Drexel University’s campus becomes a hotspot early every September when all the incoming freshmen officially move into the City of Brotherly Love. Locations like the Mario statue, Race Lawn and Lancaster Walk are undoubtedly crowded with student-run events. This mid-sized campus is home to over 450 student organizations – so you can imagine how many times you will encounter a folding table surrounded by students with flyers in hand throughout the year.

Some student organizations are smaller, boasting just ten active members, while larger organizations are made up of hundreds of members. Whichever sized organization is your calling, here are the different categories of Drexel student-run organizations to join:

Academic, professional and honorary organizations

These types of organizations at Drexel focus on developing students’ knowledge in their academic studies and professional growth. You will find over 100 organizations to join that are academic, professional and/or honorary with a focus on a certain discipline. Examples of these organizations include:

• Drexel American Marketing Association 
• Drexel American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• Drexel Business of Fashion
• Drexel Consulting Group
• Drexel Criminal Justice Society
• Drexel CyberDragons
• Drexel Game Developers Group
• Drexel University Student Nurses Association
• Drexel Women in Business
• National Society of Black Engineers

Club sports

These organizations focus on physical activity and competitiveness. Many of these sports are not considered divisional but still require try-outs to join. To date, Drexel has over 30 different club sports teams, a few being:

• Club Powerlifting
• Club Swimming Team
• Drexel Fencing Club
• Drexel University Club Ski and Snowboard Competitive Team
• Drexel University Paintball Club
• Drexel University Tae Kwon Do Club
• Drexel University Women’s Rugby Club

Performing arts and fine arts organizations

These types of organizations have a focus on performing and fine arts activities such as a capella, dance, animation and much more. With over 15 student organizations in this category, some examples of these groups include:

• 8 to the Bar
• Drexel Animation Group
• Drexel Football Team (Improv Comedy)
• Drexel K-Pop Club
• Drexel Players

General interest

These types of organizations include any group that involves a student’s personal interest in an activity or subject. There are over 30 organizations to choose from in this category, some popular ones are:

• Campus Activities Board
• Dragon Climbers
• Drexel Table Tennis Club
• Drexel University Book Club
• Drexel University Coffee Club
• Drexel’s Mastering Cosmetics
• The Good Idea Fund
• Undergraduate Student Government Association
• Weekend Warriors
• WKDU Philadelphia 91.7FM

Identity–based student organizations

These types of organizations enable students to find a group they feel accepted and comfortable in. With over 70 different organizations in this category, these groups can range from academic to competitive depending on the discipline. Examples of some of these student organizations include:

• Association of Latino Professionals For America
• Drexel Asian Students Association
• Dragon’s First
• Drexel Dandiya
• Drexel Indigenous Students of the Americas
• Drexel Muslim Students Association
• Drexel Students for Christ
• Drexel Veterans Association
• Japanese Undergraduate Student Association
• Jewish Student Association
• Queer Student Union

Community service, social action and political organizations

These types of organizations focus on enabling students to complete community service as well as educating students about various social issues, environmental issues and more. These organizations also have a positive impact on students’ professional development. With over 25 organizations under this umbrella, you can find groups like:

• Active Minds at Drexel University
• Drexel American Red Cross
• Drexel Democrats
• Drexel University Circle K
• Drexel University College Republicans
• Drexel University Emergency Medical Services
• TechServ
• Women’s Empowerment

Although many examples have been provided, there are still so many other Drexel student-run organizations left unmentioned. Students at Drexel are dedicated to pursuing their extracurricular activities and it truly shines through all over campus. To learn more about the organizations mentioned above and other groups, visit Drexel’s student organization and event portal, DragonLink.

On Aug. 7, 2023, Drexel University alumni and trustee Rainer John “Ray” Westphal passed away at the age of 88 (July 7, 1935 – Aug. 7, 2023). He received his bachelor’s degree in business in 1959 and since then has had an incredible impact on the Drexel community. He supported many projects and initiatives at Drexel, including naming the College of Media Arts & Design in honor of his late wife, Antoinette Westphal. He met Antoinette in the late 1950s when they were both enrolled as students at Drexel. For his contributions to the University, Ray was awarded an honorary Drexel degree in 2002 and a Golden Dragon award in 2009. 

