Photograph courtesy of Fibonacci Blue at Flickr

Two incidents of sexual assault were reported at Drexel University’s Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity recently, alleged to have happened between April 28 and May 4. Now, the fraternity has been suspended temporarily while an investigation is conducted.

Reports of incidents like this are sadly far too common in the United States. Prevention and awareness is necessary. Every 98 seconds someone is a victim of sexual violence, and only 20 percent of sexually assaulted female college students report their assault to law enforcement.

Seven reports of sexual assault have been made at Drexel since the beginning of March, but it is possible that many more have occurred without being reported.

Everyone has to be sure to look out for one another and listen when anyone has to speak up. Be a good friend and look out for others. Pay attention to any warning signs and listen when a friend needs to talk. Being aware and supportive can help prevent sexual assault and help anyone affected by it to cope with it.

Drexel’s Bystander Intervention Program is a promotion of the idea of preventing sexual violence by knowing warning signs of inappropriate behavior and when to intervene to prevent it from happening. This is important for everyone to know because awareness can decrease instances of violence on campus if everyone works together to act on it.

If a group of friends attend a large party at a place like a fraternity house, everyone has to stick together. Many instances of sexual assault happen when someone is alone and intoxicated with no ability to consent. Stick with friends and make sure they’re safe throughout the night.

Drexel is a community where every student should be able to learn and live in a safe environment. Being aware of ways to prevent violence and being understanding of anyone who has faced it will continue to help improve campus life and push Drexel forward.

Sexual assault happens, and it is a problem that nobody should ignore. Be an active member of the Drexel community by looking out for yourself and others. Don’t be a bystander because somebody could need your help. On campus, all we have is each other.

Photograph courtesy of Benjamin Child at Unsplash

Co-op is one of the reasons a lot of students come to Drexel, so it only makes sense that we students put a lot of effort into trying to find the right job.

We want to do something that’s relevant to our interests and career goals, and, if possible, we want something that’s going to pay well.

But there are other really important factors that will affect our job experiences too, and one of them is the people we work with.

Most jobs involve a small group of people that you’ll be expected to interact with on a daily basis, and how well you guys get on could easily be the difference between loving and hating your co-op.

Any good interviewer will show you around the building and introduce you to some of your potential coworkers, and you should definitely take the time to ask them what they think of the job. If you get a good feeling from a potential boss or colleague, even if you can’t explain why, you should definitely trust it.

For awhile, I was struggling to choose between two co-ops, and eventually, the deciding factor was that I got on well with one of the supervisors during the interview.

I definitely made the right decision — having a good relationship with the people around you means you’ll feel more confident in the workplace, and be better at asking for help, making suggestions and communicating clearly.

Another important thing is the location — and I’m not talking about how long the commute is. Your workplace could be five minutes’ walk from your apartment in your favorite city, but that still isn’t going to mean anything if your actual office is windowless and moldy.

Think about it. If you work indoors in a single building, which most people do, you’ll be in that office for at least eight hours a day, five days a week, without any sort of scenery change.

This means you definitely want your workspace to be nice — your own cubicle, so that you have personal space and a place to keep your things, a computer, natural light and a good view, the chance to customize your space with small decorations. If you’re allowed to put a bit of personality into your job, you’ll feel more at home and less like a temporary fixture. Plus, arriving at work early in the morning won’t feel quite as bad.

There are many more factors, and a lot of them depend on what small, everyday things you take for granted in your life at college. For example, I love that my workplace doesn’t have a dress code, and that I’m allowed to keep my own style like I do in classes rather than just wearing suits.

Some people, though, might want to focus on there being a good lunch place nearby, or on flexible work hours and arrival times. The important thing is just to consider some of the less obvious factors when searching for co-ops.

I know that choosing a co-op is already a struggle for a lot of Drexel students, since there’s a lot of pressure to make the right choice, and adding more criteria to the list is probably the last thing you want to do.

And, of course, nobody is ever going to have the chance to design their own perfect job (at least not for co-op) so there will always be compromises. I just think that a lot of people get caught up in the bigger picture, focusing on the job responsibilities, future opportunities, and salary, and forget to think about the day to day details.

Planning for the future is important, but the present is important too. And when you’re spending more than half of your waking hours at your co-op, even on your worst days when you’re sick or sad, it’s the little things about your job that make a difference.

Philadelphia joined cities throughout the nation in the People’s Climate March April 29, the 100th day of  Donald Trump’s presidency, to rally against the administration’s environmental policies.

