This staff photo was originally published in The Triangle of May 31, 1968. The eye-patched professor is faculty advisor Raymond Lorantas.

Former staff members of The Triangle shared their experiences at Alumni Weekend. We had a table at the Young Alumni Beer Hall May 17 and hosted an open house May 18.

News editor Craig Eisenberger (class of 2008) staffed the table and set aside his beer to give a thorough critique of the past two issues, marking up the papers with sharpie as he went. Other alumni who checked in were Anthony Mariano (managing editor ’18) and Anthony Silvestri (IT director ’18), as well as yours truly (co-chief copy editor ’18). The table was arranged by Marc Blumberg (business manager ’04), who could, however, not attend.

Special appearances at the open house were former editor-in-chief Rich Lampert and editorial board member Alys Lippman, both “Golden Dragons” from the class of 1969. Lampert was a chemical engineer by education, whose experiences at The Triangle led him into the publishing industry instead. Lipman, now the proprietor of Alys’ Restaurant in La Veta, Colorado recalled she took in a stray who became the office dog. Together, they waxed nostalgic about a time when advertisers were plentiful, the layout was done by hand and the ground floor of Creese had windows.

A piece of advice Lampert offered was to increase one-on-one engagement with people and to turn critics of the newspaper into contributors. In his time, the paper’s editorial stance was strongly anti-war — described in “Drexel’s Vietnam War,” a chapter by Drexel history professor Jonson Miller in the 125-year anniversary book “Building Drexel” — but Lampert nevertheless recruited an ROTC student to the news team.

The office was also visited by Alex Jones (editor-in-chief ’18) and Joseph Kavanagh (distribution manager ’16). With myself included, this brought the event to five attendees, an improvement over last year’s zero. The difference might be attributed to the ongoing efforts to organize a Triangle Alumni Association, which already has a website and mailing list.

Prominent in their absence, though, were several alumni known to live in Philadelphia and even  work at Drexel. Further events will aim to bring more former staff members into the fold and keep them actively engaged.

Lippman provided a staff photo from 1968, which was originally published with a fanciful prayer:

… Loving amulets of touching, seeing, groping, hearing and loving, we call upon the powers of the cosmos to protect our ceremonies in the name of Zeus, in the name of Annubis, god of the Dead, in the name of all those killed for causes they do not comprehend, in the name of the lives of the dead soldiers in Vietnam who were killed because of a bad Kharma; in the name of the Seaborne Aphrodite; in the name of the Magna Mater Deum Medea, Buddha, Vishnu, Rizzo, Siva, The Watcher, Prometheus, and Henry Ford; in the name of Dionysius, Zagreus, Jesus, Jahweh, the Unnamables, the Quintessent Finality, the Zorastrian Fire; in the name of Hermes, Thor, Mars, Galactas, Karl Marx, Kahili, Baal, Moloch; in the name of the Beak of Salt; in the name of the Scarab; In The Name… in the name of the Tyrone-Power-Pound-Cake Society in the Sky, in the name of Ra, Osiris, Horus, Neptus, Isis, Hippocrates, Eros; in the name of the flowing, living universe we raise our voices upon high and beseech… gods bless the Triangle.

Amen!

This staff photo was originally published in The Triangle of May 31, 1968. The eye-patched professor is faculty advisor Raymond Lorantas.

Former staff members of The Triangle shared their experiences at Alumni Weekend. We had a table at the Young Alumni Beer Hall May 17 and hosted an open house May 18.

News editor Craig Eisenberger (class of 2008) staffed the table and set aside his beer to give a thorough critique of the past two issues, marking up the papers with sharpie as he went. Other alumni who checked in were Anthony Mariano (managing editor ’18) and Anthony Silvestri (IT director ’18), as well as yours truly (co-chief copy editor ’18). The table was arranged by Marc Blumberg (business manager ’04), who could, however, not attend.

Special appearances at the open house were former editor-in-chief Rich Lampert and editorial board member Alys Lippman, both “Golden Dragons” from the class of 1969. Lampert was a chemical engineer by education, whose experiences at The Triangle led him into the publishing industry instead. Lipman, now the proprietor of Alys’ Restaurant in La Veta, Colorado recalled she took in a stray who became the office dog. Together, they waxed nostalgic about a time when advertisers were plentiful, the layout was done by hand and the ground floor of Creese had windows.

