Happy Birthday, A.J.
In the fall, Drexel celebrated the 189th anniversary of Anthony J. Drexel’s birth.
To commemorate the University’s founder, the University invited 700 of the newest Dragons — freshmen moving into their campus accommodations during Welcome Week — to celebrate in the September sunshine.
Students donned blue-and-gold mustaches to bear a closer resemblance to the mustachioed birthday boy, took part in a scavenger hunt, and enjoyed Little Baby’s Ice Cream out on Perelman Plaza.
Counting Carbon Emissions
The A.J. Drexel Institute for Energy and the Environment recently prepared a 97-page report that plots a detailed course for how the City of Philadelphia can drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050. The report named building energy use and emissions from cars, trucks and buses as the top two sources of greenhouse gas emissions, with building energy use accounting for 60 percent of Philadelphia’s carbon footprint, and emissions resulting in 19 percent. The top three areas where the largest greenhouse gas reductions could be made, according to the report, were energy use in buildings, electricity generation and transportation. 
Cities around the world are making commitments to limit greenhouse gas emissions to align themselves with a United Nations call for developed nations to make 80 percent reductions from 1990 levels by 2050. As Philadelphia is preparing to set a new carbon reduction goal of its own in 2016, the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability tapped experts from Drexel to better understand the feasibility of adopting this target.
Hey DJ, Turn It Up!
In just its second year back after a seven-year hiatus, the WKDU Electronic Music Marathon dialed it up to 11 to raise money last fall.
The marathon ran through an entire weekend in early October — 78 total hours of continuous music, from more than 70 of Philly’s premier electronic music DJs.
“Normally, the tradition has been 75 hours but the demand was so high this year that we had to stretch it out,” says Chris Burrell, electronic music director of Drexel’s student-run radio station, WKDU 91.7 FM.
WKDU’s marathon raised approximately $4,000 to pay for general operating costs and improvements, as well as for professional DJ equipment. WKDU also used some of the funds to make a sizable donation to the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.
[box type=”shadow”] And something for sports fans, too: Tune into WKDU for this season’s men’s basketball games, broadcast by special arrangement with Drexel Athletics.[/box]
The timing was better than perfect. A week after the marathon, Mural Arts unveiled a mural at 13th and Chestnut streets led by famous artist Shepard Fairey (the man behind the Obama “HOPE” art, among many other pieces) paying homage to Philly’s rich legacy of DJs.
The station is gradually uploading all of the audio from the marathon onto its SoundCloud account at soundcloud.com/wkdu.
Cuba Through a Film Lens
In December, a small class of film students from Drexel had an opportunity to study in Cuba that would have been impossible just a decade ago.
The Escuela International de Cine y Television (EICTV), Cuba’s iconic film school (which counts Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez among its noted founders), offered a two-week documentary filmmaking course in Havana to Drexel students.
The Cuba Documentary Workshop had been in the works for more than nine months, but got the final push it needed when President Barack Obama announced a re-establishment of diplomatic ties to Cuba over the summer, ending five decades of sanctions.
The Obama Administration had previously loosened restrictions on educational travel to Cuba in 2011, which allowed colleges and universities to offer for-credit study abroad courses in the country.
“We’d realized that it was just a matter of time before full international relations were restored with Cuba and more formal educational partnerships were formed,” says Julie Mostov, vice provost for global initiatives. “The fact that EICTV chose Drexel as one of its American educational partners is truly an honor.”
The World Underfoot
Eighteenth-century land surveyor William Smith was a rock star — quite literally.
Smith’s 1815 map of England, Wales and part of Scotland was the world’s first nationwide geological map, and it helped develop stratigraphy and biostratigraphy as we know it today. Less than 200 copies of this seminal work exist today and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University owns one of them.
The map is kept in the Academy’s archives and rarely put on public view, except briefly this fall when it was brought out for display in honor of its 200th birthday.
In 1817, American geologist William Maclure (and later president of the Academy of Natural Sciences) recognized the importance of Smith’s map and purchased a copy for the Academy. It hasn’t been pulled from storage for more than 30 years (its last showing was during a special “treasures of the Academy” exhibit).
Smith’s expertise came from years as a land surveyor and canal builder, mapping coal formations and assessing values for landowners, says Ted Daeschler, who is associate curator of vertebrate biology and vice president for systematic biology and the library at the Academy.
“Maps like these are the foundation for doing earth science,” Daeschler explains. “To be able to express on a map the geology underfoot in a sensible and usable way was a huge step. Smith deserves credit as the guy who first got it right.”
Developer Named for Long-Awaited Innovation District
It has long been part of the University’s strategic plan to develop 14 acres of land between Drexel’s main campus and Amtrak’s 30th Street Station into a regional hub for innovation and a new gateway to University City.
On March 2, Drexel took a major step toward fulfilling its goals with the announcement of an historic partnership with Philadelphia-based Brandywine Realty Trust, which was named the master developer for the ambitious project.
Over the next 15 to 20 years, Brandywine will construct 5 million gross square feet of mixed-use real estate on the site consisting of entrepreneurial spaces, cultural spaces, educational facilities and research laboratories, corporate offices, residences, hospitality and retail and public green space. The project could add 25,000 jobs and millions in tax revenue.
“Drexel’s leadership has always believed there’s a higher use for this unique location — the 50-yard-line of the East Coast — as a neighborhood built around collaboration and innovation,” says President John A. Fry. “That’s why the University assembled these parcels, and the time is right to put this transformative vision into action.”
Drexel Revokes Cosby Honorary Degree
In November, President John A. Fry and the University’s Board of Trustees made the decision to revoke an honorary degree bestowed upon actor/comedian Bill Cosby in 1992.
In a message to the University community, Fry wrote, “The misconduct by Bill Cosby that came to light through his sworn deposition testimony stands in clear opposition to Drexel’s values… Universities are critical arenas in the movement to recognize and address sexual violence and misconduct as a societal problem. Drexel takes that responsibility very seriously.”