Drexel University students are currently trying to bridge the gap between millennials and law enforcement officials in a community effort to open up the conversation with the RETIRE It Movement.

The RETIRE It Movement is an initiative started at Drexel with the purpose of trying to ease tension between millennials and law enforcement officials as part of a competition in collaboration with the Department of Justice. Drexel was one of the 15 universities across the country selected by the Department of Justice to come up with a solution to the ongoing problem of unease between young people and law enforcement officials. The movement is comprised of 14 students within the LeBow College of Business and one member from the Westphal College of Media Arts & Design.

The movement was born in December 2015 with help from local law enforcement officials including former Commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department Charles Ramsey. RETIRE It stands for Real Education to Inspire the Right Engagement. The name was inspired by Ramsey’s recent retirement, explained Dana D’Angelo, RETIRE It advisor and LeBow professor.

RETIRE It teamed up with West Catholic Preparatory High School located in West Philadelphia as well as the Covenant House, an outreach program that offers support and shelter to the runaway, homeless and trafficked youth of Philadelphia. The students leading the movement have held various events with these organizations to start the conversation by bringing in members of the Drexel Police Department to interact with the kids.

“We decided the best approach and the best way to tackle this problem was to humanize it. To go back in almost an old fashioned way to get to knowing people as people,” D’Angelo said.

“Knowing an officer or someone in law enforcement as not just the guy in the badge and uniform … but as a person who has feelings, who makes decisions, who is dealing with all the same things that any other human would,” she continued.

Before any of the events were held, a pre-campaign survey was administered by RETIRE It to more than 250 students at West Catholic Preparatory High School. They found that only four percent of students had a strong trust for police officers and only 38 percent of students believed it was extremely important for community members and law enforcement to cooperate and respect each other.

The first event called RETIRE It in the Classroom was held at West Catholic Preparatory High School. The students were taught about the process of how police officers make decisions, including everything from initial contact to calming down an angry person. Students also learned how to best interact with officials if they get pulled over or stopped by them.

After the program another survey was given. This time they found a change in the results, with an increase in numbers that showed positive results. In the second survey, 21 percent of West Catholic students had a strong trust for law enforcement and 54 percent found it extremely important for community members and law enforcement to cooperate and respect each other.

“We gauged what they thought about police right after and the bar moved to the right. A good signal to us because it means that the event was successful,” PR Director for RETIRE It Michael Giangiordano, a senior majoring in Finance and Economics, said.

Other events the group ran included RETIRE It Out Loud, a slam poetry event, and RETIRE It on the Walls where kids from the Covenant House and West Catholic got the opportunity to rock climb with members of the Drexel Police Department at the Drexel Rock Climbing Wall.

“Rock climbing is all about trust. You have to trust who you’re climbing with. Trust who is going to hold you and be there with you. You have to able to communicate with them. It’s a symbolic activity that completely surrounds what this whole RETIRE It movement embodies,” D’Angelo explained.

There is also a competition component to the event. In May, members of RETIRE It will compile their data and come up with a report to send to the Department of Justice. If selected as a successful program, the team will go to Washington D.C. to present their ideas and recommendations to the Department of Justice. If they win this competition, the RETIRE It programs will be used throughout the country to help open up the conversation about tensions with law enforcement nationally.

Whatever the outcome of the competition, the hope is that discussion surrounding this issue will continue. The movement has definitely helped to build trust and communication between the participating children and Drexel PD.

“Drexel PD and the Covenant House want to continue this relationship. We’re going to bridge them together and then we’re going to phase out over the next couple of months. Then over time they’ll start hopefully continuing once a month or twice a month. Whatever they decide by themselves. It could be here at the rock wall at Drexel. Or maybe they decide to just talk and get pizza together,” Giangiordano said.

The program has also created a lasting relationship between RETIRE It members and the Drexel PD.

“I think it has brought Drexel PD and made them even more human to our own students,” D’Angelo said.

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It’s been two years since Drexel University changed its admissions strategy to cater toward the student who wants a “different” college experience and eliminated its free VIP application in favor of a common application with a $50 fee. The administration’s intention was to increase the graduation and retention rates at Drexel, beginning with the Class of  2019/2020 — the current freshman class. Now, at the end of the Winter term of 2016, the impact of this new admissions strategy is just becoming visible. Freshmen class retention rates for the 2015-2016 academic year are up by two percent.

