Volume 91, Issue 21

Page 1

LIVING The Temple News presents its second Weekender issue, detailing short, cheap travel options for students.

temple-news.com VOL. 91 ISS. 21

TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013

Edge contract to cease Morgan Hall leads Temple to not renew housing contract with the Edge. JOHN MORITZ Assistant News Editor

T

he university will end its official ties with the Edge at the end of this semester, after Temple decided not to renew its contract, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Michael Scales said. The anticipated opening of Morgan Hall, which will open 1,275 beds this fall, was the main factor in the university’s decision, Scales said. The Edge opened in 2006 and immediately started a relationship with the university when Residential Life began leasing approximately 750 beds from Campus Living Villages, the company that operates the Edge. The university had a oneyear contract with the company, with a yearly notification for renewal. Scales said the university has typically made the decision to renew in February. Through Residential Life, students could rent rooms in the Edge by signing onto My Housing. Beginning this year,

EDGE PAGE 2

Campus Safety amends crime logs Temple has relabeled its online daily crime logs to specifically comply with federal requirements. ANGELO FICHERA ALI WATKINS The Temple News

The Edge sits near the south end of Main Campus. Officials have said that Temple’s contract with the housing facility will not be renewed, in preparation for the opening of Morgan Hall. | HUA ZONG TTN FILE PHOTO

Following scrutiny of Temple’s crime reporting practices by The Temple News, university officials have said they will include previously omitted arrest information in its daily crime logs, but not across all mediums. The inspection by The Temple News, outlined in a report last week, pointed out the university’s failure to publicly publish, or release to the press, the names and addresses of people arrested and charged, as a 2004 state law mandates. Under the Campus Safety Services website, the “Security Reports & Crime Logs” tab states: “In accordance with the state and federal laws, our

CRIME PAGE 2

City hears earful on New res. hall calls for added student electoral issues safety procedures, protocols Months after Election Day, the city is working to solve the litany of problems. JOE GILBRIDE The Temple News Mayor Michael Nutter held a public session on Feb. 28 at Bright Hope Baptist Church,

where his staff heard concerns from Temple-area voters about problems stemming from last November’s election. Voters said it was a scene of confusion and chaos on Election Day. At polling locations around campus, many Temple students were left guessing as they found their names hadn’t appeared in the voter rolls, or that they had shown up at the wrong location. Others had trouble finding any

record that they were registered to vote at all. Dylan Morpurgo, president of the Temple College Democrats, shared complaints from Temple voters who faced some of the widespread problems on Election Day. “Students reported that some locations set up ‘Temple lines’ made up of just students

ELECTION PAGE 3

Expected Morgan Hall traffic prompts officials to consider new safety measures. LAURA ORDONEZ The Temple News For the future residents of Morgan Hall, the trip from the new housing facility to Main

Campus might resemble a daily struggle to dodge heavy traffic in an unmarked crosswalk and venture through unlit areas. The opening of the new residence hall will result in new walking patterns on Main Campus, creating a new major crossing point at Liacouras Walk and Cecil B. Moore Avenue. In preparation, Facilities Management is ramping up efforts to ensure the safety of the

new crossing point. “It is a safe place to be, but a careful evaluation of the traffic plan and the added student influx showed us there is a need for improvement,” said Senior Vice President for Construction, Facilities and Operations James Creedon. Creedon said Temple will make the street pedestrian

MORGAN PAGE 2

SHINE director receives high honor Patience Lehrman was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal. ALI WATKINS The Temple News

Patience Lehrman wears her Presidential Citizens Medal in her office.| ALI WATKINS TTN

VOTER’S REMORSE, p. 5

Columnist Joey Cranney relays why the sequester highlights President Obama’s failures. NEWS DESK 215-204-7419

Patience Lehrman wants today’s immigrants to know she’s been there. Leaving her native Cameroon for Washington state in 1997, Lehrman knows the strange looks. She’s been in unfamiliar surroundings, a new society and a new community that doesn’t know what to make of her. She knows the isolation. “When I came here...there was no immediate reaching out,” Lehrman said. “It was the most difficult time in my life,

RARE BREED, p. 9

A Philadelphia artist uses meat as a medium to showcase his talents. NEWS@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM

the first six months I was here.” Lehrman, who is champion of the immigrant integration initiative Project SHINE, or Students Helping in Naturalization and English, never let it get her down. She plugged away, met new people, opened closed minds and made a home where there wasn’t one. The Washington state community that once struggled to accept her cried when she left for the East Coast, a move that would ultimately lead her to Project SHINE, which has roots in Temple’s Intergenerational Center. Now, as the program’s national director, Lehrman said it’s her mission to make sure other immigrants, particularly the elderly, don’t feel the same isolation that she did. Her efforts earned her a Presidential

Citizens Medal and an audience with President Barack Obama in April 2012. She was presented the medal in February. But, Lehrman said, the real award doesn’t come from the Oval Office. It comes from the work she does at Project SHINE. “What gives me my greatest joy is when I can look in the eyes of the immigrant elders that we serve and see them happy that they’ve passed their citizenship test,” she said. “That is more than [the medal]. That’s what gets me up every morning.” Despite the setbacks in her own integration, Lehrman said she never lost hope in the goodness of the American spirit, an

SHINE PAGE 3

BALANCING ACT, p. 20

The gymnastics teams play host to a few meets this season to budgetary constraints.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.