MOVERS & SHAKERS TTN introduces students, professors and alumni making strides in their respective areas.
temple-news.com VOL. 91 ISS. 20
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2013
FLEEING FACEBOOK, p. 5
Zack Scott details why he deleted his Facebook account and why others should as well.
RAINBOW ROCKERS, p. 11
Philly band Bleeding Rainbow released its album “Yeah Right” with a show at Johnny Brenda’s.
POSTSEASON PUSH, p. 20
Both men’s and women’s basketball teams prepare for the NCAA Tournament.
ATF on the hunt for arsonist The ATF and L.F. Driscoll Company are offering a $15,000 reward. SEAN CARLIN News Editor
A
week after multiple fires set in Morgan Hall caused evacuations of the site
and attracted a scene on Broad Street, authorities are still looking for the person or persons who deliberately set five fires in the high-rise. The fires were set on Feb. 11 and Feb. 12 and caused an estimated $100,000 in damage to the building, said Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent Steven Bartholomew. No fires have been reported since last week.
Though earlier reports indicated that three construction workers were treated for smoke inhalation, James Creedon, senior vice president for construction, facilities and operations, said one worker suffered very minor injuries and nobody was transported to the hospital. “My understanding was that during one of the fires in the afternoon [Tuesday], there was a guy who had a little bit of
smoke inhalation, but he just basically headed home,” Creedon said. The fires all involved construction debris and appeared to be started with a lighter, Deputy Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone said. Temple police officers have been detailed to the site to know “100 percent who’s in the building,” Leone said. While the incidents im-
Bell Tower Dance: Students swarm the Bell Tower to record a ‘Harlem Shake’ video.
pacted five floors of the 27-story building, Creedon said work hasn’t been delayed at the construction site. “Other than the inconvenience that occurred as the workers had to vacate the building, there’s been no significant change in schedule or production, or our time frame at all,” Creedon said. “Nothing’s going to impact the schedule.” The ATF is offering a re-
LAURA DETTER The Temple News
Graduation a conflict for Jewish students’ holiday University plans to keep date the same despite an online petition against it. JOHN MORITZ Assistant News Editor Temple is moving forward with the scheduled commencement ceremony on May 16 despite the effort of one student who started an online petition to have the date changed to not conflict with the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Sharon Litwinoff, a senior theater major who is scheduled to graduate this spring, started the petition during winter break after she said she felt administrators did not offer a proper accommodation for the conflicting dates. The petition held 378 signers as of press time. Hillel Hoffmann, assistant director of University Communications, said that the university calendar is published two years ahead of time, and is “blind” to all religious holidays. Litwinoff first found out about the discrepancy last August 2012, when her sister told her while planning for commencement that it fell on the
Jewish holiday. Litwinoff said she then contacted administrators at Hillel at Temple, Temple Chabad and Kimberly Guyer, who was then assistant dean of the former School of Communication and Theater – now the School of Media and Communication – who then connected her with the offices of the president and the provost. In October 2012, Litwinoff met with Betsy Leebron Tutelman, senior vice provost for strategic initiatives and communications to discuss the conflict and alternative options. “They sent a representative from the provost’s office to meet with me to get students opinions on the conflict, but that wasn’t actually what they were doing, they were just sending someone to meet me face to face so that I wouldn’t feel like it was a big faceless institution,” Litwinoff said. Leebron Tutelman said that the provost’s office offered Litwinoff, as well as any other student who wishes to celebrate the holiday, three alternative options: attend the SMC graduation on Feb. 1, the 2014 commencement or attend the School of Pharmacy graduation with
GRADUATION PAGE 3
NEWS DESK 215-204-7419
Despite plans to hold a spring conference in early February, the Pennsylvania Association of State-Related Schools is currently at a standstill due to lack of communication among the representatives from Temple, Lincoln University, University of Pittsburgh and Penn State. “It has been very challenging to stay in contact with Penn State. They have not been in touch with us regarding conference dates and Darin [Bartholomew] has consistently tried to speak to them about this,” Temple Student Govern-
Campus split on guns As talk of gun control picks up steam, the issue divides students. CINDY STANSBURY The Temple News Last week, President Barack Obama delivered the first State of the Union Address of his second term, and toward
the end of his speech, he discussed something that’s been a talking point for his administration since 26 people were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012. The president urged Congress to take up measures to control assault weapons across the country. At Temple, this political topic sparks debate among students and became prevalent following a 2011 in-
ARSON PAGE 3
State-related unity in doubt Leaders of PASS have had trouble communicating with Penn State.
Students dance near the Bell Tower on Feb. 15, during the taping of a “Harlem Shake” video. The dance has spurred many across the nation to make videos. Check out temple-news.com for additional text and multimedia coverage. | DAN PELLIGRINE TTN
ward of up to $5,000 in conjunction with L.F. Driscoll Company – the building’s construction manager – which is offering up to $10,000 for the arrest of those responsible for the arsons. The combined $15,000 in rewards was announced Feb. 14. While issues between unions have been reported in the past at major construction sites
cident involving then-student Robert Eells who returned fire during an attempted burglary with his own weapon. Some students, like senior history major Mark Edwards, own weapons for the purpose of protection. “I have an AR-15 rifle and a Glock-26 pistol,” he said. Edwards also said he possesses a concealed carry license
GUNS PAGE 2
ment Student Body President David Lopez said. Bartholomew, TSG director of government affairs and interim executive director of PASS, has been unable to reach Penn State representatives since before the New Year. “I have sent numerous emails to several people at Penn State, phone calls, and text messages and haven’t received a reply,” Bartholomew said. Neither Penn State University Park Undergraduate Association President Courtney Lennartz nor Government Affairs Chair Rachel Franceschino responded to requests for an interview. As a result of the conference rotation schedule, the representatives from Penn State are charged with hosting the spring conference. Lopez describes
PASS PAGE 3
Candidates for library dean come to Temple The process will be repeated as Temple looks to fill three other positions. SEAN CARLIN JOHN MORITZ The Temple News Last week, Joseph Lucia visited Main Campus and rounded out the last visit of the three candidates for dean of University Libraries. Lucia, the director of Falvey Memorial Library at Villanova University, gave a presentation titled “Not Fade Away,” on Feb. 13, and spoke on the importance of a physical space to serve as a public “commons,” and the need for more open access to information as an increasing amount of documents and scholarly works enter a digital format. Lucia’s presentation contained slides of a few of the world’s most famous libraries,
Senior Mark Edwards displays a firearm in his off-campus apartment.| ELLEN PARKINS TTN
NEWS@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM
DEAN PAGE 2
NEWS temple-news.com
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NEWS IN BRIEF Director of SHINE honored by President Obama The National Director of SHINE, Patience Lehrman, was honored by President Barack Obama with a 2012 Citizens Medal on Feb. 15. SHINE, an immigrant integration initiative at Temple’s Intergenerational Center provides language and health education, citizenship and civic participation lessons to immigrant communities, according to the White House. The Citizen’s Medal is the second-highest civilian honor. For more on Lehrman, pick up The Temple News next Tuesday, Feb. 26. - Sean Carlin
GOP lawmaker behind Pa. DREAM Act A Pennsylvania DREAM Act was introduced recently by an unlikely source. Republican State Sen. Lloyd Smucker sponsored the legislation which would allow eligible undocumented immigrants to attend college at instate tuition levels. The individuals would have to attend at least two years of high school and meet all commonwealth residency requirements for financial aid, according to the bill. -Sean Carlin
Morgan Hall dining hall aims to reduce overcrowding in other food courts One of the major features of Temple’s $216 million residence hall will be a new dining hall. In addition to serving the influx of more than 1,200 students who will occupy the building, the dining hall is also expected to curb overcrowding at the Valaida S. Walker Food Court in the Student Center. It will have the capacity to hold approximately 700 patrons at one time, compared to 650 at the Student Center, officials said. Check temple-news. com later this week for a full story on how officials are attempting to curb overcrowding with the new dining hall. -Marcus McCarthy
2012 questionnaire results released at TSG meeting Project Manager for Assessment and Survey Research Dana Kerr presented the results of the 2012 Student Questionnaire at the Temple Student Government General Assembly meeting yesterday, Feb. 18. The survey covered numerous topics impacting students. Elections Commissioner Fallon Roberson-Roby also announced at the meeting that the sign-up packet for the TSG elections is due Feb. 28. For a full recap of the TSG General Assembly meeting, visit temple-news. com. -Laura Detter
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2013
CSS urges students not to carry guns GUNS PAGE 1 and has been carrying for almost a year. He has never had to use his gun for a safety situation. “Luckily I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve had to do that, I’ve never had to pull it out of its holster a single time,” he said. Edwards said that currently, he is not only unhappy with the president’s proposed gun policies, but he is dissatisfied with the university’s policy. Deputy Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone said it’s against school policy to carry weapons on campus. “By stepping on campus, I automatically lose one of my rights to defend myself in the best way that I can,” Edwards said. Leone argues that students’ “best defense” is one that can potentially cause him harm. “More often than not with weapons, more bad can come of it than good. It can be used against you, suicide rates are higher when there’s a weapon in the house or if you mix alcohol and weapons. A lot of bad can happen,” Leone said. Leone said he believes that this area of defense should remain within the duties of the authorities. “I’m not a proponent of carrying weapons for a number of reasons. One has to do with training, two has to do with I don’t know who you are carrying the weapon and I feel that it’s best left in the hands of the professionals, so to speak,” Leone said. While Leone said no real issues have occurred with student-on-student violence in the past, he acknowledges that the debate is still prevalent. “We’ve gotten calls over the last few years from students
asking why they can’t, requesting to carry it. A number of students...don’t think it’s fair, those that carry guns,” he said. Leone said he believes that the best weapon students can have against potential dangers is their brain and that there is no need for students to be carrying a gun. “When you look at the situation, I guess everyone has a right to defend themselves in their house but, again, more bad than good comes of it. A lot of the situations you can prevent, depending on what you’re doing,” he said. The right to defend oneself through the Second Amendment is a belief that Erik Jacobs, chairman of the Temple University College Republicans, holds true. Jacobs advocates that students arm themselves. “I would definitely encourage students who live off-campus to take advantage of that and get their permits and get weapons for self-protection,” he said. Jacobs said all students should get educated on their Second Amendment rights and exercise them. “If you don’t use them, you could lose them,” he said. Jacobs also looks at the gun control issue on a national level. “I oppose gun control measures,” Jacobs said. “We have a Second Amendment right that says you can bear arms. That right is sacrosanct, just as the right to free speech and trying to curtail one amendment is no different than trying to curtail another.” Jacobs does agree that more mental health checks and background checks could be employed when applying for
Senior Mark Edwards shows his Glock-26 pistol. He said keeps guns in his off-campus apartment and said he doesn’t agree with Temple’s on-campus gun ban. | ELLEN PARKINS TTN firearms. Fellow civic-minded student Dylan Morpurgo, president of Temple College Democrats, disagrees with Jacob’s stance. “I whole heartedly support every piece of legislation the government proposes and supports in regards to gun control,” Morpurgo, a junior political science major, said. Morpurgo said he does acknowledge that in the U.S., the public is granted the right to bear arms, however it needs to be done in a safe and sane way. In regards to the student body, Morpurgo said he believes in a stricter policy. “I don’t think that anyone really needs to be carrying a handgun, whether that’s for good or bad reasons, protection or not,” Morpurgo said. Similar to the beliefs of Leone, Morpurgo requests that that
duty be left to the professionals. “The police department is trained to deal with that situation in any way possible, without a gun being fired until the last possible absolute moment,” Morpurgo said. “Students do not have the training, they don’t have physical training, they don’t have the technical training, they don’t have the psychological training.” Temple Student Government Student Body President David Lopez stated that this situation is complicated as it relates to the student body. “I think when it comes down to it, it’s a very difficult gray area because the Constitution calls for one thing and what university policy dictates is something completely different,” Lopez said. Lopez does, however, ultimately agree with Leone and
Morpurgo in the notion that CSS is qualified to use the weapons and that doing so should be left to its officers, he said. “We do have really great campus safety on our campus and for that reason I don’t think that students should feel the need to be armed for their own safety or protection,” Lopez said. Leone said that if students still feel unsafe, alternative means of protection can be used. The Owl Loop shuttle, police escorts or rape aggression and defense courses that will soon be offered to men, are available at the university, he said. Cindy Stansbury can be reached at cindy.stansbury@temple.edu.
4 deanships will be filled in spring DEANS PAGE 1 including the Salt Lake City Public Library and the Vancouver Public Library, which he said exemplified the modern library as a “place of human intersection and interaction.” Temple is in the design stages of a $297.5 million library project planned for North Broad Street. Lucia mentioned the project as the only new library being built by an academic institution in the nation. This process of courting dean candidates at Main Campus will be repeated throughout the next few months as Temple works to fill four of its five vacant deanships before the end of the semester. Each search normally is accompanied by a 12-person search advisory committee as well as a search firm, if it’s deemed necessary. “The search advisory committee chair will often hold town meetings and go talk to people in that school or college,” said Vicki Lewis McGarvey, vice provost for University College. “The search firm goes out and does informational interviews if we’re using the firm. And we use all that information to create a job description.” The committee then reviews candidates identified by the firm and, in consultation with the provost, invites eight to 12 of the candidates to confidential off-campus interviews over the course of two days usually, McGarvey said. The candidates are usually pared down to three to five for campus visits. Policy states that there must be at least three candidates. These visits normally include a tour of campus, meetings with administrators and
Joseph Lucia presents at Paley Library on Feb. 13. Lucia is one of three final candidates for the deanship of University Libraries.| JOHN MORITZ TTN constituencies and a presentation of scholarship in the department where the dean would hold tenure. “Our deans are always standing for tenure in their school or college, so they give a presentation to the department in which they would hold tenure,” McGarvey said. This is the point in which the search for the dean of University Libraries stands. Since
the library isn’t a school or college, some adjustments were made in the process and the three candidates met with library staff and the student library advisory board. Before the dean is chosen, the committee takes three candidates and presents them unranked to the president and provost for consideration before the university offers the deanship to one of them.
The committee will be meeting with the provost concerning the University Libraries deanship this week and the provost and president will be meeting with each other next week. McGarvey didn’t give a timetable on when the dean of University Libraries would be named. “It’s hard to say,” McGarvey said. “Once they extend an offer to a candidate, nego-
tiations could happen quickly or they could take several weeks, it just depends.” Carol Lang is currently serving as interim dean of University Libraries. She has been with the university for 20 years. The two other dean candidates – Mary Case and David Lewis – presented at Temple earlier this month. Case is the university librarian and a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Lewis is the dean of the university library at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and has been at the university since 1993. Candidates for the deanships of the College of Education, the College of Health Professions and Social Work and School of Media and Communication are still being cultivated by the search firms, McGarvey said. All three committees have meetings scheduled within the next two weeks to present candidates who would be considered for the off-campus interview phase of the search. McGarvey added that the university hopes to bring candidates for all three searches to campus during the month of April. There is no search underway for the dean of the College of Science and Technology. Michael Klein is serving as the interim dean of that college. Sean Carlin and John Moritz can be reached at news@temple-news.com.
NEWS
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2013
PAGE 3
Lifting of female Fires at site last week ruled arson combat ban a multi-part process ARSON PAGE 1
open those positions to females and require special permission for the position to be closed to female applicants. The process is “dizzying,” Castelli said, but he hopes it will lead to a more transparent and open process for ALI WATKINS female Army members. The Temple News “There’s an excitement of positions being open,” he said. The January announcement “But there’s an anxiety and an that lifted a decades-long com- unknown that comes with the bat ban for women sent shock analysis.” waves across the nation’s armed Female ROTC cadets have forces. felt this anxiety, Castelli said, Although the announce- and are well aware of the long ment garnered enormous na- process ahead. While the immetional attention, the removal of diate result sounds good, Casthe ban, which formally dates telli said they know that there back to 1994, has local effects is still a long road of analysis on Main Campus. Specifically head. in the basement of Ritter Hall, “There’s a mix of reactions which Temple’s female ROTC from the female cadets call home. cadets,” Castelli For these said. “While students, many of they understand whom will serve that the Army in some capacity wants to reduce after graduation, restrictions for the ban signals female soldiers, a departure from they also unthe traditional derstand that military rhetothere’s going to ric. It could open be challenges Lt. Col. James Castelli / up as many as professor of military science associated with 236,000 new pothe changes.” sitions to female Although enlisters after an the decision analysis process is completed. may not directly affect many of Lifting the ban is a two-part Temple’s female cadets, Castelli process, which many people said the implications of the decidon’t understand, said Lt. Col. sion are wide-reaching. James Castelli, professor of mil“[The decision] says a itary science. While the immedi- great deal about the U.S. Miliate ban has been lifted, the Pen- tary and the entire Department tagon announcement requires of Defense...the U.S. Military, each armed services branch to including the Army, has a high conduct an extensive analysis of value of women’s role in the positions that were previously military, and women are a treclosed to women members. mendous asset to the military,” While many of those positions he said. “Women are an asset will be opened, he said, some that the Army and the military may still be closed to service- has to capitalize on, there’s so women. much that women have to offer “It’s important to under- that, by opening up a lot of these stand that it’s not an immediate 236,000 positions, we’re imlifting of the ban...It’s starting proving the tools that we have analysis to determine which to accomplish our mission.” qualifications are required for each of these [236,000] posiAli Watkins can be reached at tions,” Castelli said. allison.watkins@temple.edu or on Twitter @AliMarieWatkins. While the 1994 legislation restricted certain positions to females and required special permission for them to hold them, the new initiative will
The lift of the ban could open upward of 236,000 positions for female enlisters.
“There’s an
anxiety and an unknown that comes with the analysis.
”
across the city, Creedon said the site’s workers are 100 percent union and it’s a non-issue at Morgan Hall. “This is not even a jurisdictional dispute among the trades,” Creedon said. “The trades have been right there with us since day one as our partner on this job.” The fires all occurred during the daytime. On Feb. 11, three fires were reported at 8:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m., on the 15th, 20th and 18th floors, respectively. The two fires on Feb. 12, occurred at approximately 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. and were on the 13th and 16th floors, respectively. Temple issued a TU Advisory in response to the fires on Feb. 13, which read that the fires were not serious and “federal and city authorities are investigating the incidents, which have been limited to the worksite and pose no threat to the Temple community.” Sean Carlin can be reached at sean.carlin@temple.edu or on Twitter @SeanCarlin84.
