Vol 96, Iss. 20

A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921.

VOL. 96 ISSUE 20

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

ON CAMPUS

CRIME

QPOC gets hate mail Temple Police is investigating the letter, which contained homophobic and racial slurs.

BY JULIE CHRISTIE

T

Enterprise Editor

emple Police has yet to identify a suspect in its investigation of a letter containing racial and homophobic slurs that was delivered to the student organization Queer People of Color’s office on Feb. 12.

Charlie Leone, the executive director of Campus Safety Services, said Temple Police is still investigating and conducting interviews with members of QPOC. Leone added that it was difficult to see anything significant from security footage inside the Student Center, where QPOC’s office is located, because the cameras are not pointed toward the office’s door. The letter could have been dropped off anytime between Feb. 9 and 12, he said.

Carmella Hall, the club’s president and a junior gender, sexuality and women’s studies major, found the hand-written letter after it was allegedly slipped under QPOC’s door. She said she believes the anonymous letter was intended for a member of the organization’s executive board, but it was not addressed to anyone in particular.

This is the first time the club has received hate mail, Hall said.

“I’m not scared,” Hall told The Temple News. “I’m offended...but a note can’t stop me.”

Hall added that QPOC has received support from Student Activities and the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, Advocacy and Leadership since the letter

QPOC | PAGE 2

CHIA YU LIAO / THE TEMPLE NEWS Hannah Whitney, a senior criminal justice major and a cadet for Temple’s Reserve Officers Training Corps, gives instructions during an event on Feb. 9 at Geasey Field. Whitney will commission as an armor officer after she graduates in May.

Women ‘bring perspective’ to ROTC Since 2016, Temple’s ROTC program has had women commission into combat arms positions.

BY KALEKIDAN DEREJE For The Temple News

Although Hannah Whitney comes from a family of soldiers, she didn’t originally want to join the military.

As a child, her father was in the Army and was deployed multiple times to countries like Bosnia, Afghanistan and Lithuania. She was home-schooled until high school and

TSG

said the deployment took a toll on her family.

“But there was a point where that kind of changed and I was like, ‘I think it’s really important for everyone to serve their country in any way possible,’ and if the military is my way, that’s the way I wanted to do it,” said Whitney, a senior criminal justice major and the assistant operations and a cadet for Temple’s Reserve Officers Training Corps.

Whitney’s mother was in the Army, too.

Her mom originally wanted to work in one of the combat arms branches, but she was not allowed because of her gender. She instead joined the military police, which is law enforcement within the army, and served in

South Korea and Fort Carson in Colorado.

Before 2015, women were permitted in one of the combat arms branches — the branches of the Army that engage in direct combat. In January 2016, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter declared all branches and facets of the military open to anyone who wanted to serve.

Since 2016, women from Temple’s ROTC program have commissioned into combat arms positions and graduated from the basic officer leadership course for these fields each year.

ROTC | PAGE 8

ON CAMPUS

STEM event opens new doors for girls The first president of Temple’s Society of Women Engineers chapter will speak on campus Thursday.

BY IAN WALKER

Assistant Features Editor

RACHEL SILVERMAN / THE TEMPLE NEWS Temple Student Government canceled its Alternative Spring Break, which planned to educate students about North Philadelphia history and provide volunteer opportunities.

More than 30 years after her graduation, Kathleen Jenkins still gets goosebumps when she steps on Main Campus.

Jenkins, a 1983 mechanical engineering alumna and decades-long NASA engineer, was the first president of Temple’s chapter of the Society of Women Engineers, which had four members in its inaugural

year. The group now has 70 students.

Jenkins will meet with Temple’s SWE chapter on Thursday for the first time in about three decades.

“To go back and see the girls for the first time, this is going to be mind-boggling,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins will visit Main Campus to speak at the fourth annual “Girls! Be That Engineer!” event, which is an educational program for young girls interested in engineering professions. The event, hosted by SWE, will draw several dozens of girls, including students from the Philadelphia High School for Girls and members of the Girl Scouts of Central

ENGINEERING | PAGE 11

TSG cancels spring break service program Few students expressed interest in the program.

BY ALYSSA BIEDERMAN On-Campus Beat Reporter

Temple Student Government canceled its first Alternative Spring Break on Monday after only four students and two student leaders signed up to participate.

Students would have stayed at the Church of the Advocate on Diamond Street near 18th and participated in ser-

vice projects, like cleaning up blocks and working at the Advocate Cafe, which serves free meals Monday through Friday from 12 to 2 p.m.

TSG’s Deputy Local and Community Affairs Director Faithe Beadle said she wanted to have at least eight participants for the program to run, in the hopes it would foster better group discussions.

“We wanted to have a fruitful program, and with the amount of participants, it wouldn’t be,” Beadle said. “We

SPRING BREAK | PAGE 3

SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Caitlin Jugler, the secretary of Temple’s chapter of the Society of Women Engineers, builds with K’Nex in the Student Village to prepare for an event on Thursday that will teach young girls about STEM. The K’Nex will be on display at the event.

NEWS | PAGES 2-3, 6

OPINION | PAGES 4-5

FEATURES | PAGES 7-12

SPORTS | PAGES 13-16

Professors from the Department of Chemistry were awarded multi-million dollar grants to combat chemical warfare. Read more on Page 3.

A student wrote a column that compared police’s response for the Super Bowl celebrations and Black Lives Matter protests. Read more on Page 5.

Jimmy Curran, a 2011 finance alumnus, self-published a children’s book about a bird with one wing to talk about disabilities.

Read more on Page 7.

The men’s basketball team lost to two of the top three teams in the conference as it tried to bolster its chances at an NCAA Tournament bid. Read more on Page 16.

NEWS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

PAGE 2 SUSTAINABILITY

Despite pressure, The Edge doesn’t recycle Representatives from the Office of Sustainability have attempted to get The Edge to alter its policies to include recycling.

BY LINDSAY BOWEN For The Temple News

Residents of The Edge, an apartment complex leased by the university on 15th Street near Cecil B. Moore Avenue, said the complex does not have an accessible way to recycle.

Emily Cornuet, an innovation management and entrepreneurship graduate student and the waste minimization coordinator in the Office of Sustainability, said the university is not responsible for The Edge’s waste and recycling procedures because it is independent of the university.

Cornuet said her office has tried to work with The Edge in the past by sending Office of Sustainability representatives to ask The Edge’s management to change its policies and begin recycling.

“We can’t really do anything about it,” she added. “It’s a shame, but there’s nothing we can do.”

The university originally partnered with The Edge in August 2006 immediately after it opened. But Temple cut its ties in May 2013 because 1,275 beds would become available for students in Morgan Hall, which opened that fall.

In the 2016-17 academic year, the university leased several floors of The Edge.

For the following academic year, the university leased additional floors to compensate for the closing of Peabody Residence Hall, which had 287 beds.

Management from The Edge declined to comment. University Housing and Residential Life could not be reached for comment

despite several calls and emails.

The Edge is owned by Campus Living Village, a private company that provides 750 beds to students at the university. According to its website, Campus Living Village is one of the largest providers of higher education housing in the world, providing students with 45,000 beds in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Office of Sustainability collects waste from all university-owned academic buildings and residence halls on Main Campus, Health Sciences Campus and Center City Campus, Cornuet said. All of the university’s waste is sent to Covanta, a wasteenergy facility in Chester County. All university-owned residence halls recycle.

“Recycling is super important,” Cornuet said. “It’s more than just walking 10 more feet to throw your trash in the recycling container, it really has a big impact on what’s going on in the world.”

At The Edge, residents throw their garbage down a chute into a trash room. There is no separate chute or bin for recycling.

Any cardboard is completely flattened and stacked on the floor of the trash room to be disposed of by workers, some residents said.

But students can recycle on their own by carrying their recyclables to city-provided, public recycling bins outside The Edge.

Current and former residents of The Edge, like sophomore finance major Hannah Katzenmoyer, said there is no indication of recycling in the apartment building.

“It sucked that The Edge didn’t recycle, especially with it being such a big building with so many people, because I know that not everyone is going to take the time to bag up their recycling and take it somewhere on campus,” said Katzenmoyer, who lived in The Edge last year.

Josh Ruszas, a freshman marketing

VEENA PRAKRIYA / THE TEMPLE NEWS Students walk past dumpsters outside The Edge. Residents of the off-campus apartment complex reported that they have no accessible way to recycle their waste.

major and resident of The Edge, hopes his building will find a way to start recycling.

“It feels unnatural for me to throw plastic bottles and bags in with everything else, especially with recycling bins all over the rest of campus,” Ruszas said.

In an effort to promote recycling and green initiatives, the university is taking part in “Recyclemania,” a 10-week national recycling competition among universities and colleges that compete in reducing waste and increasing recycling.

This year, the university is trying to recycle 350,000 pounds of material including paper, plastic, cardboard and aluminum, Cornuet said. Last year, the university accumulated 372,030 pounds of recycling and 32.58 pounds of waste per person.

“Temple has 44,000 people, and we have a big footprint when it comes to what the city is wasting overall,” Cornuet said.

To promote recycling around campus, the Office of Sustainability hands out recycling bins in residence halls, as well as reusable water bottles and coffee mugs to students.

Additionally, the office hands out collection bins to offices around campus to collect old office supplies. They also encourage departments to empty their old files and materials to recycle, which officials called a “paper purge,” Cornuet said.

“Promoting recycling is a challenge, but it’s an exciting opportunity because we’ve seen a lot of improvement and we’re constantly getting to interact with students,” Cornuet said. lindsay.bowen@temple.edu @lindsay_bow

CONSTRUCTION

Mezzanine between Anderson, Gladfelter halls is renovated The university will spend $2.6 million on the first phase of the mezzanine’s updates.

BY KILEY BATENHORST For The Temple News

SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Carmella Hall, the president of QPOC, stands outside the organization’s Student Village office on Monday. A letter containing racial and homophobic slurs was delivered to the organization’s office.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 QPOC was found.

Nu’Rodney Prad, the faculty adviser for QPOC and the director of student engagement for IDEAL, said he’s working to make sure members of QPOC know that IDEAL is there to support them.

“I think this type of language that targets a person’s identity is unacceptable,” Prad said.

“I want to tell people, ‘Don’t be afraid,’” Hall said. “‘People support you. There are people behind you.’”

Hall added that she feels Temple is generally a safe space for LGBTQ people.

“Temple was always a welcoming place, but there are still people here who think like that,” said Charlie Catacalos, QPOC’s treasurer and a sophomore anthropology major.

“It was a wake-up call, like there’s no place safe.”

Catacalos added that members of QPOC expressed they were “taken aback” by the letter at the club’s

News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com

meeting on Feb. 14.

Catacalos said QPOC is working to organize a meeting to address homophobia in the Black community.

Other student organizations like the Black Student Union expressed their support for QPOC. “It’s important for BSU to support any student [organization] that falls in the realm of people of color or Black people,” BSU President Kourtney Thompson said. “We’re all under the same umbrella.”

A statement from a university spokesperson said the university is “offering support” to QPOC and that the letter goes against Temple’s values.

It also said any students connected to the hate mail could be punished under the Student Conduct Code.

Thompson said she was disgusted by the letter.

“We need to start to take a realistic look...and unpack what diversity means to Temple and what they’re doing to uphold it,” she said. “We

need to make the university back up the things they say.”

Leone said Temple Police haven’t yet determined whether the person who wrote the letter is a student.

This isn’t the first instance of racist or homophobic speech to appear on campus this year.

In December, several posters with racial slurs were hung around Main Campus. In September, students were outraged when a male student left a banana on the doorknob of a Morgan Hall room — the only room on the floor occupied by all Black students.

Despite several instances of racial discrimination, Catacalos insists this instance won’t inhibit QPOC’s advocacy.

“The most important thing to realize for people and the person who wrote this is it’s not going to stop us,” Catacalos said. “It’s going to make us talk about it even more.” julie.christie@temple.edu @ChristieJules

The promenades bridging Anderson and Gladfelter halls closed earlier this semester for structural improvements.

The first part of a two-part project to renovate the mezzanine costs $2.6 million, and the budget for part two has not yet been finalized.

The mezzanine’s infrastructure, including the roof and pavement stones, will be replaced during the first phase of the project, which is expected to be completed in May. The entire project is expected to be completed by December, said Dozie Ibeh, the associate vice president of Temple’s Project Delivery Group.

Pavement stones and the roofing will be repaired during phase one to allow better water drainage, Ibeh said.

The second phase of the project will begin this summer, Ibeh said. Possible additions during phase two are still being evaluated.

