Walker Alexander The Triangle

On Jan. 20, Donald Trump took the oath of office and became the 45th president of the United States, but the following day quickly became what some are calling the largest demonstration in American History.

In a speech that lasted more than 15 minutes, some thought that Trump painted a bleak picture of America, while others thought that he echoed his promise to oppose government elites.

“For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have bore the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth, Trump said.

“Politicians prospered but the jobs left and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country.

On Saturday, however, people around the world responded to the inauguration with a wave of protests.

An estimated 3.3 million people protested in 500 different U.S. cities to demonstrate their disapproval of the new president. Philadelphia was no exception, where an estimated 50,000 people turned up for the Women’s March.

“I believe how [Trump’s administration] showcase themselves has become a threat to many minorities, including women and people of color,” Isiah Gaffney, who attended the Philadelphia march and lives in North Philadelphia, told ABC6 News.

Protesters marched from Logan Square to Eakins Oval, where a rally was held that included speakers and music.

Mayor Jim Kenney was the first to speak.

“Now more than ever we need to be together, walk arm in arm, forward into history and progress. Remember: we got through World War II, we’ll get through this,” Kenney said.

The event was organized by Emily Cooper Morse, a King of Prussia resident. She created the event on Facebook after hearing about the Women’s March in the nation’s capital. Morse then organized the full event with a team of volunteers that worked with the Philadelphia Police and Parks and Recreation departments, amongst others, to make the event a reality.

“Change only happens when ordinary people get involved. I’m an ordinary person who had to turn those words into action,” Morse said in a speech at the rally, paraphrasing former President Barack Obama’s farewell address.

Morse and her fellow organizers set up a nonprofit named Philly Women March Inc. to promote women’s rights.

Walker Alexander The Triangle

A religious group exercised its freedom of speech Jan. 24 with a demonstration in front of MacAlister Hall that led to verbal confrontations with dozens of students.

The demonstrators, who identified themselves only as “Bible believers,” have a church in North Philadelphia. They declined to give The Triangle the name or give the location of their church for safety reasons.

For the entirety of the demonstration, members of the church spoke into a megaphone. Topics included Islam, Christianity, homosexuality, feminism and the millennial generation.

“With a Muslim, if you don’t believe [in Islam], they’re going to kill you. Off with your head, that’s their motto,” protestor R.D. spoke into the megaphone. “And the MSA — the Muslim Student Association — which is an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is an associate of [the Council on American-Islamic Relations] and Hamas, these terrorist organizations are at this university. MSA, the Muslim Student Association is a terrorist organization that is … working to infiltrate the university, and to ultimately bring Shariah Law.”

The demonstrators had informed the Philadelphia Police Department that they would begin their sermon at noon and it in turn alerted Drexel Public Safety. Both were present at the event in case of serious escalation or confrontation.

While police kept the event from escalating to physical confrontation, there were many verbal exchanges between demonstrators and students.

“A girl came up and basically said ‘you guys are messed up’, and they called [out] her leggings and said that she was a slut … and that ‘you’re so self-conscious that you have to wear this type of clothing,’” Billy McCullough, an environmental science major, recalled. “And then she cried and walked away.”

Members of the group say that they expect people to respond with unkind words, vulgar gestures and even physical violence when they protest.

“We get punched; we get hit; we get spit on; we get drinks thrown on us; we went through it all. But you know what, the disciples of Jesus and Jesus himself went through way more than we did. You know, [a] part of being a [follower of Christ] is persecution,” Sister Mary, a member of the church, said.

She also said that Philadelphia needs to repent and that the church’s goal is to warn people about their sins and the impending day of judgement.

“It’s about souls. Yes, I do hope that someone can surrender and repent, or we can help strengthen a Christian who was, maybe, wavering between falling off and just getting stronger for Christ. We help lots of people,” she said.

Drexel students responded to the demonstration by making signs, chanting and passing Drexel hats throughout the crowd. One student even pulled out a tablet so that people could make donations to Planned Parenthood in defiance of the group.

“That is not somebody who should be representative and telling women that we should sew, that we should be quiet, that we should stop crying and complaining about things that are not just. This is absolutely not just right now,” Anna Bostwick, a chemistry major, said referring to the demonstrators.

