Volume 94, Issue 29

A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921.

TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

TUESDAY, MAY 3 2016

VOL. 94 ISS. 29

THE COMMENCEMENT ISSUE

A NEW CHAPTER

MARGO REED TTN

INSIDE GRADUATE PROFILES

Graduating seniors reflect on their time at Temple, and share their plans for the future in every section of this week’s special issue.

‘100 MILES OF UNPAVED ROAD’

Our annual special project explores the system in place at Temple for reporting sexual assault, and the experiences of survivors who used it.

THE YEAR IN PHOTOS

A recap of some of this year’s best photography including Bernie Sanders, Temple’s win against Penn State University and Winter Storm Jonas.

NEWS

PAGE 2

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

Miller family ‘torn apart’ following fatal shooting Police are still investigating the fatal shooting of Antonio Miller on Jan. 16.

By JULIE CHRISTIE The Temple News Brenda Arter still doesn’t have any answers.

Three-and-a-half months ago, on Jan. 16, a warm, Saturday evening, her grandson, 25-year-old Antonio Miller, died after being shot three times in the head in an empty lot on Edgely Street near 18th.

“My whole family has been torn apart,” Arter, 67, said last Saturday.

“This has hurt, this has wounded us deeply. We’ve been pierced, our hearts have been pierced.”

Arter added since Miller was killed, she doesn’t leave her home, unless it is to sit on the steps just

outside her door. She keeps a brown pillow sitting next to the heavy black door of her home on Bouvier Street near Susquehanna Avenue, and uses it as a cushion as she talks.

Executive Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone told The Temple News in January there was one gunshot for each suspect in the murder.

“A witness heard two gunshots and then saw two males appearing to be juveniles run from a vacant lot,” Leone said. “[The] witness then heard a third gunshot and a third male ran from the lot.”

Miller was taken to Temple University Hospital and pronounced dead later that evening.

“To date the motive is unknown and there is no arrest,” wrote Philadelphia Police spokeswoman Tanya Little in an email Friday.

In January, Little told The Temple News the suspects wore allblack clothing and could be in their late teens to early 20s. They were seen running south from the lot on 18th Street.

Arter said neither police nor anybody in the community has come forward with more information on the death of her grandson.

“I figured with all the people in the community who knew him, somebody would have something to say,” she said. “So as far as what [police have] done about it, nothing.

What the community has done about it, nothing. If they know something, they talk, nothing. All the surveillance cameras the community say they have, nothing’s on them.”

Arter said she has posted her phone number throughout the community in the hopes that if somebody knows something, they will contact her. If people are afraid to talk to the police, she said, she will talk for them.

While the investigation has not yet revealed any new information, Arter said she has her suspicions of why her grandson was killed.

“I’ve heard all wonderful kinds of things about him,” she said. “That he’s been helping people in the community, seniors ... and I didn’t know

JULIE CHRISTIE TTN FILE PHOTO

Antonio Miller was found dead in this lot a couple blocks from White Hall on Jan. 16. Police said the motive of the shooting is still unknown.

how many of them. I was happy to hear that just because [you’re] out here in the street don’t mean [you’re] a bad guy.”

“They killed him. They set him up and they killed him because he was all over the community,” she added.

In January, Brian, 55, told The Temple News he believed Miller’s death was intended, and was uncomfortable giving his last name with the shooters still at large.

“They were trying to kill,” he said. “These young guys are crazy.”

“In my opinion, they will get theirs,” Arter said as she stood up and grabbed her pillow to bring back into her house. “They will be my footstools because I will see justice.

Maybe not in my day because it may take a long time, but it’s coming.” * julie.christie@temple.edu T @ChristieJules

Former lacrosse goalie fighting, beating odds Rachel Hall, after being critically injured in a hitand-run accident, will walk at graduation this week.

By STEVE BOHNEL News Editor On April 29, 2015, former lacrosse goalie Rachel Hall was critically injured in a hit-and-run accident at the intersection of Park Avenue and Diamond Street.

The list of injuries was extensive—a fractured skull with bleeding to the brain, a dissected/torn right carotid artery and pneumonia, along with other complications—and Rachel’s mother, Kathy, was worried after hearing from doctors at Temple University Hospital.

“It was just the worst time in my life, not knowing,” Kathy said Saturday. “They gave her three days to live, and her brother came up from college, flew up from Virginia, and her dad and I were in the hospital room for three days straight not knowing. Because if she took a turn for the worse, we all wanted to be there.”

Now, a little more than a year after the accident, Rachel—who was honored at Temple’s lacrosse game Saturday—will walk at the College of Liberal Arts’ graduation this Thursday at the Liacouras Center.

During the past year, Rachel’s

rehabilitation process has been extensive, Kathy said. After the three-day span following the accident, Rachel remained at TUH for about another three weeks. She then started at Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, where her brain went through a ‘storming’ process. Rachel couldn’t hold conversations, and was in an agitated state, despite trying to battle her injuries, Kathy said.

Kathy added another issue is not knowing how Rachel would recover from her brain injuries.

“Because the brain heals itself, no doctors, therapists could say, ‘This is a definite timeline,’” Kathy said. “It’s just the brain heals itself, and everybody heals differently. …

It’s not like, you have a broken leg, it’s gonna heal in six weeks, you do therapy and you’re fine. It’s just with the brain, everybody is totally different.”

As Rachel continued to recover, friends, former teammates, family and community members from Mullica Hill, NJ and Temple continued to visit Magee in support, Kathy said.

Residents in Mullica Hill helped the

Halls with everyday tasks like cooking dinner and mowing the lawn so that Kathy and Rachel’s father, Michael, could visit her at the hospital.

Support also arrived from across the country, she added. Lacrosse teams nationwide sent autographed posters and handmade cards. In total, Rachel received more than 100 cards, which were taped to the wall in her hospital room, Kathy said.

The first four months of hospital and therapy bills cost $1.4 million, something that has been “overwhelming,” Kathy added.

“But she got great care, that’s the main thing, that money can’t buy,” she said. “I just want her well, that’s the main focus of it.”

Before the accident, Rachel had been accepted to attend the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Academy. The sociology and criminal justice double alumna hopes to be re-accepted and eventually pursue a career helping victims of human trafficking.

Rachel said she became interested in the topic as a student, and was self-taught when it came to learning it. She added that victims need more support after telling their stories.

Her mom thinks her curiosity in the area has been instrumental in her recovery.

“I thought maybe this accident might change her mind about being in law enforcement,” Kathy said. “It

EVAN EASTERLING TTN

Rachel Hall (in gown) embraces members of Temple’s lacrosse team Saturday.

hasn’t. And that’s why I think it’s kept her going in her recovery, that she still sees that goal ahead of her.”

Currently, Rachel is doing physical, speech and cognitive therapy five days a week at Magee Rehab at 1513 Race St. “My speed of talking and my articulation is a big thing, along with just everyday talking,” Rachel said about her therapy. “And then [cognitive] is just my memory and processing [information], that’s the big thing I’m doing.”

Last Friday was the one-year anniversary of the accident. As Kathy prepared to take Rachel to rehab, she realized how remarkable her daughter’s recovery has been.

“I was sitting on the couch, and I was putting my shoes on to take her to therapy, and I just started crying

because I realized it’s been one year that she’s been with me,” she said.

“She didn’t die, and even though the past year has been the worst year of my life, it could’ve been far worse if she had died. As I sat on the couch and tears started coming out, I said, ‘She’s here. She’s not dead.’ And the whole past year was worth it.”

Those who wish to donate to the Hall family can do so through her YouCaring page, titled “Rachel Hall - Long Recovery Requires Extensive Care & Rehab.” Cards and letters can be mailed to: Rachel Hall, PO Box 307, Mullica Hill, NJ 08062. * steve.bohnel@temple.edu T @Steve_Bohnel

Two TSG officers finish undergraduate careers Ryan Rinaldi and Brittany Boston reflected on their time at Temple.

By TOM IGNUDO The Temple News Last year, seniors Ryan Rinaldi and Brittany Boston of Future TU were inducted into Temple Student Government as student body president and vice president of services.

On April 18, however, they reversed their roles from a year ago as they watched Empower TU inducted as TSG’s next senior administration at a General Assembly meeting.

Last Monday, while sitting on a bench on Liacouras Walk in front of the Fox School of Business, Rinaldi and Boston reflected on their time at TSG.

“This year has been the greatest year of my life and Temple is at the heart of that,” Rinaldi said. “To graduate from Temple, it’s an honor and I’m lucky to have been able to come here.”

Rinaldi said he hopes his administration is remembered as one that continued to build relationships with the university and students, and served the students’ best interests.

“We were out there, we weren’t just in meetings or in our office,” Boston said. “We were out with the students and we advocated on their behalf at any moment that we could.”

Future TU was the first TSG administration to participate in HootaThon— an organization that raises awareness and funds for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. It raised more than $3,000 for HootaThon this year.

Rinaldi said one his administration’s biggest ac-

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complishments was building relationships with Temple Police, which resulted in the creation of Flight—the university’s new shuttle system that replaced Owl Loop and TUr Door.

“Flight was monumental,” Boston said. “I’m just excited that we have that service.

I think it keeps our students safe and a lot of people are excited about it. It came out two months ago and so imagine how efficient it’s going to be in the fall.”

Even though Rinaldi and Boston said they had a great experience at TSG, they faced many unexpected challenges this past year, like the possibility of an on-campus football stadium.

On Feb. 1, TSG held an open forum with President Theobald and Athletic Director Pat Kraft. They also sat down and interviewed Theobald about what a football stadium on campus would do for

Temple.

“There’s always going to be struggles when you come into these types of experiences,” Rinaldi said. “This year, the positives have outweighed the negatives ten-fold. And it’s been one of the best experiences that I’ve been fortunate enough to have, and it was worth all of the struggles.”

Rinaldi and Boston also hope Empower TU can continue to improve the relationships they have created with administrators and student organizations.

“The power of TSG lies within the amount of students it engages with, and how well they can leverage their relationships with administrators, with politicians and with students to get things done,” Rinaldi said. “Our main priorities in transitioning this new team was to get them the opportunity to have the same relationships, if not better relationships with all of those dif-

NEWS@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

EVAN EASTERLING TTN

Ryan Rinaldi (left), and Brittany Boston graduate this week.

ferent types of groups.”

After Rinaldi and Boston graduate Friday, they both are excited to become Temple alumni and start their careers.

Rinaldi will start working in compliance at Goldman Sachs in New York City in July. Boston plans on having a career in a form of media and hopes to stay in the Philadelphia area.

“I just want students to know that, the Future TU administration 2015-16 Temple

Student Government never took no for an answer,” Boston said. “We fought for you all at tons of meetings and tons of events … because students are always first. We will continue to serve, unite and build this university and as an [alumna] I hope I can do that as well.” * thomas.ignudo@temple.edu T @Ignudo5

NEWS

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

PAGE 3

Police: vandalism suspects still on the run Five juveniles entered the club men’s gymnastics team’s gym in January, causing thousands of dollars in damages.

By STEVE BOHNEL News Editor In an investigation that is now nearing a length of four months, Philadelphia and Temple Police are still looking to identify, find and arrest five people involved in the burglary and vandalism in the men’s club gymnastics space on Main Campus.

On Jan. 9, five teenage boys broke into Gym 143 in Pearson Hall, breaking mirrors, a flat-screen TV and spilling betadine on a gymnastics mat, police said. “[Police] have clear video of the kids coming in the back door,” coach Fred Turoff said last week. “Outside of that, I’ve let police handle it.”

Turoff said the incident was an “inconvenience” to his team at the start of this semester, but added it didn’t impact their performance during the season.

In early February, Philadelphia Police released surveillance video of the five suspects entering and exiting a rear door in Pearson Hall. According to a press release, the suspects broke several mirrors and computer monitors and spray-painted several floors and walls.

Executive Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone said last week that Temple Police “are keeping

the investigation open and will continue following up on any leads.”

Det. King Paramore, who has worked with Temple Police for 24 years, said after the department filed an initial incident report, a Philadelphia Police department report was filed to broaden the investigation to include Philadelphia Police’s Central Detective Division. He added he has been collaborating with Philadelphia Police Det. Thomas Hood in the investigation.

Paramore said the suspects came from the western part of campus and crossed the track south of Geasey Field. He added that detectives went to high schools and middle schools throughout the city, but no security officials or other personnel were able to identify the suspects.

Following that search, Temple Police deployed plainclothes officers in

Examining the lease extension at the Linc The Temple News takes a closer look after Temple’s CFO discussed financials with the Faculty Senate.

By LIAN PARSONS Assistant News Editor Temple’s 15-year rental agreement with the Eagles is coming to an end in 2018, forcing the university to possibly face a “take it or leave it” situation regarding a place for home football games.

The rent for Lincoln Financial Field is currently $1 million per year, and will increase to $3 million if Temple renews another contract.

Temple does not currently receive any revenue from parking or suite revenues, but does receive 10 percent from concessions.

Michael Leeds, a professor of economics, said many stadium rental agreements have “back-ended rent increases or revenue streams,” which means that rent often increases at the end of an agreement.

“Frequently, however, these never get implemented [because] the team threatens to leave,” he said in an email. “That is precisely what happened with the Eagles at Veterans Stadium.”

Veterans Stadium, which closed in 2003, hosted both the Eagles and the Phillies, fell into disrepair and was demolished in 2004.

University CFO and Treasurer Ken Kaiser presented financial details on Temple’s proposal to the Faculty Senate last week, which included projected average attendance, game day expenses and a funding plan.

In figuring out these costs, the university took a “bottom-up” approach.

“We didn’t say, ‘What would make this stadium financially viable?’” Kaiser said. “We figured out what we need the stadium to look like and then whether what we need it to look like is financially viable.”

Football games are “the only game in town for Temple,” he added, as it is the only sport that the university hosts at a professional sports venue. “[The Eagles] don’t have to give [the Linc] to us.”

Kaiser said the Eagles are a forprofit business, and currently receive revenue from parking and from the majority of concessions at Temple games.

“The Eagles aren’t in business to win Super Bowls, they’re in business to make money,” Kaiser said.

“A for-profit charges what the market will pay.”

When a leasing contract was first established with Temple in

2003, the agreement was a partnership between the Eagles, the university and the city. Since then, it has since become more of a power dynamic, Kaiser said.

A spokesman from the Eagles said last week that the Eagles usually do not comment publicly about financial matters.

Kaiser said Temple does not have many options for football venues outside of the Linc, and while on-campus stadium discussions were announced in October 2015, talks with the Eagles began years before the termination of the current lease.

“In a large lease like this … you’re negotiating for that and talking about it years in advance,” Kaiser said. He added that the closer it comes to the “strike date … you get more realistic.”

Temple’s success last fall makes the idea of an on-campus stadium “more palatable,” but is not the motivator for the discussions, he said.

An on-campus stadium would not require consistently sold-out games to make a profit, he added.

The two sold-out games from the past season against Penn State and Notre Dame were taken out of the equation and instead used normalized attendance during the past few years to extrapolate reasonable attendance.

The Temple News previously reported that Temple’s 2015 season drew an average crowd of 31,623 without the Penn State and Notre Dame games. From 201114, Temple’s average game day attendance peaked at 28,060 in 2011 and was at its low in 2013 at 22,473.

“Whenever you’re going to need someone else to make a business successful, you want a long-term lease,” Kaiser said. “For the Eagles, to offer a five-year lease … rent would continue to increase.”

According to Forbes Magazine, the Eagles are worth $2.4 billion, a 37 percent increase since last year.

“This is based on revenue of $370 million and operating income of $88.7 million,” Leeds said.

“Suffice it to say the Lurie Family will not go hungry even without a rent increase.” * lian.parsons@temple.edu T @Lian_Parsons

Liacouras Garage a few weeks after the incident, after hearing the people from the video had been in the same area— but those efforts were also unsuccessful, Paramore said.

He added one of the issues with identifying these suspects is that they don’t have a criminal record because they are juveniles. Family, friends or community members, however, should be able to identify them given the video, Paramore said.

Paramore said the cost of the damages could be more than $10,000, given the broken mirrors, showcases, TV and other items, along with spray paint on staircases and floors in the building.

The university’s facilities management office is also calculating the cost of labor to clean the building after the burglary and vandalism occurred, he said.

The long-time detective said that given the high cost of

JENNY KERRIGAN TTN FILE PHOTO

Coach Fred Turoff hangs up a banner in Gym 143 in Pearson Hall.

the damages, the five juveniles could be charged with felony burglary. There are, however, other options for the suspects that prosecutors could decide on, he said.

“I would hate to think someone would overlook the fact that there could be a minor or juvenile that needed some kind of intervention to help them,” Paramore said. “It’s not always about prosecution.”

He still hopes police and the nearby community can work together to identify and locate the five involved.

“If you see something, say something,” Paramore said. “I would like to see us foster a culture people see as we’re working together, as opposed to snitching.” * steve.bohnel@temple.edu T @Steve_Bohnel

Defining a charrette agreement The community and city helped Temple map out expansion in 1969.

By GILLIAN McGOLDRICK The Temple News James Kelch sat in a community building in the Norris Homes housing project on 12th Street near Berks in 1969 to discuss Temple’s relations with the community as the university sought to double its size.

Nearly half a century later, Kelch, a social administration professor emeritus, said he believes the university should begin to do the same today.

“The whole idea of a charrette— its time has come again,” Kelch said. “It would serve both Temple’s interests and the community’s interests to come together and try to work it out, instead of just going ahead and doing things and expecting the community to react.”

A charrette is a meeting in which all project stakeholders aim to resolve conflicts and find solutions.

An expansion plan called the 1970 Institutional Development Plan sought to double Temple’s space to 2,384,000 square feet of space, along with an increase in enrollment.

This expansion plan immediately received pushback from the black communities surrounding Temple.

In March 1969, a group of African-American students named Steering Committee for Black Students presented a list of demands to former President Paul Anderson. These demands included the creation of an Afro-Asian Institute (now the African American studies department), the admission of at least 200 black students aided financially and a fiveyear degree program and verbal and written assurance that Temple has no intention of expanding any more east or west of Broad Street unless approved by the black community.

The group also demanded that all new and existing facilities be accessible to the black community, including Paley Library and Geasey Field.

After these demands were presented, this group of students jump-started deliberations for a charrette agreement, an intensive architectural planning session and began a moratorium on Temple’s planned expansion, which was placed until the community and Temple reached an agreement.

From Dec. 1, 1969 to Feb. 6, 1970, community members, Temple administrators and faculty, students and state and local legislators

COURTESY PHILADELPHIA CITY PLANNING COMMISSION

This “Community-Temple Agreement”was drafted Feb. 6, 1970. The marked zone stretches from Columbia Avenue (now Cecil B. Moore Avenue) to Susquehanna Avenue, and the agreement was later signed by Gov. Raymond Shafer.

met at Norris Homes housing project to discuss Temple’s plans to expand. In Larry B. Morrison’s journal “The Community-Temple Charrette” came in a community that was “termed ‘sub-standard’ and ‘blighted’” by state government in 1948 as a part of a project for urban renewal.

