Issue 23

TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017 VOL. 95 ISS. 23

A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921.

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WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Season ends in NCAA tourney Temple fell to Oregon in its first tournament appearance since 2011.

By MAURA RAZANAUSKAS Women’s Basketball Beat Reporter

D

URHAM, NORTH CAROLINA — After the buzzer sounded following Temple’s first round NCAA tournament game, senior guard Feyonda Fitzgerald crouched down on the

court at Cameron Indoor Stadium, overcome with emotion as she tried to hold back tears.

The Owls had just lost 71-70 to the University of Oregon. The team’s season ended with Fitzgerald’s last-second layup attempt getting blocked at the buzzer.

Fitzgerald and her fellow seniors — center Safiya Martin and forwards Ruth Sherrill and Monasia Bolduc — played in Temple’s first NCAA tournament game since 2011, but couldn’t have another deep postseason run after reaching the quarterfinals of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament in 2016 and the semifinals in 2015.

For Fitzgerald and Martin,

who both spent four years at Temple, this game was tangible proof of the program’s growth.

“You work hard throughout the year, each year,” Fitzgerald said. “Throughout the summer we held each other accountable and did what we had to do to get better as individuals and as a team collectively. It so happened we got better over the years and were able to make the NCAA Tournament this year.”

In Fitzgerald and Martin’s freshman season, the Owls finished with a losing record for the first time in 11 years. They finished the 2013-14 season with

NCAA | PAGE 13

BRIANNA SPAUSE/THE TEMPLE NEWS Senior forward Ruth Sherrill collects a rebound in Temple’s 71-70 loss to the University of Oregon in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina.

PART TWO

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Our series on how the athletes of five eliminated Division I programs took different paths.

Board raises room and board, changes academics They also approved landscaping changes to Founder’s Garden.

By JULIE CHRISTIE & GILLIAN MCGOLDRICK For The Temple News

GENEVA HEFFERNAN/THE TEMPLE NEWS Former Division I men’s track & field athlete Joseph Sulon helped keep the sport alive at Temple by starting a club team.

Cut programs continue as clubs When their programs were cut, athletes found new ways to compete.

By OWEN MCCUE & EVAN EASTERLING The Temple News

NO PLACE TO GO After Temple’s 2013-14 sports cuts, unlike some of the baseball and softball players, Misha Kustin — currently a senior on the men’s gymnastics club and a former Division I gymnast — and coach Fred Turoff didn’t have the option to leave Temple for another gymnastics program.

Turoff had roots in the city that made it difficult to suddenly relocate.

His wife, Diane Eigner, couldn’t move because of her nearby cat veterinary practice. Their son, Evan Eigner, was a sophomore at Temple on the gymnastics team before he transferred to Ohio State University.

Turoff competed for Temple from

1966-69 and represented the U.S. in several international competitions, including the 1970 World Gymnastic Championships, before he began his tenure as the Owls’ coach in 1976.

Even if Turoff had been able to relocate, there weren’t many jobs available in men’s gymnastics, he said.

There were 234 men’s varsity programs in 1969 and 138 when Turoff began coaching. For the 2017 season, only 15 schools sponsor men’s gymnastics at the Division I level and only one at the Division III level, according to USA Gymnastics. Turoff said Temple’s club team is the only collegiate men’s program in Pennsylvania

The Board of Trustees approved sweeping changes to academic programs and departments at Temple, and an uptick in housing costs in its meeting on March 14.

The Board also approved two separate student housing contracts with Beech International and The Edge.

The Board unanimously appointed former provost Hai LungDai to a new role as the vice president of international affairs, which he will assume on July 1. Dai was fired in June by former president Neil Theobald, whom he later sued for defamation and slander.

The Board also approved the

moving of Tuttleman Counseling Services and Student Health Services to larger spaces in 1700 N. Broad Street. Student Health Services will use almost $1 million for the relocation, which is set to be complete by January 2018. Tuttleman will move in August, which will cost about $250,000.

HOUSING The Board approved a master lease contract with Beech International to keep Beech International Village an on-campus housing option for students through 2021.

The contract is for 201 beds in the building and the rental costs will rise 3 percent every year.

A leasing contract with the owners of The Edge was also approved, for 764 beds on the 2nd through 8th floors of the building to be used by University Housing and Residential Life for 2017-18.

BOARD | PAGE 3

TSG

TSG campaigns begin for Executive, Parliament

Antone Wright’s grandmother Mary introduced him to gymnastics when he was 6 years old. At first, he said he cried every day.

Around age 10 or 11, he began to develop his strength and became willing to try any skill. He said he was “a wild child,” a “kid in a candy shop.”

Wright, now a senior on the men’s gymnastics club team, joined Temple’s Division I roster as a freshman in 2013 to continue the sport for which he had a passion.

After Temple’s sports cuts went into effect on July 1, 2014, many baseball and softball players left Temple to continue their playing careers, The Temple News previously reported.

The story was different for the athletes on the men’s gymnastics and men’s track & field teams. Only one men’s gymnast and two of the seven freshmen on the men’s track & field team transferred to compete elsewhere.

Some athletes who stayed, however, have a found a new way to compete.

EVAN EASTERLING/THE TEMPLE NEWS Evan Salters, a freshman international business major who competes on the rings and parallel bars, rubs chalk on his fingers during practice on Dec. 16 in Pearson 143.

NEWS | PAGES 2-3, 6

OPINION | PAGES 4-5

FEATURES | PAGES 7-12

SPORTS | PAGES 13-16

The search for a dean for the Beasley School of Law has so far produced three candidates. Read more on Page 7.

Our columnist argues that involuntary addiction treatment tramples on individual rights.

Read more on Page 4.

A center offers free services and support to young adults preparing to leave foster care. Read more on Page 7.

The crew and rowing teams have settled into the recently renovated East Park Canoe House. Read more on Page 16.

The two teams will debate twice before students vote on April 4th and 5th.

CUTS | PAGE 14

By AMANDA LIEN TSG Beat Reporter Two teams are running against each other to represent Temple Student Government next year. TSG announced the candidates, Activate TU and Connecting TU, in Monday’s general assembly meeting. Activate TU’s team has two members from this year’s Executive Branch on it.

Tyrell Mann-Barnes, who is running for president of Activate TU and is TSG’s current director of Campus Life and Diversity, said he didn’t want to talk for students, but rather allow students with different

experiences to have a say in student government.

“I’ve always been adamant about advocating for people, and this finally gives me the platform to work with two amazing women and do the same thing,” he said.

Mann-Barnes will run with Kayla Martin, candidate for vice president of internal services and current TSG Auditor General, and Paige Hill, candidate for vice president of external affairs.

Ari Abramson, who is running for president of Connecting TU said he wants to improve “core issues” by working with school leaders. Abramson is running with Dalia Al-Bataineh, candidate for vice president of internal services and current Fox School of Business representative for Parliament, and Shiven Shah, candidate for vice 32 percent of the vote.

ELECTIONS | PAGE 6

NEWS

PAGE 2

TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017

TSG

Parliament proposes on-campus recovery housing The program includes resources for students in recovery from a substance use disorder.

By NENSEH KONEH For The Temple News Freshman neuroscience major Kat, who declined to give her last name because of the stigma surrounding addiction, was part of Drexel University’s recovery housing before she transferred to Temple.

“If there is a presence of sober students living in residential recovery that are not afraid or ashamed to admit that they used drugs, it could inspire other students to get clean and start doing what they can to keep themselves healthy and safe,” Kat said.

She was one of many students that spoke to The Temple News in January about the university’s need for recovery housing. Since then, Temple Student Government Parliament introduced a program to create on-campus recovery housing for students battling addiction and substance use disorder. The program is not yet passed by Parliament, which means that neither TSG nor the university have begun exploring the topic.

The recovery housing program was proposed by George Basile, Parliament’s junior class representative.

Basile and David Holloman, director of chronic homelessness for the city, met off-campus on March 13 to discuss ideas for the program like statistics of the addiction crises faced in Philadelphia, and how Temple could be leading the way with this particular crisis when the recovery housing program is officially put into full effect.

“I have a few relatives who work in behavioral health, also my own father is in his own recovery,” Basile said. “There are also other schools that have recovery housing, including Drexel and Penn State, and this had been proven to be a more effective route for continuing recovery.”

The program is expected to work with students for however long it is necessary for them to seek treatment during their college career.

“This housing [would] serve to anyone who’s already in their recovery,” Basile said.

Students would still need to apply through regular university housing channels before going through an interview process to qualify for the program.

Anthony Henderson, who represents the College of Education in Parliament, supports the program.

“College is a very challenging time for many students, and recovery housing offers an opportunity for students who are struggling to still be on a college campus and get that experience, but do it in a safe and moni-

BRIANNA SPAUSE/THE TEMPLE NEWS George Basile, the junior class representative in Parliament, proposed the Recovery Housing Bill, which would make sober housing in residence halls an option for students.

tored environment,” Henderson said.

Although the Healthy Lifestyle Living Learning Community caters to some people in recovery, the recovery housing program is designed to be more engaging. It would pro-

vide mandatory group therapy and on-site counselors and therapists for residents. Resident assistants would also be required to undergo emergency intervention training. “[Temple’s] administration has

been very proactive in investigating and exploring the avenues for which we would implement the initiative for the program,” Basile said.

Some students said they were hesitant about the Recovery Housing Program coming to the university.

“I think it’s problematic in the sense that some kids don’t feel comfortable letting other kids know that they even have a problem,” said Tariq Kanu, a freshman theater, film and media arts major. “You living on that floor is like a huge bullhorn to everyone saying, ‘I have a problem.’”

“Putting those kids in a confined space that’s separate from everyone else, while it is beneficial in some ways, I think part of growth is re-acclimating to society and knowing what you have to do in the future, because you’re not always going to be living with that group of people,” said LaRae Joelle, a freshman psychology major.

But Kanu agreed the housing program could help students in their long-term recovery from addiction.

“For the most part, I think that it’s a really cool idea to create the recovery housing program,” Kanu said.

“It’s a great approach to give the students the assistance that they need.’” nenshehalexiskoneh@temple.edu Meghan Costa contributed reporting.

ADMINISTRATION

Beasley eyes 3 prospects for deanship, including interim The school has called for “non-traditional” candidates to apply.

By JACOB GARNJOST, HADIYAH WEAVER & GILLIAN MCGOLDRICK The Temple News KIERAN LYONS FILE PHOTO A student fills a beverage at Morgan Hall in December 2016.

University revising meal plan After criticism from the city, Temple retracted its estimated meal plan increase as a result of the sugary beverage tax.

By JULIE CHRISTIE News Editor The university will rework its proposed meal plan costs for 2017-18 after a Philadelphia spokesperson chastised Temple for using the city’s sugary beverage tax as a “scapegoat” for rising costs.

The Inquirer reported last week that the tax would cost the university $400,000 per semester and that the Board of Trustees voted March 14 to increase room and board rates by 4.8 percent as a direct result.

The Board voted to increase student housing rates by 2.9 percent for the 2017-18 academic year.

There was nothing on the meeting agenda that detailed an increase in meal plan costs, but agenda references were not supplied to the public for the phone meeting.

“The beverage tax is becoming a popular scapegoat for unpopular decisions,” spokesperson for Mayor Jim Kenney, Lauren Hitt, told the Inquirer. “Universities across the country have been raising meal-plan fees because families are increasingly chafing at tuition increases, and universities still want to pay for their ever-growing administrative salaries and new, expensive buildings and amenities.”

Hitt added that the university had raised its meal plan prices by 4.3 percent in 2014 and 2.5 percent in 2015.

The university issued a statement a day after the Board’s meeting saying it would review the price hike before implementing new meal plan costs.

News Desk 215-204-7419 news@temple-news.com

“In the wake of the Board’s action [March 14], the City and Mayor Kenney have appropriately raised valid concerns about the accuracy of the numbers related to the impact of the soda tax on Temple students,” the statement read.

According to the statement, $68, or 4.7 percent of the proposed $1,444 a student would pay for a minimum meal plan, would pay for the soda tax.

“The university enthusiastically supports the Mayor’s program to expand quality pre-K opportunities for children in Philadelphia,” the statement continued. “Its objective is directly in line with Temple’s mission to make a quality education accessible to every child.”

It is not known if any change in meal plan costs is a result of the university’s new contract with Aramark as food service provider or the July 2016 contract with Coca-Cola as Temple’s beverage distributor.

In December 2016, Michael Scales, Temple’s associate vice president for business services, told The Temple News that the university was working with Aramark to figure out how the price of meal plans would change after the tax.

In a later interview with The Temple News, Scales said the structure of meal plans could change with Aramark as well.

Scales said in January that there will not be much “demonstrable change” in the first year of the contract because Temple and Aramark “want stability.” He said students will notice the most widespread changes from Aramark begin in Fall 2018.

The tax came into effect on Jan. 1 and will be used to support public early childhood education, recreation programs, libraries and community schools. julie.christie@temple.edu @ChristieJules

The search for a new Beasley School of Law dean includes three candidates so far to replace former dean, JoAnne Epps, who is now the university’s provost.

The candidates announced so far are University of Virginia professor A. Benjamin Spencer, Vice Dean of Emory University’s School of Law Robert Ahdieh and Beasley’s interim dean Gregory Mandel.

The school’s call for a new dean specifically invited people of “non-traditional backgrounds” to apply for the position, Epps said.

“Temple is a welcoming and inviting place historically,” she added. “We have been very proud of the fact that we are an inclusive campus. It simply makes clear our invitation of applicants who may not think of themselves as traditional.”

Law students and faculty were able to meet Spencer in early March when he visited Main Campus. Spencer told The Temple News he was interested in Temple because of its outward commitment to social justice, accessibility and diversity. Though Spencer said he commends the diversity of Temple’s student body, he thinks the law school needs to further diversify its staff.

“That’s kind of common, unfortunately, across law school faculty,” Spencer said. He added that universities are combatting the issue with a visiting assistant professor program, which is an entrylevel program for people interested in teaching law.

Spencer said this would be good way to target potential professors who could bring diversity to the law school.

But deanships across the university are most often filled by white men, making the law school’s call for non-traditional applicants more unique. Of Temple’s 17 schools and colleges, the Tyler School of Art and the College of Public Health are the only schools with a female dean, one

of whom is an interim dean. Most of the university’s deans are white.

Richard Deeg was the most recent dean appointment at Temple. He was selected to head the College of Liberal Arts.

After taking the position in late September, he sat down with The Temple News and discussed the university’s diversity problem in deanships.

“The most important thing is to have good deans,” Deeg said. “The mostly white men as deans reflects long patterns that existed for decades where underrepresented groups aren’t getting into college at the same rates or graduating at the same rates, obviously it’s a broader social problem.”