However, the demonstrators continued to spread their message on a variety of topics.

“Just because you go to church does not mean you’ll get into heaven. Most people that go to church are going to hell. You know why? Do you know why? Because they go to church and they’re hypocrites … they say they’re Christian and then they get drunk at the sorority parties; they get drunk at the fraternity parties,” R.D. said.

“The only thing you people deserve is hell. You deserve to go to Hell for lying. You deserve to go to hell for stealing. You deserve to go to hell for cheating on your boyfriend. You deserve to go to hell for cheating on your girlfriend. You deserve hell. That’s the only thing you deserve.”

The demonstration ended shortly after 2 p.m. and the demonstrators left.

Photo Courtesy Drexel University

Drexel University and the surrounding area has received a $30 million dollar grant to promote comprehensive neighborhood reform and fight poverty.

Drexel was one of six organizations to receive the award, which will be doled out over five years. The area stretches from Girard Avenue to Sansom Street and from the Schuylkill River East to 48th Street. As lead agency, Drexel’s responsibility will be to coordinate the initiative and share expertise from the Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships and the Dornsife School of Public Health.

“These grants will provide cradle-to-career support for at-risk children in communities across the country, offering meaningful resources that will help them achieve their potential … promise neighborhoods draw on the best of communities, bring together non-profits, schools and local institutions to meet the needs of their local communities,” Secretary of Education John B. King Jr.,  said in a press release from the department of education.

The city of Philadelphia, Drexel and area non-profits have contributed another $76 million on top of the grant.

University President John A. Fry and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney spoke at an announcement ceremony held at Morton McMichael Elementary School Dec. 21.

“This grant reflects a broad and deep collaboration across this West Philadelphia neighborhood, and I’m so proud that Drexel has played a role,” Fry said.

“The overarching goal is to ensure that every child born in the Promise Zone has what he or she needs to be successful in the innovation economy that is growing right before our eyes in their own backyard,” he continued.

Kenney also spoke, saying that the city will focus on the Free Library, community schools and the Police Explorer program, which promotes law enforcement careers among young adults.

“In addition to supporting the larger goals for this Promise Neighborhood, the city will be particularly focused on increasing access to quality early childhood education, expanding literacy strategies, increasing enrollment in out of school time supports for students K-12th and also increasing college and career readiness,” he said.

Benjamin Ahrens The Triangle

Pizza Wings Steaks, the popular restaurant and pizzeria, was temporarily ordered to cease operations following a Department of Public Health report that included multiple health violations.

Following the inspection, a sign was placed in the window by the department declaring the business closed.

The report included 18 total items out of compliance, 12 of which were repeat violations. Some examples of items out of compliance include insect, rodent and animal presence, lack of proper handwashing and personal cleanliness, and insufficient cleanliness of food-contact surfaces.

“Fresh mice feces was observed on shelves, prep stations, food equipment, in pizza boxes, on the oven, under equipment and along floor/wall junctures throughout,” the report of the inspection, which took place on Dec. 20, read.

“Flies were observed flying around the prep / warewashing area, and landing in pizza dough,” it continued.

The regulatory body for food safety inspections in the city is the Environmental Health Services division of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. It uses a risk-based approach to identify the practices or conditions that are most likely to lead to an issue. This allows them in some cases to correct risk factors on site.

Items that were out of compliance but corrected during the inspection are designated by a “COS” on the inspection report. Pizza Wings Steaks had no violations that were corrected on site.

Pizza Wings Steaks has had inspection violations before, but the Dec. 20 report had the highest number of violations.

EHS reserves facility closure for extreme instances of poor food safety.

“The most serious violations, which are of imminent public health significance or a severe vermin infestation, require the facility to cease operations until they are corrected,” EHS’s overview of the inspection process reads.

PWS reopened following a Jan. 4 follow-up inspection in which there were only four violations. While the restaurant was cleared to reopen, it was still observed to have mold build up in the dishwashing area.

Information on the most recent inspection of restaurants in Philadelphia can be accessed by the public on the Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s website, where it holds the last three years of inspection records.