A piece of advice Lampert offered was to increase one-on-one engagement with people and to turn critics of the newspaper into contributors. In his time, the paper’s editorial stance was strongly anti-war — described in “Drexel’s Vietnam War,” a chapter by Drexel history professor Jonson Miller in the 125-year anniversary book “Building Drexel” — but Lampert nevertheless recruited an ROTC student to the news team.

The office was also visited by Alex Jones (editor-in-chief ’18) and Joseph Kavanagh (distribution manager ’16). With myself included, this brought the event to five attendees, an improvement over last year’s zero. The difference might be attributed to the ongoing efforts to organize a Triangle Alumni Association, which already has a website and mailing list.

Prominent in their absence, though, were several alumni known to live in Philadelphia and even  work at Drexel. Further events will aim to bring more former staff members into the fold and keep them actively engaged.

Lippman provided a staff photo from 1968, which was originally published with a fanciful prayer:

… Loving amulets of touching, seeing, groping, hearing and loving, we call upon the powers of the cosmos to protect our ceremonies in the name of Zeus, in the name of Annubis, god of the Dead, in the name of all those killed for causes they do not comprehend, in the name of the lives of the dead soldiers in Vietnam who were killed because of a bad Kharma; in the name of the Seaborne Aphrodite; in the name of the Magna Mater Deum Medea, Buddha, Vishnu, Rizzo, Siva, The Watcher, Prometheus, and Henry Ford; in the name of Dionysius, Zagreus, Jesus, Jahweh, the Unnamables, the Quintessent Finality, the Zorastrian Fire; in the name of Hermes, Thor, Mars, Galactas, Karl Marx, Kahili, Baal, Moloch; in the name of the Beak of Salt; in the name of the Scarab; In The Name… in the name of the Tyrone-Power-Pound-Cake Society in the Sky, in the name of Ra, Osiris, Horus, Neptus, Isis, Hippocrates, Eros; in the name of the flowing, living universe we raise our voices upon high and beseech… gods bless the Triangle.

Amen!

This staff photo was originally published in The Triangle of May 31, 1968. The eye-patched professor is faculty advisor Raymond Lorantas.

Former staff members of The Triangle shared their experiences at Alumni Weekend. We had a table at the Young Alumni Beer Hall May 17 and hosted an open house May 18.

News editor Craig Eisenberger (class of 2008) staffed the table and set aside his beer to give a thorough critique of the past two issues, marking up the papers with sharpie as he went. Other alumni who checked in were Anthony Mariano (managing editor ’18) and Anthony Silvestri (IT director ’18), as well as yours truly (co-chief copy editor ’18). The table was arranged by Marc Blumberg (business manager ’04), who could, however, not attend.

Special appearances at the open house were former editor-in-chief Rich Lampert and editorial board member Alys Lippman, both “Golden Dragons” from the class of 1969. Lampert was a chemical engineer by education, whose experiences at The Triangle led him into the publishing industry instead. Lipman, now the proprietor of Alys’ Restaurant in La Veta, Colorado recalled she took in a stray who became the office dog. Together, they waxed nostalgic about a time when advertisers were plentiful, the layout was done by hand and the ground floor of Creese had windows.

A piece of advice Lampert offered was to increase one-on-one engagement with people and to turn critics of the newspaper into contributors. In his time, the paper’s editorial stance was strongly anti-war — described in “Drexel’s Vietnam War,” a chapter by Drexel history professor Jonson Miller in the 125-year anniversary book “Building Drexel” — but Lampert nevertheless recruited an ROTC student to the news team.

The office was also visited by Alex Jones (editor-in-chief ’18) and Joseph Kavanagh (distribution manager ’16). With myself included, this brought the event to five attendees, an improvement over last year’s zero. The difference might be attributed to the ongoing efforts to organize a Triangle Alumni Association, which already has a website and mailing list.

Prominent in their absence, though, were several alumni known to live in Philadelphia and even  work at Drexel. Further events will aim to bring more former staff members into the fold and keep them actively engaged.

