Vol. 99 Iss. 20

THE TEMPLE NEWS

TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019

COMMUNITY AT A

‘LOSS FOR WORDS’ A racial slur was written on a mural of Cecil B. Moore on Saturday. Community leaders and activists condemn the act that is still under investigation by Philadelphia Police.

Read more on Page 3

WHAT’S INSIDE NEWS, PAGE 5-6 Jurors in Ari Goldstein’s sexual assault trial will continue to deliberate Tuesday after several days of testimony last week.

FEATURES, PAGE 12 An art exhibit of hand-knitted tapestries show a year of Philadelphia’s increasing temperatures, as a way to examine climate change.

VOL 99 // ISSUE 20 FEB. 18, 2020

temple-news.com @thetemplenews

NEWS PAGE 2

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2020

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

Kelly Brennan Editor in Chief Pavlína Černá Managing Editor Rjaa Ahmed Digital Managing Editor Francesca Furey Chief Copy Editor Colin Evans News Editor Hal Conte Assistant News Editor Valerie Dowret Assistant News Editor Web Tyler Perez Opinion Editor Madison Karas Features Editor Bibiana Correa Assistant Features Editor Ayooluwa Ariyo Asst. Features Editor Web Jay Neemeyer Sports Editor Dante Collinelli Assistant Sports Editor Alex McGinley Assistant Sports Editor Web Nico Cisneros Intersection Editor Michael Moscarelli Dir. of Engagement Jeremy Elvas Photography Editor Claudia Salvato Asst. Photography Editor Erik Coombs Co-Multimedia Editor Ingrid Slater Design Editor Nicole Hwang Designer

The Temple News is an editorially independent weekly publication serving the Temple University community.

Unsigned editorial content represents the opinion of The Temple News.

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

Visit us online at temple-news.com.

Send submissions to letters@temple-news.com.

The Temple News is located at: Student Center, Room 243 1755 N. 13th St. Philadelphia, PA 19122

Phuong Tran Advertising Manager Kelsey McGill Advertising Manager Lubin Park Business Manager

ON THE COVER CLAUDIA SALVATO / THE TEMPLE NEWS The mural of civil rights activist Cecil B. Moore on Bouvier Street near Jefferson was defaced with a racial slur, which is not shown.

CORRECTIONS An article that ran on Feb. 11, titled “Two full-time workers serve thousands of students” on Page 4, incorrectly stated that International Student Affairs helped students complete work permits. Those services are provided by International Student and Scholar Services, a different office.

The cover photo that ran on Feb. 11 incorrectly credited Colleen Claggett as the photographer. J.P. Oakes was the photographer.

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 Kelly Brennan at editor@temple-news.com or 215-204-6736.

News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com

RESEARCH

Professors study opioid treatment options The research focuses on people who were incarcerated and at risk of relapse.

BY VICTORIA AYALA For The Temple News

S

teven Belenko, a criminal justice professor, received an approximately $3 million four-year grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Health last month to research opioid-use disorder treatment for people who were incarcerated.

Building on current efforts to turn the Temple Recovery Utilizing Scientific Treatment clinic into a “hub” for treatment of OUD, the project will increase access to treatment for those returning to North Philadelphia after being incarcerated who are at risk of relapse, Belenko said.

As part of the research, people who were incarcerated and live in North Philadelphia will be linked with Temple’s clinic to receive treatment, while those in West Philadelphia will be offered preexisting treatment options and reentry services in the area, Belenko said.

Researchers will follow and compare the recovery of both groups to determine which treatment is most effective, Belenko said.

The goal of the project is to conduct surveys with 400 people who were incarcerated, half from North Philadelphia and half from West Philadelphia, to understand whether the treatment will benefit them, said Caterina Roman, a criminal justice

professor and co-investigator on the project.

To qualify for treatment in the program, one must be diagnosed with OUD and have received treatment while incarcerated, Belenko said. Participants will access peer recovery support specialists and case managers who assist in linking patients to treatment. People in custody will be required to complete a survey and receive information about existing treatment options in their neighborhoods before choosing a plan.

The two professors believe sending people with drug dependency to prison does not work.

“It’s bad public policy, and bad for the community,” Belenko said.

“It’s important that the individuals get the treatment they need instead of prison time.”

Temple University Health System was able to expand the Temple Recovery Utilizing Scientific Treatment program to treat hundreds of patients after receiving a $1 million grant from Gov. Tom Wolf in July 2018, The Temple News reported.

The researchers hope to start the project by the summer. Before then, they will be meeting with partners involved in the project, seeking final approval from Temple’s institutional review board and working to refine their research plan, Belenko said. “[We] need to pay attention to issues in urban areas to shed light on the issue and help any way we can as scholars,” Roman said. victoria.ayala@temple.edu

temple-news.com

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2020

PAGE 3

CAMPUS

Community reacts to racial slur on Moore mural The slur was found on the mural honoring attorney and activist Cecil B. Moore on Saturday.

BY VALERIE DOWRET Assistant News Editor Dalton Whiting and his roommate were leaving for work on Saturday morning when they noticed a racial slur scribbled on the mural painted on the side of their house. The mural on Bouvier Street near Jefferson honors civil rights activist and lawyer Cecil B. Moore, who once lived at the same property that Whiting now lives in.

Whiting called the city after seeing the slur, he said. A staff member from Mural Arts Philadelphia started cleaning the mural on Saturday night, wrote Cari Feiler Bender, spokesperson for the art program, in an email to The Temple News.

The graffiti appeared on Saturday morning around dawn, 6ABC reported.

The slur is still partially visible. Police said an investigation is ongoing with the Central Detectives Division.

As a civil rights leader, Moore was known for his militant style of activism, according to Temple University Libraries. Cecil B. Moore Avenue and a station on the Broad Street Line is named after Moore, who was a former Philadelphia City councilman and former president of Philadelphia’s NAACP chapter. Moore led seven months of demonstrations to integrate Girard College in the 1960s, according to Temple Libraries.

Karen Asper Jordan is the president of the Cecil B. Moore Philadelphia Freedom Fighters, a group of activists who protested with Moore for desegregation in the 1960s and led the initiative to name the subway station after him, according to their website. Asper Jordan, who is in her 70s, immediately went to the mural when she heard about the vandalism on Sunday morning, she said.

“It was one of the worst things I had seen because this man has done so much for so many people, especially the poor, @TheTempleNews

CLAUDIA SALVATO / THE TEMPLE NEWS A racial slur, which is blocked by a car, was written on a mural of civil rights activist Cecil B. Moore on Bouvier Street near Jefferson.

the down trot, people that were disenfranchised,” said Jordan, who was 16 years old when she began demonstrating with Moore. “This man fought for the rights of all Americans.”

“I’m at a loss for words, but the fact that we have to suffer these dishonorable insults to our historical figure, this man fought for the rights of all Americans,” Jordan added.

Whenever Mural Arts learns of graffiti on a mural, the organization dispatches a staff member to clean it within 24 hours, Feiler Bender wrote.

“We condemn defacing of public art, especially with racist slurs of one of Philadelphia’s great leaders,” Feiler Bender further wrote.

Local legislators took to social media to condemn the graffiti.

“Not only is this hateful language

unacceptable anywhere, it’s deeply offensive to deface a memorial to a civil rights leader like Cecil Bassett Moore,” wrote City Council President Darrell Clarke, whose district encompasses Main Campus, in a tweet. “We want to send a signal that this kind of hate will not be tolerated in the City of Philadelphia.”

“Cecil B. Moore was a hero of the civil rights movement,” wrote Sen. Bob Casey on Twitter. “The racist who defaced his mural will never silence the power of his example.”

Calvin Jones painted the mural in 2000, Feiler Bender wrote.

“It reminds me of a hate crime and I know there’s a proliferation of hate groups all over the country,” Jordan said.

“It was an act of cowardice because the person did it under cover of either night or early in the morning to get away with

it.”

The person responsible should learn about the history behind the mural, she added.

“We don’t know who did it and if they catch the person, I think they should pay restitution, and I think they should be required to work with activists and I think they should be required to learn the history of Cecil B. Moore and the history of the fight against racism, discrimination, segregation,” Jordan added.

“That mural had been unscathed for years. Why now? Why deface it now,” Jordan asked. valerie.dowret@temple.edu Claudia Salvato and Jack Danz contributed reporting.

News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com

NEWS PAGE 4

CRIME

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2020

The case of Commonwealth v. Ari Goldstein

Jurors will continue deliberating to stop. He would not, she testified, so today after being dismissed be- she pushed herself off Goldstein and ran out of the room. Goldstein allegedly texfore reaching a verdict Friday.

BY VALERIE DOWRET & COLIN EVANS For The Temple News Content warning: This story mentions violence against women and sexual assault that might be upsetting to some readers.

Deliberations in the trial of Ari Goldstein, former president of Temple’s chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi, will resume today after jurors went home before reaching a verdict Friday.

Goldstein is accused of sexually assaulting a Temple student and an alumna in separate incidents in AEPi’s fraternity house on Broad Street near Norris in 2017 and 2018.

The trial comes two years after the university began investigating AEPi and suspended the fraternity’s social privileges in March 2018. The fraternity was removed from campus in April 2018, the same month Philadelphia Police announced they were investigating the fraternity for allegations of sexual assault.

Goldstein was arrested in May 2018 and again in August that year.

