Vol. 99.5 Iss. 6

VOL 99.5 // ISSUE 6 NOV. 3, 2020

temple-news.com @thetemplenews

THE TEMPLE NEWS

A HISTORIC VOTE Election Day is today. In a historic year for voter turnout and women’s suffrage, Temple students and North Central residents are casting ballots on issues like the pandemic, social injustice and climate change.

Read more on Pages 4, 17.

WHAT’S INSIDE FEATURES, PAGE 16 Students and faculty react to Temple’s plan for most classes to continue online in the spring semester.

SPORTS, PAGE 26 Former Owls superstar Marc Jackson reflects on taking his sports career from the court to television.

The Temple News

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THE TEMPLE NEWS A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921.

Madison Karas Editor-in-Chief Bibiana Correa Managing Editor Colin Evans Digital Managing Editor Tyler Perez Chief Copy Editor Valerie Dowret Assignments Editor Jack Danz News Editor Victoria Ayala Assistant News Editor Amelia Winger Assistant News Editor Christina Mitchell Opinion Editor Magdalena Becker Essay Editor Emma Padner Features Editor Natalie Kerr Assistant Features Editor Lawrence Ukenye Assistant Features Editor Dante Collinelli Sports Editor Isabella DiAmore Assistant Sports Editor Adam Aaronson Assistant Sports Editor Rayonna Hobbs Co-Intersection Editor Eden MacDougall Co-Intersection Editor Rjaa Ahmed Audience Engagement Editor Iris Wexler Asst. Engagement Editor Maggie Fitzgerald Asst. Engagement Editor Colleen Claggett Co-Photography Editor Jeremy Elvas Co-Photography Editor Erik Coombs Multimedia Editor Matthew Murray Assistant Multimedia Editor Ingrid Slater Design Editor Hanna Lipski Assistant Design Editor Tyra Brown Alternative Story Format Editor Maryam Siddiqui Web Editor Carly Civello Advertising Manager Kaila Morris Advertising Manager Luke Smith Business Manager

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ON THE COVER

(From right to left) Kim Vickers, Madeline Sjoholm, Akshaya Ramaswamy, Joy Jones and Francesca Capozzi.

Voters wait in line outside of the Liacouras Center satellite election office on Oct. 26.

NATALIE KERR / THE TEMPLE NEWS COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS The Temple News is an editorially independent weekly publication serving the Temple University community.

Unsigned editorial content represents the opinion of The Temple News.

Adjacent commentary is reflective of their authors, not The Temple News.

The Editorial Board is made up of The Temple News’ Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor, Digital Managing Editor, Chief Copy Editor, Assignments Editor, News Editor and Opinion Editor.

The views expressed in editorials only reflect those of the Board, and not of the entire Temple News staff.

@TheTempleNews

CORRECTIONS An article that ran on Oct. 20 on page 5 titled “A breakdown of local ballot measures” misspelled Mayor Jim Kenney’s name.

Accuracy is our business, so when a mistake is made, we’ll correct it as soon as possible. Anyone with inquiries about content in this newspaper can contact Editor-in-Chief Madison Karas at editor@temple-news.com.

COVID-19 CASES As of Nov. 2, Temple has 48 active cases of COVID-19 among among students and employees on campus.

Temple recorded 35 new cases last week, and 71 cases the week prior with a 2.72 percent and 5.24 percent positivity rate, respectively.

Temple has administered more than 1,000 tests in each of the last five weeks.

Philadelphia averaged approximately 310 new cases a day from Oct. 16 to Oct. 30.

For the latest information, visit our COVID-19 case dashboard at temple-news.com/trackingcovid19

Contacts Visit us online at temple-news.com News Desk 215.204.7419 Email section staff news@temple-news.com letters@temple-news.com features@temple-news.com intersection@temple-news.com sports@temple-news.com The Temple News is located at: Student Center, Room 243 1755 N. 13th St. Philadelphia, PA 19122

The Temple News

NEWS

PAGE 3

ELECTION

What you need to know about how to vote today Polls and election offices are open for voters to cast ballots in person or drop off mail-in ballots.

BY AMELIA WINGER Assistant News Editor

P

ennsylvania, a swing state with 20 electoral votes, could play a major role in determining this presidential election. Here is what you need to know about voting today.

VOTING IN PERSON Polling places will open at 7 a.m. on Election Day, but voters can arrive earlier. Any voter standing in line by 8 p.m. will be allowed to vote, and voters who requested a mail-in ballot but did not receive one can still vote in person, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Pennsylvania voters can look up their nearest polling place using an online search tool created by the Pennsylvania Department of State.

Four of the polling locations closest to Temple University’s Main Campus are at the Tanner Duckrey School on Diamond Street near 15th, Amos Recreation Center on 16th Street near Berks, George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science on Norris Street near 16th and Norris Apartments on 11th Street near Berks.

The Pennsylvania Department of State recommends that people voting in person on Election Day wear masks, practice social distancing and sanitize their hands. Voters are also encouraged to bring their own black- or blue-ink pen to limit the number of shared surfaces they touch.

Voters who were exposed to COVID-19 or are showing symptoms should contact their county elections office for an emergency absentee ballot, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

IF YOU HAVE A MAIL-IN BALLOT Voters who want to return their

JEREMY ELVAS / THE TEMPLE NEWS Penrose Recreation Center on 12th Street near Susquehanna Avenue will operate as a polling place for the general election.

mail-in ballots today can seal their completed form inside the white secrecy envelope the ballot came with. The white secrecy envelope can then be placed inside the pre-addressed outer return envelope.

Voters must sign the declaration statement on the outside of the pre-addressed outer return envelope for their vote to be counted.

Voters who missed the Oct. 27 deadline to request a mail-in ballot can request an emergency absentee ballot at any point before 8 p.m. today.

Voters can hand-deliver their mailin ballots to their county election office, ballot drop boxes and other designated sites before 8 p.m. today. The ballot drop-off locations closest to Temple’s Main Campus are the Liacouras Center

on Broad Street near Montgomery Avenue and the outdoor dropbox at Eastern State Penitentiary, located on Fairmount Avenue near Corinthian.

All satellite election offices are open until 8 p.m. on Election Day. Voters can track the status of their mail-in or absentee ballots through an online tool created by the Pennsylvania Department of State.

In compliance with the city’s COVID-19 health and safety guidelines, the Liacouras Center satellite election office is requiring people to check in at a hand sanitizing station and state if they are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.

They will be provided with a mask if they do not have one, The Temple News reported.

Follow along with our Election Day coverage at temple-news.com

HOW YOUR VOTE WILL BE COUNTED Philadelphia’s county election offices began counting mail-in ballots received before Nov. 3 at 7 a.m. today.

County election offices will count all mail-in ballots received by 5 p.m. on Nov. 6 as long as they were postmarked

by Nov. 3, meaning it could take days to determine the results of the election, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Temple’s Tuttleman Counseling Services suggests limiting social media use, eating nutritious foods, doing activities to feel grounded and connecting with friends and family to cope with election stress. amelia.winger@temple.edu

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NEWS

The Temple News

ELECTION

Students discuss top presidential election issues Students are concerned about climate change and student loans while casting their ballots.

BY VICTORIA AYALA Assistant News Editor With the general election underway today, students are weighing problems they hope to see the winner of the election address, like climate change, student loans and immigration.

Voter turnout among college students in the United States increased from 45.1 percent to 48.3 percent between the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections, according to a 2017 study by Tufts University.

“There is a great deal of untapped power that college students have in elections,” said Kevin Arceneaux, a political science professor. “College students, as a group, and young adults more generally, have been much less likely to vote in previous presidential elections.”

Eighteen- to 29-year-olds are the age group least likely to vote, said Robin Kolodny, chair of the political science department. If young people want candidates to speak more on student loan debt and free public college, they have to vote as much as people over 60 years old.

As of Sunday afternoon, 93 million early ballots have been cast, leaving voter turnout for the 2020 election on track for historic levels, NPR reported.

Eligible voter turnout could be as high as 67 percent, the highest turnout since 1908, USA Today reported.

More than seven million voters between 18- and 29-years-old voted by the end of October, including 226,900 early ballots cast and 468,400 ballots requested in Pennsylvania by Oct. 27, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

Sunday’s early ballot count is almost two times the amount of pre-election votes cast in the 2016 election, according to the turnout-tracking database U.S.

Elections Project.

“It isn’t that younger voters won’t respond to information about the election, it’s just that you guys are three times harder to find,” Kolodny added. “If you’re young or you’re poor, you move all the time, and every move is a new registration.”

Jules Henson, a junior neuroscience major, said climate change action, higher minimum wage and student loan forgiveness are just a few of the issues that need to be addressed by the winner of the election.

“I’m voting for Biden,” Henson said.

“I just don’t know if he’s gonna be able to do it. I think it’s gonna be very difficult for him to fix these issues. Some changes are going to have to be gradual. I don’t think there’s any one president who will make changes that are significant enough.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s platform calls for free public college for families with an income below $125,000 and no accrued interest on undergraduate federal student loans for individuals making less than $25,000, according to Biden’s campaign website.

President Donald Trump does not support free public college but he wants to replace the multiple income-driven loan repayment plans with a single plan and give undergraduate borrowers student loan forgiveness in 15 years instead of 20, Forbes reported.

More than seven in 10 college students say they are following news about the election, with only one-quarter of students tracking the election closely, according to a September study by College Pulse and the Knight Foundation.

“I think that, basically, anyone will address these issues better than Trump,” said Maya Inglis, a second-year law student. “My top issues are immigration and the environment, so I’m voting for Biden. He’s not even one of my top choices, but I’ll take anyone else at this point.”

JEREMY ELVAS / THE TEMPLE NEWS Voters wait in line outside the Liacouras Center satellite election office on Oct. 19.

While Biden is favored among college students, 49 percent of students have a favorable impression of Biden, while 51 percent have negative views, College Pulse and the Knight Foundation further reported. Less than one in five students have a favorable view of Trump.

“For me, the top election issues are social injustice, climate change and social welfare,” said Ismail Baram, a senior statistics major. “That’s why I’m voting for Biden, because I believe that he will contribute to that more than Trump.”

Joe Orsatti, a senior business management major, isn’t fond of either candidate but plans to vote for Biden, he said.

“At the very least, I believe Biden will defer to his advisors, especially [Kamala] Harris, for many of the big decisions and could help stop the bleeding to some extent by helping to restimulate the economy, as he did alongside [Barack] Obama in [2008], without sustaining the current

environment that encourages racism,” Orsatti said.

Orsatti never thought he would vote, but he’s happy to do it if it’ll get Trump out of office, he said.

“I lost two jobs because of this pandemic, and I blame Trump,” he added.

“He knew about it in January and didn’t take action.”

Lindsay Walsh, a junior public health major, believes the U.S. is a nation of different views where all should be respected, she said.

“Trump is a businessman, a man of his word,” she said. “He isn’t here to make everyone feel great. He was elected for change and to get the job done.