Lippman provided a staff photo from 1968, which was originally published with a fanciful prayer:

… Loving amulets of touching, seeing, groping, hearing and loving, we call upon the powers of the cosmos to protect our ceremonies in the name of Zeus, in the name of Annubis, god of the Dead, in the name of all those killed for causes they do not comprehend, in the name of the lives of the dead soldiers in Vietnam who were killed because of a bad Kharma; in the name of the Seaborne Aphrodite; in the name of the Magna Mater Deum Medea, Buddha, Vishnu, Rizzo, Siva, The Watcher, Prometheus, and Henry Ford; in the name of Dionysius, Zagreus, Jesus, Jahweh, the Unnamables, the Quintessent Finality, the Zorastrian Fire; in the name of Hermes, Thor, Mars, Galactas, Karl Marx, Kahili, Baal, Moloch; in the name of the Beak of Salt; in the name of the Scarab; In The Name… in the name of the Tyrone-Power-Pound-Cake Society in the Sky, in the name of Ra, Osiris, Horus, Neptus, Isis, Hippocrates, Eros; in the name of the flowing, living universe we raise our voices upon high and beseech… gods bless the Triangle.

Amen!

This staff photo was originally published in The Triangle of May 31, 1968. The eye-patched professor is faculty advisor Raymond Lorantas.

Former staff members of The Triangle shared their experiences at Alumni Weekend. We had a table at the Young Alumni Beer Hall May 17 and hosted an open house May 18.

News editor Craig Eisenberger (class of 2008) staffed the table and set aside his beer to give a thorough critique of the past two issues, marking up the papers with sharpie as he went. Other alumni who checked in were Anthony Mariano (managing editor ’18) and Anthony Silvestri (IT director ’18), as well as yours truly (co-chief copy editor ’18). The table was arranged by Marc Blumberg (business manager ’04), who could, however, not attend.

Special appearances at the open house were former editor-in-chief Rich Lampert and editorial board member Alys Lippman, both “Golden Dragons” from the class of 1969. Lampert was a chemical engineer by education, whose experiences at The Triangle led him into the publishing industry instead. Lipman, now the proprietor of Alys’ Restaurant in La Veta, Colorado recalled she took in a stray who became the office dog. Together, they waxed nostalgic about a time when advertisers were plentiful, the layout was done by hand and the ground floor of Creese had windows.

A piece of advice Lampert offered was to increase one-on-one engagement with people and to turn critics of the newspaper into contributors. In his time, the paper’s editorial stance was strongly anti-war — described in “Drexel’s Vietnam War,” a chapter by Drexel history professor Jonson Miller in the 125-year anniversary book “Building Drexel” — but Lampert nevertheless recruited an ROTC student to the news team.

The office was also visited by Alex Jones (editor-in-chief ’18) and Joseph Kavanagh (distribution manager ’16). With myself included, this brought the event to five attendees, an improvement over last year’s zero. The difference might be attributed to the ongoing efforts to organize a Triangle Alumni Association, which already has a website and mailing list.

Prominent in their absence, though, were several alumni known to live in Philadelphia and even  work at Drexel. Further events will aim to bring more former staff members into the fold and keep them actively engaged.

Lippman provided a staff photo from 1968, which was originally published with a fanciful prayer:

… Loving amulets of touching, seeing, groping, hearing and loving, we call upon the powers of the cosmos to protect our ceremonies in the name of Zeus, in the name of Annubis, god of the Dead, in the name of all those killed for causes they do not comprehend, in the name of the lives of the dead soldiers in Vietnam who were killed because of a bad Kharma; in the name of the Seaborne Aphrodite; in the name of the Magna Mater Deum Medea, Buddha, Vishnu, Rizzo, Siva, The Watcher, Prometheus, and Henry Ford; in the name of Dionysius, Zagreus, Jesus, Jahweh, the Unnamables, the Quintessent Finality, the Zorastrian Fire; in the name of Hermes, Thor, Mars, Galactas, Karl Marx, Kahili, Baal, Moloch; in the name of the Beak of Salt; in the name of the Scarab; In The Name… in the name of the Tyrone-Power-Pound-Cake Society in the Sky, in the name of Ra, Osiris, Horus, Neptus, Isis, Hippocrates, Eros; in the name of the flowing, living universe we raise our voices upon high and beseech… gods bless the Triangle.

Amen!

This staff photo was originally published in The Triangle of May 31, 1968. The eye-patched professor is faculty advisor Raymond Lorantas.

Former staff members of The Triangle shared their experiences at Alumni Weekend. We had a table at the Young Alumni Beer Hall May 17 and hosted an open house May 18.