“What the charrette agreement did was to indicate to Temple and the rest of Philadelphia that a lot of folks still saw [community surrounding Temple] as their community,” said university historian James Hilty.

Kelch was one of nearly a dozen community members, Temple administrators, faculty members and public agency representatives that attended the charrette deliberations.

In a roundtable discussion that

Temple prior to schematic plans or zoning changes, and established a Committee for Continuing Dialogue made up of community and representatives of the university and public agencies.

The charrette agreement stated that the university, state or city would not acquire Norris Homes housing project for any other use than lowincome housing. The moratorium on construction was also lifted at the singing of this agreement.

Hilty said the charrette agreement is not a legal document, but the practices of the Institutional Development District are. Before Temple can build, it must receive approval from City Council to alter Temple’s IDD. The charrette was later signed

of a charrette—its time “The wholehasideacome again.”

James Kelch | social administration professor emeritus

met over two months, the different parties were able to discuss their concerns and agendas as Temple continued to expand.

“It was very challenging because [the community] asked every question imaginable, which was good because I don’t think the university, to their own satisfaction, had thought out a number of these things,” Kelch said. “It really laid out the table what was going to be done and how it would be done.”

The final Community-Temple Agreement of 1970—which was drafted on Feb. 6, 1970—required community consultation of

by former Gov. Raymond Shafer and all other parties involved in it.

Hilty said the charrette still stands today.

“In the case of the possible football stadium and changes that are going to be made, it’s presumed that all the interested parties will be given the chance to respond and be taken into consideration,” Hilty said. “Let’s hope that gets done.” * gillian.mcgoldrick@temple.edu T @gill_mcgoldrick

EDITORIAL/OP-ED

PAGE 4

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

THE ESSAYIST A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921.

Emily Rolen, Editor-in-Chief EJ Smith, Managing Editor Joe Brandt, Chief Copy Editor Steve Bohnel, News Editor Paige Gross, Opinion Editor Michaela Winberg, Lifestyle Editor Ryan Deming, Web Manager Victoria Mier, Arts & Entertainment Editor Julie Christie, Web Editor Michael Guise, Sports Editor Jenny Kerrigan, Photography Editor Lian Parsons, Asst. News Editor Margo Reed, Asst. Photography Editor Owen McCue, Asst. Sports Editor Donna Fanelle, Design Editor Jenny Roberts, Asst. Lifestyle Editor Finnian Saylor, Asst. Designer Eamon Dreisbach, Asst. Arts & Entertainment Ian Berman, Advertising Manager Editor Grayson Holladay, Business Manager Harrison Brink, Multimedia Editor Jeanie Davey, Marketing Manager Aaron Windhorst, Asst. Multimedia Editor

The Temple News is an editorially independent weekly publication serving the Temple University community. Unsigned editorial content represents the opinion of The Temple News. Adjacent commentary is reflective of their authors, not The Temple News.

Visit us online at temple-news.com.

Send submissions to letters@temple-news.com.

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

EDITORIALS

Rethink consent For our last issue of the ability to recognize consent, academic year, The Temple and when it’s absent.

News’ staff released its annuWhile this project is a al special way for p r o j e c t , We hope our final project sparks students d e t a i l i n g conversation, action on the issue to see the experiw h a t of sexual assault on campus. ences of a Te m p l e few survivors when they re- has administratively put in ported incidents of sexual as- place to support its students sault at Temple. This piece is and survivors of sexual vioa comprehensive response to lence, it’s ultimately a way for Temple’s inclusion as one of more conversation to happen 175 universities under inves- on Main Campus about sexual tigation for violation of Title assault—what it means, what IX. The project starts on page it does and why it happens.

A1.

Read the accounts of Our editor-in-chief women who didn’t consent, spoke to survivors of sexual experiences of advocates, adviolence with diverse experi- ministrators in the hospital or ences and backgrounds, all of in court, police taking down whom had varying reactions reports, nurses conducting to Temple’s policies for re- kits and many others with diporting, supporting survivors rect experiences with sexual and preventing sexual assault. violence in Philadelphia.

Our staff outlined the system, If there is a takeaway the “unpaved road,” a survi- from the project, it is our vor can navigate if they’re hope that the Temple commuseeking support or justice. nity is better informed on how There seemed to be a to approach getting help on consensus, however, about campus in the moments after the education surrounding a sexual assault—even if it’s consent on campus. Many of for a friend. the incidents reported in this project were results of the in-

Honor Rachel Hall On Thursday, one of the would not have expected it,” best stories of the year will Kathy said Saturday. “It was happen right in front of thou- so traumatic seeing her in the sands of students graduating hospital, there’s machines from the College of Liberal keeping her alive, helping her Arts. breathe Rachel Rachel Hall is an inspiration to and I Hall, a forj u s t the Temple community. mer Temwould ple lacrosse h a v e player who was the victim of a never expected this outcome hit-and-run accident April 29, in a year. But it all is Rachel’s 2015 that left her with severe determination.” injuries including brain damEvery year, commenceage, will walk across the stage ment speakers and proud at the Liacouras Center to re- professors will attempt to ceive her diploma in criminal inspire the university’s freshjustice and sociology. est crop of graduates to do Her recovery has been great things. This year, those a long one—after spending graduates will need to look no about three weeks at Temple further than Rachel Hall, her University Hospital, Hall family and her friends. spent months at Magee ReThe reason we idolize habilitation Hospital, where notable alumni like Kevin her brain underwent a “storm- Negandhi, Bob Saget, Taming” period, as it was slowly ron Hall and several others is healing itself, said her mother, because they show us what is Kathy Hall. possible after our experience Kathy told The Temple at Temple.

News that this past year was Hall fought for her life, the worst of her life. Doctors and will now have her degree initially gave Rachel three to show for it. days to live—but a year later, Even if you won’t be in she has made tremendous attendance for graduation, strides, and is now able to her survival should make both walk and talk following you, and the entire university, a horrific accident. proud.

“If someone said she would’ve been sitting here, I

The path to reporting

M

After four years and three schools, a student is ready to graduate, finally feeling like a reporter.

y college career has been a little convoluted: four years, three schools, one semester off, one summer abroad. I’m graduating on time “by the grace of god,” or so my mom says.

In August of 2012, I attended Washington College, a small liberal arts school where I was an English major. I received a large scholarship and thought I wanted a small school experience, despite the lack of journalism offerings. I joined the school newspaper and got an internship at a lifestyle magazine in Annapolis.

At the magazine, I learned how to turn a blurb-writing and calendar-inputting internship into three real stories about local music. I learned that no, I probably shouldn’t wear those “cool” jean shorts with tights to an office. I learned that transcribing interviews is usually a waste of time when my editor asked what I was doing one day.

“You’ve got to find a faster way to do that,” she said, frowning at me. “Get a voice recorder and mark down when they say something good. Don’t try to transcribe it off a video.”

The next day, I bought a voice recorder. I started introducing myself as a journalist. I wasn’t—not yet.

When I found the small, rural school was (not so) slowly driving me insane, I transferred to my original dream school: Emerson College. It housed one of the best journalism programs in the country in the middle of a vibrant city.

At Emerson, I did my first “man on the street interview” for an entry-level journalism course.

“You want us to just go ask strangers about Congress?” one of the students asked, half-joking.

“Yeah,” answered our professor, a retired Washington Post reporter, his eyes widening just slightly. “What do you think this is?”

I discovered I had a knack for making complete strangers feel comfortable with me in a matter of moments—even though I couldn’t get a last name from one man, who naturally had the best quote.

By Victoria Mier “You have to get their last names,” my professor explained with a huff.

“I tried,” I said.

He made a noise at me and I probably walked away thinking he was a harda--. Now, I would say he just wanted me to do my d--- job. I had better luck with the two student magazines about Boston life and music.

“You have this weird ability to find the exactly right word to describe a band’s sound,” one editor told me.

I felt good. I introduced myself as a journalist. I was not one.

When health issues forced me home in the fall of my sophomore year, I took a semester off. I got better. When I came to Temple in the spring of 2014, I was surprised by how much a journalism major was expected to know. Despite my inter-

est in print, I was expected to be proficient in video and photo as well—something I hadn’t encountered at Emerson.

I joined The Temple News in the fall as an art beat writer. I had never written about art before in my life, but I decided to give it a go. I learned how to be a reporter for the first time in my life, asking tougher questions and letting silence fill the space when I thought my interviewee had more to say.

“You’ve got a big vocabulary,” said the assistant Arts & Entertainment editor.

“But you need to think more about finding the best word for something, not just the one that sounds good.”

I returned to The Temple News for my senior year as the Arts & Entertainment editor after an internship at the Inquirer. I’ve worked on stories about sexual assault, redevelopment and people in re-entry after incarceration. To tackle these stories, I had to ask harder questions. I had to listen harder. I had to be a better reporter.

I learned those skills from my colleagues at The Temple News—I’ve collaborated with them, screamed at them, laughed with them, thrown empty coffee cups across the room at them during disagreements and sang Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” at the top of our lungs when we felt anything but.

I’ve put together a print product every week, run a team of writers and figured out how to work with people from different backgrounds, all for the sake of making something. By some grace of god, we make a paper every week­—and a d--- good one at that.

Recently at a job interview, I was questioned about my lack of hard news stories in my portfolio. I shrugged.

“If you give me a story, I’ll get it done,” I said. “I’m a reporter.”

And for the first time, I was. That doesn’t mean I’m done. Learning never ends for a journalist—we discover something with every story, during every day, and I can’t wait for what I’ll learn next. * victoria.mier@temple.edu T @victoria_mier_

FOUR YEARS AGO...

Here’s what happened in 2012, when the graduating seniors were freshmen.

JACK TOMCZUK TTN

In-state undergraduate rate of tuition was $13,006 JAZMYNE ANDERSON TTN

Temple Football finished the season 4-7.

DONNA FANELLE TTN

The Creperie was named as favorite food truck in the 2012 edition of Lunchies.

CORRECTIONS The Temple News strives to be a newspaper of record by printing factually correct and balanced articles. 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 Emily Rolen at editor@ temple-news.com or 215.204.6737.

KARA MILSTEIN TTN

President Obama was re-elected in November 2012.

MARGO REED TTN

President Theobald was named the new president of the university in August 2012.

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

column | send-off

A fond farewell

I

OPINION

PAGE 5

FROM THE ARCHIVES May 3, 2011: Muhammad Wilkerson (#9) was drafted by the New York Jets and Jaiquawn Jarrett was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles. On Saturday, Tyler Matakevich, current senior linebacker, was drafted in the seventh round by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Defensive back Tavon Young was drafted by the Balitmore Ravens and defensive lineman Matt Ioannidis was drafted by the Washington Redskins.

Our editor-in-chief pens a goodbye to The Temple News.

began making friends at The Temple News when I started doing my Chinese homework.

I remember sitting on that ratty couch in the corner of the newsroom, curled into my Intermediate Chinese textbook, when a boy with a round head and glasses, chewing on Mentos, peered over my shoulder. He slurped on a Big Gulp and gave me his cheeky, lovable smile.

“You’re taking Chinese?”

By the end of that week, everyone on staff was repeating vocabulary words that I taught them. News in here always travels fast. By the end of my first semester as the Arts & Entertainment editor, I had drawn characters with Sharpie all over two staffers’ apartment walls, and given the whole staff a real picture of who I was, who I am. Those characters, by the way, are still there to this day, bold and demanding, until someone new moves in with a fresh can of paint.

But I hope they never do. I hope the memories EMILY ROLEN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF I made during the last two years stay with me, in that house, in my office, in every sentence we wrote and every person we spoke to.

The first story I ever told for The Temple News was a disaster. I decided to write a review of a food truck for our annual edition of “Lunchies” for an editor I was visibly terrified of. I was a freshman, seeking to stake my claim at a newspaper I had been reading since I was in high school. I went to the food truck and filmed myself eating lunch to put online with my story.

I thought it was ingenious as a lowly freshman, something that makes me cringe at the mention of nowadays. The story and video are still posted online, the title of which I will happily not provide.

The part of that story that I don’t regret, however, is the part of me

not just storytellers who put pen “toWe’re paper. We’re listeners, and we’re the best at it.” that was unashamed and ballsy enough to take a bite of a drooling crepe on camera and put it onto an award-winning newspaper’s website. I think those were some of the best ideas I saw here; the ones that weren’t obvious and made me think twice about journalism.

Those stories came up pretty frequently during my tenure—we called for the chairman of the Board of Trustees to resign, broke news about the plans for a proposed on-campus football stadium, profiled refugees, talked to politicians and covered student deaths ethically and sensitively.

This week, we published our interactive multimedia project, “100 miles of unpaved road.” This piece, above all, has kept me up at night, staring at the ceiling. I hope it’s gripping, realistic and powerful. I spent hours with survivors, holding their hands and listening to their experiences, sharing their worlds for as long as they would let me. I wanted to do it justice, so this staff listened to hours of stories and information, to make it as cohesive and accessible as possible for students.

And that’s the thing no one tells you about journalism, and certainly no one told me when I came to The Temple News: we’re not just storytellers who put pen to paper. We’re listeners, and we’re the best at it.

Next year, I’ll be in Shanghai, China, still reciting those characters, writing them out on scraps of paper, and telling new stories with them. But the ones I’ll look back on and hold dear to my heart aren’t in the archives of The Temple News, they are in the hours I spent in the newsroom listening to interviews, pitches and this staff’s stories. That was the best-kept secret that no other editor-in-chief could have told me.

I’ll remember things overheard in the newsroom like a playlist in my head, even when I’m out of earshot.

I overheard our photo desk raving about a new photographer’s talent, and my chief copy editor reciting the AP Style Book from memory. I heard the features editors laughing on the floor of the editorial cubicle, the opinion editor at her desk with Beyoncé on. I listened in on the multimedia desk’s witty banter and impressive shorts.

There was the sports guys’ humor I will never understand and the news team late at night, arduously still making calls. I heard my managing editor on the other end of my receiver, telling me his latest bright idea and the best advice I could have asked for. I heard them all at one point or another, loud and clear, in the newsroom that is a little bit more like home now.

I can’t quite imagine a year at Temple without them, echoing in my head and throughout all 20 pages of this smart, thorough newspaper.

But I guess I won’t have to, afterall. So make me proud, gang.

I’ll be reading from a million miles away. * emily.rolen@temple.edu T @Emily_Rolen

column | education

Industries: invest in education Showing students what’s beyond the classroom is important.

A

t the beginning of this semester, myself and five other journalism students were fingerprinted and background-checked before stepping foot into our classroom. Not one in Annenberg Hall, but classrooms scattered through the city.

I signed up for the “High School Journalism Workshop” class after reading about and talking to a lot of people with opinions on the state of the School District of Philadelphia.

Some said it just needs a PAIGE GROSS little love, and OPINION EDITOR more people to care about education. Others told me a total overhaul was necessary. I knew some felt charter schools were a drain on the district’s resources and others thought they were god’s gift to Philly students.

As a Temple student from Central Pennsylvania, I felt too far removed to participate in that conversation. I went to school in a good district, the high school I attended was built a few years before I walked through the doors. I knew this would be very different. I wanted to get in there and figure it out.

I was matched with The Academy at Palumbo, a magnet school in Hawthorne which had just received a grant for a media lab in the school from WHYY. Robert Paul, a 15-year English teacher in the district, was new to the school and new to teaching journalism.

“I took a journalism class in college, but that was 15 years ago, before Internet, and I needed to figure something out,” he said.

When I finally visited for the first time, I was met by 30 high schoolers, eager with questions. “Where did you go to school? What is college like? Why did you want to become a journalist?” Even, “What do your parents do for a living?”

I was surprised, and excited. I’ve presented to journalism classes here at Temple where students have a lot less to say.

Because the media lab wasn’t set up until November, Paul taught vlogging and photo stories. He told me he recognized the lack of interest in print mediums and let the kids run with creating videos once the lab was at their fingertips.

“At least 75 percent of them want to be here,” Paul said of the elective, which is a lot more than I can say for those who I graduated with.

Early on, I heard Paul tell the class that journalism isn’t just something you learn, like in other classes.

great reward, even in the two hours a week I spent with them.

Five of the students go to an after-school program through WHYY to keep expanding on what they’re learning in the halls of Palumbo. One student has submitted work to film festivals. Another has sat in the press box at a 76ers game with writers and editors from Sports Illustrated.

Journalism is very much making do with what you have. I saw this idea in the journalism class and in the school as a whole.

The professor who runs the class at Temple told us we’d be teaching some journalism, but we’d also be there as an example of what college

The lab was an investment, but I saw “great reward, even in the two hours a week I spent with them.”

“This is something you can actually take with you and turn into a job,” he would say.

I saw some of the students digest that thought and take advantage of it.

“This isn’t like what I learn in psychology,” one of the kids told me.

“I can put this on an application or show what I made to a college.”

The lab was an investment.

Paul and Palumbo’s principal, Kiana Thompson, went through two rounds of presenting curriculums and lesson plans before they were chosen as one of six schools to receive the lab, decked out with six Mac computers, video kits, tripods and cameras. The deal came with a once-a-week instructor, and me, an intern.

I helped those who needed it film, edit and script their videos. I taught mini-lessons on video editing, interviewing and even held a fake press conference.

I gave advice as much as possible and was there to answer questions, but mostly I stood by and watched as a bunch of kids took the tools they were given and told stories through video about what was important to them.

That is, essentially, journalism.

The lab was an investment, but I saw

and a career can look like.

I was able to share a little bit of journalism with them, but this could be instituted across many fields. In all of the standardized testing and statistics surrounding these schools, there’s also simply students looking to learn.

“I think a lot of them are seeing like, ‘Oh, these are things we are doing in class and I can definitely do it in the real world,’” Paul said.

The WHYY lab is a pilot program this year, but Paul is already thinking about expanding. Getting kids interested in the world outside school doesn’t necessarily take a lab full of equipment or an instructor, but someone to show them there’s a lot out there. Paul does that.

After a few months, I’m better educated when I hear conversations about the state of the schools. They need more than just a little love, yes, but we can’t think about the next generation as having come out of a disaster.

They need a reminder of all that lies ahead. * paige.gross1@temple.edu T @By_paigegross

POLLING PEOPLE

Who do you plan on voting for?

GOT SOMETHING TO SAY? Visit temple-news.com/polls to take our online poll, or send your comments to letters@temple-news.com.

Letters to the editor may regard any current issue but must include your full name, position and location. Students can give year and major.

Submissions should be between 200-600 words.

