VOL. 96 ISSUE 8
temple-news.com @thetemplenews
A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017
No reported student calls to WOAR
Before the homes become rubble The Philadelphia Housing Authority will demolish Norris Homes, breaking up a tight-knit community that has been around for decades. BY JULIE CHRISTIE Enterprise Editor
B
everly Williams was quiet, looking through her open front door on an uncommonly hot October morning. The only thing that moved was the reflection in her glasses of the two small children who lived next door, tottering around the parking lot. So much had happened in that parking lot, the 77 year old said — prom sendoffs, college and high school graduation parties, birthday parties, even a wedding reception. She sighed. “I don’t know,” she said. “My grandkids, they’ve been playing around here forever.” It was silent again for a moment, then she added quietly, “They won’t be coming back no more.” Williams will move out of Norris Homes, where she lived for the past 40 years, on Nov. 7. In April 2018, the Philadelphia Housing
Authority will demolish the Norris Homes housing development, located east of Main Campus on 11th Street between Berks and Diamond, to build a mixedincome development. The redevelopment is funded
NO R R I S PAGE 6
Two assaults have been reported on or near Main Campus, but no student has used the Women Organized Against Rape’s satellite office. SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Norris Homes, a public housing development east of Main Campus, will be demolished in the spring.
ONLINE Explore our interactive story about the demolition of Norris Homes at longform.temple-news.com.
SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Frances Dixon, 43, (second from left) sits on the couch with her family inside their home on 11th Street and Norris. She has lived in Norris Homes for the past 22 years.
Remembering a student, friend Friends and family of freshman Richard Dalcourt, who died by suicide on Oct. 3, remember him as “an exceptional person.”
BY WILL BLEIER For The Temple News Temple and Women Organized Against Rape, a nonprofit that offers a 24/7 sexual assault crisis hotline, have been partners for nearly nine months. But no students have accessed help from WOAR’s satellite office on Main Campus, despite Temple Police publicly investigating two sexual assault cases this semester. In January, the university secured its partnership with WOAR in response to the demands of students who wanted a more comprehensive resource on campus for sexual assault. As a result, WOAR created its satellite office, which is not associated with the university. Students can call the crisis hotline, and a counselor from the satellite office will meet on Main Campus with any survivor of sexual assault. This is the first partnership WOAR has made with any Philadelphia-area university. After nine months of availability, WOAR Executive Director Monique Howard said services had not yet been utilized by students. “We have not received to date any calls specifically from Temple University with the
W OA R PAG E 3
FENCING
Team upgrades practice facility The team moved into a $45,000 space in the Student Pavilion this semester. BY MICHAEL ZINGRONE Cross Country Beat Reporter
BY KELLY BRENNAN Assistant News Editor Kevin Ku and Jess Sabin remember the many times they ate at Bobby’s Burger Palace and saw movies at AMC MarketFair 10 in Princeton, New Jersey, with their best friend Richard Dalcourt, or Rick, as many called him. The three would eat at Bobby’s, see a movie — preferably something made by Marvel — and then go back to eat more burgers after the movie ended. It was a weekend tradition for the trio.
We will never forget him and all the good times that we’ve had together. JESS SABIN
HOMETOWN FRIEND OF RICHARD DALCOURT
“Rick was like a brother to me and Kevin,” Sabin said. “We will never forget him and all the good times that we’ve had together.” Dalcourt died by suicide on Oct. 3 after falling from a lounge window at 1940 Residence Hall. He was a freshman mechanical engineering major.
DALCO URT PAG E 8
When coach Nikki Franke brought a recruit to visit Main Campus before the season, the prospective athlete was shocked to see Temple’s new fencing facility. Current fencers were just as shocked. “As soon as I saw the final product, one word came into my mind,” sophomore sabre Malia Hee said. “‘Wow.’ That was all I can say.” “‘Wow’ would not be a reaction toward our old practice space,” Franke said. With funding from donors, Temple built a new practice facility for the fencing program at the Student Pavilion on 15th Street between Norris and Montgomery Avenue. The fencing team previously practiced in the dance studios on the second floor of Pearson Hall. With the opening of the Student Training and Recreation Complex on the corner of 15th Street and Montgomery Avenue earlier this semester, the required space for a fencing facility became available.
MIKE NGUYEN / THE TEMPLE NEWS Junior epee Fiona Fong (left) and senior epee Safa Ibrahim practice on Oct. 10 at the Student Pavilion.
Teams that formerly used the Student Pavilion during winter months and inclement weather now can practice on the indoor turf field at the STAR Complex, which is how the team got the space, Franke said. “I have been asking about this for years,” Franke said. “When they told me in August we would get the space, I had to wait until it became reality. Now that it is reality, we can enjoy the new space and forget the headaches the dance studio could cause from time to time.” Their new facility includes seven fencing strips and an array of practice
dummies. With funding from donors, Temple built the facility at a cost of $45,000, Board of Trustees member and Athletics Committee Chair J. William Mills III said. “We’ve been trying to upgrade... all the sports, and somebody always has to be last,” Mills said. “But we’d been trying to do this for the last two or three years, and we’ve finally got ourselves to the situation where all of our sports have been upgraded at this point.” “We had to get a new boathouse,
FA C I L I T Y PAG E 16
NEWS | PAGES 2-3, 6-8
OPINION | PAGES 4-5
FEATURES | PAGES 9-14
SPORTS | PAGES 15-18
The View II, a $199 million apartment complex, broke ground last week on 12th Street near Cecil B. Moore Avenue. Read more on Page 2.
A columnist argues that students should take notes by hand instead of using technology. Read more on Page 4.
The chair of emergency medicine at the medical school is also the coach of Philly’s dragon boat team. Read more on Page 9.
The football team must win at least three of its five remaining games to become bowl eligible for the fourth year in a row. Read more on Page 18.
NEWS PAGE 2
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017
IN-DEPTH
The Sheller Center for Social Justice: explained Beasley School of Law students get real-world experience defending low-income Philadelphians in clinics. BY LAURA SMYTHE For The Temple News The Sheller Center for Social Justice at the Beasley School of Law connects law students with people and organizations involved with social justice throughout Philadelphia. The center, which Provost JoAnne Epps came up with while she was still dean of the law school, has been running since 2013 to provide pro-bono representation to clients. The center was named after Stephen and Sandra Sheller, who pledged a $1.5 million gift in 2012 to support the legal office. The Board of Trustees approved $500,000 of the future pledge payments by the couple to be fully spendable by the office at its meeting on Oct. 10. The center was recently relocated from the Student Center to the fourth floor of Klein Hall. But what does the Sheller Center actually do, and what are its recent projects? WHAT IS THE SHELLER CENTER FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE?
It is comprised of two clinics: the Social Justice Lawyering Clinic and the Justice Lab, which both provide students with experiential learning in their field by allowing them to represent clients. In these clinics, some students represent low-wage workers and immigrants, while others create campaigns and services to make advocacy more accessible. Co-Legal Director Jennifer Lee, who teaches at the Social
Justice Lawyering Clinic, said students in her clinic represent workers in wage-theft cases who haven’t been paid fully or at all. Students in the lawyering clinic have taken cases across industries. They have represented construction workers, laundromat and restaurant employees. Students file complaints and write demand letters, question witnesses and even go through hearings with their clients. “In those cases, students act like traditional lawyers do when [clients] may need help negotiating a case, or they take it to court,” Lee said. Throughout a semester, students also take on advocacy projects in collaboration with, or on behalf of a community social justice organization. She said these projects often focus on systemic reform issues. Students in either clinic, which contain eight students, earn six credits each. The Sheller Center is involved in other community-oriented projects. In partnership with North Philadelphia community organization Ceiba, law students that are trained by tax law professors to work with lowincome Philadelphia residents to properly file their taxes. The center also offers a student disciplinary advocacy service in which law students work with Philadelphia families whose children are facing disciplinary action at school. Law students help families navigate disciplinary hearings and, in some cases, even attend them. WHAT ARE RECENT PROJECTS BY THE SHELLER CENTER?
As the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy has been threatened by President Donald
LAURA SMYTHE / THE TEMPLE NEWS Clinical Professor and Co-Legal Director Jennifer Lee and Program Coordinator Len Rieser stand in the Sheller Center for Social Justice, which relocated this year to Room 411 of Klein Hall, on Oct. 4.
Trump’s administration to deport illegal immigrants who came to the United States early in their childhood, the Sheller Center has made itself a resource to Temple students and community members who may be affected. “I think there was actually a pretty fantastic response from the local community here in terms of providing people with legal resources and information sessions,” Lee said. “The best thing we thought we could do was be a resource for those issues in terms of making sure that people on campus knew that there were all these clinics going on and where they could call.” In March 2017, the Justice Lab students wrote a report that the city’s Department of Human Services filed lawsuits against parents to recover the cost for the time their child was incarcerated, almost always targeting low-wage parents. The report was addressed during a City Council hearing, which the students attended. Students also recently partnered with the Youth Organizing Project of the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition to determine a way to protect children from immigration raids and create an
accepting environment in schools. Students created a toolkit that is now available on the Sheller Center’s website for people interested in presenting this issue to their local school districts. WHAT DO LAW STUDENTS THINK OF THE SHELLER CENTER?
Rebecca Daily, a thirdyear law student and co-author of “Pennsylvania Workers in Jeopardy: The Hidden Problem of Temporary Employment”, said the Sheller Center provides students with real-life lawyering experience. “I think the Sheller Center tries to expand Temple law students’ idea of what lawyering looks like and also what tools a lawyer has at their fingertips,” Daily said. “A lawyer might have a reputation for wanting to litigate, get into a situation and tell people what to do, but the Sheller Center is all about collaboration and listening to a community’s needs and coming up with creative solutions.” Anne Bonfiglio, a third-year law student who took Lee’s clinic during her second year, said she thinks the Sheller Center is a good tool for law students because it gets them outside the classroom.
“I feel like the Sheller Center tries to be responsive to things that come up in the news,” Daily said. “The professors are really plugged into the community. I feel like they know so many people at different nonprofits.” WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF THE SHELLER CENTER?
Program Coordinator Len Rieser said the Sheller Center aims to increase its interdisciplinary interactions with other university departments and strengthen the community connection between the center and community residents near Main Campus. “The law school exists in its own space and sometimes it’s hard for other people to figure out how they could connect with it,” Rieser said. “Certainly some of the projects that students have done have been relevant to the needs of North Philadelphia, but I think it would be nice if we could create an even closer connection. More networking, more joint projects, more service to this community.”
laura.smythe@temple.edu @lcs_smythe
CONSTRUCTION
New $199 million apartment complex breaks ground The View II will house a community space for residents. BY KELLY BRENNAN Assistant News Editor Construction of the View II, a $199 million project by the owners of the View at Montgomery, began last week. The student apartment building will be built on 12th Street between Montgomery and Cecil B. Moore avenues and is expected to be completed in Summer 2019. The View II is an addition to the View at Montgomery and will have 984 available beds, retail space and amenities for residents like a fitness center, study lounges and a “sky lounge” on the top floor of the building. There will also be a “community space” on the 11th Street side of the building that will be dedicated to community functions, which could include programming for senior citizens or an early childhood and pre-K facility, said Kevin Trapper, the senior vice president and development director for the Goldenberg Group, which is the developer and owner of the
News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com
property. The exact use of the space has not yet been determined. “We are not thinking that it is [for] pure student use,” Trapper said. “We’re just trying to work through what is the best thing for the community overall because again, you do have varying demographics throughout the community.” In September 2018, students can begin pre-leasing rooms in the View II for a 12-month period. The cost to rent these rooms will be “similar” to the rent in the View at Montgomery, but an official price has not yet been determined, Trapper said. According to the View at Montgomery’s website, the current rate for a four-bedroom apartment rent ranges from $1,009 to $1,059 per month. Leonard Johnson, 70, has lived on Oxford Street near 13th since the 1960s. He said he sees the new apartment complex as an improvement to his neighborhood. Johnson said he had not heard about the community space in the new building and he hopes his neighbors know about it. Roger James, a 72-year-old man who lives on Newport Place
COURTESY / THE GOLDENBERG GROUP Construction has started between Montgomery and Cecil B. Moore avenues for the View II. Students can pre-lease rooms next September.
near Cecil B. Moore Avenue, said the new apartment building will cause more problems with parking in the area next to the apartment complex. “That is the main problem in the community,” James said. “[Students] park everywhere. They want to get free parking, so they park on our streets and in our culde-sacs.”
The View II will offer 94 parking spots for residents to use for a fee. “Temple is taking over the whole neighborhood,” he added. “That’s the concern. They’re building apartment complexes all around here, but nothing for the community. There are no services for us.” James said he has not heard
about the proposed community space and because many senior citizens live in the neighborhood and “don’t have a lot to do,” he said that a space for senior citizens would be beneficial. “It’s a good idea,” he added. “It should be brought to the table.”
kelly.brennan@temple.edu @_KellyBrennan temple-news.com @thetemplenews
NEWS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017
PAGE 3
RESEARCH
Temple studying how to be a tobacco-free campus
JAMIE COTTRELL / THE TEMPLE NEWS Students smoke cigarettes on the steps of the Tyler School of Art on Monday.
The university is partnering with Thomas Jefferson University, which has been tobacco-free since 2014. BY AMANDA TREIBLE For The Temple News
The College of Public Health received a $20,000 grant to study how Temple could become a tobacco-free campus in Fall 2018. The grant is from the American Cancer Society in collaboration with the Truth Initiative, the CVS Health Foundation and the Tobacco-Free Generation Campus Initiative. CPH formed a task force over
the summer to study how to implement the tobacco-free policy. Jennifer Ibrahim, a CPH associate dean for Academic Affairs and the recipient of the grant, said she received the ACS grant to fund education materials and student workers for the task force. Ibrahim and CPH’s Dean Laura Siminoff created a survey with the task force that was sent out to students, faculty and staff about their smoking habits. The survey was sent out via email on Oct. 2 and closed last week. A smoke-free campus includes the banning of items, like cigarettes, cigars, vapes and other items that produce smoke. A tobacco-free campus, which the university aims to become, means that any tobacco product would be prohibited, including chewing tobacco, snus and snuff.