News editor Craig Eisenberger (class of 2008) staffed the table and set aside his beer to give a thorough critique of the past two issues, marking up the papers with sharpie as he went. Other alumni who checked in were Anthony Mariano (managing editor ’18) and Anthony Silvestri (IT director ’18), as well as yours truly (co-chief copy editor ’18). The table was arranged by Marc Blumberg (business manager ’04), who could, however, not attend.

Special appearances at the open house were former editor-in-chief Rich Lampert and editorial board member Alys Lippman, both “Golden Dragons” from the class of 1969. Lampert was a chemical engineer by education, whose experiences at The Triangle led him into the publishing industry instead. Lipman, now the proprietor of Alys’ Restaurant in La Veta, Colorado recalled she took in a stray who became the office dog. Together, they waxed nostalgic about a time when advertisers were plentiful, the layout was done by hand and the ground floor of Creese had windows.

A piece of advice Lampert offered was to increase one-on-one engagement with people and to turn critics of the newspaper into contributors. In his time, the paper’s editorial stance was strongly anti-war — described in “Drexel’s Vietnam War,” a chapter by Drexel history professor Jonson Miller in the 125-year anniversary book “Building Drexel” — but Lampert nevertheless recruited an ROTC student to the news team.

The office was also visited by Alex Jones (editor-in-chief ’18) and Joseph Kavanagh (distribution manager ’16). With myself included, this brought the event to five attendees, an improvement over last year’s zero. The difference might be attributed to the ongoing efforts to organize a Triangle Alumni Association, which already has a website and mailing list.

Prominent in their absence, though, were several alumni known to live in Philadelphia and even  work at Drexel. Further events will aim to bring more former staff members into the fold and keep them actively engaged.

Lippman provided a staff photo from 1968, which was originally published with a fanciful prayer:

… Loving amulets of touching, seeing, groping, hearing and loving, we call upon the powers of the cosmos to protect our ceremonies in the name of Zeus, in the name of Annubis, god of the Dead, in the name of all those killed for causes they do not comprehend, in the name of the lives of the dead soldiers in Vietnam who were killed because of a bad Kharma; in the name of the Seaborne Aphrodite; in the name of the Magna Mater Deum Medea, Buddha, Vishnu, Rizzo, Siva, The Watcher, Prometheus, and Henry Ford; in the name of Dionysius, Zagreus, Jesus, Jahweh, the Unnamables, the Quintessent Finality, the Zorastrian Fire; in the name of Hermes, Thor, Mars, Galactas, Karl Marx, Kahili, Baal, Moloch; in the name of the Beak of Salt; in the name of the Scarab; In The Name… in the name of the Tyrone-Power-Pound-Cake Society in the Sky, in the name of Ra, Osiris, Horus, Neptus, Isis, Hippocrates, Eros; in the name of the flowing, living universe we raise our voices upon high and beseech… gods bless the Triangle.

Amen!

This staff photo was originally published in The Triangle of May 31, 1968. The eye-patched professor is faculty advisor Raymond Lorantas.

Former staff members of The Triangle shared their experiences at Alumni Weekend. We had a table at the Young Alumni Beer Hall May 17 and hosted an open house May 18.

News editor Craig Eisenberger (class of 2008) staffed the table and set aside his beer to give a thorough critique of the past two issues, marking up the papers with sharpie as he went. Other alumni who checked in were Anthony Mariano (managing editor ’18) and Anthony Silvestri (IT director ’18), as well as yours truly (co-chief copy editor ’18). The table was arranged by Marc Blumberg (business manager ’04), who could, however, not attend.

Special appearances at the open house were former editor-in-chief Rich Lampert and editorial board member Alys Lippman, both “Golden Dragons” from the class of 1969. Lampert was a chemical engineer by education, whose experiences at The Triangle led him into the publishing industry instead. Lipman, now the proprietor of Alys’ Restaurant in La Veta, Colorado recalled she took in a stray who became the office dog. Together, they waxed nostalgic about a time when advertisers were plentiful, the layout was done by hand and the ground floor of Creese had windows.

A piece of advice Lampert offered was to increase one-on-one engagement with people and to turn critics of the newspaper into contributors. In his time, the paper’s editorial stance was strongly anti-war — described in “Drexel’s Vietnam War,” a chapter by Drexel history professor Jonson Miller in the 125-year anniversary book “Building Drexel” — but Lampert nevertheless recruited an ROTC student to the news team.