Randall C. Deike, Senior Vice President of Enrollment Management and Student Success for the university, explained the reasoning behind the decision to retire the VIP Application. “There was a point in which we decided that we wanted to have a larger freshmen class and grow as an institution, so we started increasing our applicant pool by using things like the [VIP] app. It was good for the University at the time, in terms of increasing the number of applications, but as you make it easier for students to apply, they know less about [the University],” Deike said.

During the eight years that Drexel used the VIP application, its number of applications soared from 12,500 to more than 50,000.

“As a result we had to make more offers of admission because our yield rate started to drop,” Deike continued. According to Deike, the percentage of students who accepted Drexel’s admissions offers dipped to around eight percent. Prior to this, in the fall of 2014, Drexel shifted its strategy, becoming Common-Application-exclusive. In addition to the new fee, applying students were required to submit an essay, SAT scores and two recommendation letters. This is the strategy Drexel used to begin targeting what Deike terms “right fit students.”

In result of this shift, the university received 28,500 applications in 2015.

“We went from a little over 36,000 offers of admission to 21,000 offers of admission,” Deike explained. However, making fewer offers to more interested students proved fruitful.

“We had to have more students accept our offer of admission because we were making fewer offers of admission. Our yield rate went from 8 percent to 13 percent,” he continued.

Freshmen this year also entered Drexel with stronger academic statistics than previous classes. The Class of 2019/2020 exhibited a 10-point increase in both median SAT scores and average high school GPA. In their respective high schools, 43 percent of these students also placed in the top 10 percent. Deike mentioned that stronger high school statistics reflect positively on students’ college graduation and retention rates.

Joseph Kavanagh: The Triangle

“The better prepared students are academically, the more likely they are to be successful and graduate,” Deike said.

“One of our primary goals in all of this was to increase retention and graduation rates — to make sure we were attracting right fit students who know [Drexel] really well, who understand the value and composition of co-op, who want to be here because of who we are and where we are. We can then support these students so that they can stay and graduate,” he continued.

Drexel also increased the amount of financial aid awarded this past year, to help cushion the school’s affordability for students. It is one of several innovative changes that have been made in an attempt to bolster retention rates and narrow the pool of potential students.

“It was a very bold thing to do. Most institutions work very hard to increase their applicant pool. We did something where we knew would significantly decrease our applicant pool, but we felt it was students who knew us better and who would be more likely to stay and graduate,” Deike said.

In the long run, the primary goals are to increase the University’s first to second year retention rate from 84 to 90 percent and to bring up the six-year graduation rate from 68 to 80 percent.

Drexel’s ranking should also go up as a result of this smaller applicant pool, which Deike refers to as “a positive side benefit.” But, ultimately, the goal is to increase the graduation and retention rates and enhance the community.

“We’re always looking to admit students who will give back to the community as much as they take from it. That’s critical for the students’ experience. You want to be in a class where you are surrounded by students who are well rounded and will challenge one another,” Deike said.

In order to achieve these goals, the application review process has also been altered. Less applicants were admitted from the waitlist and the rigor of one’s high school curriculum is being more intensely examined.

“Last year we introduced holistic review, which means we’re reviewing lots of different pieces, not just test scores and high school GPA. We’re looking at the rigor of curriculum in high school. Has a student taken advantage of AP or honors courses. Not have they taken every AP or honors course offered, but have they challenged themselves,” Deike said.

While the changes in the admissions process have already begun to have an impact on the composition of the student body, even greater change is expected to be seen in following years. If the new strategy works as it is intended to, the university will see a significant increase in retention rates and may even see a spike in overall rating.

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After an extensive review of more than 50 video applications, the Dragon’24 initiative is now underway. Dragon’24 — the provost’s advisory student circle — will consist of 24 full-time undergraduate students coming from different backgrounds, schools, majors and cultures. The founding group of students will serve for an 18-month term, during which they will conduct brainstorming sessions with the Office of the Provost, collaborate with the student body, host events, represent Drexel and travel to promote the University.

The Dragon’24 initiative was created by the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost M. Brian Blake. “As Provost, I’m kind of like the Graduate Dean of faculty, so I don’t interact much with students. I wanted to find a way for us, as an Office of the Provost, to interact with students more and I felt that this would be great because this group would be ambassadors, they would be advisors, they would have all of these different perspectives,”  he said.

Blake explained that the choice of which videos were the best was a very challenging one to make, and applauded the submissions on their creativity. “There was one video that had a Rocky theme, there was a video that showed some visual arts, there was one I thought was really cool that had clips from students in the dormitory,” he explained.

