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TUGSA picketers listen to speakers at a rally on Feb.9 at the Bell Tower.
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Accuracy is our business, so when a mistake is made, we’ll correct it as soon as possible. Anyone with inquiries about content in this newspaper can contact Editor-in-Chief Lawrence Ukenye at editor@temple-news.com.
The union is challenging Temple’s decision to cut benefits for striking graduate students.
BY OLIVER SABO News Staff WriterTemple University Graduate Students’ Association plans to file an unfair labor practice complaint following the university’s notification last week that striking members would not be receiving tuition remission for the spring semester.
On Feb. 8, TUGSA members on strike reported that their health insurance plans were deactivated immediately without warning from the university, with some learning they were uninsured while at pharmacies or doctor’s offices.
“We’re talking to our lawyer about all of our options, but we are seeking a challenge to what we believe is retaliation for going on strike,” said Bethany Kosmicki, a research assistant in the sociology department and a former TUGSA president who is on the contract negotiations team.
The union is still exploring its plan to submit the complaint through the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, and deciding whether the complaint applies to taking away tuition remission, healthcare or both, Kosmicki wrote.
Employers in Pennsylvania are legally allowed to pay striking workers, but ultimately can decide whether to cut benefits, according to Pennsylvania’s Public Employee Relations Act.
Morale within the union is high, and they’ve received immense support in light of the administration’s recent actions, Kosmicki said.
The university notified striking members twice that failure to report to work would result in the loss of their full compensation package, which includes work-related benefits and tuition remission, wrote Stephen Orbanek, a university spokesperson, in an email to The Temple News.
“It is important to remember that in accordance with Pennsylvania law, those TUGSA members who have chosen not to work and are on strike are no longer entitled to compensation and work-related benefits, including tuition remis-
sion,” Orbanek wrote.
While Temple is not required to pay wages or health insurance to striking members, the university is taking a radical position by terminating health benefits at this stage of the strike, said Bill Zoda, co-executive director of Pennsylvania Association of School Nurses and Practitioners.
“In terms of, you know, looking at the strikes throughout the country, they may be the only university that has actually taken that position, especially so soon,” Zoda said.
At times, employers will decide to take benefits away after the strike has been going on for a longer period of time as a pressure tactic, Zoda said.
Last November, adjunct faculty at the New School in New York striked for more than three weeks while keeping pay and benefits, Forbes reported. The strike came to a close shortly after the university threatened to stop compensating faculty.
Temple’s decision has drawn criticism from multiple politicians, including United States Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, who introduced the Striking Work-
ers Healthcare Protection Act with Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown last year.
“The right to organize, and to strike, are foundation principles in a democracy,” Casey wrote in a statement to The Temple News. “Temple grad students are exercising that right for better pay and working conditions. This retaliation tactic by Temple is unacceptable.”
Casey and Brown’s bill was referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions last year, but it has not yet been passed.
Members who return to work can have their benefits restored immediately, and returning does not prohibit them from picketing or voicing their concerns, Orbanek wrote.
“We want the university to negotiate a fair contract with us, you know, they shouldn’t be having to participate in these kinds of union busting tactics, when they could sit down at the table with us and negotiate a fair contract,” Kosmicki said.
Andrew Lee, director of Tuttleman Counseling Services, hopes that Temple University will be able to hire more counselors at Tuttleman by Fall 2023 as part of the university’s $1 million allocation to mental health and wellness announced late last month.
Temple plans to use the $1 million, designated for Tuttleman Counseling, for hiring and retaining counselors and enhancing services at Tuttleman in addition to hiring counselors at Temple’s new Student Health and counseling center at the Health Sciences Campus, Lee said.
“Ultimately, [students] can look forward to even more support, the type of support that they’ve already received,” Lee said. “And so the hope is that this money really enhances what we’re already doing, and helps us to do more of what we think would be even more helpful.”
The HSC center renovations will hopefully be completed in April, with plans to open and be staffed by July 1, said Mark Denys, associate vice provost for health and well-being.
Denys and Lee are still determining the specifics of how to use the $1 million to improve staffing, but it could be used for salary improvements or adjustments in counseling programs or positions, Denys said.
“We do not have the final plan together,” Denys said. “It’s something that’s been in progress and we’re still working on finalizing things.”
Tuttleman Counseling currently has 19 full-time and two part-time clinical staffers, 10 graduate clinical trainees and two open clinical positions that they are looking to fill, Lee wrote in an email to The Temple News.
While Denys hopes to hire as many counselors as possible, he acknowledged
the nationwide challenges in hiring mental health professionals and the impact that could have on hiring.
In a few years, the United States will be down between 14,280 to 31,109 psychiatrists, according to an August 2022 report by the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Denys also hopes to implement a new wellness program that’s available to all employees. Currently, if an employee does not have Temple’s insurance, they are not eligible for the university’s wellness program, which allows participants to accumulate points for medical care like going to the doctor or the dentist or getting a COVID-19 vaccine.
Alongside the financial commitment, Student and Employee Health Services, the Wellness Resource Center and Tuttleman Counseling are now under a new Health and Well-being Division led by Denys.
Lee believes that the new structure
will help all three “student-facing” organizations collaborate.
“I think that is really helpful in bringing that all together so that we can really learn from each other, we can figure out if there are any greater efficiencies or ways that we can work together even more effectively,” Lee said. “And so I think being under one umbrella really helps that.”
The creation of the new division and funding is based on recommendations from the university’s Task Force on Mental Health and Wellness established by President Jason Wingard in February 2022.
Liz Zadnik, associate director at the WRC, believes the Task Force’s findings are representative of a national conversation surrounding students’ mental health.
“We’ve heard like this is a part of stigma reduction, right?” Zadnik said. “This is a part of mental health promo-
tion [that] is elevating the conversation to this level. So I hope that students take this as the university listening, right, and us being a part of this national movement to weave health and well-being into campus culture.”
Moving forward, Denys hopes to see the enhancement of programs, like workshops or non-individual counseling, as a way to reach more students in a cost-effective way.
“Whether it’s stress reduction workshops, a lot of it is things that Tuttleman Counseling already does, but it’s expanding some of what they already do, and looking at what other creative and innovative ideas and programs are out there,” Denys said. “And what can we realistically bring to campus here with the resources that we have?” fallon.roth@temple.edu
CAMPUS SAFETY
The university will direct anticipated funds toward hiring and training of personnel.
BY DEVON RUSSELL AND OLIVER SABO For TheTemple News
Despite Temple University increasing their budget to hire more police officers, the university is struggling to find qualified officers or people who want to work in the field of policing.
“We’re all fighting for the same talented and engaged individuals,” said Jennifer Griffin, vice president for public safety. “So just as we’re fighting for those applicants, so are the other universities or the other, the city agencies.”
To help with recruiting shortfalls, Campus Safety Services plans to increase funding and is currently hiring a director of personnel administration to lead recruiting efforts and a director of messaging and communication to discuss open positions on social media or in the news, Griffin said.
Campus Safety has already applied to the Local Law Enforcement Support Grant Program, a state government program which provides funding for improved recruitment efforts and equipment upgrades. Temple is also working with an outside contractor to secure federal grants in hopes of increasing funding for officer acquisition, technology, equipment and training, Griffin wrote in an email to The Temple News.
