery zone, such as the Philadelphia area, all deliveries are said to be less than 25 minutes. Any deliveries over that limit, according to Illishayev, will be accommodated for with other free merchandise.

GoPuff delivers to all students in Philadelphia, including at Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania. The popularity of the company was driven by Facebook, using a jewelry store app that the founders had made previously to generate likes.

“We took all of our products and we took the prices of those products at the lowest margins, which is eBay and Amazon, and not only did we price smash them, but we also cut them by 10 percent. So not only are our items available on delivery, all of our items are cut by our cheapest competitors. We are by far the cheapest on the market,” Illishayev said.

When going on deliveries, drivers follow a script, asking customers where they heard of goPuff, and they report this information back to the office. When Illishayev took a delivery and answered the door with a customer’s orders, the customer said, “This is such a great idea. I’m definitely going to be a repeat customer.”

The app also allows for a loyalty points system, awarding points to customers as they order more from the app, which can equate to other products. According to Illishayev, most of the orders have actually been during the week as opposed to the weekend. Any tobacco-related products must be signed for to prove that the buyer is of legal age. It should be noted that the University Code of Conduct prohibits the sale of any tobacco products on campus and also bans the smoking or carrying of lighted tobacco products in Drexel buildings, including residence halls.

“I think it’s a good app because people need stuff late at night. It’s a really good app because sometimes you don’t want to walk all the way to 7-Eleven, and getting stuff within 25 minutes is really good,” Sahil Bangera, a sophomore biology major, said. “It doesn’t really matter whether it’s during the week or the weekend. It’s just that smoking hookah — it’s on your mood. So, when you’re tired and you had a tough day, you just want to smoke some hookah and ease out.”

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President John A. Fry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem President Menahem Ben-Sasson and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia CEO Steven Altschuler announced a research consortium Nov. 11.

The agreement, publicized during Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter’s trade mission to Israel, focuses on pediatric medical research that has the potential to be commercialized. The agreement was signed with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.

The first conference of this research initiative will take place Jan. 27-28, according to Drexel Vice Provost of Global Initiatives Julie Mostov. Mostov is responsible for the coordination of the consortium and management of the opportunities it will create for students.

“Drexel is really the leader of this consortium, based upon our work that we’ve already been doing with Hebrew University,” Mostov said. “All of these are truly collaborative programs, a collaboration that came out of the ideas and hopes of faculty members on both sides.”

According to Mostov, Drexel began its research relationship with Hebrew University in February 2010, leading to the first collaborative symposium between the two institutions, which was held that August in Philadelphia. Faculty from both schools came to the conference to focus on new translational research projects.

The Institute of Drug Research at Hebrew University and the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems at Drexel were the main forces behind these conferences. The first conference focused on sharing participants’ current research and collaborating on ideas for further projects. Sixteen teams, with members from both institutions, applied for grants to fund their projects. Each proposed ideas that had the potential to be commercialized to an advisory board made up of members from both institutions. Four teams were each granted $50,000.

The following February, faculty from Drexel traveled to Jerusalem for another conference in order to present the outcomes of the research conducted the previous summer. This conference also facilitated a new set of four projects, with $60,000 in funding per team.

“We were very pleased with the outcomes of the project,” Mostov said. “Even though it was very little money for that kind of research, for teams. Then there was only one [principal investigator] for each university, but of course there were [graduate] students involved and so forth. We did a survey of the participants, and we found out that everybody was really pleased with the collaboration and the engagement and many of them were already beginning to see some outcomes.”

Mostov did say that the teams had said that the current funding was not enough and that the time to do the research was too constrained.

It was with those criticisms in mind that Hebrew University suggested that the teams research pediatric medicine. Fry and Altschuler both supported the idea. They began to search for ways to gather the funding. Nutter’s office then approached Mostov with the idea of launching the project during the trade mission.

The organizers of the programs are currently working to bring the faculty members of the three institutions together to participate in the collaboration.

“We’re devising the conference around the complementary strengths of the three institutions,” Mostov said. “For instance, CHOP doesn’t have biomedical engineers. It may not have [some] of the other strengths that we have. On the other hand, they have incredible strengths in genomics and so many other areas. And then, people at Hebrew University are really good at drug delivery systems and some other areas.”

The research will expand and is open to all faculty members who have an idea that fits the criteria; Mostov cited computational analysis being done by computer science faculty.

“I think that international collaboration is always a good thing,” Christina Furia, a junior biomedical engineering major, said. “Especially for research because there’s a great experience for biomedical engineers to see how other countries research that may be outside of the lines of how we handle medicine. My specialty is pediatrics, so I may be interested. I have a lot of clinical experience with pediatrics and pediatric medicines for students with disabilities.”

According to Mostov, the research collaboration wanted to look into areas of research such as cancer and pain relief. However, the direction of the research is still emerging from the discussion. Other areas that she highlighted were the differences among drug delivery systems in pediatrics and finding more efficient ways to treat children. Research will be done in both Israel and the U.S., and Mostov predicted that project opportunities for undergraduate students could open up as early as April. Students who are interested in learning about the program can contact the Office of International Programs.

