All of Drexel’s students, faculty and professional staff will be required to complete a mandatory Coronavirus health and safety training session as the university prepares for a hybrid reopening of its campus in September, President John Fry explained in a statement July 31.

The training session is being delivered through Drexel’s learning management system, Blackboard Learn. Upon completion of the mandatory training, a signature to the “Dragon Pledge,” an agreement to monitor one’s health and safety as a protection for yourself and others, will be required. As outlined in the Dragon Pledge, physical commitments include wearing face coverings over the nose and mouth when inside all Drexel facilities, distancing from others at a minimum of six feet whenever possible, avoiding others who are ill or exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 and washing hands frequently with soap and water for 20 seconds. Additionally, all will be required to monitor and report their health consistently using the Drexel Health Tracker app.

“Use of the Drexel Health Tracker [app] is required by all members of the Drexel community,” the university wrote on its Response to Coronavirus website. “Students, faculty and professional staff must use the … [app] on a daily basis to ‘check in’ and record any symptoms or note that they are feeling well.”

Geo-tracking is not enabled in the Drexel Health Tracker app to maintain privacy, but users will be required to provide their name, Drexel email address and phone number when registering. The app will also request each user’s age and zip code.

“Your information [shared with the app] will be maintained by MyOwnMed, Inc., the vendor that provides the … app under contract with Drexel,” the Response to Coronavirus website says. “Your information will be maintained in a secure, HIPAA-compliant cloud database, with access limited to authorized Drexel representatives.”

Any guests or visitors to Drexel’s campus will also be required to use the Drexel Health Tracker app to “self-certify [their] lack of symptoms” within two hours of their arrival.

In addition to the use of the Drexel Health Tracker app, mandatory baseline COVID-19 tests at the University’s expense will be required of every person returning to campus, and must be dated within one week prior to returning, Fry said.

“Directions concerning how and when to obtain a COVID-19 test will be sent out in a separate communication,” Fry said on July 31. “[Additionally], members of the Drexel community coming from states listed on the Pennsylvania Department of Health travel page will be asked to self-quarantine at home for 14 days prior to arriving at campus.”

According to the Dragon Pledge, once on campus, any gatherings should be conducted in designated, clearly-marked areas of campus while wearing face masks and social distancing.

In addition, procedures and directions posted on signage should be observed, read and followed. This signage, along with tape and barriers, may be used to indicate appropriate seating in classrooms and off-limits areas in buildings.

These requirements and procedures – including mandatory COVID-19 training and testing, use of the Drexel Health Tracker app and following on-campus guidelines – are essential measures to maintain the health and safety of all on campus.

However, as of the first round of course registration August 3, Drexel released its updated fall schedule designating which courses will be offered face-to-face and which virtually. For students and professional staff who do not need to return to campus for face-to-face courses, the requirements and procedures for returning can be disregarded, with the exception of the mandatory COVID-19 training offered through Blackboard Learn.

Many courses within the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Education, the College of Engineering and the LeBow College of Business are being offered remotely for fall term, utilizing both synchronous and asynchronous delivery methods.

More information about the Drexel Health Tracker app can be found in the FAQs section of the Response to Coronavirus website. The full course schedule for fall term, including which classes will be offered online and which face-to-face, is available on Drexel’s Term Master Schedule.

Drexel and its co-op program offer a unique approach to the college experience for its students — a hybrid of school and work that culminates in connections, experiences and a focus towards a desired career by the time a student has completed their course of study.

In many ways, the co-op experience that Drexel University offers is seen as brilliant and innovative; it has been going on for 100 years now.

But what if there are simply no jobs to be had? What would happen if the essential function of the co-op program were to run into trouble?

Well, within the span of the last five months, the COVID-19 pandemic has created the worst obstacle to teenager job hirings since the Great Recession, and the data estimates show that the dropoff will have been even worse this year when compared to the Great Recession.

Not only is the shrinking job market affecting Drexel students who were trying to land a spring and summer co-op, but the bleak future with the United States’ efforts to control the virus shows that there will be many fewer opportunities for Drexel students this fall-winter co-op cycle as well.

As The New York Times and Business Insider report on a Drexel University Center for Labor Markets and Policy study — this summer shows a bleak hiring market for teens. As reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment rate for 16 to 19 year-olds in June was 24.8 percent, which is down 6 percent compared to 2019.