Temple’s safety funding strategy, based on a report from Temple’s Violence Reduction Task Force which listed safety recommendations for the university, includes securing additional funding to improve campus safety efforts and evaluating Campus Safety’s staffing concerns.
Specific funding recommendations in the report included financial support for a research center that evaluates violence reduction strategies and community programs. The Task Force also suggested that the university could use internal funds, pilot funding for research, external government or grant funding or the University of California’s
system, which uses a portion of workers’ compensation fees to fund violence prevention measures.
Campus Safety, which also includes dispatchers and communication workers, experiences issues with shift staffing when employees call out sick or are on family and medical leave, Griffin said.
Griffin doesn’t have a specific number for how many police officers the university wants to hire, but acknowledged the nationwide challenges with the perception of police officers and demands of the job, like time commitment, making it more difficult to hire officers, Griffin said.
Nationally, there was an approximately 3 percent decrease in officer staffing levels during 2020 and 2021, according to a national survey from the Police Executive Research Forum.
The survey concluded that these negative changes were likely caused by the stress of COVID-19 and the widespread protests and demonstrations brought on by the murder of George
Floyd in 2020. Budget issues also could have contributed to cuts in hiring, according to the survey.
Philadelphia Police Department’s staffing levels have decreased from 6,590 filled uniformed positions at the end of the 2019 fiscal year to nearly 5,990 at the end of fiscal year 2022, according to an October 2022 audit.
In addition to hiring more personnel, Campus Safety wants to enhance training for police officers and contracted security officers, Griffin said.
Jim Price, a senior psychology major, said that even with more officers, additional funding should be directed towards how those officers are trained. He also believes that there should be more clarity about what their responsibilities are.
“The current officers I see are on their phone or doing whatever they’re doing, not necessarily, in my opinion, paying attention,” Price said.
While the university has a relationship with the Philadelphia Police
Department’s training academy, Griffin said funds could be allocated to in-house training for hiring more instructors and equipment.
Ellie Blanck, a freshman Spanish and journalism major, lives on campus and thinks that the university should use the funding to address residence hall security staffing.
“I think that sometimes they, the people at the security desk, aren’t necessarily paying as much attention as they should, and I think that’s maybe something that they could work on,” Blanck said.
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While inflation continues to plague Americans struggling to afford high food and housing prices, the soaring costs are acutely affecting members of the Temple University Graduate Students’ Association.
“Our members struggle to pay rent, they struggle to buy groceries,” said Bethany Kosmicki, a research assistant in the sociology department and a former TUGSA president who is on the contract negotiations team. “So for us with the way inflation has skyrocketed, our wages have always tracked below the cost of living, but now they are even further away from the cost of living.”
TUGSA’s strike is emblematic of larger labor movements in Philadelphia and across the United States in response to worker frustration about stagnant wages and rising inflation. While the union has yet to reach an agreement with the university, similar work stoppages may signal how TUGSA might be able to gain leverage to secure an agreement.
College employees across the country in particular have striked at universities including the University of Illinois-Chicago, where faculty went on strike for four days, and other colleges like the University of Washington and University of California, POLITICO reported.
In Philadelphia, the strikes come at a time when local wages have struggled to keep pace with rising costs, leaving some workers unable to afford basic necessities.
“We’re a city with a really high poverty rate, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily inexpensive to live here,” said Michael Sances, a political science professor. “We’re less expensive than New York or California, but I think we’re more expensive than many other places in the country.”
Inflation isn’t rising as sharply in Philadelphia compared to other parts of the country, but price hikes for necessities like food, housing and medical care all rose higher in the city than in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the country, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
TUGSA members earn an average of $19,500, which is equivalent to slightly more than $10 an hour, slightly higher than Pennsylvania’s minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
Union members have lamented the challenges of being able to afford living in the city and subsequently rejected Temple’s offer to increase pay over concerns the increase wouldn’t cover rising costs.
“Because of our low pay, some TUGSA members go into significant debt, live in unsafe or crowded housing and struggle to care for their children so that they can come to campus every day to teach and conduct research,” wrote TUGSA’s negotiations team in a letter to The Temple News.
In Philadelphia, similar concerns
were expressed by Temple nurses during the fall, who voted to authorize a strike after pressing the university for pay increases and safety improvements. SEPTA workers also nearly went on strike in 2021 after advocating for parental leave provisions and aid for families affected by COVID-19.
Bill Zoda, who was part of negotiations when Temple nurses were striking for 28 days in 2010, felt that Temple Hospital had no plans to negotiate until union members declared a strike last October.
“Overall, people were willing to walk and then took a vote to strike and it passed way north of 90 percent [of votes],” said Zoda, co-executive director at the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, the statewide union that represents Temple nurses. “If the hospital hadn’t negotiated [or] if the hospital had treated us like they were treating the grad students, we clearly would have walked.”
Zoda believes that Temple’s current unwillingness to meet the union’s demands may end up costing the university more money than if they opted to meet TUGSA’s demands, which include a base-wage of $32,000.
“It’s like the Pentagon, like a black budget,” Zoda said. “Anytime you’re fighting your own workers, the war chest opens up and nobody pays attention to the money that flies out.”
Although both Temple nurses and SEPTA workers reached agreements, the path to a new contract for TUGSA members could depend on how much the university views them as a necessity
for campus operations, whereas nurses and SEPTA personnel are essential workers to their respective employers and may not be as easy to replace.
The university estimates that more than 80 percent of TA’s and RA’s are still working, and Temple has already worked to fill TA vacancies. TUGSA believes that approximately 34 percent of its members are striking, with more members joining each day.
Temple told The Temple News that new instructors are being paid in accordance with TAUP’s contract, but declined to disclose specific salaries.
U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders and John Fetterman have urged Temple to reach an agreement with TUGSA, along with several state and local politicians who have visited Temple’s campus to rally alongside union members.
Despite the support from national lawmakers, Sances believes that senior legislators in Harrisburg are the leaders who can play a critical role in swaying Temple to meet the union’s demands due to Temple’s status as a state-related institution that receives government funding.
“What I’m waiting for is to see if anyone with more influence like a committee chair in the legislature, party leadership or even the governor would weigh in because those are the folks with the most power,” Sances said.
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Students’ Association has been encouraging undergraduate students to support their strike by missing class and picketing at the Bell Tower every day at noon and by participating in a campus-wide student walkout on Feb. 15.
Temple hasn’t met TUGSA’s demands and revoked health benefits and tuition remission from striking union members. Tensions are rising on campus, along with pressure to picket.
However, Provost Gregory Mandel has warned students that skipping class and assignments or joining the walkout to support TUGSA can jeopardize their academic progress.
The Editorial Board urges undergraduate students to participate in the graduate workers’ strike, including missing classes and assignments and walking out, if they feel passionate about TUGSA’s stance. At the same time, students shouldn’t feel pressured to boycott classes and assignments if they are not comfortable potentially impacting their education because there are other ways to show support.
Students should make their own decision about how to support TUGSA, and it’s okay if it doesn’t involve missing class to picket.
As tuition increased this academic year during a period of rising inflation, students may find it difficult to willingly miss out on an education they are paying thousands of dollars for.
