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temple-news.com VOL. 91 ISS. 28
TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2013
Crimes face two outlets
LOOSELY STAKED
Multiple jurisdictions at Temple handle underreported crime.
As Temple makes its move to the American Athletic Conference, concerns about its budget become clear.
ALI WATKINS The Temple News
SCC PAGE 2
The Visualize Temple initiative will focus on future development. JOHN MORITZ Assistant News Editor
TIMOTHY VALSHTEIN TTN
PART I OF II: JOEY CRANNEY Sports Editor
I
t was Nov. 28, 2012. Earlier that week, the Big East Conference admitted Tulane and East Carolina as members to counter the departures of Louisville and Rutgers, which are headed to the Atlantic Coast Conference and Big Ten Conference, respectively. In an interview on WPHT during halftime of the men’s basketball game that night, Athletic Director Bill Bradshaw tried explaining why Temple was still in a good place, despite the fact that most of the prestigious athletic programs in the Big East had announced their intention to leave. Ignoring concerns from fans about a drop in Big East competitiveness, Bradshaw said to think of the money instead. “If anyone’s confused and frustrated, just know one thing – it’s the color green,” Bradshaw said. “Think of the color green, and that answers all of your questions.” Bradshaw has gone on to say Temple’s move to the Big East – since renamed the American Athletic Conference – is a step up because Temple will
have most of its sports competing in a conference with schools that are on an even playing field. “The level of competition that we’re playing in a league with like institutions, with similar enrollments and commitment to athletics, missions of the university, all of those things in the league we’re in now are similar,” Bradshaw told
The Temple News in January. However, through a comprehensive analysis of athletic budgets, it’s clear Temple doesn’t have a similar financial investment in athletics with almost all of the universities set to compete in The American in the next couple of years. Even though Bradshaw cited revenue as a gain, the amount of money
the university will receive from the new conference in the future will not approach what the Big East used to bring in, nor is it clear that revenue will increase steadily as schools continue to come and go. According to records, Temple’s operating expenses per
BUDGET PAGE 3
FUNDING A CHANGING ATHLETIC PROGRAM 25
DOLLARS (MILLIONS)
From the entrance to Campus Safety Services headquarters near the corner of 12th Street and Montgomery Avenue, you can see the back of the Student Center, lurking behind new construction. The red brick is dotted with windows, one of them belonging to the Student Code of Conduct office. Standing at CSS, it’s difficult to pick out. There’s no indication that these offices are connected. And yet, they both handle a critical component of university life; they’re the two organizations on Temple’s campus that formally handle the crisis of campus sexual assault. Dean of Students Stephanie Ives, who oversees the Student Code of Conduct, and Charlie Leone, deputy director of CSS, sit at the helm of two distinctly different processes. Leone handles the criminal side of things, which includes formal reporting of sexual assault incidents, formal charges and criminal court proceedings. Ives heads the more informal, but parallel process of SCC, which handles internal investigations of sexual assault referrals committed by students. Ives and Leone sit in different offices, but information between the two flows freely. With sexual assaults involving students, Leone said, Campus Safety Services will always inform SCC of the incidents, regardless of whether students intend to press charges or carry through referrals. Similarly, Student Code of Conduct and university authorities are required by law to inform Campus Safety Services about any sexual assaults that are reported to them. “Whenever we get a student involved with a sexual assault, we send it over to SCC,” Leone said, adding that this communication works both ways. “If [SCC has] a sexual assault, we’re going to be made aware of it, definitely. We may not know academic dishonesty and things like that, but a sexual assault, I guarantee we’re going to be made aware of it.” Although communication flows freely between the two offices, some numbers are not reported to the public. Unless the crime occurs within Clery geography, the numbers seldom
Post 20/20 era begins for Temple
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YEAR Source: Temple University / ANGELO FICHERA TTN
Four years and six projects since the 20/20 plan initiated in 2009, the university is hitting the drawing boards again as administrators begin to unroll a new master development plan for the future design of the university’s regional campuses. The new master plan, under the name “Visualize Temple,” is an “evolution” of the major development project started by 20/20, James Creedon, senior vice president for construction, facilities and operations, said. It will focus more on open-source input from students and faculty and will replace many of the unfinished projects left behind by 20/20, as the university conducts a self-study on the needs of the university’s various areas. “This isn’t just to say, ‘Where do you put buildings on a map?’ This is really to make the business cases for, ‘What do we need next, what’s the strategy behind what we need?’” Creedon said. Launched in May 2009, 20/20 consisted of close to a dozen projects throughout Main Campus. These projects included the renovations of Pearson and McGonigle halls and Edberg-Olsn Hall, the Architecture Building, Morgan Hall, the Montgomery Street parking garage and the Science and Technology Building currently under construction between Gladfelter Hall and the
20/20 PAGE 3
Theobald reflects on first semester at helm The president plans on learning more about Temple this summer. SEAN CARLIN News Editor Four months into his tenure as president, Neil Theobald has had little time to relax. “He’s in early every day, just constantly working,” said Assistant Vice President for the Executive Office of the President Anne Nadol. “He’s nonstop and that extends into the weekend.” Though the title entails a bigger time commitment, Theo-
SPEAK YOUR MIND, p. 5
In his final column, Opinion Editor Zack Scott urges students to voice their opinions.
NEWS DESK 215-204-7419
bald said his role at Temple doesn’t differ much from his role as senior vice president and chief financial officer at Indiana University. He ended up working on academic planning in addition to being the CFO, because the university doesn’t have a provost, Theobald said. Theobald has maintained throughout his tenure as president-elect and his few months as president that his main goals include providing an environment that lowers student debt and encourages students to graduate in four years. “We’re going to look at how we create plans for students,” Theobald said. “Clearly we want people to make smart
decisions, and they need to have information to make smart decisions. But decisions you can make are based upon the options available to you.” So far, the university has introduced courses aimed at improving students’ financial literacy in an effort to curb student debt, and the president and provost are working to provide an adequate supply of classes and “doable” paths to encourage students to graduate in four years. “It’s a student’s choice to graduate in four years, you’re not forcing anybody into a box,” Theobald said. “But if a student comes up and says, ‘I’d like to
THEOBALD PAGE 2
BIKE ACROSS AMERICA, p. 15 Two students will bike cross-country to raise money for affordable housing efforts.
NEWS@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM
President Neil Theobald talks with The Temple News in his office last week. | ANDREW THAYER TTN
ALL AMERICAN, p. 20
The Temple News covers all aspects of Temple’s conference realignment and its effects.
NEWS temple-news.com
PAGE 2
Lopez looks ahead to life after college
TSG Student Body President David Lopez ends his reign as the head of TSG in a few weeks when Student Body President-elect Darin Bartholomew is inaugurated. | ABI REIMOLD TTN
The TSG president said he wants to work in the federal government. LAURA DETTER The Temple News Dress shoes, a black suit and a red tie have been a common wardrobe for Temple Student Government Student Body President David Lopez during the past year. Since his inauguration in April 2012, Lopez has spent his senior year representing the voice of the student body to university officials and the local community. “David has been a fantastic Temple student body president, he has been a model for strong leadership, collaborative leadership and strategic thinking,” Dean of Students Stephanie Ives said. However, on Monday, May 6, Lopez’s term as president will end when Temple United, the newly elected executive ticket, is inaugurated. “It has gone so unbelievably fast. From the day we were inaugurated to today, I haven’t had that moment when I processed that I am actually leaving. It still hasn’t registered with me, because there is so much more I want be working on,” Lopez said. Lopez, a senior political science major, never planned to become student body president, but after serving as the chief of staff during the TU Nation administration, Lopez decided he wanted to campaign for the top position. “I came to the realization that TSG is a great way to advocate on behalf of the students, and it is a great culmination of all of the things that I knew that I wanted to do and the things that I learned,” Lopez said. Lopez describes his year serving as student body presi-
dent as “organized chaos” and an endless consumption of coffee. “I have trained myself to believe that sleep is the enemy,” Lopez said. During his term, Lopez and his administration introduced the Adopt-a-Block campaign, which garnered more than 2,000 hours of community service for TSG and student organizations, hosted a large campaign to register students to vote in the 2012 presidential election, started the Kids-to-College program and hosted the largest number ever of student advocates in Harrisburg, Pa., on Owls on the Hill Day. Lopez and Vice President of External Affairs Ofo Ezeugwu said they believe their greatest accomplishment was raising the awareness of TSG amongst the student body. “When it comes down to the specifics and certain initiatives, they are great, they are phenomenal, but getting students more engaged and more involved is more important than anything else because they are the ones who help you lead those initiatives and those efforts,” Lopez said. Behind the scenes, Ezeugwu not only describes Lopez as an efficient leader who is able to motivate his team to work hard and get their jobs done but also as an interesting character. Ives also said she admires the balance Lopez’s character brought to the student body president position. “He is serious, but he also has a great sense of humor. He is thoughtful and intellectual, but he can be very emotionally intelligent as well. He is very well rounded and I have a great appreciation for his personality,” Ives said. Outside of TSG, Lopez formerly served as president of Temple College Democrats and serves as an Owl Ambassador, which he attributes as the start-
ing point for his involvement in the university. “It was my first introduction to the Temple community outside of the role of a student. Finding this group of people and this job set the precedent and got me more engaged and more involved. I look back at that job literally as the starting point for my Temple experience,” Lopez said. As Lopez’s time as an Owl comes to an end, he has a longterm plan for his life that includes running for public office and hopefully one day serving as a United States senator. Lopez plans to work for the next two-to-three years before attending law school. Upon graduation from law school, Lopez wants to return to a big city and work in a public defender’s office and then get involved in public service. However, Lopez is still uncertain of his next step after he graduates on May 16. “I want to work with the federal government, but the budget is tight because of the sequester and the mandatory budget cuts are preventing a bunch of different agencies and departments from hiring,” Lopez, who interned at the White House last summer, said. “For the first time in my life, I’m just going to go with the flow,” he said. “One thing that I learned after interning at the White House is that not everyone in this world has to have an agenda. You don’t need to have every day of your life planned out, and sometimes opportunities present themselves and it ends up being something you wanted more than you thought you wanted.”
TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2013
SCC handles varied complaints SCC PAGE 1 make it on to public forums. Crimes that occur within this federally-mandated Clery geography, which roughly stretches from 10th to 16th streets, between Cecil B. Moore and Susquehanna avenues, are available in an annual public report published by CSS, regardless of whether charges or referrals are ever filed. However, statistics on crimes that occur outside those boundaries, like booming off-campus neighborhoods, do not have to be published in university reports, regardless of whether the allegations are processed criminally, through SCC or both. With so many numbers coming from different offices, where can students get an accurate picture of how present the risk of sexual assault is on Temple’s campus? A maze of federal and state regulations, and the overlap of Student Code of Conduct and Campus Safety information, makes for no easy answer. Records provided by CSS show that, during the course of the 2011-12 academic year, 10 rape allegations were reported to Campus Safety Services. Only one of these incidents did not involve a Temple student. Three of the remaining nine occurred within federally mandated Clery geography and were made publicly available in the university’s annual crime report under each incident’s respective calendar year. Of the remaining six incidents, five occurred just outside Clery geography in the off-campus neighborhood near
Main Campus. Out of all 10 incidents recorded by CSS, four merited Student Code of Conduct referrals and were processed through Student Code of Conduct proceedings. SCC, which functions as a separate entity from CSS, processed 12 sexual assault referrals in the 2011-12 school year. That number, however, cannot be taken at face value, said Dean of Students Stephanie Ives. “Charge No. 4 of the Student Conduct Code, which is about sexual violence, sexual assault, is very broad,” Ives said in an interview. “It encompasses everything from an unwanted touch that is sexual in nature, through the spectrum of behaviors that would conclude in violent penetration. So it is a very broad charge.” The cross-referencing of CSS data, as previously examined, indicates that four of these 12 were forcible rape. The remaining eight incidents handled through SCC could be anything from forcible fondling to exposure of genitalia, as detailed in the 20-page Student Conduct Code. Further diluting this glimpse into campus sexual assault is that the number of cases processed through SCC – as well as the total number of cases reported to CSS – fall massively short of national statistics: U.S. Department of Justice studies have put the number as high as one-in-four college women being victims of rape or attempted rape. This wide discrepancy brings to light the epidemic of
underreporting, Ives said. “There are various studies that found that one-in-four to one-in-five women will experience some form of sexual violence during their college career. The concern to me is the part about underreporting,” Ives said. “We have so many students that are experiencing a behavior that does fall under that Student Conduct Code as a violation. And yet, it’s not being reported…Student Conduct can only process what gets referred to it.” Leone, on the CSS side, agreed that underreporting leaves a wide gap between national statistics and actual reporting of sexual assault. “That’s one of the largest underreported crimes out there,” he said. Despite underreporting and the murky legislation that leaves many numbers unpublished, Ives and Leone both said that the No. 1 priority when dealing with campus sexual assault is to facilitate and support victims. “[There are] all kinds of really, very difficult challenges to why sexual violence is so underreported,” Ives said. “For me, the bottom line would be, that when a victim reports, that that student feels supported, that they understand the process, that they feel supported throughout the process [and] that it’s a fair process.” Ali Watkins can be reached at ali.watkins@temple.edu.
Dining scene to change Various restaurants will open before next semester. MARCUS MCCARTHY The Temple News
The dining scene for the Temple community will look different by the time the majority of students return to Main Campus in August. Cosí, a nationwide soup, salad and sandwich restaurant, will be open in Pearson-McGonigle Hall and will accept meal plans. Jake’s Wayback Burgers, also a national brand, will be moving to the corner of Cecil B. Moore Avenue and North Sydenham Street. Sodexo, Temple’s food services provider, approached Cosí with an offer to be a franchisee. This would allow Sodexo to use the Cosí name, trademarks and recipes while managing the location itself. This is a comparable arrangement to the StarLaura Detter can be reached at bucks in the first floor of the laura.detter@temple.edu. TECH Center. “Cosí was immediately very interested,” Richard Rumer, associate vice president of business services, said. The payment options ac-
cepted at Cosí will be Diamond Dollars, cash, credit cards and meal plans. The last of those options will work as “meal equivalencies,” like the Student Center food fourt, where a meal has an equivalent dollar value for buying products there. These current values vary by meal time and can be found on Temple Dining Services’ website, tudining.com. The menu mostly consists of soups, bagels, salads and wraps, as well as flatbread sandwiches, and will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Cosí was founded in 1996 based on a café in Paris and has grown to more than 100 restaurants across 16 states. “We are working with the national brand to bring a stateof-the-art Cosí to Pearson-McGonigle Hall,” Nathan Quinn, marketing director of Sodexo, said in an email. Expanding the dining options on the southwest side of Main Campus, Jake’s Wayback Burger will not only serve burgers, but also milkshakes, salads, hotdogs and nachos. This sit-down restaurant will be independently run and will accept Diamond Dollars, cash and credit cards. This is a
similar partnership with Temple as many of the restaurants along Cecil B. Moore Avenue such as Subway, Rita’s Water Ice and City View Pizza. Jake’s was founded in 1991 in Newark, Del., and has grown to more than 60 locations, the majority of which are along the East Coast. There is one other location in Philadelphia, at the Northeast Village Shopping Center, near the Northeast Philadelphia Airport. “This brings two more nationally branded dining locations to campus,” Rumer said. Cosí will be opening in early August for a “soft launch” and will have its grand opening in the first week of classes, Quinn said. Jake’s will be opening for the beginning of the Fall 2013 semester as well. However, these will not be the only dining additions to campus. The Morgan Hall dining complex is also set to open in August and will include 11 food concepts on two floors, all of which will accept meal plans. Marcus McCarthy can be reached at marcus.mccarthy@temple.edu.
Fundraising, timely graduation among Theobald’s priorities THEOBALD PAGE 1 graduate in four years,’ we need to be able to lay out, ‘OK, starting day one, you need to go here, here, here and here,’ and have those things available.” Fundraising has also been a focus of Theobald’s administration, a part of Indiana that he plans to build at Temple. “[The] difference between Indiana and Temple is Indiana started [fundraising] very intentionally in the early 1950s,” Theobald said. “They’ve been doing it for 60 years. So, when I chaired the last fundraising drive at IU, I was about the 10th
person to do that. We’re starting from where we are and we need to grow that.” Part of his plan includes improving the way Temple brands itself. Earlier this year, he created the position of senior vice president for strategic communication and marketing. Karen Clarke of the University of Houston was appointed to the position and will start May 1. Starting on April 11, the university embarked on what perhaps was the toughest string of days of the president’s first semester. Reports emerged on April 11 that the university found threatening messages re-
ferring to the Columbine High School shootings in a Gladfelter Hall bathroom and did not issue an advisory to students and faculty. He said the university brought in the FBI, Homeland Security and the Philadelphia Police Department after the discovery. “Their advice to us was to not make a public notice initially,” Theobald said. “We will remain vigilant through commencement. This is an indication that we need to be paying attention to this and we are going to. Again, student safety is the paramount issue here.” A few days later on April
17, Spring Fling ended tragically when a 19-year-old West Chester University freshman was killed after falling from a third-floor roof on the 1900 block of 18th Street. Theobald said he’s appointed Provost Hai-Lung Dai, Vice President for Student Affairs Theresa Powell and Senior Vice President for Construction, Facilities and Operations James Creedon to look into the purpose of Spring Fling. “They’ve been given that charge, they’re meeting and they’ll come back with a recommendation of what we do,” said Theobald, who added that there
should be a response by the end of May. Looking forward, he offered a preview into his agenda, which he’ll be unveiling on Oct. 18. Theobald said it emphasizes the importance of affordability, research and faculty, among other components. “The university is built on its faculty. How do we recruit great faculty and support them when they’re here?” Theobald said, adding that, “research has value when it’s useful to someone. A great idea is wonderful, but a great idea that solves a problem is fabulous.” As summer approaches, the
president will still be working every day, but said he’ll be taking the time to learn more about the different schools and colleges across the university. “I need to take this summer – and I’m going to be here all summer – and just make sure I know what are the schools, what are the different student groups,” Theobald said. “It’ll be a full summer, but it’s less doing and more learning.” Sean Carlin can be reached at sean.carlin@temple.edu or on Twitter @SeanCarlin84.
NEWS
TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2013
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Future of athletics stymied by past failures BUDGET PAGE 1 sport were less than every university set to join The American by 2015 – except Tulsa and Tulane – during the 2011-12 reporting year. Per sport, Temple spent more than $100,000 less than East Carolina and less than half of what Connecticut and Rutgers spent. Out of 13 schools, Temple spent the eighth-highest amount on football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball combined. When only considering non-revenue athletics, Temple ranks last by about $12,000 per sport. According to USA Today’s college athletics finances report on its website, only seven athletic departments out of 121 Division I schools turned a profit last year. Like the large majority of universities in the country, Temple was forced to subsidize its athletic program in 2012, but the extent to which Temple’s athletic department relied on that subsidy for revenue was among the worst in the country. Temple’s athletic department generated $9.8 million in revenue in 2012, with $8.7 million coming from the subsidy, according to the university’s budget. The ratio of Temple’s subsidy to revenue – called the percent subsidy – ranks lowest in the country when compared to 121 Division I schools listed on the USA Today college athletics finances report. While it’s certain that Temple’s conference move has made for a step up in revenue, it’s less clear whether or not that increase in revenue will remain
stable in the unstable world of collegiate sports, and just how well the athletic department, with its slim budget, can stem the tide of rising costs.