Even worse, as reported in The Times story, the researchers wrote in their paper that “one-third fewer teens will work this summer because of COVID-19 shutdowns.”

The Drexel team used a statistical regression model from 1980 to 2005 to analyze employment rates, factoring in seasonally-adjusted rates, January-to-March employment rates of the current years and average January-to-March employment rates to understand what will come in the summer.

This multi-factor analysis is done to provide the clearest image of the summer job market, as data shows that those who work on school breaks in January and March are more likely to also work a job in the summer months, along with understanding the trends of employment rates over time.

As the data allows for researchers to predict employment rates in the upcoming summers, the sans-COVID restrictions predictions for summer employment rates for teens showed an uptick compared to the actual rate with 32.8 percent, but the prediction factoring in COVID-19 shutdowns was around 8-9 percent lower than the actual rate with 22.8 percent.

These are the widest spread prediction rates since 2008 — which was the summer before the Great Recession — and the teen employment rates in 2019 still weren’t as high as the rates before the Great Recession occurred.

While Drexel University is doing its utmost best to provide its students with co-ops — while also expanding the idea of what a “co-op position” can entail — many students have spent the spring and summer terms without a job, affected by the shrinkage of the US economy in response to the economic downturn caused by COVID-19.

As students are preparing for a co-op cycle in the fall, much uncertainty surrounding the future of many potential employers is very much in the balance.

The following crimes occurred on or near campus and were reported to The Triangle by the Drexel University Department of Public Safety between July 22 and Aug. 3. All information included in this report is taken from law enforcement or Division of Public Safety incident reports.

SEX OFFENSE (1)

Aug. 2, 3500 Powelton Avenue

A non-Drexel affiliate reported an unknown male forcibly entered their apartment and sexually assaulted them. DUPD took a male into custody in the building lobby and the incident is being investigated by the PPD/Special Victims Unit.

AGGRAVATED ASSAULT (1)

July 31, 200 North 33rd Street

A non-Drexel complainant stated that, while driving in their auto, they saw another vehicle operating recklessly and cut their vehicle off. When the complainant exited their auto to confront the reckless driver, the driver brandished a handgun and threatened the complainant.

VANDALISM (1)

July 23, 3300 Market Street

A Drexel facilities worker reported that a facilities vehicle, while parked in the garage, was damaged in an unknown manner.

THEFT (1)

July 30, 2:05 to 2:20 p.m., 3100 Ludlow Street

A non-Drexel affiliate reported that an unknown person(s) took a bicycle that was secured to the roof of their auto. Camera video showed an unknown male in a construction hat and traffic vest remove the bike and flee north on 31st Street from Ludlow Street.

POLICY VIOLATIONS (0)

During the period from July 22 to Aug. 3, there were no Policy Violations for Alcohol or Drugs.

Drexel’s Dr. Paul Jensen, former professor and interim provost since November, was recently named Executive Vice President and Nina Henderson Provost for the University.

As newly-appointed Nina Henderson Provost, Jensen takes the place of Brian Blake, the former provost who left Drexel in October to assume the same role at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The position’s namesake is Mary R. “Nina” Henderson, Class of 1972, who serves as vice chair on Drexel’s Board of Trustees.

According to DrexelNOW, as interim provost, Jensen “served [the position] with distinction,” especially in regard to the March shutdown of Drexel’s campus as a response to the coronavirus pandemic.

During the sudden transition to an online teaching model, Jensen helped assist with all of the challenges faced by the University, and President John Fry believes Jensen will do the same this September.

“As we prepare to return to campus in September, the provost will be integral to developing the complex logistics of a hybrid approach to learning and research that ensures high-quality educational, research and professional experiences for Drexel students,” Fry said.

In addition, Fry said Jensen and his team will help support the University’s anti-racism efforts, which were developed in part as a response to recent protests against racial injustice.

“The Provost’s Office under [Jensen] will play an important role in our broad-based initiative to strengthen the University by creating an anti-racist community at Drexel that fosters safety, professional growth and well-being for Drexel’s Black students, faculty and professional staff,” Fry said.

Jensen joined Drexel’s Lebow College of Business in 1997, becoming the Director of the PhD Program in 2005, Associate Dean in 2010, Interim Dean in 2017 and, most recently, Interim Provost.