Trump signed the First Step Act, which reduces mandatory minimum sentences for drug felonies and expanding early release programs.” victoria.ayala@temple.edu @ayalavictoria_

The Temple News

NEWS

PAGE 5

TSG

Executive Branch, Temple Votes push voter turnout TSG and Temple Votes prepared students to become informed voters ahead of Election Day.

BY FALLON ROTH For The Temple News It’s been a busy month for Temple Student Government and Temple Votes.

In the weeks leading up to Election Day, the organizations used posters, websites and social media to inform students about polling locations, mail-in and in-person voting, and to encourage voter turnout.

Sam Hall, a junior political science major and director of government affairs for TSG, spearheaded TSG’s civic engagement initiative, which includes creating a polling location on campus, centralizing voter registration with Temple Votes and ensuring voter registration is part of new student orientation.

Civic and voter engagement were included in TSG’s platform to enhance voter “knowledge” and “accessibility,” because voter turnout rates among students are low, Hall said.

Starting on Oct. 27, TSG initiated its voter education week program, leading up to Election Day, on its Instagram story.

The topics introduced last week included the importance of voting, preparation for election week, opportunities to work and observe the polls, information regarding the candidates, races on the ballot and the Temple Votes Climate and #TUVotes campaigns, Hall wrote in an email to The Temple News.

TSG worked with Temple Votes, a department within Student Affairs, to promote voter registration and education efforts on campus, according to the BloomTU initiative tracker.

Temple Votes distributed informational posters with information about voting in person, specific polling locations and the election protection phone number to residence halls and some apartment buildings, said Chris Carey, senior associate dean of students and a leader of Temple Votes for about a year.

Temple Votes worked with Diamond Edge Communications, a student advertising agency based out of the Klein

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS Sam Hall, a junior political science major and director of government affairs for Temple Student Government, wears a mask that says “Vote!” outside of Paley Hall on Oct. 29.

College of Media and Communication, to create graphics and captions for posts on social media.

“Once that information is available, we share it with the network of folks that were interested in and have worked on Temple Votes altogether, and TSG is one of those,” Carey said.

Temple Votes also disseminated information to Temple faculty, schools and colleges about how students can make a plan to vote, as well as posting voter resources on the Temple Dean of Students Instagram, Carey said.

TSG collaborated with Temple Votes on a number of issues, including the establishment of the satellite election office at the Liacouras Center.

The Liacouras Center satellite election office, which opened on Sept. 29, gave residents an easier opportunity to register to vote and get or drop off their mail-in ballots, The Temple News reported. Those who received a mail-in ballot can drop it off at the Liacouras Center until 8 p.m. on Election Day. TSG had no direct involvement with the implementation of the satellite election facility at the Liacouras Center,

Hall said.

However, Quinn Litsinger, a junior political science major and student body president, “conducted research on the viability of a polling place on campus and brought the issue of a polling place up to Temple Votes and the Office of Government Affairs,” Hall wrote in an email to The Temple News.

TSG will continue to utilize social media engagement on Election Day by encouraging students to send in pictures of their “I Voted” sticker or waiting in line to vote, Hall said.

“We’re going to encourage students to share those little moments, definitely, to, you know, encourage people to go out if they’re hesitant or just, you know, make it a more enjoyable celebration than a stressful one,” Hall said.

Before the Pennsylvania voter registration deadline on Oct. 19, Temple Votes’ main focus was voter registration, including an effort to make sure Temple students knew how to register to vote and if they wanted to be registered on campus or in their hometown, Carey said.

Temple Votes did not push students

to vote in person or by mail. Instead, it provided clear information about both processes, Carey said.

Temple Votes also presented information regarding the importance of voting, voter registration and understanding who and what is on the ballot to student organizations around campus, Carey added.

On Election Day, Carey hopes that every student who is eligible to vote does so and that every student focuses on their own self-care in response to the stress associated with the election and other current concerns, he wrote in an email to The Temple News.

Student engagement is important because students have the ability to swing the election, Litsinger said.

“We’re talking about the fact that we’re a school in Pennsylvania, one of the major swing states in this election, so how much people our age show up [can] really make or break the result of this election one way or the other,” Litsinger added. fallon.roth@temple.edu

NEWS

PAGE 6

The Temple News

CORONAVIRUS

Temple to give 26,000 COVID-19 tests a week in spring Rapid testing for symptomatic students and employees began at testing centers on Monday.

BY JACK DANZ News Editor With the unveiling of its plan to teach a hybrid of in-person and online courses in Spring 2021, Temple University has also announced a comprehensive testing plan aimed at testing more than 20 times as many students, faculty and staff for COVID-19 than the university did in the fall semester.

Student Health Services is preparing to test 26,000 students and employees for COVID-19 per week during the spring semester, said Mark Denys, director of Student Health Services, compared to the average of 1,235 COVID-19 tests per week the university has administered for the last month, according to the university’s COVID-19 dashboard.

As part of its new policy, Temple will administer two mandatory tests per week to students living in university housing or taking in-person classes.

University employees who interact with students on campus have the option of taking two tests per week as well.

Students who live off campus and do not take any in-person classes are eligible for one test per week, Denys said.

Temple’s hybrid approach to the fall semester ended after just one week of in-person classes as COVID-19 cases, largely attributed to small, off-campus gatherings of students, skyrocketed to 350 active cases at their peak in September, according to the dashboard.

As of Nov. 2, 48 students and employees have COVID-19. The week of Oct. 26 saw the lowest positivity rate among those tested since the week of Aug. 17 at 2.72 percent, The Temple News reported.

In the spring semester, the university will be able to test more students and staff because of increased testing supplies and laboratory capabilities, which the university did not have a month ago, Denys said.

“We’re hoping to give that better comfort level to students, faculty and

JEREMY ELVAS / THE TEMPLE NEWS Mark Denys, director of Student Health Services, stands outside the temporary COVID-19 testing center at the Aramark STAR Complex on Aug. 18.

staff, and everyone is being tested twice a week,” Denys said. “We’re hoping that it does change some behavior. Students know that they’re being tested twice a week, and they want to be negative twice a week.”

In addition to holding some in-person courses, Temple will open residence halls, Charles Library, the TECH Center and Campus Recreation for in-person use during the spring semester, The Temple News reported.

Student Health Services will open approximately four to eight new testing centers around campus for testing asymptomatic students and employees once or twice a week with molecular polymerase chain reaction nasal swab tests. Student Health Services will administer rapid tests at the Morgan Hall testing center for symptomatic students and employees, Denys said.

Temple began using rapid tests for testing symptomatic individuals on Monday. If the rapid test is negative but the patient has symptoms of COVID-19, Student Health Services will confirm that result with a PRC nasal swab test, Denys said.

Student Health Services also uses PRC nasal swab tests for close contacts

and exposures, while saliva tests are used for asymptomatic individuals, Denys said. Student Health Services tests 50 students per day using saliva tests, and students must sign up one day in advance.

The contact tracing team will continue to interview every positive Temple student within 48 hours of being notified during the spring semester, wrote Kara Reid, head of Temple’s contact tracing team, in an email to The Temple News.

“The methods of contact tracing will not change and Temple University will continue to follow state and local guidelines,” Reid wrote. “We are evaluating the number of contact tracers needed and will increase the staffing as needed.”

Contact tracers will notify students and employees if they had close contact with a COVID-19 positive individual, Denys said. Each school department will also have a COVID-19 liaison who will send out proximity notifications if students or employees were in the general vicinity of a COVID-19 positive individual.

The model for testing students twice per week comes from the Broad Institute, which provides COVID-19 screening for more than 100 colleges and

universities in the New England area, including Boston College and the University of Vermont, Denys said.

Testing students and employees two times per week is a step in the right direction, said Rob Pilarski, a freshman communication studies major.

“The two tests are a big step from what they were doing when we started in fall because we were tested like once [when] we got here and then that was about it,” Pilarski said.

Testing students twice per week sounds absurd said Rachel Sanchez, a sophomore health professions major.

“It’s just a lot added on to the . . . school stress,” she said. “I don’t think I’ll be taking an in-person class if I come back next semester.”

Students who test negative still have to follow the four pillars of public health, Denys said.

“Testing doesn’t prevent COVID-19,” Denys said. “So just because someone tests negative today that doesn’t mean they’re going to test negative tomorrow.” john.danz@temple.edu @JackLDanz

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OPINION

PAGE 8

EDITORIAL

Democracy can’t be rushed Today’s election may be one of the most important events of our lifetime.

The 2020 general election comes more than seven months into a pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 230,000 Americans, with nearly 1,900 in Philadelphia. It follows a nationwide reckoning for racial equality, including a week of demonstrations following the shooting of Walter Wallace Jr. by a Philadelphia police officer on Oct. 26.

These issues, along with the many health precautions and methods in voting amid a pandemic, are at the forefront of campaigning and are increasing in importance by these events in the last week.

As the stakes of the election grow with each passing day, especially locally and statewide, the Editorial Board reminds readers of the importance of having confidence in a final ballot count and urges readers to be patient as we await the results of this election.

Pennsylvania will not begin opening its mail-in ballots until at least 7 a.m. today, meaning we may not know Pennsylvania’s results — and the winner of the election — for days, NPR reported.

As we await the results of today’s election, the Editorial Board stresses to our readers that a delay does not compromise the integrity of this election. We know it can be nerve-wracking not knowing when a winner will be decided, but

we remind voters that this wait demonstrates the meticulous and careful counting of our ballots.

Voting by mail-in or absentee ballots is safe and secure. Rates of voter fraud with mail-in voting are extremely low, according to the Brookings Institute, and many states allowed mail-in or absentee voting before the COVID-19 pandemic began. In the 2018 general election, one in four voters cast their ballot by mail, U.S. News and World Report reported.

Mail-in and absentee ballots can still be mailed in if they’re postmarked by 8 p.m. today and received by 5 p.m. on Nov. 6, but voters are encouraged to drop off ballots at county election offices or drop-off locations. Voters can apply for an emergency absentee ballot by 8 p.m. today if they missed the Oct. 27 deadline.

The Editorial Board urges voters to check the hours of their satellite election office or dropoff location, as some close before 8 p.m., according to VotesPA. If you are voting in person, polling locations will be open at 7 a.m., and voters standing in line before 8 p.m. will be allowed to vote.

We may not know the results of this election for days, even weeks, but the Editorial Board urges our readers to stay calm and have faith in the safety and security of our electoral process.

Democracy cannot be rushed: to ensure a fair, secure and accurate election, we must be patient.

The Temple News

THE ESSAYIST

Body positivity isn’t for me

A student discusses not conforming to beauty standards as a woman with polycystic ovary syndrome.

BY BRIANNA FAIRMAN For The Temple News

G

rowing up, I didn’t particularly like my appearance. If I wasn’t upset with my body, then it was my hair, skin or face I found fault with, and so on and so forth in a never ending cycle of self-judgement.

Thinking back to my adolescence, I remember looking at others with envy, wishing I could somehow trade my body for theirs.

When I was 17, I was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, a hormonal disorder common among individuals with female reproductive systems of childbearing age. Symptoms include irregular menstrual cycles, weight gain, acne, excessive body hair growth and difficulty conceiving.

