Volume 93, issue 19

The Essayist Issue: Personal stories about love, loss and self-discovery | PAGE 4 A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921.

2014 Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker Award Winner temple-news.com

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

VOL. 93 ISS. 19

CRIME

New patrol zone brings more alerts

Reported robberies on Main Campus have decreased since Temple Police expanded its patrol borders last September.

LIAN PARSONS The Temple News

JENNY KERRIGAN TTN

Alex Rojas-Garcia’s sister Aleida Silva-Garcia (left), son Alex Jr., sister Enid Rojas and daughter Brianna hold candles at a vigil for him in Feltonville on Feb. 7.

A search for justice

Alex Rojas-Garcia, an advertising major, was shot and killed Jan. 24 in Feltonville. His family is committed to telling his story.

A

JOE BRANDT News Editor

LEIDA GARCIA WAS CALM at her son’s funeral.

She was calm during the viewing and other moments of mourning, she said. But her attitude changed at the vigil for Alejandro “Alex” Rojas-Garcia, her 34-

year-old son who was killed on Macalester Street near Hunting Park Avenue on Jan. 24 when his car was sprayed with bullets by a suspect whose identity remains unknown.

On Saturday, a crowd of about 50 gathered at the scene of the shooting, in front of a police impound lot and a short walk from a bar where fam-

ily believe Alex was headed for a drink. The victim’s mother was illuminated by several candles which cast her shadow on a memorial hung on the lot’s chain-link fence, tipped with barbed wire.

“I am committed to finding justice for my son, for that person who pulled a gun on my son,”

Owls coach Matt Rhule signed two fourstar recruits to highlight his 2015 class.

RHULE PAGE 19

NEWS - PAGES 2-3, 6

Eye to Eye, an art-based program, unites local students who have learning disabilities.

EMILY SCOTT The Temple News

HUA ZONG TTN

Coach Matt Rhule announced his new recruits in a press conference last week.

LIFESTYLE - PAGES 7-8, 14-16

In high school, Matt Cahill established a “safe environment.” He attended Delaware Valley Friends School, in Paoli, where his circle of friends consisted of students with learning disabilities similar to his own.

“We already had a community,” said Cahill, a senior history education major who has dyslexia.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT - PAGES 9-13

Students to cover mayor’s race

A new community view through art

Main Campus gets a sweet visit

Students in “Philadelphia Neighborhoods” are working with the Daily News, WHYY and philly. com for “Next Mayor Philly” PAGE 2

The North Philadelphia Youth Advisory Council helps five local students examine community issues through artwork.

PAGE 7

Don Shump and the Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild held their Symposium on Main Campus.

PAGE 9

OPINION - PAGES 4-5 The Essayist Issue

CRIME RATES AT A GLANCE 2014-15 ACADEMIC YEAR

12%

30%

DECREASE IN REPORTED INCREASE IN REPORTED ROBBERIES ON MAIN ON-CAMPUS SEXUAL CAMPUS FROM ASSAULTS FROM 2013-14 2013-14

MENTORING PROGRAM BREAKS BARRIERS

‘Recruiting with the big dogs’

On a hot Sunday morning in late June, Matt Rhule finished up his annual summer football camp and responded to a jab from a fellow Pennsylvania coach.

“Dominate the state” had become Penn State coach James Franklin’s slogan from his inaugural press confer-

BY THE NUMBERS

CRIME PAGE 3

FOOTBALL

ence. Rhule responded by saying he wished to “represent the state” instead of dominate it.

Despite Rhule’s separate objective, it seems the chatter hasn’t persisted in his recruiting circles.

“There’s a lot of trash being talked,” Rhule said in his press conference on national signing day. “There’s a lot of

I am committed to “ finding justice for my son. ” Aleida Garcia | Alex’s mother

GARCIA PAGE 6

EJ SMITH Sports Editor

JENNY KERRIGAN TTN

A portrait of Alex Rojas-Garcia.

The increased number of TU Alerts this academic year may often be associated with an increase in crime itself. However, the extension of the police patrol border in September has contributed to a greater awareness of criminal activity in the North Philadelphia area.

There have been between 10 and 15 TU Alerts pertaining to both attempted and successful robberies in the Temple area in the past five months. While there has been an increase in TU Alerts themselves, Charlie Leone, executive director of campus safety, said the new patrol zone contributes to the increase in crime reports.

“This year, if we didn’t do the extension, you wouldn’t have seen any of those robberies out here [in the extended border],” Leone said.

But we’ve now extended our patrols, so you’re going to see the crime on the crime log. Quite naturally, you’re going to see more.”

Leone said that reported robberies on Main Campus have decreased 12 percent since last academic year. He added that in the new patrol zone, there was a 3 percent increase of reported robberies.

Temple extended its police patrol border at the beginning of the fall semester. Most notably, the western boundary was extended from 16th Street to 18th Street. Other changes included extending the eastern boundary to Ninth Street, the northern boundary to Susquehanna Avenue and the southern boundary to Jefferson Street.

Cahill was also involved in his high school’s Eye to Eye program, an art-based national organization that takes college and high school students with learning disabilities or ADHD and pairs them with middle school students with similar disorders.

Cahill came to Temple because he liked the diversity of Main Campus in comparison to his white, affluent hometown of Haverford, he said. But he missed the support of Eye to Eye. “I didn’t have that LD community that I grew accustomed to during high school,” Cahill said.

Aware that colleges across the country

CAHILL PAGE 18 SPORTS - PAGES 17-20

Shallow bench hinders Owls

NEWS

PAGE 2

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

CPIJ to partner with local media for election WHYY and philly.com will collaborate with students to cover the mayoral election.

STEVE BOHNEL Assistant News Editor David Boardman, dean of the School of Media and Communication, thinks that local journalists have a greater responsibility to serve the public in this year’s Philadelphia mayoral race.

“This mayor’s race is rather late-developing,” Boardman said. “There are a lot of candidates, it’s a wide-open field … there was a sense that the journalistic community had to get special resources and attention to this in order to really serve the public. If it was just the standard horserace sort of coverage, we would have really shorted people.”

In order to provide the public with more indepth coverage, Temple’s Center for Public Interest Journalism is partnering with several other local media outlets to form “The Next Mayor,” a website that will feature content from various news organizations that will delve deep into po-

litical issues surrounding Philadelphia.

Some of the organizations include the Inquirer, Daily News, philly.com, WHYY and The Committee of Seventy, who will all publish content on nextmayor.philly.com.

Boardman said the project is being made possible because of the Wyncote Foundation, which donated $350,000 to help start the website. He added that David Haas, who serves on the foundation’s board of directors, was specifically involved in the creation of Next Mayor Philly. “[Haas] has a great interest in civil engagement, public service and what’s happening to journalism in the changing environment,” Boardman said. “The original idea came from him.”

Temple’s role in the project will involve incorporating classes within SMC into the project and its coverage, Boardman said. One course that will be involved is Philadelphia Neighborhoods, the capstone course program in SMC’s journalism department.

George Miller, director of Philadelphia Neighborhoods, said that while this isn’t the first time a collaborative project has been created to help cover the mayoral race, it’s the first time Temple has been involved.

He added that Philadelphia Neighborhoods’

role in the project will include reporting in communities throughout the city and asking what citizens want from the next mayor of Philadelphia.

“We have 38 teams of students who are in communities, whether they’re geographic or thematic,” Miller said. “And they’re talking to people about the impact of government on their communities and what are the issues facing those communities … the Daily News, WHYY, they’re going to be doing more of the mayor’s race [coverage] … but I think where we come in, our strength is the community reporting.”

Outside of the community reporting, one group of students is working on the City Hall beat for the course and “The Next Mayor” project, Miller said. Senior journalism majors Jade Perry and Megan Whelan both cover the inner workings of Philadelphia’s central political hub.

Perry said one of the challenges of the beat for the class is how busy political figures are around this time.

“A big challenge is people are so busy … people don’t have the time, they’re so busy, they have other stuff going on,” she said. “You kind of forget, these are people’s full-time jobs, they work from 9 to 5 … you have to respect them because of that.”

Perry, who said she has worked in politics for the past couple of years, added that she hopes the project shows the public how complex the mayoral race really is.

Whelan said another challenge for Perry and herself is managing classwork while still producing strong content.

“The biggest challenge for us is time, because with this class, you’re working on four stories at once,” Whelan said. “You’re juggling a lot of stuff, but still trying to make sure you produce quality journalism.”

One of the best parts about “The Next Mayor” is giving a voice to those that normally may not have one, she added.

“It’s really cool to see the neighborhoods that aren't [usually] getting that media coverage,” Whelan said. “Hearing from those in North and West Philly and what they think is important. ...

Aside from voting, you might not always get to see that input and perspective … so just seeing that the race gets covered in that way is pretty cool.” * steven.bohnel@temple.edu T @Steve_Bohnel

New class structures strive for flexibility

More scheduling options are available in the summer and during semesters.

CHRISTIAN MATOZZO The Temple News Temple has implemented a new summer session structure, consisting of classes being available in three different sessions, which are further broken up into one 12-week session, two six-week sessions and three four-week sessions.

The new summer-session structure was implemented after an update to Self-Service Banner allowed for the changes,

with the first four-week summer session course starting May 11 and ending June 5.

“We think the first session will be especially popular with students and faculty,” said Vicki Lewis McGarvey, vice provost for Temple’s University College, which oversees the summer school and digital campus programs. McGarvey cited the flexibility the first four-week course had with those who had summer jobs by ending in the first week of June.

“When you’re offering more options, it’s easier for [students] to pick up classes,” she said.

Linn Washington, a journalism professor who teaches during the summer, agreed with

McGarvey.

“If it gives students a better opportunity to complete summer work and still have enough summer left to do some jobs and get some income, that would be good,” Washington said.

“The first summer session ends around the beginning of June, so that will enable students to be more competitive for those very-needed student jobs,” he added.

Sophomore business management major Eric Eccleston said he would take a four-week class.

“I love the four-week sessions – that’s a really good thing,” Eccleston said. “For people with a tight schedule with work and other commit-

ments like vacations, it gives them a better opportunity than just the six-week sessions.”

Washington, who teaches during the summer said the faculty would benefit from the changes.

“It will help the faculty by giving us a little more summertime,” Washington said.

“Maybe I’ll get to play with my grandkids at the beach.”

“I like the idea,” freshman communication studies major David Wells said of the new summer classes. “I think they’re an opportunity to learn a lot more in the time you’re given here.”

McGarvey also said that starting in the Fall 2015 semester, the new Self-Service Ban-

ner update would allow Temple to offer two seven-week course sessions alongside one 14-week course session. She added that Temple does not expect many undergraduates to utilize the new seven-week course session during the semester, and that it will be mainly geared more towards graduate-student programs.

McGarvey said the idea for shortened courses has already been discussed in different committees at Temple in the past.

“It’s not a new idea,” said McGarvey. “We’ve never restricted colleges and schools from offering an abbreviated course session. [Self-Service] Banner just wasn’t conducive to it in the past.”

McGarvey cited problems with Self-Service Banner’s adddrop dates and other programming that didn’t allow for shorter course sessions in past years.

She added that demand from science professors due to course workload led to the creation of the 12-week session during the summer.

“There were many science classes that wanted 12-week sessions,” McGarvey said. “Before, if you wanted to take a class for 12 weeks, you would have to take an incomplete for the first session. The [Self-Service Banner] system made it difficult.” *

christian.matozzo@temple.edu

Provost’s office: advising right where it should be The student-adviser ratio has improved, officials said.

DAVID GLOVACH The Temple News At Temple, the role of an academic adviser is to assist students with course planning, registering for classes, and academic counseling to help them progress toward their degree.

However, students enrolled in the university prior to 2014 were only required to see an academic adviser for a graduation check.

That changed under the university’s “Fly in 4” program.

Under the agreement, students are now required to meet a number of benchmarks, including having to see an academic adviser at least once a semester.

Around 88 percent of freshmen – 3,947 students – are enrolled in the program.

The university has hired 60 new advisers since 2006, including 10 in the 2013-14 academic year. However, only two have been hired this year.

“We really began to increase the number of advisers employed at Temple around four or five years ago,” said Peter Jones, senior vice provost for undergraduate studies. “It really began before President Theobald during the tenures of past presidents [Ann Weaver] Hart and [David] Adamany.”

Jodi Levine Laufgraben, the vice provost for academic affairs, assessment and institutional research, said one of the reasons for the investment in advisers over the past few years was to retain them with possibilities for career development and growth.

Jones agreed with Laufgraben, saying that advisers are now staying for longer periods of time.

“Before, people that entered academic advising at Temple were kind of stuck in that career,” he said. “Advisers were leaving for better jobs elsewhere. Now, there is a career path. We are having fewer turnovers in our advisers. Five years ago, we had an 18 percent adviser turnover rate. Now it is less than five [percent].”

Jones said the total number of full-time advisers employed at Temple is between 100 and 105. With 33,955 full-time students, that puts the student-adviser ratio at about 340 to 1.

According to a 2011 national study done by the National Academic Advising Association, the national median of students per advisers for a university with comparable enrollment to Temple was 600. The report warns that “these survey responses reflect important data, but they do not inform an ideal or recommended case load for advisers.”

Drexel University, with an enrollment of 26,359 students, has 96 undergraduate academic advisers and 108 graduate advisers, or 204 total advisers.

That equals a student-per-adviser ratio of about 132 to 1.

Comparably, St. Joseph’s University employs 292 academic advisers for its 9,025 students, giving the university around a 31-to-1 student-peradviser ratio.

The University of Pennsylvania has an enrollment of 21,441 full-time students, although the university did not provide specific numbers on the amount of academic advisers it employs.

“We have 12 schools and

NEWS DESK 215-204-7419

SASH SCHAEFFER TTN

Some schools offer on-the-spot advising, for which no appointment is necessary.

hundreds of programs, all with a variety of advising structures for students,” Rob Nelson, executive director for education and academic planning at Penn, said in an email.

Among the Philadelphia universities, Villanova Univer-

sity employs the fewest number of academic advisers, employing 20 faculty advisers throughout its four schools and colleges.

With 10,735 students enrolled, Villanova has a ratio of about 537 students per adviser.

La Salle University declined to comment on the num-

NEWS@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

ber of advisers employed by its schools.

Despite the investment Temple has made in its academic advisers, few students welcome having to meet with academic advisers regularly.

“While [academic advis-

ers] may be nice people, they aren’t helpful,” Moshe Kravitz, a senior journalism major, said.

“They don’t know the first thing about any student or care about them.”

“They just follow what the papers in front of them say and refuse to listen to you or understand anything else,” he added.

“They give you limited time and are hard to get a hold of. I'm not sure if the advising system in the communications school could be less helpful.”

Jason Wong, a junior majoring in information, science and technology, has experienced the same feelings, especially after changing his major last year.

“Every time I would see an adviser it was repetitive,” Wong said. “They definitely could have made it so you have an adviser for your specific major and could then get to know you personally. It would help so much more.”

University administrators offered different thoughts on student reactions on academic advisers.

“Over 90 percent of those enrolled in ‘Fly in 4’ saw an adviser in the fall,” Laufgraben said. “It’s a really positive indicator.”

Jones agreed, adding that the investments in academic advisers allow advisers and students to be on the same page.

“With the changes and investments the university has made in its academic advisers, students are more engaged,” Jones said. “Students are now able to develop lasting relationships with their academic advisers.” *

T

david.glovach@temple.edu @DavidGlovach

NEWS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

PAGE 3

STAFF REPORTS | FACULTY RESEARCH

Researchers seek new ways to fight the flu

A CST team uses a supercomputer to study different strains of the virus.

LIORA ENGEL-SMITH The Temple News A team of Temple scientists used a cluster of computers to study ways in which to fight the flu, and has found a way to stop the virus from replicating.

They used a simulation – which was part of a larger, multi-university study that was published in the December 2014 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The computer cluster, known as the Owl’s Nest, resides in the TECH Center on Main Campus. “It is 2,000 times more powerful than your ordinary laptop,” said Dr. Michael Klein, director of Temple’s Institute for Computational Molecular Science and a co-author of the study.

Klein, who is also the dean of the College of Science and Technology, was quick to point out that the supercomputer is a means to an end.

“What’s more amazing is that we can study real-world problems, that we can have an impact on biomedical research,” he said.

He and his team focused on one such problem: the flu virus. Each flu season, the virus mutates slightly, and more and more flu strains become resistant to existing antiviral drugs. Amantadine, the first anti-flu drug, was introduced in 1999, but became ineffective against most flu strains by 2006. Tamiflu, a newer anti-flu

drug, is also becoming less effective each year.

“When Tamiflu stops working, we’ll be in trouble,” Klein said.

Members of the team at the University of California, San Francisco, tested several modified amantadine molecules against two viral strains.

At the same time, Klein’s team simulated potential binding mechanisms for these mol-

can study “We real-world problems ... we can have an impact on biomedical research.

”

Michael Klein | dean, College of Science and Technology

ecules on the Owl’s Nest.

“We wanted to have a molecule that’s able to defeat at least two if not more variants of the virus,” said Dr. Eleonora Gianti, a co-author of the study.

“We’re keeping the virus off its game,” said Dr. Giacomo Fiorin, also a co-author of the study.

The flu virus can only replicate inside human cells. During an infection, it infiltrates human cells by disguising itself. Once inside the cell, a protein known as M2 tells the virus it has entered the cell and can then begin replicating and infecting other cells. When M2 malfunctions, the virus cannot “see” that it is inside the cell, and it won’t replicate, Fiorin

said.

The team’s modified amantadine plugs M2 and prevents the virus from replicating.

More importantly, the modified amantadine binds to at least two flu strains, one of which is resistant to amantadine.

“Here, the novel twist was to devise a molecule that would bind in one configuration and then the molecule can bind another way,” Klein said.

The team proved the modified amantadine works in the lab, but the compound is not yet ready for the clinic.

“We don’t know about potential side effects of this molecule,” Fiorin said. “It’s too early to know if it’ll work in patients.”

But the discovery can potentially benefit many patients down the line. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 5-20 percent of the population gets the flu each year, and more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu-related complications.

If everything goes according to plan, the compound could reach the clinic in five years, Fiorin said.