Blake hopes that by the year 2024, which is also the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Dragon, the group’s efforts will change Drexel for the better. To prepare for this decade of innovation, members of the Dragon’24 will meet with the Office of Provost on a quarterly basis to work on their goals.

One of the goals of the initiative is to raise spirit among students at Drexel. “I think there’s great spirit at Drexel. But I’d like to add more sporadic insertion of spirit. I think this group can be a group that creates its own identity, and does events around campus that actually attempts to pull students out even more than they are now,” Blake stated.

However, the main focus of the group is to get the word about Drexel out to those who don’t know much about the University. “I think Drexel’s reputation hasn’t caught up yet with just how significantly impactful the university is,” Blake said. He coined this concept as “The Drexel Advantage.”

The Drexel Advantage includes all the opportunities and resources Drexel has to offer. He believes this is something that only matriculated and engaged students can articulate to prospective students. “Being in the Provost’s office, we do have resources to help.  I’d love for the student group to say ‘We should have this on campus’ or ‘We should have this on campus’ or ‘Let’s run this event’. I want this group to think about things that will make the climate and community even more actively engaged than it is today,” Blake said.

Blake has had a diverse career filled with teaching and interacting with students. He started at Georgia Institute of Technology studying computer science, and has been a professor for 16 years. His undergraduate degree is in electrical engineering, and his doctorate is from George Mason University in Computer Science. He was a professor at Georgetown for ten years, then at Notre Dame for three years, and the University of Miami for three years. Blake has been at Drexel for about six months. “[I] became a department chair for the last three years [at Georgetown], and then Associate Dean at Notre Dame, Dean at Miami, I’m serving as the Executive Vice President role here at Drexel,” Blake explained.

One goal the group will work toward is expanding the trajectory of Drexel by helping plan the new University buildings that are going to come up in the near future through private and public partnerships. New buildings may start popping up all the way up to the 30th Street Station because Drexel owns all of the land surrounding the train station and the air above the rails.

“When you come out of that station, you’ll see all of the Drexel buildings, the signage, maybe actually a square, but they’re trying to envision what that’s going to look like just across the street from the train station,” Blake said. As the grounds of the university evolve, Blake said that student input on these expansion plans will be crucial. “If you think about it, that’s going to make Philadelphia look different, not just Drexel, because that’s a major hub for those who are traveling into the city,” he said.

Blake says the process to go through all the applicant submissions was difficult because he wanted to obtain a diverse group, and he even hinted at a possibility for a Dragon’30 initiative.

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Rebecca Olsho is a self-proclaimed travel fanatic and has visited many countries during her time at Drexel. She is a fourth-year undergraduate student studying International Area Studies and has spent time abroad in both Europe and South America.

Photo courtesy: Rebecca Olsho

The Triangle: Why don’t you start off by telling us about yourself.

Rebecca Olsho: I am a junior international area studies major concentrating in international business and economics and minoring in Spanish and marketing. I am a big fanatic of travelling and most of my time at Drexel has been abroad. Here on campus, I’m in Delta Zeta. I’m part of the Student Global Advisory Board. I’ve been involved with the Community Bridge Program, which helps with undergraduate ESL students who come onto campus, most of them are from China, so I’m working with them and the international student body. I’m all over the place!

TT: I read that you did research abroad in Greece. Tell us about your experience.

RO: I was a part of the STAR Scholars Program, which is sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research. They paid for me to go to Greece and do research with a Drexel University professor. I was living in Crete for about a month and a half to two months. A huge amount of natural gas was discovered pretty recently between Israel, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey, and I was looking at how each of those countries are dealing with it on a national sovereignty front. I ended up writing a super long thesis paper on it. It was like a hundred and some pages. That was crazy, but it was really interesting and cool.

TT: That trip was pretty early on in your college career. Did it help influence what you wanted to study?

RO: From a young age I was always interested in international travel and foreign languages. That’s why I’m in my program. Just in general, at Drexel I started out learning Spanish on my own before I started taking it in class and decided to pick it up as a minor. Then, I studied abroad in Chile last year, so I became pretty fluent. I did my past co-op in Italy, so I took some Italian before I went which was definitely beneficial and helpful. All of the opportunities I’ve had through my major have been great because I’ve been able to co-op abroad, study abroad, travel abroad, do the travel-integrated courses.

TT: What did you do in Chile and Italy?

RO: Chile was just study abroad. That was about six months and it was just me and one other kid. We were the first two to ever go through Drexel. I took all my classes in Spanish, roomed with a Chilean host family and got to do a lot of travelling all throughout South America.

