Vol. 97 Iss. 15 by The Temple News

THE TEMPLE NEWS

JENNA’S LAST STEPS

“There’s going to be no justice because Jenna is dead,” Jaqui Burleigh said. Read more on Page 4.

VOL 97 // ISSUE 15 JANUARY 15, 2019 temple-news.com @thetemplenews

NEWS, PAGE 7

Nearly 2 million college students at risk of food insecurity did not participate in federal benefit programs.

OPINION, PAGE 10

R. Kelly got away with sexual abuse because Black women are the most disrespected group, a columnist argues.

FEATURES, PAGE 13

Jenna’s Blessing Bags Foundation will host fundraiser on Wednesday to honor Jenna Burleigh.

SPORTS, PAGE 16

Football team’s strong bond has the team feeling motivated, despite a recent coaching carousel.

NEWS PAGE 2

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

THE TEMPLE NEWS A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921. Gillian McGoldrick Editor in Chief Kelly Brennan Managing Editor Julie Christie Digital Managing Editor Evan Easterling Chief Copy Editor Greta Anderson News Editor Grace Shallow Deputy Investigations Editor Alyssa Biederman Deputy Campus Editor Will Bleier Deputy City Editor Jayna Schaffer Opinion Editor Laura Smythe Features Editor Zari Tarazona Deputy Features Editor Michaela Althouse Deputy Features Editor Michael Zingrone Co-Sports Editor Sam Neumann Co-Sports Editor Claire Wolters Intersection Editor Maria Ribeiro Director of Engagement Siani Colon Asst. Director of Engagement Dylan Long Co-Photography Editor Luke Smith Co-Photography Editor Madison Seitchik Web Editor Ian Walker Visuals Editor Myra Mirza Visuals Specialist Claire Halloran Design Editor Phuong Tran Advertising Manager Kelsey McGill Advertising Manager Daniel Magras Business Manager

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

ON THE COVER DYLAN LONG / THE TEMPLE NEWS

CORRECTIONS 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 Gillian McGoldrick at editor@temple-news.com or 215-204-6736.

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TSG

IgniteTU to pursue need-based programs The “Ignite a Movement” scholarship is the first initiative TSG announced for 2019. BY ALYSSA BIEDERMAN Deputy Campus Editor

Temple Student Government will focus on creating programs that affect students and the North Philadelphia community in Spring 2019, leaders said. This semester, IgniteTU will improve TSG’s communication with students, implement a “Swipe Out Hunger” program and begin working on bringing other platform points to fruition, President Gadi Zimmerman said. “We used our break to recharge and get a final push to finish what we started,” said Hailey McCormack, TSG’s director of communication. IgniteTU has several platform points remaining for the spring semester, like expanding Temple Police’s patrol borders, improving campus resources for students in recovery from addiction and installing a compost facility. The administration also plans to increase scholarship opportunities for North Philadelphia youth and expand the previous administration’s Peer Mentorship program. TSG announced a scholarship on Monday meant to support Temple students’ basic needs, like housing and food. It is the administration’s first completed initiative of 2019. The $5,000-goal “Ignite a Movement” scholarship will be funded through an OwlCrowd campaign and will be open on Tuesday for all freshmen, sophomores and juniors to apply until Feb. 15. TSG members will select recipients based on financial aid and how the student is spending their time at Temple, said Vice President of Services Trent Reardon. “There is no set standard for what

a person has to be or what they should say,” he said. “The questions are geared toward your experience at Temple, how this could help you and if it could make a big impact in your life.” In Spring 2019, town halls — which replaced weekly, mandatory General Assembly meetings and had low attendance rates last semester — will be once every two weeks, which should improve turnout, Zimmerman said. The biweekly meetings will remain optional for student organizations that receive TSG allocations. “These town halls [were] sporadic [last] semester, but that’s really the opportunity where students can come out,” he said. “They’re optional, but they’re about topics that students really care about.” In Fall 2018, the administration hosted three town halls about climate change, midterm elections and health and wellbeing. The administration is also working with Swipes for Philadelphia, a new student organization, to donate food from extra meal swipes to students experiencing food insecurity, Zimmerman said. Alex Rosenberg, a junior Parliament representative, wants to expand access to fresh produce in the area surrounding Temple. “We need to get more local food stands, corner stores and bodegas to carry fresh produce at a reasonable price,” Rosenberg said. With election campaigns beginning in March, IgniteTU is determined to follow through with its goals, McCormack said. “Everyone in this administration is so hardworking, and we all have our eyes set on specific goals,” McCormack said. alyssa.biederman@temple.edu @BiedermanAlyssa

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NEWS PAGE 4

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

COVER STORY

The case of Commonwealth v. Joshua Hupperterz The prosecution points its finger at Joshua Hupperterz for the murder of Jenna Burleigh. He blames his roommate. BY GRACE SHALLOW Investigations Editor A year and a half after her daughter was killed, Jaqui Burleigh continues to question why the tragedy occurred. Jenna Burleigh, a 22-year-old film and media arts major, was murdered before she had a chance to finish her first week of classes at Temple University in Fall 2017. Jenna Burleigh’s family and friends must relive the horror of her missing person-turned-homicide case during the murder trial of Joshua Hupperterz, her accused killer. The 15-person jury for the trial, which began on Jan. 8, will likely deliver a verdict by next week. “There’s going to be no justice because Jenna is dead,” Jaqui Burleigh told The Temple News at the Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice on Monday. On some days, Jaqui Burleigh carries a stitched, maroon pillow into the courtroom as a small form of comfort during nearly seven hours of witness testimony each day. If convicted of first- or second-degree murder, Hupperterz will face a life sentence. He pleaded guilty to charges of abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence last week, but he denies he harmed Jenna Burleigh. On Wednesday, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Glenn Bronson moved the trial to a larger courtroom to accommodate the growing number of Jenna Burleigh’s supporters in attendance. Her family and friends have remained quiet through testimony — sometimes crying and leaving the courtroom when Jenna Burleigh is mentioned, or when photos of her are shown. In opposite benches sit Hupperterz’s

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DYLAN LONG / FILE PHOTO David Nenner, the criminal defense attorney for Joshua Hupperterz, leaves the Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice on Jan. 7.

family, quiet and exchanging hushed words with each other, and David Nenner, Hupperterz’s defense attorney, during recesses. The defendant sits quietly each day, wearing glasses and taking pages of notes on a legal pad as his family and those who loved the woman he is accused of murdering listen to how she was brutally beaten and strangled to death. Hupperterz has not agreed to take the stand and has maintained his innocence. On Monday, Bronson suggested that Hupperterz should testify for the second time because Nenner continues to draw conclusions that can only be proven with Hupperterz’s personal testimony. In December 2018, he denied a third-degree murder guilty plea deal for 30 to 60 years in prison.

THE COMMONWEALTH’S CASE Assistant District Attorneys Jason Grenell and Danielle Burkavage are arguing the commonwealth’s case against Hupperterz. So far, they’ve called 20 witnesses in five days of testimony. In his opening statement, Grenell detailed a violent struggle between Hupperterz and Jenna Burleigh after she rejected anal sex in his off-campus apartment. Autopsy results revealed she died of strangulation and blunt force trauma. On the first day of trial, prosecutors called witnesses who saw Jenna Burleigh and Hupperterz hours before the killing. Davis Trinh, a senior business and management major who has known Jenna Burleigh for more than five years, was with her at Pub Webb, a bar on Cecil B. Moore Avenue near 16th Street. Hup-

perterz and Jenna Burleigh met there on the night of Aug. 30, 2017. Trinh left the bar before Jenna Burleigh, and received several text messages from her between 1 and 2 a.m. on Aug. 31, including a message that read “I’m needing help.” “help,” she texted again at 1:36 a.m. Three minutes later, she sent her last text to Trinh — a message with her phone’s current location at Pub Webb. Video surveillance from the bar and nearby businesses show Jenna Burleigh and Hupperterz leaving together around 2 a.m. and walking toward his apartment on 16th Street near Cecil B. Moore Avenue. Noelle Sterling, a biomedical science graduate student, lived in the apartment unit above Hupperterz at the time and made two 911 calls during the early morning hours of Aug. 31. Sterling called the second time around 4 a.m. to report a woman’s uninterrupted screaming. While on the phone with a 911 dispatcher, Sterling told her the screams abruptly stopped. Temple Police responded to both calls, but Sterling testified that they did not stay for more than five minutes during either visit. Officer Aaron Allen responded to both of Sterling’s calls, and knocked on Hupperterz’s apartment door around 4 a.m. He heard no sound inside, but said if he did, he would have “kicked the door in.” Later in the trial, TUPD and Philadelphia Police officers and forensic analysts testified about their crime scene investigation. Blood with traces of Hupperterz’s DNA was found on several surfaces in the apartment, including in the bathroom, kitchen and bedrooms. Police found a long strand of brown hair attached to a broken ceramic bowl, an elastic hair tie and a phone with a pink sparkly case. Jenna Burleigh’s DNA was identified in a blood sample taken from a pair

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NEWS PAGE 5

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

of Air Jordan flip flops in Hupperterz’s basement, the only place her DNA appeared in the apartment. Around 5:15 p.m. on Aug. 31, TUPD Police Captain Edward Woltemate first called Hupperterz, whom he didn’t hear back from until six hours later. Hupperterz told Woltemate he had “$200 worth of shots” the night before and knew nothing about Jenna Burleigh’s whereabouts. Jack Miley, Hupperterz’s former roommate and a senior kinesiology major, testified he woke up to Hupperterz cleaning up blood in the apartment around 1 p.m. on Aug. 31. Miley also noticed a cut on Hupperterz’s hand. Hupperterz told Miley he’d drunkenly woken up in a “pricker bush,” Miley testified. Erik Carlsen, Hupperterz’s cousin, also testified he saw Hupperterz cleaning

FRIDAY SEPT. 1

THURSDAY AUG. 31

The search for Jenna Burleigh Jenna Burleigh leaves Pub Webb with Joshua Hupperterz around 2 a.m. Hupperterz moves Burleigh’s body to Jenkintown in a storage bin. Burleigh is reported missing.