The office was also visited by Alex Jones (editor-in-chief ’18) and Joseph Kavanagh (distribution manager ’16). With myself included, this brought the event to five attendees, an improvement over last year’s zero. The difference might be attributed to the ongoing efforts to organize a Triangle Alumni Association, which already has a website and mailing list.

Prominent in their absence, though, were several alumni known to live in Philadelphia and even  work at Drexel. Further events will aim to bring more former staff members into the fold and keep them actively engaged.

Lippman provided a staff photo from 1968, which was originally published with a fanciful prayer:

… Loving amulets of touching, seeing, groping, hearing and loving, we call upon the powers of the cosmos to protect our ceremonies in the name of Zeus, in the name of Annubis, god of the Dead, in the name of all those killed for causes they do not comprehend, in the name of the lives of the dead soldiers in Vietnam who were killed because of a bad Kharma; in the name of the Seaborne Aphrodite; in the name of the Magna Mater Deum Medea, Buddha, Vishnu, Rizzo, Siva, The Watcher, Prometheus, and Henry Ford; in the name of Dionysius, Zagreus, Jesus, Jahweh, the Unnamables, the Quintessent Finality, the Zorastrian Fire; in the name of Hermes, Thor, Mars, Galactas, Karl Marx, Kahili, Baal, Moloch; in the name of the Beak of Salt; in the name of the Scarab; In The Name… in the name of the Tyrone-Power-Pound-Cake Society in the Sky, in the name of Ra, Osiris, Horus, Neptus, Isis, Hippocrates, Eros; in the name of the flowing, living universe we raise our voices upon high and beseech… gods bless the Triangle.

Amen!

Jan. 1 marked the first time in 20 years that new works entered the public domain in the United States. Books, songs and movies from 1923 are now part of our cultural heritage free from copyright restrictions. The hiatus was due to the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, which extended the time for works published between 1923 and 1977. The public domain of Drexel University-related works is larger than it at first appears, though, including many works published after 1923.

Unlike today, older laws included many reasons that works could become public if the authors did not take action to keep their copyright — like including notices with “copyright” or the famous © mark, registering their works with the U.S. Copyright Office and renewing the copyright after 28 years. Peter B. Hirtle at Cornell University has compiled these requirements in an extensive chart.

Consider The Triangle. The first issue on Feb. 1, 1926 announced it as the “official newspaper published by the students of Drexel Institute,” but included no copyright notice, which was required until 1978 (until 1989 if it was never registered). It was not a big concern for a staff only charging five cents an issue. After examining a sample of archived issues, it seems that it’s not until Feb. 13, 1970 — in the midst of a crisis over Drexel’s dorm expansions into the surrounding community — that “copyright” is added to the masthead.

Except for a few syndicated columns and advertisements with their own notices, The Triangle before 1970 is free to use. It is already distributed online; the practical benefit is that its masses of articles, photographs and comics can be copied and adapted by historians, nostalgic alumni and artists without worrying about licensing.

Another valuable work in the public domain is “Drexel Institute of Technology, 1891-1941: A Memorial History” by Edward D. McDonald and Edward M. Hinton — the first history book about Drexel. Published in 1942, it properly bore a notice and was registered. But like most books, its copyright was never renewed, which was required for works published before 1964. This resource, available at the Hagerty Library, could be scanned and published online.

The same is true of The Drexerd, the comic magazine from which The Triangle was spun off. It ran from 1921 to 1941; I have been unable to verify whether any issues had notices, but no renewals were ever filed, putting the full run of its elegantly illustrated off-color jokes in the public domain. Most issues are held by the Drexel Archives.

Not to be confused with this is The Lexerd, our yearbook, which I have seen with inconsistent notices but have found no renewals for. It is likely in the public domain at least through 1963, and some years through 1988 will be in the public domain if the specific issue didn’t include a notice.

Probably some issues of The Gargoyle and its successor, Maya Literary Magazine, are also free, along with many one-off publications. For unpublished works like private papers, the prospects are less promising, as their copyright expires 70 years after the death of the author.

Copyright is not the only question, as the Archives has not even digitized much of its collection of rare books about which no doubt existed. It’s slow-going (and therefore pricey) work. Students for whom ambition can’t wait, though, can go to the Archives and take their own pictures. Who knows what they will create?