“We know that the virus is evolving to resist Tamiflu so we can't really wait too long,” he said.

In the meantime, Klein and his team are already thinking ahead. They plan on using computer simulations to predict new M2 mutations.

“It’s easy for us,” Fiorin said. “We don’t need to make a mutated virus in the lab, we can test it on the computer.” *

liora.engel-smith@temple.edu

LIORA ENGEL-SMITH TTN

TOP: Dr. Giacomo Fiorin, a lead author of the study. BOTTOM: Dr. Michael Klein is the dean of the College of Science and Technology and director of the Institute for Computational Molecular Science.

TUH first in area to use device for stomach disorder The Medtronic Enterra II can treat gastroparesis.

MARYVIC PEREZ The Temple News Gastroenterologists at Temple University Hospital are now using a surgically implanted device to treat patients suffering from gastroparesis, a disorder that prevents the stomach from emptying itself into the intestines and can cause nausea, vomiting or feeling full after

eating only a small amount of food.

The Medtronic Enterra II Neurostimulator is inserted under the abdomen and can connect to the stomach, stimulating it with small electric pulses. The new version Temple doctors are using also comes with a unique feature.

Doctors operating the machine can wave a “wand” over the device, giving them access to change the device’s settings, turn it on or off, program it and even track the patient’s records.

The settings to accommodate a

particular patient’s symptoms are available through a code number embedded in a microchip within the device.

“It used to be that the information would be in our microchip,” gastroenterologist Dr. Henry P. Parkman said. “Now the microchip is inside the pacemaker that’s inside the patient … if the patient goes to some other center they can access the stimulator and get that information.”

The hospital has been using a variant of the system since 2000, and has since treated

about 380 patients.

The Enterra stimulator is available to patients 18 or older who are non-respondent to dietary recommendations, antibiotics or drugs like Reglan or Azithromycin, which are used to enhance the stomach’s emptying process.

A team of five, including Parkman, ensure the patients’ comfort by implanting the device in one of two ways: by performing a laparotomy – an incision in the abdominal region – or a laparoscopy, a moderately-invasive surgery.

“If the patient shows no success through dietary recommendations, medicine or botox, we then suggest the Enterra system,” another member of the team, nutritionist Vanessa Lytes, said. “There’s a chance for a better quality of life. It’s worth trying.”

The team concluded that about 70 percent of treated patients showed signs of improvement after being operated. The doctors presented their research in the 2014 American Oncology Gastroenterology nationwide meeting.

Continued from page 1

CRIME

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act is the federal law that requires colleges and universities across the United States to disclose information about crime on and around their campuses.

The law requires colleges and universities to have a public crime log, publish an Annual Security Report, and disclose crime statistics for incidents that occur on or around campus.

“We’ve made more of an effort to put out more information,” Leone said. “The good side is it gives people the information we want them to have, but on the other side, it makes people very fearful, thinking that crime is going out of control. … In reality, we’re just making you more aware of what’s happening.”

Leone said reported sexual assaults decreased 60 percent in the new patrol zone, but increased 30 percent on Main Campus.

Temple launched the “It’s On Us” initiative in November

DONNA FANELLE TTN

in an effort to address and prevent sexual violence.

“It’s hard to quantify whether there have been actual increases or because we’ve done a big push in the last year, educating the students to report these things to us when they get them, and if people feel more comfortable now reporting information,” Leone said.

The reasoning for the 60

percent decrease off Main Campus was less clear.

“We don’t know if the education piece, whether it’s because of intervention and targeted enforcement, and we’re trying to figure out why,” Leone said. “We have to work through data and figure out why it went down so much.”

Underage drinking has remained a prominent element on

Temple’s crime logs, illustrating that the activity has been a consistent issue on and around Main Campus in the past.

Leone said the increased area of the the patrol border has caused a rise in underage drinking being documented in this academic year’s logs.

“There’s quite a lot of parties and underage drinking that goes on along 17th

and 18th [streets] and parts of 16th [Street], so you’re going to see more [reported],” Leone said. “That doesn’t mean that it’s more than last year, it just means you’re going to see it more because we’re capturing it with our information on our crime logs.”

Bike thefts decreased 43 percent in 2014, Leone said.

Campus Safety initiated an elec-

“We have had good success with this, we see a lot of patients with gastroparesis,” Parkman said.

Their research also pointed at patients – generally with diabetes – showing primary symptoms of nausea abdominal pain and vomiting to be the candidates with the highest productivity.

“Most hospitals in the area, if they have patients with gastroparesis not responding to therapy, refer them to us here at Temple,” Parkman said. *

maryvic.perez@temple.edu

tronic bike registration program in the Fall 2013 where students and employees can register their bikes online.

“Education, prevention programming and enforcement all played an integral role in the reduction,” Leone said in an email. “For many students, a bike is their only means of transportation. It is important that we ensure their bikes are safe from theft.”

Campus Safety collaborated with the Philadelphia Police Smart Policing group at the 22nd District. Temple Police officers and Philadelphia Police Department officers also paired up in several undercover operations, Leone said.

“From this year to last year [without the extension], we’re about the same with the number of alerts,” Leone said. “If you were to look at the total number this year, you’re going to see that we set out six more alerts and they were on the extension, where we may or may not have sent it out last year.” *

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lian.parsons@temple.edu @Lian_Parsons

EDITORIAL/OP-ED

PAGE 4

The Essayist...

A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921.

Avery Maehrer, Editor-in-Chief Patricia Madej, Managing Editor Erin Edinger-Turoff, Chief Copy Editor Joe Brandt, News Editor Paige Gross, Opinion Editor Claire Sasko, Lifestyle Editor Emily Rolen, Arts & Entertainment Editor EJ Smith, Sports Editor Steve Bohnel, Asst. News Editor Andrew Parent, Asst. Sports Editor Alexa Bricker, Asst. Lifestyle Editor Albert Hong, Asst. Arts & Entertainment Editor Patrick McCarthy, Multimedia Editor Kate Reilly, Asst. Multimedia Editor

Harsh Patel, Web Manager Tom Dougherty, Web Editor Kara Milstein, Photography Editor Jenny Kerrigan, Asst. Photography Editor Addy Peterson, Design Editor Donna Fanelle, Asst. Designer Justin Discigil, Advertising Manager Grayson Holladay, Business Manager Dustin Wingate, Marketing Manager

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

Visit us online at temple-news.com.

Send submissions to letters@temple-news.com.

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

EDITORIALS

A changing landscape Ten years have passed into The American to remain since the season when Temple’s feasible. The football program football team seemed beyond led the school to the new conthe hope of ference, and the repair. cuts were what The football program’s In 2005, recruiting success this year were required to two years keep it there. after being reveals how the university Now, we kicked out of is being perceived differently are beginning to nationwide. the Big East see the results Conference, of joining the the program finished 0-11. new conference – if not yet in Former Athletic Director Bill win totals, then in the talent Bradshaw said in an interview Rhule and his staff have been last semester with The Temple able to acquire. The acquisiNews that the university at one tions, though, also signify a point considered cutting footchange in the way Temple is ball altogether during his tenbeing viewed and respected by ure here from 2002-13. those outside of the university’s Things have changed bubble. drastically in the last decade, Simmons said Florida though. In what was a signifiState and Ohio State recruited cant announcement for Temple, him. He de-committed from the two rivals.com four-star reUniversity of California, Los cruits – running back T.J. SimAngeles before signing with mons and defensive back KaTemple. reem Ali Jr. – are slated to join “We’re recruiting with the the team next season, among big dogs,” Rhule said in a press several other notable athletes. conference last week.

Coach Matt Rhule partially atThis year’s class indicates tributed the improved recruitthat recruits are beginning to ing results to the increased view Temple, not as a back-up exposure Temple has gained plan, but as a destination where through competing in the they could experience signifiAmerican Athletic Conference. cant playing time and exposure.

Despite President TheoIt’s a reminder, not only bald’s denials that last year’s that Temple is on the rise, but athletic cuts had anything to do of how important the football with football, they were necesprogram remains to the universary in order for the transition sity’s overall growth.

Election opportunities Temple’s announcement with a $350,000 grant from the of its recent participation in the Wyncote Foundation.

Next Mayor project has the poStudents will be immersed tential for student journalists to in covering an election that be involved could determine in Philadelplenty about Temple’s collaboration phia’s most the city’s fuwith the Next Mayor important ture. Currently, project will be beneficial to election of there’s six canstudent journalists and the didates in the 2015. community.

T h e running with the School of primary election Media and Communication’s scheduled on May 19.

Center for Public Interest In addition, it’ll give stuJournalism released the offidents the opportunity to poscial statement that it would be sibly remedy an issue that collaborating with nextmayor.

Philadelphia has historically philly.com last week with help struggled with – lack of voter from the work of students in turnout. According to the City the undergraduate-level jourCommissioner’s office, only nalism classes and Philadelphia 19 percent of registered voters Neighborhoods. casted a ballot in the last mayThe website will serve as oral race. That’s compared to culmination of all news related 71 percent in the 1987 election. to the November election with For students to be able to collaborated reporting with the feature their work on a platform Inquirer, Daily News, Philly. that already has a dedicated com, WHYY/Newsworks, 900readership and traffic is an opAM WURD and Committee portunity for not only exposure, and Young Involved Philadelbut growth. phia – two community groups.

The website was made possible

CORRECTIONS A story published on Feb. 3 titled “Historian takes a mobile approach to history preservation” misstated that Seth Bruggeman introduced Erin Bernard to Jeff Carpineta. Bernard reached out to Carpineta herself.

A story published on Feb. 3 titled “From dumpsters to art museums” misstated that Joel Spivak originated the quote, “Trash is simply a failure of imagination.” It was actually said by Neil Benson. The story also misstated that Dumpster Divers owned the gallery on South Street, but the group was permitted to use the gallery for free.

The Temple News strives to be a newspaper of record by printing factually correct and balanced articles. Accuracy is our business, so when a mistake is made, we’ll correct it as soon as possible. Anyone with inquiries about content in this newspaper can contact Editor-in-Chief Avery Maehrer at editor@ temple-news.com or 215.204.6737.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

This issue of The Temple News features five essays from students about love, loss and self-discovery.

M

A crash into reality

A summer night full of potential romance turns traumatic after a car accident.

y contacts were beginning to burn as I blinklessly watched my phone, waiting for the text.

Ding.

“I’m meeting up with him,” I yelled to my mom as I fluttered out the door to my rubyred Hyundai Elantra. If I hurried, I could just about make it to the ice cream shop where my sometimes-more-than-a-friend was closing up for the night in time to see the Easton Heritage Day fireworks.

Something about finally getting to watch fireworks with a possible boyfriend seemed so romantic. The glimmering display, the obvious spark metaphors, the sly snuggles and squeezes while everyone else is looking at the sky – it’s the stuff of fantasies.

Rerouted due to the festivities, I swerved up roads I never traveled before. I turned up the volume to hear my stereo a bit louder – a Margot and the Nuclear So & So’s album, a band that he had introduced me to.

Before I could even get to the chorus of the harmonicahappy “As Tall As Cliffs,” an overwhelmingly white light swallowed my car. It came from my driver’s side and thrusted

I

By Jenelle Janci my car in a direction perpendicular to where I was headed.

A T-bone collision, they call it.

I felt each vertebrae slide out of place one-by-one in slow motion, as if my spine were performing “the wave.” The denouement was at my neck – a final wrench that caused my neck to now sit at a negative

glimmering “The display, the obvious spark metaphores... it’s the stuff of fantasies.

”

11-degree angle. A perfect neck is at a positive 45.

My car then careened toward a curb. I quickly turned the wheel the opposite direction, but my axle snapped – my steering wheel no longer worked. I only came to a complete stop once my car drove up the side of a tree, tipping on its side to a fetal position.

Sitting sideways, my airbag

now decided to deploy, expanding like a marshmallow in a microwave. The airbag dusted the air with cream-colored powder.

I looked to my left, my driver’s side door flush to the ground, green summer grass pressed against the glass.

“Darling I’m tired, and I should be leaving…” my stereo sang, despite the wreckage of the vehicle it belonged to. Damn, I needed to think. I shoved my palm on the knob, muting the soundtrack to the relationship that led me here.

With gravity pressing my shoulder against the window, I pulled out my phone and called my family before even trying to escape. I used the center console as a step stool to reach the passenger’s side door, but it was too heavy for me to push open on my own.

“Unlock the door!” a man’s voice bellowed, almost angry in its frantic nature. I did, and the door popped open, revealing the sunset-swirled sky. Fueled by adrenaline, I pushed myself through the door as if it were the womb, being born again.

And, not unlike the first time I entered the world, a strange man caught me as I jumped out.

Once my feet touched the ground, I began to tremble. I tried to steady my hands as I texted the boy, hoping he’d come to my rescue. Maybe this perilous situation would suddenly make him realize his feelings for me. He’d clench me in his arms and kiss me with eyes pressed tight, realizing how much time he wasted not making me his girlfriend sooner.

The sky was beginning to darken when my family arrived.

My mom sat by me on the curb that had wrecked my axel just minutes before. She stroked my long brown hair as if she realized she came close to not being able to do that again. I welcomed her maternal touch, but grew angry as I pieced together what just happened: the other car ran a stop sign.

As firemen circled my car, attempting to disable my stillblaring car horn, I heard pops and crackles in the distance. I pressed “enter” on my phone, illuminating its screen – no new messages, no revelations of love, no heroic prince.

Seeing the fireworks would elude me yet another year. * jenelle.janci@temple.edu T @jenelley

Paw prints and other impressions

When a student loses a dog, she experiences dreams and apparitions of him for months after his death.

fall into the worn threads of my old hammock and swing, staring skyward through crooked branches of pine and hemlock trees.

My breathing slows as I absorb the familiarities – my hammock, the evergreen trees tall like gentle, swaying giants. The whooshing of nearby cars.

My little black dog perches in the lawn and locks his eyes with mine. He isn’t really here, having died nine months ago, but I've spotted his scrawny frame on several occasions since. It’s usually my dreams that are riddled with his presence, but sometimes he breaks through my subconscious like a shadow into the day.

Last year, on May 7, a Wednesday – the day I turned 20 – I took the 3:04 p.m. train to Exton, my hometown.

I took the 3:04 to Exton to run my hands over my dead dog's body.

By Claire Sasko crimson red that dribbled from his mouth and stained the whites of his eyes.

The dreams started that night. Murky vignettes, stories looping like grainy rolls of film, projecting the infinite scenarios in which his death panned out.

It took me a while to drive. At night, my foot jumped to the brakes anytime so much as a leaf drifted from the darkness into the gold glow of my headlights. Though I tried to suppress them, I even relayed scenarios in which I hit my dog.

For whatever reason, some part of my psyche latches tightly to the death of my dog. When my mind rattles during the day, my dreams worsen at night.

To compensate for the empty feeling of my house without my dog’s presence, I decided to apply to work at a small, family-

whatever reason, some part of my psyche “Forlatches tightly to the death of my dog. ” claire sasko

I don’t know why I went home to see him, except that maybe to better digest the fact that the first phone call of my day, which came at 2 p.m., was not to wish me a happy birthday, but to tell me that my dog had been hit by a car in the night.

My father discovered him in the morning, lying in the woods beside Route 113, the river of cars that has always marked my house.

When I saw my dog limp on a white sheet in the backseat of my mother’s car, I almost expected his fur to prickle my palms when I touched him, to sting. But it was still soft, just colder, and I noticed mainly how still his body looked when his stomach failed to rise and fall and the trail of crusty,

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run dog shelter near my house. I met Greg, the business manager and the boss’ son, on my first day of work.

Greg, only a couple years older than me, was a soccer player, tall and lean and somewhat handsome. But the first thing I noticed about Greg wasn't any of these things – it was that he carried the awful habit of constantly biting his nails.

On my second day of work, I found out why. I met Tom, Greg’s father and my boss. who never formally introduced himself to me. Tom’s presence in the shelter was strong and cold – on my first day and every day of work, he would spew long chains of harsh words over anything and everything

and nothing at all. He was short, but burly and fiery. Greg chewed his nails with a special fury when his father was around.

Weeks into my job, I discovered that I was hired from a pool of potential employees particularly because, Greg said, I wasn’t afraid of breaking up fights between dogs.

Not between Pomeranians, Pugs or Malteses, but between pit bulls, Dobermans, German Shepherds and Rottweilers. And I did.

The fights escalated. My dreams worsened. I would come home after work longing for the comfort of my own timid dog, but instead was confronted late at night by visions of dogs fighting, foam flying, teeth thrashing.

A brawny rescue pit bull named Shadow who, by the indication of many scars, had been used for fighting in the past, snapped one Friday morning and attacked our boss throat-first. While working with Greg in the week before the attack, I had broken up fights between Shadow and other dogs – fights that were completely unprovoked, from which dogs escaped with bloody noses and swollen eyes.

Out of fear of his father’s rage, Greg had neglected to tell anyone of the fights – until, of course, Shadow trapped and nearly killed his father. Still, he begged me not to discuss the signs we saw earlier in the week – the signs I thought everyone was aware of.

I left the shelter shortly after, but the dreams remained. Good did come out of working there – I met a group of caring people who, as loyal dog lovers, understood the pain of my loss. We all had our own reasons for being there, and by the time I left, I knew it wasn't just the dogs that needed a little help.

Nine months after my dog’s death and six months after I quit the shelter, I stand up from my hammock and walk over to the area of my lawn where I thought I had seen my dog, Hero. He is gone. The yard is empty and has been all along.

I walk a few steps to where some sort of impression lies in the mud. I think of my dreams and Greg’s stubby nails and the fresh welts I saw on Tom’s face, chest and arms after the attack, the wounds that made it even harder to hold his eye contact.

I imagine the scar in the soil before me is a paw print, lingering. I step into the dirt and smooth the earth. * claire.sasko@temple.edu Editor’s note: Some names in this essay have been changed.

OPINION

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

Journey to a chromatic epiphany

A

Playing the cello in high school orchestra gave a student confidence in music and in life.

few girls shoot hostile glances at me as I plop myself into a chair across from them. Hastily swinging my backpack onto the seat next to me, I'm careful to avoid any eye contact that might invite an introduction. Mr. Richards, the orchestra director, strolls onto the stage and nods warmly in my direction when he sees me.