46%

17%

Donald Trump

24%

Bernie Sanders

10%

Hillary Clinton

John Kasich

3%

Ted Cruz *Out of 213 votes since Apr. 17

LETTERS@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

lifestyle

The Owlery The features blog of The Temple News

NONPROFIT GOES NATIONAL

PROFESSOR AWARDED

Anne Keenan created “Reading Recycled,” which brought books to a 14-year-old in Seattle, WA last month.

PAGE 7

Lisa Kay, an assistant art education professor at the Tyler School of Art, won the Peter J. Geisser Special Needs Art Educator of the Year Award.

PAGE 7

TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

PAGE 6

eveNTS

Ceremony honors LGBTQIA grads Lavender Graduation was held in the Student Center Underground on Tuesday.

W

By GRACE SHALLOW | The Temple News

hen Elías Gonzalez first arrived on Temple’s campus, he felt like he lived a double life—one as a person of color and the other as a queer person.

“Learning about culture is cool and it’s fun but there’s still a part missing where my gayness or the history of gay people isn’t raised and I can’t really see it,” he said. “It’s harmful and prevents us from fully expressing ourselves.”

It wasn’t until his sophomore year that Gonzalez, a media studies and production major graduating this week, joined Temple’s Queer People

of Color and was finally able to have conversations about the intersectionality of his identity.

As the current president of QPOC, Gonzalez continues these conversations on Main Campus. He was honored for his advocacy efforts within the LGBTQIA community, along with 10 other graduating seniors, at the Lavender Graduation in the Underground at the Student Center last Tuesday.

The seniors honored were anonymously nominated by a fellow member of the Temple community who recognized the student’s drive to promote inclusivity on campus,

whether through founding organizations or dedicating the rest of their life to that mission.

About 50 people attended the event, which has been hosted for the last three years by the Wellness Resource Center and Temple’s Division of Student Affairs, creating a more close-knit and intimate atmosphere than the official commencement ceremony that will take place on Friday.

“It’s more personal. The people who are awarding you know you and that brings a whole new level of humanity to it,” Alexa Segal, a public

LAVENDER | PAGE 8

student organization

Students tutor Philadelphia children Jose Francisco Calva Moreno and Daniel Gritsyuk founded TU STUDY this semester.

By BROOKE WILLIAMS The Temple News After their own experiences with immigrating to the United States—learning English as a second language along with adjusting to Ameri-

can culture—Jose Francisco Calva Moreno and Daniel Gritsyuk wanted to find a way to help immigrants in situations similar to their own.

This semester, co-presidents Calva Moreno and Gritsyuk officially launched their new student organization Temple University Students Teaching Underrepresented Developing Youth, or TU STUDY. The organization offers academic assistance and mentoring to underrepresented minority students whose first language is not English.

“When I first got to America, I was 15 years old. My English was basic and I had to spend six months in ESL. It was very rough,”

said Calva Moreno, a junior biochemistry major who immigrated from Mexico. “There were a lot of people along the way, especially teachers, and some volunteers that made a difference for me to understand not only the language, but the American culture. It really helped me, so I felt kind of the need to give back what was given to me.”

Gritsyuk, a junior neuroscience major, moved to the United States at a younger age than Calva Moreno, but still understands how tough assimilation could be for immigrants.

“I’m a first-generation immigrant, and my family came from Ukraine,” Gritsyuk said. “I

came here when I was 2 years old, and I also had to get English lessons because I don’t speak any English at home.”

“Many of them come here when they’re much older than I was, so it’s even harder for them,” he added.

TU STUDY provides general tutoring for students between kindergarten and 12th grade.

The organization’s 13 volunteers commit time each week to helping students with their schoolwork, and even help older students with college preparation and applications.

STUDY | PAGE 8

HOJUN YU TTN

TU STUDY founders Jose Francisco Calva Moreno (left), and Daniel Gritsyuk tutor minority students from Philadelphia and surrounding towns. They formed the student organization this semester.

LIFESTYLE@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

LIFESTYLE

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

PAGE 7

PEOPLE YOU SHOULD KNOW

Ambler resident running nonprofit Anne Keenan founded her nonprofit, “Reading Recycled,” in 2009.

By MADISON HALL The Temple News As a mother, Anne Keenan recalls taking her children to the Upper Dublin library every week to pick out a new book.

Today, Keenan thinks children in Philadelphia are growing up without this same opportunity.

“I remember watching the Diane Sawyer documentary [‘A Hidden Amerca, Children of the Mountains’] and seeing a child that grew up in a house without books and I thought, ‘That’s just unacceptable,’” said Keenan, an Ambler, Pennsylvania resident. “I knew I need to do something about it.”

In 2009, Keenan created Reading Recycled, a nonprofit, Philadelphia-based organization that strives to help all children grow up with books in their homes.

Two years later, she began officially collecting and distributing books.

“Children have no one to read them a story, and I’m trying to help children whose parents won’t take them to the library,” she said.

Keenan has collected, cleaned, sorted and boxed up about 11,000 books for children and families since the start of her organization.

“The need for books has been growing,” said Keenan’s husband, David. “Our living room is floor-toceiling books.”

David helps Keenan by delivering books with her to local organizations that then distribute them to children in need.

One organization that Reading Recycled has donated books to is Dignity Housing, a nonprofit that

provides housing and services for low-income families.

“Most of the children that reside at Dignity are being raised by a single mother and many were living in emergency shelters,” said Jessica Blum, developmental coordinator at Dignity Housing.

Every month Keenan delivers personalized birthday bags for children at Dignity Housing. Last year, Keenan delivered 93 total birthday bags to children in need.

“Coming from emergency shelters often means the children had to leave most of their belongings behind, and the personalized Reading Recycled bags mean the world to them,” Blum said.

While Reading Recycled normally operates within the local Philadelphia area, Keenan recently stumbled upon a national story that caught her attention.

“I have a friend that lives in Seattle, and for some reason a news story popped up of a police officer cradling a woman that just found out her daughter had died in an accident,” Keenan said. “My husband is a retired police officer and my son is a police officer, so it drew me in.”

Joseph Sumpter, whose father died in the same accident, became the subject of one of Keenan’s donations.

Sumpter’s father died, just about a month before his 14th birthday.

“I reached out to his mother, Barnes & Noble and the Seattle Seahawks because I knew I wanted to do something special for him,” she said.

Keenan put together a birthday basket to fit Sumpter’s interests. This included Seattle Seahawks memorabilia, a Nook and seven books.

“I was just really proud of that moment, that I could do that for him,” she said. “It brought tears to my eyes.”

This summer Keenan will attend events handing out books on the spot and giving out cards for families to reach out and request books.

HOJUN YU TTN

Anne Keenan said children in Philadelphia often grow up without proper access to reading materials.

need for books “hasThebeen growing.

Our living room is floor-to-ceiling books.

”

David Keenan | husband of Anne Keenan

“I know it’s working and kids like it,” she added. “That’s why I want to start going to more events to see the reaction.”

Recently, Keenan reached out to the Philadelphia Police Department to initiate a collaborative book donation program. So far, she’s received positive reception from four districts.

“I’m really excited to go to a lot of their events that are coming up,”

HOJUN YU TTN

Anne Keenan provides books to children through her project, “Reading Recycled.”

Keenan said. “I often don’t get to see the children, so I’ll do a craft with them.”

“I believe Anne has really found herself and that meaning of being

happy is giving children books,” David Keenan said. * madison.hall@temple.edu

FACULTY

Professor recognized for the arts, special education Lisa Kay received the Peter J. Geisser Special Needs Art Educator of the Year Award.

By TSIPORA HACKER The Temple News Dr. Lisa Kay believes people look at those with special needs as “us and them,” but “we’ve all had experiences with someone who has a disability or disorder,” she said.

The assistant professor in the department of art education and community arts practices earned her BFA in graphic design from the University of Memphis when she went on to earn her master’s degree and doctorate in art therapy.

She said she has a “restless” personality, and needed to “do something new,” which is why she focused on art education for special needs children.

In March, Kay received the Peter J. Geisser Special Needs Art Educator of the Year Award in Chicago, which is given by three organizations: the National Art Education Association, the Council for Exceptional Children and VSA. Receiving the award is meaningful for Kay because it’s “not just recognizing contributions to art education, but to the greater area of special needs and education,” she said.

While researching the intersection of art and education, Kay discovered that art teachers are often expected to do things that Kay did as a “clinician in a hospital,” she said.

“Art teachers are counselors, nurses and educators,” Kay said. “They do so many different things, but don’t get the right education to be able to work with many different kinds of children.”

At a young age, children who are “troubled” often end up in the art classroom, and that can be for a variety of reasons, Kay said. Sometimes administrators feel like there’s no other place to put them, and sometimes they’re there because it’s a “safe place” for them to express themselves, she added.

Art teachers could have many kids with different social, emotional and physical problems all in the same classroom, and they have to personalize lessons for each of them.

“I see art and education and therapy in these bubbles where they all kind of interact,” Kay said.

Every semester, Kay teaches “art for special needs” with student teachers at Temple, she said, and one of the projects she assigns is “visual notes.” These mini works of art examine the relationship between teachers and students with disabilities or special needs.

The assignment helps student teachers realize: there’s really no big difference between the teachers and the students, Kay said.

Her assignments help student teachers build empathy and compassion for the students they teach.

This approach comes from Kay’s art therapy background, because “as therapists, you always have to be thinking about your relationship with your clients or students,” she said.

Leslie Marie Grace, an art teacher who took Kay’s “Intro to Art Therapy” class, said that the class made her become more “reflective” on her current teaching, and more “cognitive” on what her students might be going through.

“We shared a lot of personal stories,” Grace said. “You have to be introspective of yourself, and understand what you’re going through to understand what your clients are going through.”

The most important thing Hailey Braham, a senior art education major, learned from Kay

LIFESTYLE@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

DANIEL SEBASTIAN TTN

Lisa Kay, a professor of special education at Tyler, was awarded for her special education teaching.

is that “everyone handles things differently,” she said.

“As teachers, we have to be the person that those kids can feel comfortable with, and be real people that they can relate to,” Braham added.

One of the most powerful experiences for Kay was working with a young woman with depression at a special education school, whose art pieces were accepted into a traveling art expedition called “Childhood Revealed: Art Expressing Pain, Discovery and Hope” through New York University Child Studies Center, which highlights the mental health needs of students. After the experience, the student told Kay she wanted to be an art therapist.

It taught Kay the importance of “viewing students as artists,” and not so much as hospital

patients, she said.

And often, Kay said, the student teachers fall in love with the students and decide to earn their certifications in special needs education.

This isn’t unusual, she added. Kay has seen many students learn a lot about themselves while working with art, whether it’s creating art or teaching special needs students.

“If you’re going to be working with people, whether as a teacher or therapist, you’ve got to know yourself,” Kay said. * tsipora.hacker@temple.edu

LIFESTYLE

PAGE 8 Continued from page 5

STUDY

In addition to assisting K-12 students, TU STUDY offers ESL training to adults. Its volunteers speak a variety of languages, like Spanish, German, Russian and Hindi. Their main focus at the moment, however, is with the Hispanic community because they make up a majority of students, Calva Moreno said.

Timur Rusanov, a sophomore neuroscience major and TU STUDY volunteer, joined because he felt he could offer the help he gives his parents to other students as well. His family immigrated to the United States from Uzbekistan, and he said his parents sometimes still struggle with speaking

there yet. The group has been limited on time this semester after only starting in February, but hopes to accomplish more next semester after events like Welcome Week bring in more volunteers.

Despite being fairly new, TU STUDY has seen success so far.

Each week, it has had a consistent turnout with students coming to get tutored, Gritsyuk said. An example of this success is Rodolfo, one of their adult ESL students.

Volunteers started out with lessons in Spanish seven weeks ago, and have been speaking to him in English for the past two weeks.

In addition to general academic assistance, the members of TU STUDY want diversity to exist, Calva Moreno said. He feels new immigrants give a special contribution to American culture

kind of the need to give back “I feltwhat was given to me.”

Jose Francisco Calva Moreno |Junior biochemistry major

English.

While it’s beneficial for volunteers to be fluent in a second language, it isn’t required. But each volunteer must have general legal clearance to work with children.

The organization is affiliated with the Queen of the Universe Catholic Parish in Levittown, Pennsylvania, where Calva Moreno is a parishioner and choir member. Its volunteer work originated in schools within the Philadelphia suburbs this past February, like Levittown’s Holy Family Regional Catholic School.

Since then, TU STUDY added one Philadelphia school to its roster, but has not begun its services ADVERTISEMENT

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

through their own culture. Additionally, they want to encourage students to strive toward their fullest academic potential.

“We want to encourage the kids to basically go to college and get a higher education,” Gritsyuk said. “Many of them come from backgrounds where their parents don’t have this kind of experience and don’t know what it’s like.

We’re kind of opening up a door for them to become educated and see the bigger picture, and hopefully contribute in a great way to American society.” * brooke.shelby.williams@temple. edu

KATHRYN STELLATO TTN FILE PHOTO

Jamya Day (left) and Elias Gonzalez are members of Queer People of Color, a group represented at Lavender Graduation.

Continued from page 5

LAVENDER

health major and one of the seniors being honored, said about Lavender Graduation.

Kim Chestnut, director of the Wellness Resource Center, said the stresses of college and the many “measures of performance” students encounter are enhanced when they are trying to negotiate their identity, making this event’s recognition of the LGBTQIA students important.

“For us and for others, it feels like there is a growing importance and culturally we are just getting better about recognizing the inclusion and really making a campus environment feel welcome and inclusive,” Chestnut added.

“A lot of students that I do interact with do feel like if they don’t speak up for some of the issues that affect them then it’s not something Temple is going to do alone,” said Sheena Sood, the gender and sexuality inclusion director at the Wellness Resource Center.

Lavender Graduation featured performances from Singchronize and Pitch, Please, two LGBTQIA advocacy a cappella groups on Main Campus, as well as a speech by Nina Ball, a 2005 film and media arts and African American studies alumna.

Ball, also known as Lyrispect, has become a nation-

ally recognized advocate for issues like race and gender studies. She spoke at the event and provided the seniors with 12 tips on “how to make your life’s work and how to live while doing it.”

“Drink a glass of water to start every day so you know what truth tastes like,” Ball told the event’s attendees.

“Never stop building community,” she added. “You will need to recharge your batteries when the ignorance and prejudice and the heartlessness of the world becomes too much. Build your tribe and create your own safe space.”

Gonzalez, who gave Ball a standing ovation after she finished speaking, already has plans to take what he learned from QPOC and apply it to the real world.

“I actually think it’s more important to have these organizations be outside of college campuses,” Gonzalez said. “It’s just seen as a college thing. After you’re gone, what do you do? I don’t have a QPOC now that I can go to.”

“I believe in bringing queer people of all different backgrounds together to fight the same thing, not just based on queer identity but based on our differences from what is considered normal,” he added. “I’m going to bridge the gap in the outside world, not just on a college campus.” * grace.shallow@temple.edu

PAGE 12

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TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

Class of 2016

Congratulations Cailyn — You Did IT!!!

We are all so extremely proud of you and your accomplishments. You have always stayed the course and followed your dreams. We are excited about your future and to celebrate your successes along side of you.

As you begin the next chapter of your story, we encourage you to give it your all — dare to be all you can be!

Love, Mom, Dad, Ryan, Mom-mom, Nana, and Pop-pop

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

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PAGE 15

‘100 MILES OF UNPAVED ROAD’ Sexual Assault On Campus

READ MORE 100miles.temple-news.com

JENNY KERRIGAN TTN

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT SENIOR HOPES TO COMBINE TALENTS

ALUMNA BLENDS FASHION AND BUSINESS

After graduation, senior advertising major Cole Johnston will blend his skills in comedy and music in Philadelphia as an advertising copyeditor.

PAGE 10

Fox School of Business alumnus Lauren Snyder used her business degree to jump-start a career in fashion, an industry she always said she wanted to work in.

PAGE 11

TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

PAGE 9

KARA MILSTEIN TTN

KARA MILSTEIN TTN

LINH TAHN TTN

LINH TAHN TTN

For seniors, a final song As Temple’s a cappella groups perform their final performances of the academic year, graduating seniors reflect on their experiences and their future.

F

By EMILY THOMAS The Temple News

or senior vocal performance and music education major Evan Weisblatt, a capella group OwlCapella is not just a college music group—it’s his identity, he said.

“I’d say the majority of time I spend with people in OwlCappella is not in rehearsal or at gigs,” Weisblatt said.

“It’s just hanging out and that’s what I love about that group that’s it’s a community, and then the added bonus of singing really just puts the cherry on top.”

Weisblatt hopes to use the skills he’s learned as musical director of OwlCappella, a co-ed a cappella group, in his career.

As both a music education and vocal performance major, Weisblatt believes serving in a leadership position in OwlCappella has helped develop his teaching skills which will translate into his career as a music educator.

“In some ways as music director I’m teaching, but I don’t see it as ‘I’m the teacher you’re the student,’” he said. “I see it as, ‘I have this idea … then you try to find ways to make that idea stick,’ and having practice doing that over almost four years, that’s extremely valuable going into music education.”

The experience Weisblatt gained being a part of OwlCappella will help him post-graduation as he aims to teach high

SONG | PAGE 11

Women’s advertising: diverse bodies necessary Student Nichelle Brunner researched how fashion campaigns affect women.

By MORGAN SLUTZKY The Temple News When Scott Gratson initially approached Nichelle Brunner about applying for the DePauw National Undergraduate Honors Conference for Communication and Theatre, he assumed the senior communication studies major would be submitting her existing research from her time studying abroad in South Africa or India.

Instead, Brunner spent all of November and December developing a new research project on body image, and it paid off— she was accepted to present at the conference.

“It’s what we call a good problem to have, when you have a student with so much research that you’re not sure which proj-

Lane Bryant’s campaign, it “ was a great first step. But it’s not

the end-all-be-all of body image because even their models ... all have flat stomachs, and hourglass figures. People have stomaches, people have cellulite, and they should show that.

”

Nichelle Brunner | graduating communications studies major

ARTSandENTERTAINMENT@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

ect got accepted,” Gratson, the director of the Communications Studies program, said.

In her project “#ImNoAngel: Body Image and Analysis of Social Media Response to Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows and Lane Bryant's Campaign,” Brunner analyzed how women view themselves based on reactions to models for Victoria’s Secret and Lane Bryant. She read through hundreds of tweets and reactions to both campaigns to assess the effects on women’s personal body images.

Brunner concluded that those who saw the Lane Bryant campaign, which had much more variety in body size, viewed themselves more positively than those who based their self assessment on the models in Victoria’s Secret fashion shows and campaigns. She also said clothing lines should try to merge body representation with racial representation.

“Lane Bryant’s campaign, it was a great first step, but it’s not the end-all-be-all of body image because even their models

BRUNNER | PAGE 11

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

PAGE 10

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

A pilgrimage: Through comedy, student exploring the city’s finds his career path A graduating senior participated in comedy groups while studying at Temple.

