Heard Around Campus – July

Even with the heat waves and scorching temperatures, a lot has been accomplished and changed at Drexel over the past month. Take a look at what’s been heard around campus (hopefully, with an iced drink on your desk) and catch up on all the happenings at Drexel.

Drexel Areas of Research Excellence (DARE) and Market-Driven Academic Program Ventures (MPV) Awardees

The DARE initiative provides resources to enable proposers and teams to start an interdisciplinary research signature that spans at least three schools and colleges. The MPV initiative aims to function akin to venture capital funding. Innovative Drexel academic master’s degree programs proposals will receive resources for support for a formal market study and upon analysis and approval, release time for the first year of instruction, partial support for directing the new programs and discretionary funds to foster and advance partnerships when applicable.

Back in December, the Office of the Provost announced these two scholarly initiatives in a call for submissions. An overwhelming 41 DARE proposals and 25 MPV proposals were submitted in early April and were closely evaluated by a team led by Senor Vice Provost for Research Aleister Saunders, PhD, and Executive Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate College James Herbert, PhD.

In early July, Provost M. Brian Blake announced the five DARE and five MPV winners. These ideas and proposals, created by faculty and professional staff, aim to support Drexel’s strategic plan and promote Drexel’s reputation for innovation and creativity.

Each of the DAREs will receive at least $250,000 in support from various sources. The MPVs will receive various levels of support from direct marketing support to up to $150,000. Two additional MPVs will receive direct marketing support.*

The winners are:

DARE Awardees:
•    Biologically-Inspired and Resource-Conserving Advanced Materials (BRAVE)
•    Experiential Learning through the Cooperative Education Lifecycle (ExCEL)
•    Gaming, Simulation & Society
•    Integrated Design Research and Engineering for Advanced Manufacturing (iDREAM)
•    NeuroInflammation & Gender

MPV Awardees:
•    MFA in Creative Writing
•    MA/MS in Global Health
•    MS/Certificate in Peace Engineering
•    MS in Transdisciplinary Science, Computing, Engineering, and Design (TranSCEND)
•    MS/Certificate in Urban Strategy
•    *Directed Marketing and Seed Support to: Bioinformatics (Interdisciplinary Team) and Doctor of Business Administration

Introducing World Travel, Drexel's New Travel Management Company

Drexel recently announced that starting July 1, it would use World Travel, Inc., one of America’s largest travel management companies, as the new travel agency for faculty and professional staff business travelers. The Office of Procurement Services’ Managed Travel Advisory Committee, comprising representatives of Procurement Services, faculty members and professional staff, selected World Travel after an extensive review.

World Travel has over three decades of travel management experience with mid-market companies. In addition to a designated phone line to agents (toll free 855.809.8166 or local 484.359.1974), World Travel will provide through DrexelOne its online booking tool, Concur, which is considered the most comprehensive and innovative online booking tool available for corporate travelers. World Travel charges no online booking fees for domestic or international travel and no agent fees for international travel.

Below are just a few of the features from World Travel that will improve your travel experience:

• Same day + 24 hours to void non-refundable tickets
• Travel advisors who provide travelers with updates on travel alerts and emergency information, as well as electronic itineraries and e-ticket receipts
• 24/7/365 Quality Control system that continually reviews reservations, searching for lower fares, better seat assignments, upgrades and many other services
• Overall lower cost for booking, both online and agent assisted

Summer Construction Updates

Current projects:

1427 Vine Street: Construction is in progress for the complete renovation of the fifth floor to accommodate the internal relocation of the College of Medicine’s Women’s Care Center from the seventh floor. The target for substantial completion is August 2016.

3101 Market Street: The 3101 Market Street renovation for the relocation of engineering laboratories and electrical and computer engineering laboratories from the third floor of Bossone Research Enterprise Center is underway, as is the expansion of the College of Engineering’s research capacities. Designs have been completed for offices for the A.J. Drexel Institute for Energy and the Environment, a social sciences lab and a geographic information systems lab. Construction is underway.

Bossone Research Enterprise Center Renovations: Fifth floor laboratories with new chemical fume hoods are complete, so researchers in materials science are in the process of setting up experiments. Demolition is complete and construction is underway for repurposing the sixth floor for biomedical engineering and adding chemical fume hoods to the fifth floor.

