Just like students take an online course at Drexel, students who are working as a resident assistant had to see sets of slides, answer discussion boards, complete quizzes and attend Zoom meetings for their training — except, unlike regular students, they have the big responsibility looking over all the students who recently moved back into the dorms in the middle of a pandemic.

Student move-in began on Saturday, Jan. 17, and lasted a whole week, unlike previous years when it only lasted a weekend. Each student had to pick up a time slot and each residence hall could move-in only five people per time slot, which made the process more time-consuming but also more controlled and safe.

Only the students assigned at each time slot were allowed inside the building — no friends or family members could help them complete the “rite of passage of move-in” because of the no-guest policy in all residential buildings. However, there was moving staff available to help them transport their luggage and heavy items into their rooms, sanitizing each bin after its use.

Immediately after move-in, students had to complete a COVID-19 test on Race Library Learning Terrace and stay in a “quiet period” until they received negative results,  where they could only leave their rooms to go to the bathrooms or to pick up their to-go meals at each building’s front-desk at the lobby.

According to the Drexel COVID-19 Dashboard, there were 40 positive tests out of 2,448 screen tests of the week from Jan. 18 to Jan. 24 — which falls into the dates of move-in week — but housing officials could not say how many of these positive cases were students that had just moved.

Some of the COVID-19 guidelines also include registering everyday how are students feeling in the Drexel Health Check app, taking a weekly COVID-19 test and wearing a mask everywhere on campus except when they are alone in their room.

Once students test negative for the virus after moving in, they can leave their rooms and go to other places to study or work like the Bentley lobby, Ross Commons, some academic buildings that have opened for a few in-person classes and W. W. Hagerty Library that has opened through appointments only. Additionally, they can also use the REC Center since this past Monday, Jan. 25 with scheduled appointments and mask-wearing at all times.

Regarding on-campus dining, after months of Northside Dining Terrace being the only open dining hall with to-go options paid in dining dollars, Urban Eatery finally opened on Jan. 17 with an all-you-can-eat style. Then, this past week, Handschumacher Dining Center opened again with only to-go options. Students can work or eat their to-go options in two tents with heating installed in Race Street Lawn and the parking lot between Towers and Bentley halls with social distancing signalized.

In case any student tests positive for COVID-19, they will be transferred to North Hall, which is the residential hall allocated to quarantine students because it is suite-style and they can count with their own bathroom and a kitchenette. On the other hand, students that suspect to have been in contact with someone who had the virus will be put in isolation in Myers Hall but, unlike North, this residence hall is in the traditional style and has communal bathrooms.

Furthermore, dining will be delivering food via student orders in the GET app to all students in isolation or quarantine.

The only buildings that received residents to stay for the entire term are Van Rensselaer, Towers, Race, Millenium, Caneris and Bentley halls. Additionally, less than half of the regular number of first-year students returned to campus this term because every single room is at half occupancy; this means that one person is living in each traditional dorm and two to three people are living in each suite-style dorm, depending on the number of rooms of the suite.

Less occupancy also means fewer students hired as RAs this term.

“Usually, we have a staff of over 100 [RAs], but I would say that our staff right now is of around 40 [RAs],” Alexandra George, a third-year communication student, said. She has been working as an RA in Bentley Hall for two years.

This shortage of RAs has also meant more work for the ones hired this term, George said. She is the only RA in charge of two floors of residents in Bentley Hall and said that all RAs had to work extra hours for the move-in process.

“Proportionally we have to do more work. I [had] to do five shifts for five hours each, when usually move-in shifts are not 25 hours long,” she said.

However, in other buildings like Millenium Hall, RAs have to look up to three floors each, but they have the same number of residents in total as if they had normal occupancy on one floor, George said.

RAs moved into the buildings a week before residents, on Jan 2., and their training through Blackboard Learn began the following day with a few in-person components throughout the week like learning how to do building rounds, assuring RA access to all the buildings with IDs and taking COVID tests with all of the RAs at the same time to evaluate if the test center could control social distanced lines.

“I also got the impression that the professional staff of [Housing and Residence Life] didn’t even have the proper information from administrators at the university for how we’re handling to bed at the time of our training because we had a lot of questions and they were like, ´We don’t know, we’re working on it,´” George said regarding the training.

Most of the RA training was based on regular aspects that they need to know to host dorm residents like crisis management, response protocol, community building, housing operation and facilities, and leadership, said Amy Bevins, Resident Director for Bentley Hall and Assistant Director for Student Conduct. However, this year’s training needed another big component: COVID-19 procedures.

This aspect was covered by a Zoom conference with Dr. Janet Cruz, the Medical Director of Drexel Student Health, and Marla J. Gold, the Vice Provost for Community Health Care Innovation. “After this call, I felt way more calmed about living in a dorm with other people. They told us all the science and effectiveness of mask-wearing, how will it be almost impossible to get infected by someone with the virus if we are both wearing masks, and how Drexel is going to put a high priority on contact tracing when someone gets infected to avoid an outbreak,” George said, one of the Bentley RAs.

However, one of the biggest questions that RAs had since the last term when the only residence hall open was Race Hall, a suite-style non-traditional dorm, was not answered: how will COVID-19 guidelines be followed in traditional dorms with communal bathrooms?

“They haven’t even talked about or addressed the bathroom usage,” George said.  “You can’t wear a mask when you’re in the shower, you can’t wear a mask when you’re brushing your teeth, you can’t wear a mask when you’re washing your face.”

Bevins, who is also the Resident Assistant of Bentley Hall, a traditional-style dorm, said that student policy mandates mask to be worn at all times except when students cannot, and showering or brushing the teeth would be instances when they cannot.