Students valuing time in a classroom they paid to be in doesn’t equate to not standing with TUGSA. They can advocate for Temple to meet their contract demands without risking academic progress by picketing when they don’t have class.
STUDENT LIFEAdditionally, some students may have a busy work schedule or face health complications that make standing outside for an extended period of time either difficult or impossible. These students can still support TUGSA without picketing by spreading the word about the strike on social media and among friends and family, signing a petition advocating for Temple to meet the union’s demands and donating to the group’s strike fund.
The Editorial Board also urges striking union members to understand that not every TA and RA is in a position to put their benefits at risk to fight for an improved contract.
Temple estimates 17 percent of teaching and research assistants have chosen not to strike, but Matt Ford, TUGSA’s staff organizer and lead negotiator, believes the percentage of striking members is double the university’s estimate and growing each day.
Not every graduate worker has the privilege to sacrifice their benefits. Losing benefits can cause significant financial and basic needs concerns for graduate workers, so striking could be an immense risk for some union members, especially international graduate workers whose student visas could potentially face complications.
When TUGSA members are fighting for basic needs, they should understand that many members don’t have the financial means and support to strike.
Students and graduate workers who feel passionate about the strike should participate in all ways that they can, but others who are not comfortable missing out on their education or benefits shouldn’t feel pressured to do the same.
A student argues Philadelphia sports fans must call out harassment during post-game celebrations.
BY GIANNA VOGES For The Temple NewsWhen Kayla Savage, a freshman undeclared major, celebrated the Eagles’ National Football Conference Championship win in Center City, she witnessed women climbing the poles experiencing verbal sexual harassment from male fans. Most people in the crowd didn’t react, she said.
“They were yelling, saying, ‘Show your tits!’” Savage said. “It was actually disgusting to be a part of that.”
Philadelphia sports fans have a reputation for being extremely passionate about their teams. Sports bring Philadelphians together, but sometimes the passion becomes harassment and gets dismissed as an example of “boys-will-be-boys,” NBC Sports reported.
Following the Eagles’ loss in Super Bowl LVII on Sunday, fans need to call out the toxic behavior that has infiltrated sports culture when they see it in future celebrations and defeats instead of standing by. When women’s safety is at risk, it’s essential that fans protect each other because the measures currently taken by the NFL don’t extend to Center City gatherings.
The NFL created a fan code of conduct, which restricts verbal and physical harassment along with other disruptive behaviors, and a video explaining these rules plays at stadiums to help promote a positive fan environment. Additionally, gameday staff and security personnel walk throughout the stadium and parking lots of Lincoln Financial Field to reinforce the code of conduct as a preventive measure against fan harassment.
Although abusive language or threatening remarks result in ejection from the premises and loss of ticket privileges for future games, these measures do not extend into Philadelphia beyond Lincoln Financial Field’s parking lots. Current NFL protocols cannot prevent dangerous behavior as seen in recent celebrations, and toxic fan behavior can cause serious danger for celebrating fans, especially women.
Being a female football fan can feel isolating because of the team’s culture, said Erin Beltle, a junior political science major and diehard Eagles fan.
“It can be isolating because it’s like you watch a bunch of men play the sport, and then you watch a bunch of men report on it, you watch a bunch of men celebrate afterwards in violent ways,” Beltle said.
Female sports fans already experience verbal harassment, but some lives are threatened after games. Upset losses in the NFL lead to a 10 percent increase in the rate of domestic violence by men against their wives and girlfriends, and this rise is larger for more important games, according to the Quarterly Journal for Economics.
Sports fans need to protect those facing harassment at events. If men call out their peers for their actions, they can help ensure more sports fans take accountability for their actions and reduce the number of people who continue to harass women.
Standing by and watching as fans are harassed, as Savaged witnessed, condones harmful behavior instead of contributing to a safe environment.
Additionally, sports teams need to provide safety resources during celebrations and violent reactions outside the stadium.
Teams can post resources, like the National Sexual Assault and National Domestic Violence hotlines, on social media. There are also Philadelphia-specific resources, like the Philadelphia Domestic Violence Hotline, the WOAR Philadelphia Center Against Sexual Violence and Women In Transition.
It’s good to be passionate about sports, but it’s not okay to get so engulfed in excitement or disappointment that it puts others’ lives at risk. Sports should be about fostering a community, but aggressive behavior isolates individuals who want to participate.
Celebrating a win or being upset about a loss is a normal human reaction, but harassing others is not. Both Philadelphia sports organizations and fans need to prioritize the safety of female fans and create stricter policies against sexual harassment.
gianna.voges@temple.edu
This Valentine’s Day is the first time in 20 years I have a valentine, and she also happens to be my first girlfriend in a lesbian relationship.
As I wrote in an essay around last Valentine’s Day, I never had much LGBTQ representation in my life. The only time people around me spoke about the LGBTQ community was to condemn it. I was led to believe the confusing feelings inside me were my fault and that I was choosing a lifestyle that would lead to eternal damnation.
However, I also grew up during the rise of social media. Through new platforms like Tumblr and Instagram, I found “The 100,” which was a typical mid-2010s dystopian television show with a ‘strong female lead’ struggling to decide between two almost identical guys for her romantic interest — until it wasn’t.
Clarke, the show’s female lead, started dating one of the first lesbian characters I’d seen on television, Lexa. Their relationship meant a lot to me at age 14 and although I was a fan of the genre, I’d rarely seen LGBTQ characters that validated my identity.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Lexa was killed off in the show. I remember the backlash from LGBTQ fans that came with Lexa’s death. It was the first time I watched the “bury your gays” trope. There are many variations of the trope, but it always ends with television shows killing off their few or only gay characters.
Being myself wasn’t supposed to lead to inevitable early death, it was supposed to make me happy. While LGBTQ characters shouldn’t be a monolith, seeing a sliver of myself in a character was validating. Viewing characters I related to dying early in different storylines and more frequently reinforced the idea that my sexuality would lead to punishment.
As I started accepting my sexuality, I
stopped wanting to consume media that didn’t feature positive queer representation. I’d spent almost 19 years not seeing myself in mainstream media, but luckily social media could still help me find representation.
Through TikTok, Instagram and Tumblr, I discovered “The Last of Us,” a post-apocalyptic video game about a deadly fungus outbreak, featuring a lesbian main character named Ellie.
Last month, HBO announced a television adaption of “The Last of Us,” and I was excited to see lesbian representation in popular television. However, the recently released third episode, featuring Bill and Frank, two rogue survivors of the outbreak, took me by surprise.
In the game, Bill, an emotionally-closed-off survivalist, and Frank, a cheery idealist, were implied romatic partners. In the show, the romantic relationship between Bill and Frank was expanded beyond passing references.
Watching their relationship transform was one of the most emotionally moving experiences I’ve seen on television because I was finally able to watch a gay couple grow old together.
Though Bill and Frank’s story ended with their deaths, it didn’t fit the ‘bury your gays’ trope. The show was set before the legalization of gay marriage, but on their last day alive, Bill and Frank got married.
Watching their relationship reminded me of when gay marriage was legalized in the United States; it gave me hope for the future. I’d grown up being told what love could be, and until then, same-sex couples were never allowed in those parameters.