Center for Automation Technology (CAT): Infrastructure improvements needed to support new wet research laboratories for the Department of Chemistry, as well as the environmental engineering component of the Institute for Energy and the Environment laboratories, are in progress. Construction documents are completed and construction will take place in multiple phases over three fiscal years. Phase 1 — the basement demolition and construction of the floor with associated infrastructure — began in early June. Substantial completion is expected in December.

Daskalakis Athletic Center (DAC) Renovations: Construction is underway for Phases 5 and 6. Phase 5 renovations on the basketball court level involve adding new bathrooms, offices, ticket booth, conference room, storage rooms and audio/visual room for TV. Phase 6 is the installation of a new air conditioning system for the arena; the air-handling units and chillers have been ordered. Substantial completion is scheduled for late September.

Fox Historic Costume Collection (URBN Center): The expansion of the Fox Historic Costume Collection is currently in the programming phase; Atkin Olshin Schade is the architect for this project, made possible by a generous gift from Penny and Robert Fox.

Korman Center/Korman Quad Enhancements: Gluckman Tang is the architect for an addition to the existing Korman Center building that will add much needed student common space. Gluckman Tang will update the building’s appearance to align more closely with the quality of the newer buildings on the Quad. Renovations to the Quad, to be named the “Korman Quadrangle,” will integrate it with the existing Perelman Plaza. The project, funded by a generous $8 million gift from the Hyman Korman Family Foundation with a University match, is expected to be complete in fall 2017. Groundbreaking took place in June, move coordination is near completion and construction of the enabling phases starts in late July.

Paul Peck Problem Solving and Research Building (PPSRB) Renovation: Design is in progress for renovations to the ground and third floors of PPSRB. The ground floor renovation will create the new home for the James E. Marks Intercultural Center, as well as offices for the Office of Equality and Diversity, the Student Center for Inclusion and Culture and the LGBTQA Student Center. The renovation of the third floor will create spaces for the consolidation of the Center for Hospitality and Sport Management and University Partnerships. Also included are code-required building-wide fire/life safety upgrades.

Public Realm Plan: Urban design and landscape architecture firm West 8 is completing the overview of a Public Realm Plan for the University. Goals for the plan include making the campus more positively urban and people-friendly as well as providing a framework for future development that facilitates connections to the city, adjacent neighborhoods and various campus precincts. Phase 2 of the plan has begun, with completion expected in September. An open house to solicit feedback from the University community was held in May; the design team is working to incorporate feedback.

Queen Lane Campus — A Wing, First Floor Classroom: Construction began in early May on a new 132-student Team-based Learning Center, which will allow the entire medical class to experience course content at the same time with multiple instructors. Construction is scheduled to be complete by early August.

Raymond G. Perelman Center for Jewish Life: Construction is in progress. Substantial completion is expected in September.

Stein Auditorium Renovation (Nesbitt Hall): Renovations began in June 2016 to make the auditorium fully ADA-accessible with the addition of a ramp to access the stage, new auditorium seating with larger tablet arms and other cosmetic upgrades including lighting.

Thomas R. Kline Institute for Trial Advocacy at the Kline School of Law: The renovation of 1200 Chestnut St. for the Thomas R. Kline Institute for Trial Advocacy is in progress, with substantial completion targeted for the end of 2016.

Third-Party Project Updates

Childcare Mixed-Use/Residential Development (Radnor Property Group): Radnor Property Group has broken ground on the development of Vue32, its new 16-story mixed-use residential and childcare development at 3201 Race St. Nobel Learning Communities will be the operator of the 180-person preschool facility. The childcare/residential tower will total 176,000 square feet. The project also entails the development of 12 owner-occupied townhomes totaling 13,200 square feet. Radnor Property Group is developing the project under a ground lease agreement with Drexel (similar to the third-party developments by American Campus Communities), at no cost to the University.

The Study Hotel at University City (Hospitality 3): Construction is in progress at 33rd and Chestnut streets for Hospitality 3’s 212-room boutique hotel. The hotel is on schedule to open in late fall.

University City High School Site (Drexel-Wexford Science & Technology Joint Venture): Temporary parking lots have been installed along 38th Street. Infrastructure work began in January.

Visit the Drexel Master Plan blog for additional project updates and images from Vice President for University Facilities and Real Estate Bob Francis.