The Temple News

THE TEMPLE NEWS

CAN’T KEEP UP

Temple Athletics has struggled to match with rival universities in the Name, Image and Likeness space amid underwhelming fundraising and coaching turnover.

Read more on page 24.

VOL 102 // ISSUE 3 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2023

temple-news.com @thetemplenews

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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 Kayla Brian 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 Photo Editor Fernando Gaxiola Assistant Photo 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

Follow us @TheTempleNews

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, Managing Editors, Chief Copy Editor, Deputy Copy Editor, News Editor 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 ROBERT JOSEPH CRUZ & 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.

The Temple News

NEWS

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ADMINISTRATION

Englert, top administrators discuss interim role The new president hopes to build on former President JoAnne Epps’ priorities, like enrollment.

BY OLIVER SABO News Editor

I

n returning to his role as Temple’s President, Richard Englert, who has served in 17 different roles at Temple within the span of 45 years, was a clear choice to fill the vacancy in the presidential office, according to top university administrators.

Englert, who previously served as president from 2016-21 before retiring, was once again appointed to the role by the Board of Trustees on Sept. 26 following President JoAnne Epps’ sudden passing on Sept. 19.

Temple officials believe Englert’s familiarity with the university and openness to talking to stakeholders will make the presidential decision-making process much easier as he leads the university for the next six to nine months while the Presidential Search Advisory Committee prepares to recommend a permanent president to the Board of Trustees in Spring 2024.

“He knows the university backward and forwards as well as anyone and he approaches his leadership with a very mission-oriented, community-oriented and caring style,” said Provost Gregory Mandel.

As Temple moves forward in its search for the university’s next permanent leader, the Board of Trustees has taken away “temporary” or “interim” from Englert’s title. ”When I deal with people outside [the university], that is extremely important that they know they’re talking to the president,” Englert said. “So, I’ve made the commitment. I’ll be president until they identify the next president. It’s almost like, think of me as a president who’s announced my retirement.”

While the interim position has all the authority that a permanent appointment has, someone in this position of-

ten focuses on keeping the institution on track rather than making long-term commitments, Mandel said. It can be a “balancing act,” he added.

“I know that [Englert] is someone who will take that role seriously, but also recognize that there are some decisions that we need to make immediately,” Mandel said. “If there’s anything that we can do to continue to strengthen efforts around public safety, to attend to the support both academic and or otherwise, that we provide to students to work on other matters involving the university.”

Englert has been very collaborative, including during his last run as president from 2016-21, said Ken Kaiser, senior vice president and chief operating officer.

“It’s his style to get advice, seek other people’s opinions and get as much information as possible before making a decision,” Kaiser said. “So I see him continuing that collaboration.”

Englert understands there are different people around him as he returns as president and he has to learn and familiarize himself with the university’s current environment and challenges, but the role of the president remains unchanged, he said.

“Temple people are Temple people,” Englert said. “Temple’s mission is Temple’s mission: serving students, outstanding research, all those things stay the same. Different actors at certain times, different people come in, et cetera, but the basic mission is timeless.”

While in office, Englert is attempting to continue Epps’ legacy and mission for the university.

Englert and Epps worked together for more than 30 years at Temple, and for his remaining tenure as president, Englert plans to focus on two central university issues that Epps prioritized: enrollment and safety.

Englert also wants to continue bringing the Temple community closer together, something that he said Epps was able to do during her five-month tenure.

“Her loss was something that

ROBERT JOSEPH CRUZ / THE TEMPLE NEWS Temple officials believe Englert’s familiarity with the university and openness to talking to stakeholders will make the presidential decision-making process much easier.

touched us all, so in a certain sense, we’re never going to move on beyond that,” Englert said. “But in the other sense of how we move on, I often say to people that JoAnne was not tall when it comes to height, but she had very broad shoulders and an even bigger heart, and our job is to stand on her shoulders and move things forward. Her legacy is very important.”

Temple has partnered with executive leadership search firm Spencer Stuart to pick the university’s next president. The Collective Genius, a research firm, conducted a survey and listening sessions to create a report of what university and community stakeholders would like to see in the next president.

While Englert made it clear that he will not be involved in the selection of his successor, he hopes the next president will show traits of compassion, a commitment to making “the world” a better place and the ability to anticipate challenges that don’t exist yet, he said.

“Those are basic,” Englert said.

“That’s what’s in our DNA. All of us share that. Obviously, a new president needs to embrace our mission. And our mission statement summed up in three words, opportunity, engagement, and discovery.” oliver.sabo@temple.edu @oliversabo20

NEWS

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The Temple News

ADMINISTRATION

What stakeholders want from the next president Temple has released a report detailing stakeholders’ preferences for a new leader.

BY OLIVER SABO News Editor Following more than 30 hours of listening sessions and 2,144 survey responses from stakeholders, Temple now has a comprehensive feedback report of what some university community members would like to see in Temple’s next president.

Board of Trustees Chairman Mitchell Morgan announced the completion of the “University Voices” report on Nov. 7, collated by The Collective Genius, a research and strategy firm assisting with the presidential search. The report highlighted what faculty, staff, students, parents and alumni believe are the most important qualities and opportunities of the position.

“We are extremely happy with the work done by The Collective Genius and of course incredibly grateful for the invaluable feedback we received from the community,” Morgan wrote in a press release. “This effort will help us establish our guiding principles to find the best candidate for the job.”

The university’s Presidential Search Advisory Committee will work with executive leadership firm Spencer Stuart to refine the job description using the report and begin recruiting and interviewing candidates with the hope of making a recommendation to the Board in Spring 2024, according to the press release.

Melinda Swan, founder and chief executive officer of TCG, said she was pleased with the participation in both the listening sessions and the online survey despite them taking place after the sudden passing of President JoAnne Epps and as the university faced a leadership transition.

“All of those things certainly impacted people’s feelings about the situation, and probably their participation levels, too,” Swan said. “But I do think that the overall level of participation was very solid, and especially on the survey side, gave us data that is within a good

margin of error to make some real conclusions from.”

Thirty-five percent of the 2,144 completed surveys were from students, 26 percent were staff, 18 percent were faculty and 15 percent were alumni, according to the report. The report’s findings did not specifically denote the participation of community members or local residents.

Swan and the TCG team create their reports based on the questionnaires used during the survey period, which are oftentimes unique to the situations and opportunities at the university.

Once the survey period closed, Swan and her team, usually less than five people, began organizing notes from all of the conversations.

The team separated responses by student, faculty, staff, alumni, or parent, and began to look for where there may be similar themes or comments, Swan said.

TCG also analyzed the quantitative and open-ended results from the survey and integrated them into the report to find more themes and see where they aligned with the listening sessions.

Swan, who was present for all of the sessions, already had an idea of where to start and what some of the early themes were, she said.

“I had a jumpstart in terms of knowing what kinds of messaging I heard a lot from people, so that helped to guide it, but it’s really an assimilation of the qualitative and quantitative data as thoroughly as we can find a way to do it,” Swan said.

Here are some of the key findings from the 20-page report.

OPPORTUNITIES, ASSETS AND STRENGTHS

The first section of the report highlights participants’ opinions on university attributes and positive opportunities awaiting the next president. Among the responses, participants highlighted traits including Temple’s status as an R-1 research university, its positive economic and social impacts in Philadelphia and its “dedicated, talented faculty and staff.”

“Temple is in a position… to assert its identity and mission as a pur-

pose-driven university within the city of Philadelphia,” one graduate student was quoted as saying in the report.

Participants also highlighted Temple’s focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, its alumni network in the Northeast and students’ commitment to pursuing a degree as attributes that await the next president, according to the report.

Temple’s academic quality was also emphasized, recently highlighted by a placement of 89th in U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Colleges” ranking.

The ranking is the highest in Temple’s history and the first time the university has been included in the top 100.

TCG’s report also used quantitative data to exhibit opportunities and challenges, which can often both apply to one issue, the research firm wrote.

“We bring [opportunities and challenges] together because of this overlap and we separate them from assets because opportunities and challenges require different strategies to reap the benefits, while assets already exist as a benefit, albeit one that should be protected and enhanced,” the report read.

SAFETY AND ENGAGEMENT

COMMUNITY

The report’s qualitative data overwhelmingly showed safety as a top priority at Temple as the next president assumes the position.

“Temple is a big place, but a small community,” one member of faculty leadership said, quoted by the report.

“The bottom line is how safety affects enrollment, nothing else matters if it continues to decline. Friends, family, neighbors say ‘I would never send my child to Temple.’ This is priority one.”

TCG found that 73 percent of respondents thought “addressing concerns about the safety of the campus environment” is the university’s most significant challenge, while 40 percent said working with the community to address safety concerns was the greatest opportunity.

The university has grappled with a number of safety concerns around Main Campus in recent years, including the fatal shooting of a Temple student in November 2021 near Main Campus and the death of Sgt. Christopher Fitzgerald

on Feb. 18, the first death of an on-duty officer in the history of the Temple University Police Department.

The emphasis on safety in the report aligned with conversations Temple Student Government had with students, said TSG President Rohan Khadka, a junior secondary education-social studies major.

“Campus Safety has always remained one of our biggest concerns, whether it’s living off campus, whether it’s doing a job in the city,” Khadka said. “The implications of going to a city school has always been one of the concerns of students and I think it’s a great bridge to one of the other biggest concerns of the students working with our community members better to address campus safety.”

Khadka is the only student on the 17-member Presidential Search Advisory Committee, which will make a recommendation for the university’s next leader to the Board of Trustees.

Among 11 choices, or the option to list something else, “expanding and improving relationships with the local community and neighbors” was denoted by students as the second highest priority opportunity at the university while faculty, staff and alumni ranked it as eighth, sixth and ninth, respectively.

BALANCING FINANCIAL FUTURE AS PRESIDENT

“Securing a sustainable financial future” was picked by both alumni and staff as the top university priority opportunity among the 11 choices.

While finance can be connected to safety, enrollment and revenue growth, the next president will also have to handle state subsidies, private philanthropy, inflationary costs and other trends in the market, according to the report.

“It’s really important that this person has business acumen and understands the financial landscape, including budget management, data analytics, fundraising,” one staff member said, quoted by the report. “Revenues right now are pretty contingent on enrollment.”

Other quoted respondents want to see a president who could focus on addressing declining enrollment, philan-

NEWS

The Temple News

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WILL KIRKPATRICK / THE TEMPLE NEWS Temple’s “University Voices” report, compiled from 30 hours of listening sessions and 2,144 surveys, outlines stakeholder priorities for the next president, emphasizing safety and community engagement.

thropy, fundraising, growing the university’s endowment and making college more affordable.

THE NEXT BACKGROUND

PRESIDENT’S

The most important training, education or background to respondents was a “commitment to teaching, research and service.” Second on the list was a demonstrated advocacy for higher education, followed by prior experience in key higher education leadership, the report found.

TCG found that listening session attendees held strong opinions on wheth-

er the next president should have a “traditional” academia career path, including the completion of a terminal degree, the highest degree available in an academic discipline. While there was no consensus, a majority of faculty that spoke found these qualities to be essential, the report read.

However, some survey respondents and other contributors found those qualities to be less important.

“Prior experience in [relevant] higher education leadership positions,” one survey respondent wrote, cited by the report. “TU is not Stanford, Harvard, UPenn, nor does it need to be. Find us

someone who understands the unique value of a huge, mostly public, gritty, very urban university, and who does not see the need to make us into something else entirely.” oliver.sabo@temple.edu @oliversabo20

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NEWS

The Temple News

CAMPUS

Temple faces low enrollment and budget cuts

The university is trying to waits to hear if they’re admitted to inincrease enrollment to offset the crease enthusiasm about the university, shrinking student body.

Aviles said.

BY SIDNEY ROCHNIK Assistant News Editor As Temple continues to face declining undergraduate enrollment, the university has increased tuition and made budget cuts each year in an attempt to mitigate consequences for students and faculty.

Enrollment at Temple has decreased by 21.8 percent in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, from 39,088 students in 2019 to 30,530 students this fall semester.

“Temple at large will need to be more thoughtful about not just recruitment of new students, but also the student success aspect of enrollment management, and how we really support students from one semester to the next, from one year to the next onwards to graduation,” said Jose Aviles, vice provost for enrollment management. “But the most immediate pressing focus, without question, has been recruitment of new students.”