Goldstein is charged with sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and indecent assault in connection with the alleged assault of a survivor in November 2017, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. He is separately charged with attempted sexual assault, attempted involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and indecent assault for the other alleged assault in February 2018.

One survivor, who previously had sexual encounters with Goldstein, alleges that in November 2017, Goldstein invited her into his bedroom inside the fraternity house and began to have sex with her. At first, it was consensual, she testified, but Goldstein became aggressive.

Goldstein allegedly asked the survivor to perform oral sex on him, which she initially agreed to but then told him News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com

ted her an apology the next day, explaining he blacked out and “would never intentionally do anything to hurt you.”

The other survivor testified that in February 2018, Goldstein led her into a bedroom and locked the door behind him. He then allegedly forced himself on her and pinned her on a couch, restraining and kissing her. When the survivor yelled for him to stop, no one could hear her through the loud music that was playing, she testified.

He allegedly tried to force her to perform oral sex on him before she broke free and ran out of the room.

In his opening and closing arguments, Wynkoop emphasized that Goldstein ignored the survivors’ signals for him to stop during the alleged assaults. “‘No’ should have been the end of it,” Wynkoop said.

The survivors did not report the incidents immediately because they were afraid of losing friendships with other members of the fraternity, Wynkoop said. One survivor testified that before the alleged assault, the AEPi fraternity house was her favorite place to attend parties.

Perry de Marco Sr., a defense lawyer for Goldstein, asked both survivors whether, during the nights of the alleged incidents, they were under the influence of alcohol. One survivor said she had three or four drinks while the other survivor said she had three.

De Marco also asked both survivors why they waited months to report the alleged assaults.

One survivor said she did not report the alleged incident because she just wanted to forget about it and finish college. She decided to come forward when she saw a news report about how Goldstein was accused of sexual assault by another person, she testified.

“That’s when I realized that this didn’t happen at one time,” the survivor said.

The other survivor did not initially

JEREMY ELVAS / THE TEMPLE NEWS Ari Goldstein, the former president of Temple’s chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi, and his lawyer Perry de Marco Sr. walk outside the Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice in Center City on Feb. 14.

report the assault because she did not want to get all residents of the AEPi fraternity house in trouble, she testified.

Both survivors testified that they lost friendships after reporting the alleged assaults.

The commonwealth’s case is also based on the testimony of friends of the survivors, who said they were with the survivors on the nights of the alleged assaults and were told in detail about the incidents shortly after.

Mitchell Pisarz, the former vice president of AEPi and a 2019 alumnus, testified that he was with one survivor before and after the alleged incident.

She seemed upset about something that night and texted Pisarz in detail about the incident the next day, he testified.

“I clearly said ‘no’ and ‘stop’ multiple times,” the survivor allegedly texted Pisarz.

In his cross-examination, de Marco asked Pisarz if the survivor’s account of the alleged incident was clouded by her drinking that night. Pisarz replied that he could not say. He testified that he later asked Goldstein to apologize to the survivor for what happened.

Casey Miller, a junior art therapy

major, testified that she and the other survivor attended a party at the AEPi fraternity house the night of the alleged incident. The survivor “looked extremely frightened” after leaving Goldstein’s room and described what happened a week or more after the night, she testified.

De Marco asked Miller why she did not ask for more details from the survivor the night of the incident.

“I didn’t want to push her or push her boundaries,” Miller said. “Everyone copes differently.”

Wynkoop called Ryan Aitken, a Temple Police detective, to describe how the assaults were reported to him, and Edward Enriquez, a detective in Philadelphia Police’s Special Victims Unit, to explain that the police executed search warrants on Goldstein’s phone and the AEPi fraternity house in 2018. The police found that Goldstein looked up “indecent assault” and “is forcible touching indecent assault,” on his phone the day he received a letter from Temple notifying him he had been accused of sexual assault.

GOLDSTEIN | PAGE 5

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NEWS PAGE 5

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2020

TSG

Director promotes student vote ahead of primary

Owl Team Leader and a Student CoQuinn Litsinger is organizing season, including a voter registration sample ballots and polling locations.

Litsinger led TSG’s successful effort ordinator. He also served as the proTemple Student Government’s ef- contest: the organization that can regisforts to register students to vote. ter the most voters during the month of to add links to voter registration web- gramming coordinator for Temple’s

BY HAAJRAH GILANI For The Temple News Quinn Litsinger believes college is the best time for students to find a lifelong passion for activism.

“There’s a lot of untapped potential in terms of voters that come to campus and may not know so much about their voting rights,” said Litsinger, a sophomore political science major. “It’s really important.”

In his second semester serving as Temple Student Government’s director of government affairs, Litsinger is adamant about increasing civic engagement on campus and ensuring students are participating in the political system.

This semester, Litsinger has planned a number of initiatives around election

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 GOLDSTEIN The defense called Alexa Silverman, a former roommate of one of the survivors, who testified that one survivor told her about the alleged incident in vague terms months after it happened.

Goldstein’s childhood friend Eric Taskin, his sister Julie Goldstein and a doctor, Richard Stram, who knew the family well, all testified that Goldstein is a good citizen.

“A person of good reputation is not likely to act in a matter that’s not of that reputation,” de Marco said.

In his closing argument, Wynkoop said the survivors, one a junior and the other a freshman at the time of the incidents, were both young college women living the “American dream.”

“They are experiencing life with freedom for the first time and then something happens,” Wynkoop said.

@TheTempleNews

March ahead of Pennsylvania’s deadline to register for the primaries on April 13 will win a $100 Visa gift card.

“It’s a way to mobilize student organizations on campus to do good civic engagement work,” Litsinger said.

Litsinger will also be creating two election guides for students explaining how to register to vote, how to find one’s polling place and educating oneself on the candidates, he said.

The guides will be highlighted in Nutshell, Temple’s university-run email newsletter.

Last semester, Litsinger hosted a town hall meeting educating students on how they could prepare themselves for the November 2019 general election in Philadelphia. Litsinger also created a social media campaign to remind students to vote and provided information on

sites on TUmobile and TUportal during the week leading up to the fall registration deadline, he said. The links will return to the sites prior to the primary and general election later this year, he added.

Litsinger also helped organize a National Voter Registration Day drive at the Bell Tower in collaboration with Temple Political Science Society, Temple College Democrats, Temple College Republicans and Temple Debate Society on Sept. 24.

Kaya Jones, TSG’s vice president of external affairs, said that when she sets a goal for Litsinger, she never worries about whether he can reach it.

“He’s always trying to continue growing and puts in the work to do that,” Jones said. “I commend him for that.”

Aside from TSG, Litsinger is involved in the Temple community as an

first Sleep Out, during which students camped out near the Bell Tower to raise awareness of homelessness.

Elizabeth Harris, Temple’s parent and family programs coordinator, said Litsinger, who she supervised, makes students feel cared for.

“Quinn is also very humble,” Harris said. “He puts so much work into something and truly only does it for the betterment of the community, not for his own personal gain.”

Besides voting, civic engagement also involves advocacy and talking to one’s representatives, Litsinger said.

“I really hope through my efforts, students are in a better position to participate in the political process,” Litsinger said.

“And suddenly the whole world is closing in.”

Goldstein’s text message apologizing to a survivor demonstrates that he knew he did something wrong, Wynkoop said.

“He was doing damage control,” Wynkoop said in his closing argument.

De Marco had said in his opening argument that the survivors were confused about whether the alleged incidents were sexual assault. During his closing argument, Wynkoop said de Marco was the one who was confused.

“Is it just that they’re so confused that women can say no,” Wynkoop asked. “That a woman has the right?”

In his opening argument, de Marco said that “a woman can dress like a hussie” but “the minute you don’t do something she likes, may God strike you down.”

Wynkoop responded in his closing argument by criticizing the narrative that men cannot be expected to control themselves.

“It’s a story that’s been told for 75 years, and quite frankly, I’m tired of it,” he said.

In his closing argument, de Marco questioned why one of the survivors went to the bedroom of someone she did not know well. He also questioned why the survivors did not leave Goldstein’s room when he became aggressive during the alleged incidents or report their claims to the police sooner.

“Did he say ‘don’t leave,’” de Marco asked one survivor during her testimony.

De Marco repeated the question of how alcohol had affected both Goldstein and the survivors during the alleged incidents. He also asked why the survivor’s phones had not been investigated like Goldstein’s phone.

“This law beyond reasonable doubt is what makes the United States of America as great as it is, and in this case, fairness went down the toilet,” de Marco said.

Aitken testified that he offered both survivors the option of moving forward with the case through Title IX or with the Philadelphia Police Department.

While both survivors chose to hand the cases over to the police, de Marco said that if they had reported the case to Title IX, then they would not have to come to court.

“They wanted to make a show out of this, for some reason we may never know,” de Marco said.

In his closing argument, Wynkoop questioned the defense’s standard for evidence. ”What is Mr. de Marco asking for,” Wynkoop asked. “What is it that he thinks is insufficient about their resistance.”

“What they went through and what they testified in that chair is enough,” he added. “They are enough.”

haajrah.gilani@temple.edu

news@temple-news.com @TheTempleNews

News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com

NEWS PAGE 6

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2020

CAMPUS

Students push Aramark on climate commitment Aramark, which is based in Philadelphia, has been Temple’s food service provider since 2017.

