February 2008

The Triangle ran an editorial today about other universities cutting costs for lower-income students and that Drexel should follow suit, RATHER than following their Master Plan. I disagree.

According to the editorial: “In 10 years, Drexel may have state-of-the-art buildings, a beautiful campus and high rankings in The Princeton Review. But its reputation will surely suffer if high-quality students are attending other academically comparable schools because the bill is 50 percent less.”

I think that Drexel, being 108th in the country and rising, needs to continue to focus on the kind of improvements in the Master Plan before it can do what these other schools are doing. If Drexel were to back off on the Master Plan and put a significant amount of money towards this, that would tell me that they are happy with being only 108th.

I also believe it’s much easier for these other universities to give free rides to lower income students because they simply accept LESS of them. Here is an excerpt from an article on Drexel.edu:

“Of (Drexel) undergraduates who applied for financial aid last year, 2,412 are from families earning less than $60,000 annually, 2,406 from families earning $60,000 to $109,000 and 2,473 from families earning more than $109,000. About $108 million in financial aid was provided to 70 percent of undergraduates in the current academic year. The federally based Pell Grant supported 2,024 of Drexel’s neediest students, about four times as many as Harvard, Yale and Lehigh and about twice as many as Penn.”

Drexel has about 2,000 students who need Pell Grants to about 500 for Harvard and Yale. It is much easier to pay tuition for 500 students than it is for 2,000. Drexel was founded on giving lower income families a chance to learn skills. Numbers like these make me believe that Drexel still has that mission in its acceptance process. However, that mission, and also the fact that Drexel is NOT content with 108th, are both great things, but make it hard for them to give similar tuition credits as these other universities do, at least right now.

Source: 2/29/2008 Triangle Edboard, Drexel.edu Applications Article
Photo courtesy of mbbc.edu

The Drexel Men’s Lacrosse is ranked 15th in the nation and are 2-1 on the season so far. In its first game of the year they faced also-ranked Virginia and lost, but since then they have beaten University of Pennsylvania and now Lehigh.

The scoring is led by Andrew Chapman (5 goals), Chris O’Connor (4), Adam Dennis (4), and Colin Ambler (4) through three games.

Our 15th ranked team needs our support at Vidas field! If I am reading their statistics from Drexeldragons.com correctly, they had a capacity crowd against ranked Virginia (2500 people), but then against Lehigh they only had 125 people!

Their next game is away in Binghampton on Saturday, March 1st. They will be home again against St. John’s in two Saturdays, March 8th.

Source: Drexel Dragons Article
Image courtesy of Drexel Dragons

Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania are talking to the Philadelphia School District about operating two small high schools in University City. This would be the first time the Philadelphia School District did something like this at the high school level.

UPenn’s school would focus on international studies and Drexel’s on engineering and technology and both would serve the University City High School area and eventually be housed in same building where it is now after it is renovated.

The schools could open as soon as September 2009 if it happens. The universities would donate money to the school, whether it be a cost-per-pupil or other resources. Both universities also want to have their colleges of education intern at these new schools.

Full Article: Drexel, Penn want to operate high schools in Philadelphia
Photo courtesy of http://partners.upenn.edu/wp/k12/uchs/

Last week the RIAA sent out 401 pre-litigation letters to different colleges, including 33 at Drexel University, in a new wave of lawsuits to attack illegally downloading files.

Cara Duckworth, Director of Communications, RIAA: “The future of music is brimming with innovation,” said Duckworth. “For those who choose to ignore all the content-rich alternatives and get music the wrong way, they run the risk of legal action, potential disciplinary enforcement from a university and crippling both their computer and the university network.”

Source: RIAA: Filesharing growth has “stabilized”
Photo courtesy of portfolio.com

Drexel University College of Law students are helping high school students at the West Philadelphia High School start a newspaper. Students from the Pro Bono Program at Drexel Law are learning about constitution laws such as free speech and passing this knowledge on to high schoolers who want to be journalists. It is expected to be a long term relationship.

Source: KYW Article
Photo courtesy of KYW

Drexel, in an effort to recruit students from the Sacramento-area (including Placer County) and to create “ambassadors” for the school, have established a $1 million scholarship fund for students from that area interested in attending Drexel in Philadelphia.