Birth control is one of the only forms of treatment for it, so I was immediately given a prescription. The pills helped regulate my hormones and alleviate some of my symptoms, but it was a far cry from a cure. PCOS cannot be cured and can only be managed.

As a result of the disorder, I struggled with my weight. I convinced myself being overweight was indicative of some deeper character flaw, like being lazy or having no self-control. I thought I would never be considered beautiful by anyone if I couldn’t squeeze myself into a slim mold.

Then came the popularization of the body positivity movement on the Internet.

Beautiful influencers on social media began telling me I had no reason to dislike myself because of my size.

They assured me that I was unconditionally and irrevocably beautiful, no matter what I looked like.

But I certainly didn’t feel beautiful. The less my body resembled our culture’s beauty ideals, the less feminine I felt. Unable to iden-

tify with or even visualize my femininity outside of society’s beauty standards, I deemed myself as permanently undesirable.

While the body positivity movement has helped others, the relentless positivity on Instagram made me feel ashamed. Not only did I dislike my appearance, but I was unhappy because I couldn’t accept myself as I was.

Body positivity was somewhat useful in encouraging me to love myself and normalizing my body as imperfect, but it ultimately failed to raise the question of why I needed to be validated in the first place.

This is fundamentally the problem I have with the body positivity movement. Rather than eliminating my longing to be perceived as beautiful, the movement fulfills this desire by insisting I am beautiful regardless of my physical appearance.

Like my body, the movement is flawed.

While I shouldn’t feel guilty for factors out of my control, I also shouldn’t need to prove I am beautiful for anyone other than myself.

Likewise, there is nothing wrong with wanting to change something about myself, particularly if it will ameliorate my health.

Self-love and self-betterment can coexist.

I’ve found the simplest way to embrace this duality is by practicing body neutrality as opposed to body positivity. Rather than judging myself as either beautiful or ugly, I try to remove the expectation of beauty entirely. I don’t want to be so concerned with the burden of my perception when my body is capable of so much more.

I no longer go on every new fad diet I find. Instead, I eat nutritious foods that keep my body energized. At times, I am haunted by my teenage insecurities, but it’s liberating to think of my body in terms of what it can do rather than how it looks.

Self-acceptance is a long journey, but it is one I am embracing wholeheartedly. I am grateful for all that my body can do, and as long as I am healthy, I am happy. brianna.fairman@temple.edu

The Temple News

OPINION

PAGE 9

POLITICS

Students should be at the polls today, not in class A student argues Temple should recognize Election Day as a holiday to allow students to vote.

Election Day, the first Tuesday of November, is typically a highly anticipated date.

Just as 2020 has presented many unprecedented and historic events, the 2020 MADISON SEITCHIK presidential election For The Temple News is no different.

In 2016 more than 340,000 Philadelphians were not registered to vote, Philadelphia Magazine reported.

This year, more than 23 million eligible voters in the United States are members of Generation Z, and 63 million are millennials, according to a September report by the Pew Research Center.

Temple University should treat Election Day as a federal holiday and suspend operations, as synchronous classes, assignments and exams on Election Day present barriers to voting for students who still need to vote in person at their local polling place. Faculty should provide students with the opportunity to be politically active and perform their civic duty.

Election Day is not a federal holiday, but it is recognized as a public holiday in some states like Delaware. Pennsylvania is not included.

Temple encourages students registered in Philadelphia to use the city’s satellite election office at the Liacouras Center to vote and students not registered in the city to check with their local elections office. However, the university remains open on Election Day, wrote Raymond Betzner, a spokesperson for the university, in an email to The Temple News.

“Temple does not recognize Election Day as a holiday,” Betzner wrote.

“Faculty who are not holding classes on that day, or any other, should inform

OLIVIA SCHROEDER / THE TEMPLE NEWS

students of plans to cover or make-up missed content.”

John Street, a political science adjunct instructor and former mayor of Philadelphia, teaches Local Government and Community Advocacy, but he will not be teaching on Election Day. Students could change the trajectory of an entire election if they all went out and voted, he said.

“Temple students alone could influence a number of voters in excess of the amount by which Hillary Clinton lost Pennsylvania in 2016,” Street added. “So if 20,000 Temple students went out and influenced a half a dozen friends, you could literally change the outcome of an election.”

Wendy Garcia, a freshman sociology major, does not have her only Tuesday class today because of Election Day. She thinks all students should have time off

from school on Election Day because requiring students to come to class could interfere with their ability to vote.

“Temple should, at the very least, encourage professors to cancel classes,” she said. “Being given the chance to vote is a right. There should be more of a push to go out and vote and to encourage others to vote.”

Not all students are as fortunate, however. Kayla Myers, a senior exercise and sports science major, said she was planning on volunteering at the polls as a poll worker, but volunteer time interferes with a chemistry lab she can’t afford to miss because she will lose participation points.

“Even in our chemistry lab, we brought it up like, ‘Will we still be having lab?’ and they were like, ‘Yeah, unfortunately it is on the schedule, there’s nothing we can do about it,’” Myers said.

Students should not be penalized for exercising their civic duty or volunteering to be a poll worker, an essential role in ensuring elections run smoothly.

During election week in 2016, Lauren Bullock, a public relations professor, initially scheduled a midterm, which she said was a big mistake.

“When I planned my semester, I wasn’t even thinking about it,” Bullock said. “By the time my night class started, it was clearly a problem for students.”

Bullock made the decision to split her class midterm into separate class times that year. But this year, she assigned asynchronous activities, like group work, a recorded lecture and a discussion board, so students won’t lose out on class time or the opportunity to be civically engaged, she said.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 “As faculty, there’s so much we want to teach you in a semester, and we already know that’s not possible, and so it’s already hard to make a decision about where you make these allowances,” Bullock added.

The polls are open today between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m, according to the Office of the Philadelphia City Commissioners.

Public relations professor Steve Ryan made his classes asynchronous, including his 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. class on Tuesdays, he said.

“I fortunately had planned enough upfront that I was able to make the shift fairly easily and not sacrifice the quality of the course because it is one night a week,” Ryan added. “It’s not insignificant

OPINION and nd not a decision to take lightly.”

Ryan is sympathetic to those who are experiencing special circumstances on Election Day, he said.

“I know a lot of students work,” Ryan added. “I know a lot of students are carrying heavy course loads. They may need to travel to vote. They may be helping others get to the polls. I heard a couple students who were volunteering as poll workers. Gosh, I requested [my mail-in ballot] for the primary at the same time for the general election, and I didn’t get mine until last week. So even if you’re doing all the right things, stuff can still go wrong.”

Election Day occurs in the 11th week of classes. Professors should be cognizant of the stress students are under mid-semester, on top of an election

year, and excuse them from schoolwork.

“People in our department and in my whole building of social sciences have spent a lot of time thinking of and wondering about elections,” said Robin Kolodny, chair of the political science department. “If the university would send a supportive message to every faculty member, then yeah, it would be on their radar.”

Temple, for its part, has done a lot to promote voter turnout this year, like allowing the Liacouras Center to be used as a satellite voting location and promoting student organizations to inform and register students online.

But the university should go the extra mile and make Election Day a holiday for students and faculty who have been informed and registered but still need to

The Temple News

cast their vote in person.

Philadelphia is seeing its highest number of registered voters in 35 years, as more than 90 percent of eligible residents have signed up to vote, Billy Penn reported.

Philadelphians are inspired to vote this election. Faculty should further incentivize students to vote or volunteer and accommodate students by recording lectures, making class asynchronous or offering optional attendance.

One missed class may put professors and students one day behind. But a missed opportunity to vote could put this country decades behind.

“Nothing is more important than voting,” Street said. madison.seitchik@temple.edu

CITY

Supporting local dining options is still imperative A student argues others should COVID-19 pandemic and consider findhelp fund Reading Terminal Mar- ing safe ways to support local food inket and other small businesses. dustries, like donating, ordering takeout As one of America’s largest and oldest public markets, Reading Terminal Market is an iconic Philadelphia landmark, accommodating nearly 80 merchants for 127 years.

But not even the ALLISON NIKLES For The Temple News marketplace can escape the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A GoFundMe page was created by the market on Oct. 7 to save it from having to shut its doors. The page raised almost $200,000 of its $250,000 goal in a little more than three weeks.

In Philadelphia, 38 restaurants have closed between May and October as a result of COVID-19, Eater Philly reported.

Temple University students should be concerned by the number of eateries in Philadelphia closing amid the

or buying merchandise and gift cards.

Philadelphia residents and students rely on the market for buying groceries.

Joey Berkant, a junior architecture major, frequently visited Reading Terminal Market for his Engaging Places: Observations course. The class’s purpose was to introduce students to the study of buildings and public places in Philadelphia.

“By the time I was there, I could do my grocery shopping,” Berkant said. “I really like the products they have there.”

Emani Howard, a freshman secondary education and history major, said the diverse vendors at Reading Terminal Market made it a comfortable and enjoyable environment to explore.

“It was a nice space to come to,” Howard added. “We used to go there every Friday and get whatever was open because there’s a lot of different things.”

Some of these immigrant-and fami-

ly-owned vendors at Reading Terminal Market have been in business for decades. The market has a variety of cultural cuisines, including Italian, Cajun, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, Spanish, Thai, Latino, Chinese and Japanese food.

Temple prides itself on being a diverse school, distinguished by its self-starting student body. Its students should be driven to preserve local businesses for future students to experience, said Ryan Oliviera, a 2013 management information systems alumnus.

“The local food scene is a by-product of Temple being in the city,” Oliviera added. “You can explore cultures by eating your way through it. It fits perfectly with Temple, where you have people from all different backgrounds coming into this environment.”

Oliviera founded a start-up project, “Support Local,” along with 15 other Temple students. They created a directory and partnered with local food bloggers, demonstrating their school spirit.

The COVID-19 pandemic has wors-

ened the financial crisis in Philadelphia, as the city’s commerce budget was cut by 63 percent. Independent businesses are the backbone of Philadelphia and promote economic equality and environmental sustainability, WHYY reported.

The cost of losing these businesses far outweighs the cost of keeping them.

When I was applying to colleges, I was attracted to Temple because of the exposure to countless cultural dishes, which I couldn’t find in the suburbs. Students can leave an impact by providing much needed aid to these small businesses, like Reading Terminal Market.

If these businesses continue to shut down, not only will the city lose many dining options, but it will also lose its charm.

“The local restaurant scene is what gives Philly its identity,” Oliviera said.

“I’ve lived here for 11 years, including my Temple years, and I still haven’t eaten my way through my bucket list.” allison.nikles@temple.edu

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OPINION

PAGE 11

TECHNOLOGY

Student feedback data should be more explicit A student argues Data for Students should be more specific so students can use it as a guide.

With Spring 2021 priority registration starting Nov. 16, students will be asking themselves what professors and classes to take while building their schedules. One resource is overlooked MARYAM SIDDIQUI and underutilized in Web Editor making these choices: Student Feedback Forms data.

The forms are questionnaires that students fill out at the end of their courses. This semester, the university implemented a new form and system, developed by the joint faculty and staff Assessment of Instruction Committee, Temple University’s Office of Institutional Research and Assessment and Information Technology Services.

