THE TEMPLE NEWS $200,000 FOR BANNED BOOK RESEARCH
202 Temple students celebrate Halloween on page 16. VOL 102 ISSUE 2 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2023
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WHAT’S INSIDE OPINION, Page 10 Two students argue for the importance of voting in the upcoming municipal election.
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The Temple News
THE TEMPLE NEWS A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921.
Fallon Roth Editor-in-Chief Julia Merola Managing Editor Sarah Frasca Managing Editor Samuel O’Neal Chief Copy Editor Brianna Hill Deputy Copy Editor Oliver Sabo News Editor Sidney Rochnik Assistant News Editor Claire Zeffer Opinion Editor Valeria Uribe Assistant Opinion Editor Molly Fiske Features Editor Duay Augustine Assistant Features Editor Declan Landis Sports Editor Ryan Mack Assistant Sports Editor Johnny Zawislak Assistant Sports Editor Jaison Nieves Sports Social Media Manager Maggie Fitzgerald Director of Audience Engagement Emily Lewis Public Engagement Coordinator Julia Anderson Audience Engagement Editor Rocio Guzman Audience Engagement Editor Robert Joseph Cruz Photography Editor Fernando Gaxiola Assistant Photography Editor Noel Chacko Staff Photographer Nate Pullano Multimedia Editor Kajsa Morse Multimedia Editor Nadiyah Timmons Print Design Editor Allyson Tharp Graphic Design Editor Zanett Davila-Gutierrez Web Manager John Branyan Data Editor Pablo Rouco Podcast Editor Justin Sorrell Newsletter Editor Lolade Kola-Adewuyi Advertising Manager Matthew Eaton Advertising Manager Quinn Hamilton Business Manager
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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. The Editorial Board is made up of The Temple News’ Editor-inChief, Print Managing Editor, Digital Managing Editor, Chief Copy Editors, and Opinion Editors. The views expressed in editorials only reflect those of the Board, and not of the entire Temple News staff.
ON THE COVER Temple researchers recieve a grant to analyze banned books Noel Chacko / THE TEMPLE NEWS
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CORRECTIONS Accuracy is our business, so when a mistake is made, we’ll correct it as soon as possible. Anyone with inquiries about content in this newspaper can contact Editor-in-Chief Fallon Roth at editor@temple-news.com.
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NEWS
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CITY
How will Philadelphia’s next mayor affect Temple? Both candidates would be committed to a number of safety and crime reduction efforts. BY OLIVER SABO News Editor
W
ith Election Day just one week away, Temple students and the community will soon have the opportunity to vote for the next Philadelphia mayor on Nov. 7. While Democratic candidate Cherelle Parker and Republican candidate David Oh have different ideas for how to run the city, both have firm stances on issues affecting Temple students and community members, like crime, safety and quality of life. Historically, the mayoral race in Philadelphia isn’t competitive, as the last Republican mayor served from 1941-52. Nearly 76 percent of voters are Democrats, according to voter registration data from Pennsylvania’s Department of State. Here’s what both candidates would mean for Temple. CHERELLE PARKER Parker, a former City Council majority leader and state representative in Northwest Philadelphia, served on City Council with Oh before resigning to enter the race. She is currently the clear favorite to become the next mayor. At a Democratic mayoral debate at Temple on April 11, Parker stressed addressing citywide police shortages. In March 2022, she introduced a neighborhood safety and community policing plan, which would aim to hire 300 additional officers. Although Temple University Police Department is facing retention and recruitment concerns amid a national shortage, the department is actively trying to increase its force. Parker also supports stop-and-frisk, a controversial policing tactic allowing police officers to stop, interrogate and search people based on reasonable suspi-
cion, as a tool for curbing citywide gun violence. She would have zero tolerance for abuse of authority when conducting searches, and thinks the “Bailey agreement,” which was created in response to a 2010 stop-and-frisk civil rights case, has helped the city better determine when reasonable suspicion has been used during a stop, Parker said at the debate. “I do know that the unconstitutional use of the tool stop and frisk has disproportionately negatively impacted Black and brown boys,” Parker said. “The constitutional use of it as a policing tool is something that our law enforcement must use in order to ensure that our city is safer.” Parker also wants to invest in community initiatives to address long-term issues that have led to a rise in crime. She hopes to solve quality-of-life issues by cleaning streets, fixing broken streetlights and preserving homes around the city. Cherelle Parker did not immediately respond to The Temple News’ request for a comment. While serving as a council member, Parker introduced a resolution to investigate the burden of student debt on older borrowers. The legislation was passed, authorizing a Special Committee on Student Loan Debt. DAVID OH Oh, an army veteran, resigned from City Council in February to run for mayor. He is a former Philadelphia assistant district attorney and the first Asian American to hold political office in the city. Oh’s platform prioritizes criminal prosecution, education reform and mitigating regulations for businesses. Oh views Temple as one of the most important institutions in Philadelphia and hopes to work with the university to address issues like security, infrastructure, and living standards in North Central. If elected, Oh said he would collaborate with Temple to improve TUPD’s coordination with the Philadelphia Police Department and increase law en-
ROBERT JOSEPH CRUZ / THE TEMPLE NEWS Democrat Cherelle Parker and Republican David Oh are the two candidates in the upcoming mayoral election.
forcement around campus. TUPD currently contracts with PPD for supplemental patrols due to a new agreement that took effect on March 1. Oh, who has long been a proponent of using drones to fight crime, told The Temple News he would also encourage the university to create its own drone force to patrol on and around Main Campus. “I am going to work with Temple University and really pressure them to do their part because they are taxing our law enforcement when they reduce their law enforcement and the last administration, for whatever reason, at Temple did not want to coordinate their Temple police with the Philadelphia Police,” Oh said. In 2019, Oh proposed a yearly $1,500 tax credit for Philadelphia residents who recently graduated to ease the burden of student debt. That bill was ultimately defeated by City Council, but Oh is open to pushing for it. “In something like that, by the way,
you really need a bill that’s been passed in council,” Oh said. “Now I can lobby for it. I can push for it. I can negotiate for it. I see it as an important part of workforce competitiveness.” Additionally, Oh wants to work with Temple to improve trash pickup in the surrounding community to maintain cleanliness and address animosity between students and community members. He also believes reforming SEPTA will improve quality of life for Temple students, he said. oliver.sabo@temple.edu @oliversabo20
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NEWS
The Temple News
PUBLIC SAFETY
TUPD defines policing strategy amid concerns DPS has made changes to patrols in hopes of more responsibly policing the area. BY SIDNEY ROCHNIK Assistant News Editor After multiple incidents near Main Campus, Temple’s Department of Public Safety is receiving concerns from the university community about crime and police retention. At the same time, DPS handles a higher crime rate in the Philadelphia Police Department’s 22nd District, which encompasses Main Campus and the surrounding neighborhood. However, the department utilizes a policing strategy based on its available resources and the reality of crime on campus. “It’s about how you’re using those officers,” said Jennifer Griffin, vice president of public safety. “There’s a lot of agencies with a lot smaller numbers than we have, that are doing amazing. They have great strategy. That’s what we are moving forward with, not just looking at the number of people we have, but how are we using them effectively?” THE VOLUME OF CALLS The amount of calls the Temple University Police Department receives is an indicator of the policing strategy and number of officers needed to respond to crime on campus. Half of the complaints TUPD responds to are unrelated to the university, either because they’re in PPD’s jurisdiction or because they are thefts located in retail businesses that aren’t Temple-owned, but are on campus, Griffin said. TUPD responds to these calls because factors like call volume, the number of Temple police officers called to each complaint, the length of time spent with a complaint and the overall size of the department’s force give DPS a reason to believe they are currently adequately handling calls for their service, Griffin said.
This strategy is subject to change as data evolves, but there is currently no administrative concern regarding TUPD’s ability to handle calls. “That’s the one thing I love about policing is no matter what you’re given, or what you have to handle, we find a way,” Griffin said. “If it got to the point where we had so many calls that we weren’t able to handle them, we would prioritize the type of complaints we’re going to go to.” The amount of calls TUPD receives also informs the department on how many officers are needed to address crime across the three campuses, during a time where police recruitment and retention is a national and citywide problem. During the summer, the department also made the structural shift from working eight-hour shifts to 12-hour shifts. The change made it possible to double the numbers of police officers on patrol than they would have had with eight-hour shifts, and increased department morale, Griffin said. Officers now work 15 days a month compared to 21, get an additional 72 vacation days for the year and have a threeday weekend every other weekend, instead of having a weekend off every 13 weeks. OTHER METHODS FOR POLICING While hiring and retaining officers is a focus for DPS, there is more than one method to consider in policing. The department considers past data to determine when more walking escorts are needed at certain times. For additional hands, it places PPD officers in supplemental shifts on campus during evenings and weekends. These strategies all use university resources in addition to TUPD to increase campus safety. The department is also aiming to recognize the issue of over-policing in their recruitment process, as they face calls from the public to hire more police officers. The hiring of officers isn’t based solely on increasing numbers, but the
quality of the hires. DPS looks for those who are articulate, professional and have a strong background, Griffin said. “Adding a lot of cops without a strategy, without engagement with the community, without a plan, is not a best practice,” Griffin added. Though TUPD is taking these concerns into account, it can often be difficult to define what over-policing is and how to prevent it. The meaning of over-policing varies person to person because the number of officers or patrols that make someone feel safe is subjective, making it important for the university to be involved with and responsive to the community, said Jason Gravel, a criminal justice professor. Because of this, officers have been encouraged to have more personal interactions while on patrols. By having officers patrol by bike and on foot, they are able to better engage with students, faculty and the surrounding North Philadelphia community, Griffin said. LOCAL MEDIA’S CRIME COVERAGE Local news coverage of crime and the relationship between community and crime are connected. Crime and safety were the most mentioned issues in Philadelphia media, with a 33 percent average of articles per outlet being on the topics, according to a March 2023 media engagement study conducted by The Lenfest Institute. In turn, crime and safety were mentioned by 70 percent of the survey’s respondents as the most important issues in their neighborhood. Public perception of crime on campus and misunderstandings about crime are affected by social media and news coverage, especially for those who aren’t on campus, like parents, Gravel said. The 22nd District experiences the second highest number of violent crimes in Philadelphia’s police districts, according to an April 2023 study by the Pew Foundation. Violent crimes have remained at the same level in the last decade citywide, but property crime increased by 47 percent in 2020, and keeps
rising. However, the crime rate on Temple’s campus is far less than the surrounding neighborhood, according to a March investigation from 6ABC, which follows national trends when analyzing citywide and campus-wide crime. Beyond Main Campus, TUPD’s patrol zone extends from West Susquehanna and 18th Street to Girard Ave and 9th Street. It’s easier for the news to associate violent crime to North Philadelphia, and Temple by association, because the perception of a dangerous space is already there, said Linn Washington, a journalism professor. “There is a distinction [which] has been long lasting, that Temple sits in the middle of this sea of chaos and poverty in North-Central Philadelphia,” Washington said. “And so the way the media coverage is framed exacerbates this. I’ve seen so many instances of crimes that physically take place in other sections of the cities, some contiguous in North Philadelphia, some a little bit further from it, and the reporters say it’s North Philly.” Thirty-nine percent of North Philadelphia residents said coverage of the area is too negative, according to The Lenfest Institute’s study. When crime is represented as taking place “around Temple,” stories link together and establish a pattern, Gravel said. Even if it doesn’t properly address what crime looks like at Temple, when people start feeling unsafe is when the facts don’t necessarily matter. Officer retention and recruitment ailments have been seen as a concern to members of the Temple community with the area’s higher crime rate. However, police are not a preventive solution to public safety issues, Gravel said. While police serving as a visible authority figure are a deterrent for property crimes, they don’t typically have the same effect for violent crimes, which can often be unplanned and highly motivated. Police provide a reactive response to violent crime. The deterrence theory
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ROBERT JOSEPH CRUZ / THE TEMPLE NEWS Democrat Cherelle Parker and Republican David Oh are the two candidates in the upcoming mayoral election.