“Between now and then, there will be further discussion of evaluation and analysis of the project,” Ibeh said.

Ibeh said the university is also considering installing a green roof, which is an eco-friendly roof partially covered in vegetation that can manage stormwater, but this addition isn’t finalized yet, Ibeh said.

According to the Philadelphia Water Department, the most cost-effective time to install a green roof on a building is when a roof already needs to be replaced.

The university’s new $170 million library, which will be completed in May 2019, is expected to have a green roof, The Temple News reported in November 2017. The Architecture Building on 13th Street near Norris already has a green roof.

The construction will keep the promenades closed, but there will still be paths through the construction area for students to walk, Ibeh said.

Before this area was temporarily closed, the space offered a place for students and faculty to sit outside.

“I see a lot of people out there laying on their book bags,” said Nicole Demcenko, a sophomore public relations major. “I don’t think they really need much more. It’s a nice place.” kiley.batenhorst@temple.edu

temple-news.com @thetemplenews

NEWS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

PAGE 3

CRIME

Officials offer anonymous misconduct reporting The university began using an anonymous reporting system last semester to report instances of sexual misconduct.

intimidating or threatening someone. It can include sexual assault, stalking and domestic abuse.

HOW IT WORKS

BY JULIA BOYD

Crime Beat Reporter

The university implemented a new anonymous reporting system last semester for instances of sexual misconduct that students and faculty experience or witness, but it’s unclear how much the system has been used.

The online system officially launched in August 2017, and various university departments and officials are involved in the process of investigating reports of sexual misconduct on campus.

Nationally, women have come forward as part of the #MeToo movement to report sexual misconduct and harassment by superiors. The university would not disclose the number of submissions to the anonymous reporting system, nor how many reports of misconduct have been made to university officials.

The university began advertising the system last semester with literature posted on Main Campus, including informational posters in every bathroom stall in the Student Center. This is a part of a $25,000 grant from Gov. Tom Wolf’s “It’s On Us PA” campaign.

Sexual misconduct is a broad term for any action that is deemed sexually inappropriate or uncomfortable and has the effect of

When reporting misconduct, the online system asks for optional information, like your name, university title and phone number. It then has a section for the person who experienced or witnessed misconduct to give details about the incident, like where it took place and who was involved. The person reporting an incident can upload files like videos, photos and text messages.

The system allows people to report anonymously, but this limits “the university’s ability to respond effectively” because officials will not be able to follow up with the person filing the report, according to the reporting system’s web page.

Each time an incident of misconduct is reported, the university’s Title IX Coordinator Andrea Seiss receives an email notification. The report is then stored in a database that only she and her supervisor can access.

If the report is anonymous, Seiss reviews the report’s available information, and it is then assigned to a private or university investigator.

When the report includes more information, like the names of the people involved, Seiss will reach out to the survivor and offer them access to on-campus resources like Tuttleman Counseling Services.

She then offers the victim a time to meet and

discuss additional information if he or she is comfortable.

“With anonymous reporting, we’re giving people an option to come forward in a way they feel most comfortable,” Seiss said.

SEXUAL MISCONDUCT BY AN EMPLOYEE In situations of employee misconduct, the university takes into consideration every report issued and decides what action should be taken.

“We closely follow our policies,” Seiss said. “Every case is taken seriously, whether the definition [of sexual misconduct] fits into a policy violation or not, because we’re also worried about how people are feeling and what we can do to make them comfortable.”

Depending on the severity of the misconduct, the university’s actions vary. Officials could refer a survivor of misconduct to counseling services, Seiss said. Serious instances of misconduct and harassment could lead to the university firing or expelling the offender.

For Temple employees accused of sexual misconduct by their peers or students, the Department of Human Resources, the employee’s department supervisor and other university representatives consider terminating an employee in cases of alleged misconduct, wrote Sharon Boyle, associate vice president of human resources, in an email.

“Every situation is different,” Boyle told The Temple News. “We have to examine

the facts, and nothing is off the table when you’re dealing with a situation.”

Employees, in addition to their mandatory training requirements, must complete an online training course on harassment and misconduct when they are hired, Boyle said.

UNIVERSITY RESPONSE Boyle said the human resources department does its best to accommodate the needs of anyone who reports an incident of misconduct, but there will always be cases when people are disappointed by efforts to address the situation.

“Sometimes the appropriate course of action is not what the individual wants,” Boyle said. “People have different ideas as to what the appropriate course of action should be as opposed to an objective point of view.”

Seiss said she hopes the new reporting system will make it easier for the Temple community to report instances of sexual misconduct.

“There are a lot of barriers to people reporting, whether it’d be discomfort or not knowing where to go to file a report,” Seiss said. “People are more comfortable having that conversation. I start seeing it more and more on campus, and the more we talk about it, the more comfortable people are coming forward.” julia.boyd@temple.edu @JuliaKBoyd

RESEARCH

Professors receive grant from Department of Defense The multi-million dollar grant was given to professors in the Department of Chemistry to destroy chemical warfare agents.

BY KILEY BATENHORST For The Temple News

The United States Department of Defense awarded Temple’s chemistry department a multiyear, multi-million dollar grant to detect and destroy chemical warfare agents.

The grant is a three-year agreement which will award $500,000 each year, with the possibility for two additional years if progress is shown.

Research first began a year and half ago, organic chemistry professor Christian Schafmeister said.

The goal is to develop catalysts, which are molecules that speed up reactions to counteract chemical agents that attack nerves. These agents can be used in warfare.

Nerve cells send signals from the body to the brain. When chemical agents are released, they block enzymes in the brain, resulting in nerves sending too many signals to the body. This can cause nausea, headaches, chest pains or intense muscle spasms. Schafmeister said there are currently no ways to stop this bodily reaction.

Schafmeister and his team are working on creating molecules that are big enough to take in and

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 SPRING BREAK decided it would be better to cancel it than have the participants not get anything from it.”

Church of the Advocate’s Rev. Renee McKenzie hopes she can institute the program in the future.

“I still think it’s a great idea,” McKenzie said. “I think that there’s a time and a way to do it, and we started this process a little too late to make it happen.”

According to TSG’s platform,

break down the smaller, toxic molecules in nerve agents.

Pairs of chemical bonds “snap together” in order to make these larger molecules, creating an active site where the nerve agent molecules are taken in and broken down into harmless byproducts, Schafmeister said.He hopes this will mitigate symptoms caused by chemical agents.

“The things that we’re trying to make are rugged and robust and small,” he added. “They’re bigger than the molecules that they’re attacking, but they are smaller than anything nature makes to attack [nerve agents].”

Schafmeister said the technology could be used to protect soldiers and treat exposure to the chemical agents, but would have to be administered very quickly.

“There is potential that you could inject these into people [preventatively] to protect them if they go into an exposed area,” Schafmeister said.

First, Schafmeister hopes to develop computer software that will design the molecules. Then, he and his team would be able to build them.

“I really enjoy working with the chemistry we do here,” said JD Northrup, a chemistry postdoctoral fellow working with Schafmeister on the research. “It’s interesting because not a lot of people have done this sort of work.”

the Alternative Spring Break program aimed to “promote experiential learning to combat stigma in regards to North Philadelphia” and “encourage civic engagement between students and the North Philadelphia community.”

“We wanted to implement something similar that focuses right here where our home is, rather than spring break options that are already available, like traveling to Jamaica or Texas,” Student Body President Tyrell Mann-Barnes said. “We wanted to explore how we can be civically

OLIVIA O’NEILL / THE TEMPLE NEWS Chemistry professor Christian Schafmeister (center) discusses the process to destroy chemical warfare agents with chemistry postdoctoral fellows JD Northrup (left) and Jesse Wiener. Schafmeister was awarded a multi-million dollar grant to complete this research.

Others working with Schafmeister on the grant include chemistry professor Michael Zdilla, University of California at Los Angeles chemist Kendall Houk and Shane Kasten, a scientist with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense.

The Department of Defense’s

grant is not the first one that Schafmeister has received for his research. He was awarded a $1 million grant last week from the Department of Energy to develop a similar catalyst to make biodegradable plastics, he said.

“The Department of Defense has been funding [research] for a

long time to develop catalysts for nerve agents, but it is a platform technology for solving almost every problem,” Schafmeister said.

engaged in our own community.”

Student Activities offers several service-immersion programs, one of which is during Spring Break. Students who participate in these weeklong programs can choose a domestic or international location in either El Paso, Texas; Rosebud Lakota Reservation, South Dakota; Mobile, Alabama or Guatemala.

“We know there are certain pressure points in the relationship, and so our goal [was] just to bring people to conversation,” McKenzie added. “We want to see each other as

people, and respond to each other as people who are living and working in the same space.”

TSG wrote in a statement that it will plan a day of service later in the semester in lieu of the Alternative Spring Break.

“Sometimes there’s a change of plans, and that’s the way it is,” McKenzie said.

The plan for Alternative Spring Break came out of a class project Mann-Barnes worked on last academic year in his Urban Affairs class, Temple Students in the North Philly

Community, taught by geography and urban studies instructor Charles Johnson. After he was elected student body president, Mann-Barnes worked to bring the plan to fruition.

“TSG wants to bridge the gap between students and the long-term neighbors in this community, as well as introduce them to the various initiatives and programs already in place,” Mann-Barnes said.

kiley.batenhorst@temple.edu

alyssa.biederman@temple.edu @BiedermanAlyssa

News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com

OPINION TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

PAGE 4

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EDITORIALS

An opportunity lost It is disappointing that students weren’t interested in the opportunity to engage with the community during Spring Break.

On Monday night, Temple Student Government canceled its plans to host an Alternative Spring Break in the Church of the Advocate on Diamond Street near 18th. TSG canceled the program due to low enrollment — only four students and two student leaders had signed up as of Monday.

As part of the program, participating students would have stayed in the church from March 2 to 5, facilitated block clean-ups and worked in the Advocate Cafe, which serves free meals to neighborhood residents.

The program would have been facilitated by the Rev. Renee McKenzie, who hoped it would smooth the relationship between the university and the North Philadelphia community by making personal connections.

The Temple News is disappointed to hear that the program has been canceled. The Alternative Spring Break could have giv-

en students the chance to better understand the community where they live. On Main Campus, we talk a lot about the importance of giving back to our neighborhood, and this opportunity seemed particularly valuable. By staying in a North Philadelphia hub and interacting with residents on a daily basis, students could have engaged with the community beyond typical day-to-day interactions.

To McKenzie: we thank you for the opportunity to connect with North Philadelphia residents and better understand the community as a whole, and we are sorry more students weren’t interested. To students: we’re disappointed you didn’t take the opportunity to engage with your community.

As newer members of the North Philadelphia community, we ought to get to know longterm residents. It’s the neighborly thing to do.

Proud of ROTC women Female students are commissioning into combat arms positions they previously weren’t allowed to hold.

Until January 2016, women were only permitted in one of the combat arms branches of the United States Army. The combat arms are the branches that engage in direct combat.

That year, the former U.S. Secretary of Defense opened all military branches to anyone who wanted to serve.

Each year since then, women from Temple’s Reserve Officers Training Corps, a program that trains students to become officers in the U.S. armed forces, have graduated from the basic officer leadership course and commissioned into combat arms positions. Twenty percent of the students enrolled in Temple’s ROTC program are women.

The Temple News is proud of the female students who have participated in ROTC and continued their service after graduation. In a

country where the Army currently has just a 13.6 percent female population, Temple’s ROTC program is above average for gender inclusivity.

“The decision for women to enter into combat arms is one that certainly can’t be taken lightly, in the sense of, the core mission...for our military is to defend the nation,” Lt. Col. Keith Benedict, one of the leaders of Temple’s ROTC program, told The Temple News.

“And it’s about readiness and capability to do that.”

We agree with Benedict.

When women enter ROTC programs nationwide — which have been traditionally dominated by men — they show impressive leadership and courage. The Temple News commends the university’s ROTC program for fostering a welcoming environment for these soldiers.

A

fter the Eagles won their first Super Bowl in franchise history on Feb. 4, overjoyed fans flooded the city’s streets.

It wasn’t long before this celebration turned into chaos. Though tens of thousands of fans destroyed public and private property, climbed light poles and even looted a gas station, only four people were arrested that night, according to the Inquirer.

Meanwhile, during the Super Bowl game in Minneapolis, 17 peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters were detained “largely without incident,” according to the Huffington Post.

Protesters should not be detained while peacefully supporting their causes. It’s time for law enforcement to start showing respect to DIANA CRISTANCHO these protesters and their constitutional right to assemble and stand up for what they believe in.

