NEWS
TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012
PAGE 3
Presidential turnover shifted athletic focus BIG EAST PAGE 1 and forth between Veterans Stadium and the University of Pennsylvania’s Franklin Field. “We were third in line at Veterans Stadium behind the Eagles and the Phillies and especially with the Phillies, that created huge problems because they played a lot of games on a lot of weekends in the fall and if they got into the playoffs, then more would be scheduled,” Moore said. “So we were constantly being bumped and had difficulties scheduling our games and that was actually a big problem for the Big East.” These issues, combined with the Owls continuing to flounder on the field, led to poor attendance and the unspectacular revenues that came with it. According to NCAA attendance data in 1998, Temple ranked No. 101 out of 112 schools with an average home attendance of 15,127. The average home attendance for the Big East was 39,895. Temple lagged behind its conference peers who had larger budgets and the attendance and donor base to back it up. “I think we found ourselves in an environment where if you think about the schools in the Big East: Syracuse, Boston College, Virginia Tech, places like that, they were programs that had a much more immediate short-term tradition than we did,” Joseph “Chip” Marshall, a trustee on both the executive and athletic committees, said. “There were pretty significant investments made by those programs. So if you compared us with say with the number of dollars that we spend versus the number of dollars of Virginia Tech or Boston College, there was a pretty good disparity there.” “Naturally, because we didn’t have money to invest, we were like the poor little cousin in the Big East,” Moore said. “So we weren’t successful, we lost and when you lose, you don’t put fans in the stadium.”
ADDRESSING THE ISSUES
As the losses mounted, so did the Big East’s frustration with the university’s inability to field a competitive football team. Moore said Temple had been made aware of the Big East’s concerns throughout the late ‘90s.
“They did have what they called ‘qualification standards and criteria’ that they said you had to have,” Moore said. “One of those was you had to have a stadium. No. 2 was you had to average so many fans over a period of years and they wanted you to be competitive. They did have these benchmarks out there all along and they said, ‘Temple, you’re not meeting them.’” The Board of Trustees took a step toward solving the Big East’s issues with Temple in 1999. An athletics committee report at the March 9, 1999, board meeting revealed that trustee Arthur Raynes would chair a committee to build a training complex for the football team. In a related move, Liacouras announced that June that giving the football team its own field was a part of his “10 Challenges for ’99.” By the end of that year, the board passed a motion to build a practice facility for football on 11th and Diamond streets that would become Edberg-Olson Hall, the team’s current practice facility. “We built a new practice facility,” Bobby Wallace, coach of the football team from 19982005, said. “Our schedule was tough at that time with out-ofconference games mostly on the road. Attendance improved while I was there, though not like Virginia Tech, Boston College and Syracuse, places like that. I thought we were making improvements until we got kicked out.” Temple strung together back-to-back four-win seasons in 2000-01, the most wins in a season since entering the Big East. The university also agreed on principle to play in the new Philadelphia Eagles’ stadium, Lincoln Financial Field, which was to be completed in 2003. “The teams from the Big East at that time were strong,” Wallace said. “We were playing Miami when nobody was beating Miami. Syracuse was good with Donovan McNabb when we first got there. We beat them twice. Virginia Tech was a great team. Boston College was a great team. We were able to beat Rutgers four years in a row. I just think the timing was bad and I think it was obvious that
the financial budget and facilities weren’t equal to the other teams in the conference at that time.” “We were struggling, but we were building a practice facility,” Moore said. “We were trying to get a new stadium. We were trying to do things, we just hadn’t been able to accomplish anything because all the circumstances that surrounded Temple at the time.” Moore said Liacouras did his best to convince the Big East that Temple was trying to move in the right direction. “Peter Liacouras fought back pretty well and he presented Temple’s case and he did a good job of trying to let the Big East know what we were doing and that was all through the ‘90s,” Moore said.
LIACOURAS AND ADAMANY
George Moore tried to be fair when describing Adamany’s passion for athletics. “I don’t think [Adamany] had the same passion for Temple being in the Big East and continuing the struggle Peter Liacouras had,” Moore said. “When [Adamany] came in, his focus was more on improving the academic side of things and [athletics] wasn’t a passion of his like it was for [Liacouras].” During the crucial two-year period between when Temple began making a serious commitment to addressing the Big East’s concerns in the form of building a practice facility in 1999 and when the conference kicked Temple out in 2001, the university was in the midst of one of its most significant transitions in leadership since its inception. Liacouras, president of the university since 1981 and the man most responsible for shaping Temple’s image to the rest of the country, was stepping down. The university was hiring an outsider, Adamany, a Wisconsin native and former president of Wayne State University in Detroit, to take the spot Liacouras held for nearly 20 years. As far as athletics are concerned, Adamany was not the champion of the department that Liacouras was. The basketball arena on Main Campus dons the name of Liacouras, a true fan of the basketball and football team.