As of Jan. 2, there were 1,757 smoke-free campuses and 1,468 tobacco-free campuses in the United States, according to a report by the American Non-Smokers’ Rights Foundation. The task force is still working out how this policy will be enforced on campus and if the campus will be completely tobaccofree or only include combustible items, not including vapes, Ibrahim said. Ibrahim expects to have prepared the results by the end of the fall semester to share the findings for future steps toward a tobacco-free campus. At Temple, smoking is prohibited within 25 feet of a “main entrance, exit or operable window of a university building.” But Ibrahim said it is difficult to enforce this policy. “Especially when it’s cold or it’s inclement weather…[there are] folks standing under the awning so they don’t get wet or snowed on,” she said. But the university’s urban and open setting, which allows the public to visit Main Campus freely, may be a challenge when implementing a tobacco-free campus policy. “What we are doing at this point is trying to access what are other local schools and colleges doing in the area, ‘What are other schools that look like Temple doing?’” Ibrahim said. “[Thomas Jefferson University] has similar challenges to us in the sense that it is a city-based campus.” Jefferson has been a tobacco-free campus since April 2014. Temple is teaming up with Jefferson to learn about how it enforced this policy. Jefferson pushes education about the dangers of smoking. It pairs employees who want to quit smoking with other people who have successfully quit. “The approach and the mindset we want
to keep is that we’re trying to be proactive and positive,” Ibrahim said. “So it’s important to recognize smoking is an addiction, and the approach cannot be to punish smokers.” The approach she hopes to take is to inform students and the public not only that the policy exists, but also on why it is in place, Ibrahim said. According to ACS, 90 percent of smokers start smoking by 18. “I think [a tobacco-free policy is] good for everybody,” Ryan Ashby, a junior civil engineering major said. “Obviously for... years now scientists and doctors have been saying how damaging smoking is to oneself and to others.” Ashby does not smoke, but has family members who do. He said he hopes the tobacco-free policy will encourage people who want to quit to make the step to actually quitting. “I think it’d be a better thing for me,” said Christina Douvartzidis, a freshman university studies major who smokes. “I think smoking less is probably a better option.” Kalie Johnson is a junior East Asian studies major who smokes cigarettes. “Since I smoke, I’m not particularly happy about [the policy],” Johnson said. “I get stressed out really easily.” Johnson thinks she’ll still smoke on campus despite any policy changes. Ibrahim said she hopes the task force will have options to present to the Board of Trustees by Fall 2018. The Board will have the final say in any new university-wide policy.
amanda.treible@temple.edu
TSG
TSG to begin hosting community forums next month Activate TU ran on a platform that promised to increase the frequency of community forums. BY AMANDA LIEN Copy Editor Temple Student Government will host its first community forum at the beginning of November, said Paige Hill, TSG’s vice president of external affairs. This forum of students, North Philadelphia residents and TSG members will discuss the proposed oncampus stadium. “We’ve made a lot of contacts with local residents, as well as block captains,” she said. “We have pretty consistent communication with the block captains and people who live in the area, so we plan on utilizing that network.” There will be “at least two” additional community forums in the spring, Hill added. Last year, TSG held community forums at the Amos Recreation Center on 16th Street near Montgomery Avenue. Hill wants to keep using it for meetings. “We’re looking to figure out ways in which we can see how people on both sides are feeling,” she said. “We want to do it off campus so people can share their expressions freely.” Jocelyn Marrow, an employee at Amos and block captain of the 1700 block of North 16th Street, said she hadn’t heard anything about TSG’s planned forums. “I think it would be good to have a meeting [at the recreation center],” she said. “They need to make sure they have enough literature to pass around to the community to let them know it’s
happening more than the day before the event.” The proposed on-campus stadium will be the first topic of discussion because the university announced last week that it hopes to finish its feasibility study by the end of the calendar year. “We also want to know firsthand how community residents are feeling about this,” Hill said. “We’ll couple their opinions with student opinion and try and find common ground that we can properly communicate to the administration.” TSG plans to engage the surrounding community in other ways. TSG hosted a Community Day at the start of the semester, but an AdoptA-Block event co-organized with Temple Police was canceled last minute in September. On Oct. 27, TSG will host a street cleanup event during Campus Sustainability Week, a series of events sponsored by the Office of Sustainability. Hill also said TSG is in the process of planning a Pathways to Temple event in April. The series of events was created by last year’s administration and co-hosted by the Church of the Advocate on Diamond Street near 18th. It brings high school students from North Philadelphia on TSG-led tours of the university. “I think that because we’ve been working with offices like [Temple Police] and Public Safety on a lot of issues that affect the community, there’s a good liaison between students, administration and people who live here,” Hill said. “I think that our working relationship with them is pretty set.”
amanda.lien@temple.edu @AmandaJLien
SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Temple began a satellite partnership nine months ago with Women Organized Against Rape, a nonprofit offering support for sexual assault survivors in Philadelphia. The nonprofit is headquartered in Center City.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
WOAR need to have someone go out to the secured location on campus,” Howard said. The process is set up so that when students call the hotline, they are met by a trained sexual assault counselor within 30 minutes to an hour. The counselor then provides confidential assistance in a secure location. But no call has yet facilitated a meeting like this. Fourteen cases of sexual offenses on and around Main Campus were reported to Campus Safety Services in 2016. Temple Police is currently investigating two sexual assault cases that occurred in Johnson and Hardwick Residence Hall and the 1700 block of Fontain Street on Sept. 22. Both suspects have been identified by Temple Police, said Charlie Leone, director of Campus Safety Services. A report released by the Department of Justice in 2014 revealed that “among student victims, 20 percent of rape and sexual assault victimizations were reported to police.” This report also found that students ages 18 to 24 were less likely to report alleged sexual assaults to police as compared to non-students of the same ages. Temple’s Title IX Coordinator Andrea Seiss, who investigates alleged acts of discrimination and sexual assault on campus, said she was unaware of the number of calls WOAR was receiving from students. Her office will request aggregate data on calls placed to the hotline from students “at some point this semester,” she added. According to a 2014 report issued by the Presidential Committee on Campus Sexual Misconduct formed under former President Neil Theobald, the committee recommended
24/7 counseling and sexual assault hotlines. “Currently, Tuttleman Counseling Services does not have its own hotline; rather it promotes a city-wide rape crisis center, Women Organized Against Rape (WOAR), that offers various resources, including a 24-hour hotline,” the report reads. “Respondents reported a desire for 24-hour sexual assault counseling services as well as a Temple run 24-hour hotline.” The report also called for a sexual assault center on campus where survivors could go to receive care, but Seiss said the university has no current plans to move forward with that recommendation. Both Seiss and Howard said there was a lack of awareness among students about the services and resources their respective offices provide. “What we heard from students is they want us to get ourselves out there more,” Seiss said. “We started it last academic year, and we’ve rolled out a new marketing campaign as part of some data that we have been able to gather from focus groups with students, and that marketing campaign is largely about who to go to…so that they can get the support and services that we have to offer.” “We have increased our marketing to Temple University,” Howard said. “We have been a stronger presence on campus, and it’s going to take the students a minute to really determine or figure out how to utilize [WOAR] in an effort to give them support.” Survivors of sexual assault who want to access WOAR’s resources can be met anywhere on Main Campus within 30 minutes to an hour by a representative by calling WOAR’s hotline at 215-985-3333.
william.bleier@temple.edu @will_bleier News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com
OPINION TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017
PAGE 4 CLASSROOM A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921. Michaela Winberg Editor-in-Chief Grace Shallow Managing Editor Jenny Roberts Supervising Editor Julie Christie Enterprise Editor Gillian McGoldrick News Editor Jayna Schaffer Opinion Editor
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Unsigned editorial content represents the opinion of The Temple News.
Visit us online at temple-news.com. Send submissions to letters@temple-news.com. The Temple News is located at: Student Center, Room 243 1755 N. 13th St. Philadelphia, PA 19122
EDITORIALS
Know your neighbors As Norris Homes closes, students should recognize and connect with the surrounding community. Students often rush back and forth past Norris Homes on Berks Street on their way to and from the Temple University Regional Rail station. But not many take notice of the public housing development on 11th Street between Berks and Diamond, or acknowledge the residents who live there. The Philadelphia Housing Authority issued a notice to Norris Homes residents on Oct. 2 that they had 90 days before mandatory relocations begin, as PHA makes room for what will become a new mixedincome housing development. In this week’s issue of The Temple News, an enterprise details the history of the housing development and its residents. Many residents told us they are saddened by having to move and shared some of the memories they’re leaving behind. The university has coexisted with Norris Homes for nearly 60 years, and while
students have come and gone from Temple, many residents have lived at Norris Homes for decades. The Temple News constantly reports on the changes affecting the community surrounding Main Campus, and continually encourages students to respect residents and form relationships with them. Through this project, we spoke to loving parents and friendly neighbors. We heard about birthday parties and family celebrations. We heard about the lives of people who live near campus, simply because we decided to ask. And we are grateful that we did. Next time you walk past a resident on their stoop, stop to say hello and ask how they’re doing. And when you’re returning to campus from the Regional Rail, smile at the people as you pass by. After all, these are our neighbors, too.
Open notebooks, not laptops Students benefit from taking notes by hand in class, rather than typing on laptops.
I
n most of my classes, you’ll find me shifting my gaze from the board to my notebook as I take meticulous notes. I find comfort in the way my gel pen glides across my college-ruled paper. Moving my pen to write down the information that will later appear on a quiz or midterm helps it stick in my mind. But this is not the case for a large RAE BURACH portion of my classmates. With the plethora of technologies we have at our fingertips, the pen-to-paper approach for note-taking is becoming uncommon. Laptops, tablets and recording devices have taken over the old-fashioned method, and lecture halls are now filled with the clicking and tapping of keyboards. I’ve found that I perform better on tests when I take notes by hand rather than typing them. A study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, validates this. In a study of 65 students, those who chose to take notes on their laptops performed “significantly worse on the conceptual questions” when tested compared to their peers who took notes by hand. In order to perform better on exams, students should start closing their laptops, and instead, open their notebooks. Alex Carpenter, a sophomore psychology major, said she likes to type her notes for class. Typing
makes note-taking “a lot neater than [she] could have possibly made it” while writing. She added that it helps her “keep up with whatever the professor is saying because professors sometimes they go way too fast.” While I understand that students appreciate the ease, speed and neatness that can be attributed to typing their notes, I don’t think most of them are aware of the disadvantages. According to Medical Daily, a health and science news website, motor memory plays a tremendous role in the way we remember things. Writing by hand allows students to recall information later by using a person’s motor actions, according to the Medical Daily article. This feedback is different than that received when typing the same notes on a keyboard. The act of physically writing out letters to form words and phrases engraves the information in our minds. Vishnu Murty, a psychology professor who studies memory research, said there are three phases of memory: encoding, consolidation and retrieval. “Encoding is when you’re learning all the information,” Murty said. “Consolidation is right after learning when things start to get stabilized in your brain. And the third phase is retrieval, which is how you’re able to pull that memory from murky pits of your brain.” “The benefit of writing the information is that it gives you another way to retrieve the information,” he said. “There’s more associated with it.” When students type their notes, they have a tendency to copy their professors’ slides word for word. It’s easy to do, as typing is much quicker and simpler than using a pen or pencil. This dispels the need for students to actually
process what they’re typing, Murty said. With a writing utensil, they’re more inclined to read, analyze and summarize each slide — helping them to retain the most important ideas. Murty said this phenomenon is called “levels of processing.” It is an “old psychological phenomenon known to highly benefit memory,” Murty said. Students are “forced to think about the material in a deeper way.” Technological advancements are not slowing down. And where there are advantages, there will always be disadvantages, too. I understand that many students enjoy being tech savvy, but their personal devices may be getting in the way of learning. Students might want to rethink their personal preference, given some concrete evidence that writing down notes is better for learning. Murty said there may be a way to find a compromise if you’re not ready to reach for a pen and paper. Tablet writing, he said, could offer a “happy medium.” You would still have the benefits of handwriting while electronic storage takes care of the rest. If you’re a student who succeeds through electronic note-taking, you may not see the benefits of switching to handwriting your notes. But writing down this information by hand will aid you in remembering and understanding it more thoroughly, even after your test. And if you’re a student who is fruitlessly searching your mind for terms and facts you could’ve sworn you stored somewhere, I highly suggest you pick up a pen. In my experience, it can do wonders.
rbur@temple.edu
Grow campus resources The university should expand its resources for survivors of sexual assault beyond WOAR. In January, the university partnered with Women Organized Against Rape, a Philadelphia-based sexual violence crisis center, and opened a satellite office on Main Campus. Students can call a 24-hour sexual assault crisis hotline, and WOAR counselors will meet them anywhere on Main Campus for confidential support. Despite this resource being available, no students have reached out to WOAR so far, Monique Howard, the organization’s executive director, told The Temple News. We commend the university for its effort to expand on-campus resources for survivors of sexual assault. But we also urge university leaders to consider another way to reach out and provide support if no one has utilized this service. According to a 2014 report issued by the Presidential Committee on Campus Sexual
Misconduct formed under former President Neil Theobald, the committee recommended a sexual assault crisis center on Main Campus and a 24/7 mental health counseling hotline. Tuttleman does not have its own 24/7 hotline, and the university has no existing plans for a sexual assault center, but WOAR is accessible 24/7. Expanding resources is pertinent, as on-campus sexual assault still affects members of the Temple community. Fourteen cases of sexual assault were reported last year, and two cases reported this year on or around Main Campus are currently being investigated by Temple Police. We are aware that there will never be a solution that works for all sexual assault survivors. But it is important that Temple keeps working to assist every Temple student in need.
CORRECTIONS Accuracy is our business, so when a mistake is made, we’ll correct it as soon as possible. Anyone with inquiries about content in this newspaper can contact Editor-in-Chief Michaela Winberg at editor@temple-news.com or 215-204-6737.
letters@temple-news.com
SASHA LASAKOW / THE TEMPLE NEWS
LETTER TO THE EDITOR The vice president of Student Affairs writes that the university offers support following tragedies. We all have been deeply saddened by the tragic deaths of three of our Temple students this semester. The quick succession of these events has left our Temple community stunned. These were exceptional young people, full of promise for the future, and we grieve these losses deeply. Moreover, these deaths have occurred during a time of unrest on campuses across the nation, several national tragedies and a series of hurricanes devastating Houston, South Florida, the Caribbean and Puerto Rico. These natural disasters have ravaged the hometowns of some of our own students. It is a stressful time for students, faculty and staff. We feel the pain shared by all, and we want to express our compassion
and concern for our community, including the extended community of the relatives of affected students. We stand ready to offer you our support. First and foremost, Tuttleman Counseling Services is available to all students and is easily accessible through daily walk-in hours, with night and weekend hours as well. Second, faculty and staff can offer you support and comfort as you process the challenges we face today. Let us know what you need. Ask for help from Temple professors, advisers, resident assistants, coaches, mentors, student leaders, Student Affairs staff, doctors, nurses, etc. We are here for you and are truly invested in your well-being. Third, Temple offices
such as IDEAL, the Wellness Resource Center and the Dean of Students Office can provide you connection and comfort. Finally, there are numerous faith communities on and around campus that can provide support. We hope that these resources may be of some assistance to you or to anyone you know who has been affected by these tragedies. We remain together as one Temple family, united through challenges. Please let us know if you need help.
Theresa A. Powell is the vice president of Student Affairs. She can be reached at theresa.powell@temple.edu
temple-news.com @thetemplenews
OPINION TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017
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To my sisters: what all women know A student writes about what femininity means to her as the oldest of four sisters.