“Who do the police serve and protect?” said Jason Del Gandio, a communication and social influences professor who studies the theory and practice of social justice, with a focus on activism, social movements and political protest. “Is it all Americans or only some Americans?”

It’s unfortunate that law enforcement hasn’t treated protesters with the same respect and understanding that fans were shown after the Super Bowl win, especially given the larger impact and importance of protest.

The Black Lives Matter movement was organized in order to fight against systematic oppression by police against people of color, but specifically African-Americans. Members of the movement have protested at many other events, like a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia during the summer.

Though this is a notable cause, I think protesters — especially when they are calling out authorities for what they see as problematic practices — tend to be demonized by our society.

“Protests seek the challenge of the status quo of society,” Del Gandio said. “Conversely, the police are there to serve and protect the status quo, so inherently it sets up an antagonistic relationship.”

This is not the first time Black Lives Matter protesters have been persecuted. One weekend in August 2016, more than 300 people were arrested in several cities after two Black men, Phi-

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While Black Lives Matter protesters are often condemned, police were lenient during Super Bowl chaos.

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POLITICS

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lando Castile and Alton Sterling, were shot and killed by police, according to CNN. Something to consider is that fans were rioting because of a sports team, while Black Lives Matter protesters march and chant against police brutality. It seems unfair that the people fighting against human rights violations are detained, while football fans can get away with destroying public property without any repercussion.

Some of the embarrassing ways Eagles fans chose to celebrate the team’s win at its victory parade on Feb. 8 included trying to tip over cars and climbing on police horses. The behavior that Eagles fans exhibited while celebrating all had one thing in common: it was destructive, disturbed the peace and was pointless — the antithesis of what led the BLM activists to be arrested in Minneapolis.

Zoya-Jade Lewin, a sophomore business administration major, said she thinks the police didn’t seem aggressive when she joined the crowd storming Broad Street after the Eagles’ Super Bowl win.

“It’s rioting but it’s...positive energy,” Lewin said. “Nobody’s trying to be hurtful or dangerous.”

While I understand that Philadelphia police officers were celebrating the team’s victory too, they can’t excuse reckless civilian behavior.

It’s a simple fact that supervision was used in one case, while force was used in others. I think this speaks volumes for our society and what we deem important. And this must change in order for all Americans to be protected equally.

It is up to us to demand change. We should support movements like Black Lives Matter and speak out when we see them receiving unjust treatment from law enforcement. diana.cristancho@temple.edu

CORRECTIONS An article published in the Feb. 13 issue with a story headlined “‘Vagina Monlogues’ canceled” misstated how the Wellness Resource Center gathered feedback on the annual production of the play. It hosted a feedback performance in Fall 2017, when students gave their responses to the play.

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 Michaela Winberg at editor@temple-news.com or 215-204-6737.

letters@temple-news.com

April 7, 1976: A protest of 300 members of the Brotherhood of University Employees Local 612 and Temple University Management picketed against Temple. One of the picketers was arrested for blocking two fuel truck drivers. The union was protesting several issues at the university, including their hiring practices. They were working with an attorney to file discrimination suits with the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission and the Federal Equal Employment Opportunities Commission against Temple.

This week, a columnist wrote that people protesting for their rights are often mistreated, while celebratory riots like the Eagles’ Super Bowl win gets a pass from authorities.

temple-news.com @thetemplenews

OPINION TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

PAGE 5

FEMINISM

‘Twitter feminists’ are making a difference, too Shunning social media feminism detracts from the cause itself.

A

s a feminist, I find myself constantly advocating and working to educate myself and others about the importance of promoting equality. And an easy, accessible way for me to do this is through Twitter.

But writer Katie Roiphe disapproves of social media activism.

Her essay, “The Other Whisper Network,” for the March 2018 issue of Harper’s Magazine, criticized people who use social media to advocate for their beliefs, arguing that it MONICA MELLON LEAD COLUMNIST harms feminism and women.

In her essay, Roiphe writes that feminists tweeting their views hinders the ability of men and women to have constructive conversations about issues and energizes the “angry extremes of feminism.”

But the “Twitter feminism” that Roiphe criticizes invites the

“conflicting points of view” she says our society needs. Promoting feminist discussions in any capacity is important because it allows people to express their opinions, learn more about feminism and understand the importance of it.

While it’s important to be critical of the campaigns and movements you care about, it’s unfair for Roiphe and others to remove some women from the feminist movement simply because they tweet about it. In fact, I think activism on social media is a necessary part of awareness.

“It gets to people quicker, it sends the message quicker, it makes people more accountable and it makes feminists more available to a larger market,” said Thomas Berendt, a women’s studies adjunct instructor.

And more specifically, the loudness and anger Rophie’s shaming are addressed toward the #MeToo campaign, which promoted thousands of women across the world to offer a visual representation of sexual assault and sexual harassment.

Twitter helped this campaign grow and invited an audience of

men and women to listen and further educate themselves. To attack feminist Twitter users for the success of #MeToo is to deny the important conversations that followed, including women from across the world joining in solidarity to share their experiences.

These discussions may not have happened outside the realm of social media. It is important to bring attention to them in any capacity and an effective way to do so is via Twitter.

Twitter includes so many more people in feminist discussions than would otherwise be included. It offers different opinions and insights to feminism and how to move forward in advocating for it.

Our generation has learned to adapt to the social media platform and use it to promote topics we care about, including #MeToo, #TIMESUP and #BringBackOurGirls. These hashtags sparked immediate discussion and political activism.

“The problem with feminism for a long time is that it stood in academia or it stood in activism,” Berendt said. “It stood in a marginalized part of society where people

couldn’t interact with it, and now people can.”

Fourth-wave feminism is lucky to have access to instant communication, unlike previous generations. The feminists of past decades relied on word of mouth and news coverage to gain attraction to their movement. Taking advantage of our technology to promote our causes should not be shamed.

“Each generation needs to pick up the baton and take feminism forward, and it does need to pass down and social media is the way the new generation [will do that],” said Nadine Rosechild Sullivan, a women’s studies adjunct instructor.

Trying to discredit Twitter and its users from participating in feminism moves us further back in the battle toward equality and detracts from debates about more serious issues than social media use.

“People have different ways of showing activism,” said Kayla Boone, the public relations chair for the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance. “Some people show activism by reposting links. Some people protest, some people educate others in person. I don’t think

ABBY STEINOUR / THE TEMPLE NEWS

anyone should limit themselves to one type of feminism.”

In any capacity, feminist discussions are important and need space to thrive. If people tend to have these discussions on Twitter, their dedication to the movement should not be attacked with a demeaning term. It takes the focus away from the real causes: equality and inclusivity.

If someone chooses to advance these noble causes with a tweet, I see no harm in that. monica.mellon@temple.edu @MonicaMellon

LGBTQ

WRC promotes inclusivity It’s valuable that the Wellness Resource Center considers all races and genders when planning events.

I

ABBY STEINOUR / THE TEMPLE NEWS

A sign of representation A student reflects on her choice to pursue a career in a maledominated field.

BY CHRISTINA MITCHELL

L

ast month, I joined more than 4 million people to march for equality at the annual Women’s March.

As I stood on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, I was awed by the passion that surrounded me, and I felt united with other feminists who were also marching across the country.

On that day, I was particularly inspired by the creative signs and banners that paired beautiful colors and designs with powerful political messages.

One sign that struck my friend and me read: “Women belong in the lab, not the kitchen.” We both hope to work in labs as a career after we graduate.

I’m a biology major who aspires to become an infectious disease specialist — a field that would not necessarily have been an option for me half a century ago when women had very limited career choices.

The sign, held by a woman who was probably studying or working in a field similar to mine, reminded me how grateful I am to be alive at a time in history when I can follow my desired career path.

But my father has always pressured me to become a nurse or a teacher, because these are more conventional careers for women. He has never explicitly

said my gender was the reason why, but I can detect the implicit sexism. I know he thinks it would be easier for me to get hired in one of those positions. I’m disappointed that even my father would hold these views in 2018.

Unfortunately, women who work in heavily male-dominated STEM careers are often doubted. They also face stigmas because for the longest time, most scientists and engineers were men.

Now, as I look around my biology and chemistry lecture halls, I notice that more than half of my classmates are young women. When I’m sick, I visit my female doctor. And two days each week, I’m taught by a female calculus professor.

These small instances mean something to me.

I have never felt intimidated or inadequate because of the men in my STEM classes or the percentages of women working in this field. And the number of proficient female scientists who are currently changing the world of research continues to grow.

Women in STEM prove that the analytical problem-solving skills required in mathematics and science is not based on an X or Y chromosome. In fact, research into genetics that could potentially save millions of lives is being done by brilliant and hard-working women right now. And one day, I hope to join them. christina.mitchell@temple.edu

was disappointed when I heard that the Wellness Resource Center wouldn’t host a performance of “The Vagina Monologues” this year for the first time since 2003. The play, written by Eve Ensler, features a series of stories from women who discuss their bodies, sexuality and personal experiences with their vaginas. It inspired me because the women are featured are so confident when discussing their experiences.

But after finding out that concerns over inclusivity were the reason the play didn’t run, I am no longer disappointed by its absence. Society is not the same as it was when Ensler wrote the play two deRAE BURACH LEAD COLUMNIST cades ago. In recent years, media representation has expanded to recognize more people of color and LGBTQ people than before. By canceling the production, the WRC has recognized this shift, and I think it’s productive to see the WRC serving as a good example to students.

Alison McKee, the director of the WRC, told the Temple News last week that some students felt overlooked by “The Vagina Monologues” because LGBTQ people and people of color were not represented by the production, which the center cut after hearing this feedback.

“If there were potentially people that were not feeling included by it, then it’s not something that fits within the WRC,” McKee said. “We want to make sure we’re doing things that are as helpful and inclusive as possible.”

Ensler wrote the play at a time when being gay or transgender was less talked about than it is today. She added a monologue about being transgender to the play in 2004 to reflect society’s progression, but her updated version still fails to include all of Temple’s varying demographics. “ T h e m o n o logues in themselves promote this very heterocentric and very cisgender concept S W NE E PL UR / THE TEM a n d ABBY STEINO

thought that is out there,” said Nu’Rodney Prad, the Director of Student Engagement at the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, Advocacy and Leadership. “Some of our students that may identify within the LGBTQIA community brought up concerns.”

According to Campus Reform, a national college news source, Mount Holyoke College, an all-women school in Massachusetts, also made the decision to discontinue “The Vagina Monologues” in 2015 because of inclusivity issues. “[T]he show offers an extremely narrow perspective on what it means to be a woman,” read a school-wide email sent by Mount Holyoke College’s Theatre Board. “Gender is a wide and varied experience, one that cannot simply be reduced to biological or anatomical distinctions.”

Ensler responded directly to this statement with an article in Time Magazine. “‘The Vagina Monologues’ never intended to be a play about what it means to be a woman,” she wrote. “It is and always has been a play about what it means to have a vagina. In the play, I never defined a woman as a person with a vagina.”

But if students feel excluded, neither I nor Ensler are in any place to trivialize those feelings. I admire students for speaking up about their feelings, and I admire the WRC for taking action to avoid ostracizing segments of the student body.

This year, instead of hosting “The Vagina Monologues,” the WRC tried something new — LoveTU, an event held last week that focused on self-love and featured students performing music, dance and spoken word poetry.

Pamela Banks, a senior theater studies major who goes by her stage name, “Jaz,” is one of the students who participated in the event. She performed a jazz song and an original poem called, “Metamorphosis.”

“I was in rehearsal the other night and it was just amazing to see...the breadth and the width of talent,” Banks said. “They’re including of everyone, it’s just a beautiful thing.”

“I feel like more events like this need to happen at Temple University,” she added.

“Students go through a lot…and we really do need more love. I feel blessed and honored to be a part of it.”

It’s important that students have a platform to share their thoughts, feelings and creations with their peers in an uninhibited way, and LoveTU is a perfect way to execute that.

While I personally have no issues with “The Vagina Monologues,” I applaud the WRC for listening to feedback, caring about the feelings of students and determining ways to include everyone. rbur@temple.edu

letters@temple-news.com

NEWS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

PAGE 6 ADVERTISEMENT

FOX

Fox MBA student sues the university

The Fox School of Business Online MBA program lost its No. 1 ranking earlier this month.

BY KELLY BRENNAN Assistant News Editor

ROMEO & JULIET

Kyle Smith, a graduate student in the Fox School of Business Online MBA program, is suing the university for the school’s “fraudulent and deceptive business practices,” the Penn Record reported.