Firefighters stage during a fire on Feb. 11 at Morgan Hall. The high-rise has been the site of five fires that were deliberately set, officials have said. | JOHN MORITZ TTN
Grad. date falls on Jewish holiday GRADUATION PAGE 1
the provost and a school representative a day later, on May 17. Litwinoff said that she would not attend commencement as held on May 16, as she would be in synagogue. She said she was still undecided as to whether she would attend an alternative ceremony. Leebron Tutelman would not say whether the university ever considered the option of changing graduation, or if a change was still being discussed. But presently, no plans for change have been announced. The university has booked the Liacouras Center for May 16 and the venue is already booked for the following day, Leebron Tutelman said. “It is safe to say that many, many families made plans [for the scheduled date],” Hoffmann said. In the first days of break, Litwinoff formed a petition on Change.org, to gather 500 signatures in support of one of three alternatives she provided in the petition: changing the time or date of commencement to accommodate the holiday, or
changing the departmental or dates, and that many students’ school graduations. families would not be able to Litwinoff said that she sent attend. the petition out to her email conPhil Nordlinger, director of tacts and people on her Face- Hillel at Temple, Main Campus’ book page, and Jewish commuwas surprised at nity center, said the support that the center supcame with the ports students petition. Litwinwho feel a conoff also contacted flict between five Jewish memthe dates, and bers of the Board hopes that an of Trustees, three accommodation of which she will be reached. said responded, The center is including Leonnot opposard Barrack, ing the current who suggested commencement Sharon Litwinoff / date. she contact the senior theater major Anti-Defamation Leebron League. Tutelman said The ADL that the universent a letter to the university sity reached out to Temple Hilwith a calendar of Reform Jew- lel and Temple Chabad to hold ish holidays. services for the first two days of Hoffmann said that despite Shavuot, on May 14 and 15. the petition, no other student Litwinoff said she doesn’t has issued a formal complaint think the commencement will to the university about the date. be changed at this point, but Litwinoff said that she expects hopes that administrators will that some students would be un- look closer at religious calenable to attend by the conflicting dars for future dates.
“This is one of
those situations where it just doesn’t matter what your personal feelings are.
”
“It’s been a nightmare. [The university administrators] are very quick to send messengers to tell me how they personally are empathetic and feel for me and they want me to come to graduation, but that’s just wasted energy. This is one of those situations where it just doesn’t matter what your personal feelings are if you are not doing anything about it,” Litwinoff said, adding that she thinks it would take a major donor withdrawing support to get something changed. Leebron Tutelman said that the university traditionally schedules the commencement ceremony for the Thursday after the last Wednesday of finals. Shavuot, also known as the Festival of Weeks, celebrates the time when the Jewish people received the Torah. It is celebrated seven weeks after the second day of Passover. John Moritz can be reached at john.moritz@temple.edu or on Twitter @JCMoritzTU.
PASS schools disagreed over rally in fall and there is nothing for us to go off of other than agendas from past meetings. There is actually no structure to PASS.” Bartholomew and Lopez intend to develop PASS until they leave office this summer and hope to bring a form of unity back to the association. “We are four very different universities, four very different student bodies, and we have four very different mission statements and directions we are moving in,” Bartholomew said. “Even though we all have our own opinions on a lot of things and disagreed on a lot of things, at the end of the day, we are all still the same type of institution from the state’s perspective and we all need each other.” There is more than two months left in the spring semester for PASS representatives to schedule a spring conference and work on the future of the association.
PASS PAGE 1 the situation as “sheer and utter irresponsibility on the part of Penn State.” PASS was created by the four state-related universities in 2010 in response to Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed 50 percent cut to state appropriations. In 2011 and 2012, PASS held rallies in Harrisburg to support higher education funding. This year, Corbett proposed to flat-fund the universities, so Bartholomew and Lopez recognize that PASS is not the top priority. “Since the governor did propose flat-funding, it isn’t as urgent for us to meet right away,” Lopez said. “The rally idea has been tabled, considering the flat-funding proposal. That doesn’t mean we need to stop as state-related institutions though.” “The governor may have proposed flat-funding now for this year, but what is to say that additional funds won’t be on the chopping block in the future. We don’t want to show that we are at ease or comfortable,” Lopez added. At the fall conference, hosted by TSG on Nov. 10, there were disagreements between the representatives as to the future of the rally. However,
Darin Bartholomew, interim executive director of PASS, cites communication issues with student leaders from Penn State regarding PASS as uncertainty over the annual spring conference. | ABI REIMOLD TTN all four universities agreed that PASS needed to expand its mission beyond higher education funding. “What I would like to see out of PASS, other than just being a rally, is us taking the semester to actually figure out how we are going to build a
foundation. I am all about building a foundation for the future,” Lopez said. “We should focus on building a sturdy foundation, so that whatever student leaders are elected in a year, two years, or three years they know the principles on which PASS is founded and know the scope of
our advocacy.” Since his election as the interim executive director, Bartholomew has drafted bylaws to create more formality and structure, which he attributes as the biggest issue facing the association. “When it was created,
two or three years ago, it was because it was a proposed 50 percent cut, so there was a lot of initial emotional reactions to create PASS,” Bartholomew said. “There wasn’t actually a legitimate organization structure, there aren’t any bylaws, there is no mission statement,
Laura Detter can be reached at laura.detter@temple.edu.
OPINION
A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921. Angelo Fichera, Editor-in-Chief Cara Stefchak, Managing Editor Sean Carlin, News Editor Zachary Scott, Opinion Editor Luis Rodriguez, Living Editor Jenelle Janci, A&E Editor Joey Cranney, Sports Editor John Moritz, Asst. News Editor Ibrahim Jacobs, Asst. Sports Editor Lauren Hertzler, Chief Copy Editor Brandon Baker, Copy Editor TJ Creedon, Copy Editor Saba Aregai, Multimedia Editor Dustin Wingate, Multimedia Editor
Chris Montgomery, Web Editor Patrick McCarthy, Asst. Web Editor Andrea Cicio, Social Media Editor Kate McCann, Photography Editor Abi Reimold, Asst. Photography Editor Addy Peterson, Designer Emily Hurley, Designer Tony Santoro, Designer David Hamme, Advertising Manager Kathleen Smith, Business Manager Morgan Hutchinson, Marketing Manager
temple-news.com
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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2013
DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
The Temple News is an editorially independent weekly publication serving the Temple University community. Unsigned editorial content represents the opinion of The Temple News. Adjacent commentary is reflective of their authors, not The Temple News. Visit us online at temple-news.com. Send submissions to letters@temple-news.com. The Temple News is located at: Student Center, Room 243 1755 N. 13th St. Philadelphia, PA 19122
EDITORIALS
Temple trailblazers
I
The Temple News presents its annual issue of exceptional people.
n this week’s Living section, readers will meet several members of the Temple community who are doing exceptional things. They’re people you’ll find in classrooms, throughout the city or even online who are making strides in their respective areas, despite any time constraints. Every week, The Temple News introduces people you should know. But the undergraduate and graduate students, teachers and alumni who we’ve profiled in this issue represent people who don’t accept the status quo, and who work hard – defining what it means to be a part of the Temple family. From working in Congress, to traveling to Africa, to conquering the blog and social media frontiers, the people chosen to be profiled in this annual issue – and on temple-news. com – have something to say,
and aren’t afraid to do so. Their voices are worth open ears and eyes as you peruse this issue of The Temple News. We can’t include everybody who fits the bill, but we ask that you take this as a sampling of all the people that make Temple the unique institution that it is. If you know someone else who should’ve been included but wasn’t, contact The Temple News and we’ll try to incorporate him or her in our future coverage. The names of our movers and shakers are Jane Gordon, Uri Pierre Noel, Iris Ong, Veronika Paluch, Joey DeAngelis, Joe Hoeffel, Kishwer Vikaas and Angela Washko. They’re the people who are making strides and blazing trails – shaking up the system as it stands. They are people you want to know. Visit our Living section to get acquainted.
Diploma-tic diversity
Temple must better communicate on issues like the graduation petition.
I
t’s fair to say that Temple has benefited mightily from marketing itself based on its diversity. For the most part, this is a deserved reputation. Temple indeed is a place where different people with different sets of beliefs are encouraged to interact freely. It is precisely this longstanding legacy of diversity that makes stories like the one reported by John Moritz on P. 1 so surprisingly unfortunate. When Sharon Litwinoff discovered that the date of her graduation ceremony fell on the final day of Shavout, she knew that this would present a huge conflict in her ability to attend the event. She began contacting people she hoped would be able to help, only to find her cries fall on deaf ears. Eventually, she was presented with a few options, but all essentially came down to shuffling her around to some other ceremony rather than any effort on the part of the university to accommodate. The Temple News understands that it’s impossible to please everyone’s schedules. No matter what date the university decided on, there would undoubtedly be some people who would prefer another. But while we may empathize somewhat with the university, the
choice of a date that threatens to alienate such a large portion of the student body, which Phil Nordlinger, director of Hillel at Temple, estimates at 1,600 students – regardless of any stated blindness to religious holidays – certainly raises an eyebrow. What is more difficult to comprehend is the seeming lack of any real effort on the part of the university to remedy the situation. Litwinoff said she has been the recipient of several emails from university officials expounding on their sympathies and, after months, was able to secure a meeting. But she said she believes those efforts were halfhearted at best. If the university has not been able to convey with enough conviction how understanding it is for any feelings of isolation or negligence it has created - at least in the eyes of Litwinoff then it has not been able to stand by its commitment to diversity successfully. One student feeling that his or her firmly held beliefs were ignored by Temple is one student too many.
JULIANA COPPA TTN
PHOTO COMMENT
A student donned a helmet at the Bell Tower gathering for the Harlem Shake video last week. | DAN PELLGRINE TTN
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CITY VIEW
Facebook has many friends
Facebook exceeded 1 billion registered users on Oct. 4, 2012. As of December 2012, the social media giant reported more than 1 billion monthly users, 618 million daily users and 680 million mobile Facebook users.
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of every
NOTABLE QUOTABLE
“What does this say about the
Facebook users check their profiles five or more times a day.
state of hip-hop when some of our most beloved rappers are as old as our parents?
of every
minutes spent online is spent on Facebook.
3 4 of every
”
minutes spent on social media sites is spent on Facebook.
Kevin Stairiker / Fear of Music, P. 13 Sources: Facebook.com, socialnomics.net and comscore.com
ADDY PETERSON TTN
COMMENTARY
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2013
Commencing diversity check
O
SUNIL CHOPADE
Chopade argues that Temple needs to commit to diversity if it wants to champion it.
n what is normally a day of carefree celebration, Jewish students at Temple may find themselves in a spiritual quandary come May 16, the scheduled date for the university’s undergraduate graduation. That date overlaps with Shavuot, a three-day holiday that begins sunset of May 14 and extends until nightfall of May 16, which celebrates the handing down of the Torah to the Israelites. While observance of the holiday would obviously preclude a number of students and their families from attending the ceremony, the conflict of occasions appears to be either lost or a relative nonissue on the part of the university, an institution that extols its diversity and ethnic and religious multiculturalism. Shavuot is a “day to be separate from the world,” said senior theater major Sharon Litwinoff, who comes from a conservative Jewish home. It is a respite from the
ceaseless whirr of the material world, a day dedicated to study and contemplation of the sacred Jewish text. She has observed Shavuot all her life, even when there have been similar conflicts, such as school trips: “I mean, I wanted to go, but I knew I couldn’t,” she said. But graduation isn’t any field trip. It’s not unfair to call the brief interregnum between the ending of most students’ academic career and the beginning of their professional one “a momentous occasion you shouldn’t miss.” “I don’t understand what kind of institution would force someone to make this decision,” Litwinoff said. Litwinoff alerted university officials of the dilemma in Auguust 2012 and contacted the
Board of Trustees of this confluence in December 2012. It would be another two months before they got back to her. At that point, the university stated that its plans were set, and it would be impossible to adjust them now. Temple officials told The Temple News that the university sets its academic calendar two years in advance and doesn’t take religious holidays into account. Litwinoff said she received no support from Hillel at Temple, a Jewish organization, or KOACH, which deals more specifically with Conservative Judaism. “They just wanted to bury their heads in the sand,” Litwin-
“Is it possible
that an institution, no matter its affectations toward cosmopolitan acceptance and inclusion, can simply be too big, too impersonal?
”
off said. “They didn’t think the school would move it.” This left her alone to navigate the mire of Temple’s administrative and bureaucratic channels. But Temple officials said Hillel, independent of the university, would be considering an on-site prayer space on graduation day. Still, Temple’s obstinacy in this matter is baffling, considering an identical case in which Rutgers University – a school of comparable size – both addressed and remedied its graduation date’s conflict with Shavuot in 2010 with relative ease. This all leads to a line of thought straight out of Kafka: Is it possible that an institution, no matter its affectations toward cosmopolitan acceptance and inclusion, can simply be too big, too impersonal? Litwinoff finally obtained a meeting with the Provost’s Office, but it was agreed to simply because the university felt it owed her as
CHOPADE PAGE 6
Defriending yourself the way to go
A ZACK SCOTT
Scott encourages anyone considering getting off Facebook to commit to it.
bout a year ago, I disappeared from the world. A d m i t t e d l y, that might be a bit overdramatic. But to a few hundred people, it probably seems that way. That’s because last February I finally took the plunge I’d been debating for months and deactivated my Facebook profile. After a whole year of abstaining and reflection, I’ve come to believe that it was – without a doubt – the right decision. Given the opportunity, I would absolutely do so again, and I would recommend the same course of action to anyone who is thinking about doing it now. Of course, there are plenty of people who will disagree. Among them are those few hundred people from whom I disappeared. Whenever I randomly bump into one of them, they act like they’ve seen a ghost, which
I guess in this modern era of online networking is at least partially accurate. They’ll usually give me the same question that I’ve begun to get tired of hearing: “Why aren’t you on Facebook?” What’s interesting is that the reason I left that world behind was because I flipped that question around one day and asked myself why I was connected to that realm in the first place. I stumped myself. I honestly could not come up with a real, satisfying answer. I could tell myself that it was to stay in contact with old friends, but the people I wanted to stay in contact with had my phone number and email address. I communicated with them in other ways to begin with and still do. I may have cut a lot of tangential acquaintances from my life, but I can’t really say that I sacrificed any true
friends in the process. In actuality, I would say that the friendships I do have are stronger now than ever. Facebook reinforces the bare minimum in friendship and cheapens the concept overall. Now I don’t get to keep my friends just by liking their statuses: I actually have to make an effort, and our bonds are stronger because of it. I briefly considered the networking possibilities, but that reason was quickly tossed aside. Let’s just say that I – along with plenty of potential employers with Internet access – found the results there to be unsatisfying. There were a few other considerations, but my ultimate conclusion was that there was nothing Facebook was providing me that I couldn’t get more easily elsewhere and without a great deal of the distraction. Distraction is definitely the right word for it, too. When I would get on my computer,
one of the first things I would do was log into Facebook. I wouldn’t even constantly check it, but it was always there, open on a separate tab, lurking, waiting for the second I would think about taking a break from whatever the task at hand was. Freeing myself from that cycle meant gaining more focus concerning whatever it was I was supposed to be focusing on. It meant not spending hours upon hours in the TECH Center, because I wasn’t spending hours upon hours there playing Bejeweled Blitz. It also meant that I got to enjoy hearing and delivering news in person again. No longer does a friend walk up to me, expecting to blow my mind with some incredible story, only for me to respond with: “Yeah I saw your status yesterday.” I get to actually enjoy that moment of
SCOTT PAGE 6
Love for Morgan Hall burns bright
D
HUMOR COLUMN
BRI BOSAK For Argument’s Sake
In a humor column, Bosak lists reasons why Morgan Hall should not be burned down.
epending on how much you frequent your Temple email account, you might have noticed a TU Advisory come through Feb. 12, about a series of fires – five now, confirmed by officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – that were set at the Morgan Hall construction site last week. The email informed the Temple community that the fires were not serious and construction would continue as scheduled. Federal and local authorities have been investigating the incidents and believe them to be acts of arson. Deputy Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone said the fires appeared to be started with a lighter. So far there have been no reported suspects in the case and there are no further details to report on. Given that, there is really only one thing left to say about the “Mystery of the Morgan Hall Fires” and that is that I don’t think it’s such a smart idea. Why?
Here are 10 reasons not to burn down Morgan Hall:
TUITION IS HIGH ENOUGH
I think that money is somewhat of an obvious reason. ATF Special Agent Steven Bartholomew said property damage to the building is estimated at $100,000. If the property damage totaled that amount from a series of small fires involving construction debris like cardboard and trash, can you imagine how much it would cost involving an entire construction site? Where do you think the school is going to get the money for a brand new residence hall? I’ll give you a hint: Where Temple gets much of its money. Us. In a recent Temple News interview, Senior Vice President for Construction Facilities and Operations
James Creedon said, “I would think from a dollar perspective, it is probably the largest project Temple has ever undertaken.” Yikes.
SICK SKYLINE
There is no denying that the panorama from Morgan Hall is pretty breathtaking. Why would anybody want to set fire to the only building in North Broad Street to offer those views?
“There is no
denying that the panorama from Morgan Hall is pretty breathtaking. MITCHELL
”
AND HILARIE MORGAN
Just imagine how deeply upset and personally offended Board of Trustees member Mitchell Morgan and his wife Hilarie – for whom the building is named – will feel knowing you burned it to the ground.
GLOBAL WARMING
With all this talk about the
environment heating up, ice caps shrinking and polar bears losing their homes, I think it’s only right to be concerned from an ecological perspective. The year 2012 saw the most severe and extensive drought in at least 25 years, according to a recent report by the United Sates Department of Agriculture. And many scientists report that extreme weather and droughts like this are only going to become more frequent in coming years. With a possibility of a 2013 summer drought upon us, we must begin saving water now. Not to mention Morgan Hall is supposed to feature a green roof – so you’re being super ecounfriendly.
PAGE 5
SOMEONE ELSE’S
OPINION
“The false hubris concerning Mr. Chu’s involvement with the well cap that eventually stopped the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico also highlights how the administration always seeks to foster the notion that government must oversee all business ventures or breakthroughs in order to ensure the welfare of the citizenry — even when it isn’t true.”
Daniel Kish,
on washingtontimes.com in “Steven Chu and the hubris of big government”
“Hollywood always wants it both ways, of course, but this Oscar season is rife with contenders who bank on the authenticity of their films until it’s challenged, and then fall back on the ‘Hey, it’s just a movie’ defense.”
Maureen Dowd,
on nytimes.com in “The Oscar for Best Fabrication”
“I’m all for walkable towns, and if this were some big-box invasion, I’d be right there with the protesters. But we’re talking Wawa here – an iconic local brand that is one of the few things that keeps our region from looking like Anytown, USA.”
Larry Platt,
on philly.com in “Why not in their backyard?”
“There was a time in our nation’s military history when a service member actually had to earn their medals. Those days are quickly fading as America transitions into the ‘everybody gets a medal’ culture.”
Kerry Patton,
on foxnews.com in “Does the Distinguished Warfare Medal degrade military honors?”
Got an opinion?
THE QUAKERS
What would Ben Franklin do? City of Brotherly Love, people.
NEIGHBORHOOD RUMBLE
Between last year and this year, the issue about what to do with the influx of students living off campus and the residents
BOSAK PAGE 6
We want to hear from you. Email letters to letters@temple-news.com or comment stories on our website, temple-news.com.
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
“How much time a
day do you spend on Facebook?
”
ELLEN PARKINS TTN
“I am definitely on other social networks like Twitter more. People don’t really use Facebook the same way as they used to. ”
Saleem Taaj Sabree
SENIOR | JOURNALISM
OPINION DESK 215-204-7416
“About 20 minutes.”
Austin Stauffer
FRESHMAN | PRE-PHARMACY
LETTERS@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM
“Honestly, I really don’t go on it much anymore.”