M
y childhood was a bubble of femininity. I am the oldest of four sisters. When I think of my childhood, I think about each of my sisters and their individual quirks. But I also think of us as one moody, stubborn and energetic unit. During every road trip, soccer game and bus ride to school, I could turn to find one of them next to me. The bubble of my childhood was a place where nail polish dried on desks and walls — a symbol of clumsy hands. It smelled of the notear shampoo rubbed on my head while I sat in a yellow bathtub next to my sisters. It sounded like four sets of feet pacing in anticipation before being allowed to check under the tree on Christmas morning. It was a safe place inside that bubble. As we got older, the bubble tried to grow with us as we explored new experiences, whether they broke our hearts or warmed them. But bubbles are delicate and bound to pop. When I was in middle school, mine burst. A friend and I begged our parents to let us go to the movies by ourselves. They agreed, and drunk with newfound independence, we giggled our way through the lines to buy tickets and find seats in the theater. As the theater’s lights dimmed, a man wearing a gray sweatsuit sat two seats away from me.
I didn’t start feeling sick until I saw the rustling near his crotch out of the corner of my eye. I heard muttered words like “hard,” “young” and “innocent.” I felt my face get red. I glanced over, and he was staring at me and my friend with a hungry glare in his eyes that I’d never seen before. Paralyzed with fear and shock, I stared at the seat in front of me, waiting for him to stop. It felt like an eternity before he got up and left the theater — probably only about 10 minutes later. The movie played on, but I had one image in my mind: him. Growing up in a house of four girls, there’s a lot to
BY GRACE SHALLOW inherit — hand-me-downs, jewelry from older relatives and lessons. Lessons that every woman will come to know during her lifetime. That day in the movie theater, I learned that being a girl is not always so cute, sweet and giggly. Sometimes, it’s downright terrifying. And since my bubble burst, I’ve been reminded of that lesson time and time again.
COURTNEY REDMON / THE TEMPLE NEWS
Banning smoking is illogical
A
lmost every time I walk outside my dorm or down the street, I am bound to pass someone taking a smoke break, whether it be a student, professor or a North Philadelphia resident. We all know the risks of smoking. The statistics have p r o v e n the use of tobacco is correlated to lung cancer, and it is the number one p re ve n t a b l e cause of death CHRISTINA MITCHELL in the United States. But, according to a 2015 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, about 15 percent U.S. adults ages 18 years or older smoked cigarettes. This means that year, an estimated 36.5 million college-aged adults in the U.S. were smoking cigarettes. Temple is possibly joining other schools in placing restrictions on smoking cigarettes. Recently, a university-wide survey was sent out via email to see what the Temple community thinks about an on-campus smoking ban and ask for policy suggestions. While I’m aware of the health risks of smoking, I think it’s foolish for the university to try to impose this type of rule — our campus is not a closedoff territory, but a public part of the city that is home to a larger population than just students and
childhood lovingly. There is not a memory I would change. But that’s simply all they are: memories. And they are no shield for the frankly disgusting things women hear about their own bodies in this leering world. Instead, they’re a comfortable daydream to reminisce on when I tense, clench my teeth and walk faster — a place to escape. So this essay is another form of inheritance for my sisters to have when their bubbles inevitably pop. Know that, when you hear these things about yourself, they do not sum up your worth. Know that it is not OK for people to treat you like a display in a store they’re windowshopping — never tolerate it. Know that if you need to run, I can be your destination. And know that you are not a coward if you need to run. Know that you are brave for being the amazing women you are, despite all of the ways society tries to make us feel ashamed of our femininity. Know that if your bubble hasn’t popped already, it will. And it will be rude — it will feel like watching the scary parts in movies without being able to cover your eyes. It’s real life, and you will feel helpless facing it some days. But know that, as a woman, you three are my strength. And that will never change.
grace.shallow@temple.edu @Grace_Shallow
ON CAMPUS
The university shouldn’t implement policies that make decisions for students and faculty.
When I walk past a group of men, I feel my chest tighten as I wait to be catcalled and demeaned. When a man whistles while I wait to cross the street, I feel my muscles tense. When he says, “C’mon gorgeous, smile more,” I clench my teeth. When he hurls the insult “Bitch” at my back as I ignore his invitation, I walk faster. In all of those moments, I am the terrified, skin-and-bones girl sitting in the back of the movie theater who, for the first time in her life, felt completely vulnerable. This was the first time I felt that bubble and all the protection it offered slip away. I remember my
faculty. It is up to the university to educate students and make us aware of dangerous things, but it is not up to the university to make moral or health decisions for us. Several schools across the nation have taken measures against on-campus smoking by placing restrictions on where students can smoke, and some have gone as far as to ban smoking tobacco completely — the Community College of Philadelphia instituted a ban in January. Ana Beam, a freshman philosophy major who smokes cigarettes, thinks prohibiting smoking wouldn’t help students end the habit. “I’d understand if Temple banned smoking because of students’ health, but I think students may try to go off campus in dangerous areas to smoke,” she said. In the email sent out to students and faculty, the Temple Smoke-Free Task Force Committee wrote that the university is considering a smoking ban to create a “healthier environment.” It also listed disturbing statistics about the effects of cigarette smoke. “We are trying to improve the health of students,” said Jennifer Ibrahim, associate dean of Academic Affairs in the College of Public Health. “And the purpose of the survey is to get the input of students and faculty and to remember that we all coexist on the campus and must respect each other.” I’m sure many members of the university are in favor of banning tobacco use. But since Main Campus is public, it would be a challenging, if not impossible, move to make legally. Many North Philadelphia
residents walk the streets of campus daily, and it is out of Temple’s jurisdiction to force them to comply with nonsmoking. “Temple’s location in the middle of the city makes this policy illogical,” Beam said. “In my personal opinion, it’s reasonable to enact a no-smoking policy, but only within a certain amount of distance from Temple-affiliated buildings, so basically the way it is now.” Smoking is currently prohibited 25 feet from building entrances. When I took the survey, I selected “allow the use of all products on campus only at specific outside locations.” I think this option is a good compromise for both sides of the issue, and it is the most realistic option for a school situated in the middle of an urban neighborhood. It’s understandable to place restrictions on areas that are mostly populated by students, like in front of residence halls and classrooms. But anything more than that would be virtually impossible. “We do not have a definite campus, and we share the location with residents of the city, unlike schools like the University of Pennsylvania,” Ibrahim said. While implementing a ban on smoking cigarettes may seem like an ideal solution to make campus healthier, it is unfeasible to enforce. The university’s policy should remain as it stands: smokers should be mindful of where they are smoking on Main Campus and respectful of the minor limitations. christina.mitchell@temple.edu
FROM THE ARCHIVES
February 21, 2006, City Council was considering a ban on smoking in public places, including bars. One concern was that the ban could negatively affect local businesses. Last week, an email was sent out to all students and faculty warning them of the dangers of smoking cigarettes and informing them that the university is considering a ban. It contained a link to a survey with the goal of gathering public opinion about the potential ban.
MONICA LOUGH / THE TEMPLE NEWS Columnist Christina Mitchell wrote that a smoking ban would be unreasonable to enforce on Temple’s urban campus.
letters@temple-news.com
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017
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NORRIS by the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, a federal grant awarded to PHA in 2014. Because Norris Homes is a public housing development, residents have no choice but to leave. Norris Homes was built in the 1950s as an affordable housing development for people who are low income, meaning tenants pay a monthly rent of about 30 percent of their total income. According to PHA, there are still about 75 families living in Norris Homes. PHA issued a notice to residents on Oct. 2 that they had 90 days before PHA will start mandatory relocations of residents in Norris Homes.
THE UNCERTAINTY Ahmed Williams worries about what the move could mean for his 11-year-old brother. Williams, 21, and his family already moved most of their belongings to their new home on 19th Street near Diamond. “My little brother, he’s 11, so he likes to go outside and play basketball,” he said. “I don’t want him to be a victim because nobody knows him, like if he goes to a park and somebody tries to fight him or something. Here he didn’t have to worry about that.” Every resident will have to adjust in some way to moving out of Norris, some more drastically than others. Colleen Shanahan, the founder and director of the Justice Lab at the Beasley School of Law’s Sheller Center for Social Justice, said there can be consequences to relocating residents in public housing. Adjusting to the move is one of the more difficult consequences to measure. People with low income don’t have the economic flexibility to move multiple times, she said. While PHA assists with the direct moving costs, losing benefits like job access and the social networks people build in their communities can have an economic impact. “If you’re a low-income person whose
neighbor watched your kid in the evening while you worked your second job, and you’re moved to a different housing option, you may lose that child care and thus the ability to have a second job,” Shanahan said. “And obviously, in less tangible ways, you lose that social and emotional support.” When this kind of social structure is disrupted, people go through “root shock,” a result of the stress people experience when they’re forced to leave their neighborhoods and lose the social networks built there. The phrase was made popular in 2004 by the book “Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America, and What We Can Do About It” by Mindy Thompson Fullilove. “I don’t think they realize that they’re uprooting people from their lives,” said Wanda Rush, 59, who has lived in Norris Homes for the past 17 years. “They’re uprooting us from our way of living, our lives. For me it’s been very stressful. … I’m starting to lose weight because of it.” “I don’t know what my future’s going to look like,” she added. “And that’s scary for me.” Rush is still in the process of finding a new home.
SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Beverly Williams, 77, sits inside her home on 11th Street near Norris on Oct. 7. She’s lived in Norris Homes for about 40 years.
ILLUSTRATION BY COURTNEY REDMON, PHOTO BY SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS
TERM
DEFINITION
Public housing
“Public housing was established to provide decent and safe rental housing for eligible low-income families, the elderly and persons with disabilities.” Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Affordable housing
“Housing, rental or owner-occupied, that is affordable no matter what one’s income is. The U.S. government regards housing costs at or below 30 percent of one’s income to be affordable.” Source: Affordable Housing Online
Market-rate housing
“Refers to properties that are rented or owned by people who pay market rent to lease the property or paid market value when they bought the property. There is no subsidy for the housing.” Source: Homebase for Housing
Mixed-income housing
While there is no set definition, this often refers to housing developments that are a combination of affordable and market-rate housing. There is no set guideline for how many affordable units are required to be mixed-income housing. In Philadelphia, a certain percentage of units is required to receive zoning and tax bonuses. Source: Shomon Shamsuddin, a social policy and community development professor at Tufts University
Section 8 housing, or Housing Choice Vouchers
“The housing choice voucher program is the federal government’s major program for assisting very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market. ...The participant is free to choose any housing that meets the requirements of the program and is not limited to units located in subsidized housing projects. Housing choice vouchers are administered locally by public housing agencies (PHAs). ... A housing subsidy is paid to the landlord directly by the PHA on behalf of the participating family.” Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Choice Neighborhoods Initiative
“The Choice Neighborhoods program supports locally driven strategies to address struggling neighborhoods with distressed public or HUD-assisted housing through a comprehensive approach to neighborhood transformation. ... The program is designed to catalyze critical improvements in neighborhood assets, including vacant property, housing, services and schools.” Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Rental Assistance Demonstration program
“RAD was passed in 2012 to alleviate the $25.6 billion backlog of needed improvements to public housing around the country. It allows local housing authorities to use private and public funding to complete projects. This converts public housing into Section 8 housing — kept permanently available by long-term contracts that must be renewed. However, Section 8 housing is opt-in, meaning landlords have to decide whether they want to participate in the program.” Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
WHAT’S COMING & WHY The demolition of Norris Homes became certain in 2014, when PHA received a $30 million Choice Neighborhoods Implementation grant from HUD. The redevelopment is expected to cost $125 million. PHA will provide $58 million, the grant guarantees $20 million and the rest will come from private funds and tax credits, Jeremiah said. The Norris Homes development is an example of two common but controversial public housing policies: mixed-income housing and the use of Rental Assistance Demonstration when public housing is redeveloped. The city has several initiatives to increase mixed-income developments: a 2016 ordinance gives developers “bonus” space if at least 10 percent of the development is affordable housing, and in June, Councilwoman Maria QuiñonesSánchez introduced legislation that would require all developers to include permanent affordable housing units in future projects. “We need to maintain a balance in the community, deconcentrate poverty,” Jeremiah said. “We don’t want to create communities that have a high number of folks who are living at or below the poverty level.” He added that mixed-income developments would give people with low income access to more amenities like nearby stores and strive for people to pursue “social and economic mobility.” But the effectiveness and success of mixed-income housing developments are still widely debated, Shomon Shamsuddin, a social policy and community development professor at Tufts University, wrote in The Conversation, an academic news site, in 2015. When displaced residents return to live in the new mixed-income housing, they “tend to be happy along certain dimensions” like the quality of the neighborhood, Shamsuddin told The Temple News in February. “But there’s often a sense of social isolation and that their neighborhood community has changed and a lot of their neighbors are gone.” Many factors affect whether Norris Homes’ residents will return to the new development. The project is part of RAD, which has a built-in right for displaced residents to move into whatever new development replaced the public housing they used to live in. The protection is meant to be a one-for-one return rate — every person who wants to return should have a unit available for them. But any residents who choose to purchase
a home are not eligible to return. Rasheedah Phillips, a 2005 law alumna and a managing attorney at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia — which provides free civil legal services to low-income Philadelphians — said there are other factors that deter residents from coming back. “Practically speaking, when you think about how long it takes to build housing and all of the things that happen to a family in that time period, it becomes a hardship for people,” Phillips told The Temple News in April. “Even though they have a right not to [reapply for housing,] that doesn’t mean that they can’t still be evicted and that automatically extinguishes their right to return.” “I think really the question you want to be asking is…‘Are you taking more housing for lower-income people and replacing it with less housing for lower-income people?’” Shanahan said. “And that’s, in general, a big concern because the goal of public housing is to provide housing assistance for people who can’t afford it at market rates.” The new development will replace each of the 147 units that will be destroyed with 297 units split between homeownership and rentals. These are then divided into affordable and market-rate units. Most of the new units will be affordable housing run by PHA. About 40 units will be available to anyone. Jeremiah said the new development won’t be marketed toward students, but students may apply and can be selected like any other applicant in the city. “We wanted to have a mix of units, both rental and homeownership, at various income levels,” Jeremiah added. “I think Temple’s involvement helps us shape a housing and community plan that meets the needs of everyone in the community.” Jeremiah added that Temple helped PHA “think critically about the educational aspects” of the redevelopment. In July 2014, the Inquirer reported that Temple, PHA, the city’s Office of Housing and Community Development and APM “worked closely with neighbors to develop the blueprint for revitalizing the neighborhood. Beverly Coleman, the assistant vice president for community relations and economic development, wrote in an email that Temple participated in applying for the Choice Neighborhoods Implementation grant. Once the grant was awarded, Temple took on the role of lead education partner.
