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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
BILL COSBY’S FATE READ MORE ON PAGE 3
VOL 97 // ISSUE 5 SEPTEMBER 25, 2018 temple-news.com @thetemplenews
NEWS, PAGE 3 A false active shooter report highlights safety concerns at The View.
OPINION, PAGE 9 A student reflects on the power and necessity found in banned books.
FEATURES, PAGE 13 Alumnus sells meals around Philadelphia and donates to Philabundance.
SPORTS, PAGE 24 Each men’s soccer games has been determined by one goal.
THE TEMPLE NEWS
CONTENTS
A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921. Gillian McGoldrick Editor in Chief Kelly Brennan Managing Editor Julie Christie Digital Managing Editor Evan Easterling Chief Copy Editor Lindsay Bowen News Editor Greta Anderson Deputy Investigations Editor Alyssa Biederman Deputy Campus Editor Will Bleier Deputy City Editor Jayna Schaffer Opinion Editor Laura Smythe Features Editor Zari Tarazona Deputy Features Editor Khanya Brann Deputy Features Editor Michael Zingrone Co-Sports Editor Sam Neumann Co-Sports Editor Anaya Carter-Duckett Instersection Editor Claire Wolters Asst. Intersection Editor Shefa Ahsan Multimedia Editor Siani Colon Asst. Director of Engagement Hannah Burns Photography Editor Luke Smith Deputy Photography Editor Madison Seitchik Web Editor Ian Walker Visuals Editor Myra Mirza Visuals Specialist Claire Halloran Design Editor Jeremiah Reardon Designer
NEWS The Temple News is an editorially independent weekly publication serving the Temple University community. Unsigned editorial content represents the opinion of The Temple News. Adjacent commentary is reflective of their authors, not The Temple News. Visit us online at temple-news.com. Send submissions to letters@temple-news.com. The Temple News is located at: Student Center, Room 243 1755 N. 13th St. Philadelphia, PA 19122
Phuong Tran Advertising Manager Kelsey McGill Advertising Manager Daniel Magras Business Manager
CORRECTIONS In a photo caption that ran on Page 24 with the story “Freshman midfielder an ‘important piece’ on field,” it was stated that the men’s soccer game took place on August 8. The game was on September 8. Accuracy is our business, so when a mistake is made, we’ll correct it as soon as possible. Anyone with inquirues about content in this newspaper can contact Editor in Chief Gillian McGoldrick at editor@temple-news.com or 215-204-6736.
Temple Student Government develops its community engagement plan, starting with hosting more community forums. Read more on Page 4.
OPINION A columnist argues that Ariana Grande shouldn’t be blamed for Mac Miller’s death. Read more on Page 11.
FEATURES A senior communication studies major bridges the gap between fashion and media. Read more on Page 13.
INTERSECTION A student who is bisexual reflects on their experiences with online dating apps. Read more on Page 20.
SPORTS Temple’s field hockey team hired a new assistant coach this month. Read more on Page 22.
ON THE COVER HANNAH BURNS / THE TEMPLE NEWS
NEWS
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
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False active assailant report reveals safety concerns at The View Campus Safety Services found that a security officer at The View pulled the fire alarm during a false reported active shooter situation. BY GRETA ANDERSON Deputy Investigations Editor
HANNAH BURNS / THE TEMPLE NEWS Nearly 300 students were evacuated from The View at Montgomery on Sept. 3, after a false active shooting was reported, raising questions about the apartment building’s safety procedures.
Steve Blaustein said he received a “cryptic” text message from his daughter Gabrielle Blaustein on Sept. 3 that said she was evacuating her apartment at The View at Montgomery. A 911 call made from a possible burner phone had falsely reported an active shooter situation in The View, an
off-campus housing complex on Montgomery Avenue near 12th Street. “There were policemen in the stairway and they were yelling and asking us if we heard gunshots,” said Crystal Teoh, a sophomore international business major who lives on the 13th floor of The View. “It was a security guy who worked at the front desk…said that there was an active shooter,” said Nichola Cappelli, a junior nursing major who lives on the third floor. “That was kind of all you have heard about it. [It was] of course, very scary because I figured it wasn’t a drill since we never had to do this last year. It was a very high-intensity situaTHE VIEW | PAGE 6
Judge to determine Cosby’s predator status, sentencing years in prison.
tenced until O’Neill makes this decision,
senting human partners.”
Gloria Allred, who is representing 33 victims in a California lawsuit against Cosby, attended Monday’s proceedings. The disgraced comedian was found guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, the former director of operations for Temple women’s basketball team, in 2004. Cosby was a university trustee at the time, and was later represented by Board of Trustees Chairman Patrick O’Connor in a 2005 civil suit brought by Constand. On Monday, O’Neill heard testimony to determine if Cosby can be classified as a sexually violent predator, which would force him to register on a sex offender’s list. Cosby cannot be sen-
the Sex Offender Assessment Board Dr. Kristen Dudley testified for the prosecution Monday that Cosby qualifies as a sexually violent predator because he engaged in predatory behavior by befriending Constand with the intent of assaulting her. Dudley also said Cosby could be diagnosed with paraphilia, a mental abnormality. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines paraphilia as “intense and persistent sexual interest other than sexual interest” outside of typical sexual arousal, defined as “genital stimulation or preparatory fondling with phenotypically normal, physiologically mature, con-
Constand, her father Andrew Constand and her sister Diana Parsons. Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele and defense attorney Joseph Green Jr. also gave closing arguments. Andrea Constand did not read her victim impact statement but instead read a short statement to the judge. “You read my testimony, my victim impact statement, the jury heard me, and Mr. Cosby heard me,” she said. “All I am asking for is justice as the court sees fit.” Parsons said her sister deserves justice because of the pain the two trials have put her through. “I think, ‘How does she handle being
Comedian and former trustee Bill At least 15 of Cosby’s other accusers, which won’t come until Cosby’s defense’s The court also heard victim impact statements from Andrea Constand’s Cosby will be sentenced on Tues- like model Janice Dickinson and actress psychologist testifies on Tuesday. Lisa Christie, and prominent attorney Clinical psychologist and member of family, including her mother Gianna day for sexual assault. BY ALYSSA BIEDERMAN Deputy Campus Editor NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby appeared at the Montgomery County Courthouse for sentencing on three counts of aggravated indecent assault. Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Judge Steven T. O’Neill merged Cosby’s charges — for which he was found guilty by a jury in April — into one aggravated indecent assault charge. The former Temple University trustee will be sentenced Tuesday on the single charge, which carries a maximum of 10 @TheTempleNews
COSBY | PAGE 5
News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
TSG
TSG to increase community forums, clean-ups Leaders will add street teams Fowler-Thomas said. Because local to increase community elderly community residents do not use social media, this initiative would engagement. BY SAM GOHEL For The Temple News
DAMONTAY FOWLER-THOMAS / COURTESY Damontay Fowler-Thomas, TSG’s director of local and community affairs, leads initiatives to improve community engagement by implementing street teams and community forums.
News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com
Temple Student Government is developing its community engagement strategies this year by increasing the number of community forums and other programs it will hold with community residents. This engagement initiative, led by Director of Local and Community Affairs Damontay Fowler-Thomas and Vice President of External Affairs Cameron Kaczor, involves the formation of street teams that will go door to door to distribute information about the forums. Students will give open invitations to community residents to participate in these meetings, Fowler-Thomas said. “We want to open the floor for some pressing issues in the community that members think we could be of service to them and set goals and track our progress of meeting those goals,” he said. Community forums will start in one to two weeks, where TSG and Temple Police will engage with the community and voice concerns about contemporary issues in the area near Main Campus, Fowler-Thomas said. “The issue with community forums is not that Philadelphia residents lack concern, it’s that they don’t have the information and the resources to get involved,” Fowler-Thomas said. Some residents are unaware TSG hosts these engagement events, like Karlos Martin, who lives near Oxford and 19th streets. This initiative would change that,
allow residents to have greater access to university information, he added. More than 11 student organizations reached out to collaborate with TSG on engagement activities, including the National Council of Negro Women, Progressive NAACP, Temple Owlettes, Alpha Tau Omega, Net Impact, Theta Tau and Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship. Because many clubs and organizations have their own agendas, a collaborative agenda would allow the initiative to have a significant influence on the community, he said. TSG has other plans to create a positive community relationship this year outside of the university’s plans, like its on-going Adopt-A-Block initiative with Campus Safety Services that encourages students to connect with their neighbors and do block cleanings, Fowler-Thomas said. TSG plans to collaborate with TUPD and Kathleen Grady, the university’s director of sustainability, to improve the environmental quality of neighborhoods near Main Campus. “I would love to see the community work to clean up the area,” said Tarik Thompson, who lives near the corner of 11th Street and Girard Avenue. TSG plans to have one or two cleanups per month on Saturdays. “That’s one small portion of problems in the community, but hopefully [our initiatives are] something that can be sustained,” Fowler-Thomas said. “We just wanted to show the community that the youth is engaged and that we are actively seeking to help.” samay.gohel@temple.edu
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 COSBY
called a pathological liar… a con artist…a drug addict…a racist individual…a gold digger? How do people say, ‘She pulled off her plan?’” Parsons said. “How will she ever trust again?” In June 2017, Cosby was tried on the same sexual assault charges, but the jury was unable to decide unanimously on the charges, so O’Neill declared a mistrial. In his closing argument, Green painted Cosby as a harmless, elderly man who is incapable of committing another instance of sexual assault. “Mr. Cosby comes from a youth of hardship and racism,” Green said. “Mr. Cosby is not dangerous. Eightyone-year-old blind men who are not self-sufficient are not dangerous.”
He added that public opinion should not be taken into account during sentencing, referring to the possible influence of the #MeToo movement. “The court of public opinion can become so frenzied, it can spin out of control,” he said. “This is when public opinion swallows whole the court of law.” Steele said Cosby deserves the highest sentence: 10 years in state prison, and an additional psycho-sexual exam, which Cosby refused to complete prior to sentencing. He refuted the defense’s argument that Cosby is too old to sexually assault someone again in the future. “To say that he’s too old, to say that he should get a pass because it’s taken this long to catch up with what this guy’s done, they’re asking for a ‘Get Out of Jail Free Card,’” Steele said.