I was an emotional disaster. Their relationship had something that I’d not seen growing up: a love story.
Growing up I’d only seen fairytale endings reserved for heterosexual couples. Seeing a same-sex marriage on
mainstream television helped combat the toxicity I’d grown up with that consistently categorized LGBTQ people and couples as immoral, perverted or predatory. That idea is wrong; gay love is none of those things.
Queer representation doesn’t mean all stories end happily ever after, or that LGBTQ characters cannot have flaws. Representation means showing all facets of people who are members of the LGBTQ community, including their struggles and authentic love.
As someone who didn’t have much representation growing up, I hope one day to create media that helps young queer kids struggling with their feelings.
The LGBTQ community is not a monolith; members of every race, class, ability and identity should be represented because everyone deserves to have their story told. alexis.bray@temple.edu
THE ESSAYIST
A student describes how Black excellence in football helped her find a role model.
BY MADDIE MOSLEY For TheTemple
NewsI’ve been a football fan since I was seven years old. Growing up, my dad loved the San Francisco 49ers while my mom rooted for the Philadelphia Eagles. I’ve always rooted for the 49ers because I was a daddy’s girl.
When I was nine, my parents gifted me my very first NFL jersey for Christmas: a Colin Kaepernick 49ers jersey. From that moment on, I wore my Kaepernick jersey every school spirit week or whenever the 49ers won and whenever a game was on.
Although my African American identity was embraced in my household through football, I felt the need to conceal it in order to fit in as a child living in a predominantly white neighborhood.
After watching Super Bowl LVII and seeing two Black quarterbacks play, I realized my attachment to the jersey was significant to my identity I tried to hide as a child. It meant more to me than just a team or player in the NFL, it represented my journey and struggle to find media representation of people who look like me.
I lived in Southern Lancaster County from age three to 18, and my neighborhood and schools were white and conservative. I was a quiet child who always wanted to fit in, but I never felt like I belonged because I had more liberal opinions than my classmates. I felt scared and uncomfortable talking about topics that were important to me, like racism, oppression and injustice because I was one of three Black students in my class.
In elementary school, my teacher asked questions about who we admired most. I sat quietly in class and listened to my peers respond with innovators like Benjamin Franklin and presidents like George Washington. However, I couldn’t come up with an answer. I never had a deep connection to any of my
role models like my classmates did. Children often look up to people who look like them. I hadn’t been exposed to many role models who were Black, aside from my dad and the typical Black historical figures, like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman, whom my teachers talked about once a year during Black History Month
Everything changed for me in September 2016, when Kaepernick took a knee during the playing of the national anthem in protest against the lack of attention given to police brutality and racism in the United States. At 12 years old, I finally found a role model who looked similar to me and stood up for issues I cared about.
I felt isolated in my small town for years because no one had uncomfortable conversations regarding injustices within our court systems, but Kaepernick’s
actions encouraged me to use my voice and sparked my interest in activism and social justice.
Since his protest in 2016, I’ve attended marches and rallies for social issues I hold close to my identity, like Black Lives Matter and Bans Off Our Bodies. Despite living in a town where very few people thought the same way as me, I wasn’t scared to voice my opinion anymore.
After his 2016 protest, I proudly wore my Kaepernick jersey everywhere I went. I let my friends and classmates criticize me for supporting him when they viewed his protest as disrespecting America and the flag. They didn’t understand the importance of what Kaepernick had done for the Black community.
I’m in college now, pursuing a communication and social influence degree to add to my activist toolbox and continue to fight for what is right.
On Feb. 12, America watched a football game that made history. It was the first Super Bowl to feature two Black starting quarterbacks, Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes.
They’re not Kaepernick, but seeing two Black quarterbacks on the field reminded me of my childhood attachment to my jersey. I was searching for representation, and the jersey was a symbol of that at the time.
The game was inspiring to me and an entire generation of children who have been searching for representation of more than just white figures in sports media.
Super Bowl LVII displayed the Black excellence and Black joy that I searched for when I was in elementary school, and I’m grateful that the younger generation has more people of color to look up to in sports. madison.mosley@temple.edu
As of Jan. 1, after former Gov. Tom Wolf amended Pennsylvania’s drug laws last year, the state legislature legalized the use and possession of fentanyl test strips, WHYY reported. The new change in legislation expands the accessibility of strips so all residents can legally receive them by mail.
On Jan. 23, Temple announced a $1 million increase to the health and wellness division’s budget after recommendations from the Task Force on Mental Health and Wellness.
Although it’s important for Temple to invest in wellness resources, a critical component was left out: accessibility for harm reduction resources to prevent accidental drug overdoses. As Temple expands funding for health initiatives, supplying harm reduction resources like Narcan and fentanyl testing strips, must be included.
Most of the funding is being used to retain existing clinicians and psychiatrists, increase staffing and create a counseling center on the Health Sciences campus, said Andrew Lee, the director of Tuttleman Counseling Services. Temple may supply harm reduction resources in the future as the task force is still in the early steps of their initiative.
In 2021, Philadelphia Department of Public Health warned that counterfeit pills could be pressed with fentanyl, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Fentanyl is about 80 times as potent as morphine and hundreds of times more potent than heroin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Xylazine, an animal tranquilizer, is used with fentanyl but resistant to Narcan because it’s a sedative, according to the CDC.
College students experience accidental overdoses because they’re unknowingly using drugs that are cut with fentanyl, said Adam Al-Asad, the director of operations at Savage Sisters Re-
covery, a Philadelphia non-profit aiding those affected by substance use disorder.
Many college students use Adderall, and counterfeit pills are often being cut with fentanyl, increasing the chances of an unintentional overdose, Bloomberg reported.
“The solution to that is incredibly simple, obvious and inexpensive, it’s fentanyl test strips,” Al-Asad said. “The fact that Temple isn’t handing them out and the fact that you just told me that you have a hard time getting test strips on a college campus is blatant negligence on the part of the college campus.”
Drugs containing fentanyl resulted in 77 percent of all 2021 unintentional overdose fatalities, while more than 90 percent of Philadelphia’s lab-tested heroin was positive for xylazine, according to the city’s health department.
Temple’s Wellness and Resource Center hosts Narcan training and outreach with organizations like NEXT Distro, a non-profit harm reduction agency, wrote Maddie Bavis, a mental well-being program coordinator for the
Wellness Resource Center, in an email to The Temple News.
The task force didn’t specify issues related to fentanyl, but the Wellness Resource Center has regular staff meetings with reports from Campus Safety Services about trends like student drug abuse and how to reduce harm, said Daniel Berman, the vice provost for undergraduate studies.
“I definitely think it’s something that could be discussed, and that would be definitely within the purview of not only that task force, but this new unit, to be concerned about it,” Berman said.
The new unit is the Health and Well-being Division, bringing together the Student and Employee Health Services, Tuttleman Counseling Services and the Wellness Resource Center, thus improving wellness resources for students.
When a client came into the Everywhere Project, a Philadelphia-based non-profit for wound care and harm reduction, claiming he took counterfeit Adderall, tests revealed the drug
ZAGA/ THE TEMPLE NEWScontained illicit and harmful methamphetamines, said Shannon Ashe, the co-founder of the Everywhere Project.