“Glad to have you back, Diana.” In response, I throw a sheepish half-smile his way and then leave to grab the cello I had abandoned two years before. Walking back to my seat, I clutch the neck of my cello, raising it slightly as if proving to everyone that I am allowed to be here – as if I am trying to answer all those asking if I have a right to be here – but thankfully, no one pays any attention to me.

Slumping back into my seat, I watch warily as the swarm of musicians grows, and I feel myself shrinking into a tiny person with barely a part in all of this.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, trying to remember why I had bothered to come.

Slowly, my ears retrace the thousands of footsteps left onstage by previous musicians. The cacophonous tuning of every instrument is beautiful – a flat C string on a violin is corrected, a sharp D string on a bass becomes even sharper. All of these clashing notes ricochet against each other and the tired, old peeling walls of this auditorium. Shining through my eyelids, the beam lights overhead seem to magnify the familiar stench of

By Diana Nguyen sweat, rosin and Pine-Sol. I reluctantly open my eyes when Richards begins speaking and the chatter ceases. There’s a clutter of noise as kids scramble to position their bows above their instruments. Then in perfect unison, the conductor's hand and t h e bows

kasia pluto

and I am struck with a simple revelation. We are separate, but instantly, we become one. No matter how different we are as individuals, music becomes the language we share. In this unforgettable moment, I truly feel as if I belong

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drop. The violins begin to squeal, providing the soprano melodies; violas chime in with rich, warm tones; cellos add in a dramatic flair, and the low growls of the bass line hold the mellow rhythm together. Dragging my bow across the strings, I marvel at the various roles that make up the orchestra’s harmony,

somewhere. Everyone on this stage can understand me, playing with this incredible intensity that begins to emanate into my bones. This new emotion swells inside of me, and I will give anything to make my life sound like that.

I've always described the timeline of my existence as

a grayscale – hues of black and tints that flirt with lighter shades – instead of years, each event was marked by a different degree. It seems as though life only handed me a dull pencil instead of the plethora of crayons everyone else had received.

But here, the combined voices from all of the instruments sweep toward my grayscale and pour a ringing tone into each block. I no longer have the need for color. Each stroke of my bow scratches the surface of the loneliness I’ve felt outside of this auditorium. Each stroke tears at having to be the outcast who ate alone in the cafeteria. Each stroke screeches at the neglectful parent who didn't even bother to claim it was “tough love.” Finally, the aching in my fingertips fades away, followed by every ounce of bitterness I’ve ever held onto.

The orchestra gave me a gift t h a t day and every day after.

Not only were those 30 minutes an escape from reality, but they were also a medium to confront my feelings.

With every rehearsal, hostile glances were slowly replaced by friendly faces. It was in this auditorium that I found the first of various niches I would go on to explore. With my newfound encouragement, I was ready to take on whatever the world threw at me. * diana.hanhi.nguyen@temple.edu

Questioning Catholicism,

I

A revelation in religion

Choosing a career path led a student to question the ability to practice her religion.

sat in a crowded pew, staring at golden swirls on the ceiling of what might possibly be the smallest church in Pennsylvania on Christmas Eve of my senior year of high school.

The single, ornate room was full of the Christmas and Easter churchgoers that I had become not too long after eighth grade confirmation – a Catholic ritual that turned 13-year-old children into adults in the eyes of the church. The ceremony commits them to living a life devoted to Christ and following through on the rest of the seven holy sacraments – the next being marriage.

I remember feeling as uncomfortable hearing those plans for my life as some of the people around me looked.

It was an overcrowded, overdressed room of people that, if they were anything like me, were waiting for the mass to start and then end.

The favorite phrase of my bright, sincere journalism teacher popped in to my head: “Question everything. If your mother says she loves you, tell her to prove it.”

She said this in one her grand lessons about integrity and ethics in the many-windowed room of my school.

By Paige Gross In my head, as mass began, I listed the things that I could believe in because I could prove them: My name is Paige Christine Gross. I was born in October. I have a younger sister. The year is 2012. I have red hair.

I thought again to the room

going to be a journalist. I am a feminist.

I glance at my mother, who saw Christmas Eve mass as a comforting routine, part of her childhood she could relive one day each year. She squeezed my hand, and I thought of my journalism teacher and the

on the second floor that housed the student-run newspaper and smelled constantly like vanilla and brewing coffee.

In that school, we had debates over newsworthiness and science. In my classes, we talked about realities and how they could differ for each person. I learned about sexuality and psychology and biology and chemistry. I slowly began to love the line of true and not true and proof – it made things clear, concise.

I then listed things that I believed to be true, but couldn’t prove: I have been in love before. My favorite television show is The Office. I am

comfort in knowing I could prove her little saying with that squeeze.

I then thought of things I believed were not true: Marriage should be between a man and a women under the eyes of God. Sex should be about procreation between two married people. Hard work will always lead to success. Unwavering faith will earn a great reward.

Our souls will go somewhere when we die. God exists.

I tried to imagine proving each of these things and making them part of my lifestyle that I had decided to dedicate to reporting truths. Were they truths if I could not prove

I slowly began to love the line of “ true and not true and proof – it made things clear, concise. ”

OPINION DESK 215-204-7416

them?

As I queued in line behind my extended family to take communion, I recalled lines from an anonymous poem I read the week before about an atheist on a date.

“Her lips didn’t taste like church, but her hips felt like God. I wonder what her pastor would have thought. I wonder if that cross around her neck means more to me than it does to her.”

In that moment, feet shuffling against the century-old, cobblestone floors, I decided it would be my last walk down an aisle for a long, long time.

I could make commitments to many things I was sure of – a career, a school, my family – but not this.

I couldn’t be one of the Christmas and Easter churchgoers, slipping in and out of a religion that requires so much discipline and unwavering faith when so much of my lifestyle was challenged the moment I sat in a pew.

While I have found identities in many things – a feminist, a writer, a daughter – a Catholic is not one of them. * paige.gross1@temple.edu T @By_paigegross

LETTERS@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

PAGE 5

To fall in love with anyone, don’t do this

A student responds to an essay published in the New York Times claiming that a set of questions and a time limit can lead to love.

W

By Alexa Bricker

ell in to my eighth-grade year, I became obsessed with the film “Titanic. Not because of the special effects or Oscar-worthy acting on the part of Kate Winslet and ‘90s heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio, but because until that point I had never seen a love story so devastatingly tragic as that between Jack and Rose.

I sat curled up in a ball in my bedroom the length of Thanksgiving break, memorizing every word and reciting it back to myself. My parents grew concerned for my wellbeing, and rightfully so.

It wasn’t until I had played the tape so many times that it became permanently lodged in my television’s built-in VHS player that I knew my fixation had grown to be borderline psychopathic.

Seven years later, not much has changed. My bedroom walls are still adorned with pictures of movie couples staring lovingly into each others’ eyes and I’m still a sucker for a love story that ends with one half of the couple dying or losing their memory. It’s my cross to bear.

There is something to be said for love that is lost as quickly as it’s found – it’s heartbreakingly romantic. But

The idea that one night “ and a laundry list of questions can make two real-life people instantly crazy for each other is not only unreasonable, but completely boring...

”

even in the movies, love that begins and ends in as little as 24 hours is not only unrealistic, it’s setting suckers like me up for failure.

Last month, the New York Times ran a personal essay titled, “To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This.” The author, Mandy Len Catron, tested psychologist Arthur Aron’s theory that any two people can fall in love after answering a series of very personal questions and subsequently staring into each others’ eyes for four minutes.

Some of the questions were, “Would you want to be famous,” “What is your most terrible memory,” and “When did you last cry in front of another person” – all involving topics that should come up over the course of a first date or, if you’re lucky, by the second or third.

By the end of Catron’s testing of the love experiment with a co-worker, she came to the conclusion that strangers do have the capability to fall in love relatively quickly, but not necessarily at the hand of Aron’s test.

As someone who has yet to be in love, I thought long and hard about conducting the experiment myself, but realized the chance of finding a partner to agree to stare into my eyes for four minutes was highly unlikely. Not only that, but my negative feelings for the experiment would probably have thwarted any chance of it feeling natural, or as natural as possible in that kind of forced setting.

The idea that one night and a laundry list of questions can make two real-life people instantly crazy for each other is not only unreasonable, but completely boring, even in the eyes of a seasoned love-story veteran.

Part of the fun of falling in love with a person should be the conversations to get there. Learning your partner’s likes, dislikes, fears and goals is important – but more important are the experiences people gain to realize the significance of the relationship.

When I ran the idea of the experiment by my roommates, two of whom are in long-term relationships, they agreed that you have to be together and experience things in order to reach the point of falling for one another.

In any romantic relationship, they said they did not feel completely comfortable and attached after the first encounter. It took months before they had reached the closeness and intimacy that Aron promises and Catron said she experienced to a degree.

While it’s comforting to revel in the idea that anyone on the street could fall for you after a Q&A session and staring contest, it just isn’t possible for a love-story in the real world.

Aron’s experiment happened to work with the two random participants he selected, but, as Catron points out, love doesn’t just happen. It is something to work for. At the end of the four minutes of staring deeply into her partner’s eyes, Catron admits she felt strange, but love never crossed her mind – at least not until months down the road when the pair had gotten to know each other more intimately.

No one can predict how or when they will fall in love – not even me, a woman who has spent half her life day dreaming of moments that happen in movies. Drama and directors and scripts aside, people will fall in love or they won’t, and a test will not decide that. * abricke1@temple.edu

NEWS

PAGE 6

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

UNIVERSITY NEWS

gun and took the student’s cell phone before fleeing west on Berks Street.

A TU Alert was sent out around 3 a.m. No injuries were reported.

Another TU Alert was sent out around 8 a.m., informing of Randall’s arrest, who was in possession of the student’s phone, Leone said.

-Lian Parsons

ENDOWED CHAIR NAMED FOR DIAZ

A $450,000 donation was made to Temple’s Beasley School of Law, the university announced in a press release on Thursday.

Exelon, a local energy company, gave the gift under the name of Nelson Diaz, who graduated from Temple in 1972 and is on the corporation’s board of directors.

Diaz, who also is a member of Temple’s Board of Trustees, said in an interview with The Temple News that he has raised an additional $250,000, bringing the total amount donated to $700,000. The money is being raised to help create an endowed chair in civil rights that would be named after Diaz, the release said.

The chair would also seek to help Latino students at Temple, Diaz said.

“Essentially, it’s trying to bring to bear the contributions of many in the civil rights movement, including a lot of Latinos who have contributed to that and bring professors around the country on a semester basis and also to provide some assistance and scholarships for Latino students,” he told The Temple News.

Temple trustee Daniel H. Polett will help Diaz in raising the remaining money for the chair, which would be named the “Judge Nelson A. Diaz Chair for Civil Rights,” according to the release. $550,000 is still needed in order to establish the chair.

“My life has been dedicated to making a difference,” Diaz said in the release. “I want this gift to continue in that long tradition, and I thank Exelon for being a part of that commitment.”

-Steve Bohnel

IN THE NATION GROWTH RATE DECREASE FOR PART-TIME INSTRUCTORS

NEW ADMINISTRATION FOR CLA

A new dean and associate dean were named to lead the College of Liberal Arts, the university announced in a press release last Tuesday.

William Stull, the former chair of the economics department who served for 18 years, will serve as interim dean. The former chair of the political science department, Richard Deeg, will become senior associate dean for operations. Rebecca Alpert, who teaches in the Religion and Women’s Studies departments, will remain associate dean for academic affairs.

Teresa Soufas, who had served as CLA dean for seven years, resigned Jan. 7 due to health reasons, according to a memo to faculty sent by Provost Hai-Lung Dai. Stull had previously served as a senior associate dean in the Fox School of Business.

A national search will be conducted for

ROB DIRIENZO TTN

Exelon and Nelson Diaz are donating a joint total of $700,000 to the Beasley School of Law.

a new permanent dean during the 2015-16 academic year, and an appointment will be announced by 2016, the release read.

-Joe Brandt

CRIME

SUSPECT CAUGHT IN ROBBERY

Temple Police apprehended a suspect

in connection with the robbery of a student on 18th and Berks streets around 2:45 a.m.

Saturday.

Edward Randall, 19, of the 2400 block of Garnet Street was arrested around 4:30 a.m.

Saturday, Executive Director of Campus Security Charlie Leone said.

Leone said in an email that two males approached a student before one displayed a

Due to an increasing amount of full-time non-tenure track professors, the growth rate of the number of part-time instructors in universities and colleges has decreased, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

New synthesis of federal data obtained by the Chronicle shows that doctoral institutions are the only universities where growth in the number of part-time instructors has remained constant, along with an increase in full-time professors not on a tenure track.

According to the study, which spanned from 2005-13, “our largest and most prestigious universities are the ones that are most culpable in the employment trends that are upending the tenure system and spreading low-wage labor as a routine means of educating undergraduates.”

Steven J. Shulman, a professor of economics at Colorado State University at Fort Collins and research director at its Center for the Study of Academic Labor, conducted a study in response to the federal data, which stated that “the tenure system … seems likely to continue to weaken faculty and graduate student employment at U.S. colleges and universities.”

Kiernan R. Mathews, a director of the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education, at Harvard University, said a change in how the government counts full-time and part-time instructors – which occurred in 2011 – might have skewed the new federal data.

But Mathews added that there has been “an interest in consolidating teaching into more full-time, non-tenure-track positions,” because it provides stability to students and faculty and increases the amount of faculty who can contribute to non-instructional duties, like those linked to public service and shared governance at institutions.

-Steve Bohnel

Student’s family demands peace after shooting

Continued from page 1

GARCIA

Garcia said. “I give you my word here today, standing in front of the place that my son died, that I am committed to justice. And I want you all to be with me.”

Alex, an advertising major and father of two, transferred to Temple this semester from the Community College of Philadelphia, where he graduated with honors.

Temple released a statement on the loss of the new student. “This is a terrible tragedy,” the statement read. “In Alex’s short time at Temple, he had a huge impact on his classmates and faculty, and he will be missed. We extend our sympathies to Alex’s family and friends and are keeping them in our thoughts during this time of mourning.”

Alex went by several nicknames at one point or another in his life, including “Luchi” and “Lex,” relatives said at his vigil. He wrote rap songs for a group called Latin Linxx earlier in his life and had recently posted a song of his own, titled “Lost,” on Soundcloud under the name “Luchie Luciano.”

He came from a family full of Temple alumni, including his mother, grandmother and sister.

“In our family, education is very important,” his sister Aleida Silva-Garcia told The Temple News. “That was something that he held very strongly in his heart.”

Alex’s father Wilfredo Rojas echoed that statement. “Alex cared about people and he cared about getting himself an education so he could come back and help people,” Rojas said.

Alex loved to fish with his friends and especially with his 14-year-old son, Alex Jr., who spoke at the vigil.

“Me and my daddy used to always hang out, go fishing, do everything together, ” he said.

“Now that he’s gone, I don’t have any father to spend time with.”

Alex’s relatives are turning his death into a launching point for gun control and anti-violence advocacy. His parents, who are no longer together, both said at the vigil that they hope the future holds reform of gun laws and efforts to stop further violence on city streets.

Temple trustee and mayoral candidate Nelson Diaz, a former judge and an influential figure in Philadelphia’s Latino political community, attended the vigil and spoke to the crowd, continu-

ing the anti-violence message of Alex’s parents.

“You have the opportunity to stop this from continuing,” Diaz told the crowd. “Let Alex be the one that stops these freaking guns from being used ... let’s not forget this.”

Diaz told The Temple News that parts of the city could be safer if they were more like Temple’s Main Campus. Across from the police impound lot on Macalester Street are abandoned buildings and overgrowth.

“We don’t have as many problems around Temple as we do in North Philadelphia,” Diaz said. “We know how to protect our citizens: great lighting, people on the beat, bicycles. We know how to do it. So why don’t we do it? It’s so perplexing to me.”

Alex’s father, Wilfredo Rojas, an NAACP official in Gloucester County, New Jersey and former prison social worker, said he had organized vigils for other shooting victims before.

“I never thought that I would be at a vigil for my own son,” Rojas said. “I always organized vigils for everybody else.”

He added that he will continue searching for answers in the case and will seek justice for his son through educating youth.

“In the Rojas family, we don’t get angry, we get even,” Rojas said. “We get even by educating their kids, the criminals’ kids, and we get even by praying for them. And we get even by assuring that there will be justice.”

The family has set up a page on GoFundMe to help raise money to cover funeral costs. That site, gofundme.com/JusticeForAlex, has raised about $2,700 of its $10,000 goal in 11 days.

Police, meanwhile, are still searching for a suspect. On Monday, they released footage from the A-Lounge bar’s surveillance cameras that shows four persons of interest. A male can be seen leaving with three females. No names have been released. There is a $20,000 reward available for any information leading to an arrest.

The family encourages anyone with information to leave a tip at 215-686-TIPS, with the option of submitting anonymously.

“We get even by assuring that there will be justice.”

Wilfredo Rojas | Alex’s father

* jbrandt@temple.edu ( 215.204.7419 T @JBrandt_TU Lian Parsons, Patrick McCarthy and Jenny Kerrigan contributed reporting.

JENNY KERRIGAN TTN

(TOP): Alex’s mother Aleida Garcia, left, and his sister Aleida Silva-Garcia. BOTTOM: Family and friends released balloons into the air at the close of the vigil.

lifestyle

owlery.temple-news.com

SEEING EYE TO EYE

DANCE FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Temple’s chapter of Eye to Eye partners students with learning disabilities like dyslexia with high schoolers who share similar disabilities.

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Temple’s dance faculty featured works at a concert that was held at Conwell Dance Theater last month.

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temple-news.com

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

SAIGE CAFE OPENS

Saige Cafe officially opened its doors on Monday near SEPTA’s Regional Rail station, other news and notes.

PAGE 18 PAGE 7

Expression, reflection in artistic partnership The North Philadelphia Youth Advisory Council, part of Temple Contemporary, helps five local high school students examine community issues through artwork.

Breaking boundaries in Oviedo Junior journalism major Sienna Vance reflects on her first experiences studying abroad in Spain.