Fox’s online MBA program lost its No. 1 ranking last month for “significantly overstating” its test scores to the U.S. News & World Report. Smith alleged he “paid a premium” to enroll in the once top-ranked program, the Penn Record reported.

Fox has ranked No. 1 by U.S. News & World Report for its Online MBA program for four consecutive years, before losing its rank for 2018.

“We look forward to litigating the matters raised in the complaint,” said Smith’s attorney, Jason Brown of JTB Law Group, in a statement. “Academic honesty is a two-way street. Just as students are accountable for candor and accuracy, schools must be held to the same

standard.”

Smith said in the complaint that the rankings “scandal would cause ‘diminution in the academic value’ of his degree and ‘reduced opportunities in the workplace for recipients thereof,’” Law360 reported.

The U.S. News & World Report’s ranking formula gives extra weight to programs that report more than 75 percent of their students’ standardized test scores for tests like GMAT and GRE. The school said it reported 100 percent of its new students’ standardized test results in the Summer and Fall of 2017, but it only reported 20 percent of the results.

The university hired Jones Day, an international law firm with nearly 2,500 attorneys, to review the school’s reporting processes, Law360 reported. The university has yet to disclose who will defend it in Smith’s suit.

“The Fox School of Business has and will continue to offer high quality, highvalue programs,” university spokesman Ray Betzner said in a statement. “With respect to the lawsuit, the university intends to defend itself vigorously.” kelly.brennan@temple.edu @_kellybrennan

By William Shakespeare | Directed by Douglas C. Wager

Feb 28 - March 18, 2018 Tomlinson Theater

1301 West Norris Street, Philadelphia PA 19122

tfma.temple.edu/events • box office 215.204.1122 ALYSSA BIEDERMAN / FILE PHOTO The Fox School of Business Online MBA program lost its No. 1 ranking from the U.S. News & World Report earlier this month.

COSBY

Yale, Johns Hopkins will not revoke Bill Cosby’s honorary degrees Yale University and Johns Hopkins University will not revoke Bill Cosby’s honorary degrees, the Daily Pennsylvanian and the Johns Hopkins Newsletter reported.

Since 2015, more than 60 women have come forward alleging Cosby sexually assaulted them. Last month, the University of Pennsylvania rescinded Cosby’s honorary degree.

Johns Hopkins University officials released a statement about Cosby’s degree, acknowledging the allegations, but stating they have no current plans to revoke the degree.

“Johns Hopkins University remains deeply troubled by the reports and allegations regarding Bill Cosby,” the statement from the Johns Hopkins Newsletter reads. “We exercise great care and deliberation in awarding an honorary degree and would do so in the event of revoking one.”

Fox News reported Yale University has never rescinded an honorary degree and has no plans to do so with Cosby’s degree.

Temple has not revoked its honorary degree from Cosby, who is a former university trustee accused of sexually assaulting a former university employee, Andrea Constand, in 2004.

-Kelly Brennan

ON CAMPUS

Food pantry opens for student use The university’s first on-campus food pantry opened on Monday. The pantry aims to combat food insecurity at Temple, where one-third of students who experience food insecurity, according to a report by higher education professor Sara Goldrick-Rab. Temple Student Government and Challah for Hunger hosted a grand opening event, which included a student panel that discussed food insecurity.

The pantry will be open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 1 to 5 p.m. and Thursdays from 4 to 8 p.m. To get food, students have to show their OWLCards.

The pantry is operated on a point system. Students have 16 points each visit, and different types of food are worth different point values.

Students can also donate to the pantry during its hours of operations.

-Kelly Brennan News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com

temple-news.com @thetemplenews

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

PAGE 7

PEOPLE YOU SHOULD KNOW

Alumnus’ children’s book promotes self-acceptance Jimmy Curran, a 2011 finance alumnus, wrote a children’s picture book about finding strength in disabilities.

BY EMILY SCOTT Features Editor

J

immy Curran recently visited an elementary school to read students the children’s book he wrote, which explores topics like having a disability and self-acceptance.

At the end of the visit, one of the young students came up to Curran, who has spinal muscular atrophy and uses a wheelchair, and asked to shake his hand.

“There are even adults in this world who shy away from shaking my hand, so when that little kid asked to shake my hand, it re-

ally made me feel like I’m living my purpose,” Curran said. “He saw me as just a normal person.”

Curran, a 2011 finance alumnus, self-published his book “Will the One-Winged Eagle” in November. It focuses on a bird named Will who was born with one wing, but is still independent and able to fly around the world.

Curran, who also works as a market research analyst at Independence Blue Cross, began writ-

BOOK | PAGE 12

SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Jimmy Curran, a 2011 finance alumnus, self-published a children’s book, “Will the One-Winged Eagle,” in November 2017. He visited several schools in the Philadelphia region to read the book and tell his story about living with a disability.

ON CAMPUS

FILM

Alumni coined ‘Whassup?’ catchphrase The alumni, who are from Philadelphia, started using the phrase in high school.

BY ZARI TARAZONA For The Temple News

lows undergraduate students interested in health care to work closely with patients through non-clinical work in the hospital’s inpatient and outpatient units. The students act as a companion and relieve the patients from the stress that often comes from medical procedures.

Interns spend one-on-one time with TUH patients during their stay, visiting their rooms and talking to

Fred Thomas Jr. didn’t think appearing in the short film “True,” directed by his friend Charles Stone III, would amount to more than just a favor.

He just thought he was helping out a friend.

Thomas, a 2000 master’s of film and media arts alumnus, took a day off work in 1999 and caught a train to New York City with his friends to act in Stone’s film. Stone, Thomas, Paul Williams, a 1994 theater alumnus, his brother Terry Williams and Kevin Lofton, a 1991 journalism and advertising alumnus, were all featured in the film saying “Whassup?” to each other while watching a football game.

Months later, the short film caught the attention of DDB Chicago, an advertising agency. It then transformed into an infamous string of Budweiser commercials, each one a variation of characters yelling the friends’ signature catchphrase.

After the commercial gained popularity, the “Whassup?” greeting inspired countless internet parodies in the early 2000s. It was also parodied in popular television shows and movies, like “The Simpsons” and the horror-comedy film “Scary Movie.”

The exaggerated “Whassup?” catchphrase originated when the friends were in high school in Philadelphia. Stone, Paul Williams, Terry Williams and

TUH | PAGE 10

CATCHPHRASE | PAGE 12

SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS John Nguyen (left) and Joyce Cheng (right) work with Andrea Quartey (center) at the guest relations desk at Temple University Hospital on Feb. 9.

The three students are a part of the At Your Service Volunteer Intern Program at TUH.

TUH interns learn patient empathy The internship program employs more than 80 students who work closely with patients.

BY MADISON PITEL For The Temple News

With troubling health issues, Joyce Cheng has been a patient at multiple medical care facilities.

While there, observing the staff helped her understand what makes a good team — preparing her to help

patients at Temple University Hospital herself.

“I’ve had health issues that have truly shown me what a difference a good team of physicians can make in a patient’s life,” said Cheng, a senior biology major who is on the pre-med track. “I am hoping to improve someone else’s life in the same way.”

Cheng is one of more than 80 student interns in the At Your Service Volunteer Intern Program at Temple University Hospital. The program al-

WRESTLING | PAGE 8

URBAN PLANNING | PAGE 9

LIVE IN PHILLY | PAGE 10

BRIEFS | PAGE 12

A 2003 Lewis Katz School of Medicine alumnus balances work as an orthopedic surgeon and as a wrestling coach for a youth team.

A geography and urban studies professor will host a conference about urban issues, like sustainability and its effect on communities, on Tuesday.

BLACKSHEEProjx hosted a fashion show and vogue battle on Saturday at the University of the Arts in Center City.

The College of Public Health will screen the film “Racism in America: Small Town.” It is about the first Black family to move to Levittown, Pennsylvania.

FEATURES TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

PAGE 8 PEOPLE YOU SHOULD KNOW

Orthopedic surgeon honors his wrestling roots Brett Sweitzer, a 2003 Lewis Katz School of Medicine alumnus, coaches a youth wrestling club.

BY KALEKIDAN DEREJE For The Temple News

Dr. Brett Sweitzer first started wrestling when a classmate invited him to a practice in the fourth grade.

“I had some friends that were into wrestling and I had done other sports like soccer and baseball all the time,” Sweitzer said. “And then one of my classmates took me to practice, and I loved it from the moment I did it the first time.”

Sweitzer, a 2003 Lewis Katz School of Medicine alumnus, now splits his time between his work as an orthopedic surgeon at the Einstein Medical Center in East Norriton, Pennsylvania, and coaching the Hatboro-Horsham Warriors Wrestling Club, a volunteer organization that teaches wrestling to children.

After moving to Boulder, Colorado, from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in middle school, Sweitzer surrounded himself with a core group of wrestlers and coaches.

They helped him continue his passion from middle school to his first year at Brown University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in sports medicine in 1999.

After his first year at Brown, Sweitzer stopped wrestling to focus on his education, he said.

For the Hatboro-Horsham Warriors, he coaches three times per week and works with a large age bracket, which includes wrestlers in preschool through the eighth grade.

While studying at Temple’s medical school, Sweitzer competed in some wrestling tournaments, but he said he never joined the university’s team.

But about five years ago, when his own children started to show interest in wrestling, he thought about returning to the sport he loved so much growing up. He now coaches his two sons.

Sweitzer said he thinks wrestling builds people’s resolve and commitment and can help people get through difficult times.

“I have no doubt that wrestling helped build that characteristic [for me], being able to fight through the hard times,” Sweitzer said. “There are definitely times, studying as an undergrad, putting in endless hours, it feels like it’s never going to end and you can’t do this.”

As a coach, Sweitzer said he tries to teach the wrestlers on his team about resilience and autonomy. He encourages them to experiment and attempt wrestling tactics on their own, guiding them when needed.

“We always say in wrestling, ‘We never say can’t,’” he said. “We say, ‘Something is challenging and it’s hard for me,’ but you can definitely do it, you just have to push yourself.”

Sweitzer said he tries to avoid exercise as punishment with young wrestlers.

His sports medicine background has influenced this choice because he understands that athletes have a limit to how far they can be pushed before an injury occurs.

“I think that the old school thinking was, ‘If you’re goofin’ off, go run laps,’ but we don’t do that,”

SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Dr. Brett Sweitzer, a 2003 Lewis Katz School of Medicine alumnus, coaches his youth wrestling team on Feb. 10 during a meet at Simmons Elementary School in Horsham, Pennsylvania.

Sweitzer said.

Chris Staub, who also coaches at Warrior Wrestling Club, said because Sweitzer has a “winning mentality,” many of the kids who are wrestling feel successful.

“He brings more to the table because he knows what the kids’ bodies can take and can’t take,” Staub said.

Although Sweitzer’s own children got him involved in wrestling again, he thinks he would have

gone back into the sport eventually on his own.

“I spend so much time with my four kids, running them around sports between wrestling, soccer, lacrosse, baseball, basketball,” Sweitzer said. “So we’re extremely busy...but I do love the sport, so I think at some point I would have gone into it. I’m thrilled [my children are] into it and love it.”

Sweitzer tries to demonstrate perseverance and resilience for

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 ROTC ROTC is a program that trains students in high schools and universities to later become officers in the U.S. armed forces.

In Temple’s ROTC program, 20 percent of the students are women. This is higher than the percentage of women in the Army, which is currently 13.6 percent.

As one of the leaders of ROTC at Temple, Lt. Col. Keith Benedict prides himself on the accomplishments of cadets like Whitney.

“The decision for women to enter into combat arms is one that certainly can’t be taken lightly, in the sense of, the core mission...for our military is to defend the nation,” Benedict said. “And it’s about readiness and capability to do that.”

Benedict also thinks that one of the main reasons for the decision was to make sure military skills aren’t gender specific, but focused on a person’s capability.

Whitney is the assistant operations and training officer with ROTC, which puts her in charge of planning training events within the battalion. Last year, she was company commander and responsible for half the junior cadets last semester.

This semester, she works with the operations team, which continues the military skill-building within the organization, like field exercises in marksmanship.

Combat arms includes rigorous field work that requires a great deal of physical prowess. The training that goes into it is often long and physically demanding.

Benedict said since women have joined, they have brought important viewpoints and support to the team.

“The perspective that women provide to the all-volunteer force has been invaluable since the beginning, since we’ve been gender integrating the force increasingly,” Benedict said.

“Creative friction within teams ocCHIA YU LIAO / THE TEMPLE NEWS curs when you have diverse backgrounds, Hannah Whitney, a senior criminal justice major and a cadet for Temple’s Reserve Officers Training Corps, will commission as an armor officer after her graduation in May. Prior to 2016, women could not serve in all but one of the combat perspectives and problem-solving ap-

the young wrestlers at the club. He wants the sport to be competitive, but also fun for children.