The scholarship will be $10,000 a year per student and renewable if certain requirements are met. According to Joan McDonald, the scholarships are being offered as an attempt to show “Drexel’s strong interest in serving the students and families of Sacramento and Placer counties” and for these students to “become our ambassadors, returning to the Sacramento area and spreading the word about the excellence of a Drexel education.”

Source: Drexel Press Release
Image courtesy of danielfranklingomez.com

The Inquirer has reported that the Inquirer Building has been purchased by Patriot Equities LP of Wayne, or at least has promised to, but the deal has not been finalized yet.

Drexel had been cited in the Triangle this past month as being interested in buying the building to add to the Center City campus, as it is located very close to the hospital.

Source: Developer buys Inquirer Building
Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Will Do

An article on Drexel.edu titled “Drexel University Freshman Applications Increase a Record 27 Percent over Last Year” reports that 24,186 students have applied for only 2,500 spots at the university.

The university has settled on 2,500 as the number for incoming freshman, and Joan McDonald implies that the university is now focusing on quality, not quantity. The article mentions that the 2007 incoming class had 2,368 students from 1,321 high schools and had an average G.P.A. of 3.5 and average SAT of 1200, and they want to continue raising those averages.

The article also discussed the school’s continued devotion, started by Anthony J. Drexel, to teach skills to the middle class and lower income brackets, with 2,024 students this year using Pell Grants, four times as many as Harvard, Yale, and Lehigh, and twice as many as University of Pennsylvania.

Drexel is getting away from being a regional school and slowly becoming a national school, according to the article. Ten years ago, only 5% of Drexel students were from areas besides PA, NJ, and DE, In 2007, that number was up to 30%, included 48 states and 46 countries.

You can read the full article here: Applications up 27 Percent
Photo courtesy of Google Images

The Triangle and the Philadelphia Inquirer have reported that a man was shot at 35th and Haverford Avenue on Thursday morning. Here is the Inquirer blurb:

“At 1:15 a.m., Ronald Saunders, 20, of the 500 block of North 35th Street in West Philadelphia, was shot in the neck while outside his home. Police said he was pronounced dead at the scene. There was no arrest or motive.”

35th Street between Spring Garden Street and Haverford Avenue is a mostly student block, however, the article implies that Ronald did live on the same block, and there is a bar called the Easy Corner right where the police tape and memorial with teddy bears and flowers was set up.

It has been a long debate since I have been at Drexel about what the university’s responsibility is to protect its students living off campus. The current “Crime Reporting Boundary”, which can be seen on a map on DPS’s website, does not include much north of Baring Street, other than Drexel’s garage on Spring Garden Street. However, in their crime they do report everything that is called into them, regardless of its location. The DPS patrol zone does extend to Spring Garden Street, and DPS rents Philadelphia Police to patrol the campus only at night.

Sources: City Briefs, Five in Phila slain in a Night, DPS
Photo courtesy of Google Streetview

The Drexel Planning, Design, and Construction organization have posted a new and updated compilation of renderings in the 2007-2012 Drexel University Master Plan.

The PDF contains rendering for 11 new projects, including the three slated to begin this year, the expansion of the Daskalakis Athletic Center, the 34th Street dormitory, and the integrated sciences building.

The DAC expansion shows that there will be a large portion added on the south side, bringing the DAC right to Market Street. The integrated sciences building is quoted as replacing Stratton Hall. The 34th Street dormitory shows that there will be a one story street presence which will contain a health center and other retail, and will take the place of the Kelly parking lot.

The PDF also shows a rendering for the Natrona Street residence, slated to take the place of the Language Center and the accompanying parking lot, the seven-story building slated to take the place of Matheson Hall (and it looks like they enclose the A.J. Drexel statue in glass), the expansion to the Academic Building, replacing the space taken by Drexel Pizza and a parking lot, retail expansion along the front of Creese and MacAlister, showing a glass walkway, the renovation of the armory, a west wing to the Rush Building, a new parking garage where a current parking lot is next to the Hess Building (to replace all of the surface lots which are being built on), and a proposed hotel and conference center.

2007-2012 Master Plan PDF
Photo from the Master Plan