A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921.
VOL. 96 ISSUE 18
temple-news.com @thetemplenews
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2018
HEALTH
‘THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE’ About 10,000 students took to Broad Street to celebrate after the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl on Sunday.
JAMIE COTTRELL / THE TEMPLE NEWS Sophomore theater major Dana Liu drinks from a water fountain in Annenberg Hall on Saturday. Students reported becoming ill after drinking from the fountains.
Students hospitalized from water The university disinfected and changed the filters on all the water fountains in Annenberg Hall. JAMIE COTTRELL / THE TEMPLE NEWS Fans cheer on top of a garbage truck on North Broad in front of City Hall after the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New England Patriots, 41-33, in the Super Bowl on Sunday.
speaker attached to the roof of his 1997 Honda Civic. Mill, a rapper from North Philadelphia, is currently incarcerated for violating his probation. Many hiphop musicians, including rapper Jay-Z, have aådvocated for his release. Chants of “Free Meek” mixed with the sound of crowds celebrating the Eagles’ win along Broad Street. The Eagles defeated the New England Patriots, 41-33, in the franchise’s first Super Bowl win. Tens of thousands of football fans celebrated on city streets after the game ended around 10 p.m. An estimated 10,000 students living
BY EMILY SCOTT & IAN WALKER For The Temple News
A
fter the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl on Sunday night, the scene on Broad Street was like one out of a
movie. Near Hamilton and Broad streets, more than 100 people gathered around the car of Mike Ortiz. Ortiz, 19, from Camden, New Jersey, blasted hip-hop songs like Meek Mill’s “Dreams and Nightmares” from a
BY ALYSSA BIEDERMAN On-Campus Beat Reporter
on or near Main Campus took to Broad Street, according to Temple Police. Charlie Leone, the executive director of Campus Safety Services, wrote in an email that there were no arrests or injuries reported that night. He added that there were four small fires near off-campus apartments that were extinguished by the Philadelphia Fire Department. He wrote that, overall, the students who celebrated were cooperative with authorities. Andrew Hamilton, a sophomore fi-
Students said they were hospitalized after drinking from water fountains in Annenberg Hall last week. The university has since changed filters and disinfected all bottle-refilling stations after receiving complaints from students and their families. Sophomore film and media arts major Kaila Shields said that on Jan. 24 she felt dizzy and nauseous and began to vomit after drinking water from Annenberg Hall. She called Temple Police, which brought her to Temple University Hospital. “I was completely fine until I drank the water that day,” Shields said. “The water made me
EAGLES | PAGE 11
WATER | PAGE 3
FENCING
CONSTRUCTION
Donors gift student-athletes new lounge in Pearson Hall Independent investors paid for the new lounge that features gaming units and TVs. BY AMANDA LIEN Copy Editor
Temple Athletics unveiled a new lounge for student-athletes on Jan. 26 in the Fitness Mezzanine on the second floor of Pearson Hall, equipped with Xbox gaming units, sleep pods, lounge chairs and TVs. The lounge was funded entirely by donations to the university from the New York City Angels, a group of independent investors, and is part of Temple Athletics’ “student-athlete wellness initiative,” which was announced last May. Only studentathletes can access the space. No money for the lounge came from university funds, said Senior Associate Athletic Director Larry Dougherty. The New York City Angels requested that the donation amount not be made public. “[Director of Athletics Pat Kraft] had a vision for this and it was up to our development office to track down donations,” Dougherty said. “The New York City Angels came through with the funding. We had the idea for having a student-athlete space and we were able to find a group to fund it.”
“Pat definitely lived up to all his promises on this one,” said David Fitzgerald, a junior political science major who represents the men’s cross country team on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. “He told us he was going to do it and he met that deadline. Walking in there was amazing. I can’t wait to use it every day for my free cup of coffee.” But some students responded negatively to photos of the lounge posted on social media, questioning the university’s funding priorities — despite the fact Temple did not directly pay for the lounge. “Do you need someone to coach you on finances?” junior psychology major Sarah Bockrath tweeted at the official Temple Twitter account. “I’m not too good at it but I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t spend your money on useless crap like this.” The tweet received more than 300 engagements. “It just seems like a shame that these spaces are being created for a specific group of students while other students are saying, ‘We want a sexual assault crisis center, we want more counselors in Tuttleman,’” Bockrath told The Temple News. “Even if the money comes from donors, I think it’s still something we should think about.” “I would be interested in seeing how
LOUNGE | PAGE 6
JOCELYN BURNS / THE TEMPLE NEWS Coach Nikki Franke (center) watches as sophomore foil Kennedy Lovelace (left) and freshman foil Megan Ross prepare for last weekend’s Northwestern Duals during practice at the Student Pavilion on Thursday.
Franke earns milestone win Nikki Franke, who has coached the Owls since 1972, won her 800th career match on Sunday. BY MICHAEL ZINGRONE Fencing Beat Reporter
Nikki Franke clinched her 800th career win at Temple on Sunday. But her historic coaching career almost never happened. After she graduated from Brooklyn College in 1972, Franke didn’t plan to continue her education. But Denise O’Connor, her college coach and teammate at the 1976
Olympics, called Franke’s mother to convince Franke to attend graduate school at Temple. O’Connor’s former fencers often studied at Temple after leaving Brooklyn. Many became involved with the fencing club before it was a Division I sport. Franke did the same. Franke has been Temple’s coach since the team formed in 1972. Franke entered this season with 781 wins before earning No. 800 against Air Force on Sunday at the Northwestern Duals in South Bend, Indiana.
FRANKE | PAGE 14
NEWS | PAGES 2-3, 6
OPINION | PAGES 4-5
FEATURES | PAGES 7-12
SPORTS | PAGES 13-16
A former and a current student are running for seats in the state House of Representatives. Read more on Page 6.
A student wrote a column urging the university to fund a comprehensive user engagement site. Read more on Page 4.
A 2009 studio art alumnus had work shown in the exhbit “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” which focused on masculinity. Read more on Page 8.
The men’s basketball team has won three games in a row, scoring an average of 83 points per game. Read more on Page 16.