BY COLIN EVANS News Editor A student organization is working with an environmental advocacy group to demand that Temple University’s on-campus food services provider commit toward reducing its carbon footprint.

TU Ecological Eating Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, along with students from Drexel University, Boston University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and University of Florida, are mounting a national campaign to pressure Aramark to pledge to lower its carbon emissions by 20 percent by reducing the amount of red meat, dairy and eggs on their menus.

“We believe passionately about reducing our carbon footprint by cutting out animal products in the way that the NRDC is going about that with Aramark,” said Jessica Harrington, founder and president of Temple’s club.

A United Nations report released in August 2019 found that reducing meat consumption worldwide could help curb the effects of climate change. An individual replacing steak with beans once a week for a year would keep the equivalent of 331 kilograms of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, the Washington Post reported.

Aramark agrees reducing carbon emissions is important and released a comprehensive plan to be more sustainable in December 2019, wrote Karen Cutler, an Aramark spokesperson in an email to The Temple News.

As part of its efforts, the company has created more than 200 new plantbased recipes, increased the amount of fruit, vegetables and whole grains by

News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com

NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL / COURTESY Students from Temple and Drexel University protest in Rittenhouse Square outside of Aramark’s annual shareholder meeting on Jan. 29.

nearly 20 percent across its menus, and reported a 5 percent average reduction in the amount of red meat in its recipes, Cutler wrote.

Aramark is also working on improving fuel efficiency, reducing food waste and buying less plastic straws and stirrers to improve sustainability in the coming years.

“We believe that the work we are doing as part of our sustainability journey is in sync with the goals of NRDC and are disappointed that NRDC has not acknowledged our substantial progress,” Cutler wrote.

But without a commitment to re-

duce emissions by a specific amount, Aramark’s efforts do not go far enough, said Shanzeh Haque, an NRDC campus organizer.

“To us, it’s crazy that Aramark hasn’t even committed itself to sustainability,” Haque said. “Like, they haven’t even shown that they’re concerned, that they care about it.”

Students from Temple and Drexel University protested at Aramark’s annual shareholder meeting in Philadelphia on Jan. 29. NRDC chose to start its campaign at the two universities since Aramark, headquartered on Market Street near 23rd, is based in Philadelphia,

Haque said.

Temple entered into its current 15year contract with Aramark in 2017 after switching from Sodexo, The Temple News reported.

The NRDC is planning events on Temple’s campus in the coming months to pressure Aramark to make a commitment to reducing emissions, Haque added. The organization will be expanding its campaign to other universities in the coming weeks, said Sujatha Bergen, the NRDC’s health campaigns director. colin.evans@temple.edu colinpaulevans

temple-news.com

OPINION TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2020

PAGE 7

EDITORIAL

Slur insults Moore’s legacy On Saturday, amid Black History Month, staff members at Mural Arts Philadelphia arrived at the former home of Cecil B. Moore on Bouvier Street near Jefferson, to find it defaced with a racial slur written across the side of the building, The Temple News reported.

The house is a testament to the legacy of Moore, a historic civil rights leader and former city councilman, and contributions to African Americans in Philadelphia.

Even after cleaning the graffiti, the slur is still partially visible — a reminder of this racist act against the history of Black Philadelphia citizens.

“I’m at a loss for words, but the fact that we have to suffer these dishonorable insults to our historical figure, this man fought for the rights of all Americans,” said Karen Asper Jordan, president of the Cecil B. Moore Freedom Fighters, an activist group that protested with Moore in the 1960s.

The Editorial Board is deeply saddened by this event, and we want to use this platform to express our solidarity with all that have been affected by this racist defacement of a civil rights hero.

The Editorial Board would also like to use this opportunity to educate our students on the life and legacy of Moore, an individual whose name marks one of the primary streets and subway stations near campus.

Moore was a Philadelphia civil rights leader, defense lawyer and 1953 law alumnus of Temple University, according to the Temple University Libraries. He established himself as someone who represented working-class interests. @TheTempleNews

Moore encouraged everyone to vote and held voter registration drives to facilitate political participation, according to Temple Libraries. He was elected president of the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP in 1963, and although he was eventually suspended from the office in 1967 due to conflict with other NAACP leaders, he never lost his support within the local Black community.

Moore’s contributions to civil rights in Philadelphia include gaining Black admittance to labor unions, achieving public school integration, fighting bias in workplaces, like the post offices, and leading a seven-month-long demonstration to achieve desegregation at Girard College.

Moore’s legacy and impact on civil rights in Philadelphia is dedication, valor and humanitarianism, and his contributions are still felt today.

As a newsroom representing a variety of different racial backgrounds, we appreciate every sacrifice Moore made during his time in Philadelphia, and we are horrified by the thought of someone defacing his legacy with a racial slur.

We ask our readers to consider and understand the history of our neighborhood. Black civil rights activists, like Moore, spent decades working to create the community we live in today, and acts of racism are deeply troubling, offensive and disrespectful to the residents who have lived their entire lives here.

It is a privilege for us to live in a neighborhood with a history as rich as this one. Acts of pure racism and insensitivity don’t just deface that history, they insult it, and we cannot allow that to happen.

THE ESSAYIST

On new motherhood and leaving a toxic relationship Nevertheless, I found out that I was A student describes learning what love truly is through difficult relation- pregnant with his son during the third year of our relationship. I was preparing to be a ship with the father of her child.

I

BY BRIANNA WILLIAMS For The Temple News

met him when I was 18, the year I graduated high school. I was no longer living with my parents at the time after I’d left over a disagreement, and I didn’t want to be alone.

I really just wanted someone to love me, and so I gave him a chance.

At the start, he was doing everything right — he gave me money for transportation when I needed it, made sure I ate and fought for me to stay at his father’s house when I had nowhere to go.

I spent the year living with different people in his family, just moving from house to house. Every attempt I made at bettering myself during that time fell through the cracks.

But over time, as I started to get more comfortable in the relationship, his attention toward me started to fade, and so did his way of providing for me.

One day, I noticed he was texting other girls. My heart panicked, and a sense of fear came over me.

It didn’t hit me then, but I truly felt like I wasn’t loved. What used to be consistent actions of him treating me right, loving me and providing for me, turned into moments of love throughout the rest of the relationship.

A sense of fear turned to uncertainty of how I felt about him, but I continued to convince myself that I was happy with him. It was too hard to admit otherwise.

The more he changed, the more I did, too, and my depression worsened.

He made me feel worthless. I’d go on long walks and cry listening to music — those tears were the only way I could confess I was truly broken inside.

new mother, but I was still suspicious of his behavior.

The day I came home from the hospital with my first child was supposed to be the happiest moment of my life. Instead, that day I found out he was cheating on me when I saw a contact on his phone titled “half girlfriend” with what certainly wasn’t my number.

The day that was supposed to only bring me joy made me burst into tears.

It was like everything I was trying to build — for my son, as well as for myself — came crashing down. I felt humiliated and that I let myself down, wondering how I was so blinded by this relationship that I genuinely thought this was real love.

I felt defeated as a mother very early because I brought my son into a toxic situation.

I wanted to give my son a family with two parents raising him together, but I chose the wrong person for that vision.

But then, something changed in me, something that felt both natural and new.

Looking into my newborn son’s eyes shined a light in me that I hadn’t seen in three years.

My child made me feel a new type of love, one stronger than any emotion I’d felt before.

A newfound strength came about, and at the moment, the independent crown I used to wear — the old optimistic, carefree me — came back.

I spent some time staying at his mother’s house while I found a new apartment for myself. After moving into my first apartment, I left my son’s dad, and in doing so, found a new, kinder love for myself and for my child.

My son brought me out of the darkness of a toxic love and transformed me into a determined and loving mother. brianna.williams@temple.edu

letters@temple-news.com

OPINION TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2020

PAGE 8

HEALTH

Xenophobia increases as coronavirus cases rise Travel bans, media fear-monger- tries have issued travel restrictions on ing and xenophobic online posts China in response to the coronavirus outbreak, including the United States, are all responses to the virus.

When Mary Liu, a Chinese American student, asked passersby for directions at the Philadelphia International Airport, they turned around and refused to talk to RJAA AHMED her. Another time, DIGITAL somebody yelled “coMANAGING rona” at her friend as EDITOR they rode the subway.

In the past few weeks, Liu’s family and friends have been at the receiving end of judgmental glares, catcalls and racial slurs.

Sometimes this xenophobia takes the form of everyday microaggressions and seemingly harmless memes and TikTok videos that Liu sees on social media.

“I have friends asking me like, ‘Oh can I laugh at this?’ This is how people define comedy but I feel like there’s some limits when it comes to that,” said Liu, a junior data science major.

Liu is not alone. Her experience is shared by other Asian Americans and Chinese immigrants as more reported coronavirus cases come to light.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention define the 2019 Novel Coronavirus, or COVID-19, as a respiratory disease that first originated in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China.

The coronavirus has infected more than 71,000 people and caused 1,770 deaths around the world as of Monday, Feb. 17 at 5 p.m., CNN reported.

On Jan. 30, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency, but urged countries not to restrict any travel or trade with China, BBC reported.

Nevertheless, more than 50 coun-

letters@temple-news.com

Fortune reported earlier this month.

The current fear surrounding the coronavirus displays characteristics of both racism against Asian Americans and xenophobia against Chinese immigrants.

Racism is defined as prejudice and discrimination toward members of a particular race, based on a sense of superiority over them. Xenophobia is prejudice toward people from other countries.