“What happens when you say, ‘Let’s do a dean search’ is you have candidates, the pool tends to be heavily weighted toward white men,” Deeg added. “The problem is getting more people into that level where they’re in that candidate pool who are there to be hired as deans. It’s a problem that really has to start at the K-12 level ... so at each stage of this career process we need to do more to promote people of color so they move up in the ranks and are in a position to become a dean.”

Third-year law student Miranda Bullard attended the early-March meeting with Spencer. Bullard said although she will graduate this spring, the school’s dean choice is important to her.

“Even as an alumna, it feels really important to have a say in shaping where the law school is going to go in the future,” Bullard said.

Ahdieh held an open meeting with students and alumni on Monday evening and will attend several meetings with law students and faculty on Tuesday. Mandel will hold an open meeting for students on Wednesday in Moot Court from 5 to 6 p.m. for students and alumni, as well as attend several meetings with students and faculty on Thursday. The schedules for their visits are posted in TUPortal.

“I can say right now that we have been very pleased with the breadth and depth of the applicant pool,” Epps said. news@temple-news.com @TheTempleNews Julie Christie contributed reporting.

temple-news.com @thetemplenews

NEWS

TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017

PAGE 3

RESEARCH

Engineers research green structure along interstate The findings for the research could influence future PennDOT projects.

By NOAH TANEN Research Beat Reporter The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s construction to Interstate-95 requires new ways to deal with stormwater runoff, and Temple plans to help develop more sustainable, sanitary methods for construction.

The project, by the College of Engineering in conjunction with Villanova University, is helping PennDOT develop green stormwater infrastructure to avoid flooding and reduce pollutant and sewage contamination.

There are seven professors, one post-doctoral student, one graduate student and several undergraduate students who are a part of the research at Temple.

Erica McKenzie, a civil and environmental engineering professor, researches pollutant transport in the environment and plans to lend her expertise to the interstate project.

While Villanova is researching the effects of water quantity, Temple is focusing on water quality and plant health as it relates to the construction, McKenzie said.

In Philadelphia, some sewers combine stormwater infrastructure and sanitary infrastructure in one pipe.

“When we have a big rain event, there is the potential of releasing un-

treated sewage into the adjacent waterways, and that’s really not healthy,” McKenzie said.

The goal of the project is to reintegrate water naturally, as it would have been integrated before urban development, she added.

“One of the challenges you see in an very urban landscape is you’ve paved over a lot of the surface, and that limits the amount of water that

can infiltrate into the ground,” McKenzie said.

Josh Caplan, a research project manager for the Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture, said that the project aims to imitate how soil absorbs water. “[It will] slow the pace at which water enters the pipe network and gives the water alternate pathways of movement,” Caplan said.

Implementation of the project would “be effective in managing stormwater, have social value and improve the environment more generally,” Caplan added.

Benoit Van Aken, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, said besides mitigating stormwater runoff, green stormwater infrastructure is thought to have a “positive effect on water quality.”

Caplan said he collaborates with McKenzie and other researchers to determine how plants can filter metals out of water before it moves deeper into the ground or into the network of stormwater pipes.

“There are some other big benefits of green infrastructure,” Caplan said. “These include cooling the heatabsorbing surfaces that are so common in cities, providing habitat for small creatures like butterflies and other critters we might not be so interested in … improving human health, increasing property values and so on.”

The graduate and undergraduate students involved in the project go out to the researching sites and collect samples to analyze in the lab.

“This is a fairly early time in the project,” McKenzie said. “It only got started a couple months ago, but we’re already looking through more data and trying to understand what it is telling us and what the expected trends are going to be. … One of the strengths of the project is being able to look at the performance of these stormwater management practices over a longer time.”

The project will run through June 2018, but the construction by PennDOT along the I-95 corridor will continue for the next 20 years.

Though areas are being actively researched already, the entire scope of the project continues to grow as Temple is working to find new areas to examine, McKenzie said. noah.tanen@temple.edu

BRIANNA SPAUSE/THE TEMPLE NEWS Erica McKenzie, a civil and environmental engineering professor, looks at a design for green stormwater infrastructure along Interstate-95.

Continued from Page 1

BOARD By adding these housing options, the university will fill the needs for on-campus housing left by the closure of Peabody Residence Hall, said Associate Vice President of Finance and Administration Bill Wilkinson last week at a Facilities Committee meeting.

ACADEMICS The Board approved a name change for the School of Media and Communication to the Lew Klein College of Media and Communication in honor of Lew Klein, who taught at Temple for more than 60 years and is the namesake of the Lew Klein Excellence in the Media awards.

The renaming comes after a multi-million dollar donation from Klein and his wife Janet, as well as donations from trustees Steve Charles and H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest and his wife.

“Lewis Klein is an outstanding friend of Temple University and to have a college named after him is well deserved,” Board Chairman Patrick O’Connor said. “I think it’s well overdue.”

The school will also rename several of its departments.

The Board’s approved changes to school programs included a restructuring of all Bachelor of Science programs in the College of Engineering. It also approved the creation of master’s programs in the College of Liberal Arts, College of Science and Technology and College of Education. The Board approved a restructuring of the Master of Music Education in the Boyer College of Music and Dance.

Some curricula in the College of Public Health and Fox School of Business and Management were restructured or terminated. Fox and CPH added seven and four programs, respectively.

Joseph Marshall, trustee and chair of the Academic Affairs Committee, said the changes were to better satisfy accreditation requirements.

FACILITIES Founder’s Garden and Polett Walk were approved $2.9 million for improve-

ments. Dozie Ibeh, the associate vice president of Temple’s Project Delivery Group, told The Temple News the area of Founder’s Garden will be redesigned to become more “open,” with more outdoor seating areas for students and a waterfall feature.

The Board also approved an increase in funding of $568,000 for the underconstruction Student Health and Wellness Center set to open in Fall 2017. The SHWC was originally budgeted at more than $28 million to build, but CPH, which will have classrooms in the new facility, needs more advanced technology that was not reported to Temple’s Project Delivery Group, Ibeh said during last week’s facilities meeting.

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T H E U N I V E RS I TY O F S C R A N TO N

STATEMENTS Student Body President Aron Cowen emphasized to the Board the importance of academic freedom and civil discourse.

He condemned the banning of speech on college campuses.

“I want to take a minute to reiterate the importance of academic freedom and discourse,” Cowen said. “Universities are sacred places where, more than any other place, the market of ideas should flourish.”

Cowen told The Temple News after the meeting that he has been working with the provost’s office and others in the hopes of getting the university to “formally reiterate that [free speech] is what we stand for.”

He said other colleges around the country have signed promises to protect on-campus free speech like the Chicago Free Speech Statement, which is a formal commitment from the University of Chicago.

Last week’s meeting was held via a conference call due to a snowstorm that hit the Northeast. President Richard Englert and Faculty Senate President Michael Sachs deferred their reports until the next board meeting to be held in May. All of the items approved on the conference call will be reapproved in-person at the next Board meeting. news@temple-news.com @TheTempleNews

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Interact with this story at temple-news.com/news to see more on the changes in housing prices and academic programs.

News Desk 215-204-7419 news@temple-news.com

OPINION

PAGE 4

TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017

LEGISLATION

A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921.

Joe Brandt Editor-in-Chief Paige Gross Managing Editor Michaela Winberg Supervising Editor Julie Christie News Editor Jenny Roberts Opinion Editor

The Temple News is an editorially independent weekly publication serving the Temple University community.

Emily Scott Features Editor Owen McCue Sports Editor Gillian McGoldrick Asst. News Editor Evan Easterling Asst. Sports Editor Grace Shallow Deputy Features Editor Erin Moran Deputy Features Editor Linh Than Multimedia Editor Abbie Lee Multimedia Editor

Adjacent commentary is reflective of their authors, not The Temple News.

Tom Lee Web Manager Donna Fanelle Web Designer Brianna Spause Photography Editor Geneva Heffernan Asst. Photography Editor Finnian Saylor Design Editor Courtney Redmon Designer Sasha Lasakow Designer Jeanie Davey Business & Marketing Manager

Unsigned editorial content represents the opinion of The Temple News.

Visit us online at temple-news.com.

Send submissions to letters@temple-news.com.

The Temple News is located at: Student Center, Room 243 1755 N. 13th St. Philadelphia, PA 19122

EDITORIALS

Cost increase concerning Temple should consider affordability when discussing proposed room and board costs.

Last week, the Board of Trustees proposed a 4.8 percent room and board cost increase for the 2017-18 year, citing the city’s sugary beverage tax as an additional expense for students’ meal plans.

After scrutiny from the city, the university said it will reconsider the figure.

“The beverage tax is becoming a popular scapegoat for unpopular decisions,” Mayor Jim Kenney’s spokesperson Lauren Hitt told the Inquirer. She added that Temple, like other Philadelphia institutions, has raised prices for students consistently in recent years “to pay for their ever-growing administrative salaries and new, expensive buildings and amenities.”

We recognize university costs increase annually, but a 4.8 percent increase is steep compared to previous years. We’re glad Temple is re-evaluating how much to charge students for its services.

It shouldn’t take a scolding from the city for the university to consider its financial impact on students.

Freshmen who live on campus are required to have a meal plan, which will cost $1,444 next year for the minimum required

number of meals, according to the university’s statement. The statement also explained that $68 of that amount will go toward the $400,000 per semester that the university predicts the sugary beverage tax will add to expenses.

This price hike comes after an announcement that Peabody Hall — the former cheapest housing option for freshmen — will not be available to students next year.

We recognize the university has to make a profit. Temple’s chief financial officer Ken Kaiser told the Board in 2014 that the goal is to “make housing profitable by 2018.”

But profitability cannot be valued more than affordability for students.

Temple should consider cutting spending on sugary drinks at dining halls or not forcing all freshmen in residence halls to purchase 10 meals a week, offering students more flexibility and cutting down on what the university pays in sugary drink taxes.

Administrators ought to remember Temple’s mission to remain accessible to students each time they consider raising costs.

Board should disclose more The Board of Trustees should provide disclosure of possible conflicts of interest.

The Temple News asked the Board of Trustees to disclose the list of business, charitable and other relationships the trustees hold that may present a conflict of interest. Trustees are required to provide this list to the Board so that they may avoid ethical issues in university dealings.

This type of oversight is encouraging because it tells us that the Board cares about being ethical.

When we asked for those records, we were denied. We are discouraged because it tells us that the Board does not want to be transparent.

Those records are essential to ensuring that we can do our job and hold the powerful people in our university accountable. We don’t have an agenda to fulfill with this information,

and we aren’t looking for personal information like addresses or home phone numbers.

Releasing conflict of interest information to the public would allow students and taxpayers to ensure that an institution they fund is acting ethically.

A Board representative said the records are not required to be disclosed under state law.

However, they aren’t legally prevented from disclosing them.

What troubles us is the university’s reluctance to disclose that information, especially when Temple would benefit from full disclosure of information in order to create faith between it and the rest of the community.

CORRECTIONS An article that ran on March 7 on Page 2, with the headline “College of Public Health alters repetition policy,” misstated Jennifer Ibrahim’s involvement with CPH’s new rules on course repetition.

She did not devise the policy, but implements it.

An article that ran on March 7 on Page 8, with the headline “High school students teach educators,” misstated the length of the program and who participates. The program operates all year long and participants are mainly high school students. It was misstated that program facilitators are volunteers; they are paid. Nick Palazzolo’s name was also misspelled.

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 Joe Brandt at editor@ temple-news.com or 215-204-6737. letters@temple-news.com

Forced treatment helps no one Involuntary treatment for people suffering from addiction violates individual rights.

I

n Pennsylvania, addictions to opioids like heroin have garnered attention recently as overdose deaths have increased.

From 2014 to 2015 the number of drug-related overdose deaths in the state rose 23.4 percent — to a total of 3,383 deaths in 2015, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Data for 2016 hasn’t been released yet, but the outlook is not much better.

In an attempt to curb this epidemic, state legislators from both political parties are looking to institute legislation for addiction treatment.

ADRIAN CORBEY One bill proposed by Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa in February would allow family members of someone struggling with addiction to petition to commit them to a rehabilitation program against their will. Following the approval of a physician and a court hearing, the person would be taken to a treatment facility. Another bill Rep. Matt Baker, the Health Committee chairman, plans to propose would mandate that after being hospitalized for an overdose, a person would then be required to be admitted into treatment.

The American Civil Liberties Union has already raised concerns about Costa’s bill and the possible violation of personal rights — and rightfully so.

Forced admission to a rehabilitation facility for those struggling with a drug addiction, as proposed in both Costa’s and Baker’s bills, is a misguided approach to a pressing issue. Effectively criminalizing people with a disease is not the appropriate avenue to treat those afflicted. The widespread problems created by addiction are undeni-

able, but we cannot address them at the cost of individual rights.

“The approach raises troubling legal issues,” said Jeffrey Boles, a legal studies professor. “When you are committing someone against his or her will and forcing them essentially on a medical regime to take drugs that the patient may not want to take, that raises concerning constitutional questions: the right to one’s personal liberty, the right to one’s privacy.”

Individual rights can’t be forfeited, even if the intentions of lawmakers and family members may be good. Our current system of voluntary commitment to a rehabilitation facility and subsequent medical regime is more advantageous to those in need of help then any compulsory measure could be.

“You can’t just lock people up because you think it’s a good idea,” said Devin Reaves, a clinical outreach coordinator for Life of Purpose, an organization that focuses on education centered addiction recovery and has given talks about addiction issues on campus.

“The research on compulsory treatment is mixed at best,” Reaves added. “A high percentage of people who overdose do accept help afterwards, and if they want to get people into treatment there are other ways aside from trampling people’s civil rights.”

Costa’s bill states that involuntary commitment can only occur when a physician declares a patient in “imminent danger,” meaning a patient poses a threat to themselves or others.

This classification is problematic because it leaves the fate of patients up to the discretion of individual physicians.

“How can a physician decide whether someone with an addiction is a danger to himself, herself, others?”

Boles said. “How does that application play out? What are its parameters?”

Legislation that essentially incarcerates people suffering from addiction also further stigmatizes addiction in our society and makes it less likely for those struggling to voluntarily reach out for help.

A person who experiences an overdose, or sees someone experienc-

ing one, potentially may not go to the hospital to seek help in the moment in an effort to avoid being taken away to a care facility. And because of this hesitation, people may die.

“This is more of the same kind of law-and-order logic applied to treatment, and that’s just not what treatment is,” Reaves said. “You can’t force anybody into treatment. It’s just not the way things work.”

In other countries around the globe we are seeing very different approaches to assisting those with addiction. Whether it’s clean needle exchange programs in Europe or Australia, or the distribution of safe, prescription heroin by the Canadian government.