Steele said the biggest reason he’s requesting the maximum sentence is because Cosby feels no guilt surrounding his assault. “He seemingly doesn’t recognize that’s wrong,” he said. “It’s wrong to drug somebody and sexually assault them.” “There was no acceptance of responsibility for his actions,” Steele added. “No remorse. No remorse.” Cosby sat in silence throughout the proceedings. His wife, Camille Cosby, who has disputed the fairness of the trial in recent days, was not present. Both the prosecution and defense will have a chance to speak again after the defense’s psychologist testifies tomorrow and O’Neill reaches a decision about Cosby’s status. Since being found guilty, Cosby’s team asked O’Neill to recuse himself
from the sentencing, the New York Times reported. Cosby’s team claimed that a former political race against Bruce Castor, a witness for the defense in the 2016 trial, was a conflict of interest. The prosecution attempted to admit victim impact statements before sentencing from several of Cosby’s other accusers who were not directly involved. O’Neill denied the motion because there was no law allowing the consideration of uncharged conduct during sentencing. Cosby accusers who were unable to present statements in court will present them after sentencing on Tuesday at Savior Hall on East Airy Street. Cosby is the first high-profile celebrity to be criminally charged with sexual assault amid the #MeToo movement. alyssa.biederman@temple.edu @BiedermanAlyssa
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 THE VIEW
tion.” Philadelphia Police responded to the 911 call, and Temple Police quickly saw it on its own dispatcher, said Charlie Leone, the executive director of Campus Safety Services. Both units were soon on the scene, ushering students out of the lobby of the building and sweeping the stairwells and halls with guns drawn, searching for an active assailant. Leone said that in Temple Police’s “after-action” meetings with The View, it was found that a member of The View’s security staff pulled the fire alarm — which, if an active assailant was present, could have put more residents in danger as more attempted to leave. The “after-action” also found that The View did not have a written procedure for active assailant situations. While police attempted to clear levels of the building, residents of The View began streaming into hallways to evacuate. Some students who live on the third, fourth, ninth, 13th and 14th floors said there was an automated announcement to their rooms instructing them to exit the building. Director of Emergency Management Sarah Powell said that pulling the alarm is not the correct way to handle an active assailant situation in a building. The View has a private security company, SOS Security, that employs personnel at the building. Security officers at The View had not been previously trained on active assailant situations, Powell said. “The last thing you want to do is pull the fire alarm,” Powell said. During the Parkland, Florida shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February, the shooter’s gunfire set off the fire alarm, which led confused students and faculty out of classrooms and into hallways, into the assailant’s path. Seventeen students and
News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
faculty were killed during the shooting. Tom Rice, lease up specialist for The View II and former general manager of The View, the complex being built behind its original on Cecil B. Moore Avenue near 12th Street, told The Temple News that his staff followed the instructions of police. The security officer who pulled the alarm misinterpreted police clearing the lobby, Leone said. “You don’t want people in the lobby, you want to get them out of the lobby,” Leone said. “[The security officer] may have thought [police meant], ‘Get everybody out of the building.’ That’s what we’re surmising.” The View II, which like The View at Montgomery is being developed and managed by the Goldenberg Group, will house nearly 1,000 residents in 368 units and is projected to be 12 to 18 stories. The second complex is set to be completed in Summer 2019. Campus Safety Services is working with management at The View II to establish emergency procedures similar to the current protocols at The View, Leone said. Leone said that Temple Police would have ideally had the hallways clear of students, so officers could make their way through each level and first search for the reported assailant. “We’d like it better if we’re able to control it more,” Leone said. “People don’t get hurt and we don’t put people at risk. They’re safe where they are. Then when they are leaving, they know that [police are] there to protect them to make sure that they have a safeguard out of the building.” “What kind of training do you possibly have, that you would literally hand students to an active shooter if one existed?” Blaustein said. “And if one existed, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.” “We didn’t understand why we would be evacuated and why we
wouldn’t be told to stay where we are,” Cappelli said. “Because honestly, if there really was an active shooter, [we were] a pretty easy target. There were just hundreds of people in the stairwell.” Now, Temple Police is working with The View to establish an addendum to its emergency procedures that includes training for active shooter situations. Leone said that The View, as a private residential complex unaffiliated with the university, has been “responsive” and “open” to working with Campus Safety Services on updating its policies and procedures. “We did have some shelter-inplace procedures already established,” Rice said. “We met with the deputies and Temple Police to revisit those and review them to make sure that everyone going forward was on the same page with everything.” Shelter-in-place procedures require people to stay indoors in the event of an environmental hazard, like a hazardous materials release or weather emergency. When asked about a specific addendum about active assailant situations, Rice said The View “keeps those internal.” He said The View shares some procedures with its residents in a move-in packet. Leone said The View has a “plan for various evacuations or non-evacuations,” and that it had worked with Campus Safety Services on protocols during its construction in 2012. He said The View established fire safety and evacuation protocols and secured access to the building. Powell said that it is not typical for residential buildings in the city to have active assailant security protocol established. “The most important thing to realize about the View is that [the university does not] control that building,” Powell said. “It’s a completely privately owned and managed building in every way. It could be an apartment building
in Center City.” Resident assistants in University Housing and Residential Life buildings are trained on evacuation, shelter-inplace and lockdown procedures, Powell added. Students are encouraged by the university to attend TUready Training, which is held throughout the semester. In the sessions, students are trained on personal emergency preparedness. The active assailant sessions review the Run, Hide, Fight practice, which the Department of Homeland Security and FBI use as their guidelines for personal practice in an active assailant situation, Powell said. Campus Safety held six active assailant training sessions with Temple Police last semester, Powell said. The university also has emergency preparedness resources on its TUready website. An individual’s practice depends on each person’s situation, Leone said. The proper practice for a student on the third floor of the building may differ from the 13th. A person may run and exit the building if it is safe to do so, hide and barricade their door to block an assailant from entering or fight the assailant if it is the only option for survival, he said. Blaustein said that as a parent and a real estate lawyer, he feels the university should put pressure on The View to establish its own specific policies for active assailant situations, given that The View II complex will house nearly 1,000 more residents, most of whom will be Temple students. “God forbid, there was an active shooter and this happened, could you imagine what that would do to the reputation and the value of a Temple University diploma and what your admissions would look like?” Blaustein said. “They’d be decimated.” greta.anderson@temple.edu @gretanderson
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018 COMMUNITY
Leaders apply city expertise to stadium opposition Prominent community residents elevated their knowledge of city planning regulations. BY VALERIE DOWRET For The Temple News After Ruth Birchett went through a seven-week educational program, she couldn’t help herself but recommend it to her friends. Birchett, a block captain of the 1900 block of Norris Street and founder of the Heritage Community Development Corporation, and Jackie Wiggins, who lives on 20th Street near Diamond, are both prominent members of the protest group Stadium Stompers. Birchett and Wiggins use the skills they learned from a program led by the Citizens Planning Institute — an outreach and education branch of the City Planning Commission — to fight against Temple’s proposed on-campus football stadium. The CPI’s seven-week course, offered once in the fall and spring, teaches participants about registered community organizations, zoning and land use, developers and public spaces, Wiggins
said. “[Birchett] has told others in the neighborhood to take it because it gives you a sense of how the city functions particularly when we’re talking about the planning process for neighborhoods,” said Wiggins, a Spring 2016 graduate. Birchett, a Fall 2015 graduate, said the CPI courses taught her the value of being in an RCO, which are community groups that screen potential developments in the neighborhood. As of June, the Heritage Homeowners Association, an arm of the Heritage Community Development Corporation, is now an RCO. The proposed stadium site is in its boundaries. “That was strategic because any application that Temple University will present [...] for zoning or the stadium we will be notified,” Birchett added. RCOs inform community members when there is going to be a zoning decision that will affect them. Then, RCOs will call meetings to provide space for community input. When Birchett first heard about RCOs, she did not support them. “They were proposing to do the RCO and there were community meet-
SYDNEY SCHAEFER / FILE PHOTO Ruth Birchett, a North Philadelphia resident and prominent member of the Stadium Stompers, speaks to media at an anti-stadium protest on Norris Street near 15 on March 2018. @TheTempleNews
ings about it with the City Planning Commission. …I was against it,” Birchett said. “I felt like it would take away from the direct citizen input about the development process in our community.” After taking courses at CPI, Birchett learned about updated zoning and RCO laws that have changed in her 30 years of community development work and how RCOs could be relevant to her community. “If I wanted to remain relevant in terms of a community asset or planning and development for our community, I had to get into that class and understand what the new laws were,” Birchett said. RCOs are notified through emails and letters when a project applies for zoning approval, which is important to Birchett, she said. “I am one of the many persons that’s been doing research to check in with the different city departments to see what Temple is up to, to see if Temple has put an application in,” Birchett said. “So now the stress is off. While I still check in with these various places, I don’t have to worry about Temple slipping something under, slipping an application in on us.” The CPI has also been helpful with
research that the Stadium Stompers will use in a potential testimony to City Council against Temple’s stadium plan, Birchett said. “When I share with [CPI] that I was trying to collect data, they’re able to often send links or even talk with us about where we can go to find that research,” Birchett said. “It’s not just that we attended the class, they continued to be an ever-present resource to us.” The CPI also provided a space to network with others who are working to better their communities. Some classmates provided information “they think might be useful in our fight,” Birchett said. Wiggins said the CPI informed her further about the Civic Design Review, a process in which projects must be presented at a meeting to a design board with a group representing community stakeholders. The project must also meet the city’s zoning code. “The CPI course for me personally was just wonderful,” Wiggins added. “I think everybody should take it if they can.” valerie.dowret@temple.edu
NIC CICIO / FILE PHOTO Jackie Wiggins, a North Philadelphia resident and prominent member of the Stadium Stompers, protests against Temple’s proposed stadium outside a Board of Trustee’s meeting in Sullivan Hall on Oct. 10, 2017. News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com
NEWS PAGE 8
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
Alpha Center bill on hold due to community concern news to share,” he wrote in an email to
The center has been met with The Temple News. Multiple community residents in both approval and backlash from opposition, and some in favor, of the Alcommunity residents. BY LINDSAY BOWEN News Editor The bill that would authorize the construction of the Alpha Center, a 70,000-square-foot building proposed to be built on Diamond Street near 13th, was not voted on at the Sept. 13 City Council meeting. The bill was to be voted on for final passage, which would change the zoning designations of the land where it would be built. The bill was also held at the council’s last meeting before summer recess on June 21 by City Council President Darrell Clarke. Before Clarke held the bill, it was also on the final passage calendar. Led by the College of Education, the center would offer a day care facility for 130 children, a dental clinic staffed by faculty from the Kornberg School of Dentistry and behavioral health services for the North Philadelphia community. In October 2017, the Board of Trustees approved the Alpha Center for pre-construction and design planning. The zoning bill was first introduced to City Council on Feb. 15 by Councilman At-Large Bill Greenlee on Clarke’s behalf, but for several months, the project has been met with disapproval from several community groups and residents. Clarke wants to ensure that residents are informed about the goals of the Alpha Center and are comfortable with the project before proceeding, City Council spokesperson Jane Roh wrote in an email to The Temple News. “We remain confident that the Alpha Center will be a positive addition to the community,” Roh wrote. “But unfortunately, it risks falling victim to residents’ mistrust of the university – some of it earned over the highly unproductive stadium pursuit.” College of Education Dean Gregory Anderson declined to comment on the status of the center “until there is more letters@temple-news.com
pha Center publicly testified to the council at the Sept. 13 meeting. Gregory Bonaparte, a representative from Berean Presbyterian Church at Broad and Diamond streets, said the church supports the Alpha Center. “[The center] can bring great resources to the church, as well as the community,” Bonaparte said. The Stadium Stompers, a group of residents and students who oppose the proposed on-campus football stadium, gave testimonies at the meeting holding a sign that read “Vote no to Council Bill 180100. Temple University fails to educate kids.” Jackie Wiggins, who lives on 20th Street near Diamond and member of the Stadium Stompers, said she is concerned about the center because it would be used to conduct research on “fragile, vulnerable” children. “The reality is that Black children and Black families do not need to be test specimens or guinea pigs to advance Temple University’s College of Education goal to secure continuing research funding,” Wiggins said. “How cagey, how deceptive.” Several residents opposed the center because of the university’s proposed on-campus stadium project, which has caused tension between the community and the university. In April, Anderson told The Temple News that the center is separate from the stadium project. “The Alpha Center is perfectly aligned with both the history of the university and the social justice mission of the college,” Anderson said in April. “Whether the stadium happens or not has nothing to do with the fact that we should be meeting this critical need.” Donna Richardson, president of the Norris Homes Resident Council and program administrator for the after school and summer camp of the Norris Homes, said the area has “more kids than there are programs.” “I’m for the Alpha Center not just because it’s Temple, because I’ll fight
THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA / COURTESY The university hopes to gain city approvals for the 70,000-square-foot Alpha Center. The project would be built on Diamond Street near 13th.