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NEWS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017
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A TOWER THAT’S NOT THERE This exodus of residents is obvious: the boarded up homes stand out in stark contrast to the ones still occupied. Residents said they knew it was eventually coming, that it had been a possibility since 2011, when PHA tore down an 11-story high-rise next to the remaining houses on 11th Street near Diamond. On that lot, PHA built 51 modern, low-rise apartments. “When I first heard [PHA was knocking down the homes], that was years ago,” said Nomar Wilson, an 18-year-old Norris Homes resident. He’ll be moving to Strawberry Mansion after living in the development for nearly his whole life. “I really wasn’t paying it no mind, then as I see...a lot of people moving out and stuff, ‘Wow, we’re really about to move,’” he added. “[When] they knocked [the tower] down, that’s when I started thinking, ‘We’re next if they knocked that down.’” But the true indication of Norris Homes’ fate came in 2013 when Paseo Verde, a mixed-income development, was built by Jonathan Rose Companies. Two blocks away from Norris Homes on 9th Street and Berks, it’s operated by the nonprofit Asociación Puertorriqueños en
Marcha. Before Paseo Verde was built, the space was a parking lot. Now, the facility, which cost about $50 million to build, houses a pharmacy, a Western Union branch, an APM office and 120 rental residential units. There are 53 units designated as affordable housing for people who earn less than 60 percent of the area’s median income — which is $83,200 in 2017, according to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. The rest of the units are market rate, meaning anyone who can pay the rent can live in Paseo Verde, which costs from $1,350 to $1,750 per month depending on the floorplan. About 80 percent of the marketrate units are rented by Temple students, said Gwendolyn DuPard, the property manager for Altman Management Company at Paseo Verde. All of the affordable-housing units are filled and there’s currently a waitlist, said Rick Olmos, the director of external affairs and communications for APM. Jonathan Rose Companies and APM will build the new housing development once Norris Homes is demolished, said PHA President and CEO Kelvin Jeremiah.
TEMPLE & CHOICE NEIGHBORHOODS Temple surrounds Norris Homes — Main Campus borders the houses to the west, Edberg-Olson Hall and Chodoff Field to the north, Temple University Regional Rail station and the university’s facilities buildings to the east. As the lead education partner for the Choice Neighborhood Initiative, the College of Education runs afterschool programs for the children at Norris Homes and leveraged $1.2 million from the initiative in resources like staffing, equipment and volunteer hours. “[PHA is] the housing lead, but you also have educators like Temple University who has been incredible in supporting not only the housing component but also the after-school program,” Jeremiah said.
James Earl Davis, who holds the Bernard C. Watson endowed chair in urban education, oversees Temple’s involvement in the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative. “We have families and children that are important and we can’t lose sight,” Davis said. Through the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, Temple has also generated more than $1 million in donations and grants for the existing after-school programs and summer camps. Davis said he hadn’t even set a goal to raise any money. Funding for the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative and grants and donations helped fund multiple positions for residents, like a program administrator.
ILLUSTRATION BY COURTNEY REDMON, PHOTO BY SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS
A QUIET REMEMBRANCE, THEN GOODBYE Receding into the grassy hill where the Regional Rail tracks cross over Norris Street are seven brick walls, painted to look like Norris Homes across the street. The houses will soon be gone, but the paintings will remain. The mural, “The Norris Homes Historical Marker,” was completed in 2015 as part of the Mural Arts Philadelphia program. Jennie Shanker, the mural’s artist and an adjunct professor in the Tyler School of Art, led after-school programs and created the Norris Yearbook, a photographic documentation of the families in the development. She also painted doors and windows on the boards that covered the homes residents have already left. At first glance, the houses appear to have a normal door and windows. “Initially people were like, ‘They’re just going to rip that down. Why are you wasting your time?’” she told The Temple News in December 2016. “Then people started coming up and saying, ‘You know, you’re doing that wrong. We don’t have shades like that. That’s so-and-so’s house. Are you going to paint them in the window?’” Residents like Ahmed Williams will still remember Norris Homes long after the houses are gone. “The [new] house is good and all that, but
memories,” Ahmed Williams said. “I grew up in this house. My little brother, he was born in this house. I’ve been living here since I was 2.” “It’s a heartache,” he added. “This is the last of my days sitting here. And when I come next time... the whole memory of everything is going to be different.” Even though Beverly Williams’ kitchen is still full of trinkets and photos of her grandchildren, she’s getting ready for when she moves out next month. Earlier this month, her neighbor, Frances Dixon, 43, walked in with her family to tell Beverly Williams they were off to a hair appointment. One of the toddlers who had been playing in the parking lot asked if Beverly Williams had a popsicle. “[Norris Homes] was real nice,” Beverly Williams said. “It’s a place that I would like to always live, instead of out in other places.” She was looked around her kitchen like she was taking it in for the last time. “I’d rather be here than anywhere else.”
julie.christie@temple.edu @juliechristie
SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Cards hang inside Beverly Williams’ home on her kitchen walls. Williams, 77, will move out of her home in Norris Homes next month.
ILLUSTRATION BY COURTNEY REDMON, PHOTO BY SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS
SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS A group of men sit in the parking lot on Norris Street between Marvine and 11th on Oct 7. as neighborhood children play in the lot.
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NEWS PAGE 8
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017
IN-DEPTH
Analysis: Who are the Stadium Stompers? The Stadium Stompers, which first began advocating against the proposed on-campus stadium in 2015, has set new demands. BY GILLIAN MCGOLDRICK News Editor
The Stadium Stompers held a theatrical demonstration called “Meet Your Board of Trustees” in front of Sullivan Hall, where the Board met last Tuesday. Barriers lined Polett Walk from Broad Street to 13th Street to section off protesters from the Board of Trustees during their meeting and later during the dedication of Lenfest Circle. The Stadium Stompers are the main opposition group to Temple’s proposed on-campus stadium and have hosted several demonstrations since the group formed almost two years ago. But who are the Stadium Stompers, and what do they want from the university? WHO ARE THE STADIUM STOMPERS?
The Stadium Stompers are an activist group made up of North Philadelphia residents, students and faculty who oppose the potential building of an oncampus stadium. The group has been in existence since the university unveiled its plans for the stadium in October 2015. Involvement in the Stadium Stompers has varied, with meetings filled with more than 150 people in March 2016 to less than 20 people at times. The group most often meets in the Church of the Advocate on 18th Street near Diamond. The group meets twice a month and has been holding private “strategy” sessions where
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DALCOURT Ku and Sabin lost a friend who they described as “caring,” “really smart” and “just a really good guy.” Dalcourt received scholarships to several universities, but chose to attend Temple. During this past summer and the first few weeks of the semester, Dalcourt is thought to have “slipped into a depression” possibly because of his college transition and plans for after college, his parents Kathy and Al Dalcourt wrote in an email to The Temple News. Dalcourt considered becoming a doctor and was thinking about applying to medical school. He did well in human anatomy and engineering classes in high school. Dalcourt attended West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North in Plainsboro, New Jersey. This is where he met his “devoted group of friends,” his parents wrote. Ku and Sabin played countless hours of pool and video games in Dalcourt’s basement during their four years in high school. Dalcourt’s favorite game was Dark Souls, which allows the player to determine its plot, and he was so good at it that his friends would try to play with him, but it would usually end with him taking the controller from them and completing the level
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the press is prohibited from attending. The Stompers have mainly focused their frustrations on the Board of Trustees. Since the group’s formation, the Stompers have made unfounded claims about Temple and its administration throughout the course of their protests. WHAT DO THE STADIUM STOMPERS WANT?
The main goal of the Stadium Stompers is to prevent an oncampus stadium from being built in North Philadelphia. But recently, the group has presented a new list of demands in addition to its opposition of the stadium. The Stadium Stompers have demanded that the Board of Trustees be dissolved and be replaced with a group of “democratically controlled” community residents, students and university workers. The Stompers also call for the university to reinvest the $130 million that would be spent on the stadium to be spent on public education and affordable housing for veterans and senior citizens. Oftentimes, the Stompers will host demonstrations with other organizations like minimum wage increase advocacy group 15 Now, which some Stompers are also members of. The Stompers are also attempting to uncover trustees’ alleged corporate ties, making claims that trustees are responsible for corporations’ alleged wrongdoings. For example, the Stompers accuse trustee Christopher McNichol of being involved in his employer Citigroup’s 2008 “policies that led to massive foreclosures and debt, especially among people of color and the elderly,” the Stompers wrote on its Tumblr page. This
unchallenged, Sabin said. “He would be yelling at us, ‘Oh, you have to do this. You have to do that,’” Sabin said. “Then, he’d get fed up, and he would just take the controller and beat it in three seconds. The rest of us were just sitting there in awe.” “When Rick put his mind to something, he was really damn good at it,” he added. Dalcourt, who was diagnosed early in his life with ADHD and had learning difficulties like dyslexia, still excelled in school and was known by many for helping others, Dalcourt’s parents wrote. Ku and Sabin had algebra and trigonometry with Dalcourt during their junior year of high school. This was when they coined the term, “Rick Math,” used to describe Dalcourt’s way of solving math problems that didn’t follow the way the class was taught. Instead, he came up with his own way that neither his friends nor his teachers could decipher. “Eventually, it became known as ‘Rick Math,’” Sabin said. “To this day, I still don’t know how he did it.” In Dalcourt’s sophomore year of high school, his parents noticed that he was spending a lot of money at lunch — enough money to feed two people. They talked to their son about why he was spending so much. Dalcourt was buying food for another student who could not afford lunch. “Rick was an exceptional person — always caring for
claim is unfounded. Some claims about other trustees, like Dennis Alter, are true. Alter was the chief financial officer at Advanta Bank Corp., which was sued by the FDIC in 2013 for charging its customers yearly interest rates of more than 30 percent between 2008 and 2009 through “repricing campaigns,” according to reports by The Temple News. The bank later settled with the FDIC for $23.5 million. ARE THEIR DEMANDS POSSIBLE?
President Richard Englert said in September that the university is still pursuing the possibility of an on-campus “multipurpose facility,” so it is unclear if the Stompers will effectively prevent the university from building the facility. Englert said the university is operating “multiple studies” into an on-campus stadium because the university would save up to $3 million annually if it had its own stadium, rather than renting space in Lincoln Financial Field, where the team has played since 2003. Football coach Geoff Collins alluded to the stadium being likely at a press conference earlier this month. “I think it’s special,” Collins said. “I think having a place right here…is going to be great. Whatever time frame it happens, we’re going to make the absolute best of it.” One of the Stompers’ other demands — to disband the Board of Trustees — is also unlikely. Every major university and college in Philadelphia has a board of trustees. It is a common practice at major institutions in the United States to have university boards that are run by alumni donors. Despite this, the Stompers
believe they can create change with these demands, said Anna Barnett, a 2017 women’s studies alumna and Stadium Stompers leader. “We wouldn’t be fighting for [our demands] if we didn’t think that they were possible,” Barnett added. “Anything that’s been won in the past has been won through struggle...We want to push people to reimagine how Temple could function as an institution.” The Stompers also call for the university to reinvest the money it wants to spend on the stadium, and instead spend it on education, senior citizens and veterans. But they offer no clear path as to how the university should do so. The $130 million price tag for the stadium is made up of funds from the governor’s office, donors and from a debt service. The money for the stadium from the state government is specified to be spent on this construction and may not be able to be reinvested. The money from donors is also specifically given for the erection of a stadium. HAS THE UNIVERSITY ADDRESSED THE STADIUM STOMPERS’ DEMANDS?
Englert met with the Stadium Stompers for the first time in August. He told the members that the stadium could not be discussed “with any specificity” because the university had not completed the $1.25 million feasibility study. Englert made no commitment to halt plans for a stadium at the meeting, but was still deciding whether to move forward with the proposed stadium, according to a Facebook post from the organization. In the past, the Stadium Stompers has invited the Board of Trustees to attend its meetings
at the Church of the Advocate, but none of the trustees attended, The Temple News reported in March 2016. Stadium Stompers members were allowed to attend the Board of Trustees meeting last week, with about 10 members inside the meeting. When Englert gave his abridged State of the University address to the Board and mentioned the university’s efforts for a stadium, one resident said “No, no thanks. We don’t want that.” Englert did not stop his speech and residents were not directly addressed during the meeting. The Stompers have halted and disrupted forums on the stadium with former President Neil Theobald. WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE STADIUM STOMPERS?
The Stadium Stompers are going to continue to oppose the stadium, “no matter what happens,” Barnett said. Temple Association of University Professionals has said they are open to working with the Stadium Stompers. Several members, like adjunct intellectual heritage professor Wende Marshall, are also Stompers. The Stompers will host its next meeting on Oct. 25 at 6 p.m. in the Church of the Advocate. The group has not announced any future demonstrations. “We’re still saying ‘no stadium’ no matter what, and we’re not gonna concede,” Barnett said. “Our demand is no new stadium, ever. And we’re going to continue fighting for that.” gillian.mcgoldrick@temple.edu @Gill_McGoldrick
others,” his parents wrote. Dalcourt extended his caring attitude to strangers too. The friends ended their senior year with a class trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. As they walked through the park, Dalcourt noticed a woman had dropped her wallet. He didn’t tell his friends what he was doing. He just picked up the wallet, darted through the crowd and returned it to the stranger. “He noticed before any of us did,” Sabin added. “He doesn’t like to talk a lot, but if you get to know him, you get to see a different aspect of him,” Ku said. “He’s really caring.” Ku and Sabin lost their best friend this month, but the memories of burgers, movies and late-nights in Dalcourt’s basement remain. Dalcourt’s parents visited their son on Oct. 1 and took him to Outback Steakhouse for one of his favorite meals — a blooming onion and a hamburger with grilled onions. “Our last words to him were that we loved him,” his parents wrote. “I just hope that people really take this and acknowledge the people in your life,” Sabin said. “Just treasure those in your life. He was a really great guy, and I want everyone to know that.”
kelly.brennan@temple.edu @_kellybrennan
COURTESY / PAIGE DALCOURT Richard Dalcourt was a freshman mechanical engineering major who died by suicide on Oct. 3. Dalcourt is remembered by his friends and family as “caring,” “really smart” and “just a really good guy.”
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FEATURES TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017
PAGE 9
PEOPLE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Alumna’s brand disrupts beauty standards A 2015 alumna cofounded a makeup brand for diverse skin tones.
BY KHANYA BRANN For The Temple News
C
KHANYA BRANN / THE TEMPLE NEWS Camille Bell, a 2015 public relations and advertising alumna, applies Red Velvet, one of the five shades in Pound Cake’s Hot Cakes Collection, in her office on the rooftop of The Yard: Midtown Village.
amille Bell wasn’t allowed to wear makeup until she got to college. “In ninth grade, my friend Renae bought me this big eyeshadow kit for Christmas,” said Bell, a 2015 public relations and advertising alumna. “I remember putting one of them on and it made me look so vibrant. I fell in love with makeup just from that one experience.” Her parents weren’t as thrilled. They wanted her to love her natural self and not become dependent on makeup to feel beautiful, she said. For the next few years, she was only allowed to use the kit on special occasions. Once she got to Temple, Bell was free to experiment with makeup. During her junior year, she took a makeup class in the theater department and was exposed to its transformative power. Right after graduation, she came up with the idea for Pound Cake, a makeup company that caters specifically to Black women by creating products that flatter a range of skin and lip tones. Bell and Pound Cake’s co-found-
POUND CAKE PAGE 12
FACULTY
Professor leads double life as dragon boat coach Dr. Robert McNamara has been the coach of Philly’s dragon boat team since the 1980s.
