Adeoluwa Obayomi The Triangle

When the first neon signs popped up in the former Firestone building on 32nd and Market streets, students began to wonder about the new purpose of the property Drexel University had purchased in 2013.

Lights spelling out “RECORDS,” with an O cleverly constructed to resemble a vinyl album, was one of the first to make an appearance in the window glass. As more lights slowly appeared, foretelling of products such as ice cream and smoked meats, the intrigue gradually shifted to mystery. What kind of vendor or business could possibly be setting up shop here?

Now, with brightly colored signs advertising items ranging from 15-cent drinks to Pat’s Steaks, it’s become apparent that the signs are not indicative of what’s inside; rather, the building only serves as a host for the variety of illuminating relics.

This temporary neon exhibit, titled “See the Light,” consists of 29 signs and related items collected by Philadelphia native Len Davidson. According to Davidson’s website, he has been amassing a sign collection since the 1970s.

“Neon signs, once ubiquitous beacons of the American Dream, are rapidly disappearing,” reads a sign on Davidson’s rental. “This exhibit shares some of this history through my Neon Museum of Philadelphia collection.”

Davidson, who holds a doctorate in sociology, founded the Neon Sign Museum of Philadelphia in 1985. While only 29 of the pieces are on display at the former Firestone building, his collection exceeds 100 items in total.

“The 150-piece collection was begun in the mid-70s and focuses primarily on Philadelphia area signs from the from the 1930s through ’70s,” the press release for “See the Light” stated.

According to the press release, all this signs in the exhibit are completely restored, with the exception of the Pat’s Steaks emblem.

“It’s not just a matter of saving these signs. It’s preserving the culture that these signs are about,” Davison told CBS Philly.

Those interested in learning more about the antique signs can read about them in Davidson’s 1999 book, “Vintage Neon.”

While the building itself is not open to entry, the signs are illuminated for viewing from 8 a.m. to midnight everyday. According to CBS Philly, the exhibit will remain through September.

Jordan Hyatt SEPTA

On March 17, SEPTA officials released a series of proposed fare increases which, if implemented, would go into effect on July 1, 2017, for the 2018 fiscal year.

In the proposed plans, SEPTA tokens would rise from $1.80 to $2.00, and cash fare or Quick Trip tickets would increase from $2.25 to $2.50. The cost of a Weekly TransPass would increase from $24 to $25.50, and for a Monthly TransPass, it would rise from $91 to $96. Multiple other transit and railroad divisions will also be affected.

Starting April 19, SEPTA will hold ten public hearings to gauge public opinion on the plan. There will be two hearings in each of the five counties serviced by SEPTA, which include Philadelphia, Delaware, Bucks, Montgomery and Chester counties.

According to SEPTA’s March 17 press release, an independent hearing examiner will be present for all ten public hearings, and will offer recommendations to the SEPTA board prior to its vote.

This proposed fare increase is not unexpected. SEPTA adjusts its prices on a periodic schedule in accordance with the recommendations of the Pennsylvania Transportation Funding and Reform Commission. The three previous increases took place in 2007, 2010, and 2013. The implementation of the SEPTA Key, a reloadable card for paying fares, is what caused the 2016 increase to be delayed until now.

“This proposal builds on efforts implemented with the last increase to simplify the fare structure for customers as they switch to the SEPTA Key,” the press release said.

Examples of these efforts, according to the press release, include the transition from “premium fares” to permanent standard-fare rides on several bus routes as well as the Norristown High Speed Line.

“Fare revenues help fund SEPTA’s operating budget, which provides for the everyday expenses of running the system, such as labor, fuel and power,” the press release stated.

A full list of proposed fare changes can be found on SEPTA’s website at http://www.septa.org/notice/fare-change-hearing.html.

The Drexel University golf team reached the halfway point of their spring season at the Finegan invitational April 10, at which they finished just one shot short of first place.