T

KARA MILSTEIN TTN

Philadelphia high school students involved in NYPAC meet in an office in Temple Contemporary to plan an anti-bullying workshop.

J

JACK TOMCZUK The Temple News

uan Hurtado was thrilled the day his portfolio was reviewed by the Tyler School of Art. “It went awesome,” Hurtado said. “[The reviewer] is like, ‘I’ve never seen anyone who has such grasp over so many mediums.’”

Hurtado is a graduate of the North Philadelphia Youth Advisory Council which, through Temple Contemporary, aims to help five high school students in North Philadelphia examine issues in their communities.

The Philadelphia Foundation recently gave NPYAC a $40,000 grant.

Hurtado and other members of last year’s group explored issues surrounding two themes: government controversies and inner beauty. Though the program usually analyzes topics through art, this year’s group decided to take a different direction: bullying in schools.

The students plan to set up workshops in local middle schools. Sarah Stearns, the director of the youth council, explained that the workshops will be designed to tackle the problem of bullying from “all sides.”

“Kids who don’t necessarily know how to handle their anger, they are going to be trying to teach them anger management skills,” said Stearns, a 2014 graduate of Temple. “For the victims of bullying – they want to offer them tools to deal with their feelings.”

NPYAC PAGE 8

I feel like it takes a lot of “ creativity away from kids [when they do not have art classes]. ” Aida Villanueva | NPYAC graduate

he region of Asturias has been dubbed by some as the natural paradise of Spain.

Now that I have lived here for three weeks, I have come to agree.

When I arrived in the city of Oviedo, I had no idea what to expect. However, I did know one thing: this experience would be different than my time in Madrid.

During the scenic bus ride to the SIENNA VANCE city, I realized I would be entering a natural paradise.

The mountains are a lush green color, which reminds me of vacations to Vermont when I was little. They are much taller than the Appalachians and surround the city like a fortress – a beautiful sight to see.

Once I arrived in Oviedo, my eye was immediately drawn to El Naranco – a 2080-foot mountain with a statue of Jesus Christ gazing over the city at the peak of the slope. A week after our arrival, my group and I hiked up to this famous spectacle; a challenge, but the view was well worth it.

The bus dropped us off at the University of Oviedo to meet the Spanish families that we would be staying with for the duration of our program.

I was the first one to be picked up by my host mother. She is in her 70s, very kind, speaks no English and feeds me a ton of delicious food – one of the best aspects of my trip.

My host mom told me upon my arrival that we would be celebrating the Epiphany day, otherwise known as Three Kings Day in Spain, with her children and grandchildren. On this day, Spaniards celebrate the Christian commemoration of the adoration of the Magi during their visit to baby Jesus.

The day can be compared to how we celebrate Christmas in the United States, but instead of receiving gifts from Santa Claus, the children believe

OVIEDO PAGE 8

Campus events

Raising the bar for women in technology fields Check Out Tech aims to increase technology skills for working women.

VINCE BELLINO The Temple News In the technology industry, the number of male workers is nearly twice as high as the number of female workers, and computer science degrees for women are down 19 percent since 1985, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Education.

Check Out Tech, a program hosted by the College of Science and Technology, was designed with such statistics in mind. Check Out Tech, as well as the Network of Women with Careers in Technology, was created to expose female students of all majors to the advantages of incorporating technology into their skills.

“I’d like to see more female students across the university take a step back and look at adding technology to their skillset,” said Rose McGinnis, di-

rector of career services & undergraduate research program at the College of Science & Technology.

On Feb. 3, the program united nearly 30 women with careers in the field of technology and students from Temple and other Philadelphia colleges to provide them with information about careers in the field. About 25 percent of the career women in attendance were Temple alumni.

Students utilized a passport system to meet professionals and were able to enter raffles once they met women in their field of study.

“The professionals were enthusiastic and loved interacting with such wonderful and talented students,” said Wendy Urban, an information sciences and technology instructor.

She added that “[female students] don’t learn enough” about options available to them in technology. She said she believes many women see technology careers mainly as coding jobs and don’t consider the fact that there are more options available.

TECHNOLOGY PAGE 14

LIFESTYLE DESK 215-204-7416

COURTESY ASHLEY BABLADELIS

Check Out Tech hosted a networking event for female Temple alumni and students interested in technology fields.

LIFESTYLE@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

LIFESTYLE

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Visual Anthropology Society hosts film festival for fourth year in a row

The Visual Anthropology Society will host a two-day film festival conference April 9-10.

NINA DEPAZ The Temple News

For the fourth year in a row, the Visual Anthropology Society at Temple will hold the Futures of Visual Anthropology Conference April 9-10.

The two-day film festival will feature several projects that aim to extend beyond the visual experience. Open submissions allow students, scholars, grad students and community organizers in various fields to share their research with a like-minded community.

“Visual anthropology is the use of visual methods to convey knowledge and understanding of other people and how they live their lives,” said VAST faculty advisor Damien Stankiewicz. “It is the parallel work to written ethnography.”

VAST was established in 2011 by a group of graduate students interested in preserving, celebrating and challenging the legacy of visual anthropology at Temple.

Former VAST president Eva Weiss said Temple’s anthropology of visual communication has continued to develop since the 1960s when Jay Ruby, a retired professor of anthropology, first organized an anthropological film festival at the university.

This year, the theme, “Making Space,” was designed by graduate students that wanted to highlight the access to “spaces” that social organizations occupy.

“The theme comes from our desire to explore the

myriad of ways in which ordinary people organize actions that promote their democratic participation in decisions relating to the environment, civil liberties, media, infrastructure and health outcomes,” said Ben Wilson, the current president of VAST and a second year anthropology graduate student.

“In short, we aim to review and analyze the pro-

Continued from page 7

OVIEDO

Last year, the Visual Anthropology Society at Temple won the Program of the Year award from Student Activities and the Office of Leadership Development for the 2013 Futures of Visual Anthropology conference.

“This sort of recognition helps the visual anthropology community spread the word of the growing field,” Stankiewicz said.

“Temple University is really a center and destination for people that want to study visual anthropology,” Stankiewicz added. “We are leaders in that and we are establishing and cultivating conversation around what visual anthropology means today and how it can make anthropology more accessible to people.”

that the three kings come to Earth at night and leave presents to open in the morning.

This day was my first real taste of Asturias.

Lunch consisted of a fourcourse meal accompanied by dry red wine and cava – the Spanish version of champagne.

After all of the paella, chicken, soup, prawns and live crabs, I felt like I was in paradise.

My host mother’s family was very kind to me. At first I was overwhelmed with 12 people sitting at a table speaking only Spanish. It was impossible to understand everything.

Nevertheless, they helped me throughout their conversation. I learned new words and was even given a gift – a Roscon – a typical Spanish dessert, much like a croissant, that holds a prize inside of it. Whoever finds the prize, which is usually a small figurine of one of the three kings, is expected to have good luck for the rest of the year.

Although I did not find the king myself, my host mother’s son-in-law decided to give it to me as a “welcome gift.”

Hopefully, I will have good luck during the rest of my time in Asturias. Right now, it is only the beginning.

* depazc@temple.edu

* sienna.vance@temple.edu

Roughly 50 Temple students help to run the free two-day conference.

“VAST Graduate students are great – they really motor the conference, and Temple students are a really big part of the paper panel,” Stankiewicz said.

“They are always doing great projects and present amazing papers.”

This sort of recognition helps the visual anthropology “community spread the word of the growing field. ” Damien Stankiewicz | VAST faculty advisor

duction and experience of such events through innovative approaches to visual ethnography, as well as digital and new media research,” Wilson added.

Researchers submit work at a national and global level, making Temple a hub for the visual anthropology sub-discipline. Last year, American University graduate candidate Siobhán McGuirk won “Best Super Short” for her film “Why Does This Happen?”

McGuirk’s film centered on the militarized masculinity in the United States.

“I was really encouraged by the VAST conference as it's genuinely encouraging of innovation in visual anthropology – not clinging rigidly onto tradition in the field, but still valuing genuinely anthropological work,” McGuirk said. “So, being rewarded there was an endorsement to keep making these kinds of film.”

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

Continued from page 7

NPYAC

Stearns said the $40,000 award from the Philadelphia Foundation will allow NPYAC to continue operating.

“We didn’t really have any funding at all for this year, so [the grant] was an essential piece of it,” Stearns said.

The grant also allowed Stearns to hire Aida Villanueva, another graduate of NPYAC, as her assistant.

“I was pretty ecstatic to even get the position,” Villanueva said. “I love being in this type of environment.”

Hurtado is not the only former member of the council considering studying at Temple. Villanueva’s experience with NPYAC has made her interested in attending the university.

“I can definitely say that, as a college, I probably didn’t have any interest before coming to the Youth Council,” Villanueva, now a senior in high school, said. “I actually have a lot of interest in [Temple] now.”

Stearns and Villanueva do not set the agenda for the five students that are admitted to the program – instead, students select the topics they want to investigate and how they want to approach them.

This year, Pepon Osorio, a Tyler School of Art professor, is organizing events and exhibits that honor Fairhill Elementary School, which was one of the schools closed by the School District of Philadelphia in 2013.

Students are chosen based on their promise, leadership, confidence and forward-thinking traits, said Robert Blackson, the director of Tyler School of Art’s Department of Exhibitions and Public Programs.

The grant will allow NPYAC to expand from five students to eight students next year, as well as help students take trips to places in Philadelphia, Blackson said, starting with a tour of the Academy of Natural Sciences which took place on Jan. 30.

Budget cuts by the School District of Philadelphia have rendered some schools without full-time art and music teachers.

“I feel like it takes a lot of creativity away from kids [when they do not have art classes],” Villanueva said.

Hurtado struggled to pursue his passion for art at Samuel S. Fels High School, located in Northeast Philadelphia, until NPYAC provided him with the opportunity.

“I was the only person that I knew in high school that was really invested in art,” Hurtado said. “The place was a desert for artistic development. Meeting the people in this program helped me expand my horizons.” * jack.tomczuk@temple.edu

KARA MILSTEIN TTN

(TOP): From left, Rochely Ortiz, 14, and Angeliz Neris, 14, practice leading their anti-bullying workshop as a part of the Youth Advisory Council at Temple Contemporary on Feb. 6. (BOTTOM): Korey Barrott is one of several high school students who plan anti-bullying workshop activities and lessons.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT MURALIST HELPS FORMER INMATES

BURGER JOINT TAKES “PUNK” UNDERTONES

Eric Okdeh works with Mural Arts in the Restorative Justice Program to assist former inmates in painting murals in the city.

PAGE 10

P’unk Burger, opening on Passyunk Avenue on Feb. 13, will offer not only new burger creations, but an environment that mirrors its surrounding neighborhood.

PAGE 10

temple-news.com

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

PAGE 9

A sweet symposium

A playful spin on album art

The Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild held its fifth annual Symposium on Feb. 8 on Main Campus.

Alli Katz recreates iconic album covers with her Etch-A-Sketch.

SARAH SWEIGART The Temple News

When her classmates were all learning to write their names in cursive, Alli Katz was learning how to Etch-ASketch hers.

Now 30 years old, Katz sketches iconic album covers and political figures, rather than just her name.

Recently, Katz’s sketches have gained attention over social mediums like Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr, where she frequently displays her creations.

“It has always been really natural and easy for me to think about an image and take the time to do it,” said Katz, explaining how she first discovered her uncommon ability. After moving to Philadelphia in 2006, Katz is now a program coordinator for the Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania, which she refers to as the “hub of reading and writing for the surrounding community.”

Initially, Katz only used her sketching talent for college applications and parties. “I got a lot of attention because it was both a weird and cool thing to do,” Katz said. “Sketching proved to be an odd yet useful skill.”

Katz’s album cover drawings encompass several renowned artists and bands through history, making her sketches relatable to her fans and music lovers alike. Famous covers including The Beatles’ “Abbey Road,” Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in The U.S.A.” and D’Angelo and the Vanguard’s “Black Messiah” are just a few covers Katz has sketched.

“I only recreate album covers if I’m interested in the illusion. It’s not about the music, but about the artist that originally drew the cover,” Katz said.

On average, it takes the young artist 45 minutes to sketch an album cover, however Katz said the difficulty of the design is not the only thing she considers. For small, less detailed covers, it can

ETCH-A-SKETCH PAGE 12

CONNOR NORTHRUP TTN

F

GREG FRANGIPANI TTN

(TOP): Don Shump, president of the Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild, bites into a beehive frame.

(BOTTOM): Ross Conrad, beekeeper and author, gave a presentation on the care and preservation of bees on Feb. 8.

Troupe takes on drag-theme

A&E DESK 215-204-7416

BEEKEEPERS PAGE 11

The Philly Fixers Guild was started in early 2014.

ANDRE DIENNER The Temple News

ALEXA ZIZZI The Temple News Ricky Paul believes that performing in drag does not solely consist of dressing up as the opposite sex.

Instead, he reaches deep down into his roots and plays a character that parodies both joyful and scarring childhood memories that shaped his life.

As co-founder and artistic director of the dragthemed, scripted and improvisational theater troupe The Dumpsta Players, Paul describes its racy performances as touching on the “joys and ills of society.”

The troupe’s over-the-top comedic sketches are script-based with the intent to tackle subjects like societal issues, political statements, gender equity, stereotypes and overall life experiences of each individual

or Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild President, Don Shump, the notion of sticking his face into a hive of 60,000 stinging insects is “kind of a rush.”

The guild held its fifth annual Natural Beekeeping Symposium on Feb. 8 on Main Campus. This marks the first time Temple hosted the symposium.

At the symposium, Katy Ciola Evans of the University of Delaware spoke about her study of treatment-free beekeepers. Famous beekeeping author Ross Conrad spoke to an audience of mostly beekeepers about his latest book, “Natural Beekeeping.”

Beekeepers from all over the city met with different vendors throughout the symposium.

A former web developer, Shump is now a fulltime beekeeper. Shump said being a web developer was enjoyable, but knew he wanted to be in a different line of work.

“I felt like I was wasting my natural talents, sitting at a computer for 40 hours a week, watching my waistline and blood pressure go up,” Shump said. “I

Local group opts to repair, not replace

The drag-themed comedy troupe, The Dumpsta Players, puts on shows to benefit local nonprofit organizations throughout the city.

PLAYERS PAGE 11

CONNOR NORTHRUP The Temple News

COURTESY ANNE SAINTPETER

Members of The Dumpsta Players cast perform its first “Sucky 70’s” performance.

The Philly Fixers Guild is not only looking to repair everyday items; it hopes to fix up the local community in its efforts.

This group of “fixers” hosted its third Repair Fair at Memphis Street Academy in Port Richmond on Jan. 31. For four hours, 15 volunteer guild members offered training and assistance to anyone who brought in household items that needed repairing.

Started in early 2014 by Ben Davis and alumna Holly Logan, Philly Fixers Guild seeks to benefit community members by offering instruction and expertise on how to repair items rather than replace them. Based in Fishtown, the guild currently has 52

ARTSandENTERTAINMENT@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

volunteer fixers who assist in the repair process.

“I originally envisioned difficulty finding fixers,” Davis said. “Sometimes it can be hard to get people engaged, especially on a volunteer basis.

But the flood of people who have inquired about helping has been unexpected and very rewarding.”

While volunteers have varying backgrounds and skills, the guild looks to repair any items that may be brought in. From turntables and radios, to chairs and window fans, Repair Fairs offer the chance for the volunteers and community to work together to find a solution. For items that are too severely damaged or will take an extensive process in order to repair, fixers will recommend a course of action or a professional shop that can do the job.

The guild repairs everything that comes to its fairs and educates the

FIXERS PAGE 13

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

MUSIC

Rolling Green Records backs local new group Local band, Skinny Dip, will perform at the Mile High House on Feb. 13.

TIM MULHERN The Temple News

JENNY KERRIGAN TTN

Eric Okdeh helped create murals with inmates who participated in Mural Arts’ Restorative Justice Program.

I’m going into a prison “ and I’m meeting guys who

”

found out they were artists in prison.

Eric Okdeh | muralist

Redemption in muralism A muralist brings awareness to mass incarceration.

ASHLEY CALDWELL The Temple News Eric Okdeh teaches art classes to about 15-20 students with the Mural Arts Program.

The Philadelphia-based muralist, however, isn’t just teaching his pupils about muralism.

His class, part of Mural Arts’ Restorative Justice Program, teaches mural art-making to inmates from Pennsylvania’s Graterford Prison.

“These guys have the ability to give back,” said Okdeh, a Tyler School of Art graduate.

“I’m going into a prison and I’m meeting guys who found out they were artists in prison.”

On Jan. 29, a new exhibit titled “Beyond The Wall,” opened at the third floor of the Philadelphia Art Alliance.

The white walls of the exhibit housed creations by a group of people not typically referred to as artists, but as inmates.

Okdeh said he works with the participants as “the conduit

to create something great and be a part of something much larger.”

As the director of the program, Robyn Buseman said that after talking to inmates at Graterford, she developed the idea to use art as a way to raise awareness for mass incarceration.

Buseman said Mural Arts wanted to get people talking about why America has more people in prison than any other country in the world. Pennsylvania is one of the leading states in the number of incarcerated individuals.

“We talked to the men that are incarcerated [at Graterford], as well as the community,” Buseman said. “We talked to lawyers, judges, inmates, guards, police officers and people who just came out of jail [asking], ‘What’s going on in this country?’”

According to the National Institute of Corrections, the jail census reported in 2013 that Pennsylvania’s average of incarcerated is 391 individuals per 100,000 people. The national average is 395 incarcerated persons.

Amira Mohamed, one of

the many subjects represented in the exhibit, served about seven years in prison for a crime she chose not to disclose.

“I came home August of last year after serving a year for parole violation,” Mohamed said. “I checked my email from months ago where [Buseman] was mentioning this program.

I reached out to her and asked if I had missed it and she said ‘No.’” The piece she was represented in expresses that she realizes inmates know there is a “small margin of error” when they come home.

“We all reach 1,000 closed doors before that 1,001st door finally opens,” Mohamed said.

Temple alumna Abigail Henson and criminal justice professor Sharon Ostrow were among the 40-plus guests at the exhibit opening.