The Society of Women Engineers held two panel discussions Nov. 3 in which people from academia and industry shared their experiences as part of underrepresented groups in their field.

At “Lives and Lessons of the Underrepresented in STEM,” the panelists encouraged students to be ambitious and persistent, and to act as role models for those who wouldn’t typically consider a career in science, engineering, technology or mathematics.

The new dean of the College of Engineering, Sharon Walker, began with her own unlikely story of how she came to study environmental engineering rather than music. She opined that groups from mixed backgrounds and interests make better engineers, by coming up with unconventional solutions.

The four academic panelists — like their three industry counterparts, all women — reflected this idea. It was made up of Drexel University electrical engineering professor Dagmar Niebur, middle school teacher (with a biomedical science doctorate) Karen Lancaster, Drexel electrical engineering graduate student Xinwei Zhao and Yale University environmental engineering graduate student Bridget Hegarty.

Niebur explained that she had studied in Switzerland, where women did not get the federal vote until 1971, and she needed her husband’s consent to have her own bank account. She was one of a handful of woman electrical engineers in Swiss history. Nevertheless, she said she had not experienced much discrimination.

“I’ve found engineers to be very rational,” she said, emphasizing that being underrepresented does not have to mean being excluded.

The panel agreed that men are indeed important to expanding women’s participation in STEM fields.

“I would agree that guys can be great mentors,” Hegarty, who is the founder of GradSWE at Yale, said.

Hegarty also commended the “HeForSWE” project at Drexel, which empowers men to be advocates for women in engineering and tech.

Still, each speaker had a story about a time she was disrespected and had to be confident in her own abilities.

Zhao, who is originally from China, spoke about how her ease in presenting in English grew with practice, and recommended that all students take opportunities to present their work. She also relayed an embarrassing story of repeatedly damaging lab equipment, but said her mentors tended to be forgiving.

Lancaster suggested that one reason there are fewer female applicants to STEM fields is that they are discouraged from a young age. Teaching at the all-girls Baldwins School in Bryn Mawr, she has found that bringing in students and professionals to speak in the classroom is very effective. She hopes the popular image of engineering will change to one of collaborative and creative problem-solving.

From industry were Drexel civil engineering alumna M.P. Tumelty, staff engineer at the Pennoni firm’s transportation division; Ayanna Crear of United Technologies Aerospace Systems; and Katie Van Aken, who earned her doctorate from Drexel in 2017 and co-founded optical filter company Dragon Spectral.

SWE organized the second panel to give a broader perspective of the opportunities in STEM, but also the potential difficulties in being underrepresented.

This successful “Live and Lessons” was the third annual event. It was sponsored by the B.A. Rudolph Foundation.

After both panels the attendees had the opportunity to speak to the panelists and develop professional connections. Though applications for the 2018-19 academic year have closed, SWE has an ongoing program that recruits alumni to mentor undergraduates.

Campus has been bombarded lately with calls to register to vote in Pennsylvania, due by Oct. 9. Registration, though, is only the beginning. National issues tend to get the most attention, but how will your vote fit into the politics of Philadelphia?

The smallest political unit is the division, which determines your polling place. Several divisions make up a ward, 66 all. Most Drexel students live in the 24th Ward, which runs from the Schuylkill to 40th Street, and from Market Street to West Girard Avenue. Divisions and wards are used to organize the elections themselves. Depending on your division, you’ll fall into different districts for elections for City Council, the Pennsylvania House and Senate, and Congress.

More than technical boundaries, though, they also govern political activism. There are Democratic and Republican ward committees, with members from each division, which get out the vote for their party. They elect ward leaders, whose endorsement is influential in primary elections. The committees are your point of entry to the party machine: they often have vacancies which you might be able to fill with no prior experience. Each division also votes for a judge and two inspectors of elections, who then make sure on Election Day that the voting is fair — even students have been elected to these positions.

Ordinances passed by City Council govern mundane but important things like construction, the police and local businesses. Peculiar to Philadelphia is the “councilmanic prerogative”: City Council won’t change something like the zoning of an area if the councilman from there is against it. So if you see any big developments happening around campus, you can be sure that Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell was consulted.