They also provide food safety laws and regulations, a general overview of the inspection process and a guide to reading inspection reports.

pokemon_fetish Reddit

Drexel University faculty member George Ciccariello-Maher is the center of a Twitter controversy after tweeting to his 10,500 followers Dec. 24 at 10:48 p.m.: “All I Want for Christmas is White Genocide.”

This tweet has since been deleted.

Ciccariello-Maher is an associate professor of political science in the Department of Global Studies and Modern Languages. He has held a faculty position at Drexel since 2010 and is currently a visiting researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.

His tweet was picked up by the blog American Thinker Dec. 25.

“The Caucasians among the tender young minds exposed to Professor George Ciccariello-Maher at Drexel University are on notice that their teacher wants them exterminated because of their race,” Thomas Lifson, a blogger at American Thinker, wrote.

Conservative news organization Breitbart News also published an article about the tweet Sunday.

“Ciccariello-Maher claims to be an ‘expert’ on Venezuela but no where on his Twitter feed is any acknowledgment of the depths of despair that Venezuela has been reduced to as a result of its failed communist leadership,” the article, written by Warner Todd Huston, said in response to another tweet in which Ciccariello-Maher had claimed to be a communist.

News outlet LawNewz wrote the article from a different perspective, arguing that the tweet — along with many of Ciccariello-Maher’s other tweets — is satirical and an attempt to anger conservatives.

“Finally, Ciccariello-Maher clarified his meaning, implying that he was teasing white supremacists who supposedly worry about a white genocide actually occurring,” the article, written by Ronn Blitzer, read.

“Still not everyone has picked up on the gag, which raises the question of whether the controversy spurred by a joke like this is worth it for the limited audience who appreciates it … looking at Ciccariello-Maher’s Twitter page, he’d probably say that’s the whole point,” it continued.

Ciccariello-Maher has received a wave of tweets and direct messages in the hours following the tweet. Some are from supportive students, while some are responses from people who were offended by the tweet. Many were threats or too vulgar to be included in this article.

Drexel University released a comment related to the incident Sunday.

“Drexel became aware today of Associate Professor George Ciccariello-Maher’s inflammatory tweet, which was posted on his personal Twitter account on Dec. 24, 2016. While the University recognizes the right of its faculty to freely express their thoughts and opinions in public debate, Professor Ciccariello-Maher’s comments are utterly reprehensible, deeply disturbing and do not in any way reflect the values of the University,” the statement read.

“The University is taking this situation very seriously. We contacted Ciccariello-Maher today to arrange a meeting to discuss this matter in detail,” it continued.

CCTV America YouTube

At 10:48 p.m. Dec. 24, Drexel University Professor George Ciccariello-Maher tweeted: “All I Want for Christmas is White Genocide.”

Over the next 36 hours, a variety of news outlets and blogs reported on the tweet, and Ciccariello-Maher received numerous responses, many of them death threats. A Drexel University statement labelled the tweets “utterly reprehensible, and deeply disturbing” Sunday night.

Ciccariello-Maher responded to The Triangle’s inquiry about the incident in an email Dec. 26. What follows is the professor’s unedited statement in its entirety:

“On Christmas Eve, I sent a satirical tweet about an imaginary concept, ‘white genocide.’ For those who haven’t bothered to do their research, ‘white genocide’ is an idea invented by white supremacists and used to denounce everything from interracial relationships to multicultural policies (and most recently, against a tweet by State Farm Insurance). It is a figment of the racist imagination, it should be mocked, and I’m glad to have mocked it.

What I am not glad about is that this satirical tweet became fodder for online white supremacists to systematically harass me and my employer, Drexel University. Beginning with Breitbart.com — formerly the domain of special counselor to the president-elect, Steve Bannon — and running through the depths of Reddit discussion boards, a coordinated smear campaign was orchestrated to send mass tweets and emails to myself, my employer and my colleagues. I have received hundreds of death threats.