ALEXA GARGANI
SENIOR | SPORTS AND RECREATION
PAGE 6
on the
WORD WEB...
OPINION
temple-news.com
Unedited for content.
PAIGE SAYS ON “SALAH: PRESENTATIONS IN CLASS NOT FOR EVERYONE” ON FEB. 17 AT 12:53 A.M.
Hate to break it to you but if you do not have proper social skills and presentation skills, getting a job is going to be very difficult. Every interview you go on is a presentation of yourself. If you aren’t gaining the proper skills in college, you will be lost in the working world. Even if you are an accountant, the executive of the accounting firm will surely be the person who can present themselves well in front of others. It will not be the person who sits quietly in the back and is overly shy. Social, presentation and speaking skills are a must in the working world.
ARLETTE JOSEPH SAYS ON “LEPP: ROMANCE CAPITAL NOT EXCLUSIVE TO COUPLES” ON FEB. 16 AT 10:26 A.M.
Skye,Your light is sure shining. This article is completely interesting, for you to combine your chidlhood with your young adult life is most encouraging for the young and the old like us to enjoy reading and living life.Continue your writing,Skye your Merlot and Journalism is a wonderful combination..Arlette & Phil
CAYETANO VALENZUELA SAYS ON “CAYETANO WELCOMED IN DIY SCENE” ON FEB. 12 AT 2:23 A.M. This band rules!
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2013
Diversity requires effort, not words much – after repeated inquiries – to tell her in person that they could do nothing about moving the date. “I was given ‘accommodations,’” Litwinoff said. Her options were to join the School of Pharmacy’s graduation, attend the Feb. 1 School of Media and Communications winter commencement or attend the undergraduate commencement in 2014. This was the best they could do. Litwinoff felt as though she was just being shoehorned into another event that was already in motion. It required no real concession on the part of Temple. At this rate, Temple runs
CHOPADE PAGE 5
a serious risk of alienating its Jewish students. Last year saw a major university restructuring in the wake of budget cuts, which proposed that both the Hebrew and Judaic studies major be disbanded. There are somewhat understandable economic arguments for this action of course: A lack of funds, coupled with low enrollments in the programs makes them an easy target for cost-cutting measures. But this leaves Jewish students interested in the higher intellectual and scholarly tiers of their religion in a lurch, and potentially gives the impression that these pursuits are somehow
less important than other programs. If Temple really intends to legitimize its slogans of diversity and inclusion, it requires concrete action and decision. Otherwise, it’s all lip service. Yet at the same time Jewish students need to form a cohesive voice. Litwinoff’s petition on Change.org has garnered 378 supporters as of press time, but this is nothing compared to the potential collective voice of all of Temple’s Jewish students and their allies. Sunil Chopade can be reached at sunil.chopade@temple.edu or on Twitter @S_Chopade.
Peanut butter and jelly is man’s finest hour
T
HUMOR COLUMN
JOHN MORITZ
Moritz argues that the peanut butter and jelly sandwich deserves a place in the folklore of Americana.
he peanut butter and jelly sandwich is the greatest sandwich ever made. It’s not the tastiest – that honor can go to one of the countless grease-behemoth concoctions specialty of Jewish and Italian deli-maestros up and down the Eastern Seaboard. Nor is it the healthiest: A serving of Welch’s Grape Jelly has 13 grams of sugar. Not exactly a Mountain Dew, but – let’s be honest – if your PB&J only has one serving of jelly, it is probably still being made by your mother. What the PB&J is, is a product of simplistic, crazy, ingenious beauty that screams America at the decibels of a screeching eagle or roaring F-16 Fighting Falcon.
We all know that George Washington Carver, in all his peanut wisdom, failed to invent the peanut’s single greatest invention: Jif creamy peanut butter. It is even clearer that he did not have a hand in marrying it with jelly between two slices of Wonder Bread. In fact, no one really knows who invented this delicacy, but the first published account comes from Julia Davis Chandler in 1901, according to “American Foods by the Decades.” What is known is that by the years between the World Wars, the PB&J had become an ingrained part of the American youth. That is what makes it the greatest sandwich: It was there for you for your first teething, it calmed you when you scraped your knee from a fall from your
Razor Scooter, it was the taste on your lips at your first kiss. Heck, you probably even snuck an Uncrustable before shaking your principal’s hand at graduation. We all share that divine image of the PB&J of our youths. Two skinny strips of purple and tan layered between fluffy white goodness with edges cut off – always out of love. When you were finally able to reach the counter and butter knifes, and be out of your mother’s watchful eye, those wisps of spread may have evolved into gobs of jelly surfing on waves of peanut butter, the cut crust now an option of your newfound young-adulthood. As we grew out of adulthood, and the country left the Greatest Generation to a bygone era, the PB&J evolved a rebel-
lious nature to suit its leopardprint, spanx-clad devourers. Now available with the personal options like bacon and tomato, the PB&J may not always seem like itself: The minimalist combination of two unconventional flavors bound by the simplest of slices. It may be more important now than ever to remember the one who has been with us longer than our high school perishables or freshman year roommate. When you failed your calculus exam, got left behind in a group project or were unsuccessful in finding a hookup at an AEPi party the ingredients were always there in your room to put together the simplest of meals to calm your flustered nerves. Having left the safe nest that is our parent’s home – or not – but nevertheless head-
ing out into a real world filled with student debt, high unemployment rates and Honey Boo Boo, it is anything but shameful to go back with open arms to the sandwich of comfort, representative of mother’s love and that for just a few delicious moments, everything will be all right. So as I sit here, crunched up at my desk, a mountain of work left waiting before Saturday night begins, an empty coffee cup my only companion, I can console myself in the thought that when I finally get home maybe I’ll open the pantry and get the peanut butter. John Moritz can be reached at john.moritz@temple.edu or on Twitter @JCMoritzTU.
Morgan Hall’s value Removing self from online not easy to replace world has many benefits BOSAK PAGE 5
living in the surrounding neighborhoods has been heated at times. The university has stood by its promise to increase the opportunity for student housing on campus by building this residence hall. Not only would burning down Morgan Hall hurt the university’s effort with local residents, but it would also put nearly 1,300 students out of potential housing next year – likely sending them into the surrounding neighborhood to look for it. Plus the new complex is supposed to be open to the public, so the local residents will be doubly burned. No puns intended, I promise.
ground natural gas reservoir? Or what if that spot was at one time a sacred Indian burial ground and you upset the ancient spirits? Or what if something that is released in the air from the fire kills all the mutant pizza eating squirrel species only native to North Philly? Hey, it could be good or bad. What-ifs are fair play. I could go on.
What if the foundation was the only thing between the street level and a massive under-
GRIDLOCK
THE DARK POSSIBILITIES
SAD BUSINESS OWNERS
Stop and think about how disappointed you will make the business owners who plan to open stores in the retail section of the Morgan Hall complex. Consider the tears they will shed. Shame on you for contemplating such a thing. These five, rather minor fires, caused a complete grid-
SCOTT PAGE 5
interaction, and I believe that those are priceless experiences I was being deprived of before. I didn’t even need to completely withdraw from the social BRONCHITIS IS A B- - - networking web to get these If you haven’t yet had the benefits. At the end of this arpleasure of watching the Youticle, you’ll see my Twitter hanTube video featuring Sweet dle. That’s not there by mistake, Brown talking about “farrrrr,” and it’s not – all that – hypocritiyou must. And if you have, or cal. caught her on Tosh.0, then you Social networking sites are know the dangers that can arise all made differently, and they from a mere house fire. And cater to different purposes. With on Tuesday, one construction Twitter, I’ve found a place that workers suffered smoke inhaI can go for news and informalation from this minor series of tion. I don’t feel like I’m ever fires. Ain’t nobody got time for just mindlessly wasting my that. time, like I would feel on Facebook, because I mostly get bomBri Bosak can be reached at bribosak@temple.edu barded with current events and or on Twitter @bribosak. other valuable kernels of information. lock on Broad Street earlier this week. I can’t imagine what traffic would look like if the entire building were burning down.
So when I take everything into consideration, I lost a bunch of people I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about keeping in my life and the ability to be a member of a mass notification about a party. What I gained was stronger connections with the friends that I really think are important, a more refined ability to focus and more than a handful of moments of direct interactions with people. Worth it? I certainly don’t doubt it for a second. I don’t mean for any of this to sound like a direct, unrelenting indictment of Facebook, either. I’m sure there are plenty of people who are really getting a worthwhile experience out of the website, and I’m happy for
those people. But, personally, I sure wasn’t. And I seriously doubt that I was alone in that respect. I’d be willing to guess that there are a lot of people out there who aren’t entirely sure why they spend time each day scrolling through their feeds – I’m assuming those are still a thing – but just keep doing it because everyone else is too. To those people, I just want to say that liberation is a possibility, and it’s a decision that I’m glad I made. Zack Scott can be reached at zack.scott@temple.edu or on Twitter @ZackScott11.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Re: Ashan: Global warming, a deserved hot topic Dear Editor, This letter is a response to Naveed Ahsan’s “Global warming, a deserved hot topic.” Climate change is definitely a subject that deserves great attention and action, but it also deserves a more thorough review of some of the facts, a discussion about a grassroots campaign currently underway and another look at how Temple can do its own part. First, I wanted to clarify a few points about facts that were not presented in the article. The author parroted a global warming skeptic by writing: “Why aren’t the glaciers melting?” But he did not attempt to provide an answer to the question for readers. There is no disputing the fact that land thought to be permanently frozen in Alaska
and Siberia is now thawing. Sea levels have risen an average of 0.12 inches because of melting glaciers. At the end of last year, the United Nations released a study that said current greenhouse gas emissions would lead to an increase of 3 to 5 degrees Celsius by 2100. The same climate scientists have stated that the planet’s threshold for temperature change is a maximum of about 2 degrees Celsius. As the Arctic continues to thaw, it will also release 100 billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2100 that is now trapped in the earth. The article mentions a few local actions that Temple is taking on climate change, but didn’t include a big student campaign to tackle the root causes of climate change: fossil fuel companies. There is a national campaign to ask universi-
ties and colleges to divest their money from dirty fossil fuel corporations that are responsible for the largest chunk of dirty carbon pollution. Beginning Feb. 22, Swarthmore College is hosting a threeday divestment convergence with the goal of teaching college students from all over the country to work with their administrations to remove university investments in fossil fuels. Even if you’ve only recently become seriously interested in global warming, do not wait to join these efforts to remove funds – intended for use in higher learning – from the stocks of corporate polluters. Although as individuals we all have a part to play in limiting our own carbon footprints, fossil fuel companies are by far the main offenders and should not be supported by
progressive institutions. These companies should not be supported by Temple, who should be investing in a safe and healthy future for its students to inherit rather than investments that will create pollution, impacts on public health and disasters. As a Temple alumnus, I’m requesting that Temple put an immediate freeze on new investments in the fossil fuel industry and completely phase out investments in fossil fuel corporations over the next five years. New investments should be made in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Matt Walker Class of 2006
Follow @TheTempleNews today. It’s as simple as that.
LIVING temple-news.com
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Page 7
T
he Temple News is proud to present its annual Movers & Shakers issue. The variety of people highlighted this year showcases a wide stretch of students, faculty and alumni who are impacting the community, both on local and global scales. Whether they are globetrotting to Africa upon last-minute request, exposing Philadelphia teenagers to the arts or spreading the written word in 140 characters or less, they’re making their mark.
Theorist carries impact Jane Gordon’s last semester at Temple is only a chapter in her extensive résumé. RACHEL MCDEVITT The Temple News
T
hree weeks ago, some students might have been surprised to find out that their professor was canceling class so she could attend a meeting in Senegal. If they really knew political theorist Jane Gordon, they shouldn’t have been surprised. Gordon has been a part of a small group of theorists in the political science department at Temple since 2005. Now an assistant professor, she teaches classes that vary from introductory lectures to seminars on women’s roles in politics. Her eyes truly engage from behind her blue-rimmed
glasses and her voice runs out of breath describing her classes; she doesn’t want to take a breath in her rush to tell you what is so interesting about her field. “In a way that’s, I don’t know, maybe naïve. I come in with a sense that people want to learn something, that they want to think that it’s exciting to learn,” Gordon said. “The classroom is a moment, it’s a community, it’s an experience.” Gordon grew up the daughter of two successful anthropologists who worked closely on everything. The separation between work and home was non-existent, she said. “I swore when I was a kid – and really swore when I
was in high school—that the last thing I would ever do was become a professor,” Gordon said. Gordon became a high school social studies teacher, but she soon found herself trying to teach college-level material. It was her husband, Lewis Gordon, a current philosophy professor at Temple, who suggested she go to graduate school to see what would come of it. During her studies at the University of Pennsylvania she was able to expand on topics that interested her during her undergraduate at Brown. Topics like whether some things are true across historical contexts, or whether nothing was, and how you identified them sparked her interest. She was
particularly drawn to writers and thinkers who lived on the margins of society, saying that they are almost more free to produce unique and thoughtprovoking work, since they do not have to conform to insider norms, she said. “A lot of the political theorists whose work I like most, they don’t just write formal treatises,” Gordon said. “They write about a whole variety of things because they really have a sense that the reality they are trying to grasp is always going to exceed them.” To share her interests at Temple, Gordon started a political theory workshop using her own startup money. The workshop partnered political theory
gordon PAGE 17
n o d
e n a
r o G
J
Aja espinosa TTN
Business as an artistic canvas
At 21 years old, Uri Pierre Noel manages several arts-related jobs in addition to classes.
oel N e ierr
Uri P
Lauren Hertzler TTN
LAUREN HERTZLER The Temple News
U
ri Pierre Noel has never looked at a college degree as a means to get a job. In fact, at 21 years old, he’s already proven he can get a job, and a reputable one at that. Rather, Pierre Noel said he’s a Temple student to fill the gaps in his own knowledge. “Every day I learn something amazing,” he said.
Perhaps it’s Pierre Noel’s ongoing urge for learning – he’s a biochemistry and entrepreneurship and innovation dual major – that has helped him get to where he is today. Pierre Noel, a New Yorknative, is executive director of James Oliver Gallery and by summer will be a co-owner. He is currently designing a new mobile application that simplifies the process of decorating a home with artwork and also is a co-founder and co-organizer of Arts Tech
Philly, a Philadelphia meetup group. Among other odd jobs, like working with his favorite car service company Uber Philly, Pierre Noel still balances school, work and a new relationship to the best of his ability. “Uri is intense and it seems like there are a million things going through his head at any one time, but he still knows exactly what needs to be done,” said Dana Shafer, an intern at James Oliver Gallery. Shafer, a senior art history major, has worked with Pierre Noel at the arts gallery since August 2012. She said she “admires his dedication” and his “ability to get where he’s gotten at such a young age.” “I think more young people should have his particular type of initiative,” she added. Pierre Noel said he fell in love with the art world during his first job as a French translator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He became an intern at James Oliver Gallery after he graduated from Upper Darby High School – and his big promotion came after the gallery’s owner caught him writing a business plan in a back room. Pierre Noel excelled in Future Business Leaders of America competitions in high school, so he was ready when James Oliver
asked him to solve a problem having to do with an event sales program. “I wrote the business plan in about 48 hours,” Pierre Noel said. “I gave it to him, he read it and didn’t tell me what he thought about it for like three days. Then it was two or three days before my birthday, right before I turned 20, when he was like, ‘We should talk about promoting you.’ And then after my birthday he was like, ‘What do you think about taking over as executive director?’” Although admittedly nervous because he knew he would have to learn how to shift from being an “ideas guy” to an “operational guy,” Pierre Noel said it was the best birthday present he’s ever received. “I get to run a company,” he said. But it wasn’t as easy for Pierre Noel, he said, when he wanted to start a Philadelphia branch of Arts Tech. “About halfway through the process they got a little freaked out because they found out how old I was,” he said. “They were like, ‘Wait, you can’t even buy a beer, what are you doing?’” Pierre Noel proved that he didn’t have to buy a beer to run a meetup group, as the
CLASS CONGRESSMAN, p. 15
“I’ll start studying three to four hours before the class actually starts and study two to three hours afterward,” Pierre Noel said. “So I take it really seriously, like a job in a sense, where you clock in.” He even has a laptop that he’s blocked all social media on, so he can stay focused, Pierre Noel said. Pierre Noel said he will be hiring an assistant director in a few months. With his lightened workload, he said he plans to attend Temple fulltime in the fall. Pierre Noel describes Temple as a university where students are “part student, part hustler.” “That’s just what it is, you know. You’ve got a company, but you’re still paying for school,” he said. “I don’t have any loans right now, which is mind-boggling, but at the same time I still gotta work hard...You’ll leave here with a degree, not worried like, ‘Ah, am I gonna get a job?’ because you’ve always been looking for a job since freshman year just to get through the day.”
Blog Roll, p. 16
Joe Hoeffel has gone from standing off with George W. Bush to teaching at Temple. Living DESK 215-204-7416
Philadelphia branch is now in its ninth month since its inception – and growing. Pierre Noel said he has an “artist’s approach” to almost everything he does. That’s why, when he’s asked if he’s an artist, he says, “I’m an artist and my canvas is business.” “The businesses that I want to create are to be placeholders for jobs and to stimulate and grow markets in that sense,” he added. A typical day for Pierre Noel starts at about 6 a.m. when he tends to more than 100 emails on his six separate accounts. On a regular basis, Pierre Noel is making deals for office supplies, contacting artists for events and discussing ideas with designers, artists and bloggers. He said he is currently dedicated to establishing the “best art gallery internship in Philadelphia,” and has a preference for Temple students. “I need to find more Temple students to give me copies of their résumés,” he said. “As a Temple student, I would always want to give back...that’s just how it is.” Although Pierre Noel’s schedule has restricted him to part-time school and online classes, he treats his education like another job to maintain discipline.
Lauren Hertzler can be reached at lauren.hertzler@temple.edu or on Twitter @laurenhertzler.