Self-explanatory is the role of Mayor Kenney, who is granted relatively strong power by the Home Rule Charter, Philadelphia’s constitution. Less clear is the role of many others. The district attorney prosecutes crimes. The sheriff is not in charge of the police, but serves the courts in matters like selling properties with unpaid tax. The city controller audits government programs for their effectiveness. The register of wills deals with the property of deceased residents. The city commissioners organize the elections. These lesser offices don’t receive a lot of scrutiny, simply because people don’t know what they’re about.

Pennsylvania’s General Assembly is comparable to the legislatures of most states. It’s primarily known for having the largest number of full-time legislators in the country: 50 senators and 203 representatives. Another oddity in the Commonwealth is that our judges are elected, from the Municipal to the Supreme Court. When they run for re-election, it’s your responsibility to hold them accountable for their decisions on the bench.

It can be hard to keep informed about everything that will appear on the ballot. The website of the city commissioners, PhiladelphiaVotes.com, is the official source of election information. A good non-partisan guide is the Committee of 70. For judicial elections, candidates’ qualifications are examined by the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania bar associations. There’s always newspaper editorials, campaign literature and door-to-door activists of course. If peer pressure is more your style, Drexel has a few cyclically active political clubs. Besides Democrats and Republicans there are special issue groups like Fossil Free Drexel.

With all that explained, where do city and state politics stand today? There is no doubt that Philadelphia is firmly held by the Democratic Party; we haven’t had a Republican mayor since 1952. City Council has 14 Democrats and 3 Republicans — and two of those seats are guaranteed for the minority party. The primary elections get low voter turnout, but usually the Democratic candidate selected then will be who ends up in office.

That Democratic moniker hides a diversity of political views. They are lobbyists for bicyclists and for parking. For law enforcement and against the prison system. For more liquor licenses and for a higher tax on cigarettes. The conflict between the Philadelphia School District and charter schools is especially salient.

At the state level, there is much more inter-party competition. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are Democratic islands among the mostly Republican rural areas. This makes for frequent conflict between city and state politics — particularly on topics like school funding, guns and LGBTQ issues. The General Assembly is majority Republican but Gov. Tom Wolf is a Democrat. On balance Pennsylvania is a “swing state,” always guaranteed to draw a media circus this time of year. It means that just a few votes can make a big difference on Election Day, Nov. 6.

If you can’t make it, request an absentee ballot before Oct. 30. It may help to make a list with each pick before you go to the polls, so you don’t have to leave any space blank. And the first time you vote in a new division you need to bring an ID; your DragonCard will suffice. Armed with a little knowledge, you can make your voice heard.

FOSSCon, a free and open-source software conference, will be held Aug. 25 at the International House Philadelphia. Lectures and workshops will teach participants about free software and new ways to use it.

Unlike most software, which is only available under restrictive licensing, free and open-source software is available under licenses that let people distribute, run and modify the software for their own purposes. It includes well-known projects like the Firefox browser or the Linux kernel. Those who talk about “free software” emphasize the way copyright law restricts users’ freedom, while those who talk about “open source” emphasize the economic and technical benefits of shared development.

However, most of the scheduled events are far from philosophical, focusing on technical subjects like the use of domain name systems or the filesystem ZFS. The speakers range from professional programmers to enthusiasts. Most famous on the list is Eric S. Raymond, one of the thinkers behind “open source,” who will speak about the history of the C programming language and what might replace it. Of particular local interest is a talk by Eric O’Callaghan, a systems administrator at Thomas Jefferson University, on how to use public data from Indego Bike Share.

Less technical discussions include Brian MacDonald’s recommendations for “Writing the Next Great Tech Book” and Joe Lopez’s critique of the way free software projects market themselves. Nor is the conference just for computer geeks: Daniel Pikora will talk about how the LEGO community uses and contributes to free software, and amateur radio license exams will be administered by the Phil-Mont Mobile Radio Club.

FOSSCon has been hosted annually in Philadelphia since 2010. It was founded by husband-and-wife Jonathan Simpson and Christina Simmons, is run with volunteer labor and is entirely funded through sponsorship.

The conference is still accepting proposals for five-minute “lightning talks.” These should be submitted more than one week before the conference starts, or else most slots will be filled.

The International House is located at 3701 Chestnut St., and the program runs from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The list of speakers, proposal submissions and free registration are available at https://fosscon.us.