This xenophobia against Chinese immigrant populations dates back to the 20th century and early 21st century during outbreaks of the bubonic plague and SARS, the Washington Post reported. This repeated display of xenophobic attitudes in response to public health crises indicates the presence of a deeper institutional issue.

“If you look at the history of different types of pandemics or diseases that have some sort of infectious quality to them, there is often a group that gets scapegoated as a part of the unfolding ‘crisis,’” said Lauren Olsen, an assistant professor of sociology who researches medical sociology and bias. “They used to think that tuberculosis, in particular, was like an African-American disease and used it to justify a lot of the Jim Crow laws.”

SPREADING XENOPHOBIA, MISINFORMATION AND PANIC

In a now-deleted post by the University of California, Berkeley, xenophobia was described as a “normal reaction” to the coronavirus outbreak. Lunar New Year celebrations were canceled in Denver and Chicago even though the coronavirus has a low risk of infecting the general population in America, NBC News reported.

HANNAH LIPSKI / THE TEMPLE NEWS

Earlier this month, a case of the coronavirus in Maricopa County, Arizona, led to increased reports of racism and xenophobia toward Asian American students at Arizona State University, according to The State Press, the university’s student newspaper.

This panic is also expressed through jokes on social media and light-hearted comments — while they aren’t really part of a coordinated hate campaign, they still validate institutional bias and fuel prejudice.

A post by a Twitter user last week

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2020

definitively connected this public health crisis to a singular Chinese woman eating a bat. Another tweet advised Chinese people to eat “normal” food. These social media posts spread blatantly false information about the virus and use sweeping generalizations to exclude and stigmatize Chinese people all around the world.

“If you were scared for your life, you would not be sitting on Facebook sharing memes,” Liu said. “If it was your race being [targeted], you wouldn’t be laughing.”

HOW MEDIA OUTLETS PERPETUATE FEAR

During an emergency, the boundary between sensationalism and appropriate warning can be blurred. In this case, the media have an important responsibility to spread awareness without stoking unwarranted panic.

Elizabeth De Jesus, a 2016 biology alumna and current member of the PreHealth Evaluation Committee at Temple, said media outlets need to be careful against spreading unwarranted panic.

“When I watch the news, the kind of adjectives that they use to describe the ongoing hysteria with the coronavirus really sparked an interest with me,” De Jesus said. “When they talk about the Center for Disease Control, they use terms such as ‘the CDC is scrambling’ or ‘the CDC is in panic,’ and that kind of verbiage is not warranted. This is a typical protocol that the CDC undergoes when they have a new virus.”

Serena Zhang, a senior accounting major and an international student from Beijing, China, said she doesn’t know what to believe due to misinformation in reporting, as factually incorrect information about the coronavirus has spread rapidly, the Washington Post reported.

“I don’t know who is telling the truth. I feel on the fence about [coronavirus] because the media kind of has its own bias,” Zhang said.

The media’s exaggeration of the risks associated with the outbreak and

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the language used to describe it can inadvertently push xenophobic narratives.

Rush Limbaugh, a conservative radio host, recently came under fire for referring to the virus as the “Chi-com virus” and calling on the U.S. to institute a ban on Chinese travelers. Amy Coulter, a conservative pundit, chastised Congress for not imposing a travel ban to “block the coronavirus that is going to kill Americans.” The use of inflammatory language by partisan news sources can ultimately legitimize anti-Chinese bigotry.

The Asian American Journalists Association released a statement urging journalists to be careful in their coverage of the coronavirus. It advises news outlets to avoid using pictures of people wearing face masks without providing proper context because the practice of wearing clinical masks has different cultural connotations in East Asia.

Using generic pictures of local Chinatowns if they are not directly related to the story can create a sense of “otherness.” Chinatowns should not be used to visualize the virus, according to AAJA’s statement.

AAJA also advises news outlets against using the term “Wuhan Virus,” referencing guidelines by the WHO which discourage the use of geographical location when naming a pandemic as this can stoke bigotry against people from that region.

TRAVEL BANS

Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania suspended university-affiliated student travel to China last month, The Temple News and the Daily Pennsylvanian reported.

In addition, on Jan. 23, the Office of International Affairs sent an email to international students from China, advising them to seek medical care if they were experiencing flu-like symptoms and had recently returned from Wuhan, China.

Earlier this month, Penn also recommended that all students returning

from mainland China self-isolate for at least 14 days after arriving in the United States, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported. Officials at the University of Pittsburgh have either cancelled or changed venues for their China study programs, PennLive reported.

Several countries and airlines have also halted travel to China, CNBC reported.

These responses come in the wake of a chief staff member of the World Health Organization stating that travel bans were not necessary to stop the outbreak and could “have the effect of increasing fear and stigma, with little public health benefit,” Politico reported earlier this month.

This response is excessive, especially in the absence of an imminent, immediate threat to countries like the U.S. that have robust health care systems.

What is missing from this panic is honest concern toward the Chinese population and the impact the virus and subsequent xenophobia have on them.

“White Americans conceptualize everything in relationship to themselves, so something like a potential for illness is perceived as something that would like uniquely affect them,” Olsen said. “It’s filtered through the lens of one’s white self. I don’t think that when people are thinking about the coronavirus, they’re not necessarily doing so in empathy. For all the people that are losing their lives, they’re thinking about like this more like, ‘Oh no, what if I get sick?’”

WAYS TO FIGHT THE ISSUE

The Office of International Affairs sent out an email to Chinese international students on Feb. 6 to express support and connect them with resources to deal with any discrimination. While this is a good thing to offer international students, universities need to take more steps to support students during this time.

An appropriate response to a public health emergency is crucial, but it is also important that these measures are

framed sensitively and don’t single out a specific population.

“While I understand that an institution of education will need to have steps in place to make sure that their student population is safe, the idea of having explicitly exclusive policies sends a ton of messages to the student body,” Olsen said.

Colleges should set up workshops and lectures that educate students about xenophobia and the spread of false information during crises.

The university administration should also take more concrete steps to deal with institutional bias by actively engaging minority students in the decision-making process. It should ensure that students belonging to marginalized identities have a safe space to voice their concerns about university policies that they may think are exclusionary. Their experiences with discrimination should be acknowledged and used as a guide to educate the larger population about racism and xenophobia.

“A huge responsibility we have is listening to the concerns of the people that have been oppressed by white institutions and caring about more than ourselves,” Olsen said.

Students should actively try to educate themselves about the coronavirus to understand the severity of the situation and the impact it has on Chinese and East Asian populations all over the world. They should avoid mindlessly sharing social media posts without critically analyzing their accuracy and realize that the spread of misinformation can lead to unwarranted panic.

The use of racial stereotyping and insensitive humor can undermine the discourse surrounding grave issues. In this case, it is important that we refrain from sharing memes, TikTok videos and jokes about the coronavirus and recognize how non-white populations continue to suffer even during emergencies. rjaa@temple.edu

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HEALTH

Failing tobacco policy grades are unacceptable Pennsylvania received generally poor grades on the most recent State of Tobacco Control report.

On Jan. 29, the American Lung Association released their annual State of Tobacco Control report, a series of grades between A-F evaluating the effectiveness of tobacco CHRISTINA policies, the PhilaMITCHELL delphia Inquirer reHEALTH BEAT COLUMNIST ported.

The report assessed Pennsylvania in five key areas: tobacco prevention and cessation funding, smoke-free air laws, tobacco taxes, access to cessation services and laws dictating the minimum age of sale for tobacco products at 21.

Pennsylvania performed poorly on the report, receiving D’s and F’s in four categories and an incomplete in one, according to the report.

Pennsylvania’s report card should be the wake up call for the state government to start implementing noticeable changes in the area of tobacco prevention and cessation services.

Sarah Lawver, director of advocacy for Pennsylvania and West Virginia for the ALA, said Pennsylvania’s disappointing report card demonstrates the state government’s lackluster effort.

“Pennsylvania’s report card through the State of Tobacco Control Report really showed that Pennsylvania lawmakers really need to do more to address youth tobacco use, e-cigarette use and access to cessation for those people who want to quit,” Lawver said.

Pennsylvania received a failing grade in tobacco prevention and cessation funding as well as tobacco taxes.

The CDC previously recommended that Pennsylvania allocate $140 millionfrom its budget to spend on tobacco prevention and cessation funding, but the Commonwealth only spent 12.8 percent letters@temple-news.com

NICOLE HWANG / THE TEMPLE NEWS

of the recommended amount for that purpose, according to the report.

Funding is essential, as it is used for comprehensive tobacco prevention and control initiatives working to prevent youth smoking, wrote Ryan Coffman, tobacco policy and control manager for the Philadelphia Department of Health, in an email to The Temple News.

“These funds are of critical importance to the department’s mission to reduce adult and youth tobacco use,” Coffman wrote. “Tobacco use remains the leading killer in Philadelphia, and to continue this important progress, it is essential that the dedicated funding meets or exceeds the levels recommended by the Centers for Disease Control.”

Additionally, raising taxes to deter people from smoking, a policy that Pennsylvania got a failing grade on, could have a noticeable impact on the number of people smoking, Lawver said.

“Tobacco taxes are an extremely ef-

fective way for youth to not smoke in the first place or people to quit,” Lawver added.

