In an official mailing sent May 17, Drexel University President John A. Fry shed additional light on an anti-Semitic incident that occurred in a residence hall on campus May 12. The letter was the second of two and served a more informative role than the first, which offered only a brief reaction to the harassment. Fry stated in this second letter that he did not want to avoid the topic and as such, described both the incident and measures to react to it in additional detail.

“The symbol in question was a swastika,” Fry began. “A Drexel student placed it along with the word ‘Jew’ next to an Israeli flag displayed in another student’s room. The perpetrator was identified soon afterwards; the two students knew each other. Drexel Police investigated immediately, and the administration worked with the victim and his family to provide support and accommodation so that the student felt safe and valued.”

Photo credit: David Klein

While the situation has been handled by University officials, Fry was unforgiving in voicing his opinion on the incident itself. “Whether this malicious act was a hate crime or just blatant ignorance, it is unacceptable and incompatible with the ethos of our University,” he wrote in his first email.

He elaborated further in his second email stating the University’s intolerance for this type of behavior, “The swastika is not a symbol of protest or provocation. It is a symbol of anti-Semitism. There is no circumstance in which its use in response to an expression of Jewish identity can be construed as anything but a reference to historical attempts to threaten and even destroy the Jewish people. There is no place in our Drexel community for any person who would make use of this anti-Semitic symbol, knowing its historical and cultural significance.”

Fry also emphasized the role of the bystander in allowing incidents such as this to occur, and stated that those who stand by and do nothing are almost as bad as those who do commit the act. “We know that two students witnessed the perpetrator’s actions and did not stop him or remove the offensive display before the victim saw it,” Fry wrote in his second correspondence. “The responsibility for achieving the goals of tolerance, inclusion and cultural competency lies with us all — the University’s administration, faculty, professional staff and students. Any member of our community who is witness to an act of intolerance or hate also has a responsibility,” he continued.

Fry concluded his correspondence by stating that a series of discussions, both formal and informal, would take place in the coming year to further address the topics of equality and diversity. As these meetings had been announced well before the incident occurred, they illustrate Fry’s belief that a continued conversation, even in absence of incidents, is integral to the continued success of the University.

“Bystanders can take powerful action to mitigate the effects of even the most hateful act, just by overtly rejecting it and protecting those to whom it is directed,” Fry’s second letter continued, “We must all keep this in mind, even as we work diligently to build a culture in which an incident like that which occurred last week is unimaginable.”

Conversely, Fry’s statement has been very well received by many, most notably the Drexel Hillel association. “The student leaders of the Drexel Jewish community would like to publicly thank President John A. Fry and the Drexel administration. We applaud their swift action against and condemnation of the recent hate crime committed against a Drexel student,” the organization stated in a recent post on their Facebook page.

“We would like to remind Drexel students that all of our events are open to the entire student body, and we encourage each and every one of you to come join us, have some fun and learn about Judaism. By creating spaces for open dialogue, we hope to keep this important conversation of diversity and tolerance alive,” the post continued.

Drexel Hillel finished their post by encouraging students to speak with others of different backgrounds and religions to perpetuate acceptance and awareness of diversity throughout the campus in hopes of preventing future discriminatory acts.

“I think he did a good job of nipping it in the bud,” Ubaid Bhatti, current psychology major, said when reflecting on Fry’s letter. “I think there’s a lot of people that would benefit from the planned discussions too. I’m a part of the Muslim Student Association, and we’ve discussed how terrible these kinds of acts can be just within our own group.”

The Triangle will post an update as soon as the dates for the discussions about diversity and inclusion Fry mentioned are released.

Read John Fry’s full letter here: http://drexel.edu/president/messages/message/intolerance/

The post Fry addresses on campus anti-Semitic incident appeared first on The Triangle.

City Hall stood at the center of a resurgence of a movement that changed the face of history and marked the year 1964 as a turning point in American civil rights. Hundreds gathered in Dilworth Park for the Facebook-organized rally “Philly is Baltimore,” which asked participants to “stand with the people of Baltimore who are rising up against racist police brutality and the murder of Freddie Gray.”

Gray, a 25-year-old African American male, died April 19 after sustaining a severe spine injury and spending several days in a Baltimore area hospital in a coma. Recent reports from investigators state that Gray was mortally injured in the van transporting him to the precinct rather than during his arrest. Gray’s death is the latest in a series of fatal encounters between black people and law enforcement and acted as the spark for the recent Baltimore riots.

Organizers of the rally felt that Gray’s story parallels that of Philadelphia’s own Brandon Tate-Brown, who was killed in a scuffle with police last December. Tanaya Tate-Brown, the victim’s mother, along with other relatives organized a press conference on Dilworth Park April 29, the day before the rally, concerning the wrongful death lawsuit she filed against the city. Among increased accountability and transparency from the police department, Tanaya’s desire to see reform in the police department was articulated by her lawyer, Brian Mildenberg. “I think every police officer in the city of Philadelphia must carry a taser. … If officers have a taser, that’s a choice that they can make … to disable the suspect instead of kill him,” he said..