Drexel University issued a statement on the matter, apparently without understanding either the content or the context of the tweets. While Drexel has been nothing but supportive in the past, this statement is worrying. While upholding my right to free expression, the statement refers to my (satirical) tweets as ‘utterly reprehensible.’ What is most unfortunate is that this statement amounts to caving to the truly reprehensible movements and organizations that I was critiquing. On the university level, moreover, this statement — despite a tepid defense of free speech — sends a chilling message and sets a frightening precedent. It exposes untenured and temporary faculty not only to internal disciplinary scrutiny, but equally importantly, it encourages harassment as an effective means to impact university policies.

As my students will attest, my classroom is a free-for-all of ideas, in which anyone is welcome to their opinions, but expected to defend those opinions with argument. I teach regularly on the history of genocidal practices like colonialism and slavery — genocides carried out by the very same kind of violent racists who are smearing me today. That violent racism will now have a voice in the White House is truly frightening — I am not the first and I won’t be the last to be harassed and threatened by Bannon, Trump and co.

White supremacy is on the rise, and we must fight it by any means. In that fight, universities will need to choose whether they are on the side of free expression and academic debate, or on the side of the racist mob.”

An article providing more context about the incident can be found here.

tranmautritam pixabay

One of Drexel University’s official learning priorities is to make students competent international citizens, and it is the goal of the Office of International Programs to provide students with the opportunity to get academic, research and professional experience abroad.

“Students gain so much and probably everyone will tell you something different that they learned or took away from their experience abroad,” Sandra Petri, the program coordinator of the annual opportunities fair and international programs and former editor-in-chief of The Triangle in 2013 during her undergraduate career, said.

Petri also mentioned that students have the opportunity to improve their language skills, experience the education system in a different country and experience the rewards that come from stepping out of their comfort zones.

Rachel Wallace, an international area studies major and the first student to participate in a pilot program last fall in Spain, described the highlights of her trip to be practicing Spanish, meeting new people, living on her own, exploring a new city, traveling around Europe, trying new foods and learning to balance her budget.

“I had a great time. I met people from all over the world and made some lasting friendships,” Wallace said. “The professors I had abroad were also amazing.”

If a student really wants to go somewhere but doesn’t know where to start, they can check out the events and information sessions run by the Office of International Programs.

“This is a one-stop shop for all things Global Drexel,” Petri said.

Each year the Office of International Programs, the Study Abroad Office and the Steinbright Career Development Center host the IOF to give Drexel undergraduate and graduate students information about their opportunities at Drexel to study, co-op or research abroad, as well as introduce them to offices who offer opportunities be engaged globally at Drexel through on-campus programming, globally-themed majors and minors and cross-cultural activities.

“We’ve definitely seen enthusiasm in Global Drexel continues to grow since the first IOF fair. We’ve seen an increase in the number of participants who attend the fair, from 150 the first year to over 500 last year,” Petri said.

The co-op abroad is also a great opportunity to gain co-op credits and work experience. Any full-time student with a GPA of 2.0 or higher who has completed at least one co-op is eligible upon approval from their co-op coordinator.

Drexel attempts to alleviate concerns about finances, and all admitted students are considered for financial support. In fact, a special award called the Freeman Foundation has been established for students going to East or Southeast Asia.

“Just try and narrow down region and job focus areas. Think about your budget and if you want to go abroad for six months or just one of the two co-op terms (three months),” Tess Smith, international co-op manager, said.  “Finding a job is never easy.”

For those looking to study abroad rather than co-op, opportunities are available on every continent except Antarctica.

“We have a lot of partnerships, more than most American universities,” Lauren Steinberg, senior study abroad advisor, said.

There are many study abroad courses offered at a variety of times so that students can choose programs that fit with their plans of study. The most popular destinations are Galway, Ireland, Hong Kong, Spain, China and Denmark, which hosts the only engineering school in English.

Students with a GPA of 3.0 or higher are generally eligible, but more competitive programs may have more requirements or prerequisites.

A fellowship abroad is also a great opportunity to apply for national or international merit-based competitive awards, according to Ben Rayder, assistant director of the fellowships program.

Students apply to the “mission” of the fellowship, for example traveling, studying, research, internships or learning another language. Many fellowships even come with financial assistance.