in criminology states that criminals will weigh the costs and benefits of committing the crime, and that increasing the certainty they will be caught may deter people from doing so. “It seems odd to want to blame Temple for the violence that has occurred and it continues to occur right outside of Temple,” Gravel said. “Now, there is keeping Temple honest about this. Maybe Temple, as an institution in the city of Philadelphia, should look at what’s going on in our own backyard. Maybe there should be a bit more investment from the university outside these communities beyond the policing aspect of it.” In the conversation around Tem-
ple’s policing strategy, the root causes of crime and preventative measures for it can sometimes be left out of the conversation when it comes to policing and protecting students. “Problems that contribute to public safety, like poverty, are not being addressed,” Washington said. “It’s not the sole responsibility of the university to address, say, poverty and income inequalities and discrimination, but it’s something that should be acknowledged in the public safety conundrum.” sidney.rochnik@temple.edu
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The Temple News
CRIME
How Temple handles public safety messaging Temple has applied feedback into its safety messaging to increase transparency. BY OLIVER SABO News Editor As the Fall semester has seen multiple violent incidents near Main Campus, Temple’s Department of Public Safety has made several upgrades to the frequency of communication methods in order to keep the community safe. The department continues to post online and send messages to students on incidents that take place near campus, but they have also tried to apply feedback into upgrades to the TUalert system to provide more context on events that took place near campus and received citywide media coverage. On Oct. 2, a shooting near a football field on 11th Street near Cecil B. Moore Avenue resulted in a bullet grazing a 14-year-old and another lodged in a student’s apartment in The View at Montgomery, an off-campus apartment complex, 6ABC reported. Two days later, a man was shot twice in the hand on Broad Street near Cecil B. Moore Avenue, just steps from Morgan Hall. The victim was transported to Temple University Hospital, where he was placed in stable condition, FOX29 reported. Vice President for Public Safety Jennifer Griffin released a statement to the Temple community that the Temple University Police Department had increased patrols in areas with high volumes of pedestrian traffic as a result of the incident. Griffin also reached out to Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, which owns and oversees the football field where the Oct. 2 shooting took place, to discuss safety measures and concerns, Griffin wrote in the announcement. Griffin, DPS director of communications Matt Petrillo and the rest of the department put out announcements like this after they can validate all the infor-
NOEL CHACKO / THE TEMPLE NEWS After several safety incidents near campus, Temple has undergone efforts to improve its messaging system.
mation they have received about the situation, Griffin told The Temple News. In the first weeks of October, police also began searching for a man accused of harassing a student on West Norris Street near 18th Street on Oct. 4 and inappropriately touching another student on West Norris near 15th Street on Oct. 9, 6ABC reported. DPS released a statement on Oct. 12, eight days after the first incident occurred, when they were informed of both assaults. TUPD officers, detectives and bike patrols increased in the area following the incident, Griffin wrote. On Oct. 19, the Philadelphia Police Department arrested a 29-year-old man for indecent exposure and assault in connection to the reports near Main Campus. However, there are limits to what DPS can inform and update students
about. In the incidents that have taken place in October, all the investigations are being handled by PPD, which limits the information that Temple receives. “Although we stay in contact with Philadelphia Police Department and their investigators, if these [cases] are not related to a Temple University student, or faculty, we get their updates through email like with case reviews, but we’re not on top of it every day,” Griffin said. “If there were a student involved or faculty involved, we would be heavily involved with it.” TUPD and DPS have other active cases in their own departments to invest resources toward, so they don’t have a policy to continually follow up on cases that aren’t theirs, Griffin added. The announcements that go out to the Temple community are also linked on the DPS website, allowing anyone to
view them. Griffin has recently hosted forums with Temple parents, hearing that a lot of them follow safety announcements through the website, so she knows other people are utilizing them outside of students and faculty, Griffin said. DPS is trying to improve current messaging systems by utilizing Temple community feedback. “We’re always open to feedback from our students, faculty and staff on what’s the best way to communicate,” Griffin said. “We are really trying to push out information that we have validated.” A recent example was an upgrade to the TUalert system, which warns students about crimes or threats in the area via email or text. In September, the system increased the frequency of the messages during ongoing situations and began color-coding incidents based on
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severity, Petrillo said. When students, faculty, staff and parents receive TUalerts through email, their message will be marked with either red, green or yellow alert status. Red denotes an emergency incident, yellow signifies an update on the incident or other information and green means the incident is resolved and the area has been cleared. The idea was brought to DPS by Temple University Safety Advocates, a parent-led group committed to promoting safety and well-being in the community, Petrillo said. In addition to parent feedback, Petrillo also believes maintaining a relationship with local media, as well as regular meetings that started this semester with Temple Student Government’s new administration, has increased transparency and messaging with the community. TSG and other student organizations have regularly met with DPS to discuss ideas and share feedback with the department, said Nate Weinberg, a junior public relations major and the director of campus safety at TSG. Last semester, Weinberg managed
NOEL CHACKO / THE TEMPLE NEWS
social media and press for Keep Us Safe TU, a student-run group that posts campus safety issues. KUSTU gained notoriety among students for being outspoken about Temple’s communication methods and administration. The account currently has close to 12,000 followers on Instagram. Weinberg believes there have been some recent off-campus incidents that students could have been alerted to sooner, but he feels that conversations between DPS and students have been more productive this semester and content online has been more engaging. TSG also held a campus safety town hall on Oct. 25 sharing safety tips, including guest speakers from DPS, like Griffin, and offering a question and answer session. “For some people, public safety is always going to be a big concern at Temple, but I feel like if we’re able to provide the resources and people know that the resources are there, then it could ease the concern a little bit,” Weinberg said. oliver.sabo@temple.edu @oliversabo20
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NEWS
The Temple News
CAMPUS
J&H plans to return to reusable dishware in spring The dining hall faced complications replacing its broken dishwasher for nearly a year. BY SIDNEY ROCHNIK Assistant News Editor For almost a year, Temple students have been using disposable plastic plates and utensils at the Esposito Dining Center in Johnson and Hardwick Hall after the building’s dishwasher system broke down. Now, the dining center has plans to return to washable dishware in the spring semester when a new functional dishwasher is installed. The dining center switched to single-use plastic when the dishwasher broke down after 13 years of use. The hall has struggled to uphold sustainable practices as a result. “With regard to equipment, you reach a point where maintenance and upkeep becomes more expensive,” said Michael Scales, associate vice president for business services. “There’s a cost-benefit to keeping it, and so it reached the end of its life.” Installing a replacement dishwasher was initially delayed because the university was evaluating which equipment would best meet the school’s sustainability goals, which includes investing in energy efficient projects.These projects reduce energy use and overall costs to the university. “When this situation arose, it was decided that whatever we’re buying to replace the old [dishwasher] is way more efficient from an energy and water standpoint,” said Rebecca Collins, director of sustainability at Temple. Once the university decided on a dishwasher, supply chain issues extended the purchasing process, Scales said. The COVID-19 pandemic is still leaving lingering effects on the availability of equipment in the food service industry, according to Food Service Equipment and Supplies magazine. When the machine eventually arrived, its installation in Esposito was
AVA MENDELSOHN / THE TEMPLE NEWS Students have been using plastic utensils at J&H dining hall semesters after the dishwasher reportedly broke down.
delayed yet again. The new equipment is incompatible with the rate of water from the building’s supply line, leading to excess water waste. The university plans to modify the water supply line during winter break to match the rate of water the dishwasher needs, Scales said. In the meantime, the use of plasticware in the dining hall has created recycling problems. Plastics labeled #1, #2 and #5 are encouraged to be recycled in Philadelphia, according to the City of Philadelphia’s recycling program. However, differing plastics are used in each disposable utensil in the dining hall and can be labeled #5 or #6. With no physical characteristics distinguishing the plastics from each other, it’s difficult to sort them for recycling purposes, so they end up being trashed instead. The inability to recycle these plastics is contrary to Temple’s sustainability plan, including the university’s goal of maintaining a 50 percent diversion rate for waste that would go into a landfill. The university explored temporary solutions alongside installing the new
dishwasher. Aramark, the food services company contracted with Temple, considered the possibility of transporting any used plates and silverware to a dishwasher in another building, but they did not have enough staff to support it, Collins said. “It was challenge after challenge after challenge of just wanting to do the right thing and being limited by the supply chain, or the existing building or staffing,” Collins said. Caroline Kotch, Temple Student Government’s sustainability director, is working on an initiative to make reusable takeout containers available in Esposito, the Howard Gittis Student Center and Morgan Hall Food Court. Inspired by Boston University’s Choose to Reuse program, the initiative would allow students to take the containers from the dining hall and return them later to be cleaned and reused instead of only being kept in the hall. The idea combines the ability to take food out of student dining areas with not using single-use utensils. “I feel like there’s so much more opportunity for sustainable methods,”
Kotch said. “There’s only one dining hall, one group of staff, all students go to one building. It’s definitely an opportunity for us to work on more sustainability.” Morgan Dining Hall’s permanent closure was announced on Aug. 17, leaving Esposito as the primary residential dining option. While Morgan was open, Esposito made an average of 1,600 meals a day in the 2022-23 academic year. It currently makes an average of 2,100 meals a day, Scales said. If the plan to return to reusable dishware succeeds, Espostio will have gone 14 months using single-use plastic. “There is a lot of effort and problem solving that’s going into making sure that we are trying to address the problem as quickly as possible,” Collins said. “We do understand that it is very important both from a sustainability perspective and also something that students really care about. It’s not happening as quickly as any of us had hoped, but I would say I have every confidence that by spring semester, this will be addressed.” sidney.rochnik@temple.edu
The Temple News
OPINION
EDITORIAL
HEALTH
Be aware of misinformation Since early October, misinformation and false AI imagery related to the latest IsraelHamas war have been flooding news reports and social media. For example, a video of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un blaming President Joe Biden for the Israel-Hamas war was circulating social media, but the English captions were incorrect and the footage was actually from 2020, The Associated Press reported. Various other false claims involving events in Gaza and Israel have spread online and into real-life conversations. The misinformation can be dangerous in shaping how students understand major global events. The Editorial Board urges students to learn about the 75-year Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Israel-Hamas war, but to use reliable sources and engage media literacy to avoid misinformation. Reputable news organizations, including The Associated Press, BBC News and PBS, provide live coverage of the conflict and update it as new information becomes available. Students can refer to these sources to stay up to date as the conflict progresses. On the other hand, information sourced from biased news organizations and unattributed social media posts should not be accepted as immediately trustworthy, even if they frequently appear on social media feeds and in real-life
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conversations. Well-crafted lies sometimes get more engagement than accurate informational posts and are easily circulated through reposting and sharing options on social media, according to an October 2022 study by Integrity Institute, a truthful information advocacy organization. Before sharing or reposting, students should practice media literacy, which is the process of critically analyzing mediated information and determining its credibility. There are three key steps to media literacy: decoding media messages and the systems in which they exist, assessing the messages’ influence and creating media conscientiously, according to Media Literacy Now, a media literacy education advocacy organization. Walking through these steps can prevent the spread of misinformation and foster deeper thinking about the current crisis. Some students consider the Israeli-Palestinian conflict too complex to understand, but all students should try. While navigating misinformation can be difficult, The Editorial Board encourages all students, regardless of their connection to the latest IsraelHamas war, to educate themselves on the history and current events of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Practice breast self-exams
A student urges their peers to get in tune with their bodies to protect against breast cancer. BY CLAIRE ZEFFER Opinion Editor
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rowing up, Charlotte Murphy’s mom and doctors encouraged her to conduct regular breast self-examinations, which she now considers a vital part of her health routine. “If you check monthly, then you’re going to notice changes as they change, but if it is something bad, you can get it taken care of,” Murphy, a junior anthropology major, said. More than 700 women each day are diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States, according to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Young women have a lower risk of developing breast cancer, but they are not exempt from risk and often face aggressive prognoses and lower survival rates. Students should be performing monthly breast self-exams to familiarize themselves with their bodies and identify changes or irregularities to potentially detect cancer in its early stages. Although today is the last day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, students should still continue self-exams regardless of the month. While self-exams are not an official diagnostic tool, nearly 80 percent of young women diagnosed with breast cancer find their breast abnormality themselves, according to the Young Survival Coalition. “Self-exams are something that you can practice at any time,” said Bojana Gligorijevic, a bioengineering and cancer biology professor “So, that’s why I would say self-exams are the best way unless there’s something that’s really happening, and you should go to the doctor.”