Undergraduate enrollment decreased by eight percent nationwide from 2019-22, according to a November 2021 study by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, a nonprofit that reports on education. Those numbers increased by two percent this fall, the first positive trend in a semester since the pandemic, according to an October 2023 study from the center.

Temple’s goal for the 2024-25 academic year is to see a five to 10 percent increase in enrollment compared to this academic year, Aviles said.

There are about 4,000 freshmen in the Class of 2027, so the university will need to add 200 to 400 more students next year to meet that goal.

STRATEGY

Accessing information about Temple is a significant factor in increasing enrollment. Temple sets up college application workshops in high schools to demystify the process and is also working on shortening the time a student

Seventy-eight percent of Philadelphia high school graduates want to pursue post-secondary education, and 80 percent of those graduates intend to work while in school, according to a 2021-22 exit survey for graduating seniors across The School District of Philadelphia.

“If you’re the public R-1 university of that region, you should be the destination of students that are in high schools across your region,” Aviles said. “Access starts with really being present in communities that we’re trying to recruit in as frequently as we possibly can, to build those meaningful relationships [and] to share the information that families sorely need. Especially first-generation families and low-income students.”

The Northeast region of the United States has a high concentration of colleges compared to the rest of the nation, The Washington Post reported. The number of high school graduates in the Northeast region is projected to decrease by more than five percent from 2012-27, according to a report by the National Center of Education Statistics.

Factors like these contribute to the competitive nature of the college enrollment, Aviles said.

To reach more students, the university began sending weekly digital and physical mail from Sept. 15, 2023 to April 30, 2024 to prospective students to encourage applications. The university is also increasing the frequency admissions counselors travel to high schools to recruit by 80 percent, Aviles said.

Temple’s 17 colleges have seen a variance in enrollment. The interest in individual colleges will be analyzed by the university in the Spring 2024 semester, so the university can make projections and use the data for future marketing.

“We are consistently talking to the prospective students who are high school seniors right now, to make sure that Temple is part of their consideration,” Aviles said. “And I’ve told audiences over the last couple of open houses

that really, if you are admitted to Temple, it’s not that you could go, it’s that you have to go. If you can go, you must go to Temple.”

DIVERSITY

Despite declining enrollment numbers, Temple has seen increased diversity in incoming freshman classes. This year marked the fourth consecutive academic year Temple had a record percentage of students of color enrolling, up from 42 percent in 2020 to 57 percent this academic year.

There is also a record number of Pell Grant recipients and first-generation students in the Class of 2027, at 38 percent and 37 percent, respectively.

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions has taken a different approach to recruitment this year to better reach high school students by broadening the purpose of recruitment to answer questions about the college experience and application process beyond Temple.

“What we decided to do was to create different ways to recruit students, where one, we’re talking to them about Temple, and then also talking to them about things that they can use, or [college] resources that they should be looking out for, no matter where it is that they are going,” said Adrienne Castro-Moreno, assistant director of Diversity Initiatives and Community Relations. “[We’re] essentially building that self advocacy in the way we’re recruiting.”

The department has “unconsciously” taken this approach in prior years, but recruiters have used the self-advocacy method of engagement since January, Moreno said.

The number of overall white, Hispanic and Asian students at Temple have increased, while Black student numbers have declined within the past decade, from 22 percent in 2002 to 14 percent in 2022.

Moreno believes engaging with local high schools through these more informational and personal workshops will increase the enrollment of students of color.

“We’re still recruiting for Temple, but we’re also engaging with the stu-

dent,” Moreno said. “We’ve been to multiple college fairs and the students were asking questions, but we were noticing that they were not being intentional about their questions. And we felt like it needed to be a more authentic conversation. And students, particularly in Philadelphia, actually value that you’re being authentic with them. You’re meeting them where they’re at.”

Recruiting within the city also contributes to enrolling a diverse class because Philadelphia is a diverse city in general, Aviles said.

The university has reported that just more than 17 percent of the Class of 2027 comes from Philadelphia, an almost three percent increase from the 2022-23 academic year.

November is the middle of recruiting season for the department, when their efforts to increase enrollment for the next year are crucial.

“We’ve been very, very proactive in telling the stories and communicating through our [media] pieces in ways that highlight a rich diversity, the history of the diversity, that Temple has always attracted,” Aviles said. “I think students of color are always looking and asking questions about how they might fit where they’re considering. I think it is a great advantage that Temple has always been an authentic destination for diverse students, and I think it’s an opportunity for us to continue to build in that space.”

BUDGET

Student enrollment impacts university revenue, as tuition accounts for 78 percent of the university budget. Tuition increased by just more than 4 percent for in-state students this year as a result of budget cuts and the amount of state funding Temple received.

The budget typically increases by three percent, accounting for raises to faculty salaries and benefits, said Jaison Kurichi, associate vice president for budget.

The budget was cut by $50 million this year, resulting in a four percent decrease instead.

The university prioritizes student experiences and services when making

The Temple News

NEWS

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FERNANDO GAXIOLA / THE TEMPLE NEWS The university aims for a five to 10 percent enrollment boost for the 2024-25 academic year to offset recent years of declining enrollment.

budget cuts, Kurichi said.

“When we pick our budget cuts, [we] ensure that those services that are critical for that experience are offered properly,” Kurichi said.

Individual college budgets are also driven by their own enrollment. The Fox School of Business’s enrollment in undergraduate and graduate programs has decreased during the last five years.

There are 4,632 undergraduate students enrolled this year compared to 6,737 undergraduates in 2019. The school’s budget saw a 19 percent cut this year as a consequence.

Temple has avoided resorting to job

layoffs by using reserves, money saved across time from situations like position vacancies, Kurichi said. The Board of Trustees permitted the use of $34 million from the reserves this fiscal year. “[Reserves are] kind of our way of buying time, budgetarily,” Kurichi said.

“To say ‘Alright, we can’t cut the entire thing this year. So we’re gonna get some cash to get through this period in time.’

And hopefully, next year when we start building the budget again, things have changed. Enrollment projections are looking better, whatever it might be, so we don’t have to cut as much, so then we can not do something crazy we’d want

to do or what draconian things that we might have to do.” sidney.rochnik@temple.edu

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NEWS

The Temple News

FACULTY

TAUP, Temple exchange new contract proposals The two parties are trading offers in hopes of avoiding a strike and securing benefits.

BY SIDNEY ROCHNIK Assistant News Editor Temple and the Temple Association of University Professionals have considered multiple versions of a contract extension throughout the year, as the two parties continue to meet to create the union’s new four-year contract.

TAUP, the union that represents full and part-time faculty members and librarians from 13 of Temple’s colleges, saw their contract expire on Oct. 15. There have been 10 meetings between TAUP and the university to reach an agreement on the union’s contract proposals since negotiations began in August. There are two negotiation meetings scheduled for the remaining semester, the next taking place in December.

Temple’s most recent offer extends the union’s contract to June 30, 2024.

If accepted, full-time faculty, librarians and academic professionals would get a retroactive five percent raise from July 1, and adjunct faculty would receive a 12 percent retroactive increase to the minimum rate for the fall semester. Any non-tenure-track faculty member who doesn’t renew their contract with Temple will also receive severance pay equal to that of full-time staffers.

TAUP declined this offer and provided a counter-proposal for the extension during negotiations on Nov. 1, which the university is reviewing. The proposal extends the contract into January 2024 and requires that Temple accept their job security proposals, which include ensuring long-serving adjunct and non-tenure track faculty receive multi-semester or year contracts.

“If they are serious about an extension, they’re going to have to come and negotiate over job security,” said TAUP President Jeffery Doshna. “And if they don’t want to negotiate over job security, then I don’t see how an extension is

EAMON HOYE / THE TEMPLE NEWS Temple and TAUP’S negotiations emphasize wage increases and job security, with the current offer extending to June 30, 2024.

possible. We’ll just keep negotiating at the table as we have been for a long time already.”

Seventy percent of Temple faculty are contingent — either pre-tenure, on a non-tenure track or serving as an adjunct faculty member — making job security the most important issue for staff, Doshna said.

TAUP’s contract negotiations come after a semester of labor battles on campus, as Temple University Graduate Student Association went on a 42-day strike last spring semester to advocate for increased wages and healthcare benefits.

“What [an extension] would do for the university, for the union, for our students, for faculty and staff is it gives us the comfort that over the course of that time, it’s going to be business as usual for them,” said Sharon Boyle, vice president of human resources. “So we continue working on the collective bargaining agreement issues, and the university continues to operate without any threat of job action.”

The university began discussing potential contract extensions as early as May, seeking to extend it to April 2025.

This never developed further, as the conversations weren’t held with TAUP’s membership, Doshna said.

Another university offer came days after the sudden passing of President JoAnne Epps in September.

This offer, which would have extended the contract to mid-January, was proposed to get both parties through the semester. It was another sign, after the TUGSA strikes and presidential turnover, that the university needed stability, Boyle said.

The offer was just an extension, with no wage or job security benefits attached. TAUP countered to include raises and discussions about job security, Doshna said.

Temple’s current offer, introduced on Oct. 13, took that raise into account and made the extension last a full year.

The university hasn’t responded to TAUP’s counter offer.

“We are meeting when we can meet,” Doshna said. “We are trying as best we can to accommodate everybody’s schedules. We proposed some dates that they rejected. But again, this is their full time job. And we are doing this as part of

our more important, honestly, responsibilities to teaching and research and service, helping students [and] keeping university running.”

TAUP has not yet submitted proposals for wages, which is typical for labor negotiations, but they have reached some tentative agreements on non-economic proposals, Doshna said.

The union’s current non-economic proposals include improved sick leave, adequate representation on committees that supervise promotions and allowing more academic freedom in what professors teach, Doshna said.

Neither the union or university have a deadline for finishing negotiations and coming to a new contract. “[The university has] made minimal proposals and the union has a substantial number of proposals on the table,” Boyle said. “It’ll take time to work through all of them, to give them the attention and discussion, and either come to an agreement or come to a point where some of them are withdrawn.” sidney.rochnik@temple.edu

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OPINION

The Temple News

ESSAY

Fake Latina: My journey of identity and belonging A student explores her complex journey with being biracial and connecting with both cultures.

BY BRIANNA HILL Deputy Copy Editor “Eres puertorriquena, no importa como te veas, siempre seras una latina,” my abuelita would constantly tell me growing up.

“You’re Puerto Rican, no matter what you look like, you’ll always be a Latina” I hold those words dear to this day, but it’s a concept I’ve always struggled with: looking like I’m one race, but being biracial and connecting with both cultures, especially my Latin side.

Most who don’t know me assume I am only Black. I look Black, act Black — if that’s a thing — and only speak English. However, I am also Puerto Rican and, for as long as I can remember, I’ve found myself at a crossroads between my two identities.

I grew up in Hunting Park, Philadelphia, which some locals refer to as “Papi Land” because most of its residents are Latino. My mother is Puerto Rican and my father is Black, but I spent most of my childhood immersed in Latin culture, raised by my mother and abuelita.

My abuelita’s house was always filled with the aromas of traditional Puerto Rican foods, Fabuloso and the rhythmic bass of Latin music. She taught me to cook many traditional Latin dishes, and my tios taught me how to dance the bachata, as it was a standard step at any family gathering.

But no matter how close I was to the culture, I always felt like an outsider because of how I looked.

I have the darkest complexion and the tightest curl pattern on my mom’s side of the family. I would always wonder why I didn’t share complexions or hair textures with them, which made me question my beauty, and at times, frown upon my physical traits.

Aside from my physical traits, my inability to understand Spanish made me

ALLYSON THARP/ THE TEMPLE NEWS

feel even more disconnected from my Latina side. All of my family members spoke English, but many of them are from “la isla,” or the island, so it wasn’t their first language and they often spoke Spanish.

When my abuelita would play her favorite Spanish songs on the radio, I’d hear melody, bass and different tones, while she would hear a love story or the artist’s journey. I tried to pick up on words I’d heard around the house, but I could only grasp the overall arc of the song, never the details.

Despite these differences, I’m thankful I have a loving and accepting family.