Hupperterz moves Burleigh’s body more than 100 miles away to Wayne County, Pennsylvania.

SATURDAY SEPT. 2

Police search Hupperterz’s apartment and find blood.

Hupperterz is taken in for questioning.

SUNDAY SEPT. 3

Police find Burleigh’s body.

Police charge Hupperterz blood in his apartment on Aug.with 31.murder. After helping Hupperterz put fresh bandaging on his cut hand, Carlsen testified he helped Hupperterz move a blue storage bin to Hupperterz’s mother’s home in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. On the drive out of the city in

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Carlsen’s car with the bin in the backseat, Carlsen said the two were singing along to the radio and planned a fishing trip. Burkavage presented the bin in which Jenna Burleigh’s body was found to the jury on Wednesday, and Carlsen confirmed he helped Hupperterz move the bin. Hupperterz stored the bin at his mother’s property on Aug. 31, Robert Hagler testified. Hagler lives with and dates Hupperterz’s mother. Around 11 a.m. on Sept. 1, Avery Tucker, a Lyft driver, drove Hupperterz from North Philadelphia to Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, to retrieve the bin. Hagler began to cry as he described moving the bin with Hupperterz from his garage to Tucker’s car. “I need to get the hell out of here,” he said. Tucker then drove Hupperterz to Northeastern Pennsylvania, where police found Jenna Burleigh’s body in the bin on Hupperterz’s grandmother’s property in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 2. Tucker testified Hupperterz fell asleep in his backseat with the bin sitting next to him on the drive from Jenkintown to Wayne County. Carlsen, Tucker and Hagler all said Hupperterz acted “normal” on Aug. 32 and Sept. 1, 2017.

THE DEFENSE’S CASE While asserting his client’s innocence, Nenner claims the real killer is Miley, Hupperterz’s former roommate. In his opening argument, Nenner claimed Miley was woken up on Aug. 31, 2017, by a physical fight between Hupperterz and Jenna Burleigh, who allegedly attacked Hupperterz after he attempted anal intercourse. Nenner said Miley strangled Jenna Burleigh to death in an effort to protect his roommate. “I never touched that woman,” Miley told jurors when he took the stand last week. On Monday, Benjamin Levin, a forensic analyst for PPD, testified that Miley’s DNA was not identified in any of the blood samples taken from his and

Hupperterz’s apartment or on Jenna Burleigh’s body, where analysts found several matches to Hupperterz’s DNA. Prosecutors also showed the jury the Pennsylvania State Police’s photos of Burleigh’s body inside the blue bin. Her body had bruises and marks along the neck, and her head was visibly bloody. State troopers also found a brown, heeled bootie, which appeared to be the complement to the shoe found in Miley’s bedroom. Miley testified he and Hupperterz planned to “pick up some girls” on Aug. 30, 2017. The two drank at Maxi’s on Liacouras Walk before moving to Pub Webb. Over the course of the night, Miley testified he drank 12 to 15 beers and six shots of liquor, smoked marijuana from an oil vapor pen and took one milligram of Alprazolam, or Xanax, an anxiety medication. Miley maintains he left Pub Webb before Hupperterz, which was confirmed by Halle Benson, a former Pub Webb bartender and 2017 sport and recreation management alumna who was working at the bar the night of Aug. 30 into the morning of Aug. 31. Hupperterz contacted Miley, asking him to open their apartment door after Miley left the bar during the early hours of Aug. 31, according to Miley’s phone records. “Cuzcuz I’m k ockingthedokrdonn [sic],” Hupperterz wrote at 1:05 a.m. “we’re the fuck u at gota get I. The house [sic].” Miley testified he fell asleep at home until about 1 p.m. on Aug. 31. Prosecutors argued Miley is known for long, uninterrupted periods of sleep, both when sober and intoxicated. After hiring an attorney in early September 2017, Miley did not provide police with a written statement until Dec. 8, 2017 — about three months after he was first questioned. When Woltemate contacted Miley on Sept. 1, he was visiting family in Point Lookout, New York, for Labor Day Weekend. Phone records show Miley requested time off from his job for the weekend on Aug. 28. Miley told Woltemate he had been with Hupperterz on Aug. 30 and didn’t

IAN WALKER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Illustration based on evidence presented in court proceedings on Jan. 10.

know anything about Jenna Burleigh’s whereabouts. Phone records show Miley called Hupperterz several times on Sept. 1 and Sept. 2, which Miley said were attempts to push Hupperterz to get in touch with law enforcement. His former roommate was “feeding him lies,” Miley testified. Hupperterz told Miley he was in North Carolina when other witnesses saw him at his grandmother’s property, where Jenna Burleigh’s body was found. “I honestly don’t know what to expect from this guy at this point,” Miley texted a friend about Hupperterz after learning his then-roommate was the last one seen with Jenna Burleigh. Testimony about DNA found in Hupperterz’s apartment and on Jenna Burleigh’s body will continue on Tuesday. news@temple-news.com @TheTempleNews Greta Anderson and Alyssa Biederman contributed reporting.

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NEWS PAGE 6

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

TSG

IgniteTU focused on internal issues in Fall 2018 Despite changes to improve the efThe student leaders implemented few new programs, but have fectiveness of Parliament, seven vacant seats remain in the body with three inplans to do so in Spring 2019.

BY BLAKE NUTIS and ALYSSA BIEDERMAN For The Temple News Temple Student Government still has more than 15 platform topics to fulfill in Spring 2019. Since its inauguration in April 2018, IgniteTU said it has spent much of its time internally re-organizing. Few new campus initiatives were created or executed in Fall 2018. Parliament, the body’s legislative branch, saw the most change in operations last semester.

PARLIAMENT In early Fall 2018, TSG removed the role of parliamentarian, and Parliament elected a speaker and vice speaker, who lead Parliament meetings. The executive branch also started sharing its funds with Parliament.

terviews underway. It passed six resolutions at the end of Fall 2018, and five of them are to further reform the body. IgniteTU’s focus was to improve Parliament’s effectiveness, Student Body President Gadi Zimmerman said, and he looks forward to seeing these changes in action. “It’s something we’ve been working on since we were inaugurated, and it’s something we’re still working on,” Zimmerman said. “Parliament has done a good job of getting themselves set up so they can be more successful in the spring semester.” According to IgniteTU’s platform, the administration has implemented all of its goals for Parliament except for allowing the body to write its own bylaws. However, the administration has yet to initiate plans for some of its platform topics, including fighting student food and home insecurity and expanding transfer student resources. In November 2018, Parliament

LUKE SMITH / THE TEMPLE NEWS Trent Reardon (right), TSG’s vice president of services, answers a student’s question during a General Assembly meeting on Monday.

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Counselor Nancy Allen mandated that Parliament, which had not proposed any resolutions, propose 15 in three weeks. In response, the body proposed nine in the time remaining before winter break. Junior class representative Alex Rosenberg introduced and passed one resolution, which called for the creation of a dog park on campus to increase interaction between residents and students near Main Campus. Additionally, Parliament passed five other resolutions. Two — the Open-Government Act and TSG Watchdog Act — are designed to improve the body’s effectiveness and expand its powers. During the Fall 2018 semester, the re-designed Parliament was also involved in multiple debates with the Ethics Board.

ETHICS BOARD TSG restructured its Ethics Board last semester to include more members who have less direct interest in a specific TSG body. The new structure has, so far, mediated at least four challenges to TSG’s constitution: • Oct. 18, 2018: Parliament members asked if the counselor could run a Parliament meeting prior to Speaker elections. It was ruled that the counselor can run meetings. • Nov. 5, 2018: Allen mandated Parliament to propose 15 resolutions in three weeks. • Nov. 8, 2018: The executive counselor created deadlines for the Executive Branch to fill the Student Liaison to the Board of Trustees position in IgniteTU’s platform. • Dec. 4, 2018: Freshman representative Madison Okkerse challenged the 15-resolution mandate and said it was impossible to fulfill. Okkerse said Parliament should be able to interpret bylaws as they wish. It was ruled constitutional to create the mandate.