“Sometimes, parents and some of the youth...get caught up in the moment, and you want to win,” Sweitzer said. “I want them to love the sport and realize that it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and build toward greater things when they’re older.” kalekidan.dereje@temple.edu

proaches,” Benedict added. “Previously barring over 50 percent of the population from being part of the critical decisionsmaking processes made by combat arms leaders...impaired our ability to leverage the nation’s collective talents, inhibiting our overall readiness.”

Whitney didn’t officially make the decision to join combat arms until she visited Fort Knox in Kentucky for training in the summer. “[At] one of the conferences I was able to attend, there was actually the third female who [ever] attended ranger school in the past and that was a huge, huge deal for me, just like hearing her talk about her experiences,” Whitney said. “I was like, on the bridge of, ‘Do I want to do this, do I not?’ and it was just a big deal for me.”

After Whitney graduates in May, she will go to the Armor Basic Officer Leadership course in Fort Benning in Georgia.

With her contract, Whitney will commission as an active duty officer and automatically enter the Army for eight years. If she decides to leave the Army after her contract ends, she hopes to work for the FBI and focus on human trafficking.

In ROTC, Whitney said she doesn’t feel that she doesn’t experience much pushback for her gender.

She said people’s success in the program is determined by their physical ability and dedication, not gender.

“I think it depends on the setting you’re in, and the way you’re presented and the way you present yourself,” Whitney added. “Not just from a gender perspective, but like any perspective, if someone doesn’t think you’re competent, by just the way you conduct yourself, you may not be seen as competent in that aspect.” kalekidan.dereje@temple.edu Editor’s Note: Jamie Cottrell is a cadet for Temple’s ROTC program and the assistant photography editor for The Temple News.

She had no part in the reporting or editing of this story.

arms branches.

features@temple-news.com

temple-news.com @thetemplenews

FEATURES TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

PAGE 9

ON CAMPUS

Creating sustainable cities for ‘people of all incomes’ A conference held on campus on Tuesday will focus on the effects of urban sustainability.

BY EMILY TRINH

For The Temple News

For Hamil Pearsall, the word “sustainability” doesn’t always mean something positive. Sometimes she thinks improvements in sustainability don’t benefit all communities in a city.

Pearsall, a geography and urban studies professor, has studied the urban sustainability and redevelopment of New York City brownfields, which are sites left vacant because of possible industrial contamination.

She found that in some Brooklyn neighborhoods, like Greenpoint, brownfield redevelopment raised property values and created gentrification, while in others further from Manhattan, it did not.

In Philadelphia, she said the city faces a similar paradox with gentrification in developing neighborhoods.

“Philadelphia has been grappling with economic depression, poverty and unemployment, so looking into the future, we have to make sure everybody benefits from the sustainability planning,” Pearsall said. “We need to make it so that it really caters toward all the people who live in Philadelphia, not just catering toward the wealthier population.”

In the Women’s Studies Lounge in Anderson Hall on Tuesday, Pearsall will host “Urban Futures: Green, Sustainable, Just?” — a conference focused on the issues of urban sustainability, or creating sustainable and equitable environments in cities like Philadelphia.

The event, co-sponsored by the global studies department and the Center for Sustainable Communities at Temple University Ambler, will feature 10 presentations and a seven-person panel on topics related to issues in urban development. The first presentation will

start at 9:30 a.m.

Jeremy Mennis, the undergraduate chair of the geography and urban studies department, will participate in the panel discussion.

He performs research on the use of geographic information systems – frameworks for organizing and analyzing geographical data — to solve issues ranging from health to public safety.

Mennis said there are large health disparities between different communities in cities that are caused by environmental issues, like air and soil toxins and the absence of public transit and affordable housing.

One solution, Mennis said, is to work on “greening infrastructure,” like the development of cleaner practices for water management and the use of environmentallyfriendly building materials in underserved communities.

“It’s [conferences] like this that help us understand the distribution of different types of healthy and unhealthy environments that can help us address some of these health disparities,” Mennis said.

During the research presentation portion of the conference, Christina Rosan, a geography and urban studies professor and Pearsall’s research partner, will present a lecture on their 2017 book, “Growing a Sustainable City? The Question of Urban Agriculture.”

Rosan said urban planners and policymakers in Philadelphia need to improve living conditions for communities of color by expanding affordable housing and protecting low-income residents from gentrification.

At the federal level, the Trump Administration’s budget cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency have reduced support for environmental equity efforts in Philadelphia, PlanPhilly reported.

The proposed 2018 EPA budget eliminates the Office of Environmental Justice, which gave a $30,000 grant to Philadelphia’s

Overbrook Environmental Education Center in 2014. The center supports environmental education in West Philadelphia’s Overbrook neighborhood, a predominantly African-American neighborhood.

But recently, there have been improvements in sustainability practices locally. In Spring 2017, the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Sustainability introduced the Greenworks Equity Index, which uses data to identify areas in the city that aren’t benefiting from sustainability efforts. With that information, city agencies and nonprofits can then design projects to improve the environment of those specific areas.

While many people think about “greening” as solely an environmental action, Rosan said it also impacts the local economy and living conditions. Developing new urban landscapes can contribute to gentrification, Rosan said, pushing out lower-income residents and fostering wealthier, middle-class communities.

“Promoting sustainability should not be kicking low-income people out of their neighborhoods,” Rosan said. “It should be creating sustainable places where people of all incomes can get to live. Unless we get there, then we’re only getting part of the [sustainability] story.”

Through the “Urban Futures” conference, Rosan said Temple will bring together scholars to share their research on how to combat this displacement and ensure all people in cities share in environmental improvements.

“It’s critical for cities like Philadelphia, which has a high poverty rate, to make sure all those environmental improvements [benefit]...those that are particularly vulnerable or marginalized,” Pearsall said. “Everybody should have the right to a clean and healthy and safe environment.” emily.trinh@temple.edu

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MORAINE KISENDA Freshman Biology

[The on-campus stadium proposal] is making some neighbors who are natives of North Philadelphia quite angry. So yeah, I’m all for that, hopefully lowering the cost of renting out the Linc so we don’t have to build a stadium. … For both sides it’d be beneficial I think.

ERIC COLLINS Freshman Biochemistry

I like that we have access to the Linc. I think that’s a great stadium, because I mean it’s an NFL stadium. … We’ve been playing there so much and we’re partnered with them. I don’t know why they would want to [raise Temple’s rent], especially because they won the Super Bowl and they probably made a lot of money off the Super Bowl.

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It’s weird because Temple was very supportive of the Eagles and I’m not sure if that’s because they felt they had to be. … I think it’s sort of unacceptable that the Eagles can charge that much considering I believe the city paid for the stadium [through public subsidies].

“SHIZZ ALSTON JR.: WE GOT NCAA TOURNAMENT HOPES” SYDNEY SCHAEFER THE TEMPLE NEWS STAFF

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FEATURES TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

PAGE 10

JAMIE COTTRELL / THE TEMPLE NEWS

Fashion show highlights LGBTQ beauty, fashion BLACKSHEEProjx hosted its third annual fashion show and vogue battle Saturday at the University of the Arts in Center City. The fashion show, created by junior music business entrepreneurship and technology major Alexander Harris, raised awareness about LGBTQ beauty and culture.

“I began this fashion show to do three things,” Harris said. “Firstly to promote the innovative designs of local businesses and entrepreneurs of color. Secondly, to bring awareness to the beauty of a powerful culture that comes directly from the LGBT people of color and lastly, to facilitate a space where self-expression is not only accepted, but focused on and praised.”

The event kicked off with a performance from the University of the Arts’ Royals Band Dance Line. Then, models walked down the runway in Foreign Bazaar’s collection, Africana. The collection focuses on designs from African culture and heritage. Both student and professional models participated in the show.

After the first line of clothing, more seats began to fill for the runway competition, which was open to anyone who wanted to participate. The crowd cheered as about 20 contestants walked the runway and struck poses for the judges.

“I always support my fellow artists,” said Gloria McDonald, a freshman vocal performance major at the University of the Arts who attended the event. “Art is a journey, and if you don’t have an audience what’s the point?”

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 TUH

Diamond Screen Film Series Alumni Spotlight

Wednesday, February 21 at 5:00 pm Temple Performing Arts Center

Special screening of All Eyez on Me followed by conversation with director: alumnus Benny Boom.

Free Event. Register at: tfma.temple.edu/events

features@temple-news.com

them. Interns use a question list to help them get to know patients. The questions are about topics like family members, careers and hobbies.

“Any time you go into a patient’s room, some of them are tired and don’t really want to talk but others want to tell you everything,” Cheng said.

Students then create a poster with this information and put it near the patient’s bedside for hospital personnel to better understand the patient.

Leah Kellar, TUH’s supervisor of patient experience, started the program in Summer 2014 to provide meaningful internships for prehealth undergraduate students.

She also wanted a low-cost program for TUH that could enhance the experience of patients and their families while improving their perceptions of staff responsiveness.

Danielle London, the supervisor of patient and family engagement at Temple University Health System, works closely with student interns.

She said her favorite part of the job is when the hospital is able to exceed

the patients’ and their families’ expectations.

“I have the privilege of often being able to visit patients and families and make personal connections with them,” London said. “Even just walking the hallways, I am able to assist and answer questions or help people find their way around the building.

I find that it’s often the little things that can make a big impact.”

The intern program is open to any interested students. John Nguyen, a senior kinesiology major, started the internship in October 2017. After graduation, he hopes to become a physician’s assistant.

Nguyen said he enjoys working with medical professionals in several different units of the hospital.

“I’ve gained an understanding of how the hospital works all together and how to understand different specialties and how everyone works as a cohesive unit,” Nguyen said. “I wanted to get my foot in the door in the medical field in general and service industry. This is my first foot in the door of anything hospital related.”

Cheng, who began the internship as a freshman, has come back each year because she loves helping

the patients.

“When you talk to patients, you really start to understand what service is,” Cheng said. “It’s not always just medication.”

She added that the program gave her a realistic vision for her future career in medicine.

“It impacts the way I view health care because...first of all, we all work together, and, second of all, you are able to see how everything is connected,” Cheng said. “We see the nurses, the [physical therapists,] technicians, all working together. It is one big conjoined effort.”

For Cheng and Nguyen, the program has taught them how to connect with a patient, which they’ll use in their future careers.

“When you speak to some of the patients, it seems to brighten up their day a little more,” Nguyen said.

“They probably feel a little nervous because the doctor is always talking about something negative.”

“This program teaches you how to act less like a robot and interact and understand people more indepth,” Nguyen added. madison.andie.pitel@temple.edu

temple-news.com @thetemplenews

FEATURES TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 ENGINEERING and Southern New Jersey, to the College of Engineering building.

This event is part of Temple’s celebration of National Engineers Week, which will run through Saturday.

Members of SWE will conduct several activities related to different engineering disciplines, like constructing a water dam out of Play-Doh and building quizboards out of LED lights.

By exposing students to a variety of engineering fields, Ladan Abbasi, a senior civil engineering major and president of SWE, said the event helps young girls realize how engineering is a multidisciplinary field.

“There’s water dams, there’s trains, there’s also bioengineering with prosthetics, there’s so many different pathways you can take,” Abbasi said. “Seeing the different activities and what they each stand for, that kind of opens more doors for them.”

In Fall 2016, 20 percent of all students enrolled in the College of Engineering were women. This gender imbalance is reflected at the national level, too, where women make up 24 percent of the national STEM workforce, according to a United States Department of Commerce report, “Women in STEM: 2017 Update,” published last November.

Abbasi said SWE wants to break down the stereotypes that inhibit girls from pursuing STEM careers.

“The major part of it is breaking down that stigma around math,” Abbasi said.

“When you learn that engineering is more about team building and it’s kind of like building a puzzle, I think it becomes more of an approachable topic to people. ... It’s overcoming some of those barriers like, ‘Math is hard, math isn’t for girls.’”

When she was a senior in high school, Abbasi attended Widener University’s two-day summer engineering program for girls. The experience illustrated how engineering isn’t just a profession based around construction sites and driven by men.

“What was really neat was to actually see those women in engineering, the professionals,” Abbasi said. “There’s such a stigma that when you think of [an] engineer, you think of hard hat, steel-toed

PAGE 11 boots, that’s really it. But actually going there, [I saw] that engineering is more than that.”