In Italy, I worked at the World’s Fair at the USA Pavilion, which was under the U.S. Department of State where I was considered a student ambassador. There were about 60 students there from all over the world. I think between us we spoke like 20 different languages, so it was really crazy among everyone who I was with.

TT: You’ll be graduating in 2017. What are your plans post-Drexel?

RO: My dream life would be on the Travel Channel to go get paid to travel. Probably never ever going to happen, but we’ll see! I might apply to Fulbright, it’s also funded by government and it’s funded for up to a year of teaching English abroad. That’s something I’ve considered for after graduation. I’m not sure. I’m still deciding. I definitely have a lot of opportunities and things to think about. I think I’ve had a lot of good experiences that will help me in whatever I decide to do. I think with knowing French, Spanish, a bit of Italian, and hopefully Mandarin will definitely get me pretty far in whatever I choose.

TT: Sounds like you have done a lot in your time at Drexel. What is something you will miss after you graduate?

RO: I think the friendships I’ve made. As much as I have been abroad, I definitely have a group of good friends and people here who have always been super supportive. Whether it be in my major or sorority, I always have people to be like, “OK, let’s go explore some random cool restaurant in Fishtown!” Also, I like learning in general and all of the classes I have had the opportunity to take over the years.

TT: Okay, fun question! If you could have coffee with anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

RO: Leonardo DiCaprio! I’ve literally had a crush on him since I was four years old when I saw him in “Titanic.” I have a really weird obsession with The Titanic. You have no idea! I’ve had “Titanic” birthday parties growing up and made my whole family dress up in 1912 attire. Definitely him. Always been obsessed with him. If I ever see him, I will be a major fan girl.

TT: Last question: You have travelled to a lot of places, but what is one place you haven’t gone to yet that you really would like to visit?

RO: I just booked a spring break trip with my friends to Iceland. I am super excited about that, but if it’s a trip I don’t have booked yet it might be Thailand or Cambodia. Somewhere in Southeast Asia. If I get China, my plan is to backpack through Southeast Asia– that is definitely on my bucket list.

Photo courtesy: Rebecca Olsho

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Currently on display at the Rincliffe Gallery is the exhibition “Toys, Trinkets and Trifles.” The show was organized by Drexel’s Museum Leadership Program and the assistant director of the Drexel Collection, Lynn Clouser. The display includes long silver slinkys, dollhouses and, to top it all off, a rocking horse chair. Clouser, who serves as the curator, thought of the idea when she discovered a cabinet full of toys in the back of one of Drexel’s storage areas.

Becquerel Dalton: The Triangle

“They weren’t in our database and they hadn’t been cataloged yet … I was coming up with a calendar schedule for the exhibitions, and I thought it might be nice to be able to use these pieces that hadn’t been on view in a little while,” Clouser said.

Many of the dollhouses included in the exhibit belong to Clouser herself. The students belonging to the Museum Leadership program came up with the evocative theme. “They really wanted to focus on happiness, nostalgia and just the way things make you feel. It’s less of a strictly educational [exhibition], but I think it’s a good way to introduce people that the collection exists. More people are going to notice this show. This one is a little more catching and a little more personal especially with the personal statements and the labels,” Clouser said.  

The Drexel Museum Leadership Program is a new graduate course through the Westphal College of Media Arts and Design that began two years ago. It is directed by Danielle Rice who served as the executive director of the Delaware Art Museum from 2005 to 2013. Before, she worked at the Philadelphia Museum of Art for 19 years. Rice has held many positions including associate director for various programs as well as  senior curator of education. Drexel’s graduate program consists of about ten students who study arts management and museum leadership in order to obtain a Masters in Science degree. The program focuses on “training students in the basics of museum works and museum studies,” Clouser said. “And that’s the practical application of working in a museum. It’s curating, designing, collection management, just the ins and outs of making a collection run. But on top of that, they’re also learning more on the management end of things: the fundraising, the strategic planning involved to become leaders in a museum,” she continued.

Becquerel Dalton: The Triangle

Drexel puts on about four different exhibits throughout the year. A majority of the objects are pulled from Drexel’s very own collection. Some upcoming displays to expect include Japanese Woodblock Prints and Taxidermie.

The “Toys, Trinkets and Trifles” exhibition will be on display until Feb. 16. Clouser encourages students to visit.

“It’s a really fantastic collection. Definitely worth looking at for some childhood memories,” she said.