Perhaps Pennsylvania lawmakers should consider implementing needle exchanges, which provide free, clean needles and syringes to those who inject drugs to prevent the spread of diseases, as well as continuing to provide naloxone, a medication that blocks opioid effects during an overdose. Gov. Tom Wolf asked the state legislature to approve $10 million in his budget to increase access to the medication. These initiatives would help those suffering from addiction until they are ready to ask for the help they need.

This way, the trust between the population suffering from addiction and the medical community is maintained, and people know government officials aren’t going to deprive them of their rights to curtail addiction in society.

Whether addiction is reason enough to strip someone of their inalienable rights has not yet been clearly defined in any federal law or statute, but that does not mean the answer is unclear.

A person suffering from addiction is not a criminal and should not be treated as such. We need to tell people struggling with addiction that we stand by them, and they can come and receive effective and appropriate treatment whenever they need it. adrian.nathaniel.corbey@temple.edu

MEDIA

Students: stop blaming ‘the media’ Students should seek out reputable news sources to stay informed.

B

efore I log onto Facebook or Twitter, I prepare myself for the excess of people who share posts blaming “the media” for any information they might find disagreeable. I watch as my peers use “the media” as a blanket term for all media organizations, instead of recognizing there are some news sources that are more reputable than others.

Students should realize that many journalists work to inform the public without the intention of promoting an agenda in their reporting. Ultimately, students need to JAYNA SCHAFFER know that they are responsible for separating the trustworthy news outlets from the less trustworthy to stay informed about current events and policy decisions.

Visiting journalism professor Todd Brewster said he encounters many students who have grown to distrust news media.

“I’m disturbed by the number of students who throw their hands up in the air and say, ‘Everything is fake, everything is manipulated, the news is just a collection of falsehoods that are strung together to try to manipulate you,’” Brewster said.

It is problematic to have a generation of college students — many of whom are about to enter the workforce — reject information from so many news media outlets. If students think

journalists are out to get them, where will they go to learn about parts of the world they cannot witness with their own eyes?

Maria Zisi, a junior chemistry and legal studies major, told me she thinks some articles have some truth, but that the majority are biased or manipulative.

“It just kind of depends on the biases of the people writing the articles, not so truthful as much as opinionated,” Zisi said.

Reputable reporters are trained to tell stories exclusively using hard facts.

Of course, journalists are human beings with natural biases and are susceptible to errors, but this is not the default mode for reporters.

“They all have points of view,” Brewster said. “It’s what you bring to the story, how you see the story with your pair of eyes. It doesn’t mean that you turn around and want to manipulate somebody with it. It’s just what you pick up versus what somebody else might pick up, and that’s the nature of journalism.”

“I think [reporters] like to cause hysteria and the divide between whatever they might be going after, whether it’s religion, race, anything you can think of,” Zisi said. “They just want their opinion out there.”

It saddens me as an aspiring journalist to hear some students distrust reporters. But sometimes I can’t blame them — anyone can publish just about anything online and share it with the world, whether they are a trained reporter or not.

I challenge students to seek out articles from reliable news outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post and, locally, the Inquirer. Students can turn to multiple outlets when they

are left with questions.

Students also need to hold themselves accountable by reading past headlines.

“People just kind of read a headline and they’re like, ‘That’s the news right there,’” said Marc Jaffee, a senior English major. “They just take things at face value, and we’re living so fast that we don’t take the time to really look into things.”

Readers should also pay attention to see if an article they are reading is actually a news article or if it is labeled an opinion piece.

“I’ve seen that happen in students’ papers,” Brewster said. “They think that something somebody said in an op-ed piece is the point of view of the publication, and, therefore, they will say the publication is biased.”

Jillian Bauer, a journalism professor, said she hopes students take the time to not only look at an article, but also who published and wrote the story.

“There are so many alternative sites out there that don’t have reputable journalists working for them, so we have a lot of misinformation,” she said.

It is important that students educate themselves on where to get reliable news, rather than distancing themselves from the news completely. Being a concerned citizen means being informed about current events.

“Don’t be an isolated, selfish person,” Jaffee said. “Try to understand this entire world you’re living in.”

And in order to understand the world, students must first be able to navigate and understand the news. Because while it’s journalists’ job to present information, it is up to students to know what they’re reading. jayna.alexandra.schaffer@temple.edu

temple-news.com @thetemplenews

TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017

OPINION

PAGE 5

CAREER

Personal branding is key to achievement in the job market Crafting a personal brand is essential for success after college.

A

s an advertising student, most of my days are spent learning how to help brands promote themselves. I’ve noticed some students have gotten pretty good at doing this for themselves, too, in the hopes of impressing future employers — myself included.

One way I’ve learned to promote myself is through social media. My Instagram is purposefully filled with content sharing my love of FINNIAN SAYLOR good food and city living, to signal to employers and my peers what I’m passionate about. I also use Twitter, LinkedIn and my personal website to do the same, while focusing more on my professional interests and experiences.

This process of building an image of one’s self both online and in the real world is called personal branding. Simply put, it’s the conscious effort to highlight one’s positive aspects and downplay the negative ones.

And it’s essential in order to remain noticeable in a competitive pool of job candidates and to secure the best

career opportunities as possible after college.

When looking to fill jobs and internships, employers try to gain the best picture of each candidate. It only makes sense then that as hopeful applicants, we try to make the picture of who we are — our talents, achievements, goals — as clear as possible.

We do this through our personal brand.

Part of personal branding starts online. We know employers review social media during the hiring process, so it’s important to have those outlets polished, especially for college students, who may be using online platforms daily.

Appropriately censored social media serves as a tangible tool for students to create and control their brand with a carefully crafted image of themselves. So think critically about what you post, the content you share and retweet, and how you interact with potential employers online.

Taylor Leonardo, a junior advertising major, used her social media to create a partnership with the clothing company Aerie for American Eagle as a brand ambassador for their 2016 holiday collection. She engaged with Aerie on Instagram, using hashtags and direct mentions.

“I definitely got the brand ambassador position because of my outreach through social media,” Leonardo said. “Social media has become so big in today’s world that it’s not only

used as a way to advertise companies, but it’s definitely used as a way to advertise yourself.”

While social media is extremely important in presenting oneself to employers in the 21st century, tools like this alone won’t land students a job.

“You can’t hide behind social media,” said David Thompson, an adjunct advertising professor who teaches a class called Personal Branding.

Students should be personable and knowledgeable when real life encounters occur. I make sure to network with others in my industry in person whenever I can.

“You have to represent the best possible you,” Thompson said. “And while that may sound simplistic, it’s far from it.”

There is no concrete set of rules when it comes to branding yourself — everything you do and say, everything people read about you, everything you touch is a part of your brand. It’s an extension of who you are, so make sure you take care of it.

Thompson said many of the guest speakers he has invited to his class said college students often display poor interpersonal communication skills.

“The teachers and the professionals that I bring in to guest lecture say one thing consistently about this millennial age group: They don’t know how to put down the phone and

THE ESSAYIST

look up and communicate,” Thompson said.

Thompson works with his class on the art of the “elevator pitch.” If you’re on an elevator and want to connect with someone professionally, you have 30 seconds to explain who you are and why you’re worthwhile.

Alex Cove, a junior strategic communication major, used her elevator pitch to get an internship with the local public relations firm Skai Blue Media.

In Fall 2015, Rakia Reynolds, the head of the firm, spoke to Temple’s Fashion and Business Club. After meeting with students, Reynolds was attending an event for her firm’s client. She had one extra ticket and invited the student with the best elevator pitch to go with her.

Five students gave their pitch, and Cove won. She accompanied Reynolds to the event and made a meaningful connection that night.

“What I did that night, the elevator pitch I gave on the spot, that’s what landed me the internship,” Cove said.

For people with a defined personal brand, giving an elevator pitch shouldn’t be a daunting task. That’s why being prepared and knowing how you want to present yourself to the world ahead of time is essential — it may just help you create career connections when you least expect it.

This type of communication and professionalism is important for all

students of every discipline. And regardless the industry or field of study, all students need to hold themselves to the same standard of personalism.

Colton Howard, senior information science and technology student, is the president of Temple’s chapter of Association of Computing Machinery, an organization that provides opportunities for students to engage with professionals in the technology and computing industries.

“As far as the job search goes, I don’t know if it’s too much different [from other job fields] to be honest,” Howard said. “We go through the same process.”

No matter a student’s major, everyone can benefit from personal branding, whether it’s strategic social media posts or interpersonal skills.

The image students project of themselves online and in person reinforces who they are and can help secure job opportunities. Just like product brands do, students should present the best version of themselves.

The fact is: we are all products, and we need to learn how to sell ourselves. finnian.saylor@temple.edu @finniansaylor

FROM THE ARCHIVE

My father’s farm: cultivating a bond

I

A student reflects on her family’s farm and how it strengthened the relationship she has with her father.

used to hate it when my dad drove the car, because he would always drive past a dairy farm. He’d slow the car to a crawl, roll down the windows and take a deep breath through his nose.

“Don’t you love that smell?

Aaaah, fresh manure.”

My brother and I would plug our noses and tell him that it was gross, complaining until the air was clean again.

I should have known what was coming.

When we moved to New Hampshire, my uncle started a garden in our backyard that my dad quickly usurped. It became his fulltime job and the finance books that lined his shelf were replaced with Mother Nature magazines and books dedicated to the art of grafting trees together. The stamps and envelopes on his desk that I loved to play with were replaced with packets of seeds.

At first, he only asked for my help to weed the few garden beds in the backyard and to harvest the vegetables when they were ripe. I loved that part because it was all the reward and none of the work. But soon he had me planting tomatoes that would give me rashes and cucumber plants that would leave prickles all over my arms.

Soon we started to say we had a small farm. My dad had our land certified organic, and he got a gigantic roll of stickers to prove it.

He planted clover to attract more bees and butterflies to our yard.

The basement my parents originally hoped to finish became filled with plastic trays and grow lights for germinating seeds.

Then my dad started ordering manure from Bud (yes, that was his real name). Bud, whose horses provided the supply, would carefully maneuver his truck to the back yard and dump his delivery onto an al-

of it was that he was stronger, but most of it was that I did everything I could to weasel my way out ready large existing pile of manure. of work. Not once did my dad ask My dad built a greenhouse, and in- me to do something on the farm stead of using electricity, he filled without me giving him a look that it with fresh manure. The interior clearly told him I didn’t want to. reached 80 degrees in the middle of After a few years, my dad perJanuary, and my family called the fected a soil mixture of manure, structure “The Poop House.” fresh mulch and raw minerals that With all of this change, my I would mix together in a wheelfamily’s diet inevitably became barrow and then deliver to a greenmore local. The farm where we got house. I mixed in the garage for milk was a 30-minute drive away, hours and it filled with the thick, and the cows lived in the room next almost sweet smell of manure comto the large refrigerators that held bined with fresh wood and pine the jars of milk. pitch.

My dad and I would drive When I left for college, it didn’t together to go pick it up, talking take me very long to adabout anything just to the city. I wanted to leave New Hampshire since I received my acceptance letter, and I busied myself immediately with writing for The Temple News. I was settling in, and I even bought myself a couple of plants from the grocery store to decorate my dorm room.

When I brought them home for winter break, my dad was surprised. I told him that it was nice to have a little bit of green NEWS MPLE HE TE T | in my room. It made the air W O K A A LAS SASH feel fresher. And every time I water them, I remember the converand everything on the way. sations my dad and I used to have He would check in with me and ask while we worked together. me how I was doing, because since A couple weeks ago, I was middle school I struggled with de- on my way to get a pizza when I pression. I would be honest, and tell smelled it. him that it was tough, but it’ll work Fresh mulch had been spread out someday. He said that he loved on a planter and I couldn’t help but me, and was proud of me. stop and take a deep breath. My Then, we’d pull into the dirt friend stopped too and asked me lot next to the farm and get out. what the hell I was doing. Was I seHe would stretch and take a deep riously smelling some dirt? breath, looking at me.

“You know, I’m kind of dis“Don’t you love it?” appointed,” I said. “I wish it was I’d shake my head and smile. manure. I like that smell better.”

“It’s really just you that loves the smell, Dad.” julie.christie@temple.edu During the summer, my dad @ChristieJules put my brother and me to work on the farm. My brother definitely worked harder than I did — part

By JULIE CHRISTIE

October 22, 1971: Former Beasley School of Law Dean Ralph Norvell resigned after students expressed dissatisfaction with his performance. Students were unhappy with Norvell’s strict student affairs policies and the lack of student voices in decision-making processes.

The Beasley School of Law is currently accepting applications for candidates to replace Provost JoAnne Epps as the school’s dean. There are currently three candidates for the position, including Beasley’s interim dean Gregory Mandel.

POLLING PEOPLE

Do you feel comfortable sharing your opinions in class?

60%

23%

17%

Yes

No - I just don’t like to share

No - I’m afraid of controversial topics Out of 125 votes since Feb. 27

letters@temple-news.com

NEWS

PAGE 6

NEWS BRIEFS

Continued from Page 1

ELECTIONS

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Survey: students favor fall break during Thanksgiving Nearly three-quarters of students who participated in a TUPortal poll about the length of fall break voted to keep the whole week of Thanksgiving without classes.

Out of the 44,582 eligible students, 24,443 completed the poll, or about 55 percent. The other two options for the poll were just Thanksgiving Day and the following Friday off, or having a four-day weekend in mid-October in addition to having Wednesday, Thursday and Friday during Thanksgiving week.

More than 17,000 students voted to keep the entire week off, or about 70 percent. Only 958 students voted for Thanksgiving Day and Friday, or just under 4 percent.

Betsy Tutelman, senior vice provost for strategic communications, said Provost JoAnne Epps will discuss the results with other administrators and faculty members during the next couple of weeks.

- Steve Bohnel

fall break survey responses

“I want every person at Temple to feel they’re getting the best possible education and access to the best possible resources that they can have,” Abramson said.

Last year, four teams ran — the first time more than two tickets competed in the TSG elections since 2010. Empower TU won with 32 percent of the vote.

ACTIVATE TU According to its platform, Activate TU wishes to “reform what exists” by continuing to work with Women Organized Against Rape.

The platform also proposes change to the structure of TSG’s Executive Branch and Parliament. Activate TU would establish an ethics board within the Executive Branch and create the position of Director of Student Health and Wellbeing. This position would collaborate with WOAR, Student Health Services, the Wellness Resource Center and Tuttleman Counseling

TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017 Services to improve mental and physical wellness services. Activate TU also plans to designate a communications director within Parliament and create better communication between the two branches of TSG. Activate TU said in its platform that they oppose the university’s on-campus stadium.

It also proposed to reinstate the Summer Bridge program, a pre-college program that admitted high-performing students who lacked elsewhere in their application, like low SAT scores. It was discontinued in 2015 and replaced with the Temple Option, which gave applicants the chance to submit additional essays instead of low test scores.