I was always my abuelita‘s favorite, her little muñeca, and my cousins, tios and tias never treated me like I was different from them, even though I still felt a disconnect.

But as I got older, I learned more about diversity within Latin culture and began to accept my differences. I learned

about different notable figures in the Latino community who shared similar experiences as me.

When I was about 16 years old, I came across a television show called “Celia,” a telenovela exploring the life of the Cuban singer Celia Cruz. The show documented her struggles and the impact she made as the Queen of Salsa in the 1950s and 1960s, when colorism was more prominent. Cruz was as dark as me, with curly hair similar to mine. As a dark-skinned Afro-Latina, she faced discrimination for her looks, but she continued to prosper.

As I journeyed through her music, learning about her experiences as an Afro-Latina, I found solace in her story. Her unapologetic celebration of her identity and her unwavering pride in her Black heritage resonated deeply with me.

Cruz’s story showed me the power of diversity within the Latino community, giving me the courage to celebrate the

unique aspects of who I am, even if they set me apart from others.

I’ve always taken great pride in my Blackness, and I wear it on my sleeve. It has created a sense of belonging to a legacy of resilience, creativity and cultural richness that has shaped my life.

Similarly, my family instilled in me a deep appreciation for my Puerto Rican heritage growing up through traditions, celebrations and values. My home was filled with Spanish bickering, blasting reggaeton, late-night parties, homemade Pasteles and Sancocho, which is also a source of pride in my life.

Although to others I may connect more with being Black in my physical traits, I could never allow myself to claim only one race. I may not always look or act the part, but I understand the culture in my heart and because of that, I will always be proud to be Boricua. brianna.hill@temple.edu

The Temple News

OPINION

PAGE 11

HEALTH

Students, it’s okay to not be “healthy” all the time A student argues it’s important to not get caught up in advice from influencers on social media.

BY VALERIA URIBE Assistant Opinion Editor When I open TikTok, the last thing I want to think about are my health habits. My goal is to relax for a while and to get my mind away from concerns like school and work.

Unfortunately, most of the videos I see tell me my eating habits are running my body, and consist of “experts” giving recommendations on how to live a healthier life. It’s overwhelming to constantly see new health trends I will never be able to follow. Instead of finding the instant relief I hope to attain on social media, I end up stressing about how “healthy” I am.

The pressure of being “healthy” is getting out of control as more health influencers populate social media. There are approximately 50,000 health influencers on Instagram, and nearly twothirds have given misleading advice at some point, The New York Times reported.

Overexposure to health advice on social media can make people believe they have to follow every trend to be “healthy.” However, not all recommendations are fact-based, and health is an intricate matter that should not be handled carelessly. It’s okay to not be one hundred percent “healthy” all of the time, and people should be able to follow their own definition of health without feeling pressured by social media content.

“Healthy” is portrayed on social media as someone who eats clean, exercises daily and uses expensive products. However, this definition of “health” is unattainable for the average person. People should manage their own health personally and follow advice from health professionals, instead of being pressured by social media.

“We’ve known since before the advent of X and Instagram and TikTok that if we are exposed to repeated images of idealized versions of physical attrac-

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tiveness, we feel worse about ourselves,” said David Sarwer, the associate dean for research and director of Temple’s Center for Obesity and Education.

Overexposure to health advice and misleading tips can lead to the development of eating disorders. People can develop disorders like orthorexia, compulsive health-related behaviors, due to online health trends, according to Gundersen Health System. It’s important for people to rely on experts to create habits that are appropriate for them.

Kennedy Dupree, a senior finance major, often feels pressured to be “healthy” when she sees videos of influences promoting health standards online, she said.

“It can definitely be overwhelming, especially for people like me, who are a little bigger on that scale, it can be traumatizing sometimes,” Dupree said.

While doctors and registered dieticians share health advice online, influencers without qualifications are also sharing their health secrets regardless of whether they are scientifically proven or not, contributing to the spread of misin-

formation.

“We as consumers of social media are being bombarded by scientific and health-based information and as a result, it can be really hard for people to figure out who are the reputable sources and what’s the evidence-based information, as opposed to somebody who’s on social media looking to make money off consumers,” Sarwer said.

College students are vulnerable to health trends because they spend between one and three hours on social media a day, according to a July 2022 study by the National Institutes of Health. The amount of time students spend online exposes them to an overflow of information about health habits.

It’s stressful for young people to see tips, promising to help improve their health, because social media influences self image and can promote dangerous beauty standards. This could result in people developing unhealthy fitness habits in the process, like excessively working out or taking expensive supplements without first consulting a specialist.

Pressure on social media influenced

Sakiyah Allen-Sheffey, a junior criminal justice major, to change her eating and exercise habits, but realized popular trends fancy green powders and complicated workout routines don’t work for her and her lifestyle, she said.

“I feel inclined to start a healthier life sometimes, like you see [influencers] going to the gym, eating this and doing that and it’s like should I be doing this?”

Allen-Sheffey said. “That’s not realistic for me, I can’t do those things or some of those things are not for me.”

Health trends on social media are exhausting and it’s time to normalize that being healthy doesn’t look the same for everyone. It’s okay to not follow all the advice we are bombarded with online, and it’s okay to eat a full meal, drink carbonated drinks and enjoy life without following unattainable standards of health. valeria.uribe@temple.edu valeriauribea

PAGE 12

OPINION

The Temple News

ACTIVISM

Temple, prioritize the return of Native ancestors A student urges the university to return the Indigenous ancestors in their possession.

BY CLAIRE ZEFFER Opinion Editor November is National Native American Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the rich and vibrant culture and history of Indigenous populations across the United States.

It has been hundreds of years since the U.S. began westward expansion and the subsequent genocide, forced relocation, cultural assimilation and unjust treatment of Native Americans, but the effects still permeate Indigenous communities today.

Since the 1800s, archaeologists and museum collectors have dug up and loot-

ed burial sites for Indigenous remains, funerary objects and cultural items.

This was once a common practice that has since become an ethical debate and a continuous source of hurt for Indigenous populations.

Despite the passing of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in 1990, a federal law that required the return of these items to Indigenous tribes and descendants, the remains of more than 110,000 Indigenous ancestors are still held by museums, universities and federal agencies. More than 100 are held in Temple’s Department of Anthropology, ProPublica reported in January.

Temple should make it a priority to acknowledge the harm of possessing these ancestors and fulfill their responsibility to return these items to the rightful Indigenous communities.

Temple’s Department of Anthropology currently holds 116 Indigenous remains, with only seven percent of their collection having been made available for return, ProPublica reported.

These 116 Indigenous ancestors were excavated and removed from their burial places by archaeologists, largely in the 1960s, said Leslie Reeder-Myers, an anthropology professor and the director of Temple’s Anthropology Laboratory and Museum.

“They were removed at a time when archaeology operated very differently, and that was considered by archaeologists to be completely fine, even though it was not considered to be okay by the Indigenous descendants of the people who were removed,” Reeder-Myers said.

Until the 20th century, archeologists, anthropologists and collectors took Native remains and sacred objects

during expeditions on tribal lands, The Associated Press reported.

Some remains were sought after for scientific purposes, and bodies were collected by government agencies after battles with tribes. Museums also wanted these items to establish collections, and academic institutions used them as teaching tools.

Temple’s collection of Indigenous ancestors are not on display or used for educational purposes or analysis.

“We do not use them to teach, we do not use them for analysis, research, anything,” Reeder-Myers said. “They are left alone for the time being while we work towards repatriation.”

Other Philadelphia institutions also possess Indigenous remains, including the Wagner Free Institute of Science, University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the

ALLYSON THARP / THE TEMPLE NEWS

The Temple News

Mütter Museum.

Repatriation is the process in which human remains and certain types of cultural items are returned to lineal descendants, Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations, according to the National Museum of the American Indian.

Temple’s Department of Anthropology has only completed the repatriation of ancestors from two different locations to the rightful tribal groups, but the university says they are dedicated to completing the process.

“Temple University and the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) are committed to the assiduous repatriation of ancestral remains to their descendants and tribal nations,” the university wrote in a statement to The Temple News. “Over the next two years, Richard Deeg, dean of CLA, has pledged to invest considerably in this process as he recognizes that there is both a legal and moral obligation to return ancestors.”

Federal land management agencies estimate more than one-third of Native American sites on federally protected property have been emptied, many of which were grave sites, The Washington Post reported.

Temple and other Philadelphia institutions must prioritize the return of these materials, as it’s a long overdue opportunity to show respect and allow closure for Indigenous communities.

The possession and lack of repatriations of these remains is appalling, said Dennis Coker, Principal Chief of the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware, a state-recognized American Indian tribal nation located in Kent County, Delaware.

“Retaining that cultural material and excavating it and removing it for research purposes was just totally uncalled for, out of line and disrespectful,” Coker said. “Many of our native traditionals have the view that that cultural material needs to be left in the ground, that’s where it was placed. It should not be removed.”

Many universities are now grappling with how to complete this process in a way that is efficient and respectful to Indigenous communities.

The repatriation process involves extensive record-sifting and communication with possible descendants and tribes, but because these items were

OPINION often stolen and treated without care, many ancestors are unable to be easily identified and returned.

While reparation can be a tedious and multifaceted process, it’s something that must be done in fairness and out of respect for the Indigenous people who have, for years, suffered the effects of colonization and assimilation.

“It’s a legacy of colonialism that is now our responsibility to address even if it weren’t directly involved in the choices that brought these people to support,” Reeder-Myers said.

It’s been more than 30 years since the passing of NAGPRA, but 52 percent of the nearly 209,000 Native American human remains have still not been returned. The process poses many challenges, like resource constraints, competing priorities and limitations with data that have prevented more significant progress, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

“It’s just totally unacceptable that Native Americans seem to be the focus of all of those collections,” Coker said.

“Even when required by law to return that material, that law is often ignored, so there is a lot of work to do.”

Temple’s Department of Anthropology is renovating a space to improve security and privacy for the Indigenous ancestors, and they are actively working with Bernstein & Associates, a NAGPRA consultant, to expedite the repatriation and ensure transparency, according to a statement from the department.

While Temple is taking steps in the right direction, they should be transparent about their process and consistently held accountable by faculty and students to ensure they are fulfilling their moral and legal obligations. Establishing a dialogue with involved faculty and administration can develop unanimous efforts toward achieving repatriation.

Students are not responsible for Temple returning these items, but they can educate themselves, volunteer, seek information from tribes and strive to be welcoming of new information and sensitive feelings from the Indigenous community to support the process.

Even though Philadelphia was once home to a plethora of Native American tribes, there are currently no federally recognized Indian tribes in Pennsylvania. However, more than 12,000 Ameri-

can Indians live in the state, according to the 2022 U.S. Census.

The federally recognized tribes that were in Philadelphia are the Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians and the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, Reeder-Myers said. Both tribes are still active today.

“I think it would be amazing for students to learn more about and learn ways to advocate and one really good way to do that is to look for the resources coming from the tribes themselves,” Reeder-Myers said.

The Global Citizen, an action platform dedicated to achieving equality and ending poverty, provides a list of ways to take action and support Native American communities during Native American Heritage Month and beyond.

Students can support IPD Philly, a community network supporting Native American social justice, and the Native American House Alliance, a non-profit promoting the general welfare of Native Americans in the Philadelphia area.

They can also attend local events and volunteer for these organizations, and be receptive to respecting cultural practices and learning about Indigenous experiences and feelings.

Engaging and advocating for local tribal members and organizations is a way for people to be helpful, said Cornelia Dimalanta, a descendant of the Lumbee Tribe and president of the Native American House Alliance.

“It’s becoming proven that there are a lot of tribal members here,” Dimalanta said. “They may all be from different tribes, but we’re here, and we need a voice.”

Actively engaging with Indigenous communities, promoting cultural awareness and acknowledging the problematic past of the university are simple ways to support the Native population in Pennsylvania.

Institutions must work proactively to make amends after years of mishandling Indigenous ancestors, and students can use their voices to advocate for the completion.

The cruel treatment of Indigenous people has been validated by the possession of these stolen ancestors, and these communities deserve the remains returned home so they can be appreciated and buried with dignity.

PAGE 13

Completing the return process would bring a much-needed sense of closure to Indigenous communities, Coker said.