There are some, however, who believe that no amount of reform will heal the pain of losing a loved one. “Nobody actually knows him, but we knew him. This is about change. This is about his mom having to live with the fact that her son was taken away from her for nothing,” Taliah Cheeseboro, cousin of Brandon Tate-Brown, said, explaining the importance of the rally. Cheeseboro was also quick to point out the importance of the rally as a way to inform the public about all sides of the issue. “All you know is what the TV tells you. If this story is so one sided, why are so many people willing to come out and protest on behalf of getting him justice? Why are so many people, even today, months after he’s been buried, still mourning his death?”

Connie Evans, Tate-Brown’s step-sister, has experienced first hand how these kind of encounters can happen to anyone. On the night Tate-Brown was stopped, she said, “I got pulled over the same night, and I’m still here. It felt like they were trying to meet a ticket quota, nothing else. It really could happen to anyone.”

Photo courtesy: Allison Liu

Many others who may not have had such direct confrontations with the police have felt a type of paranoia around law enforcement officials, such as Ian Newton. Holding a sign that read “Police the Police,” he stood with the Dilworth rally because he feels like he knows many who are being affected, despite not being a victim himself.

“It’s just a strange environment to be in when you feel more endangered around a police officer than safe around one. It doesn’t make sense to me,” Newtown said. He also advocates a different approach to what he calls the violence that seems to be so prevalent in police culture. “I think there needs to be some serious looking into of past cases of police abuse. Every time we have video evidence of a police officer killing somebody I think they should be punished instead of given paid vacation.”

Brianna Nichols, a rally participant, also sees an incredible need for this rally to occur and for the conversation to be started. “We need to start to address endemic structural racism. It’s not about individuals or individual stories; it’s actually an entire structure that’s percolating down,” she said. Nora Gross, another rally participant, shared the same message while proudly displaying her sign with a simple message: “Solidarity.” “I think it’s really important to support this movement and demonstrate solidarity and that people in this city care about what’s happening in Baltimore right now. I think it’s an issue all over this country,” Gross said, explaining the message behind it.

As with all movements, there are two sides to the story. Richard Ross Jr., first deputy commissioner of field operations, was on the scene with other officers to ensure the safety of all involved. Early on during the rally, Ross was impressed with what he was seeing, but was ready to handle any sort of situation, should one arise.

“It’s been very peaceful, there are about 700 or 800 people here right now. We don’t know exactly what they’re going to do from here,” Ross noted. He then went on to describe what he envisions a good demonstration might involve. “A successful protest would be people getting their messages out but doing so peacefully with no interactions of the negative kind, no encounters with the police or even each other for that matter. I mean I can hear some of the rhetoric in the group. Everybody over there doesn’t necessarily agree with each other, and that’s okay. But as long as everybody continues at the rate they’re going and allows us to protect them and protect the rights of the people who are not protesting, then it’s all good.”

Support for the cause was found from all reaches of Philadelphia, with University City being no exception. Students, staff and citizens alike gathered at the University of Pennsylvania campus and marched together down Chestnut Street, ending their walk and joining the movement upon reaching Dilworth Park. Bria Banks, a Drexel University sophomore and biology major, hadn’t intended on joining the march but changed her mind as she saw it pass by.

“I was actually walking to get coffee, and I saw them walking down the street, and I was like, ‘You know what? This is more important right now,’” she said of her spur of the moment decision to join in. “I joined in on 33rd and Chestnut. They started with a small group of students from Penn and then people started multiplying as more people joined in. There were like 20 cops just escorting us through and blocking traffic off for us. It was really cool hearing people talk about how the cops were supporting what we were doing. It stopped traffic.”

Despite the many conflicting views present and negativity surrounding similar protests in Baltimore, all were in agreement that this particular demonstration was successful at remaining peaceful and prompting discussion in the right direction. Banks was quick to notice this and was thankful for the atmosphere it produced. “I felt like it was really uplifting, just getting voices heard, that’s what’s moving. I appreciated that it was so peaceful,” she said.

The post ‘Philly is Baltimore’ takes over Dilworth Park appeared first on The Triangle.

Celebrating both the start of warm weather and the city’s blossoming technology and innovation sectors, hundreds gathered in Dillworth Park the evening of April 18 to partake in the kickoff event for Philly Tech Week. Coordinated by Technical.ly and sponsored by Comcast, the weeklong series of events aims to bridge the gap between industrial heavyweights and future leaders through a series of workshops, panels and competitions. The exposition, “Arcade @ Dillworth” featured live music, food, a beer garden, a Maker’s Corner sponsored by NextFab and most notably the App Arcade: over 100 booths set up with indie games aiming to teach, entertain and inspire.