A HISTORY OF FAILURE
To understand the prospects of Temple’s revenue-driven future, it’s important to first understand its money-losing past. From 1991-2004, Temple competed in the Big East for football only and had a historically unsuccessful program. The Owls finished last in the conference in seven out of 14 seasons and never won more than three conference games in a year. Temple’s budget, facilities and attendance numbers became so unacceptable to the Big East that in 2001, the Owls’ failures led to a conference formally voting out one of its members for the only time on record in the history of intercollegiate athletics. Temple negotiated a threeyear stay before officially leaving in 2004. At the time, the university strongly considered dropping the football program altogether. One of the main reasons it stayed in operation was the prospect of a football-only agreement with the Mid-American Conference, which could have brought in the type of revenue the athletic department could greatly benefit from. But Temple’s decision to begin competing in the MAC in 2007 was a lifeboat deal, and it came with a costly price. For the entire time that the Owls competed in the MAC, Temple paid the conference a membership fee. University officials wouldn’t specify the
amount, but said it was significant enough that Temple didn’t gain any profit from bowl revenue shared among the member schools. University officials also wouldn’t discuss the terms of the MAC’s media rights negotiation while the Owls were members but said the revenue was inconsequential. Revenue was so low in the MAC that in the two years that the Owls competed in MAC bowl games, the university lost several hundred thousand dollars just in the expenses that were needed to cover participating in those events. “We lost money playing football in the Mid-American Conference,” Harry Metzinger, an assistant athletic director and the chief financial officer of the athletics department, said. In basketball, the Owls have a tradition of winning in the Atlantic 10 Conference but not necessarily of making money. For the past 20 years, whatever success the men’s basketball team has had in generating revenue has been offset by the failures of the football team. Metzinger described the past five years as a situation where Temple lost money every year in football as a result of membership fees and low bowl revenue. With revenue earned from A-10 tournament units, things evened out, but no significant revenue was gained.
It’s unclear how much revenue the football team will draw from Big East media rights this year before the new deal goes into effect in 2014. The current Big East deal reportedly splits $13 million annually between the conference’s eight football members. That would leave Temple with a $1.63 million share if distributed evenly, but Metzinger said the number will be significantly higher. In an interview last week, Bradshaw said The American presidents are still working out how to redistribute money from exit fees, bowl game revenue and NCAA tournament units from departing schools to new members. “There’s going to be a combination of these revenues that’s going to lead to the share that we get, which no one could tell you,” Bradshaw said. “Or everybody could. We can have some estimates and plan ahead, but we’re going to be in the best place we’ve ever been in terms of conference affiliation and our net and our revenues.” However, in 2014, the outlook for revenue is more bleak. The new media rights deal will kick in, which is reportedly less valuable for football and will have to be shared among more teams. The same year, the new bowl postseason format will be put into place, in which The American will not have a spot as an automatic qualifier for one of the six BCS bowls. Also, the departure of Louisville to the ACC before the 2014 football season cannot be overlooked. This year, the Cardinals won the Orange Bowl
and the NCAA men’s basketball championship, and their women’s basketball program was the national runner up. Bradshaw dismissed the notion that The American would be losing its most significant moneymaking program when Louisville leaves. “That’s a heck of a year, but this is just all talk over a beer,” Bradshaw said. “Maybe Larry Brown’s basketball team with the fifth-best recruiting class will win the national championship. This is all conjecture.” The good news for Temple is that the NCAA tournament units – which distribute money based on the number of games a conference has in the NCAA tournament – are shared out during a six-year rolling period. That means Temple will get a share of the units from the national championship runs of UConn in 2011 and Louisville in 2013 in addition to the other Big East units from the past six years. In the 2013 NCAA tournament, eight Big East teams combined to earn 19 units at a rate of $245,500 per unit, which will be shared with Temple during the next six years. However, seven of those teams will have left the conference by 2014.
All of the athletic department’s problems seemed to be solved with the March 2012 announcement that Temple would be making an all-sports
move back into the Big East. Equipped with a premier media rights deal, an automatic qualifying bid to a BCS bowl game and the country’s best men’s basketball league, the Big East would finally provide for Temple the revenue it needed to bolster its fledgling budget. But since that announcement, the conference has renegotiated its deal with ESPN, lost its spot as an automatic qualifier and almost all of the basketball schools have left. On April 3, it was announced that the conference would be renamed the American Athletic Conference after the Catholic 7 schools – DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John’s and Villanova – left to make their own conference and took the Big East name with them. In February, The American agreed to terms with ESPN on a seven-year media rights deal reportedly worth $126 million. Starting in 2014, The American members would reportedly share $20 million annually for rights to their football and basketball games. That would break down evenly into $1.82 million per school annually. The deal was substantially less than the $1.17 billion proposal that was reportedly offered to the Big East in 2011. That deal could have distributed $13 million to each of the 10 members of The American this year. However, as a show of where the conference was two years ago versus where it is now, the Big East presidents voted down the billion-dollar deal.
the College,” Klein said in an email. “I follow in the giant footsteps of Hai-Lung Dai, and his wonderful staff in the Dean’s Office, who transformed CST in so many ways.” Klein added that he’s aiming to continue what Dai accomplished during his tenure as dean of CST. “My immediate past focus has been on hiring stellar new faculty and working with Institutional Advancement & Development people to increase the
profile of our College. Indeed, we have 8 new recruits, spanning across all department of the College, including a member of the National Academy of Sciences, who will come on board later this year,” he said. Klein came to Temple from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009 and served as the interim dean of CST since last summer, when Dai, the college’s former dean, was named interim provost by then-Acting President Richard Englert. Dai
dropped his interim title and was formally appointed provost by Theobald in February. Dai said in an interview with The Temple News after he was named provost in February that the university was not actively searching for a dean for CST because Klein was “doing a fabulous job” as the interim dean. Though the official announcement hasn’t been made, Klein said details would likely be ironed out after the semester.
“I have not discussed any of the detail,” Klein said. “That’s not so important now because we’ve got to get through the end of semester, we’ve got to get through graduation and then there will be a period where we can calmly sort all that out.”
PROMISES AND COSTS
Joey Cranney can be reached at joey.cranney@temple.edu or or on Twitter @joey_cranney. For Part II of II, see Page 20.
Klein to stay on as dean of Science and Technology
CST’s interim dean Michael Klein will drop his interim title. SEAN CARLIN News Editor Michael Klein, the interim dean of the College of Science and Technology, will stay on as the dean of CST. Klein will become the permanent dean of CST, President Neil Theobald told The Temple
News last week, though no official announcement has been made. “The decision has been made, it’s just paperwork that needs to be filed,” Theobald said. Klein said he found out on April 19 that he’d soon be taking on the role of dean. “I am excited and proud that both President Theobald and Provost [Hai-Lung] Dai have the confidence in me to ask me to become the Dean of
Sean Carlin can be reached at sean.carlin@temple.edu or on Twitter @SeanCarlin84.
Destination of new library still under consideration 20/20 PAGE 1
Engineering Building. In addition to the projects already underway, the design of a new library originally conceived under 20/20 will continue in the new master plan. “The library is going to provide us an opportunity to rethink how students learn. This will not be a library like [Paley Library], nothing like that. It won’t be stacks of books,” President Neil Theobald said. While the plan for the new library under the Temple 20/20 master plan positioned the library as a “signature building” on North Broad Street, Theobald said he would like to see the library positioned on the east side of Broad Street along with the majority of Temple’s academic buildings. “In my mind, Broad Street kind of divides us. The east side is the academic side and the west side is the Liacouras Center and some housing. I think it’s very likely to end up on the east side,” Theobald said. Beyond that, much is unknown and is left to be decided through the coordinated efforts of students, faculty and administrators. “There are a whole series of questions between 20/20 and taking your next step that need to be answered,” Creedon said. “No one has any ideas for buildings or those types of things; it is way too early for that.” Provost Hai-Lung Dai said that in order to coordinate the needs of the university’s
academics into the next master plan, his office will be forming nine groups composed of faculty and staff to analyze nine different areas of development: research and research space, teaching space and technology needs, college organizational needs focused on consolidating schools spread across several buildings, new emerging disciplines, online and distant education, integration of regional campuses, the new library, increased collaboration between the Health Sciences Campus and Main Campus and residential organization. Theobald said the organizational needs of the colleges is one of the fundamental problems that has to be addressed in designing a new layout to Main Campus. “A real problem we have now is we have schools scattered across buildings. Everyone is somewhere. How do we geographically put them together?” Theobald said. Several projects originally laid out in Temple 20/20’s executive summary have been put under re-evaluation as the university plans to conduct a thorough internal search to determine what schools and facilities need improvement. The unsettled projects include two high-rise structures planned for the spaces currently occupied by Peabody Hall and the Triangle Apartment complex. Other projects were laid out at Ritter Hall and adjacent to Weiss Hall. In addition to new construction, the university will
continue with plans to open up areas on Main Campus to add green space. Upon the completion of the Science and Technology Building, Creedon said the university will begin phasing out Barton Hall; the current plan is to add green space along Liacouras Walk in its place. “There is no lack of desire to have open space on this campus. Recognizing that, if we want to grow as a university that’s in an urban setting you are going to have to use some of your open space to build on, but we want to maximize that as much as we can,” Creedon said. Creedon also confirmed plans that the university will be adding renovations to the Beasley School of Law. In order to gauge the needs of the university, the SmithGroupJJR, an architectural and planning firm, has been contracted to design the next phase of development on Main Campus. SmithGroup has previously worked at colleges such as Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Stephen F. Austin State University and the University of Michigan. SmithGroup was chosen out of six proposals and three candidates, Creedon said, and will begin conducting campus tours throughout this week and next, meeting with student representatives, the athletic department, Dai, representatives from the Health Sciences Campus and the Council of Deans. The first idea launched by SmithGroup and taken up by the
James Creedon discusses Temple’s development plans after 20/20.| CHRIS MCANDREW TTN university was to design a website where students and faculty could sign in to provide their own ideas for what they would like to see done as part of a new university development plan. The site, which will be launched within the next few weeks, is an attempt by the university to use technology to allow students to give input on their own time. “[Students think] ‘I’m going to be away for the summer,’” Creedon said. “Well you’re not really away, because you have this site to come back to, and then what will happen is in the fall when we come back, there’s going be a whole bunch of ideas out there.” The university tested the idea of generating student input at a booth set up for Spring Fling. Students were asked to write on a blackboard what they would most like to see at Tem-
ple in the next 10 years. Creedon said that the biggest answer received from students was not what administrators expected: a Wawa. “Hopefully we will get some more specific answers as the process goes, but to me that is a good thing. It kind of tells us that people are saying ‘Yeah, we would like to see this place differently,’” Creedon said. The idea of using online input from students was a concept Creedon said SmithGroup brought from working at Marshall University. It was a part of the proposal idea that helped the university chose SmithGroup over other candidates. SmithGroup and administrators from the office of the president, the provost’s office and facilities management will meet next fall to begin developing specific projects for the Visualize Temple plan, with
the goal of creating a plan for the university to last a decade beyond the initial timeline of Temple 20/20. “We put all of that together and say, ‘OK, given our academic plan, this is what have space-wise right now, this is how we get from where we are in 2013, or by the time this is done 2014, to 2030. This will be our blueprint for the next 15 years,” Theobald said. While no funding has yet been guaranteed, Creedon said that money will most likely come from capital grants from the state, the university’s own reserves or borrowing. John Moritz can be reached at john.moritz@temple.edu or on Twitter @JCMoritzTU. Sean Carlin contributed to this report.
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
temple-news.com
PAGE 4
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 David Hamme, Advertising Manager Kathleen Smith, Business Manager Morgan Hutchinson, Marketing Manager
Tuesday, april 30, 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
E D ITO R I A Ls
T
To our readers
his issue marks our last print edition of the school year. More than that, it represents a time for The Temple News to look both back and forward. Every week, The Temple News uses these unsigned editorial spaces to make judgment calls on topics we’re reporting on. It’s a chance to cut past any jargon or smokescreens, a time to say it like it is. Unfortunately, the quick pace of news gathering and presenting means our coverage seldom makes it into that discussion. When we began printing our product again this year on Aug. 28, 2012, we committed to bringing you, our valued readers, a newspaper that represented all walks of life at Temple. Reflective of that notion was temple-news.com, a site we use to bring you the same type of coverage every day of the week. Through our five different sections, we’ve covered breaking news, offered insightful commentary, introduced you to people of interest both on and off campus and followed our changing athletic program – both on-field performances and monetary matters. But our Temple-centric
P
Drive forward
resident Neil Theobald seemingly hit the ground running when he took over from Acting President Richard Englert in January. Since he was named Temple’s 10th president in August 2012, he’s spent innumerable hours meeting with administrators, faculty and students to gauge what needed to be done at the university. Since January, he hasn’t stopped. From the appointment of Hai-Lung Dai as provost, to the unveiling of financial literacy courses intended to curb student debt, Theobald has yet to take his foot off the throttle. For an example of the persistence and devotion to maintaining a level of representative prominence both within and outside the campus borders, look no further than the weekend of March 22-24, when Theobald flew out to Dayton, Ohio, to watch the men’s basketball team win its first game of the NCAA tournament, only to fly right back for Experience Temple Day and head back out for the team’s
The Temple News closes the school year by encouraging readers to speak up. coverage hasn’t been without faults. There are stories we’ve missed out on, and stories on which you’ve pointed out flaws, imperfections or questionable editorial decisions. Each time, those opinions have been shared during staff meetings and helped fuel our belief that we can do better. The stories we pursue – both the ones that make it into the paper and the ones that don’t – are based off what we the student-newsgatherers think the community should or needs to know about. The things that will inform, entertain and, just maybe, move you. Going forward, we ask our readers to do one thing: respond. Email our editors (see a full list at temple-news.com/staff), comment on stories or stop by our newsroom, room 243 of the Student Center. Our staff has a reach only as far as the full-time students who comprise it. With your ideas and input, our product will better serve you and the Temple community. As we continue on a path toward self-improvement, we hope you’ll be there to guide us in the right direction.
JULIANA COPPA TTN
Photo Comment
The Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts took over South Broad Street this weekend. To see a full photo slideshow of the annual event, visit temple-news.com/slideshows. | LUIS RODRIGUEZ TTN
President Theobald deserves recognition for the path charted early in his tenure. third-round loss to Indiana. This level of enthusiasm and his communication with The Temple News is a welcomed contrast to many administrations, but it should not stop now. As Temple winds down its dean searches to fill vacant deanships across the university, the administration must begin to focus on not only student debt, but its relationship with the neighborhood and the future of Temple after 20/20. The university is launching its Visualize Temple initiative, which is aimed at incorporating students into its next master plan. This inclusion of students in Temple’s post-20/20 era of planning is paramount to the university’s success in its next step of planning. The Temple News hopes that this drive to instill greater pride in the Temple community and to define a clear identity for the university continues for the many years that lie ahead.
notable quotable
“While the lessons I learned
from Beast Boy and many other characters failed to totally solve my elementary and high school problems, they gave me the knowledge that I could overcome them.
”
Matt Kirk / Captain Kirk, P. 10
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city VIEW
Posting public opinion
While some studies have been able to produce strong correlations between traditional public polls and polls conducted via text analysis of tweets, others have not been as successful. The Pew Research Center measured the overall attitudes of tweets after eight major political events in 2012, with few matching closely to other poll results. For commentary, see Zack Scott’s column on P. 5.
Traditional Twitter
Positive 33%
Negative 44%
Neutral 15%
8% 46% 46% California Same-Sex Marriage Ruling
Traditional Twitter Traditional Twitter
Positive 28%
*Source: Pew Research Center
Neutral 26%
Positive 36%
Neutral 24%
Negative 40%
52% 48% Supreme Court Health Care Ruling Negative 46%
30% 28% 43% Nomination of Paul Ryan ADDY PETERSON TTN
Tuesday, april 30, 2013
COMMENTARY
Tweet all about it, or miss out
W ZACK SCOTT
Opinion Editor Zack Scott urges everyone to find ways to express their opinions, including via social media.
Page 5
e think we’re making these independent decisions, but because we’re connected to our neighbors and our friends and our friends’ friends, we exist in this synchrony, this super organism...” “Are you saying we flock like animals?” This exchange happened during a 2010 episode of “The Colbert Report” between political scientist and geneticist James Fowler and the eponymous host. Fowler, in an effort to explain the incredible and demonstrable influence of social networks – both digital and otherwise – created a metaphor
relating human interactions to a herd of buffalo. Colbert looked on with bemusement until after Fowler had made most of his point, then swung at what was essentially a softball set up for a joke. But if Colbert wasn’t dedicated to his character, you would think he would have been at least a little more curious to hear about the range and power of this influence. After all, Fowler boasts an impressive 1,774 Twitter followers. Colbert? Only 4,820,162...as of press time. And make no mistake: Social networks really are that important. Besides for Fowler’s research, which correlates so-
Freedom still must require restraint
W
e have become the Choice Generation. Don’t quite get what I mean? Just look at my typical weekend in 2013. My roommates and I wake up around 11 a.m. and agree to go out for cheeseburgers. We want to avoid listening to Mumford & Sons on my terrestrial car radio, so we plug a smartphone directly into the dashboard. After singing backing vocals to a few Frank Ocean tracks at an exceedingly foolish volume, we get bored and hunt down a video of DMX’s seminal “X Gon’ Give it to Ya” mashed up with the theme from “Ghostbusters.” We are amused and the song loops five times before we agree on a parking spot. From there, I am subsequently rendered useless for the next half hour, because it is physically impossible to order a cheeseburger in 2013. If you want bacon, PYT Burger will give it to you plain, chocolatecovered, made out of turkey or mixed into a milkshake. Its buns come in sesame, wheat, brioche – a type of bread that I am still attempting to define or understand – or in the form of fried
JERRY IANNELLI Twentysomething Handbook
Iannelli argues that Millennials have an unprecedented level of control over their lives, but there are unforseen consequences.
Krispy Kreme mini-doughnuts, because in America, each and every one of us has the Godgiven right to diabetic shock. If you find yourself at Bobby’s Burger Palace in West Philadelphia instead, it allows patrons to “crunchify” any and all burgers – that is, coat them in potato chips, because Iron Chef Bobby Flay is a reckless and dangerous human being that must be apprehended at all costs. Microsoft Word will even let me add “crunchify” to my laptop’s personally-curated dictionary if I so desire, but I will die before I let Bobby Flay win. Upon arriving home, I might mull my course schedule for the upcoming semester online for a while. I’ll quietly debate the benefits of taking a course on Japanese crime fiction instead of “Adventure Climbing” or “Advanced SelfDefense in the Event that You Are Cornered by an Ill-Tempered Kodiak Brown Bear.” Sometimes I’ll re-arrange my entire schedule just to ruin the day of a poor intern at the Office of the Registrar. I have yet to finalize my courses for next
iannelli PAGE 6
cial network connections with everything from political mobilization to weight loss, there is a host of other scholarly, journalistic or personal observations on the subject that prove that yes, we do affect those around us, often in deep and subconscious ways. If you add in other works on civil society – which focus on the importance of relationships citizens have outside of work or through the government – you arrive damn close to a literal mountain of information pointing to the fact that even your most intimate decisions, feelings and beliefs have a lot to do with whom you associate with. If we were looking at this
information a few decades ago, it would have been incredible. But we’re looking at it now, when you have the ability to express your thoughts to hundreds or even thousands of people every second of every day. Social media has added a whole other level of speed and accessibility to interacting. Furthermore, it’s added a mechanism of control that didn’t exist previously. It’s imperative to realize how much influence social media users can have and to take advantage of the medium. Want proof that your posts matter? Look no further than CNN’s use of “iReport” during the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15.