CONNECTING TU Connecting TU built much of its platform on existing initiatives and inprogress work of the current TSG administration. Its platform centers around student need, sustainability and the Temple experience. It supports the recent establishment of gender-neutral housing and

plans to expand the initiative.

It also plans to work with Tuttleman Counseling, Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, Advocacy and Leadership, WRC and student organizations to expand the resources available to LBGTQ students.

Connecting TU will continue the Adopt-A-Block program on Temple’s campus and develop a comprehensive guide to community relations for all students to reference.

Connecting TU’s plans to enhance “the Temple experience” include expanding and improving Flight and the Walking Escort program. It also plans to push for student involvement during the university’s transition from Sodexo to Aramark.

The two tickets will debate for the first time Thursday in Room 217AB of the Student Center from 5 to 7 p.m. The Temple News and Temple Update will moderate. The two-week campaign season will end with voting on April 4th and 5th. amanda.lien@temple.edu @amandajlien

6,345 958 17,140 Thanksgiving week

Thanksgiving only

Two long weekends SOURCE: BETSY TUTELMAN

BRIANNA SPAUSE/THE TEMPLE NEWS Connecting TU Presidential candidate Ari Abramson (right) introduces campaign initiatives with Vice President of Internal Services candidate, Dalia Al-Bataineh at the TSG General Assembly meeting in the Student Center on Monday.

BRIANNA SPAUSE/THE TEMPLE NEWS ActivateTU Presidential candidate Tyrell Mann-Barnes (right), Vice President of External Affairs Paige Hill (middle) and Vice President of Internal Services Kayla Martin, listen to their competitors’ campaigns at the TSG General Assembly meeting in the Student Center on Monday.

SASHA LASAKOW | THE TEMPLE NEWS

Judge dismisses suit regarding Amtrak crash A federal judge in Philadelphia dismissed Temple University Hospital’s lawsuit against Amtrak for $1.63 million in reimbursement for a patient’s treatment after a derailment in May 2015, the Inquirer reported.

The derailment killed eight people and injured 43 others. TUH treated 14 of those people. Amtrak paid more than $2 million for 13 out of the 14 injured patients, but did not pay the remaining $1.63 million for the final injured patient, the Inquirer reported.

Although TUH did not submit a claim for reimbursement to the patient’s Medicare insurance in time, the federal judge ruled that Medicare would have covered the remaining costs for treatment.

- Kelly Brennan

Fox graduate programs rise in U.S. News rankings The Fox School of Business’ global and Part-Time MBA programs were ranked in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2018 Best Graduate Schools.

The Part-Time MBA program was ranked No. 1 regionally and No. 7 nationally, the highest ranking in the program’s history.

Fox’s online MBA program also ranked No. 1 nationally for the third year in a row.

The Global MBA was ranked No. 1 nationally for its 91.9 percent job placement rate after graduation, and a 100 percent job placement rate within three months of graduation.

Dean Moshe Porat attributed the rise in rankings to the value of the program, the completion time and the quality and cost of the program.

Two contributing factors to the rise in Global MBA job placement rates are professional development integration and the work of faculty members, said Corinne Snell, assistant dean for student professional development at the Center for Student Professional Development, which oversees undergraduate and graduate level internships and job placements for students in Fox. Professional development is integrated into the curriculum at the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as a required class built into the Global MBA program that prepares students for a global job search. These are both part of the reason why the job placement percentage for this program is so high, Snell added.

The Global MBA is a two-year program that focuses on preparing students for a global business environment.

It combines coursework with paid internships and requires two international experiences.

CONNECTING TU • Support and develop resources for sexual assault survivors • Expand accessibility to Tuttleman Counseling Services • Develop programs and resources to assist students recovering from substance abuse

ACTIVATE TU

2017 TEMPLE STUDENT GOVERNMENT Platforms

• Expand LGBTQIA+ resources and services • Advocate for gender-inclusive facilities • Improve the financial aid process and promote financial literacy • Optimize space usage on campus • Make part-time student employment easier to access • Promote inclusion of diverse student groups • Strengthen student and community relations • Increase on- and off-campus sustainability and cleanliness • Strengthen alumni relations • Push the Textbook Affordability Project • Make SEPTA more accessible to students • Provide grants for student who are working unpaid internships • Recycle uneaten food from our dining halls • Fix the shuttle service, Flight • Expand the Walking Escort program • Reform the allocations guidelines and process • Increase resources for students living off campus • Ensure student concerns are voiced during the Aramark transition period • Connect students with discounted entertainment in and around Philadelphia

• Continue to work with Women Organized Against Rape • Support the demand for a sexual assault and domestic violence center separate from Tuttleman Counseling Services • Institute a Sexual Assault Prevention Week at the start of the fall semester

• Expand resources for first generation, international, immigrant and other incoming students through the development of a mentorship program • Collaborate with the LGBTQIA+ community on Temple University’s campus and promote the creation of an LGBTQIA+ center • Continue to support and expand the American Dissabilities Act Task Force • Promote sustainable initiatives in collaboration with the Office of Sustainability • Work with Philadelphia’s “Zero Waste and Litter Cabinet” implemented to address pollution and littering on and off campus • Work with Computer Services to improve Wi-Fi on Main Campus • Support efforts that address food insecurity • Continue to engage young minds in the community through access and exposure to Temple • Design additional STARS incentives for organizations to host events that will be inclusive of the community • Increase frequency of community forums • Engage the student body with the community • Oppose any plans for a stadium that negatively impacts the community • Acknowledge and support student organizations in their efforts to better our community

- Amanda Lien SASHA LASAKOW | THE TEMPLE NEWS

News Desk 215-204-7419 news@temple-news.com

temple-news.com @thetemplenews

features

F E AT U R E S

TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017

PAGE 7

Adviser develops addition to fantasy role-playing game He signed a contract to write a role-play module for the tabletop adventure game Mythras.

MARGO REED FOR THE TEMPLE NEWS Harold Brooks (left), the Achieving Independence Center’s educational services coordinator, speaks with Leidy Torres, a junior psychology major, in the center’s kitchen. Shekia Andrews (right), a life skills coach at the center, goes through clothing donated to the center.

Center is a place to be ‘humbled’ The Achieving Independence Center offers free services and support to young adults preparing to leave the foster care system.

L

By CARR HENRY For The Temple News

eidy Torres used to be ashamed to tell her story.

At 16 years old, she lived in a Philadelphia homeless shelter after she immigrated from the Dominican Republic.

That’s when her social worker mentioned the Achieving Independence Center.

The center on Broad Street near Master offers free services like counseling, vocational training and educational support to young people between the ages of 14 and 21 as they prepare to leave the foster care system. Torres, a junior psychology major, has been one of the center’s 750 annual clients since 2013 and said its services were instrumental in her academic career.

She worked there as a tutor and peer mentor from February 2015 to July 2016 and hopes to do similar work as a school counselor in the future.

“Without AIC ... I would’ve always just stayed quiet and gone through life like, ‘OK this happened to me and I’m never going to think about it,’” Torres said. “But now it’s like, ‘No, this is what happened and let me tell you all about it.’ AIC has helped me not be ashamed of what happened to me, but rather to use my story as something that can help somebody else.”

SUPPORT | PAGE 10

MARGO REED FOR THE TEMPLE NEWS Leidy Torres (left), sits in the Community Room at the Achieving Independence Center. Torres was in foster care after she immigrated to the United States, and utilized the center’s resources to help her with the college application process. Harold Brooks (right), also works in the College of Public Health’s Center for Social Policy & Community Development.

By ERIN MORAN Deputy Features Editor

Darvin Martin was in fifth grade when a classmate approached him in art class and asked, “Hey, do you want to play Dungeons & Dragons?”

Soon after, he used his allowance money to buy what he said role-players know as “the Red Box” — a Dungeons & Dragons starter set sold during the early 1980s.

Now Martin, a professional development adviser in the College of Liberal Arts, has a contract with The Design Mechanism, a role-playing game publishing company based in Canada.

His first module, “Xamoxis’ Cleansing,” is an expansion to an existing role-playing game called Mythras and was published in December. He wrote the module for four to six players.

Martin is working on a second module, “These Violent Delights,” to be released later this year. He said the publishers also contracted him to write a fantasy book about Persian mythology.

Martin started working with the company after he played Mythras — then called RuneQuest — and liked the game so much that he decided to reach out to the publisher.

“I emailed the publisher and I said, ‘Hey I really like your product, I just want you guys to know you have a really great product here.’ … And then they emailed back and said ‘Hey, would you be interested in writing for us?’”

Martin said. “It was really just asking.”

“I’ve always written fantasies, like short stories, novels, that kind of stuff,” he added. “I had never written for a big publisher, though.”

Martin said writing modules is different than writing short stories because modules require more “exploded details.” Modules provide the basic setting of a story within a role-playing game, but players can spend hours — or even days — using their imaginations and expanding on the story.

He said he has to keep in mind that a gamemaster — or a narrator for a role-playing game — will be reading the module aloud during gameplay, so he has to include specific details like types of plants in a forest or fictional holidays.

“My wife was playing for a while, but she got bored because our battles would last for like three hours,” he said. “She’d rather play Xbox.”

Jared Pryor, a former research assistant at the Temple University Collaborative on Community Inclusion of

GAMING | PAGE 11

Giving the ‘genuine first chance’ Students are helping incarcerated people receive education at no cost to prisons or taxpayers.

By KAIT MOORE For The Temple News Of the 2.2 million people in prison in the United States, more than 40 percent will return to prison within three years of being released, according to a study by the Pew Research Center.

But prisoners who receive an education are 43 percent less likely to return to prison, according to a study by the RAND Corporation, a global policy think tank.

Katherine Walden, a senior human development and community engagement major, is working toward using education to reduce recidivism, or the tendency of

formerly incarcerated people to return to prison. Walden works as a tutor at the Federal Detention Center on Arch Street near 7th and VisionQuest’s Lee Preparatory Academy, a youth reintegration center, in North Philadelphia’s Logan neighborhood.

Walden is a volunteer with Temple’s chapter of the Petey Greene Program, which recruits college tutors to work oneon-one with students of all ages who are incarcerated. The tutoring program also helps incarcerated people work toward receiving a GED certificate.

The program began in 2008 as a way to supplement underfunded educational programs in prisons. The first collaboration was with 28 volunteers from Princeton University, who started tutoring at a prison in Bordentown, New Jersey. Since then, the program has grown to include nearly 30 universities from Washington D.C. to Massachusetts.

The Pennsylvania chapter recruits

volunteer tutors from Temple, the University of Pennsylvania, St. Joseph’s University and Haverford College.

Emma Sindelar, the regional manager for the Pennsylvania chapter, said the program works with prisons that already have educational programs in place. “[Education] is not always the top priority of a facility, so we hope to use our tutors to support programs that are already in place at no cost,” Sindelar said.

Sindelar recruits college tutors to work with students at the four Petey Greene-affiliated facilities in Pennsylvania: VisionQuest, the Federal Detention Center, the Glen Mills Schools in Delaware County and the Philadelphia Prison System, which is comprised of six different facilities.

Walden and Anthony Henderson, a senior adult and organizational development major, are the leaders of Temple’s

EDUCATION | PAGE 12

JAMIE COTTRELL FOR THE TEMPLE NEWS Darvin Martin, a CLA professional development adviser, recently signed a contract to develop a storyline for a fantasy role-playing game.

HISTORY | PAGE 8

CHOIR | PAGE 9

ANNIVERSARY | PAGE 11

MILLENNIALS | PAGE 12

Elizabeth Bolman, the art history department chair, has helped preserve a monastery in Egypt’s Nile River valley since 2002.

The Singing Owls Community Choir was formed in 2014 to create a place for students and Philadelphians to sing together.

The College of Public Health’s occupational therapy program is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Five alumni were appointed to Mayor Jim Kenney’s Millennial Advisory Committee last month.

F E AT U R E S

PAGE 8

TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017

Professor completes decade-long conservation project In 2002, the art history department chair began preserving a religious site in Egypt.

By MEGHAN COSTA For The Temple News When Elizabeth Bolman first walked into the Red Monastery in Egypt’s Nile River valley, she said the once intricately painted walls of the church were completely blackened from smoke and incense residue.

Walls of mud and sand from the surrounding desert also shrouded parts of the church’s architecture from full view.

“It sounds really corny,” said Bolman, the art history department chair. “But I really felt like this wholebody response to it. … I was hooked and I couldn’t give it up.”

The Red Monastery was established around the fifth century B.C. Bolman said it is the only monument from the this time period to have a painted interior still intact.

Bolman said she found “extraordinary significance” in the architecture and paintings uncovered by the project’s conservators — people who repair and preserve works of art or buildings of cultural interest.

With funding from the American Research Center in Egypt, Bolman and Italian conservators Alberto Sucato and the late Luigi De Cesaris began to preserve the Red Monastery in 2002. Previously, Bolman worked with De Cesaris and Sucato on St. Antony’s Monastery in the Eastern Desert of Egypt near Cairo.

Last year, Bolman’s book, “The Red Monastery Church: Beauty and Asceticism in Upper Egypt,” was published by the Yale University Press.

The book is about the church’s importance as told through contributions from art historians who specialize in architecture, ancient religion and

conservation.

“It was a huge project and I only recently finished it,” Bolman said. “It took about five years to really get a full project going, and then it took 10 years of fine art conservation and several more years after that of other kinds of conservation and study and documentation. Then getting a book like this together takes years and years also.”

Originally, the Red Monastery was founded by a community of monks in fifth century B.C. Bolman said the Red Monastery monastic community renounced all earthly pleasures and dedicated their lives to acts of service in the name of God. The name of the monastery is derived from the color of the church’s exterior, which is composed of burnt red bricks.

an increase in tourism and economic prosperity in the area surrounding the monument. Bolman added this has been tremendously helpful for the people living near the monastery in a rural area outside the city of Sohag, located on the west bank of the Nile.

In November 2016, Bolman started an Art History Activism group at Temple for faculty and students to collaborate and mobilize art activism projects. Since then, the group has grown to include participants from

New York University, the African American Museum of Philadelphia and Vox Populi, an artist-run gallery in Philadelphia, presented and led discussions on “the role of art history in the current political climate,” Coudrelle said.

“I’ve found the Art History Activism group to be an incredibly supportive network of engaged art historians,” Coudrelle added. “Turnout to our meetings and events has been impressive, as has the quality of the

tual reality model of the Red Monastery. In 2014, she returned to the Red Monastery during the early stages of her dissertation research. She lived inside the church for 46 days as part of a fellowship program with the ARCE while the final stages of Bolman’s conservation project were taking place.

“The timing was perfect,” Szymanska said. “I have learned so much from being exposed to [Bolman’s] decision making. She really wanted

What a privilege to find a monument that had essentially fallen off the map.