Temple like anything else if it’s wrong,” Richardson said at the meeting. “But I have seen where our children that have been through the program…children went from low scoring to honor roll students.” Jenn Bensche, who lives near 19th and Diamond streets, voiced her opposition to the center at the meeting. “I have watched the growth of Temple devastate my neighborhood,” Bensche said. “I have watched it push residents out. North Philadelphia is being destroyed by the growth of Temple.” Some residents said they are concerned the facility will put local daycares and preschools out of businesses. “We have small centers that are struggling already, where the workers and the educators understand the culture of our children and they are used to us,” Bensche said. “They properly educate them.” “This is all a ploy for [Temple] to make money, for them to bribe us into having a stadium in our neighborhood and then we have to accept the stadium in order to get them to clean up the trash after their own students,” she added.
One of the goals of the Alpha Center should be to support surrounding pre-K centers, so that they are able to strengthen quality and outcomes, Roh wrote. “The Alpha Center should in no way, shape, or form, replace or displace nearby existing pre-K operators that currently provide good care but struggle with resources,” she added. “We envision the Alpha Center providing supplement resources to allow area pre-Ks to enhance professional development and quality of care.” In April, Anderson refuted the claims that the project would hurt existing day cares, adding that he sees the Alpha Center functioning complementary to existing local daycares. “The idea that we would create a glutton, and therefore actually inhibit early childhood centers from bringing in children is completely against the research and the data that indicates there are not enough early childhood spots available for children in Philadelphia,” Anderson said in April. lindsay.bowen@temple.edu @lindsay_bow
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OPINION TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
PAGE 9 EDITORIAL
Alpha Center has sound intent
Several community residents — mostly those leading advocacy efforts against the proposed football stadium — oppose Temple University’s proposed Alpha Center. If completed, the center will include a daycare for 130 children, a dental clinic run by the Kornberg School of Dentistry and behavioral health services for North Philadelphia residents. We’re disappointed that the most vocal community residents — often quoted in our own publication — are letting their issues with the proposed football stadium outweigh others’ benefits. One voice belongs to Jackie Wiggins, a leader of the Stadium Stompers who lives on 20th Street near Diamond, who led the opposition to the service-filled center. “The reality is that Black children and Black families do not need to be test specimens or guinea pigs to advance Temple University’s College of Education goal to secure continuing research funding,” Wiggins said
at City Council’s public meeting on Sept. 13. “How cagey, how deceptive.” That’s ridiculous to suggest — the center will provide services, not experiment on children. It’ll provide much-needed, low-cost aid to a community where many residents face economic hardship. Another incorrect narrative is that the Alpha Center will put local daycares out of business. College of Education Dean Gregory Anderson refuted this and said research shows there are not enough early education centers in the city. While not always true, most of the officials at Temple are attempting to live up to our founder’s mission. The Alpha Center is a perfect example of a genuine effort to improve the lives of North Philadelphia residents and we hope City Council swiftly signs off on the project. Editor’s Note: News Editor Lindsay Bowen, who reported the Alpha Center story, did not play any part in the writing or editing of this story.
EDITORIAL
Add active assailant protocols The View, an off-campus housing complex on Montgomery Avenue near 12th Street, received a false report there was an active shooter in the building earlier this month. Although police later deemed the report false, the incident was alarming. It also sparked conversations about the safety of the apartment building, which did not have any written procedures for active assailant situations. We urge that The View and all other surrounding apartment complexes to create and share comprehensive safety plans for situations like these. In a time when schools, offices and even concert venues are the targets of mass shootings, it makes sense that every apartment building — especially one near a college campus — should have an active assailant proce-
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dure. A study by the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City found 40 documented shooting incidents occurred on or near college campuses from 2001-06. The number increased to 101 incidents between 2011-16 school years — a 153 percent increase. The View and all other apartment complexes nearby could easily implement the Department of Homeland Security’s Run, Hide, Fight method, which TUready teaches students and faculty. The View and its under-construction neighbor The View II will soon house more than 1,800 students. Procedures must be implemented for the safety of current and future residents as soon as possible in order to prevent a possible disaster.
THE ESSAYIST
Reading ‘contraband’
an 11-year-old Black girl named Peco-
A bookworm writes about the la Breedlove. beauty of banned books and In fact, just this year, a school in Texas challenged the book. And one in how she found herself in them. BY BASIA WILSON For The Temple News There has always been something thrilling about reading contested books, their subject matter scalded by controversy, especially when I was a teenager. Maybe the librarian didn’t see it, or the Barnes & Noble cashier didn’t realize it, but when I got my hands on a book that was banned in American schools, it felt like smuggling home a kind of societal contraband. It was like participating in a tradition of literary rebellion. Every year since 1982, a coalition of organizers designate one full week as Banned Books Week — “celebrating the freedom to read,” according to the campaign website. The theme for this year’s week-long celebration, which started on Sunday, is “Banning Books Silences Stories.” The purpose of the week is to promote readership and denounce institutions that ban certain literature from their spaces. Because controversy draws an audience, banning books from school curricula often produces counterproductive results. And yet, it’s still happening. One of my favorite novels was challenged and banned from high schools across the nation when it first came out in 1970. And it has faced a consistent circle of opponents ever since. The book is Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” a remarkable novel about
North Carolina removed it on the basis of sexual and controversial content. The novel has even been accused of having “an underlying socialist-communist agenda.” My school district didn’t shy away from reading novels weighed down by the perils of the nebulous place our teachers called “the real world.” We read banned books like “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini and “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon as part of the honors curriculum and summer reading. Our treatment of “The Bluest Eye” was no different. An impoverished resident of Ohio, a victim of incestuous sexual abuse and a pariah at her elementary school, Breedlove longs for blue eyes because she is convinced that they will offer her a brighter, whiter outlook on her life’s anguish. She deludes herself into thinking she can achieve this wish and conflates her blackness with ugliness and agony, framing it as the origin of all of her trouble. These are unsettling topics to discuss at any grade level or age. But that doesn’t mean we should just ban the books and refuse to engage with them altogether. At the end of the novel, Morrison writes, “A little Black girl yearns for the blue eyes of a little white girl, and the horror at the heart of her yearning is exceeded only by the evil of fulfillment.” In our 11th-grade classroom, it was up to us to dissect the “horror” of Breedlove’s impossible longing. It was BANNED | PAGE 11
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OPINION PAGE 10
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
POLITICS
Nike’s newest ad campaign: ‘Just Do It’ for the money
The Colin Kaepernick campaign their Nike gear or boycotting the brand the sales of their product because they showed “no improvements over the 2016 shouldn’t be praised for its because they disagree with Kaepernick’s have to look after the interests of their ranking.” political statement, Nike’s online sales shareholders.” The Clean Clothes Campaign, an morality when Nike is profiting. The recent Nike “Just Do It” campaign featuring former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick quickly became a national controversy. The advertisement features a closeup shot of the athlete’s face with the words, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” A full commercial was released two days after the announcement that Kaepernick would be the new face of the campaign. RACHEL BERSON During August 2016, Kaepernick protested systematic racism and police brutality by sitting during the national anthem. He began to kneel during the anthem in fall 2017, and many other professional athletes joined in on the protest. And despite some people burning
increased 31 percent in a three-day period after the debut of the advertisement, according to Edison Trends. Many have protested the political nature of the ad, while others have praised Nike for drawing attention to Kaepernick’s message. It is clear the American multinational corporation is trying to position itself as a progressive and socially aware company that promotes equality. But it’s important for us to consider Nike’s intent. Its motivation was monetary, not ethical or humanitarian. It’s difficult to view Nike as a proponent of equal rights when it continues to profit from global economic inequality and has historically mistreated workers. Sandra Suarez, a Temple University political science professor, said we should remember that Nike is inherently a forprofit company. “At the end of the day, a company that has shareholders has to be profitable,” Suarez said. “They’re not going to make a move that they think is going to hurt
Juris Milestone, an anthropology professor, said we can’t expect this to be an ethical decision from “an organization that exists to sell sneakers.” It is difficult to view Nike as a moral actor because its first and foremost concern is, and has always been, making money. But the extent of Nike’s actual progressiveness raises even more questioning. Though this ad makes it seem like the company promotes human rights-related causes, Nike has a history of mistreating workers worldwide. In 2017, the Guardian reported employees in Nike-supplying factories in Cambodia suffered “mass faintings,” as a result of their working conditions. Long work days and a lack of air conditioning threatened their health. Last May, Good On You, a fashion app that monitors the business practices of companies, stated that working conditions at Nike are “not good enough.” Nike was assigned a “C” rating in the 2017 Ethical Fashion Report, which
international organization that works to improve labor conditions in clothing manufacturing, released a “Foul Play” report in June, noting an increase in soccer sponsorships — but no concurrent rise in pay for low-wage workers. The dissonance between Nike’s outward media presentation and its treatment of employees certainly detracts from the political power of the advertisement. Nike’s history of exploitation should affect the message of the commercial on consumers, Milestone said. “If a company is exploiting cheap labor, that should be considered,” Milestone said. “It’s hypocritical of them if they’re exploiting cheap labor and advertising equality.” It is still possible for the ad to have positive effects and contribute to civil discourse. But when companies present themselves as progressive, they must be held accountable. rachel.berson@temple.edu