“We give responsibility to the RAs and the residents to put these guidelines. We don’t want to enforce them,” Bevins said. “It is their home, and we don’t want to enforce any guidelines, and we want to give them the freedom of figuring out what is going to work best as long as the guidelines they create don’t go against any existing university policies.”

Alexandra George and other RAs in Bentley decided to close every other stall, shower and sink. “In my experience living here last year, the bathrooms were never full and we had twice as many residents,” she said.

But this responsibility, in many cases, means an extra burden on RAs in these difficult times.

Additionally, RAs cannot control what residents do inside their rooms when the doors are closed. “We’re not trying to police residents, but the expectations are that [residents] still follow university policies like staying six feet apart and wearing a mask when you meet someone in your room,” Bevins said. “If RAs have enough reason to believe that people are violating social distancing rules through environmental clues like a lot of noise or violating quiet hours, then they may address that situation.”

Nonetheless, RAs and other residents are being put a big weight on their shoulders for making sure this reopening of campus does not go wrong.

First-year students that had just move into their college dorms for the first time are still trying to get adapted to these extraordinary times and make it work, said James Virtucio, a first-year Biomedical Engineering student.

Virtucio, who moved to Bentley Hall on Wednesday, Jan. 20, had first chosen to live in this dorm for the Fall Term because he got into the Honors College and liked their housing option. He had already selected a roommate and a room before Drexel announced that it will go fully remote that term.

“Then, I was just hoping we could move to campus on the Winter or Spring Terms, and I’m glad we were able this term,” he said. “I cannot live with [my roommate] now because all rooms are single occupancy, but we got lucky, and now we live next to each other”

He has not gotten much of a chance to interact with many people because of the social distancing guides, but he was hoping he could meet more people from his building through virtual building-wide activities like making a time capsule.

“I really truly love being an RA; it’s like probably the most rewarding part of my college experience, but I am scared. Especially because I am a leader to my residents, whether they know it or not,” George, who is also Virtucio’s RA, said. “Everywhere I go, my residents see me as an RA. So, even though I consider myself as someone who has been very safe when it comes to COVID, now I need to be that much more aware and be extra careful when making my decisions.”

Next week, between Feb. 1 and 5, Spirit Week at Drexel will take place leading up to Homecoming on Saturday, Feb. 6. This year, the events will be a mix of virtual and in-person events so that students can participate, regardless of location.

The kick-off event is the Homecoming Bonfire on Feb. 1 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.. This is one of the first in-person socially distant events that student life is holding. There will be socially distant fire-pits and masks are required at the event. Care packages for s’mores will also be handed out on the way out as well.

Next, on Feb. 2, there will be a virtual and in-person Scavenger Hunt on Drexel’s campus as well as online. The online event will take place between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. via an app called GooseChase. However, the in-person event will take place around Drexel’s campus. Winners will earn points for their respective schools and the top three participants will receive individual prizes.

On Feb. 3, the annual Variety Show will take place via Zoom. Entrants may send in a video, TikTok, Instagram Reel, or form of media less than sixty seconds long. These performances will be judged by students for the “popular vote” and for their Drexel spirit, quality and creativity. The top three videos in each category will receive individual prizes and college points are also up for grabs. Performances can be songs, skits, dances, skills or hobbies to share with the Drexel community. Send any entrance videos to rks73@drexel.edu by Feb. 3 at 5 p.m. EST.

Thursday will follow with Quizzo at 8 p.m. which will also be held completely virtually. Questions will test teams’ general knowledge, Drexel trivia, and Philadelphia fun facts. Make sure to RSVP on DragonLink by Feb. 1 to reserve a seat!

Spirit Weeks leads up to the Homecoming Game, which will be on Saturday, Feb. 6 at 1 p.m. EST at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. Drexel Women’s Basketball will face off against Hofstra University, and the event will be televised on NBC Sports Philly and FloSports. Be sure to tune in!

With over 80 majors and 100 minors dispersed across 12 colleges, Drexel University has a wide variety of fields to indulge in. However, with these pressing times filled with division, Cyndi Rickards, an associate professor in the Department of Criminology and Justice Studies, thought it was not enough to cover the events plaguing our society today. Now, an eligible undergraduate can receive a minor in Justice Studies, a 26-credit minor packed with co-curricular classes.

Rickards got the inspiration from students in her Places of Justice class; there was an obvious interest in a collegiate experience that allows a student to see their major through a lens tainted with justice.

“It’s for students who want to learn outside of the classroom with community partners and to develop tools for justice to address complex issues by developing skills to make positive social change,” Rickards said.

As mentioned, the minor will require interested students to complete 26 credits, with 17 of them being fulfilled within the Department of Criminology and Justice Studies at the College of Arts and Sciences. The other nine credits can be completed in psychology, environmental science, anthropology and business.

“Really, to problem solve, you need an introduction to an array of disciplines so you know who to include in the conversation. So that was the motivation for our pretty extensive elective course options,” Rickards said.

Nonetheless, the interest of such a major really peaks when one learns that the minor includes engaging with members of the Drexel and Philadelphia community, such as prisoners. Rickards makes it clear that prisoners should not be marginalized in the community and that there is much to learn from their experiences.

“To suggest that you can explore issues of justice without the partnership of those who are affected by issues of injustice, it just seems hypocritical to me and not academically solid and certainly not engaged with any amount of integrity,” the professor said. “If we want to make social change, we need lots of perspectives and experiences, so we need different disciplines and we need different people, which is why we’re so very intentionally connecting with the community.”

The minor also offers the uniqueness that is so ubiquitous to the Drexel experience, with the ability to join a justice-related nonprofit during their co-op cycle in addition to being a teaching assistant.