HOW TO PERFORM SELF-EXAM The checks can be performed in three different ways: in front of the mirror, in the shower and lying down, according to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. In the shower and when laying down on their back, women should lift their arm above their head on the side of the breast being examined, and use the pads of their pointer, middle and ring fingers to check the entire breast and armpit areas, feeling for new lumps, thickenings, hardened knots or other breast changes with varying levels of pressure. They should then repeat the process on the left side. When looking in a mirror, women should stand with their arms at their sides and on their hips for any changes in breast shape, any dimpling, swelling or any changes in the nipples. Karly Morton, a sophomore journalism major, has concerns about breast cancer despite her age, as women in her family have been affected by the disease, and would consider doing breast self-exams. “I think about [breast cancer], but not like ‘I’m gonna get it soon,’ like in my future,” Morton said. “But if I noticed something weird in my breast now, I would contact a doctor.” If an individual does find anything concerning during the self-exam, like lumps or skin changes, they should call and schedule an appointment with their doctor who can evaluate the problem. All students with breasts should incorporate self-exams into their healthcare regimes to promote good health and identify potentially fatal signs of breast cancer. claire.zeffer@temple.edu clairezeffer
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OPINION
The Temple News
POLITICS
Temple students, vote in PA’s upcoming election Two students encourage their peers to vote in Pennsylvania’s municipal election. BY CLAIRE ZEFFER AND VALERIA URIBE For The Temple News This year, Pennsylvania’s general election will be held on Nov. 7, with voters deciding on candidates for several pivotal political positions across the state. Philadelphians will be electing their 100th mayor, and making their voices heard in races for City Council and city commissioner and controller, among other positions. Statewide, candidates on the ballot are seeking to fill seats on the state Supreme Court, Superior Court and Commonwealth Court. As a battleground state, Pennsylvania is at the forefront of presidential elections. However, smaller, local elections are just as integral to democracy and policy in the state. November’s municipal election will determine which candidates will be the ones making decisions on issues like education, taxes, public safety and infrastructure. The number of candidates and the less familiar positions that are up for election may be overwhelming for young voters, butTemple students should take steps to educate themselves on the upcoming election through research and voter guides. In addition, they should make sure to actively participate in the democratic process, as every election has the ability to shape their future and their state. “In terms of your daily life, these elections actually are more important than the national elections,” said Robin Kolodny, a political science professor. “These are the people who will create the policy that governs how the schools are going to run, what taxes are going to be like in a city, what kind of public works are to happen, that’s everything from parks, to roads, to aid and water quality.” Midterm and local elections tend
to have a lower voter turnout than presidential elections, and young people, especially between the ages of 18 and 34, have lower participation rates in elections. Because this election is not a federal-level race, people may feel less motivated or prepared to get out and vote. “That is why usually these are low turnout elections,” Kolodny said. “People don’t pay a lot of attention because you don’t have presidential candidates advertising on airwaves like you would in an even-numbered year.” Although voter turnout in the United States has been higher than average among young voters in recent years, o n l y
32 percent of eligible voters in Pennsylvania, aged between 18 and 29 turned out to vote in the 2022 midterm elections, according to an April 2023 study by Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. In local elections across the United States, fewer than 15 percent of eligible citizens turn out to vote for community leaders, like mayors and city council members, according to Who Votes For Mayor?, a research organization that examines voter turnout in small elections across the country.
Additionally, the median age of voters was 57 years old, and city residents 65 and older were 15 times more likely to cast a ballot than younger residents between the ages of 18 and 34. Every vote matters in an election, but the young population will be affected by decisions and policies for a longer period of time, so they should contribute to the election of local politicians. If young people don’t participate in elections, it is more likely that officials will focus on the issues of the older demographics that help them get elected. It’s imperative that students
understand the power of this election and how they can influence results and long-term effects. “If you’re really going out there, and you’re taking the time and you’re putting down your vote, that’s alone is doing a lot, and people don’t understand that one vote can change the entire face of the election,” said Jocelyn Loehr, a senior health professions major and chief of communications for Temple Student Government. THE IMPORTANCE OF LOCAL ELECTIONS In the upcoming Philadelphia election, former City Councilmembers Cherelle Parker and David Oh are vying to become the city’s next mayor. Across the state, people will be voting on new
state Supreme Court justices, as well as electing justices to the Superior Court and the Commonwealth Court. The focus of local elections is often placed on more well-known positions, like mayor, but there are many overlooked positions that have significant influence. All local offices are important and in place to make sure the political system works efficiently. It’s essential that young people know about these because the results of the elections will have long-term consequences, Spotlight PA reported. City Council members have the power to influence local politics, as they have the ultimate say on which laws are passed. This election will also decide judicial retention. State judges initially run in partisan races, but serve 10-year terms once elected, after their term they face retention races without an opponent, where voters decide if a judge should maintain their position. State Supreme Court justices interpret the constitution and have the final say on legal questions. They are also in charge of issues, like taxes and oversee the state’s court system. Because they serve extensive decades-long terms, their actions could impact young students through their adult life. Considering the great influence local elections have, students should actively take steps to learn more about the candidates and the electoral process. Practicing one’s civic duty is an amazing opportunity for individuals to make a difference in their community and to choose who is representing them. NAVIGATING THE BALLOT Students who are overwhelmed with what’s on the ballot can use a plethora of voter guides and informative resources available online to make the process easier for students. It’s students’ responsibility to make an effort to register to vote and familiarize themselves with the candidates running for the different offices. Several organizations, like
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Committee of Seventy, NAACP, Votebeat and Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance provide helpful nonpartisan guides for voters. Additionally, BallotReady.org is a great student resource. Their Research Your Ballot tool provides users with a sample ballot that highlights every position up for election in their area, as well as accompanying information about individual candidates, their experience and their views. To learn more about the elections, students can use these local news outlets to gather information about the candidates without feeling overwhelmed. With these free and convenient resources available, there is no excuse for students to not take steps to educate themselves on the election.
Kristin Traniello, an editorial consultant for Every Voice, Every Vote, a coalition of Philadelphia community and media organizations committed to informing voters, said a lack of experience with elections or political coverage doesn’t have to be a barrier for students. “Even if you feel like you’re not very confident, you should still go to the polls,” Traniello said. “You can still go to the polls, knowing what you know, you don’t have to know everything inside and out. You can do a little bit of research and feel confident about a few of the races and make your choice there.” A local election is not an excuse to withhold one’s vote, and students should put in the time and effort to utilize available resources to educate themselves. Democracy relies on the
involvement of citizens, and students have the opportunity to shape their future by participating in elections and ensuring their representation on all levels of government. The voter registration deadline has already passed, but those who are already registered have several options to ensure they are able to cast their ballots, like voting in person at their local polling location, or by requesting a mail-in ballot. Civic engagement is a valuable and integral duty for young people in Pennsylvania, and they should prioritize political engagement to make their voices heard and shape their future through participating in democracy. Local elections may be daunting, but students have the ability and the resources to get informed and cast their
vote with confidence. “You’re really giving away your power if you’re not voting,” Traniello said. “When young people vote, it means it shows elected officials that they are paying attention, that they are using the power that democracy has given them, and that their voices matter and they will be influential.” claire.zeffer@temple.edu clairezeffer valeria.uribe@temple.edu valeriauribea
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OPINION
The Temple News
ESSAY
Turning our ADHD struggles into a dream team Two students reflect on their personal experiences with ADHD and how it empowers their team. BY CLAIRE ZEFFER AND VALERIA URIBE For The Temple News Claire Zeffer, Opinion Editor From my earliest memories, I’ve struggled to focus and battled procrastination like a devil on my shoulder. I’m petrified of failure but simultaneously have an impaired sense of time, a tendency to get sidetracked and an inability to start something unless the deadline is hours away. At 13, I discovered my expert ability to pull everything together at the last minute. Although I performed well in school, I suffered as a result of my inability to concentrate and complete my work in a timely and organized manner. I began working with psychiatrists and therapists for my mental health when I was 17, and I accepted my lack of focus and motivation as symptoms of my depression. However, during my first, and very stressful, semester of college, I started to worry there was something else going on. I was easily distracted and consistently scatterbrained even in my happiest moments. No matter how hard I tried, I ended up overwhelmed and off track. My schoolwork would pile up, and I would get angry at myself for being unproductive, finding it impossible to understand why it was so difficult for me to accomplish things that seemed to come naturally to other people. I finally got the courage to express this to my psychiatrist, who said it sounded like I was suffering from ADHD. I was relieved to hear there was an answer to the problems I was having, and I quickly came to terms with the diagnosis. I fought to reframe my habits and even tried a brief stint on Adderall, but it didn’t make my day-to-day life any easier, and I still struggled to combat the routines and practices I was used to.
ALLYSON THARP / THE TEMPLE NEWS
When I was hired as the Opinion Editor at The Temple News in May 2023, the first thing I did was stress about who my assistant would be. I knew the job would require a lot of collaboration, and I was terrified my ADHD habits and work style would make it difficult for my partner to write and edit with me. I tried to imagine this individual, wondering how they would approach my process and if they would judge me for getting distracted or for procrastinating our shared work. At last, I received my onboarding email from the Editor-inChief, which read: “Make sure to become acquainted with the other person on your team: Valeria Uribe (Assistant Opinion Editor).” Valeria and I exchanged phone numbers and FaceTimed for the first time in June. We instantly got along; Val was sweet and funny, and we seemed to be on the same page about how we wanted to run the Opinion section.