Joey DeAngelis has garnered more than 65,000 blog followers and secured opportunities. Living@temple-news.com
living
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Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Insomnia member extends talents Iris Ong operates a theater program four days a week at a local charter school. PATRICIA MADEJ The Temple News
A
s gray skies hung low and gentle rain coated Main Campus one recent Monday morning, Iris Ong was already in the midst of her routine. Coming to the Student Center after an Insomnia Theater meeting at 8:30 a.m. was just the beginning of a long, eventful, day for her. Insomnia Theater is a student-run organization on Main Campus that writes, rehearses, auditions, casts and performs a production in just 24 hours. The team puts on a show twice a semester, with last weekend being its 13th show. “When I got to Temple, I was sort of looking for a place to do theater, and then my sophomore year, I joined Insomnia because I wanted to get back into theater and working with theater arts,” Ong, a junior secondary education and English major, said. Before college, Iris helped her high school and middle school put on their productions. Now, she uses her ability and desire to teach and help others with her passion for theater. With her gray Temple sweatshirt, Converse shoes, jeans and pulled-back hair, she explained her dedication to the student-run organization on campus and her responsibility
as the director of community outreach. “The community outreach director is responsible for taking what Insomnia Theater is, which is a love of theater and a love of working with other people, and branching out of Temple and going to the surrounding areas,” she said. For about an hour and a half, for three to four days a week, Ong and a group of others involved in the community outreach program extend their talents to Multi-Cultural Academy Charter School, located at 3821 N. Broad St. “We go into it as mentors so we’ll teach them certain things and help them develop as actors and help them develop their stage presence and work out any issues they might have with stage fright, and basically give them an outlet to be creative,” Ong said. Without the help of the crew, which consists of about 10 to 15 Temple students, Ong said she believes the school’s theater program would be much less developed. She said that before they stepped in, the school had never put on a musical before. Now it’s on the way to performing “Little Shop of Horrors” this May. Matt Dugan, a sophomore political science major who has been on the community outreach team since the spring semester of his freshman year, works closely with Ong, planning out agendas and going to the school regularly. He said he sees Ong spend every moment of her free time helping students. “I don’t know anyone else
Iris Ong who has dedicated as much time as she does. It’s remarkable. By far, out of everyone, Iris always goes above and beyond what everyone else does,” Dugan said. He described Ong as selfless, and said he believes she is a “role model” for the students she helps. Ong does it for the gratification of helping the other students, she said. “[The students] say without drama, ‘I wouldn’t be able to develop this aspect of me,’ or ‘I wouldn’t be able to write as much,’ or ‘I wouldn’t be able to develop as an actor.’ So it really gives them the opportunity to grow and develop themselves as
artists,” Ong said. While she was in high school, Ong was involved in volunteer work as well. As a Chinese speaker, she helped teach bilingual and Chinese art classes. “I think community outreach is something I just wanted to do because I’ve liked teaching since I was in elementary school. I guess you could say it was very natural for me, too,” Ong said. Ong said she sees her volunteer work at Insomnia as a positive part of her life that will propel her career forward. She attributed this to networking. Currently, she is doing a lot of
TJ CREEDON TTN
her fieldwork with the charter school. “I observe the teacher I work with in their drama program and it really sort of defines more how I’m going to teach more, plays, for example, when I become a teacher,” she said. After graduation, Ong said she would ideally love to teach a creative art or theater elective along with literary courses. If the opportunity presented itself, she said she would like to volunteer as a director or assist in the process of any production her future school had to offer, she said. In the near future, she said she plans to study abroad. But
for the time being, Ong plans to continue her work with Insomnia Theater because that’s where she said she finds her passion. “We’re working under 24 hours, which is a lot of pressure, but the results that we get from it are really surprising, and it just goes to show a bunch of dedicated, creative people can really create something that’s amazing even if other people think it’s completely crazy,” Ong said. Patricia Madej can be reached at patricia.madej@temple.edu.
Alumna finds true calling in teaching and fundraising Veronika Paluch has joined the board of the nonprofit PhilaSoup. TAYLOR FARNSWORTH The Temple News
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eronika Paluch, elementary school teacher and board member of PhilaSoup, did not always know that she wanted to be a teacher. “I had always worked with kids, I had worked in camps, I [worked as a nanny] all through college – it just didn’t occur to me to think about teaching,” Paluch said. Paluch attended Temple for both her undergraduate and graduate studies. Her undergraduate degree is in international business and marketing from Fox School of Business. While still working her old job at Comcast as a Web analyst, Paluch decided to come back to Temple to continue her studies, pursuing a graduate degree in elementary education, the career that she works in now. “After a couple of months I was like, ‘I don’t want to sit in an office all day with no human interaction.’ I enrolled in the graduate course for elementary education and did that while I worked at Comcast,” Paluch said. Now, after earning her graduate degree in elementary education, Paluch works at the Alliance for Progress Charter School in North Philadelphia, teaching a class of third graders. As a new teacher, Paluch was looking for ways to network with other teachers throughout the city to share ideas and knowledge. She then found PhilaSoup, an organization put in place to do just that: create a network for teachers. “Before I started doing PhilaSoup, it was so hard for me as a new teacher to find teachers from outside of my school,” Paluch said. “There was no
group or network or anything fore, they worked at a garden in I could find, so this was a cool Germantown, a historic home way to just meet and talk to oth- and garden, and they wanted er teachers.” money to help subsidize a field PhilaSoup, an organization trip cost, which is such a cool created by two sisters, Claire idea.” and Nikka Landau, was started With this resource, educato create an environment for tors are given the opportunity to teachers to interact and present not only gather ideas from what their ideas with the possibility other teachers from throughout of receiving “microgrants” to the city are doing, but also to pursue their ideas for the class- get the resources they need to room. pursue their ideas to benefit the “Nikka was doing some- students they are teaching. thing in Detroit and they had “It’s really cool, somesomething called ‘Soup’ there, times people will win [more but it wasn’t education related, than] $400 for use in their classit was arts or community fo- room,” Paluch said. cused,” Paluch Paluch first said. “[She] saw joined the orhow her sister, ganization just Claire, who was to network and a teacher in Philmeet educators adelphia, had alfrom throughways done these out the city, but cool projects, but now serves as didn’t necessarily the nonprofit have the funds to organization’s complete them. treasurer. So she said that Despite we should do that her background in Philadelphia.” in business Veronika Paluch / The organiand marketing, elementary school teacher zation of which Paluch said she Paluch serves as treasurer, has found the idea of being the treamonthly dinner gatherings at surer somewhat intimidating. different locations throughout “In the summer when we the city. became a nonprofit, I took on Those who attend the the role of treasurer, which is monthly dinners pay $5 for din- funny because I have a businer with different soup options, ness background but have never other snacks and wine. Half of done a budget bigger than our the money paid to attend goes household budget,” Paluch said. toward a pot of money that will “So I had to do the whole nonbe given to one of the presenters profit budget, which is kind of from the night. scary because you’re like inEach dinner, PhilaSoup has corporated, so what I do now is three to five presenters who ex- mostly budgeting and helping to press their ideas and what they run the dinners and stuff.” need to achieve in their classWith her position on the room, and, at the end of the board of PhilaSoup and her job night, all attendees are given teaching a third grade class, the opportunity to vote for who Paluch finds that time manageshould receive the money pot. ment is the hardest skill to mas“It’s not really so much ter in her new work field. of a needs-based thing, like ‘I “In all other fields I’ve need pencils or paper,’ it’s more worked in, at five o’clock your like, ‘We really want to do this day is done,” Paluch said. “It’s author study, and these books hard to separate teaching from would be perfect for what we your life. It’s hard because you need to do,’” Paluch said. “One could totally be done at [3 p.m. of the people that presented be- or 4 p.m.] if you follow what-
“You’re with
them for eight hours a day, so they’re like your own kids.
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Taylor farnsworth TTN
ever the teacher’s manual says, but if you want something more interesting or different for your kids, you can’t.” Despite finding it difficult to manage her time as a teacher,
Paluch said, she dedicates as much time as necessary to her students and teaching to create a good learning environment. “You’re with them for eight hours a day, so they’re like your
own kids,” Paluch said. Taylor Farnsworth can be reached at taylor.farnsworth@temple.edu.
ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT temple-news.com
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Local food, global staff Pure Fare Foods serves local food and works with a refugee placement company. ERIN EDINGER-TUROFF
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The Temple News
hile eating out often means overeating, the siblings behind Pure Fare Foods ensure that guilt won’t be a factor. The unique food options cater to many dietary needs, such as gluten intolerances, veganism and vegetarianism, and offer a wide variety of locally grown and organic products. Kriti Sehgal, one of Pure Fare’s founders, studied to work in a health-related field but did not anticipate that she would eventually open a restaurant. Her love of food,
along with her own frustrations, namely what she called a “post-guilt feeling after going out to eat,” with limited healthy food options in Philadelphia inspired Pure Fare. Sehgal and her twin brother, Kunal, opened Pure Fare in April 2011 after they combined their business talents and love of food with their friend Sarah Ginn, the primarily self-taught head chef. The restaurant’s original location, 119 21st St., brings in a varied crowd from Center City, with a number of regular customers. In addition, there is another location at 1609 South St., which opened in August 2012, and a Pure Fare food truck, often near the University of Pennsylvania’s campus. “We want to create a food brand that doesn’t do what other brands do,” Sehgal said. “We love to take commonplace things and make them unique.” The restaurant’s daily
GOOD STUFF PAGE 11
East Passyunk will be hosting its first Restaurant Week, offering discounts for all price ranges. A&E DESK 215-204-7416
other options. Blue Bottle Coffee, a high-quality Turkish brand, is served in a number of ways at
Pure Fare. The coffee is most frequently served as drip cof-
PURE FARE PAGE 10
CHRISTASIA WILSON The Temple News
the restaurants have a signature 4-foot cowbell along with cheeky graphics along the walls, creating a fresh appeal,” Lazar added. Placed in a high-traffic area, Good Stuff Eatery will not go unnoticed. Though it is surrounded by other sit-down establishments including a.kitchen and Serafina, the restaurant is also near quick, laid-back places such as the Wrap Shack and Manhattan Bagel. Now that Good Stuff Eatery is expanding, each restaurant will cater toward the city and neighborhood in which it’s located, paying a sort of tribute to the area. Although each space will be different, the menu will remain the same, Lazar said. “This will be a good place for students. In this area we have a mix of the same crowd and a new crowd that comes in and out every day,” said Linda Ruan, an employee of frozen yogurt chain Sweet Endings. “This area tends to have a similar crowd, so this place is definitely going to draw attention to the crowd we already have,” said Beth Rosenberg, an employee at Crumbs Bake Shop. Mendelsohn, who appeared on the fourth season of Bravo’s “Top Chef,” is responsible for this vision becoming a reality. A family-run restaurant, Good Stuff Eatery is opening a chain of restaurants that have its own twist on the classic burger and milkshake.
DINING DEALS, p. 10
coconut soup, a turkey and pesto sandwich, a goat brie and fig sandwich and Burmese papaya salad, amongst many
The secondhand store that allows shoppers to hunt for bargains with a higher purpose hit a fundraising milestone. The organization celebrated by offering shoppers special discounts.
Former Top Chef competitor Spike Mendelsohn is opening a burger restaurant, Good Stuff Eatery, in Philadelphia.
Though a 4-foot cowbell may seem a bit strange in the place you’re enjoying a burger, former Top Chef competitor Spike Mendelsohn is bringing a “farm fresh” appeal to this concrete jungle. Joining Washington, D.C., and Crystal City, Va., Philadelphia is one of the next big cities to get a Good Stuff Eatery. There is no set time frame for the project. The first Good Stuff Eatery was opened in 2008 in Washington, D.C., which continues to be its home base. The chain hopes the expansion on the East Coast will lead to a nation-wide expansion. The city’s location is set to open near 18th and Chestnut streets. “Philadelphia is a great city and has a very strong food scene,” Jordyn Lazar, marketing manager of Good Stuff Eatery, said. “There’s a love for all cuisines, and there’s not only fine dining but also relaxing, natural places where we will fit into.” Reasonably priced, Good Stuff Eatery is perfect for those on a low budget but also great for anyone who loves unique food, Lazar said. “There’s just no way to compare Good Stuff Eatery to any other restaurant,” Lazar said. “It draws in such a [diverse group] of people.” “Combining a farmhouse fresh, urban, hip appearance,
soups, sandwiches, salads and snacks showcase the efforts to offer a variety of flavors. The menu includes a pumpkin and
Philly Thrift surpasses goal
Top Chef to bring ‘good stuff’ to Philadelphia CHELSEA FINN The Temple News
Pure Fare Foods, located on 119 21st St., offers vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options. The restaurant prides itself on using fresh, local ingredients and working with a refugee placement company when hiring employees. | KATE McCANN TTN
A vintage sweatshirt bought at Philly AIDS Thrift benefits more than just your fashion cred. For more than eight years, Philly AIDS Thrift has been making a difference in the HIV/ AIDS community in Philadelphia. Last month, the thrift store surpassed $500,000 in donations to AIDS organizations since its founding. To celebrate the donation milestone, Philly AIDS Thrift hosted a threeday sale event at the end of last month. The proceeds from Philly AIDS Thrift, or PAT, go to the Philadelphia AIDS Fund. With monthly donations, PAT helps the AIDS Fund distribute the money to help more than 30 HIV/AIDS service organizations throughout Philadelphia. PAT’s donations aren’t only limited to the Philadelphia AIDS Fund; it also gives generous donations to the Mazzoni Center’s annual coat and gift drive and to the Feast Incarnate Homeless Program in West Philadelphia. “This store is helping a cause, which is rare for a thrift store or any store to do,” said June Tucker, an avid shopper at Philly AIDS Thrift for roughly six years. Philly AIDS Thrift started in 2005 as a small thrift store at 514 Bainbridge St. After a year at the Bainbridge location, Philly AIDS Thrift moved to an expanded space a few doors down. When PAT started to out grow that space, the store moved to its newest location in
Philly AIDS Thrift on 514 Bainbridge St. selects the highest quality clothing to be resold. A majority of the store’s staff are volunteers, an often-overlooked aspect. | ANDREW THAYER Queen Village. After moving to the newest location in 2011, donations to the AIDS Fund went from $8,000 to $15,000 in just a month. This isn’t your average thrift store – the majority of the people who work at PAT are volunteers. Clothing processors Jennifer Joseph and Raven Crum both started as volunteers before being offered positions at Philly AIDS Thrift. “I started volunteering at Philly AIDS Thrift because I needed something to do and enjoyed shopping here. I was offered a position to be a clothing processor and I love it,” Joseph said. Like Joseph, Crum became
a part of the PAT family for the same reasons. “Deciding to volunteer here a year ago was one of my best decisions,” Crum said. “I love the store and all the different people you get to encounter on a daily basis.” Joseph and Crum do most of their work where every donation is sent before being placed in the store. As clothing processors, they sort through all the donation bags and decide what stays and what goes. This is no easy task – on an average day more than 50 bags are donated to the store. “We have the ability to be selective because of the volume of donations we get, and we
RAINBOW RELEASE, p. 11
Philly band Bleeding Rainbow played an album release show at Johnny Brenda’s last week. ARTSandENTERTAINMENT@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM
want to sell the highest quality of clothing,” Crum said. While the amount of items offered at PAT may seem grand, Crum insists that the store preaches quality over quantity. “Most people would say an item is good because of the brand, but we look at the value of the clothing,” Crum said. “If someone wore a shirt more than five times then the quality of the item may not be good enough to sell.” Though not everything can be sold, Philly AIDS Thrift works with a company that buys the unsellable items by the pound and then recycles the clothing into something new.
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THAT’S A RAP, p. 13
Columnist Kevin Stairiker explores why some rappers stay relevant as others struggle to.
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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2013
Restaurant caters to health conscious, gluten free PURE FARE PAGE 9
The menu at Pure Fare Foods relies on locally grown ingredients. The restaurant often cooks with ricotta “cheese,” a vegan option made from cashews. | KATE McCANN TTN fee, which is made with a ceramic dripper cup in front of customers who have ordered it. Not an average brew, Blue Bottle is a dark, almost chocolate hinted, rich blend that draws in regular morning customers. A store manager, Christina Ponsaran, said immense pride is taken in both the “product and the process” at Pure Fare. Offering broad menu choices and inventive options for different needs, such as convincing rice made from cauliflower and cookies made with avocado and ricotta “cheese” made from
cashews, are not the only things Pure Fare is sure to incorporate into its agenda. All of the restaurant’s eating utensils are recyclable or even compostable, and produce comes from local farms like Green Meadow whenever possible. “People need more of a holistic change,” Ponsaran said. “They don’t have to be major, but they have to be lifestyle changing.” Andrew Rigar, who has transitioned from barista to one of the store managers remembers helping out in the kitchen when Pure Fare had just opened
with a limited staff. Along with being happy to see how far the restaurant has progressed, he said he feels morally at peace working with Pure Fare’s customers. “I don’t feel guilty when I give people things,” Rigar said, in reference to previous employments with corporate food companies that he knew didn’t offer healthy dining options. Not only does he feel assured that Pure Fare is providing quality food, but he is proud of its community outreach efforts, which Sehgal also mentioned as an important aspect of Pure
Fare’s mission. Working with gyms and yoga studios has inspired Pure Fare to surprise exercisers with a post-workout smoothie sample in order to distribute coupons and encourage locals to come by the restaurant. Rigar also mentioned programs Pure Fare has arranged with Greenfield Elementary, in which the restaurant sends employees to teach students tips for making healthy after-school snacks. Even increasing the kitchen staff has become a positive social opportunity at Pure Fare. “We work with an organization that helps refugees find jobs,” Sehgal said. She counted seven former-refugee chefs currently at Pure Fare. “It’s been a humbling and amazing experience.” Pure Fare’s focus on local food products may advocate awareness of nearby communities, but this social outreach extends to a global level. Sehgal said even though Pure Fare sees a good portion of student customers, she would be thrilled to see more. College students often let their health and diet take a back seat, she said. Nutrition and health are the corner stones of Pure Fare, and it focuses on being “not preachy, just informative” when advocating healthy eating options. They offer an online service called MyFare that allows customers to track what they’ve
eaten day by day, in order to be more conscious about their eating habits. Head chef Ginn, who writes a personal cooking blog called “Leafy Greens and Other Things,” remembered her own questionable eating habits during her undergraduate studies. “It shouldn’t be the norm to be stressed and stay up all night,” Ginn said. She stressed her hope that universities are providing better information of the healthy food options they have available and promoting making smart eating choices. Dietician Lori Clements, who works for Student Health Services, said Temple caters to dietary needs of varied student lifestyles such as vegetarianism and gluten intolerance, along with offering healthy options. Johnson & Hardwick cafeteria has specific areas of its dinning hall that offer options like those, and it has kosher options. Nevertheless, she continues to see students with dietary issues. “I do believe that health is as important to school, and there are studies that show that they go hand and hand. If you care more about your health, it often gives better concentration,” Clements said. Some students seconded her opinion that J&H provides the best options for their specific needs. “I appreciate that Temple offers a designated gluten-free
station at J&H, I just wish there were more variety in the glutenfree options,” said freshman university studies major Frank Connor. Freshman geography and urban studies major Jenny Ryder said J&H provides vegetarian options for her. “Philly has a lot of options even though it’s not considered the most green city,” Ryder said. Healthy options at Pure Fare are more than just a quick fix, Sehgal said, and have more benefits than a greasy bite to keep you going for a couple more hours. “Because our food is so rich and fiber-full, you’re full for a lot longer,” Sehgal said. “My cravings are gone, I don’t get hungry as much. You start to come here and realize you’re satisfied and satiated.” Rigar added that Pure Fare has made him a much healthier eater without making him feel like he’s sacrificing taste. With crazy schedules and haphazard mealtimes, positive eating habits are not always considered a top priority for the modern individual. But eating well doesn’t have to be a chore. Pure Fare stands by this with its guilt-free stance to eating, while still aiming to please food lovers everywhere. Erin Edinger-Turoff can be reached at erin.edingerturoff@temple.edu.
East Passyunk to hold first Restaurant Week The South Philly shopping and dining strip will present its own Restaurant Week with multiple price options from Feb. 24 to March 2. RACHEL MCDEVITT The Temple News
“We finally felt like we had enough on the avenue to do our own thing,” she said. If the website hits are any indication, the avenue will be doing its own thing very well. The East Passyunk Restaurant Week site had more than 4,000 visitors in its first week of existence and 100,000 hits. “Restaurant Week is a great way to highlight all the talent we have here,” Gilinger said. The talent on the avenue runs the gamut from historic Italian eateries that catered to the likes of Frank Sinatra to organic cafes where all entrees are less than 500 calories. If you are overwhelmed by the array of options, read on for recommendations that fit every budget.