Unfortunately, as most people have realized by now, COVID-19 has derailed the plans of individuals and institutions alike, and the Justice Studies minor is no exception. “Applications of Justice,” a core class in the minor, usually involves having students learning side-by-side with returning citizens and four students within prison walls at the Bucks Community Jail. However, the first class will have to be done through Zoom. Nonetheless, it truly is a unique experience.

“While these required courses are unable to be based in the community, they remain community engaged (sic) with students who bring a lived (sic) experience to the courses.”

Despite the setbacks, the Justice Studies minor is extremely notable in its own right; Professor Rickards meticulously planned it to encompass all disciplines into the minor, providing students with an ability to practice justice with anything they do. Any students interested in the minor are encouraged to speak to Professor Rickards about their intentions and what a Justice Studies minor could bring to your own Drexel experience.

Drexel’s Study Abroad Office announced on Dec. 9 that it will waive the application fees for its Summer 2021 and Fall 2021 programs. The hope is that, by the time those programs arrive, students will be able again to travel abroad (and to campus, in the case of exchange students) safely for hybrid or fully in-person instruction, Lauren Steinberg, the assistant director of Drexel’s Office of Global Engagement, said.

As Drexel students begin a new winter term, it is difficult to forget how last year’s term ended in chaos. A pandemic had just been declared by the WHO, Finals Week was moved online, students living in campus housing were evicted, co-ops went virtual and study abroad programs — ones that students had planned months or years in advance — were canceled.

Program cancellations began when the Office of the Provost announced the University was restricting travel to China from Jan, 30, 2020, due to the pandemic. This was followed by South Korea on Feb. 28, then Italy the next day, and, finally, President Fry sent an email on March 20 announcing all study abroad programs were canceled — and they have remained so until this winter term.

The Study Abroad office had worked to schedule the return of students who were abroad when their programs were canceled, manage the transition of exchange students still in Philadelphia, and announce the gradual cancellation of future study abroad programs (like Intensive Course Abroad and Exchange Programs) as the pandemic continued and education remained remote.

Steinberg said that, as soon as President Fry’s announcement was made, the first  Study Abroad program canceled was the ICA over spring break, one of the most popular breaks to do this week-intensive program. Then, study abroad were canceled for the spring term. However, less students were affected during spring term, since Drexel’s quarter program does not adapt well in the spring with most allied universities that work by semester, Steinberg said.

Students who were already abroad in a semester system school when the COVID announcements were made faced a similar situation. Many of them were asked to return to the U.S., and some were able to finish their programs remotely, Steinberg said. However, some students in countries that were handling the virus well, like Singapore, decided not to leave and remained abroad until their program ended.

Due to the travel bans (included those preventing travel from the U.S. to European countries in the Schengen territory, China and Iran), some international students struggled to return to the U.S. These students were forced to remain in their study abroad countries through the pandemic or return to their home countries, Steinberg said.

There were also exchange students from other countries who were studying abroad here at Drexel. These students had the option to study for any of Drexel’s quarter terms except summer, Steinberg said. They were also affected by the pandemic measures.

“Anyone whose program ended in the winter term just went home immediately, but anyone who was supposed to come here for the spring who wasn’t already in the country was given the option of just dropping out of the program or doing Drexel classes online,” Steinberg said. “Some of them had already arrived in Philly and had to stay. We had a group of […] four or five students from Italy, who escaped COVID from there to later find it here, but they did not get the full exchange experience that they were originally hoping for, as happened with many in study abroad programs.”

All students who were already here in the U.S. were given the opportunity to stay. If they had not yet arrived, they were not able to come.

Iulia-Elena Cazan is a political science major and pre-junior at Drexel who had known she wanted to study abroad since her sophomore year. She found out about the exchange program with Sciences Po in France, and she wanted to study on their Paris campus. She had already reached the necessary level of French to apply to the program and met with her co-op advisor several times to prepare for the program.

After working hard on her applications, Cazan was accepted to the Fall 2020 exchange program to Sciences Po Paris by Drexel. She was eager to tell her friends in Romania, because some of them were also planning to be in Paris at that time.

“I am a person who likes to have a plan and know when I will do things, and if I don’t, that triggers me. That’s why I began telling my friends and having a plan, but I got scared when the virus began being so big,” Cazan said.

Cazan was uncertain about how her study abroad programs were going to turn out, but she had hope that they could be done. She was really impacted when she found out that her study abroad plans were canceled.

“I was very sad for a week about that. Not seeing it right now changes my course plans,” Cazan said.

Sciences Po is a world-renowned university in political sciences, and Cazan was expecting to fulfill some of her major requirements there. However, since she has attended another year of classes at Drexel, she will probably have to fill electives with the courses she wanted to take at Sciences Po. This will decrease Cazan’s chances of getting a minor she had originally planned for.

Kristi Diehl is a pre-junior with a double major in global studies and economics, with a concentration in business economics and development. She had planned to spend her summer term studying abroad in the Madrid-London dual city program, and then spend her fall term in an exchange program in Prague.

Diehl had even changed her co-op cycle from Fall-Winter to Spring-Summer in order to complete this program. However, after the pandemic began, all courses became remote and her study abroad programs were canceled. Instead of spending over six months in Europe, she has spent four terms of her studies at home doing online classes.

“I cannot complain too much. At least I’ve gotten the chance to be home and connect with my family,” Diehl said.

All Drexel students whose study abroad programs were canceled — from spring break of 2020 to this day —  were given the highest possible refund the Study Abroad office could, Steinberg said. The office refunded all program fees to students and tried to help with extra costs, but airfare and other costs were limited for them to refund.

Additionally, some students were able to defer or transfer their scheduled study abroad, depending on the program. However, for the upcoming open terms, some allied universities to the Study Abroad office are offering a smaller number of slots for exchange than previous years. This makes it hard to guarantee a transfer to the program that some students had been scheduled to complete. However, excluded students are  guaranteed the opportunity to transfer their application and complete any other study abroad program the office offers.

