Vol. 98 Iss. 9

THE TEMPLE NEWS

TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019

PAGE 1

PRESERVING HER HISTORY

A student, who is a part of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, is collecting oral histories from tribe citizens living in Philadelphia.

Read more on Page 13

WHAT’S INSIDE NEWS, PAGE 6 Contract negotiations between TAUP and the university continue.

SPORTS, PAGE 23 A defensive end aspires to be a teacher once his football career ends.

VOL 98 // ISSUE 9 @TheTempleNews OCT. 22, 2019

temple-news.com @thetemplenews

NEWS PAGE 2

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

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

Kelly Brennan Editor in Chief Pavlína Černá Managing Editor Francesca Furey Chief Copy Editor Colin Evans News Editor Hal Conte Assistant News Editor Gabrielle Houck Assistant News Editor Tyler Perez Opinion Editor Madison Karas Features Editor Bibiana Correa Assistant Features Editor Ayooluwa Ariyo Assistant Features Editor Jay Neemeyer Sports Editor Dante Collinelli Assistant Sports Editor Alex McGinley Assistant Sports Editor Alesia Bani Intersection Co-Editor Gionna Kinchen Intersection Co-Editor Michael Moscarelli Dir. of Engagement Alexis Ensley Gregg Asst. Dir. of Engagement MacKenzie Sendro Web Editor Colleen Claggett Photography Editor Jeremy Elvas Asst. Photography Editor Madison Seitchik Co-Multimedia Editor Jared Giovan Co-Multimedia Editor Ingrid Slater Design Editor Nicole Hwang Designer Phuong Tran Advertising Manager Kelsey McGill Advertising Manager Lubin Park 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 JEREMY ELVAS / 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 Kelly Brennan at editor@temple-news.com or 215-204-6736.

An editorial that ran on Page 7 on Oct. 15 titled “Honor indigenous culture” stated twice that the exhibit will be on display until the end of the 2019-20 academic year.

News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com

TSG

Parliament postpones allocations resolution

The resolution comes after the $2,500 to fund their operating buduniversity adopted a new rule gets, organization events or travel expenses, according to TSG’s publimiting certain allocations.

BY LAKOTA MATSON TSG Beat Reporter

T

emple Student Government’s Parliament is discussing a resolution that would recommend overturning a rule that was added this summer, preventing organizations from receiving allocations, or TSG funds, for banquets, galas and formals.

TSG has no power to change allocations rules on its own, said Will Wrobel, TSG’s director of allocations. The university sets the guidelines, so a resolution would be a recommendation for the rule to change.

Junior Dufort, an at-large representative, proposed the bill at Parliament’s bi-weekly meeting Oct. 14.

If the university changed the rule, organizations will be eligible to apply for funding if they open registration to all students and advertise it as such, Dufort said.

“A lot of these student organizations will have a large event at the end of the year that stamps their organization, and if they are done correctly and open to the student body, why aren’t they allowed to be funded

by TSG,” Dufort said.

At the Oct. 14 meeting, multiple Parliament representatives expressed concerns about whether the organizations would have to advertise events to the student body. They postponed the vote for further discussion and approval from the allocations committee.

Student organizations who complete TSG’s annual requirements and meet attendance standards are eligible to apply for up to either $500 or

lished guidelines.

The allocations are intended to serve as a supplement to an organization’s expenses and are not guaranteed, according to the guidelines.

Requests for allocations must be approved by an allocations committee.

Parliament postponed the resolution because Dufort had not done enough research on the issue, including talking to members of the allocations committee, said Drew Gardner, speaker of Parliament.

“I just think that we wanted to be sure that this change is something that TSG can stand behind, and that includes doing all the research,” said Maya White, Parliament’s College of Public Health representative.

Three student organization leaders said they support the resolution.

Without the funds from allocations, the Progressive NAACP wouldn’t have afforded their annual event, which has occurred for the past six years, said Alexandra Gordon, the chapter’s president.

“They became aware of some organizations being wary about that allocations point, and they surveyed the organizations and saw how they would be affected by it and went forward trying to rectify the situation,” Gordon said.

“As long as those organizations are allowing any student to attend, they should be allowed to use allocations,” said Darius Hockaday, the president of Strong Men Overcoming Obstacles Through Hardwork.

“Otherwise a lot of the organizations won’t get to have those events at all.” lakota.matson@temple.edu

temple-news.com

NEWS PAGE 3

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

CAMPUS

Migrating birds die hitting windows, officials say The university is considering several ways to reduce bird deathsfrom buildings on campus.

BY COLIN EVANS News Editor As the season’s change in the fall and spring, students may notice an unfriendly sight on the sidewalks around campus: dead birds.