Around 1 p.m. 2,000 demonstrators marched along JFK Boulevard and then to Market Street, ending at the Market Street Bridge at 3 p.m., holding signs that denounced Trump and advocated for enhanced efforts to combat global warming.

“Basically, the point is for a lot of people to get together in this space and show resistance to the current administration’s offensive moves on the environment and poor communities” Jed Laucharoen, one of the event organizers, told Philly.com.

The event was hosted in part by Philly with Standing Rock, a group that actively opposes the Dakota Access Pipeline and supports the Standing Rock Sioux of North Dakota, who have been affected by the construction of the 1,172-mile pipeline that interferes with sacred cultural sites.

“This is a struggle beyond borders and across generations. We cannot wait a moment longer. We must rise and take action to defend the future of our communities and this planet that we all share,” Philly with Standing Rock posted on Facebook.

Jorge Rodriguez, a Drexel University junior studying economics and mathematics, was one of the demonstrators amongst the energized crowd.

“Climate change is a major threat to the future of humanity,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez also took advantage of the event to promote Drexel Socialists, an organization he is heavily involved with, he said.

“I wanted to reach out to some activists at the march to see if they were interested in coming to my sanctuary movement,” he explained, referring to a rally the group had on campus May 1.

Rodriguez said that overall, the event was a success. “I felt good after it, and I think they got a good amount of the media attention they wanted,” he said, though he pointed out that the march came to an abrupt ending.

“At the end of the march, the organizers said, ‘Alright, we’ll see you next year!’ and I was confused because it’s hard to affect major change with a single event each year,” he said.

The event was a sister march of the Climate March in Washington, D.C.

“We will march in solidarity with the Climate March in Washington to demonstrate our power and resistance,” the event’s website reads. “We will bring attention to the climate crisis and to the related problems that affect our communities. We will send our message to the White House and to our leaders in Congress and we will demand action.”

More than 370 marches occurred around the world, in opposition to the Trump administration’s environmental agenda. According to peoplesclimate.org, altogether over 300,000 people joined the various demonstrations.

It also followed last week’s “March for Science” in Philadelphia, where about 10,000 people marched from City Hall to Penn’s Landing to defend the role of science during the Trump administration.

“We’re here to say climate change matters,” said Trine Smith, one of the organizers of the Climate March. “This is a very serious matter.”

Philadelphia joined cities throughout the nation in the People’s Climate March April 29, the 100th day of  Donald Trump’s presidency, to rally against the administration’s environmental policies.

Around 1 p.m. 2,000 demonstrators marched along JFK Boulevard and then to Market Street, ending at the Market Street Bridge at 3 p.m., holding signs that denounced Trump and advocated for enhanced efforts to combat global warming.

“Basically, the point is for a lot of people to get together in this space and show resistance to the current administration’s offensive moves on the environment and poor communities” Jed Laucharoen, one of the event organizers, told Philly.com.

The event was hosted in part by Philly with Standing Rock, a group that actively opposes the Dakota Access Pipeline and supports the Standing Rock Sioux of North Dakota, who have been affected by the construction of the 1,172-mile pipeline that interferes with sacred cultural sites.

“This is a struggle beyond borders and across generations. We cannot wait a moment longer. We must rise and take action to defend the future of our communities and this planet that we all share,” Philly with Standing Rock posted on Facebook.

Jorge Rodriguez, a Drexel University junior studying economics and mathematics, was one of the demonstrators amongst the energized crowd.

“Climate change is a major threat to the future of humanity,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez also took advantage of the event to promote Drexel Socialists, an organization he is heavily involved with, he said.

“I wanted to reach out to some activists at the march to see if they were interested in coming to my sanctuary movement,” he explained, referring to a rally the group had on campus May 1.

Rodriguez said that overall, the event was a success. “I felt good after it, and I think they got a good amount of the media attention they wanted,” he said, though he pointed out that the march came to an abrupt ending.

“At the end of the march, the organizers said, ‘Alright, we’ll see you next year!’ and I was confused because it’s hard to affect major change with a single event each year,” he said.

The event was a sister march of the Climate March in Washington, D.C.

“We will march in solidarity with the Climate March in Washington to demonstrate our power and resistance,” the event’s website reads. “We will bring attention to the climate crisis and to the related problems that affect our communities. We will send our message to the White House and to our leaders in Congress and we will demand action.”

More than 370 marches occurred around the world, in opposition to the Trump administration’s environmental agenda. According to peoplesclimate.org, altogether over 300,000 people joined the various demonstrations.

It also followed last week’s “March for Science” in Philadelphia, where about 10,000 people marched from City Hall to Penn’s Landing to defend the role of science during the Trump administration.