The Tasker-Morris stop on the Broad Street Line is about to become very popular. The South Philly stretch of East Passyunk Avenue is launching its very own Restaurant Week from Feb. 24 to March 2. With 21 participating restaurants in the Zagat’s “Food Neighborhood of the Year,” it will be only too easy to find the right temptation to make your mouth water with excitement. For those familiar with Center City’s Restaurant Week, it may be hard to imagine a year when you couldn’t find delightfully-discounted, taste bud-tantalizing food two weeks out of every year. The growing institution began about the PLENTY (GOURMET QUICKtime current Temple undergrads SERVE, CAFÉ AND COFFEE BAR) were born. A four-day restau•1710 E. Passyunk Ave. rant “week” was first presented •$15 lunch or dinner in New York City in 1992 as The mind behind this loan offering of good will to the cally sourced cafe is inspired by 15,000 reporters pouring in to international happenings. cover the Democratic National Owner Anthony Mascieri Convention. has traveled to at least 25 counTo d a y tries in his there are Reslife so far and taurant Days, has picked up Weeks and culinary reveven Months elations in each across the naplace he vistion, in which ited, which he select dining can now offer establishto you in the ments set a form of unique three-course sandwiches. lunch or dinHigh on Renee Gilinger / east passyunk avenue ner menu business improvement district M a s c i e r i ’ s with a fixed, list of recomdiscounted mendations price. Philafrom the menu delphia’s Center City offers a are the Spanish-influenced $20 lunch and a $35 dinner, but Madrileno and the Argentinean East Passyunk is taking it one ¡Matambre!, which both feastep further and offering their ture flavors not usually found in goods at three price points: $15, sandwiches. $25 and $35. Mascieri describes his “There really is some- café as “gourmet quick-serve,” thing for everyone,” said Renee meaning you can take your food Gilinger, the executive direc- and fresh coffee on the go or tor of East Passyunk Avenue’s sit down and savor the smooth Business Improvement District. vibes of this café. Gilinger said talks over a special South Philly version of the hallowed tradition of dis- MAMMA MARIA RISTORANTE counted meals took about a year (ITALIAN) to come to fruition. •1637 E. Passyunk Ave.
“We finally felt like
we had enough on the avenue to do our own thing.
”
Plenty is offering $15 deals for Restaurant Week. The cafe serves “gourmet quick-serve.” | ANDREW THAYER TTN •$25 lunch or $35 dinner Serving up homemade Italian specialties since 1992, Mamma grew up in Abruzzi, Italy, and brought all the secrets of delicious Italian home cooking with her to East Passyunk. She said she chose to open up her restaurant in South Philly, because its Italian roots made her feel right at home. “I was blessed to learn cooking from my parents,” said Maria di Marco, better known as “Mamma.” She said that good cooking is very important for bringing a family together. Mamma’s Restaurant Week menu features three courses plus dessert and coffee, but if you want to order off-menu, Mamma recommends her specialty. “You should try my gnocchi, because I make it just like my mamma was doing,” di Marco said.
IZUMI (JAPANESECONTEMPORARY)
•1601 E. Passyunk Ave. •$35 dinner Let your ears lead you to the singing fountain in Passyunk Square, where the sleek red door of Izumi will draw your atten-
tion and your appetite to some of the best sushi in the city. Owner and chef Corey Baver has crafted the menu for the week with great care, so that whatever you eat while there, it’s sure to be both unexpected and unforgettable. “We want to represent our restaurant at its best, so people can realize who we are and what we do,” Baver said. The creative chef also noted that a great thing about the avenue is how close it is to Broad Street. “From Temple, you could be here in 20 minutes,” Baver said. Explore all you options and make your reservations at www. eastpassyunkrestaurantweek. com. Rachel McDevitt can be reached at rachel.mcdevitt@temple.edu.
ADVERTISING FOR STUDY SUBJECTS The Department of Marketing, Fox Business School, at Temple University seeks healthy individuals between the ages of 26 and 65 to participate in a research study. The purpose of the research is to better understand how neurophysiological tools may be used to evaluate communication messages such as advertisements you see on television. The study involves watching some television ads and answering questions about them. Participation time will not exceed 1.5 hours. Risks: There are no health risks associated with this study. Participating in this study is no more risky than using a computer in day-to-day life.
Compensation of $20 will be provided.
Location: Temple University Fox School of Business, Alter Hall 1801 Liacouras Walk Philadelphia, PA 19140 For more information please contact the Research Assistant: Marketing Department, Fox School of Business 1801 Liacouras Walk Philadelphia PA, 19122 (215)-204-3293– cndm@temple.edu
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2013
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Bleeding Rainbow
Philadelphia psychedelic punk band Bleeding Rainbow took the stage at Johnny Brenda’s on Feb. 14 to mark the release of its new album, “Yeah Right.” | RACHEL BARRISH TTN
The Philadelphia band released their new album with a show at Johnny Brenda’s. RACHEL BARRISH The Temple News With a name like Bleeding Rainbow, it’s hard to believe the band drew inspiration from a children’s show. The Philly psychedelic punk quartet, formerly known as Reading Rainbow, just released its third full-length album “Yeah Right,” celebrating with a show at Johnny Brenda’s on Feb. 14. The original Reading Rainbow members, Sarah Everton and Rob Garcia, met in Virginia and moved to Philadelphia in 2008, bought a house in Fishtown and started their punk band. Reading Rainbow began as solely Garcia and Everton’s project; Everton taught herself how to play the drums, followed by guitar and bass – with some help from Garcia – and
they were able to develop their punk-psych sound. After various comments and confusion, the band chose to change its name to Bleeding Rainbow after its second album “Prism Eyes” was released. It also eventually chose to add additional members in order to play bigger live shows. Everton, Garcia and guitarist Al Creedon sat down before their show at Johnny Brenda’s to talk about some of their favorite bands, their musical aesthetic and the meaning behind the new album title, “Yeah Right.” The Temple News: Why did you change your name from Reading Rainbow to Bleeding Rainbow? Rob Garcia: Reading Rainbow started as a children’s show on PBS. Our original idea was to take Reading Rainbow from our childhood and redefine it in a different context. If you don’t know about the TV Show, you think about the name, and it’s super trippy. Sarah Everton: No one really understood that, though. It was just years of stupid comments from different people, and we didn’t really want to
have to keep dealing with that. I think if anybody had been cool with us using their trademark name it would’ve been PBS. TTN: And how did that develop into the band you are now? SE: When you’re a really tiny band, and more people discover you, you’re still a small band for a long time. It takes forever before you’re not considered a small band. It was like, “Oh, they’re named after a TV Show.” TTN: What do you think is the biggest difference between your most recent album, “Yeah Right,” and your previous albums, “Mystical Participation” and “Prism Eyes”? RG: Our first album came from so deep within, and it was just me and [Everton]. We both had just recently finished other projects and just wanted to write a batch of songs and run with it. It was mostly to focus on the aesthetic with huge drony guitars, minimal loud drums and weird vocals. We wrote most of the songs in the span of a few weeks. [Creedon] helped us mix and record and released our first LP, then that was kind of how he became involved. Since then
we’ve really been able to develop our skills as musicians. TTN: Why did you title it “Yeah Right”? SE: We figured people who had followed us didn’t expect us to be able to do this. Rob has been playing piano since he was 8 and has mostly been playing music his whole life. Now we’re actually focusing on songwriting, this would totally go over some people’s heads. This is regarded as our sophomore album because some people don’t know about Mystical Participation. We’re still the same people. There are always lots of hooks and harmonies, and pop elements, and drone and punk beats. I feel like all the fundamental things have been there forever. TTN: What are some bands that have influenced you musically? SE: Half Japanese, Nirvana and The Urinals. There’s a ton of other ones but those are the three I’ve been thinking of a lot lately. Also I feel like I’ve been channeling Stereolab a lot also. But Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine have always been just general favorites. TTN: What genre do you
consider yourself? SE: I think we all like psychedelic punk the best – we’ve all talked about that a lot. I’m more comfortable with genres the more open-ended they are, because when they get too specific it gets too complicated. TTN: Al Creedon, how did you become part of the group? Al Creedon: I became friends with [Garcia] and [Everton] after helping them record their first album and saw them play a few house shows back in the day. SE: The first house show was at Castle Gay in South Philly, which is no longer there. We used to play Danger Danger Gallery and a few other random ones, including the Elbow Room, the Terradome at Drexel. Houses always turn over, and now I feel old, because I don’t know about as many now. TTN: Sarah, did you play any instruments when you were younger? SE: No, when I was 13 I really wanted to play guitar, but my parents acted like it was a phase. So I just felt shot down from the get-go, but when [Garcia] and I had the band Foren-
sic Teens I just played noise on this Casio keyboard, and it just looped lots of weird noises. I really wanted to play drums, so I started with just two then went to play a full kit. TTN: Did you always know you wanted to start a band, even before you got married? SE: We always knew we wanted to do a project that was just [Garcia] and I, so after our drummer from Forensic Teens couldn’t play a few shows, we used that as an opportunity to start Reading Rainbow. TTN: What happens next? RG: We’re already in the planning stages of recording another album this summer and hopefully release it in the fall. Before we had a year between albums from just touring and we had tons of down time, so now we have tons of songs. TTN: Do you think you’ll always live in Philly? SE: I feel like if we ever left, everyone would be so mad at us. I can’t see us living anywhere else. Rachel Barrish can be reached at rachel.barrish@temple.edu.
Gourmet burger spot Thrift store provides more than bargains to open in Rittenhouse PHILLY AIDS PAGE 9
GOOD STUFF PAGE 9 Along with the standard “farmhouse burger” and “farmhouse cheese,” Good Stuff Eatery has an array of signature burgers. Each with its own unique appeal. Names vary from “Spike’s Sunnyside,” which features a burger with cheese, bacon, an egg and the “Good Stuff” sauce, to the “Prez Obama Burger,” which consists of bacon, onion marmalade, Roquefort cheese and horseradish mayo sauce. “The favorite of all the burgers tends to be the ‘Colletti’s Smokehouse,’ which has sharp Vermont cheese, onion rings, chipotle barbeque sauce and the most important thing: bacon,” Lazar said. Some residents, however, think there are enough burger places in Philadelphia. “There’s already two wellknown burger places in the city – Shake Shack and Five Guys,” Ruan said. But others argue that the city could use more burger joints: “I don’t think we have that many [burger places], we have a lot more pizza and sandwich places so it will be nice to change it up a bit,” Rosenberg said. Though Good Stuff Eatery focuses on burgers, it also has other options including wedge salads and “Uncle D’s Famous Chili,” both served with cornbread. And just because the restaurant focuses on nostalgia and comfort food, doesn’t mean
there is a shortage of sweets. Featuring hand-spun shakes and floats, the dessert menu also offers many options. “The favorite tends to be the toasted marshmallow shake,” Lazar said. Other milkshake flavors include salty caramel kiss, Vietnamese coffee and Milky Way malt. The custard is homemade at Good Stuff Eatery, ensuring the freshest shakes. According to the Good Stuff Eatery website, there are plenty of fresh and homemade options, meaning competition for local businesses. Good Stuff Eatery also boasts its stance on being environmentally friendly. The restaurant takes important approaches to the issue, even recycling the oil from the frying pans. All cleaning supplies and products are environmentally friendly, and 1 percent of each bill is donated to the organization “Plant a Tree a Day.” Good Stuff Eatery is still early in the process of opening its Philadelphia restaurant, but the establishment is expected to open this fall. Chelsea Finn can be reached at chelsea.finn@temple.edu.
“It breaks my heart to send clothing into the giveaway bin, because it will be sent to be chopped up and turned into stuffed animal filling,” Crum said. Not only do these two make the deciding factors about which items you’ll see in the store, but they also manage volunteers. “When people hear that you work at a thrift shop, the volunteering aspect doesn’t pop in their minds,” Joseph said. On average, there can be more than 100 volunteers a week. From young teenagers to older, retired people, there is never a limit on age to be a volunteer at Philly AIDS Thrift. The volunteers run the retail aspect of the store. “We try to keep people busy but having fun at the same time,” Crum said. Since opening in 2005, PAT has grown into a store for all types of customers. It’s not just a thrift store for those who want clothing, but also for the music junkies, the book lovers and those on a hunt for vintage furniture finds. Philly AIDS Thrift continues to be a thrift store full of hidden treasures at a low price, but, more importantly, a thrift store that is committed to benefiting AIDS organizations in Philadelphia. Philly AIDS Thrift operates seven days a week and always accepts donations of any good condition items. For more information, visit the store at 710 S. Fifth St. Christasia Wilson can be reached at christasia.wilson@temple.edu.
Clothing processors determine whether an item is of high enough quality for sale at Philly AIDS Thrift. Most workers at the store are volunteers.| ANDREW THAYER TTN
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2013
Japanese game offers strong gameplay, ageless themes
SAMANTHA TIGHE Save & Quit
I
Columnist Samantha Tighe reviews JRPG game, “Ni no Kuni.”
t was just after 6 p.m. last Saturday. I had spent most of the day traipsing through the Fairmount Park area taking pictures for my introduction to photography class. After I got some shots of children sledding and the Japa-
nese House covered in snow, I was feeling upbeat when I opted to swing by the Philadelphia Zoo on my way back to Temple. When I got home, I was flipping through my pictures and talking to one of my roommates, and I came across a couple of shots I took of the zoo’s zebra. Suddenly, I was seized by the uncontrollable desire to play “Afrika,” a photography game for PlayStation 3 that critics received lukewarmly, but I absolutely adore. Unfortunately, I misplaced the game months ago. It was a shoddy last-minute rush to find a GameStop that was still open and had the game in stock that led my roommate and I to end up at the store on Oregon Avenue, where we were sidetracked by titles on display. There was one game in particular – “Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch” – that I re-
membered seeing previews for months ago, but had completely forgot about. Having quietly released on Jan. 22, it’s been out for a few weeks now. I thought it looked sweet and adorable. My roommate chastised my description, instead saying it looked cool. She picked up a copy, too. That night, with our televisions set up side-by-side, we played our respective games. I played about an hour of “Afrika” before I put it aside to check out “Ni no Kuni.” It looked heartwarming enough and different, and I thought it’d be a nice change of pace. I’ve logged more than 15 hours of play on that damn game since then. I started playing “Ni no Kuni” with minimal background information about it. I was aware that Studio Ghibli, a Japanese studio famous for
movies like “Spirited Away” and “Princess Mononoke,” did the most of the animations. I’ve never been particularly interested in anime, but I like Studio Ghibli’s work. “Ni no Kuni,” meaning something along the lines of ‘Other World’ in Japanese, is the story about a boy named Oliver. After a tragic accident affects Oliver’s life, his plush toy, Mr. Drippy, awakens to reveal his true fairy form. Mr. Drippy informs Oliver that not only is he a wizard, he is the ‘chosen one,’ the boy prophesized to save Mr. Drippy’s world from the Dark Djinn, Shadar. Lurking in the background, however, is an even stronger enemy – the White Witch, whose magic caused Oliver’s tragedy in the first place. Now, I know that the synopsis of the story makes it seem rather childish, but there is
something about “Ni no Kuni” that makes it ageless. The themes within the game itself, of growing up and the value of camaraderie, are carried through strongly by story elements. The game’s graphics are a mixture of silent dialogue boxes, typical voiced cut scenes and the occasional full-scale animated clips. The gameplay itself is a classic take on typical Japanese role-playing games. There’s a considerable amount of battling within the game, all of which is a mixture of turn-by-turn and free reign battling. The play style that is found within JRPGs has never been my cup of tea, which is why I shied away from games like “Final Fantasy.” This game changes that. “Ni no Kuni” makes me want to experience more games like it. What is surprising, too, is that there is Pokémon-esque el-
ement to it. Fighting alongside you and your companions are small beasts called ‘familiars.’ These creatures can be tamed and can be categorized into familiar classes – fighting, magic and even one that resembles rouges. They also have the ability to ‘metamorphosize,’ or evolve into larger and stronger counterparts. Overall, I give this game a resounding round of applause and urge everyone to try it. It’s a game that one has to invest time in – don’t expect to barrel through the main quest in a couple of hours. I don’t regret picking it up, and I eagerly look forward to the additional content that is scheduled to release. Expect to place “Ni no Kuni” in your permanent game collection. Samantha Tighe can be reached at samantha.tighe@temple.edu.
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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2013
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Historic duet dance show to take stage in Philly The Painted Bride Art Center presents Bill T. Jones’ “Body Against Body,” a dance show comprised exclusively of duets from Feb. 21-23. ERIN EDINGER-TUROFF THE TEMPLE NEWS It takes two to tango – and, in this case, perform a groundbreaking, influential piece. Bill T. Jones will bring his renowned show “Body Against Body” to the Painted Bride from Feb. 21-23. Jones, a co-founder of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, has been highly recognized for his work in the dance community, including multiple Tony Awards for Best Choreography. “Body Against Body” is considered a return to Jones’ roots and a highly influential postmodern dance performance. “Body Against Body” has been reviewed as a highly expressive production that is both physically and emotionally rigorous. It was striking new material at the time it was first seen on stage in the 1970s. The performance, which consists solely
of duets, focuses on social issues that are reflected in the diversity of the dancers, who are of all races, genders and body types. “If you think about the time that the work was first produced, it was ground breaking,” Laurel Raczka, the executive director at the Painted Bride, said. “To have two men dancing together, one black man, one white man, it was unheard of. It’s interesting to think of the impact it will have today, on the stage.” “Body Against Body” is a show Raczka said she considers to be as important today as when it was first introduced to the world of dance years ago, she said. “The kind of work we present [at the Painted Bride] is always evolving,” Raczka said. “The thing about this piece is how important it was when it came out, and now we’re showing different work today. I think
it’s a continuum, it all influences itself and evolves and grows, and that’s what makes it exciting.” As social issues change and evolve, so does the purpose of a performance like “Body Against Body,” she said. Not only does the show now offer a historic perspective of influential dance at the time it was conceived, but also insight to Jones. “This piece shows the spectrum of his genius,” Raczka said. “The ability to see the depth of his vision in his early work I think is very important.” Jones’ late partner both on and off the stage, Arnie Zane, was the other creative mind behind “Body Against Body.” Dancers from the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company put in what Raczka called a “lifetime of work” to be fully committed to pivotal performances like this one. The duets in “Body Against Body” are
Aging rappers succeed, struggle to stay relevant
KEVIN STAIRIKER Fear of Music
Columnist Kevin Stairiker examines the growing pains of older rappers.