“Study Abroad has been part of Drexel for over a dozen years. The opportunities for students have increased tremendously since the office was created and housed under the newly formed Office of International Programs, which began in 2007,” Petri said.

More information on international opportunities for students can be found at http://drexel.edu/oip/.

Joseph Kavanagh, The Triangle

In 2014, Randy Deike, senior vice president for enrollment management and student success, began an admissions strategy overhaul, taking into account the student experience from application to diploma.

In 2005, Drexel University introduced the Fast App, free to prospective students, in an effort to increase the applicant pool. While the next nine years saw an increase from 12,000 to 55,000 applications, the university also found it necessary to employ an 80 percent acceptance rate just to get a freshman class of the appropriate size.

This strategy and its consequences left Drexel’s yield rate — the amount of accepted students that enroll in the university — at eight percent. The national average yield is 36 percent.

Deike identified the core goal of this strategy to be volume.

“It was ‘get as many applicants interested enough to apply, make it very easy for them to do that and then with a very large applicant pool start admitting students based on criteria,’” Deike explained.

“What the institution found was even though application numbers kept climbing, the yield rate, or the percentage of students we admitted that actually enrolled, kept declining. And Drexel was finding that there were students who, even though they were great students, they weren’t well informed about Drexel, or they hadn’t really thought about whether Drexel would be a good place for them,” he continued.

In 2014, when Deike started in his role at Drexel, the university took large strides to shift its admissions goal from volume to quality in an effort to improve the student experience.

“Our goal is to recruit and enroll alumni, not freshman. Our goal isn’t just to get people in the door for a term or two. Our goal is to make sure that the students that come to Drexel are well enough informed that they understand what we’re about. Cooperative education, the co-op program, is very different from other institutions; being on the quarter system is different from lots of other institutions,” Deike said.

Drexel made strategic changes that include dropping its VIP application and becoming a Common Application-exclusive institution, charging an application fee of $50, and implementing a more holistic review of applicants when making admissions decisions.

The desired outcomes for the University were improvements in one-year retention, graduation rates, yield rates and summer melt rates. (The “melt” is enrolled freshmen who do not attend.)

Two major short-term goals are bringing the one-year retention rate above 90 percent and raising the yield rate as high as possible. Yield has been as low as 28 percent below the national average, and Drexel’s historic average for one-year retention rate has been 84 percent.

“In just one year, we’ve seen an over four-percentage-point increase in retention, first-year retention, from fall to fall for the fall 2015 class when compared to the average of the previous five freshman cohorts. That’s almost unheard of,” Deike explained.

This four-point rise puts the retention rate at 89.1 percent for the fall 2015 class, nearly reaching Drexel’s goal in the first year. Deike explains that this validates the steps they have been taking to improve this metric.

Yield, however, still remains well below the national average, and it has been slower than retention in responding to the new strategies. The current yield rate is 11 percent, and the University wants to increase it by as much as it can.

This slow growth does not reflect the wide-ranging steps that Admissions has taken to improve student knowledge about Drexel. It has been leveraging the tools of social media, email and in-person information sessions to keep the conversation with prospective students going.

Drexel also redistributed financial aid funding to better support students. In the past, the vast majority of Drexel financial aid was merit-based, while very little of financial aid dedicated to need-based awards. Deike says that this change was all about giving students the resources they need to be successful.

“If you’re not [offering need-based financial aid], students who have greater financial need than others are not in a position then to be successful because they don’t have the resources they need to stay enrolled and graduate. We were finding that to be the case,” Deike said.

So the numbers are improving, and the small-class strategy seems to be paying off, but with fewer students how will Drexel cope with the decreased revenue from tuition?

The past few years have seen cost cuts and policy changes in response to the planned decrease in freshman class sizes. In June 2015, the University laid off several dozen administrative employees and reduced spending in areas such as printing and travel costs.

In that same year, the University also changed the timing of its faculty performance review and merit increase process from the beginning of the fiscal year to the beginning of the calendar year and raised tuition by 3.9 percent.

“Drexel is a tuition-dependent institution, and it makes more sense to base the merit increase pool on actual fall enrollment rather than early projections made in the spring,” Helen Bowman, executive vice president, treasurer, and chief financial officer of Drexel, wrote in an April 2015 financial update.