“When you realize that 95 percent of incarcerated individuals are returning from the community, the importance of empowerment, creative expression and self-awareness becomes paramount,” Henson said.

Ostrow said employers don’t want to hire employees

if they have a criminal record, so The Guild, a paid apprenticeship program that teaches former inmates many forms of marketable skills like carpentry, dry walling and landscaping, will help them become marketable to earn a “decent and legal living.”

“The point of somebody serving their punishment in terms of sentencing philosophy is, they’re supposed to serve their punishment,” Ostrow said. “It’s supposed to be over when they’re done. But yet, we keep labeling them as ‘excons,’ ‘ex-offenders.’ When do they get to be a human?”

Rita Okdeh, Eric Okdeh’s mother, said she tries to visit her son’s artwork every chance she gets – the work he is helping to produce isn’t something she is familiar with.

“I never had a prison experience,” Rita Okdeh said.

“Once I got there, I immediately realized, everything you’ve known is not necessarily an accurate depiction of what goes on behind bars.” * ashley.caldwell@temple.edu

The members of Skinny Dip started playing music together in high school, but did not start taking things seriously until they were forced to spread out when beginning college.

The Philadelphia-based grunge-emo band released its self-titled debut EP last year and is set to perform at the Mile High House on Feb. 13. The EP is scheduled for an upcoming physical release through Rolling Green Records.

The long-time friendship between bandmates has contributed to the group’s success throughout the transition to college.

“We can’t practice all the time, but we’ve played together for so long throughout high school, so we have a good system,” said Alex Martin, freshman mechanical engineering major and bassist for Skinny Dip. “When we do get the chance to practice, we make it productive.”

Growing up outside of Philadelphia in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, Martin and his bandmates played locally, with the exception of one show at The Trocadero Theatre, when they were in a different group prior to forming Skinny Dip. “In my other band, Ultra Violet, [Martin] subbed in a lot,” said Derrick Dieso, freshman electrical engineering major at Drexel and guitarist and vocalist for the group. “We always stayed local. We knew that [staying local] wasn’t going to get us anywhere. One of the first things that Skinny Dip wanted to do after we got our EP done was go on tour.

We want to get out and start playing as far as we could and spread our reach.”

Skinny Dip’s commitment to spreading its music has led the group to a partnership with Billy Gleason of Minnesotabased label Rolling Green Records.

The band is only the fourth group on Rolling Green Records’ roster, but both Gleason and the band said they are looking forward to what the partnership means for the future.

“Our drummer Steve [Vanyo], who is totally great at net-

working, found Rolling Green Records and sent [the EP] out kind of blindly, thinking ‘Maybe they’ll be interested,’” Dieso said.

And they were.

“We don’t sound too different from the other bands on the label,” he added.

Gleason is hoping to promote Skinny Dip’s music and work to create a brand for the group. The EP will be released on cassette through Rolling Green Records, in addition to T-shirts and other merchandise distributed by the label.

“I think my audience from the record label, and their fans who already know them, will blend well,” Gleason said.

“People who listen to bands that I already work with will really get into Skinny Dip. Mixing of our audiences and what I can provide as far as just releasing music and giving them internet attention will definitely be beneficial.”

The EP, produced by Wil Schade and Daniel Siper of Drexel-based band Mike Pays Heat, mixes elements of grunge, emo and punk music. Martin cites Title Fight, Basement and local group The Menzingers as inspiration for the band’s songwriting.

The band will perform alongside Water Polo, Weatherhead, Reward and Mike Pays Heat at the Mile High House.

The show is based on nameyour-own-price donations. All the money raised will be donated to Project HOME, a nonprofit “empowering individuals to break the cycle of poverty and homelessness through affordable housing, employment, health care and education.”

As a band, Skinny Dip has yet to play in the Drexel area, but as show-goers they are familiar with the West Philly scene. With members studying in both North and West Philly, the band has experience in both music scenes.

“The scenes are similar and different at the same time,” Dieso said. “Drexel is really limited. There are a whole bunch of bands coming out, but there are not many places to put them. At Temple, there are a lot more houses [hosting shows], so there is a lot more going on.” * tim.mulhern@temple.edu

FOOD

South Philly burger joint focuses on ‘organic’ items

Marlo and Jason Dilks will debut their latest eatery, P’unk Burger, on Feb. 13 on Passyunk Avenue.

EAMON DREISBACH The Temple News

Taking their first bite into the patty-flipping business, SliCE pizzeria owners and alumni Marlo Dilks and her husband, Jason, will soon open an all-natural burger restaurant on Passyunk Avenue near Moore Street on Feb. 13.

Playfully named for the foodie neighborhood it occupies, P’unk Burger will feature an assortment of club sodas and milkshakes in addition to its veggie, gluten-free and gourmet, grass-fed beef burgers.

Aiming for an atmosphere far from the typical burger hub, P’unk will take a more healthconscious approach to its menu. All ingredients – even the milkshakes – will be organic and locally sourced. Grass-fed beef for the patties will be

brought in courtesy of 1732 Meats, while an unconventional selection of cane sugar-based fountain sodas will be available thanks to the Portland, Maine based company Maine Root.

Nineteen years into the restaurant business, Dilks plans to carry over the same single-food specialization that has allowed SliCE to flourish in its three different locations.

“I live by, ‘Do one thing and do it well,’” Dilks said. “When it comes to the quality of the products that you use, you have to give it your all, and I feel like people can tell the difference.”

For Dilks, the layout and design of the restaurant plays just as important a role in the dining experience as the food itself.

“You’re buying a burger, but it’s the whole entire experience,” she said. “You want to sit in a place that represents the burger that’s coming out of the kitchen. If the burger’s going to be fresher, cleaner, better, the place has to be fresher, cleaner, better.”

Formerly home to the Chhaya Cafe, the quaint interior of the eatery reflects its organic theme. Working to avoid the dark or greasy feel

that is often associated with fast food locations, lime green and white striped walls give the space a feeling of upbeat freshness. A vintage BurgerTime arcade machine beckons customers young and old to enjoy some light entertainment while waiting for their order.

The stools, tables and other home-feeling furniture at P’unk are the finely polished woodwork of local artisan Joe Konrad. Sharing an organic lifestyle similar to Dilks, Konrad was also responsible for building the community table that offers a close-knit feeling to the venue.

For the project, Konrad brought together his natural lifestyle and woodcraft expertise to create décor that matches the green theme of the restaurant.

“We started with some ideas and general concepts based on our materials, and as the project evolved and the whole thing started appearing in the space, we modified from our original designs and really customized it in an organic sense,” Konrad said.

Keeping in line with the venue’s all-inclusive nature, the pricing at P’unk will fall between

the boundaries of fast food and gourmet dining, as well as BYOB. Customers can expect to pay around $7-11 for a burger.

In an attempt to satisfy customers as often as possible, P’unk Burger will be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, with extended hours on Friday and Saturday nights until 3 a.m.

The venue will offer daily lunch promotions as well as a rewards program for regulars. Although the details are currently under tight wraps until the grand opening, P’unk will also be running a promotional event where customers can win free burgers for a year. Service options include pick up, take out, delivery and sit-ins.

When the grills are lit and the doors are finally open, Dilks is hopeful that P’unk can offer a burger that appeals to all types of crowds.

“My goal with this burger place is to have a burger that anybody would eat – the vegetarian, the vegan, the gluten-free, the person that doesn’t like meat – a burger for everybody,” Dilks said. * eamon.dreisbach@temple.edu

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

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EXHIBIT

InLiquid speaks to ‘urbanism’ and ‘identification’ A new exhibit explores social justice and urban lifestyles in Philadelphia.

ANGELA GERVASI The Temple News Ceramist and activist Roberto Lugo’s childhood was ornamented with summer days of playing in makeshift water parks – that is, the erupting fire hydrants that studded the Kensington sidewalks.

“There’s sort of a culture in a community like that that can’t really be found anywhere else, and some of it has to do with the fact that people there are struggling for money, so they create these ways in order to pass their time,” Lugo said.

Today, the same area of the city where Lugo grew up now encompasses the headquarters for InLiquid Art & Design.

The nonprofit organization will feature Lugo, along with four other Philadelphia-based artists in, “The City Real & Imagined: Urbanism, Identity, and Identification,” an interactive exhibition at Painted Bride Art Center at 230 Vine St. The exhibition explores a spectrum of highly contested issues – incarceration, gentrification, stigmatization and stereotypes – that heavily impact cities like Philadelphia.

Amze Emmons, an associate professor at the Tyler School of Art, was the root of the idea for the exhibition.

To highlight social injustice through his artwork, Emmons creates brightly colored prints of dystopian landscapes.

“A lot of the things I’m interested in making art about are kind of heavy and topics that people sometimes avoid,” Emmons said. “So, I approach color tactically, as a way to draw people in, by using aesthetically pleasing colors people will find the work strangely beautiful, and as they spend time with it, the complexity of the issues presented will become more real to them.”

When Rachel Zimmerman, a West Philly native and InLiquid founder returned to her hometown from NYU, she observed a lack of access for local artists.

Continued from page 9

PLAYERS

actor.

The community theater is a nonprofit and hosts fundraisers at every performance, usually connecting the benefit with the show’s theme.

On Feb. 18, The Dumpsta Players will present “Sucky 70’s 2,” where it will dance and lip-sync to retro music and parody the genre with topics like the sexual revolution and the AIDS epidemic.

A portion of this show’s proceeds will go to Philly AIDS Thrift, a local nonprofit organization on South Street near Bainbridge Street.

“We like to pick organizations that are real grassroots as opposed to really huge ones because we want the money to go to service [organizations] and the people actually doing the groundwork,” Paul said.

The show will be held at Bob & Barbara’s Lounge on 15th and South streets with a $1.99 cover charge.

The Dumpsta Players originated there in 1996 and it’s become their performance home base ever since.

With all original scripts, the cast collaboratively create parodies of past genres by transitioning into flamboyant, obnoxious, flashy characters that translate from the members’ own personal pasts.

“We’re really true to our subject matter because it’s actually coming from a real place,” Paul said.

“It’s basically like turning the world inside out,” he added. “Try to imagine growing up in a world where everything is straight oriented and mainstream, and the alternate perspective is considered the minority. What I think we’re trying to do here is turn that on its ass and show the world, well, what if it wasn’t like that?”

The diverse members come from all different backgrounds, some with extensive theater training and performing arts, and for others it has become their surreptitious life

“It was frustrating to watch all these people leaving Philadelphia rapidly because there weren’t enough opportunities here,” Zimmerman said.

Geared with a mission to improve the art scene in Philadelphia, she started InLiquid in 1999.

Lugo, to whom Zimmerman refers to as “the rising star” of the exhibition, embodies a blend of urban upbringing and artistic augmentation. Before working with porcelain on a potter’s wheel, he began his artistic career with a bottle of spray paint and an endearing graffiti tag – “Robske” – given to him by his older brother.

Ceramics didn’t enter the picture for Lugo until he moved to Florida and enrolled in a fine arts class at Seminole State College, where a professor recommended that he join the potter’s club.

Today, his works involve wares instead of walls, but Lugo said he sees many similarities between the two mediums of art.

“What I’m doing is more of a theoretical graffiti,” Lugo said. “Sort of vandalizing the idea that what I’m limited to is the culture that I was raised in, so today when I make pottery I often will reference graffiti within the designs, but I’ll combine graffiti with ornament.”

When Lugo began working on InLiquid’s “Juvenile In Justice” project, a series of works devoted to portraying minors in prison, he came across another graffiti enthusiast in the city.

“A lot of my spray paintings are really trying to sort of boil down or condense the urban experience – so it’s almost as if you’ve spent a whole day walking around and then you shut your eyes and try to remember everything all at the same time,” said Mat Tomezsko, a Tyler graduate and another featured artist in “The City Real & Imagined.”

After graduating from Temple, Tomezsko began incorporating more and more of the city into his work, painting over pieces of plywood and abandoned signs that he encountered walking around West Philadelphia.

Together, Lugo and Tomezsko created a series for the show “I Was Of Three Minds: Understanding America Through Bluebirds and Blackbirds,” examining the relationship between

outside of their average 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. jobs.

“It’s something so fun and carefree in a way that you can sort of purge yourself of all your stress in those few minutes you perform and become a character,” said Franco Bailey, a cast member who occasionally appears in shows as a guest performer.

Being both black and gay, Bailey explained the importance of showing the audience the visual of being a double minority.

“I’m just one of many, we exist, and that’s just a visual with so many unfortunate perceptions that go with it. I want to show people that you can be this and you can also be grand and fabulous,” he added.

Temple alumna Sara Sherr has been with the Dumpsta Players since 2002 and has transitioned into characters ranging from trashy women of the ’60s poking fun at local news events, to personal characters that rip on her family and friends.

“It’s a combination of pulling from our childhood, whatever our personal demons are, and what’s going on in the news, then we put our own take on it,” Sherr said.

While female leads are almost always played by drag queens, Sherr said The Dumpsta Players have allowed her to play roles of both men and women that she never imagined herself portraying.

“With half of the group both gay and straight, I think having that perspective changes things,” Sherr said.

She sums up the Dumpsta Players as “a mix of comedy and queer politics.”

“We are a community of queer actors, not all necessarily gay, but we are all working in the queer community in terms of seeing things from an outsider’s point of view,” Paul added. “The three most important things we stress are activism, queer and community.” * alexa.zizzi@temple.edu

ALLAN BARNES TTN

Eba Piatek observes a mixed media piece by In Liquid guest artist Jesse Krimes at the exhibition at the Painted Bride Art Center.

symbolic portrayal and harmful stereotypes.

Tomezsko said the bluebird is seen as a positive icon, while the blackbird is often viewed as a frightening omen.

“It’s useful to see things in symbols but there’s also a limitation to it, and I think that part of what we’re trying to illuminate is that you can assign labels to people but it sort of falls short eventually because somebody can be both a bluebird and a blackbird and it’s dangerous to limit yourself to being a symbol, because that’s all you are,” Tomezsko said.

Guest artist Jesse Krimes also explores the danger of judgement based on appearance in his “Prison Early Works” – a series of recreations of classic masterworks. To alter the iconic masterpieces that he studied from an art history textbook, Krimes replaced the godly figures in Leonardo da Vinci’s “Annunciation” or Sandro Botticelli’s works of Venus with the heads of convicted criminals.

Krimes’ work expresses his intention to explore the idea that gods and criminals, like bluebirds and black-

birds, are portrayals that could label someone for life.

“This is a depiction of an individual when they get in trouble,” Krimes said. “It’s one point in their life, but this narrative, this singular point of view ends up forming a lot of people’s opinions which ostracizes this person, when this person is much more complex than just whatever this description is.”

Krimes said he created “Prison Early Works” on federal bed sheets in his first three years in prison. The exploration led to his physically larger mural of 39 panels, “Apokaluptein: 16389067” derived from the Greek word “apocalypse.” Krimes said he crafted the artful contraband concoction by using clippings from the New York Times and hair gel to create inverted images, which he then blended together with colored pencil.

“The apocalypse is something that in its contemporary translation also corresponds to when you get sent to prison … one’s loss of identity, and that kind of personal apocalypse where you lose your sense of self and positive source of identity and you become this

Continued from page 9

BEEKEEPERS

am really fortunate to make beekeeping, something I am passionate about, my job.”

Shump is the owner and operator of Philadelphia Bee Company, specializing in seasonal varietal honeys and chemical-free bee removals.

Shump said the reason he loves beekeeping is

I could study bees the “ rest of my life and not learn everything from them. ” Don Shump | president

because there is never a boring day at the office – humans have still yet to master the art of beekeeping.

“Humans have been messing with bees for over a thousand years and we still do not have a handle on how they work,” Shump said. “I could study bees the rest of my life and not learn everything about them that is awesome.”

Even after getting stung 50 times in one sitting, Shump said that is not enough to make him quit beekeeping.

Shump added that the Symposium shows citizens how important beekeeping is to Philadelphia.

“Thomas Jefferson wrote about bees and how Indians referred to them as the ‘white man’s flies,’” Shump said. “Even George Stenton kept bees and used them for experimentation.”

In fact, the beehive originates in West Philadelphia, where Lorenzo L. Langstroth built the first man-made hive in 1851. The Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild said Philadelphia is the “cradle of American beekeeping.”

While visiting his daughter at school, the guild’s vice president, David Harrod, saw a bee hive exhibit in the library and suddenly became interested in bees.

About five years later, Harrod started with one hive that he kept in the Roxborough neighborhood of Philly.

Today, Harrod is one of the founders of the Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild.

“People from all over the area come to hear the speakers, we try to get pretty well known authors and beekeepers,” Harrod said. “It is just a good time to have people come together and network, meet new people and talk about bees.”

By having the symposium, Harrod said he wants

number,” Krimes said.

The threat of incarceration was present in Lugo’s life as well. He said he remembers a field trip to a prison in high school where, after a teacher pointed Lugo out as a troubled student, a warden took him into a cell.

Lugo, who considered himself a “church kid,” was shocked and dismayed when the warden told him, “This is where you’re going to end up.”

“I was to the point of tears,” Lugo said. “That really adjusted the way that I viewed myself, and also the way that I saw people look at me.”

Lugo’s ceramic works in the show will coincide with Krimes’ “Prison Early Works” by portraying prisoners, however, Lugo chose to include the mug shots of his personal AfricanAmerican idols: Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Malcolm X. “Maybe it’s not the chance that we were given by society, but it’s something that we have power to control now,” Lugo said. * angela.gervasi@temple.edu

to inspire more people to develop a similar passion for beekeeping.

“The first thing that drew me to beekeeping was that being an environmental educator, the news is pretty consistently bleak,” said Karen Cherubini, one of the newest board members of the guild. “I felt like this could be a way I could be a part of making a difference.”

Cherubini, a 1995 Temple grad, is also a science teacher.

Cherubini said that events like the symposium provide an opportunity for the guild to reach out to the community and inspire others to pick up the guild’s trade.

As a member for four years, Cherubini said the number of beekeepers is growing in Philadelphia.

“Beekeeping is not for the easily discouraged,” Cherubini said. “Pollinators are a big part of our success in the city.”

Shump said he feels that anyone who has a slight interest in beekeeping should not hesitate to be involved.