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Diane Rosenfeld of the Gender Violence Program at Harvard Law School and rape survivor Angela Epifano of the Huffington Post presented a seminar at Drexel Nov. 13. Their talk highlighted a powerful message on the future of sexual violence and abuse at Drexel and left lingering questions for students: How are abuse and violence handled at Drexel? If students became victims, where would they go? Would they even have a place to go?

“There’s probably some office you could go to, but I really just don’t know. I wouldn’t know,” Stacy Buzzetto, a senior history major, said.

Candace Wannamaker, director of the Victim Support & Intervention Services office on campus, explained the process for reporting domestic, dating or sexual violence. Students can report the issue to a resident assistant or any administrative staff member. The information is sent over to VSIS and the Department of Public Safety. In some cases, the Office of Equality and Diversity may become involved. Students also always have the option to file a report directly with the Drexel University Police Department.

“Since domestic violence and sexual assault are two very underreported crimes for women, we are hopeful that offering support services, students will feel safer reporting these crimes,” Wannamaker said. According to her, most domestic abuse cases get listed under physical violence and sexual violence and thus haven’t been listed as domestic violence.

“The most important thing to recognize is that the victim is in control of moving forward with any process,” she said.

“VSIS provides access to information about support services and available resources at Drexel and in the community to help them cope with the physical, emotional and financial consequences of crime. These elements are very important to helping a student regain an educational as well as a personal focus while away from family and friends. VSIS assists in restoring order to their lives after becoming a victim of a crime, trauma or critical injury,” she continued.

VSIS also offers free and confidential counseling services. Students have the options of going through with a student conduct process, a criminal process, both or none at all.

According to Stephen Rupprecht, assistant dean of students, students have several different rights as defined in the student handbook, including a separate waiting room during hearings from the accused, his or her family and friends, and the witnesses; the option to provide a written statement instead of an in-person interview; and a change of housing or academic assignments.

“There are only two outcomes for all cases, in violation and not in violation. For students who are found to be in violation, there are no restrictions or limitations regarding sanctions. Depending on the severity of the incident, suspension and expulsion will be considered. The input of the victim is always considered when issuing sanctions for these types of cases,” he wrote in an email.

According to Drexel Human Resources policy HR-36, Wannamaker said, “Domestic violence is defined as the occurrence of one or more of the following acts between family or household members, sexual or intimate partners, or persons who share biological parenthood: attempting to cause or intentionally, knowingly or recklessly causing bodily injury, serious bodily injury, rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault or incest, with or without a deadly weapon. Placing another in reasonable fear of imminent serious bodily injury.”

Lonnie Snyder is a 2010 Drexel graduate and the former president of the Drexel One in Four club, which is dedicated to helping women who have been sexually assaulted. “Before and even as alumni, I’ve had people come up to me with stories. Either they or their friend was sexually assaulted. The main thing that I’ve heard is that people don’t want to file reports or go to the Drexel Police because it’s traumatic. They just want a safe space to be able to talk to someone,” he said.

Snyder continued, “[The main problem is] they don’t feel like they’re going to be believed. They didn’t think that their friends were going to believe them.”

According to Snyder, he believes the best option is for Drexel to spread awareness of student options.

“I wanted to make a center, with all the construction going on, for survivors, a safe space. Sort of like the Penn’s Women Center,” Snyder said. “It was taken receptively by the administration and the student offices at Drexel. I never heard of any concrete plans, but when I graduated, I didn’t continue following up with it. I don’t know if there are currently any plans.”

Buzzetto continued to talk about how sororities handle domestic violence. “Every sorority is different, but generally there’s an executive board, and those are sisters that you should feel most comfortable to go to in case anything like this happened. Just being part of a sorority, we should be able to [feel] comfortable to go to one another,” she said.

“It’s kind of scary. It’s up to them, and if that were to happen to me, personally, I’d be really scared. You have to be strong enough to do it, and that’s like an individual basis, and I don’t think I’d be able to do that. I don’t think I’d be able to follow up with that. I think I’d probably just want to forget about it and that would be it,” Buzzetto said. “[I’d want to] just report it anonymously. I don’t know if you’re allowed to do that, so the person wouldn’t know. I’d feel more comfortable to do that.”

According to Snyder, the best way to handle reporting for someone who is being abused is to make sure he or she is comfortable and wants it to be reported. Snyder explained, “I was friends with a lot of sorority girls who were going through the process. The main thing for them was the stress of it. They have to report to the judiciary committee at Drexel, and they also had to continue retelling their story to a lot of people. The whole process was drawn out. I took that to be why a lot of people might not want to report it. They don’t have the time or the stress energy for all of those different reporting methods that Drexel has.”

Tamara Sharp, a second-year student in the Earle Mack School of Law and the president and founder of the Women’s Law Society, said, “[I think the biggest problem is] being labeled as a victim. Once people find out that you’re a victim of domestic violence, you don’t want to be treated any differently. They don’t want to look bad or look wrong for staying. I know a lot of people deal with it, but they stay, often a couple of months or even years after the domestic violence happens or while it’s continuously happening. There’s this stigma that people think that they caused it or had a part of it. In most cases, it’s really not true.”

VSIS is open to all students who want to report incidents regarding abuse, including students; staff; faculty; men; women; and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and ally community. The office can be contacted by calling 215-895-0353. VSIS is located in suite 215 of the Creese Student Center.

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