The enhanced version has eight university-level items: five response-scales and three open-ended questions.

While these changes are definitely a step in the right direction, and I commend the administration for listening to criticism, there is still room for improvement in the areas of student access to data and low student response rates.

The previous questionnaire was vague and subjective, asking students to rate their teacher’s performance by agreeing or disagreeing with statements like “I learned a great deal.”

It also lacked customization: an Arabic language course and a biology course differ wildly in objectives and content.

Yet, a student could respond to the same set of questions for both.

Luckily, professors will be able to ask questions from a bank of 200 possibilities, and honors, online-only, general education and writing intensive courses will have questions designated for them, said Gina Calzaferri, director of assessment and evaluation for the office.

“One of the biggest pieces was to acknowledge the diversity of our academic programs across the university,” Calz-

HANNA LIPSKI / THE TEMPLE NEWS

aferri added. “We have 17 schools and colleges, and we pretty much had the standard form with just slight variations, but it didn’t really capture the needs for all the schools and colleges with regards to being able to better understand their courses and content areas.”

Temple will also be updating the SFF Data for Students, a dashboard where students can see data from previous semesters if they have completed their SFF. The new forms bring about much needed personalization, but the data should reflect what we inputted.

Rather than showing the results of multiple choice and open-ended questions, students can only see a bar graph for quality of teaching, grading, feedback and learning on a three-point scale.

Students should be able to view the same information they meticulously put in, not an arbitrary interpretation of it.

Students would be more inclined

to use SFF Data for Students as an aid in course selection and complete their questionnaires in order to access it.

For example, it would be more effective for students to view peer comments than just charts and graphs.

Despite Temple having a system for evaluation, some students rely on other sources for selecting courses, said Emma Walinsky, a junior public health major.

“I have found that websites like ratemyprofessor.com or just simply talking to my peers are much more beneficial when it comes to learning about a course format or how a certain professor teaches,” Walinsky added.

The student response rate is typically only 55 to 60 percent, and it was even lower last semester due to the COVID-19 pandemic moving all classes online, Calzaferri wrote in an email to The Temple News. Students should take the time to fill out these feedback forms

because they affect the overall quality of the courses at Temple, she added.

“It gives students a voice to tell us what they think about their courses,” Calzaferri said. “The feedback from Student Feedback Forms is important for instructors so they can make changes on what they’re doing.”

SFFs can help other students succeed in a course, said Kayla Myers, a senior exercise and sport science major.

“I’ve had professors in the past who genuinely do take information they learned from those forms and apply it to the next semester,” Myers said.

Students should thoughtfully fill out feedback forms, but the university should put the same effort into making SFF Data for Students less abstract. maryam.siddiqui@temple.edu

LONGFORM

PAGE 12

The Temple News

JEREMY ELVAS / THE TEMPLE NEWS Hiba Atif, a senior public health major, sits in the Science Education and Research Center on Nov. 1. Atif creates vlogs on her YouTube channel about her life at Temple.

STUDENT LIFE

‘Putting yourself out there’: Life as an influencer Student content creators use digital platforms to show peers daily aspects of life at college.

BY ASA CADWALLADER Longform Editor

W

ith bright expressions, fast transitions, upbeat dialogue and her own title sequence, Hiba Atif addresses her nearly 5,000 YouTube followers in her off-campus apartment, showcasing various pieces of clothing she bought during quarantine as part of her back-to-school clothing haul. ”My sister got a free jeans coupon that went to my email … but I used it anyway,” she said. “I don’t buy American Eagle jeans but when they’re free, you know, you ball out a little bit.”

Since arriving at Temple University, Atif has produced her own college-related content on her YouTube channel, like dorm room tours, clothing hauls

and day-in-the-life vlogs, to provide her viewers a picture of the college student experience, both on and off campus.

Atif joins a growing number of student content creators, or ‘micro-influencers,’ at Temple who are using their YouTube channels and social media platforms to connect with their audiences on topics ranging from daily student life and the Temple experience to lifestyle and beauty.

Following a growing trend across industries, like retail, technology and hospitality, companies are increasingly using micro-influencers – content creators whose audience ranges from 1,000 to 100,000 followers – to market various goods and services, said Subodha Kumar, a marketing and supply chain management professor and expert in social media advertising.

“Micro-influencers are currently dominating the digital marketing industry,” Kumar said. “It’s surely the fastest growing advertising strategy in that it

provides firms the ability to target niche audiences at a low cost.”

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, use of social media and other digital platforms has notably risen, creating an even larger demand for micro-influencer content, Kumar said.

“With fewer traditional marketing channels available due to COVID, influencers and micro-influencers are posting more and more, and therefore they are being followed and reposted more and more, and firms have noticed,” he added.

“It’s really a domino effect.”

WHY MICRO-INFLUENCERS?

In the last decade, firms’ use of micro-influencers has skyrocketed across industries, mostly due to their relatively low cost — on average $200-$300 per sponsored post — as well as their niche connections to specific consumer demographics, Kumar said.

“The ability of micro-influencers to interact with their followers directly,

without an intermediary, makes them extremely appealing to firms who are already struggling to be seen amid the huge amount of advertising the consumer already sees everyday,” Kumar added.

Having started his YouTube channel in middle school, Joe Andruzzi, a junior media studies and production major, saw a unique opportunity at Temple to create exclusive college-related content aimed at prospective students.

“I saw a large demand for peoples’ experiences related to college life and thought I had something unique to bring to the table being a Temple student,” Andruzzi said.

In recent years, Temple and other schools across the country have increasingly used student content creators to advertise to prospective students through social media platforms like YouTube, the New York Times reported.

During his sophomore year, Andruzzi was hired as an official student-vlogger for Temple, creating weekly content

The Temple News

LONGFORM

PAGE 13

ranging from room tours to vlogs on his student experience at the university.

To date, Andruzzi’s videos posted on Temple’s YouTube page have garnered hundreds of views and he boasts about 1,700 subscribers.

Andruzzi sees micro-influencer content as the future of marketing.

“I know I at least would trust the opinion of an individual over a large company or corporation,” Andruzzi said.

“People are more likely to trust what they see as a normal person sharing their experience with a brand or experience.”

Having student contributors like Andruzzi involved in the content process allows for the communication of a more authentic student life experience, which is valuable for both current and prospective students, wrote Kate O’Brien, Temple’s digital marketing manager, in an email to The Temple News.

“Digital media has allowed us to hear the concerns of our community in real time and communicate resources that can help,” she wrote.

WHAT IT TAKES

For micro-influencers like Andruzzi and Atif, their work comes with unique benefits as well as drawbacks, mostly associated with the relentless nature of content production.

“I have always really loved making videos,” Andruzzi said. “But to make this your full-time job is a lot harder than people might think. Between thinking of video ideas, to filming and editing, it can take a lot of time. On top of that you are really putting yourself out there, which can be scary.”

Atif also launched her YouTube channel in middle school after becoming interested in ‘beauty-guru’ channels, which focused on makeup tutorials and cosmetics.

She decided to stop filming videos at the beginning of high school, after experiencing bullying from her peers about her channel and only started again after coming to Temple.

Nicole Rafiee, a senior media studies and production major, has amassed more than 300,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel in the past two years, gaining an audience which has made her attractive for paid promotion opportunities, she said.

Rafiee’s content focuses on topics

JEREMY ELVAS / THE TEMPLE NEWS Joe Andruzzi, a junior media studies and production major and former student vlogger for the university, uses his camera and laptop in Charles Library on Nov. 2.

like lifestyle advice, dating tips and mental health as a college student.

“It’s in a way like any other job,” Rafiee said. “There are benefits, for example making your own schedule, but there are still quite a few challenges with this kind of work, and burnout can be a big issue especially when new content is demanded every week.”

Despite the fatigue and vulnerability that comes with being a micro-influencer, Andruzzi said the ability to engage with followers makes it all worthwhile.

“It’s incredibly redeeming when you connect with people who watch your videos and they reach out,” Andruzzi said. “It can be like small messages of support but also deeper stuff they might have related to in your videos.”

Atif has also enjoyed talking to prospective Temple students who have contacted her after watching her videos with questions about Temple and her experience as a college student.

“I’d say that’s the most rewarding part of being a YouTuber, being able to help people by sharing your own experiences,” she added.

FAIR COMPENSATION

With the benefits of micro-influencers for marketing purposes becoming increasingly apparent, fair compensation has emerged as a topic of growing controversy, Rafiee said.

YouTubers start being compensated after they reach more than 1,000 followers as well as 4,000 hours of total viewing time on their channel for more than 12 months. After reaching this quota, YouTubers can begin monetizing their channel through advertising revenue, Forbes reported.

Once gaining a more established following, however, YouTubers can expand their revenue stream through brand deals and merchandise sales, Rafiee said.

When Rafiee started to see her following grow, she decided to hire a manager to help navigate the process of monetizing her channel .

“When I initially started getting sponsorship offers, I wasn’t really aware of what standard pay rates were for this stuff,” Rafiee said. “My manager helped me navigate those contracts and in some cases informed me some of the deals I

was offered were really unfair.”

Rafiee plans on doing YouTube full time after she graduates in December, she said.

Even with their growing YouTube followings, Andruzzi and Atif are hesitant to call themselves influencers, a term both say carries a certain stigma in 2020.

“It implies I in some way have power over people or something, when in reality I really just make videos because I enjoy it and like helping people,” Andruzzi said.

Atif also sees the ‘influencer’ designation as a potentially alienating term to describe content creators.

“What’s great about YouTube vlogs is that they offer a more personable and trustworthy perspective of your experience to people,” Atif said. “The term ‘influencer’ sort of infers the opposite.

Really, we’re just students sharing our experiences and trying to connect with and help people.” asa.cadwallader@temple.edu @asacadwallader

LIVE Philly in

BY COLLEEN CLAGGETT Co-Photo Editor

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS Children in Halloween costumes play on the Smith Memorial Playground and Playhouse during the Healthy Halloween event on Oct. 31.

HEALTHY HALLOWEEN

A playground in Fairmount Park distancing and have their temperature 23rd Street near Brown, came with her kids out, interact with others, considerhosted its annual Halloween taken upon arrival. The event had three husband, Anthony, 50, and her son, ing they’re not in school due to COVID,” timed entry slots to ensure they weren’t Mark, 8. The family dressed as Star Myers said. event for children to dress up.

O

n Saturday, families came out to Smith Memorial Playground and Playhouse in Fairmount Park for their annual Healthy Halloween celebration. Sponsored by the Pincus Family Foundation and Mr. Halloweenster, community residents were invited to dress in costume and take part in treat giveaways.

This year’s event required all participants to wear masks, practice social

exceeding maximum capacity to adhere to COVID-19 safety guidelines.

“We still had a great turnout and lots of interest,” said Zoe Lowry, associate director of communications for Smith Memorial Playground and Playhouse.

Princesses, firefighters and wizards alike masked up and showed out to the Fairmount Park playground to celebrate the holiday with treats, crafts and live music from NU Gruv Network, an artistic collective.

Sharon DelCotto, 51, who lives on

Wars characters Queen Padme Amidala, a stormtrooper and Luke Skywalker, respectively, and incorporated masks into their costumes.