Last summer, Abbasi accompanied the participants of the College of Engineering’s WE2 program — an annual, weeklong program for high school girls that fosters interest in engineering — to visit Jenkins’ work: the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

For the last several years, Jenkins has led the group of girls around the facility.

She remembers the stunned reactions of one particular group when they heard the enormous “sonic boom” of an acoustics test, a procedure that ensures a material can withstand the acoustic pressure of a space launch.

“They were just in awe,” Jenkins said.

“Whether they get into engineering or not, it’s just the experience, and just to get them sparked in some direction.”

Since starting at NASA in 1991, Jenkins has worked on many major projects, including testing hardware for the Hubble Space Telescope, the first major telescope to be placed in space in 1990.

Today, she oversees about 70 employees as the associate branch head for mission systems engineering at Goddard, a major NASA space research laboratory.

Whether she’s working with one of her employees or with a young student curious about STEM, Jenkins said she thinks it’s her responsibility to help others get ahead in their careers.

Decades after becoming an engineer in 1980, when women made up 14 percent of the STEM workforce, Jenkins said she feels great pride in seeing so many women now hold executive positions in her workplace.

“It’s a different world now,” Jenkins said. “Women have come an extremely long way.”

Even with this growth, Jenkins said she almost can’t believe that SWE has grown to be as large as it is today.

“Being in an all-male dominated field, it’s a good feeling to know that women are surviving,” she added. “These are excellent women, they are brilliant women, they are bright women.” ian.walker@temple.edu @ian_walker12

SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Ladan Abbasi, the president of Temple’s chapter of the Society of Women Engineers, builds with K’Nex in the Student Village on Saturday. The organization is preparing for its “Girls! Be That Engineer!” event on Thursday, which will bring several dozens of girls from nearby high schools to the College of Engineering. The K’Nex structures will be on display at the event.

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PAGE 12

Buddhist professor discusses religious theory Wednesday Karin Meyers, a Buddhist studies professor at Kathmandu University in Nepal, will give a talk on the study of Buddhism on Wednesday from 5 to 6:15 p.m. in the sixth-floor student lounge of Anderson Hall.

In her talk, Meyers will introduce theories drawn from contemporary work in the anthropology of religion, comparative religion, transpersonal psychology and Indian theories of the imagination.

According to Temple’s event website, modern scholars often examine literature and art derived from Buddhism, but have avoided theorizing about Buddhist visions of alternative world systems.

-Maureen Iplenski

CPH to screen documentary about racism in America As part of its Black History Month Film Series, the College of Public Health will screen the film “Racism in America: Small Town” on Wednesday from 6 to 8:30 p.m in Walk Auditorium.

The film documents the first Black family to move to Levittown, Pennsylvania — one of the first post-WWII suburbs — and the response of white residents.

After the screening, there will be a discussion centered on strategies for healing forms of racism and facilitating change toward a more equitable society.

-Alleh Naqvi

Grammy-nominated saxophonist to perform at TPAC Chris Potter, an acclaimed jazz saxophonist and Grammy Award nominee, will perform on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at The Underground in the Student Center. He will be accompanied by pianist Josh Richman, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Byron Landham.

Since 1993, Potter has released 15 albums as a bandleader and appeared on more than 100 others as an accompanist. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for his 1999 song “In Vogue” and was on Steely Dan’s Grammy-winning album “Two Against Nature.”

-Ian Walker

Author hosts reading of fiction work in Anderson Katie Kitamura, a fiction writer, will read some of her work in the Women’s Studies Lounge in Anderson Hall on Thursday.

Kitamura, who was born and raised in California, received her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and her Ph.D. in American Literature from the now-closed London Consortium. She is the author of three novels. “A Separation,” a novel Kitamura published in 2017, was listed as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. The book tells the story of a young woman’s separation from her unfaithful husband.

The free event is hosted by Temple’s Graduate Creative Writing Program. The reading will start at 5 p.m.

-Emily Scott

features@temple-news.com

SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS A copy of “Will the One-Winged Eagle” sits on the Jimmy Curran’s desk in his Center City apartment on Sunday. The 2011 finance alumnus wrote and self-published the 18-page children’s book.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 BOOK ing the book in Fall 2016. The picture book is 18 pages long and was also illustrated by Kris Napper, a graphic designer from Seattle who has muscular dystrophy.

It is currently available for purchase at Curran’s website [dis]ABLE, which is also a platform where he discusses the stigma surrounding disabilities and its negative impact.

One of Curran’s favorite parts of the book is toward the end, he said, when Will accomplishes his goal of catching food on his own. He feels proud of himself and embraces his differences.

“I think that drives home the message,” Curran said. “None of us are defined by our limitations. We can all accomplish our own goals in our own ways even though we are all different.”

Curran said he doesn’t remember reading a positive book about disabilities when he was a child. He never found a story with characters who were like him.

“There should be stories about disability that are positive,” Curran said. “It doesn’t always need to be a sad story. I wanted to provide a story that people with differences can relate to and is positive.”

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 CATCHPHRASE their friend Kim King, whose nickname was “Dookie,” began saying “Whassup?” to greet each other.

“It was just a bunch of guys in high school who were crazy,” Paul Williams said. “We just kind of grew up around each other just doing wacky stuff.”

At the time of making “True,” Stone had mostly directed music videos. Thomas said Stone wanted to add a narrative film to his portfolio.

Thomas was almost finished with his degree at Temple when Stone called him to say Budweiser wanted to make a series of commercials out of the film. But the group of friends — except Terry Williams and Lof-

Since releasing the book, Curran has visited elementary schools to share Will’s story with students. In January, he visited Ridge Park Elementary School, which he attended as a child, in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.

He said the reactions to the book have been nothing but positive and empowering.

Recently, a mother shared a photo on Facebook of her daughter with the book and the caption said it was the first time her daughter — who was born with a physical disability — read a book that represented her.

“Her caption just made me proud and happy that I could provide a story that that little girl could relate to,” Curran said.

“Now people with differences like myself can share the story with others and be portrayed in a positive light.”

Eddie Doyle, a 2010 communications alumnus and co-owner of [dis]ABLE, remembers the Saturday afternoon when Curran first jotted down his ideas for the picture book on his phone.

Doyle said he likes that anyone can relate to the story.

“Even though people with disabilities may have a different obstacle to overcome, I think everyone can relate to it because

ton who didn’t want to participate — had to audition for their parts like everyone else.

“I was like, ‘Wait a minute, did you just say audition?’”

Thomas said while laughing. “‘So I gotta audition to play myself?’”

“I asked [Stone], ‘Did the people see the short film that you made?’” Paul Williams added. “He said, ‘Yeah.’ And I said, ‘Tell them that’s my audition.’”

The day of the audition, which Paul Williams ended up attending, he said about 50 people tried out for his role. When he told the other actors that none of them would get the job, they were silent.

“Me and Paul were in that day,” Thomas said. “And we were laughing because we’re

VIA / YOUTUBE Fred Thomas Jr., a 2000 master’s of film and media arts alumnus, starred in a series of commercials for Budweiser that helped coin the term, “Whassup?”

everyone has felt different at one point,” Doyle said. “I think it’s important to get that message. Will is different, but different is not necessarily weird. It’s just different.”

Because Curran self-published the book, one of his main jobs is promoting it through social media. He wants to make sure as many kids with special needs and disabilities as possible can hear the story.

In March, Curran will visit several elementary schools in Delaware and Montgomery counties. During the visits, Curran tells his own personal story, reads the book and then holds a Q&A. Curran said he hopes to write another children’s book, but would also like to write a nonfiction story about his lived experiences.

He also hopes readers can find a connection to the main character of “Will the One-Winged Eagle.”

“The bird definitely is definitely an analogy for my own life,” Curran said.

“I have a limitation, but it hasn’t prevented me from advancing and learning ways to do things differently to accomplish my own goals in my life.” emily.ivy.scott@temple.edu @emilyivyscott

It was just a bunch of guys in high school who were crazy. We just kind of grew up around each other just doing wacky stuff.

PAUL WILLIAMS

1994 THEATER ALUMNUS

hearing people on the other side of the wall saying ‘Whassup?’ and they’re not doing it like we do it.”

Paul Williams, Thomas and Stone, who also directed most of the commercials, got their parts.

The first commercial won two international advertising awards, the Grand Clio and the Cannes Grand Prix, in 2000.

At its peak popularity in the early 2000s, people would often mimic the commercial and yell “whassup?” back and forth to each other while sticking their tongues out.

Thomas said it was fun to witness other people adopt “Whassup?” in person and share the same camaraderie he and his friends had, especially when people didn’t recognize him. When he was recognized, people often asked him to say the catchphrase, he said.

In addition to filming the commercials, the actors traveled around the United States and other countries for more than two years making media appearances with Budweiser at restaurants, clubs and conventions.

“We would walk up and posters would be plastered with our faces,” Thomas said.

They were also guests on well-known TV shows, like “The Tonight Show,” and even got tickets to the 2001 Super Bowl and NBA All-Star Games from 2000 to 2002.

“I would be home maybe four or five days out of the month,” Paul Williams said.

“Sometimes not even in a row.”

Most recently, the “Whassup?” commercial was featured in the beginning of the 2016 movie “Central Intelligence” when Dwayne Johnson’s character messages Kevin Hart’s character on Facebook to hang out before their high school reunion.

“What’s so wild about it is something that was just ours became so popular,” Paul Williams said. “Because who would ever think that the [things] you do with your friends would catch on like that.” zari.tarazona@temple.edu @SorryZari

temple-news.com @thetemplenews

SPORTS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

PAGE 13

FENCING

High-energy sabre squad leads Temple in victories The sabres’ 211 wins are 29 more than the foil squad’s 182 victories.

BY MICHAEL ZINGRONE Fencing Beat Reporter

Temple’s sabres have the most wins of all three squads this season by a significant margin.

With a 211-77 record, the sabres have a better record than the foil squad’s 182-109 mark and the epee squad’s 166-122 record.

The sabre squad has a 7-4 record against schools currently ranked in the CollegeFencing360. com Women’s Coaches Poll, including a victory against No. 1 University of Notre Dame at the Northwestern Duals on Feb. 3. The No. 7 Owls also beat No. 2 Columbia University twice in January.

The sabres attribute their success to their group dynamic and ability to create the “optimal environment” for each other, sophomore Kerry Plunkett said.

“They are a real close-knit group,” said Josh Herring, an assistant coach who guides the sabre squad. “Win or lose, they feed off each other’s energy. They have each other’s backs.”

Plunkett, sophomore Malia Hee and freshman Eva Hinds are alumnae of PDX Fencing Club in Beaverton, Oregon, where they fenced together for about seven years. Plunkett said the trio’s familiarity with each other made it easy to make a “cohesive team.”

Plunkett has won 44 of her 61

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16 AT-LARGE nament, the selection committee defines the quality of a win or loss by a tier system. A Quadrant 1 win ranks as the highest quality, and a Quadrant 1 loss is least penalized.

A Quadrant 4 win or loss ranks as the worst.

The tiers are based on the Ratings Percentage Index rankings and account for whether a team played the game at home, a neutral site or on the road.

The selection committee focuses on Quadrant 1 and 2 wins and Quadrant 4 losses to weigh a team’s resume. Temple has three Quadrant 1 victories.

Two of the Owls’ three Quadrant 1 victories came during the Charleston Classic against Auburn

bouts, Hee has a 47-19 record and Hinds is 48-16.

Juniors Jessica Rockford and Blessing Olaode also fit right into the squad, Plunkett said. Rockford has a 34-10 record, and Olaode has a 35-15 record this season.

“Knowing Malia and Eva helps us because we know how to better each other,” Plunkett said. “We know what we have to do with one another to get the best. For Jess and Blessing, it was a matter of just sliding in with us and becoming comfortable.”

Rockford said the group likes to keep things “light-hearted,” and it tries to have a high energy level at all times.

“Everything that happens, we try to make the best out of it,” Rockford said. “If any of the others do good in a bout or even a drill, it makes all of us want to get better.

We always want to have friendly competition between us. It not only helps us in the sport, but in life too.”

Coach Nikki Franke said the squad is usually the most animated at competitions, even if it isn’t fencing. Sabre is a bit more intense than the other weapons, Plunkett said. The target area for sabre fencers is everything above an opponent’s waist, including the arms and head.

Sabre also has more slashing involved, while epee and foil have more of an emphasis on poking the opponent, according to USA Fencing equipment supplier Blue Gauntlet Fencing’s website.

“They do a good job of keeping each other on task and on focus,” Franke said. “It helps the other squads, too. The energy they show is helpful to keep everyone on point through a long day.”