Liacouras saw Temple enter the Big East in football in 1991 and his presidency coincided with the tenure of men’s basketball coach John Chaney, the program’s winningest coach of all time. On the other hand, Adamany had no prior experience with Division I sports: Wayne State competes in Division II for football. Adamany said the football team was almost a lost cause when he first took his presidency. “There was a time when I thought it would be very hard to revitalize Temple football,” Adamany said. “It was a badly TTN file photos weakened program that needed After David Adamany assumed the university presidency, the new leadership.” focus shifted from athletics to academics. In 2004, Temple was Moore said Adamany’s officially disbanded from the Big East Conference. view of the football team was clouded by its near 10-year hisI was,” Adamany said. “I, of raised long before David Adatory of failure in the Big East. “When Adamany came in, course, attended all the games many was president and the Big we had been losing in football and entertained people in the East had concerns with us and for a long time and he’s look- president’s box, but I think I there was a pretty big disparity ing at that and saying ‘It’s go- was more concerned about the in our level of investment and ing to take a huge investment issue of academic quality in the their level of investment,” Marshall added. “I think it’s more to turn this thing around, we’ve university.” Marshall acknowledged complicated than saying we got academics to improve and that takes investment there, my that while Liacouras was more were kicked out of the Big East main passion and focus is not motivated to keep Temple in the because of [Adamany].” going to be saving this football Big East, it would be a stretch to Joey Cranney and Brian Dzenis program, which looks like it’s blame Temple’s Big East bluncan be reached at mired and going nowhere and der on Adamany. sports@temple-news.com. “I don’t know if it’s as necan get nowhere in a city like Philadelphia,’ so he just had farious as people make it out a different perspective and it to be,” Marshall said. “I just For Part II, “Fighting Back,” wasn’t the same as Liacouras,” don’t think we had enough time turn to Page 20. to have our program evolve to Moore said. Adamany said he did not where it is today. I think whoevstress the importance of athlet- er was going to be in that president’s role, there was going to ics as much as his predecessor. “I think [Liacouras] was be disappointment – look, I was much more interested in the role disappointed that we couldn’t of intercollegiate athletics than stay in the Big East.” “There were concerns
Owl Cards’ design to comply with voter identification law The new student ID cards will feature a vertical layout and expiration dates. AMELIA BRUST The Temple News Temple will issue new Owl Cards to students and faculty
during the 2012-13 school year to better accommodate the new state voter identification law. Upgrades include expiration dates and new electronic features. “We expect we will probably reissue returning students during the first week of the fall semester,” Scott Brannan, director of the Diamond Dollars office, said. New and transfer students will receive their Owl
Cards during orientation sessions. The voter identification legislation, which was signed into law by Gov. Tom Corbett in March, requires voters to present a form of photo identification at polling stations before they are allowed to cast their ballot. Identifications without an expiration date – like the current Owl Cards – are not accepted by the law.
MATT FLOCCO TTN file photo
Dylan Morpugo advocated for new Owl Cards to be issued after the voter ID law was passed. Temple will issue new cards to all students in the fall to comply with the law.
New Owl Cards will expire in September 2018. University policy requires new cards to be issued every six years. The most recent Owl Cards were designed in 2005. Barbara Dolhansky, associate vice president of Computer Services, said the voter identification legislation passed at the perfect time for Temple to add the date to new cards. “We hadn’t gone to print with the new cards yet,” Dolhansky said. “If we weren’t [printing an expiration date] we would need to come up with some kind of alternative.” Dolhansky cited Penn State’s issuing of stickers printed with expiration dates, which students can place on their university identification at their request. Penn State said in a press release that during the next three years, the stickers will be “phased out” when new cards are printed with expiration dates. New Owl Cards are allocated from the university’s operational budget. Anthony Wagner, executive vice president, chief finacnial officer and treasurer said in an email that the new cards is being done in conjuction with Temple’s regular card update. The cost will be between $225,000 and $250,000, Wagner said, noting that it did not
cost more to include an expiration date. They will also function as PNC Bank ATM cards, a decision Brannan said “PNC has wanted to do for many years,” given Temple’s relationship with the bank, as well as the number of PNC ATMs on Main Campus. “I think it made sense. A lot of students do take advantage… because they’re on our campus,” Brannan said. “You wouldn’t have to carry your ATM card,” Dolhansky added. The decision to update the cards was not approved by the Board of Trustees, Dolhansky said, but was given to President Ann Weaver Hart for approval. Brannan said the “biggest” new feature for the cards will be their wave technology design. Using new Owl Card technology will allow people to “tap and go” when entering a building or entering a Temple parking structure. At university food locations, students will be able to hold their cards near a sensor rather than be swiped in at a register. “I think it’ll improve customer service,” Brannan said. “Because it’s going to require additional hardware, we have to meet with Sodexo to see where they’re going to employ it.”
Brannan and Dolhansky said the wave technology would not reduce the number of cashiers or security personnel employed on campus, maintaining the technology is meant to require “less line time.” The new cards will be vertical, Dolhanksy said, with the picture on the bottom-left corner and an expiration date below it, “to make sure it looked different enough for security purposes.” While returning students will not be required to take new pictures, faculty and staff will have the option to retake photos. “There are a lot of employee photos that are very old…15 years or more,” Dolhansky said. Dolhanksy and Brannan said at the moment the plan to offer returning students a period of time to pick up new cards has not been finalized, although Brannan said new cards will not be mailed. Returning students and faculty will be required to present old Owl Cards and a second form of identification when receiving their new card. Dolhansky advised that students hold onto their old cards until the all new cards are activated simultaneously. Amelia Brust can be reached at abrust@temple.edu.