Finding a Place To Live in Philadelphia

Many of you will be moving to the Philadelphia area and thus looking for a place to live.  I last had to move thirty years ago so I hope that others will add to what I put down here.  I'll focus here on what I think I've learned by living here a long time.

There are many general resources on the process of  moving available such as those that show up in this Google Search.  One that looked pretty useful to me was this About.com piece on planning and preparing.  Another pretty good site for those planning to buy a home is Trulia - it includes school information and demographics

Where Current Faculty Live

It may help you to know where current Drexel Faculty live.  This Google Mashup shows their location by zip code.

Area Descriptions

Here is my take on the general locations people live with some characteristics.  Note that I've  necessarily left out a number of areas without any intention of slight.

Location	Comment
"Center City"	The urban heart of Philadelphia, where Drexel's health programs are located.  Drexel's main campus is just over the Schuylkill river to the West.  It tends to be more expensive. WP Areas just north and south of Center City are also popular: Art Museum; Old City; Queen Village.
West Philadelphia	Drexel and Penn are both on the eastern edge of West Philadelphia.  Powleton Village is a residential area to the NW of Drexel. The residential area to the west of Penn & Drexel is usually known as University City.
Northwest Philadelphia	Northwest Philadelphia isn't a common term.  Usually you hear the neighborhoods:   Chestnut Hill tends to have larger houses and be more expensive.  Germantown & Mount Airy tend to have smaller, less expensive houses.
Main Line	The "Main Line" follows the old Pennsylvania railroad's main tracks to the Northwest and also Route 30.  It has many communities (and colleges) along it.  The general reputation is for larger and more expensive houses. WP
Western Suburbs	Houses here are often more modest and less expensive than in some of the previous areas. Areas include:  Upper Darby; Havertown; Lansdowne; Springfield; Swarthmore and many more.
New Jersey	Quite a few faculty live across the Delaware close to Philadelphia.  Towns include:  Cherry Hill; Collingswood, Haddonfield and many more.

Note:  WP = wikipedia - a number of other links are to wikipedia too.

Jim Mitchell

One/five years later – A Language Teacher’s Reflections on Students and Teaching

I’ve been teaching at Drexel as an Adjunct for 5 past years at the same time working as an administrator, but only last September I joined the force of the full time faculty. I’m new to ONLY teaching, but not totally new to the teaching itself.

As I come from different university system ( Poland), it was hard at first to remember that the subject that I teach ( Spanish) is not the most important here ( isn’t it?) and the only subject that the students need to focus on and dedicate to.  Students are required to take certain classes, but it does not mean that they need to shine in all of them. 

Although it would be a dream if all  students liked our subjects and were good in them, the reality is that they don’t have time for everything. Have an interest in asking your students what their major is and figure out, before you stress out too much about the students’ progress in your subject, if your subject is relevant for their future career.

I love Spanish and foreign languages in general and in my personal opinion, they should always be important, but the truth is that students have different learning potential  and we should let them choose how much they want to learn. I always encourage  and guide my students when they share with me their doubts, but I finally learned that nobody can be the best in all the subjects and still , having an A, does not mean that you are the best expert. 

No matter how much information your students decide to digest, you should always be prepared to give them your best.

Joanna Lyskowicz

New Faculty Information Website

For the last few years I've updated a site that brings together what I believe is useful information for new faculty.  It's not an official site, nor does it attempt to be exhaustive, just helpful.

Site Contents

Below I've reproduced most of the site's home page with the comments describing  what's in each section.

Drexel Organization

Facts about Drexel's organization of particular importance to Faculty

  Students 

Things that make Drexel undergraduate students unique

  Facilities

Key buildings and offices.

  Online Resources

Some sites at Drexel and beyond that may be useful

  Helpful People

Suggestions of People who may help you - not individual names, but by function

  Grading & Course Administration

I've given it a section of its own because getting it right is critical

  Key Dates

Dates for which you want to plan.