“For college students, they’re at a greater risk of engaging in substance use so it’s important for them to be empowered with the tools and the information they need to make decisions in an informed way and in the safest way that they can,” Ashe said.
The implementation of harm reduction products could be issued through Temple’s Wellness Resource Center or Student Health Services the same way condoms are. Students can receive free condoms on Temple’s campus without questions.
As Philadelphia experiences an increased supply of illicit drugs, more students are exposed to ingesting fentanyl and xylazine. The university can prevent accidental overdoses by increasing harm reduction resources with fentanyl testing strips.
molly.fiske@temple.edu
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After watching the Eagles advance to the Super Bowl, Kendra James, a 2013 communications and media studies alumna, saw the opportunity to bring the community together with a celebration commemorating the Eagles’ appearance in the big game.
“As soon as we found out that the Eagles were going to the Super Bowl, we just wanted to make sure we were doing something to support,” said James, who is also the marketing manager of the Fashion District in Center City.
In less than two weeks, James organized a pep rally that took place on Feb. 11, featuring a DJ, fashion show and a booth for visitors to get their clothes customized.
The event took place in “The Cube,” the Fashion District’s grand entrance at the intersection of Ninth Street near Market. James was able to turn a mall entrance into an event venue, and created memories that people will hold onto forever.
At the start of the pep rally visitors began collecting free merchandise, and the event concluded with a fashion show of the best-dressed Eagles fans. Attendees surrounded the runway while others watched from the second floor mezzanine.
Hundreds of people attended, many
of them appreciating the sense of community throughout the city.
“I think we need to come together more,” said Kenyatta Hill, an East Oak Lane resident who attended the event with her 9-year-old grandson Amar’e. “We should come together more and learn to talk to each other more and be around each other more.”
Dejanaya Spicer, a professional photographer who lives at 50th Street near Baltimore Avenue, appreciated the opportunity to capture such moments.
“I always feel honored that I am allowed to be a part of memories like this, moments like this,” Spicer said. “So, for me, being able to capture things [that are] going to be etched in the lives of everybody for this year to come and next year to come. I’m just honored that I’m
allowed to capture these special moments for people.”
James was thrilled to host an event that brought the community together. She felt this was her opportunity to promote the good traits that truly describe Philadelphia amid the attention the city receives during the Super Bowl.
“We hear so many things in the news that are contrary to what we know about Philadelphia,” James said. “We know Philadelphia to be an amazing city of culture, food, amazing events and historical landmarks, and sometimes people don’t get that from the news that they hear. So it’s very important for outlets to come and see what’s going on here and make sure the world knows.”
robert.cruz@temple.edu
Tyrone McCloud (left) and Kenny “Eagle Libre” Torres (right) both competed in the fashion show, with Torres winning first place. One model in the fashion show flaunted an Eagles themed wedding dress.
The pep rally featured Jeantrix, who customized visitors’ purchases to be Eagles themed.
Another Eagles fan shows off her Eagles jersey, jacket and hat.
Amar’e Boykins, age nine, won second place in the pep rally’s Eagles-themed fashion show.
ROBERT CRUZ / THE TEMPLE NEWS
MOVING CLOCKWISE FROM THE TOP
CAMPUS The decision came after a reevaluation of the Cherry Pantry’s electrical system
BY DUAY AUGUSTINE Assistant Features Editor
When Olivia Weaver, president of Temple Sharing Excess, learned the Ritter community fridge was being relocated, she was shocked.
“We collaborate with them all the time, so there’s such a streamline of communication between all of us, in previous projects, we were continuously talking about plans and goals, so I think for that to be the first we heard of it, we were just a little taken aback by that,” said Weaver, a senior gender, sexuality and women’s studies and communication and social influence double major.
Temple Sharing Excess, a chapter of the Philadelphia nonprofit, and Temple One Health Club, a chapter of the sustainability organization One Health Initiative, work together to operate the Ritter community fridge. On Jan. 27, the student organizations were informed by Cherry Pantry staff that the fridge in Ritter Annex would be moved to the Cherry Pantry in the Howard Gittis Student Center.
The decision came after a reevaluation of the electrical system in the Cherry Pantry revealed the space in the Student Center could support a fridge, wrote Annette Ditolvo, coordinator of Cherry Pantry, in an email to The Temple News.
“We believe there is an injustice taking place and we’re incredibly disappointed in the handling of this whole situation,” OHC wrote in a statement on Jan. 31. “We support the Cherry Pantry’s mission and we celebrate any and all long term goals they hold, but we wish it wasn’t gained on the backs of the community.”
Since the fridge was removed, OHC and Temple Sharing Excess have worked with Cherry Pantry to find a replacement fridge. Cherry Pantry staff has connected
Temple OHC and Sharing Excess with the Social Service Annex to find a new fridge loaned to the clubs as a replacement for the Ritter community fridge.
“This refrigerator should be in the space as soon as next week,” Ditolvo wrote. “Pantry staff are committed to working with both student organizations for a longer term solution.”
The collaboration between Temple Sharing Excess and OHC began last spring after discovering they could not secure refrigeration for the Cherry Pantry, they decided to utilize the already-existing refrigerator in Ritter Annex for produce storage and distribution.
Most of the supplies for the Ritter community fridge were contributed by Sharing Excess, which connects businesses that have a food surplus with people facing food insecurity. Temple’s chapter of Sharing Excess then works with OHC to coordinate produce distribution events, which are typically biweekly.
The produce events have become popular with the Temple community and staff at Ritter Hall, and they often run out of produce within an hour of the
start of their events.
“I’ve had security guards who have whispered to me, ‘Hey, I’m on shift right now, I can’t get produce but can you just leave me something?’ and I’ll be like, ‘Sure, I can grab you a crate,’” said Maanvi Nagireddy, a senior biology and environmental science double major and president of Temple’s OHC.
Nagireddy was worried that the removal of the Ritter community fridge would disrupt the community who has relied on the produce events hosted there, especially those who cannot pick up food during the Cherry Pantry’s regular hours, she said.
The day the fridge was moved from the Ritter Annex was the same day as a produce event that was meant to be a farewell to their fridge. However, the fridge was moved before the clubs arrived; they instead brought their food to the Bell Tower, where the Temple University Graduate Students’ Association was hosting a rally, in an effort to distribute the products.
“We essentially gave the produce to the graduate students and anyone that was sort of just walking by faculty, stu-
dents, anyone could come by and get produce but we just wanted it to be as useful as possible, and for a lot of these grad students that are on their last paycheck, we knew that we could be serving a better, like more people by giving it out at the Bell Tower,” Nagireddy said.
Nagireddy was determined to replace the fridge because of the community of people who depend on it.
“The janitors were the first to know, and seeing some of the janitors visibly upset that this fridge was moving made me so motivated that this cannot end here,” Nagireddy said.
Despite previous communication challenges, Cherry Pantry and the operators of the Ritter community fridge will continue to work together to address food insecurity at Temple.
“We received a lot of hope for future collaboration and we’re being let into their sort of rooms of conversation a lot more and at a higher rate now,” Weaver said.