Nonetheless, this poses the question: “Since the people who couldn’t do their study abroad programs last year are going to complete them next year, won’t there be fewer study abroad opportunities for people who are applying now?”

“No, because the programs were canceled everywhere. The way exchange programs work is that we received students from [the school abroad] and those students study here. Then, we send students to those schools,” Steinberg explained. “So, since that froze for a year and no one sent anyone, those schools are also looking to send us more people as well.” As a result, the office is not expecting fewer study abroad opportunities, but instead a doubled number.

Steinberg and the Study Abroad team do not know how things will look this year, but they are very hopeful for at least a limited return to activities.

“I would not be surprised if students may have to quarantine upon arrival, if they may have to wear masks in public places, if courses may be offered in a hybrid setting, or if start dates might be pushed back. Additionally, there may be certain countries that we can send students to and certain ones that we can’t depending on regulations for U.S. citizens or regulation of students who were in the U.S.,” Steinberg said.

However, the office is even more optimistic about fall term, because those programs are, for the most part, with partner universities that want to send their students to Drexel as well.

“That’s why we did the app fee waiver, because we want students to be able to apply risk-free. I know that’s the difference between applying this year and applying last year,” Steinberg said. “You’re applying knowing that COVID is here and that we’re trying to navigate around it, as opposed to being surprised by it.”

The Drexel University Police Department is spreading awareness about a string of car thefts in the area and promoting safe, responsible practices for members of the community.

According to community relations officers Kim McClay and Thomas Cirone, police from several departments have identified a pattern of automobile thefts throughout the city of Philadelphia, which they say is caused by drivers neglecting to lock their vehicles.

“A lot [of these incidents] happen because [drivers] will run into a store — or delivery drivers run into a store — and leave their car running,” Cirone said.  “[They say] ‘I’ll just be a minute.’  But it doesn’t even take that long for someone to steal it.”

An uptick in similar incidents comes during the winter months, when drivers prioritize convenience over safety. In the moment, leaving a car running to keep the interior warm while stepping out might seem acceptable, but it can have serious repercussions.

“All it takes is one time,” McClay said. “And the more times [drivers] do it, and get away with it — the more likely they are to do it again.”

On Drexel’s campus, many incidents of car theft occur along the stretch of Lancaster Avenue, which houses many restaurants and businesses. But this issue is citywide, McClay and Cirone said.

“Criminals travel from area to area,” McClay said. “They might go to Penn, steal a few bikes, then come over to Drexel, [and so on.]”

During weekly meetings with local law enforcement agencies, information is exchanged and departments check in with one another. This pattern is widespread and not unique to Drexel’s campus, but McClay and Cirone are spreading the word in order to eliminate the incidents thatoccur on and around campus.

In December, the two community relations officers visited several businesses around campus. They posted flyers to make members of the Drexel community aware of the issue and to remind them of safe practices when leaving vehicles unattended.

McClay and Cirone consistently advocate for being “safety conscious” at all times. This includes being aware of your surroundings and thinking about consequences before acting.

“[Many people] don’t think about their key fob,” Cirone said. “They just throw it in their cupholder and forget they left it there [when they leave their car].”

The key fob gives criminals access to more than the vehicle. Usually, drivers put keys to their home and other valuables on the same keychain. If the thief can locate your car registration information, which includes your address, they can go to your home and break in using your keys, Cirone explained.

A similar offense is the theft of catalytic converters from vehicles, a device that controls emissions and reduces toxicity of pollutants. While not as common as traditional vehicle thefts, criminals target specific cars — including the Toyota Prius and several Honda models — for the ease of access to these parts.

McClay and Cirone said catalytic converter thefts do occur regularly; between one to three incidents occur every week, reported the University City District.

“Criminals [can simply take a] hand-held grinder, jack the car up quickly and slide under, stealing the catalytic convertor, which takes only seconds to cut out,” Cirone said.

McClay and Cirone offered several quick preventative measures to community members.

“First is to take pictures of your car, especially if it has identifying marks,” McClay said. “If your car is stolen, call us immediately. The quicker we get the information, the faster we can put it out there, and the more likely you are to get your car back.”

After receiving a report of theft, the information is shared online with the National Crime Information Center, which alerts local law enforcement.

McClay also suggests that drivers place their belongings in the trunk before driving to their destination. Doing this after arriving at the destination is far less effective, as criminals can spot drivers locking up their belongings and will know to target the vehicle.

Cirone suggests always parking in well-lit areas and being aware of your surroundings.

“Get to know your license plate number, particularly young people,” Cirone said. “Store it in your phone. It is a good idea to know it, [especially in the event your car is stolen].”

However, the most important and most effective way to combat car theft is by being aware of your surroundings.

According to McClay, a vehicle with “no ties” to the criminal is of high value. They can steal the car and then easily abandon it or give it away. Knowing your car’s make and model, license plate number, identifying marks and more, in addition to keeping it locked, in a well-lit area and in your watch, are the best ways to protect against this type of incident.

“Don’t leave your vehicle running and unattended, even for a second,” Cirone said. “Because, even if you see a person running to [take] your car, you might not be able to stop them. You can be that quick, but they are usually quicker. Do things the right way, and there won’t be any problems.”

In the final weeks of Trump’s presidency, the country watched on Jan. 6 as an insurrection of the U.S. Capitol took place during the electoral college certification of votes. As politicians were in hiding, talks of impeachment grew, resulting in speculation as to what the fate of President Trump’s final days in office would become.