Elizabeth Bolman Art History department chair

The Red Monastery conservation project has revealed some of the bestknown surviving paintings from the Middle Ages. Bolman said it is one of the best-preserved monuments from its time.

“It was one of the most difficult things I’ve done in my life,” Bolman said. “But it was also one of the most extraordinary. What a privilege to find a monument that had essentially fallen off the map, but was then able to recuperate in such an astonishing way.”

For the past 25 years, the ARCE has received funding from the United States Agency for International Development, which aids in preserving monuments like the Red Monastery.

Bolman said after a conservation project is complete, there is normally

RAMATA KABA FOR THE TEMPLE NEWS Elizabeth Bolman, chair of the art history department, holds a copy of her book “The Red Monastery Church: Beauty and Asceticism in Upper Egypt” in her Tyler School of Art office. After more than a decade of research, the book was published last year.

Bryn Mawr College, Drexel University, University of Pennsylvania and LaSalle University.

Maeve Coudrelle, an art history doctoral candidate and university fellow, has been very involved in Bolman’s Art History Activism group.

In February, Coudrelle put together a panel and town hall event at the Institute of Contemporary Art on the corner of 36th Street and Sansom.

Six speakers from Temple, LaSalle,

discussion. I think this speaks to the urgency of the topic.”

Agnieszka Szymanska, an art history Ph.D. candidate, joined the Red Monastery project in 2009. Szymanska, who is originally from Poland, is writing her dissertation on the Red Monastery’s richly decorated walls, which contrast with the traditional monastic idea of imageless prayer.

Szymanska joined the project to collect photographic data for a vir-

me to learn the ropes so that in the future I can ambulate her model on my projects.”

“I’ve been so fortunate and grateful for being her student,” Szymanska added. “Seeing her manage a large team of scholars, conservators, monks and administrators gave me a new appreciation for her abilities.” meghan.caroline.costa@temple.edu

@Meg_costa19

Increasing engagement through active learning in classes The Student Oriented Active Redesign Project began last semester and reformatted 11 courses.

By MORIAH THOMAN For The Temple News A complete redesign of 11 courses started with a simple question: how are students performing academically?

Stephanie Fiore hoped to find out. Fiore is the senior director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching — which provides faculty members with programs and resources to help them improve their teaching methods. She asked Peter Jones, the senior vice provost for undergraduate studies, to analyze data about student performance. He noticed that the rates of failure and withdrawal were consistently high in certain subjects, like accounting, chemistry and kinesiology.

Fiore then developed The Student Oriented Active Redesign Project, which aims to lower the number of students who fail or withdraw from a course by incorporating an active learning approach, where students engage in the material through discussions and activities rather than just listening to lectures, she said.

To create active learning, SOAR often uses the “flip the classroom” model, in which students listen to a professor lecture in videos they watch before coming to class and then participate in more active discussions

features@temple-news.com

about the material during class time.

“It’s about what really great teaching methods can you employ in your classroom to help,” Fiore said.

“That might be flipping, or that might be a version of active lecture, or it might be team-based learning. There are so many models for teaching that are good. It just depends on which ones fit your discipline and the content you’re teaching best.”

“We’re looking at it now from a teaching perspective and saying, ‘Is there a different way in which we can present the course that would engage the students more and improve the level of learning?’” Jones said.

Eleven courses were selected to

use SOAR methods during Fall 2016 and Spring 2017. At least 21 percent of the students in these courses before Fall 2016 received a D or an F or

withdrew from the course completely.

The faculty members who taught these classes, like accounting professor Elizabeth Gordon, attended train-

COURTESY JOSEPH LABOLITO Daniele Ramella, a chemistry professor, teaches a class in February as part of the Center for Advancement in Teaching’s Student Oriented Active Redesign Project. His course was one of 10 others that had its classrooms “flipped,” which includes watching video lectures before the class meets.

ing sessions over the summer.

Gordon, who has been teaching for nearly 20 years, said the summer training sessions made her feel more confident to try new teaching methods in her own classroom.

“Part of these big changes in higher education is that you have to be on the edge of what’s happening,” Gordon said. “You have to be current not only in your content, but in how you take that into the classroom.”

Kevin Delaney, the vice provost of faculty affairs who oversees programs created by the Center for the Advancement of Teaching, said SOAR can help students graduate more quickly and avoid retaking and paying for the same course.

“I think it puts the focus on where it ought to be: the teaching style, the learning style and what works best,” Delaney added.

Delaney said the early results are positive, and he has seen higher grades and fewer withdrawals from the 11 courses that underwent changes.

Gordon said she has seen more A’s and B’s in her accounting classes this year compared to other semesters, in addition to a 10 percent decrease in the rate of D’s, F’s and withdrawals in the course.

“We’re hoping that this program is a bit like … throwing a pebble into a pond and watching those ripples expand,” Jones said. “We’re hoping it’ll have an effect with teaching generally within the university, not just the ones that we’re directly working with.” moriah.thoman@temple.edu

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Students, Philadelphians perform a ‘rich buffet’ of music The Singing Owls brings together students and Philly residents to perform choral music.

By PATRICK BILOW For The Temple News With the stroke of his baton, Paul Rardin conducted students and Philadelphia residents to sing a 19thcentury composition in unison.

Rardin, the Elaine Brown chair in choral music and a professor in the Boyer College of Music and Dance, helped form the Singing Owls Community Choir in 2014 with Rollo Dilworth, the chair of music education and music therapy. The choir aims to create an inclusive singing environment for Temple students and Philadelphia residents.

“The group is full of people who may or may not be professionals in music, but it is important that all are welcomed to participate,” Rardin said. “It makes for an enriching experience.”

Nearly 50 students and community residents rehearse every Tuesday from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. and have two concerts each semester.

“It’s so cool how so many people can come together to sing,” said Matthew Jenkins, a junior film and media arts major and a member of the Singing Owls’ tenor section. “All the community members I have met have been so nice.”

Rardin added that some of the choir members have a background in choral performance as teachers or as students, while others simply like the environment and enjoy singing.

“There is a diversity of experience, age, race and culture within the choir, and the music they perform reflects that diversity,” Rardin said.

Dilworth is the director of the choir, but is currently away on travel.

Rardin said Dilworth insists on performing not only Western compositions, but also music from around the world, like pieces written by Giuseppe Verdi, a 19th-century Italian opera composer.

“You can always count on a rich buffet of international flavor when listening to one of their concerts,”

COURTNEY SUMMERS FOR THE TEMPLE NEWS Paul Rardin (top), the Elaine Brown chair in choral music, serves as a guest director for the Singing Owls rehearsal in Presser Hall. The community choir aims to connect Temple students and Philadelphia residents through the appreciation of diverse music.

Rardin said.

No matter your level of experience, Rardin said that each member of the Singing Owls has something to learn. Dilworth puts an emphasis on teaching the basics of choral

performance, like uniform pitch and rhythm.

“If Dr. Dilworth were to introduce himself, he would probably say he was a teacher rather than a director,” Rardin said. “He is well gifted

and is concerned with how students are learning.”

Although Dilworth is the director of the group, Rardin leads the group during rehearsals from time to time. Dilworth, a past chairman

for Chorus America, often travels for work to present at local, state and national conferences.

Rardin added that he thinks Dilworth is one of the top directors in the world, but he still makes time to give back to the music community by visiting schools like Central Bucks High School West, and directing choirs like the Singing Owls.

“He could easily say that he is too busy,” Rardin said. “But he doesn’t, and that speaks to his humility.”

Diane Dannenfelser is a retired teacher from the Girard Academic Music Program and she has been performing with the Singing Owls since last year. She said she conducted a fifth-grade choir for years, but never actually got the opportunity to sing in one until she joined Dilworth’s group.

“I love Dr. Dilworth’s energy and enthusiasm,” she said. “It makes me feel like a student again.”

Rardin said Dilworth often emphasizes the experience and the process of what the choir does as another way to break down the barriers between Temple and people living in Philadelphia.

“I think is serves as a reminder that music truly unites us all,” Rardin said. patrick.bilow@temple.edu

Promoting philanthropy on campus: not just for ‘millionaires’ The Fox Student Philanthropic Society raises money for scholarships within the business school.

By EMILY THOMAS For The Temple News When Shaniqua Wallace began her first semester, she didn’t believe in student giving.

She was already paying thousands of dollars in tuition, and she saw no point in giving the university more money than she needed to — until she learned more about Temple’s efforts for philanthropy.

Three years later, the senior marketing major serves as the strategic partnerships coordinator of the Fox Student Philanthropic Society, a student-run organization that fundraises and creates awareness about the power of students giving to each other.

Through tabling on Main Campus and hosting fundraising events, FSPS raises money for their school’s philanthropic projects, particularly the Fox Student Emergency Fund, which then awards scholarships to accepted applicants.

In the last fiscal year, FSPS raised about $7,500 from nearly 400 Fox students, Kim Hamm, Fox’s associate director of development and alumni relations, wrote in an email. Besides the emergency fund, some money went toward other causes like the 2016 senior class gift.

Fox’s emergency fund helps a few students per year make up for tuition they can no longer pay, whether it’s due to a family emergency or a medical condition. Student Financial Services

selects students who meet the criteria for the scholarship.

When FSPS was restarted three years ago, its student founders decided to focus mostly on fundraising for Fox’s student emergency fund.

In the past, the emergency fund has helped students like Rasheena Wilson, a 2016 business administration alumna, who graduated with the help of the Eva C. Moore Scholarship given through the emergency fund. It allowed her to transfer to Temple despite a financial situation that left her unable to pay tuition.

“When you learn about programs like the Student Emergency Fund … and you learn what it really takes to run a university and keep the programs and opportunities that we have open, you realize this is more than just one person … it takes a community,” Wallace said.

“This is about supporting each other in the end,” Wallace added. “It’s about making it comfortable for other people to be able to continue their education.”

Wallace works with other Fox student organizations to build a philanthropic culture on Main Campus and foster a community around student giving to the school. She added that students don’t realize how impactful, whether big or small, donations to their school can be.

“You think of philanthropy and you think of people who are millionaires,” Wallace said.

“Or you don’t think you have the money or the resources or that your coins matter. … Anything that you provide matters.”

FSPS members hope to help students understand that anyone can get involved in philanthropy. Wallace said she hopes to create awareness of the organization’s efforts and “how philanthropy can change things among the student body,” she added.

“I can definitely say that these kids are having a great time,” said Kelly O’Donnell, an FSPS staff adviser. “Their level of fun and their level of enthusiasm at their tabling and at their fundraising events draws people in, and people want to be a part of it … and in turn, are inspired to give back.”

“I feel like [FSPS] is something that really bridges the gap between ‘I just go to school here,’ and ‘I really care about my school because I know my school really cares about me,’” Wallace said. emily.ralsten.thomas@temple.edu

NICK SEAGREAVES FOR THE TEMPLE NEWS Students involved in the Fox Student Philanthropic Society work to promote philanthropy and student donations. One of their biggest projects is the Student Emergency Fund, which raises money for Fox students who need help paying for their tuition.

features@temple-news.com

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F E AT U R E S

TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017

DRUI CALDWELL FOR THE TEMPLE NEWS

Philadelphians celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with parade, music Philadelphia’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade was held on March 12 from noon to 3 p.m. In recent years, the 240-year tradition’s route has passed by City Hall and Broad Street and then toward Penn’s Landing.

This year’s parade theme was “St. Patrick, Protect and Guide our Police Officers.” Groups marched, danced and performed their way through the street, often dressed in costumes of many shades of green.

Participants in the parade included local marching bands like the Second Street Irish Society Pipes and Drums, dance groups and Irish associations. Decorative floats made an appearance in the parade and competed for awards handed out at the conclusion of the event.

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Continued from Page 7

SUPPORT Since AIC was founded in the 1980s, the College of Public Health’s Center for Social Policy & Community Development has offered free educational support there, like classes and academic advising. Six Temple students are volunteering at AIC through the Next Steps AmeriCorps Program, an initiative that develops undergraduate students’ leadership skills through peer mentoring, workshops and community service.

Harold Brooks, an employee in the Center for Social Policy & Community Development, became the educational services coordinator at AIC in 1994.

Every June, he helps organize a ceremony in Mitten Hall to celebrate the high school graduation of AIC clients who he watched grow up.

“I’ve just developed a love for the struggle that they have been through and a love for the resilience that most of them have,” Brooks said. “They’ve experienced things that are probably unimaginable to the majority of us, you know, family separation, homelessness, near starvation, separation from siblings, sexual abuse, verbal abuse. You name it, they’ve experienced it.”

Brooks said he’s always impressed by the Temple students who have worked for

AIC. “Over the years they’ve been sensitive, they’ve been nonjudgmental and they have given 200 percent in their desire to help these kids get up to speed academically,” he added.

Ivy Meacham, a junior human development, community engagement and Africology major, started volunteering at AIC as a resource assistant in January 2016.

She spends 25 hours a week meeting with members in one-on-one sessions to help them with subjects like algebra, writing and history.

Meacham said she connects with AIC members by sharing her passion for the arts and always offering a non-judgemental ear.

“This place has definitely shaped me as a person,” Meacham said. “I think it has definitely humbled me more to look at certain things that I just take for granted sometimes, like our parents may piss us off or whatever, but there are people’s parents who genuinely just walked out of their lives.” “[At AIC,] you can openly talk about your experiences without feeling ashamed of being in foster care or being any type of any of the emotions that come from the stigma that surrounds being in foster care,” Torres said. carr.henry@temple.edu

MARGO REED FOR THE TEMPLE NEWS The Achieving Independence Center on Broad Street near Master is decorated with artwork created in workshops for foster care students who utilize the center.

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F E AT U R E S

TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017

Occupational therapy program celebrates 50th anniversary The program’s curriculum focuses on the effects of health care policy today.

By IAN WALKER For The Temple News Ruth Farber remembers unpacking tables, chairs and weaving looms — which were used as therapeutic tools — to furnish the occupational therapy department 50 years ago.

“It felt like an adventure,” she said.

Farber was one of eight students in the occupational therapy program’s first graduating class in 1969. In 2017, as the American Occupational Therapy Association celebrates its 100th anniversary, Temple’s program celebrates its 50th. The department will host an anniversary reception on March 31 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

More than two decades after she graduated, Farber earned her doctorate of counseling psychology from the College of Public Health in 1993 and joined Temple’s occupational therapy faculty the same academic year.

According to the American Occupational Therapy Association, the purpose of occupational therapy is to “help people across the lifespan participate in the things they want and need to do through the therapeutic use of everyday activities.”

The strategies used by occupational therapists vary greatly from patient to patient, said Roger Ideishi, the director of the rehabilitation sciences program. Despite a common misconception, Ideishi said the word “occupation” refers not to jobs, but to social roles, like children’s ability to play and adults’ ability to socialize.