Longwood University ultimately clinched the victory with 586 strokes, one under the Dragons’ 587. The tournament took place at the 36-hole course of the Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, and was hosted by La Salle University, whose team finished eighth of the 14 teams.

The first 18 holes saw a formidable performance by Drexel senior Yoseph Dance, who managed to sink four birdies over the final eight holes. He finished the first round with a 72, but an untimely quadruple bogey on the sixth hole of the second round  set him back considerably. However, he still managed to pull off his strongest performance of the spring, finishing out the rest of the round with four birdies and not a single bogey. Dance also tied for second overall among the players, trailing Longwood’s Jordan Boulton by just four shots.

Dragons junior Adam Mistretta and freshman Connor Schmidt both shot 73 in the first round and 75 in the second, finishing with 148 each. Sophomore Michael Cook did one better with 147, shooting three-over-par and tying for seventh place.

This second place finish for Drexel came just over a week after the Coca-Cola Lehigh Invitational, in which the Dragons also emerged as the runner-ups.

Next up on the schedule for the Dragons is the Yale Spring Invitational in New Haven, Connecticut April 15.  

Photo courtesy Mahmoud Hallak

In Aleppo, Syria, Mahmoud Hallak’s life was relatively normal — until it wasn’t.

His parents, both physicians, worked to support Hallak and his two sisters. But as the regime of President Bashar al-Assad tightened its grip on Syria, everything began to change.

“He [my father] decided to help some injured civilians … at that point, that was viewed as treason. Helping anybody who was injured by the government was a crime. So he was kidnapped, arrested and killed because of that,” Hallak, a pre-junior chemical engineering major, said.

The incident took place in May 2011. Hallak’s family was one of the first to be affected by political unrest in that part of Syria.

In the southern part of the country, protests were becoming common. However, around the time Hallak’s father died, Aleppo was still fairly complacent. Hallak was one of several catalysts that brought the resistance to his city.

“I was one of the people who decided that, in order for the revolution to carry on, our city has got to be part of it,” he said.

When he first began protesting, all the assemblies were peaceful.

“A group of people and I started protesting, and the city, in a few months, started joining more and more. So we started from a few people, to tens, to hundreds, and then we ended up with thousands of people every protest.”

By that time, Hallak said, essentially the entire country was swept up in the revolution. The Free Syrian Army was established soon after with the goal of overthrowing the Assad regime. It was when the FSA entered Aleppo to free it from regime control that the war really began, according to Hallak.

“Neighborhoods near mine were liberated, fighting started near me, and at that point, I gained the news that our identities were exposed. So the government knows who was protesting, and how we were working on that. So I had to flee the country.”

With his mother and two sisters, Hallak fled to Turkey. He resided there for a few months before coming to a conclusion that he had no future there — he didn’t even speak Turkish.

However, he could already speak English fairly well. Before the fatal accident, his father had applied for a U.S. visa for Hallak so that he could come visit his cousins. It had been granted to him the summer prior to their flight, but he’d never used it.

“I decided to go ahead to the U.S., and try to start over again,” Hallak said.

That was in October 2012.

Hallak stayed with his uncle in the U.S. for a year and a half to complete high school. At the time, he wished to follow his parents’ examples and become a physician. He was offered admittance to 19 of the 21 colleges to which he applied, but the cost proved to be a burden. Even the financial aid he initially received from Drexel was not enough. By sharing his story, Hallak was able to successfully appeal his financial aid.

“I was actually able to get a full scholarship. Which pretty much was the first step on the road for me. And since then, that taught me really how to go get what I’m trying to get and never give up. Work hard. And that’s been the way I’m doing things since I came to Drexel,” he said.

Things began to look up for Hallak once he began his education at Drexel. However, the rise of Donald Trump as a political force brought about a new set of problems for him.

Despite Trump’s campaign rhetoric regarding a “Muslim ban”, the seven-country travel ban implemented during Trump’s first days in office was still more frightening than Hallak had anticipated.