Ray was born in New York in 1935, the child of German immigrants. After high school, Ray was searching for opportunities, full of ambition but without much money. He found a work-study program that could help him to afford a college education. He applied, and he was accepted as an undergraduate at Drexel University. Ray thrived at Drexel. He was a passionate learner and excelled in his studies, particularly in the nascent field of Computer Science. He was a member of the fraternity TKE, was an athlete and served in the United States National Guard. He met his wife Antoinette as an undergraduate, and they married in May 1960.

After graduation, Ray and Antoinette had three children: Jeff, Stefanie and Amanda. They moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where his computer science skills earned him a job at Educational Testing Services. He was part of a team that designed the scoring system for the SAT (in the words of Ray’s obituary: “Don’t blame him!”). Afterward, the family moved to Strafford, Pennsylvania, where Ray worked as a consultant. 

In 1969, Ray was unexpectedly laid off. He found another job at Sorbus Corporation developing an accounting system, but the business was struggling, and he expected to be laid off again. In 1978, Ray and Antoinette took a massive risk by taking a second mortgage to start Vertex, Inc. with just one employee. Ray set out to leverage his computer science skills and accounting knowledge to create valuable corporate software.

Vertex is still operational 45 years later. It employs thousands and has served countless people as the world’s leading public corporate tax compliance technology company. According to the company’s 2022 annual report, it had revenues of approximately $500,000,000 last year. In the words of Ray’s obituary, “His values of very hard work, coupled with a whole lot of fun, are bedrock corporate values to this day, and tales of his genius, guile, and extreme generosity were legend.”

In 2004, Antoinette tragically passed away from breast cancer. Wanting to honor her name, Ray led the initiative to name Drexel’s College of Media Arts & Design in her honor, which was finalized in 2006.

Ray met the second love of his life, Cindy Craft, in 2005. They married in 2008. Ray enjoyed his retirement with Cindy, in which he enjoyed simple pleasures, such as ice cream, cigars and basking in the sun.

According to his obituary, “Ray is survived by his wife Cindy, his son Jeff, and wife Jenifer Westphal, daughter Stefanie (Westphal) and husband, Christopher Thompson, daughter Amanda (Westphal), and husband Conrad Radcliffe, as well as 11 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren.”

In response to a request for comment from the Triangle, the Westphal College of Media Arts & Design provided the following message:

“It is with heavy hearts that we come together to remember and celebrate the life of a remarkable individual, Ray Westphal. As a proud member of the Drexel community, Ray’s (many) contributions were ones of inspiration, creativity, dedication, and service. We are proud to honor his legacy, and that of his late wife, as the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. Our condolences are with his wife Cindy, his children Jeff, Stefanie (Stevie), Amanda, grandchildren, and all who knew and loved him.” 

For further reading, please see this tribute to Ray Westphal’s incredible life.

Partnering with the 16th District of the Philadelphia Police Department, Drexel University hosted National Night Out on Aug. 1 on Lancaster Walk. Dozens of tables lined the sidewalk for various organizations from the community and university. 

According to the event details on Drexel’s Public Safety website, the event aimed to connect the community with law enforcement and offer “an opportunity to bring police and neighbors together under positive circumstances.” 

Along with law enforcement, all of the represented groups fulfilled a public service, including public safety, civic engagement and education. 

Representing University City District, T. Freeman, a Public Safety Ambassador, explained the different resources available. As part of the Clean and Safe program, Public Safety Ambassadors act as walking escorts and aid in lock outs and jump starts, while Public Space Maintenance employees provide cleaning services and remove graffiti in the area. 

Another program that Freeman mentioned was the West Philadelphia Skills Initiative. According to Freeman, “they go to Drexel, all the different companies, ask which type of employee that they need, create a curriculum and… help them get the job.” 

Further down the line, Joan Weiner from the Powelton Village Civic Association laid out small bags of candy with cards explaining the purpose of the organization. According to Weiner, the group is composed of volunteers “dedicated to making Powelton Village a better place to live and work.”

As a historic district, the neighborhood serves a “mixture of… people who have been here longer than me as well as newcomers and students,” according to Weiner.  

Advocating for childhood literacy, Diane Mills, a Reading Captain associated with Global Citizen and Read by 4th occupied another table. Reporting data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Read by 4th’s website states that over 70 percent of children perform below the expected reading level by 4th grade. To combat this, Reading Captains work with the organization to help provide various resources to parents and kids. 

One way to improve literacy is by “making sure that parents know that the kids need to get to school on time because literacy is the first thing in the morning, so if they miss that, they’re missing literacy,” according to Mills. 

Within childhood literacy, a major problem the organization tackles is the summer slide, which is “learning loss… [that] happens when children do not engage in educational activities during the summer months,” according to the U.S. Department of Education. 