EXECUTIVE BRANCH The executive branch — headed by Zimmerman, Vice President of Services Trent Reardon and Vice President of External Affairs Cameron Kaczor — reformed its own processes last semester. The executive team replaced the previously mandatory, in-person General Assembly meetings with weekly email newsletters and optional town hall meetings. Organizations originally had to attend GAs to earn funding for their programs, get to know TSG administrators and advertise their events. Some organization leaders, like Christina Concilio, the vice president for Broadway On Broad, a cabaret organization that receives TSG allocations, prefer the email newsletters to the in-person meetings. “I felt last year a lot of the information they gave could have been put in an email,” she said. Concilio was Broadway on Broad’s TSG representative last year and said she’d like an opportunity to advertise her organization’s events in the emails. She said TSG should consider having a few in-person GA meetings each semester. She added that she normally skims the email to fill out the quiz at the end that is meant to ensure organizations read and understood the email’s contents. “Maybe if we had an in-person GA every two months or so that would be a good thing,” she said. “We would know more information and have to pay attention.” Zimmerman said he is looking to follow through with more platform points on campus in Spring 2019. “I feel really good about what we’ve been able to do so far,” Zimmerman said. “But there’s still a lot of work that we can do.” news@temple-news.com @TheTempleNews

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NEWS PAGE 7

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

RESEARCH

Faculty research appears in food insecurity study A national study found more than half of students eligible for federal benefits did not use them. BY HAL CONTE For The Temple News

A government study released last month shaped by Temple University faculty research reported that college students at-risk of food insecurity aren’t participating in federal benefit programs. Nearly 2 million college students at risk of food insecurity did not participate in the federal benefit programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, they were eligible for in 2016, according to a December 2018 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The study revealed 29 percent of all undergraduate students in the United States have low incomes and at least one other factor that contributes to food insecurity. Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of higher education policy and sociology and founder of The Hope Center, conducted and supervised research that led the GAO, a nonpartisan agency that works for Congress, to write a national report on food security on college campuses. Four of Goldrick-Rab’s studies made their way into the GAO’s final report. Since 2008, Goldrick-Rab and The Hope Center, which conducts research on students’ access to college and challenges to degree completion, have contributed to research on campus food insecurity, she said. Their efforts include a study that found one in three Temple students was food insecure within a 30day period in 2017, which prompted the university to open the Cherry Pantry, an on-campus food pantry, in February 2018. “For too long, we have been told that it is normal to be hungry in college,” Goldrick-Rab said at a Congressional briefing on Wednesday about the report. “We are told eating ramen is the solution.” Of the students eligible for food @TheTempleNews

stamp programs in 2016, 57 percent did not participate in them, according to the GAO report. This is due to lack of information about the programs, said Kathryn Larin, the GAO’s acting director of forensic audits and the investigative service team. “Students don’t realize they’re eligible,” she said. “A lot of colleges and universities will have offices dedicated to getting students support, but [the offices] often don’t understand the SNAP rule.” “The GAO actually says we have to invest in this problem, otherwise we’re undermining the massive investment that we’ve made in federal financial aid,” Goldrick-Rab continued. “...Researchers discovered college food insecurity the way Columbus discovered America — it was already there.” The Department of Agriculture would be responsible for implementing policy changes to address food insecurity among college students, and the agency is currently furloughed due to the partial federal government shutdown, Larin said. Despite being shut down, Larin said, the DOA can update food insecurity information on its website based on the report. The federal government has an interest in students’ access to food since it invests funds in higher education, she said. “That money is jeopardized if students can’t complete their education,” Larin told The Temple News. “If students can’t eat, they can’t complete their education.” The report focuses on factors associated with food insecurity among college undergraduates, like whether students are first-generation college students, single parents, disabled, homeless or at risk of homelessness, were in foster care or receive aid from SNAP. “The low-income student of today is not the low-income student of yesterday,” Goldrick-Rab said in Congress last week. According to the report, 71 percent

LUKE SMITH / THE TEMPLE NEWS Cherry Pantry is one of Temple’s attempts to ease the national problem of student food insecurity.

of college students are non-traditional students, which means they are financially independent or care for dependents, among other financial responsibilities. “Often when people think about colleges students they think about traditional students who are supported by their families,” Larin said. “But non-traditional students are often working when at school and don’t have any financial support.” College officials often tell students they are ineligible for SNAP because they are enrolled in school, which is not the case, Larin said. She said colleges and universities prevent students from accessing federal benefits by giving them incorrect information. The university’s CARE Team, which identifies and supports students of concern, features information about SNAP and food resources on its website and encourages students to contact its office for a consultation if they are experiencing food insecurity. The university also started a task force in November 2017 to address food insecurity on campus. The task force will host a regional meeting of colleges to teach them how to help students access SNAP and other programs on Tuesday. On Wednesday,

The Hope Center will host a town hall on food insecurity and debt in the Temple Performing Arts Center from 6-8 p.m. Goldrick-Rab, city councilwoman Helen Gym and State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, whose district includes Main Campus, will participate in the discussion. Michelle Martin, director of the Cherry Pantry, will attend the regional meeting in the Student Center, which is closed to the public. The GAO report highlighted problems that have only been recognized in the past few years, Martin said. “You have students who are severely food insecure, and then you have students who are stretching meals, like buying a pizza and then making that last for four days,” she said. “Some students are able to get snack food, but food that will sustain them — it’s very difficult for a lot of students.” Most students facing hunger find the Cherry Pantry via word of mouth, Martin said, and the pantry is starting to distribute more information about SNAP. “We try to tell students and make them aware that it is something they should look into,” she said. hal.conte@temple.edu

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OPINION PAGE 8

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019 EDITORIAL

The newsletter administration

One of the main pillars of the IgniteTU platform last year was to no longer require student organizations to attend weekly General Assembly meetings, a requirement for each club to receive university funding. The administration intended to take a load off student organization leaders and engage the student body in a less mandatory, intentional way. It was a valiant attempt, but it didn’t work. Instead, this administration destroyed almost all interaction between students and their representatives. Now, students might only hear about how TSG leaders are advocating for them through inconsistent, unprofessional newsletters. Town hall meetings, which have disappointing turnout and are not mandatory, are half-assed attempts to inform students. Why would students attend with no incentive? Why should they care? Serving on TSG is a privilege, and we’re discouraged to see its members begging students to apply to be on staff in its newsletter. In one newsletter, TSG advertised the director of campus safety position with “It’ll be fun,” and “The Director of Campus Safety will receive their own special chair and probably new friends.” This sounds more like a frivolous club than a group of future leaders.

We recognize this administration inherited many internal problems, like the two relatively new branches it spent last semester trying to fix. But in the meantime, it lost any influence and name recognition it once had. We do not believe General Assembly meetings should return. Rather, we believe our student leadership is in a unique position to leverage its $144,500 in funds for student organizations to make sure they are informed and our student leaders are working in all of our best interests. That position should not be wasted on a poorly done newsletter and underwhelming town hall meetings. The current state of TSG is a shame to past administrations, like Activate TU, which introduced initiatives with impact, like the Peer Mentorship program, a student-wide stadium survey and Sexual Assault Prevention Week. It feels to us that all of the work to improve the student experience is stagnant, with the current administration sticking to the status quo. We hope to see TSG fulfill its more than 15 platform points in Spring 2019 because we believe our peers can be great leaders. But for now, we’ll wait for TSG to prove it is more than just a newsletter administration.

EDITORIAL

Remember Jenna Burleigh’s life As Joshua Hupperterz stands trial for the murder of Jenna Burleigh this week, The Temple News’ editorial board encourages the Temple community to take time to remember Burleigh’s life. Her friends and family will be collecting donations throughout the month for Jenna’s Blessings Bags Foundation, an organization that provides blankets, toiletries and other necessities to people experiencing homelessness. We encourage students to donate to this drive to honor Burleigh’s life. Burleigh’s parents started the organization after their daughter’s death in August 2017 because of her passion for activism and helping others. Burleigh frequently used to letters@temple-news.com

own money to give out supplies to people experiencing homelessness. The Temple News has extensively covered the trial to keep our readers informed, but it is important that we also encourage readers to remember the person who isn’t in the courtroom and whose life was tragically cut short. Burleigh was only a member of the Temple community for a short time, but her positive, kind-hearted energy remains through the efforts of her friends and family and our community. The fundraiser will take place in the Student Center atrium on Wednesday and on Jan. 23 and 24 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

he Temple News readers, College is truly a unique experience. You may or may not feel prepared for the road ahead, and you may or may not know where that road is even going. College life will challenge you academically, personally and professionally. It’s where you’ll find yourself and what you like, while also finding out what you don’t like. Sometimes you need an outlet where you can vent and have someone tell you you’re not the only person experiencing whatever you’re going through — someone to give you advice on how to get through it. I want to give you that outlet. This is an open invitation to ask me, the opinion editor, for advice from a fresh, outside perspective. We may have never met, but I can be there for you, to guide you with kindness and understanding. I’m sure your roommate will appreciate you taking your ranting elsewhere.