Jensen holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Pennsylvania State University, as well as a bachelor’s degree of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a bachelor’s degree of Arts in Economics, both from Syracuse University.

“Congratulations to Paul Jensen on his appointment as the Nina Henderson Provost,” Henderson, who endowed the Nina Henderson Provost position in 2017, said. “The trustees on the Academic Affairs Committee and I look forward to working with Paul as Drexel’s academic offerings are re-envisioned for our evolving world.”

Drexel University confirmed July 17 that participation in intercollegiate athletics is canceled for all of its fall varsity teams as a responsive measure to help mitigate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The cancellation of fall athletics comes after a July 17 announcement by the Colonial Athletic Association, the athletic conference for the NCAA’s Division I schools along the East Coast, whose board of directors decided the best course of action for schools.

“I commend the [CAA] Board of Directors for their forward thinking and open-mindedness when dealing with the uncertain and complex moment that we find ourselves in,” CAA Commissioner Joe D’Antonio said. “Each of our [participating] institutions is making the best decisions for its campus community, based on a totality of the circumstances analysis.”

Dr. Eric Zillmer, Director of Athletics at Drexel, confirmed that the University’s participation in intercollegiate athletics for the fall season is simply not possible — especially after discussions with other institutions, the City of Philadelphia and the CAA.

“The safety and well-being of our student-athletes, coaches and professional staff are our first priority and we are hopeful that our fall teams will be able to compete in the spring,” Zillmer said.

Other schools in the CAA, including the College of William and Mary in Virginia, the State University of New York at Albany, Towson University in Maryland and the University of Delaware, have all chosen to cancel fall sports as well.

The cancellation spans conferences, too. The Ivy League, the New England Small Athletic Conference and the Patriot League all announced plans that their fall sports will not participate competitively.

Although Drexel’s competitive sports are canceled for the fall, each athletic team will return to campus in September for strength and conditioning work with coaches while maintaining the health and safety guidelines set by the University.

Drexel is also currently exploring all of its options in regard to athletics, DrexelNOW said. One possibility involves shifting fall sports to a spring schedule, but plans have yet to be finalized.

The following crimes occurred on or near campus and were reported to The Triangle by the Drexel University Department of Public Safety between July 7 and July 21. All information included in this report is taken from law enforcement or Division of Public Safety incident reports.

BURGLARY (1)

June 26 to June 27, 400 North 33rd Street (non-current)

A non-Drexel affiliate reported between an unknown person(s) entered their basement office by force and took personal items.

ASSAULT (1)

July 10, 3400 Spring Garden Street

A non-Drexel complainant reported they were assaulted during a domestic incident by a person known to them.

THEFT (8)

July 4, 3300 Market Street (non-current)

The complainant reported on an unknown male fled Wawa with 16 cans of Red Bull drink that he failed to pay for.

July 6 to July 8, 3200 Race Street

A non-Drexel complainant reported an unknown person(s) took their bike from the bike room at their residence.

July 7, 12:30 to 12:42 a.m., 3300 Market Street

Complainant reported an unknown male grabbed the charity jar from the Wawa counter and fled the store.

July 8 to July 11, 100 North 34th Street

A Drexel student reported between an unknown person(s) cut their lock and took their bicycle that was secured to a bike rack.

July 10, 10:30 a.m. to 11:20 a.m., 3500 Chestnut Street

A non-Drexel complainant reported that an unknown person(s) entered their hotel room without force and removed personal items.

July 10 to July 14, 300 North 33rd Street

A non-Drexel complainant reported that an unknown person(s) removed their tools that were left unsecured in a construction site.

July 12, 4:45 p.m. to 5:10 p.m., 3500 Lancaster Avenue

A non-Drexel complainant reported that an unknown person(s) took their rental car that was left unattended and running.

3400 Market Street

A non-Drexel complainant reported an unknown person(s) took their auto that they left parked and running with the keys in the ignition.

VANDALISM (1)

July 11 to July 12, 400 North 42nd Street

A Drexel staff member reported that an unknown person(s) cut a hole in the cyclone fence surrounding Vidas Field.

During the period from July 7 to July 21, there were no Policy Violations for Alcohol or Drugs.