The Schuylkill is lined with artwork and scenic views, many of which often go unnoticed. But Dr. Robert McNamara is able to spot all of the river’s hidden treasures from his motorboat. From his mornings paddling on the river, he can point out 19th-century artist Frederic Remington’s large bronze sculpture, “Cowboy,” among other works. McNamara, the chair of emergency medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine, has served as the head coach of the Philadelphia Dragon Boat Association since 1986. The team practices on the Schuylkill weekly and will compete at the 2017 International Dragon Boat Federation World Championships in China from Wednesday to Sunday. Dragon boat teams are comprised of 20 team members, who race a certain distance against other teams in the fastest possible time. Dragon boat racing dates back to China more than 2,000 years ago, where the sport was superstitiously believed to promise ample crop production. In present times, dragon boat racing takes on a more competitive form interna-
tionally. McNamara began paddling in 1984 as an opportunity to represent the United States in the Hong Kong international races, which he learned about through an advertisement in an Inquirer column by Clark DeLeon. He was in residency at the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia at the time. He had no experience with dragon boating before this, but the sport quickly became an integral part of his life. Since the 1980s, he has led the team to various national competitions, including the World Championships, which began in 1995. McNamara likes the competition. “[It’s] seeing other people get better, become world champions,” McNamara said. “[They] go from people who never paddled anything [to] world champions. It’s kind of cool.” The Philly team has 60 to 70 members who routinely attend practices. In preparation for any competition, the team practices a minimum of five times per week as early as 5:45 a.m. Most times, practices tend to target areas that build the team’s strengths. “We try to focus on the longer events because the strength of our team is a little more aerobic,” McNamara said. “So we tend to focus more on the 2,000-meter and the 1,000-meter race, and [those are] our most successful races.”
AMAZON | PAGE 10
COMICS | PAGE 10
THERAPY | PAGE 13
SMOKING | PAGE 14
Advertising students are participating in a social media campaign to build Amazon headquarters in Philly.
The College of Liberal Arts is hosting a one-day conference about perceptions of graphic arts on Tuesday.
Occupational therapy students are creating assistive technology out of cardboard for children with disabilities.
Students who smoke on Main Campus see the activity as a way to relieve stress and socialize.
BY RACHEL MCQUISTON For The Temple News
MARY RAGLAND / THE TEMPLE NEWS Dr. Robert McNamara, chair of emergency medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine and coach of the Philadelphia Dragon Boat Association, gives instructions from his motorboat at a practice on the Schuylkill on Oct. 7.
McNamara said his practice tactics are effective, and Susan Lemonick, a team member, agrees. Lemonick, who has been racing with PDBA for 17 years, became involved with dragon boat racing after she read an article in a newspaper about a woman who started a women’s dragon boat team. “I’ll tell you what, [it’s] his incredible eye and incredible mem-
ory,” Lemonick said. “He can pick something out in you, and then he can remember all of the people he’s coached over the years.” McNamara’s coaching skills stem from his own experience, as well as a philosophy regarding the sport. “Basically you teach [the team] the technique and then whoever works the hardest wins, which is
kind of like the way the world is supposed to be,” McNamara said. McNamara’s daughter Colleen said the sport has always been a stress reliever for her father. Colleen McNamara, a 2014 early childhood education and English alumna, has been involved in dragon boat racing since 2003,
DRAGON BOAT PAGE 14
F E AT U R E S PAGE 10
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017
IN THE CITY
Students campaign for Amazon office in Philly Dana Saewitz, the advertising department chair, spearheaded the social media campaign. BY PATRICK BILOW Copy Editor While sitting inside the restaurant a.kitchen+bar in Rittenhouse Square, Olivia Bumgardner took a picture of the street outside through a window. She posted it on Instagram with the caption, “There’s Philadelphia charm behind every shop window, every nook, and every cranny.” For Bumgardner, Philadelphia is home to a variety of determined and passionate people. But she thinks it could also be a second home for Amazon, one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies. “Like so many, I love Philadelphia,” said Bumgardner, a sophomore public relations major. “It’s time for Amazon to realize how proud we all are of the city we live in.” Last month, Amazon announced that it was looking for a second headquarters, in addition to its current one in Seattle. This announcement sparked competition among cities nationwide. In an attempt to convince Amazon to choose Philadelphia, Temple students and Philly Ad Club — a nonprofit advertising agency in Philadelphia — have launched a social media campaign using #PhillyIsPrime. Through encouraging other students to use the hashtag on Twitter and Instagram, awareness of the campaign is growing. “We have started something that could change Philadelphia for the better,” said Dana Saewitz, the advertising department chair and a Philly Ad Club board member who got students involved with the campaign. “But we are also showing the world what our city has to offer.” On Instagram, the 154 posts containing #PhillyIsPrime are accompanied by students immersing themselves in the city. Many posts are of landmarks in Philadelphia, like City Hall and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, while others capture students on Main Campus or eating food in Center City. On Twitter, students have posted reasons why they think Amazon should come to Philly. They have pointed out some of
OLIVIA O’NEILL / THE TEMPLE NEWS Olivia Bumgardner, a sophomore public relations major, takes a picture of City Hall for the #PhillyIsPrime campaign on Thursday. The campaign is promoting Philadelphia as the location for Amazon’s second headquarters.
their favorite parts about the city, like sports teams, food and the bars and posted photos of the Philadelphia skyline with captions like, “Imagine waking up to this every morning, Amazon.” Justin McAneny, a 2005 journalism alumnus and member of the social media committee for Philly Ad Club, originally suggested the campaign to Saewitz after a Philly Ad Club meeting last month, where it was decided to create a big project before 2018. He said he didn’t expect anything to come out of their conversation. “Her face lit up and she said, ‘Yes, that’s a great idea. Let’s do it,’” McAneny said. “So we decided to start a committee and then we let the students take over.” With the promise of 50,000 new jobs and $5 billion in capital expenditures, major cities across the country from Oakland,
California, to New York City are trying to convince Amazon to build headquarters there. But McAneny said that #PhillyIsPrime is different than other efforts. “While most cities are using economic reasoning to attract Amazon, we are using the aesthetic this city has to attract them,” McAneny said. “We want to show them the culture that Philly has to offer. We want Amazon to know that their employees will be happy here. And that is something a lot of other cities have forgotten about.” #PhillyDelivers is another Amazonrelated social media campaign run by the Mayor’s office that focuses on businesses in Philadelphia. McAneny added there is no better way to show Amazon what Philadelphia is like than by getting students involved on social media. Although the campaign is only one
month old, McAneny said he has also noticed businesses and other students at different schools, like Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania, using #PhillyIsPrime on Twitter and Instagram. “That was always the plan,” Saewitz said. “Once we started the campaign at Temple, we wanted to branch out and get the rest of the city involved.” McAneny added that no matter the outcome, he has been continually impressed with the quality of work that Temple students have produced. “This is how we want to reach Amazon,” Bumgardner said. “This is why we came here to Philadelphia and this is why Amazon should too.” patrick.bilow@temple.edu @patrick_bilow
ON CAMPUS
CLA ‘engages’ in comics, graphic illustrations The one-day conference is focused on the intersection between comics and academia. BY CACIE ROSARIO For The Temple News After poring through boxes of archived comics from Paley Library’s Special Collections Research Center, JT Waldman found some “hidden gems” to showcase in an exhibit. On Tuesday, the College of Liberal Arts is hosting “Graphic Thinking,” a one-day conference about using comics and graphic illustrations to investigate significant social and political questions on the second floor of the Student Center. In addition to panel discussions on topics like free speech, identity and styles of comic illustration, the conference presents two main exhibits: “The Graphic Underground: Comix, Censorship & Identity,” which is curated by Waldman, and “Black Graphic Thinking.” Both exhibits will be on display in Room 223 of the Student Center. The conference reflects CLA’s semester theme, “Graphic Thinking,” and explores how graphic and visual communication changes people’s perception of the world. The theme is a collaboration with Intellectual Heritage, and relates to co-curricular events, speakers and exhibits held throughout the semester.
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“It’s an intersection of ‘comix,’ society and academia,” said Waldman, a Philadelphia-based digital designer. The spelling of comics as comix dates back to the 1960s and refers to the subgenre of “underground” comic books. Compared to mainstream, family-oriented comics, comix writers incorporated more mature themes — like sex, drugs and violence — into their work. “It became a way of showing it was adult and not funny like newspaper comics,” said Waldman, who got involved with the exhibit through connections in the Honors Program. Diane Turner, curator at the Blockson Collection, did the same when she chose items for her “Black Graphic Thinking” exhibit. The items in this exhibit date back to the 1940s, Turner said. They include political illustrations from Oliver Harrington, a 20th-century Black satirist and cartoonist, and work by Jackie Ormes, the first AfricanAmerican woman cartoonist. The exhibit also features a series of graphic novels, like the “March” trilogy written by Georgia congressman and Civil Rights leader John Lewis. The series is inspired by the comic “Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story,” which was written in 1957 about the bus boycotts in Montgomery, Alabama and the nonviolent battle against segregation. “They were trying to make history accessible to young people,” Turner said. She
added that the graphic medium makes complex topics easier to understand. In addition to historical graphic texts, the exhibit also displays issues of the Marvel comic book series “Black Panther.” Written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, 2015 MacArthur fellow and national correspondent for The Atlantic, the series follows superhero T’Challa, the leader of the fictional African nation Wakanda, which is one of the world’s most technologically advanced countries. Although the Black Panther character was created in 1966, the character began to regain mainstream popularity when Marvel recruited Coates to revive the character for comic books in 2016. The Black Panther is only now the star of a Marvel Studios film, “Black Panther,” which will be released in February 2018. “You get to see the Marvel superheroes that were always around, but somehow by the time we get to Hollywood these superheroes were excluded for a long period of time,” Turner said. Increasing Black representation in popular culture helps counter racist stereotypes applied to African-Americans, Turner said. ”It gives us the opportunity to revisit and reintroduce African-American superheroes, as opposed to African-American criminal stereotypical images that are applied to the whole group,” she said. Dustin Kidd, a sociology professor and director of IH, also sees graphic novels as an important teaching tool. He said he’s excited about the conference because of its connec-
tion to IH class themes. “It helps us engage in the parts of literature that we often forget to engage [in],” Kidd said. “This show explores new ways to solve problems, be creative and think about the world.” For Waldman, his interest in comix formed not in a college classroom, but as a young child. He said he was an avid comic book reader growing up and was always “doodling.” “Comix opened me up to philosophy and psychology,” Waldman said. “I’m constantly learning. Every project forces me to research and view something a different way.” Turner said the impact of graphic art goes even further. She said there’s an extensive history of African-Americans being assaulted in popular culture, whether through harmful images or exclusion in narratives overall. “In terms of teaching, it is critical to be able to explain, and then eradicate, Black stereotypes in popular culture related to both race and gender,” she added. Turner hopes the conference will influence attendees as well. “It’s important to include unrepresented artists in comics and illustrations in order to move beyond the stereotypes of traditional comic art,” Turner said. “It is imperative to highlight the rich expressions of Black artists both past and present. This gives us the opportunity to do that.” cacie.rosario@temple.edu
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F E AT U R E S TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017
PAGE 11
FOOD
Law alumna shows city tourists the food culture of Chinatown Jamie Shanker runs Philly Food Adventures, which organizes food tours in Chinatown.
BY EMILY TRINH For The Temple News When Jamie Shanker was in fourth grade, her birthday party was dim sum-themed. The next year, it was a soup dumpling birthday party. For three years, Shanker, a 2012 Beasley School of Law alumna, has worked as a food tour guide in Chinatown. Shanker started giving tours through SideTour Philadelphia, a now-closed online marketplace for touring arts and food culture. In 2015, she established her own business dedicated to the tours called Philly Food Adventures. Shanker’s favorite dish from the neighborhood is “Jianbing,” an omelet-like street food with crunchy wonton shells, scallion, chives and hot sauce, wrapped in a grilled crepe. Shanker, a New York native, attended law school to learn more about nonprofit law. But she soon realized that law was not for her, and began to focus more on helping nonprofit organizations. She now works as a program manager for a business development nonprofit in Camden, New Jersey. “It’s difficult to break into the nonprofit world if you don’t have the graduate school connections,” Shanker said. “I needed something else while I was looking for a really great job, so I started doing food tours.” She enjoys leading tours because of her passion for food and Chinese culture, she said. Shanker said she chose Chinatown to explore because of her roots in Queens, New York. She grew up close to Flushing, a neigh-
borhood in Queens that is home to one of New York City’s Chinatowns. “When I was in fourth grade, my birthday party was a dim sum birthday party,” Shanker said. “Fifth grade it was a soup dumpling birthday party.” She vacationed in China four years ago, visiting Beijing and Shanghai, which helped her build a repertoire of favorite Chinese cuisines. On her tours, she leads the visitors to five stops where she introduces them to different Chinese snacks and dishes. “Some will be really small stops where we’ll be just eating on the street and talking about food, talking about China, the development of Chinatowns in America and the development of Chinatowns in Philadelphia,” Shanker said. “We’ll do at least one sit down where we’re having a substantial meal, and then we’ll usually end in a grocery store and walk around.” Shanker said wrapping up the tour in a grocery shop gives the tourists a chance to understand more about Chinese food products and allows her to recommend certain foods and show them what ingredients she uses in her own cooking. “Usually when we go to a grocery store and we’re looking at the live animals, usually I would say you know, you can’t judge what other cultures eat,” Shanker said. “I’ll tell people things that I like to cook with, and ingredients they may have tried that day.” Shanker’s tours are sporadically planned. She could have anywhere between zero to four tours per month. Andrea Highbloom, a 2012 communications alumna from the University of Pennsylvania, has attended two of Shanker’s food tours. Highbloom heard about Shanker’s food tours through a mutual friend.
Highbloom went on her first tour a year ago, and she did the second one this past summer with her family. She has lived near Philadelphia her whole life, so she was already familiar with Philly’s Chinatown. But she still learned new things about Chinatown from Shanker. “Jamie taught us a lot about the history of Chinatown, in particular the diversity of Chinatown and the different areas of [China], like where the cuisine comes from,” Highbloom said. While visiting the different restaurants, Highbloom said she tasted everything from shaved noodles to Chinese desserts. “I definitely would want to go back,” Highbloom said. “I don’t think people realize how many different regions that the different restaurants come from within Chinatown, so it was really cool.” As a tour guide, Shanker said she draws her motivation from her love of food and people. She said she finds gratification in bringing people new experiences. “I love doing it, the tours are exhausting and invigorating at the same time,” Shanker said. “There’s a lot of myself in it, it’s not a scripted tour like a lot of other food tours.” Shanker said she likes to incorporate her interest in nonprofit business law with the food tours by supporting small businesses. Ultimately, Shanker added she is glad she stuck with giving food tours rather than practicing law. “Just practicing as a lawyer... things take a really long time [with] zero results,” she added. “But watching someone eat something, and seeing their immediate reaction, that’s awesome.” emily.trinh@temple.edu
VOICES “How do you feel about a possible ban of smoking on campus?”
NOELLE CRESS Junior Advertising
Smoking on campus hasn’t really affected me at all. The only time I really notice it is the area in Anderson [Hall] where people all smoke outside. … I think smoking is kind of a destructive behavior, but it is people’s choice. And as long as they’re not smoking inside, it’s not really my problem.