By ERIN BLEWETT The Temple News When Cole Johnston was a freshman, he found his passion for improvised comedy while watching a muted episode of TUTV in the Annenberg Atrium.

“There was this guy, Rob Gentile, who was one of the head writers for Temple Smash at the time,” said Johnston, a senior advertising major. “We were sitting in the Annenberg Atrium, and TUTV was playing with no sound. Rob and I started to say what we thought they should say, joking around as those characters.”

Johnston has been an active performer for Temple Smash, the university’s student-produced comedy show, for four years. He is also a regular performer at Philly Improv Theater, located in the Adrienne Theater at 2030 Sansom St. Johnston participated as one of nine members of “Hoffman,” a house team that performs on a weekly basis at PHIT, but it was Temple Smash that piqued his interest in improv.

“I’ve always done that kind of stuff where I try to guess what people would say in a situation, but [Gentile] was like, ‘That is improv,’” Johnston said. “Doing that is basically what [improv] is, but you’re just imagining those pictures instead.”

Johnston said prior to attending Temple, he didn’t have “an outlet” to explore his interest in comedy-based performing. Johnston describes his involvement in both Temple and Philadelphia’s comedy communities as “consistently rewarding and always present.”

In addition to his active role in the Philadelphia comedy scene, Johnston is currently a guitarist and vocalist for his band Best Cheapest, one of three bands he has been a part of throughout the past four years.

He performs at least twice a semester in live shows for Temple Smash, and every weekend for PHIT. Johnston said his roles as a student, comedian and musician at Temple have all contributed to shaping him as a person.

“I use each of them to inspire the other ones,” he added.

The drummer of his current

band, junior philosophy major Shay Pilot, said Johnston is “very similar to a lot of people in the [comedy] crowd, but at the same time very different.”

“A lot of people make dad jokes, like jokes that dads would find funny, but [Johnston] seems to make dad jokes, like jokes about dads,” Pilot said.

Johnston said “comedy has made it easier to talk to people,” which has helped him excel in his desired field of copy editing. He recently completed an internship at LevLane, a fullservice advertising agency located at 100 Penn Square East.

Pilot said Johnston is a “very clear creative mind” and a talented musician.

During his time at Temple, Johnston has never changed his major from advertising, but he just recently discovered his penchant for copy editing.

“My experience in improv has

really helped me with copy editing skills,” he said. “It’s always about how other people are feeling and playing characters. That’s my spin on my cover letter. I play all these characters I speak as other people so I use that same approach in advertising. It’s easier to talk to other people when you’re more aware of how they’re perceiving things.”

After graduation this spring, Johnston plans to stay in Philadelphia. The conclusion of his time at Temple has lead to his realization that “there’s no good in worrying” about his transition into the “adult” world.

“I’ll be OK, I was worried about it for a while, but I’m not dying I’m just graduating,” Johnston said. “I don’t have to transform. I don’t have to quickly put on this adult armor and hop into battle. I’m just going to sneak into it and see what happens.” * erin.blewett@temple.edu

PATRICK CLARK TTN

Cole Johnston is graduating this year with a degree in advertising.

borders

Four artists challenged their own ideas of the city by immersing themselves into its overlooked nooks and crannies.

By CHELSEA ZACKEY The Temple News Artists Jacques-Jean “JJ” Tiziou, Ann de Forest, Sam Wend and Adrienne Mackey all could have “just sat in the studio and drawn” for the weeklong project they wanted to complete together, said photographer Tiziou.

Instead, they ended up walking 103 miles—the entire border of Philadelphia.

“From the outset, we were all interested in engaging with the city in some way,” said fiction writer de Forest. “JJ and I had also talked about processions and pilgrimages early on—what does it mean to move through a space, even a familiar space, with a kind of ritual intention?”

As themes like neighborhoods, borders and boundaries coupled with the idea of pilgrimage and procession were strewn around the room, Tiziou decided to type into Google, “What’s the border of Philadelphia?” From the report of a cyclist who has biked the border before, Tiziou found it was a 65mile trek, which they later discovered was misleading, he said.

From a collection of topics each artist wanted to touch upon paired with a simple Google search, an idea was born: the group would embark on a walk around the border of Philadelphia. And they did.

At the Philadelphia History Museum on April 27, the artists shared their “findings” from the excursion. The space the artists used to present featured a large map of Philadelphia, which they used in “interactive storytelling” about experiencing the world through walking and “living in present-tense.”

“We’ll be taking people through a pilgrimage journey through the city,” Tiziou says.

“I think this project is part of a long series of discoveries in my artwork,” Mackey added. “It solidifies a sense that what creative works can offer to contemporary audiences is more than entertainment. It’s a way to frame the way we see the world in a new way.”

The project was completed with support by Swim Pony Performing Arts, a platform founded in 2009 by Mackey for artists to meet and collaborate with each other. The artists met through Cross Pollination, Swim Pony’s interdisciplinary residency program that allows Philadelphia artists to learn about each other’s mediums and incorporate them into their own work.

“At the time, it seemed doable,” Tiziou said. “I ended up saying to the group, ‘Hey guys, we can do this. How about we go walk around the city?’

And everyone immediately said, ‘Yes, that’s it.’ And there was no question.”

During the course of the week, the artists trekked around the border of Philadelphia in segments, beginning their walk at dawn each day and ending the evening at public transit stops along the border. Using the stops as markers, the group would pick up where they left off the next morning.

“We were interested in questions of what urban identity was,” Mackey said. “We wanted to see how perspectives shifted when you see something from the margins instead of its center. We were trying to disrupt our own instincts about places we claim to know.”

“Part of the impulse to just walk and notice was a way to unseat the idea that there are ‘better’ parts of the city,” she added. “As we walked we would occasionally see the skyline in the distance and a few times, someone would say, ‘There’s the city.’ Of course, we’d realized that the ground under our feet was equally much Philly as the Comcast building.”

For Wend, the statement of the project is that they know less about the condition of Philadelphia than they thought they did. Wend has noticed that many Philadelphia residents are stuck in structured patterns of where they go in the city, which often includes South Philly, University City and Fishtown.

“We wanted to expand our horizons about the scope of Philadelphia and the communities where people live their whole lives that we never even think about,” Wend said. * chelsea.zackey@temple.edu

For alumna, an unexpected direction in theater After earning a degree in Spanish, Sara Garonzik took a chance in a career in the arts.

By KATELYN EVANS The Temple News After graduating with a degree in Spanish, Sara Garonzik never imagined she would become a leader in the Philadelphia theater community.

“When I first started, it was extremely rare for a woman to be directing,” Garonzik said.

“So I was unaware that there were even other opportunities.”

Like many graduates, Garonzik believed her career would be steered by her college degree. After graduating from Temple in 1972, she immediately enrolled in grad school at the University of Pennsylvania to attain a teaching certificate. But a chance encounter led her down a career path she hadn’t previously considered.

“There was a small up-and-coming theater group that was looking for new people,” Garonzik said. “They were willing to audition people who never acted before. It was a really horrible audition, but they accepted me any-

way. And I was hooked.”

Despite the time she spent earning a graduate degree, Garonzik took a chance and dropped out of grad school. She realized teaching Spanish wasn’t what she wanted to do with her life.

Instead, Garonzik took a day job to support her work with the theater company at night.

“We were so small,” she said. “Theater in Philadelphia was different then. We would selfproduce shows at local storefronts.”

Garonzik changed her focus from acting to

schools that teach you all about running nonprofits. So, you can study all that stuff that I learned on the fly all those years ago.”

“Philadelphia Theatre Company became my graduate school,” she added.

Sharon Kling, the manager of board and administrative services at Philadelphia Theatre Company, has worked with Garonzik for more than 12 years, and said it’s “quite clear” Garonzik is “driven by a passion for great theater.”

“She’s very much a hands-on producer,

Theater in Philadelphia was different then. We “would self-produce shows at local storefronts.”

Sara Garonzik | Philadelphia Theater Company executive producing director

directing and producing. When a close friend told her about an open assistant's job at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, she jumped at the chance to prove herself.

“I think it would be harder today if I were that age then, knocking on doors of theater companies,” she said. “Plus, now there are grad

involved in every aspect of what the company puts forth to bring about the best possible productions,” Kling added.

In spite of not having much theater experience or an education in the arts, Garonzik rose in the ranks at the company. She began directing and producing shows, learning how to bud-

get and finance projects and eventually became the leader of the company.

“You eventually stick with something and you pick up a lot of skills along the way,” she said. “I was lucky because I had this opportunity. I jumped in with this company in the beginning right during a transitional period. Right when they were looking for bright new people coming in.”

Garonzik was able to grow with the company, spending most of her life building a legacy that would become nationally acclaimed.

The executive managing director of the company, Priscilla Luce, has known Garonzik since first serving on the board of directors in 2007. Together, they have dedicated their time toward leading the theater into the next phase of the company’s growth.

“Her exceptional artistic taste and the warm relationships she established and maintains with playwrights, actors and theatrical designers across the country have helped to make PTC and Philadelphia a desirable home for them, which in turn has helped to build Philadelphia into the great theater town it is today,” Luce said. * katelyn.evans@temple.edu

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TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

PAGE 11

Business alumna takes on fashion industry Lauren Snyder combined her business degrees with her interest in fashion.

By ERIN MORAN The Temple News Most of the students in 2015 alumna Lauren Snyder’s management information systems classes had no interest in the fashion industry, but the MIS and marketing double major was determined to combine her interests.

“She used to drive me crazy,” said assistant professor in the MIS department Martin Doyle, who always tried to push Snyder to take IT internships. “But she’s been able to mix together her interest in fashion and her skills from the MIS department, she’s going to be a rockstar.”

Today, Snyder is living in New York City and working as a public relations assistant for American Eagle Outfitters and Aerie.

Snyder said she always knew she wanted to work in the fashion industry, but found few resources to help start her career. Instead of becoming discouraged, Snyder founded the Fashion & Business Club, an organization that connects Temple students with fashion industry professionals.

“When I was looking for internships on Temple’s website, I was getting discouraged by the fact that there weren’t a lot of fashion ones,

Continued from page 9

SONG

-school or elementary-level music education.

“I won’t be teaching my peers when I go out into the field,” he said. “But at times it takes more skill to work with your peers and implement musical concepts in a supportive and non-condescending way than when you’re with a group of 8 year olds.”

For many students involved in a cappella on campus, the groups serve not only as musical platforms but also as support systems that create lasting friendships. Seniors Danielle Costanzo and Abby Schmidt recalled their final performance with the allfemale a cappella group, Singchronize, as a night of love and emotion.

“The group really supported us in the way they sent us off,” Costanzo said. “We each had a senior song and they sang it with love.”

Costanzo and Schmidt, both strategic communications majors, joined Singchronize freshman year as a way to get involved with the school’s music community as nonmusic major students. Moving into leadership positions after freshman year, Costanzo became the group’s president while Schmidt served as vice president and social media chair for three semesters.

“I found that Singchronize was my music outlet in college,” Schmidt said. “It’s great that it’s student-run and you’re actually singing songs that you like, not just classical music … it’s your choice and I think that’s one of the most valuable things about it.”

Costanzo said despite the school’s wellrecognized music programs and groups, there are few options for non-music majors interested in singing contemporary music.

“I wasn’t interested in a cappella necessarily,” she said. “But it’s really the only vocal student-run thing that you can join, so it

even at small places, and none of my classmates were interested in fashion,” she said. “I felt like there was a need for a fashion community at Temple and I knew it had to be out there.”

Snyder started Fashion & Business during her sophomore year in Fall 2012. Since then, the club has hosted regular speaker sessions and events with fashion industry professionals from companies like Lilly Pulitzer, J. Crew and CollegeFashionista. Regular events with pro-

terview, the first thing they ask me about is Fashion & Business. They know it takes a very motivated and special kind of person to be on the executive board of an organization.”

In addition to her involvement with Fashion & Business, Snyder took an internship every summer during her college career and took advantage of networking events.

“Within the business school, I felt like I really hit the ground running the first year to

used to drive me crazy. But she’s been able to “mixShetogether her interest in fashion and her skills from the MIS department.”

Martin Doyle | assistant MIS professor

fessionals give members a chance to network, learn more about the fashion industry and meet other students with similar career goals.

Conor Sheehan, graduating senior and media studies & production and public relations major and current president of Fashion & Business, said the club continues to help aspiring fashion professionals stand out in the industry, just like Snyder. “[The club is] really an amazing way to kind of work your way into the industry,” he said. “But also every time I’ve gone to an in-

was kind of luck that I loved it.”

Singchronize is one of the a cappella groups on Temple’s campus, but the only one with all female vocalists, which comes with both advantages and challenges.

“Being in a group of 16 women is, as you can imagine, challenging and so rewarding,” Costanzo said. “But we have those moments of just total sisterhood and total support.”

Both graduates aim to stay connected with Singchronize even after graduation, through the group’s alumni network that organizes events to bring together current members and alumni. Singchronize alumni ran the group’s raffle booths this year, which “really brought us all together,” said Costanzo.

Weisblatt also sees a growth in his ensemble’s alumni network, a smaller part of the group as OwlCappella was started in 2011.

“We have made a huge effort to create the building blocks for an alumni network,” he said.

The group dedicated an office position solely for alumni connections, called the officer for Owlumni Relations, who comes up with ways to keep the alumni involved with the group, “it’s a small but strong alumni network,” Weisblatt said.

For Schmidt, being a part of Singchronize taught her more about herself than anything else during her college career.

“It taught me a lot in terms of teamwork and learning from other people who have completely different views on life than you, and I think that’s what college hands to you without telling you,” she added. “You can have 14 people from completely different lifestyles come into a room for one sole purpose of making music. I think that’s just what we all value at the end of the day.”

start networking and meeting people,” she said.

“Even though it wasn’t fashion-focused, it was a great experience to just start meeting people.”

Snyder said she talked to as many professionals as she could, went to informational interviews and asked a lot of questions in order to get to her desired field. She landed her first marketing internship with Burlington Stores Inc. through the Fox School of Business.

“That was my first jump into the world and really helped my resume and got me comfortable within the corporate environment,” she

said.

Snyder was also a style intern with CollegeFashionista for three years, which led her to her current position with American Eagle. CollegeFashionista, a fashion website that showcases campus style, relies on college contributors to photograph and write about fashion on campus.

Snyder said she met CollegeFashionista founder Amy Levin at an event and they kept in touch, so when American Eagle approached Levin looking for a new public relations assistant, she thought of Snyder right away.

“I never had experience in public relations before but I was excited about the new opportunity and after the interviews I felt like it was a great fit,” Snyder said.

Although Snyder said she experienced a “culture shock” when she moved to New York, she enjoys working with magazines and influencers for American Eagle.

She said working for a company that emphasizes body positivity is one of the most rewarding parts of her work. She also said she loves to see samples she sent to magazines and celebrities end up in print.

“It’s a lot of hard work,” she said. “It’s not glamorous, it’s a lot of time spent in the closet working on samples, but its definitely a fun, collaborative environment to be working in so I feel very lucky.” * erin.moran@temple.edu

KARA MILSTEIN TTN

Abby Schmidt performs with Singchronize, an all-female a capella group.

* emily.ralsten.thomas@temple.ed

Continued from page 9

BRUNNER

… all have flat stomachs, and hourglass figures,” Brunner said.

“People have stomachs, people have cellulite, and they should show that.”

The drive to study body image comes from Brunner’s own experiences, the student said.

“Because it’s my life,” Brunner said. “I’m definitely not a size two. I love my body, but I don’t see my body being represented when I look at media, especially being a black woman at that. … So I don’t really see the models who look like me.”

Brunner also recently presented at the Temple Undergraduate Research Forum and Creative Works Symposium, or TURFCreWS, on April 14. TURF-CreWS is an annual event at Temple where undergraduate students can present their research to fellow students, faculty, friends and family.

Brunner said she sees herself as an activist and an advocate, and her desire to pursue activism and nonprofit work was cemented after her time studying abroad in South Africa, where she researched rape culture and talked to women about their experiences.

She decided she wanted to change the world, or at least make a difference to one person or a community, which Brunner

LINH THAN TTN

OwlCapella completes its final performance of the academic year.

I love my body, but I don’t see “ my body being represented when I look at media.”

Nichelle Brunner | senior communications major

said is why she’s on the policy regulation and advocacy track within the communication studies department.

This desire to make change also explains Brunner’s favorite part about the entire experience with “#ImNoAngel”: the responses she’s been receiving to her work.

“A lot of people are like, ‘Oh, I never thought about these campaigns,’ like people blindly see advertisements and they don’t really think about it,” Brunner said. “So when people say, ‘Oh, I never thought about it this way,’ or, ‘You gave me a new way to think,’ it’s super rewarding.”

After graduation, Brunner will participate in an AmeriCorps fellowship in Minnesota and doing nonprofit work. She hopes to work with kids or with underrepresented communities.

Co-president of Lambda Pi Eta, a communications hon-

ors society where Brunner serves as president, and sophomore communication studies major Tyler DeVice is close friends with Brunner. He said it was interesting to see her present at TURFCreWS not only because of her research portion, but also to hear about her personal experiences with media and body image.

“Nichelle has always been one to promote positive body image, and everyone is beautiful in their own way,” DeVice said.

“She said growing up, she never saw a plus-sized black woman as a model. Now she’s ... talking about those experiences and exposing how it’s not OK to promote [through ad campaigns] that everyone has to be skinny and white.”

He also said working alongside Brunner in Lambda Pi Eta has been rewarding, and that she has taught him a lot about leadership and ambition.

“I want to say that I did everything while I was at Temple, and Nichelle did do everything” DeVice said. “She studied abroad twice, won all these awards, did all these things. The girl is somebody, and I want to be somebody, too.” * morgan.slutzky@temple.edu Editor’s note: Tyler DeVice previously contributed to The Temple News’ sports section. He played no role in the editing process of this story.

SPECIAL PROJECT

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

PAGE A1

‘100 MILES OF UNPAVED ROAD’ SEXUAL ASSAULT ON CAMPUS

As an answer to the questions on campus about the processes regarding sexual assault, The Temple News’ editorial staff explores the “unpaved road” that is this issue—one that is steadily becoming addressed, but still requires more attention.

JENNY KERRIGAN TTN

Content warning — This PROJECT contains graphic content that may be triggering for some readers.

O

n May 1, 2014, the list of 55 was released. The list is extensive, with no room for interpretation. Temple was among the original schools listed.

The U.S. Department of Education released the names of 55 universities under investigation for possible violations of federal law over the handling of sexual violence and misconduct, and Temple was one of them. The list has since grown to include 175 institutions.