Yes, CNN may be facing some serious criticism for its reporting leading up to the capture of Dzhokar Tsarnaev. But the scorn has been laid at the feet of the network’s reporters and their failure to verify information that they received from supposedly reliable police sources and their reluctance to report basic facts, like that Tsarnaev was found in a boat and not within some mysterious “structure” – details that were ubiquitous on Twitter more than 30 minutes before CNN made the commitment. All the major networks were relying on social media to gather information, like first-person accounts and
scott PAGE 6
Behind secrecy, a Temple of mystery
C
uriosity. All great thoughts and revelations at universities begin with it. It’s a natural wonderment that, when acted upon, is followed by inquiries. For my staff at The Temple News and me, that’s meant requesting all sorts of information from Temple. The General Activity Fee distribution. The full ANGELO FICHERA details of the athletics budget. Editor’s Note The identities of people arrested. A planned annual contribuFichera advises tion by Temple to a neighborTemple to be hood improvement district. The of a task force evaluforthcoming with meetings ating off-campus living. The information. dusty year-old findings of said task force. It’s at that point that we’ve often found ourselves pitted against brass gatekeepers – administrators who’ve often rejected disclosure on the grounds that, put simply, they don’t have to oblige. And, with no avenues to formally request information that mandate a response with justification, we’re usually left scratching our heads. The kind of administrative mindset I’m describing is poison to any institution, but
especially one that prides itself on transcending the status quo. (Ironically, university officials have denied sharing how much was spent on the Temple Made campaign that suggests just that.) Make no mistake: Stonewalling is nothing new. During my freshman year, I was denied access to information about the General Activity Fee – a $45 fee paid by all full-time students each semester that now gets lumped under the vague University Services Fee. The total GAF fund is distributed to a number of bodies on campus. Administrators declined to release the GAF breakdown in 2010 – and again did so when I revisited the issue the following year. Which departments and programs see which cut of the tuition-based fund remains a million-dollar question. Literally. That non-disclosure reveals a larger culture at Temple that wrongly fails to recognize students as valid stakeholders in the community. The university has long asked for state taxpayer dollars, but has tightened its lips when
fichera PAGE 6
Graduation complications must be addressed
W JESS SMITH
Smith argues that more should be done to ensure that students graduate on time.
ith the school year coming to a close, all Temple students – not just seniors – have their minds focused on graduation. Whether it’s this coming May or years away, we’ve all dreamt of the moment when we seize that diploma – or at least the totem of it – and throw our cap in the air to officially become a college graduate. But there’s usually a deceitful amount of hurdles standing in the way of that sweet vindication. Whether it’s a grade that’s just a few decimal points off where it should be or a forgotten general education requirement, that walk to the podium might be a lot longer than anticipated. The average amount of time to earn a bachelor’s degree is supposed to be four years, but often takes much longer. The Department of Education reports that less than 40 percent of students enrolled at a fouryear college or university will actually be able to graduate on schedule. Let’s look at why: There
are more than 130 majors offered at Temple and full-time students are required to enroll in 12-17 credits worth of classes every semester. Though every program varies, most bachelor’s degree programs require a minimum of 123 credits. But the normal 15 credits per semester – five three-credit courses worth – average would only equate to 120 credits after eight semesters worth. Yet it’s promoted as easily doable in four years, if you make the right decisions. But a lot of factors go into course enrollment and transcript oversight. There’s usually so much red tape involved with picking classes that most students find they can’t get into a class they absolutely need to take or have to jump through hoops to secure a spot. “I signed up for courses while I was abroad in England,” said Genny Glassman, a senior English major. “One of the courses I signed up for is one of four English survey courses that everyone needs for the major. A week before the semester be-
gan, I got an email from Temple telling me that the location of my course had moved to a classroom at Ambler. Getting to the class and coming back eats up four hours of my day, but I had to take this to graduate on time.” Course locations that change at the drop of a hat often jeopardize entire schedules and make it extremely difficult to manage time or preferences. “I had to drop out of a Feminist Theory class I’d been trying to fit in my schedule for two years,” Glassman said. “I feel a little slighted that I had to make accommodations that take away from what I am passionate about and I feel like I have less agency in the direction of my degree.” It’s a common happenstance for students to believe they can take a core requirement only to find out during scheduling that they’re missing the prerequisites for it. It’s an even bigger problem when they have to fill time with classes they’ve already completed. “I took AP English in high school and got a five on my
exam, but I ended up taking English 802 here,” said freshman biology major Jincy John. “I asked both my professor and adviser why I had to take it and they said my credit only exempted me from English 701. [It] doesn’t make sense to me why I had to take a course I already did in high school.” Similarly, credits that don’t transfer can prevent course enrollment in both core requirements and gen-ed classes. This has been troublesome for students who transferred from other colleges and those who received AP credit in high school. “I have AP credits from two courses that have not been processed through Temple’s system despite me sending them in multiple times this year,” said Emily Kaempf, a freshman kinesiology major. “I’ve been set back a day in registering because of this. Several times, the classes I wanted have filled up in that day.” Due to these hiccups, students find that they continue to be pushed back in taking the classes that they should be in.
There aren’t enough sections available for popular courses or for major requirements. “My overall experience scheduling classes has been poor,” Kaempf said. “I’ve been blocked out of prerequisites due to places holding for people with different majors. It’s been extremely frustrating.” Do the problems lie with Temple advisers and their poor communication with students? Or is it a student responsibility to regularly check their status? In all honesty, there are a million obstacles in the way of a perfect schedule, but most arise with the system itself. Corrections have been made with the addition of wait-listing and the end of the washout period, but more needs to be done to make sure that graduation march doesn’t take an undue burden to arrive at fruition. Jess Smith can be reached at jessicasmith@temple.edu.
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
“Do you notice a
difference in the teaching styles of full-time faculty, tenured and non-tenured, and part-time faculty?
”
DALEXIS PEGUERO ttn
Opinion DESK 215-204-7416
“I can easily tell. Full-time teachers tend to be more relaxed and at ease.”
“I don’t see much of a difference in terms of part time, tenured and full time.”
“I personally prefer parttime teachers, because they are less strict and tend to relate to us students.”
marcus lyons
ANTONIO NIEVES
DARYL OMBE
SENIOR | BIOLOGY
SOPHOMORE | PUBLIC RELATIONS
JUNIOR | INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
letters@temple-news.com
OPINION
Tuesday, april 30, 2013
Viral email misrepresents Greek life
SOMEONE ELSE’S
page 6
D
DANIEL CRAIG
Craig argues that a viral email can’t be interpreted to apply to all fraternities and sororities.
o you want to hear my really bad sorority joke? OK, here it is: I asked a girl in a sorority what region of Greece she was from. Turns out she’s from the northern “Uggs” region, but I could have sworn by her accent she was from “Northface.” Buh dum, chhh! I know, I won’t try stand up any time soon. Especially since my corny joke pales in comparison to the very real email sent from a former executive board member of a University of Maryland sorority to her sisters that was picked up by Gawker. The email, targeting the sorority’s sisters for not participating enough in social events, might be better read by the drill sergeant from “Full Metal Jacket” than a 20-something female college student in yoga pants. Among other things, the email asks the sisters if they are “mentally slow,” threatens to physically assault them through means normally reserved for a football and tells them all to “go f--- themselves.” The fun-
nier bits I don’t dare try getting past my editor, so make sure to check out the whole article at Gawker for context. The same girl who sent this frightening email has now deleted her Twitter account, which was exposed by the website Jezebel, where she made offensive remarks about Mexicans, Helen Keller and LGBT rights. And as if that wasn’t enough damning publicity for Greek life, the Huffington Post reported last week on a sorority at Indiana University that threw a homeless-themed party, which surprisingly is even more offensive than it appears on face value when you take into account that homelessness is one of the biggest social problems facing Bloomington, Ind. Trust me, when I heard all of this, especially as a writer, my mouth started drooling. Oh the joy it could bring me to rip mercilessly into Greek life and the stereotypes that these examples display. But I have friends in fraternities and sororities. They’re not crazy, offensive or particularly arrogant. Sure, I’ve met those in
Greek life who fit that characterization to a T. Yet I also know some people who are just as awful who have never even been to a frat party. Lawrence Watling, one of my good friends and co-hosts for WHIP, Temple’s student-run radio station, made the point to me that the problem with Greek life is that the actions of a few reflect poorly on the whole. Watling, a member of AEPi at Temple, noted that it’s easy for just one person to make the entire Greek community look like a bunch of Neanderthals. He expressed frustration with this considering all the good things frats and sororities do besides shenanigans. If anything, the stereotypes we use for Greek life made apparent by these recent events is simply the manifestation of things we can all relate to. Who hasn’t been irritated at a friend for being shy at social events you brought them to? Haven’t you ever made inappropriate jokes within your circle of friends? This isn’t a defense of the sometimes insufferable behav-
iors and attitudes that can be seen by some donning a T-shirt with Greek lettering on it. But, to be honest, it’s not hard to find the same level of pretentiousness within hipster, jock and even honors student circles. That doesn’t mean they’re all bad. For example, I have a stupid flippy haircut. If another guy with another stupid flippy haircut posted something really racist on Twitter, I’d hope people wouldn’t think I’m a racist too. The difference is Greek life is an easy target. It has a history and is more clearly defined. Of course this email is hilarious. And I’ll admit the sororities that scream incessantly at people on Liacorous Walk for money drive me up the wall. But hey, at least they’re raising money for something, which is more than I can say for myself. So enjoy and mock the colossal idiocy of some all you want, but try not to lump them all together. I know no one would want anyone to do the same to them. Dan Craig can be reached at daniel.craig@temple.edu or on Twitter @Ohh_Danny_Boy.
Social media has incredible Openness benefits and still-growing influence entire community scott PAGE 5 pictures. CNN just so happened to be the one that took it the furthest, and the network’s obvious shortcomings weren’t rooted in that decision. As a result, we witnessed a major news outlet choosing to magnify its viewers’ social media influences by broadcasting them over its airwaves, a truly remarkable occurrence that we seemingly take for granted amid the continuous conventionalizing of social media. Or how about the ability for social media posts to be distilled into pure public opinion? A 2008-09 Carnegie Mellon study analyzed a billion tweets and was able to produce public opinion data on consumer confidence and presidential job approval that had significant correlation – 86 percent on consumer confidence, 72 percent for presidential job approval – with data published by more traditional survey sources like the Index of Consumer Sentiment, Gallup and Pollster.com. This is possible through the use of text analyzing, which involves subdividing tweets into categories like political or apolitical, positive or negative, etc. It can offer access to a much larger section of the population than typical survey techniques. And it means that every time you express an opinion on Twitter, you could be influencing the creation of laws. After all, University of Washington sociology professor Paul Burstein starts out his paper “The Impact of Public Opinion on Public Policy: A Review and an Agenda” by discussing the near-consensus among social scientists concerning the tight relationship between the two.
Put simply, regardless of outliers like the recent rejection of federal background checks, politicians often do care what their constituents think, and they only have so many ways to know what that is. Of course, there are some flaws. Text analyzers will always struggle with things like sarcasm, creating discrepancies. And the demographic spread on Twitter is hardly representative of the U.S. population: 27 percent of Internet users between 18-29 are on Twitter, while only 2 percent of Internet users 60 or above subscribe, according to data collected by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. But this still means that a new, quick and inexpensive way to poll people exists. It’s hard to envision polling organizations not favoring a system that will save them a few bucks down the road. All of this is not merely meant to profess the incredible power of social media in our modern age. There have been more than a few well-studied examples recently that can portray that more clearly than I ever could. Look at the Arab Spring for example. While data points do point to a general exaggeration of the influence of the online sources – Internet penetration in Egypt is about 35.6 percent, and only about 14.6 percent are on Facebook currently, and those numbers were even lower in December 2010 – it is rather undeniable that online mediums held some role in starting, organizing and preserving protest efforts. Instead, the point is to stress the importance in formulating and expressing opinions through whatever means necessary. Last year, then-Opinion
editor Kierra Bussey wrote a final column entitled “Letter from the editor,” in which she stressed the importance of writing opinions and sharing them with others to spread dialogue and ensure that your interests are never forsaken completely. This year, in my final column, I would like to echo that sentiment, with the caveat that informal methods of information dissemination need to be viewed as equally valid ways of accomplishing this end. It can be easy to overlook social media and other informal media sites when they are all too often flooded with seemingly useless drivel. But they’re essentially in their infancy, and other platforms like mass media, polling sources and general social science are only beginning to scratch the surface of their potential. Writing opinions in the more traditional sense will always have its benefits and will never truly go away. And of course I encourage any wouldbe writers to explore selfexpression on these hallowed pages. But there is absolutely no excuse for anyone to be avoiding letting their opinions be heard when the threshold for publication has never been so low. Whether through social media, blogs or even comment threads, you can publish your thoughts and people will actually read and be influenced by them. By any standard, that is incredible. And to not take advantage of it would be nothing short of irresponsible. Zack Scott can be reached at zack.scott@temple.edu or on Twitter @ZackScott11.
fichera PAGE 5 asked about its own finances. Students put on their Cherryand-White lobbying attire for trips to Harrisburg, Pa., to play nice with legislators during the budget season, but are simultaneously denied financial information that directly affects them. That’s not right. And forget about proactive reporting. As Ali Watkins reports in News this week, the university hasn’t publicized many statistics of incidents handled through Student Code of Conduct. Those types of statistics may offer insight into the prevalence of certain complaints – like sexual assault, a severely underreported crime that’s only further tainted when people don’t discuss the realities of frequency. Per Campus Safety Services records, nine rape allegations involving Temple students were reported during the 201112 school year. However, due to the fine print in the federal Clery Act, not all of these were reported on the annual 2011 and 2012 safety reports. But casting only some incidents into the public sphere leaves students and parents with a false image of what’s really going on around campus. Templetown stretches blocks past campus lines, and administrators know it. Last year, Temple estimated that more students actually live off, but near, Main Campus than on it – an estimated 7,000 students and 4,500 students, respectively. What goes on near campus is equally as important to students as what’s happening on it. It’s not a legal issue; it’s a moral one. Fear of information is nonsensical, and I question the
source of such irrationality. I used to think it was Ann Weaver Hart’s administration – the one that neglected to even respond to interview requests by The Temple News during her last semester – but things have hardly improved this year. Enter: President Theobald’s time to shine in transparency. The worst part is that I don’t think Temple has all that much to hide. But refusal to have an open dialogue suggests otherwise. Where self-governance has surely cowered, outside pressure may prevail. Last week, the state’s House of Representatives State Government Committee approved an amendment to the state’s Right-to-Know Law. If enacted, Temple and its fellow state-related universities – Penn State, Lincoln and Pittsburgh – would come fully under the law. It’d pop a bubble that has allowed the schools to avert public questioning. It’s not about us – the journalists, that is. All students hold a valid interest in knowing exactly how Temple is operating, and why. Taxes and tuition should guarantee that much. If the Right-to-Know amendment gets roadblocked, the Temple community should demand transparency from the university – all the way up to the president’s office. Not because of legal obligations, but because openness begets accountability. Should it pass, may our curiosity yield the answer to the question I’m dying to ask: What’s Temple really made of? Angelo Fichera can be reached at afichera@temple.edu or on Twitter @AJFichera.
Excessive choices kill self-restraint iannelli PAGE 5
semester. Regardless, at around 2 a.m. each Sunday morning, I plod endlessly through my borrowed Netflix queue until I pass out without watching anything. My point? Never in the history of human life have people been confronted with more personal decisions each and every day. Observant students like myself sit and watch as the Millennial generation around us grows both older and more symbiotic with the Internet each year and our worlds become increasingly personalized and sequestered along with it. My friends with unlim-
ited phone data can use Spotify to stream quite close to every single song that has been or ever will be recorded to their headsets at will without buying a single album. Furthermore, every gym treadmill that I’ve ever sprinted on has offered me my own personal television and audio hookup, encouraging me to watch “Bar Rescue” as if I’m sitting on my living room sofa and no where near the human beings exercising 18 inches away from me. People in their 20s have grown up in a world where they’re given what they want at the exact time they want it in the specific flavors and smells
that they swear they need to be happy in that exact moment. And I sincerely feel like I’m beginning to see some consequences. Case in point: My buddy Andrew insists on playing his own music at each and every party he attends. He brings his own iPod, elbows his way to the nearest stereo, unplugs whatever carefully selected playlist the people that actually live in said home have chosen for the evening and treats us to Wiz Khalifa tracks from 2009 that absolutely no one – minus Andrew – wants to hear. If and when he is confronted by an angry host, his reply is almost always an in-
dignant: “I run music wherever I go.” No, you don’t, Andrew. You are displaying an entitled and borderline psychotic track of reasoning. Are you so used to conducting your life to the backdrop of your own preset soundtrack that you can’t let someone else take the musical reins for two to three hours, at most? In his or her own home, no less? Where does this line of logic end? If I invite you to my house for dinner in 20 years, will you uncontrollably beat my children with a leather belt and shove cauliflower down their throats, all the while repeatedly shouting, “I run parenting wher-
ever I go” in my face? Where did you learn this behavior? The Internet, once the great harbinger of free information, has forced upon young people the idea that each and every human deserves exactly what they want at all times. While I do not have the authority to decide whether or not this is an inalienable right extended to all humans, my sneaking suspicions force me to believe the contrary. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got three seasons of “Community” to go catch up on. Jerry Iannelli can be reached at gerald.iannelli@temple.edu or on Twitter @jerryiannelli.
OPINION
“Let us hope that, in this era of shrinking budgets and rising tuitions, their forward-thinking move might encourage larger universities to question their disproportionate spending on athletics over academics, and not provide an excuse to widen the gap between men’s and women’s sport and perpetuate a double standard.”
Noliwe M. Rooks,
on time.com in “Should College Sports Be Banned?”
“We’re past the boiling point, with about one million students dropping out nationwide each year. Programs that stem that tide are worth the investment; they pay dividends that benefit us all.”
Nathan Mains,
on philly.com in “Support those at risk of dropping out”
“In fact, South Sudanese today are thinking more about another U.S. president: that would be Obama’s predecessor, Bush 43. As a liberal Democrat and Obama supporter, I was particularly struck by this. Yes, Bush is a hero in Africa, and Americans, too, should know why.”
Ellen Ratner,
on foxnews.com in “George W. Bush has saved more lives than any American president”
“My friend was killed by a man who misunderstood guns, who imagined that comfort with — and affection for — guns was a vital component of manhood. I did not recognize a gun for what it was: a machine constructed for a purpose, one in which I had no real interest. I treated a tool as an essential part of my identity, and the result is a dead man and a grieving family and a survivor numbed by guilt whose story lacks anything resembling a proper ending.”
Bruce Holbert,
on nytimes.com in “Sleeping With Guns”
“Rampant intellectualproperty theft, especially in emerging markets with weak legal systems, enables those companies to cut costs, harming both U.S. manufacturing and technology employers. It destroys American jobs, slows economic growth and undermines our ability to compete.”
Rob McKenna,
on washingtontimes.com in “Defending U.S. intellectual property”
Tuesday, APRIL 30, 2013
LIVING temple-news.com
A school year, a snapshot
Page 7
TTN Photographers: Kelsey Dubinsky, AJA Espinosa, Kate McCANN, Ellen Parkins, Nickee Plaksen, Abi Reimold, Steven Reitz, Luis Fernando Rodriguez, Cara Stefchak, Maggie Trapani, Timothy ValsHtein, Hua zong
Living DESK 215-204-7416
Living@temple-news.com
living
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Tuesday, APRIL 30, 2013
Steven Johnson teaches Social Media Innovation, a course that educates students on using social media platforms to network. Johnson also uses gamification to encourage students to go the extra mile. | COURTESY Steven Johnson
STEVEN JOHNSON Professor pits students against each other in friendly online competitions by using social media as a playing field. Luis Fernando Rodriguez Living Editor
Steven Johnson, a professor in the management information systems department, has taken to using social media in the classroom through gamification. Students take part in friendly competition by earning points and online badges through completing tasks for class. The Temple News caught up with Johnson to see how gamification came about and how he has adapted it for the classroom.