Ask me what I think about goings-on around campus, in your personal life, on social media and all over the world. I promise to do my research and be honest with you. It’s my job. You can tweet me @jaynaalexandra_ or with the hashtag #HeyJay if you want my viewpoint on something or if you’re looking for some advice. You can also reach out at jayna@temple.edu or on our website. Either way, I’ll respond in print and online. By answering your questions, I hope to learn even more about what our readers care about while remaining transparent with you about what I think. I’m thrilled about building this new relationship with our readers. After all, giving my opinion is what I do best. Sincerely, Jayna Schaffer Opinion Editor

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OPINION PAGE 9

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

THE ESSAYIST

When Cassidy gave me creativity for Christmas A poet was losing faith in his vorite pieces into a book one day. The own writing ability, until his friend title, “Glitter,” was something I had chosen years ago as a symbol of my sexualgave him a heartfelt gift. BY TYLER PEREZ LGBTQ Columnist I started writing poetry more than two years ago, but the small amount of finished pieces I have makes it seem like I’ve only been writing for a few months. If I were to publish my portfolio as is, I could count on my hands the number of pieces I would include. The small amount of pieces I’ve written over such a long period of time is the result of constant barriers to creativity and my recurring writer’s block. I could go months without writing poetry simply because of the struggle of manifesting my thoughts into words. Writer’s block always finds its way into my life — halfway through a sentence, at the beginning of a good concept or in the days leading up to a deadline. It almost always causes me to doubt my own talent and creativity. During the fall semester, I wrote very little despite having plenty to write about. Even when I was inspired by new experiences, people I had met and people I had lost, every word I wrote felt dull. I ended the semester with relatively few contributions to my portfolio, and I was so upset over my uninspired feeling that I started doubting the poems I had already written — the pieces I knew I loved. In a spur-of-the-moment decision, I purged my Instagram account of any poetry I had previously posted. Anyone who followed me from then on would never know my writing. I felt like my writer’s block had ultimately overpowered my creativity. I’ve had high ambitions for my writing, with the goal of compiling my fa-

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ity, self-love and self-acceptance, and is used in notable lyrics by Frank Ocean and Tyler, the Creator, who are bisexual like me. But my writer’s block kept me from filling in the pages. When I removed my poetry from my Instagram account, my best friend Cassidy expressed her concerns. As someone who knew me before I started writing, Cassidy is one of my biggest supporters and an informal editor of sorts. She pushes me artistically. And for Christmas, she held true to that. During winter break, Cassidy kept asking me to repost my poetry. Because of my longstanding writer’s block and the insecurities that stemmed from it, I had my issues with making my poetry public again. But Cassidy insisted I do so. She loved reading my poetry and wanted others to read it too. So eventually, I gave in and posted everything I had written thus far and hadn’t thought about it too much after that. But one week later, when my best friends and I exchanged Christmas gifts, that changed. I opened Cassidy’s gift and was amazed. In a black sketchbook with my initials engraved on the side, she glued copies of my poems to the book’s white pages. The poems were typed by Cassidy on an old typewriter and glued to the page, with the remaining pages of the book empty for me to fill. Engraved into the book’s front cover was the word “glitter.” It was a piece of art that finally felt tangible. As I flipped through the pages of my new journal, Cassidy told me how much she loved my poems, mentioning her fa-

CLAIRE HALLORAN / THE TEMPLE NEWS

vorites and pointing to what she loved most about them. She picked up on the themes, motifs and symbols I use, and for once it felt like I was proud of what I had written. Knowing someone loved my writing enough to make it into a book was moving. Even when my insecurities stand in my way of loving my writing, someone else does. Cassidy’s loving support pushed me to cast my negative thoughts aside.

Since Cassidy gave me this gift, I’ve resolved to write at least once a day, even if I don’t care much for what I’ve written. I’ve already written a substantial amount of poetry since the start of the new year. I’m more inspired now than ever to continue writing, and I hope to once again fall in love with my words. Thanks, Cassidy. tyler.perez@temple.edu @perezodent

letters@temple-news.com

OPINION PAGE 10

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

RACE

R. Kelly chose the ‘most disrespected’ people in America The musician got away with sexual abuse for decades because Black women are oversexualized. If Lifetime’s docu-series “Surviving R. Kelly” has taught us anything, it’s that Malcolm X was right in saying, “The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman.” Consisting of six episodes, the series reveals Robert Kelly’s history of alleged sexual misconduct. Famously known as R. Kelly, the R&B singer-songwriter, producer and former ALVIRA BONSU professional basketball DIVERSITY player was allegedly COLUMNIST able to sexually abuse underage girls for two decades. He got away with it because society oversexualizes Black girls. In comparison to white girls, the perception is we are far from innocent, which is astounding to me. “Mr. Kelly has been able to get away with sexual misconduct for over two decades, part of it being stardom and another part is his choice in victims,” Lee Merritt, the attorney for a Dallas woman alleging Kelly knowingly gave her a sexually transmitted disease, told The Temple News. “We have a tendency to villainize young Black girls because they wanted it and it is their faults.” As a Black woman, I can say that if we have sex at a very young age, it’s because some of us aren’t raised to see our value as people but only as sexual beings. Would you say Kelly only targeted Black girls because no one would do anything about it? I would. “Adults tend to think that Black girls need less protection than white girls and that they have more sex than white girls, which is part of why people outside of the African-American community do not investigate sexual assault allegations against Black girls,” said Sonja Pe-

letters@temple-news.com

CLAIRE HALLORAN / THE TEMPLE NEWS

terson-Lewis, an Africology and African-American studies and psychology professor. Prior to the series, Kelly was not even putting in any real effort to hide his actions. He married 15-year-old Aaliyah and courted girls from Chicago high schools to fulfill his fantasies. In 2002, police opened an investigation after a video appeared to show Kelly having sex with a 14-year-old girl. He was acquitted of child pornography-related charges during a trial in 2008. During an interview for BET following the trial, Kelly was asked, “Do you like teenage girls?” “When you say teenage, how old are we talkin’?” Kelly asked the interviewer. Some people, like fans of Kelly’s music, found it easier to just turn a blind eye to the scandal, said Timothy Welbeck, an Africology and African American Studies instructor. “It was easier to pretend as though

these things did not happen,” Welbeck said. Society enabled his behavior by buying his music, working with him and selling out his shows. He was able to go on tour and work with mainstream artists while avoiding jail time because he’s famous. But it was also because people had little regard for the young women he allegedly took advantage of. “Women are not treated the same,” Peterson-Lewis said. “There is a whole different mindset. Women [who have been assaulted] are often presumed guilty, and men are often presumed as possibly guilty but let’s give them a chance.” People have consistently tried to find excuses to maintain and defend the legacy of a man they do not know. Since it’s at the expense of Black women’s integrity, it’s fine in their eyes. Once the Lifetime series came out, none of the information was really that

ground-breaking to me, because as a Black woman, you hear rumors about Kelly. But I was in awe that after 20-30 years of accounts, this series was the one to make people care more. Welbeck made sense of it, pointing to the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. “The public has now found it fashionable to listen to victims of abuse,” Welbeck said. If Kelly is convicted, the reason will be “popular pressure,” Merritt said. I wish people would genuinely care about Black women, not just because it’s popular to do so. But to maintain optimism, we will have to continue the discussion and keep holding abusive men accountable for every offense they commit, especially when the integrity of Black women is on the line. abonsu@temple.edu

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OPINION PAGE 11

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

HISTORY OF TEMPLE CROSSWORD

NEW YEAR’S WORD SEARCH

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1. Formerly named the Apollo of Temple, this arena is the city’s largest indoor, public assembly venue north of City Hall

I O

N W O

CHAMPAGNE COUNTDOWN FIRECRACKERS CONFETTI CLOCK BALL DROP TIMES SQUARE PARTY

DANCING CALENDAR KISS MIDNIGHT TOAST RESOLUTION AULD LANG SYNE

8. Alumnus who played the character Danny Tanner on “Full House” 10. Temple’s live mascot since 2013 ACROSS:

2. Musical duo who met at Temple in the 1960s

5. Temple’s first woman president who served from 2006-12

3. Men’s basketball coach from 19822006 and inductee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

9. Temple presidential fellow and Philadelphia’s first poet laureate

4. Founder Russell Conwell’s famous speech 6. Demolished in early 2018, this residence hall was constructed on the original home site of Russell Conwell 7. In 1982, Temple became the first foreign university to open a campus in this Asian country

11. The burial place of Russell Conwell 12. A home for Temple in the 1890s, now called the Temple Performing Arts Center 13. North Philadelphia civil rights attorney and namesake for nearby avenue

Answers from Tuesday, December 4: 1. Kwanzaa, 2. New Year, 3. Boxing Day, 4. Dreidel, 5. Krampus, 6. Menorah, 7. Kinara, 8. Latka, 9. Hanukkah, 10. Rudolph, 11. Santa Claus, 12. Festivus, 13. North Pole, 14. Yule

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letters@temple-news.com

FEATURES

PAGE 12

DYLAN LONG / THE TEMPLE NEWS The Misfits Market warehouse on Germantown Avenue in Nicetown holds a variety of blemished, misshapen produce that failed to sell in supermarkets.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

DYLAN LONG / THE TEMPLE NEWS Abhi Ramesh, the founder and CEO of Misfits Market, works at the company’s warehouse in Nicetown on Dec. 4, 2018.