The insurrection intended to disrupt the certification of electoral college votes of an election that President Trump called rigged and fraudulent — claims which have been disputed multiple times since the November election. The speech, given by Trump before the insurrection, pushed the falsehoods of a stolen election, stated that Vice President Mike Pence would be a coward if he did not object to the election results, and encouraged the mob to walk to the capitol to try and give the “weak” Republicans “the pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.” Trump also implied that his supporters would be “patriots” if they attacked the Capitol.

“We’ve never seen a situation where there has been this type of behavior that exhibited itself at the United States Capitol. There have been other presidents that have been pushed to the brink of being unsteady in terms of their mental state. Never in the sense of someone going out and inciting a crowd and having that crowd go and storm the capitol,” Dr. William Rosenberg, a Drexel professor of political science, said in an interview with WURD Radio.

Granted, President Trump did not walk with his supporters to the capitol, as he claimed he would. Rather, he remained at the White House, watching coverage on TV. The insurrection itself put politicians and capitol police in danger, and officer Brian Sicknick died as a result of injuries he sustained on-duty that day. As the riot grew increasingly violent, it became clear that what was believed to be a secure federal building was underprepared for an attack. Calls for the second impeachment of President Donald Trump intensified, citing that he had instigated the attack.

Promptly following the events of Jan. 6, Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced articles of impeachment. On Jan. 13, the House voted to impeach President Trump, making him the first U.S. president to be impeached twice. He was impeached in one of the most bipartisan votes in history. The Senate has yet to hold the trial, which will occur during the new Biden Administration. Pelosi has signaled that she will soon send the articles to the Senate, but has not yet specified when “soon” may be.

When the trial takes place in a 50-50 Senate, it is unclear where some of the former-President’s supporters will stand. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had spent much of the last four years standing by and supporting Trump, has signaled that he believes the mob was “fed lies” and were provoked by Trump. Aside from the impeachment vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is planning on a separate vote to bar Trump from running for office again.

Although the Biden Administration has arrived, it is clear that the final days of the Trump presidency will linger over the legal system for days to come.

Despite most first-year Drexel students not living on campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, around 50 first-year and upper-level students appealed to housing and are now living in on-campus dorms due to special circumstances.

This term has been irregular for everyone, but it is especially noticeable to first-years, who had to skip the right of passage of moving into a college dorm and sharing dining halls.

However, Drexel has already announced that they will be welcoming first-year students into the dorms for the upcoming winter term in an email sent on Oct. 29, 2020. However, COVID-prevention measures are not clear, besides the fact that all housing will be single occupancy rooms.

Students currently living on campus are staying in Race Hall with a limit of one person per suite, according to Meriam Meraay. Meraay is a senior student who has been a Resident Assistant at Drexel for three years and is currently the RA of a floor in Race. The only other open Drexel housing option is Stiles Hall, located on the Center City campus.

Among these students are US Citizens and internationals alike, and all had the opportunity to appeal for housing. Their special circumstances include student visa issues, potentially unstable home environments, and not having an established place of residency, among others.

Meraay explained that there are other safety measures implemented in the active dorm areas: a no-guests policy, a rule allowing only one person to be in common areas (like the kitcken or laundry rooms) at a time and a maximum capacity of two people per elevator. Additionally, masks have to be worn everywhere inside the building, except for inside each student’s suite.

Meraay mentioned that being an RA this term through the pandemic is very different than the usual experience.

“It’s not as busy, it’s not as exciting. It’s more just kind of like trying to be there to support my residents,” Meraay said. “There are definitely more questions, I think. Just with the uncertainty of everything and the uncertainty of decisions coming from leadership about next term and housing in general. I don’t really have all the answers, so I’m constantly talking to my RD and meeting with my staff to try and like get those answers.”

Additionally, the only floor activities allowed to be organized by RAs this term have been online activities through Zoom or dropping off sealed snacks and other materials to residents’ doors. Meraay also mentioned that the experience has been different because she also has upper-level residents in her floor, not only first-years.

“It is challenging to talk to everyone with one voice, but it’s also nice because then I know there’s a senior on my floor, and that resident could maybe help my other residents,” Meraay said.

Also, there has been a smaller turnout in activities because of the lesser number of residents. So, instead of doing floor activities, RAs coordinate activities for the whole building, like Presidential Debate watch parties or Among Us game nights.

“I think it’s nice because you can also just kind of get closer with the residents when we do an event and only few of them show up and you get to know them a lot better,” Meraay said.

Food-wise, students can use the communal kitchen in their floors at Race and store food inside their suites, but they also count on Northside Dining Terrace, the only dining hall currently open on campus. Students currently count with a plan of 1,100 dining dollars that they can use at Northside’s mini-market and its new Hot Bar — a new dining addition for COVID times.

“[Northside Dining] doesn’t really seem to get crowded. The only time they seem to get a little bit overwhelmed is when the varsity athletes finish practice and they go to clear out the dining hall,” Lucas Dimayuga said, a first-year student who lives in Race.

Dimayuga had just arrived in the United States from Cambodia when Drexel announced that the fall term would be remote. He had to move there for his parents’ job and lived there for his last high school years. Since Dimayuga had already moved all his things to the U.S. and did not have another place to live here, he appealed for housing.

“[The floor’s kitchen] it’s really not that congested, but I feel like it will become a bit more congested once they start filling up like residence halls next term,” Dimayuga said.

Many other students currently living in Race Hall share the concern: How will social distancing and safety measures function in common areas once more people move into the dorms?

“I definitely am not optimistic about that because, as much as you can follow social distancing and stay in your own room, it will be difficult when you have to use a bathroom or kitchen if you don’t have it in your room. There’s bound to be a lot of people using it at once, and then it’s like, how do you wear a mask when you’re brushing your teeth next to somebody in the communal bathroom? I feel like they really need to think through that part before they just kind of bring everyone back,” said Meraay.