However, we hadn’t started working on anything yet, and I was still afraid our bond would be short-lived once we did. A few nights after our first call, I was texting Val about how embarrassed I was to pitch essays, as I hated talking about my feelings and didn’t want anyone to perceive me as weak because of the experiences I was sharing. Val begged me not to be embarrassed. “I once wrote about my ADHD. People are always getting personal with the essays, and honestly those are the best ones,” Val texted back. I was instantly flooded with a sense of relief and feelings of gratitude that Val would understand me, and I knew I would understand her. I told her I had ADHD, too, and although I joked that we were going to make an amazing procrastinating team, I really meant it. Our ADHD habits may be unconventional, and, at times, undesirable, but they’ve also served as a strong foundation for us to connect,
produce content and find solace in each other while navigating new and demanding responsibilities. ADHD can make our lives more difficult in many ways, but I’m also learning to see it as a virtue. Val and I can work hard, fast and well under pressure, which often comes in handy in the newsroom environment. Weeks full of editing, writing and interviewing seem daunting, but we always manage, and I’m so proud of the work we have done together in just a few months. Working closely with Val not only brings me comfort but has taught me to be easier on myself in moments when I feel incapacitated by my ADHD. If I can be understanding of Val’s struggles, then there is no reason why I can’t do the same for myself.
The Temple News
Valeria Uribe, Assistant Opinion Editor “Make sure to become acquainted with the other person on your team: Claire Zeffer (Opinion Editor).” I opened this email on May 22, and that’s when reality sunk in. I had just been hired as Assistant Opinion Editor at The Temple News. After one year of contributing as a freelancer, I was going to be working with another person running an entire section of the paper. I stared at Claire’s email address for a few minutes before forcing myself to reach out to her. While I was waiting for her response, I tried to picture us working together, and I was terrified. I quickly envisioned my procrastination habits, poor communication abilities and forgetful tendencies getting in the way of our partnership. I’ve had a hard time concentrating since I was little. I’ve never been able to sit and watch a movie without distraction, and deadlines have been my only motivation to do my schoolwork. When I was 14, I asked my parents to take me to a psychologist because I was sure something was wrong with me. My parents initially dismissed my request, claiming I wasn’t struggling with anything because my grades were excellent and I was succeeding in school. They didn’t know I was only doing well in school because I craved academic validation and was overexerting myself to get everything done. It looked like I had everything under control on the outside, but inside I was fighting to concentrate on even the smallest tasks. My undiagnosed ADHD exacerbated my anxiety disorder and led me to feel alone and misunderstood. It wasn’t until I turned 18 that I was officially diagnosed with ADHD, and it felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I thought things would improve from that point, but my symptoms never seemed to change. My dad decided I shouldn’t go on ADHD medication, and because he pays for my medical insurance, there wasn’t much I could do. As I get older, my symptoms seem to get worse; thoughts run through my head so fast I can barely keep up with them, and I continue to struggle with deadlines and starting assignments. My worsening symptoms made me
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anxious that I wouldn’t be able to meet the expectations of the Opinion Editor and that my weird and messy habits would cause problems. I thought Claire was really nice after we connected for the first time during the summer, but I was still worried. She seemed like she had everything under control, which made me feel even less prepared to take on my role as her assistant. I was really struggling with my ADHD when we had to write our first set of story pitches for The Temple News. I couldn’t concentrate on the pitches, and I was having a hard time sitting still while working on it. It was almost midnight when I texted Claire and apologized to her. I told her the pitches might read a little weird, and to bear with me. What I really wanted to say, though, was my brain was going so fast I could barely write a coherent sentence. I was ready for a condescending response or empty support, but Claire understood completely.
When I feel like ADHD is getting the best of me, I know I can text her and she will recognize what I’m going through. My anxiety tends to get worse when my ADHD is at its peak, but Claire’s support helps me calm down. I also understand how Claire feels when she is struggling with her ADHD, and I know I can help her because I’ve experienced first-hand how it feels to try and fight against something you can’t control. The truth is, my symptoms are not always improving, and even though I try, I struggle almost every day. Working with Claire has made me accept that I can still do great things while learning how to navigate life with ADHD, and it makes me feel less alone during stressful times. I used to feel like my ADHD was always going to hold me back. However, when I see the content we have put out together as a team and how far we have come since we first started working together, I feel more confident about
myself and my ability to cope with ADHD. claire.zeffer@temple.edu clairezeffer valeria.uribe@temple.edu valeriauribea
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OPINION
The Temple News
ESSAY
Choosing to live my fullest life in Philadelphia A student reflects on harassment in the city and how she learned to live her life free of apprehension. BY SAGE SPOHN For The Temple News As many girls do, I often feel uneasy in the presence of men, as I’ve noticed their wandering eyes and creepy stares throughout my life. In my small Pennsylvania hometown, I can recall grown men looking down my shirt as a teenager and the times I’ve wondered if guys intentionally touched me while passing by in crowded rooms. When I moved to Philadelphia to attend Temple last year, blatant harassment became a larger issue. There have been a few instances where I’ve felt more uncomfortable and unsafe than ever before, and the threat of assault or harassment is often in the back of my mind. Last spring semester, a man followed my friend and me into the 7/11 on Liacouras Walk, asking to take us home and making lewd comments when we ignored his advances. He became so aggressive that someone else in the store asked if we were okay and apologized for our experience. The man eventually exited the store, but as we left, he stood outside and continued to scream at us from across the street until we yelled back that he was disgusting. Earlier this semester, a teenage boy told my friends and I that we looked good while we were walking to the Independent Blue Cross Student Rec Center. He proceeded to follow us down the sidewalk, refusing to leave us alone until we lied and told him we were all in relationships. He refused to respect us, but he respected our made-up boyfriends. A few weeks ago, a man on the subway made my skin crawl as he stared me up and down and grabbed his crotch. He knew I saw him, but he continued to put his hands in his pants, only stopping when the train he was waiting for arrived.
ALLYSON THARP / THE TEMPLE NEWS
The scariest part about these experiences was knowing each of these men had an immense amount of physical power over me. As a 5’3” female, I wouldn’t stand a chance if any of them attempted to engage physically. These encounters have prevented me from looking for a job in Center City because I’m fearful of commuting alone. I often get nervous taking short-distance walks as it starts to get dark outside. Each of these situations gave me a sickening pit in my stomach. I not only felt unsafe, but I would often find ways to convince myself any instance of harassment was my own fault. I thought I should have worn a less revealing shirt to 7/11, and I wished I could’ve gone home and changed into something with more coverage when I saw the man being inappropriate on the subway. I told myself I should have worn sweatpants to the gym instead of shorts, and that I shouldn’t have been out walking alone.
Like many girls, I made myself believe there was always something more I could’ve done to ensure my safety and brought the negative attention upon myself. However, I grew tired of feeling like I couldn’t do what I wanted, like wear my favorite outfits or go on a coffee run alone, out of fear of being harassed. It was unfair to feel the need to meticulously plan out my day or wear clothing with more coverage just to feel safe in my daily life. I began to reflect on my experiences as a woman living in Philadelphia and have come to change my perspective and reclaim my narrative: street harassment has nothing to do with how I go about my life, and everything to do with disrespectful men. I shouldn’t have to act extra safe or extra careful, men should simply respect women. I now do what I want with my day when I want without worrying I’m
making the wrong choice for my safety. Riding the train or walking to the gym doesn’t constitute harassment. How people choose to treat me is entirely up to them, and I should never feel the need to change anything about myself. I still continue to experience street harassment on and around campus, and more frequently this semester than last year. Although I still feel anxiety and fear in such threatening situations, I remind myself my reactions are valid and there isn’t much I can do to prevent it. It might sound like a scary consideration, but I find comfort in knowing that no form of harassment is my fault, and it prevents me from limiting myself in my daily life. sage.spohn@temple.edu
The Temple News
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Halloween Crossword
DOWN 2. A crow’s foe. 3. Tomato juice cocktail or a mirror dwelling fright. 5. This horror film has scenes at the Philadelphia Zoo, Silk City and more. 6. Season where the leaves change. 8. Bones. 10. Scary and uninhabitble. 12. “I’m not a ____, my name is Lewis!”
ACROSS 1. ‘They’re creepy and they’re cooky” 4. Morbid description of characteristics or frightning character 7. Parents call this being to punish children’s bad behavior. 9. Orange, carvable and round(ish). 11. An omen for bad luck or a sweet companion. 13. Al Capone was imprisoned here in 1929. 14. The container for a witches brew.