SUSTAINABILITY

Local company makes ‘ugly’ produce affordable

Misfits Market buys blemished produce from local farmers to sell to Philadelphians at discounted prices. BY EMMA PADNER City Life Reporter

hile some produce is misshapen or decorated with bumps and bruises, Abhi Ramesh recognized these “ugly” fruits and vegetables still taste the same. He realized they could even be used to make affordable, healthy produce accessible across Philadelphia. Ramesh launched Misfits Market, a North Philadelphia-based company that sells produce purchased directly from Pennsylvania and New Jersey farms that would otherwise be discarded because of blemishes, odd shapes or an overabun-

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dance of a crop. The company delivers the fresh, organic fruits and vegetables to homes around the city and customers can subscribe on the company’s website. “If you move beyond Center City and you move into more rural areas in eastern Pennsylvania or even other parts, there’s no Whole Foods, there’s no Trader Joe’s, you probably don’t have a farmer’s market,” Ramesh said. “Getting access to affordable, fresh, organic foods is an impossible endeavor.” Food waste in the United States accounts for up to 40 percent of the food supply, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Ramesh said much of this food is wasted each year, mostly due to societal standards regarding “perfect” and “attractive” vegetables. According to a 2017 report by the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, Philadelphia businesses and households produce up to 1.5 million tons of trash

per year, and 60 percent of it ends up in landfills. More than 400,000 tons of organic wastes are thrown out each year by Philadelphians. Because the food would otherwise be thrown out by farmers, Ramesh said Misfits Market can supply produce at prices 30-50 percent cheaper than local grocery stores. Customers can order a 10-12 pound “Mischief” produce box for $19 or an 1820 pound “Madness” produce box for $34 on the company’s website. The boxes can be delivered weekly or every other week. The produce is shipped within two days of harvest, Ramesh said, and boxes include seasonal produce like apples, peaches, tomatoes, squashes, potatoes and lettuce. “Historically...you have to spend quite a bit of money to get access to [organic produce] and sometimes the cost barriers are so high that people don’t

shop fresh and they don’t shop organic,” Ramesh said. “So, first thing we’re doing is we’re bringing the barrier down.” Common Grounds, a coffee shop on Cecil B. Moore Avenue near 16th Street, partners with Misfits Market for its produce. “Being able to explain to guests of ours that this is something we’re doing, this is how we’re doing it, I feel like it warms up the meal,” said Stephen Yaeger, the cafe’s co-owner. “It brings a little something extra, a little love to the meal and makes it a little more special.” Misfits Markets serves more than 1,000 people, Ramesh said, and the company employs North Philadelphia residents in the fulfillment center and warehouse on Germantown Avenue in Nicetown, which Ramesh said benefits the community by providing jobs in adMARKET | PAGE 16

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FEATURES PAGE 13

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

CAMPUS

Friends host drive to honor life of Jenna Burleigh Jenna’s Blessing Bags foundation in September 2017, days afFoundation will hold a supply ter Jenna Burleigh was killed. Janelle Burleigh, Jenna Burleigh’s drive on Main Campus tomorrow. BY LAURA SMYTHE Features Editor Smart. Passionate. Bubbly. Free-spirited. Thoughtful. Big-hearted. These adjectives fill the pages of a scrapbook Jenna Burleigh’s friends gave to her parents last Nov. 4 — what would have been the transfer junior film and media arts major’s 24th birthday. The words are nestled among photos of Jenna Burleigh smiling with friends and a letter detailing how Jenna Burleigh impacted her friends’ lives. Amid Joshua Hupperterz’s trial for allegedly murdering Jenna Burleigh in August 2017, Jenna Burleigh’s friends and family are working with Temple University to honor the ways she cared for others. Jenna Burleigh was known for giving “blessing bags” to people experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia. They were filled with supplies like toiletries, blankets and sleeping bags. Jenna’s Blessing Bags Foundation, a nonprofit Jenna Burleigh’s parents Ed and Jaqui Burleigh launched in memory of their daughter to distribute these blessing bags, will hold a fundraiser in the Student Center on Wednesday and Jan. 23 and 24 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Donation tables will be set up in the atrium with help from the Interfaith Council and the student organization Swipes for Philadelphia. “She was the person who would look to somebody who needed a friend and she was there to be that person’s friend if they needed it,” said senior psychology major Shaylyne Nolan, who became friends with Jenna Burleigh while the two attended Souderton Area High School in Montgomery County. “She didn’t care who you were, what you looked like, all that stuff, she just wanted to be everybody’s friend and make everybody feel included. And she did that. She actually did it.” Ed and Jaqui Burleigh created the @TheTempleNews

older sister, said their parents started the organization to continue a project Jenna Burleigh cared about. “It was something that she was passionate about, and she definitely wanted to help people,” Janelle Burleigh said. “So they just thought that in order to keep her spirit alive and her name out there we would start the foundation and keep her mission going.” Friends and family, who have attended the trial, remember Jenna Burleigh for her passion for social activism. She participated in the Women’s March on Philadelphia and spoke out about LGBTQ rights and the stigma on mental health. “She definitely was super passionate about equality for everyone and just treating everyone how you’d want to be treated,” Janelle Burleigh said. “She cared about everyone and was just really accepting of anyone, whatever situation they were in in their life. She was just always wanting to help as many people as she could.” The Temple community was no stranger to Jenna Burleigh’s kindness. “Even though [Jenna] was a new student to Temple, I think the impact has been felt more deeply than just the short time that she was on campus,” said Chris Carey, the senior associate dean of students who helped organize the fundraiser. Ed Burleigh wanted to have people handing out the blessing bags throughout Hupperterz’s trial, Nolan said. As she spent the week attending the trial and wasn’t able to help distribute the bags, Nolan felt this was the perfect time to organize a Jenna’s Blessing Bags fundraiser on Main Campus. “I wanted to do the fundraiser around the same time as the trial just to be able to get students involved because I know a lot of Temple students were actually really affected by her passing,” Nolan said. Jenna Burleigh’s friends and family

COURTESY / CHRIS CAREY

have distributed 60 blessing bags during the trial, Janelle Burleigh said. “We just didn’t want everything to be focused on the negatives,” she added. “We wanted to contribute something positive for the community, especially this week, but whenever we can.” Nolan said Jenna Burleigh loved giving to other people, and handing out blessing bags was something she did often. Jenna Burleigh once organized a fundraiser for her aunt’s grade school class and got each student to make a bag, Nolan remembered. She distributed the bags to people experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia with her parents for Christmas. Jenna Burleigh kept the blessing bags going year round. She distributed bags during summer when other people might think people experiencing homelessness have fewer needs, Nolan said. “She didn’t have a lot of money, but she had enough money to create two bags and so she did,” Nolan added. “She took those bags to Philadelphia and gave them to two people in need, which doesn’t really sound like that much, but if you really think about it, that’s a very caring thing to do. To spend your last money even though you didn’t have that

much to give.” Jenna Burleigh’s caring spirit extended to others in her life, too. Nolan said that since Jenna Burleigh died, several people who knew her have told Nolan and Jenna Burleigh’s family stories of how Jenna Burleigh impacted their lives. “Jenna just really loved everybody,” Nolan added. “She was such a great, happy person.” For Janelle Burleigh, the Temple fundraiser is an event her sister would have been happy to see. “Because she was a student there, its just something that’s really nice that people are donating to and everyone’s really been super supportive and super helpful within our community and [the] Temple community,” she said. Students can donate supplies for the blessing bags at the fundraiser, or donate money directly to Jenna’s Blessing Bags Foundation. “Keeping her name alive and doing good in the world is just what she would have wanted,” Nolan said. laura.smythe@temple.edu @lcs_smythe

features@temple-news.com

FEATURES PAGE 14

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

MEDIA

Professor’s podcast shares stories of race, identity “My American Meltingpot” hateful rhetoric had been introduced explores the intersection of pop into popular culture,” Tharps added. She decided to take “My American culture and identity through Meltingpot” to the next level to ensure topics like racist technology. BY LAURA SMYTHE Features Editor As a Black woman married to a Spaniard, Lori Tharps contemplates things some parents never think about while raising her three bilingual, bicultural children. From her kids being a different race than her and people never realizing her family is related because of differences in appearance, Tharps said racial identity impacts every aspect of her parenting down to the kinds of dolls and movies she buys for her kids. For people living similar lives at a crossroads of race and identity — and for people open to broadening their worldviews — the Temple University journalism professor created the podcast “My American Meltingpot,” which tells diverse stories about race, identity and pop culture. The fifth episode of the eight-episode first season will air this Friday on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts and Tharps’s blog of the same name. The podcast is an extension of the “My American Meltingpot” blog, which Tharps started 12 years ago. Tharps uses it to write stories of diversity often overlooked by mainstream media, but it laid dormant from 2016 to the start of 2018 as she authored the book “Same Family, Different Colors: Confronting Colorism in America’s Diverse Families.” Tharps revived her blog last year, partially in response to the 2016 election, she said. “I just felt like I needed to have an outlet to speak my piece and to again interject some more diverse opinions into the public conversations about race and identity, particularly because...so much features@temple-news.com

the project would be more than just her “personal mouthpiece,” and would inspire public discourse about the topics. A print journalist by nature, Tharps said she didn’t have the technical skills to produce the podcast she wanted, so she teamed up with Brad Linder, a former producer, reporter and anchor at WHYY, Philadelphia’s public radio and TV station. Linder works as the producer and editor of “My American Meltingpot.” The two met when Tharps appeared in a May 2017 episode of Linder’s podcast “The Loving Project.” The year-long podcast told the stories of interracial married couples in honor of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Supreme Court ruling in Loving v. Virginia, which made prohibiting mixed-race marriages unconstitutional. “What drew me to the project is Lori’s vision of not only should America be a place where diversity and multiculturalism is viewed as a strength rather than a weakness but that it’s always been that way,” Linder said. There have always been those who oppress others for being different, but there have also always been people who build friendships, romantic relationships, families and communities with people from different backgrounds and of varying identities, Linder added. For Tharps, the podcast fills a hole in the podcast market. About 85 percent of American podcasts have at least one white host, with the majority of them male, while only 18 percent of podcasts have a non-white host, according to a January 2016 analysis by the news outlet Quartz. Tharps continues to address this void in the media market by bringing women and people of color onto her podcast as guests.

COURTESY / BRAD LINDER Journalism professor Lori Tharps records an episode of “My American Meltingpot,” her new podcast that focuses on the intersection of race, identity and pop culture.