Back in April, The Triangle published articles about Drexel University teams working on a genetic tracing “barcode” tool to help understand the path that COVID-19 has taken across the globe, along with how the virus has been mutating.

The tool itself is called an Informative Subtype Marker, and it circumvents the laborious process of analyzing the entire genetic sequence of COVID-19 itself to understand how it changes.

It was a valuable study moving forward, as Drexel’s Gail Rosen, Ph.D. — who led the creation of the genetic tracing barcode — was proud to say. Rosen elaborated on just what the genetic analysis tool can do. The method can figure out variations of the virus in different populations to not only help understand how COVID-19 is mutating and changing but also to see which populations are doing a good job of containing it.

Why does knowing the regionality of the COVID-19 outbreaks in various places matter? Well, instead of seeing a singular large outbreak, the ISM tool can analyze the outbreak and break it down into various “subtypes,” as the sequences of COVID-19 are different in North America than found in patients in Asia and Europe.

This allows the pinpointing of the virus in states with large cases to specific events. For example, it can differentiate between a case where a person had come from Europe and a local outbreak of the North American subtype of COVID-19. It serves as a faster way to better understand COVID-19 in your area.

Along with understanding the various mutations in the virus from the various parts of the world, Drexel’s three-person team — comprised of Rosen, doctoral student Zhengqiao Zhao and independent researcher and intellectual property attorney Bahrad A. Sokhansani Ph.D. — has agreed that the ISM tool’s understanding of genetic sequences can effectively fight off COVID-19.

Using the ISM tool can allow researchers to find the parts of the genetic code of the various subtypes of COVID-19 that don’t mutate and evolve, which could in turn be used to combat the virus itself.

If you can understand those parts of the virus — which seem to be the two parts that are responsible for entering the body into healthy cells — you can better understand the body’s response to the virus and how antiviral methods could be found.

Now flash forward to July. Drexel University has launched a contact tracing app that lets its users know “whether they have symptoms that might indicate a COVID-19 infection,” according to an article published by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Physicians will be the ones to review the app users’ responses, along with polling the users about their living situations, testing history and other important markers. With this, the Drexel app seems to be dialed in on focusing on how students can effectively be contact traced while on campus.

As contact tracing strives to become a more transparent and responsive process, there is only so much that can be done until we can speed up the time it takes to effectively cover all the necessary bases.

As Austin Kilaru, emergency physician and fellow in the National Clinician Scholars Program at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, explained to Kasra Zarei at The Inquirer, ‘“Technology offers a great deal of promise not just making the work easier, but also making it more effective.”’

With technology streamlining the contact tracing process — which typically requires manual labor, phone calls and time-consuming efforts — the goal of tracing students, their whereabouts and risk of infection is made more effective. This is crucial to having college students safely live on campus.

While this app could be highly beneficial, it does seem to fall into the grey area of bordering the digital privacy line. As many new apps are developed to help contact trace, there is the question of whether or not they are properly going to protect their users’ digital privacy — or ask for too much information.

The Drexel app simply asks if the user is okay with sharing personal data. But after Nature Medicine did a study on other coronavirus-related apps, it seems that many of them lack the necessary privacy protections that they should have. Unlike other apps, that seem to ask for unnecessary and irrelevant personal information in exchange for the vital service of understanding exposure risk, Drexel’s app has focused on privacy and using its own platform through the app rather than tracking location.

And while some other apps may have ulterior motives, the focus of the Drexel app is on “COVID-19, health and COVID-19 innovation,” as Charles Cairns — the dean and senior vice president of medical affairs at Drexel University College of Medicine — explained to The Inquirer.

Cairns went a step further to explain the importance of consumer willingness to share privacy information in the digital era, even as he understands the sheer importance of keeping college campuses safe.

“Checking symptoms on a voluntary basis is better than blindly tracking people with technology. The privacy concerns people bring up are very real. But on the other hand, we all benefit from a healthy campus and a safe environment,” Cairns explained.

Drexel University added to its accolades last month when it took the spot for most innovative mid-sized research university in a report by George W. Bush Institute and Opus Faveo Innovation Development.