“What really scared me is that when it happened, it was [applied to] specific countries. So it was more focused than I expected, which meant that everybody from those seven countries was going to be affected in a different way, because the way they were looked at was going to be different.”

Hallak had applied for permanent residence (a green card) in February 2016. If the ban was not revoked, he figured, he would never get approved for it.

“If I don’t get my green card, then there’s no grounds for me to stay in the country. So it was a very stressful time, a lot of fear. In the back of my head, I was always thinking ‘what if, what if, what if.’”

The lifting of the ban has provided some relief for Hallak, as he thinks that green cards may now start to be granted again for individuals from the seven previously restricted countries. However, he still remains wary of other possibilities.

“You’ll never really know what’s going on inside of immigration services. They may be still holding everything back [on granting green cards] to see if there’s another order that’s going to come up, or something else that will change our status.”

Still, with Trump’s views on immigration and his green card status up in the air, the threat of Hallak’s deportation looms.

“Is there a possibility [that I could be deported]? There’s always a possibility. Even when you have a green card, unless you’re a citizen, there’s always a way. I hope it never happens, and I hope I get my green card soon, because that would be just a little bit more helpful,” he said.

To cope with the pervasive uncertainty of his own future, Hallak says, he just focuses on working towards his goals and completing his degree.

“The most important part is my education — if I keep stressing over it, it’s not going to change anything. So I better focus on my main goals. Unfortunately if it [my deportation] does happen, or if it comes very close, very obvious, then I will have to shift my focus to a backup plan. But yeah, I try not to think about it. I really do. It’s very distracting, when that’s in the back of your head.”

Hallak is one of 66 students at the university who hail from one of the seven originally banned countries. Out of thousands, that makes his position relatively unique. However, he says he generally has no trouble relating to his peers.

Despite Trump’s executive order, Hallak says he has not encountered any unkindness due to his ethnicity.

“That’s something I’m very thankful for in the U.S., that I’ve never felt unwelcome, I’ve never felt unsafe, I’ve never felt different. I only felt unique.”

Unfortunately, Hallak said, this fair treatment did not carry over other places he’s lived.

“I was in Europe for my co-op, and at some point I did feel that way [unwelcome] because I’m Syrian. So the fact that I lived years in the U.S. and never had that problem, and just lived three months in Europe and did have that problem, just tells me a lot,” he said.

In the U.S., Hallak started a series of presentations to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis in his home country. With Trump’s election and the passing of the immigration ban, his optimism faltered, but he now thinks the solution is simpler than it seems.

“When you look at Facebook and look at the Internet, it’s all articles that are very angry, articles that are attacking people who voted for Trump. ‘Oh, they’re stupid, oh, they’re this and that.’ Which is only making the situation worse. The fact that they voted for someone with these ideas is saying a lot about how far they have been pushed, and how much they have been ignored,”

Despite widespread political disagreement, Hallak does not think that anything resembling the current conflict in Syria will happen here. The Syrian war occurred as a result of many factors, and it took decades to incubate.

“The country (of the U.S.) has come together as a melting pot of different backgrounds and different ideas. There are some issues, but there’s general freedom of speech, freedom of thinking, that’s really appreciated and protected. And as long as that is there, there is hope,” he said.

Just because it isn’t happening in the U.S., though, does not mean it isn’t a problem. Hallak encourages people to be aware of violent unrest in other countries like Syria to prevent its spread.

“But we can see something similar to Syria happening in different countries, which would lead to another humanitarian crisis, and that will keep going. And I feel like it’s really important to prevent in different countries.”

In terms of his community, Hallak says he has felt very supported throughout the events of the past several weeks.

“I have received far more support from Drexel than I expected. I mean, the amount of emails I got from professors, faculty, friends, peers … it was, I mean, heartwarming, to be honest,” he said.