Spooky Word Search
COSTUME TRICKORTREAT SCARY CANDY HAUNTED WITCH VAMPIRE CREEPY WITCH COBWEB
1
2
3
4
SPOOKY
5
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8
(1) Wendy Garcia, Senior Sociology major, (2) Brooke Depkon, Junior Architecture major, Elaina Antosz, Junior Biology major(3) Victoria Mezher, Senior Psychology major, (4) Alaina Hill, Senior Horticulture major, (5) Eleanor Labriola Senior Neuroscience major, (6) Rebecca Fulds, Senior Psychologymajor, Jules Bader, Senior Advertising major, Lily Madonna, Senior Marketing major & Corine Mccarthy, Senior Advertising major, (7) Jadyn Torres, Sophomore Geology major & Bisman Gill, Senior Psychology major (8) Mary Gabriele, Junior Global Studies major, Jaime Carson, Senior Speech, Language, and Hearing Science major & Shannon Kedanis, Junior Biological Engineering major
Allyson Tharp / THE TEMPLE NEWS
9
10
11
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SEASON
13
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(9) Olivia Sariano, Senior Public Relations major, (10), (11) Natalia Opkou, Senior Media Studies and Production Major, (12) Adam Golden, Senior Public Health major & Olivia Guerra, Senior Visual Arts major, (13) Kailyn Mulvey, Junior Social Work major & Paul Bickerstaff, Senior Communication Studies major, (14) David Wilf, Senior Film major & Becca Dos, Junior Communication Studies major, (15) Ish Thomas, Junior Biochemmajor & Liana Hoffman, Senior Health Professions major, (16) Jules Hillman, Junior Secondary Education English, Sofia Marinelli, Jr. Accounting major, Amber Houser, Junior Bio Engineering major, Cara Kishter, Junior Communications Studies major
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The Temple News
CAMPUS
Library researchers awarded $200,000 grant
University researchers are using the grant to study banned books and expand educational fair use. BY MOLLY FISKE Features Editor
L
aura Freshcoln spends several hours each day unbinding picture books and novels alongside five other students, Temple faculty and library staff. This small and tedious effort the student workers put into unbinding and analyzing the books plays an important role in a much larger, in-depth research project — Piloting the Representation Lab: A Case Study in Banned Books. “Sometimes it goes pretty fast, but it really depends on the size of the book, some take longer, like the bigger books,” said Freshcoln, a junior art history major and student worker for the project. Last October, the research team’s leader, Laura McGrath and co-leader Alex Wermer-Colan, were invited to apply for a grant by The Mellon Foundation, a philanthropic organization dedicated to supporting and promoting the humanities. The two secured a $200,000 grant for their project, which focuses on expanding the definition of educational fair use and analyzing patterns among banned books. Book banning has been a growing movement in the United States in recent years, gaining significant attention and sparking debates among school boards nationwide. This movement primarily centers on the contentious removal or restriction of certain books from school curricula and libraries. Even before the surge in book bans, literature had been disproportionately skewed toward white male characters, leaving children from other backgrounds underrepresented, but studies have shown that more inclusive and diverse content can have a positive impact on all children, according to Columbia University’s Teachers College. Some argue the banning is necessary to protect students from potentially
explicit content, while others assert book bans infringe upon intellectual freedom and stifle diverse perspectives within education. THE GRANT The team is working with lawyers and an authors’ organization to expand the definition of educational fair use under The Digital Millennium Copyright Act and develop best practices for text mining e-books within the bounds of the law. By expanding The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the team and future researchers will be able to study and analyze digitized banned books published after 1923. The second portion of the project will examine any existing patterns in banned books through text mining, which identifies textual patterns and trends within unstructured data. The team has begun this process with physical copies of books and hopes to utilize digital copies in the future, if The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is expanded. The team is also examining how marginalized groups are depicted and how representation varies across
different genres and audiences. This is done to understand any patterns in current or anticipated banned books. McGrath, an English professor, and Wermer-Colan, the interim academic director of Temple Libraries’ Loretta C. Duckworth Scholars Studio, wanted the project to benefit the public in some way. By working to expand The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, more researchers will be able to study modern text by using text-mining. This will allow for more comprehensive research to be done as digital copies of moderntext would become accessible. They also hope their gathered information on banned books will benefit teachers and students nationwide; the team wants to establish data that will help break down the stigmas of banned books. STUDYING THE BANNED BOOKS Students, like Stefan, work on the project and analyze different components of the physical book itself. They examine the word choice and the appearance of the book’s cover and spine, and can only analyze these aspects after the unbinding process. The unbinding process includes
removing the spine and the cover from the pages, allowing the student workers to preserve them for their own research. They then look at the data they’ve collected on the scanned book covers to determine how “judging a book by its cover” plays into a book being banned. The student workers begin by unbinding the books for scanning and digitization. After, they use natural language processing, network analysis and data visualization to uncover patterns like what word choice is used to describe characters of color and the allocation of dialogue based on gender identity. “Across the country, a lot of librarians and teachers are having their trust taken away, parents seem to be distrusting that teachers and librarians are assigning appropriate books for their kids,” Wermer-Colan said. “I hope what we can show in part is, across these books, it turns out the vast majority of them it’s not unreasonable for them to contain certain text.” The student workers have hundreds of books left to scan, and then the analysis of emerging patterns found in the data can begin. They hope to surmise whether the texts reveal trends about
The Temple News
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identity, sexuality or race. Although the research is focused on two major interests — expanding The Digital Millennium Copyright Act and breaking down stigmas associated with certain books — the data they collect throughout this process will help many future researchers. “We kind of want to remain open to what we might find and I think the research will probably be ongoing for multiple years and we hope to have some preliminary results this fall,” WermerColan said. “I expect this dataset will be a really rich set of materials for us to explore a lot of different questions about contemporary young adult literature today.” THE ISSUE OF BANNING BOOKS Certain books are stigmatized because conservative groups, like Moms For Liberty, have concerns about protecting children from controversial content, but banning them can restrict freedom of expression and intellectual exploration, according to the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University. “We saw addressing the current state of book banning as one way that we could contribute to a public conversation,” McGrath said. “Our research could be beneficial both for addressing this issue of copyright for other scholars, but also beneficial for a larger public conversion around censorship, around free access to ideas and really around representation.” The team wants to have quantitative data proving that many banned books actually aren’t inappropriate, WermerColan said. From July 2021 to June 2022, PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans lists 2,532 instances of individual books being banned, affecting 1,648 unique book titles. Temple’s research team is utilizing 2,000 books after PEN America recommended a list. “The children’s books especially have been super interesting to me because more often than not, they’re just good representations of children who are not white or cis,” said SaraGrace Stefan, a fifth-year Ph.D. student studying literature and a research assistant on the project. “So oftentimes
NOEL CHACKO / THE TEMPLE NEWS Researchers at Charles Library have undertaken an effort to explore the phenomenon of banned books.
those books that you wouldn’t think would be problematic or controversial are somehow still banned.” Books are now becoming “shadow banned,” meaning educators are seeing their colleagues being punished or at risk of losing their jobs because of certain books, McGrath said. Teachers are then not making those books available to students to avoid being at the center of political debate. Some of the most frequently banned books from the 2022-23 school year include, “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe, “This Book is Gay” by Juno Dawson and “Flamer” by Mike Curato, according to PEN America. Almost all books on the list feature themes of identity, race and sexuality. FOR THE SAKE OF RESEARCHERS McGrath and Wermer-Colan hope to expand The Digital Millennium Copyright Act for the benefit of fellow researchers. Studying books on a massive
and modern scale is expensive, as books published after the 1923 threshold period are not available for fair use online. The threshold for copyright protection moves up each year, so books from 1924 will become available for the public domain in 2024, McGrath said. A significant portion of the grant was used to purchase modern physical books, as the threshold hindered researchers. “If you are studying anything after 1923, you really can’t do this work, it’s basically impossible to do this work,” McGrath said. “Computationally and legally, you can’t teach students with these sorts of texts.” By expanding The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, more studies can be conducted on modern text, as researchers would be able to utilize digital copies of books instead of having to purchase them all physically. “Our hope as researchers is to build much larger datasets and more data sets that represent the parts of contemporary
culture that are often overlooked and ignored and can testify to the diversity of contemporary culture,” WermerColan said. “So yeah, I think there’s a lot of reasons to be optimistic.” molly.fiske@temple.edu
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The Temple News
CAMPUS
Temple responds to petition for Election Day off
Adminstration replied to last News. The poll was originally supposed year’s 4,000-signature petition to to be launched in early Fall 2023. cancel class on election day. Leading up to the poll release, BY MOLLY FISKE Features Editor Jared Goldberg, a 2022 political science alumnus, stood at the Bell Tower for six to seven hours every day throughout October 2022. He rallied about 5,000 people to sign his petition which asked Temple’s administration to cancel classes on Election Day as a celebration of civic engagement, pressuring them to take action. If admin agreed to the actions included in the petition, the Temple community would have had time to cast their vote at the polls without missing class or university-related work, but for both the 2022 and 2023 elections, students were not given off. Arlo Blasius, a third year Beasley School of Law student, picked up the project after Goldberg graduated in the Fall 2022 semester. He is advocating for all Temple students to receive off on Election Day in November 2024 and is working with Temple Provost Gregory Mandel and Temple University Democrats in hopes of achieving that goal. Maya Halma, the president of TU Democrats, met with Blaisus in lateAugust about collaborating to advocate for the day off on behalf of undergraduates. Halma, a communications and social influence and Spanish major, has started mobilizing members of TU Democrats to apply pressure on administration to take action in canceling classes on Election Day. TU Democrats began their advocacy on Oct. 19, members sent emails to the Provost’s office about what civic engagement and Election Day means to them. Temple’s administration responded, and they’re planning to launch a poll after Fall Break for students and faculty to give input on days off, wrote Mandel in an email obtained by The Temple
TU Democrats will continue working alongside Blaisus to build a coalition with faculty, undergrad and graduate students, to generate some support for the cause Halma said. In 2022, Blaisus successfully advocated alongside the American Constitution Society, an organization working to advance social justice and civil rights through the legal system, for Beasley law students to have Election Day off. While non-law students won’t have Election Day off this year, Blaisus is committed to ensuring that all Temple students receive off for the 2024 presidential election. When Beasley gave law students the day off for the 2022 election, Blaisus organized a non-partisan Civic Engagement Fair. “I was able to compile some data to show the law school this was effective, and we had a lot of students getting involved,” Blaisus said. “We had a lot of students saying they were using that day to volunteer when otherwise they wouldn’t have been.” Blaisus was appointed to the Election Day Working Group by Mandel on Jan. 17, which was created after Goldberg’s petition received administration’s attention. Blaisus was added to the group because of his success in securing Election Day off for Beasley students. Once Goldberg graduated, he formally passed his project into Blaisus’s hands. Goldberg’s petition and goals were presented to the Election Day Working Group on April 5, and he was equipped with a Faculty Senate Resolution, which stated the Faculty Senate unanimously supported the goals of the petition, according to documents obtained by The Temple News. TSG also created a resolution calling for the change to be adopted. “The fact that the whole student government had signed off meant this letter was speaking with the voice of the student body and we sent it to
NOEL CHACKO / THE TEMPLE NEWS A law student is advocating for a day off on Election Day 2024.
administration,” Blaisus said. “That was one of these things we used to show we were serious and people were really interested in this.” When researching whether a day off for Temple students on Election Day was feasible, the Election Day Working Group utilized data from Day on Democracy and The National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement. The committee also noted that Temple’s voter turn-out rate during the 2020 presidential election was higher than peer institutions and the national average at 73 percent, according to documents obtained by The Temple News. The national voting average for college students during the 2020 election was 66 percent, according to The National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement. In comparison to Drexel University, 70-79 percent of students turned out for the 2020 election, while 73 percent of Temple students voted.
Although students don’t have the day off for this year’s election, which will determine the city’s next mayor, Blaisus is determined that Election Day in November 2024 will be a day of civic engagement for all students. “I’ve been trying to lay the groundwork for when we get to a point where administration is asking for student input,” Blaisus said. “I’ve got a network of people that can spread the word in a grassroots fashion, building up a network of people to advocate for this.” molly.fiske@temple.edu
The Temple News
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MUSIC
Student weaves creativity with hair and music
Charli Dahni signed to Bell Tower Music this semester and owns and operates Delicately Done. BY DUAY AUGUSTINE Assistant Features Editor Even at 17, when Charli Dahni released her first album, her sound was fully formed. On “A Poem About a Butterfly,” angelic harmonies fade in and out as she sweetly delivers lyrics sharp enough to cut. “Let it be known I’m to be feared, I’ll break your heart and won’t shed a tear,” she sings on “In Love With the Wrong Girl.” When Dahni sits down to write, it’s an act of catharsis. She pens her songs by blending the melodies and lyrics as she goes. Whether a track takes 10 minutes or several weeks, the process is a method for Dahni to express herself and connect with her listeners. “I feel like when I’m writing, it’s like a diary entry almost,” said Dahni, a junior media studies and production major. “So it’s very personal to me and like, I’m just putting it out to the world hoping that other people can connect with it and you know, that my music can help them with whatever they’re going through.” Dahni is a multi-talent, as her creativity isn’t just limited to her stage presence or lyrical ability. She also operates Delicately Done, her own hairbraiding business which she started in high school around the same time she began releasing her music. At 17, she put out her first album, “A Poem About a Butterfly.” Now 21, Dahni signed with Bell Tower Music, Temple’s record label, this semester and plans to release new music for the first time since 2021. Dahni has two full-length R&B albums and an EP, with her style ranging from the smooth neo-soul sound of her song “Time Goes By” to the soft acoustics on “Purple Orchids.” Alongside her budding music career, Dahni established Delicately Done in 2020 after quitting her part-time retail job.