The Temple News: What is gamification? Steven Johnson: Gamification is using the elements of games
a way to help motivate students during the semester to explore things in a self-paced manner. Another reason for this is gamification is one of the engagement strategies that has become more and more popular in any kind of online setting or digital product so students experiencing that have a much better sense of what it must really be like and what might work well and what might not work well. They’ll have a much more informed position if they are involved in implementing gamification if they are invlolved in implementing gamification in an organization in the future.
TTN: How has it been received by students? SJ: One of the things that’s been beneficial to me is getting stu-
dent feedback. Through that feedback I’ve been able to continually refine things, make it more exciting. One of the things that I found, especially after having done this multiple semesters now, is that the student feedback is overwhelmingly positive. There’s always some students that opt out of that portion of the class as soon as they realize it’s not graded. So the gamification element is a separate, parallel system.
TTN: How do students earn points? SJ: Earning points occurs through two major channels. One is
that all of the class activities are done through a WordPress multi-user website that we have and when students do things like post comments on the website, or make a blog post, they get in non-game situations. An example we do in the department points for those. And that’s all automatically scored through the is that we have a point system for our majors who earn points achievements [rubric] I use on the WordPress site. [Students also] for things they do going through the major, for example you get points for doing activities, some of which are required, and get a lot of points for an internship, and filling out your online a lot of which are on a list that they can choose. Those activiprofile. There’s a leader board that shows who has the most points, and they get recognized for that as well as certain levels ties [offer different points] depending on how complicated or you have to go through to achieve point totals in order to move involved that activity is. For those they submit an online form to me saying they completed the activity. Then I decide if it was forward through the major. Another example is what I’ve been doing in my own class successfully completed or not. the last three years, which is using what I call “the social media TTN: What kind of activities do students have to choose quest.” Students earn quest points by doing different activities, from? and they get badges for those activities. We have a leader board where students get recognized for having the highest scores, and SJ: Activities are related to the course content. A major portion of in class each week I recognize students for leveling up by earn- the course grade is based on how these activities are completed, and from the grading standpoint, we look at the number of activiing more points than the last week. ties as well as the quality. For the quest points they basically get TTN: How did gamification begin? it for submitting the activity up to a minimum level. SJ: I started three years ago in the Spring of 2011. Previous Examples of activities would be creating their blog, which to that I had been teaching similar content in special topics they do at the beginning of the semester; another would be setting courses which were taught in computer labs in the basement up the blog with Google Analytics later in the semester. They can of Tuttleman with relatively small classes of 20 students. The also get points for exploring different social media sites. So if they course was popular enough to become its own numbered course set up a board on Pinterest, post a photo to Instagram or post to and opened up to 40 students. Vine, those are kinds of activities they can earn points for. At that point I adopted gamification because I needed to find
they need to set up a new “professional” account on social media sites like Twitter? SJ: It’s kind of a mix but the idea is students are learning how to
practice responsible image management. So it’s not professional from the standpoint they’re representing some brand or company, but [my students aren’t required] to use their personal accounts unless they want to. As an example, this semester students are required to create their own Twitter account, and I tell them if they have their own Twitter account that they just want to keep highly personal then for the class purposes I need them to create a separate account. The idea for any of these social media sites they’re using throughout the course, is that they are things that would reflect well upon them professionally if a potential employer was seeing it.
TTN: What social media platforms have you been exploring in the course? SJ: Vine and Pinterest are the more exploratory ones. The main
things we cover in the class are WordPress blogging, so the students are responsible for creating their own blog on their own topic. They promote their blog through Twitter. We do some things on Facebook – I have a Facebook page set up for the class, although there’s not a large focus on that. Students are required to make at least one video on a group project so that’s something they end up posting to YouTube. We also talk a lot about things like LinkedIn, although they’re not required to use that, but we talk about how you might use that effectively in looking for a job. We also use a tool called Piktochart, which allows students to make infographics. Infographics, along with videos, are examples of students learning how to create compelling content online. So another big theme of this is [students] are seeing what all the building blocks and elements are for content marketing. Luis Fernando Rodriguez can be reached at luis.fernando@temple.edu or on Twitter @theluisfernando.
TTN: Do students use their personal accounts, or do
Tournament attempts to spike support for science TUCS held a volleyball tournament to raise money for local teachers. ERIN EDINGER-TUROFF
The Temple News Temple University Chemistry Society set its expectations higher than the nets for its charitable volleyball tournament on Friday, April 26, the proceeds from which will benefit TUTeach graduates in the Philadelphia community. Members of TUCS said they were ecstatic about the turnout for the fundraiser, which they had been planning for the past two months. Each participant in the tournament paid $10 to be part of a team, which TUCS president Ashley Gilman said were comprised of about
six to eight members. In total, there were 20 teams present at the tournament in Gym 145 of Pearson Hall, and 133 people registered to play. “We were $130 away from raising $2,000 as of last night,” Gilman said. “We received another donation from the Student Center, and our concession stand has been [selling], so I’m pretty sure we may have raised [more than] $2,000 for the event.” Gilman said all the money raised would be given to Temple alumni who are now science teachers in Philadelphia. Both recipients of the volleyball tournament’s proceeds completed the TUTeach program at the university, which allows them to graduate as science majors with a teaching certification. One teacher, Gilman said, is already working in as a teacher in a North Philadelphia high
school and reached out to Tem- pus, which attending player ple’s science department when Raymond Gmitra, a senior biolshe realized her class didn’t ogy major, said was how he and have necessary lab equipment. his friends found out about the Her dilemma inspired TUCS to event. organize the volleyball tourna“We like volleyball, we all ment fundraiser. played [intra“The money mural sports] isn’t going toin high school,” ward our organiGmitra said. zation at all,” Gil“And it’s a reman said. ally good cause All proceeds too. It’s a fun will be divided event, there between the [are] a lot of teacher who origpeople here.” inally contacted Gmitra said Temple, and a he was the only science major rising senior TUTeach student Christopher Zeigler / american on his team, TUCS who will teach in chemical society which members said the Philadelphia they had hoped for – that not area upon graduation. The group spent two only science majors would apmonths planning, members of preciate the cause. Gilman’s friend from high TUCS said. Flyers were distributed all throughout Main Cam- school, Joe Mirarchi, offered to
“One of
our mottos is ‘Chemistry for life.’ I think these guys are embodying that.
”
DJ the event after she posted on Facebook asking for any volunteers. Mirarchi, of Sound Solution Entertainment, also teaches math at Christo Rey Philadelphia High School. He said that education in underprivileged areas is his passion and that he would be happy to DJ the event, Gilman said. As the teams competed, Mirarchi set an energetic tone with upbeat music. Education associate Christopher Zeigler from the American Chemical Society was present at the tournament to represent the national organization. He said that his office wants to support events like the volleyball fundraiser, and praised TUCS’ initiative and effort to bring a love of science to the community. ACS is also proud to partially sponsor TUCS’ involvement tutoring local children in science with a grant, he added.
“One of our mottos is ‘Chemistry for life,’” Zeigler said. “I think these guys are embodying that.” TUCS members agreed that the most rewarding part of the night was when students from the class that will benefit from proceeds arrived to thank their organization for wanting to help. Vice President Sarah Carson described it as a very emotional moment. “Honestly that is all I wanted,” Carson said. “Just to see these kids so happy that we are raising money for them. I’m just so happy for them.” Spirits were high in the gym, and due to the efforts of TUCS, funds will soon be high in local classrooms as well. Erin Edinger-Turoff can be reached at erin.edinger-turoff@temple.edu.
ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT temple-news.com
Tuesday, APRIL 30, 2013
Page 9
Ramping up Philly skate culture Franklin’s Paine Park will give Philly skaters a new home on May 22. Patricia Madej The Temple News
O
n May 22, Philly should expect a skate park even the professionals would
fawn over. Once completed, the $4.5 million to $5 million Franklin’s Paine Park at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Schuylkill Banks, will be the largest and most expensive skate plaza in the country, said Claire Laver, executive director of Franklin’s Paine Skatepark Fund. “This has been a project that’s over a decade in the making,” she said .I’ve personally been involved for over four Franklin’s Paine Park, located at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Benjamin Franklin Parkway, is set to open on May 22. The years.” Former Philadelphia mayor park will give Philadelphia’s estimated 60,000 skateboarders a place to practice. | dalexis paguero TTN John Street banned skateboarding in Love Park in 2002. With other major cities in the nation chitecture to ensure the project October 2012, the park is well the final funding date, Paine’s have a much isn’t an eyesore and to keep the on its way to being completed, Park successfully raised $10,000 only four other but it needed one extra push with a surplus of $1,551. smaller ratio, high urban aesthetics. skateparks in the from the community to fill in the Junior business entreprearound 500:1. Laver said it will have a city, it’s difficult funding gaps. neur major Matt Smith, who is “We feel blend of concrete and grassy for skateboardAs The Temple News realso the president and founder like it’ll put areas, so lots of people can eners to find a place ported last April, the building of the Temple University LongPhilly back joy free and public access to the to practice their of the park was delayed due to boarder’s Club, said he is more on the map in park. hobby. Paine’s a lack of funding and employthan excited for the park to terms of skateLaver stressed that the park Park hopes to ees. With a Kickstarter page open. Though he said the club boarding,” Lais not solely for skateboardbecome that solaunched on March 14 and endwon’t necessarily use the park ver said. ers. With its location and large lution. ing April 3, the team asked the since longboarding is better At just less space, she said it will be a place Laver said Claire Laver / executive director than public to pledge $10,000 to suited for hills and curves and as 10,000 for everyone. there’s an esti“It exhibits the way skateassist in the final construction a mode of transportation, Smith square feet, mated 60,000 budget. Any money pledged be- said it’ll bring all skateboarders Paine’s Park will fit right by the boarding has the potential to skateboarders in the city, which yond that goes toward the first out regardless. iconic Philadelphia Museum of bring people together,” Laver leaves their accessibility to said. year’s maintenance of the park. Art and Schuylkill River, with skateboard in a public and welskate PAGE 10 Since breaking ground on Luckily, with days before its design team matching its arcoming place 15,000:1; whereas
“We feel like
it’ll put Philly back on the map in terms of skateboarding.
”
Hairstylist ‘making the cut’ at Mecca Salon
New York City hairstylist and YouTube star Wade Lee Richards is offering a special student discount through May. ERIN EDINGER-TUROFF The Temple News YouTube may seem like the promised land for free tutorials to the average college student on a tight budget, but Wade Lee Richards has relocated from the computer screen to Mecca Unisex Salon in North Philadelphia, where students can still save money to get the look they want with his hair styling deal. Richards, the founder of the House of Wade Lee salon, which gained popularity due to the “House of Wade Lee TV” YouTube channel, relocated to Philadelphia after a suggestion of a close friend of his, another aspiring celebrity stylist named Tatiana Ward. Ward has her own YouTube channel called “Beat Face Honey” and has recently had the opportunity to do pre-show makeup for R&B singer Brandy. In hopes of expanding his clientele, Richards is now working at Mecca Unisex Salon, located at 1501 N. Broad St., where he does hair and makeup. He said he is inspired by his friend Ward’s newfound success and feels confident that he took a risk that will pay off in moving to the East Coast from his former home in Arizona. Mecca Unisex Salon is right near Main Campus. Richards said the owner, Hamid Addul, and the entire Mecca staff has been incredibly welcoming, and he’s excited to “be in a position where [he] can really learn” from the other stylists in the
salon, which is so busy sometimes that he described the atmosphere as being “like a club.” “I think Mecca is an awesome opportunity for me to learn all textures of hair,” Richards said. “That’s a big reason why I’m there. Definitely the opportunity to work so closely with these Temple students and build my clientele that way is huge.” In order to “get people in [his] chair” from the nearby community, as Richards put it, he is offering to shear down the price of hair cuts and highlights for Temple students and staff until May 30, an extension of his original deal to incorporate styling needed for commencement ceremonies and end of semester festivities this May. He is offering $10 haircuts, including a wash and styling, and $50 full highlights, in his offer to the Temple community. Richards said that charging such rates required him to swallow some pride but said the possibility of establishing a student clientele is well worth it. Richards decided to put in roots in Philly for the time being, previously having let his career in beauty flower all over the country. A passion for styling and fashion has taken Richards across the country, from his childhood home in Wisconsin, to Alabama, Arizona and now Philadelphia. Someday he said he hopes to establish himself in New York as a celebrity stylist. Along with the art of styling, editorial work is some-
ROAD TRIP, online
Guest columnist Jacob Harrington discusses his decision to attend the Bonnaroo Music Festival. A&E Desk 215-204-7416
thing Richards said he feels is a strong point for him and would be a dream career. He is a published fashion journalist and contributes to Fashion Faces, a networking site for the fashion industry. His significant portfolio of work in the fashion industry is largely documented on social media, which he said has been the ultimate tool to break into the fashion industry. In fact, his initial big break in the business was because of the tutorials
broadcasted by “House of Wade Lee TV,” for which was noticed by organizers of the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, an eightday-long production boasting more than 80 designers. “The Academy of Art University of Fashion in San Francisco saw one of my videos,” Richards said. “That’s how I really got involved with the whole fashion aspect of the beauty world.” Attending the fashion show was an experience Richards
called “a dream come true,” and he said he had hoped to be involved with high-profile fashion shows from a very young age, when he actually added pictures of previous fashion shows to an inspiration board. He was able to be a backstage video blogger for his own YouTube channel during his time at the event. “It was unbelievable,” Richards said. “To be amongst
hair PAGE 10
Hairstylist Wade Lee Richards recently relocated to Philadelphia. Richards said he is excited to work with a diverse clientele at Mecca Unisex Salon. | kelsey dubinski TTN
HIDDEN GEMS, online
The Hidden City Festival gives attendees access to unusual and historic locations in the city. ARTSandEntertainment@temple-news.com
Opera alumna goes country Doreen Taylor aims to give back to the community with her music. JOHN CORRIGAN The Temple News As a self-described country rocker, Doreen Taylor has earned enough cowgirl cred to call out Taylor Swift on her latest album, “Red.” “Let’s call a spade a spade – her last album is not country,” Taylor said. “Just say you want to cross over to pop music. Be proud of what you’re doing. I always put the disclaimer out right away – I am not traditional country.” With a master’s in Opera Performance from Temple, Taylor, 29, infuses all the different styles from her eclectic background to produce her own sound. Spending her undergrad at the University of Hartford, Taylor transitioned from the green landscape to the concrete jungle of North Philadelphia. And she admits that we can all thank her former significant other. “I had a boyfriend living close to [Main] Campus, so I needed a way to get closer to Philly,” Taylor said. “In Hartford, [Conn.], you admire the nature preserves and guess whose car costs more,” Taylor said. “At Temple, I would be walking across the parking lot from rehearsal alone at midnight. If my parents could, they would still be giving me the silent treatment.” Despite her parents’ reservations, Taylor believes coming to Temple was the best decision of her life. “The boy is gone, but the degree stayed,” Taylor said. Born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., Taylor, who won the 2012 Suggested Artist Songwriting Award from SongoftheYear. com, always loved music. “I picked up instruments and had this freaky gift of knowing how to play them,” Taylor said. “I played violin but never felt it was a part of me quite like singing. You can control what’s happening inside your body rather than some piece of wood sitting on your shoulder.” Although performing was tugging at her heartstrings, Taylor’s original goal was to become a doctor. “I’m actually a nerd. I graduated in the Top 8 [students] in my class,” she said. “People would say, ‘You don’t want to be a musician, you want to make money.’ Well, I figured I can do both, and if you don’t think music is tough, walk in my stilettos and see how your feet feel.” With roles in “Ragtime,” “Show Boat” and “Oklahoma,” Taylor’s education has certainly not gone to waste. However, she confirmed the old adage that it isn’t what you know but who you know. Taylor also mentioned the opportunities Temple’s theater
taylor PAGE 11
under the radar, online
Check out what there is to do in the coming weeks, including a wine and food festival.
arts & entertainment
page 10
Tuesday, APRIL 30, 2013
YouTube hairstylist offers student discount at Mecca hair PAGE 9
the couture and the designers and models and [to have] the ability to learn so much.” Richards had already gone from salon manager in Hunstville, Ala., where he also went to beauty school, to establishing his own salon in Phoenix. He went on to host his own fashion shows and continues working in the industry with considerably more recognition. Life wasn’t always cen-
tered on beauty, however, for the “social media socialite,” as Richards’ House of Wade Lee website profile names him. As a teenager, Richards struggled immensely with his identity, prompting him to run away from home and join an ex-gay ministry called Love in Action in Memphis, Tenn. “It’s definitely a different life,” Richards said. “It seems like a lifetime away, it’s not who
Skatepark to open in May
I am today.” His involvement with the program, which considered graduating successfully to be abandoning homosexuality, caught the attention of Tea Party politician and former Republican-candidate Christine O’Donnell, who hired Richards as a personal aid during campaigning. Richards said he remembered the complete dismissal
MATT KIRK Captain Kirk
In his final column, Kirk discusses how his favorite characters have taught him important lessons.
I
“For the city to put aside a very awesome piece of land and dedicate [it] to skateboarding shows the progression of skating in the city,” he said. He said another reason for his excitement is just the fact that there will be another legal place to skate in the city, considering even he has been banned from skating in certain areas. “I can’t wait to go riding. I also think it’s a very prime location for it,” Smith said. Kevin McDonald, who works at Nocturnal Skateshop and owns local skateboarding company Skateswords, said he and his friends have been anticipating the opening of the park for 10 years. He said it’ll do good for the “skate scene” by giving local skaters a place to practice their art and congregate. “Paine’s Park is going to give a rebirth to the whole skateboarding scene and culture,” he said. McDonald said the skateboarding scene isn’t just about skating, but also other creative outlets that go along with it like videography, art and photography. The people who pledged for Paine’s Park on its Kickstarter did not walk away empty-handed. Depending on how much money was contributed, incentives such as stickers, patches, skate decks and T-shirts – designed by artists Todd Marrone, Yis “NoseGo” Goodwin and Todd Landaker – were given. There will also be contemporary pieces of art designed by the artists themselves hanging up around the construction site.
The team at Paine’s Park also partnered up with a variety of companies to help build and fund the project including SkateNerd, Gridline Skateparks and the Tony Hawk Foundation. The park has also had help politically, with contributions from former State Representative Babette Josephs, State Senator Larry Farnese and the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department. Laver said she hopes the park will provide the space the skateboarders of Philadelphia are looking for. Levar said there has been a fair share of ups and downs in the project. “With a big construction project, many things could arise and derail you, but we have a really tremendous project team,” she said. However, one of the biggest ups was the support from the community, she said. “It means a lot, personally, to see everybody who’s backed the project step up,” Laver said. Currently, the team is in its final stages of construction. “I’m very eager to open the park, and I’m excited to see it in action this summer,” Laver said. The ribbon cutting date is scheduled for May 22 from 4-6 p.m. Patricia Madej can be reached at patricia.madej@temple.edu.
“I’m not going to New York tomorrow,” Richards said. “I’m here. I need to become established.” Erin Edinger-Turoff can be reached at erin.edinger.turoff@temple.edu.