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OPINION PAGE 11
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018 FEMINISM
Don’t blame Ariana Grande for Mac Miller’s death
Women should not take the blame for the issues their male significant others face. On Sept. 7, I read about the overdose death of rapper Mac Miller in a tweet. While I wasn’t personally a fan of his music, I respected the down-to-earth attitude he had when he appeared in interviews, so naturally, I felt sad for him and his fans. As I scrolled through Twitter and Instagram, I quickly started feeling sad for someone else, though. CHRISTINA I saw Ariana MITCHELL Grande’s name almost as many times as Miller’s. The comments and posts about her were scathing. The two musicians went public as a couple in August 2016 and their relationship lasted until May. Suddenly, it was like society agreed that Miller’s suspected overdose was the result of Grande ending their toxic relationship. The long-standing Yoko Effect became prominent once again. The Yoko
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not just our responsibility as good English students, but students of the world. And what world could persuade a Black girl to devalue her own personhood so fiercely, to the point of sacrificing her sanity? When I got used to the rebellious luster of reading a banned book like “The Bluest Eye,” I began to ponder the issues it tackled like racism and abuse that were heartbreaking at their core. Five years after reading “The Bluest Eye,” so much of the reading experience has stayed with me, settling into the folds of adulthood as I’ve grown up as a
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Effect refers to the myth that women are connected to the behaviors of their romantic partners, even when they may not comprehend them. It is named after Yoko Ono and the influence some Beatles fans believe she had on John Lennon, according to Rolling Stone. Some blame Ono for Lennon’s ultimate estrangement from the band. Now, Grande is facing the blame for her ex-boyfriend’s addiction and ultimately his death. It is time for us to stop attacking women for the actions — in this case, illness — of their significant others. I can imagine that it’s extremely hard to be in a relationship with someone who is addicted to drugs. While the instinctual thing to do is help your loved ones, there is only so much you can do for the person. “I am not a babysitter or a mother, and no woman should feel that they need to be,” Grande wrote in a tweet after her breakup with Miller. Grande responded to a comment claiming she was responsible for Miller’s DUI arrest last May. “Of course I didn’t share about how hard or scary it was while it was happening but it was,” the tweet continued. “I will continue to pray from the bottom
of my heart that he figures it all out and that any other woman in this position does as well.” The concept that women must be the caregivers for the men they are involved with is an archaic and narrow-minded notion, and Grande’s choice to stop seeing Miller was not selfish nor ill-intentioned, but reasonable and rational. Anne Balay, a gender and sexuality instructor, said the issue with women being seen as motherly figures is that they are given a moral obligation to nurse people with substance abuse disorder back to health, rather than focus on their own wellbeing. She called it an “unfair gender stereotype.” “Grande was expected to be some kind of miracle worker who could cure Miller instantly after he had been dealing with addiction long before knowing her,” Balay said. “Our culture is extremely unable to understand addiction, and the media is trying to understand the victim.” It’s important that we sympathize with the victim of the overdose without demonizing another innocent person in their life. While it isn’t the victim’s fault, it isn’t their girlfriend’s fault either. Celia Porter, a junior psychology
major and a long-time fan of Miller, said blaming Grande is “ignorant” because she tried so hard to help him when they were together and even wished him the best when they broke up. “Ariana had nothing to do with the death of Mac Miller,” Porter said. “She tried to help him to the best of her ability. ...His death was very upsetting to me. He will forever be one of my favorite artists and will always hold a special place in my heart.” Many people of our generation considered Miller to be their favorite artist, but some media outlets discredited him by referring to him as “Ariana Grande’s ex.” People were so focused on blaming Grande and their failed relationship that they were also belittling Miller’s legacy. Miller’s unfortunate death was in no way Grande’s fault, and she should not be held liable for his battle with addiction. In a world where Courtney Love is still being speculated as the reason for Kurt Cobain’s death by suicide 24 years after it happened, it is time that we stop making women the targets of unjustifiable accusation and expecting them to work miracles.
Black woman. When I finished the book, I wrote a research paper on it that analyzed how racism infiltrates standards of beauty. I wrote about a particular passage from the book that offered a portrait of Black girls who didn’t detest their blackness as adamantly as Breedlove did, but still cloaked themselves in a layer of self-disdain; Black girls who “when they wear lipstick, they never cover the entire mouth for fear of lips too thick, and they worry, worry, worry about the edges of their hair.” Although I didn’t want to, I recognized parts of myself in that description. Morrison exposed some of my own anx-
ieties. But I didn’t want to worry about physical features like full lips and coarse hair announcing my blackness. I wanted to be at peace with them. I’ve come to realize that when people attempt to silence stories, they inadvertently amplify them. Readers will suddenly want to know why people have tried to stifle a certain narrative. And upon discovering the reasons, those who advocate for the freedom to read will find themselves with a new defendant. Hordes of new readers and supporters accumulate. Every now and then, someone will declare that literature doesn’t change nations, or people or anything — arguing
that literature is unimportant, or worse, dead. But to me, the persistent effort to ban books seems to originate from a fear of upheaval, discomfort or more generally, a refusal of change. Book banning is an acknowledgment — albeit a fearful one — that literature is power. It certainly had the power to change me. And here in 2018, we should ensure that literature is a power to which no American is denied access.
christina.mitchell@temple.edu
basia.serafina.wilson@temple.edu
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OPINION PAGE 12
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
THE ESSAYIST
Learning to look past my iPhone screen
A student expresses disappointment in her generation’s smartphone obsession. BY RAE BURACH For The Temple News Every day when I walk through campus, there’s at least one person who nearly bumps into me on the sidewalk because they’re looking down at their phone. And it pisses me off. But I’m not mad at the person who ran into me. I couldn’t possibly be; I’m often guilty of the same thing. That’s exactly what I’m mad about. We are all mesmerized by the content radiating from our devices, and I don’t think we’re as scared of this as we should be. I made an Instagram account in middle school and a Twitter account in high school. I posted an average amount of content, from memes to pictures with friends to the occasional artsy photograph. “Likes” made me feel like I was doing something right, and comments made me feel like I had a lot of friends. But toward the end of high school and in my freshman year of college, I realized that I actually hated the idea of social media and that it goes directly against the thing I love most about living: interacting with other human beings in real time with real emotions, real facial expressions and real awkward pauses. It’s often that I try to talk to a friend and they say, “Go ahead, I’m listening,” while their eyes are glued to the phone in their hand. They clearly aren’t tuned in to our conversation, but I know I’ve probably done the same thing to them. We’re all guilty of making people feel like
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meaningless words or pictures on a tiny screen are more important than them, and it saddens me to think that that’s somehow acceptable in our society. When I’m in the Student Center, I see tables of students on their phones. They’re sitting together, but they’re completely disconnected. It makes me wish I grew up during a time when people had no choice but to interact. They couldn’t default to their pocket electronics. I got rid of my Twitter account by the time I graduated high school, and I stopped using Instagram several months ago. But it wasn’t because I stopped looking at people’s faces or because I started running into people on the sidewalk. I deleted my social media because I forgot what it was like to be bored. Every time I didn’t have homework to do or anyone to hangout with, I’d pick up my phone and aimlessly scroll through Instagram searching for entertainment — something to fill the momentary void. All I’d find were pictures posted by people I’ve barely talked to or cared about. I’d see highly edited photos of the meals they ate that day and the vacations they wish they could return to. This wasn’t only happening when I had nothing to do, it was whenever I was coming close to an unfulfilled moment: lulls in conversations with friends, waiting for the subway to come, an uneventful walk to class. Instead of being bored and appreciating the silence or looking around at the trees or my peers, I sought to fill my brain with vapid content from Instagram and Twitter. Why should I care about what a girl from my eighth-grade math class ate for lunch? I felt more connected with myself after I deleted my social media accounts. I started to appreciate boredom. But there’s still this overall disconnect with my sur-
roundings. I can change my own ways but I can’t change the nature of our society. Technology continues to advance with absolutely no signs of slowing down, and that’s what terrifies me most. There’s no way to go back to the times when people looked each other in the eye or sat idly in a waiting room without smartphones in their hands. I’m aware I sound like your grandma who still has a flip phone, and I’m not saying that technology isn’t amazing. I know that social media has revolution-
ized the way we communicate, and there’s definitely a place for it in our society. I’m sure I’ll redownload Instagram in the future, and maybe I’ll have to get a Twitter account for a future job. I just wish our phones wouldn’t make us so out of touch with what actually surrounds us. And I wish we’d stop bumping into each other on the way to class. rae.burach@temple.edu
JEREMIAH REARDON / THE TEMPLE NEWS
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FEATURES TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
PAGE 13
DANCE
Book explores effects of dance on quality of life
Dance department chair Karen Bond also ran a graduate dance eduBond published a 46-author cation and research program at the Unianthology that took six years to versity of Melbourne before beginning her work at Temple University in 2000. complete. BY CLAIRE WOLTERS Assistant Intersection Editor Karen Bond never wanted to be a professional dancer. “I didn’t [want] to just train, train, train, train in one specific thing,” Bond said. The chair of the Department of Dance at the Boyer College of Music and Dance explored dance in multiple countries and spent 24 years in Australia where she completed a Ph.D. in dance education.