Mills explained how the summer slide takes place and its effect: “After school is out, a lot of kids don’t pick up books, so we want the kids to read at least 15 minutes a day… If they do not, what happens is, they forget everything that they learned and then when it’s time to go back to school, the teacher has to start all over to retain that.” 

Along with community resources, university organizations such as Drexel EMS and the Undergraduate Student Government Association (USGA) also occupied tables to bring awareness to their organizations. 

Surrounded by loud music and free food, attendants of National Night Out were able to get a lot of information about the various services available to the community.

Since April 1, the Southeast Asian Market has been open in FDR Park from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday. Until Oct. 29, the market will be located near the Taney Baseball field by Picnic Area 11. 

According to their website, the community started in South Philadelphia with Lao and Cambodian refugees. Soon, “a Lao lady [was] making papaya salad out of her blue van, her husband nearby on the grill under a tree, cooking chicken wings stretched out on skewer sticks.” 

While more people started to gather to enjoy authentic cuisine from Cambodian and Lao vendors, police harassment threatened the small businesses for 40 years. It was not until the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia helped to establish the Vendors Association of FDR Park in 2021 that the market was allowed to continue peacefully. 

Walking down the long aisle of vendors, visitors will find family-owned businesses selling cuisine, clothing, jewelry, toys, plants and fresh produce from various Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. 

There is a wide range of food options across all of the booths including beef, stuffed chicken, lo mein, fried bananas, sugarcane juice and many more. The food is cooked fresh on grills directly beside or behind the booths. Even if two booths seem to be offering the same dish, each vendor is unique in how they cook it or the ingredients they use.

While some vendors allow for online payments through services such as Venmo, most only take cash as connection is not guaranteed in the park. After walking through the market, visitors can relax in one of the many picnic areas in the park. 

This summer quarter, Drexel University quietly started enforcing a policy that requires instructors to verify the attendance of enrolled students in their courses. 

The policy, called Initial Course Participation (ICP), is a mandate under the Department of Education for institutions of higher education, requiring them to verify that students receiving financial aid have begun attending their classes. 

In a message shared with Drexel faculty on June 22, Executive Vice President and Nina Henderson Provost Paul E. Jensen wrote, “Over the winter, I charged a working group led by Vice Provost Steve Weber with colleagues from across the Office of the Provost, Financial Aid, Faculty Senate, Academic Information Systems and the Office of the University Registrar with creating a process to bring Drexel into compliance with this financial aid regulation.”  

The summer quarter was a pilot test for this new policy, with instructors asked to take attendance in the first course meeting after the add/drop deadline. Instructors were asked to record the attendance of students who attended classes until the end of the third week of the summer quarter, July 16. Following this period, students whose attendance was not recorded by their instructor were considered as not fulfilling the ICP policy. 

Provost Jensen states, “Beginning with Academic Year 2023-2024, student attendance (ICP) verification will be required for every billable and credit-bearing course for which there is a possibility of one or more students receiving federal financial aid, including both graduate and undergraduate courses and quarter and semester courses.”

For those who do not have verified ICP, the Offices of Financial Aid and University Registrar will follow up, although it is unclear what impact this may have on students’ financial aid. 

Drexel instructors are being highly encouraged to include a statement about ICP in their syllabi, with the suggested message being, “Initial Course Participation (ICP): Class attendance is critical to your success as a student. Missing classes may impact your class success and your federal financial aid.”

Everyday from June 21 to Aug. 13, the Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival is being held at Franklin Square from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. The park is home to hundreds of large, weatherproof, colorful lanterns depicting various animals and scenery around the grounds.

Upon entry, visitors notice the largest dragon on the left with fog emanating from its mouth. The paths lead through large tunnels decorated with flower lanterns, lighting the way to each section of the park. 

Different animals are displayed in every corner, including toucans, tigers, pandas, praying mantises and armadillos. Some displays, such as the peacocks, cheetahs and a large rose, move back and forth, giving life to the lanterns. 

To celebrate the year of the rabbit, designs were selected from participants aged 10 to 14 from the 2023 Student Design Contest, sponsored by Temple University. Four winners got their design made into a lantern that they will be able to take home after the festival. 

In the center of the park sits the Rendell Family Fountain, decorated with flamingo and hippo lanterns. Several times throughout the night, hoses within the fountain spray water in accordance with music. 