The university’s inclusion on this list had to come from complaints— complaints that tipped the proverbial dominoes that would topple Temple onto the list of non-compliant schools when it came to sexual violence. Under federal law, this includes physical sexual acts perpetrated against a person’s will or where a person is incapable of giving consent. This means rape, sexual assault, sexual battery, sexual abuse and sexual coercion.

Today, there are three known Title IX complaints filed against Temple.

This issue is widespread among universities across the country, showing no trends to why one school is on the list, and another is not. The students we’ve spoken to and the Climate Survey from the president’s task force showed us a majority of students aren’t familiar with Temple’s formal reporting procedures. There’s uncertainty

about Temple’s resources and how to use them. This project is a comprehensive answer to those questions.

Staff members and reporters interviewed students, faculty, staff, nurses, survivor advocates, survivors, administrators and Temple Police to try to understand the process of reporting and how survivors can seek help. In more than a dozen interviews, countless hours with survivors and nearly five months of reporting, we now understand how the university addresses sexual violence, specifically sexual assault, among students, faculty and staff.

“100 miles of unpaved road” was a phrase told to us from one of those people, a survivor advocate. She described a survivor she met years ago as such, as a woman who had endured something traumatic, with a road to recovery ahead of her. But this “unpaved road” can mean much more than just how a survivor feels in the moments following an assault. This project outlines the system in place for survivors to get support—a road that is progressing, with work that still needs to be done.

In that five months of reporting, The Temple News found: 1. There are currently three Title IX complaints filed through the Office for Civil Rights that are in ongoing in-

vestigations. One of these complaints was given to The Temple News from the complainant.

2. The university has the proper institutions in place to support survivors and provide education to students about consent, sexual misconduct and sexual violence, however many—if not all—of these offices are underfunded and understaffed, administrators say.

3. During the 2014-15 academic year, 20 students were expelled from the university. Of those, five were expelled because of violations of Temple’s sexual assault policy. In 2014, there were nine reported cases of sexual assault.

The system in place, described by multiple administrators as “points of entry” into the system of reporting and support, can be confusing for someone in crisis, survivors say; some have suggested a more centralized approach.

We have heard the stories of four survivors, whose experiences will appear throughout this project. Their stories are powerful—but they’re not the only ones. Their voices speak to their own experiences, and not the experiences of all survivors at Temple, or on any university campus. Read them on page A6.

Glossary

As defined by the Clery Act’s National Incident-Based Reporting System from the Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

Sex offenses are separated into two categories: forcible and

non-forcible. Forcible is defined as any sexual act directed against another person, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly or against the person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent.

There are four types of Forcible Sex Offenses:

Rape is the carnal knowledge of a person, forcibly and/or against

that person's will; or not forcibly or against the person's will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/ her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity (or because of his/her youth). This offense includes the forcible rape of both males and females.

The definition of rape was updated in the Uniform Crime Reporting Program in 2013 by the FBI as the penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.

Forcible Sodomy is oral or anal sexual intercourse with

another person, forcibly and/or against that person's will; or not forcibly or against the person's will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her youth or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity.

Sexual Assault With an Object is the use of an object or

ASSAULT | A2

This project outlines the system in place for survivors to get support—a road that is progressing, with work that still needs to be done.

instrument to unlawfully penetrate, however slightly, the genital or anal opening of the body of another person, forcibly and/or against that person's will; or not forcibly or against the person's will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her youth or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity. An object or instrument is anything used by the offender other than the offender’s genitalia. Examples are a finger, bottle, handgun, stick, etc.

Forcible Fondling is the touching of the private body parts of

another person for the purpose of sexual gratification, forcibly and/or against that person's will; or, not forcibly or against the person's will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her youth or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental incapacity.

Source: The Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting from the U.S. Department of Education, February 2011 http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/handbook.pdf

MARGO REED TTN

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TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

Continued from page a1

ASSAULT

THE CURRENT STATE Last year, 3.7 percent of female respondents on Main Campus reported an incident of sexual penetration—as defined by the Wellness Resource Center as vaginal, oral or anal penetration—without their consent.

No male respondents reported an incident in 2015.

Nearly 44 percent of students who have experienced sexual assault said reporting was not helpful, according to a Climate Survey conducted by the Presidential Committee on Sexual Misconduct.

Nationally, 27 percent of college women have reported an experience of some form of unwanted sexual contact, and almost 38 percent of female rape survivors were first raped between the ages of 18 to 24, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

A spokesman for OCR provided a statement saying the office’s policy was not to discuss details of complaints. When an investigation concludes, it will be disclosed whether or not OCR found Title IX violations at the university—or if there was insufficient evidence, the statement said.

Sandra Foehl, the university’s Title IX coordinator, said she could not recall details of specific complaints. At least one of the complaints, she said, involved an after-the-fact dispute over whether or not sex was consensual.

The OCR requested copies of years of university records to review Temple’s handling of sexual misconduct, Foehl added.

As part of the investigation, OCR visited Main Campus in 2014 to conduct focus groups to ask if students were aware of the sexual harassment and misconduct policies and how to report misconduct.

Foehl, who sat in on the meetings to present some of the policies, said answers “ran the gamut,” ranging from “people who had no notion that we have any of these things, to very informed individuals.”

Harmony-Jazmyne Rodriguez arrived on Main Campus as a liberal arts student in 2013. She filed a Title IX complaint that year, in which she alleges that the university mishandled her sexual assault case.

Rodriguez recounted parts of her more-than-80-page complaint to The Temple News last month as she did late in 2014.

She said administrators did not accommodate her request to change housing to get away from the dorm room in which she was raped in August 2013, and further alleged that the Wellness Resource Center declined to assist her because she is a trans woman.

“I am told that they help students in need. But they didn’t help me,” Rodriguez said. Her complaint includes emails from WRC staff asking her to return to their office and encouraging her to involve Campus Safety in her efforts to report.

DONNA FANELLE TTN

In her complaint, Rodriguez faults a Student Conduct administrator for disclosing details of her rape to The Temple News that blamed alcohol as a cause of the assault. She said opinion pieces focusing on drinking as a cause of sexual assault made her uncomfortable.

“It was excruciating to have people focus on drinking as a cause of rape rather than rapists,” she wrote.

The complaint is still being investigated.

The most recent reports of sexual assault on or near Main Campus include an incident in late September, when a 20-year-old female student reported to Philadelphia Police she had been sexually assaulted by someone she did not know on Carlisle Street near Jefferson.

Temple, SEPTA and Philadelphia police all collaborated in the investigation to find the suspect, which led to the arrest of Shakree Bennett in mid-October.

More recently, an 18-yearold female student reported a Feb. 13 sexual assault late in March. The student told Temple Police she was inappropriately touched by a 22-year-old male unaffiliated with the university.

The student did not want further involvement with Temple Police, said Executive Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone.

In 2014, there were seven reports of forcible rape on-campus, and two that occurred off campus.

In September 2014, President Theobald tasked Laura Siminoff, dean of the College of Public Health, with organizing a task force to investigate sexual misconduct on campus and provide recommendations.

The task force included faculty, students and administrators who met mostly during September 2014 through February 2015, Siminoff said. The group reviewed the university’s current resources and policies and surveyed students’ percep-

tions of leadership, policies and reporting related to sexual misconduct, according to the official report which was released in April of last year. It also compared best practices around the country and gave administration an idea about what students saw as a problem.

Of 3,763 student survey responses, 58.3 percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed they knew where to get help if they experienced sexual misconduct and 37.6 percent said they agreed or strongly agreed that they knew Temple’s formal procedures to address complaints of sexual misconduct.

“A lot of different students are unclear about what sexual misconduct is and what rises to it,” Siminoff said.

The task force was a “onetime thing,” she said, adding that it will be up to Theobald if he wants it to reconvene.

In August 2015, President Theobald approved four of the task force’s recommendations: 1.The creation of a new website focusing on sexual misconduct 2. Requiring all students to participate in mandatory, annual online sexual-misconduct awareness training 3. Updating the Student Conduct Code 4. Improving the infrastructure of resources and services allocated toward the issue “Think About It: Part 3,” online training implemented by the Dean of Students, was a starting point for education about sexual misconduct, Siminoff said.

“It can’t hurt, it can only raise awareness,” she said. “It’s not the only solution, but we have to have good education in order to make any real changes. … Big schools are more challenged with how to do this with everybody.”

Dean of Students Stephanie Ives said the decision to use “Think About It: Part 3” was because it “seemed consistent” with the other two installments

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of the training. “Think About It: Part 1” is sent to incoming students in August, before arriving on campus. “Think About It: Part 2” is a follow-up for freshmen, given in October.

Ives said some students were “really angry” about the mandated training. Foehl, who oversees training for faculty and staff, said there was pushback as well.

“No, I do not think it’s enough,” Ives said. “I think it’s one way to ensure that all of these students in so many different locations get consistent educations.”

THE FIGHT TO INFORM It is nearly pitch black in the basement. The air is stale and the floor is sticky. People pack in tight, elbows folded against sides to keep cups from sloshing over. The music throbs like an irregular heartbeat. Using the backlight on their phones, boys scrutinize the bodies of other party-goers in the darkness.

It’s a familiar scene, played out a thousand times across Temple’s campus and surrounding areas. The address changes, but everything else—the sickly sweet jungle juice, the wafting smell of marijuana, the roaming hands, the lingering eyes, the unspoken expectations—stays the same.

In 2015, 32.9 percent of respondents to the Wellness Resource Center’s Annual Report said they consumed five to six drinks or more the last time they “partied/socialized.” And 30.1 percent of those students said they “pace drinks at 1 or fewer per hour.”

“Some of these behaviors are—not some, most—are influenced by drugs and alcohol,” said Kevin Williams, the director of residential life on the nature of sexual assault.

Every assault, however, is different. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 75 percent of self-identified sexual assault perpetrators reported using alcohol before the incident. The report also includes the addition of alcohol into sexual assaults are “much more likely to include attempted or completed rape than incidents without alcohol.”

For Williams and the assistant director of residential life, Shondrika Merritt, sexual assault too often occurs in tangent with parties, drinking and alcohol in relation to residential life. Williams and Merritt, as well as the rest of the residence life team, often partner up with the Wellness Resource Center and Campus Safety to promote education and sexual well-being among students who live in these facilities.

According to the Climate Survey conducted by the president’s task force, which was released last April, 41.7 percent

of respondents indicated they received training on policies and procedures concerning sexual misconduct. The rest of the respondents said they had not received training and or were “unsure.” But all freshmen receive training at orientation and online before arriving. The numbers were nearly the same regarding prevention training.

“How do we help them become aware of themselves, how they interact with others and the responsibility to be part of a larger community?” Williams said. “A lot of that is about self-responsibility, knowing what’s acceptable, what’s not acceptable, teaching someone who maybe didn’t have this in high school what are expectations here at Temple.”

But aside from these programs, Williams said the majority of prevention education takes place in orientation and at residence halls.

“Our programs build from where orientation leaves them off,” Williams said.

As a survivor, Caroline said she thinks incoming students need more direct information about consent and the risks of binge drinking.

“There needs to be a better education, especially to incoming freshman,” Caroline said.

“We’re told that it’s wrong, and then you go to police, and it’s not wrong. … It’s not what I always thought it was.”

Before taking on their roles during the school year, resident assistants undergo training sessions on handling sexual misconduct in August, which prepares them for counseling and communication with survivors.

Instruction on how to properly report an assault is also delivered through the Wellness Resource Center, which educates RAs on the different forms of sexual assault and how to spot potential instances.

Winter training is also mandatory for RAs, as are Wednesday staff meetings and bi-weekly, one-on-one sessions to address flaws and collect feedback on how each floor is handling issues.

In recent years, Williams said, RA training for handling assault has been tweaked to be more “intentional,” emphasizing communication with the survivor about what steps will be taken once an assault is reported. This strategy, Williams said, reduces anxiety for the RA and creates a more personal and less intimidating atmosphere for the survivor.

“You’re going to go to who’s familiar,” Williams said of many survivors’ crisis management. “You see the RA every day, you have had maybe some intimate personal conversations, or you may have not, but at least you know they are there for you when these things come up.”

But even with the education, training and expectations set by orientation and residence

life, things can—and do—go wrong. Tara Faik, campaign manager for Take TU, which ran in the 2016 Temple Student Government elections, said cases go unreported because many people don’t recognize assault when it comes from someone they know.

Eight out of 10 survivors of rape were intimate partners with the person who sexually assaulted them, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

“There are huge cultural and systematic ways in which the mistreatment of women is supported,” the Wellness Resource Center’s director Kim Chestnut said.

“To truly root out some of the things that perpetuate assault means to address issues of sexism, and misogyny, and objectification of women, and all people because it’s not only women who are assaulted and that we have to work on the way in which we culturally socialize our entire population about the way we value other humans, and particularly the way we value women.”

Chestnut said there may be a perpetuation of “rape culture” among the different communities across campus that students may be involved in.

“How do the communities we have on campus perpetuate those things?” Chestnut said.

“Like very commonly Greeks and athletics where there is a lot more opportunity to have a patriarchal structure that just has some different historical messaging about the ways that you can do these things.”

As the president of the Temple University Greek Association, Daniel Roper understands the “black eye” pertaining to the association between Greek life and sexual assault, and said it is an issue that cannot be ignored.

“It’s something that we always address and know that there’s a stigma out there with Greek life that we are trying to say, ‘This isn’t us. This isn’t who we are,’” said Roper, who sends information on sexual assault and its misconceptions out to Temple’s 28 fraternities and sororities to combat the issue.

Rather than formal training, which he said would be difficult to accomplish “because every case is different,” Roper favors bringing in guest speakers and partnering with campus organizations to help fraternity and sorority members learn about the topic.

One requirement for students joining a fraternity or sorority is attending a New Member 101 session— a “crash course” on Greek life for new members, Roper said. Sexual assault isn’t the focus, but is brought up during the orientations.

Some of the responsibilities for education fall on individual sororities and fraternities. The groups often send representa-

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TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 tives to national conventions, where they can discuss how chapters on other campuses are tackling the issue.

“I’ve heard people say, ‘Well, obviously rape is bad, I’m not one of those people,’” Isabella Jayme, former candidate for Take TU’s vice president of external affairs said.

“It’s kind of like—‘I wouldn’t do it, so there’s no problem.’”

This issue, however, is still prevalent on Temple’s campus and nationwide. For Williams, that became clear with the Title IX investigation, which put the university on the map—and not in the most flattering way.

All seven reported incidents of rape from 2014 occurred in residence halls, according to Temple Police.

“People [from OCR] came in,” Williams said. “They talked to us. We were investigated. …

A lot changed and a lot changed fast, and I think for the better. It said, ‘Universities, you’ve got to wake up.’ We want to make sure we’re putting students first and providing the best support we can.”

THE SYSTEM At Temple, resources are spread out across Main Campus, disjointed and independent.

The system has several different offices that can help start the process of support, and can serve specific, immediate needs for a survivor.

The Temple News found that if a student is assaulted on, near or off Main Campus, there are several resources or “points of entry,” including, but not limited to: 1. Special Services Coordinator Donna Gray 2. Tuttleman Counseling Services 3. Women Organized Against Rape 4. Campus Safety Services 5. Special Victims Unit and Philadelphia Sexual Assault Response Center 6. The Wellness Resource Center 7. Student Health Services Each office can start the process of reporting or seeking professional support. Instead of one center for psychological, medical, emotional and criminal support, it’s designed to allow survivors to choose where they are most comfortable seeking help first.

The Climate Survey from the president’s task force said more than half of the respondents reported they knew where to get help for sexual misconduct on campus, but less than half agreed or strongly agreed that they knew Temple’s formal reporting procedures.

Valerie Harrison, the new adviser to the president for compliance issues is expected to streamline the process by “centralizing” the university’s efforts to provide support.

“Victims of sexual assault are not the same and don’t respond the same,” Harrison said.

“So for some, they may not be comfortable reporting immediately, and we have to recognize that and accommodate that.” “[We have to] allow them to be who they are and to navigate the process at their own pace in their own way,” she added. “We’re just there to support them.”

“Temple should make it really clear what avenues you can take,” Taylor Davis, S.A.F.E.’s vice president, said. “Whether you choose to first call the police and file a report right away, or if you want to go to the hospital and start a medical exam, or if you really just want some crisis counseling.”

particularly sunny day, it’s almost impossible to see who’s inside.

“We try to be very intentional in terms of creating a good atmosphere so people feel they can come in and they can talk,” Gray said. “It’s nice because it allows for openness, without like, ‘Oh my god everyone knows I’m in here.’”

Over the course of a semester Donna Gray said she has about 30 conversations with individuals on campus concerning sexual assault. Her role allows her to be a “liaison” between survivors looking for resources, education, to start the criminal process with police or file a report with Student Conduct.

Charlie Leone said Gray is “on the front lines” and helping survivors “navigate” through Temple’s system. Her main role is to connect survivors to other resources, on or off Main Campus. With the priority of explaining a survivor’s options, Gray said she has gone to court with a survivor, attended Student Conduct hearings and regularly helps survivors file reports with Temple Police.

In terms of reporting a case to police in order to pursue the case criminally, Gray said often it can take years to resolve, meaning an underclassman could file a case that may not be resolved by their senior year.

Caroline said she wouldn’t have come back to Temple to finish her degree in psychology if it weren’t for Gray and her support.

“Mainly just knowing that there’s somebody there that understands and knows everything and knowing that I can text her or call her if I need to come see her anytime,” Caroline said. “She saved me here.

I really don’t think I could have

PAGE A3 ing like, believe it or not, the system has failed in some way.”

A Confidential Office

No, I do not think [online “ training] is enough. ... I think

it’s one way to ensure that all of these students in so many different locations get consistent educations.

”

Stephanie Ives | Dean of Students

finished at Temple otherwise.”

“I think the scariest thing is, you don’t want people to feel like they’re alone in it,” Gray said. “You don’t want somebody to feel like, ‘I went through all of that, and what for?’”

She added that sometimes police may tell a survivor that even though they want to pursue a case criminally or through Student Conduct, there is not enough evidence.

“Oftentimes we have a tendency to think … ‘It’s all about the victim and the victim gets to decide,’” Gray added. “The reality is that, it’s not. It’s the district attorney’s office, as well as the officer, the detective.”

For Caroline, it was up to

the district attorney. In her report, she told officers she had no recollection of the physical assault.

“I didn’t realize who he was or anything,” she said.

“But what I know now is it took place at like 3 or 4 in the morning, in my bedroom.”

“My whole being for the last year has been focused on the hope that he will go away, and I will never have to think that he didn’t get what he deserved,” she added. “But he won’t pay for this. And the law needs to change, really, is what needs to happen.”

“Typically there is going to be a degree of anger, and that’s understandable and frustrating,” Gray added. “Sort of feel-

For survivors in need of support, Tuttleman Counseling Services, the university’s free, confidential counseling center, has a team dedicated to helping survivors of sexual assault known as the Sexual Assault Counseling and Education Unit.