Photo Courtesy: Chris Quirin

Large numbers of the attendees at the event were current Drexel University students and graduates who were showing off their work. Among those participating in the event was Greg Lobanov, a digital media major 2014 graduate and owner of “Dumb and Fat” games.

“This is my third tech week, actually,” Lobanov said from behind his rather popular booth. “And this is the first game where I’ve done everything by myself, music and everything.”

“Goo-goo,” his latest creation is a colorful puzzle game in which the user navigates through a series of rooms as a sticky ball to collect stars. “I made the game in about two weeks, which is the fastest I’ve ever finished anything, so I’m really enjoying seeing how it fares in the hands of the user, out in the wild.”

Lobanov cites communities in both Drexel and Philadelphia for his successes thus far, especially the connections he’s made through the Philadelphia Game Forge. “You might not think it, but Philly is actually a pretty small city, so a lot of game design networking happens through the Game Forge.”
Lobanov also commends Frank Lee, Drexel’s associate professor of digital media and director of the Entrepreneurial Game Studio, for helping him get to where he is today. “I worked with him pretty closely and was one of the first members of his game studio. He gave me my first chance to work on games, you know, honing my craft and working towards where I am today,” Lobanov said.

Computer science senior Tim Day and Sweet Roll Studio, another group present, cite much of their success to Lee’s work as well. “We were the first company out of the entrepreneurial game studio at Drexel, and Galactikitties was the first game we published,” Day noted.
Galactikitties is a survival game in which the player tries to collect as many kittens lost in space as possible and teleport them back to safety. Their good deeds in the virtual world will translate into the real world too, as proceeds will go to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

“Galactikitties was made with only three students, as a sort of test run for the game studio,” Day explained. “But we’re working on our senior project, Malevolence Inc., which is going to be a much larger undertaking. There’s eight of us now!”

Also in attendance was Chris Bennett, a recent Drexel graduate and director of marketing for Skyless Game Studios.

“We develop social, educational or philanthropic games; really, we look into anything that has a socially conscious edge to it,” Bennett said of his company, which showcased two games at tech week: AssembleIt and LifeLeap.

The first is a game that aims to help teach teamwork and cooperative problem solving to children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder through two-player challenges, while the latter focuses on bringing awareness to the need for healthcare in rural areas in India.

Bennett is most excited about how these projects can help facilitate real change and how many others are so willing to be a part of the movement. “We partnered with another Drexel organization, Aahana, and set up a system where any in-game purchases made will go directly to paying for procedures for affected kid in those areas,” he explained.

In addition to getting to play with new software and meet the developers behind it, attendees also got the chance to play with technology both new and old, from 3-D printers courtesy of NextFab to typewriters sure to trip up even the most experienced typists. Eight-bit remixes of classics such as Elton John’s “Benny and the Jets” proved to be the soundtrack of the evening, provided by Pixel8r and Dj CUTMAN.

One thing that all the developers loved about the evening was the crowd’s reaction. As Day said, “I get the number of how many [people played] and for how long people have played, but it really is something seeing people react to the games in person. It’s so much more satisfying.”

Philly tech week continues until Saturday, April 25. Events can be found at 2015.phillytechweek.com.

The post Philly celebrates Tech Week 2015 appeared first on The Triangle.

As hundreds of high school seniors anxiously wait to get a “yes” or a “no” from their university of choice, about 500 Drexel University hopefuls received an acceptance that turned out to be false. The University accidentally sent hundreds of acceptance emails to applicants who had already been denied admission or had incomplete applications.

Photo Credit: Ajon Brodie

According to the University, the emails were intended to be sent as follow-ups for students who had already been admitted. The main focus of the correspondence was not the congratulatory note, but rather a reminder about an upcoming reply deadline.

FOX 29’s Chris O’ Connell spoke with one of the affected high school students, West Philadelphian Tearra Bookard, to see how she felt about this oversight.

“I felt like my dreams were coming true and I was finally taking that first step forward,” Bookard reflects on the past week’s experiences. “To be rejected twice is kind of like a slap in the face.”

After spending much of her childhood in and out of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Bookard aspires to become a doctor and one day help young kids in need. She had hoped to attend Drexel, just like her mother, and enter the nursing program. “It was the best and the worst day of my life,” O’Connell recalled Bookard saying.

While Drexel has not yet issued a public statement about the situation, an email was sent to those who had been directly affected seven hours after the initial message had been sent. “Please note this email was sent in error. We sincerely apologize for any confusion,” the University stated.