“When someone has barriers to having those opportunities and choices, whether it’s because of a disability or whether it’s because of some other acute situation, then the occupational therapist helps to create adaptations or modifications that then support that person’s ability to re-engage in those occupational

roles,” Ideishi said.

For Farber, studying occupational therapy was both an avenue to help others and to think creatively.

“It combines creative problem-solving and science under the umbrella of helping people across the life cycle,” she said.

At the time of her occupational therapy education, Farber said the field emphasized arts and crafts as a way of helping patients live with disabilities. She said this focus reflected the attitudes of occupational therapists in the early 20th century, a time of mass institutionalization of people with disabilities.

“People used to be warehoused in mental hospitals,” Farber said. “They introduced crafts as a way to help people come alive again, to be more engaged, not just be a passive patient.”

During the 1950s and 1960s, Farber said mental hospitals began to “deinstitutionalize,” reducing their populations and limiting the lengths of patients’ stays.

As a result, Farber said crafting skills like metalwork and leatherwork, which took patients a long time to develop, became obsolete as a form of therapy.

“The focus went away from crafts and went on to … what was meaningful to the person in their life roles,” Farber said.

In addition to shifting away from arts-based therapy, Ideishi said occupational therapy curriculum now focuses more on the effects of health care policies.

“We have to equip our students with not only those technical skills and those broader clinical thinking skills, we also have to make sure we’re preparing our students for this larger social context,” Ideishi said. “When policies are changing and reimbursements and regulation structures are changing … how do you shift your practice but maintain a strong evidencebased, ethical-based, quality-based care?”

Ideishi said the discipline has also evolved to embrace new technology.

Occupational therapy professor Rochelle Mendonca conducts research on assistive technologies, which are designed to address the concerns of people with

particular disabilities. She is currently working with the University of Pennsylvania’s engineering department to develop robotic rehabilitation devices, which will enable patients to practice daily functions like using a pen or pouring a glass of water.

Even though the engineers design the robotic systems, Mendonca said occupational therapists serve a crucial role in the development of the technology.

“A lot of engineers who build some of these robotic systems don’t really have a clinical consultant on the team,” Mendonca said. “Our goal really is to go in there and say that, ‘Yeah, you can have a system that can do something, but you have to make sure that it’s done right, you have to make sure it’s done based on rehab principles.’”

Mendonca is also developing an assistive technologies course for Fall 2017.

She said she plans to bring her students to rehabilitation clinics and school disability programs to offer them first-hand experiences with emerging therapeutic technology.

“I can talk about it as much as I want to in the classroom, but until you see it actually happening it’s not really clear to you,” Mendonca said.

Farber said she views these developments in technology as a part of the evolution of the occupational therapy program.

“One of the strengths of our profession is they always have anticipated what’s next and they recreated themselves,” Farber said. “I identify with that and I think that’s important.”

She said the core of her learning as an occupational therapy student 50 years ago — the study of sciences and methods of therapy — still remains in Temple’s curriculum today.

“The field has changed, the society has changed, the program has changed,” Farber said. “But the roots are there.” ian.walker@temple.edu @ian_walker12

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EVENTS

CPH screens documentary and talk about fast food On Tuesday at 5 p.m., the College of Public Health will host a screening of “Slow Food Story,” which details the launch of the international anti-fast food resistance movement Slow Food, in Ritter Hall’s Walk Auditorium.

Marissa Cloutier, an adjunct instructor in CPH, will host a discussion after the film is shown. Cloutier was previously a dietician and lobbied for the improvement of nutrition in schools.

The event is co-sponsored by the Rad Dish Co-Op Cafe, Slow Food Philly and Temple Community Garden, which will bring tomato and basil plants for attendees.

-Grace Shallow

Apple hosts programming workshops at Paley Apple representatives will conduct two workshops about the programming language Swift at the Digital Scholarship Center in Paley Library on Wednesday. The two sessions will run from 9 to 11 a.m. and noon to 2 p.m.

Swift is a new programming language developed by Apple that can be used to build apps for iOS, Mac, Apple TV and Apple Watch. Participants are encouraged to register at events.temple.edu.

-Ian Walker

Tuttleman screening Spanish film about distress The film “Relatos salvajes,” which translates to “Wild Tales,” will be screened in Room 307AB in the Tuttleman Learning Center on Wednesday from 3 to 5 p.m. The film is divided into six segments about distressed people in varying situations that are united by a theme of violence and vengeance. The film was nominated for a “Best Foreign Language Film” Academy Award in 2015. It will be shown in Spanish with English subtitles.

The screening is part of a series examining corruption and law in Latin American and Spanish cinema. It is free and open to the public.

-Grace Shallow

Environmental talk to be held at Paley on Thursday

COURTESY KIM GARGIN Rehabilitation sciences professor Kim Gargin (left), works with students in the occupational therapy program to practice wheelchair transfers.

Continued from Page 7

GAMING Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities, said he met Martin in 2011 when they used to take the bus to work together.

Martin approached Pryor after he noticed he was reading a “Star Wars” novel, and “that led to other nerdy things,” Pryor said.

Martin invited Pryor to play Dungeons & Dragons soon after they met.

Pryor said they still play role-playing games together about once per week over Google Hangouts or Roll20, an online platform for role-playing games.

Martin said he enjoys role-playing

games because they give the players “absolute freedom.”

“In a video game, sure you have the graphics and stuff in front of you, but there’s only so much you can do,” he said.

“You can’t just say, ‘Hey, you know what?

I think I just wanna chill on this rock and like, cook some food and sharpen my sword for a while.’”

“Whereas a role-playing game you can do anything within the bonds of the world that you’re in,” he added.

Martin said role-playing games are also a good way to build critical thinking skills and “explore complicated issues,” like power, race and gender.

He is currently working on his own role-playing game, “Guardian of Valoria,”

aimed toward children ages 9 through 13. The game is set in an alien world and revolves around a struggle between good and evil, he said. He hopes to start a GoFundMe page by the end of the year so he can play the game with at-risk youth “to help them develop things like confidence, creativity and critical thinking skills.”

“It’s an escape, number one,” Martin said. “It engages your critical thinking, like you have to think, think, think your way through. … And I think it definitely has therapeutic applications.” erin.moran@temple.edu

Kate Kennen — a landscape architect — will give a presentation about phytotechnology in Paley Library’s Ground Floor Lecture Hall at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday. Phytotechnology is the study of how plants can be used to solve environmental problems. Kennen will present examples of phytotechnology projects and a summary of the plant species used.

Kennen co-authored the book “Phyto: Principles and Resources for Site Remediation and Landscape Design” and founded Offshoots, Inc. which designs and creates landscapes that are sustainable and organic.

The event, which is free, is part of the Seeing Stories: Visualizing Sustainable Citizenship series, co-curated by Temple Contemporary, the Office of Sustainability and Temple Libraries.

-Moriah Thoman

Tyler to host acclaimed designer’s presentation The Tyler School of Art will host a discussion by Isabel Urbina Peña — a designer for publishers like Penguin Random House — on Thursday from 6 to 8:30 p.m. in Room B04. Peña will talk about “making design your own.” The event is sponsored by Philadelphia’s chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Peña’s work has been recognized by publications like the New York Times and Buzzfeed.

Advance tickets are $10 for students who are AIGA members and $15 for students who are not. The event is free for Tyler students and faculty.

-Grace Shallow

@ernmrntweets

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TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017

Alumni serve on millennial committee The mayor’s advisory committee will have input on policies that affect millennials in the city.

By MEGAN PLATT For The Temple News

What did you do over spring break?

CARRIE JOHNSTON Senior Economics

Before Brandi Baldwin-Rana earned her three degrees from Temple, she was a residential assistant at University Village.

When her boss, a resident director, unexpectedly quit two weeks into the school year, the then-20-year-old decided to take on the senior position.

She found herself managing the 749bed facility.

It was that same motivation that led her — along with the 20 other appointees — to complete the extensive application process and land a spot on Mayor Jim Kenney’s Millennial Advisory Committee in February.

The committee was created to engage and support the city’s millennial population, Baldwin-Rana said.

“Let’s highlight and showcase millennials,” Baldwin-Rana added. “We are out there doing big things.”

Several other Temple alumni are also serving on the committee, including 2015 strategic communication alumnus Ray Smeriglio, 2015 media studies and production alumnus Penda Howell, 2007 economics alumna Dafina Williams and 2011 finance alumnus Nigel Charles.

According to a press release from

the mayor’s office, the committee is advising on policies and programs affecting millennials and helping to create initiatives designed to attract and keep millennials in the city.

Baldwin-Rana said she hopes to bring her entrepreneurial skills to government work as she joins the Millennial Advisory Committee’s neighborhood planning and community development subcommittee.

Nicole Allen White, the chair of the committee’s executive team, said it will host meetings in Center City and in neighborhoods with significant millennial populations.

“We’ll be pushing the mayor’s agenda to make sure that all ZIP codes are thriving,” Allen White said.

Although none of the appointees came in with a set agenda, Allen White said she is looking forward to researching how student debt will impact the financial future of Philadelphia.

Smeriglio, a former Temple student body president, said he was interested in joining the committee so he could give back to the city. He now works in the university’s athletic department as an assistant director of development.

He thinks the committee will help foster the future of Philadelphia’s leaders as well as retain the current millennial presence.

“We need to get millennials involved now so the right leaders emerge and can adequately serve Philadelphia in the future,” Smeriglio said. “Millennials and immigrants reversed a 50year population decline, so if it wasn’t for millennials, Philadelphia would be

declining.”

Baldwin-Rana said the connections she formed at Temple helped her in her journey from teaching to entrepreneurship.

Baldwin-Rana is the founder of Millennial Ventures Holding Company, which supports young business professionals by offering services and opportunities to help companies better support and utilize their talent.

Her company’s next big event is the Millennial Leadership Summit, which will take place on April 21 at the University City Science Center on Market Street near 37th.

Baldwin-Rana said the event is for leaders “by title or character.” It’s a common phrase she uses, which outlines the talent of millennials and explains that years do not necessarily equal experience or qualification.

“Millennials are realizing that that’s not necessarily the case,” she said. “Your leadership skills and career opportunities are not contingent upon how many years you’ve worked, but your talent, your natural gifts. We deserve to be at the larger discussion, not the kiddie table.”

Smeriglio said it’s important to have alumni on the committee so they can bring Temple’s voice to the advisory sessions.

“We need to have Temple be a part of the conversation,” he said. “It’s an institution that is a part of the lifeblood of the city and has a lot to offer in these efforts.” megan.platt@temple.edu

I was supposed to go to Florida. My flight got canceled on Tuesday so I didn’t end up going, but it worked out pretty well because I had to study for a test that’s on Friday. So I spent my spring break studying.

YIRAN SU Ph.D. student Sports management

I went to Chicago to visit my friend. I visited [a museum] and there was a huge snowstorm over there so everyone was standing in front of the windows just to take pictures. The city is bigger than Philadelphia, and they’re all really foodie people. … I’m happy to be back, go back to my office and start work.

COURTESY CITY OF PHILADELPHIA Temple alumni Brandi Baldwin-Rana (fourth from left), and Raymond Smeriglio (fifth from left), were appointed to the Mayor’s Millennial Advisory Committee on Feb. 1. Penda Howell, Dafina Williams and Nigel Charles, who are also alumni, serve on the committee as well.

Continued from Page 7

EDUCATION PIERSON MCCALL Sophomore Biology

I’m from Philly, so I went to New York and somehow ended up in Maine. I don’t know how that happened one night but I did some traveling. The snow messed the break up a little because I couldn’t drive for a few days because my car was stuck. I thought it was boring, so I’m happy to be back. I missed Temple.

features@temple-news.com

Petey Greene chapter. Together they organize group meetings where Temple tutors can share stories and recruit new members. The Temple chapter currently has 25 active tutors, up from 10 last semester, Walden said.

Henderson works as a tutor at VisionQuest once a week. He said he was surprised by the low skill level of incarcerated students when he first started a year ago.

“Just the basic skills, like multiplying when you’re doing algebra, you assume they know how to do [it], but you have to pull back a couple layers just to start or attempt a problem,” he said.

“This isn’t necessarily getting a second chance for a lot of [students], this is a genuine first chance,” said Sindelar, who also works as a tutor once a week at VisionQuest.

Walden and Henderson have both seen successful participants graduate and complete their educational programs, which includes earning a GED. Walden once had a student who became “very dedicated” to her schoolwork after a few weeks of their one-on-one tutoring sessions. She eventually went on to graduate the program and begin to search for a job and housing.

“This is why we are here,” Walden said. “This is what we are trying to help them reach, and it was sort of awesome to see someone reach it in the time that I was there. It gave me hope to see it with all of the other students that I’ve tutored.”

Sindelar said the program isn’t just focused on helping students graduate, but destigmatizing what it means to be incarcerated.

“And part of what we do, I would argue that is just as important as the actual services that we provide … is the human-to-human contact of the

tutors going into a facility and entering a world that most people are very unaware of,” Sindelar said.

“We really want with this program to show that these students, people, deserve a second chance and that everybody should be educated and have an opportunity and go back out in their communities and make a positive impact,” Walden said. “We see the people we work with as students, and not for the situations that landed them in their current situation.”

Sindelar hopes the program can be a way to remove some of the obstacles for incarcerated individuals.

“When you sit down with a student and you’re just working on a problem, all barriers, all walls that were there before are broken down,” Sindelar said. kaitlyn.moore@temple.edu

temple-news.com @thetemplenews

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PAGE 13

Continued from Page 16

BOATHOUSE

BILIN LIN FOR THE TEMPLE NEWS Graduate attacker Brenda McDermott runs for a pass in the Owls’ 11-7 win against Bucknell University on March 12 at Howarth Field.

Continued from Page 16

MCDERMOTT course of those two years, she tallied two goals and one ground ball. She said being in and out of the lineup was “a constant battle.”

McDermott went into her senior season with a different mentality and finally healthy.

McDermott finished the 2016 season with a trip to the Big East Conference Championship where Temple lost to the University of Florida. She played in 17 games, led Temple with 22 assists, tied for third on the team with 26 goals, notched 18 ground balls and caused five turnovers. McDermott was also named to the all-Big East first team.

After her breakout 2016 season, McDermott had to make a choice: leave lacrosse behind or stay at Temple for her fifth year.

“Throughout my senior year we had a great season, so I was like, ‘This would be something I would be OK with ending,’” McDermott said. “But it also left that craving of wanting more, that’s what really attracted me to come back.”

Through nine games this season McDermott, who was named to the preseason all-Big East team, leads Temple with 19 assists and 35 points. She is tied for second in goals with 16 and first in ground balls with 17. McDermott is also ranked 11th in Division I in assists and 18th in points.