JEFFREY HOLMES / COURTESY
“I was working at Old Navy, and I was tired of working at Old Navy,” Dahni said. “So I wanted to do something that allowed me to have a schedule on my own because my school schedule was already so rigorous.” Dahni sees roughly two to three clients a week between Philadelphia and her hometown in Prince George’s County, Maryland. She often struggled to manage her business along with her music and took a step back from music for her first two years of college to focus on her academics. While Dahni hasn’t stopped performing in both Philadelphia and the D.C. area, her last EP, “Pinky Stiletto,” dropped just weeks before she started at Temple in August 2021. Now, finally feeling adjusted to her hectic college lifestyle, Dahni is ready to dive back into music with support from Bell Tower Music and her own methods of making space for herself. “I know when to cut back and say
‘You know what, Charli? No, we’re gonna focus on music this week or this month. We’re dedicating our time to Charli,’” Dahni said. Dahni’s friends and family also noted her ambition and talent in both music and braiding. “I remember the first time I heard one of her songs, I was like, ‘Oh my God,’ and then I went to her page, and realized that she has all these and I was like, ‘Oh my god,’ she became like, one of my go to [artists],” said Bria Zinn-Robinson, a junior painting major and friend of Dahni’s. Since signing to Bell Tower Music after a classmate who worked in the artists and repertoire department scouted her, Dahni has worked with the label to plan her next single release. “You Can’t Stop the Fire” is expected to drop this semester accompanied by a longer project in the spring. Her ambition in her career extends to her music, said Jack Klotz, the advisor
for Bell Tower Music. “Her demos and things she does are fairly ambitious things,” Klotz said. “I’m really looking forward to seeing where her projects with Bell Tower are gonna go.” With two potential careers under her belt, Dahni has a bright future ahead of her. She hopes to continue with her music career and go on tour in the coming years. “I want to be performing,” Dahni said. “I want to be touring in any aspect. And it doesn’t matter how big the venue is, I just want to be out there singing and performing. That’s what I love to do, and that’s what I want to do.” duay.augustine@temple.edu duayaug
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The Temple News
CAMPUS
Women’s rugby club aims for nationals victory
After losing in nationals last year, TUWRC has their sights set on a win in the 2023-2024 season. BY MOLLY FISKE Features Editor In last year’s national championship game against Vassar College, Temple Women’s Rugby club came up short. They received a number of yellow cards and several impactful players left the game with injuries. This year, they’re hopeful to not just make it all the way to nationals, but to also champion the game. “Everyone played really hard and I think this year, we’re even better than we were last year,” said Faith McHugh, match secretary and team captain. “If we just keep up with our practicing and everything, then we have a better chance honestly, and I hope we see the teams that we saw before so we can show them we’re coming back better.” For the past two fall seasons, the TUWRC has placed second behind Vassar in the College Rugby Association of America Women’s Rugby Division II National Championship. This is the season they hope to turn things around. TUWRC is undefeated so far in the 2023 season, and when playing Rowan University, they triumphed in a triple-digit score win. The team also welcomed coach Kevin Golden, who came to Temple from coaching high school boy’s rugby. The team is part of the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Conference, competing at the collegiate Division II level. However, the club faces higher-level teams who receive additional funding that some DII teams do not. These teams also have a dedicated coaching staff, athletic trainers, arranged weight lifting times and members who’ve been playing for years before the collegiate level. Temple classifies TUWRC as a club sport. The team doesn’t make roster cuts, their coach is a volunteer and TUWRC receives a small amount of funding from the university, so they usually fundraise
ROBERT JOSEPH CRUZ / THE TEMPLE NEWS Women’s rugby has had an eventful semester, with a new coach, scores of new players and several wins.
to make ends meet. The team only gets six hours of dedicated practice time weekly, and lifts take place at individual players’ discretion. TUWRC recruits and molds their own athletes, said Victoria Putkowski, a junior biology major and club president. “Watching some of these very wellfunded or I really should say, properlyfunded teams, all they have to worry about is going to practice and eating healthy for dinner and making sure they get their homework done and that they sleep eight hours a night,” Putkowski said. “Versus our team where we have to raise tens of thousands of dollars on our own time and on our own dime with our own ideas.” Despite their financial limitations, TUWRC competes against wellfunded teams that recruit players, pay coaches and provide merchandise and scholarships to players. With large recruitment numbers, a new coach, impactful returning players and excelling newcomers, the club is hungry to win and take home a national championship despite the financial setbacks.
RECRUITMENT It was hard for students to ignore the women’s rugby team while walking through this year’s TempleFest because of their infectious energy and in-yourface recruiting style. TUWRC shows out at the club recruitment event every year and typically brings in hundreds of signups. More than 200 students signed the interest form this year because of the team’s energy and influence. “We love to point at people and say, ‘You look like a rugby player.’ Most of the time the response is, ‘No, I don’t, I’m not strong enough, I’m not athletic enough, I’m not this’ or ‘I’m not that,’” said Abigail Simons, a junior English and women’s gender and sexuality studies major. “And we point at everyone we have at our table and we say, ‘Do any of us look the same? No, and all of us play rugby.’” Simons, vice president of TUWRC, came to Temple interested in rugby but had never played before. She danced growing up, but wanted to look for a sport that would help her make friends at Temple while building her self-
confidence and strength. During TempleFest in 2021, Simons was approached by the then-president to attend the first practice; looking back, Simons said it was the best decision she made in college. Putkowski was also scouted that same year in the TempleFest crowd by a team member. TUWRC utilizes the phrase, “Rugby is for everyBODY” in their recruitment and motivation efforts to show that anyone can be a part of the team, regardless of size and athleticism. Most players on the team came into the sport not knowing the rules because rugby is more prominent in other countries. Forty new players showed up during the team’s first practice, demonstrating that there are more eager, new players this season wanting to start on the field than in previous seasons. Many players returned because of the close-knit nature of the team and have taken newer players under their wing to help them learn drills and the rules of the game. “We’ve kind of drawn in a really great group of recruits last year, and
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we’ve had so many amazingly powerful and wonderful returners come back this season and together it’s made a really great environment for the team,” Putkowski said. A LEARNING CURVE McHugh has spent two years with TUWRC after playing in high school. Due to her familiarity with the sport and role as captain, McHugh helps new players with learning and adjusting to the nuances of the game. “I feel like it’s important to really help everyone learn how to play and I’ve been playing for a while so it’s a little bit easier for me to do since I kind of know the game,” McHugh said. “When I’m at practice, I kind of reach out to the people who are doing the drills, but maybe need some pointers.” The sport differs from others in terms of rules due to its continuous play. Unlike football or soccer, rugby has no forward passing, only lateral or backward. Rugby’s unique combination of tackling, scrums — a method of restarting play after a minor infringement — and lineouts, which is used to restart play when the ball goes out of bounds, adds complexity to its rules and makes it a distinctive and physically demanding
sport. The game’s rules emphasize teamwork, strategy and sportsmanship, contributing to its unique character among international sports. Women’s rugby in the U.S. stands out from other women’s sports as it’s a full-contact sport where tackling and scrums are integral components. There are no rules that actively limit contact, and play style is the same as men’s rugby. The sport’s culture encourages inclusivity and support, and women of all ages and skill levels can participate. This inclusiveness results in a unique environment where women can connect, grow and thrive through rugby. “The program itself is so successful based on the people who continue to come back and the environment that we facilitate that year after year, after year,” Putkowski said. “We can continue to put our name on these charts and we continue to get our name out there in the community, like the Women’s Rugby Community of Philadelphia, and just all across the nation” THE ROAD TO NATIONALS After coming in second to Vassar in the 2021 and 2022 seasons, TUWRC had two goals in mind this season: lifting the trophy at nationals and putting three
digits on a game scoreboard. On Sept. 23, they won their season opener against Bloomberg 69-5. Later that month, they played a total shutout against Delaware, 79-0, a major sign of what’s to come for the team this season. They crossed off a major team milestone and goal, on Oct. 7 after winning 101-5 against Rowan. “That was a goal for this season, so it was amazing to hit that so early, it was just an amazing experience and Rowan is a lovely team as well,” Simons said. Despite success in previous seasons, coaches can be difficult to retain for even one season as the position is completely voluntary due to minimal funding. TUWRC’s E-Board reached out to various rugby organizations, like USA Rugby, to find a coach for this season. Luckily, the team was successful and found their new coach who has 20 years of playing and 10 years of coaching experience. TUWRC excitedly welcomed Golden this Fall semester. “He cares so much about our physical and mental health, he’s the perfect combination of someone who isn’t going to take any BS from anyone but is also so caring and understanding of any struggles players are going through, so he’s been a real game changer for the team, just his commitment and his
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drive,” Simons said. Since TUWRC is considered a club sport, they receive a set amount of funding each year based on Temple’s compliance checklist, which is a list of events that must be held during the year to upkeep available funding. The team conducts fundraisers almost every week to cover travel, fees and equipment among other expenses. They must raise about $10,000 extra each year as the team typically exhausts their university funding before even reaching nationals, which comes with hefty travel expenses. “It can be really disheartening to see our success in the rugby world, to the point that we’re ending up in articles by USA Rugby, we’re on TV, and we’re doing all of this yet we’re struggling so hard financially against all these other schools,” Simons said. Despite financial insecurities, TUWRC is determined to get to nationals in Houston and win a title. This year, TUWRC has promoted their bake sales and fundraisers through campus favorites, like Maxis, and also gathered funding through merchandise sales. Although the team is sometimes frustrated when competing against funded top-level teams, they take pride in succeeding without all of the flashy benefits other teams receive. “I feel that the entire team has a really broad sense of pride of knowing that not only did we win ourselves to where we are, but we deserve to be playing with these other teams because we raised all this money on our own, we control and manage the entirety of our team,” Putkowski said. This Saturday, TUWRC will once again play Delaware in Wilmington, Delaware, with the game being a part of the conference league finals. “Our team has had this certain energy but I just feel like this year, it’s like extra charge like I can see us making our way all the way to one,” Simons said. “I think that if that’s not a goal we can achieve this season, then it’s a goal that I see so close on the horizon.” molly.fiske@temple.edu
ROBERT JOSEPH CRUZ / THE TEMPLE NEWS A women’s rugby player during practice at the STAR Complex.