 

Jim Mitchell - Editor

Living in the PA suburbs

I have lived northwest of the city, in Upper Dublin township, for the past 12 years and love it. The schools are excellent, the township services are efficient and friendly, and there is an international mix of cultures. I loved the city (lived in the Roxborough neighborhood for 10 years) but wanted out once my children entered school. We are still close enough to get to the city for cultural events, restaurants, and parades.

Commuting

My commute is on regional rail, the R5 Landsdale line, which is approximately 40 minutes to Philadelphia. There are some express trains which make local stops to Fort Washington then travel non-stop to Market East, which then takes only 30 minutes. The new rule of the quiet car (no talking on the first train car) makes for a relaxing ride home after lecturing. Train travel should be looked into under Drexel HR benefits as it is worth checking into for the ease and cost. The center city stations are convenient to main campus and the center city campus.

Character of Suburbs

The PA suburbs each have their own community culture. There are well established areas like Glenside which have old homes, walk-able streets, and restaurants. There are also newly built homes on tracts of land which require one to drive everywhere with the advantage that stores are convenient and the construction is new. Several schools are expanding and rebuilding to accommodate the increased number of new families or are updating their facilities to have better auditoriums, labs, and other facilities. Taxes cover these expenses and can take a slice of your home budget. There are fun things to do, camps for the kids, pumpkin farms, outdoor music concerts.

Living near a SEPTA train station makes living out of the city an enjoyable experience for the whole family.

Jeannine Uribe

uribe@drexel.edu

Computing Resources At Drexel

Drexel quite reasonably calls itself a “Technological University”.  We have a good history of technology firsts.  In particular we were the first to:

• Require access to a microcomputer (the first Mac)
• Provide wireless access campus-wide

Today most departments and colleges have their own computing resources.  At the university level there is a rich computing environment with many resources, quite a few of which are not as well known to faculty as I would hope.  Our computing center (IRT) has fine staff, a help site and a facility devoted to assisting faculty.  There are many online services such as Vista Blackboard (the software underlying this online community) and an online portfolio that can help you keep track of your products and achievements.  IRT is also open to experimentation with new software and services, although that takes more initiative on your part.

Drexel Site Licensed Software

One resources that may be particularly useful to new faculty is the downloadable site-licensed software.  Drexel has licensed a much software that you can get for “free” on the understanding that you use it within the university’s licensing agreements.  There is software for both PC’s, Macs and Unix.  Some of the software available includes:

• Microsoft Office
• Adobe Acrobat
• Syantec AntiVirus (and other security programs)
• MatLab & Maple
• Microsoft Visual Studio
• Discipline-specific software

There’s even more software that isn’t on the  list such as many Autodesk products (ask at IRT), and IRT is very open to licensing new software if there’s sufficient appeal (and funds in their budget).  The university has a Computer Advisory Council as well that advises IRT on policies – your input would be welcome (though I couldn’t find a web presence).

For much of the software there’s support and training available through IRT.  It’s a great set of resources.

Jim Mitchell

Our Goals for the Online Community

In the period before joining Drexel physically you're probably interested in the many aspects of life here:

• What's important about starting to teach at Drexel?
• What's life in Philadelphia like? Where do people live, shop, play?
• What's it like getting started in the academic community: research, committees, tenure, etc.?

We hope to help you get started at Drexel before you actually arrive on campus. To do that we've set up an "online community" using VistaBB, the same tool that you'll probably use for some of your classes, but in a different manner than it's often used. Our goal here is to generate questions and discussions so that you can get answers to your specific questions and get to know many of the other new faculty members before you actually meet them at the New Faculty Workshop in September.

The main elements of this online community are:

• Discussion area - where you can ask questions of your colleagues (experienced and new to Drexel) - and you can give you own opinions, suggestions, experience.
  
• Posts - a series of brief pieces (this is the first) by faculty that will both provide information and provoke discussions.
• Resources - links that should be helpful to you - you can add your own.

One thing you might want to do soon is look through the descriptions that community members have posted about themselves in the Introduce Yourself to the Community discussion area, and then add your own post.

Jim Mitchell - Editor