“The way her first couple years started without her really being able to step on the field due to injuries, I had no idea that she would end up becoming a key player that our opponents would

have to focus on,” coach Bonnie Rosen said.

One of those opponents is city rival La Salle. McDermott had two goals in Temple’s 13-10 win against the Explorers in March, including a last-second goal to put the Owls up by three goals at halftime. She also caused three turnovers.

“She’s the quarterback of their offense,” La Salle coach Candace Taglianetti Bossell said. “I think she’s a really efficient crease attacker, so we really have to have a mark-up on her.”

“She’s just really efficient, she makes it count,” she added. “When she puts the ball in the stick she throws really good fakes, she finishes on the play and she’s a really high-percentage shooter. She’s a really tough kid.”

Playing in that game may have meant a little more to McDermott’s older sister Lauren, who played lacrosse for the Explorers from 2010-13.

Lauren was a senior at La Salle when Brenda tore her ACL her freshman year.

“It was a huge letdown,” Lauren said. “We would’ve ended up playing each other and it was really disheartening because we were never going to get that moment.”

Lauren enjoys watching her sister play even more because she knows what it is like to be a college athlete and what Brenda had to go through to get to this point.

“I love being able to go down to her games and just see her do these awesome things on the field,” Lauren said.

“It’s a proud sister moment.”

“And I’m a Temple fan,” she added.

“At least until Brenda is done playing.”

it means a lot to everybody, coaches and athletes included,” rowing coach Rebecca Grzybowski told The Temple News in November.

“Really just getting the athletes off the water and some place safe every day is something we haven’t really been able to offer for the last eight years,” Perkins said.

The rowing team has its largestever recruiting class with 10 signees from the Class of 2017. Caprial Turner, a senior at Vashon Island High School near Seattle, called Temple an “up-andcoming” program. She took her official visit in September, before the complete restoration of East Park Canoe House.

SPORTS BRIEFS CROSS COUNTRY

Former Owl to compete at IAAF World Championship Almost a year after finishing her Temple running career, former long distance runner Blanca Fernandez is headed to the International Association of Athletics Federations World Cross Country Championships.

Fernandez, who is a Leon, Spain native, will represent Spain at the event in Kampala, Uganda on Sunday.

During her time at Temple, Fernandez competed for the women’s cross country team and women’s track & field team. She became the first Temple women’s cross country runner to earn All-American honors. She ended her career with four total All-American honors.

-Owen McCue

It means a lot to everybody, coaches and athletes included.

Rebecca Grybowski Rowing coach

“In my experience, it didn’t really play a part,” Turner said of the boathouse. “I mean obviously, it was definitely like a cool thing. It’s always really nice to have really nice facilities, especially me coming from a smaller club in Washington when we’ve been rowing out of a cold, small boathouse that we share with canoers.”

“It kind of depends on the person,” she added. “I feel like maybe nice facilities might be more important to some people than it is to me.”

While the Owls operated out of tents, Perkins looked for recruits who “saw the dust, the dirt, the muck and the mire and said, ‘This is where I belong.’” The renovated East Park Canoe House will be a source of pride.

“Now that we have the boathouse, we row by that boathouse right on the center of the course and these guys know they have a home now,” Perkins said. “That is their home. They have to defend it. This our river, our home, our race course and that’s just a big visual aid for those guys.” evan.easterling@temple.edu @Evan_Easterling

KAIT MOORE FILE PHOTO Blanca Fernandez is one of 24 athletes who will represent Spain in this weekend’s competition.

FOOTBALL

Team starts spring season The Owls started their slate of spring practices on Monday at Chodoff Field. The NCAA allows teams to practice 15 times during the spring semester.

Temple went 10-4 last season and won its first American Athletic Conference championship.

The Owls need to find replacements for former quarterback Phillip Walker and former defensive lineman Haason Reddick, who several draft analysts project as a first-round NFL draft pick. The team is also losing twotime conference honoree Jahad Thomas, who rushed for 953 yards and 13 touchdowns last season.

The spring season will end with the Cherry & White game on April 22 at Chodoff Field. Temple opens its season against the University of Notre Dame on Sept. 2 in South Bend, Indiana. The Fighting Irish beat the Owls 24-20 on Oct. 31, 2015 at Lincoln Financial Field and won 28-6 on Aug. 31, 2013 in Indiana.

teresa.sayers@temple.edu

-Evan Easterling

@SayersTessa

GYMNASTICS Continued from Page 1

Todd earns conference Rookie of the Year Award

NCAA a 14-16 record, winning eight of 18 American Athletic Conference games. Temple didn’t make a postseason tournament that year.

Junior guards Tanaya Atkinson, Alliya Butts and Khadijah Berger came to Temple as freshmen the next season. The Owls went 20-17 and qualified for the WNIT, a step below the NCAA Tournament. They made a run to the WNIT semifinals.

Having already been to the WNIT, the Owls had hoped to make the NCAA tournament last year, but they just missed out on receiving a bid.

The Owls worked hard to change the outcome this time around. Temple had a 12-game win streak and recorded its first national rank since the 2005-06 season.

The Owls also notched four Top 50 Ratings Percentage Index wins and ended the season ranked No. 18 in RPI. “I feel like we took postseason and preseason seriously and worked hard to get better,” Atkinson said. “It was basically mind over matter at this point just to get our coaches and seniors to the NCAA Tournament. I think us working hard paid off. It’s a great feeling now that we’re in the NCAA Tournament.”

Fitzgerald scored 16 points and added five rebounds and six assists in the loss against Oregon. She put the Owls up by one with 16 seconds left when she pulled up from the free throw line and knocked down a midrange jump shot.

When Oregon responded with a bucket to retake the lead, Fitzgerald had the opportunity for a career-defining play.

With her team down by one with five

Freshman all-around Daisy Todd earned co-Rookie of the Year honors at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships at Brown University on Saturday. Todd posted a score of 39.025 at the meet to set a career-high and take second place. She is the first gymnast to win the award since 2009.

In her first year on North Broad, Todd earned four Rookie of the Week honors, including three in a row from Jan. 24 to Feb. 7. She added her fourth on Feb. 21.

Todd’s all-around score helped the Owls set a program record for their mark at the championships with a 193.675.

-Varun Sivakumar

FIELD HOCKEY BRIANNA SPAUSE/THE TEMPLE NEWS Senior guard Feyonda Fitzgerald missed the final shot in Temple’s 71-70 loss against the University of Oregon in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

seconds left, she drove to the hope and went up for a seemingly open shot. It was blocked, and time expired.

Fitzgerald ended her career as Temple’s all-time assists leader. She is also the second-leading scorer in Temple history.

“For me, it’ll take a little bit [to get over the loss], but for them it’ll take a bit longer, especially Feyonda as she was the guy with the ball in her hands,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “Hopefully, there will be a lot of positive things that happen in her basketball career. For the seniors, this is going to be something that they live with as this was their only opportunity and to have it cut that short in this type of game.”

While the seniors will be gone next

year, Cardoza is optimistic for another successful season. Temple will add fourstar point guard Desiree Oliver from Penn Hills High School in Pittsburgh. She is ranked 94th in the espnW Top 100.

Cardoza was impressed by Butts’ season-high 28-point performance and the intensity with which she played.

“She played with a lot of confidence, and when Alliya’s making shots, she just feels like no one can stop her,” Cardoza said. “I like that she competed. That’s just something positive going into next year that she can definitely feed off of.” maura.razanauskas@temple.edu @CaptainAMAURAca

Owls earn academic honor The field hockey team had 16 athletes named to the National Field Hockey Coaches Association’s Division I National Academic team.

Those who were honored had to achieve a 3.3 GPA or higher during the fall semester. The Owls tied Liberty University with the most honorees from a team in the Big East Conference.

As a team, Temple accumulated a 3.56 GPA last semester, which ranked fifth out of all Division I schools.

Freshman midfielders Maddie Merton and Kathryn Edgar and freshman goalkeeper Maddie Lilliock earned the title “Scholar of Distinction” for posting a 3.9 GPA or higher.

-Owen McCue

sports@temple-news.com

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TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017

Men’s gymnastics and track & field clubs form after cuts Continued from Page 1

CUTS besides Penn State’s Division I team.

Kustin said he wasn’t good enough to compete at larger schools. And while Navy, Army West Point and the Air Force Academy sponsor Division I gymnastics, he said he wasn’t ready to go to a U.S. service academy for the sake of the sport. He had barely made the Temple team in the first place — it was a “unique fit.”

Men’s gymnastics, still coached by Turoff, operates as a club sport that gets to compete at the same meets as Division I schools. Temple will compete in two championships this season.

The team has limited practice time and has one season left to operate on a four-year university subsidy before it has to rely on fundraising efforts.

Jesse Kitzen-Abelson, who was on Temple’s roster from 2007-11 and whose father was on the team from 1969-71, became involved with the club as an assistant coach in September. He coached in South Africa from September 2011 to June 2016 and coached the country’s national team at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. Kitzen-Abelson said he was impressed by the work ethic of the Owls’ freshmen when he started going to practices.

EVAN EASTERLING/THE TEMPLE NEWS Jakob Welsh, a senior all-around, practices on the parallel bars on Dec. 16 in Pearson 143. He is the vice president of the men’s gymnastics club and a former Division I gymnast.

I was part of this program for four or five years. ... It did so much for me that I don’t want to see this program disappear.

“We need to be a successful club that raises our own budget every year and we’re just going to find a way to thrive on that new model,” Kitzen-Abelson said. “I have to adapt to it, or else it’ll just die off as a club. So I’m just excited to figure out how to make that work and keep all the alumni happy that this program is still here, and we’re going to hopefully be better than we ever were in terms of gymnastics standard.”

Kitzen-Abelson said Turoff will not be at all of the meets next season and only will go to practices two or three days per week instead of five. He is trying to learn as much as he can from Turoff. He wants to be at four to five practices per week next season and said he could become the head coach in the next two seasons.

Turoff turned 70 on March 13 and gave himself a birthday present: a scuba diving trip with humpback whales in the Pacific Ocean. He went diving in December and already has plans for trips to the Philippines in June and Indo-

Jesse Kitzen-Abelson Men’s gymnastics club assistant coach

He has started to write up a business plan, inspired by those of Arizona State University, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Washington, programs that are self-sufficient, he said.

Members of the club and their parents are also attending local meets to spark interest in incoming freshmen.

nesia in January 2018.

“He’s shockingly optimistic still, which is what I like,” Wright said. “He hasn’t really changed his views. He still thinks that we can be great and we have been. We have records on the wall. But it’s just, it’s going to take some time to kind of build back what we had before.”

The club has dealt with several challenges, including when the Owls’ practice facility in Pearson Hall was vandalized in Spring 2016.

The last group of gymnasts with Division I experience, which includes Wright, Kustin and club vice president Jakob Welsh, will graduate at season’s end.

“We’ve been a lot of running the team on what we experienced our freshman year, so going forward is, people that have never experienced D-I gymnastics, ‘How do we keep the spirit alive of that kind of attitude to people who’ve never experienced it firsthand,’” Kustin said.

“I was part of this program for four or five years while I was at school, and it did so much for me that I don’t want to see this program disappear,” Kitzen-Abelson said.

and hurdler Blair Alston brought the idea to Campus Recreation when the fall semester began.

“We went in with nothing,” Sulon said.

“We had no background, we had no relationship with Campus Rec at the time, and five guys come in, ‘Hey, we want to start a club.’”

It took about four months to receive recognition as a club, but it became official in January 2015.

Ho was the only athlete to compete during the indoor season. The club had six athletes compete during the outdoor season in Spring 2015. Sulon, Ho and Hargrove were the only members from the Division I team to compete.

Cody Cameron, K.J. Woodring and Jullian Gerhart joined the team in March 2015.

Cameron, who ran track at Father Judge

We had no relationship with Campus Rec at the time, and five guys come in, ‘Hey, we want to start a club.’

Joseph Sulon Owls track club senior

STARTING FROM SCRATCH

GENEVA HEFFERNAN/THE TEMPLE NEWS Owl Track Club founders Joseph Sulon (left), and Joseph Ho talk during practice on March 2.

ACTIVE coaches’ CAREERS AT TEMPLE Year hired

Number of seasons 45

NIKKI FRANKE

1972

*FRED TUROFF

1976

DAVID MACWILLIAMS

2000

STEVE MAURO

2005

FRAN DUNPHY

2006

11

BONNIE ROSEN

2007

11

Fencing

Men’s Gymnastics

Men’s Soccer

Tennis

41 17 12

Men’s Basketball

Lacrosse

BRIAN QUINN

2007

10

2008

9

Golf

TONYA CARDOZA Women’s Basketball

*Coached at Division I level from 1976-2014 COURTNEY REDMON | THE TEMPLE NEWS

sports@temple-news.com

After injuring his knee in October 2013 and undergoing surgery, Joseph Sulon was prepared to miss most of his freshman year, hoping he’d be able to come back healthy as a sophomore for Temple’s men’s track & field team.

Then came Dec. 6, 2013.

Sulon leaned on a pair of crutches in the Student Pavilion as then-athletic director Kevin Clark delivered the news that Temple would no longer sponsor a Division I men’s track team after the 2014 season.

“It was especially traumatic because it was like, ‘This is my last season and I’m on crutches right now,’” Sulon said.

“When it first happened, people were upset, people felt ripped off,” he added. “We were like, ‘Why aren’t we allowed to run anymore?’

People have dedicated so long to running. The immediate thought at the time was, ‘We’re all out of here.’”

There were seven freshmen on the 2013-14 men’s track & field team. Triple jumper Thomas Johnson transferred to the University of Maryland at Baltimore County and sprinter Adam Hasan transferred to the University of North Texas. The rest stayed at Temple.

“As time kind of progressed, some people did transfer out, some people still wanted to do the competition,” Sulon said. “Other people decided they wanted to use the time to pursue different interests.”

Joseph Ho had the opportunity to go somewhere else to run. Nearby, Saint Joseph’s University reached out to Ho for a chance to compete for the Hawks after the season, but he wanted to stay at Temple.

Still, Ho didn’t want to give up competing.

He wanted to start a club team.

When the Owls’ season ended, he ran the idea by Gabe Pickett, who was a senior captain on the 2013-14 roster. Pickett approved.

“When the team got cut, it was the day before our first indoor race,” Ho said. “Obviously our sights were set on that season. We really didn’t come up with that idea until after [the last meet] which was in June.”

Ho pitched the idea to Sulon, who agreed.

The three, along with sprinter Elijah Hargrove

High School, had originally planned to walk on to the Division I team. After he decided he still wanted to attend Temple, the club gave Cameron a place he could continue to compete.

“I wouldn’t be running or anything, which is my favorite thing to do,” Cameron said. “It kind of would suck if we didn’t have it.”

Through word of mouth, Welcome Week tables and social media outreach, the club grew.