Unfortunately, the apology can only go so far for the affected students. “They’re going to be missing a really intelligent and dedicated student: someone who is going to work their hardest and do whatever it takes to accomplish their goals. I don’t plan to ever stop whether they end up accepting me or not,” Bookard said of her future plans.

This mishap comes following a similar slip up from Carnegie Mellon University in mid-February, when the university sent out over 800 acceptance letters to students who had been rejected from their graduate program.

The post 495 denied Drexel applicants sent acceptance letters appeared first on The Triangle.

In a move to encourage more women to network in the programming field, Andrea Baric, a Drexel University software engineering freshman, put together FemmeHacks, Philadelphia’s first all-women hackathon, hosted in Drexel’s ExCITE center Feb. 27-28.

It’s no secret that women are sorely underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, specifically in disciplines related to computer science and engineering. Baric counts herself lucky, having grown up in an environment that encouraged her to “geek out” as much as she wanted and acknowledges that not all young women were given the same opportunity.

“I did lots of day programs in middle and high school and started taking classes on computer science in high school as well. It was around that time when I started learning about what tech culture is — that there’s a whole experience that goes beyond just sitting down and learning about a topic.”

Photo courtesy: Andrea Baric

Of the many tech events Baric has attended, it was the hackathons that impacted her the most. Not to be mistaken for a literal “hacking” marathon, hackathons are events that focus on many different facets of tech and programming, seeking to engage the attendees through panels, company mingling and the main attraction, collaborative development with other visitors.

“There’s a lot of talk in the computer science community about the importance of building a computer culture for those involved, and I really tried to start bringing that here,” Baric said of her motivation to launch the hackathon, which pulled heavily from her attendance to two in just the past year. “I went to HackPrinceton and scouted the scene, learned how projects are developed, how teams are created, what sponsors do and what their roles are.”

Five months and many emails later, Baric was surprised to hear that all of the tickets offered for the event had been sold out. For a student-created hackathon on its first run, the turnout was staggering. Thirty-six Saturday check-ins were exposed to just over 12 hours of tech-related content, with a bulk of their time dedicated to collaborative work which was then judged for winners.

Sponsors included Exelon, Epic, SIG Susquehana and Zonoff, among others and were encouraged to work the floor and speak to attendees about the work they do. Seven teams ended up with various projects to demo at the 7 p.m. cut-off, with three of the teams receiving prizes. The winning team from the University of Pennsylvania ended with a project called ‘AnOwlysis,’ a natural language processing app that built off IBM Watson’s application programming interface to analyze a sample of writing and deduce the author’s main traits. Coming in second place was Drexel’s Society of Women Engineers team, who created an app to help the organization track completed tasks and assist with scheduling and were commended for the level of technical difficulty the app displayed.

While the high level of interest shown for the meetup was quite the achievement, Baric claimed that it’s not what she was most pleased about. In an exit poll taken by the participants, 100 percent would go to another hackathon, despite this having been the first hackathon for half of the participants. Though Baric may be very proud of the success of FemmeHacks, she’s not taking any more time than necessary to sit back and reflect.

“I want to start planning earlier. I’m looking forward to getting it set up again next year and want to start working on getting an organizing team together,” she said.

Busy though she may be, Baric will admit that she is proud of the success FemmeHacks saw. “I had one girl come up to me after the event ended, a Penn student, who told me that she was always too intimidated to try and go to PennApps, but now was thinking about trying to go this year. And that’s what really matters that they want to keep going to more and getting involved.”

Baric encouraged any and all women (and even men) who want to get involved by either participating or helping to plan next year’s FemmeHacks reach out to her, since in her words, “It’s always a good time to start.”

“Don’t stop. If you don’t get something the first time you see something, don’t worry! The people that surround you will want to help you get better, and being a woman shouldn’t be something you let affect your confidence,” Baric said about her advice for the newbies.

The post Freshman hosts Philadelphia’s first ‘all-woman’ hackathon appeared first on The Triangle.

Drexel Sacramento

Drexel University announced March 5 that after a comprehensive evaluation, the Board of Trustees has decided to close the school’s Sacramento campus. The closure comes in wake of the school’s work in 2013 to expand its program by offering undergraduate as well as graduate degrees.

In a message posted to the main website for Drexel Sacramento, President John A. Fry outlined both the motivations behind the closure as well as how the many different parties involved will be affected by this decision.

“As we aligned Drexel’s programs and operations in recent years to better focus on pressing priorities, it became more and more apparent that our efforts in Sacramento no longer advance our mission as a research university,” Fry said of the motivation behind the decision. “Moving forward, we believe Drexel can best serve students and society through degree programs in Philadelphia and online, an enhanced connection to Greater Philadelphia and new global academic and research partnerships.”

Though the shutdown won’t be immediate, the school has stopped accepting new students. The 215 currently enrolled students will be allowed to finish their programs, with the full shutdown of the school projected to begin in two years. The six-year old school has remained rather small, with an employee roster of just over 50. Current staff members will be offered career counseling and networking opportunities as they begin to look into new employment options.