The two organizations released the rankings on June 15 for “The Innovation Impact of U.S. Universities,” which is based on connecting “innovation activities to economic growth and prosperity and provides recommendations for institutions and policymakers,” according to the George W. Bush Center. Numerous colleges were evaluated based on research efforts, productivity levels, entrepreneurship and impact, and Drexel was recognized as a top performer.

“[Drexel] scores far higher than any member of the largest university group,” the report said. “Drexel shows what a university can achieve in innovation impact when it prioritizes innovation throughout the institution and engages broadly in its home city.”

Drexel’s successors in the ranking include the University of New Mexico, Princeton University and Carnegie Mellon University.

The ExCITe Center, the Close School of Entrepreneurship and the University’s stance on technology commercialization were a few of Drexel’s attributes that contributed to the high ranking.

The importance of innovation efforts is second-to-none, according to the George W. Bush Center. Universities in America play a “pivotal role in fueling innovation,” spending nearly $75 billion each year. This figure accounts for 13 percent of the nation’s research and development spending.

“Universities conduct a majority of the country’s basic research, while the private sector largely focuses on product development, which is often reliant on discoveries from basic research [by universities],” the Bush Center explains on its website. “The overall volume and quality of [research and development] activity, in turn, drive the pace of technological progress in the economy as a whole.”

In addition to university rankings, the Bush Center report offers conclusions and advice for schools. Notably, it encourages university leaders to prioritize research, recruit and retain quality researchers, establish an innovative and entrepreneurial culture throughout the school community, engage with local businesses and monitor innovation and impact results.

These recommendations also served as the basis for evaluating each university for “The Innovation Impact of U.S. Universities.” Research efforts for the report also pulled on Google Scholar, Google Patents, the National Science Foundation and the Association of University Technology Managers for data.

The rankings do serve as an essential component of the report, and according to the Bush Center, top-performers like Drexel should be proud of their efforts and the accomplishment.

“Our aim in publishing rankings is to highlight high-performing institutions,” the Bush Center wrote. “Particularly stand-out performers in innovation impact productivity – so that other institutions, as well as policymakers and other leaders, can learn from their example.”

Drexel excelled particularly in the area of teaching. The report applauded the University for the particularly-high number of STEM Ph.D.s it awarded.

As President John Fry said, Drexel continually shows “the spirit of research innovation” and has remained strong, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic that temporarily impacted research efforts.

“I’m incredibly proud of this much-deserved distinction for our research and innovation enterprise, which shows that the investments we’ve made to build an innovative ecosystem in University City are paying off,” Fry said.

The Student Exchange Visitor Program — a unit within The Department of Homeland Security — issued a temporary procedural guidance July 6 establishing that international students on F-1 and M-1 Visas would have to transfer to an in-person college or face deportation if their universities go fully-online for the fall 2020 term.

However an email sent by Drexel’s Division of Enrollment Management and Student Success on July 7 explained that the new SEVP legislation says international students on F-1 and M-1 visas will be allowed to attend schools adopting a hybrid model — that is, schools operating partially in-person and permitting students to take more than one remote class (or three credits) with certification from their school.

Under normal circumstances, immigration regulations do not allow international students in the U.S. to take more than one online class per term. Therefore, since President John Fry announced in an email on June 10 that Drexel is planning to operate this upcoming fall term on a “hybrid approach to learning” until Thanksgiving, all international students with these visas fall into this category and will be permitted to remain in the country.

While the SEVP continues to provide some flexibility to schools and international students during the global pandemic, this newly issued fall guidance provides less flexibility than the accommodations instituted in March 2020, which applied to the spring and summer terms.

International students on F-1 visas attending schools that will operate in-person are bound by existing federal regulations and can take no more than one remote class (three credits) per term.

Additionally, if a school changes its operational stance mid-term — and, as a result of that change, international students switch to only remote classes — those students must then depart the U.S. immediately or take other steps (such as transferring to another school) to ensure the continuation of their immigration status.

As a response to these measures being released so close to the beginning of some semester schools, universities like Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have decided to sue the Trump Administration.

According to Drexel’s International Students and Scholars Services director Mladenka Tomasevic, international students participating in co-op programs should not be affected by the most recent SEVP guidance. In addition, their ability to apply for co-ops outside the U.S. will depend on issues unrelated to U.S. immigration regulations, such as worldwide inbound and outbound restrictions.