“For the extended families of these peoples, it’s the right thing to do, and when all else fails, you do the right thing,” Coker said. “I think that’s the attitude for most of Indian country. At least they know that the remains of those loved ones are with them, to a certain extent.”

Indigenous populations deserve to be reunited with what is rightfully theirs, and Temple has an obligation to make amends for the role they played in disrespecting ancestors and their families through their possession of cherished cultural items.

The repatriation process can be difficult, but there is no excuse for it not to be completed in a timely, respectful and collaborative manner. Temple must work actively to rectify the wrongs of the past and foster an environment where the dignity and cultural heritage of all communities are acknowledged and honored. claire.zeffer@temple.edu clairezeffer

PAGE 14

OPINION

The Temple News

ESSAY

Tried and true blue: adventures in friendship A student reflects on a crosscountry road trip with her two childhood friends.

BY CLAIRE ZEFFER Opinion Editor In March, the indie music group boygenius announced their return from hiatus with a new album and an accompanying summer tour. Two of my best friends, Maddy and Morgan, and I were thrilled, as we had lived out much of our high school years listening to their first EP. I was looking at the tour dates and ambitiously suggested buying tickets to the performance in Montana. My idea was fairly simple: three 21-year-old girls embarking on a cross-country summer road trip with limited funds, questionable planning skills and no previous experience in National Park hopping.

Our time together was rarely supplemented by activities or travel, and many of our previous big ideas had fallen victim to the abyss of group chats and hectic college lives. This time, we were determined to bring our plan to fruition.

We planned to use Morgan’s Subaru to get us out West, and we opted for tent camping most nights to save on costs and to immerse ourselves fully in the places we were visiting.

On day one, with a car full of camping gear, Maddy, Morgan and I hit the road at 5 a.m. for a 13 hour drive, heading from our hometown, Nazareth, Pennsylvania, to Madison, Wisconsin.

In between naps and stops for gas, we listened to our favorite music, laughed at midwestern billboards and attempted to play ridiculously boring car games.

We arrived at our first hotel in Madison: a dingy Econo Lodge situated on a hill, overlooking a highway and a Hooters. I’ll never forget how beautiful the sky looked. The three of us stood at the edge of the parking lot, admiring the view and eagerly anticipating the rest of our trip.

I knew that in the days to come we were going to be faced with breathtaking landscapes and once-in-a-lifetime experiences far beyond the sun setting over

ALLYSON THARP / THE TEMPLE NEWS

a Hooters. Somehow, though, I was just as content at that moment, grateful to be anywhere with Maddy and Morgan.

The next week was an unbelievable blur of driving, camping and sightseeing.

We made stops in four national parks across several different states: Theodore Roosevelt in North Dakota, Glacier in Montana, Yellowstone in Wyoming and Badlands in South Dakota.

We slept in a tent at night. We built roaring fires. We cooked hot dogs on a propane stove. We hiked and saw mountains, wild animals and natural horizons I could hardly fathom coming from such a small and overdeveloped town.

The trip also had its bad moments.

We got back aches from sleeping on rock-solid ground. We built fires that died out in minutes. We bickered as we set up the tent. We laid awake for three hours in Yellowstone, convinced there was a grizzly bear sniffing around our tent. Maybe that was just me. We got

lost and spent days without cell service, and in moments, we seemingly grew tired and irritated with each other.

Those feelings were inevitable after 10 days in such close quarters, but they never lasted. The anger and annoyance faded quickly into nothingness when we laughed at the same stupid jokes, fawned over the beauty of our surroundings or stopped the car to let a buffalo cross the road in front of us.

Maddy, Morgan and I had hours of time together to fill with conversation, allowing us to not just have fun, but to be vulnerable and to share these life-changing experiences with one another. During the boygenius concert at the KettleHouse Amphitheater, we stood with our arms around each other during the song “True Blue.” I couldn’t help but feel like our relationship paralleled the lyrics: “It feels good to be known so well, I can’t hide from you like I hide from

myself. I remember who I am when I’m with you.”

I stood between both of them, halfway across the country as fully-grown and independent women. As childhood friends, we each shared so many experiences together, from the simple joys of girlhood to the devastating lows of being a teenager, and now the vacation of my dreams.

As we returned home, I recognized the road trip as a testament to our unbreakable bond and a reflection of our longstanding relationships; the places we visited and the memories we made were incredible, but the best part was the time I got to spend with my friends.

Regardless of where I go or what road lies ahead, I know that the people by my side are what truly makes the journey worthwhile. claire.zeffer@temple.edu clairezeffer

The Temple News

OPINION

PAGE 15

STUDENT LIFE

Avoid e-commerce grinches this holiday season A student urges peers to be aware of the dangers of e-commerce while online shopping.

BY CLAIRE ZEFFER Opinion Editor

With the holiday season in full swing, students may be eager to start online shopping, seeking good deals and the convenience of delivery.

Consumers spent a record $211.7 billion while online shopping between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, 2022, according to Adobe Analytics. It’s estimated this trend will continue to increase in the United States during the 2023 holiday season, with online sales throughout November and December expected to hit $221.8 billion.

Although e-commerce can make shopping more efficient, students should be aware of the potential dangers associated with online shopping and take the proper precautions, like checking their bank accounts, changing account passwords and refraining from saving card information on websites.

When inputting necessary information for payments and shipping, people might be making their personal information vulnerable to cybercrime.

Derek Fisher, a software security adjunct professor, believes an increasingly digital society makes it easier for attackers to scam users and access their information.

“In a store you can feel things, you can touch,” Fisher said. “You see the vendor that you’re working with, you’re physically there, but online your physical senses are gone.”

One of the most well-known forms of e-commerce crime is identity theft, where a cybercriminal steals another person’s personal or financial information with the intent to conduct unauthorized financial transactions or access benefits and services in the victim’s name.

Similarly, credit card fraud is prevalent online, especially card-not-present fraud, which involves online transactions. Stolen information can be used to impersonate victims, causing financial

ALLYSON THARP/ THE TEMPLE NEWS

harm and damaging credit.

Fraud and identity theft cases have nearly tripled during the last decade with the rise of the internet, reaching more than 1.4 million a year by 2022, according to the National Council on Identity Theft Protection.

Frequently checking bank activity is a simple way to identify unauthorized or suspicious transactions and report them to the bank, said Larry Brandolph, Temple’s vice president for information technology and chief information security officer.

“During this timeframe, people really should spend the extra time looking at their credit card statements, not just at the end of the month,” Brandolph said.

“It’s better to see them more frequently and know that something’s occurring than to wait until the end of the month.”

Students should trust their intuition about the websites they visit. If a site looks suspicious, it’s better to avoid it than to put sensitive information at risk.

Websites that begin with “http” instead of “https” or that have a significant amount of pop-ups are some signs that a website is susceptible to breaches and

should not be trusted with personal information, according to AAA. Many consumers keep their credit card or debit card information stored on websites or in apps to make future purchases faster, but this is another way for data and information to be susceptible to breaches.

Students should re-enter their credit card information for each individual purchase or opt for the added security of a third-party payment, like Paypal or Apple Pay. Using this method means the merchant cannot access a customer’s card’s information, according to Chase Bank.

Anupa Gautam does a majority of her shopping online and is wary of getting her personal and financial information stolen, she said.

“Whenever I shop online, I usually use Apple Pay because I think it’s more secure to go through a third party,” said Gautam, a senior financial analysis major. “I wouldn’t really know the process of what to do if it did happen to me, so it’s just better to be safe.”

Using a weak or repeated password across multiple sites also increases the

chance of identity or credit card theft.

Students should use strong passwords and change them every three months as protection, according to McAfee.

If personal data does get compromised, students should change their passwords, check their credit reports vigilantly, freeze their credit and visit IdentityTheft.gov to report the breach and establish a recovery plan, according to Fulton Bank.

If a student suspects their credit card has been stolen, they should immediately contact their bank, change login information, monitor credit statements and dispute fraudulent purchases immediately, CNBC reported.

Although these security measures may slightly complicate online shopping, the benefits outweigh the dangers of falling victim to e-commerce scams or fraud. Students should be aware of the dangers to ensure a positive holiday shopping experience, free from cybercrime. claire.zeffer@temple.edu clairezeffer

PAGE 16

ALL IN GOOD FUN Crossword Puzzle

The Temple News

Holiday Season Word Search

Winter Wonderland Crossword 1 2

3 4 5 6

7 8

9

10 11 12 Evergreen Hibernation 13 Snowman Blizzard Blanket Igloo Snowboarding Mistletoe 14 Bundle Up Carol December DOWN ACROSS Ember 1. See 3 down 2. Children learn this truth about St. Freezing 3. With 1 down, the first word of Nick when they’re old enough Hot Cider Down: Across: phrase said by this northern family 6. Last minute trip before christmas Toboggan 1.Tinsel hint above 2.morning to upset young children in HBO series Conquer slopes for this mixed withtrip juicebefore Chris 3.Yuellog with (#for “is coming”) 4. catch phrase 6.8. Famously last minute

5. Nut __ are my favorite

4.

5.

popular northern family7.inTame HBO series Falling leaves 9.

Gift from Santa to bad behaved conquer slopes Nut _ are my favorite children 10. Popular lodging in the winter

12. Drinkable eggs?

8.13. Temple famously mixed with juice to graduates 14. Rudolph the __ nosed reindeer 12. drinkable eggs?

13. Temple to graduates

7. tame falling leaves 14. rudolph the _ nosed reindee months. To the Pocanos perhaps?

11. Food deliverer or Santa’s helper 9. gift from Santa to bad behaved children 10. popular trip in the winter months. To the Pocanos perhaps?

PAGE 18

FEATURES

The Temple News

STUDENT LIFE

Law students form clinic for student leasing aid

Two Temple law students are advocating for a student legal services program on campus.

ALAYNA HUTCHINSON For The Temple News When Temple launched a mental health and wellness task force in February 2022, Len Rieser, the program coordinator at the Beasley School of Law’s Sheller Center for Social Justice, advocated for legal support to improve student wellness to be included in task force efforts.

“I reached out to [members of the task force] and said ‘Having heat in your apartment is also wellness, and not having to worry about where you’re going to sleep,’” Rieser said. “Counseling might

be a lot less helpful than helping you get access to benefits that would enable you to have a place to sleep.”

Temple has taken additional steps to address barriers to students’ success, like creating a Food Insecurity Task Force in November, but there is still no university-sanctioned legal support for students. As Rieser has considered how these housing issues could be addressed through legal help, two of his law students have found a way to bring legal resources to campus.

Anna Manu Fineanganofo and Casey Dwyer, both second-year law students, are finalizing a semester-long project for Beasley’s Social Justice Lawyering Clinic to create a student legal services program at Temple focused on providing tenants rights information.

The Social Justice Lawyering Clinic represents individuals and organizations

for issues affecting low-income residents in the Philadelphia region. Clinic students provide pro bono legal representation on a range of issues, and litigate on behalf of clients in federal and state courts.

Fineanganofo and Dwyer are planning to launch the program offering legal representation for housing and leasing issues in January, which will be provided by volunteer law students with a supervising attorney, in partnership with Beasley’s Housing Justice Initiative and Temple’s Cherry Pantry.

THE PURPOSE Twenty-four percent of Temple students experienced food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a March 2021 survey by the Hope Center for Community, College and Justice.

Additionally, 40 percent experienced

housing insecurity, and 11 percent experienced homelessness in 2020.

Fineanganofo and Dwyer used this data and approached the project from a legal resources standpoint to address basic needs insecurity by informing students about their rights as tenants or helping eligible students access public benefits.

“One reason people don’t get legal information or legal help is because they don’t recognize that they have a legal problem,” Rieser said. “The problem presents as ‘I don’t have enough food,’ or ‘My landlord won’t fix the heat,’ but not everyone says ‘There might be a legal aspect or a legal process.’”

If Temple students need legal support, they’re referred to city organizations, like Community Legal Services and Philadelphia Legal Assistance.

While Philadelphia has dozens of legal

WILL KIRKPATRICK / THE TEMPLE NEWS Anna Manu Fineanganofo and Casey Dwyer are launching a student legal services program that will provide legal resources.

The Temple News

FEATURES

aid organizations providing free and low-cost services, they aren’t always accessible for college students.