While Drexel is set to move out, other universities are ready to take its spot. The University of Warwick, a British institution, has begun taking steps to add a satellite campus in the area.

The post Drexel announces closure of its Sacramento campus appeared first on The Triangle.

Photo Courtesy: TechGirlz Facebook

Frank Lee is not unfamiliar with the idea of using games and technology to inspire. As the mastermind behind the massive games of Tetris and Pong played on the Cira Center during Philly Tech Week, he bridged the gap between arts and sciences. His recent work seeks to bridge another, — bringing girls into the tech and gaming industries. Collaborating with local organization TechGirlz, Lee and current Drexel students Gabby Getz and Rachel Stine tested the first of a series of workshops aiming to engage young women in a field that sorely needs them.

“Something that I’ve been deeply interested in is trying to get more women into the game industry. The game industry, in being part of the tech industry, has a dearth of women within their engineering and technical staff,” Lee said. He cited both his own experiences and recent studies as indicators of this gender gap, the most alarming of which in the form of a 2014 company survey for Twitter, which showed only 10 percent of the technical staff being women.

“It’s an interesting dichotomy really, since there are actually more women going to college than men right now, yet they are still so underrepresented in the [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] field[s],” Lee said. “So I’m getting a lot of anecdotal information and trying to figure out where that starts.”

From what he heard from many different sources including the TechGirlz, Lee believes that girls start being pushed away from the STEM field both explicitly and implicitly sometime in middle school. “So somewhere along the line, girls seem to get this incorrect idea that science or technology isn’t for them. So one thing that I’m trying to do is to try and address that early enough where I feel like we could try and have an effect,” he continued.

TechGirlz’s efforts come in the form of a series of workshops — most recently Game Design I and II , their joint project with Lee and Drexel’s Entrepeneurial Game Studio— that expose young girls to real software and concepts they would use in the industry

“I began working with TechGirlz informally to offer game design advice really. But that relationship became formalized through a grant received by the [Entertainment Software Association Foundation] to make these two new workshop courses,” Lee said, describing how he started to become involved.

The TechGirlz workshops, known as “TechShopz in a Box,” are created with the intention of being used all over the nation. “The workshops could be thought of as self-contained classes and projects — we create the material such as PowerPoint files and the programs that need to be used, but then someone who is tech-savvy could download that, learn more about that and lead a workshop anywhere across the U.S. using the free information,” he said.

The topics covered in these workshops would sound very familiar to anyone involved in the tech world — introductory courses on programming with JavaScript, Python with robotics applications and Ruby on Rails are among the projects already in use. Lee’s game design courses use an industry standard called Unity, a cross-platform video games creation system.

“It’s great that we use this software, too, since we aren’t dumbing down any material for them. They’re actually learning the tools that they would use if they went into this industry,” Lee said.

Lee also looks forward to partnering with another well-known association, the Girls Scouts of the USA, to get more girls involved in tech. Through their “Awesome Opportunities” program, girls can earn a game design merit badge.

The next few months look to be big ones for both Lee and TechGirlz, with the second deployment of the game design workshop April 11. Lee is excited to see how the girls continue to surprise him. “What really stuck with me, especially as the father of a new daughter, was that the girls were excitedly showing their parents what they made — and this was after a six hour work period! They started even messing around on their own and expressing their own individuality with things we didn’t teach them. I think gaming is a perfect tool to try and get girls interested in the technical side of program but still exercise their creative side.”

The post Professor teams up with TechGirlz to teach game design appeared first on The Triangle.

Photo Courtesy: Joe Shlabotnik Flickr

Every day, the United States is bombarded with new and greater threats to national security — though instead of firearms, these attackers’ weapon of choice is a computer. Finding that the need for cybersoldiers greatly outweighs the supply, the U.S. Army Reserve has partnered with six universities, including Drexel University, to help grow the capabilities of its cyber defense program through the Cyber Public Private Partnership Initiative. Thanks in large part to the work of Norman Balchunas, a retired Air Force colonel, this past week saw the debut of the program at Drexel.

“We have a long history of cybersecurity training and research, really,” Steven Weber, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, said. “The [National Security Agency] and the [U.S. Department of Homeland Security] have a certification program for universities that meet rather stringent guidelines. If you meet all their guidelines for providing cybersecurity education, then you can be named as a center of academic excellence in information assurance.” Drexel has met those standards for 10 years now, and Weber believes that certification was a major factor for the Army Reserve to consider Drexel as one of its university partners.

Despite having classes and research in the field of cybersecurity for nearly a decade, Drexel only recently formed the Cybersecurity Institute — a move Weber believes was a long time coming.