“It’s all about creativity this year,” Sharon DelCotto said. “I found something online, printed it out and taped it to my regular mask.”

Markisha Myers, 37, a 2010 marketing alumna and marketing director who lives in Mount Airy, attended the event with her son, Karson, 4, and her mother.

“It was a good opportunity to get the

While the celebration brought new visitors to Smith Memorial Playground and Playhouse, some families rekindled traditions while visiting the playground.

“When I was younger I came here often, and now I get to bring my son down and do some of the things I did as a child,” Myers said. colleen.claggett@temple.edu @colleenclaggett

MOVING CLOCKWISE FROM THE TOP RIGHT A child dressed as ‘Chucky’ walks across a balance beam at the Smith Memorial Playground and Playhouse on Oct. 31.

Mr. Halloweenster leads a costume parade during the Healthy Halloween event.

A volunteer traces a child’s hand for an arts and craft project.

NU Gruv Network performs during the Healthy Halloween event.

Healthy Halloween took place at Smith Memorial Playground and Playhouse in Fairmount Park on Oct. 31.

PAGE 16

FEATURES

The Temple News

ON CAMPUS

Students, faculty plan for more virtual learning Temple announced Monday that week throughout the spring semester. most courses will continue to be- Faculty and staff with in-person work who routinely interact with students will held online in the spring.

BY NATALIE KERR AND EMMA PADNER For The Temple News

N

o matter if Shannon Stretch enrolls in courses or takes off next semester, she feels there will be a downside to her choice.

She’s struggling to learn in online classes, but she’s worried that if she tests positive for COVID-19, she’ll miss out on instruction.

“Trying to commit to going to a Zoom class everyday it’s like, I’m still in bed, I’m still in my pajamas and I’m trying to force myself to go to accounting at 9:30 in the morning, it’s just not working,” said Stretch, a sophomore business undeclared major.

On Monday, Temple University announced it will continue mostly remote learning next semester while offering a mix of in-person and online courses.

Some Temple students and faculty are hopeful for classes with in-person components, while others worry about a possible increase in cases of COVID-19 with more in-person classes.

Temple will hold a majority of the classes for the spring semester online while expanding the amount of in-person classes because of ongoing concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Temple News reported.

The Fall 2020 semester is being held almost entirely online after Temple reported more than 200 active cases of COVID-19 in early September, The Temple News reported.

As of Nov. 2, there are 48 active cases of COVID-19 on campus, a decline since reporting 90 cases on Oct. 26, The Temple News reported.

Temple announced it will test students living in residence halls and students taking in-person courses twice a

be eligible to be tested twice a week, The Temple News reported.

On Oct. 26, Temple announced it would delay the start of the spring semester from Jan. 11 to Jan.19 to allow returning students to quarantine for two weeks, and that spring break, scheduled from March 1 through 7, is canceled, The Temple News reported.

Patrick Celidonio Moyses said Temple’s Monday announcement felt “last minute.”

“Class registration was just announced,” said Celidonio Moyses, a senior biology major. “Usually we know like months in advance so that kind of like caught me off guard a little bit.”

Celidonio Moyses is preparing to take in-person classes this spring if it helps him graduate on time, he said.

Alison Evans, a senior visual studies major, wants to take classes with in-person components because she has been struggling with her online studio classes this semester, she said.

“It’s almost impossible to take them online and it’s been really difficult this semester to like try to do that in my apartment bedroom,” she said. “Hopefully, I can take some hybrid or in-person courses. But if most of my classes are online, I’m kind of not in a good situation with graduating.”

Kevin Arceneaux, a political science professor, will continue to only teach online classes in the spring, as he feels the risk of in-person learning outweighs the benefit.

“The cost of doing it isn’t just the inconvenience of having to pivot from one mode of instruction to another, it’s the possibility that people could get, you know, infected with COVID and be seriously ill,” Arceneaux said.

During the fall semester, Temple has not seen cases of COVID-19 infection from transmission in in-person classes,

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS Shannon Stretch, a sophomore business undeclared major, sits in the lobby of the Howard Gittis Student Center on Nov. 2.

wrote Raymond Betzner, a spokesperson for the university, in an email to The Temple News on Oct. 23.

Kareem Bryant said he’s not sure how to feel about the continuation of online classes for the spring semester, despite online learning being a “standard” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bryant, a kinesiology professor, said the university made the best decision possible with current COVID-19 circumstances.

“They did the best that they could and they were kind of trying to stay out front of the issue and did communicate, I think as effectively as they could after decisions were made,” he added.

Ruby Price, a junior media studies and production major, said the announcement made her confident in her plans to live off campus during the spring semester and take one or two classes with in-person components.

“I kind of expected it considering the

COVID numbers are going up, so I expected that we would have classes online or a hybrid system again,” Price added.

As of Nov. 1, COVID-19 cases in Philadelphia are rising with an average positivity rate of 9.4 percent, Billy Penn reported.

Patrick Rieker, a freshman undeclared major, lives in Morgan Hall and plans to stay for the spring semester because of the possibility of having in-person classes.

He is glad to have more in-person opportunities on campus for his second semester, he added.

“I think we have the space to socially distance and to have a safe community environment, so I am excited for it,” Rieker said. “I’m nervous that it’s not going to go well, but I’m hopeful as well.” natalie.kerr@temple.edu @natliekerr emma.padner@temple.edu @emmapadner

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PAGE 17

CITY LIFE

Women voters commemorate suffrage centennial A century later, women remember the struggle for voting rights as they cast their ballots.

BY NATALIE KERR AND EMMA PADNER For The Temple News A hundred years ago on Aug. 28, the 19th Amendment was adopted nationwide, ensuring that ensuring that “no citizen will be denied the right to vote on account of their sex.”

But the fight for the right to vote began long before that, as the first meeting for the Women’s Suffrage Convention of Pennsylvania was held in West Chester in 1852, the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin reported.

This year marks the centennial of the 19th Amendment which granted women the right to vote in United States elections.

Women voters in the North Central community feel it’s important to commemorate suffrage and female representation in politics by voting to voice their opinions.

Today’s general election could end in historic results, as Sen. Kamala Harris could be the first woman, Black woman and Asian American to serve as vice president.

Carolyn Kitch, a journalism professor and contributor to the academic journal “Front Pages, Front Lines: Media and the Fight for Women’s Suffrage,” said that in recent years there has been an increase in the number of women who ran for office and won.

“People who normally would not have voted at all came out and voted because they had met these people,” Kitch said. “It was a remarkable number of women, especially young women.”

It’s important for college students in urban areas to vote and pay attention to politics because many people rely on public funding for services like sanitation and public schools, said Barbara Ferman, a political science professor.

“Those are forces for change,” Ferman said. “Things have to happen at all levels.”

Seeing female representation in politics makes Francesca Capozzi excited to vote in the anniversary of the 19th Amendment.

“It allows for more women, female

NATALIE KERR / THE TEMPLE NEWS Joy Jones, 39, a cook at Delaware Valley University who lives on 24th Street near Lehigh, waits to vote early outside of the Liacouras Center on Oct. 26. Jones said she is proud of the work women have done to gain the right to vote and have their voices heard.

voices, to be brought into the conversation so that really important issues like reproductive health, women’s rights, equality for all, wage gap, stuff like that can be addressed and can be dealt with properly,” said Capozzi, a senior political science major and former student body president.

While the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, the right to vote for women did not encompass all women, Kitch said.

Black women were not present at the Seneca Falls Convenction, the site of the first women’s rights conference where women discussed representation and equality, according to the History Channel website. Many women of color were not able to vote until the 1960s, when the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, CNN reported.

Ferman said the hundredth anniversary of the 19th Amendment is still an important milestone to commemorate be-

cause voting began the push for women’s rights in other areas, like the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which not only prohibited discrimination based on race, but also on gender, according to the National Parks Service.

One Philadelphia woman, Dora Lewis, was arrested multiple times at sitins and protests for women’s suffrage, the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin reported in 1917. In 1917, Lewis was arrested while carrying a banner that read “We of the United States are interested only in human liberty,” a quote from former President Woodrow Wilson.

This year, Akshaya Ramaswamy, a senior neuroscience major, is excited about the election because she sees her own identity as an Asian American woman being represented by Harris.

“It’s so important that representation is there,” she said. “Not just that she’s Black but she’s also Asian American.”

Joy Jones, 39, a cook at Delaware Valley University, voted at the Liacouras Center on Oct. 26. Jones, who lives on 24th Street near Lehigh, said she is voting with racial injustices and economic relief in mind.

She is proud to vote because of the long struggle for women’s suffrage, she said.

“We fought for that right for so long just to be able to vote as women,” Jones said. “It’s always good to be heard.”

Voting is a part of activism, helping people push for social change and have voices heard by those in power, Kitch said.

“The wording of the 19th Amendment says that voting rights shall not be denied,” Kitch added. “I think that’s what we saw on the streets this summer, that rights shall not be denied.” natalie.kerr@temple.edu @natliekerr

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FEATURES

The Temple News

CITY LIFE

Food hall aims to address student food insecurity Gather Food Hall offers students and community members affordable and healthy meals.

BY SCOTT BLENDER For The Temple News In Philadelphia, 52 percent of students at two-year institutions and 35 percent of students at four-year institutions struggle with food insecurity, according to a 2019 survey by the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice.

Because of the high rate of food insecurity, Elias Gonzalez helped create Gather Food Hall, a community-focused dining hall located on Nectarine Street near 11th. Gather, a joint initiative between Little Giant Creative and Believe in Students, was created to combat food insecurity by offering a shame-free experience to students and community members, through donations and “pay-it-forward” models, said Gonzalez, a project manager at Little Giants Creative.

The food hall opened its doors to students and community members on Oct. 23.

“With this pop-up, we want to start that conversation of bringing awareness to the food insecurity that is rampant in Philadelphia,” said Gonzalez, a 2016 media studies and production alumnus.

Gather Food Hall provides meals to students for $5, $7 or $10, but if students can’t afford the meal, they will get a $5 meal credit with a student ID, said Joshua Ortiz, a 2018 strategic communication alumnus and project manager at Little Giant Creative.

“We pretty much wanted to get students fed,” Ortiz added. “We have an amazing array of food vendors and so we mixed local food vendors who are Black and brown and made them more affordable.”

Gather Food Hall is funded by donations through Believe in Students, a local nonprofit that supports students through providing basic needs and individual donations from customers who choose to “pay it forward,” Ortiz said.

CAMILLE COLEMAN/ THE TEMPLE NEWS Tony Tran, creative director at Little Giant Creative, and Pam Chuang, junior graphic designer at Little Giant Creative, hang a poster explaining the steps to buy meals at Gather Food Hall on 11th Street near Spring Garden at their grand opening on Oct. 24.

The food hall is set up outdoors, with each vendor under a canopy tent toward the back of the lot, with tables around for people to use.

Students and community members walk up and order a meal from the vendor of the day, and if needed, request that their meal be subsidized through prompts on tablets so it isn’t obvious who is using a voucher, Gonzalez said.