If he is able to complete his education here, Hallak will continue to pursue a career in energy, which he is extremely passionate about. Eventually, he aspires to be CEO at an energy-focused company, where he will aim to shift the country’s energy dependence to renewable sources.

“I personally feel that it’s only possible through companies that deal with non-renewables right now, because they’re the people who have the capital to do it, and they’re the people who have the influence, and they will not let it happen unless they have a hand in it. So my goal is to work with these companies, gain the experience, and go from there and help them transition into renewables, all through chemical engineering.”

Hallak will be giving a talk on human rights and social justice as part of the Crossing Borders conference on March 2 in Behrakis Grand Hall.

Rebecca LaQuaglia The Triangle

All drexel.edu email accounts will be moved to the cloud and upgraded to 50 gigabytes of storage, Drexel University Information Technology announced in an email to students Feb. 10.

This storage increase will come as a result of the migration of the current mail system to Microsoft Office 365. Five terabytes of online file storage will also be available to users as a part of this upgrade.

Faculty and professional staff will experience this update first. A schedule of when each department will have their emails upgraded will soon be made available by Drexel IT. Students will experience the upgrade second, as their emails are housed on a separate server.

For students, old emails will not be migrated to the new system. If students wish to keep old emails, they can transfer them to the new system individually.

An exact timeline has not been released for the mail system update, but the old system will remain functional through June 2017. More information can be found at drexel.edu/it/office365.

Photo Courtesy Jeff Fazio

More than 2,000 people protested President Donald Trump’s travel ban in Center City, Philadelphia as part of the Feb. 4 March for Humanity, according to NBC10.

The march began at Thomas Paine Plaza around 1 p.m. and did a circuit up Chestnut Street to Independence Hall and back down Market Street through City Hall. During the march, protesters chanted, “no hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here,” and “love, not hate, is what makes America great.”

“We will not stand by quietly after the executive order that bans refugees and immigrants from seven Muslim countries (Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen). We oppose the ban and any other action that harms our communities or treats people with indignity,” the description in the Facebook page for the event, titled “Philadelphia March for Humanity — #SanctuaryEverywhere,” said.

The March for Humanity was planned as a response to the executive order Trump signed Jan. 27, prohibiting the entrance of most refugees into the United States for 120 days. The order also banned immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia for three months.

Another executive order was signed by Trump Jan. 25 intended to withhold federal funding from cities designated as sanctuary cities. There is no exact definition of sanctuary cities, but in general they are cities that have more protections for illegal immigrants. Because it does not hold undocumented immigrants in custody for nonviolent crimes, Philadelphia is considered a sanctuary city, and its federal funding could have been under threat from this executive order.

According to Philly.com, Mayor Jim Kenney has said that the designation has recently been renamed from “sanctuary city” to “Fourth Amendment city,” and that he plans to keep it that way.

“We respect and live up to the Fourth Amendment, which means you can’t be held against your will without a warrant from the court signed by a judge. So, yeah, we will continue to be a Fourth Amendment city abiding by the Constitution,” Kenney said.

Drexel University President John A. Fry has also conveyed intentions to support foreign students in light of the travel ban.

“These members of the Drexel community [international students] have our strongest backing. In support of them, I have joined my academic colleagues nationwide in petitioning the President to reconsider this executive order,” Fry wrote in an email to students on Jan. 29.

The American Friends Service Committee, a non-profit Quaker organization that advocates for human rights, hosted the March for Humanity. The AFSC was founded during World War I to protest violence, and co-received a Nobel Peace in 1947. Today, it continues its original mission to promote peace through organized events.

More information about the organization the hosted the March for Humanity can be found at https://www.afsc.org/.

Tern Water Facebook

Tern Water, a startup founded by Drexel University students, announced Jan. 23 that it received a six-figure investment from Cross Capital, an arm of the Philadelphia-based real estate development company Cross Properties.