Meraay also mentioned RAs still haven’t received training on how to manage social distancing in communal bathrooms and kitchens, but all RAs will receive online training through Zoom on Jan. 2.

“I personally don’t think that it’s going to stick because right now cases are increasing massively, unless there’s a huge improvement. There are like alerts from Philadelphia almost every day and I personally don’t think it’ll be a good idea because COVID cases [could] definitely spike with the Holiday season,” said Alyraj Dhanani, another first-year student living in Race.

Dhanani appealed to housing because he had no other place to live after he left Malaysia, where he was living with a student visa and could not stay any longer.

“I worried there might be a peak in cases and students would have to move out of campus. I’m just hoping that if they do decide to proceed with [moving out], we don’t have to move during the term itself. Because that would be like extremely inconvenient for us, but I’m just hoping for the best.,” Dhanani said.

Hannah Wang, an international student from Taiwan who appealed for housing, said there is also a petition going around made by an RA for Drexel to keep dorms closed for the upcoming term.

“Some of the issues they stated include are people not wearing masks and services on campus not being able to follow all the COVID guidelines and everything. But as for us, people who are living on campus because they have nowhere else to go if there is an outbreak on campus,” Wang said.

Wang also appealed for on-campus housing after finding out that Drexel would be remote for the fall and this was the only way to maintain her student visa.

Dhanani said that he thinks Drexel needs to implement an effective testing system to reduce the potential outbreak of COVID within dorms.

“I think that the pace that they’re doing testing on is really good, but if there are more students coming in and not only to race and other dorms, they just have to increase the amount of locations, they have for like physical space and they’ll have to obviously get in more staff. They have to use a larger communal space where people can access because, obviously, if there’s only one building lines are going to be huge,” Dhanani said.

Currently, free COVID testing for asymptomatic students is only being done in the Library Learning Terrace located in Race Hall, although it was previously conducted in Myers Hall. Dimayuga, Dhanani and Wang all agree that the current process is efficient, but better measures will be needed if more students move to campus.

Another service that any students who lives in Philadelphia has had access to, has been the gym. For a short period of time, the Recreation Center was open, until the new COVID restrictions were applied in the city and it closed again.

“While [the gym] was open, I think they did a really good job,” Dimayuga said. “They made you a screening first and they asked for your health tracker status to determine if you had any symptoms or not. You had to keep your mask on in the gym at all times, they would sanitize every machine you would use and they would limit the amount of people in the gym at one time.”

Wang also mentioned the Korman Center was open to study if you made an appointment, as well as the library. However, you could only use the library’s study rooms and not other service, like printing — which caused students to pay for printing at off-campus stores at a higher price.

Despite all of these circumstances, the students have adapted well to Philadelphia in their first term in the city. They have formed a community with students living in Race Hall and other Drexel students outside campus, as well as joining clubs virtually.

Charles Close School of Entrepreneurship’s 2020 Annual Start-Up Fest took place from Oct. 27 to 30. While previous years found hundreds of entrepreneurs gathering in one setting, this year’s competition was completely virtual. That did not stop two Drexel Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity brothers from winning a total of $15,000 for their business idea, WOLF Financial.

Since March, millions of people around the world have been socially distancing and, therefore, finding new hobbies inside their homes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During these unprecedented times, many have turned to trading in the stock market as a way to pass time and earn money. Robinhood, a free investing app with commission-free trades, can be easily downloaded onto one’s phone and used to trade hundreds of thousands of dollars.

That said, not all investors have the prime financial literacy to use their money in an extremely volatile market. Someone could easily lose their entire life savings while trading. Michael Grant Warshowsky (second-year computer science major at Drexel’s College of Computing & Informatics) and Ben Kestenbaum (fourth-year finance and data science student at Drexel’s Lebow College of Business) decided to change that.

“Due to their financial illiteracy, lack of access to quality information that they can comprehend and minimal exposure to financially literate communities, they’ve begun to fall victim to manipulative tactics,” said Warshowsky.

With the two brothers having an interest in finance, they decided to change the dire issue of illiteracy within the world of finance with the WOLF Financial app. Essentially, the app provides investment analyses and content from verified financial professionals. With the pandemic in full force during March, WOLF’s co-founders decided to immediately begin work on the app.

“The problem that we identified in January was perpetuated by the shutdown in March, and the need for a solution became much more urgent. Once we realized this, we hit the ground running and just pushed it out,” Kestenbaum said.

After January, the two fraternity brothers were in the planning stage of their business. They wanted to find solutions to any possible issues and make sure there were no outlying liabilities in the company. In March, they were ready to build their app and productively used their time during the shutdown of Drexel’s campus and the nation.

With multiple Close School of Entrepreneurship competitions coming up, the financial innovators pushed to have their beta app launch in time. During Drexel’s summer term, WOLF Financial won the top prize of $2,500 at the Dragon Pitch. As fall term came along, the company was also entered into the Baiada Incubator Competition and once again took the top prize.They were given $12,500 to grow WOLF Financial, office space at the Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship and free legal and accounting services.

It is needless to say that Warshowsky and Kestenbaum took full advantage of the resources offered at Drexel.

“There are not many other schools that nurture entrepreneurs the way that Drexel does,” said Kestenbaum. “It reassures the decision to come here, and it’s very nice to be able to compete with and against such talented groups, great students, and great peers. We’ve already gone through Drexel’s Co-op program and have hired students. So, we’d love to continue getting the Drexel community involved.”

With the $15,000 and other free services, the fraternity brothers hope to use their given resources to focus on app development, hiring employees, and marketing and operational expenditures.

WOLF Financial has unlocked potential using Drexel resources, and the community cannot wait to see what is next for them.