“It’s useful to have this institute to provide a sort of internal coherence to all that” he said of the institute’s formation. “The different degrees, the different colleges, the different faculty in the different colleges can all finally come together under one umbrella. The institute serves as a sort of ‘one stop shop’ for all of Drexel’s cybersecurity research.” This was also an important step in shining a spotlight on Drexel’s cybersecurity program; one that Weber admits is in need of a bit more publicity.

While there are no citizen soldiers currently involved in the program (it is, after all, only a week old), Weber has high hopes for the enrollment numbers.

“The intention of the program is that the first year will only be a small cohort, as the Army would recognize the University’s need to gear up for the incoming students, but the hope would be that in subsequent years, a much larger scope of students would be involved,” Weber said.

The eventual goal of the program would be have enrolled 3,500-5,000 Army Reserve Soldiers across the six involved institutions, with a potential for 100 reservists to come to Drexel each year.

The sort of training that Drexel aims to provide ranges from the textbook and theoretical to more hands on, the cyber equivalent to a firing range. Weber feels this is an integral part of what makes this program so important. “A soldier needs to have a facility with access to small arms. How do you learn how to fire a gun? You go to a firing range. A soldier who is now a cyberwarrior needs to have some facility with cyberattack and cyberdefense.”

For the partnership program, this would include a lab that would allow the students to run practice drills, training directly with the exact kinds of skills that they would need to demonstrate in order to stop a real threat.

The benefits for the program are seemingly limitless, providing optimal conditions for the four players involved — the Army Reserve, the citizen soldiers themselves, the University and the industry.

“The Army wants better trained soldiers. The soldiers themselves want to be better trained. The University wants to provide better training, and the industry wants to hire better trained cybersecurity specialists. And that’s really the genesis of why the [partnership] program exists,” Weber said, describing the program as a win-win.

Over the past two years, it has become increasingly apparent that cybersecurity education is a real growing need, and this program, in the words of Weber, gives Drexel the perfect opportunity to provide training to the soldiers who are going to be fighting at the front lines.

“It’s always an honor for Drexel to be working with our Army Reserve on such a meaningful project as this. It’s going to be a great partnership and I’m happy to that our University has engaged with the Army in this way,” he said.

The post U.S. Army Reserve partners with universities to create cyber security program appeared first on The Triangle.

Photo Credit: Ajon Brodie

Drexel University is tangling with property owners in Powelton Village in order to restrict students from living off-campus. Drexel has backed the Powelton Village Civic Association in defending a law that prohibits more than three unrelated people living in the same house. The University has promised the PVCA to bring students back on campus, including potentially forcing students as old as juniors to live in University and University-affiliated housing by 2024.

These changes in policy were first brought to light due to a court case prompted by the recent reemergence of a zoning law that makes it illegal for a group of more than three unrelated people to live together. Litigation arose beginning in April 2013 as the result of an ongoing dispute between the PVCA and the Drexel Area Property Association on the topic of zoning laws — particularly those in the Powelton Village area.

“From time to time, [Licenses and Inspections] has descended upon some large houses in the Powelton area where there are college students and demanded to know how many people are living there or asked to come in and inspect,” Bart Caprario, president of the DAPA, said when asked about what prompted the lawsuit. “Upon finding out that there were more than three people, they basically shut the house down.”

Caprario and the DAPA believe this zoning law harms students and they assert that the law is being used out of its intended context. Originally put in place to discourage brothels and prostitution in the city, the DAPA feels it is now being used for the sole purpose of corralling college students. The organization was founded about two years ago, largely to fight this law but also to have more of a say in zoning of the area.

Around the same time, a DAPA member began to fight the law, calling it unconstitutional. The case, Schwartz et al v. Zoning Board of Adjustment, reached the courts in April 2013 and has pulled in many different parties: five groups split into sides based on their beliefs. Tenants, landlords, civic associations, the City of Philadelphia and Drexel itself — the largest landlord in the Powelton area — all came together to argue one way or another on the matter. DAPA’s position received support from various landlords and tenants; some arguing the repeal of the law considering the context of college student living conditions, others citing the changing definition of family in modern times. Drexel and the PVCA wanted to keep the law in place.

Map by Jeremy Snyder

Proceedings in the Court of Common Pleas came to an end with the law intact — the lawsuit was unsuccessful in proving it unconstitutional. The DAPA does not see this as the end however, and its members appealed to the Superior Court in July 2014.

“We are unable to discuss the specifics because of the open court case, but we can say that the PVCA has an interest in seeing zoning laws which protect the health and well-being of citizen enforced,” the PVCA organization explained via email when asked about the reasoning behind their position. “Most large municipalities have similar ordinances in place which restrict the number of unrelated individuals from living in a single housing unit, and the law has been repeatedly upheld when challenged in court.”