Food is provided by vendors around the city like Baology, Rock n’ Rolls and Wood Street Pizza, Gonzalez said.

Shamaya Overton, owner of Rock n’ Rolls, got involved in the project as a vendor because she is passionate about addressing food insecurity. She said she could relate to the uncertainty of affording food while living with financial uncertainty.

“I know what it’s like being a college student and living paycheck to paycheck waiting to get your degree so you can hop into your career,” said Overton, a 2012 journalism alumna. “I’ve been there so I understand what it’s like.”

At her stand, students can get two egg rolls, chips and a drink for $5, she said.

Gather Food Hall hopes to be a conversation starter for the larger issue of tackling food insecurity, Gonzalez said.

The team implemented a pay-it-forward model where people donate or pay for other’s meals who might not be able to afford it to add to the sense of community and Gonzalez said.

Gather’s setup is inspired by a community-centered night market, which generally has more eating and leisure

than traditional day markets, Gonzalez said. He added that Gather revolves around the idea of nightlife that is accessible for all people.

Opening a food hall for the community has been a learning process for everyone, but the team is working to get as many students fed as possible, Ortiz said.

“We’ve been learning how to navigate vendors and make sure we have everything situated,” he added. “I think for us our main goal right now is to get as many students and people from the community out here as possible.” scott.blender@temple.edu @scott_blender

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PAGE 19

ALUMNI

Memoir describes childhood, life in Philadelphia Pete Zakroff self-published a memoir in September that is inspired by his life experiences.

BY SARAH HEIDELBAUGH For The Temple News Pete Zakroff’s first time writing was pitching an episode of “The Twilight Zone” to show creator Rod Serling. His idea wasn’t used, but Serling encouraged him to keep writing.

More than 60 years later, Zakroff is bursting with stories.

Zakroff, a 1967 journalism alumnus, self-published his memoir “101 Tales of a Middle-Class Middle-Child,” on Amazon on Sept. 23. The book is made up of 101 anecdotal stories starting with Zakroff’s childhood in West Oak Lane, Philadelphia, to his retirement. It shares insights about how his experiences have shaped him into who he is now and what young people should expect when growing old.

“When an incident or something interesting happened to me, I figured I’d write it down and somewhere along the line I might be able to use it,” Zakroff said.

When he began looking back on the stories he had been collecting, Zakroff planned to put together a book with 25 vignettes, he said. However, 25 soon became 50, and 50 soon became 100, as he realized that there were still more stories.

Each vignette documents a specific moment in his life and begins with black-and-white illustrations emulating old photos created by his daughter, Laura Zakroff. The illustrations are a tribute to Pete Zakroff’s interest in photography, she said.

Laura Zakroff made an effort to capture the reader’s attention through the illustrations, she added.

“Rather than having exact images that describe every scene, to kind of create something that, sort of a montage, that inspires the reader, as they’re looking at the image going, ‘What could this be about?’ so they can almost put themselves into the story,” Laura Zakroff said.

In addition to illustrating the book, Laura Zakroff helped her father navigate Amazon’s self-publishing process, a task she said took three days.

PETE ZAKROFF / COURTESY Pete Zakroff, a 1967 journalism alumnus, published his memoir “101 Tales of a Middle-Class Middle-Child” in September.

“He’s still going through the process of hopefully being able to publish it mainstream,” she added. “But because of COVID, everybody’s been sort of pulling back on what they’re publishing.”

In the memoir’s introduction, Pete Zakroff recalls the idea of writing it during conversations with an old friend from high school, Larry Stein, who would frequently ask, “Do you have another tale?”

“Thus began the retelling of a lifetime of vignettes,” Pete Zakroff wrote in the introduction.

The vignettes begin with his childhood, when the streets of West Oak Lane served as a playground for him and his friends. It follows him chronologically, moving to his time at Temple University, where he originally planned to become a doctor, but soon decided to pursue journalism instead because of his passion for writing.

In a story about a journalism class at Temple, Pete Zakroff describes an in-

structor who required students to read obituaries and write news stories about them, an experience that has stayed with him until today.

“I read the obits every day, in two papers, just to make sure I’m not in there,” he said.

After graduating, Pete Zakroff worked as a general assignment reporter for the Coatesville Record in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, where he realized he did not want to have a career in journalism.

He returned to Temple in 1968 to pursue a master’s in educational media, which he used to start his own producing business, ZM Squared, creating programs for business industry education.

Before the book’s release, Marcy Altimano, who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and worked with Pete Zakroff when he was a freelancer on pharmaceutical workshops for Drury Design Dynamics, gave him the perspective of a reader who doesn’t share the experience

of growing up in the Philadelphia area.

The stories created a sense of nostalgia as she recalled her own childhood experiences, despite growing up in a different city, she added.

One of Pete Zakroff’s stories reminded her that she still had the key to her skates from when she was 10 years old, Altimano said.

“Your mind starts wandering to your own history,” she added. “You start reading the Philadelphia area history as though, you know, I’m just sort of converting it into Brooklyn history.”

Pete Zakroff hopes his memoir will bring familiarity to readers, especially as many books about current events are filled with fear and anxiety, he said.

“I actually got to over 100 vignettes or little stories about people I’d met, my adventures,” Pete Zakroff said. “It’s a lifetime of work.” sarah.heidelbaugh@temple.edu

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FEATURES

ART

Alumnus’ wood sculptures featured in gallery Scott Troxel’s art is showcased in ‘Unplugged,’ an exhibit highlighting human connection.

BY JESSICA BOND For The Temple News At 43 years old, Scott Troxel decided to pursue his love of art, and began to master the creation of abstract sculptures.

Troxel, a 1994 film alumnus, has two sculptures created from wood and acrylic spray paint, currently featured in ‘Unplugged,’ an art exhibition at the James Oliver Gallery on Chestnut Street near 8th from Oct. 24 through Nov. 28.

The in-person exhibit features painters and sculpture artists from around the world, including Australia, Canada, Sweden and the United States.

The exhibition, which showcases two pieces from each artist in their preferred medium, highlights the importance of human connection and taking time away from everyday life to get back the basics of what matters most, said Johnny Romeo, an Australian painter and curator of ‘Unplugged’.

“We are unplugged because of COVID-19 and are able to restart in a brand new way of representing what we were doing,” Romeo said.

Troxel believes his pieces show the evolution of his woodworking skill as he learned more techniques and refined his style in the year between the two pieces.

“As an artist, you are constantly evolving,” Troxel said. “You look back and see what you were doing and how you have grown.”

His two featured pieces, titled “Quiet Riot IV” and “Voyager 5,” were essential to understanding his artistic journey, particularly “Voyager 5,” which was an important stepping stone in finding his artistic style, Troxel said.

“Voyager 5” has reserved colors of white, black and orange alongside natural wood pieces with mostly vertical lines running down the heart-like shape.

“Quiet Riot IV,” which represents Troxel’s current pop-art style, is colorful, with geometric-shaped pieces of light

blue, orange, pink and yellow strips of wood contrasting the natural wood that makes up a jagged, circular shape.

“Voyage 5” was one of the first pieces Troxel completed in 2018. The piece got him to where his artwork is today: modern and abstract.

For ‘Unplugged,’ Romeo reached out to specific artists that he knew were passionate about their craft, and would successfully highlight the commonality between the group’s work, he said.

“There is a real evident evolution of style, it starts with symbolic abstraction color and breaks into complete configuration,” he added. “The evolution of color as you can see creates a very concise show.”

Troxel’s pieces take materials that aren’t modern, like wood and paint, and transform them into abstract shapes, a technique inspired by mid-century modern art, he added.

“They have the ability to take something that’s organic like wood and just the way that the lines are done in the aesthetic,” he added. “It makes it really modern looking and that’s really difficult to do sometimes.”

As an abstract artist, Troxel experiments on the balance and symmetry of his pieces because his art lacks clear subject matter or social and political commentary, he added.

Australian-based artist Go Suga, 40, is glad to have his art featured in ‘Unplugged’ after many events were canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s amazing that something like this was able to become a reality,” Suga said.

“I had a few offers fall through this year because of the pandemic, so this opportunity gives me and other artists hope for the future.”

Troxel believes ‘Unplugged’ recognizes art’s resilience throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It shows that artists are still out there and they’re still creating and they’re still trying to make the world more beautiful,” Troxel added. jessica.bond@temple.edu

The Temple News

VOICES

What are your plans for taking spring classes?

AVERY WILSON Sophomore marketing major I will probably stay here, just because I have an off-campus apartment, but I will probably go back and forth to my house.

TYLER WILLIAMS Junior communication studies major I will be here taking online classes, unless they have some sort of hybrid type of thing.

ANGELINA YOUNG Senior media studies and production major Since I am on scholarship I have to keep going with my consecutive semesters. I plan on taking a whole class load.

EMMA KEATS Junior public relations major I plan on taking classes, I don’t think my parents wouldn’t let me.

Whether they are online, hybrid or in-person, I will be here doing it.

The Temple News

INTERSECTION

PAGE 21

NEW DICTIONARY

Students, faculty feel unlearning is part of college Part of taking classes can be developing new ways of thinking about old ideas and beliefs.

BY SAMANTHA ROEHL For The Temple News

I

t is not uncommon for students to come to college and be challenged to become more open-minded as time goes on.

“Overall, I would say I learned the importance of learning how others think and where they have come from,” wrote Masha Root, a senior psychology major, in an email to The Temple News.

Unlearning is when a person breaks down and examines their preconceived beliefs and biases, according to Psychology Today.

For Temple University students, unlearning is part of being in college as campuses are home to a diverse range of beliefs that expose students to an expanded worldview, said Dustin Kidd, director of the Intellectual Heritage department.

Students read more during college than they will after graduation, which means they are actively surrounding themselves with new ideas more than they would on their own, Kidd added.

“There’s a real push to surround yourself with lots of different ideas and be empathetic to a wide range of perspectives,” Kidd said. “And so that leads to what we might call a progressive approach to ideas. Now that’s not the same as politically left-leaning, but being progressive in terms of thinking about things like racial diversity and ideas and ideology, think about gender and sexuality and the identities connected to gender and sexuality.”

Rachael Groner, director of the first-year writing program, said one of the goals of the program is to increase critical thinking skills. Almost every first-year student at Temple University takes one of the program’s courses, and Groner has seen thousands of stu-

ALI GRAULTY / THE TEMPLE NEWS

dents start their journey toward more open-minded thinking.

“That’s part of why [students come to college],” Groner said. “They want to open their minds a little bit and think about gender and race and sexuality in a more open, broad way.”

Groner said students in recent years are coming to college with more distinct and developed political views and may have to unlearn or deepen their understanding of some ideologies.

“It can be really good that they know what’s going on because that’s a good starting place for us,” Groner said.

“When I first started teaching, I’m not sure students had that developed awareness of the world around them.”

Kidd stressed the importance of students learning and growing while not giving up their own unique point of view.

“It’s important to us that the experience that the student brings into the classroom, their own personal experience, is always valued within our classes,” Kidd said. “So it’s not about unlearning their own personal experience but building on that by learning about other perspectives and other experiences.”