To combat youth smoking, the federal government raised the minimum age to legally buy cigarettes from 18 to 21 in December 2019, the CNN reported. Pennsylvania received an incomplete grade for this from ALA’s report, as the policy was not in place at the time, but will take effect on July 1, according to the report.

“The vast majority of smokers start before the age of 18, and the rest will be smoking by the time they’re 21,” said Jamie Magee, director of tobacco prevention and control services at the Health Promotion Council. “This policy will help keep these products out of high schools. It has been shown that the brain is still developing up until the age of 25, and tobacco use in adolescents can prime the brain for addiction.”

Pennsylvania received a marginally

better grade of a D in access to tobacco cessation services, with the Commonwealth providing some coverage on Medicaid but with no provisions for private insurance, according to the report.

Pennsylvania also received a D grade for its smoke-free air laws, as tobacco smoking is prohibited in most environments except for bars, and these restrictions do not include e-cigarettes.

Although no states got straight A’s, states like California and Maine were some of the top of the class.

Pennsylvania, take notes.

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death, according to the CDC, and with such poor grades for tobacco policy, Pennsylvania needs to do its homework and make serious changes before more lives are lost from an issue that we can fight today. christina.mitchell@temple.edu

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CITY LIFE

Alumnus educates Philly students on jazz history

Luke Carlos O’Reilly teaches about the genre and its history at the Kimmel Center.

BY OSCAR THALER For The Temple News

A

s Luke Carlos O’Reilly walks onto the stage of the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center, he is greeted by the cheers of hundreds of enthusiastic fourth graders.

O’Reilly, 2004 jazz piano performance alumnus, is a teaching artist in the center’s Jazz4Freedom program, which educates fourth graders from The School District of Philadelphia.

The program spans from December to March and sends teaching artists to various classrooms to educate them about jazz and civil rights concepts, said Susan Quinn, director of education at the Kimmel Center. The artists host dance workshops and poetry writing sessions in the schools, and then bring students to the center for a field trip performance.

“The coolest part about it is that we’re not going to the schools that can afford it, we’re going to the schools that need it,” O’Reilly said.

O’Reilly, along with other local performers, like jazz singer Warren Cooper, have performed for 300 students in the program’s live show at Perelman Theater. The program displays major elements of jazz, like a jazz quartet, tap dancing and scat singing several times a week for schools including Vare-Washington Elementary and Lewis C. Cassidy Academics Plus School.

Cooper, who’s known O’Reilly for almost 20 years, said they want to use jazz to inspire and pass it on to the next generation, so young people can express themselves.

“The great thing about educating kids about the music is giving them the principles of the base of the music, and equipping them to take the music to

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OSCAR THALER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Luke Carlos O’Reilly, a 2004 jazz piano performance alumnus, walks onto the stage of the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center on Feb. 11.

wherever the next place is,” Cooper said.

“Jazz is an intrinsically organic music, and it’s kind of like tofu. It begins to take on the taste of the things around it.”

At the end of each field trip performance, Jazz4Freedom gives teachers a study guide to help them continue teaching jazz and performance art education.

Students also participate in a post-show workshop about social change, according to the program’s website.

Quinn first came up with the idea in 2017 and the program started running last year.

“We looked around the city and the country and figured out what would be the best possible way to engage with the community, and one of the things we

came up with were signature programs for fourth, fifth and sixth graders,” she said.

Quinn and her team negotiated with the school board so that the program could go hand-in-hand with what students are learning in class, she said.

“You can’t delve into the culture of Philadelphia without talking about jazz,” O’Reilly said.

O’Reilly, who was inspired by jazz pianist Oscar Peterson at a young age, also teaches jazz programs for preschoolers and high school students at the Kimmel Center.

He believes it is important for children, especially children of color, to understand jazz because of how essential

it is in describing Black history in the United States.

“Even if you’re from a different country, jazz encompases so many different artists, so many different types of music, jazz is also a culture,” O’Reilly added.

The Kimmel Center wants to eventually expand the its programs so that it can reach more children, Quinn said.

“They’ve put together a very sound program,” O’Reilly said. “You’ve gotta find the formula to keep certain kids engaged.” oscar.thaler@temple.edu

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ON CAMPUS

Art exhibit shows global warming stitch by stitch

The Tempestry Project’s tapestries are on display at the Ginsburg Health Sciences Library.

BY NATALIE KERR For The Temple News Rows of vibrant colors adorn the wall of the Ginsburg Health Sciences Library in carefully knitted tapestries that form an artistic rendering of the increasing temperatures in cities all over the world.

These “Tempestries,” or tapestries that record the daily high temperatures of a city for one year, are exhibited at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine until March 12. The nine tapestries show nine years of Philadelphia temperatures between 1875 and 2018. They’re a part of the Tempestry Project, an international organization of knitting tapestries that show global warming.

From 1880 to 2019, the Earth’s temperature rose by more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NASA. In January, the temperature in the United States was the highest on record at 35.5 degrees, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported.

The Tempestries are hand-knitted by volunteers who buy a kit from the Tempestry Project. In the kit, they receive spreadsheets of temperature data for their chosen year and corresponding colored yarn they’ll need. Each temperature range has a color associated with it, so the finished tapestry will have 365 rows for each daily temperature, taking 20-30 hours to make, according to the project’s website.

The exhibit was a part of “Love Data Week,” an annual event recognizing data that ran from Feb. 10-14, said Will Dean, research and data services librarian at the Ginsburg Health Sciences Library.

The library has participated in Love Data Week for several years and hosted workshops and events centered around data, research and education,Dean said.

“In the past, we’ve only had technolfeatures@temple-news.com

ogy and workshops, so it’s our first time having more of an artistic installation that’s still based on scientific data,” he added. “It’s both eye-catching and a reminder that there are a lot of things you can do with data.”

Part of the exhibit includes descriptions of the climate trends that show varying temperatures through different-colored yarn. The descriptions show the effects hotter temperatures can have, like increased disease, loss of agriculture and threats to infrastructure, like rising sea levels and extreme weather.

“We hope to help people connect with the issue in new ways,” said Justin Connelly, co-founder of The Tempestry Project. “With the Tempestries, you find people connect a little bit deeper, spend more time with it, think about it a little bit more.”

The project was created in 2017 when Connelly, alongside Emily McNeil and Marissa Connelly, felt environmental data was threatened by President Donald Trump’s administration and would be better preserved in a non-digital space. Since then, tapestries have been made in 48 out of 50 states and more than 30 countries, Justin Connelly said.

“Just in the making of the pieces, there’s thousands of hours of people thinking about climate, which they might not otherwise end up doing,” he said. “I think of it as every knitter who makes one is spending 20 to 30 hours thinking about climate.”

The exhibit is on loan from the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, an institution in Roxborough focused on environmental education and art, land stewardship and wildlife rehabilitation. The center is home to 30 Tempestries, making it the largest Tempestry collection in the world, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

In the library exhibit room, a whiteboard stationed by the Tempestries asks visitors to write what they thought of the installation, where visitors wrote responses like “an extremely effective and

CAMILLE COLEMAN / THE TEMPLE NEWS The Tempestry Project exhibit, comprised of nine tapestries that record the daily high temperatures of Philadelphia, hangs on the wall of the Ginsburg Health Sciences Library on Feb. 17.

CAMILLE COLEMAN / THE TEMPLE NEWS A tapestry recording the daily temperatures of Philadelphia in 2018 hangs on the wall of Ginsburg Health Sciences Library on Feb. 17.

timely piece of art.”

Arvind Bussetty, a first-year medical student, went to the exhibit room to see the project, but then stayed to do homework. The project looked well thought out, and passionately made, he said.

“It’s a really nice way to show some-

thing that concerns us all,” Bussetty said.

“It’s very appealing, and does a good job of showing how dire the effects of climate change are.” natalie.kerr@temple.edu

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PAGE 13

ALUMNI

Wearable safety device helps hospitality workers

An alumna created Always On, a tool which alerts security when an employee feels unsafe.

BY CLAIRE BRENNAN For The Temple News While working in a restaurant, Yasmine Mustafa recalls her manager asking for a kiss in exchange for her paycheck.

“In terms of inappropriate touching in the kitchen by the staff, stuff like that, that was so commonplace,” said Mustafa, 2006 entrepreneurship and innovation management alumna. “People knew what happened but there was nothing that could be done to stop it.”

Mustafa is the the co-founder of ROAR for Good, a local technology company that creates wearable safety devices for restaurant and hotel workers.

The company recently released Always On, a small clippable device that workers use whenever they feel unsafe. It instantly alerts security and management teams via push notifications and an Alert Console, an iPad-like device kept at hotels’ front desk or in the security area, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. It’s being used by more than 350 hospitality workers, Mustafa said.

“It initially was meant for college students and for women that live in urban cities, women that go running, women that feel unsafe at night,” Mustafa said. “The device is for anyone that just wants to have a friend or family one click away.”

After New Jersey became the first state to require hotel workers to wear panic buttons in 2019, the company began marketing to the hospitality industry. The legislation made the company change focus toward women in the hotel industry, Mustafa said.

“A lot of people have needed protection for a long time and they haven’t had it,” she added. “So the fact that there are now requirements in place, I believe means that the shift in power is moving from the employer to the employee.”

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CLAUDIA SALVATO / THE TEMPLE NEWS Yasmine Mustafa, CEO of ROAR For Good and 2006 entrepreneurship and innovation management alumna, works in her office on Spring Garden Street near 10th on Jan. 27.