Comics teach kids morals
skate PAGE 9
Philadelphia’s skateboarders are at a 15,000:1 ratio to skateparks in the city, according to Claire Laver. Creators of a new skatepark by the Schuylkill aims to give skaters a new home. | dalexis paguero TTN
everything,” Richards said. “It’s been a crazy, crazy journey.” First, he said, he wants to be a successful celebrity stylist. At the moment, growing his base clientele in Philly is Richards’ main concern, as he hopes it is the beginning of that high profile career he’s dreaming of. His current deal offered to the Temple community is what he hopes will be the kick-start of his success in this community.
of both O’Donnell and Love in Action when he announced that he still had same-sex attractions and could not campaign with either party further. He is not, however, bitter about the experience – instead, he said he is ironically grateful to have the skills using social media that were largely developed during his time with O’Donnell. “I think eventually there will be a book where I share
f you grew up in my generation, you likely had the pleasure of experiencing the exceptional quality of kids cartoon programs throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. To me, spending my Saturday morning sprawled out on the carpet in front of the TV was more than a regular occurrence – it was a ritual. I fell in love with many shows over the years, but the Pokémon and Batman series will always remain the closest to my heart. They captivated me and many other children as we moved from elementary school to the all-important and chaotic high school experience. My favorite characters always came the from comic book-based series, beginning my love affair with superheroes at an early age. Superman, the Teen Titans and various Batman series always kept my mind
busy, hoping to unravel the plots of villains. Thinking back, these shows were more than entertainment, they were inspiration. My heroes, while fictional, had the power to reach me along with many other kids and guide us through our youth. The stories of many youthful heroes, while sometimes overshadowed, are incredibly important, because of this great ability to reach and positively affect children. Even as comic characters learn to control their unusual abilities, the heroes experience and struggle with the standard issues and problems of children in the real world. Although I admit, frequently having the responsibility of saving the whole world is not so realistically relatable. When properly introduced to kids, youthful heroic characters can ward them away from dangerous life paths and teach them the all-important lesson that they are not alone in their troubles as they struggle to grow up. The animated series “Teen Titans” comes immediately to mind as a perfect example of how cartoon heroes can be utilized to approach discussing common issues with kids in a way that seems fun, actionpacked and accepting of all people. When you break down the basic characters of the Titans, it’s evident that their diverse team reaches out and supports children enduring many different difficulties. Starfire, an alien princess
far from her family and home world, easily connects to the many children that, like me, experienced a move during their developmental years and felt alone and out of place. Starfire’s journey shows children that a new home can bring new friends, and that, in time, things will work out. Raven, who inherited powers from her interdimensional demon father, struggles with the powerful physical manifestation of her emotions. She can easily relate to children suffering from the pain of abuse, divorce or social misery. Her character struggles to control her emotions to prevent becoming the monster her father is and teaches children that to stop a cycle of misery, one must conquer – not create – pain. Robin, sidekick and protégé to The Batman, longs to become a leader and prove that he can stand alone as a hero. This makes him relatable to so many people who feel overlooked due to the shadow their loved ones cast. His journey to becoming Nightwing encourages viewers to have the courage to make it on their own and become who they are destined to be. Cyborg is the son of genius scientists who save his life by outfitting him with hightech prosthetics after his horrible mutilation at the hands of a massive monster. Disfigured and permanently half-man,
“Youthful
heroic characters can...teach [kids] the all-important lesson that they are not alone in their struggle to grow up.
summer festivals Roots Picnic Date: June 1 $: $63
Where: Penn’s Landing This year’s sixth annual Roots Picnic is hosted by Philadelphia’s own hip-hop group The Roots and will be featuring performances by Gary Clark Jr., Grimes, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Naughty by Nature. All of the artists are handpicked by The Roots themselves.
XPoNential Music Festival
Date: July 26-28 $: Seating closer to the stage ranges upward of $100, but seats toward the rear and lawn range from $40-$60 Where: Wiggins Park and Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, N.J. Presented by WXPN, this three-day festival features some of the biggest alternative rock, folk and indie artists around. The big names headlining the festival this year are The Lumineers, Bob Dylan, Wilco and My Morning Jacket. XPoNential also showcases a lot of singer-songwriters, like Ryan Bingham and Michael Kiwanuka, as well as many other local artists like the popular group Dr. Dog. In addition to the usual food and drink vendors, Flying Fish Brewing Company is a sponsor of the festival, and there will be many craft brew stands set up throughout the grounds. Tickets go on sale May 1.
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half-machine, Cyborg’s success is an inspiration to those who are cast out as ugly or struggle with disabilities. His strength to overcome the shame of his accident allows viewers to see that the social misfortune disabilities create can be overcome. Beast Boy, the final member of the Titans featured in the animated series, is the character to whom I can relate the most. His inability to appear human and ability to morph into any animal create an allegory for someone who is struggling to find a place for himself in the world. Hiding behind humor, Beast Boy is the most immature yet well-intentioned of the group, often finding himself in trouble for his irresponsible nature. As his character progresses, Beast Boy matures and begins to see the Titans as his family finding a place where he feels accepted. While the lessons I learned from Beast Boy and many other characters failed to totally solve my elementary and high school problems, they gave me the knowledge that I could overcome them. Finally, upon making my journey through college, I found my team, my family, many members of which have enabled me to write this column for the semester. Although my favorite cartoons seem repetitive, predictable and silly now, they never leave me with a bad feeling. The positive outlook on life they give us on such a continuously disappointing and stressful world can not only prepare the next generation, but also preserve their youth in the process. Matt Kirk can be reached at matthew.kirk@temple.edu.
Firefly Music Festival
Date: June 21-23 $: Three-day passes are available for $258, but as the festival draws nearer, single day tickets will become available. Where: Dover, Del. Some of the most popular bands in the country will be at Firefly, and there is quite a diverse selection: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Kendrick Lamar, Vampire Weekend, Calvin Harris, Foster the People, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, MGMT, The Lumineers, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and The Walkmen. Firefly is held on an 87-acre campground, surrounded by lush forests – sort of the Northeast’s equivalent of Bonnaroo. Also interspersed throughout the festival are eight pop-up restaurants, each with unique dishes, and two venues that appeal to wine and beer lovers. The Vineyard will feature selections from the area’s wineries, while The Brewery will have the popular Dogfish Head craft pale-ales, including the debut of what they are calling “Firefly Ale.” Concert-goers can also experience the music from hundreds of feet up in the sky, since $20 hot air balloon rides will be available on site.
Philadelphia Folk Festival
Date: August 15-18 $: Tickets can be purchased for the entire festival for around $120, or you can attend a select weekend show, with tickets ranging from $40-$60 Where: Old Pool Farm, Schwenksville, Pa. Sponsored by the non-profit Philadelphia FolkSong Society, the Philadelphia Folk Festival is the largest and longest-running outdoor folk festival in the country. While the lineup for this year has not been released yet, festivals in the past have featured Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle and the Dukes and tributes to legendary folk artists like Woody Guthrie. They might not be household names, but the Philadelphia Folk Festival is all about the experience, as more than 5,000 people camp for the weekend, allowing for a very convivial and festive atmosphere. The festival also features arts and crafts, with experts all over the campgrounds demonstrating glassmaking, metalsmith and candle making. Discounted tickets can be purchased before August 1.
*For more festival previews, visit temple-news.com.
- Dave Ziegler
arts & entertainment
Tuesday, APRIL 30, 2013
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Earl jared whalen TTN
JARED WHALEN The Temple News Nathan “Earl” Allebach is everything you could want from a singer-songwriter. Clad in tan skinnies and a jean jacket covering an obscure band tank-top, he captures the look of an alt folk singer who knows his way around the scene. The beard and black frames help, too. But Allebach has more to offer than a trademark wardrobe. Having been involved in the music scene for the better part of five years as both a performer and promoter, Allebach has been on stage, behind the sound board and on the sidelines giving bands their two-minute warnings. Based in Harleysville, Pa., he has hosted local music and art shows regularly and has been a staple in his local music scene. Taking the solo road under the name Earl, Allebach offers catchy folk songs with a voice both familiar sounding yet unique. He is currently in the studio recording his first solo al-
bum, “Beginnings,” and he will be performing at The Blockley on May 19. Allebach sat down with The Temple News to enjoy a cup of green tea and discuss his new project and upcoming album. THE TEMPLE NEWS: You have been involved in the local scene, both as a performer and promoter, for years. How did you first get involved in music? Nathan Allebach: I began playing acoustic guitar in eighth grade, so I guess that was around 2007. I picked it up because I’ve been writing since I was a little kid, writing short stories and poetry, and I wanted to see how it sounded once I put it to music. And I sucked really, really bad. So I just [tried] it for a while and realized that it wasn’t really going anywhere, because I wasn’t the best at guitar or bass or singing. All my buddies played in bands, so I didn’t really fit in anywhere. But I just kept at it. I started playing some cover songs on acoustic and piano. I still sucked, but I started
to see some potential in that. I started learning how to sing. I guess early on I started listening to some key musical influences that I still have today, like City and Colour and John Mark McMillian. I would try to emulate their singing patterns and their styles, and that eventually got me to the point where I developed a tone for myself. So after years of trial and error...a tone got developed and people began to pay attention. TTN: How would you describe your writing style? NA: Everybody approaches this so differently, but for me it is honestly a more organic thing. It’s not so much that I love writing songs or that I love making music, but that I find that when I’m going through something I always find myself on paper. Whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, whenever a thought enters my head it ends up on paper, and that’s typically where it begins. Now that I love playing guitar, I’ll just sit on the couch, and I’ll just start playing. If I have a “catch” or a
tagline that I really like I’ll just keep singing that while playing guitar. If that first tagline sticks in my head as something that I can put up with for right now, then I’ll structure the song from that point. I’ve tried for years to force music. Everyone has the bands that they look up to, so you try as a musician to sound [like them] sometimes, and it has never worked for me. All the songs and sounds I get come from just sort of processing and being able to put the words I process into simple music. TTN: You are currently in the studio working on a new album. Tell us a little about that. NA: It’s been a long, long process in the studio. I went in about eight months ago with one of my best friends, Eric Sirianni. I went in with him because he was starting up his own studio and needed a good project to get his name out there, so we started going at it and started laying down the full band with some drums and everything else. But
he ended up getting caught up with work, and I got caught up with work and school, so it got really, really slow for a while, kind of fell behind. But now, as of 2013, April and March, we’ve been going hard at it. Currently that’s where most of my energy is. It’s going to be a 12-track record titled “Beginnings.” I don’t have a date yet, but I’m hoping to release it in early summer. TTN: What are some struggles you’ve encountered as a solo musician? NA: Lots. Being a solo musician in the Philly area is great and horrible, because Philly has an emerging music scene that is not quite on par with New York City or Nashville or L.A. But it’s emerging, so a lot of the venues out here are thirsty for new taste. There are a lot of locals, like myself, that are coming onto the scene and trying to make a name for themselves. So there’s been a lot of opportunities in the city, but at the same time, as a solo artist it’s a lot harder to promote gigs when it’s
just you...When you’re with a band your chances double, triple, quadruple to get people out than with one person. Drawing people out to a gig has been a big challenge the last two years or so. TTN: How would you say your experience as a show planner and promoter in the local scene has influenced your success as a musician? NA: It sounds corny and cliché, but it’s all about loving people and loving what they have to offer. Growing up in the music, it’s like there’s a sense of community there, and everyone has their part. Whether they are watching the music or playing the music or selling music or buying music, everyone has their part, and they feel a family when they go to shows. I grew up in that, so I wanted to recreate it when I started booking shows a couple years ago. So now I’m using that idea as a platform for myself to get in the music world. Jared Whalen can be reached at jared.whalen@temple.edu.
Opera Performance alumna pursuing country music program gave her. “My dream role was to play Christine in ‘Phantom of the Opera,’” Taylor said. “Working with my producer, Dugg McDonough, and the late John Douglas in Temple’s theater program, I had the opportunity to sing opposite the legendary Davis Gaines, who played the Phantom thousands of times,” Taylor said. “He fell in love with my voice, introduced me to the casting director, set me up with a one-on-one master class and the rest is history. Being talented is 2 percent,
but the rest is paying attention to who is around you and impressing them.” Migrating from Broadway to country music, Taylor isn’t worried that she’ll blend in with the blonde southern bells parading the Nashville scene. “You have to pick a genre because mainstream music will pigeonhole you,” Taylor said. Taylor said her songwriting authenticity is an asset. “In addition to my experience, I stand out by writing all of my own songs,” Taylor said. “Carrie Underwood has a team
The Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts held a street fair on April 27, to mark the end of the 31-day festival. This year’s PIFA theme was “If You Had a Time Machine...” | andrew thayer TTN
taylor PAGE 9
that writes her stuff. Sometimes singers will pay a songwriter and then add a word or two and then take all of the credit. Other times, singers just buy songs from you, and you can never reveal that you wrote them or else you’ll be punished by huge laws and fines.” Taylor said she refuses to even allow other artists cover her songs. “I don’t think there is enough money for me to give up my song,” Taylor said. “It would be like selling my child. Just take a knife, cut out my soul and
say, ‘Here it is.’ It could be the greatest sound ever, but in my heart, no one can live up to what I was feeling when I wrote it.” One song Taylor would relinquish for a superstar to cover is “Last Call (For Alcohol),” the first song off her new album, “Magic.” “This is a college campus anthem,” Taylor said. “Everybody at Temple can relate to that moment when they’re closing down the bar at 2 a.m., and you’re looking for somebody to finish the night with. I was always that one who doesn’t
hook up but is desperately trying at the end,” Taylor said with a laugh. Taylor will be performing “Last Call” along with other songs off “Magic,” when she kicks off her 2013 national tour May 23 at World Cafe Live. All proceeds will benefit the Jaws Youth Playbook organization, former NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski’s charity, which focuses on improving the overall health and wellness of at-risk youth. Tickets are available at her
website: doreentaylormusic. com. “I pay a lot of tributes to the Philly area for giving me my break,” Taylor said. “So I forced the tour to start in Philly. I’m not making a dime off this, because I believe in using the gifts I was given to give back to the community.” John Corrigan can be reached at john.corrigan@temple.edu.
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presents “Branded,� a documentary examining Temple Made.
Tuesday, APRIL 30, 2013
arts & entertainment
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Gamers unite in Main Campus hub ed people, it might be difficult to approach someone completely random and inquire about the games they are playing.” The club is still in its infancy, and is expected to gain momentum in the upcoming fall semester, but Troy hopes people will see its use. “I really hope the club becomes a great utility for the students to find other students. My SAMANTHA TIGHE idea for the club is essentially Save & Quit supposed to be a place where can meet new people In her final column, people who are interested in traditional Tighe discusses the games,” he said. Rick Moffat, a senior techgaming culture of nical consultant on campus, Main Campus. has been playing PC games for the past 20 years. Like Troy, he said he believes that video games can create a great sense of camaraderie. He even wrote his thesis on the future of video ituated in a far corner games on university campuses of the Student Center, and how they offer a lot of benaway from the hustle efits for students, faculty, the and bustle of the food administration and the video court, is a relaxed two-room game industry. suite comprised of the game Through a series of correroom and lounge. spondences with Mojang, creThe larger of the two, the ator of the mega-popular game game room, holds various gam- “Minecraft,” a representative ing tables, such as foosball and mentioned to Moffat and a copingpong. The lounge has al- worker that more than 700 user most a dozen circular tables accounts on “Minecraft” were spread out. On a Tuesday af- linked to Temple email addressternoon the game room is dark, es. unused. The lounge, however, is “That’s when we started alight with activity. One group thinking it would be really inof individuals is playing Nin- teresting to open up a student tendo DS and having a lively server and see who might come discussion about Rasputin. An- and play,” Moffat said. “I’m ther couple sits with their lap- running a number of ‘Minecraft’ tops out, quietly chattering with research projects at the moment one another. Had these rooms with Catherine Schifter in the not been labeled on maps of the College of Education and Maria Student Center, it would be all Cipollone in communications, too easy for them to slip through but we don’t have anything gothe cracks. ing on at the university level Temple is a big school, yet. I’d like to change that.” with a student body comprised Moffat, who is the adof nearly 40,000 stuviser for dents. It should be no the newly surprise that many formed Stustudents of the same dent LAN age, perhaps sharing Club, wants the same interests, to continue would band together to expand to create their own on Temgaming group or ple’s gamclub. ing service. Whether their He notes, unofficial gathering h o w e v e r, is in a dorm common Michael Troy / senior, computer that without sciences room or a friend’s the support house for beer and or involvegames, playing video games or ment from the student body, engaging in some kind of gam- it’s hard to push for changes on ing activity is a great way to cre- campus. ate friendships. “Temple has intercolleThe Temple University giate eSports teams, ‘Minecraft’ Game Club is the brainchild of players, students running LAN Michael Troy, a senior comput- events, charity streams and I’m er science major. He submitted sure there’s a lot more I haven’t a short post to the “/r/Temple” heard about,” Moffat said. section of Reddit, asking if any “I’d love to bring gamof the readers were interested in ing out of the dorm rooms and creating a gaming club. apartments around campus. It It wouldn’t necessarily fo- would give students a chance to cus on just video games – board have something fun and social games and tabletop games were to do on campus, faculty would emphasized just as equally. have an opportunity to shorten There seems to be some inter- their learning curve about how est, and the club held its first to play games and about video meeting last week. game culture and community, “I wanted to start the gam- we might develop grant and reing club, because I feel as though search opportunities and I have there isn’t a very good outlet to think the video game industry for people interested in playing would be interested in particitraditional games on campus,” pating on some level as well.” Troy said. “I’ve met many peoThe reason he believes ple who have expressed interest gaming companies could be inin playing traditional games but terested in what Temple has to have never found a group will- offer? ing to play.” “Temple’s a big school, Troy said he has been to the a diverse school, located in a gaming area of the Student Cen- big city and it could be a great ter a few times in the past and destination for all sorts of video has seen students playing dif- game events,” Moffat said. ferent games with one another. Troy, however, put himself in Samantha Tighe can be reached the shoes of a new student – inat samantha.tighe@temple.edu. coming or transfer – who is still trying to spark up friendships. Troy said that although the atmosphere is open and friendly, it’s hard to approach strangers. “I feel as though the people at the game room have found the people they intend to play with and so [they] aren’t necessarily looking for new people,” Troy said. “For more introvert-
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“I really hope
that the club becomes a great utility for the students to find other students.
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Tuesday, APRIL 30, 2013
THE DIVISION OF STUDENT AFFAIRS IS PROUD TO PRESENT THIS YEARS
DIAMOND AWARD WINNERS Each year the Division of Student Affairs presents a select group of students with the Diamond Award. It is the highest recognition given by the Division to deserving juniors and seniors who exhibit leadership, academic excellence, service, and impact on the campus, community, and the world.