Meredith Broussard, a former journalism professor who now teaches at New York University, appeared on the second episode to discuss how technology, like computers and self-driving cars, can be racist. “In an [artificial intelligence] system, what you are doing is putting in data about the world and you are making a computational system that replicates the world that is seen in that data,” Broussard said. “But there is racism in the world, there is sexism in the world, there is structural discrimination of all kinds in the world, so when you just replicate that inequality, you are duplicating the world as it is. You are not getting toward the world as it should be.” Broussard added she is excited about the podcast because of the unexpected connections Tharps draws between different fields. The first season of “My American Meltingpot” ends on March 1. Tharps

is planning for a second season that she hopes will be more interactive by taking some episodes on the road and traveling to the source of a story. “It simply all goes toward making our society a more tolerant and diverse and truly welcoming place for all people,” she said. “That’s my ultimate goal.” laura.smythe@temple.edu @lcs_smythe

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FEATURES TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

PAGE 15

LIVE IN PHILLY

Bowie Tribute Week Ends with Ice Skating A Snowy Bowie Skate took place on Sunday at Penn’s Landing as part of the annual Philly Loves Bowie Week, a 10day celebration of late musician David Bowie. The ice skating event, part of the Blue Cross RiverRink Winterfest, closed the Bowie tribute event. “Her favorite song is ‘Space Oddity,’” 37-year-old Allentown, Pennsylvania, resident Matthew Ward, said of his 7-yearold daughter Silvana. “That’s how she learned to count.” “I actually just learned yesterday that it was Bowie week,” said 25-year-old West Philadelphia resident Alex Coppola. “I’m pretty pumped.” Heather Hill-Young, a 25-year-old from West Philly, didn’t know the event was Bowie themed at first. “It was a happy surprise,” she said as she tied up her skates and prepared to hit the ice as Bowie’s music echoed across the rink. @TheTempleNews

DYLAN LONG / THE TEMPLE NEWS features@temple-news.com

FEATURES PAGE 16

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 | MARKET

dition to affordable food. North Philadelphia residents like Cassandra Hanlon are considering signing up for produce shipments. Hanlon, 30, lives on 29th Street near Cecil B. Moore Avenue and said Misfits Market would benefit the North Philadelphia community. “A lot of food does get wasted, and I think that it would be helpful if we could put that to good use,” Hanlon said. Ramesh makes the company environmentally friendly in other ways, too. He worked with packaging companies to reduce the carbon footprint of his boxes with a biodegradable, insulating green foam that keeps the produce fresh and disintegrates in water. The company is also moving toward using compostable bags, Ramesh said. “It’s great that they’re tackling their aspect of the packaging issue...that there’s a company that’s trying to tackle

VOICES

What do you want to see Temple Student Government do this semester?

these issues,” said Allison Hayes-Conroy, an environmental studies and geography and urban studies professor. “This could be part of [the solution] for sure, and it would be great if other companies would do some more things.” Misfits Market serves all ZIP codes in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut. Ramesh hopes to eventually expand nationally. “Our mission is all around affordable healthy eating, with kind of this sustainable food angle to it,” he said. “Hopefully, in the next couple of years, [we will] be able to go and build a national brand around food sustainability and healthy eating.” emma.padner@temple.edu @emmapadner

DYLAN LONG / THE TEMPLE NEWS The “ugly” produce collected by Abhi Ramesh, who started Misfits Market, comes from farms in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

STEVE PHAN Junior construction engineering technology major I’d prefer to see some changes in the dining hall food.

QUYNH LE Senior film and media arts major “I’d like to see more therapy dogs because I think that throughout the semester people get really stressed, not just during finals time.

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WILL AMARI Junior public relations major It’s nothing physical that I would recommend or what I want to see, it’s more about knowledge and knowing that they’re there and what they do.

POOJA PARIKH Sophomore biology major I would like to see the Temple Student Government try to take down or improve buildings that are really old, especially for the science buildings because I know that they’re sometimes overlooked.

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FEATURES PAGE 17

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

HEALTH

TUH lung doctor helps create breathing device The Spiration Valve System tibiotics can be combined with therapy helps alleviate the symptoms like breathing exercises to manage the of patients diagnosed with a condition. “These people have a very severe chronic lung disease. BY CARLEE CUNNINGHAM The Temple News The average person takes more than 23,000 breaths a day and most don’t have to think twice about it. That’s why Dr. Gerard Criner, the director of the Temple Lung Center, dedicated 30 years to researching chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, like the incurable lung disease emphysema. Gerard Criner has now helped develop the Spiration Valve System, an umbrella-shaped device that is a new treatment option for people with emphysema. The device is inserted into airways to the lung, to block airflow to damaged lung tissue, allowing healthy tissue to function more efficiently. Criner helped the device gain approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by consulting on its design and overseeing its use in a clinical trial. Gerard Criner, a 1979 medical school alumnus, said the SVS improves quality of life for patients by reducing shortness of breath and making them more self-sufficient and socially engaged. “It could increase their ability to do their activities of daily living,” Gerard Criner added. About 3.4 million Americans had been diagnosed with emphysema as of 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Emphysema is a chronic disease that damages the air sacs in the lungs, making it difficult to breathe, according to Mayo Clinic. Prescription drugs like steroids and an-

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disease,” Criner said. “They have lung function that is on average 28 percent of normal. They’re severely limited and they have few other options to improve their care.” The FDA approved the SVS in December, about a year after the completion of the device’s four-year clinical trial. The trial took place in the Temple Lung Center and 33 other hospitals, medical centers, universities and clinics across the United States and Canada. Olympus, an international company that manufactures medical systems including surgical devices, built the SVS for FDA approval. Criner consulted Olympus on the SVS design, helped plan the clinical trial and co-authored the results of the trial in the European Respiratory Journal, which were published by the European Respiratory Society. Helga Criner, a research nurse coordinator on the trial who is married to Gerard Criner, said Olympus asked her husband to be one of the physicians representing the company for FDA approval of the device. “I just hope that there will be more studies and more treatments and more devices that can be approved for patients with emphysema because that is very limited right now,” Helga Criner said. “The hard thing is when they fail the study or if [the patients] don’t qualify, you feel very bad for the patient because they look very desperate.” Participants were evaluated before and after treatment for various symptoms, like the volume of air they could forcibly breathe out, hyperinflation of the lung and shortness of breath.

CLAIRE HALLORAN / THE TEMPLE NEWS

The SVS has been in the works for nearly 20 years. Greg Sessler, the CEO of Spiration, Inc., a medical device manufacturing company owned by Olympus, said Spiration came up with the idea for the value while actively pursuing emphysema treatment options. Spiration teamed up with Olympus, which manufactures bronchoscopes that are used to implant the valve in a minimally invasive way. For some emphysema patients, the SVS may offer relief comparable to that provided by lung volume reduction surgery, a procedure that cuts out damaged parts of the lung so healthy tissue takes over and better functions, according to the Mayo Clinic. The SVS could offer an alternative to the high-risk surgery, Sessler said. The FDA designated the SVS as a breakthrough medical device and is approved for use in the United States, European Union, Australia and New Zealand.

“It’s very exciting times for treating conditions like this [and] for Dr. Criner and for the institutions like Temple, which have focused on these patients for quite a period of time, and is recognized as one of the leading hospitals in the U.S., that understand this disease and keeps developing options for treating these patients,” Sessler said. Helga Criner has seen firsthand how the SVS treatments have improved the lives of patients with emphysema, she said. “When they talk about their [emphysema], they’re so debilitated,” she said. “And now that they have the valves and they’re able to kind of do the things they weren’t able to do...it’s nice. It gives you gratification that you can help them in some way.” carlee.cunningham@temple.edu @carleeinthelab

features@temple-news.com

INTERSECTION PAGE 18

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

MYKEL GREENE / THE TEMPLE NEWS

THE ESSAYIST

As a Black woman, I am resolving to love myself A student reflects on her New healthy diet or cut out negative influencYear’s resolution to love herself. es from their lives. BY MYKEL GREENE For The Temple News

rowing up in a society where the only women I saw in magazines, on TV and other media platforms were white women, I never really found my place. Despite being compatriots with all women, I only identify so much with white women’s lives. At the end of the day, I identify as a Black woman. When a new year comes around, I notice that generally many women make resolutions about health. Some of these include to exercise more, follow a

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Most of these resolutions center on accepting others or being accepted by others in their community or other communities. There is also this idea that women must change themselves to become healthier or happier. To me, these feel like empty resolutions. They stem from an underlying need to accept one’s self. Black women tend to make resolutions revolving around family and community. These are about strengthening ties to their communities. They are also about realizing that Blackness is not defined by physical characteristics like skin color and hair textures. My resolution is to love myself, not just in relation to my community. Cliché

as it might sound, before I can love and accept others, I know I first have to learn to love and accept myself. This is definitely easier said than done, as I’ve personally struggled with self-love for what feels like my whole life. This is something that will require constant work, but, for the first time in my life, I am more than willing to put in that work. I intend to accomplish this goal in a few steady steps. I may not achieve all of these by the end of 2019, but I am committed to fighting for myself. First, I will acknowledge and embrace my flaws. No one is perfect, as the saying goes, so while it is OK to strive for perfection, this is ultimately an unattainable goal. An alternative way of thinking is to work toward being my best self and

living my best life. Second, I will form clear values and live by them. I will not compromise my values for anything or anyone. I will stay grounded by remembering that I am the most important person in my life. At the end of the day, I have to be there for myself before anyone else. This resolution to love myself will force me to look inward instead of outward to determine my self-worth. For too long I let society and others dictate to me on how I should feel about myself. I view society as the culprit. It provides people with soil to plant self-loathing. This is a grave garden, and it is time for people to find somewhere else to grow self-love and self-worth. msjg@temple.edu