In 2018, the United States restaurant industry had the most amount of sexual harassment claims that any other industry, with 90 percent of women and 70 percent of men reporting experiencing sexual harassment, according to the Harvard Business Review.

Doug McBrearty, a senior leadership member of Gulph Creek Hotels, a hotel management company, encourages the use of the Always On devices among Philadelphia hotel employees, not only for their safety benefits but the devices’ effect on the overall industry.

“It’s a good time to be in the business and [Mustafa]’s got a product, it’s different than anything I’ve seen,” he said.

Lu Lu, an assistant professor of

tourism and hospitality, said that the increased protection of hotel workers is integral for the hospitality industry.

“It’s very important to take care of our people because hospitality, we are a business, and everything we do, we depend on our employees,” Lu said.

ROAR for Good’s technology complements the change in the social dynamics for women in the workplace, Mustafa said.

“It’s a great time for this to be happening with income inequality, with the #MeToo movement, with the gig economy,” she added. “I think that we’ve come to a position where workers are demanding more rights and protection and that we’re open to it.”

Making employees, female employees in particular, feel safer not only increases morale but has the potential to decrease company’s bottom line with less liability insurance claims and a decreased rate of employee turnover, Mustafa said.

Mustafa expects that other states and industries are sure to follow New Jersey’s path in requiring panic buttons as there are many “at-risk” workers, like emergency room doctors and physicians, she said.

“I think there’s still a lot to do,” Mustafa added. claire.brennan@temple.edu

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COLORS WORD SEARCH CHARTREUSE CERULEAN MAGENTA MALACHITE FUSCHIA SMARAGDINE TAWNY COQUELICOT

SARCOLINE XANADU FULVOUS EBURNEAN AMARANTH ZAFFRE GLAUCOUS

SOCCER CROSSWORD

DOWN

2. The teammate who plays closer to the opponent’s goal 3. A warning given to a player 7. A play given to a team as a result of a foul by the opponent 8. The person who enforces the rules of the game

ACROSS 1. Kicking the ball to another teammate 4. A play given to a team as a result of a foul by the opponent 5. When a player successfully kicks the ball over the end line 6. A position where the player is closer to the opponent’s goal line than the ball and the second last opponent 9. A way of restarting a play at the corner of the field after the ball has been kicked over the goal line 10. Describes the way that the players are positioned on the field features@temple-news.com

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2020

LIVE IN PHILLY

CLAUDIA SALVATO/ THE TEMPLE NEWS

Butterfly festival is a ‘treat’ for families

The Philadelphia Insectarium and Butterfly Pavilion in the Holmesburg neighborhood held their second Butterfly Love Fest on Saturday. Families came out to enjoy crafts, games, and live butterflies and insects.

Michelle Rivera, from Wilmington, Delaware, brought her son and a friend.

“I love butterflies, this is my treat,” she said. “They’re landing on you and everything, it’s great. It’s definitely worth coming to see.”

The butterfly pavilion includes various plants and flowers, as well as reptile enclosures and cocoon displays.

Throughout the rest of the museum, kids made insect-themed crafts and painted their own butterfly wings.

Mary Ann Poupard, a Parkwood resident, saw the Insectarium in the newspaper and came with her family, she said. Poupard came with her daugher and grandson.

“He’s all excited about the whole thing, and I love the butterflies,” Poupard said. “I think they’re beautiful. The kids always get me butterfly cards and everything.” @TheTempleNews

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2020

FACULTY

Researchers link brain injuries and curse words A professor and his team studied taboo words to help brain injury patients regain language use.

BY AYOOLUWA ARIYO Assistant Features Editor While working as a speech therapist, Jamie Reilly found people with brain injuries may lose the ability to use language, but can still curse.

“When you have a bad brain injury that affects the left side, sometimes people can lose all aspects of language but keep cursing,” Reilly said. “They basically won’t be able to name anything, picture of a dog, but they can say the F-word just fine.”

Reilly, a communication sciences and disorders professor and director of the Concepts and Cognition Laboratory in the College of Public Health, is researching the relationship between curse words and behavioral control in patients with strokes or aphasia, a language disorder due to brain injury. The laboratory’s first paper on the subject was published in this month’s issue of The Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, a psychology journal.

Through a study and brain stimulation with curse words on participants, Riley and his team found cursing is spe-

cially encoded in the brain. The team hopes to expand their research in the future to include how patients can gain more language control.

The research began in 2017 by studying a patient’s response to hearing curse words through his eye dilation, Reilly said. Normally, people’s eyes dilate very quickly when they hear curse words because of the words’ effect on the brain — this was not the case with their patient.

“It’s an interesting effect where we experience this sort of arousal and this need to inhibit, he didn’t have that at all,” Reilly said.

It led to a second study a year later on how taboo words are encoded in the brain so deeply people who have lost language can still use it, said Peter Twigg, a second-year master’s in neuroscience student, who also researches in the lab.

The research team wants to provide more evidence on the formation of curse words and their taboo nature to inform caregivers on how to treat brain injury patients, Twigg said.

“When you’re treating somebody who has aphasia, or [traumatic brain injury] or stroke, these are issues that you would encounter on a daily basis,” he added. “So our research helps to inform us and the scientific community more

largely about how to deal with that, how to understand that what’s happening in the brain and then hopefully in future studies, how we can help to treat it and alter it so that we can make life you know, more accommodating.”

Reilly and his team then carried out a third study on brain stimulation and measured the participants’ eye movement and responses while they read curse words. The team repeated the process after stimulating their brains for 20 minutes to check for changes.

The process, called transcranial direct current stimulation, used a hat-like device, with negative and positive current and electrodes, attached to the head.

The currents go through the brain and change the excitation level of the different parts of the brain it is on, Reilly said.

“That study was more like proof of concept,” said Bonnie Zuckerman, the lab’s research associate. “Cursing is reported in the right hemisphere, which is also what damage has shown. Damage in their left, cursing happens more, damage in their right, cursing happens less.”

The research team used this process to help people with Alzheimer’s disease as it stimulates certain parts of their brain that are not working well, Reilly said. They are looking into the process as a therapy option to regulate emotions

MATT RINEER Freshman media studies and production major

VOICES

What can Temple students do to be more sustainable?

features@temple-news.com

Not keeping the lights on in your room all night long. Make sure you’re not leving the water running when you’re using the bathroom. Maybe try to use a metal or reusable water bottle instead of buying plastic ones all of the time.

and language, Zuckerman added.

Four journals previously rejected their published research, which may be because of the controversial nature of curse words, Reilly said.

They then removed some curse words and represented them as data points and codes instead, in order to get their research published, Twigg said.

“Nobody really wants to deal with these words, but they are part of our lives all the time,” he added. “You have to deal with whether you include gendered speech and hate speech or you know, racial terms and things like that and all of those get very challenging to code and challenging to include.”

Reilly hopes their research starts a conversation about curse words in science, and use it to help people with brain injury.

“People who experience uncontrolled cursing experience fairly significant degree of distress, but we really don’t know anything about how to help them,” Reilly said. “Cursing is the subset of language really, a lot needs to be learned about and then developing interventions that can help people, I think is important.” ayooluwa.ariyo@temple.edu @fogo_ay

RACHEL WILLIAMS Senior accounting major It’s kind of hard because Philadelphia doesn’t actually recycle, you know, so I guess thrifting. I’m a huge thrifter, so I think that’s the best possibility.

ROBERT LOFTON Sophomore marketing major

MAYA SEGAL Freshman advertising major

Temple and Temple students rely heavily on technology. We use a lot of energy so we should lower technology use.

For me, whenever I get a plastic bag, I just reuse it as a trash bag, and I try my best to try and recycle.

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2020

STUDENT LIFE

First-gen int’l students face unique challenges Two students explain how cultural barriers affected their adjustment to college life.

BY RAYONNA HOBBS For The Temple News Senior public health major Hoa Vo vividly remembers his first visit to Temple when he came for orientation.

“When I came off the subway and I saw Conwell Hall, I thought, ‘Oh wow, it’s beautiful here, I’m really going to study at this university,’” said Vo, who is from Vietnam.

Vo is one of 3,000 international students currently at Temple, according to the 2019-20 Temple University Factbook. That same year, nearly 52,000 international students enrolled in Pennsylvania universities, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

That year, 14 percent of incoming students had neither parent attend college, according to the university’s factbook.

“I didn’t think I could come here, but my mom suggested I should try and apply [to Temple] anyway,” Vo said. “One of my relatives has a daughter who studied ESL at Temple, and they thought it would be nice for me to study at the same school.”

Preeti Kattubadi, a senior engineering technology major, spent several years in India but decided to move back to the United States for college.

“There’s more personal freedom here in the U.S. compared to India,” Kattubadi said. “I wanted my freedom back.”

Bu returning to the U.S. for college meant learning about the country’s college system.

“Learning about the college credit and GPA systems was a challenge for me because it’s so different in India,” Kattubadi said. “My family couldn’t help since they didn’t know how it worked, either.”

“I didn’t think about the opportunities and difficulties that came with col@TheTempleNews

CLAUDIA SALVATO / THE TEMPLE NEWS Preeti Kattubadi, senior engineering technology major, sits in the Charles Library on Monday. She is a first-generation student.

lege,” Vo said. “I didn’t have any mentors or connections, unlike other college students that had family members attend college.”