Jennifer Abercrumbie School/College: College of Health Professions and Social Work Major: Linguistics Hometown: Alsip, IL
Lauren E. Hertzler School/College: School of Communications and Theater Major: Journalism Hometown: Enola, PA
Ian J. Rose School/College: School of Communications and Theater Major: Film and Media Arts Hometown: Lafayette Hill, PA
Andrew Alabd School/College: College of Liberal Arts Major: Neuroscience Hometown: Audubon, PA
Yuan Huang School/College: College of Liberal Arts Major: Geography and Urban Studies Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Scott G. Scarlotta Meinzer School/College: College of Health Professions and Social Work Major: Kinesiology Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Juwan Z. Bennett School/College: College of Liberal Arts Major: Criminal Justice Hometown: Philadelphia, PA Zachary R. Cetlin School/College: Fox School of Business and Management Major: Finance Hometown: Broomall, PA Wafai H. Dias School/College: School of Communications and Theater Major: Journalism Hometown: Philadelphia, PA Brynne C. DiMenichi School/College: College of Liberal Arts Major: Psychology Hometown: Philadelphia, PA Julie A. Furdella School/College: College of Liberal Arts Major: Psychology Hometown: Philadelphia, PA Holly R. Furman School/College: School of Communications and Theater Major: Advertising Hometown: New Freedom, PA Gustavo Garcia School/College: Tyler School of Art Major: Art Hometown: New Oxford, PA
Sumair Irfan School/College: College of Liberal Arts Major: Economics Hometown: West Chester, PA Cheryl Marcelo School/College: College of Liberal Arts Major: English Hometown: Hazleton, PA Shannon M. McGinnis School/College: College of Science and Technology Major: Biology Hometown: Rochester, MI Safya O’Rourke School/College: College of Liberal Arts Major: Environmental Studies and Political Science Hometown: Asbury Park, NJ Constance E. Owens School/College: College of Health Professions and Social Work Major: Public Health Hometown: Upper Marlboro, MD Daniele P. Raneri School/College: College of Health Professions and Social Work Major: Communication Sciences Hometown: Hazlet, NJ
Matthew Schillizzi School/College: Boyer College of Music and Dance Major: Music Hometown: Lake Hopatcong, NJ Denise R. Snook School/College: School of Environmental Design Major: Horticulture Hometown: Philadelphia, PA Luv Sodha School/College: Fox School of Business and Management Major: Accounting and Finance Hometown: Richboro, PA Katarzyna A. Tomasik School/College: College of Liberal Arts Major: Economics Hometown: Philadelphia, PA Simon Wong School/College: Fox School of Business and Management Major: Accounting and Finance Hometown: Plymouth Meeting, PA Mina Youssef School/College: College of Liberal Arts Major: Psychology Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Congratulations to the 2013 Diamond Award winners! Awardees will reveive their award on Wednesday, May 8, 2013 at the Diamond Awards Ceremony at 5:30 pm in the Student Center, Room 200.
LIVING
Tuesday, APRIL 30, 2013
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Affordable housing: 4,000-mile goal Two students will bike cross-country for affordable housing. RACHEL MCDEVITT The Temple News “I really like helping people.” This is the unanimous driving factor behind two Temple sophomores, who will be hopping on their bikes and pedaling across the country this summer in the name of affordable housing. Travis Southard and Rogelio Ayllón will be taking the ultimate road trip, powered by their own sweat and determination, and an organization called Bike and Build, a nonprofit that organizes cross-country bike trips to spread the mission of affordable housing. Founded in 2002, Bike and Build now has eight routes mapped across the country, stretching from the East to West coasts. Groups of 25 to 30 people take up the challenge, not only as a feat of strength,
but to serve needy communities by building affordable houses along the way. Southard has a history of long-term service and volunteering. He spent two years serving in a North Philadelphia school under City Year and still works with kindergarteners and first-graders in the after-school program. “I have a real passion for service and helping people,” Southard said, “And that comes from being a person who carries a lot of privilege. I am a skinny, straight, white guy, and there is a lot of privilege that comes with that.” Southard said he hopes to be able to leverage this privilege throughout his life to help others, and personally feels his most powerful when he is doing service. “I think that people can learn incredibly important things about themselves and their communities, and really dissuade assumptions by doing service,” he said. Ayllón calls himself a beginner when it comes to biking. He credits his sister for the
courage to take on this trip. “I was looking through her pictures, and saw all the people she was helping out, and I thought, ‘I want to do that,’” he said. Ayllón said he also draws motivation from his past struggles as an immigrant growing up in the United States. He said when he was 10 years old, his parents moved him away from the violence happening in Mexico City to better educational opportunities in the U.S. “We came to the United States with $10 in our pockets, but I never suffered from having to look for a place to live,” he said, adding that he is now dedicated to the Bike and Build trip, because nonprofit organizations helped his family a great deal when they were transitioning to life in the U.S. “It’s surprising how deep the affordable housing crisis is in the United States and I just want to do a little part to help out,” Ayllón said. The cyclists will travel more than 4,000 miles on their trips this summer. Ayllón will bike through 17 states from
Providence, R.I., to Half Moon Bay in California, just outside San Francisco. Southard’s route is the “longest and strongest,” stretching 4,264 miles from Charleston, S.C., to Santa Cruz, Calif. “This will be my longest trip ever, completely disregarding the bike,” Southard said. Each morning, the teams will wake at 6 a.m. to meet and lay out the roads they will be using that day and where they will be stopping for lunch. The riders can then bike at their own pace to the locations, stopping along the way or traveling off the route to take in the sights. The team will meet again in the evening, where they will give presentations on what affordable housing is and why they are doing this trip to each community they stay in. About 15 days of the trip will be spent in select towns, where the cyclists will lay down their bikes for hammers and nails to build houses with local affordable housing groups. Before the cyclists see any of the open road, they have to prepare – physically and finan-
cially. “We’ve been accepted to the ride, but now we kind of have to prove ourselves by raising $4,500 for this cause and doing 10 hours of sweat equity,” Southard said. “Sweat equity” amounts to 10 hours of service with a local affordable housing group, like Habitat for Humanity. The riders will be able to give away a personal grant of $500 from their fundraising to an organization they feel is doing great service in its communities. All of the funds raised aside from this personal grant and the money needed for the bikes, food and support along the way, will be pooled by each group and given away as competitive grants to affordable housing groups across the country. These grants could total around $80,000. Fundraising has been a challenge in itself for the riders. Online pleas could not get the results needed to go on the trip, so Southard and Ayllón have taken to public spaces around Philadelphia to ask for donations. The two set up their bikes on
trainers, allowing them to pedal in place while asking passers-by in Rittenhouse Square and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art for their generosity. Southard was also awarded a grant of $200 by the Catch the Dream Foundation, an honor he received by catching the attention of the foundation’s founder as he pedaled in Rittenhouse Square. Both cyclists still have a little more than $1,500 to fundraise before the start of their trips, but they said they are confident they can reach their goals. “A lot of people have their doubts that I’ll be able to make it,” Ayllón said. “They hear ‘biking across the country’ and they just look at me and say, ‘good luck.’ But it’s doable.” You can follow the cyclists’ adventures this summer through their blogs on bikeandbuild. org. You can also use the site to show your support by donating to Southard and Ayllón. Rachel McDevitt can be reached at rachel.mcdevitt@temple.edu.
Momentum required for LGBT Personal statements tradition movement to stay on course is rite of passage for majors
SARA PATTERSON QChat
Patterson looks back on the last year for the LGBT community.
A
s the semester, as well as my sophomore year, comes to a close, it seems fitting to look back at this past year. From President Barack Obama’s public support of same-sex marriage to the Supreme Court’s hearings on Prop 8 and DOMA, 2012-13 can only be described one way: the gayest year ever. I knew the second Obama said he believed same-sex couples should be able to get married, the fight for marriage equality was going to shift. Suddenly, supporting same-sex marriage wasn’t a risky move for the ultra-liberal. One by one, Democratic politicians fell in line behind the president. As of today, all but three Democratic senators support same-sex marriage. Two high profile Republicans do, too. The shift is evident among American citizens, as well. For the first time in history, a majority of Americans believe that gay people should be able to get married. According to a Washington Post poll taken in March, 58 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage. That’s a complete 180-degree opposite of the same poll taken 10 years ago. Among the major reasons for the shift in opinion are public figures who have come out as gay or as an ally in the last year – in some unexpected places, even. The hip-hop world, with its misogynistic lyrics and frequent use of slurs, has long been labeled homophobic. Frank Ocean not only released one of the best albums of 2012, but also turned the hip-hop world on its head when he came out as bisexual. Not long after, hip-hop icons such as Russell Simmons and Jay-Z praised Ocean for
his bravery and posed the questions, “How compassionate will we be? How loving can we be? How inclusive are we?” toward the hip-hop community. After Ocean came out last summer, sports became the one major realm with no openly gay representatives. Sure, there have been a few who have come out after they’ve retired and there are plenty of open lesbians in women’s sports. But among the four major sports – men’s baseball, basketball, football and hockey – there are no out gay athletes. Yet. The NHL’s “You Can Play” program and outspoken straight allies like professional football players Chris Kluwe and Brendon Ayanbadejo have made it clear that despite the hyper-masculine locker room atmosphere, pro sports is ready to welcome openly gay players. With all the progress made this last year, it is easy to forget that there is still a lot to be done. No matter how the Supreme Court decides to rule regarding Prop 8 and DOMA, it will not mean the end of the fight for marriage equality. There are still 41 states that do not allow samesex marriage, Pennsylvania included. However, marriage equality isn’t the only issue on the so-called gay agenda. Yes, it’s the most high-profile, publicized issue, but being denied the right to get married isn’t the only discrimination we face. I’m sure most of you knew that only nine states allow same-sex marriage, but do you know how many offer employee protection? Only 21. That means that in 29 states, including Pennsylvania, employers can fire someone because of their sexual or gender identity and face no consequences. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban employee discrimination on sexual or gender identity throughout America, has been introduced to Congress nine times since 1994 and still hasn’t been passed. Where are the Facebook profile pictures to bring attention to that? Or to bring attention to the fact that gay men are banned from donating blood because they are believed to be at a high risk for HIV/AIDS? This isn’t to take away from the efforts of the fight for marriage equality, but rather to shed light on the fact that there is much more to fight for. And what better time to fight than now? Between Obama’s re-election along with Maine, Maryland and Washing-
ton’s legalization of same-sex marriage this past November, out entertainers like Neil Patrick Harris and Ellen DeGeneres being as popular as ever, and the fact that public support for LGBT rights is at an all-time high at the moment, it is so important for the LGBT movement to keep momentum. It’s been a month since the hullabaloo in Washington, D.C., over samesex marriage. And since then, bigger stories have come and gone and Facebook is no longer covered in red. But the Supreme Court will be issuing its ruling sometime in June, also known as “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month,” which should make for some exciting pride celebrations. While gay equality seems to be in the not-so-distant future, it’s time to look toward the next phase of the LGBT movement. The transgender community has long been ignored and overlooked in favor of lesbians, gays and bisexuals. The Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBT advocacy group, has been widely criticized for excluding transgender people and even working against them. The transgender community faces even more legal discrimination than the rest of the LGBT community and has to deal with even more widespread ignorance. In the way that the gay rights movement has progressed in the last 15 years, with legal rights, positive portrayals in the media and public figures coming out, I can only hope that the next 15 years can be the same for the transgender rights movement. This is the time for the LGBT community to come together. We have a president who supports us. We have lawmakers who are on our side. We have public figures who are no longer afraid to come out and allies who are proud to stand with us. We are at the height of the gay rights movement and we need to take advantage of it. Sara Patterson can be reached at sara.patterson@temple.edu.
MARCIE ANKER Starving Actor
Anker takes her final bow as a columnist, offering advice to future theater majors.
W
ell, everyone. It’s finally that time, a year later, when I graduate and leave you all for good. I urge you to form a support group to cope with the agony of my absence. I thought it only fitting to leave Temple’s theater department the way that I came in – with a personal statement. You see, like any good religious cult, all new converts must complete a “Personal Statement,” a sort of rite of passage, if you will, to join the Church of Temple Theaters. You are not officially a part of the community until you perform your personal statement. Let me explain. At the end of each semester, there are either one or two class days allotted – depending on the amount of new theater converts – for the entire theater department to watch the newbies in the Creativity : Basic course perform a one-minute “personal statement.” Essentially, it’s their introduction and initiation into the department. When I first signed up for Creativity and was told, “You have to get up in front of the entire department and make your statement,” I dropped the class. At the time I was still a journalism major, just testing the theater waters, and this was too much. Cruel and unusual punishment, I thought. But, alas, I found myself back in that same class a year later, unable to escape my preordained theater fate. It was still horrifically nerve-wracking to think about. But luckily, everyone else in the class felt the same way. My professor, a particularly experimental fellow, was even more vague in the parameters of this “personal statement” than my former professor. We could lit-
erally do anything. Anything. I’ve seen naked people during personal statements. I’ve seen a wide variety of boobs during personal statements. Yeah, bet you wish you were a theater major now, huh? But my personal statement was, literally, me putting on about 10 bras and then throwing them around the stage, giving all of the reasons why it’s great having such big boobs. If you’ve ever met me, you’d understand the irony. The point of my personal statement, other than to provide a departure from the typically melodramatic personal statements, was to say, I suppose, that I have big boobs in my mind and that’s all that matters. In a weird way it was something about confidence. I don’t know, I was, like, 19 years old. Or 20. Now, being one of the grand elders of the Church of Theater, I’ve come to see all sorts of personal statements; and in general, “Personal Statement Day” is the most exciting day of the semester – mostly because everyone hopes to see some boobies. The success or failure of personal statements depends largely on the class’s dynamics and how they work together. If one person is trying to steal the spotlight from their fellow personal-staters, it takes away from the experience as an audience member. I’ve seen classes perform their personal statements as if they were performing a well-rehearsed show, and those are the ones that are memorable. Sometimes, when the converts are more timid, the statements become predictable. The “No one supported me when I chose to do theater; but damn it I’ll do it anyway!” or the “High school was so hard and so was life so,” or “My family sucks more than yours, my life is harder than yours,” or the “[silence because a girl is just walking back and forth with her boobs out and then sits down].” Sometimes someone will sing or dance, and sometimes someone will yell in another language or talk about horses. Sometimes people will be funny, and sometimes people will try to be funny and I feel sad. There are cute ones, and there are heart-breaking ones; there are offensive ones and there are uncomfortable ones – like, say, a big-boned, hairy fellow wearing a thong flopping on the stage and remaining there for the rest of the statements. But all in all, they’re enjoyable. Though, I must say, I’ve always
wished I would see someone confess their love to someone else – preferably me – for their statement. If I were to do a personal statement now, an exit statement, I’d like to think I’d have the balls to just stand there on the stage, silent and naked until I made people uncomfortable enough to cry, leave or applaud. But my boobs are too big. I’d like to think I’d be brave enough to do a mash-up of all the personal statements I remember, but I have a bad memory. I’m not sure what I’d do. Maybe I’d confess my love to someone. Like my editor; I’ll miss him terribly. We’ve had our ups and downs, but through it all, I only have one angry voicemail from him on my phone. But really, I think I’d do a one-minute session of “real talk” whilst eating a burrito. Or I might just skip the talking and stick to the eating. Ugh, I’m trying to stall being serious. Learn new things: Don’t pigeonhole yourself into one skill because you’re too stubborn to stray away from Tomlinson Theater. Don’t choose to be a one-trick pony, be a theater artist. Don’t ever forget that the walls have ears, information travels around the theater department like wildfire. Don’t let your poor reputation precede you. Be nice – no one likes a diva for more than 10-minute intervals. Do your best not to drunkenly hook up with people in the department unless you’re fine with everyone knowing the details the next day – try the film department. Take classes with as many faculty members as you can. Don’t be that person who lives in the atrium; and please, for god’s sake, don’t sit on the damn couches, they’re weird and dirty. And last, but certainly not least, do not sing in Randall Lobby in the middle of the day – you are annoying more people than you think. Alas, I must come to an end. Thank you to my editor, The Temple News, the theater department, the readers and the haters – I couldn’t have done it without you. Now might’ve been the time when I’d ask you to feed me, but that will no longer be necessary because – wait for it... I have a job. Gasp. Here is my virtual bow. Lights down. Curtain. Applause? Marcie Anker can be reached at martha.anker@temple.edu.
living
page 16
Tuesday, APRIL 30, 2013
From digs to lecture halls David Orr, a lifetime archaeologist, makes a home for himself as a professor. ERIN EDINGER-TUROFF The Temple News Anthropology professor David Orr’s office in Gladfelter Hall may as well be an archaeological site, with shelf-lined walls overflowing with historical books and files filled with documents and photographs. It is an office that the professor and lifetime archaeologist knows well, as he is able to pull books from their place in the array of literature within moments of bringing up any specific collaborator or mentor of his. Some work of Wilhelmina Jashemski, a highly acclaimed Pompeian archaeologist who Orr studied under, is settled reverently on a top shelf. Since an agreement between the National Park Service and Temple in 2003, Orr has been teaching a variety of classes that are equally diverse in nature as his personal experience with architecture. About 50 years ago, Orr said, he was working with prehistoric archaeology during his undergraduate years. After working in the prehistoric department, he went on to study classical archaeology at the University of Maryland, with a focus on the famed ancient Italian city of Pompeii, known for its demise in a volcanic explosion. There, he completed a dissertation on what he called “Roman household worship.” Though Pompeii holds great emotional significance, as Orr described, he had many more interests to dig into. After returning to the United States in 1973, he discovered a passion for the American archaeological field. Orr recalled that a number of his colleagues in the classical archaeology department went on to pursue careers in the American field. The interest was always there, he said. “I was exposed in the [1960s],” Orr said. “Even though I was studying classical archaeology and going over to Italy, I was exposed to the American field.” Despite being recognized for his work in classical archaeology during his residency in Italy with the prestigious Prix de Rome award, he said he has never taught classic archaeology full-time. Dr. John Cotter, a renowned American archaeologist known for his work developing histori-
cal archaeology in the United States, was Orr’s colleague and mentor who recommended Orr take his position at the midAtlantic region of the National Park Service headquartered in Philadelphia. “We had shared an office,” Orr said, referring to the time both he and Cotter taught at the University of Pennsylvania. “He encouraged me to take his job and I did.” In doing so, Orr became chief archaeologist of the region with the National Park Service. Orr maintained that position from 1977 to 2006, and became established at Temple due to an agreement between the park service and the university. In exchange for an office, Orr began teaching part time at the university in 2003, before retiring from the National Park Service and becoming full-time at Temple in 2006. “Right from the start, the idea was that I would mentor graduate students who are interested in historical archaeology,” Orr said. At any given time, he teaches Battlefield and Conflict Archaeology, which he introduced to the department, as well as Urban Historical Archaeology, Heritage Management and a gen-ed course. Heritage management, he said, is important to know for those entering the field, as it covers the laws and procedures archaeologists must abide by during excavation. Sometimes, such as this coming fall, Orr teaches a course on Pompeii – a valuable artifact in its own right due to his personal experience. “I guess immodestly, I’ve been doing this for a long time,” Orr said. “I would like to think that based on all the exposures to all these different archaeologies, I bring that to the table.” Orr connects with Ph.D. students working on dissertations and has been personally responsible for arranging their involvement with digs. One such student, Christopher Barton, is currently undertaking an excavation in Mount Holly, N.J., of a historical community called Timbuktu, created in the 1830s by escaped slaves and freed African-Americans. Barton said he is practicing a strategy of involving the community, a value he learned from Orr. “All my students believe in public presentation,” Orr said. “Barton actually involved the descendant community [at Timbuktu]. The people descended from the ex-slaves who built this town. There’s empowerment, it’s their site in a way.” Orr said he is a firm believer in making excavation an
“I lived in a government interactive process, involving and teaching the community project,” Orr said, describing whenever possible. Barton, who the setting of his memoir in has been working with Orr since Warren, Ohio. “One of the first 2009 at the recommendation of ones built in the United States. a University of Pennsylvania [The memoir] will tell the story adviser, said the most impor- of things that may or may not be tant thing Orr instilled in him is relevant to me but are relevant to what the objects are. It’s ex“pragmatism and patience.” “Working with the Timbuk- perimental. I think it’s going to tu community, the idea is you be interesting.” He said he expects the get all these competing interpretations about a site,” Barton memoir will be published very said. “People kind of view that soon, possibly within a month as a detriment to archaeology. or so. Orr may have decades of Something that [Orr] taught me experience beis to take what hind him, but people think is he has no plans a detriment, and to scale back make it an adhis involvement vantage.” in archaeology Orr, who or at Temple, called involvto the relief of ing and working his students, with students at including Bardigs “the whole ton, who said point” of his he is inspired by teaching posiOrr’s continution, also said ous commitinterpretation is Chris Barton / graduate student ment. of the utmost im“He’s got portance to him. more energy He is the recipient of the Lifetime Preservation than me, and I’m 30 [years Award and the Crystal Owl for old],” Barton said. “History never sleeps.” his interpretation work. Perhaps the most difficult Erin Edinger-Turoff can be task of this nature, interpretreached at ing one’s own existence, is a erin.edinger-turoff@temple.edu. process Orr said he has almost completed. His memoir, “Some Things of Value: A Child Confronts His Material World,” addresses his youth through object interpretation.