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

NEW YEAR

Dry January: Why students are giving up alcohol Some students are abstaining students meet the criteria for Alcohol from social drinking for the first Use Disorder. The first organized Dry January took month of the year. BY TARA DOLL For The Temple News Some students are starting 2019 differently, by cutting out partying. Many of them are doing so as part of “Dry January,” a commitment to abstain from drinking alcohol for the first month of the year. But the prevalence of drinking in college environments leaves some students feeling isolated at times. The 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found full-time college students had a higher prevalence of drinking than other people aged 18-22. “Drinking with friends can be a very communal and fun thing to do,” said Issa Kabeer, a 2010 religion alumnus and diversity leadership graduate student. “If you are not doing it, it can make you feel like a loner and outside of your group of friends.” Kabeer is taking on the challenge this year because of the health benefits. Abstaining from alcohol for a month can decrease depression and improve sleep quality and skin complexion, Bustle reported. The British Journal of General Practice also found increased energy, weight loss and saving money to be positive benefits for participants of Dry January. Additionally, alcohol use increases the risk of cancers of the mouth, liver, esophagus and breast. According to a 2015 report by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, alcohol contributes to approximately 1,825 deaths of college students aged 18-24 each year. The report also found about 25 percent of college students suffer academic consequences from drinking and 20 percent of college

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place in 2013 in the United Kingdom. It was part of a campaign started by Alcohol Change UK, to promote well-being and “make not drinking, whether for an evening, a month or longer, feel more normal.” Kabeer said he expanded his definition of Dry January by swearing off smoking marijuana. He added that he felt pressure from friends to break this resolution. “My very good friend pressured me to smoke,” Kabeer said. “I refused. She seemed upset by my choice not to.” Marijuana use has both positive and negative side effects. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, negative effects include breathing problems similar to those caused by smoking tobacco and impairment of memory and learning functions, especially if a person has been using marijuana frequently since their teenage years. “It made me look different [from others] because I wasn’t smoking,” Kabeer said. “However, I am happy by my decision not to because I didn’t do what I didn’t want to do.” He added that he has no regrets about his decision. “Dry January shows that you have self-control,” Kabeer said. “It shows that you can have leadership in a good cause.” Lyle Drescher, a junior film and media arts major, cut back on drinking beer for health and fitness reasons. “Beer is really bad for you,” Drescher said. “It makes you really fat and also makes you feel bad. I chose it as a resolution because it’s part of an overall effort to live a better life.” Drescher added that he often overeats after drinking beer. While the January is a popular time

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to bring on these lifestyle changes, the new year isn’t the only gateway to sobering up for students. Merry Reed, a senior elementary education major, made a long-term commitment to sobriety in early 2018. Reed said she knew she was dependent on alcohol at the age of 21 and swore it and other mind-altering substances off. “I chose to make this change because I recognized that, for me, alcohol contributed nothing positive to my life” Reed said. “It made me miserable, cost me money and time, and I hated both

drinking and not drinking.” Reed felt supported by her close friends in this decision, which made the transition easier, she added. “There’s this big idea that heavy drinking is just what you do in college, that you have to party and go clubbing, and drink jello shots in a frat house to have fun,” Reed said. “I have way more fun now than I ever did with a drink in my hand.” tara.doll@temple.edu

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

WELLNESS

Students practice body positivity in the new year Likewise, those who have high levStudents explain how they are finding self-love with or without els of body dissatisfaction have increased risk for eating disorders, according to the changing their bodies.

BY LAUREN REMY For The Temple News When Emily Ballentine performed at Philadelphia’s DreamWalk with Temple University’s OwlCapella a capella group, she gained a new appreciation for body positivity. DreamWalk is a costumed fashion show that promotes body positivity and empowerment. The show celebrates the models more than the clothes they wear. This year, OwlCapella performed while models walked the runway. Going into the new year, Ballentine, a junior psychology and neuroscience major, said the show reminded her to implement healthy mental practices along with fitness-related resolutions. “I think that for people who struggle with weight, fitness resolutions really also have to entail a lot of active body positivity practices,” Ballentine said. “That’s something that I really like to keep in mind every new year every time I get on a fitness kick, that I stay centered in that self-love practice.” She added that DreamWalk, which took place in November, was unique in that it celebrated body positivity on a larger scale than just in reference to size or weight. “The really special thing was that [DreamWalk] focused on all kinds of diversities, women, men, non-binary people, all races, all abilities [and] different ages,” Ballentine said. The show was a rebellion against Victoria’s Secret’s annual fashion show, which lacks size, age and gender diversity, Ballentine added. While getting in shape is a popular New Year’s resolution, focusing on altering the body can be psychologically damaging. According to Psychology Today, calorie-restriction studies conducted during World War II had subjects reporting anxiety, lethargy and irritability. intersection@temple-news.com

National Eating Disorders Association. Tom Shanks, a junior psychology major, made his New Year’s resolution to gain muscle weight, but he supports those learning to accept their body. “Whatever makes you feel comfortable with your body, then go for it,” Shanks said. “Personally, I think I could work on some things because it will make me better. But if you’re happy the way you are, then don’t change. Don’t fix what’s not broken.” The body positivity movement fights negative views on the body by teaching people to value their bodies. The movement has been promoted nationally through campaigns like Aerie’s “Real,” Dove’s “My Beauty My Say” and Lane Bryant’s “I’m no Angel.” Aerie’s “Real,” challenges conventional beauty standards by using diverse groups of models, including women of different sizes, colors, and handicaps or disabilities. Dove’s “My Beauty My Say” features stories and images of women whose looks have been “used against” them in their social or professional lives, and Lane Bryant’s “I am no Angel” shares photographs and quotes from women who unapologetically display perceived flaws, like cellulite or stretch marks, in the brand’s underwear. Marissa DiSilvestro, a junior communication and social influence major, embraced body positivity this year after past struggles with body image. DiSilvestro practices body positivity by taking pictures of herself and asking others to take pictures of her. She started taking these pictures to gain confidence. “It’s still a process to look at [the pictures],” DiSilvestro said. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘Ugh, why did I ask to have my picture taken.’ But then I think about it and I’m like, ‘Nothing’s wrong with that.’ It’s a lot like retraining yourself how to think.” Melanie Gregory, a junior early

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childhood education major, now uses the positive affirmations, “I am worthy,” “I love myself,” “I am great,” and “I am here for a reason,” to exercise body positivity. She recites these statements in the mirror each morning. “It took me a while to come to the conclusion that [self-image is] not all about losing weight, but it’s all about body positivity and accepting who you are,” Gregory said. “It doesn’t mean you can’t be healthy and exercise, but some-

times those things aren’t easy for everyone.” “People should know that they are beautiful and they were created to be who they are, the way they look and they have purpose,” Gregory added. “Regardless, you have purpose.” laremy@temple.edu

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Owls believe their best basketball is yet to come Temple’s points off turnovers halftime deficit to beat Wichita State on have helped them make up for the road and defeated a potential tournament team in Davidson College after their shooting dip. BY SAM NEUMANN Co-Sports Editor

Despite winning 13 of its first 16 games, Temple University has yet to play its best, players said. The Owls (13-3, 3-1 American Athletic Conference) are having their best start since the 2010-11 season, including two overtime comebacks and defeating a nationally ranked team. But players said they have a lot more they can do once they figure out how to play their hardest for each of the 40 minutes per game. On Saturday, Temple led by as many as 17 points against South Florida. But it took overtime for the team to eventually earn an 82-80 win at the Liacouras Center. And on Wednesday against nationally ranked and previously undefeated Houston, senior center Ernest Aflakpui took a last-second charge to secure Temple’s 73-69 victory. Before Aflakpui erased the Cougars’ potential game-tying basket, the Owls surrendered an eightpoint lead and allowed Houston to have an opportunity to tie the game with seven seconds left. Temple hasn’t played consistently well throughout a game yet this season and sometimes blowing leads, senior guard Shizz Alston Jr. said after Saturday’s win “When we do, we are going to be a really scary team to play,” he said. “Everybody, individually all haven’t had good games at the same time,” junior guard Quinton Rose said. “We’re still putting it together, just chipping away at it. I think it’s coming soon.” Despite Alston’s assessment, the Owls are a top-50 team in the Division I NCAA Evaluation Rankings and have quality wins. Temple defeated nationally ranked Houston, came back from a 13-point

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trailing by eight points at halftime. Alston leads the Owls on the offensive side of the ball with 19 points per game. The Owls have not yet seen their top three scorers — Alston, Rose and sophomore guard Nate Pierre-Louis — all play to their highest capabilities at once, Rose said. In the Owls’ 82-64 win against Drexel on Dec. 22, for example, Alston, Pierre-Louis and Rose finished as the team’s top three scorers, but Rose shot 6-for-19 from the field and 0-for-4 from 3-point range. “When all three of us have a good game, the whole team has a good game,” Alston said. “Then we could be one of the top teams in the country. The good thing is that we haven’t done that yet and we are still 13-3. If we do that, we’ll be fine.” “Most of the time, it’s two of us,” Rose said. “One of us struggling, two of us struggling, one of us carrying the load. Other times, it’s Shizz carrying the load. Once we all get going at the same time, I think we’ll be pretty tough to beat.” The Owls’ 31.7 3-point percentage is down from 35 percent last season. Despite the shooting dip, Temple is averaging five more points per game compared to last season, thanks to its consistent defense, Alston said. Last season, Temple’s opponents committed 12.7 turnovers per game with the Owls scoring 12.9 points off them. This season, Temple has forced 3.1 more turnovers per game and averages 19.6 points per game off its opponent’s mistakes. The Owls’ “buy-in” has been more evident on the defensive side of the ball compared to previous years, assistant coach Shawn Trice told The Temple News on November 2018. Since the first day of summer practice, the team has wanted to be dominant