This language of dance wove its way through the 31 chapters of her first book “Dance and The Quality of Life,” set to publish in October. “It was a six-year labor of love,” Bond said. The book is Volume 73 of the Social Indicators Research Series, a book series that offers research and statistical assessments on the relationships between a variety of subjects and quality of life, which began in 1997. Bond led the project and organized the anthology, written by 46 different KEVIN QUINLAN / THE TEMPLE NEWS authors from 14 different countries. Dance department chair Karen Bond sits in her office on Sept. 11 in front of a DANCE | PAGE 16 photo of American dancer Martha Graham, who Bond writes about in her book. SUSTAINABILITY
STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
New club bridges gap Alumnus sells premade, between fashion, media sustainable meals in jars
A senior communication studies and materials from vendors. Montoni’s experience at Saks and in major started FETCH to help students pursue careers in the communications classes at Temple University led her to create FETCH, a club fashion industry. BY WILL STICKNEY For The Temple News Senior communication studies major Teresa Montoni explored New York City for the first time this summer while working as a planning intern at the luxury department store Saks Fifth Avenue. Her job took her across the city – once even to a clothing market inside the Empire State Building – to buy clothes @TheTempleNews
dedicated to exploring the relationship between fashion and media. The acronym stands for fashionable, entrepreneurship, technology and communication, while the “H” is still undecided. “This is strictly for creatives,” Montoni said. “This is for people who want to get into magazines and work on social media teams and do public relations through fashion.” Because the Klein College of Media and Communication doesn’t offer a fashFETCH | PAGE 14
Simply Good Jars donates a meal hood, studying at the Culinary Institute of to Philabundance after a jar is America in New York from 2004 through 2006. He then lead kitchens in popular returned. BY DEVYN TRETHEWEY For The Temple News Jared Cannon’s passion for cooking started before he was tall enough to reach the kitchen counter. “I have been cooking since I was 3 years old,” said Cannon, a 2016 business innovation and entrepreneurship alumnus. “I have pictures of myself on a stepstool hand-rolling pasta on the counter.” The Newark, Delaware, native stuck with his passion for food through adult-
Philadelphia restaurants like Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, Honeygrow, Di Bruno Bros. and the Ritz-Carlton hotels. But after 18 years in the restaurant industry, Cannon took a risk and pursued a venture that addressed his bigger concerns: food waste and sustainable, healthy eating. In May 2016, Cannon founded Simply Good Jars, a company that makes premade meals like salads and yogurt breakfasts from locally sourced ingredients in jars and places them in Simply Smart Fridges, located at busy Center City areas JARS | PAGE 14
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FEATURES PAGE 14 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 JARS
like public gyms and co-working spaces. Each jar costs $10 and the refrigerators only accept Venmo payments. The company operates on an honor system, so customers are trusted to pay on Venmo after taking a jar. With Simply Good Jars, Cannon said he is bringing accessible, sustainable and healthy food options to the city to change how busy students and workers eat. “I always saw [a disconnect] in the industry with food in the garbage and hungry people out there,” Cannon said. “It made sense to...be able to reuse the package by getting it back, so that way there is no waste and every jar back would give a meal.” Every day, each American wastes about one pound of food per day, while approximately 150,000 tons of food are thrown away in United States households, according to The Guardian. Customers are encouraged to return empty jars to the refrigerators after eating. For every jar returned, Simply Good Jars donates a meal to the food rescue organization Philabundance. Cannon said Simply Good Jars donates about 1,000 meals a month, and that some clients hold onto jars for weeks until they have the time to return them. “We just got a box of 40 jars mailed CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 FETCH
ion curriculum, FETCH will give students new opportunities to explore paths into the fashion industry. Prior to interning at Saks, Montoni had never formally studied fashion, but her media and communication background filled the gaps. She said these skills helped her prove herself as an asset and set her apart from her peers, many of whom attended fashion schools. “It showed people at Saks that I had a background of free thinking that they weren’t getting from anyone else because they were all taught the same thing, in the same type of school, in the same industry,” Montoni said. The club made its debut on Sept. 12 at Klein Fest, a recruiting event for Klein’s features@temple-news.com
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
to us the other day,” he added. “People would rather pay for postage, get a box, tape it up and take it to the post office rather than throw them away. That, to me, speaks volumes.” Each jar has fewer than 600 calories and is made from fresh ingredients, like the Apple Jawn jar made with ingredients like apple cider, Gala apples, Greek yogurt and almond milk. “Simply Good Jars are a necessary take on an old way of eating,” said Olivia Neely, the nutritionist for Simply Good Jars. “With any nutritional goal, it is to bring the basis back to eating real foods, but this is packaged in a way that is accessible for people.” Katie McCrea works as an outreach coordinator for The Common Market, a nonprofit food distributor that connects local farms to food companies looking for reliable, fresh products. The Common Market contacts local farms in the Mid-Atlantic region to get ingredients for Simply Good Jars, and ships produce to the company’s kitchen in West Philadelphia. In her role as a liaison, McCrea also evaluates how Cannon’s company affects the community. She said Simply Good Jars is doing a study with the University of Pennsylvania, researching how eating healthy, local food impacts student performance. Moving forward, Cannon has contacted Aramark about implementing multiple Simply Good Jars fridges on media and communication student organizations, where more than 100 people expressed interest in joining. Junior communication studies major Sabrina Berry helped at Klein Fest and said she saw high interest from students about the club. “We need this,” Berry added. “People are excited, it’s not just me and Teresa.” Montoni’s inspiration for FETCH also stemmed from the Fashion and Business Club of Temple University, a student professional organization in the Fox School of Business that focuses on the business aspects of fashion. Montoni has been a member of the club since she transferred to Temple from La Salle University in Fall 2017. To help start FETCH, Montoni relied on advice from Klein Director of Com-
LUKE SMITH / THE TEMPLE NEWS Simply Good Jars are sold at multiple locations around Philadelphia, including the co-working space Indy Hall in Old City.
campus that would accept meal swipes in dining halls and dorms. He said the ultimate goal of the company is to allow customers to empower themselves to better the community. “Hopefully we can be at donating 10,000 meals a month, [so] Philadelphia’s thriving and our waste and consumption has shifted,” Cannon said. But Cannon’s goals don’t stop there. He aims to expand Simply Good Jars to Washington, D.C. and Baltimore next year. By 2020, he said he hopes that his
company will make its way to New York City and Boston. Along the way, Cannon hopes to inspire other companies to play an active role in promoting sustainability. Companies can begin to change how the world functions with every small step, he said. “It is really about increasing the access to healthy food to help people eat better, feel better, waste less and do good in the community,” Cannon added.
munication Studies Scott Gratson, her mentor and the faculty adviser for the Fashion and Business Club. Montoni told Gratson she wanted to expand the focus of the club beyond just fashion and business. “He was like, ‘Why don’t you just start a club?’” Montoni said. That’s all it took for Montoni to realize what she had to do. For Gratson and Montoni, fashion represents all elements of communication and human expression, and there’s no better place for FETCH than at Klein. Montoni’s goal for the club is to highlight the diversity that exists on campus, including in race, sexual orientation and socioeconomic background. “It’s all of the types of fashion, all of the types of models that you don’t see in mainstream media,” she said. “What
we’re all about is being very inclusive both with our members and with the fashion industry.” While the long-term vision for the club is still evolving, Montoni’s first project is to launch a blog for FETCH members to discuss fashion on and off campus. By Spring 2019, Montoni said she hopes to hold a fashion show highlighting fashion projects and styles at Temple. Gratson said fashion is a great avenue for self-expression and communicating with other people. “Fashion is an art form that links to the communication of human identity... and that links to all varieties of different elements of identity,” Gratson said. “I see all of that linking back to the mission of Klein.”
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william.stickney@temple.edu
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FEATURES PAGE 15
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018 EDUCATION
Youth program teaches kids music, social activism Play On, Philly! began its new session on Monday with upcoming sessions on improvisation and social activism in music. BY EMMA PADNER For The Temple News Stanford Thompson saw a need for a high-quality, affordable music education program in Philadelphia, but wasn’t sure how to provide it to kids, especially those in underserved communities. “In a city where we can spend hundreds of millions of dollars on our art museums, on our theaters and we can’t find $10 million to help support arts learning...I don’t think that’s cool,” he said. A new session of Play On, Philly!
started Monday. The program, which Thompson launched in 2011, is a free music education organization for K-12 students. Several Temple University students and faculty members work with the program participants. Play On, Philly! will start its new year with a collective composition workshop with composer and educator Daniel Trahey and the music education nonprofit Archipelago Project. At the two-day workshop on Friday and Saturday, local high school students will experiment with improvisation, learn about social activism through music and record their own compositions. Play On, Philly! also offers special programming for K-8 students that focuses on developing music skills for ensemble performance. The high school program, POP Academy, further devel-
JESSICA ZWEIG / COURTESY Play On, Philly! participants practice music in May 2018. Play on, Philly! is an affordable education program that teaches K-12 students music.