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Lexis Trechak’s life always revolved around dance, and she wanted to start her own platform for the dance community after noticing a lack of podcasts.
“We’re just three normal girls that had normal lives growing up and we experienced the same thing that every other normal person has gone through in the dance competition world or in the dance studio growing up,” said Trechak, a speech, language and hearing major and dance minor.
Trechak now hosts the podcast, “Barre Chat,” with influencers Bianca Scaglione and Becca Lind that currently has more than 55,000 listeners. The first episodes for season two were released on Feb. 5 on Spotify, Apple Podcast and YouTube and each new episode is released biweekly on Sundays.
The three of them prepare for each podcast recording with a bulleted list of different ideas they’d like to cover within that time. From there, they challenge each other to dig deeper into the topics they discuss and create questions on the spot.
Trechak, Scaglione and Lind have different roles in producing the podcast. Trechak and Scaglione help manage the show’s social media presence while Lind handles video editing.
The goal of the Barre Chat is to connect with the dance community and make dancers feel heard, Trechak said. However, the podcast is for everyone because it discusses topics most people can relate to, like body image issues or balancing school with dance.
Trechak’s former dance instructors, Danni Durso and Tracy McManus, have supported her with their encouraging coaching in the studio ever since she joined the Yvonne’s School of Dance in Edison, New Jersey, and saw Trechak’s dreams of being a dancer and influencer while growing up.
Growing up, Trechak manifested everything she has accomplished, McManus said.
“And then all of a sudden, here she is,” McManus said. “She couldn’t really say that she had a podcast in the very beginning. And then finally, she let the cat out of the bag and it was like, ‘Hey, I went to LA to tape a podcast.’ I’m like, ‘What? That is so cool!’”
The podcast is really impactful, and would have been useful when she was exploring her early dancing career, Durso said.
“When I was a dancer at her age, I wish that I was able to connect with people just because it’s so easy in art, in general, to be critical of yourself,” Durso said. “I think that the podcast really
opens up to so many different topics so you realize you’re not alone and that we all feel this way.”
The podcast is important to Trechak because her conversations with her cohosts flow naturally, allowing for the podcast to be an inviting and realistic environment, Trechak said.
The podcast is a very welcoming place because they provide motivation through their own stories, said Trinity Caratenuto, a childhood friend of Trechak.
“I feel like that’s really important, especially to a younger generation and I feel like hearing that allows people to just embrace themselves more and be more open with themselves and what they want and not to judge themselves,”
Caratenuto said.
The process for producing Barre Chat has been smooth so far, especially for a start-up podcast, Trechak said. She is proud of all the hard work they have accomplished and has high hopes for the future.
“I hope that it really hits home with like five people,” Trechak said. “I just want people to listen to the episodes and be like, ‘Wow,’ like ‘I really needed to hear that today.’ So that’s my goal, my personal goal for the podcast,” Trechak said.
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The student-run record label produces, markets and distributes student-made music.
BY DUAY AUGUSTINE Assistant Features EditorJack Klotz, vice chair of the department of media studies and production, has big goals for Bell Tower Music, Temple’s student-run record label.
“To make a million dollars,” said Klotz, instructor of the course Bell Tower Music is operated through. “No, I jest. Basically, the shorthand way I like to put it is, our mission is to celebrate Temple musical talent.”
Bell Tower Music is operated through the media studies and production department’s Recording Industry Practicum within the Klein College of Media and Communication and aims to provide students with real-world experience in preparation for entering the music industry. The label has three artists currently signed: RUSHIL, Grace Torna and Blood Bücket who all release music on Spotify and Apple Music and have upcoming music projects in the works.
Klotz uses his prior experience as a musician, sound engineer and label executive to make the course similar to the music industry.
He refers to Bell Tower Music as a music brand development agency because of the wide variety of services the label manages. The label has a television series through TUTV, titled “Live From Studio G,” which features live performances from signed artists. The agency also manages all of the marketing of its artists’ music.
Bell Tower Music artists are scouted by students working in the agency’s artists and repertoire department. Artists are offered a one year, non-exclusive contract in which they split half of the profits with the label, wrote Klotz in an email to The Temple News.
Rushil Vishwanathan, a senior entrepreneurship and innovation management major, started singing when he was six years old, but did not start to pursue music seriously until he came to college.
Today, Vishwanathan’s music blends
R&B, pop and hip-hop. Although some songs are based on lived experiences, Vishwanathan often writes music based only on a chord progression.
“I love just sitting down and like laying down a minor chord progression and building off of it and making a song out of that, even though it’s not really something that I’m going through at the time,” Vishwanathan said.
Vishwanathan released his single “Paranormal” with Bell Tower Music last November and recorded his own “Live From Studio G” session, which will be released this spring. He is currently working on producing another single through Bell Tower Music to be released this semester.
Vishwanathan focused more on the creative aspect of his music instead of the technical process because of the support he has received through his work with Bell Tower Music.
Blood Bücket is a heavy metal band that began making music together in December 2021 and is composed of senior Dylan Ergott, junior Damian Marx and sophomores Dex Giglio and Benjamin Glassman.
Working with Bell Tower Music has made the recording process easier, especially for things that are more time consuming like drums, said Ergott, a history major.
The group will release two singles through Bell Tower Music, entitled “Protestant Altercation” and “Thralls of Hell.”
“We’re really looking forward to how the songs hear when they’re mixed because we’re really pleased with the way everything came out just while we were in there,” Ergott said.
Grace Torna, a senior political science and music double major, has made music her entire life, but did not emotionally connect with it until she started to find her own sound and move away from classical music.
Torna signed with Bell Tower Music in the Fall semester, writing and recording pop music with R&B influences. She also recorded a “Live From Studio G” session, which has not been released, and is working on an EP, which is planned to be released in April.
Working with Bell Tower Music has given Torna the opportunity to experiment more with her music and work outside of her comfort zone by providing a safe space, she said.
In addition to having more live performances and working in co-writing sessions, Torna looks forward to marketing her pieces through Bell Tower Music.
“I’m excited to get to the marketing side of it once we finish the EP too, like photoshoots and everything like that,
just because we didn’t get to do that much last semester,” Torna said.
Klotz hopes that Bell Tower Music can exist as the first step toward working professionally in the music industry.
“Whether the people who want to be producers, engineers, marketers, managers, agents, what have you, we aim to be their first step,” Klotz said. duay.augustine@temple.edu
Find all the words hidden in across, down, and diagonally, with backwards.
4. Temple Women’s Basketball’s head coach from 2000 through 2008 and later went on two win two Division I national championships.
5.This avenue that intersects Broad Street was named after this civil rights activist.
6. This influential R&B and soul singer competed in a versus battle with Erykah Badu.
7. The first Black man to travel to space.
8. Born in 1915 and created the song, “I’ll Be Seeing You.”
9. This musician, producer and filmmaker is part of the hip hop band, “The Roots.”
1. An artist referred to as the “Godmother of Soul.”
2. The first Black female player to appear in the Little League World Series.
3. A Philly-based rapper who advocates for prison reform.
6. Temple Men’s Basketball’s head coach from 1982 through 2006 who was named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
For Philadelphia Eagles fans, Fran Duffy has become a notable figure as a game tape study specialist during the season and a draft guru in the offseason. He has developed a role within the organization that is pretty uncommon, and the path he has taken is an unlikely one.