The Rincliffe Gallery is located on the third floor of Drexel’s Main Building and is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

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Nov. 3 marked the election of Democrat and Veteran City Councilman Jim Kenney to be Philadelphia’s 99th mayor.

After serving on Philadelphia’s City Council for 23 years, Kenney resigned in January 2015 to run for mayor. Kenney won 85 percent of the vote, while 13 percent went to Republican candidate Melissa Murray Bailey. Since Kenney’s victory in the primaries of May 2015, he had been expected to win the election. Philadelphia has not had a Republican mayor in over 63 years.

One of the main points on Kenney’s political agenda is to provide universal pre-kindergarten education to all preschool-aged students in Philadelphia. His goal is to make sure that all kids have the proper resources necessary for a quality initial education. This includes giving pre-K teachers useful resources so they can teach using the latest tools and technology.

“As I have said tonight, I want a lot things for our children: quality schools, pre-K, community policing and job opportunities that can support their future children. But most of all, I want them to grow up in a Philadelphia where we all look past our differences and join together to create a better place for all of us to live,” Kenney said in his victory speech, explaining one of his main initiatives to reinvigorate Philadelphia’s school system.

Kenney also plans to approach the issue of Philadelphia’s high crime rate. He wants the public to form a better relationship with the police. During his campaign, Kenney stated he would end random “stop and frisk” search encounters by police to create a more trusting relationship between the public and public safety officers. He hopes to create alternate methods of effective law enforcement. Kenney received endorsements from the Fraternal Order of Police, a police union for sheriffs and officers in Philadelphia.

Kenney also hopes to address the increasing poverty rate among residents in Philadelphia, along with boosting the economy. Kenney said that he would like to reform the prison system for those cannot afford the bail. He also seeks to provide job training to those leaving prison who are about to enter the working world. Lastly, he plans to keep Philadelphia a sanctuary city, so that undocumented immigrants living here feel safe and accepted.   

Voter turnout for this election was up five percent compared to the previous mayoral elections in 2011, but still considerably low. The reported turnout figure for this year was about 25.5 percent.

Kenney is set to take office in January 2016. He will be replacing Mayor Michael Nutter.

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Drexel University, in partnership with the Music Business Association, will host the first ever Philadelphia Music Startup Academy on Oct. 28 at the Westphal College’s URBN Center Annex. The goal of the Music Startup Academy is to help jump start the career of individuals who have a unique idea pertaining to the music industry and teach them knowledge they need to develop their idea into a business.
Marc Offenbach, a Music Industry Assistant Professor for Westphal College of Media Arts and Design, said that the event is a great opportunity for those looking for a platform to present their idea on.
“Before there was Shazam, […] Pandora and Spotify, these were small ideas that people had,” Offenbach said. “Whatever the next idea whether it’s a mobile ticketing app or whether it’s on the tech side, an engineering app… we have some luminaries in the business.”
There will be a Shark Tank-inspired panel at the event. Three to four individual entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial groups will be selected for the opportunity to pitch their ideas in front of the panel of judges. The judges include a venture capitalist and a senior business developer from Sony Music Industry. After the competitors pitch their ideas, the judges will deliberate and potentially invest in the product. There will also be number of other panels at the event focusing on different subjects relevant in the industry. These include a licensing and rights panel, Medidata panel and a business development panel. All of the panels will feature experienced people from the music business giving insider information that many attendees could benefit from. The Medidata panel will also include Robert Weitzner, an assistant professor in music industry of the College of Media Arts and Design.
Weitzner noted that Drexel University is a great fit to host the Music Startup Academy. “It’s never been a more vibrant time for music consumption. And so the challenge is how you find value in this kind of golden age of music accessibility. And that’s what this Music Startup Academy’s intention is to do. Give folks a framework about business opportunities and how to create them within the environment, to bring all local people from the community who are in the music industry, bring them together.”
Offenbach said another main goal of the academy is to allow Philadelphia residents to meet with local companies and expand their networking circles. One company that will be present at the event includes the Fame House, a Philadelphia visual marketing company.
The Music Startup Academy event, which is open to public, will be held at URBN Annex Oct. 28 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
“[It’s] for others that are interested in thinking about creating businesses that either service or benefit from music also, that’s another reason to attend,” Weitzner said.
The event is free to all Drexel Music Industry majors. For other students the price is $19 and for the public it is $39. For more information about the event visit http://musicbiz.org/upcoming-music-startup-academy-events/

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