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ops the students’ skills through a flexible schedule that accommodates older students’ part-time jobs and other extracurricular activities. Through daily music lessons, the program aims to help young people acquire skills like listening and accepting criticism that help them develop character, do well in school and be successful. “While kids are working toward mastering their instruments, these are the skills we see transfer in the classroom,” Thompson said. Students get the chance to display their skills at 30 concert performances around the city during the year. On Sept. 7, the previous session performed at the Pennsylvania Convention Center as part of The Arena Summit, an event that encouraged people to run for public office and become civic leaders. Program participants played their own rendition of the “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which included an original fourth verse pointing out the controversy in the third verse, which is about the death of slaves who joined the British army during the War of 1812, Thompson said. The rewrite’s inspiration stemmed from social justice protests at sporting events during the national anthem, which were spearheaded in 2016 by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. “These injustices that are being protest[ed] around police brutality...are things that our kids have experienced first hand, and also things that have happened to their family members and friends,” Thompson said. “It’s something that is very real to them.” For most Play On, Philly! instructors, teaching music and social justice go hand in hand. Devin Diaz, a master’s urban school leadership student, has been teaching Play On, Philly! students how to play the clarinet, flute and saxophone for two years. His students use songs to understand how groups of people experienced
oppression in the past. Diaz said he had students study jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald to learn how racism affected her career in the 1940s and 1950s. “We go really in depth [on] why peoples’ lives were harder if they were women or if they were African American in the U.S. during those times,” Diaz said. “We...see how it was portrayed in music [then] and how it is portrayed in today’s music.” He hopes the program will encourage students not just to enter the music field after college, but also to incorporate the skills and concepts they learned from Play On, Philly! in their future endeavors. Students interested in the program don’t need previous music experience or tuition money to join Play On, Philly! Thompson said the program is funded through donations from philanthropists and private foundations and about 350 students from five schools will participate this year. Danielle Garrett, who served as the string orchestra director for Play On, Philly! from 2014-17, was immediately drawn to the organization’s philosophy and outcomes. “I said to myself, ‘Wow I wish I had a program like this when I was [their] age,’” said Garrett, an ensemble librarian for the Boyer College of Music and Dance and the conductor of the string orchestra OWLchestra. “I would have been all over it.” Thompson said the Play On, Philly! staff works hard to bring a sense of pride to program participants and prove youth do positive things, dream big and accomplish their goals. “Our young people have a lot of ideas,” he added. “We...want to use our program to help students amplify their own voices and do that in a musically responsive way.” emma.padner@temple.edu
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
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Thirteen of the authors are Temple dance alumni. The book, dressed in a cherry-red cover similar to Temple’s signature color, seeks to educate readers about dance. “Humans started dancing very early on for communication, for healing, to educate each other,” Bond said. “It’s a mystery why dance is so underrepresented in scholarly discourse.” The book is the first volume of the series written about dance and its effect on quality of life. Bond said Springer publishing company commissioned her to put together the book in 2012. “I just instantly knew that this was what I wanted to do,” she said. “My interest in dance has been about quality of life.” Quality of life studies evaluate the variables that play into happiness and fulfillment in life. Bond said the book’s range of subject matter and writing style
VOICES
How do you feel about Nike’s ad with Colin Kaepernick?
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differentiates it from other dance anthologies of its kind. Some chapters of the book include statistical analysis, while others are personal narratives about the author’s relationship to dance. Bond said the least conventional chapter was written “straight from the heart.” Authored by Dr. Teresa Benzwie, a 1981 dance education doctorate alumna and a psychotherapist in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, the chapter chronicles her long journey with dance. When Benzwie began studying at Temple, she was a single mother raising three boys and working fulltime as a kindergarten teacher in Camden, New Jersey. She said she found joy integrating dance into her lesson plans and credited mentors at the university for supporting the team efforts behind the book. “I come from a dream world, and I still have my dream world at 83,” Benzwie added. She started the Teresa Benzwie
Dance in Education Award to give back to the dance department in 2007. The money comes from a grant she supports monthly. The number of award winners varies each year depending on interest and funds, but Benzwie always chooses the recipients. About 10 years ago, Bond suggested Benzwie mentor the recipients. Now, Benzwie and award winners work together to teach basic numbers, letters and other academic skills to preschoolers at the Barclay Early Childhood Center in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, through dance – the same technique Benzwie used during her days teaching kindergarten. “In the process, we become close,” she said. “They learn how to appreciate the students and to appreciate themselves as well.” Apart from her writers, Bond’s largest help in publishing the book came from Sally Gardner, a former student of Bond’s from the University of Melbourne who served as a consulting editor for “Dance and the Quality of Life.”
JORDAN HARRIS Sophomore public relations major I 100 percent feel that it was important for Nike to stand up and support Colin Kaepernick and his efforts.
KIEARA HILL Junior finance and real estate major
People...throwing away perfectly good shoes instead of donating to people in need is pretty silly. Views shouldn’t affect what you’re purchasing. Nike is a quality product.
Gardner and Bond communicated via Skype and email, not letting time differences nor the approximate 10,000mile separation come between their hard work and the book’s publication. Gardner co-wrote two chapters of the book, while Bond wrote the introduction, first chapter and co-authored two chapters. Gardner was a young mother when she took Bond’s classes in 1989 and 1990. She said she has fond memories of Bond letting her child play in the corner of the room during class. “It’s been a big experience working on this book and working with Karen,” said Gardner, who added that Bond was a key figure in her education. “Her commitment to the individual authors and their writing was very inspirational.” clairewolters@temple.edu
QADREE FLETCHER Junior media studies and production major It’s really great that he’s been given an opportunity to have a platform and share his opinion, even indirectly.
LEVI KRUM Senior geography and urban studies major I’m really proud of Nike. ... At its core, it’s just kind of tackling an issue that’s about race, and people are trying to twist it into anything else to avoid talking about that.
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FEATURES TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
LIVE
PAGE 17
IN PHILLY
HANNAH BURNS / THE TEMPLE NEWS
Philly AIDS Thrift celebrates 13th anniversary with carnival-themed block party Philly AIDS Thrift hosted its 13th anniversary block party outside the store on 5th Street near Bainbridge on Saturday. For 13 years, the nonprofit has raised money for local organizations that provide services to people with HIV and AIDS. “It’s just a beautiful collection of people that shop, donate and volunteer here and we just love them very much,” said Christina Kallas-Saritsoglou, the store’s manager and co-founder. “This is just our way of giving back to the community.” Philly AIDS Thrift hosted a pie eating contest with MANNA, a nonprofit that gives food to people with life-threatening illnesses, as a part of MANNA’s annual Thanksgiving fundraiser, Pie In The Sky. The proceeds will provide Thanksgiving dinners to those with illnesses like HIV/AIDS, chronic kidney disease and cancer. The event also had performances by the Squidling Brothers Circus Sideshow, carnival games, a dunk tank, food and live music. “We’re big supporters of Philly AIDS Thrift and their mission,” said Melanie Harris, a Queen Village resident who attended the event with her children. “It really does take a village, and people in the community have to show that they care and come out.” @TheTempleNews
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
Bisexual Awareness Week
LAUREN REMY / THE TEMPLE NEWS BIVISIBILITY
The gray area of bisexuality and pansexuality
Not all people who identify as University of Massachusetts’s Stonewall Center. bisexual perfectly fit the label. Bisexuality and pansexuality are BY EMMA GOLDHABER & LAUREN REMY For The Temple News Sunday marked the start of Bisexual Awareness Week, a time to celebrate the bisexual community. The week spreads awareness about the bisexual community, promotes acceptance and provides a time for members to take pride in their identity. But what is bisexuality? MerriamWebster defines it as an attraction to both men and women, as the prefix “bi” refers to only male and female. The definition, however, also includes those attracted to “partners of more than one gender,” which blends with pansexuality or the attraction to others regardless of their gender identity or biological sex, according to the intersection@temple-news.com
sexual orientations that often overlap in discussions about sexuality within the LGBTQ community. Brad Windhauser, an associate professor in Temple University’s gender, sexuality, and women’s studies department, said thinking of sexuality in terms of the gender binary is becoming less commonplace. “From a technical perspective, bisexuality refers to the attraction to both men and women,” Windhauser said. “Or, [the bisexual community can] respect a whole different spectrum, but they gravitate toward people who identify as either men or women.” As society learns more about how people identify, these technical definitions can change. Non-binary concepts of bisexuality have been around since the 1990s, Refinery29 reported, and some students said that a person’s experiences tend to dictate what their
definitions are of these labels. Bisexuality can mean one thing to one person, and something drastically different to someone else. “People within the [bisexual] community have a clear sense of who they are and have a sense of, in general, what it means to be gay, even though every one person’s experience is different.” Windhauser said. Not all people who identify as bisexual perfectly fit the definition. Leigh Robertson, a junior environmental science major, identifies as gender nonbinary but said she previously labeled herself bisexual and has since gravitated toward using the term “queer.” “The whole controversy between pan and bi and [polysexual] is like, ‘Why?’” Robertson said. “People get aggressive about it. So I just use queer to circumvent that whole situation. Robertson added that people acknowledged gay and bisexual people before non-binary people, and in order to describe attraction to genders outside
the binary, a new term had to be coined. Maya Tejada, a junior media studies and production major who identifies more strongly with pansexuality, views pan as “the umbrella” with bisexuality falling underneath it. “I view bisexuality as black and white, attracted to both males and females, [while] pan opens it up to a broader spectrum,” Tejada added. “However, I don’t think that means that people who identify as bi disagree with pansexuality. I view [the terms bisexual and pansexual] as interchangeable.” Tejada added that she often labels herself as bi because it can be easier to explain to people, especially older people and relatives. But Tejada said she wishes people didn’t rely on labels. “Try to understand the person as an individual,” she said. intersection@temple-news.com @TheTempleNews
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
BIVISIBILITY
Pride: Reaching my own finish line
CLAIRE HALLORAN / THE TEMPLE NEWS POEM
‘You’
A junior journalism major writes an ode to Bisexual Awareness Week. BY JUSTIN OAKES For The Temple News I’ve been dying to see the Leaves fall and Nights change To bring about Some better days, But all I seem to see Are rays of heat And winter rain. And I know in my heart The nights might not Be much better with you. I know I’ll still see Some chilly beach With my lover and a drink Both in arm’s reach And I’ll wake up and find That I’m still sweating in Your room. But, what the hell, You know it’s fun to dream About crazy hearts And silly things, And baby if you’d miss me, Well, I guess I’ll have To miss you too. It’s fun until it’s not And it’s funny ‘til The laughter stops. I try to cheer myself back up With a pretty scotch on rocks And dust myself off with
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Last night’s Crotchless knickerbocks Before she puts ‘em on And moseys on her way. Maybe I’m just a drunk old man With a drunken, Half-baked Master plan, But most nights I just feel Like falling asleep with You. It’s a long shot From all the things we’ve dreamt, But that’s for another night And another lament, Because tonight I just feel Like falling asleep with Pretty, Pure Uncomplicated, Love that can’t be Overstated, Hey, Porter, Shout it from the P.A. system so that The whole damn world Can hear I love you, You.