The Triangle had additional questions for Tomasevic but, at the time, ISSS was still processing the legislation and did not have answers to many of the questions international students may have, like what might happen if classes return to remote-only after Thanksgiving as Fry originally planned.

The President of the International Students Union, Mrigna Gupta, has also reached out to the office of ISSS to get answers to their members but has not received any concrete updates besides the email sent on June 7.

COVID-19 has already caused a number of troubles on international students, Gupta said. From travel bans, to scheduling returns to home countries, to taking classes in a different timezone or spending quarantine completely alone in a foreign country.

“We had a case of three freshmen students from Mauritius who were told they had to leave their dorms with very few days in advance,” the ISU president said. “They packed everything and, with whatever money they had left, they bought a ticket back home, but when they were at the airport, they found out that Mauritius had just closed its borders. It was very difficult. Thankfully, we were able to fundraise a little, and they later were able to stay at the dorms for some time.”

On top of these issues, Gupta said, international students are presented with an additional financial burden on top of the financial recession of COVID. They also have to worry about whether or not they can stay in the U.S. or buy a ticket to their home countries with the risk of deportation. This also includes the fear of passing the risks of possible infection or even not being accepted in their countries due to bans.

International students do not know how many times they might have to fly back and forth, and those plane tickets stack onto the financial, physical and mental burdens a student already has. Additionally, international students face other dilemmas, like debating whether or not to sign a housing lease for the fall term, because of the uncertainty of staying in or leaving the country.

As Gupta elaborated, “I feel like colleges also do not want this federal restriction to happen because, if you look at it from a business perspective, they do not want to lose their international students. I was reading a lot about this and I found that international students contribute around $45 billion to the U.S. economy.”

Carla Pierini, a rising sophomore student from Maracaibo, Venezuela who is majoring in Fashion Design, says that it is impossible for her to go home.

“Venezuela has borders and airports closed. If they deport me, I have nowhere to go. Even if there was a way for me to go back, I would not choose it. I came to the United States because my country has an extreme economic and humanitarian crisis, and with the pandemic, the sanitary situation is even more deplorable.”

Pierini says going back would not only be a risk for her — due to the few repatriation flights back to Venezuela being the incubation site for more cases of the virus inside the country — but also a risk to her family.

“Crime rates in Venezuela are among the highest in the continent and there is also extreme corruption. I could put my family at risk of being robbed or kidnapped because when people there see that someone has returned from abroad, they assume they have money, and that is not our case. I worked really hard to be able to get into a university in the U.S. I had to learn the language and I had to learn the culture,” Pierini explained.

Additionally, Pierini would have to take her classes in a city that cannot guarantee consistent digital connection. After the country entered complete darkness during a nationwide blackout in March 2019, Pierini’s native Maracaibo was without electricity for a whole month and has suffered frequent blackouts ever since.

The country also suffers from one of the slowest internet speeds worldwide, running on 1.2 Mbps. In comparison, the worldwide average ranges between 12 and 25 Mbps, according to data by the Institute of Press and Society.

“Sometimes there are weeks when I am not able to talk with my family because they do not have internet or electricity, and also now this has caused people to steal the electricity cables from the houses. My family has changed their cables due to thefts three times, and the last one was in the last month,” Pierini said. “I understand that the U.S. Government might want to eliminate illegal immigration, but we are not here unlawfully, and if they deport me they would not only ruin my school year, but they would also ruin my future.”

Nikhil Parakh is a rising pre-junior from Kathmandu, Nepal majoring in Software Engineering, and there are also no international flights allowed into his country. Even if he finds a repatriation flight, he will have to stay in a quarantine facility there, which is cataloged as a hotspot for COVID-19 to spread because they are not properly maintained. The facilities have a lot of people packed in one place, not allowing social distancing to be practiced whatsoever.

“This means we cannot stay in the U.S. and we cannot go home. If we make it back to our homes, we don’t know when we will be allowed to come back to the U.S.,” Parakh said. “What people aren’t talking about is the fact that if you stay out of the U.S. for more than five months, your F-1 visa is terminated and the consequences follow.”

The only other option proposed by the SEVP legislation is to transfer schools, but Parakh says this is not feasible at this point.