“I was a first generation college student, so it’s really important to me that undergraduate students have access to resources.” Fineanganofo said. “If you need help looking through a lease that you’re offered, or trying to figure out if you want to sign on again another year, you can come sit with a law student and they’ll provide you information about this area which can be really confusing, like what’s legal, what’s not legal.”

mates that about 40 percent of their cases are landlord-tenant issues.

“Non-urban campuses like Michigan and Virginia Tech are going to have different problems to an extent, but at the same time it’s standard college problems,” Dwyer said.

Similar to Michigan, a majority of Temple students live off-campus.

Eighty-six percent lived in housing that was not affiliated with the university in 2022, compared to 73 percent at Michigan.

BUILDING THE PROJECT

Funding is one significant barrier to starting a program at Temple. Fineanganofo and Dwyer found that programs are typically funded through mandatory student fees – Michigan charges an additional $8.50 in tuition fees per semester for all students to cover their full-service law office.

With Temple’s tuition continuously rising in recent years due to funding challenges, Fineanganofo and Dwyer realized that any increase in costs would be a tough sell. They’ve instead focused on ways to offer legal resources by partnering with existing organizations and offices at Temple.

Fineanganofo and Dwyer are partnering with Temple’s Housing Justice Initiative, a law student organization focused on tenants’ rights education and training that started in August 2022.

Law students in HJI will work with Fineanganofo and Dwyer to provide the legal information when the program starts in January.

“Housing is absolutely one of the most important areas of basic needs security, but unfortunately the area where there are, nationally, the least supports,” said Bryce McKibben, senior director of policy and advocacy at The Hope Center. “We don’t really have a large, accessible housing support public benefit program. It’s also one of the most expensive non-tuition costs that students face.”

The program is collaborating with Temple’s Cherry Pantry, which provides emergency food resources to students and referrals to the Supplemental Nutri-

The project builds on a proposal from May 2022 by a group of Temple law students for the Access to Justice Clinic, which focuses on how to expand legal help to underrepresented communities.

The proposal aimed to demonstrate the need for a student legal services program and outlines next steps for future groups to advance this effort.

At other universities, student legal resources are common. There are 50 member programs within the National Students Legal Services Inc., which aims to support student legal service offices throughout the country. Though programs can vary in structure and scope, they typically provide legal resources to students for free or at low cost, which often includes legal information and consultation, with some programs offering litigation services.

Fineanganofo and Dwyer started their project in September by researching and reaching out to some student legal services programs, mainly focusing on large state schools. They wanted to learn more about their funding mechanisms, how they became established and what students’ needs are regarding legal resources.

They were able to get in contact with offices at the University of Michigan, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Virginia Tech, and found a consistent need for legal support with off-campus housing, ranging from lease review to consultation and litigation in landlord-tenant disputes. Michigan esti-

OVERCOMING BARRIERS

tion Assistance Program, to develop the framework for a partnership between the organizations. The pantry wants to expand its offerings to include resources for housing, food, and financial security.

“I think that Anna Fineanganofo and Casey Dwyer’s efforts to bring legal resources to students is incredibly valuable and absolutely intersects with the mission of the pantry,” wrote Annette Ditolvo, the senior program manager for basic needs support in the Dean of Students’ Office, in an email to The Temple News. “Both their work and the work we do at the Cherry Pantry centers the student as a human first and works to ensure that students have their basic needs met so they are able to thrive academically.”

GAINING EXPERIENCE

Alex Leone, a second-year law student and co-president of HJI, believes this will be an opportunity for law students to gain experience in housing law, she said.

“There are a lot of students who come to the law school to be housing attorneys, and we’re trying to expand the offerings that Temple has for students to learn more about it because it’s such a pressing need in the city,” Leone said.

The housing law field in Philadelphia has expanded significantly in recent years, particularly with the Right to Counsel initiative that was passed by City Council in 2019 and launched in 2022. The initiative guarantees free legal representation to eligible low-income renters facing eviction in certain zip codes, including 19121, encompassing part of Temple’s Main Campus.

“There’s going to be a lot more jobs in housing law in the next couple years.”

Dwyer said. “It just makes sense for Temple to try to get housing experience for students if this is going to be a growing field in Philadelphia.”

Fineanganofo and Dwyer are focused on launching the legal information program, but want their project to be part of a long-term effort to get a more robust student legal services pro-

PAGE 19

gram on campus that provides services beyond housing resources. They hope that future law students will continue to build on their work.

“We’re trying to provide the most simple path forward to start, and then eventually expand,” Dwyer said. alayna.hutchinson@temple.edu alaynajhutch

FEATURES

PAGE 20

The Temple News

FASHION

Temple named second most fashionable campus A recent analysis places Temple among the most stylish campuses in the nation.

BY MOLLY FISKE Features Editor Filled with skaters in their typical attire — Adidas Sambas, baggy work pants and a graphic t-shirt or hoodie — the makeshift skatepark at Cecil B. Moore Plaza is a hub for some of the most fashion-forward Temple students.

Charlie Morgan, a junior data and computer science major, and Jonah Berrong, a junior actuarial sciences major, are two of many students who frequent the skatepark fashion scene. They take style inspiration from each other, blending functionality and current trends.

Morgan looks up to skaters Vince Palmer and Brian Peacock, pairing work pants with interesting graphic tees or sweatshirts, while Berrong mimics styles around the park. “​​I honestly just throw on pants and a hoodie and try to get it to match somewhat from there,” Berrong said. “I really just dress like all these motherfuckers at Cecil.”

Beyond the skatepark, Main Campus is swarming with students showing off their personal styles and interpretations of current trends. Last month, Temple was named the second most fashionable campus in the nation by StyleSeat, a fashion media outlet. San Diego State University clinched the No. 1 spot.

Researchers from StyleSeat analyzed photos from more than 6,000 geo-tagged locations at American colleges and universities, examining 100 recently posted campus photos at each of the 60 popular schools from Sept. 6-8. They focused on the contrast between high-effort and low-effort outfits, cozy attire, fashionable footwear and glamorous looks.

The outlet discarded any posts of students wearing neutral colors or uncategorized outfits, graphics promoting campus activity or blurry images from the dataset, said Melissa Stephenson, the media relations associate at North Star

MOLLY FISKE / THE TEMPLE NEWS Moses Burdett kept his outfit simple and functional to spend his day in jewelry-making studio while accessorizing with handmade pieces.

Inbound, a marketing agency, hired by StyleSeat to collect data.

“Lower effort led to a little bit more of a cozy style, so we have a category for low effort/cozy, and Temple rings on that list, and we went all the way up to categorizing high fashion,” Stephenson said.

Temple, San Diego, and Louisiana State University lead in fashionable outfits, while the University of Wisconsin (Madison), Virginia Tech and the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) tend to prioritize comfort over fashion.

Temple is recognized as one of the most high-fashion campuses, but also boasts some of the coziest fashion in the country. In comparison, the University of Pennsylvania ranked as the 17th most fashionable campus and Penn State University ranked as the 12th least fashionable campus.

Madeline Guido, a junior painting and entrepreneurial studies major, finds her high-fashion inspiration in the past, from icons like Jane Birkin, a British actress and singer, and the 1960s French new-wave style, she said.

“I like vintage styles,” Guido said.

“So I get most of my inspiration honestly from old movies or Pinterest or things like that.”

While Guido follows historical trends in her personal style, other students, like Moses Burdett, a junior jewelry major, create their own trends with original eclectic pieces.

Burdett compliments his outfits with stacks of handmade jewelry pieces, including chunky rings and embellished cuffs and bracelets. He mixes the Western cowboy aesthetic with an edgier, punk style.

“I’ve got my cowboy belt that I always wear, my utility belt is basically like a little bit of Batman too,” Burdett said.

Craft and creativity play a significant role in Temple’s fashion scene, as many students create their own clothes and accessories for a “do-it-yourself” style.

Masai Matale, a freshman architecture major, loves mixing their selfmade pieces, sold on their website, with clothes borrowed from friends to curate their outfits.

“I love wearing stuff people lend me because I feel their energy when I’m wearing their clothes,” Matale said.

Nasir Ottley, a junior undeclared major, loves utilizing Depop to find one-of-a-kind pieces that fit his eccentric style and personal expression.

In 2022, second-hand apparel made up approximately 12 percent of the total apparel market, a 5.3 percent increase from just five years ago, and nearly half of millennials and Gen-Z are likely to shop secondhand, according to Statista.

Temple’s high ranking in fashion doesn’t come as a surprise, as the campus is filled with diverse styles and personalities destined to be trendsetters at every turn.

The second-place recognition feels fitting to Leah Wolstenholme, a sophomore undeclared art major, as students are constantly surrounded by peer inspiration, she said.

“Not everyone has the same style, there’s so many different kinds of people, and because there’s so many different kinds of styles, you tend to pull from other people’s styles, and then you kind of create it into what you like,” Wolstenholme said. molly.fiske@temple.edu

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Scan the link to watch more of this story on our website!

MOLLY FISKE / THE TEMPLE NEWS Temple was recognized as one of the most fashionable campuses in the United States for students’ laid-back style.

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FEATURES

The Temple News

MUSIC

Alumna musician gets “Day Off” in new video

Nervous Nikki and The Chill Pills released the music video for “Day Off” on Nov. 17.

BY DUAY AUGUSTINE Assistant Features Editor Nicole Bauza isn’t one for small talk.

She can’t stand the surface-level niceties made only to uphold one’s perfect image and instead opts to bare her soul in her songwriting.

“I’ve always been the type of person who has a hard time like, I don’t know, hiding my true feelings,” said Bauza, a 2010 film alumna and lead singer and drummer of Nervous Nikki and the Chill Pills. “I’m not good at just shoving it down and then taking it down there. It always ends up bubbling out somehow.”

On Nov. 17, Nervous Nikki and the Chill Pills released the music video for “Day Off.” The video, directed by Martin Krafft with help from Bauza’s daughters, features footage from Bauza and her family’s summer vacation and depicts Bauza fleeing her responsibilities for the day off she desperately needs.

Since the video’s release, it has amassed more than 350 views on YouTube. Friends and family members of the band have particularly enjoyed the video.

“One of my aunts said she has watched it every day this week because it makes her feel good,” wrote Bauza in an email to The Temple News.

Bauza’s lyrics don’t hold back; topics range from the frustrated resentment heard on “Let Me Get a Piece,” to the band’s latest single, which depicts her experience with burnout as a mother of two young girls.

Beneath Bauza’s pleas for relaxation and the track’s bubbly indie rock production, her children can be heard playing and calling for their mom on the single.

“I was sort of finding myself making my way into the adult world and wondering why I’m feeling so frazzled and stressed out,” Bauza said. “Everything’s coming at you so fast and also feeling pressured to not only be a parent but also do something with my life.”

COURTESY / NICOLE BAUZA

Bauza and her husband, Doug Boice, who plays guitar for the band, decided to have their kids — and their creative input — in the video to put the reality of their lives as parents on display.

“I think it’s just very unapologetically who we are and where we are in our life right now,” Boice said.

The band has drastically changed since it was first formed at an open mic night, as Boice and Bauza are the only founding members of the band to remain with the group. On their 2011 debut album, “Don’t You Ever Wonder?,” Bauza’s lyrical delivery switched between rap and spoken word, with instrumental influences across the board blending sounds from early 2000s emo with soft rock.

Nathan Swavely, the band’s bassist, joined the band after seeing Bauza and Boice perform at a virtual open mic in 2020. He immediately fell in love with

their sound and reached out offering to play bass.

“People ask what genre we’re in and it’s such a weird fusion of hip-hop and folk rock and classic retro rock and rap and spoken word and all of this,” Swavely said. “So it’s so hard for me to explain it. So really, I just want more ears on this stuff because I know that there’s people like me out there, who as soon as they hear it, it’s going to connect with them.”

The band picked back up in March 2021 when they put out “Takin a Breath,” which was the band’s first release in 10 years. In June 2022, they released “Watch the Petals Drop,” a full-length album with sound ranging from serene folk on “Out of the Blue” to the forceful rock of “Let Me Get a Piece.”

Bauza maintains careful control of the listener’s emotions with her writing.