Deike acknowledged that Drexel is tuition-driven and smaller freshman class sizes will affect short-term budgets, but he also emphasized the importance of strategic long-term investments and the impact those investments will have on students.

“A smaller freshman class, of course, that will have some implication on budgets, but not necessarily on the long-term plan,” Deike explained.

“Growing the university in ways that contribute to the experience that students have is an incredibly important strategic investment — things like classrooms and lab space. Those investments are really important, and that’s a big part of the master plan. It’s ‘how do we enhance the experience that students have through the bricks and mortar that we have here’,” he continued.

With a six-year graduation rate of 68 percent — well below its goal of 80 percent — and a yield rate of 11 percent compared to the national average of 36 percent — Drexel has yet to see a rise in some statistics. However, the one-year retention rate has seen a significant increase, showing progress from the new initiatives.

Charlotte Observer: Diedra Laird

On Nov. 8, 2016, Donald Trump was elected president of the United States.

Trump won the presidency, 290 electoral votes compared to Hillary Clinton’s 228, and Pennsylvania, which Clinton was projected to win, went to Trump by an estimated 68,000 votes. This marks the first time a Republican candidate has won Pennsylvania in the last six presidential elections.

Pennsylvania was not the only traditionally blue state that Trump was able to flip. He won Wisconsin, Iowa and likely Michigan — all of which the Democratic Party has solidly held for the last two decades.

The outcome of the Congressional elections mirrored that of the presidential election. The Republican party retained control of the House and the Senate, and Pat Toomey, the incumbent senator from Pennsylvania, retained his seat over Democratic challenger Katie McGinty.

With Republican control of Congress, the White House and likely the Supreme Court, many people foresee swift changes to current U.S. policies — both foreign and domestic.

Paul Ryan, speaker of the House, held a press conference following Trump’s victory. He spoke about the GOP’s plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act in the future.

“This Congress, this House majority, this Senate majority has already demonstrated and proven we’re able to pass [the repeal] and put it on the president’s desk. Problem is, President Obama vetoed it,” Ryan said. “Now we have a President Trump who has promised to fix this,” he continued.

The Iran Nuclear Deal, Planned Parenthood funding and the Paris Agreement on climate change are all in danger of disruption.

Following the election,there have been nationwide protests of the president-elect in major cities including Philadelphia, New York and Boston.

John A. Fry, president of Drexel University, sent students an email addressing the election result and the student reaction to it.

Fry wrote: “The best response to an uncertain and at times deeply troubling world is to remain true to our values as an academic community. In the context of a presidential election, it is vital that we understand and respect that members of our broadly diverse campus can hold similarly diverse political views. The expression of these views is a fundamental element of the free exchange of ideas and intellectual inquiry that makes Drexel such a vibrant institution.”

Drexel students had a variety of reactions to the election outcome, some rejoicing Trump’s election and some lamenting the changes they foresee.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the opening of the Raymond G. Perelman Center for Jewish Life Oct. 26 on 34th and Cherry Streets.

The new center will include offices for Drexel Hillel, but it will also hold Jewish education programs and social events. A six million dollar gift from Raymond Perelman made the new center a possibility.

The ceremony was attended by Perelman, Hillel student president Max Kahn and Hillel executive director Rabbi Isabel de Koninck.

“Although it took many hands to make this transformative project possible, we wouldn’t be here without the awe-inspiring generosity of Ray Perelman. The enormous good that Ray has done for people and communities, organizations across our region is an example to us all. He has changed the landscape of Philadelphia and has changed our landscape at Drexel,” John A. Fry, president of Drexel University, said.

The center will serve a population of over 1000 undergraduate students who are in Hillel. Hillel is a group that holds events for students celebrating Jewish holidays, develops social action projects, and provides internship opportunities for students.

“Our commitment to celebrating all mode of Jewish expression, practice and identity, allows us to then connect our students with the Jewish opportunities, teachings and communities that meet each student’s diverse needs and goals,” the Hillel website reads.

More information on Drexel Hillel or the Center for Jewish Life is available at http://drexelhillel.org/.