2023
BASKE BALL
PREVIEW Special Edition of The Temple News
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BASKETBALL
Nelson aims to lead Temple to its first AAC Title
The guard returns to the Owls, and her confidence and leadership could be Temple’s spark. BY JAISON NIEVES Sports Social Media Manager
E
ver since Temple Women’s Basketball implemented an app that tracks who works out at the team’s facility, fifth-year guard Aleah Nelson has logged the most time. Live updates are provided to the coaches about who is putting in the most work. Every time assistant coach Myles Jackson checks the app, Nelson is there. “I see the work she puts in,” Jackson said. “I’m getting text messages at 7:30 in the morning that Aleah’s finishing drills on our shooting machine. I love coming into the office and going to the gym, and she’s the only one in there.” Nelson’s hard work has paid off; in her first year at Temple, she started all 29 games and was named first team All- Big 5 and second team All-American Athletic Conference. After impressing on the stat sheet, Nelson is putting in more work in the locker room. She hopes to guide the Owls to the program’s first AAC championship. “Our expectation is to have a winning season,” Nelson said. “The expectation is energy and effort and to win a championship.” Nelson’s journey to Temple was not always clear-cut. The guard from Baltimore, Maryland, committed to Cincinnati and played a season with the Bearcats. She averaged one point and one rebound in a limited role off the bench. Nelson then transferred to Towson, where she reunited with head coach Diane Richardson, who she has known since she was eight years old. Nelson earned back-to-back All-CAA honors and was crucial in leading Towson to the program’s second appearance in the National Invitation Tournament. When Richardson left for Temple, Nelson’s decision to follow was a
ROBERT JOSEPH CRUZ / THE TEMPLE NEWS Fifth-year guard Aleah Nelson is poised to lead Temple Women’s Basketball to its first-ever American Athletic Conference championship.
no-brainer, she said. “The reason I even chose to come to Temple was because I trust those coaches,” Nelson said. “I’ve known [Richardson] for 10-plus years, and she’s never doubted me.” The guard was a standout in Cherry and White. She led the Owls in most statistics, regularly playing every minute of games when the Owls were down to just eight active players. Nelson’s mentality kept her going, as she did whatever it took to win. “I don’t care if I play 40 [minutes], I don’t care if I play 20,” Nelson said. “I’m trying to win. That’s the mentality everytime I walk into a game.” Both Nelson’s vocal leadership and
eccentric personality are apparent in her play. Those traits helped her become a natural leader, connecting with her teammates to improve their chemistry. Nelson’s transition to a team captain hasn’t been easy, and Richardson and her staff played a major part in Nelson’s development as a leader. “When she first came to us at Towson, she didn’t have confidence,” Richardson said. “We instilled that confidence in her. Our staff loved on her and gave her confidence that she could be good.” While she takes pride in her accomplishments, Nelson is focused the team’s goal: an AAC Championship. Nelson’s leadership and talent will
need to shine through for the Owls to surpass expectations. Despite the pressure, Nelson believes she’s ready to be the leader the team needs. “It is a lot of pressure,” Nelson said. “They didn’t just put anybody in this position. Those expectations don’t scare me at all. I feel like I’m ready for it.”
jaison.nieves@temple.edu @jaisonnieves1
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Richardson utilizes family culture in her rebuild After 20-plus years of experience, Richardson brings a culture based on care for her team. BY DECLAN LANDIS Sports Editor Temple Women’s Basketball guard Aleah Nelson was just eight years old when she met Diane Richardson for the first time. Nelson grew up in the Baltimore, Maryland area and played basketball her whole life. Around the time they met, Richardson was coaching high school ball for a preparatory high school while Nelson was making a name for herself as a player. The two crossed paths and hit it off quickly. More than a decade later, Nelson is a key piece in Richardson’s Temple program, and their bond is closer than either could ever have imagined. “She expects so much out of me,” Nelson said. “And she’s really, really hard on me, almost like a mother-daughter type thing. It’s tough love for sure, but it’s something that I need.” Nelson is one of countless players impacted by Richardson’s care and concern. Her desire to form relationships with recruits and their families is part of the reason Richardson has been so successful at the high school and collegiate levels. In her second year as Temple’s head coach, Richardson has set the foundation for a new culture on North Broad Street, and her recruiting abilities have been a major factor. As she begins the season, Richardson’s roster is starting to take shape, and her team seems more willing to play for her than ever.
FINDING HER STYLE
Richardson worked her way up the ladder in women’s basketball, starting at the high school level. Her first head coaching position was at Riverdale Baptist School in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. She found instant success there, winning five national championships in eight seasons, which earned her po-
ERIKA MONN / THE TEMPLE NEWS Temple Women’s Basketball head coach Diane Richardson recruits high-level talent by establishing strong relationships with players and their families.
sitions at the collegiate level at Maryland and American. She also got to coach her adopted daughter, WNBA star and 2023 MVP Jonquel Jones, during her high school career. The pair even moved to the next level together, as Richardson became an assistant at George Washington when Jones started her freshman year. Richardson’s roots at the high school level taught her how to build relationships with players and their families on the recruiting trail. “When you’re recruiting high school players, young players, you recruit the family as well,” Richardson said. “I knew their parents had to be comfortable with me and sending their kids off to my school. It’s been something I’ve done for a long, long time.”
Richardson got a feel for what did and didn’t work by going on recruiting trips with Jones and her other players. She traveled the country with Jones, who entertained offers from schools like Florida and head coach Carolyn Peck. One thing she realized on these trips was the type of players she needed in her programs. Richardson, who earned a spot on the 1980 track and field U.S. Olympic team, has always had a fierce drive to win and looks for players with that same mindset. “She looks for competitors similar to herself,” said Myles Jackson, who joined Richardson’s staff at Towson and followed her to Temple. “She was an athlete, she was an Olympian, so she wants people who are going to compete no matter the competition.”
HITTING THE TRAIL
After four years at George Washington, Richardson accepted a job at West Virginia as its recruiting coordinator. There, she helped the Mountaineers bring in the 17th-best recruiting class in 2017, which included Ashley Jones from Neumann-Goretti, who ranked 75th in the ESPNW top 100. The Mountaineers found success with Richardson’s recruits, finishing with winning seasons in each of the four years after the 2017 class enrolled. After one season in Morgantown, Richardson was hired at Towson for her first head coaching job since Riverdale. She inherited a program that had just one winning season in eight years under two different head coaches.
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Richardson flipped the trajectory of the program in just two seasons, winning the Coastal Athletic Conference title and leading the program to its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2018. Richardson never lost sight of her “motherly instincts” along the way, she said. She was always the first in the gym to watch recruits and wanted to form a strong relationship with them as often as she could. “Mothers like to see that I care about the players, but that hasn’t changed,” Richardson said. “It’s actually caring about these young ladies. My style hasn’t changed. Whether it’s at Towson or it’s a big program like Temple, it’s still the relationship piece.”
BUILDING HER STAFF
Richardson’s instinct to provide for the people she cares about does not stop at her players. Her coaching staff at Temple is made of people she worked with during her journey, and some she coached herself. Wanisha Smith played for Richardson at Riverdale, where she became a McDonald’s All-American. She joined Richardson’s staff at Towson and worked her way up to an assistant coaching role. Jackson worked his way onto her staff by starting on the scout team at Towson, but his persistence in learning from Richardson earned him a manager position and, eventually, a coaching role. Everyone on Richardson’s staff has
worked their way up, learning how to coach under her and, in her eyes, proving themselves. “I have a very open and honest staff here,” Richardson said. “We are all committed to us, to each other. We’re committed to our players because that’s the way I taught them. All of them have things that they’re really good at. I know that we filled all the holes that we need on a coaching staff.” Her assistants have bought into her message about leading through love from day one, and it has trickled into their messaging in recruiting players to Temple. “I tell players all the time that when they come to play for Coach Rich, they play at Coach Rich University,” Jackson said. “Whatever your dream is the moment you step foot on Temple’s campus, that’s our goal for you too. You want to play professionally, you want to be a doctor, you want to be a firefighter, you want to be a lawyer, whatever.”
HER NEW PROGRAM
With less than a week until Temple takes the floor with a new-look roster, Richardson’s original vision for her team is slowly starting to take shape. Richardson brought Nelson, Tarriyonna Gary and Rayne Tucker with her from Towson to Temple and added Kendall Currence from CAA-rival Northeastern, but Tucker and Currence both missed last season. Midway through last season, Richardson dismissed two play-
ers from the program, and two more left. She managed to finish with an 1118 record despite completing the season with just eight active players, but the team had higher aspirations. Now, Nelson, Tucker and Currence are all expected to be major factors. Richardson also added new recruits, like guards Demi Washington and Tristen Taylor and forward Jaleesa Molina. For Richardson, her most important job is to instill enough confidence in her team that they feel comfortable playing her high-speed offense. Nelson was one success story, as she came in shy but ended up quickly turning that around. “I’m very loud,” Nelson said. “I’m very cool, and I’m very loud. It’s not hard for me to talk all the time, to communicate, to be that leader, to have energy because it’s already within me.” Richardson and her staff are looking beyond this year as well. The team already has several commitments in the class of 2024, including the second highest high school scorer in the country, Adena Webster, and a Pennsylvania state champion, Savannah Curry. Curry’s decision to join the Owls was similar to Nelson’s, stemming from her relationship with Richardson. Curry saw Richardson at her games as early as her eighth-grade year, and Richardson’s dedication to watching Curry at every step of her journey was a deciding factor. “She followed me the whole way,” Curry said. “She saw all the good games, she saw all the bad games and she still
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wanted me. That’s what really made me feel that Temple was probably the best decision for me.” In just one full season, Richardson has revamped the culture of Temple Women’s Basketball by taking her time to show love for each of her players. With her eyes on the future of the program, Richardson feels confident her team is on the right track to contend in the conference for years to come. “My way of giving them confidence that they can use throughout their life is first on the basketball court, just reassuring them, you can do it,” Richardson said. “Because if our staff teaches you how to do something, you’re gonna be able to do it, and I want you to be confident in that. And I’m confident in our team.”
declan.landis@temple.edu @declanlandis
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Fisher fulfills his childhood dream as head coach After years as a fan, Fisher’s first time leading a program will be on North Broad Street. BY DOMINIQUE VINSON AND RYAN MACK For The Temple News While a lot of Adam Fisher’s friends that grew up loving basketball idolized Michael Jordan or Shaquille O’Neal, Temple Men’s Basketball’s new head coach always idolized his dad. For as long as he can remember, Fisher wanted to be a head coach. Though his last experience in a jersey was at Central Bucks East High School in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, he always had a passion for the game and envisioned himself around the sport. “I always knew I wanted to coach,” Fisher said. “My dad was my first coach. He coached my brother and me, and he was my inspiration in wanting to get into coaching, so I give him all the credit.” After decades of work, Fisher gets his chance to lead a program. Temple announced his hiring on March 29 after moving former head coach Aaron McKie into a special advisory role. Fisher is the first coach in several years without prior connections to Temple, but he wants his era of basketball to remain connected to7 tradition while also taking a modern turn.
TRADITION OF THE “T”
The Temple program Fisher inherited is seventh all-time in wins in college basketball history. From the ‘80s to the late ‘90s, former Temple head coach and icon John Chaney’s Owls were one of the best teams in the country, making 17 NCAA tournaments and winning 516 games during his tenure. “You think about coach Chaney, just the toughness, the grit, Aaron McKie, you see coach [Fran Dunphy] come
ROBERT JOSEPH CRUZ / THE TEMPLE NEWS Temple’s new head basketball coach, Adam Fisher, brings unique experience to the role while setting high expectations for the coming season.
in,” Fisher said. “To me, the tradition is there. I see those banners, I tell my team this isn’t normal. Not every team has those.” Dunphy, Chaney’s successor, picked up right where Chaney left off. The Owls went dancing eight times under Dunphy but could never make it past the second round.
The winning tradition ended once Dunphy stepped down and Temple great Aaron McKie took the reins in 2019. The Owls never took flight during McKie’s four seasons, going 52-56 and failing to win a single game in the American Athletic Conference Tournament during his time on Broad Street, finishing 0-3. Now, it’s Fisher’s turn to take over
the storied program he grew up watching. “I love being back in Philadelphia,” Fisher said. “Growing up, I watched the great coach Chaney teams, coach Dunphy teams, coach McKie, all the great teams here. And you watch all the legends come through here. It’s a program that has a great history of winning.”