“Whether you are a beginner beekeeper or an experienced beekeeper,” Shump said, “this is something you want to get out and see.” * connor.northrup@temple.edu

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

PAGE 12

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

KARA MILSTEIN TTN

On the Mural Arts’ Love Letter tour on Feb. 8, featuring commentary of Stephen Powers’ “A Love Letter for You,” train-riders witnessed a same-sex marriage officiated by Philly’s first openly-gay male judge, Dan Anders. The couple, Neal Santos and Andrew Olson (right), were married on the Love Train’s fifth and final trip.

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Continued from page 9

ETCH-A-SKETCH take Katz only 20-25 minutes to complete a sketch, however with the larger projects, the lines can be problematic.

“I try to draw the hardest thing first, because that is going to be the thing that I most likely mess up,” Katz said.

“You have to know how the lines work.”

Sarah DeGiorgis, both a friend of Katz and graduate student studying city planning at Rutgers University, said she was surprised when she first learned of Katz gift of sketching.

“My favorite album cover Alli sketched was Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours,’” DeGiorgis said.

As a day-to-day program coordinator and on occasion comic book enthusiast, Katz said she enjoys spending time with writers, both who are students and are from the Philadelphia community.

“Alli has an engaging and friendly personality,” said Jessica Lowenthal, the director of the Kelly Writers House and a co-worker of Katz. “She holds a constant presence at the Writers House, where she dedicates all her time to working with the students.”

Katz, as program coordinator, hosts and organizes the writing house’s events from comic book workshops to special guest presentations.

Katz, in the past, has been both an associate and multimedia editor of the Philadelphia Weekly and worked at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

First taking interest in biology and then majoring in political science in college, Katz admits her goals are always changing. Writing, however, allowed the multi-talented illustrator to find a “path to learn and keep being creative.”

“Alli comes home after working an 8 to 10 hour day and will do something creative: a painting of Waylon Jennings or Sam Waterston, an Etch-a-Sketch of a John Coltrane album cover, a comic with a joke only smart people understand, and the list goes on,” said Elliott Sharp, Katz’s fiancé.

“Professional” or “humorist” are two titles Katz would like to have for herself one day, but for right now she said she’s a writer with an “Etch-ASketching” eye. * sarah.sweigart@temple.edu

COURTESY ALLI KATZ

Katz uses an Etch-A-Sketch to recreate iconic album covers, like the Beatles’ “Abbey Road.”

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

PAGE 13

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

OUT & ABOUT PHILADELPHIA TATTOO ARTS CONVENTION RETURNS The annual Philadelphia Tattoo Arts Convention is back for its 17th year at the Philadelphia Convention Center, from Feb. 1315. The three-day event will have a wide variety of tattoo artists, special guest inkers, seminars, tattoo contests and entertainment. Tickets are only sold at the show for $22 per day and $45 for a three-day pass.

-Albert Hong

BEN YAGODA WILL SPEAK AT THE FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA Ben Yagoda, author, co-author and editor of books, “How to Not Write Bad” and “About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made,” will speak at the Free Library on Feb. 11 about his newest book, “The B Side: The Death of Tin Pan Alley and the Rebirth of the Great American Song.” The journalism professor’s newest cultural analysis takes a look at the history of the Great American Songwriting era.

The free event starts at 7:30 p.m.

-Albert Hong

POP-UP WORKSHOP RESIDENCE AT FABRIC WORKSHOP AND MUSEUM In a two-month long collaboration since Jan. 5, the San Francisco-based Workshop Residence and the local Fabric Workshop and Museum have been hosting an “Unboxing” series of events at the New Temporary Contemporary gallery space, where people can get a behind-the-scenes look at the processes involved in various projects from FWM residency artists.

Every Wednesday and Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. through March 7, two artists’ work will be examined in the retail store, open studio, coffee bar and reading room that is the newly transformed gallery at 1222 Arch St.

-Albert Hong

DROWNING FISH STUDIO’S “SINGLED OUT” CONTEST Drowning Fish Studio, a local professional recording facility, is bringing back its “Singled Out” contest for two artists or bands to win a chance to fully produce a single for free. The first time the studio held the contest, it helped record, mix and master a single for New Jerseybased band, Out of the Beardspace.

Qualification criteria can be found on the studio’s Facebook page. Submissions will be accepted until Feb. 27.

-Albert Hong

PENNSYLVANIA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY’S POP-UP BEER GARDEN

ALEX FRIEND TTN

Temple alumna Holly Logan is the co-founder of the Philly Fixers Guild and works in the Philadelphia Sculpture Gym in Fishtown.

Continued from page 9

FIXERS

community on how to become more self-sufficient.

While these events remain the focus point, Davis and Logan hope to see the guild change into much more than that. The pair hopes to see more young engineers and mathematicians join the group as apprentices.

“We are hoping it evolves as time goes on,” Logan said. “We want [young people] to see this as a serious possibility, whether it is professionally or their personal environ-

mental concerns. We also want to eventually start doing workshops with people, offering an individually focused effort to educate and help community members with one-on-one training.”

The Philly Fixers Guild isn’t the first to have this vision. Started just a few weeks before them, the Northwest Philadelphia Repair Café is part of an international chain of repair workshops that have the same focus as the guild: repair rather than replace.

Members can create a franchise through the organization, choosing a location to hold the events. The Repair

Café organization then offers marketing and services to help the new franchise succeed.

Davis said that even with the presence of another repair event in Philadelphia, Philly Fixers Guild still has something special to offer.

“We didn’t pursue an organization like Repair Café because we wanted our group to be unique to Philadelphia,” Davis said.

“We try to relate personally to the members of the community, and want to build a brand that shows that. Not just with the logo and the website, but in our interac-

tions and events.”

Even though the guild is trying to be a true Philadelphia experience, they have drawn heavily on the experiences of repair events from other cities. Davis said he reached out to other repair start-ups in areas from Boston to San Francisco, in order to gain advice from seasoned organizations that started like his own.

As the Philly Fixers Guild gains popularity, Davis said he hopes he can turn that around and offer advice and help to others in the Philadelphia area.

“We really would like to see other neighborhoods

TRENDING IN PHILLY What’s happening this week in Philly– from news and event coverage to shows and restaurant openings.

Based on Philly area: food, music, stores, etc. For breaking news and daily updates, follow The Temple News on Twitter @TheTempleNews.

around Philadelphia get their own repair events,” Davis said. “A number of people have contacted us asking if they could start events up, and we are happy to provide advice and lessons.”

“We hope with our publicity and education efforts, we can keep spreading the word,” Logan added. “We want people to feel that they have ownership and control, and can make a difference in their communities.” * andre.dienner@temple.edu

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Pop-Up Beer Garden is making its indoor return for the winter inside the rotunda at the Shops at Liberty Place from Feb. 14 to March 8. People can expect music, movies, food and its own beer from Barren Hill Tavern & Brewery and the new PHS Horticulture Cider from Wyndridge Farm Cidery.

The pop-up will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

-Albert Hong

WOMEN’S ART COLLECTIVE HOSTS FUNDRAISER FOR LOCKS OF LOVE Philly a MUSE ment EVents is a local support group for women. On Feb. 12, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the group is collaborating with Lather Hair Studio on Girard Avenue near 28th Street for a hair-collecting fundraiser for the nonprofit charity, Locks of Love. People can help out at the by getting a haircut or donating at least 10 inches of hair. Fifty percent of the proceeds from each haircut will be given to the charity.

-Albert Hong

PHILLY A CONTENDER FOR BEST ART DISTRICT

“SHARK TANK” TO FEATURE DREXEL STUDENT

@PhilaParkandRec tweeted on Feb. 9 that Philly’s Parkway Museums District has been selected as one of 20 nominees for Best Art District in USA TODAY’s and 10 Best’s Readers’ Choice lists. Philadelphia is mentioned for the many art museums and installations along Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

@PHLBizJournal tweeted on Feb. 9 that undergraduate Drexel student Christopher Gray will be appearing on ABC’s “Shark Tank” with his scholarship phone app, Scholly. The entrepreneur helps fellow students with this app that accesses a database of scholarships.

BROAD STREET RUN LOTTERY REGISTRATION ENDING

MONTH OF FREE ADMISSION TO NMAJH

@IBXRun10 tweeted on Feb. 6 that registration for the 2015 Independence Blue Cross Broad Street Run lottery is only open until Feb. 13. Scheduled for May 3, the annual Broad Street Run saw 40,000 people take part last year.

@visitphilly tweeted on Feb. 8 a reminder that the National Museum of American Jewish History is offering free admission all month in celebration of a 1790 letter from George Washington that will be on display at the museum for the next seven years.

LIFESTYLE

PAGE 14

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

health

Temple Emergency Action Core helps prepare students for emergencies with mock disasters Students at the medical school undergo emergency trials under the watch of Dr. Manish Garg.

JANE BABIAN The Temple News When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans 10 years ago, many Temple medical students felt inspired to make a difference. The search for champions of global medicine, disaster expertise and emergency medicine led them to Dr. Manish Garg’s office.

“Those are my passions,” Garg said. “Those are the differences I make.”

Garg has been running Temple Emergency Action Core (TEAC) ever since. His responsibilities extend far beyond the classroom.

A clinically practicing emergency medicine doctor at Temple Hospital, Garg is the senior associate residency program director for the emergency medicine training program, assistant dean for global medicine at the medical school and does research for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on emergent infectious diseases.

“I try to be the quadruple threat,” Garg said, laughing.

When a large disaster strikes, TEAC aims to prepare for the aftermath of the situation.

“There’s always a context of insecurity immediately after a disaster,” Garg said.

Garg puts a group of first-year students through a disaster mock simulation trial.

“It is unbelievable to see how much they organize and are mobilized,” Garg said. “It is important for me to see how they assemble and how they approach it.”

Selected students are given a list of symp-

can do something for everybody, but sometimes it’s not ultimately up to you,” Garg said.

“In these scenarios you have to do the most for the most, and there are some difficult decisions that have to be made,” he added.

Still, Garg said students enjoy the mock trials.

“They enjoy the entropy of it,” Garg said.

“We have some exciting things that happen. We

In these scenarios you have to do the most for the “ most, and there are some difficult decisions that have to be made. ” Dr. Manish Garg | TEAC residency program director

toms to act out, while remaining students are given a scenario and told to work together to triage patients in the best way possible.

The students have to identify patients, as deceased, emergent or wounded. Students tag patients depending on their statuses. Garg said some patients receive “blue or gray tags if they are inevitably going to die no matter what we do.”

Garg finds it particularly sad for beginning students when they have to learn about the “blue or gray tag” because “you think in medicine you

do have make up, simulaids like a mask that gives the appearance of a chemical burn, a leg so it looks like an amputation that can squirt blood but I try to keep it clean.”

After trials, students gather and debrief and decide if patients were treated correctly and if the situation was handled in the best possible manner.

Alyssa Green is a current intern at Temple Hospital under Garg and a former medical student who took part in TEAC. When looking back at her experience through

the program, Green recalls being “naive to how often this situation really does unfold, and I think it was a good dose of reality.”

Green doesn’t believe the topic affected her career choice but it made her “realize that this was a topic [she] should be paying more attention to.”

Garg said he believes teaching medical residents and students emergency procedures encourages them to become more efficient.

“These are things medical students are never asked, because they show up at the hospital, the equipment is always where it is, and somebody is making these decisions for them,” Garg said.

“You would be blown away at how well our students and our residents are prepared,” he added.

TEAC has made trips to multiple countries, like Panama, Honduras and El Salvador. Some of the disaster trips are funded through the Albert M. Greenfield Foundation.

Garg believes TEAC training will prepare his students for real emergencies.

“Not only do I want to teach them medical knowledge skills, but I want to invest into them as a professional,” Garg said.

“Rarely in medical school do we talk about strategies to help your leadership or help you be a better presenter or a better public speaker,” he added. * jane.babian@temple.edu

Technology event a networking opportunity for women Continued from page 7

TECHNOLOGY

McGinnis added that many women have the skills necessary for these careers, as shown by the fact that 46 percent of students who take the Advanced Placement calculus exam are women, but are not able to go further. Approximately 20 percent of those female AP calculus test takers will advance to a computer science class at the college level.

“Take whatever your major is, add technology to that … your value as an employee is drastically better,” McGinnis said.

McGinnis said all the professionals contacted were very interested in Check Out Tech and speaking to students about the values of technology.

“It’s a really good example of our professionals’ [relationship] to our students,” she said.

Check Out Tech will also provide information regarding a minor or certificate in a technology field. The program stresses that its goal is not to convert students from majors they are passionate about, but to help them consider their options and the benefits of expanding their skillsets. These skills can open paths to more creative and less traditional careers for women as well.

Urban said one does not have to have a degree in a technology field to enter into a career utilizing technology.

Half of the women in attendance did not have degrees in technology, yet work in the field of technology.

McGinnis stressed that the event is not a formal one with speakers and a strict format.

Having so many professionals in attendance provided the stu-

dents the opportunity to make connections they might not otherwise have found.

“Having 35 professional women to talk with was very valuable. Networking skills are key to success in the future,” Urban said in an email.

For now, Check Out Tech was a one-time event, Urban and McGinnis believe that it has potential to continue in some form in the future, possibly as a mentoring program continuing the event’s goal of exposing women to options in technology.

Regardless of where the program goes in the future, McGinnis plans to continue with it.

“Our biggest goal, what we do every day, is education,” she said. * vince.bellino@temple.edu

COURTESY ASHLEY BABLADELIS

Gail Reganato, of Indepedence Blue Cross, is among many professional women who attended Check Out Tech.

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Female students, alumni and professionals gather at the Feb. 3 event.

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LIFESTYLE

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

PAGE 15

AROUND CAMPUS SAIGE CAFE OPENS

The Saige Cafe had its grand opening on Monday, Feb. 9.

The newest addition to Main Campus fare offers gourmet coffee, a juice bar, breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is located near the Temple University train station at 1802 N. Warnock St.

-Alexa Bricker

MICHELE MCKEONE SPEAKS AT FIRESIDE CHAT

COURTESY BILL HEBERT

Temple’s Faculty Dance Concert was held on Jan. 30-31. The concert featured six pieces choreographed by Temple’s dance department faculty members.

faculty focus

Faculty take the stage in concert

A recent dance concert featured work from Boyer faculty members.

CHELSEY HAMILTON The Temple News

The stage was completely black, but shouting and singing emanated from the darkness. When the lights turned on, some audience members gasped at what they saw: a clump of dancers pushed together with eerie smiles on their faces.

Dressed in different variations of nude bodysuits, the dancers started to dance, jump and sing in circles around each other while holding the smiles on their faces.

The performance was part of Temple’s Faculty Dance Concert, held from Jan. 30-31, which featured work by the dance faculty of Boyer College of Music and Dance.

The performance, held at Conwell Dance Theater on Main Campus, included six pieces choreographed by Temple’s dance department faculty members includ-

ing Merian Soto, Nora Gibson, Laura Katz Rizzo, Kariamu Welsh, Kun-Yang Lin, Jennifer Jessum and Jillian Harris.

The show’s grand finale featured guest artist Andrea Miller, the founder, artistic director and choreographer of New York-based contemporary company Gallim Dance Company. Students from the Temple dance department had the opportunity to audition for Miller’s piece, “Wonderland.”

After the audition in October, 15 students were chosen to participate in what is known as the January Residency. Students spent the last week of Winter Break learning and rehearsing excerpts from Miller’s piece to perform in the show.

“Wonderland” first premiered in 2010 in New York City and has been touring nationally and internationally since. Gallim’s inspiration for the piece was investigating pack mentality in humans and whether the mentality is instinctual or potentially dangerous.

Tal Adler, a member of Gallim Dance, was the rehearsal director for this piece and set the dance on

the students during their January residency, from Jan. 5-9. One of the performers in the piece, junior dance major Taylor Grace, said it was a rewarding experience learning from Adler. “[Adler], the man who set the piece on us, was amazing to work with,” Grace said. “He knows and understands the piece really well, so it was easy for him to help us un-

piece is the athleticism,” Grace said. “Although the piece is not super technical, the motif behind the movement is very strong but exhausting. It gives the dance a really unique quality.”

Ayeisha Ramirez, a senior dance major at Temple, also said she enjoyed the distinct characteristics of the movement.

“My favorite aspect of this

aspect of the piece is the “My favoriteathleticism. ” Taylor Grace | junior

derstand the piece. I loved working with all of the other dancers too. We all had an amazing time together.”

The performance, which started out somewhat slow, quickly sped up with a change in the music as the dancers performed jumps, turns and holds – many of which, Grace said, required a great deal of practice.

“My favorite aspect of the

piece is how athletic and theatrical it is,” Ramirez said. “It was an exciting change from the dancing I do at Temple everyday and it was such a great experience working with everyone. If I had the chance to do it again I would in a heartbeat.” * chelsey.hamilton@temple.edu

Through internships, students take a bite out of the Big Apple

Three journalism students commute to NYC three days of the week for various internships.

I

t is 4:57 a.m. My first phone alarm buzzes under my pillow. The quick vibrations shake up the grainy images in my dream, in which I’m transcribing an interview. Everything I do seems to revolve around my internship.

With three more alarms set to go off by 5 a.m., I use my phone as a flashlight to walk to the bathroom without waking my roommate. I pry my dry eyelids open and stick my contact onto each bloodshot eye.

I throw on the clothes I’ve picked out from the night before and stare down at my phone. I see 17 missed calls, six texts, and a screenshot of a bill from Coach USA for ESTHER KATRO $719.50.

A text reads, “I’m up. I did it. My turn to get coffee?”

I respond to our intern group chat, which also substitutes as my emotional support group.

“I’ll have a dirty chai tea,” I type. “My editor had me fetch one for her yesterday. Also, someone may have stolen my credit card. We can figure it out on the bus.”

I run outside to catch the train to 30th Street Station, where I’ll stand alongside two Temple senior journalism majors in line to catch the Megabus.

Lindsey Murray, a features intern with Seventeen Magazine, hands me my tea while showing off her new nails for Manicure Monday. I

already know what she’s wearing because she’s Instagramed her #ootd.

We always sit on the left side of the bus to catch the morning skyline view of New York City.