H
ip-hop in 2012 was defined by one man and his debut album. Kendrick Lamar burst out of the gate with “good kid, m.A.A.d. city” and by year’s end, promptly sat at the top of most critic’s list for not only best rap album of the year, but in some eyes, best album of the year period. Lurking further down most lists was arguably a better hiphop album made by a pair of 37-year-olds. Killer Mike and El-P’s “R.A.P. Music” was a lean, mind-blowing exercise in the album’s namesake, hitting upon all major periods of hiphop but in a completely modern way. It was the completion of the slow turn away from the regular themes of hip-hop and toward serious and, more importantly, real issues that face the poor in Mike’s home of Atlanta. Now 37, the performer isn’t particularly old, but in music, just like professional sports, age makes all the difference. As time rolls on and hip-hop becomes more sophisticated and polarizing, the anomaly of the “old rapper” begins to show. Popular music is thought to be a young person’s game, and with rappers like 17-year-old Chief Keef gaining prominence, it calls to question how someone like 41-year-old Snoop Lion/Dogg can continue to find his place in the music world. Of course, in Snoop’s case, that meant reinventing in the way of a documentary, album and, of course, a new stage name. Time will tell if Snoop’s Rastafarian conversion will stick or if it’s even real at all. The album in question, titled “Reincarnated,” has yet to be released despite its original June 2012 release
date. The singles have been underwhelming, and with past rebranding “Drop It Like It’s Hot” as “Pocket Like It’s Hot” for Hot Pockets’ commercials, it appears Snoop is running out of ways to stay relevant, as a new generation of rappers that he influenced take his spot in the sun. To be an older rapper means not even necessarily having to put out new music to stay in the public sphere. Ice Cube and Dr. Dre founded N.W.A. in 1986, when they were 17 and 21, respectively. The album that group put out, “Straight Outta Compton,” was classic enough that to put any more words toward saying so would be redundant. Despite taking vastly different turns in their own careers, they’ve both managed to stay in the public eye for things other than music. Dre was never much of an MC, especially since other rappers ghostwrote most of his lines. What he lost in the rapping department he made up for in production, but even that’s been largely absent these days. Despite this, Dre topped the Forbes highestpaid musicians – which as a list, is a bit of a misnomer – all because of some headphones. Dre’s N.W.A co-pilot is also aging more curiously than previously imaginable. Ice Cube, 43, has long been the solid gold meme statue standing for all things “sell out.” On the surface, going from “F--- tha Police” to “F--- your kids not having any fun-filled entertainment, here’s ‘Are We There Yet?’” is a far jump, one representing a complete loss of focus and jump from one extreme to the other. But Ice Cube is far smarter than that. Unlike Dre and many of his contemporaries, Cube has continued to release albums, and though they may be far weaker than classics like “The Predator” and “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted,” he’s still proving that a middleaged rapper still has a place in the world. And if there is anyone doubting that Ice Cube still has bars, check out his verse on fellow hip-hop grandparent Ghostface Killah’s remix of “Be Easy” from the latter’s 2006 “Fishscale” album. Don’t forget to pick your jaw up when
it’s over. Of course, there are rappers who have not only managed to just stay relevant, but never stopped being beloved by the masses. Jay-Z is 43 and just won three Grammys. Newly 40, Eminem will be releasing an album this year that will more than likely turn heads in the same way all of his albums have. Nas, Busta Rhymes, Common and the entirety of the Wu-Tang Clan are all 40 or older and still churning out mostly enjoyable music. What does this say about the state of hip-hop when some of our most beloved rappers are as old as our parents? In other genres of music, it has proven hard to grow older and still sing those same hits year after year, regardless of if the audience is still clamoring for them or not. In music, the golden rule tends to be that when the fresh faced grow older, they grow worse. This is not the case for everyone, but in hip-hop it seems to be especially true. Older rappers need to take a cue from Killer Mike and “R.A.P. Music” and realize that it is possible to age gracefully in a young man’s rap game as long as you’re willing to preserve the fire that drove you in the first place.
“Snoop is
running out of ways to stay relevant, as a new generation of rappers that he influenced take his spot in the sun.
”
Kevin Stairiker can be reached at kevin.stairiker@temple.edu.
Five More Things
Prime Cuts by Older Rappers 1. “Jojo’s Chillin’” – Killer Mike 2. “The Believer” – Common
unique not only in their original meaning and purpose, but also in style. Not the least bit similar to side-by-side dancing or other partnered dances, such as ballroom, the performers will overlap space, use each other’s bodies and movements and interact in a symbolic way. There is no leading and following in “Body Against Body,” because its purpose is escaping traditional role relations. The Painted Bride, located at 230 Vine St., presents a variety of dance that often includes cultural hybrid style. The arts center has always been a place for cultural celebration, a haven for progressive artists and innovative creative expression. Founded in 1969 by volunteer efforts when there were no local Philadelphia theaters and very few art galleries, it has roots to the same era of the origination of “Body Against Body.” The opportunity for a historic dance
production to take place in one of the city’s original artistic hubs is something that Raczka said she is looking forward to greatly. Students have the opportunity to be exposed to “Body Against Body” at a lesser cost than the $25 ticket because of the before and after show events available, some at no cost. Jones will be present at the Bride for a pre-show conversation, accompanied by Ishmael HoustonJones, another contemporary artist from the New York dance scene. The session will examine the contrast of dancers in the duets as a representation of the social themes they characterize. Jones will also take questions from the audience at this event, which is free of charge on Feb. 23 at 6:30 p.m. “One of things important to me is to remain responsive and relevant to the community,” Raczka said.
Events like the pre-show conversation with Jones are typical of how the Painted Bride tries to be open to the needs and interests of the community. “Body Against Body” promises an emotional and captivating performance that is sure to make the spiciest of tangos seem like a tame, chaperoned high school dance. The raw, bold feeling that is represented in the choreography of Bill T. Jones draws on decades of social movements and growth. “Body Against Body” reaches across generational divides to its audience this month. “[I think] it’s a very important piece in dance history,” Raczka said. “It changed the way that dance was experienced.” Erin Edinger-Turoff can be reached at erin.edingerturoff@temple.edu.
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD THROUGH THE EYES AND ART OF JERRY PINKNEY FEB. 24, 1 P.M. FREE SIXTH & MARKET STREETS An interesting and educational way to experience Black History Month, this event showcases the Underground Railroad artwork of renowned artist Jerry Pinkney. The show is presented by the National Park Service and coordinated by Bill Caughlan. Pinkney will be conducting a talk for those interested in learning more about his art. The National Park Service, the organization presenting the event, was established in 1948. It provides a wide variety of services for the community, “maintenance and interpretation of independence hall including monuments such as the Liberty Bell,” said Adam Duncan, chief historian for the National Park Service. Caughlan first had the idea to do this event at the end of last year. “In December I was tasked with coming up with ideas for Black History Month this February. We would be rolling out Underground Railroad trading cards for the kids, so I wanted to do an Underground Railroad theme,” Caughlan said. He chose Pinkney as the focus for the event when he found out Pinkney would be at a symposium in Philadelphia this month for the Friends of Independence. Caughlan said, “[This is a] unique opportunity, we don’t often get to see someone who does this type of work and how they maintain historical accuracy.” However, when organizing this event, one obstacle occurred. If you Google Pinkney’s images, “There aren’t too many online,” Caughlan said. Pinkney does not digitize his images, rather, he chooses to keep them on slides for the best portrayal of his artwork. In order to keep this event up, Caughlan had to search the storage for the remaining old-fashioned carousel for Pinkney’s images. This aspect will bring the most powerful view to these images of strong African-American men women and children during their strive to freedom. Caughlan said he is most interested in “seeing the program and meeting Jerry himself” as well as “finding out how Jerry does what he does.”
SPRING GARDEN INDOOR ANTIQUE & VINTAGE FLEA MARKET FEB. 23 820 SPRING GARDEN ST. 8 A.M.–4 P.M. FREE Come browse over 60 vendors from the tri-state area at this large community flea market. The items include antiques and collectibles, furniture and pottery, jewelry and clothing. It offers free admission, free parking and a food court. Don’t fret if you miss it this time around – the event will occur again on March 2 and March 16.
COME SEE ABOUT ME: THE MARY WILSON SUPREMES COLLECTION JAN. 25-JUNE 30 701 ARCH ST. $10
TASTE OF BROADWAY CABARET FEB. 21-23 9 P.M. 601 S. BROAD ST. FREE
Some of the gowns on display for this exhibit celebrating Diana Ross and the Supremes weigh up to 30 pounds. Celebrate the last week of Black History Month at the African American Museum in Philadelphia. The Mary Wilson Collection includes gowns, gold records, memorabilia and rare video footage of the iconic music group.
Support local Philadelphia college students at this production put on by Blurring Edges, a student-run group from University of the Arts. This group puts on new productions throughout the year. The cabaret-style show includes one song from each musical on Broadway right now. This show is free with a suggested donation to support the group.
3. “House of Flying Daggers” – Raekwon 4. “Banished” – JJ Doom 5. “Daughters” – Nas
–Christopher Smith
page 14
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LIVING
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Page 15
Hoeffel leads from past Joe Hoeffel brings his lifelong experience as a politician to students. JOEY CRANNEY The Temple News
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ormer U.S. Congressman and current adjunct professor Joe Hoeffel was 54 years old and in office when he and his wife got arrested. As a representative in Congress for Pennsylvania’s 13th district in 2004, Hoeffel participated in what he calls a “staged arrest” to spread awareness of the genocide occurring in the western province of Darfur in Sudan. He and a small group of protesters stood outside the Sudanese embassy and refused to move upon request from capitol police. Hoeffel and his wife, Francesca, were arrested and fined $50. Francesca, usually not a political woman, agreed to get arrested with her husband after she couldn’t convince him not to participate in the protest in the first place. “I said to my wife, ‘I’m going to do this,’” Hoeffel said. “She said, ‘Are you nuts?’ I said, ‘No, it’s a legitimate way to use whatever celebrity I have as a member of Congress to bring attention to the genocide in Darfur.’ And she said, ‘If you’re going to do it, I’m going to do it.’” That’s one of many stories that Hoeffel sometimes tells in the classroom at Temple, where he talks about current events, encourages students to read the newspaper and promotes discussion by calling on people by name, even if they haven’t raised their hand. Hoeffel, 62, teaches American State & Local Politics, a fitting course for a man who has practiced politics since the 1970s and has been elected at every level. He was in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1999-2005, was a state representative from 1977-84, and served on the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners from 1992-98 and again from 2008-2012. To anyone that’s been in class with Hoeffel, it’s clear that his unusually enthusiastic approach to politics stems from an old-fashioned belief in the people’s power to better their lives through self-government. “I’m a sucker for the political process,” Hoeffel said. “I have my frustrations, no doubt. I’ve had some disappointing experiences, both personally with people and policies. But I continue to believe in the political process and the necessity for people to get involved in it to try to improve the quality of life in their community.”
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As a student volunteer, Hoeffel was a part of the George McGovern presidential ticket in 1972 that famously lost in a landslide to Richard Nixon at the beginning of the Watergate scandal. He was a member of Congress during 9/11 and voted to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The personal relationships Hoeffel has developed in his 30-year career in politics can be rattled off on an impressive string. He knows Bill and Hillary Clinton personally, campaigned with John Kerry in 2004 and used to ride the train with Joe Biden. In a memorable interaction with President George W. Bush early on in Bush’s first year in office, Hoeffel argued with the president on pre-9/11 strategy in Afghanistan aboard Air Force One. “I remember saying to him that we need to focus on getting peacekeepers into that country to help them deal with their problems,” Hoeffel said. “And he pounded on the conference table and said, ‘We’re war fighters, not peacekeepers!’” “It wasn’t an angry moment, but it was a forceful moment on his part,” Hoeffel added. “And I disagreed with him. I think we have to be both. We
have to be strong militarily, but we have to be making peace.” Hoeffel’s disagreements with President Bush, and his take on the administration’s mishandling of the Iraq War, will be the subject of a book Hoeffel started writing a few months ago to be titled “Iraq: Truth, Lies, and Consequences.” The impetus behind his decision to write the book, Hoeffel said, is what he calls the “self-serving” autobiographies written by members of the Bush administration after they left office. Ironically, many of those books turn out to be read by students in Hoeffel’s class, which requires a final paper responding to a political autobiography of a student’s choice. Hoeffel has been teaching at Temple for two and a half years after an unsuccessful bid in the 2010 gubernatorial election. He gave up his seat in the House in 2004 to run for a spot in the Senate, but lost to the late Arlen Specter. Hoeffel graduated from the then-called Temple University School of Law in 1986 and has practiced law on and off for the past 25 years. He returned to Temple to teach, he said, to perpetuate a career-long appreciation for the classroom. “When I was in office, I
went to classrooms all the time, from kindergarten to college classes,” Hoeffel said. “I would accept every invitation to come and speak about politics or the political process. So when I had time on my hands, it was always something that I wanted to do.” Last year, Hoeffel gave a TEDx talk at Arcadia University titled “You Gotta Bring It,” discussing creativity and passion in leadership. In the talk, Hoeffel quoted Daniel Hudson Burnham, an urban designer, who said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood.” “It means think big,” Hoeffel said. “If you want to get people’s attention and stir their blood, it won’t happen with little plans. You have to plan big and talk big, and you better deliver.” Hoeffel added one last bit about government before having to leave to teach a class: “There’s a lot of inertia in government. If left to its own devices, government won’t do a damn thing,” Hoeffel said. “You have to make things happen, and that’s the fun part.” Joey Cranney can be reached at joseph.cranney@temple.edu or on Twitter @joey_cranney.
living
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Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Blogger secures opportunities and makes connections Joey DeAngelis uses his blog as a springboard into the entertainment industry. LUIS FERNANDO RODRIGUEZ Living Editor
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hen most people create a Tumblr account, they use it mainly as an outlet to repost things they see from other users. Joey DeAngelis, however, has used his blog to create connections in the entertainment industry. DeAngelis, a junior media studies and production major, has gained a massive following with his blog, “The TV Screen,” and secured a writing position with the Huffington Post, reviewing shows like “True Blood” and “American Horror Story: Asylum.” The Temple News caught up with DeAngelis to find out how he started his blog and how he’s made a name for himself in an oversaturated market. The Temple News: How did you first start blogging? Joey DeAngelis: It started originally in June 2010 as a fashion photography blog because that’s what I wanted to do at the time. Then, eventually, I went to Rochester Institute of Technology – before I came [to Temple] – for photography. Then it [morphed] into a TV blog, and I dropped out of [RIT] because I didn’t want to do photography anymore, I wanted to do TV instead. So I came [to Temple] and my blog kind of [started] from there. TTN: What drew you more to TV and pop culture? JD: I’ve always been into
it really, but it never struck me JD: Yeah, that’s how I got as something to do as a job. So my Huffington Post gig. I made when I was able to do it and a tiny text post [on Tumblr] make connections it was like, that said, “If anyone needs me “Oh, this could actually be a to write for them let me know. cool path for me.” Then I got an email from an ediTTN: What does your tor there and he said, “If you’d blog tend to focus on, since it like to blog with us that would has a variety of TV, music and be cool.” film? Besides that I have people JD: Well I kind of just I know that work with Fox, blog what I watch, and I watch and this guy who used to work a lot of stuff so it’s [a little bit with Ryan Murphy, a couple of of] everything. There’s no real people at VH1, MTV and “The specific focus. I don’t really do X Factor.” Those connections reality TV that much, which is are cool because Tumblr allows kind of funny because that’s you to make these connections, how I started doing TV. I would and I don’t think people real[make .gifs of] ize they can do “Jersey Shore”… that. Tumblr is It’s kind of emsometimes conbarrassing. sidered a joke TTN: How to some people. much of the It’s like, “No, content on your it’s not just for Tumblr is gen[a place] for reerated by you? ally hipster-y JD: I’d say photos.” You about 98 percent post things and of my blog is my people can creown. ate conversaTTN: How tions. did you first get TTN: How into creating does it feel Joey DeAngelis / blogger your own aniknowing you mated .gifs? have these conJD: When I started [blog- nections and a springboard ging], I followed this one horror into the entertainment indusmovie blog, and that kid made try upon graduation? .gifs. I thought it was cool so JD: It’s nice because I’m I went on YouTube to look up not worried about [graduating]. how to do it. It can take me 10 Actually I’m just waiting for it minutes to an hour to make [a to happen. I feel like I’m stuck .gif]. in college now until I can actuTTN: How many follow- ally do stuff. So I’m ready to ers do you have on Tumblr graduate and take those opporand Twitter? tunities that are waiting there JD: On Tumblr I have for me. 65,000-plus followers and on TTN: What do you plan Twitter I’m lesser known, with to do in the near future? 1,156 followers. JD: I still plan on internTTN: With such a large ing for the Huffington Post in following, have you made any the summer, even though writconnections through social ing isn’t what I want to do as a media? career it’ll be something to do.
“Tumblr
allows you to make these connections, and I don’t think people realize they can do that.
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And it pays. Then after I graduate I want to go to Los Angeles and work in TV. Part of me wants to work in it creatively and write TV shows. TTN: What kinds of shows are you watching every week? Do you watch them for fun or just for your blog? JD: I watch them for fun. I do watch them so I can just know about them, I also just love watching TV. If I had pick one character I relate to it would be Kenneth Parcell from “30 Rock”...I love TV so much that I watch it all the time, and I don’t even care what I’m watching. TTN: How much of your personal life do you include in your blog? JD: Last year I was this crazy, self-deprecating person who would always post things about being sad and single. Recently, I came out [of the closet] in August, and I didn’t come out to Tumblr until November or December and then people would message me saying, “It means a lot to me. I’m thinking of coming out, too.” And I was like, “Cool!” It made me really happy because I can write something that’s personal and it can still affect people. They still appreciate it even though they’re following me for my TV stuff. TTN: How do you balance time between your schoolwork and your blogging? JD: It’s been difficult recently, because I’ve been blogging once a day – if that. I have classes, then I go to work, then I go home, then I see my boyfriend and I go to bed. I told someone the other day that I feel like I’m not watching TV [for fun] anymore, I’m just watching it to catch up. Just today, walking to this interview, I got a tweet that said, “Could you blog more?” I was
want to input your personality into it, too. Not to sound conceited but people want to know about me so I just give them what they want – kind of. TTN: Do you think it’s important to post personal things on your blog as well? JD: I think your followers do establish a connection to you, so you don’t want to alienate them. You want to be yourself.
like, “I’m sorry! I’m busy.” TTN: What would you suggest to someone looking to make their blog more notable? JD: I just adopted advice that other people gave to me. Post what you like, but don’t just regurgitate things other people like. I think my blog is different from other people because other [blogs on Tumblr] are just reblogging stuff constantly. Again, post what you like and don’t get discouraged. I went through a big chunk of time when I didn’t have any followers and I was just posting pictures I found online. You
Luis Fernando Rodriguez can be reached at luis. fernando@temple.edu or on Twitter @TheLuisFernando.
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Law student finds success online in podcasts, Twitter Kishwer Vikaas was recently named on a list of influential people on Twitter. JENELLE JANCI A&E Editor
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ishwer Vikaas can’t hold a single job. That’s to say, Vikaas can’t hold only one job – the Temple law student has a tendency to hold more than three jobs at a time, a seemingly chronic need-to-bebusy trait. “I like doing different things,” Vikaas said. “I’ve yet to find a job that plays on all my strengths and keeps me interested. I get bored easily. I like to do something at any given moment – I find it hard to sit still.”