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JOURNEY TO THE TOP
Fisher is no stranger to legendary coaches. The Bucks County native traveled down the Main Line after graduating from Penn State in 2006 to Temple’s Big 5 rival Villanova, where he was a graduate assistant under Hall of Fame coach Jay Wright. When Villanova assistant coach Pat Chambers left the Wildcats to become head coach at Boston University in 2009, he hired Fisher to his staff as the director of basketball operations for two seasons. Chambers left for Penn State in 2011 and Fisher followed back to his old stomping grounds, this time as Chambers’ video coordinator. Fisher worked his way up the ranks at his alma mater, getting promoted to director of player development after just one season. Fisher’s work and dedication caught the eye of legendary Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga and his ascend continued. Fisher took his coaching talents to South Beach in 2013 and joined the Hurricanes’ staff as director of operations. Larrañaga promoted Fisher to assistant coach in 2015 and the two qualified for three NCAA tournaments in Fisher’s six years at Miami. During those years, Larrañaga taught Fisher lessons that he still keeps today. “Coach Larrañaga is my mentor,” Fisher said. “He told me be yourself, be who you are, build your foundation, make sure your players know you care and treat everyone in a first-class manner. We go around, we get to know the janitor, we get to know the security guards. It’s important; it takes a lot of people to put on a practice, let alone a game.” Fisher made one more pit stop at Penn State, serving under former head coach Micah Shrewsberry before getting the chance to be the lead man for his own program. Now, Temple’s newest head coach wants to use his experience and success to return the team to prominence. “I’ve brought a little bit from everywhere,” Fisher said. “Whether it be some things from Villanova I learned or Miami, we brought something from Penn State, Boston University. I brought a lit-
tle bit of all that and kind of put my own style on it.”
ON THE ROAD
Much of Fisher’s success stems from his ability to build relationships. His specialty as an assistant coach was recruiting, and he helped the Canes land a commitment from NBA player Lonnie Walker IV and other standouts across the country. The recruiting success followed him to his third stint with the Nittany Lions, bringing in a top-30 recruiting class in 2022, which included Jameel Brown and transfer Andrew Funk. Fisher found a lot of his players from the Philadelphia area during his recruiting. He helped beat Temple and other local schools in battles for Wooga Poplar, whom Fisher successfully brought to Miami in 2021.
LAYING THE FOUNDATION
Fisher’s recruiting acumen was a big reason Temple considered him as a candidate. After he got the job, Fisher inherited a team that lost five main contributors in 2022. The new coach knew there was a lot of work to be done, and filling out the roster was his number one priority. That process started by meeting with guards Hysier Miller, who had entered the portal, and Jahlil White, who questioned whether or not he should stay. “I ended up going into the transfer portal just because I was unsure what was next,” Miller said. “When Coach Fisher got hired, I was convinced, already just thinking about coming back and really giving it a go.” When White finally got to meet Fisher, he noticed the coach’s outgoing personality and determination to win. White knew that was what he and his team wanted in a coach, and he knew Fisher’s program would be a good fit for him. “We had a meeting, and he was there,” White said. “We walked in, and we saw him just smiling. He had his family with him, so the first thing I was thinking was, ‘Oh yeah, he is the type of guy I like, a good, positive guy.’” Quante Berry was the second recruit
Fisher brought to Temple. After one visit and a few conversations with Fisher and the staff, Berry knew being a part of Fisher’s team was the best next step for him. “I didn’t take any more visits after that,” Berry said. “I just committed as soon as I got home.” Fisher wants to establish a new culture while staying true to what made the program so successful throughout its history. The coach is taking command of the Owls with his only Temple experience coming as a fan. Fisher has preached about the importance of alumni involvement since taking the job in March in an attempt to connect Temple to its roots, whether that be on his staff or coming into a practice. “If you’re a former player, anything to do with our program, you’re always welcome,” Fisher said. “Don’t call, just show up. They’ve come back and have been able to talk to the team. They’re able to show the pride to wear that jersey, and it’s been great” That started with retaining important figures in Temple history like Chris Clark, who played for the Owls from 2004-08 and coached since Dunphy hired him in 2016. Fisher then hired Khalif Wyatt as director of player development and Lynn Greer, who is the second-leading scorer in program history, as chief of staff. As the summer came to an end, con-
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ditioning and pre-season workouts began. Fisher showed his team what type of coach he was and what his main focuses were going to be. A self-described motivator, Fisher has been trying to get his team ready for the season ahead. “He just wants his guys to be confident all the time, no matter what the score is, no matter what’s going on,” White said. “He instills confidence in us to take chances on defense and shoot your shots on offense. He allows us to play our game.” With about a week left until the season tips-off, Fisher is preparing his team for the beginning of his tenure on North Broad Street. His dream of being on top of a college program has come true after decades of work, and he wants to make this next step about more than just himself. “It’s incredible,” Fisher said. “My whole career, you work to get to this point. To work my way up, it’s just incredible, and to read all the text messages I got when I got the job. I told my family just getting the job isn’t enough; you gotta win.”
dominique.vinson@temple.edu @DominiqueV2243 ryan.mack0001@temple.edu @ryan_mack18
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SPORTS
The Temple News
BASKETBALL
Wyatt turns historic playing career into staff role
Wyatt wants to restore the program back to the glory days of Temple Men’s Basketball. BY RYAN MACK Assistant Sports Editor
Khalif Wyatt’s Temple career should have ended in 2013. His historic tenure appeared to close after the Owls’ heartbreaking loss to No. 1 Indiana in the NCAA Tournament Round of 32. A decade later, Adam Fisher was hired as Temple’s new head coach and wanted someone with Temple ties to be his director of player development. That list started and ended with Wyatt, Fisher said. “Coach Fisher wanted whoever he was going to hire for this position to be a Temple guy,” Wyatt said. “We didn’t know each other in the past. I was just one of the guys that came up.” Ten years after his playing career, Wyatt is back to help lead the newest generation of Temple players toward the success he had. Wyatt grew up in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and knew of Temple’s prestige. When his Temple journey began in 2009, the Owls had won two straight Atlantic 10 tournaments to go with back-to-back NCAA Tournaments appearances. When then-head coach Fran Dunphy offered him a spot on the roster, Wyatt jumped at the chance to play for his hometown team. “Temple has a tremendous history of having a good basketball program,” Wyatt said. “Just being able to be a part of that was special to me then and is special to me now.” Wyatt quickly made a name for himself during his sophomore season. The guard was named Big 5 Most Improved Player after scoring 10 points a game off the bench for the Owls. Wyatt found his groove as a junior, bumping his average up to 17 points. In his senior season, Wyatt and fellow senior Scootie Randall were key
ROBERT JOSEPH CRUZ / THE TEMPLE NEWS Former Temple basketball star Khalif Wyatt returns as director of player development to help restore the program’s success.
pieces on a Temple team that returned to the NCAA Tournament. Wyatt went head-to-head with Indiana, headlined by NBA star Victor Oladipo. Even in the six-point loss, Wyatt’s 31-point performance gained national attention. After his Temple career concluded, Wyatt played overseas for nine seasons and hopes to use that experience to connect with his players. “He was an outstanding basketball player, but more importantly, he’s a great person and someone our guys can learn from,” said Chris Clark, assistant coach and former Temple player. “It’s developing the whole person, not just the basketball player. Khalif embodies that.” The respect Wyatt gets as a role model is more important than the respect he got for his playing career, he
said. He feels it reflects his deepest connection to Temple, one that transcended the hardwood. Wyatt credits that respect to Dunphy, who had a serious impact on Wyatt during his playing days. Their relationship had a rocky start, with the pair butting heads about Wyatt’s level of maturity. Despite the early growing pains, Wyatt grew to see Dunphy as a father figure over time, he said. “[Dunphy] brought me in and has been a mentor to me,” Wyatt said. “Our relationship has been stronger after graduation. After I got out of school, I was a little more mature, and I understood better some of the things he was tryna teach me.” Fisher prioritized alumni involvement at Temple by retaining Clark, who
played from 2004-08, and hiring standouts, like Wyatt and Lynn Greer. Even though the program is rebuilding, Wyatt is excited to be part of a new era of Temple Basketball and hopes to restore the status of the program. “When I was here as a player, we expected to be in the tournament,” Wyatt said. “It was an expectation. This unit is just getting back to being confident in who they are as a program.”
ryan.mack0001@temple.edu @ryan_mack18
SPORTS
The Temple News
PAGE 31
STAFF PREDIC IONS BASKETBALL PREVIEW
Declan Landis Sports Editor
MEN’S LINEUP PREDICTIONS:
Johnny Zawislak Assistant Sports Editor
Ryan Mack Assistant Sports Editor
Jaison Nieves Sports Social Media Manager
3- Hysier Miller 3- Hysier Miller 3- Hysier Miller 3- Hysier Miller 34- Matteo Picarelli 34- Matteo Picarelli 0- Quante Berry 34- Matteo Picarelli 2- Jahlil White 2- Jahlil White 2- Jahlil White 2- Jahlil White 14- Steve Settle III 14- Steve Settle III 14- Steve Settle III 14- Steve Settle III 21- Emmanuel Okpomo 21- Emmanuel Okpomo 21- Emmanuel Okpomo 21- Emmanuel Okpomo
WOMEN’S LINEUP PREDICTIONS:
2- Aleah Nelson 1- Kendall Currence 55- Tiarra East 22- Tarriyonna Gary 21- Rayne Tucker
2- Aleah Nelson 1- Kendall Currence 55- Tiarra East 22-Tarriyonna Gary 21- Rayne Tucker
2- Aleah Nelson 1- Kendall Currence 55- Tiarra East 22- Tarriyonna Gary 21- Rayne Tucker
2- Aleah Nelson 1- Kendall Currence 55- Tiarra East 22- Tarriyonna Gary 13- Alexandra Wilkerson
MEN’S POINTS LEADER:
14- Steve Settle III
14- Steve Settle III
0- Quante Berry
2- Jahlil White
WOMEN’S POINTS LEADER:
2- Aleah Nelson
55- Tiarra East
2- Aleah Nelson
2- Aleah Nelson
MEN’S BREAKOUT PERFORMER:
1- Zion Stanford
22- Deuce Roberts
55- Shane Dezonie
1- Zion Stanford
WOMEN’S BREAKOUT PERFORMER:
11- Tristen Taylor
14- Ines Piper
11- Tristen Taylor
8- Jaleesa Molina
MEN’S MVP:
14- Steve Settle III
34- Mateo Picarelli
14- Steve Settle III
3- Hysier Miller
WOMEN’S MVP:
2- Aleah Nelson
2- Aleah Nelson
2- Aleah Nelson
2- Aleah Nelson
14-16 18-12
15-15 20-10
16-14 18-12
16-14 22-8
MEN’S FINAL GAME:
First Round Exit
First Round Exit
First Round Exit
Second Round Exit
WOMEN’S FINAL GAME:
Semifinals Exit
Finals Exit
Semifinals Exit
Finals Win
MEN’S SEASON RECORD: WOMEN’S SEASON RECORD:
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