For Kattubadi, this included learning how to manage the workload and expectations for college. “I wasn’t used to the educational system in America,” she said. “It took me a while to learn how to use that to my advantage.”

The College Raptor reported that these challenges of adjusting to college life and lack of preparedness are common for first-generation students, but these weren’t the only obstacles these students faced. The two seniors also had to build new social lives.

Vo was looking forward to exploring Philadelphia when he first arrived in the city, but the language barrier made him nervous about socializing.

“I was nervous about communicating with other people in a new country,” Vo said. “In ESL classes, I was struggling to learn nonverbal communication due

to cultural differences.”

Kattubadi was also afraid that communicating would be an issue.

“I was honestly really scared, and I didn’t know anyone here,” Kattubadi said. “I didn’t know how people would react to my accent since I lived in India during high school.”

To cope, Kattubadi remained connected to her friends and family in India.

But since moving back to the U.S., Kattubadi said communicating with friends and family became difficult.

“When I decided to go to Temple, my parents moved with me, so that was nice, but it sucks not seeing my extended family and friends back in India,” she said. “I haven’t been back to India since I left for school.”

Like many international students, Kattubadi occasionally suffers homesickness. According to U.S. News Global Education, this is typical for international students.

For Vo, staying in contact with

friends from home was a struggle at first.

“It was hard to communicate with friends due to the time difference in Vietnam, but with the use of technology it made it much easier to talk to friends and family,” Vo said.

Despite the difficulties he’s faced, Vo feels it’s important for him to finish his degree — not just for himself, but for others.

“Being a first-generation international student means a lot to me [because] the next generation needs me to give them guidance,” Vo said. “Going through the process of college by myself was difficult, and I don’t want others to do it alone.”

Kattubadi also sees finishing her degree as a way for her to be a role model.

“For me, it means breaking boundaries in your family and setting a good example for your family,” she added. rayonna.hobbs@temple.edu

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INTERSECTION PAGE 18

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2020

DISABILITY

Neurodiverse first-gens find help from community First-gen students talk about classroom environment when I was takhow their neurodiversity impacts ing my exams.”

At the time, Filbert didn’t know she their college experience.

NICO CISNEROS Intersection Editor

Junior media studies major Raymundo Varela-Urizar was discouraged from thinking about college early on in life.

“I had a special education teacher say that I couldn’t do it, and I even had family members say I couldn’t do it,” he said.

People doubted Varela-Urizar because he has autism, and he is the first in his family to go to college. Varela-Urizar is among Temple students who are part of the neurodiverse community and are first-generation students.

Neurodiversity describes a wide range of “neurological variations,” according to the Scientific American. Autism, learning disabilities and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are all examples of neurodiverse disabilities.

Patricia McHugh, a student services coordinator for Temple University’s Disability Resources and Services, said helping students with neurodiversity is very individualized. Students have to meet with coordinators, like McHugh, to figure out what accommodations they need.

“What accommodation may work for one is not the case across the board,” she said.

Senior speech, language and hearing science major Christa Filbert is both a first-generation student. In her sophomore year of college, she found out she had a learning disability.

“I noticed I had a really hard time adjusting, which is common when transitioning to college, but I noticed like my grades started to plummet,” she said. “I noticed like I was having a lot of issues concentrating on tests [and] being in a

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had a learning disability. According to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, this is fairly common because “signs of learning and attention issues get overlooked or misinterpreted.”

Initially, Filbert believed her learning issues were stemming from her mental health issues, which were worsened because of the difficulty she had navigating college life.

While her parents were always supportive, they couldn’t be a resource because they hadn’t gone to college. Filbert had already had difficulties with the college application process and the financial aspects of college, like applying for financial aid.

“I had to find a lot of outside resources like counselors,” she said. “I would contact like neighbors and friends who I knew, like my neighbor went to law school, so I contacted her because she was really helpful with the process.”

Varela-Urizar also had to make his own way through college. His parents were supportive, but they hadn’t gone to college and were new to America.

“I wanted to go to college because I wanted to show that my mom and dad sacrifices and leaving their home country, for me, was not a waste of time,” he said. “My mom and dad always believed in the American dream, and they believed that I had true potential and true goals, even as a person with autism.”

After being in special education classes growing up, Varela-Urizar did not feel prepared academically.

“At 18 years old, my teachers put me in a stupid special education class where I was learning normal math,” he said. “And now I’m in college, and I am reading 27 pages of a textbook with no preparation. I had to do all this, this college thing, by myself, [and] with the help

JEREMY ELVAS / THE TEMPLE NEWS Christa Filbert, a first-generation, senior speech, language and hearing science major with a learning disability, stands in the Charles Library on Monday.

of the academic tutors.”

Being seen as a person by his peers and professors is what Varela-Urizar felt helped him succeed.

“I’m not the stereotypical autistic kid. I’m social. I have friends,” he said.

“And the academic tutors and the professors, they see me as a human. You know, they listen to me, hear me speak.”

Filbert found her own community after a professor recommended she talk with DRS to get accommodations for her classes.

“It was really just such a struggle to try to work without accommodations, and at first, I was ashamed to ask for them,” she said. “But now I’m comfortable using them. They’ve integrated having a disability and college together more smoothly.”

Going to DRS also connected Filbert with Delta Alpha Pi, a group she’s

now co-president of. This honor society serves as a way to change perceptions of students with disabilities by recognizing their academic accomplishments, connecting them with leadership opportunities, and — most importantly to Filbert — serving as a way for students with disabilities to connect.

McHugh said that building community is critical to the success of all students with disabilities.

“I think there’s all too often that students can sort of feel like they’re alone, and what they’re going through, and they come to find out that’s not the case,” she said. “Having that sense of community just really gives the students a place to grow, and I think that’s important for everyone to have to have that sense of belonging.” nicole.cisneros@temple.edu @nicomcisneros

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SPORTS PAGE 20

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2020

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Assoc. coach reflects on tenure, guards’ recent success Way Veney is in her 12th season at Temple, and two of Temple’s top three scorers are guards.

BY JOSH GRIEB Women’s Basketball Co-Beat Reporter

As she sat down after a Friday morning practice, associate head coach Way Veney reminisced about one of Temple University women’s basketball’s most successful seasons in her tenure.

“We played at Duke against Oregon, who obviously went on to be one of the better teams in the country, but we played them down to the buzzer,” Veney said about a game in 2016-17 season. “I felt like that was one of the bright spots in our program since I’ve been here.”

Veney, now in her 12th season, works with the guards, two of which are among Temple’s leading scorers this season.

Redshirt-sophomore Ashley Jones averages 16.7 points per game, and sophomore Marissa Mackins averages at 13.8 points per game.

Freshman guard Asonah Alexander averages 27.8 minutes a game and leads The American in assists to turnover ratio.

Veney adapts her coaching style to fit whichever guard she is working with, she said. She doesn’t start with technical skills until she’s built their confidence first, she added.

When teaching Mackins, Veney works on shooting three-pointers and helps her work on “forgetting” bad shots.

Mackins is shooting 35.1 percent from three, which leads the team. “[Veney’s] energy is very different, and the way she loves the game is incredible,” Mackins said.

As a freshman, Mackins averaged 8.7 points per game and shot 31.8 percent from the three-point range.

“Coming in, I was just starting out as just a point guard and having her as a position coach and as a mentor really

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NICHOLAS DAVIS / THE TEMPLE NEWS Way Veney, Temple women’s basketball associate head coach, watches from the sideline during the Owls’ 76-75 win against Houston in McGonigle Hall on Saturday.

helped me out, not just as a person, but as a player, too,” Mackins said.

In her work with Jones, Veney helps her read and react to defenses. Jones is shooting 42.5 percent from the floor, which is tied for second on the team.

“On the court, she’s helped me with offense, pretty much everything, allaround game,” Jones said. “I just feel like she tries her hardest to get me to be the best player I can be on the court.”

Veney’s wants Alexander to shoot the ball more, she said.

Alexander averages 5.3 points per game and shoots 37.2 percent from the floor.

“She needs to look to be more aggressive,” Veney said. “Kids are all dif-

ferent, each player is different and you focus on different intricacies with each one of them.”

Veney took the job at Temple shortly after the university hired coach Tonya Cardoza in 2008.

“It’s funny, I had just accepted a position at George Washington [University],” Veney said. “[Cardoza] got the job three days after I accepted the job at GW and asked me would I come with her, and I had to call GW and tell them no.”

Before she became a coach, Veney was a starting guard at East Carolina for two seasons and competed in two Women’s National Basketball Association tryout camps in 2000 and 2001.

When her playing days ended, she wanted to start coaching because she

“played like a coach on the floor,” she said.

Veney coached former guard Alliya Butts, who graduated in 2019. Butts is second in team history in scoring and averaged 14.4 points per game in her career. She also shot 32.7 percent from three-point range on her career and 34.2 percent from beyond the arc her junior year.

Butts became the first Owl to make The American Athletic Conference First Team in 2016.

“For as many players as I’ve coached, if I see that I’ve reached one of them, it makes a huge difference,” Veney said. joshua.grieb@temple.edu @JGrieb10

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SPORTS PAGE 21

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2020

COLUMN

Tough loss to Villanova reflects program’s ‘Achilles heel’ The Assistant Sports Editor argues Temple’s post-season mediocrity makes it difficult to attract high-level recruits.