For Isabel Hessler, a junior art major, unlearning has been about recognizing that politics are more complex than they once seemed.

Growing up in a liberal household, the idea of democracy was ingrained in

her from a young age, but once she got into college Hessler learned about and participated in social movements.

“I became more and more radical ... a big part of that unlearning was realizing how intricate and organized systems of oppression are and where my privilege lies in those systems, which parts I benefit from and which parts marginalize me,” Hessler wrote in an email to The Temple News.

Unlearning is not a one-time event but an ongoing process, Hessler wrote.

“It’s been an amazing and really emotional learning experience and I don’t think I’ll ever stop learning,” she added. samantha.roehl@temple.edu

PAGE 22

INTERSECTION

The Temple News

THE ESSAYIST

Listen and learn: Talking to conservative parents

A student shares her experience bringing as you can have in a Christian talking about politics with her home, and have always pushed for me to do what I love. conservative family.

BY MAGDALENA BECKER Essay Editor On May 27, I took a deep breath and tucked my hair behind my ears, going through the motions of my calm-thehell-down process.

I stared at our TV and watched as the street I used to walk up every week for work was destroyed. On the corner of 18th street near Chestnut in Philadelphia, rioters flung stolen products out onto the street and paced up and down with only increasing fury.

I listened as my dad first commented, not on the death of George Floyd, but on the shopkeepers and how horrible it was for them to lose their storefronts.

I opened my mouth to argue, spoke out of unprepared anger and stormed out of the room.

I could not believe I was watching the same turn of events on television as the two white middle-aged people next to me.

During quarantine, I lived at home with my parents in Lancaster, Pennsylvania — a quaint and adorable place that seems to fade from red to blue the deeper you go into the city. But on the outskirts, where the pretty church bells ring and the suburbs blossom, you begin to see the name President Donald Trump. My parents live in the hypothetical purple: a territory where conservatives love God and love others, but also feel obligated to their original political party.

Both of my parents are loving, caring and kind people. They are adults who know their political preferences. I understand that it doesn’t matter what their liberal 22-year-old daughter thinks. I respect my parents, and I love them. They gave me as diverse of an up-

Both of my parents dislike Trump.

They couldn’t bring themselves to vote for him in 2016 and refuse to vote for him this year. For that, I am thankful.

The part I find difficult to comprehend is their loyalty to a particular party.

Both of my parents have been conservative since their early adult years.

They took my older sisters to a George H. W. Bush rally in 1992. They appeared on TV protesting abortion clinics in the late 1990s. Pro-life values plays a large part in their political decisions, and although I may see the issue differently, I do respect my parents and always will.

The more I’ve grown up and grown apart from their particular choices, the more I’ve reminded myself over and over again that they hold those for a reason, and that all I want to do is love them, listen to them and learn their perspectives, and that’s all they can do for me as well.

Political conversations during quarantine tended to get heated pretty quickly. I am a self-diagnosed angry arguer. I throw out blanket statements, I condemn the entire white church of America and I spew only hatred on our current presidential administration. My dad argues similarly, which is probably why we get on each other’s nerves and why the conversation’s volume increases within 30 seconds.

I’m sure I’m not alone in these types of parental conversations. I’ve seen them broadcast on social media outlets like TikTok, Facebook and Twitter, and heard them from frustrated friends.

These types of conversations are not helping a single person. They add fire to already burning pain, irritation and insecurity.

The second a voice is raised, any hope for intelligent discussion is

GRACE DiMEO / THE TEMPLE NEWS

quenched. The goal of the conversation cannot be to change the person’s mind.

That is not going to happen.

The goal should be to listen. The goal should be to put oneself in the other person’s shoes, whether they be my dirty white Adidas or my dad’s shiny Dr. Martens, and to view the world from their perspective. Expecting an instant change in someone else’s worldview is honestly selfish. We don’t have that power, especially not with our voices raised. That power of change is within only that person themselves. And it is not up to anyone else to change that.

My mom, after nearly 40 years of pledging Republican, left the party this summer. She realized there are parts to each party she agrees with, and to her the Republican Party had strayed too far from their base ideologies when Trump was elected.

“I’m not ready yet to be a Democrat,” she told me. I told her that’s more than OK. She started a book club with wom-

en from her church to read about white privilege. Every Wednesday night this summer, I looked out the guest bedroom window and saw a small group of ladies sitting socially distanced in the backyard working to understand a new perspective.

I think that’s all it takes. If we all had that same work ethic and attitude to try and understand each other, we’d be a lot farther in our political discourse.

You have to throw away whether you think you’re right and the other person’s wrong because, to be honest, they are thinking the same thing about you. Assuming their minds will be blown by an argument is not realistic.

I am learning to just listen and bite my tongue when anger rises in my throat. Respect, a receptive ear and zero expectations are the keys to these difficult conversations. magdalena.becker@temple.edu @magdalenamercy

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PAGE 24

The Temple News

THE ESSAYIST

Online learning with ADHD isn’t for me

A student shares her story of how having ADHD has impacted her online learning experience.

BY SINÉAD DOYLE For The Temple News Some things about on campus learning are irreplaceable.

During a normal semester, I would wake up at 8 a.m., walk to the train station by 9:30 a.m. and respond to emails during my commute. I’d grab a cup of tea at Saige Cafe and sit outside my classroom to watch other students spill out of class and anxiously wait for the elevator, fully aware they would be late for their next class if it didn’t come soon enough.

I would sit in the first row directly in front of the board as my classmates filled in the seats around me. I’d take my medication and pull out my notebook to review my notes from the previous class.

As the lecture progressed, I would take copious notes.

During my lunch break, I would print out my reading assignments at the TECH Center to complete on the train ride home. When I got home, I wouldn’t think about school.

But this isn’t a normal semester.

I can’t speak for everyone with ADHD, but I’ve had a particularly frustrating semester so far. I’ve spent my whole life adapting and experimenting to figure out how to best manage my ADHD in a classroom, but none of those strategies work in an online environment.

In a typical semester, I’d sit in the front row because I know if I can see other students, I’ll be distracted by what they’re doing on their computers. If I’m not seated right in front of the professor, I’ll start drawing in my notebook. I write my notes with pen and paper because my computer poses too many distractions and I print out all my course readings for the same reason. On top of that, my eyes get tired and I tend to zone out if I stare at my computer screen for too long.

Zoom classes aren’t my ideal learning environment. It takes me a few hours every week to print my reading assign-

HANNA LIPKSI / THE TEMPLE NEWS

ments because my printer is much slower and single-sided, unlike the printers on campus. When I’m doing my schoolwork at home, I’m faced with obligations that I wouldn’t normally have to confront while on campus. My cat sits in my arms while I type, which, while very cute, is nevertheless distracting. I want to be involved in clubs and get professional experience, but with all communication occurring online, the ever-growing influx of unread emails is becoming unapproachable.

In class, I’m distracted by the faces of 30 other students, and speaker view doesn’t make things any easier, as the constantly changing screen is worse than just seeing everyone. On top of that, I can barely focus on my professor’s lecture when their dog is barking in the background.

Taking exams is more difficult too.

Not only do I have to stare at a screen the whole time, but normally I write all over my tests when taking them on paper. In an online setting, it’s harder for me to remember which sections I need

to double-check and what each question asked. When everything is on paper, I don’t have those problems.

Thankfully none of my professors have used Proctorio so far, which can make things harder for someone who isn’t neurotypical. Proctorio is intended to prevent cheating, but one of the ways it does this is by tracking the movement of your facial features. With ADHD, it’s hard enough to sit still during an exam without worrying if Proctorio will mark you for cheating.

I can’t go to Disability Resource Services in person for Distraction Reduced Testing for online classes. It’s also harder to get an appointment in general.

Thankfully, my current DRS accommodation still covers extended test time, but many of my professors aren’t sure how to set it up using Canvas. I wind up feeling bad that they have to go out of their way to learn new ways to accommodate my ADHD. I feel pressure to be constantly connected in this online environment. I can’t maintain the same type of work-life

balance I was able to cultivate during an in-person semester.

I’m expected to be able to explain my needs and questions via email and coordinate with my professors, who are also being bombarded with emails.

Some professors do understand that this is a difficult time. However, during the pandemic I’ve repeatedly heard them ask their students,“What are you going to do with all your free time?”

I have less time than before the pandemic started. It’s harder to focus, pay attention in class, motivate myself to do my work, manage my time and actually learn.

I understand why we have to be online this semester. In fact, I openly advocated for it. We need to take care of each other and keep ourselves, our families, and our communities safe. However, it’s unrealistic to expect ourselves to produce the same quantity and quality of work as usual when our circumstances are so different. sinéad.doyle@temple.edu

SPORTS

The Temple News

PAGE 25

FOOTBALL

Offense struggles in same areas after four games COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS Temple University Football head coach Rod Carey stands on the sidelines during the Owls’ game against the University of South Florida at Lincoln Financial Field on Oct. 16.

The Owls scored zero touchdowns in the red zone and zero points off turnovers on Saturday.

Temple University football’s offense (1-3, 1-3 The American Athletic Conference) hit a new low on Saturday after not scoring a single touchdown for the DANTE COLLINELLI first time under head Sports Editor coach Rod Carey.

“We didn’t play anywhere near our capabilities today,” Carey said on Oct. 31.

Temple’s 35 point loss to Tulane (3-4, 1-4 The American) is a case study on everything wrong with the team’s offense this season. They failed to score touchdowns in the red zone and didn’t score points or move the ball much after the defense forced turnovers.

The common denominator for the team’s struggles in those areas is poor play-calling by the coaching staff.

The Owls have scored just 11 touchdowns in 21 red zone possessions, and in the past two games the defense has forced six total turnovers, leading to just three points for the offense.

This season, the Owls are averaging a lowly 3.6 yards per attempt on the ground.

They are still relying on goal line fades in the red zone instead of running more pick plays, and they are struggling to pick up yards after turnovers because the coaches keep calling running plays despite minimal success.

On Saturday, Temple tried to convert multiple third downs longer than five yards by running the football and failed on all of them. One of the failed attempts came midway through the second quarter when Temple tried to run the ball with redshirt-senior running back Tayvon Ruley.

They needed eight yards for a first down, and Ruley gained just one making it fourth and seven. Temple then lined up to go for it on fourth down but called timeout and ultimately punted.

The only reason for the coaching staff to call a run play on third and eight is if they’ve already decided to go for it on fourth down regardless of if the run gives them a first down. However, Temple punting makes the third down run call questionable at best.

To make matters worse, Temple only recorded 77 rushing yards against the Green Wave. Carey said the offen-

sive line played “awful,” which makes running the ball on third and eight even more puzzling.

In the future, the Owls’ play-calling needs to be more aggressive by throwing the ball past the first down marker. Running on third and long is a safe call, but Temple is 1-3 in a pandemic-shortened season: the time for safe play-calling is over.

Some of the blame for the Owls’ performance against Tulane can be attributed to missing 13 players due to COVID-19 protocols and starting quarterback graduate student Anthony Russo due to an AC joint injury on his right shoulder.

Russo will not play in the Owls next game against Southern Methodist (6-1, 3-1 The American) at home on Nov. 7, Carey said.

