Christina O’Neill is the newest addition to the College of Arts and Sciences, and as the head of communications she plans on making some big changes in the college’s image. While new to CoAS, Christina has worked with the LeBow College of Business and the College of Engineering in the past. The New York University Graduate recently sat down with ASK and explained her position within the College.
: How long have you been here at Drexel?
CO: I started here at CoAS September 18th, but I’ve been here at Drexel about a year and a half now. Prior to coming here I worked at the LeBow College of Business with undergraduate advising. I basically helped to advise students with their majors and minors and helped run reports for the dean on recruitment and retention. Even before that I was an outreach communications coordinator for the College of Engineering. I did outreach for their engineering management program, an MBA for engineers. I was there for a year.
: What is your position now?
CO: It seems pretty big, really big. Basically my role is brand new. I’m creating this position; the College of Arts and Sciences never really had a communications department. They don’t have an events department, or anything. My role in a nutshell is to help in positioning the College, making it more visible on campus and throughout Philadelphia. Up until recently the College has been viewed as more of a service college, where they service LeBow and the College of Engineering, and where students come here to take their requirements. But a lot of people don’t realize that CoAS has its own majors like Communications or Psychology.
: What are your goals for the College?
CO: My immediate goal is to get events like the Dean’s Seminar Series and Dinner and Discussion at Drexel underway so people realize [CoAS] has these awesome programs.
Beyond that, I want to increase the applicants and the yield. A lot of the students who apply here seem to go elsewhere and we want to keep them here. Another thing I kind of hope to change that I noticed while I was talking with the department heads and some of the faculty is that students have had trouble finding paid co-ops. And that’s kind of a turn-off for students. I’m hoping to contact people throughout Philadelphia and convince some organizations we have excellent students over here, and you can really get more out of them if you pay them!
Today, none of our events are promoted. For instance, Chemistry only promotes within their department. They don’t promote within the College or the University. We don’t know what’s going on in our own departments. And I’m going to try and change that. We can’t get lost in the shuffle here. We need to stand out and we need to get more visible on campus and that’s how we’re going to start doing it: by showing people, “Hey! We do stuff!”
: Do you have any ideas of how you want to go about making these changes?
CO: It’s difficult to say. The way that we’re doing it now is that we’re trying to create a brand and by doing that we’re coming up with marketing efforts. Things are happening; things are going to change soon. I just don’t want to give away too much.
: What roles can students and professors play in building the College?
CO: We’re going to be talking with students and seeing what their thoughts are about what the College needs in regards to building a better community within the College of Arts and Sciences and within Drexel.
The professors here in History and Politics, and Physics, and English and Philosophy, and all of our departments do a lot of interesting work. When I sat and met with them initially and they were telling me about themselves and what they do, they just seemed so fascinating. Like the History and Politics [professors] were telling me about some of the tours they do throughout Philadelphia, history and walking tours. Another professor gives tours of New York City. I asked them why they didn’t advertise this throughout the University and they said, “Well, we just like to talk with our own students.” It’s a shame that they’re so shy.
I said to them, “You know what? You have me now. I’m going to be your voice. You don’t have to be shy around me. I’m going to be your promoter!”
Chris Bertone is a pre-junior majoring in Communications with minors in Business Administration and International Area Studies. He is interested in global journalism.