On “Lao Tzu,” from “Watch the Petals Drop,” a panicked rap verse dissolves

away to the song’s laid-back chorus as Bauza takes a deep breath and the instrumentals shift from claustrophobic to beachy.

During the band’s time, they have struggled to get their music heard, but after more than 10 years of making music, the band has seen success in the past year. Some of their songs were featured on WXPN radio station, which led to their selection for World Café Live’s Beta Hi-Fi festival in July 2023.

Nervous Nikki and the Chill Pills plan to release more music early next year. The group is currently slated to perform at Kung Fu Necktie on Dec. 28.

“Just playing to a roomful of people who love the music, it’s definitely one of the things that keeps us going,” Bauza said. duay.augustine@temple.edu @duayaug

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RESEARCH

Why aren’t Philly public school students eating?

Philly students often aren’t eating at school; a Temple professor is determined to find out why.

BY DUAY AUGUSTINE Assistant Features Editor It’s a scene familiar to many students in lunchrooms across the United States: students huddled around cafeteria tables, idly playing with or nibbling food, never finishing their trays.

Nobody really knows why the food goes uneaten — whether it’s due to quality, social pressures or the harsh fluorescence of a typical cafeteria — but that’s just what social and behavioral sciences professor Gabriella McLoughlin and her research team are working to figure out.

For the next five years, McLoughlin and her team are collaborating with the School District of Philadelphia to research ways to increase meal participation at eight different public middle and high schools, all of which offer free breakfast and lunches to students.

“Before we can even begin to talk about things like education attainment or attendance, we have to get our meal programs in check, and we have to understand how to best implement them because if we don’t, then we can’t really say that we’re truly educating students and providing for them in the best ways possible, because their basic needs aren’t met,” McLoughlin said.

For students facing food insecurity, which includes 22.4 percent of Philadelphia families, free school meal programs are meant to act as a safety net, ensuring they get the nourishment they need.

Food insecurity affects concentration, memory, mood and motor skills, inhibiting a student’s ability to learn, according to No Kid Hungry, a nonprofit working to end childhood food insecurity.

McLoughlin began planning for the study in 2021 when she met with school district representatives to determine the food service program’s needs. The group decided to conduct research after schools struggled to get food to students during

ASHLEY GIDEON / THE TEMPLE NEWS

the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the need for stronger school food service programs.

The first year of the study, which kicked off in August, focuses on needs assessment and involves gathering data from the eight anonymous schools. McLoughlin and her team are currently observing breakfast and lunch service and conducting interviews with students, staff and family to evaluate the problem.

The researchers also receive feedback from Philadelphia residents who aren’t connected to the district in hopes of diversifying the input they’re getting, an uncommon practice for food service studies. The team hopes the additional input will help them interpret the findings through a community-engaged lens.

The researchers are keeping an open mind to all possible causes of students’ decreased participation and are taking several factors into consideration including food quality, meal time and cafeteria atmosphere.

“I am looking forward to a more rich conversation and not having it be narrowed down to ‘There’s too much sugar

in X, Y and Z,’ or ‘There’s too much of something in a specific food,’” said Amy Virus, manager of administrative and support services in the School District of Philadelphia’s Division of Food Services, who works with McLoughlin on the research.

The remainder of the research will be adjusted to fit the outcome of the first phase, with the second year focusing on analyzing the data collected and working with the school district to derive a pilot test of changes to implement at the schools. The pilot test will be put into practice throughout years three and four of the study.

After evaluating the pilot test results and developing a method for engaging more students with their meals, the team will use the rest of year five to put the plan into action in different schools.

Those involved with the project hope the results demonstrate the connection between food service and education in schools because when students go without food, they are less able to develop academically.

“When the academic side realizes

that food services is a part of the education process, we will have better participation,” said Lisa Norton, the district’s food services director, who also works with McLoughlin on the research.

Above all, the team is working to make sure students are getting the nutrition they need, both in Philadelphia and throughout the United States. McLoughlin and the team hope to apply the study’s findings to schools across the country because decreased meal participation in middle and high school is not unique to Philadelphia.

“We have millions and millions of dollars spent on this program every year,” McLoughlin said. “And it’s one of the biggest safety nets for students to prevent food insecurity. So we need to be able to implement this well, and with an equity mindset, because if we don’t, then we’re essentially not able to provide this big safety net for students and families who need it.” duay.augustine@gmail.com @duayaug

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INVESTIGATIVE

The Temple News

ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT

Temple Athletics struggling to financially adapt

Staff turnover and underwhelming NIL help. Something has to give for Temple Athletics.

BY SAMUEL O’NEAL AND DECLAN LANDIS For The Temple News In 2006, former Temple Football head coach Al Golden made a seemingly minor move by bringing in Matt Rhule, a relatively unknown up-and-coming coach from Western Carolina, as the Owls’ defensive line coach.

That decision came to drastically change the direction of Temple Athletics.

Rhule was named the Owls’ head coach in 2012 after working his way up the ranks. In just three years, the Owls were nationally ranked and hosted ESPN’s College Gameday for the first time in school history.

“It was the first time I experienced college football at Temple University actually driving the bus,” said Andy Carl, executive director of the TUFF Fund, Temple’s lone independent NIL collective. “Being locally, regionally and nationally relevant, that was the first time that had transpired in my experience with Temple.”

At the same time, former head coach Fran Dunphy was also leading the basketball team to its eighth 20-win season in nine years, and the Owls qualified for the NCAA tournament as the 10th seed.

Even as recently as 2019, the football team qualified for a bowl game while the basketball team punched its ticket to the NCAA tournament. Neither team has done so since.

As rival colleges continue to rake in massive amounts of money through NIL donations from former athletes and wealthy alumni, The TUFF Fund has not yet received a single donation from a former football or basketball player, Carl said.

A lot has changed since the days of Rhule and Dunphy. Instead of taking action, Temple is treading water. It’s an uphill battle with no real solution in sight.

“There’s a strategic alliance and

alignment at other universities that are having far greater success in the NIL space, in the athletic space and the university space in general,” Carl said. “We are siloed, we are kind of partitioned off.

Simply put, we’re just not there and we have tried, we continue to try to best align ourselves to have that success but ultimately the university has made a decision that they are comfortable with how the alignment is.”

LACKLUSTER NIL SUPPORT The TUFF Fund’s only donation from a former Temple student athlete came this year from a member of the baseball program, which was cut in 2013.

Donation requests from the fund have seemingly been shot down by former Owls in the NFL. Carl, who teams up with Temple alumni Seth Goldblum and Chris Squeri to run the collective, can’t single-handedly change the university’s relationship with NIL. Without a collective approach to solving the problem, Temple will remain stuck in the mud and fall significantly behind its peers.

“There isn’t an all hands on deck, everyone pulling together, to say, ‘Hey, these are the expectations of the program, our department and the university and this is what is needed,’” Carl said.

“There’s just no clear or concise vision.”

Johnson has discussed improving Temple’s NIL landscape with Carl, but Johnson has not shared the same urgency for finding a solution. Carl added that Mary Burke, vice president for institutional advancement, doesn’t share the same vision, and that Temple has not been willing to provide resources or fundraising opportunities Burke, who disagreed with the notion that the university isn’t willing to provide Carl and the TUFF Fund with adequate resources, didn’t comment on whether NIL should be a priority for Temple to compete in the modern landscape of college athletics.

“Members of the Office of Institutional Advancement just recently met with Mr. Carl,” Burke wrote in an email to The Temple News. “These were productive conversations, and it is clear that

both the TUFF Fund and the university want many of the same things. We have made every effort to educate our alumni and donors about the TUFF Fund and the NIL.” Despite Burke’s comments, Carl said he did not attend the meeting, Goldblum did.

Last week, key athletic stakeholders met with Temple’s Board of Trustees, without members of Temple Athletics present, to hammer home the importance of NIL, an anonymous source told The Temple News. The discussions were highly productive, and the Board admitted that athletics had fallen by the wayside at the university.

The Board also acknowledged that athletics can exist as a remedy to some of the broader issues facing the university, like declining enrollment. There is reason to believe the Board will prioritize athletics, and more specifically NIL, moving forward, the source said.

Burke also said the university provides links to The TUFF Fund on its athletics donor communications and websites, and they plan to engage in continued conversations with Carl and The TUFF Fund.

NIL has become such a large discussion that President Joe Biden met with college football stakeholders to discuss the importance and legalities of NIL and athlete’s rights. Among the participants was ESPN broadcaster and Temple alumnus Kevin Negandhi.

Other local universities, like La Salle, have surpassed Temple in the NIL space. The main difference is La Salle’s leadership showing a willingness to take the reins and compete with its rivals in the NIL space, Carl said. Where Temple has dragged its feet, rival universities have strategized ways to financially compete.

“We are kind of on our own,” Carl said. “Where I see a lot of strategic alignment at other universities where the university and administration is assisting to the maximum capacity that they are legally allowed to, we just aren’t seeing that at Temple, and that’s a decision Temple has made and the outcome is the outcome.”

ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT Former Temple president Jason Wingard hired Texas athletics administrator Arthur Johnson as the university’s next athletic director in October 2021.

At the time, many fans viewed Johnson as nothing more than a career facilities manager. Though he did not have previous director experience, Johnson leaned on people who did, including his college roommate and Maryland athletic director Damon Evans.

“I was privy to probably more conversations about everything in the business,” Johnson said. “Some even outside of my areas of responsibility. From then on, it was just trying to do things to prepare for it. But it’s hard. A lot of really good, qualified people are out there trying to get the jobs.”

Johnson hired six new head coaches in his first year in the role, including football coach Stan Drayton and women’s basketball coach Diane Richardson.

While his coaches have found mixed success, Temple has lost a step to its peers in Johnson’s time, mostly due to its lack of fundraising.

In the current climate of the NCAA, fundraising has negatively separated the Owls from their peers. The Temple Owl Club, Temple Athletics’ primary avenue for fundraising, has paled in comparison to other American Athletic Conference schools in money earned, which hurts the program’s chances of competing.

The Owl Club has around 2,000 members who raised roughly $2 million last year. UCF, who left the AAC for the Big 12 in July, raised more than $43 million through 10,000 donors. Charlotte, who joined the AAC during the summer and whose recent athletic success is comparable to Temple’s, had about 500 less donors but still raised $4.16 million.

“We’ve got to get better,” Johnson said about fundraising. “The better we get, the more eyes we get on our program. The more people want to get you there. Can we get there in our conference? We should be able to compete in our conference because, again, a lot of them are dealing with this same thing.”

During an Aug. 8 information ses-

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INVESTIGATIVE

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sion with the Temple Owl Club and The Temple University Alumni Association, Temple Athletics announced a partnership with Fanatics to produce co-branded individual Temple jerseys for fans to purchase. The collaboration severely lagged, and Temple’s marketing department blamed Fanatics for the delay.

On Nov. 20, the university shifted gears and announced the Temple NIL Store, which will provide officially licensed NIL merch opportunities and payouts to participating athletes. The official launch date has not been released to the public.

Despite admitting the need for improvement, not much has been done to change the trajectory of the department.

COACHING TURNOVER Nearly every coach employed prior to Johnson’s hiring in October 2021 has been replaced. Former women’s soccer head coach Nick Bochette, one of the last remaining pre-Johnson hires, was dismissed from the role on Nov. 1.

Former football coach Rod Carey, men’s soccer coach Brian Rowland, men’s basketball coach Aaron McKie and women’s basketball coach Tonya Cardoza were all let go since Johnson was hired.

Johnson has consistently brought in coaches with little-to-no ties to Philadelphia or the Temple community; something he has been heavily criticized for.

He hired Drayton, an assistant coach at the University of Texas, where Johnson worked prior to Temple, as the program’s next football coach and Richardson was hired from Towson. However, Adam Fisher, a Bucks County, Pennsylvania native, was hired as the head men’s basketball coach after recent stints with Penn State and Miami.

“On [my] watch it becomes, their success is tied to [me],” Johnson said.

“Early on, I wasn’t here. I hadn’t been here long enough to hire a football coach so we put together a committee and that committee consisted of some people from campus, letterwinners, people in the department. So they knew Temple and knew the profile and then I do my own work.”