A junior English major reflects on their bisexuality and their first time at Philly Pride. BY BRITTANY WHELAN For The Temple News
I
completed my first Philly Pride parade sign the same way I completed my homework assignments — at 3 a.m. in my work uniform. My sign stated “Miss me with that straight shit,” and packing the hours leading up to the parade with sign-making activities made it easier to avoid thinking about how new this experience was going to be. In preparation for Pride on June 10, I read articles and pored over old photographs. As I realize I’m young, and in many ways just beginning to find footing in the queer community. I decided that if I was to see a float for the Gay Men’s Chorus drive by, then I would be sure I understood its significance. I looked forward to the vibrancy of the celebration: the marching bands and drag queens leading the way to Penn’s Landing. I wanted to make sure I not only took part in the Pride festivities, but also comprehended the speeches given. I haven’t always been upfront about my sexuality. I’m not a very loud person like the stereotypical queer person is supposed to be. I’m not promiscuous or confused about
my sexuality or a “bad driver,” either. If I never told you I was bisexual, you’d probably never guess it yourself. In high school, I downplayed my attraction to both men and women by avoiding the expression of serious romantic interest for either gender. I finally found a safe environment at college where I could be honest about my identity. I joined the Temple theater group, Insomnia Theater, my freshman year and, even though I no longer frequent their shows, the people I worked with and observed pushed me to step outside my own boundaries. Attending Pride felt like reaching my own finish line. It took my commitment to all parts of myself to the next level. The morning of Pride, I wore all my brightest colors and painted blue, purple and pink stripes on each cheek, before marching all throughout Philly with the slogan on my sign I’d known was true since I was 7 years old. I try not to force myself into anything I’m not ready for, but having this statement day where I could be honest with all of my friends and family felt long overdue. As I followed the floats and people throughout the route with my friend Meghan. I didn’t talk much. I didn’t have to legitimize anything. My experience at Pride was a carelessness well-deserved. brittany.whelan@temple.edu
intersection@temple-news.com
INTERSECTION PAGE 20
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
BIVISBILITY
Bisexuality: no straight answers to online dating A senior biology major reflects my identity. Through other friends’ experiencon her bisexuality while using the es and my own, I’ve witnessed many dating app HER. straight people who just don’t underBY RUTH HUNGER For The Temple News My bisexuality is like my invisibility cloak which only other bi and queer people see through and (usually) understand. It’s only the people close to me who know, and who hear all of my bi-related puns. I don’t usually date and have very little interest in dating. I try my best to project my queerness, but it’s hard and tiring. People question what percent queer I am and if I’ve ever been with a woman, as if that information determines the validity of
stand bisexuality or don’t want to get it. Popular dating apps like Tinder aren’t my cup of tea. Instead, I use an app called HER, which is a women’s/femmes’ dating app. Something about possibly meeting guys online creeps me out, especially when they find out I’m bi. This doesn’t happen much with other women. Despite my positive experiences on HER, there are a couple of interactions I’ve had on the app that were somewhat negative. The first was a fling of sorts with a girl who goes to another university in Philadelphia. We spoke on the phone a lot, met up a couple times and cuddled on the couch with my cat. I made a lot
of bi puns, and we went out to see an amazing dance performance. It was OK, but I decided to stop talking to her. She, a fellow bisexual, said in response one of my puns, “You know, if I didn’t know you were bi, I’d think you were hella homophobic.” It was incredibly offensive to me and once she said it, I was over it. I expected another bi woman to understand me better, but the identity has different meanings and significances to different people. The second interaction, and common scenario among bisexual women, was the first time I got a notification saying, “Guy’s name and girl’s name has liked you.” I was initially confused. I opened the app, and I realized a couple liked me just to be a third for a threesome. I rolled my eyes and showed it to my friends, who
also shared my annoyance. The stereotype that bi women only want threesomes with a straight couple is another symptom of the lack of bivisibility. It’s hard to see bisexuality explicitly. It’s in threesomes and poly-relationships where bisexuality can be seen without being outrightly told, giving the impression that those the only examples of what bisexuality looks like. I use HER because I generally don’t need to explain myself to the people on the app. They find out I’m bi and, rather than interrogating me, we just talk and see where things go. I’m trying to figure out just how to make my identity more visible, but it’s exhausting having to explain myself and prove how “gay” I am at every turn. ruth.hunger@temple.edu
SUVI WILLIAMS / THE TEMPLE NEWS intersection@temple-news.com
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INTERSECTION PAGE 21
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018 POEM
Are You Confused?
A senior English and music major writes about the misconceptions people have about bisexuality. POEM BY MYKEL GREENE For The Temple News “Are you confused?” Yes I am confused not because I am unsure about how I feel or that I have any personal hang ups about the way I feel but you all swarm me like flies to a pile of s--t telling me buzzing That there’s no way that I could be this way that I’m either one or the other that I can’t be both but despite the label I see more than just two options I see them all “Don’t you need both to be satisfied?” My identity goes by many names People with their ad lib definitions create their own meanings for my way of being To them I am this insatiable beast this sly fox who takes whatever it can get its paws on that because of my desire for more than one kind of person I need more than one kind of person to be satisfied “Aren’t you just ?” Homo? Hetero? I am as homo as I am hetero yet neither captures me within the nutshell There is no closet for me to emerge from
My closet is full full of the skeletons of the hopes my hopes that I will be understood You see the man the woman the queer man the queer woman the person they are all beautiful to me To you this is a phase this is a passing whim this is curiosity that will be settled but to me for me this is me “I just don’t get it.” I suppose you wouldn’t when it is not your own experience when all you can do is speak and not listen When you call me greedy when you curse me for being able to ‘pass’ when you tell me that I have strayed when you color my pride with shame when you make me ashamed of being me in every space that I occupy But no more You are not ashamed to be who you are You have no reason to be And neither do I So I will be visible in my blue pink and purple All that I ask is that you look beyond my stripes and see the me that resides underneath JEREMIAH REARDON / THE TEMPLE NEWS
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SPORTS PAGE 22
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
FIELD HOCKEY
International coach boosts offense Temple’s field hockey team hired Ross Gilham-Jones as an assistant coach this month. BY TYLER SANDORA AND JAY NEEMEYER For The Temple News Ross Gilham-Jones’s sales pitch to Temple University’s field hockey coach Marybeth Freeman was convincing. So much so, Freeman wanted to buy the sticks and hire Gilham-Jones to be part of the team. In November 2017, Gilham-Jones moved to Philadelphia and reached out to colleges in the area in hopes of selling sticks for Jamie Dwyer Hockey, an Australian equipment company with gear designed by Dwyer, a five-time International Hockey Federation player of the year winner. Gilham-Jones played with Dwyer during his field hockey career in Australia. That pitch also landed Gilham-Jones a spot on Temple’s coaching staff, the team announced on Sept. 18. “[Freeman] mentioned that someone was leaving, and there was a vacancy opening up and asked if I would be interested in the role,” Gilham-Jones said. “That’s what one of my goals has always been, to coach in the college system in America.” Freeman said he liked Gilham-Jones’s character and his passion for field hockey. She added he was her top choice to be an assistant coach if the position was vacant. Temple replaced both of its assistant coaches after Roz Ellis returned to her alma mater, the University of Iowa, as assistant coach, and Katie Gerzabek took the same role at Syracuse University. The Owls hired former UConn and Quinnipiac University forward and midfielder Montana Fleming in May, but the team entered the season with
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JAMIE COTTRELL / THE TEMPLE NEWS Assistant coach Ross Gilham-Jones speaks to freshman midfielder Micki Butler during a warm-up drill before the Owls’ 3-2 double-overtime loss to Providence College at Howarth Field on Friday.