“If I leave Drexel, I will also lose my scholarship and transfer students are usually not provided with financial aid,” Parakh explained. “Also, how many students can a college take in for in-person classes when the situation clearly says that any type of crowd is a catalyst for the spread of this virus? If the schools reopen, the cases are going to spike up, which is really bad for the administration, students and teachers.”

And yet, ISU’s Gupta still has faith.

“Despite this all, I have faith in Drexel that they will somehow adjust to their international students. They’ve said that we contribute a lot to campus and that they want to be globally engaged, so I hope they stick to these values and respect us,” Gupta said.

As Drexel’s international students hang in the balance, the only option left for Pierini, Parakh and the rest of over 5,000 international students at Drexel University is to wait and see what other measures ISSS, the University and the federal government will take in the coming weeks.

Drexel University’s campus, which spans approximately 2.5 miles in area, overlaps with five other police departments: the University of Pennsylvania Police Department, University City District Police, the 16th and 18th District of the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) and Amtrak and SEPTA officers.

Breaking down the jurisdiction of each police department, you see the entirety of the University City area being heavily covered.

Drexel University’s Police Department privately employs 45 sworn officers, who are responsible for patrolling from 30th to 36th Streets between Chestnut and Spring Garden Streets. Together, Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania, which employs 121 officers, covers 30th to 43rd Streets.

The 16th and 18th Districts span the entirety of Fairmount Park into Kensessing, the University City District Police has 45 officers that patrol from the Schuylkill Expressway to 50th Street, and Amtrak and SEPTA officers patrol near 30th and Market Streets.

With Drexel’s campus at the center of multiple police forces, and with access to the nation’s fourth largest city police department that has over 6,300 officers, the security of its students seems more than adequate.

In a time where police forces are being questioned and petitioned to be defunded and/or abolished, the need for the robust police force that Drexel University has is also being put under the spotlight.

First and foremost, the responsibilities and expectations of a Drexel police officer versus those of a PPD officer differ. Drexel police assist with medical, ambulance and fire calls, but they are also concerned with student affairs and conduct, noise complaints and alcohol and drug use. They often deal with concerns that are not illegal but disruptive.

Drexel police and the PPD work together on investigations, and any arrests the Drexel police make are filed with the PPD.

Although the Drexel police are employed by the university and patrol the campus, they have authority over non-students and those outside their designated area, and studies have shown that they treat students and non-students differently.

For example, Drexel students are often given a pass for drug and alcohol-related offenses, while non-students that come into contact with the Drexel police face harsher consequences for the same offenses.

Research from The Appeal shows that university police make more arrests that have no connection to the university than those that do.

Drexel’s police officers are required to ensure the safety of its students but are not required to ensure the safety of people off campus. According to the Urban Institute, they are, however, legally authorized to arrest or use legal force on people off campus. In these cases, they are not required to report and are not held to the Freedom of Information Act, which requires disclosure of information upon request.

This allows privately run departments access to all the power — and none of the accountability — over the public that accompanies policing.

So why are universities in urban areas, Drexel included, adding to the already prominent police forces? The PPD’s 2020 fiscal budget was almost $750 million, compared to the $159 million budgeted for the Department of Public Health, $45 million for free libraries, $81 million for the Department of Parks and Recreation and $104 million for the Office of Homeless Services.

Should Drexel be contributing to the already heavily patrolled University City? And why should the Drexel police average salary (which is $87,369, according to paysa.com) be so much higher than those of other police in the area?

These questions are being asked, especially since many Drexel departments and grant proposals for research have been lacking funds, and many student-led organizations are relying on fundraisers and donations.

According to salary.com, the average salary of a PPD officer is $60,900. According to the Daily Pennsylvanian, the maximum salary for a University of Pennsylvania police officer is $65,000. And paysa.com reports that the average SEPTA police officers’ salary is $65,000.

Drexel’s police force covers six blocks, which is significantly less area than that covered by the other five police forces that also patrol Drexel’s campus. This further emphasizes the stark contrast in salaries of Drexel police officers and those of the neighboring forces that cover more area.

The recent Black Lives Matter protests have elevated a national discussion about defunding the police. “Defund the police” and “No justice, no peace, abolish the police” signs have been prominent at protests, and this once-radical idea has gained momentum in recent months.

Against this national backdrop, Drexel students may reconsider the need for the university’s own privately employed officers — who make significantly more money than other private or city police department police in the area.