Redshirt-sophomore quarterbacks Trad Beatty and Re-al Mitchell struggled to replace Russo. Together they completed just 16 passes for 145 yards and one interception.

In Russo’s last game, he completed 41 passes for 387 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions.

“We missed on some opportunities,” Mitchell said. “We didn’t capitalize on some turnovers like we needed too.”

It can be tough to judge coaches who are forced to play their backup quarterbacks. However, when the same issues pop up every game regardless of the players on the field, the blame lands at the feet of Carey and the coaching staff.

The Owls’ time to fix the offense is starting to run out because their loss makes it difficult for them to compete for an AAC championship.

Temple ranks eighth in The American and is two games behind Cincinnati (5-0, 3-0 The American) for first place in conference wins with just four games remaining.

Temple will have to bounce back quickly because three of their four remaining opponents this season are The Mustangs Central Florida and the Bearcats, who have a combined conference record of 9-3 this season.

“It’s difficult taking this loss,” said redshirt-junior cornerback Christian Braswell. “A lot of people were down.

We just had to step up to the plate and take on the challenge. There wasn’t much we could do.” dante.collinelli@temple.edu @DanteCollinelli

PAGE 26

SPORTS

The Temple News

ALUMNI

Former basketball star continues his TV career After playing for the Owls and in the NBA, Marc Jackson found a career as an studio analyst.

BY ADAM AARONSON Assistant Sports Editor When Marc Jackson was an NBA rookie, he was told a prediction that seemed irrelevant, but stuck with him.

“I’ve got a secret,” his godfather Frank Marciano said. “You’re going to be on television when you retire.”

Twenty years later, the words Jackson once deemed absurd have proven true. After playing professional basketball across the world for more than a decade, Jackson found his second calling in sports media.

In 2017, he began working as a TV studio analyst for NBC Sports Philadelphia. Jackson appears before and after Philadelphia 76ers games to give his thoughts on the team’s performance.

Jackson starred as a center for the Owls from 1995-97 and was inducted into the Philadelphia Big 5 hall of fame on Feb. 12, 2012.

Born at Temple University Hospital, he grew up on 11th Street near Girard Avenue, just four blocks away from McGonigle Hall, where he would lead the men’s team to the NCAA tournament two years in a row.

“He is Philly through and through,” said Paul Hudrick, who worked alongside Jackson at NBC Sports Philadelphia.

“When you talk to him, there is no question where Marc Jackson is from.”

Combining his work in television and sports is the perfect match for Jackson, he said.

“When I see the players on the court before the game, it gets my adrenaline pumping,” Jackson added.

Long after his NBA career ended in 2006 and he retired in 2008, Jackson remains incredibly passionate about the sport, he said.

Jackson spent his first year of college playing basketball at Virginia Commonwealth University. It was his first time leaving Philadelphia, and Jackson’s playing time was sparse, and he felt there were better opportunities for him else-

THOMAS NEMEC / THE TEMPLE NEWS Former Temple men’s basketball forward Marc Jackson stands on the court at McGonigle Hall on Oct. 30.

where, he said.

That’s when he decided to transfer, but the change of teams wasn’t a difficult transition for Jackson because he was coming home.

“It was surreal for me and for a lot of people who knew me growing up for me to be playing at Temple University,” Jackson said.

Jackson spent two seasons as an Owl and was the team’s leading scorer and rebounder during both seasons. He led Temple to the NCAA Tournament both years with an aggressive scoring mentality and rebounding ability.

Following his career at Temple, the Golden State Warriors selected Jackson in the 1997 NBA Draft. Before playing in the NBA, Jackson spent three years playing professionally in the Euro league for Turkey and Spain.

When Jackson came back to the United States to play in the NBA, he had a remarkable rookie season for the Warriors. He averaged 13.1 points and 7.5 rebounds per game and was named to the 2000-01 NBA All-Rookie Team.

Jackson’s rookie performance earned him a six-year, $24 million contract with the Houston Rockets, which the Warriors matched.

What Jackson didn’t know is he would return to Philadelphia again soon.

After a brief stint with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Philadelphia 76ers traded Jackson in 2003. But instead of being a young, impressionable kid, he was growing as a person, and he had become financially stable, he said.

“The biggest difference is once you become an NBA player, you get more relatives popping up … you have to learn

to tell people no,” Jackson said.

Now, Jackson has gone from a maturing adult to an elder statesman.

“Marc is always sharing,” said Danny Pommells, who works with Jackson at NBC Sports Philadelphia. “He’s comfortable being who he is, so working with him is a really insightful and joyful experience.”

Jackson credits Temple’s camaraderie and coach John Chaney’s leadership as some of the reasons he found success, he said.

“For those guys to really embrace me and treat me as family, I think it really showed how John Chaney developed us as men,” Jackson said. “Not just as basketball players. As men.” adam.aaronson@temple.edu @SixersAdam

The Temple News

SPORTS

PAGE 27

GYMNASTICS

New volunteer coach is a ‘great asset’ for the Owls She believes her coaching will res“Me and Rachel are on the same page have no other conversations,” Castrence Page coached Junior Olympic gymnastics for more than 25 onate with the student-athletes because with technique, but beyond that, the added. “But she cares further and takes it years before coming to Temple. she knows what it is like to compete at a positivity is there, especially this year, further than that, so we appreciate that.”

BY SEAN MCMENAMIN For The Temple News At the age of 16, Rachel Page found herself being recruited by Cirque du Soleil to be in their first United States show, “Saltimbanco,” she said.

Twenty-seven years later with more than 25 years experience coaching Junior Olympics, Page found her way to Temple University.

Temple gymnastics hired Page on Sept. 14 to be a volunteer assistant coach starting this coming spring season, though a schedule for it has not yet been announced.

“My knowledge and experience coming in will definitely be a positive with learning to diversify my coaching with gymnasts coming from all over the country,” Page said.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28 WOMEN’S SOCCER Once she got off her crutches, Sweeney took her to Edberg-Olson Hall to use an anti-gravity treadmill, Sweeney said.

“The machine is able to take some of her body weight off, which puts significantly less pressure on her knee,” Sweeney added.

Wilkins progressed to the “full-on running” stage of rehabilitation right as sporting events stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March. Her next step was getting back to the field to work on cutting and agility drills, she said.

high level, Page added.

Page competed as a former level 10 and elite gymnast and most recently coached at Gymnastix Academy, where she helped gymnasts compete for national qualifiers and regional qualifiers.

Head coach Josh Nilson said Page can be an important piece of the team this season, he said.

“We have a lot of different abilities and a lot of different strengths and weaknesses on the team,” Nilson added. “Over the last 25 years, she’s worked with everybody. So that’s going to help us take us to the next level.”

Page is working with Temple’s gymnasts in two groups of 25 due to COVID-19 protocols.

Despite the challenge of training with two different groups, Nilson believes Page is bringing positive energy to practices, he said.

we cannot spend any time you know in the victim mentality at all,” Nilson added. “We can’t spend any time on that, and Rachel just doesn’t.”

Senior all-around captain Delaney Garin believes Page is helping the team be more cohesive during practices, she said.

“I think as a program we already have great energy,” Garin said. “But it’s nice to have one more additional person in the gym that can root us on.”

Page’s effort to connect with the team stands out during practice because she takes time to talk with each gymnast before practice and tries to know them on a personal level, said junior allaround Ariana Castrence.

“She makes an effort and that’s what counts, you can tell she cares, so she could just come in the gym and just simply coach and have cut it off there and

Garin believes the team will win regional championships and Page “will allow them to be pushed in the right direction” and be a “great asset,” Garin said.

“I think our bounds are endless,” Garin added. “We have a really really strong team this year. And I think, you know, regionals obviously, it’s just a given at this point. But also I just think that it’s just going to be really fun for us because of all the talent that we have.”

The team’s camaraderie and general excitement for the sport are what’s stuck out to Page since she began coaching practices, she said.

“I love coming into the gym and seeing the excitement and the bonding of the team and seeing them cheer each other on,” Page said.

Due to the pandemic, Wilkins used her own equipment at her home in Galloway, New Jersey, to work on drills, she said.

Wilkins received help completing them from senior midfielder Julia Dolan, who lives in nearby Egg Harbor City, New Jersey. The two have been teammates since their days playing together at Absegami High School in Galloway, New Jersey.

Dolan helped Wilkins with the packet of drills Sweeney gave her and participated in them alongside her, Dolan said.

“We would just go to a local field by our house,” Dolan added. “She’d set up the cones, and I’d just be there to help

and do the drills with her. She helped me too, it wasn’t just me helping her. We just pushed each other in both her recovery and in the soccer part of it.”

During her rehabilitation, Wilkins watched her teammates finish the 2019 season and fail to qualify for The American Athletic Conference tournament from the sidelines.

Although there were moments she knew she needed to take care of herself first, Wilkins never allowed her injury to impact her voice on the team and how she could contribute to the team’s morale, she said.

“I was really sad for a little while, but then for some reason I blocked it all out,”

Wilkins added. “I was always occupied, always doing something, so I couldn’t really take the time to understand my feelings, and I just went with it.”

Wilkins would’ve been ready to play if a fall season occurred, but she’s taking the extra time to get out of her brace and get her conditioning levels back up, she said.

“This is a blessing in disguise, 100 percent,” Wilkins said. “I definitely didn’t want to play in the spring originally, but now that I’m here, I definitely will take advantage of it.”

sean.mcmenamin@temple.edu @sean102400

donovan.hugel@temple.edu @donohugel

SPORTS

PAGE 28

The Temple News

WOMEN’S SOCCER

‘A BLESSING IN

DISGUISE’ Emma Wilkins is practicing for women’s soccer spring season after tearing her ACL last year.

BY DONOVAN HUGEL Women’s Soccer Beat Reporter

E

mma Wilkins describes injuring her knee as one of the most “surreal’’ moments she’s experienced.

“The motion that my knee shifted and the sounds I was hearing weren’t normal,’’ Wilkins said. “All the clicks and different pops just all came at once. My body knew what it was at the moment but in my head I had no idea what had happened. I just freaked out and threw everything on the ground.’’

Wilkins tore the ACL and meniscus in her left knee on Sept. 22, 2019, in a 2-1 loss to Penn. She was second on the team in scoring with five points in nine games and was the team’s leading goalscorer in 2018-19 with six goals and 12 points overall.

Wilkins began prac-

ticing with the team again this fall, and now she’s preparing for the spring season, which could start as early as Feb. 3.

“I’m eager to prove myself again and it’s really going to be hard, but I’m going to give it my all,’’ Wilkins said. “All I want to do is play.’’

Wilkins’ rehabilitation was one year long and an “extremely difficult and mentally exhausting’’ process, she said.

After her surgery in October 2019, she worked with Jane Sweeney, the Owls’ former trainer, for the first three months on leg extension and muscle flexion to engage her quad muscles more, Wilkins said.

WOMEN’S SOCCER | 22

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS Senior forward Emma Wilkins kicks the ball during the Owls’ exhibition match against Lafayette College at the Temple Sports Complex on Aug. 18, 2019.