There are also several stage performances available where talented professionals demonstrate Bian Lian (face-changing), foot juggling and ribbon dancing. Visitors can also ride the Parx Liberty Carousel and play Philadelphia-themed mini golf for an extra charge. 

There are four food vendors available in the park for either Chinese or American cuisine: Dragon Beer Garden, Oishii, Sang Kee and Squareburger. The festival also offers Panda Promotions in which you can present your festival ticket or receipt to local businesses in Chinatown for a discount. 

Tickets can be purchased from their website for any day as it is a rain-or-shine event. 

Drexel students are no strangers to the fast and affordable meals served daily by the campus’ many food trucks. Everyone has their favorites, but one of the most popular trucks on campus is Pete’s Little Lunch Box, more commonly referred to simply as Pete’s.

Pete’s opened on Jan. 7, 2008, first parking on 33rd and Lancaster Avenue where they stayed for 13 years. They relocated in 2021, moving just up the street to 33rd and Arch Street outside of Bentley Hall where they reside today. Pete’s is a feat of hard work, open from 6:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday, serving up a wide selection of American breakfast and lunch favorites.

Pete’s is owned and operated by Sandy Tang, a first generation Cambodian immigrant, who runs the truck with her sister. Their crew is small, but definitely mighty, serving hundreds of hungry customers each day. While that may be intimidating to some, the customers and high traffic, Tang says, are her favorite part about owning Pete’s. 

“We love it because we have a lot of customers. We love customers and customers love us! We keep busy,” said Tang.

Drexel students make up a large part of Pete’s customer base and many are repeat visitors who keep coming back because of the friendly service and great food. 

“Pete’s lunchbox truck is one of my go-to spots on campus,” says Paul Pascucci, a pre-junior studying computing and security technology. “It’s close to where I live and the food is always good.”

What does he recommend for first time Pete’s customers? 

“A cheesesteak with fried onions, no question,” said Pascucci.

A cheesesteak is also one of Tang’s top picks off the Pete’s menu, along with a bacon, egg and cheese with a hashbrown and pork roll: a sweet and savory breakfast meat popular in the tri-state area. But with a menu containing dozens of different options, there’s sure to be something at Pete’s to suit every taste.

Throughout the week of July 17, Drexel University’s Department of Communication collaborated with the Department of Politics to host the first Big City Journalist Boot Camp for high school students. The program was overseen by Dr. Hildegarde Van den Bulck, Department Head for Communication, Dr. Richardson Dilworth, Department Head for Politics and Khushi Patel, the Administrator for the Department of Politics. 

In the span of five days, 14 students from as far as Maryland and Connecticut gathered on campus and were guided through the process of writing an article relevant to local news in Philadelphia. Dilworth explained the motivation behind the inaugural program, stating, “local journalism is a niche area but is socially important and…it serves this really crucial public function, and it has been dramatically changed, mostly for the worst, over the last 20 years.” 

To combat this, the program aimed to emphasize the importance of accurate local journalism and this goal resonated with the students, according to Van den Bulck: “Young people… are so aware of the importance and I think it is because of all the misinformation… that we have been confronted with.” 

At the start of the program, students learned how to pick a compelling topic that stood out to them. The wide variety of topics chosen included solar energy, refugees in Philadelphia and incarcerated men with mental health disorders. As the week progressed, students learned how to pitch their ideas, source information, ask for and conduct interviews, write articles and copy edit for publication. 

Students met with different speakers with a range of backgrounds, including Joseph DiStefano from the Philadelphia Inquirer, Sophie Alexander from Bloomberg News and Sandra Shea from the Pew Charitable Trusts. Every day, students applied the knowledge from the morning lectures as they worked with Jessica Blatt Press from the Philadelphia Citizen from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. as she essentially turned the classroom into a newsroom. 

Accompanied by one of the organizers of the program, students could travel across Philadelphia for interviews. Five students stayed in dorms on campus, providing an additional layer to their experience of staying at Drexel. 

By the end of the program, students were invested in their finished pieces as they were compiled into a newsletter. The collection may be published on the websites for the Department of Communication and Department of Politics. 

Planning to host the program again next year, Dilworth hopes to “get the students out more” to enhance the in-person journalism experience. 

Originally, they hoped to get students into newsrooms, but according to Van den Bulck, “COVID has had a huge impact… and newsrooms are Zoom meetings these days.”

Van den Bulck suggested a solution: for future students to shadow journalists going out to get the news. Additionally, student feedback will be taken into consideration when selecting guest speakers for next year and designating enough time to allow the students to write their pieces.