When the word millennial comes to mind, people jump to the stereotypes: avocado toast-eating, yoga-obsessed, self-centered adults. Author, journalist and attorney Jill Filipovic set out to prove that there are more to millennials than the stereotypes perpetuated by outlets like BuzzFeed and older generations. Through her book and her published journalism, she has managed to connect audiences with a deeper understanding of topics, ranging from politics and feminism to generational divides.

When she answered the phone for the Triangle’s interview, Filipovic was ready to get to business, yet she was laidback. Her voice was calm yet sharp as she shared her perspective on different issues, occasionally offering a quick laugh at what she was saying. Like her writing, she gave in-depth answers, acknowledging every part of the question before going silent, signaling she was ready to move on.

Filipovic’s journalistic writing has centered around feminism, a topic she stumbled into as a freshman in New York University.

“I registered for my freshman classes late,” Filipovic said, laughing. “I really chafed against it… I ended up really loving it and finding it totally fascinating. When I was writing for the student newspaper at NYU and later on a blog that I started, I just found myself repeatedly drawn to feminist issues and questions. This was in the early 2000s, feminism was not cool… but to me it felt like something that was interesting and radical and helped me to put disparate pieces of the world together.”

Writing a combination of op-eds and features for outlets like CNN, Cosmopolitan, The Guardian, and The New York Times, Filipovic has continued to report on women’s issues and topics throughout the pandemic, including the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the US Supreme Court. In September, the US dealt with the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the rapid appointment of now-Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. The focus became how different Justice Barrett seemed to be from Justice Ginsburg. Barrett’s views involving reproduction differed from that of Justice Ginsburg’s, and there are articles mentioning Justice Barrett could be the “polar opposite” to Justice Ginsburg. This opened up the discourse of what feminism really is: Is it meant as a movement, or is it just a word of inclusion?

For Filipovic, feminism is a movement for the political, social, and economic equality of women, rather than a movement focused on making women feel good about what they have done simply because they are a woman — something which she finds to be “a really shallow understanding.” In acknowledging that not every person on the planet is going to identify as a feminist, Filipovic also recognizes that feminism can appear differently based on a situation.

“But, it certainly does not look like trying to uphold patriarchal practices and traditions, even if a woman is the one working to uphold them. It has been an absolute truth that throughout the entirety of feminist history… women are not anymore than men, a united political group. We have different interests, we have different perspectives, factors of our identity: race, class, religion that shape our position in the world and what we see as beneficial,” Filipovic said.

Although she stumbled into feminism in college, Filipovic, now 37, did not stumble into writing. Rather, she began writing as a child. Before she could write, she would dictate stories and ask for them to be written down. Once she was able to write, she kept journals and claims to have been over-the-top with her school writing assignments.

“[I would] turn in twenty-five pages when we were only asked for one,” Filipovic said, reminiscing her on early memories of falling in love with the art of writing.

In high school, Filipovic was involved with her school’s paper and after high school she attended NYU in-part because of their journalism program. As she studied journalism in her undergraduate years, Filipovic decided to attend law school. The 9/11 attacks occurred two weeks into her freshman year; she witnessed George H.W. Bush become president and the wars taking place in the Middle-East.

“[I] felt quite disenchanted by the ways in which I felt like mainstream media sources had enabled those lies… that have led us down a path to where we are today,” Filipovic said. “With total disaster across many countries in the Middle-East and thousands upon thousands of Iraqis and other folks dead, just tremendous, tremendous bloodshed and devastation from that administration’s lies that were very much carried by the media outlets I had once aspired to work for.”

Being attracted to advocacy and now unsure of a career in reporting, Filipovic decided she wanted to be a human rights attorney, but it’s something that “clearly didn’t work out in that direction.” Yet, she finds the things she learned as a law student have helped her writing.

“Being somebody who is often writing opinion and analysis, law school very much trains you, I don’t think it trains you to be a very good writer to be honest, but it certainly trains you how to think in a particular linear and analytical fashion,” Filipovic said.

Taking her knowledge of journalism and her experience of writing opinions and analysis pieces, Filipovic decided to write “OK Boomer, Let’s Talk.” Her book is dedicated to addressing the generational divide between millennials and boomers, titled with the phrase that became a common rebuttal for younger generations who feel they have been dismissed. A millennial herself, Filipovic has experienced and witnessed the generational differences; the conclusion she reached is that millennials are the first generation that will not do better than their parents.

As millennials struggle to afford homes, the means to have a family and student loans, Filipovic has found that many “justifiably feel resentment toward [their] boomer parents.” She wanted to explore the resentment between boomers and millennials and determine what is actually justified, as well as find the path that led to the place they are currently.

“Millennials have achieved so many fewer markers of adulthood than boomers, what were the political choices that boomers and the politicians they elected made that put us here? And what does the future look like for younger folks?” Filipovic said.

In the 116th Congress, out of the 431 members, only 6 percent were millennials. In the 2020 election, the number of millennials running for congressional seats increased by 266 percent. However, similar to her views on feminism, Filipovic believes that being a millennial does not mean someone will create change that betters everyone or progresses society. This includes millennials like Republican Representative- Elect Madison Cawthorn, who is seen as a rising star amongst the party and gained attention for his “cry more lib” victory tweet. Cawthorn is a break in the trend of millennials being progressive.

Amongst millennial voters, 59 percent identify as Democrat or Democrat-leaning, whereas only 32 percent identify as Republican or Republican-leaning.

“It’s obviously not the justified virtue of being a member of a certain generation, you’re going to be representative of that generation’s interests and their politics…” Filipovic said. “I also do think representation is important, it’s not everything but it is fundamentally undemocratic to have a government run overwhelmingly by people over the age of 60, when millennials are the largest adult generation in America… I don’t think it’s the only crucial thing, I think having the politics and policy priorities that young people want is the most important thing, but I don’t think we can get there… until Congress starts to look a little more like America.”