Duffy is not your typical football analyst; he never played the game in high school or at the collegiate level. Instead he gained his knowledge of the game through his experiences working with coaches and watching film.
Throughout the Eagles’ Super Bowl run, Duffy had been spotlighted as the team’s expert. Fans look to him for analytical insight for one of the league’s most polarizing teams.
Since joining the Eagles, Duffy produces a variety of film and draft content for fans to consume, including hosting a weekly podcast, “Eagle Eye in the Sky,” producing their television show “Eagles Game Plan” and writing columns for the team’s website.
He holds a position that is very limited around the NFL as many teams don’t use an in-house reporter like the Eagles.
“The role I’m doing now doesn’t exist for all 32 teams,” said Duffy, former Temple video coordinator. “There are only a handful of people in the NFL that work for a team and really focus on Xs and Os content.”
Duffy wouldn’t have received his position with the Eagles had he not followed up about a flier he saw about Temple looking for applicants to be the team’s student video assistant in 2005.
As Temple Football’s student video assistant, he worked with former head coaches Al Golden and Matt Rhule, along with many other assistants on both staffs.
“My mind was blown,” Duffy said. “You’re telling me that I can sit here and
go through the coaching tape, learn more about the game, talk with our coaching staff, and work with our players? It was a perfect fit.”
After Duffy’s boss, Billy Crutcher, left only three months into Duffy’s Temple career, he was approached by Golden with the opportunity to become the new video coordinator in October 2006.
“Coach Golden came up to me and pulled me into his office and he said ‘Fran all the coaches think you would be able to do this job, would you be up for it?’” Duffy said. “And I said ‘Absolutely.’”
Duffy accepted the position at age 20 as the youngest video coordinator in Division I football, and he wasn’t aware of the significance of the accomplishment until he went to an American Football Coaches Association Convention in San Antonio, Texas. Most video coordinators at the event were at least 23 years old or older.
“All the coaches and staff would go out to dinner and drinks after the convention,” Duffy said. “But I couldn’t get into any of the bars, and couldn’t do any-
thing because I was just 20 years old.”
In 2011, Duffy’s time with Temple came to an end after earning an internship with his hometown football team, the Philadelphia Eagles.
Working in a highly-regarded position with Temple gave Duffy a leg up on his competition, allowing him to stand out compared to the others he interned with, he said.
“I was extremely efficient and got a lot done,” Duffy said. “In my first year here they told me my internship was over the week after the Super Bowl, but I never left. They had extended it to the draft, but by the time that was over I was hired full-time.”
Duffy’s co-workers credit his work ethic as one of the main reasons he stands out from the rest of the people they work with.
“He was always gifted,” said former Temple defensive graduate assistant Satyen Bhakta. “There was never an issue with that, but on top of that he had a crazy strong work ethic.”
Duffy has also worked with many
coaches and players that have more football experience than him, but Duffy can talk football with the best of them. In fact, he’s still viewed as an equal by many people in the football community even though he never played a snap.
“He does a really great job and he goes way beyond the Eagles too,” said Greg Cosell, a senior producer at NFL films and coworker of Duffy. “He is highly respected by everyone in the business, they all have tremendous respect for Fran because of the amount of work that he puts in.”
Duffy’s ultimate goal is to allow other fans to learn and enjoy the game in ways that they never could before, the same way that he learned the game.
“One of my main goals is to take a casual Eagles fan and turn them into a hardcore fan,” Duffy said. “To me, that’s something I’ve always strived to do, and something I feel like we’ve been successful at.”
john.zawislak@temple.edu @jzawisbtb
The Temple alumnus is a respected member of the Philadelphia Eagles media staff. Temple News JOCELYN HOCKADAY / THE TEMPLE NEWS
WOMEN’S TENNIS
The two tennis doubles pairs are ranked No.6 and No.55 respectively in the country.
BY NICK GANGEWERE Sports EditorTemple Women’s Tennis has seen two unlikely doubles teams grow from being unknowns in the collegiate tennis community to lethal duos in dual play so far. All it took was a little match-making from assistant coach Frederika Girsang.
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association now has Jamie Wei and Maiko Uchijima ranked as the No. 6 women’s doubles pair in college tennis, while teammates Evie Wei and Veronika Kulhave received a ranking of No. 55. The ITA released their rankings on Feb. 8, but the athletes within Temple tennis have known how strong their top two units are for a long time.
“We just play different people and kind of see who matches best playing-wise,” Girsang said. “We just put it in a match and see how they do, so far it’s been working.”
Jamie, a graduate student, and freshman Uchijima didn’t know each other in early 2022, but in less than a year they’ve built a bond on and off the court. Their chemistry as the first doubles pair blossomed during the fall season after amassing a 14-1 record, which they hope to surpass this spring season.
Temple’s Jamie Wei and Uchijima went on a deep run in the fall ITA Championships, where the duo knocked off the No. 3 ranked Texas Tech pair of Cristina Tiglea and Metka Komac, who are now ranked No. 27 by the ITA.
“It felt great,” Jamie said about their victory over Texas Tech. “Temple isn’t necessarily like a big tennis school, and when you see Temple out there and then when you see Texas [Tech] and then we also beat Wake Forest, those are big tennis schools. At nationals we were just out there playing our best.”
Jamie’s younger sister, Evie, and her partner, Kulhava, have impressed head coach Steve Mauro as well. The expectations for both units continue to rise as they keep winning, and the motivation
only fuels their competition in practice.
Evie Wei, a junior, and Kulhava have only played in three matches together, but they moved up in the rankings after defeating then-No. 30 VCU’s first doubles, Kulhava, a sophomore, said.
While constantly facing off in training, the two doubles are the epitome of ‘iron sharpens iron’ each and every day. This is a key component to their success on the court.
“Our teammates’ ranking is so high,” Evie said. “It motivates us to want to play better and to have a higher ranking like that.”
Evie and Kulhava have built an impressive companionship on the court as the Taiwanese and Czech Republic natives respectively bring an enhanced skill set. Their ability to win individual matches and compete in unison on the floor has made them a threat to knock off some of the best pairs in the nation.
A bystander could never tell that these four athletes play so powerfully on the court due to their calm demeanors off the court. In their free time, the team, which mostly consists of Asian players, often visits Chinatown for food at different restaurants.
“As you can see with this team, 80 percent of us are Asian,” Jamie said. “We go eat a lot of food. We make a connection there. Good food brings people together.”
For a team as diverse as Temple Women’s Tennis, such a high-level of camaraderie can be attributed to not only the athletes but the recruiting process.
Mauro and Girsang each have a say in where Temple will recruit their women’s players each offseason, but the quality of character is a hard aspect to recruit. Temple has still found a way to successfully recruit both good tennis players
and good people.
Now it’s time for the long spring season ahead. The Owls recently won 7-0 against both St. Francis Brooklyn (0-6, 0-0 The Northeast Conference) and Wagner (0-2, 0-0 The Northeast) to make them 3-1 on the young season so far.
The Wei sisters, Uchijima and Kulhava have many matches ahead in the near future, but they are taking each competition one at a time.