I reach into my fake Prada bag and clench my dad’s credit card, confused.

Senior journalism major Cindy Stansbury grabs a seat on the right side of the aisle as she unwraps her scarf. Her silver rings clink together on her laptop as she helps me decode my purchase. Her homepage is the website of Rolling Stone Magazine, where she’s an editorial intern this semester.

“My last semester of college feels unreal,” Murray said. “I grew up reading a magazine that gave the advice of a best friend, and now get to give back.”

She points at her ID that allows her to glide through the sparkling elevator banks of the Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan.

“Valentine’s Day is coming up and I can’t even write the word heart, without adding an ‘S’ to it,” Murray said with a lingering smile, referencing to the building where she works.

The three of us talk for the duration of the three-hour bus ride to New York. The bus drivers recognize our faces and our teachers understand when we show up to class with glassy, tired eyes, but the majority of our peers think we’re insane.

The three of us met in Professor Stain’s Magazine Editing class. He always encouraged us to move to New York City after we graduated.

“You know, nobody’s making them do this,” journalism professor Larry Stains said about our work this semester. “They’re showing an awesome amount of grit and determination, which will pay off.”

Nobody’s making them “ do this. They’re showing an

”

awesome amount of grit and determination.

Larry Stains | journalism professor

“I wanted a head start,” Stansbury said.

“They asked me during my interview why they should hire me, and I told them I’m willing to get up at any hour, through any weather, to work hard.”

I stare out the cloudy window, using it as a reflection to apply my mascara as we sit still in highway traffic.

At 9 a.m., we trundle out of the stale bus air, passing by street vendors selling bus tickets as we begin our fast-paced days.

We part ways to step into each of our neighboring buildings.

Inside the 30 Rock concourse I pass the Coach Store. I can see my reflection in the shiny window. I picture myself working in the building I now intern in, walking into Coach on my lunch break to pick out a new wallet.

“Megabus is owned by the Coach Bus Company,” I type into our group chat with a thumbs up emoji.

I breathe out deep relief as I take a seat at my morning NBC News meeting, and pitch a story about credit card theft. * esther.katro@temple.edu

The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute is sponsoring a fireside chat with Michele McKeone on Wednesday from noon until 1 p.m. in Room 503D of Alter Hall. A former Philadelphia public high school teacher, McKeone is the founder of Autism Expressed, a multiple award-winning start-up that is the first and only interactive learning system teaching today’s essential digital life skills to students with autism.

The program is designed to increase postsecondary opportunities for students with autism including college and vocational participation. McKeone will discuss the success of the program and how she started her business.

Light refreshments will be served. This event is open to all.

-Jessica Smith

DISTINGUISHED GUEST LECTURE SERIES CONTINUES

The H. Wayne Snider Distinguished Guest Lecturer series continues Wednesday from noon to 12:50 p.m. with John Doyle in Room A031 in Alter Hall. Doyle is executive vice president and CEO of Commercial Insurance at AIG. A graduate of the University at Buffalo, Doyle is responsible for commercial businesses worldwide, including the company’s property, casualty, financial lines and mortgage guaranty products and services.

Prior to working at AIG, he served as president and chief executive officer at Chartis U.S. and was responsible for the company’s property and casualty business in both the United States and Canada. Doyle will discuss his experiences in the workplace and career opportunities related to the risk management, insurance and actuarial science industries. This series is open to all.

-Jessica Smith

WELLNESS WEDNESDAY CONTINUES

Campus Recreation will continue their Wellness Wednesday series tomorrow from noon to 2 p.m. in the Student Center atrium.

On the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, Campus Rec will lead sessions geared toward promoting good health and teaching the best practices to lead a healthy life.

Topics will vary each session and will cover physical, emotional, psychological and social elements. This week’s theme will be fitting exercise into a busy schedule.

-Jessica Smith

STUDENT VIDEO CONTEST ACCEPTING ENTRIES

The Thank a Donor Week Student Video Contest is accepting entries now through March 12. Last year, Temple had over 39,000 philanthropic donors who gave over $67.9 million. Registered students are invited to create a video expressing gratitude and appreciation to university donors.

The first prize is $500 and the second prize is $250. A panel of professionals working in film, multimedia and higher education will review and select the winners. Multiple submissions are allowed per students and can be in any style of film or video including (but not limited to) animation, drama, still art, imagery, comedy or documentary. Each submission must be 1-2 minutes in length. This contest is open to all students.

-Jessica Smith

LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE TO BE HELD SATURDAY

Temple and Campus Philly will host a oneday leadership conference open to all Philadelphia-area college students on Saturday from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. in the Howard Gittis Student Center.

The 2015 Inclusive Leadership Conference will give college students the chance to enhance their leadership knowledge and skills through presentations, workshops, dialogues and panels on topics related to inclusivity through leadership and social change. Registration is required online through CampusPhilly.org/Leadership. The event is sponsored

by Student Leadership and is worth 15 Leadership Diamond Points for Temple attendees. It is open to all students.

-Jessica Smith

LIFESTYLE

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

JENNY KERRIGAN TTN

Matt Cahill, a senior history education major, worked to implement a Temple chapter of the Eye to Eye program, which partners Temple students with local high schoolers.

Continued from page 1

CAHILL

hill saw the organization as a potential way to strengthen Philadelphia’s community of disabled students.

“I brought up that there wasn’t any community on campus and an epiphany happened at that moment,” Cahill said.

The senior history and education major contacted the national office for Eye to Eye and was able to get a Temple chapter running by the end of Spring 2013, despite being told, he said, that it might take a year ADVERTISEMENT

to get the chapter running.

Eye to Eye implements weekly art-based projects with local schools like the Clymer George School and the Cleveland Grover School, both located in North Philadelphia.

“With each project, it is a platform to have deeper conversation about self-advocacy, student strengths and to feel confident in school,” Cahill said.

One of the art projects, “My Invention,” is a critical thinking activity in which students pick a certain problem they have in the classroom and an invention they could use to solve their issue.

Cahill said one student who

has trouble reading invented a microphone-like device that made it easier to understand books.

“The student unknowingly is identifying their problem, providing a solution and figuring out accommodations they can use in school,” Cahill said.

Catherine Martsolf, a sophomore engineering major, attended the same high school as Cahill, is a mentor for Eye to Eye and is on the organization’s community outreach team.

Martsolf has auditory processing disorder and is working on creating a more open community for Temple students

with learning disorders.

“We are trying to get more of a voice in how professors see us,” Martsolf said.

She is currently creating a Share Our Story event, which would bring students and professors to Eye to Eye mentors to discuss their educational journeys as students with learning disorders.

There are roughly 10-15 students from Temple who are mentors at each school, Cahill said. Temple’s chapter is one of Eye to Eye’s biggest in the country.

The nonprofit won Best New Organization in Spring

2014 through Student Activities at Temple.

The Temple program also has two Think Different diplomats, who visit schools and conferences nationwide to tell their disability stories.

“It is very rewarding to know we are providing these students with weekly, positive role models,” Cahill said.

Cahill, said he would like to work in education or with a non-profit and plans to stay with the Eye to Eye after graduation and continue advocating for people with disabilities.

The Eye to Eye Temple chapter is attempting to expand

the program to other universities in the city and aims to not only benefit the children at Cleveland and Clymer, but Temple students as well.

“It gives me more freedom, 100 percent,” said Holly Mainiero, a senior tourism and hospitality management major. Mainiero also helped Cahill start the program at Temple.

Mainiero, who has ADD, said the program changes lives.

“A lot of people judge you for having a disability,” she said. “This program made me more open.” * emily.ivy.scott@temple.edu

SPORTS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

PAGE 17

SPORTS BRIEFS

Owls considered for ‘bracketology’ son and will redshirt.

-Greg Frank

WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD DUBROW TOPS OWN RECORD

Senior Jenna Dubrow set a new Temple women’s track & field record in the 5,000-meter run at the Giegengack Invitational in New Haven, Connecticut on Friday.

Dubrow broke her own previous record in the event by finishing in a gold-medal time of 17 minutes, 18.85 seconds.

“I was pretty excited about my performance,” Dubrow said.

“I think that I definitely ran the race all-out and I think I maybe could have pushed it a little harder at the end. It was also hard running by myself, because I ran the whole race basically by myself.”

Dubrow also said setting a new record helped her feel more confident about her fitness level in her last indoor track & field season.

“I think it was a good confidence booster and it shows where I’m at fitness-wise,” Dubrow said.

The Owls will travel to Boston Friday, Feb. 13 to compete at the Valentine Invitational. This competition will mark the Owls’ final meet before the American Athletic Conference Championships from Feb. 27-28.

-Tyler DeVice JENNY KERRIGAN TTN

Junior guard Quenton DeCosey is averaging 13.2 points per game so far this season.

OUTLETS EYE TEMPLE TOURNEY BID

After a first-round exit in the American Athletic Conference tournament marked the end of a 9-22 campaign last season, the men’s basketball team’s bid for mid-March basketball has gained steam amid the Owls’ active five-game winning streak.

CBSSports.com’s Jerry Palm, the site’s and bracketology expert, has Temple (17-7, 8-3 The American) in a play-in game for the West region against George Washington University, as of Sunday night. If the Owls were to win that game, they’d participate as the 11th seed in the West, competing in Jacksonville, Florida.

ESPN.com’s Joe Lunardi, meanwhile, also has Temple tabbed for a play-in spot, facing Old Dominion University for 11th-seed rights in the Midwest, while USA Today predicted Sunday night that the Owls would own the 11th seed outright in the South, facing Providence University in the second round.

-Andrew Parent

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WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS

ALL-AMERICAN TO MISS SEASON

Junior all-around Reagan Oliveri will miss the 2015 season with a torn achilles tendon, a team spokesman confirmed Sunday.

Oliveri is from Mantua, New Jersey, and a 2012 graduate of Clearview Regional High School. During high school, she trained at Cherry Hill Gymnastics. In her freshman season, Oliveri worked her way into the lineup and would eventually post a season-high 9.6 on the uneven bars in Temple’s final dual meet of the year against William & Mary University.

She broke in as an all-around in the 2014 season. The sophomore was named Temple’s most valuable gymnast and posted career highs in all four events en route to earning a first-team All-American selection.

Oliveri has not competed in any of Temple’s meets this sea-

COMMUNITY TEAMS PARTICIPATE IN AWARENESS

Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams took part in separate awareness initiatives this past weekend.

As part of the NCAA’s 2nd Annual Autism Awareness Weekend in men’s basketball, Temple joined several additional programs by wearing blue puzzle-piece pins during Saturday’s 61-60 road win against Memphis.

The initiative, which is solely a men’s basketball movement, is part of the Coaches Powering Forward for Autism campaign.

Coaches Pat Skerry (Towson University) and Tom Herrion (Georgia Tech University) inspired the start of the campaign last year, as both have a son diagnosed with autism.

-Andrew Parent

games, Cummings’ health is of paramount concern. The team’s inability to sustain runs and leads without its point guard on the floor has caused his minutes to increase even as he rewas timid and sometimes unresponsive in me- covers from injury. Dunphy has admitted after dia interviews and lacked a voice in the locker multiple games that he tried to pull Cummings room and on the court. Now, he is the unani- out, but reinserted him when leads began to mous recipient of the inconsequential media dwindle.

He also routinely takes hard fouls around good-guy award, but more importantly, conthe rim, and has been the recipient of two flatrols the game every minute he plays. grant fouls this season on “A lot [goes through near-identical plays. The me],” Cummings said. “Evfirst sparked his leg injury, erybody looks to me to be while the second caused a the vocal leader especially in collectively-held breath on games and practice. I try to the Temple sideline. set a great example.”

Should he stay healthy The guard’s maturation for the final seven games process has been one accelof regular season play and erated by the departure of a the conference tournament, senior-heavy roster in 2013, Jesse Morgan | senior guard Temple’s season will not and enduring one of the end the way it did in 2014. worst seasons in school hisCummings has elevated his tory in 2014.

Cummings is so critical to the team’s suc- game far above what it was when he scored 29 cess, to the point that he is able to dictate the points his freshman year and posted a 0.6 assist/ game without dominating the basketball. The turnover ratio. In the senior’s final act, the Owls team’s guard trio of Cummings, Quenton De- will go as far as he takes them.

While their fate lies in the hands – and Cosey and Jesse Morgan all own double-digit scoring averages. But Cummings’ 91 assists are health – of Cummings, only one part of his 43 more than his closest teammate in DeCosey, game must change.

“I know coach will have us at the free despite having just one more turnover.

“He’s poised, he’s a senior, he’s a veteran,” throw line,” he said. “We will be practicing Morgan said. “It makes it a lot easier when you those the rest of the year.” know you have a ball-handler that is going to make great decisions down the stretch and keep * ibrahim.jacobs@temple.edu the game at his pace.”

T @ibrahimjacobs For the team’s final seven regular-season Continued from page 20

CUMMINGS

He’s a poised “senior, he’s a

”

veteran. It makes it a lot easier .

DONALD OTTO TTN

Senior guard Will Cummings handles the ball during the Owls’ 73-48 win against South Florida.

SPORTS

PAGE 18

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015 Continued from page 20

JANNEY

BRADLEY VASSALO TTN

Coach Tonya Cardoza puts her head in her hands as the Owls dropped their 12th game in an 83-49 loss to Connecticut Feb. 1.

Continued from page 20

ROSTER

to see a lot of time on the court.

“I wouldn’t say it’s worn us down simply because we usually only have about seven or eight players in the rotation since I’ve been here that I’m used to,” Williams said. “So, a lot of the guards, we push ourselves in the summer and practice to get our bodies in shape to play a lot of minutes.”

While her options are fewer this season, coach Tonya Cardoza has used her bench more often than in years past.

Last season, the team had three players average more than 30 mpg. The year before that, four Owls saw that amount of time on the court. Thus far this season, only Williams and Covile are averaging more than 30 mpg.

Cardoza and her team are trying to make the best out of the hand they were dealt, she said.

“I think for us, this is just the situation and we’ve tried our best to maintain as much as we possibly can,” Cardoza said. “But I think our guys have embraced it and they know that each one of them has a role to play in order for us to be successful.”

Off the court, change in personnel

has also made an impact.

The players go out to eat, watch movies together and even have a group chat they can all use when they’re not together. The term “family” is often used by the team to describe the players’ relationships with each other.

“This team just feels much more like a family,” Williams said. “It’s like a sisterhood between all of us.”

“It’s all about chemistry and really wanting something for your teammate,” Cardoza said. “The biggest thing is it’s not about I or me. It really is about our team.”

With a young active roster featuring three sophomores and three freshmen, leadership was a big reason for the team’s coherence. Williams and Covile took it upon themselves to step up and

body hurts so bad but I can’t do nothing “butMypush through it. We have a small roster.

”

We don’t really have a lot of people on our team, so I can’t complain.

Erica Covile | junior guard

UP NEXT

Owls at Tulsa Feb. 10 at 8 p.m.

“Past years, there was a lot of disloyalty, people not meshing with the team, people being selfish, and this year it’s not like that at all,” Williams added.

“Everybody’s for each other.”

Cardoza said she has seen this family-like bond translate to a team-first mentality from her players.

help guide their teammates.

Although it was something she had not done much before, taking a leadership role was something Covile knew she had to do.

“I’ve been here the longest after [Williams],” Covile said. “So, I felt like when [Williams] leaves, who are all the

freshman going to look up to? Especially the incoming freshmen. So I felt I needed to step up and be that leader.”

Reinforcements may be on the way next year for the team. In addition to their incoming recruiting class, the Owls will also have three transfers.

Sophomore Donnaizha Fountain and junior Ruth Sherrill have been with the team since the beginning of the season, while junior Monasia Bolduc recently transferred and has been practicing with the Owls for the past few weeks.

The added depth of these players, as well as the skill sets they bring with them, could allow Temple to play at a fast-paced tempo and use a press on defense next season, which is something it has not been able to do much this year.

“Monasia just joined […] but Ruth and Donnaizha have been here from the start so they understand what it’s like to practice and what we want,” Cardoza said. “When you add those three as well as the freshmen that are coming, we talk about how we want to play [and] they definitely help with that style of play because of their athleticism.” * owen.mccue@temple.edu T @Owen_McCue

track & field

Fernandez crashes onto scene in first year

Blanca Fernandez established herself as a strong prospect quickly for the Owls.

TYLER DEVICE The Temple News

It took Blanca Fernandez exactly five minutes to learn she had an aptitude for the mile run, as the graduate-junior track & field athlete at Temple earned her first-ever victory in the United States in an event she had never competed in before.

Originally hailing from Leon, Spain, Fernandez was a national champion in the women’s 1,500-meter run, and also competed as a member of the Spanish National Team. In addition, she is currently ranked No. 116 globally in the women’s 1500-meter run.

“If her first race is any indication of what her potential is, I think we will be happy,” first-year coach Elvis Forde said. “That’s the first time she has raced in quite some time,

so that’s just to knock the rust off a little bit. We are going to expect some real fun things from her.”

Cross country coach James Snyder said he first came across Fernandez’s talent after perusing the results from running events overseas, and began communicating with her last April.

Upon taking a serious interest in bringing Fernandez to the U.S., Snyder was able to work out full scholarship benefits for her that would include two full years of NCAA athletic eligibility.

After being contacted by Temple, Fernandez said she knew the move was something she needed to pursue.

“I finished my degree in Spain and I was living with my parents, so [I knew] I needed to move away,” Fernandez said.

“This was a really good choice, just as a new experience.”

Both Forde and Snyder said Fernandez was originally supposed to arrive in August to compete in cross country, but documentation issues hindered her arrival until the beginning

of the spring semester. of get here and get adjusted, to “Sometimes the interna- figure out what building you’re tional process takes a little bit living in, getting used to the longer than recruiting a kid lo- different food, and then adjustcally from the United States,” ing to the change in time.”

Forde said. “There are a lot of Fernandez said her first different logistics and paper- few weeks on Main Campus work that has to go through the have been a bit overwhelming, NCAA to clear it.” and that she is still trying to Once the NCAA approved adjust to the life of a full-time her credentials, Fernandez was Division I athlete. able to join the Owls midway “Everything was new through their indoor season. [and] everything was differAlthough she was eligible ent,” Fernandez said of her to compete upon her arrival, move. “The language is a big Forde said he wanted to give point [of difficulty], but also the Fernandez enough time to ad- classes. I’m not used to having just to the difhours and hours UP NEXT ferent aspects in English, so Owls at Tulsa of life in the my mind is exFeb. 10 at 8 p.m.