an unfilled assistant coach spot. Gilham-Jones brings an attack-minded approach to the game and can make an immediate impact on the progression of Temple’s program, Freeman said. He primarily works with the forwards and provided a boost to production for the Owls’ offense in the two games since he was hired. Temple (2-6, 0-1 Big East Conference) scored seven goals in six games before Gilham-Jones arrived. In their past two games, the Owls netted four goals. “His impact has been great,” sophomore midfielder Taylor Alba said. “He holds us very accountable. We’ve really been focusing on our forward movement, from the midfield back to the forwards. I think it’s just going to improve from here on out, and I’m looking forward to it.” “To have an individual like Ross balance our staff, it’s great,” Freeman
said. “His way to convey ideas effectively and to share his passion on a daily basis so far, it’s been really amazing to watch. The players are going to benefit from having him.” Born in England, Gilham-Jones grew up playing field hockey at the youth and professional levels and made it onto Britain’s 2016 Rio Summer Olympics team. He suffered an injury before the Olympics which prohibited him from traveling with the team. Recently, Gilham-Jones worked with the WC Eagles, a club team based in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, that feeds players to college programs in the area. “The girls are amazing,” Gilham-Jones said. “[Freeman] has me in some great shape and it’s exciting to see what the rest of the season brings.” sports@temple-news.com @TTN_Sports
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 24 ONE GOAL
To put Temple’s five goals into perspective, the American’s leader in goals, Central Florida junior forward Cal Jennings, has already scored nine this season. “Certainly, I wish we were scoring more goals now,” Rowland said. “We just have to execute. If you look at the games we’ve played, we’ve certainly had opportunities in those games, so I think if we weren’t creating shots or corners or playing in the other team’s half, I’d be a little more concerned.” While close games can mean more pressure, more overtimes and more losses, the Owls see a distinct bright side to them. The team recognizes that a few shots placed inches to the left or to the right or a few crisper passes could have resulted in a different outcome. Because the goal differential has been low, the team is also confident in its ability to play with any team and make the contest competitive. Two of the Owls’ 1-0 wins came against Old Dominion University on Sept. 2., and Central Florida on Friday. Old Dominion is ranked No. 20 in the United Soccer Coaches poll, while the Central Florida received 92 votes to be ranked and finished two spots outside the top 25. “We are afraid of nobody,” sophomore defender Pierre Cayet said. “We have a really good team, and I think we can really improve each part of the defense, the midfield and forward, and we can score more goals.” Thus far, the Owls were outshot by their opponents 89-72. Only 26 of the Owls’ attempts have reached goal, leaving Temple with a 36.1 shots-on-goal percentage compared to their eight opponents’ 41.6. “We haven’t really created that many quality chances because a lot of the shots that we’ve had have been outside of the box,” Hellgren Villegas said. “The main thing I think is keeping focused when you get the ball in the box and not being afraid to take a shot even if you’ve missed chances before.” maura.razanauskas@temple.edu @captainMAURAca
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SPORTS PAGE 23
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018 FOOTBALL
Recruit given home to play football Class of 2019 verbal commit returns to his high school football team after missing two years. BY MICHAEL ZINGRONE Co-Sports Editor A Temple University verbal commit, who was homeless, will play his first high school football game in two years on Friday due to a Washington, D.C. athletic regulation that barred him from playing due to residency issues, the player said. Senior running back Jamal Speaks, who attends Ballou STAY Opportunity Academy, an alternative school on Ballou High School’s campus, has been homeless during several periods of his high school career. He was not allowed to play football because he did not have a residential address in Washington, D.C. After being ruled ineligible in Fall 2016 by the District of Columbia Interscholastic Athletic Association, Speaks transferred to a school in Maryland before returning to Ballou in Spring 2018, causing him to miss the football season his junior year. Before coming to Ballou High School before his freshman year, Speaks lived in Maryland and was filed under his mother’s address there. He played his freshman season at Ballou and part of his sophomore season before D.C. Public Schools ruled him ineligible. Before his junior year ended, Speaks was no longer listed under his mother’s address, and was a homeless student his junior year and would be allowed to attend Ballou High School again. Speaks announced on Twitter on May 27 that he received an official scholarship offer to play for the Owls. He said his residency issues won’t affect his scholarship to go to the university. A Temple football representative declined to comment on Speaks. Per NCAA rules, Temple cannot comment on a recruit until they sign a National Letter of Intent. High school athletic programs in @TheTempleNews
Washington D.C. are overseen by two associations — the DCIAA, which first barred Speaks from playing, and the District of Columbia State Athletic Association, which later said the senior was eligible to play. The DCIAA handles public school sports, which includes Ballou High School. The DCSAA was formed in 2012 to oversee all public and private high school sports. Clark Ray, the executive director of the DCSAA, said the association is the “umbrella” of high school sports in D.C. “There has been no confusion on our part,” Ray said. “We have the authority. Look at the rules. Look at the law. We acted within the authority and acted within the rules and told [Speaks] he was eligible.” According to the DCIAA Handbook, to play a sport in one of the district’s public schools, a student must have a proof of residency in the district. Speaks wasn’t able to do that because he was homeless and could not prove district residency. Ray said Speaks was eligible to play as a homeless student transfer under DCSAA rules. The DCIAA has stood by its ruling since making it official that Speaks is ineligible to play high school football in October 2016. On Wednesday, Speaks told The Temple News that he will be allowed to play in Ballou High School’s next game on Friday against Roosevelt High School while District of Columbia Public Schools finalizes his residency status. On Sept. 18, Speaks and Ballou High School Principal Willie Jackson met to discuss what he would have to do to play football this season. Speaks said Jackson wanted the DCIAA or District of Columbia Public Schools to submit an official document saying he is eligible to play. But Covenant House Greater Washington, an organization that helps young adults ages 18-24 who experience homelessness, stepped in on Wednesday. They helped Speaks obtain a place to live so he can be a resident of the district, making him eligible to play
under D.C. public school rules. The organization’s CEO, Madye Henson, saw the local morning news about Speaks’ story and decided to step in immediately, CHGW manager of communications and marketing Kyle Whitehead told The Temple News. They collaborated with Jackson and elected officials, backed by community support, to get Speaks back on the field. The move-in process for Speaks started on Wednesday, and he will be fully moved into a new home within the next few days, Whitehead said. Speaks found out he was given a place to live when he was getting ready for school on Wednesday. “I am just so excited to finally be able to play,” Speaks said. “I was so crushed because I couldn’t play. I am happy that the right thing was finally done.” “The community came together in a time of need,” Whitehead said. “They were really looking for a solution in what can happen and what are [Speaks’] possibilities. And him fitting our demographic of youth and the location, we said we have availability, and it will be a good opportunity for him to have a safe place to call home and be able to focus on his future.” Speaks will now be living in a housing facility that is within walking distance of Ballou High School, Whitehead said. On Wednesday, Speaks launched an online crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe that has raised more than $21,000 — far more than its $5,000goal. Speaks said Temple coaches started the recruiting process after he attended a camp on Main Campus in Spring 2018. The Owls’ coaches have showed their support for Speaks, he said, and he expects an in-person visit from Temple coaches by this weekend. “I just want to show people what I can do,” Speaks said. “Being committed to Temple, I just want to represent my future school as a commit.”
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 24 GOALIE
“I think one of the assets I have, and it’s been a change for me, is the way I carry myself on the field,” Chloe Johnson said. “I’m more confident and more in control defensively. I’m thinking more tactically, and not just within the goal. I’m thinking about where defenders should be too.” Both Chloe Johnson’s twin sister and her coach attribute her success to her calm mindset. “She’s never anxious about things,” Mollie Johnson said. “She just goes out there and does it.” “She’s not overly confident, she’s not arrogant,” coach Marybeth Freeman said. “It’s a, ‘I know what my job is and I’m going to do it.’” Often, doing what needs to be done means diving across the cage or challenging a lone offensive player. On Sept. 9 against Kent State University, she dropped low to make a sliding save on the left side. She later blocked a penalty stroke by diving to knock the ball away from the left corner. Against Providence College on Friday, she dove to the right post to stop a shot, then used her stick to sweep the ball away while she was still on the ground. “[Freeman] and I had a meeting and she said, ‘I don’t know what it is, but you look so chill when you play. I’m not used to that because normally goalkeepers are really intense,”” Chloe Johnson said. “But I was watching film, and I’m laughing during the replays. I’m just really having fun with it.” jay.neemeyer@temple.edu @neemeyer_j
michael.zingrone@temple.edu @mjzingrone
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SPORTS PAGE 24
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018 MEN’S SOCCER
One-goal games leave little room for error
“The margin for error becomes One goal is the difference in sevslim,” coach Brian Rowland said. “I think en of the first eight men’s soccer we’re learning a little bit that any misgames. take can be the difference between win-
BY MAURA RAZANAUSKAS Men’s Soccer Beat Reporter
JUSTIN OAKES / THE TEMPLE NEWS Freshman forward Elias Hellgren Villegas tries to get open in the Owls’ 1-0 win against Central Florida at the Temple Sports Complex on Friday.
It has been a season of “little things” for the men’s soccer team — little details, little mistakes, little plays, and most of all, a little margin for error. Eight games into the season, seven of Temple University’s games have been determined by, at most, one goal. Temple’s (3-4-1, 1-0 American Athletic Conference) record consists of six games with a 1-0 result, one 2-1 overtime loss and one that ended in a 1-1 tie.
ning a game and losing a game.” “Obviously, we would’ve wanted to have a better record, but the games have been very close,” freshman forward Elias Hellgren Villegas said. “Maybe with a little bit more luck and a little bit more execution, we could’ve easily have been with a winning record. We could’ve won every game that we’ve played.” Temple’s lack of offensive production has contributed to the close games. The Owls have not scored more than one goal in any game and have tallied just five goals in eight games. ONE GOAL | PAGE 22
Senior goalie connects art and field hockey FIELD HOCKEY
Chloe Johnson has the same lot of similarities between creative work mindset with goalie pads on as and sports that people don’t necessarily see.” she does with a pen. BY JAY NEEMEYER Field Hockey Beat Reporter
HEATHER WENTZ / THE TEMPLE NEWS Redshirt Senior goalkeeper Chloe Johnson attempts to rebound a shot in the Owls’ 6-2 loss to Kent State University at Howarth Field on Sept. 9. sports@temple-news.com
Whether Chloe Johnson is in the Tyler School of Art or playing field hockey for Temple University, she thinks the same way. The senior goalkeeper, who is an art minor, often uses pen and ink when creating pieces of art. Working with paper and pen leaves no room for mistakes, and being the last line of defense in field hockey does the same, she said. Johnson said she is able to limit mistakes on the field, and with her pen, by staying calm in any situation. “I definitely realized that having a creative outlet is key to being balanced overall,” Johnson said. “I feel like there’s a
“Chloe is so laid-back it’s actually ridiculous,” said her twin sister Mollie Johnson, who plays ice hockey at Neumann University in Aston, Pennsylvania. “She’s like, ‘Whatever happens, happens,’ and that’s the good thing about Chloe.” Being an artist belies a natural confidence that she shows on the field. Chloe Johnson has started eight games this season, one more start than last year. Her save percentage is .771 this season, 8 percent higher than her average in her first three seasons as an Owl. She averages 10.1 saves per game, which is second in all of Division I, and recorded double-digits in saves in four of Temple’s (2-6, 0-1 Big East Conference) seven games this season. In a 4-0 loss to Penn State on Aug. 31, she made 19 saves on 26 shots on goal. GOALIE | PAGE 23 temple-news.com