“The noise is good to distract you from overthinking things,” Plunkett said. “So we like to keep the emotions high and everyone on point, and that all comes from energy.”

Through five dual meets, the sabre squad has a 28-5 head-tohead record. The sabres set a program record with 35 wins last year.

Their win total this year matches the program’s second-highest win mark set back in the 2013-14 season.

With one dual competition left, the sabre squad needs one more win to make the last two seasons the winningest seasons in program history.

Hee, Olaode, Plunkett and Rockford were part of the squad that won 35 bouts last year, and they have brought the success over to this year.

“There wasn’t much roster change, only trading a senior for a freshman,” Herring said. “We still had a great core for Eva to come into. The girls have helped me out a lot by creating a great mindset with each other. I always know I will get their best because they make each other perform their best.”

University and Clemson University in November. Auburn (23-4, 11-3 Southeastern Conference) leads the SEC, while Clemson (20-6, 9-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) is fourth in the ACC behind the University of Virginia, Duke University and the University of North Carolina. All four of the top ACC teams are ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll with Virginia holding the first spot.

Auburn and Clemson are each ranked in the top 15 of the Associated Press poll and in the top 10 of the RPI. The Owls’ other Quadrant 1 victory came against then-No. 16 Wichita State in an 81-79 overtime win on Feb. 1 at the Liacouras Center.

The Owls also have three

Quadrant 2 wins — their seasonopening victory against Old Dominion University, a win against the University of South Carolina in November and a win against Southern Methodist in January.

All three came on the road or at a neutral site.

They have some negative marks on their resume. The Owls’ lone Quadrant 4 loss came against Tulane at the Liacouras Center on Dec. 28, when they started out conference play 0-4.

Temple also has some Quadrant 3 losses, including losses to George Washington University and La Salle that came within the first six games of the season. Each of those teams has losing records and sit in the bottom four of the Atlantic 10 Conference.

michael.zingrone@temple.edu @mjzingrone

ALEX ST. CLAIR / THE TEMPLE NEWS Sophomore sabres Malia Hee (left) and Kerry Plunkett practice at the Student Pavilion on Feb. 13.

Three games remain on the Owls’ schedule, but they won’t face another Quadrant 1 opponent during the regular season.

Temple will host Central Florida, a Quadrant 2 opponent, at the Liacouras Center on Sunday for their final home game of the season. The Owls will finish the regular season on the road against Connecticut and Tulsa, which are both Quadrant 2 opponents.

The only way Temple will face another top-quarter opponent is if it makes a run in The American’s conference tournament.

If the current standings hold, the Owls would face Tulane in the first round of the conference tournament. With a win, Temple would advance to play Houston, a Quadrant 1 opponent that is cur-

rently second in The American.

During the 2015-16 season, the Owls finished the regular season with an 8-2 record and beat South Florida in the first round of the conference tournament, which helped them earn an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament.

In order to play in the postseason, Temple might have to finish this year in a similar fashion.

“I think we’re best when we have our backs against the wall,” Rose said. “So I have no doubt that we can make a good run in the conference tournament.” thomas.ignudo@temple.edu @TomIgnudo

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FOOTBALL

Report: Defensive backs coach leaving for Rutgers University Former defensive backs coach Cory Robinson will become the cornerbacks coach at Rutgers University, Rivals.com reported.

Robinson coached at the University of Toledo in 2016 before joining the Owls in 2017. He helped recruit players from Washington, D.C., Maryland and South Jersey.

Temple’s defensive coaches included Robinson, former defensive coordinator Taver Johnson, defensive line coach Jim Panagos and linebackers coach Andrew Thacker. The Owls conceded the lowest average number of yards per game in the American Athletic Conference.

Rutgers will be Robinson’s fourth college since he served as the University of Maryland’s director of player personnel in the 2015 season.

-Evan Easterling

sports@temple-news.com @TTN_Sports

SPORTS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

PAGE 14 MEN’S TENNIS

After hard-court success, German stays in America Mark Wallner, a freshman from Germany, has three singles wins and five doubles wins.

BY ALEX MCGINLEY For The Temple News

It was quiet on the court during Mark Wallner’s high school matches.

Now, in his first year of college tennis, that’s no longer the case.

“There was no one really cheering for me [in high school],” Wallner said.

“Here, everyone pushes me, which is happening a lot, to fight and come back if I’m losing.”

Wallner, a freshman from Germany, played at IMG Academy, a Florida boarding school known for its athletic programs, before coming to Temple.

He was ranked the 16th-best prospect in Florida from the class of 2017 by Tennis Recruiting Network, a site that covers amateur tennis.

Coach Steve Mauro discovered Wallner through connections he had at IMG. Wallner is not the only player from IMG whom Mauro has coached.

Vineet Naran, a New Jersey native and 2017 philosophy alumnus, also at-

tended IMG. Naran had a 32-27 singles record in his four seasons with the Owls. Mauro said IMG’s tennis program is well-run and has a reputation for producing hard-working players.

“They take their tennis very seriously,” Mauro said. “They train two or three hours a day. The kids that I’ve had from IMG have been good kids, and they work hard.”

Wallner said coming to IMG for high school gave him an advantage in his game. When he played in Germany, Wallner competed on clay instead of a hard court. When he first played in the United States, Wallner noticed that he played better on hard court, which is the standard in the U.S., unlike European countries.

Wallner’s original plan was to return to Germany after graduating from IMG. But he stayed in the U.S. because he liked the combination of playing tennis and going to school, and the college recruiting options in the U.S. are better than in Germany, Wallner said.

Wallner has a 3-5 singles record this season. He and his doubles partner, sophomore Juan Araoz, have a 5-2 re-

cord. Their only losses came against junior Matt Galush and sophomore Gabriel Nemeth of Penn State and seniors Chris Fletcher and Christos Hadjigeorgiou of George Washington University.

Araoz is also new to the team this season after transferring from Hampton University. He believes Wallner has the foundational skills to achieve Division I success.

“He’s a really good player,” Araoz said. “Of course, we all need to work on some stuff. I think he needs to work on his reaction, speed and conditioning the most. He’s going to improve a lot.”

Mauro said Wallner will improve if he works on his consistency and ability to finish volleys.

“I’m still trying to adjust [my game],” Wallner said. “It’s way different [in college]. There’s no deuce points. I’m still trying to adjust to find out about the best ways to play without deuce points.”

“He’s definitely getting better,” Mauro said. “We’re working on a lot of different things. He needs to mature as a player. Overall, his work ethic is great. He will continue to improve.” alex.mcginley@temple.edu

GENEVA HEFFERNAN / THE TEMPLE NEWS Freshman Mark Wallner practices at Legacy Tennis Center on Feb. 13.

WOMEN’S TENNIS

Former D-II champ finds fit at her third school Alice Patch transferred to Temple from Armstrong State University after the 2016-17 season.

BY KEVIN SCHAEFFER For The Temple News

When Alice Patch moved to the United States for college from her home in England, she expected it to be a challenge.

But she didn’t expect to be at her third school by her junior season.

Patch played for Utah State University in Fall 2015 as a freshman before transferring to Division II Armstrong State University in Spring 2016. Now, she is in her first season at Temple.

“For me, Utah was a tough atmosphere,” Patch said. “I just flat out wasn’t comfortable there. So I ended up transferring after my first full semester and just really started loving playing tennis again when I got to Armstrong State.”

Patch compiled more than 30 wins in both singles and doubles during her three semesters at Armstrong State. During the 2016-17 academic year, Armstrong State announced its decision to cut all

of its sports programs as it consolidated with Georgia Southern University.

That’s when coach Steve Mauro recruited Patch to join the Owls. Per NCAA rules, Patch did not have to miss a year of competition because she transferred from a Division II school to a Division I school. She has a 1-2 record in singles and a 1-1 mark in doubles this spring.

“I had seen that [Armstrong State] had built a pretty good program down in Georgia, and they played some really good competition,” Mauro said. “I looked into the results she was getting against the competition and thought that Alice could definitely be a contributor to our team.”

Both of Patch’s victories came during the Owls’ (1-4, 0-1 American Athletic Conference) seasonopening win against Morgan State University on Jan. 19. She didn’t play in Temple’s loss to George Washington University on Feb. 3, but she returned to the lineup on Saturday. Patch lost her singles match in the Owls’ 4-0 loss to conference opponent East Carolina.

Patch isn’t the only player who transferred to Temple from Arm-

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16 FLOOR ment.

“We knew she had the capability in every event,” said assistant coach Michael Rosso, who specializes in coaching the floor exercise.

“In the past, she has been able to compete well or put a great meet out at one time. This year, she really has been able to do that. Each and every week, she’s improving her floor.”

Edwards is still working to perfect her routine, particularly focusing on landings.

Sophomore all-around Jaylene Everett has also been one of the Owls’ top floor performers.

Everett registered a career-best score of 9.875 on the floor at a quad meet against host University of Pittsburgh, Towson University and North Carolina State University on Feb. 3.

Everett appeared in the floor event in every meet during her freshman season.

“Every single meet, I knew I could count on her to bring in a good score,” Rosso said. “She’s do-

sports@temple-news.com @TTN_Sports

strong State. Junior Alberto Caceres Casas also joined the Owls after the school cut its athletic programs.

Patch came to Temple from a nationally ranked Division II program. The Armstrong State team that Patch joined midseason was coming off a Division II title.

Patch won all 14 of her doubles matches with Armstrong State in 2016, won a singles match during the Pirates’ Peach Belt Conference Championship and helped the Pirates repeat as Division II champions.

“Alice was a great talent for us to bring into an already great roster looking to defend our national title,” said Sean McCaffery, the former Armstrong State coach who now coaches at Georgia Southern.

“She came in and contributed a lot, even as a second-semester freshman in a whole new school. She clicked with the team almost right away.”

In Patch’s first full season at Armstrong State, her team lost in the Division II semifinals and finished the season ranked fifth in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings.

“Everything was just fun at Armstrong, from the players to the

GENEVA HEFFERNAN / THE TEMPLE NEWS Junior Alice Patch practices at the Legacy Tennis Center in East Falls on Feb. 13.

Temple is the third university where Patch has played in the past three years.

great coaching staff,” Patch said. “I had a great time while I was there.”

After spending her past three semesters at Armstrong State, Patch is ready to stick at Temple to close her college career.

“I’m comfortable with everyone here, and I love the city,” Patch

said. “I’ve moved around a lot in a short period of time since coming to America, but I hope I found a place to stay.” kevin.schaeffer@temple.edu @_kevinschaeffer

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16 JONES ing the exact same thing this year.”

Rosso called the combination of Edwards and Everett a “one-two punch.” Salim-Beasley agreed.

“Jaylene and Tori are really show stoppers,” Salim-Beasley said. “To have them as the anchors of our lineup really does strengthen the entire floor lineup because they’re capable of scoring high nines and above.”

The season is now more than halfway over, as five meets remain until the ECAC Championships from March 23-25 at The Palestra.

The Owls average floor score of 48.829 this season is more than 0.6 points higher than their mark at last year’s ECAC Championships. “[The floor] has been consistent,” Salim-Beasley said. “We’ve been pleased with that. And even with that consistency, we still know that we have little places where we could improve.” matthew.vender@temple.edu @Matt_Vender

year, when she made 27 3-pointers.

Jones then transferred to Georgetown and sat out her junior year due to NCAA transfer rules. In her senior season, Jones made 34 3-pointers on 34.3 percent shooting for the Hoyas.

“I think people really realized last year at Georgetown that I can shoot the ball,” Jones said.

Jones’ upward trend in 3-point shooting has continued at Temple. She is currently shooting a career-high 38.2 percent and has made 29 3-pointers with three games left in the regular season. Her 3-point percentage is nearly 10 percent better than her 2-point percentage.

Assistant coach CJ Jones said he is proud of how aggressive she has been from beyond the arc.

Mykia Jones said her favorite spot to shoot from is either of the wings.

“I just think that I’ve seen a change in her mentality realizing that her college career is coming closer to an end,” CJ Jones said. “I

think she’s not letting moments pass. She’s maximizing all of her opportunities to get better and be able to produce on the court.”

In the 12 nonconference games Mykia Jones played, she averaged 2.3 points per game. In four of those games, she had zero 3-point attempts, and in seven games she had no 3-point makes.

Since the American Athletic Conference schedule started on Dec. 30, Mykia Jones has attempted a 3-pointer in every game. She has averaged seven points per game in the past 14 games.

She has made at least one 3-pointer in each conference game except the Jan. 16 game against Houston, when she played just five minutes.

Coach Tonya Cardoza said she has rewarded Mykia Jones with more playing time lately because she is working hard and playing with more confidence.