“There are so many, especially where I live right now,” said Adison Christiansen, a junior dance major. “Just every day. I just try not to step on them, try to avoid them.”

“I’ve seen one outside of Morgan Hall, one around Wachman Hall,” said Caleb Sperling, a junior advertising major. “I have seen them around here. It’s concerning. I don’t know why it’s happening. It definitely feels unsettling. It’s never a good feeling to see a dead creature.”

Approximately 100-200 birds die every year from flying into Main Campus buildings, said Glenn Eck, associate director of grounds operations. This most commonly happens during the birds’ fall and spring migration patterns.

Resting on the Atlantic Flyway, a major thoroughfare for traveling birds, Philadelphia is an “epicenter” of migration, Eck added.

“That’s the only time of year we would notice the bird strikes piling up under windows,” Eck said.

Migration season in the fall typically lasts from late summer into November, while in the spring most birds migrate during April and May, according to the Audubon Society, a national bird preservation organization.

The university has implemented several measures to prevent bird strikes.

An effective solution for reducing bird strikes on campus has been installing laminated grid patterns on glass,

@TheTempleNews

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS A dead bird lies on the sidewalk of Montgomery Avenue near Broad Street on Oct. 21.

Eck said. Since 2014, the university has tested the grids on the walkway between the former Paley Library and Tuttleman Learning Center.

Before the grids were installed, “you could see the smudge marks on the glass from the inside where the birds had struck, and you don’t see that anymore,” Eck said.

The university is also considering installing fritted glass on future buildings, which is porous and less dangerous for birds, said Eck and Rebecca Collins, the university’s director of sustainability.

“Bird strikes are definitely on our planning folks’, our design and architecture teams’ radar,” Collins said.

In the mid-2000s, Eck’s grounds team and a local chapter of Audubon worked together to track where birds were striking windows on campus and which species were most likely to die, he said.

Contrary to popular belief, buildings constructed of all glass are not necessarily more prone to bird strikes, Eck said. Though his team has found birds outside of the Charles Library and 1810 Liacouras Walk, they also die frequently outside the Student Center and the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, he said. Likewise, Eck never finds dead birds outside of Morgan Residence Hall or Pearson and McGonigle halls, which

have a lot of glass construction.

“It makes it difficult at the design level, because obviously any kind of fritted glass ... those things, there’s an upsurge for and you may not even need them,” Eck said. “It really starts to make a lot of sense to do some of it at the retrofit level, because then you can focus on where the problems are.”

“We can go back and start making considerations when we do renovations or new buildings, and then again like, we can retrofit as needed,” Collins said. colin.evans@temple.edu @colinpaulevans

News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com

NEWS PAGE 4

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

RESEARCH

Professor to study drug-policing in Kensington

The initiative aims to reduce drug-related crime in the Philadelphia neighborhood.

BY EMMA PADNER For The Temple News Philadelphia received more than $358,000 to add a research team from Temple to the Kensington Initiative, a government-led project aimed at reducing drug violence in the River Ward neighborhood.

The research team, led by Caterina Roman, a criminal justice professor, will investigate whether or not law enforcement has been successful in reducing the number of violent drug organizations in the neighborhood, Roman said.

Roman will analyze data from 911 calls, drug arrests and overdose death reports for the initiative, which is a partnership between Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and city and federal law enforcement agencies, she said.

The Innovation Prosecution Strategies Program, a research program at the United States Department of Justice, provided the two-year grant to Temple this year, according to a press release.

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office reported that so far in 2019, there have been 10,219 drug-related incidents in the city, with 2,354 in the 24th police district, which includes Kensington.

Melissa Francis, the assistant chief deputy attorney general, said the Kensington Initiative began as a short term investigation of drug trafficking organizations in August 2018.

Roman sat down with the different organizations involved in the collaboration to write the grant proposal that would put her on the initiative as a researcher, she said.

She worked to develop a set of per-

News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS Caterina Roman (left), a criminal justice professor, and Courtney Harding, a criminal justice doctoral candidate, discuss the next steps in their opioid-reduction research plans.

formance measurements that would give the law enforcement feedback each month on how successful they have been, she added.

“Performance measures could be related to arrests, could be related to the level of prosecution, it could be related to the amount of times and sentencing, how long is the individual arrested, how long are they kept off the street,” Roman said.

Jacklin Rhoads, the communications

director for the PA Attorney General’s office, said she is looking forward to seeing what the research aspect of the initiative reveals.

“Our office and our partners in this are taking real action to address real problems that are happening [in Kensington],” Rhoads said. “We are looking forward to seeing what the Temple researchers find effective and what we could be doing better to really address the needs of that community.”