But, amongst the calls for a government that represents that generations, ageism has been thrown in the mix. Young people have wanted boomers to leave jobs and have found them to be disposable simply because of age. Filipovic does find some of the anti-boomer arguments to be ageist, which she does not see as being productive. Rather, she sees evaluation of the intersection of power and age being of the most benefit, along with analyzing the impact gender and society can have on the arguments.

“I think the way that millennials and young people have been maligned, attacked, criticized in popular culture, media, by politicians, far outweighs rolling your eyes and saying ‘OK boomer,’” Filipovic said. “I do understand why boomers feel frustrated and dismissed. I think it’s particularly acute for boomer women. For women, aging means you are less and less interesting, less and less noticed, less and less heard. For a lot of boomer women, this conversation can feel different.”

Even with the saying “OK boomer” being thrown around by younger generations, Filipovic found while writing her book that some members of the boomer generation who do not want to be called a boomer or associated with the title. Many wanted to be called “Generation Jones,” but it never took off.

“I think there was a point in which being a baby boomer was very cool, and I do not think that is the landscape we are living in anymore,” Filipovic said.

As the dynamics between boomers and millennials changes, it shows no sign of stopping. For Gen-Z, which includes college age students, they will still feel the impact of the boomers. Although there is no collection of data due to Gen-Z still being young, Filipovic has found that trends show similar experiences to millennials.

“Things like out of control college costs, increasingly taking on huge amounts of student debt, obviously it’s going to take years to figure out the impact of the pandemic, but Gen-Zers are getting hit with the same problem millennials got hit with when we were leaving college; there aren’t many jobs, it’s hard to get hired and if you are hired you are the first people to get fired,” Filipovic said. “It’s pretty dire economic circumstances… Gen-Zers are going to be further behind than millennials and these are urgent questions we needed to sort out yesterday.”

With the holidays fast approaching, residents in areas near Drexel’s campus — and throughout Philadelphia — should consider their plans for receiving package deliveries so as to not become victim to theft, according to Drexel University’s police department.

According to Drexel Police’s community relations officers Kim McClay and Thomas Cirone, package thefts are an “ongoing issue,” but will likely increase as residents around Drexel’s campus begin to make more online purchases ahead of the holiday season.

As a preventative measure, Drexel Police has collaborated with Philadelphia Police Department’s 16th District to distribute over 500 flyers to residents within the Department of Public Safety’s patrol area, which extends between 30th and 36th streets and Chestnut and Spring Garden streets.

“Many residents have even [read the flyers] and said, ‘this has already happened to me,’” Cirone said.

Especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic, more people are purchasing gifts online through Amazon, eBay and other stores, which equates to more packages to steal, McClay said. Drexel Police has committed many of its resources to combat package thefts throughout Drexel’s campus and the surrounding areas, including dispatching plainclothes officers.

In addition to patrolling the streets undercover, Drexel Police works with Penn Police, PPD’s 16th District and other ambassadors to monitor the area. Through these heightened efforts, Drexel Police has brought several cases of theft to justice and identified several safety steps residents should follow.

Many residents post notes on their front doors instructing delivery drivers where to leave packages, McClay and Cirone said. While this might seem logical at first, it is a true roadmap for thieves looking to steal packages. A better alternative is to share drop-off instructions with delivery drivers through the online platform. Outlets like Amazon allow users the option to securely provide specific delivery instructions. Drexel Police also encourages consumers to select the option to require a signature upon delivery, if possible.

A common practice of package thieves, according to McClay and Cirone, is to drive behind the delivery truck and steal packages as soon as they are placed on porches. The department has even seen cases where thieves board the delivery truck, itself, and take packages directly before they’re even dropped off.

These perpetrators act quickly, McClay and Cirone said, and want to “separate themselves from the packaging as quickly as possible,” as to get rid of the label with the purchaser’s identity. One of the most effective measures to protect against package theft is to take advantage of technology.

Front porch cameras, like the Ring Doorbell, can be installed and provide real-time footage that can be used as evidence in the event of package theft. In addition, Drexel Police encourages residents in its patrol area to take advantage of apps like Neighbors by Ring, which allows neighbors to communicate and share data about package deliveries and suspicions of theft, Cirone said.

If installing a camera is not an option, McClay and Cirone suggest utilizing an alternate place for package delivery. Outlets like Amazon have free delivery lockers, including at 7-11 on 34th Street on Drexel’s campus. Additionally, many companies offer free in-store delivery, which consumers can utilize and pick up their packages from the store.

The app Citizen is also a free-to-download program that is linked to the Philadelphia Police Department. Residents can download the Citizen app and sign up for updates based on neighborhood.

“[The Citizen app gives many] in-progress notifications, which let you know what is going on so you stay away from the area,” Cirone said. These notifications, which inform residents about issues quickly, can help mitigate in-the-moment package thefts.

However, McClay and Cirone say that the best way to combat package thefts is to get to know your neighbors. Coordinating a plan and designating a person to collect packages upon delivery is the best protection against theft.

And, of course, residents within Drexel Police’s patrol area, including those who are not affiliated with Drexel, are encouraged to reach out with any reports of package thefts or suspicious activity, Cirone said. Drexel Police is the most direct point of contact for this area.

Contacting Drexel Police after a package theft is perfectly warranted, McClay and Cirone said. In fact, it is welcomed.

“Do not hesitate,” Cirone said. “A lot of times, after the fact, victims say ‘I knew something was going on, and I should have called.’”

Drexel Police can be reached 24/7 at (215) 895-2222. Alternatively, the department can be reached through the Guardian app, anonymously if desired, which serves as a real-time communication platform equivalent to a phone call.

“Please contact us even without [hard] evidence,” McClay said. “We want to know what is going on in our area.”