ANDREW EDWARDS Senior Undeclared in CLA
I don’t think it’s any of their business honestly. I feel like it’s not so over rampant that it’s causing a serious problem. I feel like for [the university] to try and get involved and say people can’t do that is just kind of bogus. They should just say out of it.
FEI ZUO
First-year doctorate Computer Science
OLIVIA O’NEILL / THE TEMPLE NEWS Jamie Shanker, a 2012 Beasley School of Law alumna, takes photos of her meal at Wong Wong Chinese Restaurant in Chinatown for Instagram, where she often posts pictures of her food.
I have lived in Australia for several years, and there in the campus at the [University of Melbourne], they designed a special place outside where people can go there to smoke. I hope this is a good suggestion for [Temple]. … I think it’s fair for both of us.
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F E AT U R E S PAGE 12
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017
JAMIE MULLEN / THE TEMPLE NEWS
University City bar hosts pop-up dog charity event
City Tap House in University City hosted BARKtoberfest: Pups ‘n’ Pints on Saturday. The charity event — where attendees brought their dogs to the participating bar — benefited local animal shelters by donating some of its proceeds and featured dogs in costumes, adoptions, craft beer and raffles. “I’ve always wanted a dog event,” said Kathryn Gallagher, a City Tap House employee and 2012 Drexel University biology alumna. “We have such a large space. Why not use it for dogs?” Troy Blatchely and Samantha Blaszyk, who are from Boston, founded the Pups ‘n’ Pints organization. Blatchely and Blaszyk travel to different states to host events similar to the one at City Tap House. Gillian Kocher, director of public relations and marketing at the Philadelphia SPCA, attended with her dog, Henry. “You can tell that everyone here loves dogs because everyone is smiling and having a good time,” Kocher said.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9
POUND CAKE er and creative director, Johnny Velazquez, a senior media studies and production major, have raised more than $9,000 in their IndieGoGo campaign to help fund the production costs for their first line of products. The goal is to reach $20,000 by Oct. 25 and couple the funds with the $10,000 the two won during an exclusive pitch presentation in the Fox School of Business in August. The prize came from the university’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute, which promotes entrepreneurial collaborations between students, mentors, faculty and alumni. Their upcoming line, the Hot Cakes Collection, will be released in May 2018 and features five vegan matte red lipsticks. The different shades are intended to challenge the stigma that Black women can’t wear red lipstick by complementing the multitude of skin and lip tones in Black women. Aize Asowata, Pound Cake’s brand consultant, said the lack of representation in the beauty industry can shape Black women’s relationship with buying makeup. Asowata recalls playing with makeup one day as a child, when a friend of hers came up to her and
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said, “I didn’t know Black people had makeup.” “It’s more than just not finding your shade,” Asowata said. “It’s extremely frustrating when you don’t see yourself represented in the beauty industry, because brands are very bluntly saying, ‘Our products aren’t for you.’” Bell and Velazquez said their products are coming onto the market at an important time. Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty makeup brand — which has been praised for featuring a comprehensive range of foundation shades — launched last month. Velazquez said he’s unimpressed by the sudden interest. “Now that companies see diversity as something they can capitalize off of, they’re going to start spinning this inclusive rhetoric in their campaigns,” he said. “I’m hoping people see through it and remember they didn’t care about us at all before we showed them how profitable marketing to us can be.” The support team at BlackStone LaunchPad, a campus-based entrepreneurship program, was influential in helping Bell and Velazquez take their idea to new heights, he said. “In addition to providing us with information on pitching opportunities, growth strategies and operating agreements, they continue to give us emotional support
when we need it,” Velazquez said. Julie Stapleton Carroll, Blackstone’s program director, said Blackstone often sees entrepreneurs come in at varying stages of their business development process. “What stands out about her and Johnny is their persistence,” Stapleton Carroll said. “They’ve been in here once a week for the past two years. They’ve been really diligent in terms of listening to our advice and actually following up and doing it. It’s clear that they’re dedicated to the idea and passionate about the company.” Asowata wants to see Pound Cake grow as a brand and disrupt current beauty industry standards, she said. “I want it not to be abnormal to see my face on a billboard, and I want all of the people who have been overlooked and ignored to feel seen and welcomed with Pound Cake,” Asowata said. The Pound Cake team wants to specifically serve people who are often left out of advertising in the makeup industry. “We are a pro-black, pro-fat, and pro-trans feminist company and will continue to act in a manner that reflects as such,” its mission statement reads. There will also be an educational section on Pound Cake’s website to inform site visitors on
KHANYA BRANN / THE TEMPLE NEWS Pound Cake founders Camille Bell, a 2015 public relations and advertising alumna, and Johnny Velazquez, a senior media studies and production major, meet on the roof of Center City coworking space, Yard: Midtown Village on Friday.
social justice issues pertaining to the brand’s target audiences, Bell said. “I always knew I was going to own a business one day,” she added. “I’ve had an entrepreneurial spirit
for as long as I can remember. ... It’s great I can use my passion to cater to marginalized communities.” khanya.brann@temple.edu @_AfroKhan
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F E AT U R E S TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017
PAGE 13
ON CAMPUS
Students provide disability assistance for class Occupational therapy students partnered with a school for children with disabilities. BY IAN WALKER Assistant Features Editor As an occupational therapy student, Nicole Perez never imagined she would use an electric saw in her work. But on Friday, Perez, along with 43 other occupational therapy students, met in the Tyler School of Art to learn how to operate a jigsaw and bandsaw. “We didn’t really know what we were getting into,” said Perez, a second-year occupational therapy graduate student. “But our professors have gone through trainings, like very vigorous trainings, so they really are able to support us completely.” The students are learning crafting skills for their course, Occupational Therapy Practice: Assistive Technology. The course is an informal extension of Adaptive Design Greater Philadelphia, a project funded by Temple’s Institute on Disabilities to train Philadelphia health care professionals in creating devices out of cardboard to help people with disabilities. This assistive technology consists of physical equipment, like a prosthetic or cardboard brace, and software programs that help people with disabilities maintain or improve their functionality. Last Thursday, groups of occupational therapy students each met with a student at the West Philadelphia HMS School, which serves students from ages 5 to 21 who have neurological disabilities, like cerebral palsy. After assessing the needs of their assigned student, the occupational therapy students will gather in Tyler on Thursdays and Fridays for the next three weeks to construct an assistive device out of cardboard to accommodate the
student’s disability. Perez’s group is helping a 12-year-old student, Eddie, improve his ability to communicate. He currently operates a communication board by pressing a switch with his head, an activity that becomes tiring for him when repeated throughout the day, Perez said. To help ease his fatigue, the group will construct a cardboard wheelchair tray outfitted with a flush red button that Eddie can press with his arm as another option besides the switch. Perez said the group has built a personal “connection” with Eddie. “It’s not just gonna be shipped out to someone,” Perez said. “It’s gonna be given to this exact child that we know.” During one of the first construction sessions, one of Perez’s partners, second-year occupational therapy graduate student Dave Szczepanik eyed a design sketch of the wheelchair tray as he traced pencil lines onto a sheet of cardboard. The sketch was drawn the previous day by junior architecture major Abby Freed, one of several architecture students who volunteered to help develop a feasible design sketch. “As architecture students, we’re always building conceptual ideas, nothing that ever really gets implemented because we’re always doing things on such a large scale like designing buildings,” Freed said. “It was so cool to do something that was like immediate and helped someone so specific.” Rochelle Mendonca, a rehabilitation sciences professor who teaches the course, monitored the groups as they began construction. But in addition to her role as a teacher, she was a student herself just a few months ago. From April to July, Mendonca participated in the first group of the ADGP program. Conceived last April through a $75,000 grant from the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation,
JOCELYN BURNS / THE TEMPLE NEWS Second-year occupational therapy graduate students work together to create adaptive technologies for children with disabilities in Temple Contemporary on Friday.
Adaptive Design Greater Philadelphia sent its participants, including Mendonca, to New York City to attend a training session. Because every person’s needs are unique, Mendonca said many commercial products don’t work for all people, and the products that may work are often far too expensive. Compared to other materials like plastic, Perez added that cardboard can be easily remodeled to fit the changing needs of a user. “So many of these adaptations that you buy are hundreds and hundreds and thousands of dollars and insurance doesn’t cover
[them],” Perez said. “To be able to build something like this out of a cheap material that’s durable and will last and will provide exactly what they need is amazing.” In early November, the group will meet with Eddie again to finalize the design. Following the completion of the device’s construction, Tyler students will then join the collaboration by painting the wheelchair tray with dinosaurs and Pokémon characters, two of Eddie’s main interests. Although Perez has only studied assistive technologies for about a month, she said she is already
excited by the prospect of creating her own tools as an occupational therapist. “If you told me that I was gonna do this before I went into [occupational therapy] school, I’d say, ‘No, I’m not gonna be an architect. ... I don’t work with power tools,’” Perez said. “Because of this course and because of this whole program coming to Philadelphia, [it] has really opened a lot of doors.” ian.walker@temple.edu @ian_walker12 Dan Shade contributed reporting.
HOMECOMING 2017 Saturday’s gloomy weather didn’t stop Temple’s annual homecoming tailgate in Lot K outside Lincoln Financial Field. The Temple Temperors — a group of Temple football fans known for wearing their robes and huge hats with Temple T’s — were there. A variety of tents from different schools, student organizations and alumni associations, like the Temple University Black Alumni Association, were also there. There were classic tailgate games set up, like cornhole, and a bounce house to entertain attendees. The Owls ended up losing 28-24 to the University of Connecticut.
SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS
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F E AT U R E S PAGE 14
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017 ON CAMPUS
EVENTS Cuban filmmaker presents films, lectures Damián Sainz, a Cuban independent documentary filmmaker, will present two of his films, “Baterίa” and “From Fresh Water,” on Tuesday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the lecture hall of Paley Library. Sainz will also speak about emerging Cuban documentary filmmakers whose work envisions a more egalitarian future for their country. Sainz worked as a director, editor and producer on documentary films in Cuba, Canada, Switzerland and Spain. The event is co-sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and departments of history and global studies. -Mary Ragland
Student Activities to offer donuts, massages Student Activities will provide 1,000 free donuts and complimentary massages to students on Wednesday from noon to 4 p.m. at the Bell Tower. The “Dough-Nut Stress” event was organized in recognition of midterms week. The donuts will be provided by Beiler’s Doughnuts, a bakery in Reading Terminal Market in Center City. They will be given out on a first-come, first-served basis.
Students: Multiple factors sustain on-campus smoking A professor said rates of smoking among college students are twice as high as the U.S. adult population. BY MAUREEN IPLENSKI for The Temple News
As a teenager in Buffalo, New York, Ryan Mroz picked up smoking through “monkey-see, monkey-do” behavior with his friends. Now 35, he’s been trying to quit since then, and even stayed tobacco-free for three months, until he enrolled in the class Managing Human Capital Risk. “As soon as I got out of the first midterm in a risk management class that they refer to as ‘boot camp,’ just the stress level of being in school is what drove me back [to smoking],” said Mroz, a senior finance and risk management and insurance major. This month, the College of Public Health announced the formation of the Smoke-Free Campus Task Force to develop and implement a university smoke-free or tobacco-free policy. On Sunday, the group concluded a survey of students on their attitudes about oncampus smoking. Some students who smoke on
Main Campus have adopted the habit to grapple with the stresses of attending school. For others, smoking is a part of their social life. “There is obviously the social culture of it, ‘Oh, I have a cigarette when I’m hanging out with friends or when I go to the bar and have a drink,’” Mroz said. “But I feel the bigger part of it on the college campus is [that] it’s an unhealthy coping mechanism that students are using to deal with the stress.” Among all adults in the United States, smoking rates have significantly declined over the past decade. According to a 2016 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the amount of U.S. adults who smoke cigarettes declined from 20.9 percent in 2005 to 15.1 percent in 2015. But despite this overall decline, rates of smoking at colleges often remain higher than the national trend, said Anne Frankel, a social and behavioral sciences professor. Frankel said the rate of smoking on college campuses is generally higher than the overall population’s. She added that upwards of 30 percent of students report smoking on college campuses. She said these statistics become complicated when factoring in the social element of smoking on college
-Ayooluwa Ariyo
Poetry alumnus reads recent work in Paley Ryan Eckes, a 2007 MFA poetry alumnus and Philadelphia native, will read from his latest manuscript, “General Motors,” on Wednesday at 1 p.m. in the lecture hall of Paley Library. “General Motors,” which focuses on labor and and the influence of transportation on life in the city. His work is inspired by his interest in GM’s effects on the United States economy and his family who has worked for SEPTA for many years. He’s also a union activist and organizer. Eckes won a Pew Fellowship in 2016 for his work and is an adjunct instructor at several colleges, including Temple. -Mary Ragland
UMass professor discusses academic engagement University of Massachusetts Amherst economics professor M.V. Lee Badgett will speak about how academics can engage with the public on Thursday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the CHAT Lounge on the 10th floor of Gladfelter Hall. Her lecture will examine three strategies — seeing the big picture, developing a strong network and learning to communicate to many audiences — that scholars use to convey their research on the public stage. From 2007 to 2016, Badgett served as the director of the UMass Center for Public Policy and Administration. Interested students can register for her talk on on Temple’s events website.
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-Alleh Naqvi
campuses. “Whereas for the definition of smokers nationwide may be they’re going to smoke every day, I imagine that on college campuses there are a lot more people reporting on social smoking...maybe a couple times a week if they are drinking,” Frankel said. When senior marketing major Kyle Stevens attends parties, he occasionally smokes to “just get a buzz” even though the extent of on-campus smoking culture actually bothers him, he said. “I hate it, I actually hate smoking,” Stevens said. “Especially when there’s like groups of people, you know going to classes and everything and people are smoking, it’s so annoying to me.” Freshman geology major Joe Choi began smoking in high school after accepting a cigarette from a friend. “I didn’t become a daily smoker or anything, but I usually smoke when I’m around some friends in college,” Choi said. “To me, I just feel relaxed when I smoke.” Frankel said one of The SmokeFree Campus Task Force’s objectives is to eliminate the social expectation of smoking. But for many students, Mroz said, smoking is an inevitable response to the various college-specific stresses they experience. “I think it’s a combination of factors,” Mroz said. “Most of it [is] academic rigor, but then you also add on top of that if you have any type of home-life stress, dating stress, stress with managing your tuition costs and what your student loans are costing you. … There’s a whole variety of stresses that an 18 year old may be first subject to when they come to college. To combat the issue at Temple, Mroz said he thinks the university should explicitly reach out to students to promote alternative ways of coping with stress. Student Health Services currently offers smoking cessation counseling. Mark Denys, senior administrator at SHS, said students can schedule 30-minute sessions with a doctor to go over smoking risk factors and free resources available for smoking cessation. The doctors also go over prescription drugs that help people quit smoking, like Chantix and Zyban, which are sometimes covered by insurance. Denys said these counseling sessions aren’t very popular, but he hopes the formation of the task force will cause interest to increase. “College students are young enough that most likely if they are currently smoking while in college, they haven’t been smoking very long,” Mroz said. “So those programs might be able to keep some students from ever starting and also [be] able to help younger people kick the habit before it becomes a lifelong habit.” maureen.iplenski@temple.edu
JAMIE COTTRELL / THE TEMPLE NEWS Junior media studies and production major Lawrence Liu smokes a cigarette outside of Tuttleman Learning Center on Monday.