“Honestly, I would love us to win the championship,” Jamie said. “But it’s one round at a time.”
nicholas.gangewere@temple.edu @nick_gang16
The Owls started the season 1-5 but have built momentum during their past two meets.
BY DECLAN LANDISAfter head coach Josh Nilson described the 2022 season as an “up-anddown season with a lot of highlights,” Temple Gymnastics entered the 2023 season last month looking to capitalize off the momentum of their third-place finish in the East Athletic Gymnastics League Conference Championships.
After a 1-4 start to the season, they’ve managed to achieve that momentum. The team secured four-straight victories within the last three weeks, including a win against EAGL-rival Long Island during the Green Meet at McGonigle Hall on Jan. 20.
The team started the season with the goal of qualifying for regionals. Last year’s 17-12 (2-4 EAGL) finish saw graduate Julianna Roland and junior Brooke Donabedian compete in the NCAA Tournament Regionals. Roland is seeking more for her team this season, pushing her teammates to compete for the top spot in the conference and beyond.
“I think my personal goal is to con-
CONTINUED FROM 24 TEMPLE ATHLETICS
“I remember when I was on the Temple Ultimate Frisbee team here,” Farrell said. “They sent me a tweet that said we are having open auditions for the InGame Host. I thought it was good, but I wasn’t sure if I should do it or not. On my way to class, I was debating whether I should go to this audition or if I go to class. I ended up going to the audition.”
Although he did not memorize the audition script, Scott Walcoff, Temple Athletics’ senior associate athletic director and external operations, was immediately impressed with Farrell’s energy.
“I saw very raw talent,” Walcoff said. “Lee has improved tenfold through the years that he has done this role. At the beginning we saw someone who wasn’t
tribute in every way that I can for the team to go to regionals,” Roland said. “I think that coming from last year, we already have such a big group of girls that bring so much strength to the team. I think that them just being here is going to help tremendously.”
In Temple’s first two meets, the Owls faced quality opponents, including one in EAGL rival, Pittsburgh. At the Keystone Classic on Jan. 6, Temple placed third with 194.225 total points, finishing behind Pitt (195.950 points) and Penn State (195.475), but ahead of Penn (193.525).
On Jan. 15, the Owls traveled to face New Hampshire and Central Michigan in the New Hampshire Meet, where they fell to both teams 194.475-193,200 and 194.100-193.200 respectively.
These two meets served as a learning experience for a Temple team that includes eight freshmen. However, Nilson believes tough losses like these must happen so the team can continue to grow.
“It makes you more patient,” Nilson said.
The patience preached by Nilson paid off five days after the New Hampshire Meet. At the Owls’ first home meet of the season, they scored 193.650
shy, who’s willing to get out there and who loves Temple and will be willing to get out there and be hyped about games.”
Along with his energy, Farrell is known for his personality. Before every game, he makes sure to welcome and fistbump as many people as he can. Whether he greets security guards, the DJ, the marketing staff, reporters or fans, he wants to get everyone excited for the game and fuel the energy in the arena.
“Even if a game goes into double overtime, while we are leaving he will say goodbye to everyone,” said Jerry Khalins, a spirit squad member. “It always motivates everyone around him to be a better person.”
Farrell’s greetings are just the beginning of his typical game day routine. He always makes sure to hydrate after arriv-
points, outscoring LIU (192.875), Cornell (191.450) and Bridgeport (191.225).
Two weeks later, Temple beat Yale 194.950-193.600 in New Haven, Connecticut, to bring its record above .500 for the first time this season. During the meet in New Haven, Temple scored their highest point total of the season due in part to their season-highs in the vault and floor. Six of the Owls’ 13 event wins this season were secured at that meet.
The Owls had several key contributors for each event throughout the run, including Roland and Donabedian, who have a combined three event wins.
Sophomores Sarah and Hannah Stallings won five events combined, with Sarah winning on the bars at Pitt, New Hampshire and Yale. Hannah won the beam event of the Green Meet and all-around at New Hampshire.
Despite being in her first season at the collegiate level, freshman Ashley Glynn is tied for the most event wins on the team, earning two victories on the vault and one on the bars.
While the first two meets were challenging, the most recent have been a reminder to the team to maintain their confidence.
“We’ve grown so much as a program,” said senior Madison Brooks.
ing at The Liacouras Center an hour and a half early. Then, he discusses the game script, promotions and special celebrity appearances with Walcoff and his staff, and makes sure to listen to songs, like “pushin P” by Gunna and Future.
During his tenure with Temple Athletics, Farrell has improved his memorization, creativity and improvisational skills, learning what the Temple crowd enjoys. As he transitions into his new position with the 76ers, he will need to learn and accommodate a larger audience. Farrell hopes to try something new every game, whether it is a new dance move or phrase to hype up the crowd, he said.
Although Farrell’s time at Temple is nearing an end, he has set the standards high for the next in-game host. Whether it is a funny dance or the smile he places
“We’ve won conference championships, broken records, and made our goals bigger and bigger. But we haven’t gotten to our full potential yet.”
As Temple’s season continues, they look to build off the last two meets and try to move up the EAGL standings.
With this newfound momentum and balanced attack, they defeated No. 23 North Carolina State 195.300-194.775 and No. 36 Pitt 195.300-195.275 despite falling to No. 30 Towson 196.375195.300 at the Towson Meet on Feb. 10. This second-place finish capitalized on a lot of the energy around the team, and they look to continue that momentum entering the George Washington Meet Feb. 17 against North Carolina, Yale and George Washington.
declan.landis@temple.edu @declanlandis
on fans’ faces, Farrell is the epitome of “Temple Proud.”
Now, Temple will need to find their next vibrant in-game host, but they know Farrell leaves big shoes to fill.
“We’re going to miss not having him here for every game,” Walcoff said. “But certainly we’re very appreciative of the work he’s done and proud that he is a Temple Owl. I’m really excited to see where his career takes him.”
christopher.duong0001@temple.edu
Lee Farrell began working as Temple Athletics’ in-game host in 2018, but his personality has helped him become a notable figure in the Temple sports community.
BY CHRIS DUONG Sports Social Media ManagerWhen Temple fans hear the name Lee Farrell, many think of his energy, dances, smile and personality while performing as the in-game host at Temple University’s Football and Basketball games. Farrell’s 14 years of performance experience has made him a well-known figure in the Temple sports community since 2018.
After more than four years with Temple Athletics, plus a year working remotely, Farrell will be spreading his wings and leaving North Broad to head down to the Wells Fargo Center on Feb. 10 as the new in-game host of the Philadelphia 76ers.
“I have my debut game coming up,” Farrell said ahead of his Feb. 10 appearance at Wells Fargo. “I’m learning a lot and I’m just getting a lot more experience and I just can’t wait to see how the future games pan out, but I’m pumped.”
Farrell, a 2020 media studies and production alumnus, participated in TUTV and Temple’s ultimate frisbee team. He started his performance career in middle school, performing in plays and shows. When Farrell turned 13, he transitioned to the film industry, acting in the movie Marley & Me, and promotional commercials for
Chickie’s and Pete’s, Radioshack and Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Farrell’s various performance experiences helped him land an audition to be Temple Athletics’ host in 2018.
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