The SACE Unit has existed for 23 years, and is currently made up of seven counselors, including Coordinator Aisha Renée Moore.

“We generally provide crisis intervention, advocacy, counseling and referral services for students who’ve survived things like sexual assault,” Moore said.

In addition to Moore, SACE is composed of an assistant coordinator and five trainees who can also provide services to students dealing with partner violence, stalking, sexual harassment and childhood sexual abuse.

For students hoping to address any of these concerns, one of the benefits of accessing Tuttleman Counseling, Moore said, is confidentiality. Tuttleman Counseling is one of the few offices on campus that is not required to report a sexual assault to Campus Safety Services. Kim Chestnut called all other offices on campus—besides Tuttleman Counseling and any clergy on campus like the Newman Center or Hillel at Temple—“mandated reporting offices.”

Moore said having a confidential office can allow a survivor to receive more information about the resources without committing to filing a police report or following up with Student Conduct.

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The Navigator Her office, located across from Mitten Hall next to Saxby’s Coffee, has windows on three sides. Her desk gives her a view of passersby and the entrance to Polett Walk. But on a

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To begin receiving counseling for sexual assault or to find out about other resources available on campus, a student must come to the center during walk-in hours, which vary by day. A student must sign in at the front desk and fill out paperwork, including a mood assessment form called C-CAPS. After that, the student can see a therapist in the center.

Last year, about 3,100 students used Tuttleman Counseling Services’ walk-in hours, Moore said.

Sarah Trotta, assistant coordinator of SACE, said the therapist will then conduct an assessment “to get a better understanding of the level of risk, the urgency of what’s going on and to provide a first intervention,” if the student is coming to the counseling center as a survivor.

During these walk-in appointments, called a “triage appointment,” survivors meet with whichever counselors are available, which may not be a counselor in the SACE Unit.

But all Tuttleman counselors are equipped to offer help to survivors, Trotta said.

Counselors discuss medical, safety and criminal justice concerns with survivors and present them with resources and options to further pursue action within these avenues if they so choose. Counselors also address substance-use concerns, eating concerns, risk of homicide and risk of suicide.

Survivors are then seen back at Tuttleman Counseling by a SACE Unit counselor within two business days of the initial walk-in appointment for an urgent intake appointment, Moore said.

“We make room in our schedule for our SACE urgents,” Moore said. “So whatever’s happening, room will be made and we will meet them without fail in that timeline.”

According to a report released last April by the Presidential Committee on Campus Sexual Misconduct, Tuttleman Counseling Services is “overextended” and “there is a waiting list for counseling appointments, a situation incompatible for providing crisis services.”

The report says that in its current state, Tuttleman “does not have the capacity” to accommodate survivors’ needs, nor to “develop an infrastructure for education” about sexual assault.

Tina Ngo, a sophomore who was in an abusive relationship during her freshman and part of her sophomore year in 2013-14, experienced this firsthand. She said she was referred to on-campus counseling after speaking with Gray, but didn’t receive an appointment until about a month after she went to Tuttleman during walk-in hours.

“It was physically, emotionally draining,” Ngo said. “It discouraged me from wanting to go through with the process after that.”

After two months, Ngo went to two more appointments to address the lasting trauma from her relationship—her academic, physical and mental well-being were all heavily tried, she said.

“That whole process discouraged me from going back,” Ngo said. “I heard a lot of horror stories and I did it myself, I did it twice, and I just never went through with it because it was inconvenient for me.”

Ideally, once a survivor is seen for a second appointment with a SACE Unit counselor, they will continually see that same counselor throughout the rest of their treatment, if they choose to pursue counseling.

Moore said comfortable language is essential in speaking with survivors.

“We might ask a survivor how would they like to refer to the person who’s harmed them,” Moore said. “Because using a certain word or using the name might feel triggering. ... Of course, some people

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might be comfortable saying ‘rape’ and others might not.”

If a survivor has seen a counselor and is interested in a group counseling session for any survivors of sexual trauma who identify as female, they must have a screening appointment with one of the group’s leaders before they can regularly attend group sessions.

“They need to be sort of well into their healing journey before that,” Trotta said. “Because sometimes people do talk about their assaults and that can be very triggering for someone who’s not ready to hear it.”

WOAR That night, Teresa WhiteWalston was in the emergency room at St. Episcopal Hospital for hours. She arrived at around 4 a.m., and stayed until the sun rose the next morning. As an advocate for Women Organized Against Rape, White-Walston made her way to the hospital as soon as she got the call that a young woman in Philadelphia had been sexually assaulted.

To this day, White-Walston said she can still see the young woman’s face in her head.

“You never forget,” WhiteWalston said. “She looked like 100 miles of unpaved road.”

Tears filled her eyes as she remembered the young woman, one of the first survivors for whom she advocated when she started working for WOAR in 2001. More than a decade later, now the director of education-in-training, White-Walston said she’s still constantly motivated by the personal interactions she has with survivors of sexual assault.

“You deal with all kinds of crazy stuff because of the job,” White-Walston said. “But what keeps me going … is that your life touches other people’s lives.”

White-Walston oversees WOAR’s preventative education and awareness programming for all students in Philadelphia, all the way from children in pre-K to college students. She’s been a guest lecturer for Temple’s Human Sexuality class and has co-facilitated workshops in dorms on Main

Campus with the Wellness Resource Center.

When working with student survivors of sexual assault, White-Walston said WOAR’s job is to operate “parallel to university services.”

“WOAR is a resource outside the university,” she said.

“Sometimes students don’t want to go to the university’s health services. They want complete anonymity, so they can come to WOAR.” WOAR assists survivors throughout a process of healing. When a survivor initially goes to the hospital or SVU to receive treatment, the survivor can be accompanied by an advocate from WOAR, who will help them understand various treatment and legal options.

Some hospitals will automatically offer the survivor access to an advocate, but in other hospitals, the survivor must request an advocate independently. Additionally, the survivor can call WOAR’s 24-hour hotline to receive immediate help from an advocate.

Advocates are especially important because they provide survivors with information that some hospitals don’t, WhiteWalston said. For example, some Philadelphia hospitals will not automatically offer survivors pregnancy or HIV prophylaxis, an immediate preventative treatment to prevent a person from becoming pregnant or HIV positive, and a WOAR advocate can recommend a patient ask for those services when they are not immediately offered.

Laquisha Anthony is a volunteer advocate for WOAR and founder of an organization called Victory Over Inconceivable Cowardly Experiences, or V.O.I.C.E., which strives to empower survivors of sexual assault through processes like one-on-one workshops, anger management classes and awareness events.

Anthony got her start as an advocate with WOAR long after she was sexually assaulted herself, as an undergraduate at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. After Anthony was assaulted, she didn’t tell anyone.

They only found out after she realized she was pregnant about two months after the incident.

“I know that I’m helping someone to not go through what I went through,” she said.

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“That’s what being an advocate is for me: standing up for someone who isn’t in a position to do so themselves. Standing beside them, and doing it with them.”

Following the initial treatment, WOAR keeps in close contact with the survivor to help them receive regular counseling, which can be done onsite in WOAR’s office at 1617 John F. Kennedy Blvd, Suite 1100.

White-Walston said she thinks a rape crisis center on Main Campus would be a positive step for the university.

“To enhance what’s there is not a bad thing,” WhiteWalston said. “If you do expand your center, it says that student safety is a high priority.”

But Anthony said she’s not sure a centralized rape crisis center is the best way to maintain the privacy of survivors.

“If someone sees you at that location, then everybody kind of knows,” she said. “I think that’s the downside of having one particular situation. It could be beneficial, but it could be harmful at the same time.”

In the future, WhiteWalston hopes to continue to see prevention programming incorporated into Temple’s bat-

tle against sexual assault.

“If you only address it when something happens, it’s already too late,” she said.

“I would shout in front of millions of people if I had to,” Anthony said. “What I’ve been through is not in vain.”

Reporting an incident Charlie Leone says underreporting of sexual assault is a problem. But when he sees an uptick in reporting, there’s no way to know if it’s because of an increase in crime, more education or more awareness on campus.

According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, more than 90 percent of sexual assault victims on college campuses do not report incidents of sexual violence.

2015 saw a decrease in sexual assault cases. These trends are complicated, and often rely on more than one variable, he said.

Leone said if a survivor comes to the police to file an initial report they do not have to pursue the case criminally or through Student Conduct.

Some survivors, he said, can file an anonymous report, under a “Jane Doe” but include

details surrounding the incident like location, time and nature of the assault.

“We try to talk to the person and see, ‘What do they want?’” he said. “Of course from our end, we are always thinking of prosecution, evidence, that kind of thing. But there is also another side of us that we know there is other things that the person needs.”

“You have to handle this the way you want to handle it, and it doesn’t necessarily include reporting,” Olivia said.

Filing a report through Temple Police starts when an initial call is made. From there, an officer will ask the survivor a few basic questions, Leone said.

An officer will generally meet with a survivor to complete a report. From there, Temple Police will notify the Special Victims Unit in Hunting Park. An investigator from SVU will review the case and notify Temple Police if the survivor should come to their facilities for further questioning and to have a rape kit.

In some cases, the call from SVU will not occur until days after the initial report to Temple Police.

When Olivia saw Don-

na Gray months after she was raped, it wasn’t until a few days later that Temple Police called her and—despite her protests— took her to the Special Victims Unit.

“I was like, ‘I have a lesson, I don’t want to do this right now.’ And she was like, ‘Well you have to go now,’” Olivia said.

And it wasn’t only like that with police. Weeks after her initial report, she was notified

by Student Conduct that the university was investigating her case. When she was called in for a meeting, it was explained to her that she would have to tell her story to a panel of faculty members at a hearing with the perpetrator.

At the time Olivia would have brought the case to Student Conduct, the university utilized a student panel to hear cases. After the 1960s, Senior Associate Dean of Students Andrea Seiss said, it became “best practice” for a student to tell their story in front of their peers in Student Conduct matters. Two years ago, Student Conduct adopted a board of administrators and faculty members for sexual assault cases, and then in August 2015, Student Conduct hired former Su-

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TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016 preme Court Justice Jane Cutler Greenspan to hear all cases.

For officers to best handle situations with survivors when filing reports, Leone said the department has “customized” training that involves equipping officers with all of the information they may need to refer a survivor to another office.

These skills include interview techniques, knowing when an individual may not want to disclose certain information, referring resources and educating them on the reporting process at Temple, Leone said.

“Right now, [officers are] doing well,” he said. “We want them to be sensitive in these types of environments. Especially talking to someone who has been through a horrific experience.”

From her experience, Tina Ngo said she believes police aren’t properly trained to deal with the emotional side of responding to assault, and that sensitivity training could be used across the board throughout the process. She said often, she felt like she was the one to blame during the reporting process and in seeking mental health help.

After Temple Police had notified SVU and given the information from the report to the Dean of Students or any other “points of entry” offices that may need it, like Student Conduct, police are no longer involved. Leone said he will often divert survivors to other resources on campus after police have finished reporting.

“It’s not just us here,” he said. “It’s a group of us.”

The facility for Philadelphia Inside the facility at 300 E. Hunting Park Ave. sits four different units: the Department of Human Services, the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance, the Special Victims Unit and the Philadelphia Sexual Assault Response Center.

The facility is a place for survivors of sexual assault to report incidents of assault to SVU detectives and have medical examinations conducted.

Olivia’s experience on Hunting Park Avenue was brief.

She said she told a detective her story, one that occurred more than two months prior and with little evidence.

“He ends it, and he goes, ‘Well, so this is a very gray area case and nothing is going to happen,’” Olivia said. “And I was like, ‘Why am I here then?’

He said, ‘Well, you know, it would be really good if there were more people who brought up these gray-area cases, even if you lose cases like this, they are really important.’”

“Is this like you want me to be some kind of martyr for other victims?” Olivia said. “What is going on here?”

Since the incident occurred months prior, Olivia did not have a rape kit conducted.

In some cases, however, if the survivor consents, a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner is called to the facility. It takes up to an hour for a SANE to arrive for an examination.

When a SANE arrives, Mike Boyle, the center’s program director, said they ask for consent to conduct a private and sometimes internal examination. If the survivor agrees—including signing a document to affirm—the nurse will inform survivors if she sees any injuries that are “probative,” Boyle said, and, if she receives consent, will photograph those specific injuries, like bruising and broken blood vessels.

Anne Marie Jones is a SANE who has been working at PSARC since December of 2014. Last year, she conducted 103 examinations.

Jones said before a SANE starts collecting forensic data— also known as a rape kit—he or she will ask for urine samples for a pregnancy test, an oral swab for HIV testing and an initial DNA swab. At PSARC, Jones said nurses cannot conduct any sexually transmitted disease testing or Pap testing, but can offer prophylactic medications to prevent survivors from contracting STDs they may have been exposed to like gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomoniasis and bacterial vagino-

sis as well as a five-day starter pack for HIV testing.

Following this testing, SANE nurses will conduct a brief interview. These questions include details on the type of force used in the assault like choking, kicking or punching, and if there was ejaculation during the assault. Boyle said this is more like a “checklist,” and less like a “narrative” to reduce any kind of bias in a nurse’s report.

From there, the nurse will swab the patient based on information collected in the interview as part of the rape kit. This can include an internal exam to look for injuries and collect DNA. Inside a rape kit—which is initially supplied by the police department and funded for examination by the city—are envelopes. Each has a label, like “rectal swabs,” “vaginal swabs,” or “blood sample,” and contains two Q-tips and cardboard tubes to preserve the evidence. This examination will take about an hour to an hourand-a-half, Boyle said.

Jones said she tries to stay professional while conducting the exam and doing the kit.

“When they start breaking down and crying and starting to hug you, then it can be a little tough sometimes,” she said.

“But you can’t really show emotion. We’re supposed to be in control and professional and we’re their first support and to comfort them, but there’s a line.

You can’t be a friend.”

“They’re all professional and worked in various capacities in medical settings: in emergency rooms, on medical floors, so they’ve seen a lot of sadness,” Boyle added.

“This is just part of the job.”

‘I just want to check in’ Kim Chestnut said her role with the Wellness Resource Center is just that: providing resources.

Chestnut said any student is “welcome” to come in and get information or support around any topic of concern.

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For a survivor, she said, there are a multitude of options.

“Ultimately we say, ‘You have lots of options and you are in control,’” Chestnut said. “‘So, let me offer you what you can do moving forward and you decide what feels best to you.’

And so that could just be accessing medical and therapeutic support, it could be moving forward with wanting to do a police report. It could just be moving forward through with a conduct, internal Temple report. It could be nothing: ‘I just need information. I don’t need anything else, I just want to check in.’”

The Wellness Resource Center, she said, sees one or two survivors a month and more traffic in the fall semester than in the spring.

When Harmony-Jazmyme Rodriguez came to the WRC in the days following the night she was raped, she said no one in the office was ever available to see her.

As far as filing a report on campus, Chestnut said she “can imagine it would be helpful to students.” She said she supports a “victim advocacy center” on campus that would be more “thoroughly resourced.”

“As we currently stand, one entity can do certain things, but not really as one human are we capable of being a confidential reporting destination and providing all interim measures for a student that was assaulted,” she added.

Chestnut said the possibility of this is “under review” as part of the task force recommendations. She said additional reporting and investigation was needed from the university. So, hopefully that would provide “all that [President Theobald] needs.”

At the WRC, there is a team of students who serve as peer educators, known as the Health Education Awareness Resource Team. The assistant to the director of the WRC and the teaching assistant for HEART’s peer educator certification class, Morgen Snowadzky, said the educators lead “peer-facilitated programming” for events held by student organizations and resident assistants throughout the year, as well as for in-class presentations. These programs address sexual assault, as well as topics like relationships and alcohol education.

In addition to programming centered around education about sexual assault, HEART peer educators also assist survivors of sexual assault through resource referral and one-onone consultations.

The survivor would then be matched up with a peer educator who is comfortable talking about sexual assault and provide the front desk with a list of topics they are most comfortable talking about with students in advance.

“So people will come in and be like, ‘I have this ques-

JENNY KERRIGAN TTN

tion,’” Snowadzky said. “First, we figure out, ‘Do you need like a doctor, or like a therapist? Or do you just want someone to talk to?’”

If a survivor requires more assistance after this consultation, HEART peer educators may connect the survivor with a member of the WRC’s professional staff to further pursue accommodations or to start an investigation with Student Conduct.

Snowadzky emphasized that while their office offers resource referral for survivors, its main goal is sexual assault prevention through bystander intervention.

“Ideally, in our world, we would be doing enough interventions that the rate of sexual assault would go down so the support services would be less necessary,” Snowadzky said.

“We’re looking to support people after the fact,” she added. “But we’re really looking for prevention, empathy and awareness.”

Seeking medical attention Twenty years ago, Mark Denys worked as an ER nurse at Albert Einstein Medical Center, one of the designated rape crisis centers in Philadelphia before the creation of the facility on Hunting Park Avenue.

As a man, he was often not invited to assist in conducting a rape kit. His experience with survivors, however, is something he still remembers.

“I was often with the survivor before they would go for the examination, or after,” he said. “And it’s different every time. Sometimes they don’t want to talk and they don’t want to share anything, other times they’re sharing everything and telling you everything. So it’s really different for every person and the situation and what happened.”

Denys is one of the only administrators on campus who has extensive knowledge of what occurs at the Philadelphia Sexual Assault Response Center. This center, he said, helps keep evidence collected consistently, decreasing the chance for variables to interfere.

Creating a resource center like PSARC on Main Campus would decrease “hurdles” for survivors, he said. Nurses that specialize in conducting rape kits, SANEs, do not currently travel to Student Health Services.

“From a resource standpoint, it would be great for our students not to have to travel someplace, so I think from that standpoint it would be great … because it took a lot for them to come here, or go to Tuttleman Counseling or call Campus Safety, and then this is just one more hurdle to go over to go there, but again, they are the experts. It’s something we don’t do a lot. We may see one patient a month, we may see one patient every two months. And then we could have three in one month. We don’t see the volume that we become experts.”

“I want survivors to be in the care of experts,” he added.

If a survivor comes into Student Health Services looking for medical attention, Denys said a nurse can provide them with prophylactic medication and emergency contraception.

They will also test for any sexually transmitted diseases. If the assault happened the night before a survivor comes in for an appointment, Denys said nurses will call the survivor back in a few months to be tested again.

“I wish more would come to us earlier and sooner, and for whatever reason, either they don’t know about us or they don’t know what to do,” Denys said. “Often times we may hear about it even six months later sometimes. They come in for their annual exam, and it’s ‘Oh, by the way, last September this happened to me.’”

Denys’ first concern at Student Health Services is to make sure survivors are “medically stable,” and that there are no

critical medical concerns when they come for an appointment.