Tern’s flagship product is the Smart Faucet, which is a faucet attachment that uses silicon technology both to purify water and to send usage data to an app on the user’s smartphone. According to Mohamed Zerban, Tern’s CEO, this new funding from Cross Capital is the biggest seed investment Tern has received yet.

Initially, executives at Tern approached Cross Properties as a potential client for their product, which led to their interest in investing.

“They [Cross Properties] fell in love with the product and felt it will have a significant impact on our communities. They then wanted to collaborate with us, and we started negotiating their investment,” Zerban said in an email correspondence.

Tern was founded in 2014 by Zerban and Connor White. They came up with the company as a way to allow households to have inexpensive access to clean water and monitor their water usage. The Smart Faucet is not yet available to the public, but Zerban said the company is making progress.

“The product will be open for pre-orders initially through one of the crowdfunding platform very soon, within the next few months. We will be releasing an official press release soon with more details,” Zerban said.

Tern Water participated in Drexel’s 2015 Start Up Day, which allowed them to work with the Baiada Institute as well as the Close School of Entrepreneurship.

Students can follow Tern Water’s developments at TernWater.com, or follow Tern Water on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Virginia Tanner The Triangle

The FBI is investigating a scam email that has been sent to some students at their drexel.edu accounts, according to Robert Lis, Associate Director of Investigations at Drexel University.

The subject line of the scam email is “Part Time Job Offer.” The text of the email claims that it is being sent by someone at the actual IT company TEKSystems, looking to hire students.

“Scam (and phishing) emails are types of fraudulent spam intent on stealing sensitive information (e.g. your Drexel sign-in credentials, bank account, credit card numbers),” the Drexel IT Email Scams webpage reads.

According to the FBI, the emails are meant to entice students to give out their personal information, which could then be used by scammers for illicit activity including theft.

The full body of the email reads as follows.

“Dear Student, We got your contact through your school database and I’m happy to inform you that our reputable company TEKsystems, Inc® is currently running a student empowerment programme. This programme is to help loyal and hardworking students like you secure a part time job which does not deter you from doing any other, you just need a few hours to do this weekly and with an attractive weekly salary. KINDLY EMAIL BACK WITH YOUR PERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESS IF INTERESTED IN THIS JOB POSITION.”

It is signed “Best Regards, LAURA KAGE, HR Manager/Consultant TEKsystems, Inc®” with a link to www.teksystems.com.

The spelling of the word “program” as “programme” suggests that the emails may be sourced outside of the U.S., according to the FBI.

To avoid being affected by email scams, Drexel IT advises students to never give away passwords, don’t open unexpected attachments, and don’t click unfamiliar links. Sophos Endpoint Antivirus Software is available to Drexel students for download at software.drexel.edu.

Students who receive an email that they believe to be suspicious can contact the IT Help Desk at consult@drexel.edu or forward the email to spamreports@drexel.edu.

Photo courtesy Drexel University

Due to decreased income from smaller class sizes, Drexel University faculty and staff will not receive merit increases in 2017, according to an email sent by President John A. Fry on Dec. 16.

A 2-percent cost of living adjustment will be afforded to employees earning $75,000 or less per year if they were hired before July 2016. Those earning between $75,000 and $150,000 per year will be considered for a raise at the end of the fiscal year if the university draws more profit than anticipated, Fry wrote.

“During this five-year transition period, we have to adjust our spending to maintain our financial strength,” he said in the email.

The cutbacks are a result of the 2014 change in Drexel’s admissions strategy, which shifted the focus from attracting as many applicants as possible to attracting only “right-fit” applicants. This overhaul, intended to increase yield, retention and graduation rates, also led to a decrease in class sizes for the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 academic years. As Drexel is a tuition-dependent institution, this reduction of the student body resulted in a loss in revenue.

To adjust to decreased income in the 2016 fiscal year, Drexel’s operating budget was reduced by $20 million.