“Something that
[Orr] taught me is to take what people think is a detriment, and use it as an advantage.
”
THE NEWS DOESN’T STOP.
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SPORTS
TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2013
PAGE 17
Owls hoping for stability in new conference AMERICAN PAGE 20
at what you do,” Rhule said. “College football is a game of matchups. You have to be great at what you do.” Rhule described the conference changing in terms of its on-the-field performance as a positive in that each team had its own identity because they come from different conferences in different regions. “The biggest thing you see in the conference is that there are all these different styles of teams,” Rhule said. “SMU is traditionally a run-and-shoot team, Houston is into the airraid, Central Florida is going to ground and pound. Sometimes you look at conferences like the SEC and [the teams] all have the same style. You look at this conference and there are all these different styles of teams.” While the philosophy could perhaps be applied on the court as well, it would be harder for the basketball teams to find the silver lining in the conference move. Temple’s basketball teams had the most to lose when the Big East dissolved and The American was formed. Missing a chance to join the Big East – a conference that boasts rivalries and traditions few other leagues can match – wasn’t taken well at
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first by the players. “I was watching TV and I was like, ‘So all the good teams left?’” Lee said. “Who’s going to be left for us?” “Of course they moved some of the better teams out and they’re bringing in some teams that wouldn’t be up to that level of competition,” sophomore guard Tyonna Williams said. “But basketball is basketball.” The women’s lone consolation in all the shuffling is the chance to play eight-time national champion Connecticut, coached by Geno Auriemma – Cardoza’s old mentor. Both basketball teams play each conference foe twice a year, which Cardoza said equals at least two nationally televised games for her squad. “No one wants to play [Connecticut] twice,” Cardoza said. “You want to play them once and hope that you get lucky.” “It gets to the point where teams like to just watch them warm up for a game,” Cardoza added.
RECRUITING
Cardoza plans to use Connecticut to recruit better talent. “So you know when you’re recruiting, you’re recruiting kids that you’re trying to upend [Connecticut],” Cardoza said. “So [recruits] have to be on par with what they’re trying to do, or at least a notch right below.” Cardoza also said she’s focused more on selling the Temple name than The American brand. She hasn’t seen a change in recruiting interest with the loss of the Catholic 7, she said. Dunphy noted that the move to the Big East opened doors in his own recruiting process. “Initially, when we first heard we were going to the Big East, we got to more homes, got to be face-to-face with more
players that we maybe haven’t gotten to be face-to-face with in the past,” Dunphy said. “As a result we were in there with a number of guys that we were close to getting.” The drop-off of prestige in The American compared to the Big East could have played a role in Temple’s recent recruiting losses. Rysheed Jordan was considering Temple and St. John’s before the conference realignment was announced. The Philadelphia native and Top 100 recruit ultimately chose St. John’s, a member of the Big East. “It is going to take a little bit of time to get everybody’s radar up to [The American] being a very good basketball conference,” Dunphy said. Rhule said that he hasn’t felt a negative shift in recruiting under The American name, partly because the football portion of the conference remained relatively constant and also that he pushes his coaches to recruit with more vigor and at a higher level. “Going to The American hasn’t closed any doors,” Rhule said. “Kids are always going to take the conference as part of the recruiting process, but right now, based on how we are recruiting, I think we are recruiting at a level that we have never had before.” Of the football program’s five committed recruits for the Class of 2014, players turned down offers from the Big Ten Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference and Big 12 Conference.
FACILITIES
While rumors about Temple’s plans to build a football stadium on campus appear to be more fantasy than reality, the Owls’ current venue, Lincoln Financial Field, stacks up well with the rest of the conference.
With a capacity of 68,532, the stadium ranks second in The American next year and will lead the conference in 2014. However, Temple’s attendance lacks. In conference games last season, Temple filled 39 percent of its stadium, ranking them last in the conference. Temple’s average attendance of 26,580 was also worst in the conference. Four Big East teams drew more than 40,000 fans per game. Despite home attendance lacking, the football team put a $9.7 million expansion on Edberg-Olson Hall in July 2012. Rhule said the practice facility not only helps with preparation and production, but recruiting as well. “I haven’t seen what anybody else in the conference has, but I know what we have,” Rhule said. “And we have as
nice of facilities as anyone else.” Basketball also saw a complete practice facilities overhaul with the $59.8 million upgrade of McGonigle Hall completed last year. But women’s basketball has struggled to fill the stands, ranking in the bottom half of the soon-to-be American, drawing an average of 941 people per game last season. The men, on the other hand, saw an average of 8,165 fans per game, third in the conference. Cardoza expects her team, and the rest of the athletics department, to receive a boost from switching conferences. “I think because it’s new everyone will try and jump on board,” Cardoza said. “You sell [Connecticut] as much as you possibly can...All you want is an opportunity to put people in
the stands.” Through all the changes in the college landscape in recent seasons, one thing that was reiterated throughout was a need for consistency. Without it, the players, coaches and fans won’t have a finished product. That makes it impossible to determine where The American fits into the national landscape. “We are now entering a period of stability,” Rhule said. “That’s what our players deserve and that’s what I am trying to bring to them and invest to them. This is a conference we are committed and invested in. I think we will look back on this conference in a couple of years and say what a great conference it is.” Ibrahim Jacobs and Jake Adams can be reached at sports@temple-news.com.
Facilities near bottom of The American pack FACILITIES PAGE 20
before 2015 – feature permanent seating exceeding capacicom) for more information. ties of at least 1,500 and all include lights. “I think, from a facility standpoint, we are near the bottom of baseball fields of schools in [The American],” coach Ryan Wheeler said. “I know the uniWant to post a classified of your versity and the athletic department wants to get us to the point own? Go to TEMPLE-NEWS.COM/ where we’re in the middle of the CLASSIFIEDS for the most up to date pack. We’re not going to have the money to fund a facility that listings! puts us at the top, but they don’t 2 Col x 6-5 MC3 Summer Ad_Layout 1 1/12/13 2:38 PM Page 1 want to put us at the bottom ei-
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ther.” Wheeler’s club has struggled as of late, and the secondyear coach believes his team will need improved facilities all around in order to help boost his program to a competitive level within the new conference. “I’m hopeful that conference change allows us to upgrade our facility,” Wheeler said. “Moving to the conference that we’re going to and some of the facilities that some of these other programs have, we need some major upgrades. The type of money we need to get that done, I don’t know if I can raise that kind of money. I hope the university can do something to help us out with that.”
SOCCER
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Like baseball, the soccer teams play on a field at Ambler without field lighting. “Obviously, they’re going to need to improve our facilities,” men’s soccer coach Dave MacWilliams said. “Most of all soccer stadiums, they have lights. We’re the only ones that don’t have lights right now. [The Temple athletic department] has spoken about it and they’re definitely going to have to upgrade the facilities so we can compete at this new level.” The soccer field features metal bleachers that seat a few hundred. The field is also without amenities such as a permanent restroom or a press box. All schools in The American that will support a soccer program include permanent grandstand seating with the exception of the University of Central Florida, which features a large metal bleacher that seats nearly 1,500. “We’d like to have it more like a stadium setting,” MacWilliams said. “Most of these schools play in stadium settings with lights and all that. I don’t think all of that is going to change overnight for us and it’s going to take time to improve our facilities.”
The tennis courts could be demolished before next season. Without home courts, the tennis teams would compete in Manayunk. | ANDREW THAYER TTN FILE PHOTO
SOFTBALL
In terms of location, the softball team is at a disadvantage to the other teams in The American. There will be eight teams competing in softball in the conference next year. Temple is one of three schools – along with Memphis and Rutgers – to house softball facilities on a secondary campus, and Temple’s facilities are much farther away from its main campus than those schools. “There’s no two ways around it, for the four teams that play [at Ambler], it’s a challenge for our kids,” softball coach Joe DiPietro said. “It would be awesome if we could have an on-site facility where we could have students participate in our games, but the way it is right now, that’s not in the cards. We make do with what we have.” The team practices or plays six days a week. It practices at Ambler, unless the field is wet and unplayable, in which case they play on turf at Geasey Field. DiPietro is not aware of any plans to renovate or update the softball facilities. The stadium at Ambler holds 1,000 spectators. By comparison, South Florida’s softball field holds
1,500 spectators and sports shaded seating and a press box, among other amenities. “I don’t know if we’re ever going to have that kind of money where we can match the South Florida stadium or a Louisville stadium,” DiPietro said. “They’re legitimate stadiums. It’s not like we have a terrible playing facility, that’s not the case at all. To put it in comparison to other ones, we just don’t have that.” Larry Dougherty, an athletic spokesman, said Temple is in the process of enhancing the existing facilities, but declined to talk specifics.
to make other arrangements to play elsewhere.” The teams train at Legacy Tennis Center in Manayunk during the winter months. If the on-campus courts are demolished, Mauro will pick the new home courts based on location and cost. He said court rental time for the 2012-13 season was about $20,000. From July 2011 to June 2012, the tennis teams combined for $62,510 in operating expenses. “No one really knows if [the budget] will increase or how much it will increase,” Mauro said. “No numbers have been given to us.”
The tennis teams may not have home courts on any Temple campus next year. There are seven courts outside the Student Pavilion, but only four are playable. There are preliminary plans to demolish the Pavilion and the tennis courts to make room for a new library, which are still being discussed. “From what I’ve been told, it’s still up in the air whether or not these courts will exist,” tennis coach Steve Mauro said. “We’re just keeping our fingers crossed that we can still play here in the fall. If not, I’ll have
Lacrosse and field hockey both play on Geasey Field, a 156,000 square foot Astroturf field at 15th and Norris streets. The field was completed four years ago and has an electronic scoreboard. Volleyball plays in McGonigle Hall in a gym that can seat 3,900 spectators. The building completed renovations in Summer 2012.
TENNIS
OTHER SPORTS
Andrew Parent and Evan Cross can be reached at sports@temple.edu.
SPORTS
PAGE 18
TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2013
With shortage of American teams, field sports join Big East
The lacrosse and field hockey teams will play next season as Big East affiliates. BRIEN EDWARDS HOON JIN The Temple News Though the university’s move to the American Athletic Conference has left most of Temple’s sports teams scrambling to figure out as much as they can about schools like Houston and Southern Methodist University, the same cannot be said for the lacrosse and field hockey squads. In the coming season, lacrosse and field hockey will compete in a reconfigured Big East Conference as affiliate members. Due to a combination of the depleted number of teams left in the Big East and the lack of lacrosse and field hockey programs in The American, both conferences have a verbal, yet unofficial, agreement to come together for at least one season. Without a meshing of conferences, every team would be
forced to enter next season as independent members. “It’s been a really good partnership with the Big East group left, to help keep the lacrosse schools in a situation where we have a conference to play in with enough teams, and keep our automatic qualifying bid,” lacrosse coach Bonnie Rosen said. “I hope the move actually forces a lot of those schools that are going to be in the conference to consider adding lacrosse,” Rosen added. Temple and Marquette will be the new additions to Big East lacrosse that is already the home of Connecticut, Georgetown, Louisville, Rutgers, Cincinnati and Villanova. For field hockey, the new Big East will consist of eight teams as opposed to seven from last year. Old Dominion and Temple will join Rutgers, Louisville, Georgetown, Connecticut, Providence and Villanova. “We can’t do the same thing because of the new schedule and conference,” field hockey coach Amanda Janney said. “But, we’re happy to be playing top teams such as Old Domin-
ion and UConn. [It’ll take some time adjusting to], but we’re still going to be prepared a certain way regardless [of who we play].” In both sports, the early indication is that becoming affiliate members of the Big East will greatly increase competition and national exposure. In Atlantic 10 Conference lacrosse, No. 13 Massachusetts was the lone A-10 team ranked nationally this season. Once Temple becomes a Big East affiliate, the Owls will face the likes of currently ranked No. 8 Georgetown and No. 17 UConn. “I think it’s the perfect timing for our program to get to see more nationally ranked teams,” Rosen said. “We welcome the opportunity to play against teams that have been nationally ranked. I think it allows our players to see themselves as they should, which is a top team in the country.” In field hockey, the Owls competed in-conference with No. 19 Richmond and No. 16 UMass last fall. But Big East field hockey will provide a tougher challenge for the Owls, as they will face a number of
The field hockey team will compete in the Big East Conference next season – with three Top 25 teams – as affiliate members next season.| HUA ZONG TTN FILE PHOTO Top 25 teams. Even with No. 5 Syracuse moving on, the new Big East will boast No. 25 Louisville, No. 8 Old Dominion and No. 4 UConn. “We had strong competitors in the A-10 and we’re used to playing Top 20 teams in the A-10, so I think we’ll be fine transitioning,” Janney said. “We have some great returning players who are playing a great spring.”
With Big East men’s sports – particularly Big East lacrosse – already standing as one of the marquee athletic conferences in the nation, Rosen believes any association with the Big East will be beneficial for Temple’s female student-athletes in the field sports. “I think the move has elevated the status of Temple as an athletic department,” Rosen said. “Men’s lacrosse seems to
be getting a lot of national exposure these days, so it’s helpful to have a male counterpart in that respect. I think the national exposure comes not just from the teams we play, but there is the men’s game in the conference as well, which should give us some good exposure too.” Brien Edwards and Hoon Jin can be reached at sports@temple-news.com.
Owls prepare for move despite budget and court issues Tennis enters The American with losing records and weak university support. EVAN CROSS The Temple News Next year, the tennis teams’ makeup will be very much the same. Only one player – Kacper Rams – is graduating from the men’s team and none are leaving on the women’s team. Steve Mauro, who coaches both teams at Temple, plans to be here next season. Other than the addition of the 2013 recruiting classes, the teams won’t be much different. However, just about everything else will change. The teams are moving from the Atlantic 10 Conference to the newly constructed American Athletic Conference. The Owls have not played any of their American counterparts in the last seven years and the on-campus tennis courts may be demolished before next season.
“We knew we were going to a new conference,” Sam Rundle, a freshman on the men’s tennis team, said. “I guess we were unsure of who was going to be in it. The way it’s played out, I think it’s a pretty strong conference, and a lot of good teams.” There will be 10 teams in The American – all will field a women’s tennis team, but just seven will have a men’s counterpart. In 2012-13, Temple’s men’s team had the sixth-best regular season record (7-11) of those seven. Only Connecticut (3-9) did worse. The women’s tennis team’s prospects are even lower – all the other schools fared better than the Owls’ 9-13 record. On the men’s and women’s side, UConn (7-9 on the women’s side) was the only school other than Temple with a losing record. “Because the conference kept changing a lot this year, we didn’t really know who to prepare for,” Mauro said. “From what I can tell now, the conference will be stronger than the [A-10]. The level of competi-
The tennis teams will enter a conference next season that has a higher level of competition. | ABI REIMOLD TTN tion will definitely be higher.” Since the 2006-07 season, neither Temple team has played any teams they will be conference opponents with next season. There was a scheduled men’s match versus Rutgers in March 2007, but it was canceled and not rescheduled. Rutgers no longer has a men’s tennis pro-
gram. The American will likely be a stronger tennis conference than the old Big East Conference would have been. Only two current Big East men’s teams – No. 31 Notre Dame and No. 48 Louisville – are ranked in the Top 75. Both of those schools are leaving for the At-
Conference move eliminates small ball option Undersized Owls face an increase in competition. JAKE ADAMS The Temple News Elyse Burkert grew up in Richardson, Texas, less than 10 miles from Southern Methodist University. It will be a welcomed treat for the junior outside hitter when her Owls travel to SMU as a part of volleyball competition in the American Athletic Conference next season, and again when Temple faces Houston, which is four hours away from her hometown. “I’m so excited, it couldn’t have worked out better,” Burkert said. “It’s going to be great because I’ve been working really hard and been doing a lot of things up here, but it’s really great that I can share it with my family, my grandparents and my friends who are going to be able to come and watch.” It couldn’t be better timing for Burkert, who will play her last season next fall. But The American, responsible for bringing Burkert back to the Lone Star State, poses a whole new set of challenges for a team used to the Atlantic 10 Conference – a conference they
Coach Bakeer Ganes. | TTN dominated just a decade ago. “It’s very competitive, it’s much more competitive than it was in the A-10,” coach Bakeer Ganes said. “The A-10 basically had two top teams, Dayton and Xavier, and this new conference, [The American], has basically four or five top teams.” Last season the Owls went up against several teams in the Top 100 in Ratings Percentage Index. No. 19 Dayton has made the NCAA tournament the past two seasons. Xavier and VCU were second and third in the A-10 in RPI, ranking No. 54 and No. 60, respectively. The average RPI of Temple’s old opponents was 159. Next year’s conference foes have a collective RPI of 145. But that’s counting a No. 17 Louisville squad (RPI of 7) that
has gone dancing the past two years, but leaves in 2014. After that, only Cincinnati (RPI 95) is in the Top 100 in RPI until Tulsa (RPI 49) joins in 2014. And when Louisville and Rutgers (RPI 130) leave and Tulsa, Navy (RPI 271), Tulane (RPI 287) and East Carolina (RPI 316) join the fold by 2015 the conference’s RPI plummets to what would have been 190 this year. The one advantage is the pull the old Big East had in the NCAA tournament. The A-10 sent Dayton as its lone representative the past two seasons, while Louisville, Marquette and Cincinnati have all made the tournament at least once in the past two years. If The American can keep the same clout, the Owls have better odds of making the dance, something junior outside hitter Gabriella Matautia said is the team’s goal next season. “I think it’s going to be a huge challenge, but I think we’re up to it,” Burkert said. “For me and Gabby, it’s our last chance, so we’re going to have to leave everything out there.” But the Owls must do this without a conference tournament. Despite having 10 teams heading into next season, the conference will simply have each team face each other twice and crown a champion based on
the regular season. “I hope we’re in the Top 5, but we could be in the bottom five because all the teams are good,” Burkert said. “You have a couple games that aren’t your best and you’re [right at the bottom].” “So what we’ll have to do is we’ll have to learn how to adjust quicker within the game at some points than having to prepare more for some of the things we’re used to playing against,” Matautia said. But a team that played “small ball” with success in the A-10 with a roster that had just three girls taller than 6 feet now faces a conference with more height and more physicality. The Owls are also without A-10 Libero of the Year Chelsea Tupuola, leaving a defense that was their strength with serious question marks. “We do feel pretty good about our team and the recruits, but I think we’re still going to be the underdog in the conference,” Ganes said. “So basically our role hasn’t changed from last year. It’s just a different conference.” Jake Adams can be reached at jacob.adams@temple.du or on Twitter @jakeadams520.
lantic Coast Conference. The American will also hold No. 32 Memphis, which won the Conference USA tournament this year. In 2014, Tulsa – currently ranked 25th – will join the conference. “I know that the teams are really good,” sophomore Kristian Marquart said. “We have a very strong conference. A lot of teams are ranked. We are looking forward to competing against them. I don’t think we’re going to be the ones who are supposed to win. That’s fine, we can play without pressure.” “Some of these schools, like Louisville and Tulsa, they have a strong tradition in tennis,” Mauro said. “They’re fully funded programs, having the most scholarships available. It’s gonna be challenging playing some of these schools.” The teams still face uncertainty as to where they will play home matches next year. The courts outside the Student Pavilion are set to be demolished as part of the plans to build a new library. Mauro has not been told any specifics on when the courts will be closed.