The Triangle also reached out to Drexel University, asking for some elaboration on the position it took in the case — a position that the DAPA claims goes directly against students.

“At Drexel University, our top priority is the safety and well-being of our students. These rules and regulations were put in place to ensure students and tenants live in well-maintained and safe environments,” a University representative stated in an email.

Both Drexel and the PVCA cited two key points in defense of their stance, the first being the option for a landowner to obtain a rooming house license. This special exemption allows a landowner to rent to more than three unrelated persons in a single home, but places additional requirements on the property, such as needing a fire escape.

DAPA sees this a poor excuse for the stringent zoning codes. “It’s a myth, really,” Caprario said, especially in the Powelton Village area. “It’s very difficult to get the zoning for a rooming house. One of our members tried to do it with a house on Spring Garden and she was shot down by the zoning board almost instantly.”

A second key point was a recent Boston student-housing situation. A Chronicle article published Jan. 2 outlined the city’s inspection of over 580 off-campus student residences that could be unsafe due to overcrowding — especially in the case of fire, which claimed two student lives in the past three years. In many ways, it seems to parallel Drexel’s housing situation — urban schools with students forced off campus, to cheaper homes with more roommates than permitted by law.

Caprario agrees with the argument in favor of safer student living, but isn’t sure if that is the sole drive behind the University’s actions. “What Drexel seems to be doing is driving the rentals into their own properties, properties that they’re in a financial arrangement with the owners.” He also noted that because of Drexel’s status as an institution, the zoning laws work in their favor.  “It’s frustrating from my perspective. These kids are paying 700-800 dollars a student for a two-bedroom apartment, while we’re trying to rent five or six bedroom apartments for much less. These beautiful houses that are perfect for students are rendered useless now.”

This court case, while meaningful in its own right, services as just one example of Drexel’s continued efforts to rein students back into on-campus housing. Outlined in a Letter of Intent between Drexel and the Powelton Village Civic Association, it is stated that “Both parties agree that it is important to stabilize the homeownership base in Powelton Village.”

This is with the intention to increase Powelton Village homeownership to 25 percent by 2024. Drexel then goes on to describe their role in this movement, beginning a long list of initiatives to  “address the institution’s interest to improve the local neighborhoods surrounding the campus by returning our students to campus and simultaneously restoring the integrity of Powelton Village.” The changes in housing requirements and regulations, specifically those applying to off-campus housing are numerous and have the potential to affect a large portion of the student body.

Listed in section one, “Enhance the Drexel Approved Housing Program”, are 14 points on the topic, each describing serious changes to be made from the date of publication (May 23rd, 2013) and on until 2024. Notable on this list of changes is in point K – “By September 2015, the approved housing program would exclude properties that have obtained variances after December 31st, 2013 for the purpose of renting to more than 3 unrelated persons per dwelling unit”, with the only exception to be applied to fraternity/sorority housing.

This comes in stark contrast to Drexel’s statement on the lawsuit, as it effectively halts any new houses from entering the system and would make the efforts of any landlords currently applying for the variance futile.
Also directly affecting houses occupied by students in the Powelton Village area is the impending safety inspection: “Safety inspection in 2015- Inspections should occur at least annually to ensure that standards for safety are being upheld.” This requirement, paired with known shutting-down of houses rooming more than 3 unrelated people could result in many homes being examined in depth and the possible displacement of many students.

The point that has the potential to affect the most students, however, is the complete revision of the university housing, affiliated housing, and approved housing policy listed in point J. This point, in full, states: “Drexel shall endeavor to provide sufficient student housing in the form of University housing, University affiliated housing, and University approved housing to include pre-juniors in the program by 2018, or as soon thereafter as possible.”

“By 2018, Drexel will develop a communication plan to encourage juniors and create incentives for promoting juniors living in Drexel affiliated facilities or Drexel approved housing. By 2024, Drexel and PVCA shall meet to consider adding juniors to the program, with such consideration to include a mutual review of all data and progress made by that time, including the occupied homeownership rate in Powelton Village as updated by Drexel in 2024.”

This statement frames what can be expected of Drexel’s actions regarding housing for years to come and sheds light on why exactly Drexel may have lobbied in the case as they did: the University’s end goal is to move students out of Powelton Village and back onto campus with the intention of keeping them there as long as possible.

These changes have taken many students by surprise, leaving them feeling blindsided and shocked by the University’s actions. “When I transferred here, I applied to be in a dorm, and they didn’t have enough housing for me. It’s weird that they’re moving kids out of Powelton when there isn’t enough housing here yet and it’s all so expensive” noted sophomore history major Tyler Countie. Countie says he was lucky to have found housing at all, currently residing in Chestnut Square with three other roommates in a two bed/two bath option.