Volleyball head coach Linda Hampton-Keith has arguably been Johnson’s best hire. She took the program from a 10-21 record in 2022 to a 17-14 record in 2023. She also brought a Temple Volleyball game to The Liacouras Center for

ROBERT JOSEPH CRUZ / THE TEMPLE NEWS Since taking over as athletic director, Arthur Johnson has struggled to keep up with rival universities in the NIL space.

the first time in program history.

Men’s Soccer has also shown flashes of success. Despite narrowly missing the AAC tournament, the team played meaningful soccer late in the season, and even knocked off Syracuse, the 2022 NCAA national champions.

Drayton, Johnson’s most important hire, was painted by some as Temple Football’s saving grace following the tumultuous Rod Carey era but is looking at back-to-back three-win seasons. The Owls have yet to win a road conference game under Drayton.

THE SOLUTION During the 2022-23 athletic season, Temple went a combined 101-109-7 in all win-loss athletic events. Football went 3-9 in 2022, and the team looked arguably less competitive this season.

Basketball failed to produce a winning record with a roster that had the talent to contend for a conference title. Women’s soccer hasn’t won a conference game in more than two years.

Football in particular has gotten so

bleak that fans have even called to cut the program on social media. While it’s a dramatic reaction, a team who made five straight bowl games from 2015-19 and won a conference championship just seven years ago shouldn’t be in this position.

“Since NIL became legal, we have had some of the worst winning percentages in the history of Temple Athletics,” Carl said. “We are seeing declining results on the competition surface and I don’t think it is a coincidence that we’re seeing that.”

In July, CBS Sports used a weighted formula that combines athletic success at Division I universities, ranking them from most to least successful. Temple was ranked third to last, ahead of just Louisiana-Monroe and Arkansas State.

The solution isn’t cut and dry, and it will take time for Temple to dig out of the hole they’ve put themselves in. But if higher ups in the athletic department are willing to rally behind NIL, there still might be light at the end of the tunnel.

“My hope and optimism is that at

some point we will have a full-time and engaged president, Board of Trustees, administration, athletics and NIL collective all in one silo that works together to provide both robust athletic endeavors, academic endeavors and NIL endeavors,” Carl said. “It’s not just about someone cutting a check. We need understanding from the highest levels of the university that NIL is of significant importance.” samuel.oneal@temple.edu @samueloneal43 declan.landis@temple.edu @declanlandis

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SPORTS

The Temple News

FOOTBALL

Season Analysis: The state of Temple Football The Owls fell short of their goals safety Tywan Francis and linebacker Diin 2023. Is this program headed wun Black, and how much he believed in them. in the right direction?

BY DECLAN LANDIS Sports Editor

A

t the beginning of August, Temple Football linebacker Jordan Magee sat down at the front of the media room in Edberg-Olson Hall and answered questions during Temple’s Media Day. Magee was entering his sixth year on North Broad Street and spoke with an air of confidence as he relayed his expectations for his squad.

Magee talked passionately about his teammates, particularly new players like

“Coach [Stan] Drayton is doing a lot to know what we’re doing on the field, outside of the field, in the classroom,” Magee said. “The atmosphere feels different. Everyone is saying it. You see it around. Of course, that wasn’t the season we wanted last year, but we’re back into it this year, and hopefully things work out for us.”

Magee also uttered the words that set the bar for his squad for the rest of the season, which ultimately came back to haunt them.

“Everybody has a part to play and a role to do,” Magee said. “If everyone can do that, our main goal is a [conference] championship. I feel like we’ll accom-

plish that.”

Temple’s goal was clear: win an American Athletic Conference championship for the first time in seven years.

However, the Owls fell short, finishing with just three wins and only one in conference play. They finished toward the bottom of the AAC standings.

With its 45-21 loss to Memphis on Nov. 24, Temple wrapped up its second season with Drayton at the helm with the same number of wins as last season.

The Owls fell short of expectations, and 2023 brought a lot to dissect about the future of the program.

THE GOOD

Despite their shortcomings, the Owls had some bright spots this year.

Most of their strongest performances

were propelled by one player: sophomore quarterback E.J. Warner.

Warner proved to be the heart and soul of the offense in his first full season as QB1. In the two games he missed, Temple was outscored 100-14 in back-to-back losses to North Texas and Southern Methodist. The Owls looked comfortable with the ball and confident going down the field when Warner was in the game.

Warner finished the year with 3,076 passing yards, 23 touchdowns and 12 turnovers. He broke program records for the most 400-yard games, most games with five or more touchdowns and climbed the ranks of Temple’s alltime passing yards list.

“That’s our E.J.,” Drayton said after Warner’s 400-yard and four-touchdown

ROBERT JOSEPH CRUZ / THE TEMPLE NEWS With only three victories and one conference win, Temple Football has had four losing seasons in a row.

SPORTS

The Temple News

performance against Navy on Nov. 4.

“He’s a very good study, he kinda knew where there was gonna be some holes.

We had a really good week in practice and got things timed up in the throw game.”

Temple was the 24th-best passing offense in the country and fifth-best in the AAC this season. The Owls averaged 277 yards per game in the air, which was an improvement from 2022.

Tight end David Martin-Robinson was a big part of Warner’s success as well. Martin-Robinson broke the record for most catches in a career by a Temple tight end on Nov. 18 against UAB, and he finished with 537 yards, which was top 20 in the conference.

Magee and Francis anchored the other side of the ball. Magee led the Owls in tackles with 80, and Francis earned the most honorary single-digit nominations of the season, given to the player with the best week of preparation. Francis had two of Temple’s four turnovers, including the game-sealing interception against Akron in week one.

“The single digit was very, very big for me,” Francis said on Sept. 2. “Single digits mean so much to the culture and to the football family. It was an honor for me to wear it tonight. I just had to go out there and do what I planned on doing throughout the week. I just had to go out there and get the job done.”

THE BAD

Although Temple found sporadic success, namely in its blowout win against Norfolk State and close battles against UTSA, USF and Navy, the team suffered significant low points.

Their issues began on defense, which battled injuries all season and struggled to find depth in key areas, particularly at linebacker and defensive line. Defensive lineman Demerick Morris played just two games up front, and defensive lineman Allan Haye, a transfer who was starting to find a groove, went down with a season-ending injury against Tulsa on Sept. 29.

The Owls were depleted and had a hard time defending the run, which caused issues on both sides of the ball.

They struggled to get off the field, which caused late-game fatigue and limited

their time of possession.

“I give all the credit to the D-line,” Magee said after Temple’s win against Navy. “They did a great job stuffing them up front, and it makes it easier when you don’t have lineman climbing at you, and linebackers and safeties can just get off and make plays.”

Temple’s defense finished the year in the bottom 10 in rushing and total defense in the country. The Owls forced just four turnovers and finished last in the nation in turnover margin at -20.

Those struggles also affected the offense, creating a cycle that couldn’t be broken. As the defense struggled, the offense had more pressure to perform and couldn’t keep up with opponents.

In particular, Temple could not run the ball. The Owls have just a handful of games in Drayton’s tenure where they’ve surpassed 100 rushing yards. The unit regressed even more this season, finishing 121st of 130 teams in rushing offense.

Temple couldn’t find a surefire starter in the room, and its offensive line, which was touted as the most improved unit heading into the season, battled injuries and severely underperformed.

The Owls had five losses of at least 17 points and were outscored 428-253 throughout the season. They showed resilience at times, but they got in their own way with simple mistakes and miscommunication.

“What’s troubling is we play well in spurts,” Drayton said. “And then there’s times when we play God-awful in spurts.

We’ve just got to find a way. We haven’t been able to put 60 minutes of good football, complimentary football together, and that part of it is frustrating, but when the lack of discipline in key moments shows up, those are the things you have to address.”

The Owls are facing just one question heading into the offseason following their fourth straight losing season: what now?

THE FUTURE

Fifty new players joined Temple’s program this season, and several went on to become starters. While players, like Francis and Black, established themselves as key difference makers, others, like offensive lineman Diego Barajas and

safety Kamar Wilcoxson, struggled to adapt.

Drayton is entering his second full offseason as the head of Temple’s program, and he has some decisions to make about the makeup of his roster.

The Owls have some key young pieces to build on, but like any team, they will be losing important players and need to find solutions.

Temple may lose Magee and Yvandy Rigby, its two best linebackers. Both have remaining eligibility, but they could explore their options in the NFL Draft or through the transfer portal.

D.J. Woodbury and Corey Yeoman, who would be next in line on the depth chart, have played well, but are a discernible step down from the two single digits.

The offensive and defensive lines are different stories. The offensive line has an influx of players, but none stood out as clear starters moving forward.

The unit lost Rich Rodriguez and could lose Victor Stoffel from the starting lineup after the season. The Owls heavily recruited at the junior college level but did not find pieces that fit, so Temple could focus its attention here.

Morris and Haye could return from injury and lead the room on the defensive line, but Temple needs to find more depth to support them, especially players who can help against the run.

A final spot that needs addressing is the secondary. Outside of cornerback Jalen McMurray, the Owls don’t have a corner that can lock down an opponent’s top receiver. Elijah Deravil improved during the year, but Temple would benefit from another talented player supporting the secondary, especially to protect against the deep ball.

Temple’s number one priority this offseason needs to be retaining Warner.

Despite the team’s struggles, Warner has proven he can play at the Division I level and Power 5 programs with money and a gap at the quarterback position could be hungry to have him join, and Temple needs to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Warner came to Temple largely because of his relationship with offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf, who coached Warner’s older brother at Kansas State. The duo have made strides this year, but that could be all for naught if

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Warner, or Langsdorf for that matter, decide to move elsewhere.

With many gaps and question marks, it’s tough to tell what Temple Football will look like next in a few months. However, the Owls had some good signs despite the negative parts of the year, and they have an opportunity to build on the positives for a brighter future under Drayton. declan.landis@temple.edu @declanlandis

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SPORTS

The Temple News

VOLLEYBALL

Davenport exemplifies Volleyball’s new direction The senior outside hitter has helped usher in a new era for Temple Volleyball.

BY ETHAN BRIDDELL For The Temple News For most of her career, Taylor Davenport’s natural position was middle blocker, but head coach Linda Hampton-Keith gave her a new role: outside hitter.

After spending last season learning the position, Davenport became a star, leading the Owls to their best season in five years.

“I’m feeling more settled into being an outside because last season was my first season,” Davenport said. “This year, I’m handling the differences of our offense better as an outside.”

Davenport used her second season as an outside hitter to raise her profile as one of the best players in the American Athletic Conference. She finished 2023 ranked third in average points and fifth in average kills per set in the AAC. Last season, the Owls went 4-16 in conference play, ranking them at the bottom of the standings in Hampton-Keith’s first season. Davenport was a bright spot, finishing fifth in the AAC with 524 points.

Davenport’s season earned her a spot at the USA Volleyball National Team Open Program in February, accompanying coach Jose Lugo to Colorado Springs for the three-day event.

“You have to challenge your level of commitment,” Hampton-Keith said.

“She’s just somebody who has not only challenged her own level of commitment but also challenged the commitment of those around her.”

This season was an entirely different story for the Owls. After winning just 10 games last year, they flipped the script and finished 17-14, their best record since 2017.

Davenport was key to the team’s success, becoming a leader for the new faces on the roster, like graduate transfers Avery Luoma and Olivia Vance.

After joining the team, Luoma and

ROBERT JOSEPH CRUZ / THE TEMPLE NEWS Senior Taylor Davenport has had a very successful season for Temple, and helped the Owls finish 17-14 on the season.

Vance bought into Hampton-Keith’s culture of teamwork and accountability, which Davenport encouraged. Luoma and Vance were second and third, respectively, in kills for the Owls, and both have strong defensive numbers.

Davenport partially attributed her success to her teammates stepping up, as the Owls moved from the bottom of the conference to the middle of the pack in several offensive statistics The bolstered roster offered Davenport more open looks, and her play improved. She was the 22nd Owl with more than 1,000 career kills on Oct. 27 and finished 17th in kills in Temple’s history.

“Working hard in practice and in the gym, pushing ourselves to be better,” Davenport said. “My game specifically, I feel like I’ve benefited from that process of just working hard in practice, every day working hard and being pushed by the people who are in the gym.”

When Davenport first joined the Owls, she never imagined reaching 1,000 kills. The achievement was an accumulation of the practices and games that got her to that point, she said.