“I guess that’s up to the administration staff,” Rundle said. “It’s always gonna be the player on the end of the racquet that makes the difference...We’re just trying to focus on playing, I guess. That’ll sort itself out.” Mauro plans on adding multiple new recruits to each team. He has already signed a player from Indonesia for the women’s team and has his eye on “one or two more.” “Barring injuries, the two or three new girls we bring in will push everyone down in the lineup,” Mauro said. “We’ll actually be strong one through six.” Despite the higher level of competition and the unfamiliarity with the teams, the teams are excited to make the move. “My expectation as a team for next year is to do well in [The American],” junior Alicia Doms said. “I think that if I keep playing in first position, it will be a huge opportunity for me to play with the best players in the nation, so I am very excited.” Evan Cross can be reached at evan.cross@temple.edu or on Twitter @EvanCross.
CONTINUED ONLINE ROUGH DIAMOND
temple-news.com
The softball and baseball teams have all-time records of 33-63-1 and 41-65, respectively, against The American teams. Neither program has a winning record against any new team.
NEW GOALS
Players and coaches from the men’s and women’s soccer teams believe the American Athletic Conference will be one of the country’s top soccer conferences.
ON THE RUN
In an individual sport, runners claim not much will change in a new conference. Coaches voice support for new opportunites and put emphasis on The American conference meet.
IN THE HOLE
Golf coach Brian Quinn expresses need for more funding in the new conference. The golf team sponsors three scholarships a year and doesn’t have any paid assistant coaches.
SPORTS
TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2013
PAGE 19
For sports without sponsorship, Owls are staying put Teams welcome budget increases, but are otherwise unaffected by move. SAMUEL MATTHEWS JOHN MURROW The Temple News For three sports at Temple, the move to the American Athletic Conference isn’t a move at all. The crew, fencing and gymnastics teams will not be competing in The American next season. The newly formed conference doesn’t sponsor enough crew teams for competition, and fencing and gymnastics compete in divisions separate from conferences. Players and coaches from all three teams said not much will be changing next season, but they all are hopeful that the switch to The American will bring forth budget increases. “Well nothing is going to change, at least nothing that I know of,” senior rower Mike Mirabella said. “Nothing has really changed in my four years [at Temple].” Crew coach Gavin White said that, with an increased budget, the team would greatly ben-
efit as it continues to lobby for a new boathouse, a process that’s been ongoing with the city for five years, but appears to be near its closing stages. “We will see,” White said. “We realize that it’s going to cost a lot of money.” Men’s and women’s gymnastics will continue to compete in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference. Gymnasts said they’re fine with staying put while some of their studentathlete peers make a transition. “Personally, I’m content being in the ECAC,” freshman Evan Eigner said. “I mean we’ve had a great history in the ECAC. The teams that we compete with, we have good rivalries. So I don’t really think that we’re missing out too much, because each year it’s a battle to win our conference cup.” He added, “I don’t really know too much about [The American] so I don’t really know what that experience is, so it is kind of tough to say if we are missing out, but I think we are all pretty happy in the ECAC.” From a coaching perspective, the athletic department’s move into The American is expected to increase the budget in all sports. With that budget increase comes the potential
to host more home meets and help raise the recognition of the gymnastics program to the student body at Temple, women’s coach Aaron Murphy said. “I’d love to give my women’s team an additional chance to showcase their sport and skills in front of a home crowd,” Murphy said. “Most other women’s programs out there have four to five home meets a year to publicize gymnastics and here at Temple we feel a bit deprived of that.” The cost to host a home meet can total nearly $10,000 – a cost that is too extravagant within the program’s current budget to have more than two home meets a year. But with a potential budget increase, Murphy talked about the possibility of having a double-dual meet in which men’s and women’s gymnastics would compete together simultaneously against a school that also has a men’s and women’s gymnastics program. “I’d have the men compete in that home meet with us to double the crowd’s energy in McGonigle [Hall] and show the student body of Temple how exciting a gymnastics meet can be,” Murphy said. If the budget increase is still not substantial enough to host more home meets, men’s
The fencing team makes no move at the end of this season. The Owls are one of three teams not becoming members of the American Athletic Conference. | DANIEL PELLIGRINE TTN coach Fred Turoff has suggested revamping the team’s equipment in the gym. “A home meet is going to cost us many thousands, and if the increase to our budget is only one or two thousand [dollars] it just means that I will probably replace a used mat or something,” Turoff said with a laugh. As for fencing, the team will continue to compete
against Division I schools from all conferences. Fencing is not part of any one conference and competes openly throughout the NCAA. “It really doesn’t make any difference for us,” junior sabre Tasia Ford said. “Because we’ve never been in the same conference as the rest of the school, so we’ve always been completely different, no change for us.”
Along with coaches White, Murphy and Turoff, fencing coach Nikki Franke hopes there will be a budget increase. “I hope there will be several increases but we don’t know yet,” Franke said. John Murrow and Samuel Matthews can be reached at sports@temple-news.com.
Most sports have smallest budget in conference BUDGET PAGE 20 penses – which don’t include coaches’ compensation – on football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball combined during the 2011-12 reporting year. When only considering non-revenue sports, per sport, Temple ranks last by about $12,000. The schools that spent less than Temple on athletics overall, like Central Florida and Houston, do not sponsor as high a number of sports as Temple does. However, both of those schools spent more per sport than Temple. While operating expenses aren’t everything, Temple’s relatively small athletic budget raises questions about whether or not the university’s athletic programs can be competitive in a new conference where other schools are able to be more generous in financial support for their sports teams. Temple ranks below the average of The American schools in operating expenses in all of the university’s sports except football. In most cases, it’s well below the average. In baseball, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, tennis and volleyball, Temple ranks last. Temple spent $62,510 combined on its men’s and women’s tennis programs during the 2011-12 year, which ranks last by far among The American schools with a men’s and women’s team. Most schools spent more on just one of their tennis
teams than Temple did on both of its combined. The makeup of the universities in The American that have the ability to spend more on athletics than Temple varies from public schools with huge enrollments, like Central Florida, to private schools with huge budgets, like SMU. Temple’s undergraduate enrollment of 24,428 ranks third highest in The American. The private schools – Tulsa, Tulane and SMU – all have enrollments of less than 6,000. The average school in The American would have an enrollment of 17,295 and an athletics budget of $43.7 million.
In terms of scope, the school in The American that can best be compared to Temple is Rutgers. Like Temple, Rutgers has 20 Division I sports – with track & field and cross-country combined – and a similar enrollment. However, the Scarlet Knights had more than $57 million in total expenses in the 2011-12 reporting year, about $20 million more than Temple. Despite spending relatively little on operating its sports teams, Temple still required a substantial subsidy from the university to balance its books for the 2012 fiscal year. The university spent $5.5 million in operating expenses, but also
TEMPLE EXPENSES/ RANK
had to pay coaches $4.7 million and an additional $9.4 million in student aid. Coaching salaries in particular have become an increasingly costly expense for athletic departments. At Temple, the most recent data on the school’s website is from the fiscal year 2010-11, but shows that Al Golden was the highest-paid employee at the university when he was the head football coach. University officials declined to discuss the specifics of coach Matt Rhule’s contract. Harry Metzinger, an assistant athletic director and the chief financial officer of the athletics department, said coaching
THE AMERICAN AVERAGE
salaries are market driven, and that is unlikely to change anytime soon. As costs continue to rise, so must Temple’s ability to generate revenue to alleviate the university’s responsibility to subsidize its athletic department. Metzinger admitted that things need to get better. “We certainly need to improve,” Metzinger said. “Even just looking at this year versus last year, we improved the amount of revenue versus our subsidy, and a lot of that is our conference affiliation.” In the university’s budget for 2013, Temple anticipates an increase of athletic revenue close
TEMPLE EXPENSES/ RANK
$1.2 million $869,304|7/13
MEN’S BASKETBALL
$2.8 million|6/13
$2.8 million
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
$430,466 |7/13
$604,513
$364,825
$203,197 |10/11
TRACK & FIELD (COMBINED)
BASEBALL
$172,757|11/11
$341,526
$207,773
$144,046 |9/10
SOFTBALL
TENNIS (COMBINED)
$62,510|10/10
$156,535
$110,143
$65,377|10/12
GOLF
MEN’S SOCCER
$81,467 |10/10
$214,860
$177,320
$71,876 |12/12
VOLLEYBALL
$79,020|13/13
$153,727
$193,408
$148,556 |5/7
WOMEN’S SOCCER WOMEN’S ROWING
FOOTBALL
to $4 million and a decrease in the subsidy of $650,000. Metzinger said the expected changes are based mostly on conference distribution. However, true to college sports, Temple also expects $3 million of new expenses this year. Temple’s percent subsidy – the ratio of subsidy to revenue – for 2013 would be about 60 percent. That would be a great improvement for Temple, but would still rank in the lower third of athletic departments in the country, based on data from the college athletics finances report on USA Today’s website. The overwhelming majority of athletic departments included in that report required millions of dollars in subsidy from their universities. With the vast majority of programs losing money – including some of the most prestigious athletic institutions in the country, like Florida, Alabama and Wisconsin – and the cost of athletics continuing to rise, it begs the question: Why do universities continue throwing a life line to a department that can’t sustain itself? “It’s about the value to the university,” Bradshaw said. “There’s a value to it and that’s why they do it.” Joey Cranney can be reached at joseph.cranney@temple.edu or on Twitter @joey_cranney.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, 2011-12 / ANGELO FICHERA TTN
An analysis of the operating expenses of all of the universities set to compete in the American Athletic Conference before 2015 shows that Temple ranks last in five of 12 sports and in the bottom three in all of its non-revenue sports.
Exposure in new regions could foster better recruits RECRUITS PAGE 20 change,” volleyball coach Bakeer Ganes said. “We’re recruiting those which are interested in [American Coastal Conference] schools, Big East schools and [The American] schools, so ever since I came to Temple we went after people who basically get recruited by BCS conferences.” “We’ve been able to get in with some kids that we couldn’t get in with when we were in the [Atlantic 10 Conference],” softball coach Joe DiPietro said. “No one really knows the American Athletic Conference yet, so we’re really going to have to sell [the conference] with the schools that are in it.” Lacrosse and field hockey will remain Big East affiliates because there aren’t enough
teams for each conference to host the sport. When trying to recruit players to a team making a conference move, lacrosse coach Bonnie Rosen said it’s not only potential recruits that need convincing, but their parents, too. “We hear dads say, ‘Oh, you’re going to the Big East?’ or, ‘Oh, you’re going to [The American],’” Rosen said. “A lot of the daughters, the recruits, they want to know, can they make a difference? Are we going to win? What kind of coaches are we? What kind of team do we have?” With no precedent of competition in the newly-formed conference to draw from, there’s been questions as to whether Temple can reel in the caliber of players it may take to compete
in The American. Ganes said while he looks for a “certain type of player,” the height and athleticism of players that will make up The American is different from A-10 volleyball and something he’ll have to account for. DiPietro said competition in The American will get him into different recruiting regions, which Ganes reiterated. “Texas is a hotbed,” Ganes said. “I used to recruit from Texas when I was [an assistant] at West Virginia. I haven’t done that here at Temple so much. But the addition of SMU, Houston and those teams, we’re going to be able to recruit more from Texas just because we’re going to be down there at least once a year.” Wheeler and tennis coach
Steve Mauro admitted it may take more than one recruiting class to transform their programs into legitimate threats. “I think we need to improve all the way around on the field in order to compete,” Wheeler said. “It’s going to take a little time for us to get the players I think we need in order to compete for a championship.” “I think next year, once we’re in the conference, it’ll actually help recruiting,” Mauro said. “It’ll be a higher level of competition and hopefully I can bring in a person that wants to play that level of competition.” Whether or not the Big East is more highly regarded than The American is a moot point. But with the Big East, players and coaches at least knew what they were getting into.
“I think once the Big East fell apart then it was sort of a state of confusion with everybody, including myself,” Wheeler said. “You didn’t know what was going to happen. The enthusiasm didn’t drop because they knew something was going to happen, but they didn’t know what. So they didn’t know whether to be excited or scared.” Men’s soccer coach Dave MacWilliams said playing in the highest-level conference possible is what “a lot of kids look for.” He said in time The American can build the same reputation the Big East has, and top recruits will be more intrigued as a result. “I think the Big East name carries tradition, whereas the American Athletic Conference
we’re going to have to build a reputation and a tradition,” MacWilliams said. It’s unclear how well Temple will transition into a conference that poses new recruiting challenges, and just how much of an impact The American name will help to draw top talent. “It kept us in more conversation with [the type of] players that we were already getting,” Wheeler said of the original Big East move. “But it has not changed [the type of players] that were coming to us before.” Tyler Sablich and Jake Adams can be reached at sports@temple-news.com.
SPORTS temple-news.com
PAGE 20
The American
TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2013
Most Temple sports will compete in the American Athletic Conference in 2014. What does the move mean for athletics?
Facilities in flux as Owls make move
For coaches, a ploy to sell a new brand
Non-revenue sports facilities don’t stack up, coaches vying for improvements.
Without precedent, The American poses a question for nonrevenue recruiting.
EVAN CROSS ANDREW PARENT The Temple News
JAKE ADAMS TYLER SABLICH The Temple News
Ambler Campus sits as a rural paradox to Main Campus, approximately a 35-minute drive away in a bustled section of North Philadelphia. It houses facilities for Temple’s baseball, soccer and softball programs that, to unseen eyes, may be mistaken for a nice-looking high school athletic facility. Adding to that is the commute, which certainly factors in as a hindrance to all of Ambler’s tenants. Besides those sports, both the men’s and women’s tennis teams may not even have a home facility next year if the university’s plans go through to build a Main Campus library and demolish the Student Pavilion. In the midst of Temple’s move to the newly branded American Athletic Conference next fall, the Owls will be pitted against some schools boasting larger programs and more glamorous athletic stomping grounds for their respective teams.
Not all college recruiting is created equal. Temple’s move to the Big East Conference - and now the American Athletic Conference – was speculated to bolster a recruit’s interest in coming to Temple in most, if not all, sports. But for non-revenue sports, that isn’t necessarily the case. “I think that’s a little bit of a misconception that people were jumping up and down and were now all of a sudden ready to come to Temple because of that move [to the Big East],” baseball coach Ryan Wheeler said. “I think it intrigued people and it certainly added to what we had to offer, but it wasn’t like all of a sudden a hundred new people were beating down my door trying to come to Temple.” Temple’s initial transition to a power conference that contained the likes of Louisville, Georgetown and Notre Dame – all of which have strong programs across the board – was assumed to peak interest from possible recruits in most Temple sports. But now that the original Big East has folded, it’s hard to tell what kind of a draw The American will be to prospective student-athletes. However, several coaches said that The American brand isn’t the be-all, end-all of their recruiting efforts. “Recruiting wise, it really didn’t make that big of a
BASEBALL
The baseball team practices and plays all home games at Ambler’s Skip Wilson Field. The field’s seating capacity is listed at 1,000 and features two sets of metal bleachers on each base-side with no stadium lighting. All baseball programs in The American next year including the additions to conference
Most of Temple’s sports move to the American Athletic Conference next season. | TIMOTHY VALSHTEIN TTN FILE PHOTO
New look, old problems Temple ranks near the bottom of The American in operating expenses for most sports teams.
PART II OF II:
JOEY CRANNEY Sports Editor
T
SPLITTING THE ATHLETIC WALLET
ulane has beach volleyball and Division I bowling, but it doesn’t have a men’s or women’s soccer program. Southern Methodist University doesn’t compete in baseball or softball, but spends almost $70,000 per year to operate its equestrian team. Tulsa – with an enrollment of less than 3,000 – spends four times the amount Temple does on its tennis programs. Temple’s athletic department has taken the stance that the move to the American Athletic Conference is a positive one because it unifies most of Temple’s sports in a conference of universities with similar scope and commitment to athletics. However, records show that Temple is actually unlike most of the schools set to join The American by 2015 in terms of enrollments, the size of the schools’ athletic budgets and the number and types of sports sponsored. Temple ranks below the average of schools that will compete in The American before 2015 in terms of total expenses, revenue and operating expenses. Per sport, only Tulane and Tulsa spend less in operating expenses out of 13 schools. Temple spent the eighth-highest amount in operating ex-
FACILITIES PAGE 17
BUDGET PAGE 19
$4.75
COACH SALARIES
15%
$11.52 36%
STUDENT AID RECRUITING
$9.44
OPERATING EXPENSES
30%
OTHER EXPENSES
$5.51 17%
$0.46, 2% TOTAL ALLOCATED EXPENSES: $31.68 MILLION Source: U.S. Department of Education, 2011-12 / ANGELO FICHERA TTN
RECRUITS PAGE 19
Revenue sports ‘unsure’ of new conference Basketball misses out on Big East, football pledges to be “great” in The American. JAKE ADAMS IBRAHIM JACOBS The Temple News With the promise of the Big East Conference, Temple’s revenue sports were looking forward to aligning themselves in 2014 with a conference that has a historic basketball tradition and a collection of prestigious football schools. Instead, the Owls will enter a conference this year with vague geographic boundaries, an absence of precedent and no logo. “Give me the name of it again?” redshirt-junior quarterback Connor Reilly asked in an interview. “I actually just learned the name of the conference right before this interview,” sophomore guard Will Cummings said.
“SMU is in it right?” redshirt-sophomore forward Anthony Lee asked. It’s called the American Athletic Conference. The conference split in half and lost its name when the Catholic 7 decided to dissociate and form its own basketball conference that didn’t field football teams. The American will lose 12 schools and add four programs in some capacity by the end of 2015. With three schools that were a part of the original Big East slated to remain in The American come 2015, men’s basketball coach Fran Dunphy used the word “unsure-edness” to describe the landscape of the conference. “The logos, the branding, those things will all come together,” football coach Matt Rhule said. “In four or five years we will be saying ‘The American’ like it’s nothing... But for right now the only thing I need from the conference is a schedule.”
COMPETITION
The schedule that Rhule al-
AFFILIATE MEMBERS, p. 18
The lacrosse and field hockey teams will compete in the Big East Conference as affiliate members. SPORTS DESK 215-204-9537
luded to differs across the board for the revenue wsports. While the football team will play five conference opponents in 2013 that it faced last year, the men’s and women’s basketball teams won’t have the luxury of familiarity. The men’s basketball team holds a 51-41 all-time record against the nine conference basketball opponents in 2013, while the women’s squad boasts a 14-36 record against them. When Louisville and Rutgers leave the conference and East Carolina, Tulane and Tulsa are added after the 2013 season, Temple’s familiarity will decrease significantly. While Temple must adjust to new faces, the coaches and players said it shouldn’t affect performance or game-planning. “You’re not studying throughout, you’re preparing for a team three days before,” women’s basketball coach Tonya Cardoza said. “You want teams to adjust to you.” “We will be preparing us,” Dunphy said. “We will be wor-
The American Athletic Conference is devoid of the basketball schools that Temple was hoping to compete against next season. | TIMOTHY VALSHTEIN TTN FILE PHOTO rying about us until we get into playing the games and studying the opponents in the fall.” While Rhule enjoys the luxury of his players being some-
MOVING ON, p. 19
For three sports teams without conference affiliation, Owls won’t compete in The American. SPORTS@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM
what familiar with the style of play in the new conference, he is attempting to install a new system in his first year at the helm. The team is attempting
to adjust to its third head coach, fourth offensive coordinator and third conference in four years. “You want to be really good
AMERICAN PAGE 17
NON-REVENUE LOOK, p. 18
How will the move to The American affect competition for Temple’s non-revenue sports?
Published on Apr 30, 2013
Week of Tuesday, 30 April 2013. This is the last issue of Spring 2013 and Volume 91.
Published on Apr 30, 2013
Week of Tuesday, 30 April 2013. This is the last issue of Spring 2013 and Volume 91.