Sulon said the club expanded to about eight members last year. The club opened up to female runners this season, and now there are about 40 members who regularly attend practices, he said.

“This program, when I started looking things up, it dates back to the time of Jesse Owens in 1934,” Ho said. “Running at Temple runs very deep. Having a team and seeing about 50 people show up to practice every day means a lot. It really shows how many people care about running.”

Pickett and Alston have graduated, so Sulon, Ho and Hargrove are the last athletes remaining from Temple’s Division I team. Ho and Sulon will graduate this spring and Hargrove will graduate in the fall.

They’ve started grooming Cameron, the current club president, and Woodring as their replacements to run the club after they leave.

“I’m really excited to see how these guys progress,” Ho said. “It’s nice for me and Joe to compete at such a high level again, but he’ll tell you as much as I will that watching them compete and having a team to still compete at will be great.”

“It’s a lot of pressure because they’ve put a lot of work into it,” Cameron said. “It’s really important to me just to make sure all the efforts that they put in don’t go to waste.” sports@temple-news.com @TTN_Sports

temple-news.com @TTN_sports

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PAGE 15

WOMEN’S TENNIS

Mauro: Stuckey-Willis ‘has unlimited potential’ The junior played individually before joining a team for the first time at Temple.

By GRAHAM FOLEY Women’s Tennis Beat Reporter When Monet Stuckey-Willis came to Temple to play tennis, she brought with her a plethora of talent and experience.

But there was one problem: she had never played on a team before.

“It was so different,” Stuckey-Willis said.

“You’re really used to yourself and looking out for yourself, but now you have to motivate yourself and your teammates. And if you’re down it brings your team down, so you need to work with everybody and not just yourself.”

Stuckey-Willis was homeschooled throughout her life so she could focus on tennis.

The Owls’ junior never played for a high school team and instead played in individual tournaments with a private coach.

“It took a long time to open up because I’m really introverted,” Stuckey-Willis said. “But [the team] feels like a family. It’s a family outside of your family. It makes me feel comfortable.”

The Southwest Philly native first picked up a racket when she was 6 years old. It was apparent early that she had natural talent for the game, and her parents took notice.

At age 9, Stuckey-Willis began working with personal tennis coach Chris Hill and started playing on her own. She also started studying with the online Agora Cyber Charter School in order to focus on traveling and practicing tennis.

In her later years of high school, StuckeyWillis decided she would play tennis in college despite considering a run at playing professionally right away. For a player who wanted to stay local and continue working with her coach, Temple made the most sense.

“It was my only choice,” Stuckey-Willis said. “It’s Division I and it’s close. It’s only 15 to 20 minutes from my house. It was a perfect fit.”

Coach Steve Mauro said taking homeschooled kids like Stuckey-Willis is always a risk because of their non-traditional training style.

“With homeschooled kids, you never know what they’ll be like because they don’t interact with other kids a lot,” Mauro said. “But Monet

YUAN GONG FOR THE TEMPLE NEWS Junior Monet Stuckey-Willis hits a serve during Temple’s 4-3 win against Connecticut at the Hamlin Tennis Center at the University of Pennsylvania on Feb. 18.

is great. She’s very down to Earth, she’s a good teammate and she’s a good friend.”

Stuckey-Willis’ experience outweighed any minor setbacks that came from being homeschooled.

She went away from her family for seven months to study in Florida at the 6th Sense Tennis Academy, which was started by Belgian tennis star Justine Henin. She also spent three months on her own at Henin’s academy in Belgium.

Stuckey-Willis also played in various tournaments across the region with Hill that would affect her Intercollegiate Tennis Association scores, which players send to college coaches to prove their worth.

Mauro was impressed.

“When I did my research on her, I realized she was a very good player, a very dedicated player,” Mauro said. “She has unlimited potential, she’s a very tenacious player and she has all the right strokes.”

After suffering through injuries in her sophomore year and missing preseason tournaments in Fall 2016, Stuckey-Willis is now fully healthy and playing consistently. Playing in the second position for the Owls, she has posted an 8-7 record this season including several pivotal victories.

In Temple’s match against Iowa State University on Jan. 27, Stuckey-Willis’ win in the second position gave Temple a 2-1 lead on the

way to a close 4-2 victory. Her victory against Drexel University on March 1 gave the Owls a 3-0 lead in a 4-3 win.

Finally, her victory in the second position got the Owls on the board in their 5-2 loss to conference opponent Tulsa on March 5.

“I think she will play professionally afterwards,” Mauro said. “I definitely think she has a shot of being a good professional, I just think it’s a matter of her maturing on the court. But she can definitely take her game to the next level.” graham.foley@temple.edu @graham_foley3

MEN’S TENNIS

Sevel fits in on and off court Junior Thomas Sevel went undefeated at a Division II school before transferring to Temple.

By DAN WILSON Men’s Tennis Beat Reporter Less than a year after he decided to transfer from Augusta University in Georgia, Thomas Sevel is confident he made the right choice.

“Every day I’m here, I find myself really happy to wake up,” the junior said. “When I first came to the U.S. I didn’t want to spend all four years at the same place. I wanted to discover as much as possible here.”

Sevel, who is from Yvelines, France — just west of Paris — said finding a school that could offer him a full scholarship was one of the most important factors when he was deciding where to continue his education and his tennis career. He originally received a full scholarship from Augusta, a Division II school, but learned he would receive less money after he went 5-10 in singles in his freshman season.

He went a perfect 14-0 in his sophomore season at Augusta.

Sevel said he was on good terms with Augusta coach Michael McGrath, but he felt like it was time to move on from a school that did not have more money to offer him after a standout year.

“You can understand that based on how I played that I could go to another school and get more scholarship money,” Sevel said. “I liked it [at Augusta]. I just felt I needed to look at better offers.”

Augusta granted Sevel a permission-to-contact letter, allowing him to explore options for the 201617 season.

He reached out to Temple, St. Mary’s College of California, Youngstown State University and Fairleigh Dickinson University, ultimately choosing to join the Owls because he felt it was the best school for both tennis and academics.

Sevel has transitioned well to the Division I

level. He has an 11-6 singles record and 8-7 doubles mark, mostly with sophomore Florian Mayer as his partner. Sevel regularly plays as the second or third seed in both singles and doubles.

“Playing Division II is really good, but sometimes you can get away with a bit more at that level,” coach Steve Mauro said. “The players in Division I are sometimes just a little more consistent.”

When he’s not on the court, Sevel likes to keep himself busy. He is a business management major and likes video games and playing the piano, but sometimes he doesn’t get to participate in his outside interests as much as he’d like.

“My mother was visiting while I was still at Augusta and bought me a keyboard for me to play in my dorm,” Sevel said. “When I transferred I had to take all of my stuff back to France and now I don’t have it with me in the U.S. anymore. I’m still considering bringing it back next semester.”

However, his interest in video games has grown since arriving with the Owls. Sevel spends a lot of his downtime away from tennis hanging out with teammates playing FIFA and NBA 2K. “Thomas has become one of my closest friends since he joined the team because of our similar interests,” freshman Eric Biscoveanu said. “We spend a lot of time hanging out playing [video games], and he always wins. He’s gotten really good.”

As for adjusting to American culture, Sevel was pleasantly surprised.

“I really feel the people are nicer here,” Sevel said. “When I first came here I was afraid of people judging my accent because it sounds funny, but then one of my first things I did when I got here was go to the bank and they were even more helpful when they realized I wasn’t American.”

“Of course, my family and friends back home are the biggest thing that I miss,” he added. “That and the bread in France.” danielwilson20@temple.edu @dan_wilson4

Continued from Page 16

THOMAS Thomas ran for 2,599 yards and caught 69 passes for 998 yards in his Temple career. He also combined for more than 1,100 punt and kick return yards.

NFL personnel have told Thomas they like his ability to be a playmaker in multiple ways on the field like White.

He could be an interesting toy for a creative play-caller.

Lance Zierlein NFL.com writer

After a brief switch to defensive back during his sophomore season, Thomas became the Owls’ go-to guy out of the backfield during the last two seasons.

As a junior in 2015, Thomas ran 276 times for 1,262 yards and 17 touchdowns. He also added 22 catches for 216 yards and a touchdown reception.

Thomas missed Temple’s first two games last season with a hand injury.

He finished with 207 carries for 953 yards and 13 touchdowns. Although Thomas’ rushing usage took a dip, he became an even bigger threat out of the backfield. He made 33 catches for 418 yards and six touchdowns.

“While it's hard to imagine him handling more than just a few carries per game as an NFL runner, his roster flexibility could work in his advantage,” NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein wrote in Thomas’ draft profile. “With his ability to operate from the slot and as

a jet-sweep runner, he could be an interesting toy for a creative play-caller.”

The biggest knock on Thomas heading into the draft is his size. He was listed at 5-feet-10 inches and 190 pounds at the NFL combine. Although he only missed two games over the past two seasons, he had nagging injuries and his status was often questionable heading into games.

Thomas said he’s added about 10 pounds since the Owls’ season ended but knows he needs to continue to add to his frame in order to handle the duties of an NFL running back.

“I don’t know too many NFL running backs that’s 194, 195,” Thomas said. “That is a goal of mine, so putting on that weight comes with it.”

CBSSports.com ranks Thomas as the 30th best running back in this year’s draft class. Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller has Thomas as the 31st best running back prospect.

Zierlein’s NFL comparison for Thomas is New Orleans Saints running back Marcus Murphy, who has appeared in 16 games for the Saints over the past two seasons after being selected in the seventh round in 2015.

Even if Thomas doesn’t get selected in the draft, there’s still a chance he can catch on with an NFL team like former wide receiver Robby Anderson, who started eight games for the New York Jets after going undrafted last year.

“I did everything I could do, so now I’m just putting it in God’s hands,” Thomas said. “Everyone dreams of being a first-round pick, coming up as a football player and as a competitor.

But I’ll be just blessed to be wherever I get picked up at.” owen.mccue@temple.edu @Owen_McCue

sports@temple-news.com

SPORTS

S P O RT S

PAGE 16

TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017

LACROSSE

McDermott leads team after overcoming injuries The graduate attacker leads the team in points through nine games.

By TESSA SAYERS Lacrosse Beat Reporter

B

renda McDermott was playing in a pick-up game before her first official Temple practice. She made a move to get around her teammate, and the next thing she knew she was out for nine months with a torn ACL. Her freshman season was over before it even started.

“It was a battle,” McDermott said. “I was never hurt in my life, so coming in and that happening, it definitely took a toll on me mentally and physically.”

While that was the first major injury of McDermott’s career, it wouldn’t be the last. Over the next four years, the graduate attacker would be confined to the sidelines time and time again to nurse different injuries, including her hip, neck and back.

After taking a redshirt season her freshman year in 2013, McDermott only saw playing time in six games her sophomore season and one game her junior season. Over the

MCDERMOTT | PAGE 13

BILIN LIN FOR THE TEMPLE NEWS Graduate attacker Brenda McDermott cheers on a teammate in the Owls’ 11-7 win against Bucknell University on March 12 at Howarth Field.

CREW AND ROWING

NFL DRAFT

Both teams excited to finally ‘have a home’ The crew and rowing teams raced out of the renovated East Park Canoe House on Saturday.

By EVAN EASTERLING Assistant Sports Editor One day in Fall 1988, Brian Perkins fell through the dock and into the Schuylkill.

Once Perkins, then a freshman on the crew team, got out of the water, coach Gavin White came over and put his arm around him.

“You’re not gonna sue, kid, are you?” White asked.

Perkins hadn’t even thought of the possibility. White told him the city condemned the dock five years prior.

“It was serviceable,” Perkins said of the Owls’ facilities during his years on the team from 1988-92.

“The garage doors worked, we had indoor plumbing,” he added. “It was home. We didn’t really care. Temple Crew was the team, not so much the facility. But it was not awesome.”

Perkins went on to work as a graduate assistant from 1995-98 and as an assistant coach for the last six seasons before taking over as the head coach following White’s retirement in May. Temple began using the East Park Canoe House in 1969 but had to use military-grade tents to store its equipment after the building was condemned in 2008. The teams, which are shar-

ing the building with the Philadelphia Police Marine Unit, moved their boats back into the building on Nov. 18.

The Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department hosted a dedication ceremony for the East Park Canoe House on March 9. Alumni and students dedicated a plaque to university trustee H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest, whose foundation pledged $3 million toward the $5 million project in February 2014.

President Richard Englert also attended the celebration.

The project began in July 2015. In April, officials said the project would reach “substantial completion” by the end of June and the teams would be able to move in by the end of September.

The East Park Canoe House, which was built in 1914, is on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places. The project won an award from the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia this year. Tom McCreesh, Temple’s director of regulatory compliance and special projects, told The Temple News in November that the detailed nature of restoration caused the project to take longer.

The building has a space for calisthenics, video reviews, lockers and coaches’ offices. Temple has “more room for boats than [it has] ever had before” and “the best dock in Philadelphia,” Perkins said. He won’t be falling into the river anytime soon.

“It means a lot from a security perspective, but then just to be able to relax into that space and work hard but work hard in a place of more comfort,

BOATHOUSE | PAGE 13

BRIANNA SPAUSE/THE TEMPLE NEWS Former running back Jahad Thomas (left), stiff-arms Penn State cornerback Christian Campbell during Temple’s 34-27 loss to the Nittany Lions on Sept. 17.

Thomas hopes versatility lands him NFL roster spot The former running back scored 37 total touchdowns during the past two seasons.

By OWEN MCCUE Sports Editor As Jahad Thomas has gone through the NFL pre-draft process during the past three

months, he has heard himself compared to several different NFL running backs.

The list includes Philadelphia Eagles’ back and return man Darren Sproles, LeSean McCoy of the Buffalo Bills and Tyreek Hill of the Kansas City Chiefs.

The one name he’s heard the most is New England Patriots’ running back James White.

“I heard that a lot because obviously he’s co-MVP of the Super Bowl,” Thomas said. “And

he did a lot of great things in the game, creating match-ups, catching balls out of the backfield.”

White ran the ball six times for 29 yards and two touchdowns in the Patriots’ Super Bowl win.

He also caught 14 passes for 110 yards and a touchdown. White also scored on a two-point conversion to cut New England’s deficit to 10 with five minutes, 56 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

THOMAS | PAGE 15

W TENNIS | PAGE 15

M TENNIS | PAGE 15

FENCING | ONLINE

BRIEFS | PAGE 13

Because she was homeschooled, junior Monet Stuckey-Willis had never competed on an organized team before arriving at Temple.

Junior transfer Thomas Sevel joined the Owls’ roster after an undefeated sophomore campaign at Augusta University.

Junior epee Safa Ibrahim will make her third appearance at the NCAA championships this weekend in Indianapolis.

The football team started spring practice, gymnast Daisy Todd won a conference award, other news and notes.