Austin Paragas, sophomore entertainment and arts management major and Tyler’s roommate, believes students should have more of a choice as to where they can live. “It sounds like Drexel is trying to create a monopoly. I understand what they’re trying to do, which is make more money, but the only thing that on-campus or University affiliated housing has as an advantage is how close to campus it is.” Both students firmly believe cost should be a key factor for Drexel to examine if they wish to push these new policies into action.

While the issue of the law remains unresolved as it is still in court, the best action for students seems to be keeping updated on the topic. Bart Caprario advocates as much transparency and communication on the topic as possible. “People should know, really. We’re trying to get a bit of publicity on the topic since it has the potential to affect so many students, who don’t even know anything about it.”

Read the full letter of intent here.

Read the short letter of intent here.

The post The Fight Against Off-Campus Living appeared first on The Triangle.

Photo Credit: Nicolena Stiles

Tucked deep within the twisting corridors of Drexel University’s oldest building sits a small office, 072-C, equipped with a few computers and more than enough chairs. Across its threshold there can be seen an unassuming tarp, notable only for its striking blue color and contrasting lack of dust from its surroundings. Underneath that cover rests the Drexel Formula SAE team’s car chassis, hidden away and out of sight — not for lack of interest, but rather space.

Many clubs and organizations on campus have had to work around frequent changes in space availability over the past few years, with Drexel’s two racing teams, Formula SAE (formerly, SAE was the Society of Automotive Engineers) and Formula EV (for “Electric Vehicle”), among the hardest hit. Both of the student-lead teams that produce complex, tangible products currently find themselves with no space to begin assembly.

They were displaced and moved into storage because of the University’s continued renovations in order include more freshman labs.

“We didn’t have much time to go through and pick and choose what we need,” Vice President Rob Gibbons said regarding the club’s requirement to move items into storage in wake of their most recent uprooting.  “We have some of the things that we need, but a lot of it is stashed.”

The teams were originally displaced in early July 2013, moved due to the demolition of the Frederic O. Hess Engineering Research Laboratory they once called home. Both were fortunate enough to be quickly placed into new housing at 3101 Market St., conveniently located near the University’s machine shop. This idealistic setup lasted until May 2014, when the teams were informed they were having their equipment moved into storage and, at the time, left without a space to work in.

After the move into storage, president of Formula SAE Hunter Hall wrote an op-ed in The Triangle (July 25, 2014). He wrote, “When we were moved from Hess, we were promised to be in our new location for ‘at least a few years’ and that our next location would be permanent. Well, we were in 3101 Market St. for nine months and I don’t see the team manufacturing a high-performance race car with a storage trailer as a permanent location anytime soon.”

He continued, “As a mechanical engineering pre-junior, I do not understand the University’s intentions even remotely. Drexel has succeeded in uprooting dozens of its research laboratories two years in a row, setting back research dramatically, wasting money and frustrating the undergraduate students, graduate students and even many professors. Drexel University prides itself in being a ‘research-driven urban university’ and yet it is placing many laboratories in storage without any sort of plan on where they will be relocated.”

Though a series of generous actions and good fortune granted by faculty and sponsors alike, the clubs were able to carry on their work, albeit at a much reduced pace.

“Technically, the school hasn’t given us a space. What we have is what the faculty of the [Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics] department was gracious enough to offer us. We have an office that fits four computers and that’s about it,” Gibbons said of the current situation of the club.

Lack of dedicated space has not only affected the rate at which the team can work, but the cost of their materials as well. “Our team takes great pride in welding everything ourselves, in the fact that our car is 80-90 percent student designed and constructed. But with the chassis, unfortunately, we couldn’t get enough time in the machine shop to do the welding ourselves and had to have another company do it for us, which put a big blow in our budget.”

Member recruitment also poses a challenge without a place to call home, as Raj Shah, president of Formula EV was quick to mention. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked ‘so where do you all do your work?’ and have been unable to answer.”

Despite this, Shah was also pleased to mention things are looking up for the team. Students who have heard about their situation have actively sought them out and helped the team push forward. “We’re at a very interesting point in our build cycle right now. We’re just starting over — we’ve got a basically brand new club with a lot of new blood.”

Despite these obstacles, Gibbons and the rest of the Formula SAE team seem optimistic for their racing prospects this coming March. “They’ve always been there to try to and help us though,” he said of the school’s involvement. Support is also strong between the SAE and EV teams; as Gibbons said, “We work together, try and help each other out when we can. We’re different but we have similar goals, and so for that we go through similar situations.”

In the coming months, there is much anticipation for a new, more permanent housing option to be offered to the two organizations. But until then, they will be working as hard as ever in the basement of Main — designing, planning and racing forward to the best of their ability.

– Updated 1/9/2015, 1:42 p.m. –

According to the Office of Communications, administrators are meeting with representatives from the team later this month.

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