After staff ensure that, they will connect the survivor to other offices on campus. Denys has drawn up a brochure that he hopes to display in their offices, listing each office and what service it can provide for a survivor.

If someone comes in for an appointment and identifies themselves as a survivor, a nurse will take back the patient right away “so there is no waiting,” Denys said.

“From the time we know, it’s only a few minutes until we get them in the room,” he added.

MOVING FORWARD She’s not a “buzzkill.”

She’s not “un-cool.” She’s not “too serious.” Caroline said she has been called names, and told she “just has to drink more,” when she tries to intervene in situations involving alcohol; situations that she thinks could change a person’s life.

Caroline said it’s “impossible” for anyone to “let completely loose” when alcohol is present. In most cases, everyone has to keep their guard up, she said.

“People don’t want to ruin their friend’s fun,” she said.

“But sometimes, that’s necessary. And they will, at some point, thank you for it, most likely. And if they don’t, they don’t.”

“You won’t lose a friend over that, but you could stop them from doing something that could change their life,” she added.

Situations that Caroline says change lives, whether alcohol is present or not, don’t seem to be going away—at least that’s what statistics show at Temple and across the country.

Solutions to the problem of sexual assault on college campuses need to be tailored to specific universities, as the culture of campus life is always different. Even trying to create one solution on a campus can be challenging, because no two instances of assault are identical. Universities, it seems, will not be able to develop a one size fits all model.

Olivia said her experience with sexual assault didn’t change the way she views sex, but education about consent needs to be more easily accessible. Between survivors and students we’ve spoken to, there’s a consensus that calls for more intentional conversations about sexual violence that are not just through a computer screen.

Advocates and survivors have said the university needs a more permanent fixture to examine the issue, like the president’s task force. Charging a committee to draft solutions just once to a problem that transcends gender, sexuality, year, race, major and intoxication in the span of one year isn’t enough.

Providing students with disjointed offices that should, and usually do, communicate make the process of reporting confusing for some, and unclear to many.

Some student-activists and survivors on Main Campus have called for a rape crisis center. Whether this is the solution for Temple is yet to be seen. The goal of a center with streamlined resources and support, however, makes a lot of sense. The addition of a new office and new positions—designated solely to handling cases, education and support for sexual violence incidents—is a step in the right direction.

But for students, administrators, faculty and staff on Temple’s campus throughout these next four years, and for accepted students’ years to come, this is a call to action.

Generations of students may come to benefit from ways the university innovates with solutions now.

And that is paving a new road.

PAGE A6

Olivia and Caroline are current students at Temple University. In order to maintain their anonymity, certain details about their identity, the perpetrators and the incidents have been withheld. The Temple News’ Editor-in-Chief sat down with both women on multiple occasions and transcribed their experiences.

These are their stories. ___

OLIVIA It was her second semester of freshman year, and Olivia was partnered up with a senior for a small ensemble in the Boyer School of Music.

“We were kind of feeling each other, so we talked for a couple of hours afterwards, and he was like, ‘Can I take you out sometime?’”

They went to dinner, they kissed and she told him that she was seeing other people. She wanted to be honest with him, she said.

“And I said, full disclosure, ‘I am sleeping with other people. I’m open to things happening, but I’m seeing other people.’ And something clicked in him and that was weird and I noticed it and I ignored it.”

After the date, he took her back to his house.

He lived alone on Berks Street, far from her dorm in 1300 Residence Hall.

“It was kind of implied that things were going to go in the sex direction. And it started to get kind of weird. I just noticed that he was angry, or something was off, and he was just not happy with something. He offered me a glass of wine, and I accepted. And he brought over the wine, sat on the couch with me, and I had a sip of the wine and then he like jumped on me, kind of. And I was like, ‘I don’t know how into this I am.’”

He suddenly picked her up and moved her into his bedroom, where he would rape her.

“I was clear. I said no. And I was like, ‘Well, we’re pretty far out on Berks, I’m a freshman, nobody really knows where I am, he lives alone, there’s nobody who was in the apartment. And it’s like, almost midnight.’

I stopped him again, and I said, ‘Aren’t you gonna put on a condom?’ And he like made a noise. Like a discontent noise. And put one on.

I was trying to rationalize it the whole time, like, ‘Maybe it’s fine. Maybe this is OK.’ He was getting rough, and I was like, ‘Calm down. Stop.’

I knew that it was bad when I said something like, ‘Don’t you wanna be patient and enjoy it?’

And he was like, ‘Considering that I’ve wanted to rip your clothes off since you got in here, I’ve been patient.’

After I realized that this was something that was intentional, and something that was going to continue happening because this person was over 6-feet tall and I’m a 5-foot-tall girl, I shut down.

And then I slept there.”

In the morning, he walked her back to her dorm and asked her if they were going to have a relationship.

“He asked me what we were doing, and I was like, ‘Nothing. Nothing.’ And then he was still mad, and left. I went up to my roommate and I just told her that I had a weird night and this guy sucked in bed. And I didn’t know what else to do.”

After she was home, she said, she responded differently than she had anticipated.

“I mean, I took a shower. I know all the stuff.

Don’t take a shower, go get a rape kit. In hindsight it’s so weird that I did not ever expect myself to respond that way. I thought, ‘I’m an empowered woman and I know about feminism and I know about standing up for myself,’ and I did not follow any of the advice I would have given a friend.”

A week after the assault, Olivia and her rapist had to perform together in an ensemble.

“At the end of the concert we were all at the reception and he pulled me aside, and he was like, ‘Can we talk?’ And I was like, ‘Talk about what?’

And at this point I was in complete denial. And he was like, ‘I felt like you led me on, I thought we were going to have a relationship.’ … I looked him in the eye and I said, ‘You should have stopped when I said no, you should have used a condom when I told you to use a condom and I have no respect for you. I have nothing else to say to you.’ And he said, ‘Well I guess we’re done here,’ and walked away from me.”

It was two months until she told anyone about the assault.

“I felt so afraid to be in the music school. Everybody knew both of us. I was afraid that I was going to turn the corner in the empty basement and, you know.

I felt like I was losing my mind, so I thought, ‘Well, Temple has free therapy,’ so I went.”

The therapist she saw at Tuttleman Counseling kept telling her she was “articulate” when detailing the account of the rape, and that she was “recovering well” and “very resilient,” she said.

SPECIAL PROJECT

But Olivia said she didn’t feel right. The counselor suggested she go to Temple Police, but she didn’t want to press charges, instead hoping to file an “incident report,” she said. Eventually, she decided to see Special Services Coordinator Donna Gray to learn about more resources for support, and to file a report that would help other women if this were to happen with the same man again.

Olivia had a meeting with Gray in her office.

“I told her very clearly, I said, ‘I don’t really want to press charges. I would like to file a report, but I don’t want to press charges. Because I don’t want to go through a jury. What I would like to do is, if somebody has a case against this person or opens up a case against this person, I would love a report filed so that, I’m not the only person or that person isn’t the only person. But I have no evidence.’”

A police officer came into Gray’s office, and she told her what happened to her, including her full name, his full name and details of the assault in the report.

Olivia left the meeting with the understanding that her involvement with police was over.

Gray told her someone might contact her for more information, but she was “probably done.”

“About a week later I get this phone call from [a woman] and she goes, ‘There’s a police car waiting for you outside of 1300 and you need to go.’”

Temple Police was taking her to the Special Victims Unit in Hunting Park to file a report with a detective. With little choice, Olivia rode with a female officer in the front seat of a police car to SVU, where she was interviewed.

“I went in with a male detective, and he said ‘If you want to stop at any time you can,’ and I was like, ‘Well I’ve told my story a bunch of times before, I guess I’ll just do it again.’”

After the interview, the detective told her the case wouldn’t go anywhere because it was a “very gray area case.”

“And I was like, ‘Why am I here then?’ He said, ‘Well you know it would be really good if there were more people who brought up these gray area cases, even if you lose cases like this, they are really important.’ And I was like, ‘Whoa, is this like you want me to be some kind of martyr for other victims? What is going on here?’”

She left SVU without filing the report with police, and was taken back to campus.

A week or so later, she got another call from Gray with more news.

“She said, ‘So, [the perpetrator] has been notified that there are charges pressed.’ … And I asked her like, ‘Why did this happen? What’s going on? … This person knows where I live, knows where I work, my friends, they know my schedule, they know where I go to school, they know when my classes are.’”

Gray’s response was that Olivia had misunderstood the process of reporting. Her initial report with police, she told her, had been sent to SVU and Student Conduct, and the investigation process through the university had already begun.

But even today, Olivia still doesn’t know if Student Conduct told the perpetrator it was her who filed the report, or if it was anonymous.

“She said, ‘Temple has the final say on Student Code violations.’ And I said, ‘So, I didn’t want to press charges, so I am not pressing charges, but Temple is pressing charges.’

It just wasn’t up to me, and I was never made aware.”

About a week later, Olivia received an email from Student Conduct about a meeting. When she arrived, it was explained to her that Temple has the eventual say whether or not they want to file a misconduct case, she said.

“It felt like it was very self-serving for Temple and they were just going through the motions.

And they hear this all the time and my case isn’t unique, which, that’s not how a person should feel. That might be true, but I shouldn’t have felt that way.

“So Temple knew that I didn’t want to press charges, but it was up to them to override that.”

At her meeting with Student Conduct, she said she was finally explained the process of how Temple hears the cases and how the process works. She signed a paper saying she was not going to testify at the hearing, and was promised she was done with the case. As she was leaving the room, she was told she had to wait for a police escort because her rapist was in the waiting room on the other side of the door.

“It felt as though I was talking about something I had no choice in and I felt like I needed justice for, and I had no choice in that. I had no choice in my justice system, either.

I like to consider myself a good communicator and I like to consider myself capable, and for me to miss something—like, ‘Temple presses charges whether or not the student wants us to, it’s our decision’—was never communicated.

At the end, I was so done with this whole thing. That was the last interaction I had.”

After the assault, Olivia said she wasn’t in-

terested in joining a support group, but was just looking for a way for her and other women to feel safe from the perpetrator. She needed a way to “ensure” that she wouldn’t have to see this person, she said. It made her “constantly afraid” to go on campus.

“I still feel like I’m going to go into the basement of Presser and be at my locker and I’m going to turn around and this person is going to be there.

It’s not unreasonable.

I blamed myself a lot because I was like, well, I knew I was going to see this person regardless, even if we had consensual sex, I still would have seen him around. So I blamed myself for this uncomfortableness that I felt. And it hasn’t gone away.”

She described her urge to press charges against the perpetrator as a “soup of conflict,” being torn between not wanting to “label herself,” but wanting people to know it happened to her, and it could happen to them.

“Just today, every once in awhile, I’ll still get nervous if I think about it too hard. … That’s what makes it so difficult. Being so educated on all of this makes it even harder. How could this happen to me, an educated, independent, strong-willed person? Does that mean that I’m not those things?

No is the conclusion, but it kind of still feels that way.

I kept questioning, ‘Is it just me? Is it just that this is how I’m interpreting it?’ There was so much guilt and questioning of myself in this whole process because I had trusted processes like this up until this point. It made me feel like absolute trash, like I had no say in anything.

Things were just happening to me.

It felt like everybody in the world, all of a sudden, knew. And I had no control. After I went to this seemingly private conversation with Donna Gray where I supposedly just knew that, OK there’s a little folder with my story in a drawer so if somebody comes in and says, ‘[He] did this thing to me,’ [police] can … look him up. That’s all I wanted. For there to be multiple stories. …

That would make more sense than me pitted against this person.

But as soon as I told my story, it wasn’t mine anymore.”

CAROLINE “I was drunk. It was in my apartment. I didn’t know the person, at all. Nobody knew the person.”

Caroline was a sophomore at the time, hosting a party with friends north of Main Campus with her roommates. They had parties before, and this was no different. That night, they left the door unlocked so no one would have to keep letting guests in.

“I think that probably was what happened, was that someone was just walking by. It was two guys together. They were not students, and they came in. At that point it was really late in the night, so nobody thought twice, like, ‘Who are these people?’”

Caroline said it was at about three or four in the morning when one of two men, who she would later learn from Philadelphia Police were not Temple students, raped her in her bedroom.

She does not remember anything during the assault, but she remembers waking up after.

“I remember waking up and I was still kind of drunk, and I didn’t have the same pants I had on. … I had my period, and I had had a tampon in. And he took it out of me. And I just didn’t feel like everything was OK. I went downstairs and my roommates were awake and they all thought I had remembered, and they said it was really loud, and I just kind of froze. And it was like, at first, ‘Wait, what do they mean?’ And I didn’t really understand it, and then I thought about it for a second, and was like, ‘Wait, if I don’t remember this, then I never agreed to it.’

I don’t remember wanting to at all, I mean, I didn’t want to. And again, I’m not the type of person who would even have a one-night stand, not that there’s anything wrong with that. I just know in my heart that I wouldn’t have done something like that. And even if you are that type of person, that doesn’t make it OK, either.”

The next morning, she called her parents and returned home to Connecticut. It was there that she called police and went to a hospital for a rape kit.

“That’s just something you never ever want to have to do, you know?

Nobody is prepared to know that this happened to someone they care about. My whole family was devastated. But I think it’s really important to remember that the statistics say that this happens to one in four or five women our age, so really you probably already know somebody who this happened to. And I know personally, I know two people who this has happened to. It’s not talked about enough. And the more that we talk about it, the more people will realize it’s not OK. ‘Cause it’s just not.”

While she was home, her parents contact-

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

ed Temple and Philadelphia Police, hoping to file a report. Since the incident occurred outside Temple Police’s jurisdiction, she filed the report through Philadelphia Police. Officers have since identified the alleged perpetrator. Since then, Caroline has been waiting for more answers.

“About two months ago, they called me and told me that because I don’t remember, they can’t pursue it. And the word devastated doesn’t even cover that. My whole being for the last year has been focused on the hope that he will go away, and I will never have to think that he didn’t get what he deserved. But he won’t pay for this.”

The law in Pennsylvania states rape occurs if someone “is unconscious or where the person knows that the complainant is unaware that the sexual intercourse is occurring,” which could not be guaranteed in Caroline’s case because she does not remember the incident.

Donna Gray, who was heavily involved in Caroline’s case and her process at Temple, said the detective at the Special Victims Unit investigated the report.

“It was the district attorney that sort of said, ‘We can’t defend that it was non-consensual sex, so we would decline to prosecute the case.’ So that is part of what is hard, because it took a lot to talk to the police, to work with the Connecticut police, and then have the district attorney’s office say, ‘Yes but his attorney will argue that it was consensual sex, and you have nothing to dispute that. Except your word,’” Gray said.

“We’re taught that if you’re drunk you can’t consent,” Caroline said. “But when you go to the police and you think those people are going to protect you, and they tell you, ‘Well, you were drunk, sorry.’ That’s not what you think is going to happen.”

“Even when you think that it’s about you, it’s not necessarily about you,” Gray said.

Caroline said having someone that understands on Main Campus like Gray has helped her return to school, and pursue her degree in psychology.

“She saved me here. I really don’t think I could have finished at Temple otherwise.”

Her experience with the university during this process and working with Temple Police, she said, has always been helpful.

“I never felt like there was something I couldn’t reach out about. When it first happened, Donna said if I ever needed a ride somewhere I could call her and ask her or someone would come and pick me up. And that was so amazing to me. … Temple is extremely sensitive to this kind of thing.”

She said, however, freshmen need more education and information when they get to campus about consent, the risks of drinking too much and the laws surrounding sexual assault.

“Just because the law can’t help me, I know it was wrong and everybody else around me knows it was wrong. There needs to be a better education, especially to incoming freshmen. … We’re told that it’s wrong, and then you go to police, and it’s not wrong. … It’s not what I always thought it was.

I think it’s also hard because there’s a lot of misinformation. … It’s not just, ‘Oh it happened.’

It’s a crime. Regardless of what the law says it is.”

Today, it’s harder for her to “joke” about drinking and going out.

“I hear things all the time that are just signs that people just don’t get it. And I hear it with people that I know in a very close way. Just joking about hooking up with people and not remembering it, and getting really, really drunk, to the point where you don’t even remember where you were for hours. And in no way is that saying that it is ever the woman’s fault. But we need to be accountable for not only ourselves, but for other people. And it’s not a joke.

This will forever be a part of my life, and whoever else you interviewed, it will always be a part of who we are.”

Now, the assault is a year behind her.

“I’m at a different point than I was, for sure.

It’s hard because I hoped that a year later there would be a trial or something, but there’s not. So I’m kind of figuring out how to feel in this moment.

And I’m going to be honest, it’s a daily thing.

I don’t know how I’m gonna feel every day when I wake up and just walk down the street here, you know? It’s just, it has changed the way that I look at pretty much everything about college, to be honest.”

For other survivors at Temple, she said she hopes they can continue living the way they intended.

“It’s not easy, I know it’s not easy, but you have to do what you were gonna do anyway.

You need to live the life you were already living.

‘Cause if you don’t, he wins.”

* editor@temple-news.com

PAGE 16

PHOTO

The Year in TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

Photos TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

PHOTO

PAGE 17

BY THE TEMPLE NEWS PHOTO TEAM

SPORTS

PAGE 18

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

SPORTS BRIEFS

Former Owls begin journey in NFL

JENNY KERRIGAN TTN FILE PHOTO

Former wide receiver Robby Anderson celebrates during the team’s win against Penn State on Sept. 5, 2015 at Lincoln Financial Field.

THREE GRADUATES DRAFTED With three selections in the 2016 NFL Draft, the football program tied a record set five previous times for most draftees at the annual event.

Former Owls Tavon Young, Matt Ioannidis and Tyler Matakevich were selected in the fourth, fifth and seventh round on Saturday.

Young joins a Baltimore Ravens secondary that set a franchise low with six interceptions last season.

Young, who started 12 games as a senior,

totaled 29 solo tackles and seven passes defended. He also recorded his first sack since his freshman year.

As a junior, Young led the team with a career-high four interceptions and nine passes defended, which ranked third in the American Athletic Conference. His 153 interception return yards led the conference.

“There is no question Tavon was a major, major reason we had the success we did in 2015 and it’s no surprise to us that he was drafted into the NFL,” coach Matt Rhule said in a university-issued statement.”

Young, who also forced one fumble in

his career, recorded 101 career solo tackles and eight tackles for loss as an Owl. He also appeared in 43 games, totaling seven career interceptions and 21 passes defended.

Ioannidis, a defensive lineman, was a fifth round pick and the No. 152 overall selection by the Washington Redskins.

As a senior, Ioannidis earned first-team All-American Athletic Conference honors after totaling 42 tackles, 111/2 tackles for loss and 31/2 sacks in 13 games.