Members of the Bureau of Narcotics

Investigations and Drug Control have visited community meetings to hear from residents after conducting drug busts in the neighborhoods, Francis said.

“I hear parents say all the time, ‘I can’t have my kids play outside’ or ‘we have to move out of this neighborhood as soon as we can afford to,’” Roman said.

“I think seeing people use their parks and having block parties and events really be indicative of success.” emma.padner@temple.edu

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NEWS PAGE 5

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

FACULTY

Media narrative on crime criticized by professors Recent reporting raised questions about the Philadelphia Inquirer’s crime coverage.

BY LAKOTA MATSON TSG Beat Reporter A July letter in which several Temple professors accuse the Philadelphia Inquirer of promoting a “false narrative” of crime in the city has resurfaced amid revelations that the newspaper’s coverage may have been influenced by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office.

According to emails obtained by Intercept, staff members of Shapiro’s office sent multiple emails to the Inquirer in June, urging them to examine how weak crime enforcement under Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner had led to increases in violence in the city.

Days later, two stories that examined potential connections between Krasner’s policies and crime were published in the newspaper, the Intercept reported.

The piece mentioned the July letter.

Two Temple professors, who are among 25 university faculty in the Philadelphia area that signed the open letter in July, differed in their interpretations of the new revelations.

“It’s really worrisome that they are willing to subject themselves to such pressure,” said Magda Konieczna, an assistant journalism professor who signed the July letter.

“What I think the Intercept piece shows is that there’s probably an innate bias that’s true for all newspaper journalism toward established officials and mainsteam officials,” said Brian Creech, a journalism professor who also signed the letter.

In the July letter, which cited both stories in the Inquirer, the Temple professors, along with professors from Villanova, Rutgers, St. Joseph’s and the University of Pennsylvania, state that the Inquirer would “uncritically repeat criticisms of Larry Krasner” and “bury

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COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS Brian Creech, a journalism professor, talks about the impact of crime coverage on perceptions of a community in Annenberg Hall on Oct. 16.

facts in order to drive home the false narrative of a Philadelphia that is getting less safe thanks to criminal justice reform policies.”

The Inquirer has written many stories about Krasner and reported that his policies have both strong support and opposition locally and nationally, wrote Gabriel Escobar, the editor of the Inquirer, in a statement to The Temple News.

“But to impugn or question our reporting by using emails from people with a vested interest in spinning a narrative – and in the process showing their boss they are doing their jobs — is wrong and a gross disservice to our journalism,” he wrote.

“If you want to see the quality of our reporting on this subject, read the full coverage and not a small handful of stories selectively assembled to support one side in an impassioned debate,” he wrote.

The community has a responsibility to engage with the Inquirer and ask them to explain their reporting process, Konieczna said.

“It’s incumbent on us people who live in Philly to let the Inquirer know if we feel like their coverage is not fair,” she added.

The Intercept story makes the Inquirer’s reporting, which the public rarely sees, looks “more nefarious than it actually was,” Creech said .

“There’s probably been a pre-existing relationship between folks in the Attorney General’s office and reporters at the Inquirer where they’re happy to listen to them and hear them out,” Creech said.

The stereotypes of crime in Philadelphia are often shaped and played into by the media coverage of crime, he added.

“What [the residents] want to see a lot less of is this recurrent narrative that certain pockets of the city are just laced through with all sorts of violent crime,” Creech said. lakota.matson@temple.edu

News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com

NEWS PAGE 6

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

FACULTY

TAUP, Temple negotiate after contract expiration Both sides will meet today and on Thursday to continue negotiating the faculty’s contract.

BY COLIN EVANS News Editor Members of Temple’s faculty union and the university’s administration made progress on several issues in the pending faculty contract and remained in disagreement on others on Oct. 18, said Steve Newman, the president of Temple Association of University Professionals.

The faculty’s contract expired on Oct. 16.

The two sides agreed to end discussion on reforming the disciplinary process for tenure-track faculty and postpone discussion on ending the requirement for non-tenure track faculty to teach, research and perform academic service at the same time, Newman said.

They also came closer to agreeing on pay raises for full-time faculty and staff, he added.

“Both sides have moved and been able to get possibly difficult issues off the table,” Newman said.

Meanwhile, the parties have not progressed on issues surrounding job security for adjunct and non-tenure track faculty, diverse hiring requirements for staff and child care assistance, Newman said.

The university has not guaranteed automatic consideration of adjuncts instructors for promotion and multi-semester contracts after seven semesters, one of TAUP’s “core” proposals, Newman added.