Ian Walker and Emily Scott contributed reporting.
daughter,” Colleen McNamara said. He has many other moments to be proud of, too. At the 1997 World Championships in Hong Kong, the team was able to snag a gold medal in the 500-meter race. Since then, the team has won a total of 23 gold medals at the World Championships. As they prepare for the 2017 games, team members feel that the outcome is promising. “Our boats we have this year are really comparable to what we’ve had in the past, so it should be a good team,” Colleen McNamara said. She admits, however, that it is challenging to know what to expect
from other countries. After coaching for more than three decades, Robert McNamara couldn’t imagine his life without the sport. In fact, he attributes dragon boat racing to his success with education and medical school. “I believe my rowing experience in college helped me get into medical school by necessitating a disciplined approach to studying and schoolwork given the time commitment of rowing,” he said. “I still feel indebted to my coaches and this is a way of giving back.”
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DRAGON BOAT when she was 13 years old. Now, more than a decade later at 27, she has been to more championship competitions than any other female dragon boat paddler in the U.S. and serves as PDBA’s women’s coach. Robert McNamara’s four kids have all been involved in dragon boat racing at one point. His favorite moment as a coach is watching his kids win gold medals. “I think he’s really direct and transparent and, you know, I’ve been cut [from races] before and I’m his
rachel.mcquiston@temple.edu
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VOLLEYBALL
Setter continues ‘to prove doubters wrong’ Kyra Coundourides tallied her 2,500th career assist on Oct. 1. BY AUSTIN AMPELOQUIO Volleyball Beat Reporter At age 4, Kyra Coundourides didn’t want to play with toys anymore. The senior setter used to go to her older sister’s volleyball practices at Incarnate Word Academy in Parma Heights, Ohio, and sit on the stage of the Catholic school’s gymnasium. Coundourides’ mother, Karol Coundourides, coached the team. She gave Kyra Coundourides a set of Polly Pocket dolls to keep busy with while the older girls focused on volleyball. The Polly Pockets only piqued her interest for two practices before Kyra Coundourides’ attention moved to the action on the court below her. “I want to do it too,” 4-year-old Kyra Coundourides constantly told her mom. Seventeen years later, she reached the 2,500 career assist mark during the Owls’ match on Oct. 1 against Houston. “It’s a big deal to me,” Kyra Coundourides said. “A lot of my teammates have been supportive, but the nice part is that thinking I have 2,500 assists also means that multiple people have added up to 2,500 kills. That’s probably the better thing to think about.” Kyra Coundourides was about waist-high compared to her mother and six years younger than the girls on the team when she first practiced
at Incarnate Word Academy. The age and size discrepancy, however, never stopped her from lining up and participating in drills. A couple of years later, practices weren’t enough for Kyra Coundourides. She wanted to compete. “Going to my sister’s tournaments, I got a little jealous,” she said. “So I asked my parents if I could try out, and my aunt actually ended up making a bet with me.” The deal was that Kyra Coundourides could go to the tryout for the youngest club team, a 10-and-under squad. If she made the team, her aunt would pay for the first season. Kyra Coundourides’ kneepads were so big they looked more like shin guards. But she “never wanted to back down from a challenge,” Karol Coundourides said. Nobody thought Kyra Coundourides would make the team. She did. “Kyra was always fearless and ready to prove doubters wrong,” Karol Coundourides said. “She was once told by another coach that, ‘It was a shame she had so much talent but wouldn’t make it onto the Division I level because she was too small.’ Kyra just kind of ate that up, and look at her now.” Kyra Coundourides committed to Virginia Tech as a sophomore in high school. After playing two seasons with the Hokies in 2014 and 2015, she decided to transfer. Coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam reached out to her and asked her to consider Temple. After talking with her family, Kyra Coundourides decided to take a
trip to Philadelphia in Summer 2016. During her visit to Temple, Coundourides stayed with senior cocaptain Dara Peric for two days. Peric said she could see Kyra Coundourides’ obvious passion for the sport. “I remember she talked about volleyball a lot,” Peric said. “So that was definitely a good thing. It was one of the first things that stood out to me.” In her first season with the Owls, Kyra Coundourides averaged 10.90 assists per set, which ranked second in the American Athletic Conference. She ended 2016 with 1,253 assists, a single-season program record. She was also the second player in program history to receive a College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-America selection. In 15 games this season, Kyra Coundourides has continued her effective play. She is the primary setter and leads Temple with 540 assists. She is also second on the team with 152 digs. For Kyra Coundourides, the offcourt kinship she built with her teammates in Summer 2016 helped her integrate on the court. “The chemistry really clicked when I got here over the summer and all of us sat down and bonded,” Kyra Coundourides said. “I don’t even want to call them team meetings because they weren’t team meetings. We all got together, had fun and started roasting each other. It was cool to not be volleyball players and just be friends.”
SPORTS BRIEFS VOLLEYBALL
Rapacz earns AAC offensive weekly honor The American Athletic Conference named senior outside hitter Izzy Rapacz its Offensive Player of the Week. Rapacz was Temple’s top offensive player in its wins against South Florida and Central Florida on Friday and Sunday. She had 37 kills and hit 44.8 percent in the two matches. Rapacz had a season-high 25 kills in Temple’s 3-2 win against Central Florida. She had four kills in the final set, including the last two to win the match. Rapacz leads the Owls in kills with 194 and is seventh in The American with 3.4 kills per set. The Owls will continue conference play against Tulsa on Friday at 7 p.m. at McGonigle Hall. -Tom Ignudo
MIKE NGUYEN / FILE PHOTO Senior outside hitter Izzy Rapacz attempts to spike the ball during the Owls’ 3-1 loss against East Carolina on Oct. 6 at McGonigle Hall.
austin.ampeloquio@temple.edu @AustinPaulAmp
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Dunphy’s team picked to finish seventh in league The American Athletic Conference announced the results of its preseason conference coaches poll on Monday in Philadelphia. Temple nabbed the seventh spot after finishing 16-16 last season. In the 2016 poll, the Owls were predicted to finish sixth. “We’ve been in the middle of the pack I think just about every year,” coach Fran Dunphy said. “Hopefully we can be better than that. That’s our charge. That’s our challenge. … But I think it’s a good reading of what everyone thinks of you, your skill level and your abilities.” Cincinnati was picked as the conference favorite for the second straight season. The Bearcats edged Wichita State, 116-115. The Shockers, who went 31-5 last season and lost to the University of Kentucky in the second round of the NCAA tournament, are newcomers to The American. Temple will play its season opener against Old Dominion University on Nov. 16 in the Charleston Classic in South Carolina. -Tom Ignudo MIKE NGUYEN / THE TEMPLE NEWS Senior setter Kyra Coundourides attempts to make a dig during the Owls’ 3-1 loss to East Carolina on Oct. 6 at McGonigle Hall.
Coaches predict Owls to finish third in conference
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INJURIES Temple’s offensive line suffered another blow in its loss to UConn. Redshirt-senior offensive lineman Leon Johnson left the game on a cart in the first half. Johnson will be evaluated by team doctors and undergo an X-ray examination this week, Collins said. Redshirt-junior offensive linemen Jaelin Robinson and James McHale each played in place of Johnson at left tackle. Redshirt-sophomore offensive lineman Jovahn Fair, who left the game against the University of Massachusetts on Sept. 15 with an injury, has yet to return. “That hurts us a lot,” Armstead said. “It’s hard trying to run the ball when you’re losing most of all your line and all of your backs are hurt, but…we’re just trying to keep it going.” thomas.ignudo@temple.edu @TomIgnudo
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
GENEVA HEFFERNAN / THE TEMPLE NEWS Redshirt-junior running back David Hood (right) gets tackled at Connecticut’s 1-yard line after an 11-yard gain in the first quarter of the Owls’ 28-24 homecoming loss on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field.
The American Athletic Conference announced the results of its preseason conference coaches poll on Monday in Philadelphia. The Owls were picked to place third after finishing 24-8 last season and losing to the University of Oregon, 71-70, in the first round of the NCAA tournament Connecticut, which was picked to win the conference, received 121 votes. South Florida received 110, and Temple tallied 98 votes. Last season, the Owls received 87 votes and were predicted to finish second in the coaches poll. Senior guard Alliya Butts, who was second on Temple in scoring last season, was named to the conference’s preseason second team. The Owls will be without her this season after she tore her ACL in practice last week. The Owls will play their season opener against Delaware State University on Nov. 10 at McGonigle Hall. -Tom Ignudo
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017
MEN’S SOCCER
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Coaching staff willing to travel across the globe to find talent
BOWL
JAY NEEMEYER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Spanish sophomore midfielder Albert Moreno (right) sprints around Southern Methodist senior defender and midfielder Jared Rice during the Owls’ 2-1 loss on Oct. 7 at the Temple Sports Complex.
Three of the team’s four leading scorers this season were born outside the United States. BY MAURA RAZANAUSKAS Men’s Soccer Beat Reporter Coach David MacWilliams and assistant coach James Gledhill sat down in an old oyster house for lunch in Nantes, France. They were meeting with Thibault Candia, then a prospective recruit, and his mother and brother. “It was brilliant,” Gledhill said. “It was almost as if we were old friends hanging out.” The group chatted about everything, including Temple’s soccer program, as the coaches tried to sell Candia on joining the Owls. Thanks to the visit, Candia was convinced. Candia, a sophomore forward, is one of 10 international athletes on Temple’s 31-man roster. Temple has athletes from Spain, Germany, Scotland, Canada, France, Finland, Trinidad and Iceland. The coaches carefully scouted each player. The coaches use their connections to find international recruits and attend showcases where up to 100 players display their skills, Gledhill said. “You’ve got to make sure that you’ve already reached out to the handlers and you’ve already selected, kind of handpicked, the best players,” Gledhill said. “The first thing that we ever look for in a player is definitely talent.” The Owls’ international recruits have been successful. In 2015 and 2016, Span-
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FACILITY we had to do this, we’re doing all of those things and it’s just a matter of process and making sure we have the right facilities, we had the money to fund it and so on,” he added. “There [were] no delays per say. It was just the natural process of upgrading facilities for all of our athletic teams.” Franke said she is looking for additional funding from donors for extra fencing strips and for mirrors so fencers can see themselves while practicing. “The way you practice is the way you perform,” junior sabre Blessing Olaode said. “This facility simulates more of a real event compared to a dance studio. I think we will all see that translate well this season.” The Owls were relieved to move their practice location to an area they can call their own, Hee said. Because the team has a designated
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ish forward Jorge Gomez Sanchez led the team in scoring with 27 goals combined. This season, three of Temple’s top four scorers are international athletes. Candia leads with five goals. Finnish senior midfielder and forward Joonas Jokinen and German junior midfielder Hermann Doerner scored in Temple’s 2-1 win against Cincinnati on Saturday. Footballers abroad often compete against players who are very experienced in the sport, which helps their development. International athletes also often play for club teams unaffiliated with their high schools, said Darri Sigthorsson, a freshman defender from Reykjavík, Iceland. Players like Sigthorsson, Doerner and Trinidadian senior defensive midfielder Brendon Creed have even played for their national developmental teams. “We have played with adult teams, with professionals,” Sigthorsson said. “So we have the experience from playing with the guys that have been in the sport for maybe 20 years.” Gledhill said one reason Temple nabs international talent is because there is an abundance of professional teams overseas. Despite the United States being larger than England both geographically and in population, it doesn’t have as many academy teams for young talent to develop their skills with, he added. Candia, who played for League 1 French Club Angers SCO, said playing for the academy teams becomes more of a job because sports and academics aren’t mixed like in the U.S. After they get to Main Campus, international players need time to adapt to the style of soccer in the U.S., Gledhill said.
Sigthorsson and Candia each said some differences include not playing the golden goal rule — sudden death overtime — and counting down to zero at the end of each half instead of counting up to 45 minutes, and then 90. The college game is also more “high tempo” and “not as casual” as the European style, Gledhill said. When Sigthorsson played in Iceland, his teams were limited to three substitutions per game and players who were subbed out couldn’t return. In college soccer, subs can come in and out as often as the coach wishes. Despite these differences, Gledhill said European players integrate successfully with the U.S.’s style of play. Temple only had one international player on its roster in 2013, and he didn’t score. From 2014-16, international players scored 70.1 percent of Temple’s goals. They accounted for 20 of the team’s 23 goals in 2016, with Gomez Sanchez scoring 14 himself. Gledhill sees a lot of value in having international athletes because it brings diversity on and off the field. Still, despite the seemingly increased interest in attracting players from overseas, the coaching staff simply wants to build the best possible team. “For us, it doesn’t matter where you’re from,” Gledhill said. “Pennsylvania, California, Canada, Africa, Europe, it doesn’t really matter. The recruiting process is still the same. You’re trying to find the best player, the best fit for your team.”
space, fencers don’t have to set up and break down equipment before and after practice. Franke said it saves Temple about 15 minutes of practice time. “In the last space we were crammed,” Hee said. “We had some intrusion with some of the dancers coming in and out of the studio. It just felt dangerous and rude. Now we can enjoy ourselves in our own area.” Franke said she hopes to use the facility to work around her athletes’ schedules by incorporating extra training times, which she couldn’t do in past seasons. High-level programs Temple competed against in recent years have had those benefits with their practice facilities, Franke added. “This space makes things a little easier,” Franke said. “It changes up how we do things in some aspects. We no longer have to have rotations for our athletes to use the scoring machines. That is the biggest benefit. It is going to be fun to see
how this is going to make us better.” The Owls got to show off the new facility on Oct. 1 at their annual Alumnae Meet. Franke said her former fencers were jealous of the Owls who get to use the new space. Temple ended the 2016-17 season tied for eighth in the CollegeFencing360. com coaches poll and peaked at sixth, the program’s highest all-time ranking. The Owls also set a single-season wins record with 34. With an improved practice facility, Temple wants to seize its momentum. “We want to be a top-four or top-five team in the nation,” Hee said. “We feel like with the new practice space we can take another step up from our recent success.”
maura.razanauskas@temple.edu @CaptainAMAURAca
michael.zingrone@temple.edu @mjzingrone Evan Easterling contributed reporting.