“We’re here to say climate change matters,” said Trine Smith, one of the organizers of the Climate March. “This is a very serious matter.”

Photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Recently, Arkansas set out to execute eight death row inmates in an 11 day span.

The reason for the rushed and condensed executions? The state’s supply of Midazolam was set to expire soon, and they wanted to get the most use out of it while they still had it available.

Midazolam is a drug that is used on Death Row inmates to stop their heart and lungs at the time of their execution.  It is also used less aggressively as a sedative during medical surgeries. Its paradoxical use has been the source of numerous ethical concerns.

Lethal Injection is often considered the new, “humane” form of execution. We’ve long strayed from the idea of the electric chair and public hangings (although nine states still legally employ the method of electrocution, no one has faced the chair since 2013), and moved on to a quieter, less barbaric way to take someone’s life. At least that’s the idea behind it, as 35 out of 50 states as well as the federal government and U.S. military, employ lethal injection as their main form of execution.

The way the drug is supposed to work is as an extremely heavy sedative. An inmate is strapped down to a gurney and fitted with an IV that will first administer a saline solution, and  midazolam (a benzodiazepine compound) is injected to sedate the inmate before the drugs that relax the diaphragm and stop the heart are administered. However, the term “botched execution” is often also associated with the drug.

In 2015, courts ruled in and a 5-4 vote that the use of midazolam was not considered “cruel and unusual punishment.” This was following several “botched” executions, where inmates were seen waking up after the lethal drugs had been administered, being forced to feel the full impact of asphyxiation and cardiac arrest. The controversy lies in the drugs ability to adequately sedate an inmate before their execution.

Is the use of midazolam humane? Looking past the morality that’s questioned when thinking about the death penalty in general, what are the rights of an inmate waiting to die? Does an inmate living on Death Row have the right to a quick and painless death?

Lethal injection provides a sense of relief to both inmate and executioner. For the same reason that a firing squad consists of more than one man with a gun, lethal injection helps remove the weight of the death from the executioner’s hands. No switch to flip or trigger to pull, just an IV administered the same way any doctor would for a surgery. But the effects of that IV are important, even if they are something we’d probably rather not think about.

If we deem the death penalty necessary for now, then we owe the executed a quick and painless way out, even if they did not offer their victims that luxury.  Just as “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,” torture for torture makes the whole world evil.

Photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Recently, Arkansas set out to execute eight death row inmates in an 11 day span.

The reason for the rushed and condensed executions? The state’s supply of Midazolam was set to expire soon, and they wanted to get the most use out of it while they still had it available.

Midazolam is a drug that is used on Death Row inmates to stop their heart and lungs at the time of their execution.  It is also used less aggressively as a sedative during medical surgeries. Its paradoxical use has been the source of numerous ethical concerns.

Lethal Injection is often considered the new, “humane” form of execution. We’ve long strayed from the idea of the electric chair and public hangings (although nine states still legally employ the method of electrocution, no one has faced the chair since 2013), and moved on to a quieter, less barbaric way to take someone’s life. At least that’s the idea behind it, as 35 out of 50 states as well as the federal government and U.S. military, employ lethal injection as their main form of execution.

The way the drug is supposed to work is as an extremely heavy sedative. An inmate is strapped down to a gurney and fitted with an IV that will first administer a saline solution, and  midazolam (a benzodiazepine compound) is injected to sedate the inmate before the drugs that relax the diaphragm and stop the heart are administered. However, the term “botched execution” is often also associated with the drug.

In 2015, courts ruled in and a 5-4 vote that the use of midazolam was not considered “cruel and unusual punishment.” This was following several “botched” executions, where inmates were seen waking up after the lethal drugs had been administered, being forced to feel the full impact of asphyxiation and cardiac arrest. The controversy lies in the drugs ability to adequately sedate an inmate before their execution.

Is the use of midazolam humane? Looking past the morality that’s questioned when thinking about the death penalty in general, what are the rights of an inmate waiting to die? Does an inmate living on Death Row have the right to a quick and painless death?

Lethal injection provides a sense of relief to both inmate and executioner. For the same reason that a firing squad consists of more than one man with a gun, lethal injection helps remove the weight of the death from the executioner’s hands. No switch to flip or trigger to pull, just an IV administered the same way any doctor would for a surgery. But the effects of that IV are important, even if they are something we’d probably rather not think about.

If we deem the death penalty necessary for now, then we owe the executed a quick and painless way out, even if they did not offer their victims that luxury.  Just as “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,” torture for torture makes the whole world evil.