Vikaas graduated from Temple in 2007 with a degree in English after switching majors within the medical school multiple times. After graduation, the Philadelphia native worked at Temple Math/Science Upward Bound at the Russell Conwell Center where she prepared students for the SAT who were low-income or first in their family to go to college. After that, she taught SAT preparation to Korean students on Saturdays while working two other jobs. “At one point, I was working three jobs. I was teaching on Saturdays, I was working at a women’s gym – Lucille Roberts – and I was babysitting on the Main Line,” Vikaas said. “I enjoyed the change in pace. One minute I’m watching ‘Hannah Montana,’ the other minute I’m selling gym memberships and the next I’m in front of a class-
room.” Not much has changed for Vikaas, a woman who still has her hands in many different projects. She gathered clips by writing for Philadelphia City Paper and Uwishunu, among other publications. Uwishunu editor Eric Smith isn’t surprised in the least by Vikaas’ success. “[Vikaas] is a fabulous writer,” Smith said. “She’s an incredibly warm and friendly person. To know [Vikaas] is to immediately heart her. That’s all you really need to be successful – that and a serious work ethic. Be kind, [Vikaas] is.” Vikaas landed a job as a copywriter for Public Health Management Corporation, a position she’s held for five years. However, as evident in her résumé, one job is never quite enough to satisfy her. And it’s hard to believe
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that she ever gets the chance to – in addition to her position at PHMC and night classes at Beasley School of Law, Vikaas is a co-founder of the award-winning podcast “Talkadelphia” and a founder of the newly-launched blog, Aerogram. Having now completed its 72nd episode, it’s hard to believe that the idea for “Talkadelphia” began with less than 140 characters. In 2010, Vikaas simply tweeted that she wanted to start a podcast and received a response expressing interest almost instantly from her nowhusband, Gino Barrica. “He had the tech knowhow to make it happen, whereas I had the contacts and the writing experience,” Vikaas said. Vikaas, who had been writing for a South Asian MTV blog, missed interviewing Philadelphians and thought a conversational format would be best suited for showcasing some of the city’s most colorful characters. “Even the best writer can’t capture the essence of someone’s personality via text,” Vikaas said. “There are personalities that are just so vibrant that they don’t belong on a page.” Vikaas is still interested in blogging, however. She is one of three founders of Aerogram, a blog dedicated to issues affecting the South AsianAmerican community. After Sepia Mutiny, the largest South Asian-American group blog in America, shut down in Spring 2012, Vikaas, along with New York journalist Lakshmi Gandhi and San Francisco writer Pavani Yalamanchili, wanted to give the demographic an outlet to talk about important issues. The name is from a piece of air mail that the USPS no longer uses, but used to be very popular in international communication. “It was the way our mothers communicated to their families back home,” Vikaas said. Vikaas is now finding herself gaining recognition for a more modern method of communication: Twitter. The 27-year-old was named one
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of Philadelphia Magazine’s “Top 15 Most Influential Philadelphians on Twitter” earlier this month for her impressive networking abilities and her knack for making connections throughout the city. “I feel like my job is to make informal connections,” Vikaas said. “I feel like the Godfather sometimes.” Vikaas, whose Twitter handle is @Phillygrrl, has 2,609 followers as of yesterday, Feb. 18. She admits that her feed can be a bit of a hodgepodge. “My personal Twitter is a little schizophrenic,” Vikaas said. “My interests are so varied. You’ll see a lot of about Philadelphia, about South Asian-American topics, everything from Mindy Kaling and Aziz Ansari to something less well known. You’ll see a lot of literature – the authors that I love, I follow them and try to share their content.” As she and her account have matured, Vikaas said she is more thoughtful about what she tweets about. “In my early 20s, I was very mundane and very typi-
cal,” she said. “‘I’m eating an egg sandwich! It’s exciting!’ But now, I try to give it a little more thought.” Vikaas’s relationship with the little blue bird has definitely surpassed just lunchtime decisions. She said she uses Twitter for keeping a handle on not only her professional life, but her social – and love – life as well. “Twitter changed my life,” Vikaas said. “If it weren’t for Twitter, I wouldn’t have talked to my now-husband. We never would have [conversed]. If it wasn’t for Twitter, I would never have gotten any of the blogging opportunities I got.” While not every Twitter user will find their sweetie via the site, Vikaas does offer some tips for getting the most out of Twitter. “Your Twitter [feed] is only as good as the people you follow,” Vikaas said. “They curate the content for you. They say Facebook is the friends you have; Twitter is the friends you want to have.” Jenelle Janci can be reached at jenelle.janci@temple.edu.
Professor ends time at Temple Gordon PAGE 7 with philosophy to offer three lectures a semester: one from a graduate student, one from a faculty member and one from someone outside of Temple. It later found funding under The Center for the Humanities at Temple. “She started it on her own and was just finding a way to piece together the funding, which is a level of commitment to study that is fairly rare in my experience,” said Peter Logan, the director of CHAT. “Startup funds are supposed to help you get settled,” Gordon said. “But part of getting settled is creating the kind of community you want to be in.” It was a community Gordon wanted and built from the ground up, and others recognize her for this effort. “She knows the students so well: what their aspirations are, who they are, what they’ve cared about, what they’ve studied,” Temple Honors Director Ruth Ost said. “She really engages in a deep way.” This engagement is a natural impulse for Gordon. “If there’s any opportunity to assure that someone is getting an excellent education, I really feel an obligation to do that, because that’s what people deserve,” Gordon said. It’s a commitment Gordon has made time and time again. Former students said they still remember the guidance she provided, including regular meetings to review their work, which were no small feat. While many professors face morning commutes from outside the city,
Gordon travels 272 miles from Providence, RI, to get to class. Outside of the time commitment, Gordon is making her own contributions to excellent education through her work on creolization, which occurs when two things not normally put together are suddenly joined. “You have people who have no history of being together, who don’t particularly want to be together, and they are really unequal,” Gordon said. “Yet they are forging a world that’s shared.” Gordon’s latest book brings together two thinkers whom the discipline of political theory would never pair: Swiss-French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who criticized, but couldn’t see around, the European way of colonization; and Caribbean revolutionary Frantz Fanon, who understood that you had to imagine alternative futures to move forward. Her work suggests that ideas can develop more generally, in ways that have not previously been studied. Her expertise in these philosophies garnered an invitation to a conference in Dakar, Senegal, at the end of January. The meeting was organized by research center Point Sud in Mali and CODESRIA, the council for the development of socialscientific research in Africa. It centered on the question of the colonial library. These old texts dictated what was necessary to be an educated person in the French colonies, but with the push for an independent, as well as intellectually independent, Africa, the question of what to do with the library has become
weighted. Gordon was one of only a few American representatives in the meeting, led primarily in French, and was awed to be in the presence of some amazing African thinkers. Gordon’s time at Temple has reached its end however, Gordon and her husband will be leaving at the end of this semester to teach much closer to home at the University of Connecticut. Still, she emanates pride at the thought of her time with students here. “There are wonderful students at Temple,” Gordon said. “To be able to help someone do what they want to do in the world, to figure it out, why would you not want to do that?” In her eight years at Temple, Gordon has made a solid impact on students and faculty alike, and it is apparent in speaking to them that they wish she could stay. Senior political science major Melissa Bright has only known Gordon since last fall. Still, she said, “I really hate to see her go, because we need a lot more professors like her at Temple.” Logan said he believes as accomplished as she is already, Gordon can still go so much further. “She’s just starting out. I can’t imagine what she’s going to be like later when she’s actually a mature scholar,” he said. “She’s off to a stunning start.” Rachel McDevitt can be reached at rachel.mcdevitt@temple.edu.
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Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Macaulay’s blocks present havoc for opponents
JAKE ADAMS Double Dribble
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Victoria Macaulay has learned to utilize size to block shots, and not take fouls.
almost feel pity for opposing guards these past few games. “It’s awesome because, especially when she gets a good one, it’s clean, it gets everyone going,” freshman forward Meghan Roxas said. “We get so hyped after that.”
Roxas is talking about senior center Victoria Macaulay’s uncanny ability to block everything she sees of late. It’s almost laughable at this point. Macaulay, who stands at 6 feet, 4 inches, simply has to put her hands straight up in the air and wait for a driving opponent to throw up a shot. No emphatic swat at the ball, just an impenetrable wall. “It just comes natural,” Macaulay said. “I’m [tall] as it is. I should be blocking shots like that. It just took me up to now to really get more blocks and just really take my time.” For three years there hasn’t been a shot-blocker like her on the roster. It’s a refreshing change. Women’s basketball, unlike its masculine counterpart, is not known for its physical, imposing style of player. Blocks at Temple are more synonymous with sophomore center Anthony Lee or senior forward Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson on the men’s
side than Macaulay. Well, guys, take some notes. Macaulay doesn’t take a leaping swing at a shot most of the time the way you might see at a men’s game. She doesn’t have to jump really. With a wingspan that reaches higher than opponents can jump and get a clear shot over, it’s simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time. “I think the last couple of teams that we played against have been teams that penetrate a lot,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “So because they’re penetrating there’s more opportunities for her.” “And I think that she’s grown in the sense that her first couple of years she tried to block everything, and a lot of times she was off-balance and ended up fouling,” Cardoza added. “I think she picks and chooses when to go after them and the timing is a lot better and her body control is a lot better,
so it [has] made her a better shot blocker.” Women’s basketball doesn’t get attention largely because of its lack of the thunderous dunks and game-changing blocks. About the only player who has that impact is Baylor’s senior center Brittney Griner. Every time she dunks in a game it’s a big deal. I’m not saying I want to see the women’s game become more like the men’s game. As much as I love watching a LeBron James chase-down block and gawk at old video of Michael Jordan dunks, I have a fond appreciation for the way the women’s game is played, with more finesse. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t amazing to watch a nineblock game like the one Macaulay had Feb. 10 against Saint Louis, two shy of the Temple record. “I never know how many blocks I have until after the game, and just realizing that I
had nine blocks was really awesome,” Macaulay said. The past few games have seemed effortless. A player drives into the paint, has to kick out to the edge to try and beat Macaulay to the backboard, stops before they hit the baseline to pull up and shoot something between a shorter jumper and layup, only to see Macaulay just standing there with arms high and no need to do anything else. The ball doesn’t go sailing into the stands but the point has been made nonetheless. That has been the theme in the past five games. Macaulay has 29 blocks in that span, including five or more in four of those games. She set a career high with seven against Massachusetts on Feb. 3, and reset it a week later with nine against Saint Louis. And she’s catapulted to the top of the Atlantic 10 Conference with 72, and was 12th in the nation with 2.79 per game heading into the game against
St. Joseph’s on Sunday. She now stands in fourth place in career blocks (192), sixth in blocks per game (1.68). “I think every team now should be scared,” Roxas said. “They can look at the scouting report and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, she had nine blocks.’ They should be scared to go in the paint. It gives us a little bit of an advantage in the scare-factor I think.” Roxas would certainly be scared if she saw that coming up. “I got blocked in Georgetown,” she said. “The wind was in my hair, my headband went back, but you just have to not let it get to you I think...I don’t like getting blocked.” Macaulay must have the same effect on her opponents. Jake Adams can be reached at jacob.adams@temple.edu or on Twitter @jakeadams520.
Six remaining games to decide season postseason PAGE 20 After a loss to Duquesne at home on Feb. 14, Joe Lunardi, a bracketologist for ESPN, moved the Owls out of his “Last Four In” category and positioned them among teams that would be the “First Four Out.” The loss to Duquesne was especially damaging due to the Dukes’ RPI of 212. Temple, whose RPI is 52, saw Duquesne, replace a home loss to St. Bonaventure (RPI
124) as the Owls worst of the season. These losses late in the season make them that much more damaging to the Owls’ tournament bid. “Everyone’s ultimate goal is the NCAA Tournament,” graduate senior Jake O’Brien said. “We have a lot of work to do and we want to keep moving forward. We will cross that bridge when we come to it.” What could have been
a favorable weekend for the Owls provided little comfort as Selection Sunday draws near. While it was able to win a game against a Massachusetts team that knocked them out of the A-10 Tournament last season, Temple received little help from other bubble teams. Saint Mary’s, Villanova, Arizona State and California were all able to win key road games, but perhaps the biggest detriment to
the Owls’ postseason chances came from Maryland. The Terrapins knocked off No. 2 Duke at home. One advantage the Owls do have is a relatively high RPI. Among current bubble teams, Temple trails only St. Mary’s in this department. “When your back’s against the wall you respond,” Dunphy said. “We are a good team but we aren’t nearly good enough.”
Temple also has the opportunity to earn favor with the selection committee as the season winds down. The Owls face one of their biggest games of the season this Thursday, Feb. 21, when they take on A-10 and Big 5-rival La Salle at home. Temple also has a game remaining against Virginia Commonwealth, both teams expected to make the NCAA Tournament. “We have seven really
tough games coming up,” Dunphy said before taking on UMass. “Six of them in the league, and Detroit is a really good team too. We have presented ourselves with a very difficult challenge as we move forward. But that’s who we are, and we need to respond right now.” Ibrahim Jacobs can be reached at ibrahim.jacobs@temple.edu or on Twitter @ibrahimjacobs.
O’Brien emerges as scorer Owls prepare for conference play
Boston transfer provides offensive contributions off bench.
IBRAHIM JACOBS Assistant Sports Editor If you ask Jake O’Brien what has changed about his game recently, he would probably answer honestly, if given the chance. “He shoots all the time now,” senior guard Khalif Wyatt interjected as he walked by an interview. Wyatt, typically animate on and off the court, isn’t kidding. O’Brien has been shooting a lot recently, and Temple is staying in games because of it. The 6-foot, 9-inch graduate senior forward has brought about an increase in his shots per game in the past month. O’Brien’s shots, and points, have added up at an opportune time. In the last five games, O’Brien has averaged 11.8 points, bringing his season average up from 7.6 to 8.4. This has been critical in more ways than the boost in scoring. Every game during that stretch has been a one-point contest, the longest recorded streak in college basketball history. “I am getting more and more comfortable each game here,” O’Brien said. O’Brien’s journey to Philadelphia began at Boston University in 2008, where he played three seasons and redshirted his senior season due to a surgery on his foot. Boston was informed that it would not be eligible for the American East Conference postseason tournament in 2013 due to a conference switch. As the Terriers’ chances of making the NCAA tournament went out the door, O’Brien followed. “Temple offered the two things I was looking for,” O’Brien said. “I wanted a place that I could play and contribute and a place that I had a chance to win. Being my last year, I re-
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ally wanted the opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament. Temple, with [its] winning tradition, really fit the criteria I was looking for.” O’Brien took advantage of the NCAA rule that allows players to transfer and maintain their remaining eligibility without sitting out a year because the team received sanctions from its conference. The rule allowed O’Brien to avoid the situation that kept junior guard Dalton Pepper, who transferred from West Virginia, sitting on the bench all of last season. “In Boston I was one of the main guys,” O’Brien. “I was looked upon for scoring. Here my role is similar because I am a scorer and they expect me to score. But here there are a lot of guys capable of having big nights, so it’s not as much pressure.” O’Brien started the season slowly, eclipsing a double-digit point total once in the team’s first eight games. In the Owls’ 17 games since, he has hit that mark nine times. “His confidence is very high and he has hit some big shots for us, especially recently,” redshirt-senior forward Scootie Randall said. “It is great that he can come off the bench and give us scoring.” Despite starting in four of Temple’s 25 games this season, O’Brien has found his way on to the team, and conference, leader boards. O’Brien’s 8.4 points per game average ranks fifth on the team, but his 46 percent shooting percentage is second among players with six or more attempts. In this category, O’Brien trails only sophomore forward Anthony Lee’s percentage of 54 percent. O’Brien’s 42 percent mark from beyond the arc leads the team among players who have two or more attempts. By hitting 41 of his 97 attempts this season, O’Brien ranks eighth in the Atlantic 10 Conference in threepoint field goal percentage, the only Owl in the Top 15. Where O’Brien has thrived,
basketball PAGE 20 breakers against both Rich- spot ahead of Temple in the conmond (13-13, 3-7 A-10) and St. ference standings. On March 3, Bonaventure (9-16, 2-8 A-10). the regular season will conclude Richmond is currently in 11th against fifth-place Fordham place, while St. Bonaventure (18-7, 8-2 A-10). has faltered as of late, dropping Although earning a trip to to 14th place. However, Virgin- the A-10 tournament is within ia Commonwealth (10-15, 3-7 reach, coming out on top is a A-10), clinging to 12th place, different story. Dayton, looking holds the tie-breaker against to repeat as champions, will be Temple. the clear-cut favorite. The FlyThe Owls’ next match-up ers are a squad that beat La Salle comes against Xavier tomor- – who beat Temple 71-55 – by a row, Feb. 20. Xavier (9-15, 3-7 score of 95-47 on Jan. 16. DayA-10) is currentton also crushed ly ranked fourth Butler 82-39 to last place in four days earlier the A-10, ahead on Jan. 12. of only St. BoDayton is naventure, Masnot the only sachusetts and A-10 team that Rhode Island. presents a forWhile it is unmidable matchdoubtedly a up for Temple. game that TemCharlotte (20-4, ple should win, 9-1 A-10) and the Owls have Duquesne (19been far from 5, 8-2 A-10) are consistent, and ranked second they lost to a and fourth, reBonnies team spectively, and that is one conbeat Temple by ference loss Victoria Macaulay / senior center a combined 43 worse than the points. St. Joe’s Musketeers. is ranked third Senior center Victoria Ma- and although the Owls gave the caulay said she knows the Owls Hawks a run for their money, have showed a tendency to play is a well-balanced team loaded down to their opponents. with gritty veterans. “We’re just trying not to While “cinderella stories” play down to their level,” Ma- pop up seemingly every March caulay said. “Every game is just Madness, the Owls second a game. Every game we have to straight trip to the WNIT apgo out there and play our best.” pears likely. Following the Xavier “You still have to work game, Temple’s final three con- hard and fight for that position tests get significantly tougher. even though things are not goThe Owls will travel to Ohio to ing well,” Macaulay said. “You face reigning A-10 champion still have to keep your head up Dayton (21-1, 9-0 A-10) on Feb. and stay positive.” 24, a squad that is ranked first in Tyler Sablich can be reached the conference and No. 17 in the at tyler.sablich@temple.edu nation. Temple will then head to or on Twitter @TySablich. Indianapolis, Ind., on Feb. 27 to take on A-10 newcomer Butler (14-10, 5-4 A-10), which is one
“We’re just
trying not to play down to their level. Every game is just a game. Every game we have to go out there and play our best.
Jake O’Brien shoots at practice. The graduate senior transferred from Boston University and leads the team in threepoint shooting percentage. | ANDREW THAYER TTN has been in teaming up with Randall, another player who missed the 2011-12 campaign due to injury. Randall and O’Brien have combined for 83 three-pointers this season, an asset that gives Temple a shooting tandem that can spread the floor. Temple currently ranks sixth in the A-10 in three-point field goals made with 179, putting them on pace to eclipse last season’s total of 228. “For me personally he has been a great asset,” Randall said. “We have great chemistry and we know each other so well. He is a great player who can shoot the ball well and take some pressure off of us.” O’Brien’s presence has allowed the Owls to compete in an unusually tough A-10 this
year. The conference has more teams in the Top 100 RPI than any other with the exception of the Big East, the Owls’ destination for next year. However, the team knows that competing isn’t enough. O’Brien came from Boston to play in the postseason, and he wants to get them there. “Everyone’s ultimate goal is the NCAA Tournament, to not make it would be disappointing,” O’Brien said. “I have enjoyed my experience thus far here. We still have a lot of work to do...right now I am absolutely happy with my decision to come here.” Ibrahim Jacobs can be reached at ibrahim.jacobs@temple.edu or on Twitter @ibrahimjacobs.