Both Van den Bulck and Dilworth were proud of the students as they enhanced their skills and got a better understanding of the field and its potential. They recognized their hard work and “the chief value… that they… wrote a news story in a very finite amount of time,” according to Dilworth. 

Drexel University is on its way to achieving their goals announced in its 2030 Strategic Plan by focusing on the transformation of multiple academic programs.

On June 20, 2023, President Fry released a statement titled, “Recommendations from the University Advisory Committee on Academic Structure.” The University Advisory Committee (UAC) utilized feedback from students, staff and external partners to present suggested changes that align with Drexel’s 2030 Strategic Plan. 

One recommendation is to change from a quarter system to a semester-based calendar. President Fry said that this alignment with other university schedules and co-op partners would benefit students and improve Drexel’s reputation. 

Provost Paul Jensen and Faculty Senate Chair Kevin Owens were asked to elaborate on the recommendations in an email. Amanda Leslie, Provost Jensen’s assistant, responded on behalf of Provost Jensen and Dr. Owens. She emphasized UAC’s dedication to the co-op system and that “moving to semesters would not require diluting the strength of Drexel Co-op.”

This isn’t the first time Drexel administration has debated changing to a semester-based schedule. According to a DrexelNow article from 2013, the UAC “dug into what little research has been done on whether semesters or quarters result in better learning, [and] it found no evidence that semesters would help Drexel students learn better.”

Previously, Drexel has advertised the advantages of the quarter system as outlined on one of Drexel’s web pages titled “College Semesters vs. Quarters.” This includes the “real-world pace” that Drexel programs offer through the ten week schedule. 

Other recommendations from the UAC support a “more student-focused educational experience that supports transdisciplinary study based on the University’s renowned experiential education model,” said President Fry. 

To emphasize interdisciplinary work within research, academic disciplines will be clustered, according to the report. The clusters would follow consistent structures and policies. Additionally, physical spaces would be changed to encourage faulty collaboration within clusters. 

These changes will not take place immediately, as they have to undergo an extensive review period. Leslie said that “implementation would likely require a multi-year process to ensure long-term sustainability and minimize disruption to current and future University operations.”

A week earlier on June 13, 2023, Drexel and Salus University held a ceremony to sign a merger between the universities. The merger will expand Drexel’s graduate health sciences programs to include “optometry, audiology, blindness and low vision studies, physician assistant, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, and orthotics and prosthetics” according to a DrexelNow article. 

Like the recommendations from the UAC, this merger aligns with goals of the 2030 Strategic Plan in providing more opportunities for interdisciplinary work. An Integration Council composed of staff from both universities will convene to determine how the changes will take place in the coming years. 

With many changes to come, it is important to take student feedback into account to ensure the enhancement of student experiences here at Drexel. 

The Triangle has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Solutions Journalism Network as a part of the organization’s second “Student Media Challenge.”  

Alongside seven other student media outlets and journalism programs, The Triangle will be utilizing this grant to report on student mental health challenges through the lens of solutions journalism. 

The Solutions Journalism Network is a nonprofit organization specializing in journalism that goes beyond naming societal issues by providing answers to those problems and highlighting the existing work being done to address them. SJN launched the first “Student Media Challenge” in 2022 to encourage student news outlets to incorporate solutions journalism into their work.   

Throughout the course of the 2023-24 academic year, The Triangle will investigate and break down the unique challenges that Drexel students face regarding mental health. In particular, we seek to unpack the consistent stressor of Drexel students—the 10-week quarter systems that are alternated with six month co-ops, often leaving many without a proper break since their freshman year summer. The Triangle also hopes to follow along the existing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in Drexel’s Counseling Center, such as specialized support groups and efforts to diversify counseling staff. 

Among the project deliverables, The Triangle will publish a series of stories that tackle different areas of mental health challenges at Drexel through a solutions journalism lens. We intend to involve all of our writing sections in this project, including Arts and Entertainment and Sports. Additionally, we are expanding our mediums and will be filming a documentary series following the lives of different Drexel students which will be screened to focus groups and hopefully lead to productive conversations and concrete changes at Drexel regarding student mental health concerns.   

We are incredibly grateful for this opportunity. This grant marks a new era for The Triangle and student journalism at Drexel. Not only will this grant provide us with the opportunity to provide professional journalism training to our staff members, but it will also provide us with the financial resources to upgrade some of our resources.

Stay tuned to our website and social media for more updates into how The Triangle tackles this latest project!