JUSTIN OAKES / THE TEMPLE NEWS Junior guard Quinton Rose drives through the lane during Temple’s 82-80 overtime win against South Florida on Saturday at the Liacouras Center.

on defense, Rose said. Like the team, Rose has seen his shooting percentage drop, but he has been part of the Owls’ defensive efforts. Rose’s shot 43.4 percent from the field in 2017-18. Through the first 16 games, his field goal percentage is 40.4. But without his shot, Rose has found his defensive edge, he said. His 2.63 steals per game is tied for 11th in Division I. Rose has at least one steal in each of the 16 games the Owls have played this season. “The coaches always tell me if that my shot’s not falling, there are still other ways that I can impact the game,” Rose said. ”Defense is something that’s completely under my control, so I try and ball

out on that end, especially if I’m not feeling it on offense.” Alston believes a vital part of the Owls’ success has come from their efforts on the defensive side of the ball. “With [Pierre-Louis] hopping into the lineup this year, him pressuring the ball has gassed us all up,” Alston said. “Ernest behind us, knowing that he has our backs, we can gamble a lot more than we can in the past. [Rose] is one of the top in the conference in steals. We are just putting it all together on defense.” sam.neumann@temple.edu @SamNeu_

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SPORTS PAGE 22 COACHES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 24

are going to have to present and perform. We can learn the scheme, but effort, hard work and how hard you go, that’s all something the team controls.” As leaders, Franklin and redshirt-junior quarterback Anthony Russo, both of whom are on their fourth coach at Temple, feel they should relay that message to the younger Owls. “I want to show the young guys that no matter what’s going on with the coaches coming and leaving, what really matters is the brotherhood in the locker room and that we are all going to work for each other,” Russo said. Freshman running back Re’Mahn Davis, who joined the team as a midyear enrollee, said he felt the strength of the Owls’ brotherhood, even before stepping on campus as an official student. “I feel like I can call these guys my family, my blood-family because this is a special group,” Davis said. “It takes a lot of guts to go through what the guys at Temple and the recruits are going through right now, to be able to go through two coaching changes. ...It just shows that the blood is thicker than water in the sense that these guys are really a good family.” Davis was shocked when he found out through an ESPN alert that Diaz had left, but he and the Class of 2019 recruits told each other in a group chat that they were “going to show coaches why they should’ve never left,” Davis said. “Even with all the coaching changes, one thing Temple has continued to do is to win games,” Davis added. “That shows why we are tough and why we are Temple tough. That’s a program that anybody should want to be a part of. Temple stays consistent, puts their foot on the gas and keeps going.” Temple is better equipped for a coaching change now compared to when former coach Matt Rhule left because they’ve been through this before, Russo said. “Everyone on the team is just going

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

to take it as a motivation, and it’s going to push us to go harder every day,” Franklin said. Carey didn’t address the team before his introductory press conference on Friday, but he met the team at Edberg-Olson Hall on Sunday. On both days, Carey’s message of “trust” was evident. When addressing the entire team, Carey said the best way to earn trust is to show it, not say it, Russo said. Carey said on Friday that it will be a day-to-day process to building trust with his players, a group that welcomed a new coach just a month ago. “[Carey] doesn’t want to tell us how to trust him, he wants to show us why we can trust him,” Russo said. “Hearing him wanting to base the program around trust is something that I really like.” “We’re going to have fun playing football, we’re going to be physical and we’re going to learn to trust each other,” Carey said on Friday. “And that’s gotta be something that just takes time. ...This is step one, you hear me. There are a lot more to come, and we’re going to take them together.” For Russo, Carey’s intentions are what matters most. “The big thing about him is that he wants to be here,” Russo added. “He doesn’t want to go anywhere else. ...It seems like he wants to be here for the long run, and that is why I think he is going to be successful.” michael.zingrone@temple.edu @mjzingrone

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Shooting woes continue into conference schedule

When playing UConn, Tulane, Down from last year, the Owls rely so much on 3-point shooting,” Car- fensive end, she is still emphasizing the are shooting 27.5 percent from doza said. “We got the ball into [sopho- need for her team to get up more shots Cincinnati, USF and Houston last seamore forward] Mia [Davis] and [former at practice. son, the Owls went 0-7, averaging 71.3 3-point range.

BY DANTE COLLINELLI Women’s Basketball Beat Reporter For the Temple University women’s basketball team, American Athletic Conference play kicks off with five consecutive games against five of the top six highest-scoring teams in the league. The Owls (4-11, 0-3 The American) are going through their toughest stretch of the season. After going 2-3 in December, they’ve lost four straight games to start January and have matchups this week with Cincinnati and Connecticut (14-1, 3-0 The American), who is tied for second in the Associated Press Top 25. “Right now, everything has been difficult,” coach Tonya Cardoza said last week. “I feel like our nonconference schedule was difficult. We are just taking it one game at a time trying to get better, executing better and understanding better. There has been growth, but it does not show in the outcome of the game.” Temple started conference play with a 63-53 road loss to South Florida (10-7, 1-2 The American), a 66-57 home loss to Tulane (13-3, 3-0 The American) and Saturday’s 78-65 road loss to Houston (8-8, 2-1 The American). In the games against USF and Tulane, the Owls shot 31.3 percent and 38.3 percent from the field, respectively. Their shooting percentage was worse beyond the arc, only shooting 30.8 percent and 20.7 percent. Temple struggled shooting the basketball in its first 15 games. The Owls are shooting 38.1 percent from the field and just 27.5 percent from 3-point range. Last season, the Owls shot 38.4 percent from the floor and 30.4 percent from 3-point range. Cardoza thinks a shift in offensive style is to blame for the team’s early-season struggles. “The difference between this year and last year for us is that we did not @TTN_Sports @TheTempleNews

guard] Tanaya [Atkinson] and they are great offensive rebounders, so when one missed the other could get the rebound.” Temple’s saving grace so far this season is its improvement on the defensive end, Cardoza added. Last season, Temple gave up 72.7 points per game and averaged 5.6 steals a game. The Owls have improved in both categories this season. Temple is holding its opponents to 66.1 points per game and averaging 9.2 steals per game. Although Cardoza said she is pleased with Temple’s improvement on the de-

“We have to get in the gym,” Cardoza said. “You’re not gonna make shots if you do not get in the gym. You are not just gonna snap and all of a sudden make shots. Anybody that has a profession, you have to work really hard to perfect your craft.” Temple’s next two opponents, UConn and Cincinnati (9-7, 1-2 The American), rank first and sixth in the conference in scoring, respectively. UConn scores 81.5 points per game while Cincinnati averages 64.4 points per game this season.

points per game while giving up 100.3 points per game. In its games against USF, Tulane and Houston this season Temple has allowed 69 points per game. “On defense, we are picking up better this year and we are communicating more”, freshman guard Marissa Mackins said. “We are getting more defensive rebounds, but we have a long way to go on the defensive end still.” dante.collinelli@temple.edu @DanteCollinelli

Offense struggles, defense improves over last year’s team Compared to the 2017-18 team, the Owls have scored fewer points per game and completed fewer three-point shots. But some defensive statistics, like steals per game and opponent turnovers, have increased. Points per game 66.2

2017-18 Season

2018-19 Season 63

Three-point percentage 30.4 27.5 Opponent turnover 14 Steals per game 5.6

Source: OwlSports.com - Women’s Basketball Cumulative Statistics 2017-18 and 2018-19

16.8 9.2

IAN WALKER / THE TEMPLE NEWS

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PAGE 24

FOOTBALL

‘BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER’

Players remain positive despite found themselves on this past month, coaching shakeups throughout Franklin and several other players said. Before newly named coach Rod Carthe last four years. BY MICHAEL ZINGRONE Co-Sports Editor

am Franklin admitted Manny Diaz’s departure after 18 days as Temple University’s football coach could have hurt the team’s spirits. But that won’t be the case for this team, he and his teammates say. When the senior linebacker joined the team in 2016, the graduating class told him, “it doesn’t really matter about coaches, it matters about the team.” The players have formed a brotherhood that will withstand a head-coach carousel, like the one Temple Athletics

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PHOTOS BY GENEVA HEFFERNAN / THE TEMPLE NEWS DESIGN BY CLAIRE HALLORAN / THE TEMPLE NEWS

ey addressed the media on Friday, athletic director Patrick Kraft said the players, not the coaches, make the program. He credits this as the reason the program has been successful in recent years. They Owls’ upperclassmen will be spreading that message as Carey joins the Owls as the fifth coach hired since 2010. He inherits a program that had its winningest four-year stretch in history from 2015-18, despite the coaching changes. The only constant thing for this team is leaning on their teammates on and off the field. “We’re gonna come together as a team like we’ve been doing,” Franklin said. “At the end of the day, [the players] COACHES | PAGE 22

PHOTOS VIA COLLEGEPRESSBOX.COM

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