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Team faults on Lacrosse earns win in season opener tough schedule goalies PAGE 20
an eye on my condition. I’m still able to play matches.” No Owls are suffering from any major injuries, but there have been a few instances where minor injuries prevented a player from competing. Junior EVAN CROSS Yana Mavrina had to forfeit her The Temple News top-flight match on Wednesday after three games due to an illD e s p i t e ness, which Mauro said will not WOMEN’S TENNIS being picked to finish fourth be a lasting issue. in the Atlantic 10 Conference, “We’ve had a lot of injuTemple has only won one of ries,” Batey said. “It’s been hard seven matches this season, with to get in a rhythm with each oththe lone victory coming against er. Once we get a really steady a Morgan State, a team with the rhythm going it’ll be fine. I’m same record of 1-6. not worried about it at all.” Somewhat surprisingly, the Despite missing some time, Owls aren’t very worried about Batey has been doing well in it. doubles. She and her partner, “I think it’s gonna be really junior Alicia Doms, are 2-0 topromising,” junior Carly Bohm- gether in the spring, both wins an said. “I think it’s going to get being in the first flight. They better and better as we get our also played a match together stuff together.” against VCU that was not com“Once we get healthy, ev- pleted. erything should be fine,” coach “I’m really focusing on Steve Mauro said. “We just need playing well in doubles,” Batey to keep working at it.” said. “I want to have 10 or 15 The Owls started off the wins with Alicia. I think we season with a string of tough have a good chance. I’m really games. Three of their first five confident with the way we’re matches were against nationally playing. We mesh with each ranked teams: other well. It’s Virginia Comreally fun playmonwealth, Penn ing with her.” State and PrincTemple did eton, all losses. not play a home On Feb. 13, the match this seaOwls lost at son until last home to Georgeweek’s match town 4-2. The against Georgeother losses were town. The against Campbell Owls played and Richmond. Richmond at Those six teams Jordan Batey / junior tennis player the University have a combined of Pennsylvarecord of 23-12. nia because the “We’ve had a tough sched- Legacy Tennis Center, where ule,” Mauro said. “We’ve Temple plays home matches, played some really tough teams was unavailable at the time. like Princeton and VCU. We’ve “Traveling takes a little played the two strongest oppo- bit out of you, and the people nents in the A-10 [Richmond watching are not cheering for and VCU]. We just need to keep you,” Bohman said. “We had working at it.” our first home match Wednes“We had two really close day, and it was definitely a lot matches against Richmond and more comfortable. It’s our terGeorgetown,” Bohman said. ritory.” “We’re starting to get into better Bohman said the poor start shape and more mentally in the is not affecting the team camagame. It’s just taking us a little raderie, and there is “definitely bit longer than usual this year to more unity” among the players. get into shape.” “[The season] is going to Bohman said the schedule be really promising,” Bohman has affected team morale. said. “We’re playing Buffalo “Our confidence is a little next week, which should be a bit thrown off from the tough really good match. I think it’s start,” Bohman said. “[Junior] gonna get better and better as we Jordan [Batey] was injured for get our stuff together.” two matches, and that made a big difference.” Evan Cross can be reached Batey, who is 3-1 in singles at evan.cross@temple.edu or on Twitter @EvanCross. matches this spring, has been suffering from chest congestion. She has played in the past two matches, but said she isn’t completely healthy yet. “I’m working back now,” Batey said. “Just practicing harder. I’m still trying to keep
Opening schedule of nationally ranked teams contribute to a slow start.
“We’ve had a lot
of injuries. It’s been hard to get in a rhythm with each other.
”
2013 season is the first time Temple has started a new goalie in years. “We’ve been pushing ourselves,” Kakalecik said. “Last year there were four of us and we all really pushed ourselves, and this year we’re doing the same.” With Bishop as the fulltime starter the last couple seasons, Clothier has served as her backup for the majority of her career, until Saturday’s game. The season opener against Niagara was Clothier’s first career start. “My whole career, I’ve always played in practice as if I was going to be the starter, even if I’m not going to be,” Clothier said. “This team wants to go far and in order to do that, we need solid goalkeeping. So it’s more motivating than anything.” Clothier faced seven shots, recording three saves and allowing four goals in her first half as the starting goalie. After the Owls jumped out to a 12-4 lead, to Kakalecik’s surprise, Clothier was benched and the redshirt freshman was put on the field, for the second period. “It was kind of a surprise. With five minutes left in the half, coach just told me to get my stuff on,” Kakalecik said. “I went and got warmed up and she told me I was going to be playing the second half.” During her playing time in the second period, Kakalecik faced three shots, recorded two saves and allowed one goal. “I was really impressed with their ability to focus in. Each came out with some key stops when we needed it,”
Freshman midfielder Bridget Hufnagel controls a ball against Niagara. Freshmen combined to score five of the Owls’ 18 goals as they took the season opener 18-5. | maggie trapani TTN Rosen said. Clothier, the more tenured goalie, received the win for Saturday’s game, but Rosen did not show favor for one goalie over the other, giving them equal playing time. “If we can use multiple goalies, we’re going to use them,” Rosen said. “We’re going to keep pushing the competition, so that we have the best in the cage at all times. Both of them did a pretty nice job.” With no designated starter
after the first game, Rosen said the goalie situation will continue to be an open competition. “We’re all really competing and pushing each other to be the best goalie,” Kakalecik said. “In practice it’s always if Clothier makes one save, I try to make two. It’s the same with her. We’re always competing against each other and it’s all in good fun.” In the season-opening blowout win, Niagara attempted 10 shots. Neither of the Owls’
goalies had the opportunity to gain an advantage in the battle for playing time. As the season continues, a larger sampling may lead to one of the goalies receiving the full-time job. “I’m just going to go out and do what I’ve been doing, the same way I’ve been doing it,” Clothier said. Brien Edwards can be reached at brien.edwards@temple.edu or on Twitter @BErick1123.
Two-thirds of the team local BASEBALL PAGE 20
he chose to attend Temple. Staskey said he was also considering Western Carolina, Campbell University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Staskey and Williams also had the advantage of not being too far away during the period when Wheeler was scouting talent. “I did get a chance to see both Texas and Connor before they joined us [at Temple],” Wheeler said. “Having ties to high school coaches and legion coaches [in Virginia] made it easy for me to continue with those inroads. We certainly continue our recruiting efforts down there just because of spending 14 years down there.” As the third freshman that joined Temple from outside of the tri-state area, Lain is also the freshman who had to travel the farthest. He stated a number of reasons as to why he chose
Temple instead of Illinois State, the University of Northern Colorado and various junior colleges in Arizona. “It was really the relationships with the coaches,” Lain said. “They did a really good job creating relationships with me. You have got to feel comfortable around the coaches that you’re going to be with for the next four years. They are kind of like a father figure. You want to respect that person and feel comfortable around them.” Along with developing relationships with the coaching staff, Lain said the rich history of the baseball program at Temple, as well as the move to the Big East Conference next season were two deciding factors that led him to Philadelphia. “That’s big time,” Lain said. “I wanted to be part of something special. I think [Temple] is going to be special and
we are special and it’s a direction that I wanted to go and a lot of the other recruits did too.” Similar to Lain, Staskey also cited the Big East as a reason he chose to join Wheeler and the Owls. Besides a change in conference beginning in 2014, Staskey said he wanted a chance to make an immediate impact at the collegiate level, an opportunity Wheeler told Staskey was very likely. “Those guys have come in and have done a tremendous job,” Wheeler said of Staskey, Williams and Lain. “They are certainly going to get a chance to compete for starting time and they are going to get a chance to play, but right now as freshmen, not really having played any games, they need to get into the flow of things and that is where the upperclassmen can do a great job by leading early on and then we will lead those
guys into the mix.” In Temple’s opening game against Wright State on Friday, Feb. 15, Staskey pitched one inning, recording two strikeouts and no hits or runs allowed in the 8-3 loss. Following the loss to Wright State, Lain got his first chance to pinch hit for the Owls but struck out in his only plate appearance in the 8-4 loss to Delaware. “Players from all over the country are interested in Temple and you have got to get out there to see them,” Wheeler said. “If they are better than guys that are in the area then we are going to take the best players available.” John Murrow can be reached at john.murrow@temple.edu or on Twitter @JohnMurrow12.
Owls can build on performance against Penn State regionals PAGE 20 one of the big influences on this season’s final regional rankings, senior forward Sean Nealis said. “The one game that hurt us the most is the Maryland game,” Nealis said. “To me, that’s the biggest downfall of our season. If we had beaten them back then, we’re in the tournament with no questions asked.” “The one time we played [Maryland], it was down at their rink,” senior forward and captain Jordan Lawrence said. “We got down there late, it was freezing [cold] and that’s just how I see it. I think overall, we’re a much deeper team than they are. We’re a better team and our record proves it. It just so happens that the people who decided didn’t feel that way.” For the Owls, the regionals snub comes one year after finishing in the 11th spot in a
forgettable 2011-12 season that entirely better this year. We saw the Owls finish with a 9-18 might have lost 18 or 20 games regular season record. last year and we still came in A f t e r 11th, as opposed turning in an to this year when improved 17we won 17 or 18 12 regular seagames and we still son mark this finished 11th. It’s time around, frustrating.” the Owls hav“You ask a ing an 11th ton of questions to place ribbon yourself and what to show for you could’ve done it once again better in certain does not sit games,” Lawrence well. added. “[Getting “It’s defito nationals] was nitely frustratour goal and when ing to be 11th it’s taken away two years in from you like that, Jerry Roberts / coach obviously there’s a row,” Lawrence said. “I a lot of anger and think our team disappointment. was entirely different than last You want to point the finger year, and I think our team was at other people. But we’ve ac-
“Even though
we didn’t have the outcome we wanted, they played their best game of the season at the very end.
”
cepted the fact that we didn’t do enough to convince people that we belonged there.” In wake of missing the tournament, the Owls still participated in the MACHA conference tournament as the No. 4 seed in the MACHA North bracket, and faced No. 1 Penn State (23-4-1, 10-0 MACHA North) in the quarterfinal round. The Ice Lions were unbeaten in MACHA postseason play going into the matchup. Though the Owls fell 3-1 to their division rival, they were still able to hang tough against one of the ACHA’s marquee D-II teams. “Penn State is expected to come out of pool play in nationals, and we had them on the ropes for much of the game,” Nealis said. “They got a couple more bounces and that’s what it
really came down to.” “We were a couple of missed opportunities away from knocking the best team in the MACHA playoffs out,” Nealis added. “As far as losing goes, we all walked it with our heads up because that was probably our best game of the season.” In the midst of a week to forget, the hard-fought loss to the conference’s best team allowed the Owls to bow out of 2012-13 with a heightened sense of pride, Roberts said. “Even though we didn’t have the outcome we wanted, they played their best game of the season at the very end of the season,” Roberts said. “With the roller coaster ride we’ve been on this year with all of the ups and downs, it was nice to be able to sit in that locker room after the game and have all the
players look at each other in the eye and say ‘You know, we really wanted it tonight and we played really well.’” “And maybe I’m looking for the silver lining in all of this, but there was a certain sense of pride that we had in that locker room that we haven’t been able to have at any point this season,” Roberts added. “I think it’s a great positive note to build on and get ourselves ready for next season.” Andrew Parent can be reached at andrew.parent@temple.edu or on Twitter @daParent93.
SPORTS temple-news.com
page 20
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Ice hockey misses regionals by one point Team falls to Penn State in MACHA conference tournament. ANDREW PARENT The Temple News ICE HOCKEY One point. One voter. One very angry
bunch of hockey players. That sums up the scenario and ensuing reaction last Sunday night into Monday, Feb. 11, as Temple missed the American Collegiate Hockey Association D-II Southeast Regional tournament for the second consecutive year, this time by a single point. “The one point that we missed out by was due to one voter in the ranking committee
having us one spot out,” coach Jerry Roberts said. “It literally came down to one person having us one spot out. That’s what that single point equates to.” It also equated to the Owls, with a record of 17-12 overall and 5-5 in the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Hockey Association North division. In a rankings system in which the Top 2 teams get an
Junior guard Dalton Pepper reacts after missing a shot at the end of the Owls’ 84-83 loss to Duquesne. The loss put the team’s tournament hopes in jeopardy. | timothy valshtein TTN
automatic bye into the ACHA National tournament and teams No. 3-10 play in the Regional Tournament for a National Tournament bid, a select group of ACHA board members determines the regional rankings via monthly voting sessions. The Top 10 teams with the lowest cumulative number of points make the ACHA postseason. Temple drew the 11th seed
in the season’s final rankings with 95 points, finishing one point shy of the University of Maryland’s mark of 94. “I was very surprised,” senior forward Chris Brennan said. “I was banking on getting in because of how we played in our last [regular season] weekend.” “If we had beat [Rowan University on Feb. 8], we
would’ve been in no matter what and we could’ve beaten [Monmouth University on Feb. 9] a little more with a couple more goals,” Brennan added. “But even with that, I think we should’ve made it.” A 4-2 loss on the road to Maryland (8-8-2, 5-3 MACHA South) on Nov. 30 sticks out as
regionals PAGE 19
Senior center Victoria Macaulay drives to the basket. With a 12-13 record, the team will likely have to win the A-10 Tournament to make the NCAA Tournament. | maggie trapani TTN
BEWARE THE IDES
The men’s team faces an uphill battle to reach NCAA Tournament. IBRAHIM JACOBS Assistant Sports Editor
Fran Dunphy is no stranger to the drama that strikes more than 70 college basketball programs annually in March. The 64-year-old coach has held a head coaching position since 1989 and has appeared in seven of the last eight NCAA Tournaments, including five straight. One blemish does appear on Dunphy’s March résumé
however, a 2-14 record in the NCAA Tournament as a head coach. With the Owls sitting on the tournament bubble, this year will be harder than most to turn his record around. “When I was asked what kind of team we had, I said, ‘I think we can be good, I don’t know if we can be great,’” Dunphy said. “It’s proving to be a little prophetic, but at this point we are too inconsistent to even be called good at this point.” Unlike in years past, the
Owls are not a lock to make the NCAA Tournament when the selection committee makes its final decision on March 17. Last season the question was not if the team would make the tournament, but how high of a seed it could earn. While it was able to collect a No. 5 seed from voters, a loss in the first game of the NCAA Tournament ended the Owls season early. It was the fourth time in five years they had done so.
postseason PAGE 18
For women, path to postseason goes through conference tournament. TYLER SABLICH The Temple News The Owls will almost certainly have to gain an automatic bid by winning the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament in order to take part in the NCAA tournament. However, just making it to the conference tournament is no guarantee at this point. Following Temple’s (1213, 5-5 A-10) 49-41 overtime loss at St. Joseph’s University (18-6, 9-1 A-10), the Owls re-
main two wins away from solidifying an A-10 tournament berth. With just four games remaining, the Owls are no lock to return to Hagan Arena for the first round of the A-10 tournament come March 8. Despite their current situation, coach Tonya Cardoza said the Owls’ strong effort against the Big 5-rival Hawks was an encouraging sign heading down the stretch. “Obviously, we’re not into moral victories, but I’m happy
with how we played for most of the game,” Cardoza said. “[St. Joe’s] is a team that can score a lot of points and has played really good basketball at the top of the conference.” There are other ways Temple could potentially make the A-10 tournament even if it fails to pull out two more wins. With the Top 12 teams in the conference moving on to postseason play and the Owls currently in seventh place, they hold tie-
basketball PAGE 18
Owls recruit local talent Goalie carousel Coach Wheeler pursues recruits knowing different climates breed different players.
John Murrow The Temple News The Temple baseBASEBALL ball roster is made up of 34 names – 22 players who joined the Owls from the tri-state area and 12 players from outside of the region. The tri-state area, which includes Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, produces the majority of Temple’s student-athletes not only for baseball, but for nearly every
Temple sports team. Now in his second year as coach of the Owls, Ryan Wheeler said he hopes to expand his recruiting nationally an attempt to put the best players on the field. “What we are trying to do here at Temple is find the best players possible and obviously we would like to stay within the tri-state area, but recruiting today is national and it doesn’t matter where you are located,” Wheeler said. Wheeler is now in his 16th season as a coach at the Division I level. He spent nine years as an assistant at the College of William & Mary, followed by a one-year stint as an assistant at the University of Pennsylvania before joining Richmond as an assistant in 2007. In five
Transer time, p. 18
Jake O’Brien has provided the basketball team with an essential scoring boost. Sports Desk 215-204-9537
seasons at Richmond, Wheeler directed the Spiders’ recruiting efforts while focusing on instruction for both the hitters and infielders. During his coaching career, Wheeler said he has seen players from every region of the country and has even developed reputations for players from different states. “I see differences in different parts of the country and differences in players,” Wheeler said. “I certainly like Texas, California, Arizona and Florida – warm-weather states where kids have the ability to play year round. Their skills are just a little more developed and polished. They just seem to know the game a little bit better, but the downside is that they can be
burned out. Pitchers for example may have thrown more than a guy in the New England area that doesn’t play year round. It just depends.” In his first recruiting class with Temple this season, nine freshmen joined Wheeler’s Owls, three of which were from outside of the tri-state area. Freshman pitcher Connor Staskey of Virginia Beach, Va., freshman outfielder Texas Williams of Clifton, Va., and freshman infielder Zach Lain of Cheyenne, Wyo., join nine other student-athletes on Temple’s roster that hail from outside of the tri-state area. “I liked the coaches, I had a good visit, and I liked all of the players,” Staskey said of why
baseball PAGE 19
block party, p. 18
Victoria Macaulay has terrorized opponents through her defense. Sports@temple-news.com
yields opening win Lacking a consensus starter, the lacrosse team played two goalies in win. BRIEN EDWARDS The Temple News Coach Bonnie Rosen hinted at it in the days leading up to the Owls’ season opener. “It’s certainly not impossible to rotate two goalies in a game,” Rosen said on Feb. 11. After having its full time starter graduate last year, Temple (1-0) started this season with two players sharing goalkeeping
LACROSSE
duties. In an 18-5 home-opening win against Niagara (0-1) on Saturday, Feb. 16, the Owls started the game with senior Meghan Clothier in goal, but ended it with redshirt freshman Jaqi Kakalecik. “It was a little bit on how the game went,” Rosen said. “We’ve been watching practice all week. I was really happy with how Kakalecik has been playing, so I was excited to get her in.” For the past two seasons, former Owl Tess Bishop started every game as the primary goalie. With her departure, the
Goalies PAGE 19
NAtional duels, ONLINE Read about the fencers competing in national competitions at temple-news.com/sports.