In his junior year as a team captain, the defensive lineman notched a team-high 11 tackles for loss and was one of 12 players

Matthews eying pro career Continued from page 20

MATTHEWS

preliminary tournaments, which has fees that range from $2,500 to $6,000, depending on the stage.

After competing in the first stage of pre-qualifying events in September 2015, Matthews advanced past the first round in October 2015 before finishing his attempt on the second stage following a 56th-place tie out of 74 golfers.

Matthews needs to finish in the Top 25 of the final stage to earn a spot on the Web.com tour, the PGA’s developmental circuit.

“That’s where it all starts,” Matthews said. “I have a lot of goals and aspirations but you gotta take it one step at a time.

My professional career starts with Q-school, so that’s the first step. If I can make it through, that’s going to be great. I can get right out on the Web.com tour and hopefully do some damage.”

This summer, Matthews will play at the Sunnehanna Amateur Tournament for Champions, the Northeast Amateur Invitational and the Palmetto Amateur.

Matthews will also play in the U.S. Amateur tournament from Aug. 17-21 in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

In 2013, Matthews made it to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur tournament but did not qualify for the tournament in 2014.

“That was one of my main reasons for staying amateur over the summer because I want to play in one more U.S. Amateur,”

Matthews said. “I’m going to work hard to qualify in that and hopefully make a good run.”

During his freshman and senior year, Matthews placed in the Top 10 in 11 of the 12 events he played in.

“I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not one to hit 500 golf balls a day,” assistant coach Matt Teesdale said, who played with Matthews from 2012-15.

“But he went above and beyond with that. The kid sits on the range for all hours on end and

BY THE NUMBERS BRANDON MATTHEWS: CAREER WINS

8 SCHOOL RECORD FOR STROKE AVERAGE IN 2014-15

70.9 CAREER TOP-10 FINISHES

31

just beats balls. And it really helps muscle memory with his swing and it shows.”

Teesdale said on some nights, he and Matthews would drive to Quinn’s golf academy in Conshohocken, the BQ Golf

Academy, to hit golf balls in the middle of the night.

Prior to enrolling at Temple, Matthews won the PIAA state championship in 2010 during his junior year at Pittson Area High School.

Quinn said Matthews, who stands 6-foot-4 inches possesses the prototypical size and strength of golfers on the tour today.

The senior said controlling his strength was something he improved on during his time on North Broad.

“Anyone can hit a ball hard and far, but, ‘Where is it going,’ right?” Quinn said. “So knowing your ball is going straight and far each and every time is an amazing thing. And that’s certainly what Brandon’s fantastic at.”

Matthews set a new stroke average record at Temple at 70.9 during his junior season.

After the first round of the American Athletic Conference Championships, Matthews is tied for the lead in what is his final tournament as an Owl. “I love it here, it’s something I’ll never forget and I’ll cherish but I’m also very, very excited to get my career started,” Matthews said. “And hopefully be one of the top names in golf.”

“I’m really hoping to be that next Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler type presence on the PGA Tour and that’s one thing I’ve wanted my whole life … and Temple has definitely played a huge part in the process of me getting there.” * tom.ignudo@temple.edu T @Ignudo5

to start all 12 games. He also recorded 31/2 sacks and 44 total tackles.

Matakevich—selected in the seventh round, No. 246 overall—will stay in Pennsylvania, as he was chosen by the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday.

The linebacker was named the American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year and named an Associated Press first team all-American after totaling 126 tackles and a career-high 41/2 sacks in 2015.

He also won the Chuck Bednarik Award and the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, awarded to the top defensive player in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

Matakevich’s senior season was the fourth consecutive time he totaled 100 or more tackles, and he was the only Football Bowl Subdivision player to lead his team in tackles in every game this season.

“Tyler is a special player,” Rhule said in a university-issued statement. “He will play in the NFL for many years and will make the Steelers very happy. He gets credit for being a play-maker and being very instinctual but what people don’t see is that he spends a lot of time studying film. He’s a football junkie and he will fit right in in Pittsburgh.”

Matakevich was also the 66th Owl to be drafted into the NFL. Other former Owls to reportedly earn an NFL shot were wide receiver Robby Anderson, defensive back Alex Wells and offensive linemen Kyle Friend, who will join the New York Jets organization.

Former Offensive lineman Shahbaz Ahmed and defensive lineman Hershey Walron will join the Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks, respectively.

Former wide receiver Brandon Shippen tweeted on Saturday he will join the Miami Dolphins.

“Brandon has some tremendous attributes that translate well into the NFL,” said Rhule. “He’s fast, he’s tough. He has ball skills on both sides of the line of scrimmage.”

-Michael Guise

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TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

PAGE 19

track & field

Fernandez’s road to Olympic qualification Blanca Fernandez will spend the summer preparing for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

By MAURA RAZANAUSKAS The Temple News In her head, Blanca Fernandez is counting down the days.

Every day, the graduate senior is preparing for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, hoping to earn a spot in the worldwide competition that begins on Aug. 5 and be the first female athlete from Temple to qualify for the event.

“The Olympics are definitely on my mind. … I am nervous, but I am excited because it is getting here,” Fernandez said. “It’s weird because it’s the first time I’m experiencing this.”

The Léon, Spain native said she thought of the idea to undergo this journey about a year ago.

At the Spanish National Championships last August, Fernandez placed third in the

1,500-meter race, finishing just more than a half second behind the event’s winner. The race made her confident she could qualify for the Olympics.

In order to earn a spot in the Olympics, Fernandez must finish in the Top 3 in her event at the Spanish national meet this year and meet the time requirement set by the International Association of Athletics Federations.

Fernandez, who will be competing in the 5K, must run the event in 15 minutes, 24 seconds or faster.

If the time standard is not met, the athlete cannot attend the Olympics, regardless of their rank within his or her country.

After her most recent time trial, Fernandez was about a minute off the standard, though she knows she still has a few months to continue to train and improve, as she has many opportunities to hit the qualifying time even after the national meet.

“It depends on my shape, but if I can get in good shape, I am confident of winning the national championship in Spain,” said Fernandez, who is a graduate student in her last year of NCAA eligibility.

Fernandez said she is getting back into shape after suffering from tendonitis in her IT

band, which left her unable to train and compete throughout the indoor season and part of the outdoor season.

Now, she is working with limited time to get back to where she used to be.

“This is a process,” coach Elvis Forde said.

“It’s a process and you can’t overkill the process. It is going to still take patience. She’s lost a lot of time training, which means she’s not as fit as a distance runner of her caliber is going to be.”

Fernandez began training again seven weeks ago after being off for three months due to the injury. The injury has left her with less time than she would hope to prepare for the Olympics.

“I literally have to start from zero and then build up to get to the best shape in my life, Fernandez said. “I think I’ve never stopped for three months. Even when I was a kid, my holidays were two months, never three.”

None of her competitors in Spain in the 5K have reached the standard yet, either. A country can enter, at most, three athletes per event, but if no one reaches the qualifying time, none can compete in the Olympics.

Following the Owls’ track season, Fernandez will return home to Spain to resume train-

ing with her longtime coach, Jose Villacorta.

Villacorta, who was Fernandez’s gym teacher in school, convinced her to start running when she was 12 years old. He has been her coach ever since and will help prepare Fernandez for the qualifying meet at nationals.

“I don’t know what workouts I’ll be doing because he just tells me what to do and I do it,” Fernandez said. “I trust my coach with all my heart and that’s how it needs to be.”

While running in meets for Temple, success is based on points. Fernandez runs to earn points for the team, but not necessarily to achieve the best possible time. When she goes back to Spain, her running style will change to try and meet the IAFF standard.

“It’s completely different,” Fernandez said. “From the first meter, you need to be focused. You probably have someone telling you the times per lap, the paces, you look at your watch.”

“You cannot lose a second because if you lose a second, you will not get the time you want.” * maura.razanauskas@temple.edu

lacrosse

Twin sisters weighing lacrosse and post-graduation careers Megan and Nicole Tiernan’s plans will be settled after graduation.

By EVAN EASTERLING The Temple News When senior defender Kara Stroup told Megan and Nicole Tiernan about a potential opportunity to play lacrosse and earn master’s degrees in England, they became intrigued.

The one-year master’s program in sports and exercise medicine at the University of Nottingham would allow the twin sisters to study at a university ranked in the top one percent globally and continue to play lacrosse.

They would practice three to five times a week, weightlift once a week and play games every Wednesday.

“I just think it’s a really good opportunity for us just to obviously get a degree from a really good school, but also just to experience something new that we haven’t experienced before, and to do it together,” Megan Tiernan said. “I think it’s just an opportunity that you can’t let go by.”

The program starts in September, with two three-month periods of studying each followed by a month break, then the summer to work on a dissertation. The breaks allow time to explore Europe, which was attractive to the sisters, who have never left the country. They will know if they have been accepted into the program a few weeks after graduation.

Megan and Nicole are both looking at the possibility of becoming athletic trainers or working in another athletic setting.

“I’ve had injuries, I’ve had my best friends, my teammates, have all had injuries and I’ve seen the process of how to start both from an

injury through the whole process of recovery then getting back to playing again,” Nicole Tiernan said.

“I’ve been in the training room like one million and two times. So I think it’s something that I’ve enjoyed going through as a student-athlete, and I think athletic training is something that I think could be a good profession for me.”

When the other graduating seniors in the Class of 2016 gather for commencement on Friday, Megan and Nicole Tiernan will not be at the Liacouras Center to walk across the stage and accept their kinesiology degrees.

Instead, they, and the other 11 seniors on the team, will be on the lacrosse field. The Owls play Connecticut on Thursday in the Big East Conference Tournament, hosted by Georgetown University.

“Sports kind of shape who we are,” Megan Tiernan said. “I mean, it’s even one of the reasons that we want to win so bad on Saturday is that we don’t want to stop playing.

You want to just play for as long as you can, because you know that once this game is over, your lacrosse career is over for most people. It’s kind of shaped who we are, so you don’t want to not technically be an athlete anymore. It’s what we’ve been our whole lives.”

Athletics roots run deep in the Tiernan family.

Megan and Nicole’s older brothers Ryan Tiernan, 25, and Christian Tiernan, 23, played soccer growing up and played intramural sports while at Rutgers University.

After watching their brothers play sports growing up, the twins began playing lacrosse together in fourth grade and went on to earn allconference honors at Washington Township High School.

They also played field hockey in the fall and ran indoor track during the winter season for the Minutemaids.

EVAN EASTERLING TTN

Senior midfielders Megan Tiernan (left), and Nicole Tiernan applied to a one-year master’s degree program at the University of Nottingham in England, where they also hope to play lacrosse.

“In high school they left in the morning and they didn’t come home until after practice,” said the twin’s mother, Donna Tiernan.

Despite their successes in other sports, lacrosse always took precedence.

“They were track stars in high school and they excelled at track, but they hated it,” Donna Tiernan said. “I guess because it’s an individual sport.

They were very nervous running track, even though they were literally the stars of the team. Megan ran the 800 and after like her sixth time running it she won state championships in the 800.”

Upon arriving at Temple, Nicole Tiernan made an immediate impact, scoring eight goals and earning Atlantic-10 All-Rookie team honors.

She earned all-Big East honors for her sophomore and junior seasons, scoring a team-leading 35 goals in 2015 to earn first-team honors.

After being a unanimous selection to the preseason all-Big East team, Nicole Tiernan has 18 goals this season, which is sixth on the team. Megan Tiernan has started ev-

ery game in her junior and senior seasons. She is currently tied for second on the team with 25 goals.

The twins, who have combined for 144 goals in their four seasons, don’t want Temple to be the last place they play lacrosse.

Megan and Nicole Tiernan also have other options open to them postgraduation if they cannot study in Nottingham.

Their fallback plan is to take a year off from school, get jobs to save money and apply to graduate school in the area.

There are also options available if they want to continue playing lacrosse. The United Women’s Lacrosse League, which has teams in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Long Island, New York with 20 players each, will begin its inaugural season this year.

They could also try out for the United States Women’s National Team, led by Georgetown coach Ricky Fried. Nicole Tiernan tried out for the team after her sophomore season, but was not selected out of the field of 84 players.

For them to consider either option, the circumstances need to be right.

“If the opportunity presented itself and I was in a place in my life, where I could, I’d consider it but I think that it would have to be the perfect time, the perfect fit,” Megan Tiernan said. “It’s a commitment to make and if I was in grad school or had a full-time job, I think it might be a little difficult. It would just have to be the perfect fit.”

In whatever post-graduate plans they consider, playing lacrosse will be a factor.

“We enjoy the sport so much,” Nicole Tiernan said. “We’ve spent so much time, money and effort into perfecting the way we play, and we simply enjoy playing. We’ve played for so long that, I mean it’s like second nature to us. It’s like walking.

We love to play and we don’t want to stop.” * evan.easterling@temple.edu T @Evan_Easterling

Kraft, athletic department face crossroads Continued from page 20

ATHLETICS

on’s share of resources into it, or they can continue to spread the wealth in order to pursue a nationally competitive program as a whole. But this isn’t an original idea, in fact, it’s Kraft’s.

“Our goal obviously is to win The [American Athletic Conference] championship, but our eventual goal is to win the national championship,” said Kraft, who was promoted to athletic director last year. “Now that can take time, but the way that you have a successful department is when everybody is winning.”

It would appear Kraft is still in pursuit of his goal, but he faces the temptation of the bigtime dollars that come from big-time football.

They’ve flirted with conference realignment, likely after the oversized television revenue Power 5 conferences enjoy. While it seems unlikely it would pan out, even the thought of sending women’s soccer to Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas is cringe-worthy.

The possibility of several million dollars sliding into the department’s budget off the football team is enticing, but the big-time schools display each and every year the compromises big-time football can have with both the integrity of its institution and the commitment to the department as a whole.

Look at Baylor, occasionally pointed to as a promising example of how Temple can make it big without a 60,000-person stadium and a large athletic budget. In February, it was reported that Baylor is currently facing accusations of

ignoring sexual assault survivors’—allegedly assaulted by football players—right to justice.

Other examples span from the University of Tennessee, which faces a similar suit featuring harrowing details of protection of football players accused of sexual assault.

The president obviously is behind Kraft and football coach Matt Rhule, one of his first hires in 2013. But rightfully said the university isn’t after a juggernaut of a program.

“Financially, football drives the bus, there’s no doubt about it,” he said in an interview with The Temple News on Nov. 17, 2015. “If you try to run an athletic program around basketball, there simply isn’t enough revenue around that to do it. Football because of TV revenue and marketing and all the things that come with it. … [Football] is the piece you really have to pay

attention to, because that’s what allows you to do what you want to do here. So that’s what it does for us more than us trying to be a national power or anything.”

One semester away from becoming an alumnus, I hope the department continues in pursuit of a well-balanced athletic program with student-athletes in mind.

A nationally competitive football program is enticing, but—given the sad nature of the athletic cuts—I should hope the decision to trim the number of teams will yield more than just a handful of exciting Saturday afternoons. * esmith@temple.edu T @ejsmitty17

SPORTS RUNNING FOR A FIRST

Graduate-senior Blanca Fernandez looks to become the first female athlete from Temple to compete at the Olympics.

PAGE 19

thecherry.temple-news.com

STICKING TOGETHER

SUMMER COVERAGE

For continued coverage of this academic year and summer, check online at temple-news.com.

After graduation, Megan and Nicole Tiernan hope to attend graduate school and play lacrosse together.

PAGE 19

TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

PAGE 20

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016

FOOTBALL

Matakevich, Ioannidis, Young selected in NFL Draft, several others to be signed

HOJUN YU TTN

Tyler Matakevich, (center) and Matt Ioannidis, (right), were both selected in the 2016 NFL Draft. Matakevich will head to the Pittsburgh Steelers after being the 246th player off the board, while Ioannidis will be a Washington Redskin after their fifth-round selection.

INSIDE

READ MORE ON PAGE 18

GOLF

Matthews begins prep for next step

Athletics: A year in review The athletic department will soon face a pivotal decision regarding the prioritization of football.

Brandon Matthews plans to pursue a professional career after continuing to play as an amateur this summer.

By TOM IGNUDO The Temple News At the Bull’s Bridge Golf Club in South Kent, Connecticut, then-freshman Brandon Matthews walked up to the tee at the 10th hole in a playoff with the 2012 Hartford Hawks Invitational on the line.

After grabbing his 3-iron, he pulled coach Brian Quinn aside and said, “Watch me aim this shot at the crowd of people, aim it as high as I can and hook it in.”

On the par 5, while facing the wind and hitting the ball uphill, Matthews drove the ball 275 yards to land five feet within the hole. He then knocked the ball in for an eagle and won his first tournament as an Owl. “He just has that thing that most players don’t have,” Quinn said. “When you watch any sport, wheth-

er it’s Stephen Curry or it’s baseball and you’re watching Mike Trout, when you watch college golf, you look at Brandon versus everyone else. He just has that little extra swag.”

Matthews’ win at Bull’s Bridge Golf Club in 2012 was the first of his eight career wins at Temple.

Now, in his final season as an Owl, Matthews said he plans to compete as an amateur during the summer. His pursuit of a professional career began while attempting to earn his PGA tour card in the fall semester.

In order to obtain his PGA tour card, Matthews must first apply for entry to qualifying “school,” a common name for a series of

MATTHEWS | PAGE 18

SPORTS@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

PAUL KLEIN TTN FILE PHOTO

Brandon Matthews will compete as an amateur this summer.

He just has that thing most “ players don’t have. ... He just has that little extra swag.”

Brian Quinn | coach

More than two years ago, I was bestowed a responsibility that terrified me.

I had just been hired as The Temple News’ sports editor, and I realized I was now responsible to be the authority on Temple’s athletic department.

I had to fully understand how important Gavin White was, which teams were still in The Big East Conference and—most EJ SMITH importantly— be able to serve my readership in pursuit of the university’s financial situation after the athletic cuts in 2014.

Take it from someone with a front-row seat to nearly the entire process: the cuts were ugly.

But since that time, I’ve witnessed Temple transition from an underperforming, underfunded athletic department to a well-functioning administration moving in the right direction.

The football team went from a 2-10 cellar dweller to what President Theobald called

“the front porch” of the university. The men’s basketball team went from winning less games than the nation’s best football teams to its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2013.

The athletic department’s newly slimmed down 17-team lineup is now enjoying more funding per team and more university support than ever.

But the department is still forming its new identity following the cuts. Because of this, it is at a crossroads.

With $136 million—and counting—backing an on-campus football stadium and three graduated Owls hearing their names during the NFL Draft, the groundswell of support may hinge on another successful season.

But would a successful football program be the proper consolation prize for the five sports programs no longer sponsored? It’s unlikely.

There is certainly a better outcome: an entire department of competitive teams.

Athletic Director Pat Kraft and his administration can pursue a big-time football program by continuously pumping a li-

ATHLETICS | PAGE 19