“That was really, really cool,” Davenport said. “I’m just grateful for that milestone in my career, coming in as a middle, that’s like something you never think of happening because that doesn’t happen, thinking about my career, I’m just thankful.”

Davenport’s teammates have seen her growth. Libero Falanika Danielson played four seasons with Davenport and saw her talent, so she was not surprised when Davenport picked up outside just as easily as middle.

“She was this amazing middle,” Danielson said. “Seeing her expand her skills out to like more in the game, it was amazing to see that and her growth as a leader.”

Hampton-Keith created new offensive formations aimed at expanding the capabilities of her new players. Davenport received different sets and excelled in the system.

“What’s been awesome with Taylor is the incredible amount of work that she’s put in,” Hampton-Keith said. “She’s still learning and growing, but yet she’s still been performing.”

As the Owls wrapped up their best season in years, Davenport credited the people that have gotten her to this point.

She hopes this is the foundation of a new era of Temple Volleyball.

“Proving people right is what our coach talks about a lot,” Davenport said.

“Having so many people in my corner like my family and my mom, the teammates, coaches like all of that has really helped me in my career.” ethan.briddell@temple.edu @briddellethan

The Temple News

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FIELD HOCKEY

Field Hockey finds success despite shortcomings Temple’s seniors had aspirations of a Big East title. The team came close but didn’t deliver.

BY COLIN SCHOFIELD For The Temple News Entering her final season at Temple, back McKenna Burkhardt had one goal: play in the Big East Conference Championship. In her four seasons, the graduate student hadn’t gotten past the semifinals.

Despite a promising season, the Owls’ season ended in the semifinals yet again.

“The last three or four years, we have been knocking on the door of the championship,” Burkhardt said. “Win or lose, just being able to get to that championship would be great since it is on our home field this year.”

Temple Field Hockey fell in the Big East Tournament semifinal for the fourth straight year after its 2-0 loss to Old Dominion on Nov. 3.

Temple hit its high point midway through the season when the Owls were on a four-game win streak and came in at No. 19 in the national rankings.

Things went downhill from there.

The Owls failed to score a single goal in a four-game stretch. They sat near the bottom of the Big East standings with their conference tournament hopes looking bleak.

The Owls rebounded and won their final three conference games, highlighted by a thrilling overtime win against Quinnipiac that clinched a tournament berth.

The team finished the season with an 11-8 record, going 4-3 in conference play, two games worse than last season.

Temple’s main flaw in recent years has been its inability to beat top-tier opponents. In five games against eventual NCAA tournament teams, the Owls went 0-5 and were outscored 14-1.

While their season was cut short, the Owls had multiple players improve, including midfielders Tess Muller and Agustina Tucceri. However, junior back Alizé Maes made the biggest leap, lead-

ROBERT JOSEPH CRUZ / THE TEMPLE NEWS Temple Field Hockey’s season was cut short after losing in the first round of the Big East Tournament.

ing the team in assists and shots while finishing third in goals. She earned a spot on the all-conference second-team for her efforts.

Maes anchored a backline that became Temple’s strong point. The unit held opponents to just seven shots per game and kept the Owls in games several times.

“A lot of the work that our backfield and midfield does go unnoticed,” said midfielder Devin Kinzel. “We do a ton of back-and-forth sprinting. The whole team effort feels amazing and to know the girl on your left has your back and the girl on your right has your back and we’re all working for each other.”

Throughout the season, goalkeeper Molly Frey proved to be one of the best goalies in the Big East, also earning second-team all-conference.

Frey ranked third in the conference and 21st in the nation in goals against average at 1.30. She allowed just 25 goals all season.

“I was able to carry over confidence from last season and fine-tune my skills and expand my toolbox in the spring,” Frey said. “Then, I came into this year with more confidence, and I was making better saves and saves that last year I would not have made.”

However, Temple’s offense held them back from reaching their full potential.

While they averaged 10.4 shots per game, Temple struggled to capitalize on those opportunities. The Owls scored 23 goals, hardly one per game, which was bottom 10 in the country.

“I think our offensive struggles can be attributed to the teams we have played,” said Muller, who led the team with six goals. “They made it really difficult for us to convert on goals and corners.”

Muller was a bright spot on the struggling offense. She earned all-conference first-team for the second straight season, becoming the first Owl to do so

since forward Amber Youtz in 2012 and 2013.

Reaching the NCAA Tournament is a difficult task, but if there was a year Temple could break its nearly 40-year NCAA Tournament drought, this was it.

The Owls are set to lose six players this offseason, headlined by Frey, Burkhardt and midfielder Caitlyn Amsden.

The trio spent the last five years donning the Cherry and White.

The ending is a difficult pill to swallow. Though it isn’t what the Owls envisioned, Vittese is satisfied with the way they competed.

“We put ourselves in a tricky situation where it was win-or-die against Villanova and Quinnipiac,” Vittese said. “I am so proud of how our group was able to survive and advance. They deserved a better ending. They are my highlights.” colin.schofield@temple.edu @colinschofield9

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SPORTS

The Temple News

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Stanford stays home to “put on” for Philadelphia Zion Stanford had 11 collegiate former New Hampshire Technical Inoffers but decided to represent stitute forward Donovan Rodriguez or former Saint Joseph’s guard Dahmir the city he’s called home.

BY RYMIR VAUGHN For The Temple News Temple Men’s Basketball lost six key pieces of its rotation entering the 2023 season, and its first offseason with head coach Adam Fisher was filled with questions. The Owls blocked out the noise and came away with a convincing game one win against Maryland Eastern Shore.

Freshman guard Zion Stanford was a major reason why the Owls pulled off a win in the season opener. He had 14 points and looked like he belonged on the floor in his collegiate debut.

Stanford spoke at the postgame press conference with Fisher and guard Jahlil White, where he was composed, but understood the gravity of what he did, talking passionately about what it meant to perform at his hometown school.

“It’s good being able to make my family proud,” Stanford said. “It’s definitely an honor to put on for Philadelphia.”

For Stanford, representing his city was the most important factor in choosing Temple last spring. Now, he’s making his impact as part of the Owls’ newlook program.

Stanford grew up in the Haddington-Carroll Park area of West Philadelphia, just an 18 minute drive from where he played high school ball at West Catholic Preparatory High School.

Long before his days at West Catholic, a six-year-old Stanford participated in the National Basketball Players Association’s Grassroots Program in Overbrook. He instantly fell in love with the game.

Basketball was easily accessible for Stanford when he was growing up. He could play whenever he pleased because his family had a hoop. When he wanted competition, he played on courts at the Shepard Recreation Center in West Philly, competing against players like

Bishop.

As Stanford matured, he participated in various local recreational basketball leagues which led to an invitation to play with Philly Triple Threat, an AAU basketball team.

Stanford averaged 18.5 points and six rebounds per game in his senior season at West Catholic and led his team to their first state championship in school history. Stanford’s performance resulted in him becoming a sought after recruit, earning 11 NCAA offers.

Stanford emphasized the location of schools as he considered his options, wanting to stay close to home. Philadelphia helped make Stanford the man and basketball player he is today, so he wanted to continue his basketball career in Philly and “put on” for his city.

Stanford’s pride for being a Philadelphian fuels his desire to show out for the city, something that has become extremely important to him.

“That was really the main reason he wanted to stay home,” said Stanford’s father, Arthur Stanford. “[He wants to] put on for his friends, family and everyone that’s around him. He has a lot of confidence when he sees a lot of familiar faces, it’s good for him.”

Stanford believes Temple’s history and location makes it the primary basketball school in Philadelphia, and he knew he wanted to “put on” for the city by becoming an Owl. After mulling over all his offers, Stanford committed to Temple in September 2022 under former head coach Aaron McKie. However, Temple’s 2022-23 season fell short of expectations, and McKie stepped down in March after four seasons as head coach. The program went through a period of uncertainty, and Stanford kept a close eye on the situation as it played out.

“I was concerned a little bit,” Stanford said. “I didn’t know who was stepping up as head coach.”

When Temple hired Adam Fish-

er on March 29, Stanford discussed his next steps with his father and former high school coach Miguel Bocachica.

When Stanford asked for his opinion, Bocachica mentioned he was a big fan of Fisher and thought Fisher’s reputation as a people person would be “great” for Stanford. With Bocachica’s input, Stanford assured Fisher of his commitment.

Stanford could have decommitted and “put on” for the city at Saint Joseph’s or Drexel but he chose to stay committed to Temple because loyalty was important to him. Stanford is not one to go back on his words, as he will honor any prior commitments he has made, he said.

“We grew up on staying solid,” Stanford said. “We don’t jump around places, especially if we know the place is good.”

That value was instilled in Stanford from an early age. Arthur Stanford mentioned how his son watched their family operate through different challenges and circumstances growing up, which taught Zion to stay loyal to those around him.

When McKie stepped down and Stanford’s future seemed uncertain, Stanford was fully equipped to handle the ups and downs of his decision making process.

By “staying solid” to Temple, Stanford got his first opportunity to represent his city in the aforementioned game against UMES. Stanford contributed a 12-point second half that helped put the game out of reach. The freshman looked poised, especially around the rim, converting on 70 percent of his attempts despite the new competition.

“Playing against high school competition, it carries on,” Stanford said. “It’s the same, just next level, a little bit faster.”

Fisher sat at the podium for his postgame press conference following the 20-point win and praised the lone freshman on his roster.

“I love Zion,” Fisher said. “He’s a guy that wanted to be here. He wanted to be a part of this. He asked a lot of questions.

He has that personality. He has a chance to be really good.”

However, Stanford still makes those

freshman mistakes. During the same press conference, Fisher shared a funny story about Stanford that made everyone in the Al Shrier Media Room laugh.

While the rest of the team prepared for pre-game shootaround at The Liacouras Center, Stanford was across the street at Temple’s practice facilities, The Donald and Nancy Resnick Court in McGonigle Hall, believing that’s where shootaround took place.

“We were like, ‘What are you doing?’” Fisher said. “He rushed [to The Liacouras Center], and we said, ‘Take a deep breath, we’re not going to start without you.’”

Bocachica even knew the story and said it was very “Zion-like” and embodied who Stanford is as a person: “a little goofball.”

Despite his hiccup, Stanford feels like he has adjusted well to Division I basketball, and he credits his coaches, parents and teammates for helping him.

Each group he mentioned agrees with his sentiment.

“He’s always been as strong as an ox,” Arthur Stanford said. “It wasn’t going to be much of a challenge physically. Mentally, he’s pretty well rounded. When those two come together, it makes it much easier to step on this level and be comfortable.”

Five games into his collegiate career, Stanford has established himself as a key contributor in Fisher’s rotation, averaging 22 minutes and nine points per game, which both lead all non-starters.

Stanford is routinely the first player off the bench, and matched his career-high 14 points in a 77-76 loss to Ole Miss when given the opportunity to start in place of the injured White on Nov. 22.

Stanford has noticeably progressed as the season continues. His consistent offensive presence has helped the Owls start their season 3-2. But it has been Stanford’s defensive efforts that have caught the attention of his teammates.

“He’s definitely matured,” said Temple forward Sam Hofman. “When he brings intensity on defense, he makes great things happen.”

Although Stanford did not mention

SPORTS

The Temple News

PAGE 31

ROBERT JOSEPH CRUZ / THE TEMPLE NEWS Averaging 11.7 points per game, freshman Zion Stanford has been a solid offensive spark for Temple.

a specific mentor figure, he spoke highly of Hysier Miller, the only other player from Philadelphia on the roster.

“Our relationship got stronger this year,” Stanford said. “We talked a lot about how things go [at Temple] because he played here for three years. He’s a good mentor to me.”

Their relationship isn’t just basketball. The pair are roommates and see each other every day. They talk about all sorts of topics along with their upbringings, creating a bond between the two.

Stanford has already experienced some of the ups and downs of a Division

I athlete, but his strong support system, consisting of his family, teammates and coaches, has tremendously aided his transition. Stanford’s desire to “put on” for Philadelphia may be his ultimate motivator.

“It’s a pride thing,” Stanford said.

“Every time you play, it’s for the city you grew up in, so you want to put on for your city at all times.” rymir.vaughn@temple.edu @_mirmir1500

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