Photograph courtesy of Shurik at Pixabay

President Donald Trump has only been in office for a little over a hundred days and international relations are more tumultuous than ever.

Heightening tensions with North Korea aren’t news to anyone. Every day I see new articles about North Korea’s plans to eradicate the U.S. and South Korea that make me think about how nobody really knows where the fate of our country lies.

Contemplate the possibility of that future and let your imagination run rampant — what if our days really were numbered? What if there was a significant chance that we didn’t have much left to do before we got blown to obscurity?

Welcome to your doomsday, a time where the world’s most powerful country is governed by an egocentric megalomaniac who’s engaged in a serious game of hopscotch with a tyrant threatening to bomb us. What are you going to do before the bomb drops?

If it were really a time like this, the fact of the matter is your days are numbered. It’s time to prioritize the important things now because with the way things look, there won’t be much life to live for some of us.

Have you really lived your life?

Some of us are young. Some of us may have just entered college and have our whole lives ahead of us. Some of us are more seasoned but are still fit to change. Some of us may be stuck in our ways. But if you were told you only had a year left to live — in the event that we were going to be bombed — what would you do?

Do it. Do all the things you’ve always wanted to do.

I always felt like fear was a good indicator that you were on the right track. Life is nothing but making decisions. The harder the decisions get the wiser you become. There are always going to be decisions that aren’t easy to make and you never really know what the right choice is. Choosing what’s good for you is often difficult, but the fact of the matter is that if you’re afraid to do something, it can sometimes mean it’s what you have to do.

Human nature is pushing yourself to be better and evolving to your environment. Some things are going to be hard, but you have to do them because they make you a better person when you’re done with it.

And it’s more than that. You have to jump in.

There are some things in life that may seem impassible at the time. A familiar truth is that you’re never going to be ready for some things; another truth is that you’re not ready, until you are.

Some things may be extremely daunting. I think for the most wild things people have done in their lives, they won’t often have a detailed explanation for why they did them, they just did. It could have been in the heat of the moment maybe, but they chose to do it.

Don’t be scared and don’t play it safe. Life is an experience and we shouldn’t limit ourselves as heavily as we do.

If there is a new career path that opens for you that requires you to move, pack your bags. If you’re an engineer, but you know that your passion is in game design, meet with your academic advisor tomorrow morning. If you see the love of your life today, go out with them tomorrow. If you’re over a decade into your retirement and have never been to Paris, book a flight.

I don’t think life was meant for people to walk along the fence and look out at the things they should do, but won’t.

If we really only had a matter of time before North Korea launched a bomb at the U.S., you can bet your bottom dollar people would begin to acknowledge all their shortcomings and regrets.

Don’t wait to do the things you want until tomorrow, turn your dreams into a reality, today. Do the things that you believe in and don’t suppress the things that make you, you.

If you’re telling yourself that “I’ll finally do it when the time is right,” the right time is now. It’s not time later, and it’s not time when our lives are in jeopardy.

It’s time now.

Photograph courtesy of Shurik at Pixabay

President Donald Trump has only been in office for a little over a hundred days and international relations are more tumultuous than ever.

Heightening tensions with North Korea aren’t news to anyone. Every day I see new articles about North Korea’s plans to eradicate the U.S. and South Korea that make me think about how nobody really knows where the fate of our country lies.

Contemplate the possibility of that future and let your imagination run rampant — what if our days really were numbered? What if there was a significant chance that we didn’t have much left to do before we got blown to obscurity?

Welcome to your doomsday, a time where the world’s most powerful country is governed by an egocentric megalomaniac who’s engaged in a serious game of hopscotch with a tyrant threatening to bomb us. What are you going to do before the bomb drops?

If it were really a time like this, the fact of the matter is your days are numbered. It’s time to prioritize the important things now because with the way things look, there won’t be much life to live for some of us.

Have you really lived your life?

Some of us are young. Some of us may have just entered college and have our whole lives ahead of us. Some of us are more seasoned but are still fit to change. Some of us may be stuck in our ways. But if you were told you only had a year left to live — in the event that we were going to be bombed — what would you do?

Do it. Do all the things you’ve always wanted to do.

I always felt like fear was a good indicator that you were on the right track. Life is nothing but making decisions. The harder the decisions get the wiser you become. There are always going to be decisions that aren’t easy to make and you never really know what the right choice is. Choosing what’s good for you is often difficult, but the fact of the matter is that if you’re afraid to do something, it can sometimes mean it’s what you have to do.

Human nature is pushing yourself to be better and evolving to your environment. Some things are going to be hard, but you have to do them because they make you a better person when you’re done with it.