“ Vacant positions were eliminated first [in the 2016 fiscal year], and several dozen filled positions were eliminated across the University in almost every administrative area and at every level,” Fry wrote.

The incoming freshman class of 2016 was composed of about 2,330 students, compared to 2,720 in 2015. The smaller class size made additional budget cuts for 2017 a necessity.

To balance the budget for the 2017 fiscal year, Drexel eliminated expenses and boosted other income sources by $43 million. That included colleges and schools eliminating $9 million in costs corresponding to the reduced class size.

As a result of the admissions overhaul, which eliminated the free application, the one-year retention rate for the fall 2015 freshman class was 89.1 percent, a four-point increase over the average of the previous five cohorts. The fraction of students offered admittance who actually chose to enroll, also known as the yield rate, is currently 11 percent, up three points from 2014. The national average is 36 percent.

Fry wrote that he is encouraged by the results of the new admissions strategy so far.

“By increasing retention and graduation rates over the long term, we expect Drexel’s academic reputation to improve significantly. That, in turn, will enhance our ability to enroll more students prepared to succeed at Drexel,” he wrote.

Photo courtesy Drexel University Communications

Ambition can’t wait.

That’s both the title of Drexel University’s newly minted ad campaign, and the message communications officials hope to instill in prospective students who encounter the university’s bus wrapping and digital billboard advertisements in the greater Philadelphia area.

Rather than trying to spur enrollment, the campaign is targeted towards increasing Drexel’s brand awareness. Senior Vice President of university communications Lori Doyle noted that other local institutions such as Temple University and Villanova University have prevalent physical advertising throughout the city.

“You rarely see a Drexel University ad or billboard anywhere,” she said.

The addition of the Drexel ads are intended to instill a sense of pride in students and alumni and to give the general public an idea of what the university has to offer. A briefing by advertising consultant Ogilvy & Mather said that 92 percent of adults in the Philadelphia area have heard of Drexel but only 35 percent have heard of the co-op program.

“We really want to try to raise awareness, not just of the Drexel brand, but also of what makes us different. And that’s our co-op program and our unique academic program,” Doyle said.

Because it is difficult to showcase all of the university’s programs in one advertisement, the communications department has launched the microsite drexel.edu/ambitioncantwait, which explains Drexel’s opportunities in more detail. They hope that individuals who see the ads will be inspired to visit the site and glean more information.

However, in order to get passersby to check out the site, they must first be drawn in by the aesthetic of the ad. Doyle noted that the communications department wanted a visual that stood out, emphasizing the unique incorporation of the quarter system and the co-op program to the Drexel experience.

“Disruptive and arresting,” Doyle said, describing the communication department’s original vision for the ad.

There are six variations of the ads, each of which feature a young person in a dramatic pose, with items related to a given discipline illuminating the space above and in front of them. For one of the ads, a young woman holds her chin high before a stream of books, loose leaf documents and a white, shining globe.

In five of the six ads, the individuals pictured are Drexel students. The communications department worked with Ogilvy & Mather and Valerie Ifill, director of Drexel’s dance program, to cast students to participate in the shoot. The chosen five were taken to Brooklyn for a professional photo shoot by renowned photographer Timothy Saccenti to get the images for the ads.

Animated versions of the ads are expected to be on rotation on digital displays in Dilworth Park, Philadelphia International Airport and 30th Street Station and wrappings will be on several SEPTA buses, Doyle said. Print ads will be in The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Wall Street Journal while Pandora, Spotify and Sirius Satellite Radio will host audio ads.

Doyle emphasized that the ads really aim to encompass the ambition of Drexel students, and she hopes that when current students see the ads, they will feel proud to be here.

“Our students don’t want to wait until they graduate to start working,” she said. “They want to start having those experiences while they’re still students. And they don’t want to wait until they’re in graduate school to do research, they want to do that as undergrads … there’s a real impatience here, and we think that this campaign really captures the essence of that.”