She has averaged 22 minutes per game in conference play compared to 10.3 minutes per game

against non-conference opponents.

“Her strength is shooting the three,” Cardoza said. “I think she’s doing a really good job of running our team. When she’s open, she has the green light to shoot it. Every time she shoots the ball, I think it’s going in because she puts time and effort into it.”

Mykia Jones feels comfortable shooting a 3-pointer off the dribble or catching a pass and shooting from an assist.

“There have been a couple of games where the ball hasn’t really fell for us at all, but I think that the main thing is just staying ready at all times,” Mykia Jones said. “When your name is called, when you have the open shot, just believe in yourself. You’ve done it for so long that it’s just natural.

Now I don’t even think about it.

I just shoot it. It’s just like clockwork now.” austin.ampeloquio@temple.edu @AustinPaulAmp

temple-news.com @thetemplenews

SPORTS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

PAGE 15

TRACK AND FIELD

Forde’s team hopes to ‘peak’ at conference race The American’s indoor championship is this weekend in Alabama.

BY DONOVAN HUGEL

Track and Field Beat Reporter

Temple will head to Birmingham, Alabama, for this weekend’s 2018 American Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships.

The women’s pentathlon, long jump, pole vault, weight throw and distance medley relay finals will be on Friday. The finals for the high jump, triple jump, shot put and all track events, like the mile and 4-x400 meter relay, will be on Saturday at the Birmingham CrossPlex.

“Our physical preparation is going to be the same as it was at the start of the year,” junior co-captain and multis competitor Crystal Jones said. “We really don’t want to get away from what we’ve been doing all year. Right now, the only difference in preparation would be that we need to be more mentally ready this year and make sure we’re focused on what we need to do right.”

Last year, Central Florida won the meet with a total of 122 points after finishing in third place in 2016. The Knights beat secondplace Cincinnati by just two points last season.

Temple has struggled in the past two championships. Two years ago, the Owls finished in eighth place with 44 points, and last year they only managed to gather 17 points to rank 10th out of 11 teams.

Temple finished just two points ahead of last-place South Florida.

“Last year, we weren’t as

healthy and had to fight through more injuries compared to this year,” Jones said. “Going into it this time around, we’re a lot stronger physically and mentally, and everyone’s a lot healthier. From the freshman class to the senior class, we’ve improved a lot since the beginning of the season.”

In last year’s meet at the same venue, Jones placed second in the pentathlon. She won the pentathlon high jump by beating Cincinnati multis competitor Naomi Urbano, who won the entire 2017 pentathlon as a sophomore. In the pentathlon 800 meter, Jones finished second behind Urbano with a time of two minutes, 26.58 seconds.

Four Owls earned personal bests at last year’s meet, but others struggled. Former sprinter and jumper Jimmia McCluskey placed last in the 60 preliminaries and the long jump finals. The distance medley squad placed eighth out of 10 schools.

The freshman class this year has performed well for coach Elvis Forde throughout the season.

Contributions from jumper Aisha Brown, sprinter Mallorie Smith and hurdler Sydney Williams have helped elevate the class’s confidence heading into The American’s championship meet.

Smith placed second in the unseeded 200 at the Fastrack National Invite on Feb. 9 in New York.

Williams helped the 4-x-400 relay team place second at the Penn State National on Jan. 27 and placed second in the 400 on Feb. 9.

Brown won the individual high jump competition with a height of 1.7 meters on Feb. 3 at the Villano-

SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Freshman hurdler Sydney Williams practices on Feb. 12 at the Student Training and Recreation Complex.

va Invite. Forde called her victory a “pleasant surprise.”

“Individually, I feel like my jumping has gotten a lot better in my first season, and I’ve competed very well this season,” Brown said.

“Being a freshman, it can almost be easier because there’s not as many expectations on us so far. I really do feel like we’re going to compete at a high level.”

Forde expects the weekend to be competitive, and he wants to see his athletes “raise the bar a notch”

to be able to get the finishes they want.

The team will likely practice more strenuously earlier in the week than it will as the meet becomes imminent, Brown said.

“Practice may change, but technically we don’t want to make any changes close to the meet,” Brown said. “We’re where we want to be at right now, and we want to peak at conferences.”

This year’s squad has high hopes for a better performance

than in past years. Temple’s best finish in the indoor conference meet since joining The American is its eighth-place mark in 2016.

“We feel really good going into it,” Jones said. “The upperclassmen are performing well, and the freshmen have learned a lot from them and are competing very well also. We’re all ready to elevate our games and get better when those competition days come around.” donovan.hugel@temple.edu

LACROSSE

Sophomore shows signs of a ‘mature’ goalkeeper Maryn Lowell is working on saving low shots early in the season.

BY JAY NEEMEYER

Lacrosse Beat Reporter

JAMIE COTTRELL / THE TEMPLE NEWS Sophomore goalkeeper Maryn Lowell anticipates a shot on goal during the Owls’ 12-8 win against Rutgers University on Feb. 10 at Howarth Field.

Sophomore goalkeeper Maryn Lowell goes out to the field before every practice and has sophomore attacker and midfielder Olivia Thompson fire balls at her feet.

Lowell has wanted to improve her ability to save low shots since the fall. After she made 10 saves in the Owls’ 12-8 win against Rutgers on Feb. 10, Lowell knew she had to prepare for low shots. She expects opponents to look for a different way to beat her than what the Scarlet Knights tried.

“The other teams, knowing what happened with the high shots, would probably want to test me on lower ones,” Lowell said. “So I had to make sure I was prepared for that.”

“It’s a sign of a mature goalie, who can focus not just on whether balls go in or not, but how to approach certain types of shots,” coach Bonnie Rosen said.

After starting 14 of 18 games last season, Lowell started the first three of 2018. She made nine saves in the Owls’ (2-1) 18-7 win last Wednesday against Monmouth University.

Lowell followed that with 17 saves in Saturday’s 17-4 loss to Princeton University, the No. 12 team in the Inside Lacrosse poll.

In addition to working on saving low shots, Lowell has tried to improve her communication with Temple’s defense. She gets active feedback from her teammates during practices, like what each defender likes to know during the action.

Part of Lowell’s desire to improve is innate.

She was the most intense player on the field at Arlington High School in New York, Lowell’s high school coach, Dan Schmitt, wrote in an email.

Lowell said she used to have difficulty saving shots on her left side, so she focused on that area for a while in high school.

“I feel like it’s something that I’ve always been trying to do, finding what I’m weakest at

and trying to bring it up to a competitive level,” she added.

Redshirt-sophomore goalkeeper Kelsea Hershey started the first four games of 2017 before an ankle injury took her out of the lineup, and Lowell became the starter.

Lowell earned the starting job as a freshman at Arlington High School in a similar manner.

The senior goalkeeper was unable to start at the beginning of the season, and Lowell’s talent cemented her as the four-year starter after she “single-handedly” kept her team in a game, Schmitt wrote.

In her four-year varsity career, Lowell earned all-league honors three times. She is the all-time career saves leader at Arlington with 529.

“She’s certainly on a very short list of the best players I have ever coached,” Schmitt wrote.

At Temple, Lowell said she has felt some healthy pressure to improve from the two other goalkeepers on the Owls’ roster. Hershey is “really good” at communicating, Lowell said.

Freshman goalkeeper Olivia Martin is good in the area Lowell seeks to improve most: low shots, Lowell added.

Though Lowell played the most games of any goalkeeper last season, her spot is not certain, Rosen said.

Hershey played in 10 games last season and played nearly 12 minutes of relief against Monmouth on Wednesday. Martin debuted against the Hawks, playing three minutes, 19 seconds.

“Our goalkeeping position is something we’re always re-evaluating,” Rosen said. “We’re evaluating people’s strengths and growth.

Maryn had a great freshman year, but that didn’t mean that she was definitely our starting goalkeeper in any fashion.”

“Everyone’s strengths will be needed eventually,” Lowell said. “It definitely pushes me to want to be better for myself, but also I know that my strengths will help them want to improve on their strengths so that we can be the best unit we can be.” jay.neemeyer@temple.edu

sports@temple-news.com @TTN_Sports

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

PAGE 16

MEN’S BASKETBALL

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES Temple lost a 14-point halftime lead to Wichita State and lost to Houston at home last week against two top-20 Ratings Percentage Index teams.

BY TOM IGNUDO

Assistant Sports Editor

A

s time wound down on the clock late in the second half, sophomore guard Quinton Rose sat on the bench, but he wasn’t watching the game. Instead, his hands covered his eyes as Houston continued to build its lead.

Sunday night’s 80-59 loss crushed Temple’s chances at gaining a noteworthy NCAA Tournament resume-building victory.

Last week featured opportunities for the Owls (15-12, 7-8 American Athletic Conference) to improve their chances of earning an at-large NCAA Tournament bid in games against Wichita State and Houston.

But they lost both games and are now seventh in The American.

Temple fell out of the “Next Four Out” portion of ESPN bracketoligist Joe Lunardi’s projection on Monday after being in the “Next Four Out” on Friday.

“We thought this was going to be a difficult week at Wichita State and against a very good Houston team, and it certainly was,” coach Fran Dunphy said.

“We have to win every game from here on out, so that’s the only thing we can do,” he added.

In order to determine which teams qualify for the NCAA Tour-

AT-LARGE | PAGE 13

SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Assistant coach Aaron McKie (center) and sophomore guard Quinton Rose show their frustration during Temple’s 80-59 loss to Houston on Sunday at the Liacouras Center.

GYMNASTICS

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Graduate student finds 3-point stroke Mykia Jones is shooting a career-high 38.2 percent from 3-point range this season.

BY AUSTIN AMPELOQUIO

Women’s Basketball Beat Reporter

ZIQI HUANG / THE TEMPLE NEWS Freshman all-around Tori Edwards performs her floor exercise routine on Feb. 11 at The Palestra.

Floor routines consistently producing strong results Temple tied the program’s second-best floor score on Feb. 11.

BY MATT VENDER

Gymnastics Beat Reporter

The Owls have earned their highest scores on the floor at every meet.

They achieved a seasonhigh 49.05 on the floor in their quad meet against Penn, the University of Bridgeport and Ursinus College on Feb. 11 in University City.

The performance tied the

second-best floor mark in program history, which was originally set at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship in 2011.

The Owls (15-3) followed it up with a 48.925 on the floor at Saturday’s Ken Anderson Invitational at McGonigle Hall.

Temple beat West Chester University, Bridgeport and Ursinus.

“The addition, with the freshmen in the lineup this season, definitely changed our scoring potential,” coach Umme Salim-Beasley said. “To

have that, really changed the dynamics of what we could potentially score this year.”

Freshman all-arounds Monica Servidio and Madison Rennix each scored 9.8 on Feb. 11. Freshman all-around Tori Edwards, who came to Temple as a walk-on, scored a careerhigh 9.85 on the floor at that meet.

After she set a new careerhigh with a 9.875 at the Ken Anderson Invitational on Saturday, Edwards said she still feels she has room for improve-

FLOOR | PAGE 14

Mykia Jones said she used to do most of her scoring around the rim growing up. Now, she prefers shooting from more than 20 feet from the hoop.

Jones, a graduate transfer from Georgetown University, leads Temple in 3-point percentage. She is also second on the team in 3-point makes and third in attempts.

In her past four games, Jones has averaged eight points per game. She

made five of her 12 3-point attempts against Wichita State last Wednesday to score a career-high 15 points.

“When I was younger, it was my handles and my speed that separated me from everybody else,” Jones said.

“But when I got to college and everybody else was bigger than me, I had to figure out different ways to score rather than just taking people off the dribble and getting to the basket.”

During her freshman season at Wake Forest University, Jones made 11 3-pointers in 25 games and shot 29.7 percent from behind the 3-point arc. She improved her 3-point shooting to 32.1 percent the following

JONES | PAGE 14

SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Graduate guard Mykia Jones dribbles during the Owls’ 64-57 loss to Central Florida on Feb. 10 at McGonigle Hall.

TRACK AND FIELD | PAGE 15

LACROSSE | PAGE 15

WOMEN’S TENNIS | PAGE 14

FENCING | PAGE 13

Temple will travel to Alabama for the 2018 American Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships, where it finished 10th last season.

Sophomore goalkeeper Maryn Lowell gets healthy pressure from her teammates to improve skills like saving low shots and communication.

Junior Alice Patch left England for Utah State University in 2015. She is in her first season at Temple, the third school she has attended during her career.

The sabre squad has the most wins of Temple’s three squads, including seven wins against other schools ranked in the CollegeFencing360.com poll.