And it’s more than that. You have to jump in.

There are some things in life that may seem impassible at the time. A familiar truth is that you’re never going to be ready for some things; another truth is that you’re not ready, until you are.

Some things may be extremely daunting. I think for the most wild things people have done in their lives, they won’t often have a detailed explanation for why they did them, they just did. It could have been in the heat of the moment maybe, but they chose to do it.

Don’t be scared and don’t play it safe. Life is an experience and we shouldn’t limit ourselves as heavily as we do.

If there is a new career path that opens for you that requires you to move, pack your bags. If you’re an engineer, but you know that your passion is in game design, meet with your academic advisor tomorrow morning. If you see the love of your life today, go out with them tomorrow. If you’re over a decade into your retirement and have never been to Paris, book a flight.

I don’t think life was meant for people to walk along the fence and look out at the things they should do, but won’t.

If we really only had a matter of time before North Korea launched a bomb at the U.S., you can bet your bottom dollar people would begin to acknowledge all their shortcomings and regrets.

Don’t wait to do the things you want until tomorrow, turn your dreams into a reality, today. Do the things that you believe in and don’t suppress the things that make you, you.

If you’re telling yourself that “I’ll finally do it when the time is right,” the right time is now. It’s not time later, and it’s not time when our lives are in jeopardy.

It’s time now.

Photograph courtesy of Drexel University

The W.W. Hagerty Library has been a lifesaver for me at Drexel University. Not only does it offer a nice place where I can study free from distractions, it also offers lots of different resources.

One of the most useful parts of the library is the borrowing system.

As an English major, I am constantly reading and looking for different materials to expand my knowledge. Whether it’s a book for a class or a scholarly article for a paper, the library has been the place to go.

The loaning period for books and DVDs is more than enough time to get whatever information you need, and there is a very strong chance that what you’re seeking will be somewhere in the library.

Something else that can come in handy are the laptops they let people borrow.

The rules for borrowing laptops are a bit more strict than books and DVDs. You get fewer hours and you can’t leave the library with a borrowed laptop; however,there are a lot of people who can’t afford a laptop, so this resource is very helpful to them. I myself haven’t rented a laptop from the library, but I have used the computer labs on multiple occasions when I didn’t have my laptop with me.

Another great service that the library provides is the access to printers. There have been several times when I have left my dorm without printing an essay that was due that day and the library’s printers have come to my rescue every time. Not to mention that using the library’s printers is incredibly cheap as well. It’s 10 cents to print one page and eight cents per side for double-sided printing. Not a bad deal, if you ask me. The process is also rather quick once you’ve done it a few times.

The library’s online resources are also worth mentioning as I have found them to be incredibly vast, containing information on just about every topic I have needed to research. It also makes finding something very specific, like a scholarly article by a particular author very easy with its advanced search options.

Initially, I didn’t take advantage of the library when I first got to Drexel, and I was still able to do well academically. However, once I started making use of the library’s resources my life got a thousand times easier.

Photograph courtesy of Drexel University

The W.W. Hagerty Library has been a lifesaver for me at Drexel University. Not only does it offer a nice place where I can study free from distractions, it also offers lots of different resources.

One of the most useful parts of the library is the borrowing system.

As an English major, I am constantly reading and looking for different materials to expand my knowledge. Whether it’s a book for a class or a scholarly article for a paper, the library has been the place to go.

The loaning period for books and DVDs is more than enough time to get whatever information you need, and there is a very strong chance that what you’re seeking will be somewhere in the library.

Something else that can come in handy are the laptops they let people borrow.

The rules for borrowing laptops are a bit more strict than books and DVDs. You get fewer hours and you can’t leave the library with a borrowed laptop; however,there are a lot of people who can’t afford a laptop, so this resource is very helpful to them. I myself haven’t rented a laptop from the library, but I have used the computer labs on multiple occasions when I didn’t have my laptop with me.

Another great service that the library provides is the access to printers. There have been several times when I have left my dorm without printing an essay that was due that day and the library’s printers have come to my rescue every time. Not to mention that using the library’s printers is incredibly cheap as well. It’s 10 cents to print one page and eight cents per side for double-sided printing. Not a bad deal, if you ask me. The process is also rather quick once you’ve done it a few times.

The library’s online resources are also worth mentioning as I have found them to be incredibly vast, containing information on just about every topic I have needed to research. It also makes finding something very specific, like a scholarly article by a particular author very easy with its advanced search options.

Initially, I didn’t take advantage of the library when I first got to Drexel, and I was still able to do well academically. However, once I started making use of the library’s resources my life got a thousand times easier.