After going up 30-26 at halftime, it looked like Temple University men’s basketball would play a competitive game against Villanova.

But the second half came. The ALEX McGINLEY Wildcats outscored Assistant Sports Editor the Owls 50-26, and the talent difference between the two teams popped off the court.

Villanova (19-6, 8-4 The Big East) opened the floodgates in the first six minutes of the second half, outscoring Temple (13-12, 5-7 The American Athletic Conference) 20-2 to go up 46-32 en route to a 76-56 win on Sunday.

The Wildcats created this separation in the second half due to its 13 three-pointers hit on 21 attempts. In Sunday’s game, Temple’s play proved it does not have complementary scorers like Villanova does. As a team, Temple only made two three-pointers on 16 attempts. That kind of play does not win games, certainly not against the 12th ranked team in the country.

While five players finished with nine points or more for Villanova, Temple only had two: senior guard Quinton Rose and junior guard Nate Pierre-Louis.

Rose scored 22 points, almost half of Temple’s overall points, and Pierre-Louis finished with 16 points. No other player scored more than seven points. In the first half, Rose scored 14 of Temple’s 30 points.

“It has been a revolving door for us,” coach Aaron McKie said. “You would hope you would get more consistency from guys getting confidence. It has really been our Achilles heel.”

Villanova showed its shooting depth Sunday — something Temple doesn’t @TheTempleNews @TheTempleNews

J.P. OAKES / THE TEMPLE NEWS Senior guard Quinton Rose attempts to score during the Owls’ 76-56 loss against Villanova at the Liacouras Center on Sunday.

have.

Wildcats junior guard Collin Gillespie converted on seven threes to finish with a game-leading 29 points. He scored 15 of Villanova’s 26 points in the first half and scored 14 points in the second half.

Wildcats freshman forward Jeremiah Robinson-Earl hit two three-pointers and scored eight points in the second half, despite receiving two early fouls and sitting out the rest of the first half.

Junior forward Jermaine Samuels converted on a pair of three-pointers and finished with 11 points in the second half.

Sophomore forward Saddiq Bey and freshman guard Justin Moore each contributed nine points. Moore scored all of his points from beyond the arc in the

second half.

“Normally, I just go in there to score first,” Gillespie said. “Then, our other guys are coming off the ball. They do a really good job of coming off the ball.”

Temple outscored Villanova 32-16 in the paint. Despite this, Temple failed to expose this matchup by continuing to shoot threes instead of driving inside.

Villanova can appeal to more talented recruits while Temple will continue to struggle to rebuild the program if this play continues. Since 2017, Villanova has landed three five-star recruits and six four-star recruits, while Temple has signed no five-star recruits and four four-star recruits.

That trend will likely continue in years to come because Villanova develops players much better under coach Jay

Wright, who has coached the team since 2001. On the other hand, Temple has not made any progress in the past two decades. Since the Owls’ 2001 Elite Eight appearance, they have only won two NCAA Tournament games.

With Sunday’s win, Villanova has won six of the last seven Big 5 titles and has tied Temple for the most Big 5 titles in history with 27.

People like to complain Villanova is not a Philadelphia school. By winning two of the last four NCAA Championships, Villanova has done more for Philadelphia basketball than Temple has in recent years, as Sunday’s game showed. alex.mcginley@temple.edu @mcginley_alex

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SPORTS PAGE 23

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2020

LACROSSE

Multiple players rotate draw control responsibility In its first three games, Tem- Conference First Team in 2019. Gebert ple has won 58.3 percent of its finished sixth on the team by winning 15 draw controls as a freshman and 12 as a draws this season.

BY CAYDEN STEELE Lacrosse Beat Reporter The lacrosse ball is placed horizontally between two sticks. The whistle blows, and the ball is flung from the draw circle into the air.

Senior defender and captain Kara Nakrasius secures the ball in her stick running at full speed. She sprints to open space to avoid defenders closing in on her. She makes a pass down the field and the offensive possession begins.

The Owls rotate who takes the draw controls each game — a strategic decision, coach Bonnie Rosen said.

Last season, Temple lost seven of the ten games in which it lost the draw battle.

Controlling possession makes it easier to win games, senior attacker Maddie Gebert said. Each draw is a new opportunity to take control of the game, Nakrasius added.

“In lacrosse, it’s a lot harder to get back possession,” Gebert said. “Once you have possession you kind of control the game.”

Gebert is a pivotal player on offense.

She led the team with 40 goals and four assists and made The American Athletic

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 24 GARIN Garin, a health professions major, started gymnastics at 4 years old and wanted to start competing because of the gymnasts’ uniforms and the “treats,” like cheese sticks and chocolate milk, her mom gave her after the events, she said.

“My mom was a gymnast in high school, and so she suggested, ‘Oh do you want to try gymnastics,’” Garin said.

“And so I looked it up on the computer with her, and I saw the pretty leotards that they were wearing and I was like, ‘I want to do gymnastics because of the leotards.’” @TheTempleNews

sophomore.

Players in the draw circle have a good relationship, Nakrasius said.

“For the draw, it’s basically the grittiness and having trust in your draw taker,” Nakrasius added. “You have to be prepared beforehand. It takes a lot of extra work, and it’s important to get that good relationship with everyone else in the circle.”

In 2019, Nakrasius led the team with 68 draw controls, which is third-best in Owls history for a single season. She finished with four draw controls a game, which ranked fourth among all players in The American.

Different members of the team rotate practicing draws on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, sophomore attacker Wynston Archer said.

Archer played as a draw control specialist in 13 games last season. She won 20 draws, the fourth most of any player on the Owls in 2019.

“Becoming a great draw player is really about deciding you actually want to get good at something,” Rosen said. “It’s one of those things, if you put the time in, and you study your craft, you can get really good.”

In its first game of 2020, the Owls defeated George Washington University She began to compete at 6 years old and reached Level 10 in 2013, which is USA Gymnastics’ highest level before the Elite Program.

Garin was a two-time Junior Olympic National Invitational Tournament qualifier and a 2014 Junior Olympic NIT first alternate.

“It really helped you prepare because you just learned all the skills that you do now, and so you did all the numbers when you’re here you try and save your body and do a little bit less numbers,” Garin said.

In 2019, Garin was part of the ECAC Championship beam lineup that set a new program record with a score

ISAAC SCHEIN / THE TEMPLE NEWS Junior midfielder Bridget Whitaker draws against Princeton University junior attacker Jordan Marcus during the Owls’ 16-14 loss to the Tigers at Howarth Field on Saturday.

17-8 and recorded 16 draw wins compared to the Colonials’ 11. In its second game of the season, Temple lost to Rutgers University 13-11 but won 14 draws compared to the Scarlet Knights’ 13.

Temple won 19 draws in its 16-14 loss to Princeton University on Saturday. The Tigers controlled 13. Overall, Temple has a 49-35 edge over its opponents through three games.

In those games, freshman midfielder Belle Mastropietro has 17 draw controls,

and Nakrasius has 14. Junior midfielder Bridget Whitaker has 7. Last season, she was third on the team with 34 controls.

“Sometimes someone gets a better feel, it’s a better match-up against the player we’re going up against,” Rosen said. “It’s a little fun game of cat and mouse, figuring out what’s going to allow us to play our best game.”

of 49.225. The Owls won the program’s first ECAC Championship title. She earned a spot on the Division I AllECAC Second Team on beam.

“It was just a super big goal that we’ve had since I’ve come to Temple,” Garin said. “And to actually do it, it wasn’t a surprise because that’s what we’ve been working toward.”

Junior Faith Leary, a health professions major, noticed Garin’s potential to be a top gymnast on the team and in the conference from day one. After the first time she saw Garin perform on the beam, she was “absolutely amazed,” Leary said.

“She’s very clean and very confident,”

Leary added. “Everything she does, you can tell that she’s going to make it before she even starts.”

Garin also competes in floor and bars events. She has set personal records for both this season.

“Well [Garin] just keeps raising the bar,” coach Josh Nilson added. “The one big thing I’d say about [Garin] is that she outworks anyone in the gym. From last year’s stats to this year’s stats, she’s already doing way, way better. But she’s worked hard.”

cayden.steele@temple.edu @caydensports

sean.mcmenamin@temple.edu @sean102400

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SPORTS

PAGE 24

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2020

GYMNASTICS

‘RAISING THE BAR’

Delaney Garin has the highest average beam score on Temple’s gymnastics team.

BY SEAN McMENAMIN Gymnastics Beat Reporter

A

fter setting a career-high beam score last month, junior captain Delaney Garin is setting her sights on regionals this year.

Garin is one of two gymnasts to compete in beam at each meet for Temple. She has scored a 9.5 or higher in each one.

Garin scored a 9.9 on beam

at the Ken Anderson Invitational, a new career-high, on Jan. 31. She also won Eastern College Athletic Conference Gymnast of the Week Honors for her performance at the invitational.

Garin is one of six Temple gymnasts to score a 9.9 or higher on the event.

“You know, you’re just trying to be out here, on the competition floor for your team,” Garin said. “But to be recognized for individual achievements ... always boosts your confidence and helps you get through the next weeks of the season.”

GARIN | PAGE 23

NICHOLAS DAVIS / THE TEMPLE NEWS Junior beam specialist Delaney Garin competes during the Ken Anderson Invitational at McGonigle Hall on Jan. 31.

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