were 10.5-point underdogs. In order to reach the six-win mark and achieve bowl eligibility for the fourth season in a row, Temple has to win three of its last five games. “We’re disappointed,” said redshirtsophomore linebacker Chapelle Russell, who had a team-high 12 tackles on Saturday. “This was a game we definitely should have won. We’re just ready to get back to work. This hurts, so we’re just going to take this hurt and ride with it and hopefully it turns out with positive results.” With three conference losses and ranked South Florida and Central Florida teams ahead of them in the The American’s East Division standings, it’s unlikely the Owls will have a chance to defend their 2016 conference title. For the fourth game in a row, Temple did not have a positive turnover margin. The Owls and Huskies each had two turnovers on Saturday. Temple caused more turnovers than its opponent on Sept. 9 against Villanova and Sept. 15 against UMass. The team won both games. “I thought we did a good job of causing turnovers today,” coach Geoff Collins said. “We want to make sure we’re creating turnovers and win that turnover battle. Because in a one-score game, if you’re plus turnovers, you’re going to win the game and one of them was a pick six and one was [a fumble returned] down to the 7. That’s tough.” “I’m hurt watching this Temple game [right now],” former quarterback Phillip Walker tweeted during the second half, and later deleted. Despite being below .500 more than halfway through the season, Temple still has a shot at program history. The Owls have never played in three consecutive bowl games. Winning six games would give them a chance to do so. Temple will face an Army West Point team on Saturday that is on a three-game winning streak. The Black Knights’ tripleoption attack ran for 329 yards in the Owls’ 2016 season opener. Army has the second-best rushing offense in the FBS and averages the ninth-fewest penalty yards per game. Temple will be without redshirt-senior defensive lineman Sharif Finch for the first half of Saturday’s game. He committed a targeting foul in the second half against UConn and by rule was ejected from Saturday’s game and will serve a suspension in the first half against Army. Finch is second on the team with seven tackles for loss. After their bye week, the Owls will face a Navy team that was ranked 25th in the AP poll before its first loss of the season to Memphis on Saturday. The Midshipmen lost to Temple in last year’s conference championship game and graduated quarterback Will Worth, who ran for a conference-best 25 touchdowns in 2016. Even though Navy lost Worth, it has continued its success. Junior quarterback Zach Abey, who entered last year’s American Athletic Conference title game after Worth left with an injury, has 12 rushing touchdowns this season to lead The American. Temple could play its third ranked team of the year on Nov. 18 against Central Florida, which is ranked 20th in the AP poll. The Knights’ 50.6 points per game leads the FBS, and their defense hasn’t allowed an opponent to score more than 25 points in a game. Two of the Owls’ last three games, however, are against Cincinnati (2-5, 0-3 The American) and Tulsa (2-5, 1-2 The American). Temple’s best win probabilities in its remaining five games are against the Bearcats and Golden Hurricane, according to SportSource Analytics. The Owls have a 52 percent chance of beating Cincinnati on Nov. 10 in Ohio and a 50 percent chance of beating Tulsa in the season finale on Nov. 25 in Oklahoma. Junior running back Ryquell Armstead said Temple is “going to win more than six games.” “We’re still going to go out here, we’re going to try to win football games every week,” he said. “We’re still going to fight, we’re still going to compete, we’re still going to give it our all. So at the end of the day, the season’s not done.” evan.easterling@temple.edu @Evan_Easterling
temple-news.com @thetemplenews
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FIELD HOCKEY
Assistant coach is ‘one of the best’ indoor players Katie Gerzabek is playing in the Indoor Pan American Cup in Guyana this week. BY KEVIN SCHAEFFER Field Hockey Beat Reporter When University of Maryland coach Missy Meharg saw Katie Gerzabek play high school and club field hockey, she knew Gerzabek had the “it factor.” In her four-year career for the Terrapins from 2011-14, Gerzabek recorded 50 assists, which is tied for fifth in program history. Her competitive nature is “ruthless,” Meharg said. Gerzabek is now an assistant coach for Temple, but her duties haven’t prevented her from continuing her playing career. She is one of 12 players selected to represent the United States at the Indoor Pan American Cup in Georgetown, Guyana. The sixday tournament features teams from Argentina, Barbados, Canada, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay and began on Monday. The winner qualifies for the International Hockey Federation Indoor World Cup in Germany in February 2018. Gerzabek played in the U.S.’s tournament-opening 7-2 win against Trinidad and Tobago on Monday. “She’s one of the best indoor field hockey players in the world,” Meharg said. This is not the first time that Gerzabek has represented the U.S. in international competition. Before she played for Maryland, Gerzabek played for the U.S.’s under-17 team in Uruguay. During her sophomore season with the
Terrapins in 2012, she left the team for about two weeks to play in the under-21 Junior Pan Am Games in Mexico. Gerzabek scored a goal in the competition to help Team USA win a bronze medal. She also competed for the U.S. in the Junior World Cup in Germany in 2013 on the under-21 team. “It’s been great, playing for the junior international teams in college,” Gerzabek said. “So I’ve played abroad, and I know what to expect. But every time I get selected to play for Team USA, it is a great honor to represent my country, to compete against some of the best players in the world, it’s just exciting.” “Katie’s passion to compete and represent the USA in the Pan American Indoor Championships is incredibly strong and admirable,” Temple coach Marybeth Freeman said in a team statement. “Her commitment to the USA indoor program has remained strong and present over the years, and we’re proud of how Katie has represented herself and our Temple program on the national and global stages.” Gerzabek’s decorated college career started as soon as she arrived in College Park, Maryland. She started all 23 games as a freshman in 2011 and finished second on the team in goals with 17 and second in points with 48. Her last goal that season came with less than five minutes left in the Division I title game. Gerzabek scored the first goal to help Maryland make up a two-goal deficit and come back to beat the University of North Carolina, 3-2, in overtime. Meharg knew she had someone special on her team. “While she was here, she al-
ways set the standard for her teammates on how to work and compete,” Meharg said. “And on the field, she just had an amazing tactical awareness and hand speed that was unmatched by anyone on the team.” Gerzabek is now using her tactical awareness to help the Owls after joining the program in June 2015. She comes from a family of coaches. Her mother, Jackie Gerzabek, is the assistant field hockey coach at Katie Gerzabek’s alma mater — the Academy of Notre Dame de Namur in Villanova, Pennsylvania. Katie Gerzabek said she initially struggled with being completely focused on her responsibilities at Temple while maintaining playing shape. Katie Gerzabek isn’t the first player to split her time between coaching and playing internationally. Meharg played for Team USA during her early years as a coach at Maryland in the 1980s, so she knows what Gerzabek is going through. “[Katie] has always been very bright and a quick learner,” Meharg said. “She is very disciplined, and you have to be to handle both the workload of being a coach and being a player.” “It’s challenging balancing coaching and playing,” Katie Gerzabek said. “I always have to refocus myself wherever I am. If I’m at Temple, I need to think like a coach and be focused on making the team better. When I’m playing, I need to be focused on our game plan as a team. It’s a lot, but I love the challenge.” kevinschaeffer@temple.edu @_kevinschaeffer
JAMIE COTTRELL / THE TEMPLE NEWS Assistant coach Katie Gerzabek passes to associate coach Roz Ellis while the team warms up before Friday’s loss to Villanova at Howarth Field.
WOMEN’S SOCCER
‘We know we’re good enough to make the playoffs’ The Owls are among the league’s top eight teams but will face the top two teams in their last three games. BY DAN WILSON Women’s Soccer Beat Reporter With the postseason looming, the Owls are on the bubble. Temple went 1-1-1 from Oct. 8-15 and sits in sixth place in the American Athletic Conference standings. Eight of the league’s 10 teams make the conference tournament, which begins on Nov. 1. Last season, Temple didn’t win a conference game and missed its conference tournament for the first time since 2012 when the Owls were in the Atlantic 10 Conference. “We know we’re good enough to make the playoffs,” said senior midfielder Elana Falcone, who played on playoff teams in 2014 and 2015. “I definitely try to put last year in the past, but I think it’s still there a little bit as some extra motivation.” Temple will play the two top-ranked teams in The American — South Florida and Central Florida — on Thursday and Sunday in Florida. Then the team will play Connecticut, which is ranked one spot ahead of the Owls. “It’s amazing,” coach Seamus O’Connor said. “When the girls talk to their parents or their friends or any outside noise, you’d think we were completely out of it. We do our best to help them block all that stuff out.” Temple recorded four points in its last three games. The Owls went into double-overtime against Tulsa on Oct. 8 and finished with a
2-2 draw. The Golden Hurricane sits in seventh place and trails Temple by three points. Temple followed the tie by defeating Houston, 2-0, on Thursday and losing to Southern Methodist, 2-0, at the Temple Sports Complex on Sunday. “Every loss at this point is crucial,” redshirt-senior forward Kayla Cunningham said. “We all know the goal is to try and secure a playoff spot, and a lot of times games at this point just come down to who makes one less mistake.” Though Temple’s three-game stretch didn’t go as planned, O’Connor said the Owls are in a manageable position. “We go into every game expecting to win,” O’Connor said. “We knew teams like [Southern Methodist] are still really good just because they played the tougher part of their schedule early. So we’re going to have to put this behind us and get ready for this last road trip, which is also going to be really tough.” Falcone, Cunningham, senior forward Gabriella McKeown and senior midfielder Victoria Dutille all played their final regularseason games at the Temple Sports Complex on Sunday. “Playing at Temple has been a great experience, so it definitely made things emotional,” Cunningham said. “Nevertheless, we have to recover and prepare mentally for this final road trip because our season isn’t over.” Graduate forward Morgan Glassford also played in her last home game. She played four years of lacrosse prior to joining the soccer team and experienced the pressure of fighting for a playoff spot late in a season. She had back-to-back seasons with 20 goals or more for lacrosse teams that made the Big East Conference tournament in 2016
JAMIE COTTRELL / THE TEMPLE NEWS Junior forward Kerri McGinley (right) dribbles ahead of senior forward Gabriella McKeown during practice at the Temple Sports Complex on Wednesday.
and 2017. The Owls are “going into every game with the mindset of having to win,” Glassford said. O’Connor said the players may have lost some confidence after falling behind during their loss to Southern Methodist. He wants his team to keep the same mentality it had against Tulsa. The Owls made up one-goal deficits twice to earn a point in the stand-
ings. “We’re going to talk as a team about that because we know we’ll be faced with similar situations the rest of the way,” O’Connor said. danielwilson20@temple.edu @dan_wilson4
sports@temple-news.com @TTN_Sports
SPORTS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017
PAGE 18
FOOTBALL
After loss to UConn, ‘the season’s not done’ Temple needs to win at least three of its next five games to be bowl eligible. BY EVAN EASTERLING Sports Editor
D
avid Hood spent his Friday night watching football. The redshirt-junior running back saw defending College Football Playoff champion Clemson University, which was No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, lose to Syracuse University at the Carrier Dome. Syracuse was a 22.5-point underdog. He also saw Washington State University, which was No. 8 in the AP poll, lose to the University of California, Berkeley. California was a 16.5-point underdog. The Owls (3-4, 1-3 American Athletic Conference) faced a Connecticut team on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field that gave up 70 points, the most in program history, on Oct. 6 against Memphis. The Huskies had the worst pass defense in the Football Bowl Subdivision and had a 10-game losing streak against FBS teams. But Hood knew “anything could happen” after watching Friday’s upsets, he said. Temple committed 12 penalties for 117 yards and had two turnovers in its 28-24 loss on Saturday. The Huskies
KAIT MOORE / THE TEMPLE NEWS Redshirt-freshman center Matt Hennessy throws his head back in frustration after Saturday’s 28-24 loss to UConn at Lincoln Financial Field.
BOWL PAGE 16
With Armstead limited by injury, offense adapts Ten different players had carries in Saturday’s loss. BY TOM IGNUDO Assistant Sports Editor
GENEVA HEFFERNAN / THE TEMPLE NEWS Junior running back Ryquell Armstead scores a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter of Temple’s 28-24 loss to Connecticut on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field.
Ryquell Armstead didn’t spend practice taking handoffs or catching passes at Chodoff Field leading up to Temple’s game on Saturday against Connecticut. Instead, the junior running back spent time in the training room at Edberg-Olson Hall getting treatment on a toe on his left foot. Despite not taking any reps in practice, Armstead scored a touchdown and led the Owls with 31 rushing yards on nine carries in Temple’s (3-4, 1-3 American Athletic Conference) 28-24 homecoming loss at Lincoln Financial Field. Armstead said he wasn’t going to play in the second half until redshirt-junior running back David Hood limped off the field in the third quarter. “I just stepped up and played for my team,” said Armstead, who wore a walking boot on his left foot after the game. “Ryquell was banged up the whole week,” offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude said. “He gutted through it. ... He actually ran well today. I thought he looked pretty good.” Armstead set career highs last season with 919 rush-
ing yards and 14 touchdowns. But he hasn’t been able to stay healthy this season. Through the first seven games in 2016, Armstead rushed for 403 yards and seven touchdowns. In Temple’s first seven games this season, he has 277 yards and one touchdown. Coach Geoff Collins said Armstead was “banged up” after Temple’s game against the University of Notre Dame on Sept. 2. On Oct. 7 against East Carolina, Armstead only had four carries for three yards. Collins told reporters after the game that Armstead could barely walk in the days leading up to the game. Five ball carriers had touches before Armstead got his first carry with less than five minutes left in the first quarter. Ten different players had rushing attempts against UConn. Collins said Temple didn’t expect Armstead to play against the Huskies. Once he got in the game, Armstead began to feel more comfortable running the ball, he said. Armstead took the first play of the fourth quarter for a 10-yard touchdown run — his first of the season — to make it a one-possession game. With junior running back Jager Gardner expected to miss the rest of the season with a knee injury, the lack of running back depth forced the Owls to improvise. “We’re down to essentially
two tailbacks,” Collins said. “We had to move [redshirt sophomore Travon Williams] from receiver to tailback to try and give us some depth. We had to put [redshirt junior Rob Ritrovato] from fullback to tailback to try and give us some depth. So it’s interesting but you gotta manage it as best you can.” Sophomore linebacker Shaun Bradley, who took reps at running back during spring practices, rushed for seven yards on two carries. He switched his uniform number from 18 to 23 in the preseason in case he had to play at the same time as redshirt-junior quarterback Frank Nutile, who wears No. 18. Bradley rushed for 1,467 yards and 22 touchdowns as a senior at Rancocas Valley High School in South Jersey. He said the coaches gave him carries at running back to alleviate Armstead and Hood’s stress. “I’m doing whatever I can to help the team win,” Bradley said. “So if that means having the ball in my hands, make plays, I’ll do whatever we need to do for us to win.” Ritrovato had one carry for 14 yards after he had 14 carries for 48 yards and a touchdown against East Carolina. Hood picked up 29 yards on six carries and scored a touchdown. He also led the team in receiving with eight catches for 91 yards.
INJURIES PAGE 15
FIELD HOCKEY | PAGE 17
W SOCCER | PAGE 17
M SOCCER | PAGE 16
VOLLEYBALL | PAGE 15
Assistant coach Katie Gerzabek won a Division I title in 2011 and a bronze medal in 2012. She is looking to add to her trophy case.
Temple went 1-1-1 last week against teams below it in the conference standings, but the team still holds a playoff spot with three games left.
For the third season in a row, an international player leads the team in goals. The coaching staff scans the globe for talent each year.
A coach once told senior setter Kyra Coundourides she was too small to play in Division I. She recorded her 2,500th career assist this month.