U.S. hausted all the After all, time.”

Forde, a Barbados native, was In order to assist her with an international student him- developing her English skills, self, and knows the feeling of Fernandez said she is enrolled arriving in an unfamiliar land. in a one-hour-a-week English “When you get the oppor- program to help her become tunity, you hold on to it for dear more familiar with the lanlife,” Forde said. “It means so guage. much to you that someone is While she welcomes the giving you that chance to come extra help, Fernandez said she all the way across the waters to wishes she could have more get a chance to compete in col- practice. lege. It takes a little bit to kind “It is not enough, but I

don’t have more time,” Fernandez said of the English classes. “[I] have to do homework or writing and I have to translate everything and write it again, so it takes me twice the [amount of] time it should.”

Despite the language barrier, Snyder said he hopes Fernandez can act as a role model for some of the younger athletes to look up to for support.

“Anytime you have an athlete in your program [that] has had success at a high level, people are going to look up to them,” Snyder said. “Obviously she is a little bit older, a little more seasoned [and] is just a little more familiar with training and racing at a high level.”

Fernandez said her teammates are helping her further develop her English, and that she wants to use her experience to help return the favor.

“I think I can help them just because I am older,” Fernandez said. “They were the first people I met here and we have a lot of things in common. I’m like the big sister.” * tyler.device@temple.edu

others plan to catch up with her before she leaves.

“She was in her office so I personally went up and gave her a hug,” junior forward Tricia Light said. “I said, ‘Good luck in what you’re doing in the future,’ and I thanked her for everything she had given me as a studentathlete.”

“I am going to go see her before Friday,” junior forward Alyssa Delp added. “She pretty much got me where I am today, when I do talk to her I am going to express that to her. She’s given all of us a shot at a great education and just a really good outlet on how to be student athletes.”

While players said they were surprised by Janney’s decision, they do not believe the coaching turnover will affect the day-today operations of the team headed into spring practices.

“I definitely think that things aren’t going to hiccup,” Delp said.

“This team knows how important spring is to being effective in the fall,” Delp said. “We really don’t have any choice.”

Janney said Indiana’s athletic department reached out to her a few weeks ago regarding its vacant head coaching position, and accepted a job in a conference that currently holds 17 of the last 33 NCAA championship finalists.

Additionally, the Big Ten boasts nine schools that rank in the Top 40 of the ratings percentage index, more than any other conference.

While Indiana offers the conference pedigree and an opportunity to play numerous powerhouse programs, the Owls rank 23 spots ahead of Indiana in the RPI, currently sitting at No. 11.

While they understand the entire conference’s impressive status, because of the large disparity in rankings, two players interviewed yesterday considered the job more of an equivalent position rather than an immediate step up.

“I think that Indiana would currently be more of a lateral move,” Light said. “We’ve done better in the past two seasons than them, but historically they are a very good team and a good program. That’s why they were looking for a new coach and for her, it seemed like a great opportunity to get them back to where they were. … The Big Ten has a lot more opportunities, currently Temple is trying to catch up to the Big Ten programs.”

Delp also considered the RPI when processing the coaching change.

“It definitely crossed my mind that we are a better team as of now just RPI-wise,” Delp said. “I can understand it, though.

The Big Ten is a great network and there are better opportunities there.”

Compiling an overall record of 114-94 at Temple, including five double-digit seasons and two Atlantic-10 finals appearances, Janney will be leaving a program she helped build, which proved to be a challenging decision.

“It was very difficult leaving Temple,” Janney said. “To tell the team was extremely difficult because I recruited them and I really believe in what we’re doing here at Temple ... It was really hard to leave because there are so many great things going on here.”

The search for Janney’s replacement is ongoing as the team enters its spring training with Driscoll at the helm.

“Coach Janney did a tremendous job during her tenure here at Temple University and we wish her well at Indiana,” Athletic Director Kevin Clark said in a press release announcing the resignation. “We are confident that the program, which is coming off consecutive Top 20 seasons, will attract high quality candidates for the head coaching position to continue this level of success.” * esmith@temple.edu ( 215.204. 9537 T @ejsmitty17 Andrew Parent contributed reporting.

SPORTS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

PAGE 19

SEASON PREVIEW | LACROSSE

Owls gearing up for season opener The lacrosse team opens its season at Geasey against UMBC Wednesday.

MATT COCKAYNE The Temple News For returning members of the women’s lacrosse team, the memory of a late goal in their season’s closing moments still resonates in their minds.

The Owls came one win shy of reaching the Big East Conference tournament last season, when the 2014 campaign ended in an 11-10 loss to Rutgers on April 25, 2014. The team also lost its four graduated seniors, including attacker Jaymie Tabor, who led the team in scoring last year.

On Wednesday, the Owls will look to start their mission for redemption.

“We try not to spend a lot of time thinking about the past as we prepare for this year’s team,” coach Bonnie Rosen said. “But we do return quite a bit of the same team, so there are things that we are focused on in our improvement. I think we have to score more goals.

It’s really that simple.”

Last season, Temple was outscored, 175-149, by its opponents throughout the season, which led to a 6-10 record. The team lacked a balanced offensive attack, only having four players score more than 10 goals on the season and mostly relying on Tabor as the go-to attacker.

This year, Rosen said, could be a different story. She expects to lean on a few different scorers, including junior Nicole Tiernan, who was recently named to the All-Big East preseason team. Tiernan’s twin sister, Megan, along with junior Rachel Schwaab and freshman Nicole Barretta could also help bolster production.

“While anything can happen in terms of a person carrying the load, I think the key to our success this year is going to be a lot of scorers,” Rosen said. “We are looking to play a lot of attackers, not just a handful. Our midfielders all have the ability to score goals and so do our attackers.”

The team’s leadership will

HUA ZONG TTN

Junior midfielder Nicole Tiernan cradles the ball during last season’s 9-8 overtime win against Hofstra on March 19, 2014.

likely come on the defensive side of the ball, as three of Temple’s four captains – Maddie McTigue and Kara Stroup, both juniors, and senior Carli Fitzgerald – are defenders. These three, along with the rest of the defense, will attempt to improve on the Owls’ 119 caused turnovers from last season.

“We’re the foundation of the team,” Stroup said of the defense. “I think that we’re going to come out and set the tone, and spread our play throughout the midfield and attack. We have a lot of leadership on defense and it’s our job to set the tone and be consistent.”

The team lost its fourth captain, senior midfielder Molly Seefried, for the 2015 season after she took a hit to the head and suffered a resulting concussion in the team’s final game of the fall season. Seefried, who has a history of concussions, is only taking three courses this semester due to her injury. As she is not a full-time student, the senior is therefore barred from at-

Continued from page 1

RHULE

things being said, even in Pennsylvania by some of the schools, negative recruiting this, who owns the state and who owns that.”

“It was really nice getting to know these kids and really nice being involved in recruiting being done the right way,” Rhule added. “These are kids that wanted to be here.”

Signing a 20-player class that encompasses nine states, Rhule and his staff headlined a 2015 class consisting of two four-star recruits – New Jersey defensive back Kareem Ali Jr., who committed in July of last year, and Florida running back T.J. Simmons, who signed last Wednesday.

Simmons, ranked No. 17 among running backs in the 2015 class by Rivals.com, decommitted from UCLA last month and squeezed in a visit to Main Campus a week before signing day. The Lakeland, Florida native committed to UCLA as a sophomore before taking a visit, and decommitted as bigger schools got involved.

“I committed without even taking a visit,” Simmons said. “When I did get an opportunity to visit, I decided I didn’t want to be committed while I was taking visits and get a chance to look at my options and weigh them all out.”

Due to a left ankle injury, Simmons missed most of his senior season, but said he is now “100 percent.” He is currently taking part in club lacrosse, along with track & field for his school.

tending any team functions, per NCAA rules.

“Molly is one of my favorite people to play with,” Nicole Tiernan said. “She is one of the most selfless players in the world. She does everything for the benefit of you and the team.”

Seefried was a big part of the defense last year, causing 10 turnovers, which was tied for third-best on the team from the midfield position.

Two new schools were also added to a changing Big East conference for this year, as the University of Florida and Vanderbilt University joined this past offseason, coming over from the women-exclusive American Lacrosse Conference. Rutgers University and the University of Louisville, both members of the Big East in 2014, will be moving to the Big Ten Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference, respectively, for the 2015 season.

Both teams are expected to be tough this season. The Gators won the ALC last year, and were

“It was pretty tough sitting out my senior year,” Simmons said. “My team still finished the year pretty well and I had a chance to play a little bit toward the end.”

One of three running backs in Rhule’s class, Simmons hopes to break through a crowd of what could be 10 running backs by training camp.

In addition to Simmons is Millville, New Jersey running back Ryquell Armstead, whose athleticism has caught Rhule’s eye, as he compared Armstead to a former Temple running back now with the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens.

“Recruiting Ryquell reminds me of recruiting Bernard Pierce,” Rhule said. “Bernard was a local kid, a little bit under the radar, came into the camp and ran extremely fast and was really competitive, and that’s the way Ryquell is. … [Armstead] was the fastest kid in New Jersey at 210 pounds, he came to our camp and ran [a 4.4-second 40yard dash].”

Armstead hopes to be in the picture from day one, despite the team’s plethora of running backs.

“I want to compete and go hard for the starting spot,” Armstead said.

“I feel like coach Rhule loves me. He’s excited just like I am to get there. I can’t wait to get up and there and show him what I’ve got.”

While the Owls have such a large number of backs, Rhule said he doesn’t plan on going as deep down the depth chart for carries as he has in the past.

“I expect [our incoming backs] to come in and compete,” Rhule said.

“We want to play with two running

unanimously predicted to win the Big East this year in a conference preseason poll, while Vanderbilt was picked to finish fourth in the poll. The Owls were voted to finish fifth.

“I love our Big East,”

“I think Florida is by far the leading candidate to win [the Big East], but I think there will be a bunch of teams battling it out to get into our four-team tournament,” Rosen added.

McTigue agreed that the

I love our Big East. The addition of “Florida and Vanderbilt is fantastic,

”

both for notoriety ... and the competition.

Bonnie Rosen| coach

UP NEXT

Owls at UMBC Feb. 11 at 3 p.m.

Rosen said. “The addition of Florida and Vanderbilt is fantastic, both for notoriety in terms of the exposure – we get more nationally – and the competition level of being able to see Florida, in particular, on our schedule.”

incoming schools will increase the level of competition in the conference.

“I think that the conference is definitely better this year, but I think that we’re ready and will do well in our conference,” she said. “I think that everybody is

really ready to start games and play.”

The Owls will play their first game on Feb. 11 against the University of Maryland-Baltimore County at Geasey Field in a 3 p.m. faceoff. The Retrievers, a member of the America East Conference, finished 7-9 last season.

Rosen, who is in her ninth year coaching the Owls, said she thinks the season-finale defeat to Rutgers last spring will continue to motivate her team toward cracking the conference tournament come late April.

“I think it’s on the mind of a lot of players as to what that game was and how close we were to achieving our goal of making the tournament last year,” Rosen said. “I think it did a lot to motivate people over the summer, but I think at this point we’re just very focused on being ready for game one against UMBC.” * matt.cockayne@temple.edu T @mattcockayne55

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Coach Matt Rhule is 8-16 in his first two seasons with the team.

backs next year. We always want to have a feature back and a complimentary back. I don’t want to play with three backs. I don’t want to rotate.”

“Those guys in our program have had some time to establish themselves,” Rhule added. “They kind of know what’s expected, and the guys coming in know they have an opportunity to show what they can do. We have enough backs now to find ‘the guy,’ so that’s what we’re going to do.”

The Owls’ running game featured three different running backs with more than 50 carries last season, while junior quarterback P.J. Walker led the team with 106 rushing attempts.

The team’s 1,293 rushing yards on the season ranked No. 115 out of 125 Football Bowl Subdivision teams. Simmons, who was recruited by schools as high on the totem pole as Florida State and Ohio State, hopes to help reverse the trend as soon as he can.

“I can see myself being an alldown back,” Simmons said. “Just coming in at any time and just making an impact immediately. … Competitionwise, I feel like if I come in there in the summer and just work really hard with the current running backs now, and listen to all the advice they give me, I feel like I can definitely have a shot at starting,” Simmons said.

Amid many last-minute commits and ultimately snatching the highlytouted Simmons away from top-tier programs, Rhule said the program is moving in the right direction with its recruiting ability.

“We’re recruiting with the big dogs,” Rhule said. “All across the country you’re watching some kid as they walk up to the podium saying ‘Can I see the emblem on that hat?’ as he walks in, and that’s what we were doing. … That’s big-time college football, and that’s where we are.” * esmith@temple.edu ( 215.204. 9537

SPORTS INCONSISTENCY LINGERS

The women’s basketball team has struggled to gain its footing as it fell to 7-4 in the American Athletic Conference.

PAGE 18

Our sports blog

thecherry.temple-news.com

FORGETTING THE PAST

OWLS PROJECTED TO BE IN TOURNAMENT

The lacrosse team has put last season’s finish behind it as the new season is set to begin at Geasey Field on Wednesday.

PAGE 19

The men’s basketball team cracks tournament talks, Reagen Oliveri will miss the rest of the year, other news and notes.

PAGE 17

temple-news.com

PAGE 20

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

field hockey

Janney out as head coach, resigns for Indiana job Amanda Janney told players she’s leaving the Owls for the University of Indiana.

EJ SMITH Sports Editor

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Junior guard Erica Covile and senior guard Tyonna Williams high-five teammates on their way to the bench during the Owls’ 83-49 loss against Connecticut Feb. 1.

Running on fumes

The women’s basketball team has a nine-player roster, resulting in stamina problems for some later in the year.

T

OWEN MCCUE The Temple News

onya Cardoza almost has a starter on the floor regardless of the score, or the quarter.

After losing two players to graduation and seeing five additional members of last year’s squad leave the program, Temple has five players remaining from one year ago, and currently has nine active players on the roster.

Transfer Mama Traore and freshmen Tanaya

Atkinson, Alliya Butts and Khadijah Berger have helped fill the spots left behind, but the fact remains that the Owls have one of the shortest benches in the conference.

Junior Erica Covile has had her role affected most by the team’s lack of depth. Covile has upped her minutes from 25.3 minutes per game a year ago to 30.3 mpg this season.

An injury to forward Safiya Martin early in conference play increased Covile’s role even further. A guard by trade, Covile has had to play out of position all season and is averaging 34 mpg in conference

play.

The Detroit native said she has felt the effects of her team’s limited options off the bench.

“My body hurts so bad, but I can’t do nothing but push through it,” Covile said. “We have a small roster. We don’t really have a lot of people on our team, so I can’t complain. I just have to play through it.”

Senior guard Tyonna Williams, who leads the team with 32 minutes per game, has not felt the same effects as Covile. The veteran said she was prepared

On Friday, Amanda Janney will finish packing up her office, and prepare to head nearly 700 miles west to what she considers a larger program with more opportunity.

Yesterday, a scheduled team meeting between field hockey coach and her team ended with the announcement that Janney would be resigning from her coaching position at Temple in order to take a head coaching job with the University of Indiana.

In an interview with The Temple News, Janney said her decision hinged on a step up in conference prestige.

“The thought of a big-time conference was really appealing to me,” Janney said. “I think [the Hoosiers] just need someone to get them out of the bottom of the Big Ten, back into the NCAA tournament.”

After her announcement, Janney left the team meeting, leaving associate head coach Kelly Driscoll to go over the team’s transition from eight-hour practice weeks to the 20-hour weeks that begin in the spring.

Despite not having time to say goodbye at the meeting, some players approached Janney afterward to speak to the departing coach, while

ROSTER PAGE 18

JANNEY PAGE 18

men’s basketball

Cummings stepping up as leader in final season

W

The senior guard has improved as a facilitator, as well as a leader on the court for the Owls.

ith Temple’s fifth straight conference win in the balance and a 16-point comeback against Memphis on the verge of completion, Will Cummings toed the free-throw line with one more shot to put the Owls ahead by two points and in control of the game.

H e missed.

The Tigers responded by scoring on the following possession, only to have Cummings IBRAHIM JACOBS race up-court and do something that would help Temple win the game.

He passed.

Cummings found an open Josh Brown for a short jump shot with 2.4 seconds remaining, and Temple maintained its push to return to competitive basketball in mid-March.

For Cummings, a senior guard out of Jacksonville, Florida, it was a fitting cap to an otherwise poor 40 minutes. He missed six of 11 free throws and turned the ball over four times.

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Senior guard Will Cummings attempts a layup in the 40-37 season opening win against American University Nov. 14.

But, he proved one thing – this team has not and cannot win without him.

Temple’s 8-3 conference

SPORTS DESK 215-204-9537

record is entirely dependent on its point guard’s health.

When he went down with a left-leg muscle strain against

Tulsa, Cummings was severely limited in two conference games, and did not play in the third. The team would drop all

SPORTS@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

three contests.

Its third of that span – a 31-point defeat to the University of Cincinnati – was Cummings’

only missed game of the season, and the team’s largest defeat in five years. Even a relatively serviceable Cummings-led team hasn’t lost in conference play.

Temple hasn’t seen its star player primarily distribute, and not score, in the Fran Dunphy era, but Cummings has risen his game dramatically in each season of play, and now stands as the only irreplaceable player on the team’s roster.

He ranks in the Top 5 in the conference in assists, steals, minutes per game and assist/ turnover ratio. More than the numbers he provides, Cummings is doing something he was never, and has never, been comfortable with – leading.

“Off the court I’m not vocal,” Cummings said. “I’m kind of laid back and that’s how I am.

This is where I come out of my shell. I have kind of grown up.

[Dunphy] has helped me out a lot and [made] me a better leader.”

Being demonstrative has never been a part of the guard’s personality. Cummings is softspoken and very quiet. As a freshman and sophomore, he

CUMMINGS PAGE 17