The current faculty contract does not force supervisers to consider multiyear contracts for instructors, meaning their jobs are not guaranteed, Newman said.

When asked about the specific issues TAUP and the university addressed in negotiations, a spokesperson for the university deferred to an earlier statement written by President Richard En-

News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS Steve Newman, Temple Association of University Professionals president, claps at a TAUP rally outside Charles Library on Oct. 15.

TAUP and the university are currently in ongoing contract negotiations.

glert and Provost JoAnn Epps to the university community.

“Although there have been several agreed-upon items, there remain many proposals under consideration including those pertaining to pay and benefits,” the statement read.

“We are confident that negotiators for the university and TAUP will continue to work in the spirit of cooperation, with a focus on reaching a fair agreement while always keeping our students’ best interests as a top priority,” it read.

“We’re not asking Temple to move that much, really,” Newman said.

Temple and TAUP will meet again for negotiations today and on Thursday, Newman said.

The faculty union and university administration began formal negotiations

in April but postponed them to August after the first round of talks fell through.

It was the first time adjunct and full-time faculty bargained together, The Temple News reported.

A rally marking the expiration of the current faculty contract attracted hundreds of students, faculty and other union members to the Charles Library on Oct. 15.

Since negotiations began, TAUP and the university have agreed to add language that protects professors from negative student feedback, increased representation of non-tenure track faculty on committees that consider faculty merit and promotions, and clarified job information and requirements for academic advisers in the College of Liberal Arts, Newman said.

In total, TAUP and the university have signed 15 tentative agreements so far, Newman said.

The union will return to the negotiating table today with proposals on ensuring paid parental leave and child care support from the university, said Leanne Finnagan, who represents university librarians in the negotiations.

“I’m just eager to see how things are going to turn out,” Finnagan added.

“We feel better than we did the week before, and we hope that this momentum on both sides can lead to a settlement as quickly as possible,” Newman said.

“We’re not there yet, and we can’t get complacent,” he added. colin.evans@temple.edu colinpaulevans

temple-news.com

OPINION TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

PAGE 7

A LETTER TO THE EDITOR

EDITORIAL

Come to an agreement

Temple Association of University Professionals, the university’s faculty union, resumed negotiations with the administration on Friday, compromising on several elements of a new contract.

The two parties dropped their proposals for a reformed disciplinary process for tenure-track faculty. They came closer to an agreement about faculty pay, said Steve Newman, TAUP’s president.

The university and TAUP are still discussing several issues, like guaranteeing automatic consideration of promotions for instructors, diverse hiring practices and creating child care programs, Newman said.

The two parties will continue discussing these topics today and Thursday.

But the contract expired last week, and this concerns the Editorial Board. Faculty should be able to focus on educating students under a fair contract.

The Editorial Board urges the university and TAUP to come to agreements in a timely manner, so faculty members are not left unsure of their wages and benefits, among other things.

The success of our university is dependent on the efforts of our faculty and adjunct instructors, and they deserve to be compensated and treated fairly. But we hope this is not a drawn-out process and that the two parties will come to a compromise soon.

Editor’s Note: Colin Evans, news editor, reported the accompanying news story. He played no part in writing this editorial.

EDITORIAL

Community input is key Caterina Roman, a criminal justice professor, has been brought on to the Kensington Initiative, a drug-related crime reduction research partnership.

Roman will lead a research team that will evaluate the future successes and failures of the initiative, a collaboration between Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and local and national law enforcement aimed at reducing drug violence in the neighborhood.

The Editorial Board applauds any attempt to reduce violence in Philadelphia but urges the members of this collaboration to make

sure they put the community residents first. We hope the research Temple conducts on this new initiative will help steer police and prosecutors toward a model of policing that is reliant on community input and feedback.

Too often, drug users are viewed as criminals rather than victims of a disease and do not get the help they need to live a healthy life. We also encourage law enforcement to continue to adopt a treatment-focused perspective toward substance abuse disorder rather than a crime-focused one.

@TheTempleNews

Bruce Stronach, dean of Temple University Japan, discusses the campus’ changes and opportunities for students abroad.

I

magine a lively green space — akin to a campus quad — where students between classes can soak in the sun and enjoy the camaraderie and company of their peers. Imagine, too, a welcoming common space — replete with cozy, modern seating arrangements —where students from around the world can collaborate, socialize and pop open a laptop.

Students on Main Campus call these areas Beury Beach and Charles Library.

For 37 years, Temple University Japan imagined how facilities like those might support our students’ academic pursuits and improve the overall student experience.

We don’t need to imagine anymore.

This semester, TUJ relocated to Tokyo’s Sangen-jaya District, to the campus of Showa Women’s University. This move is monumental: in TUJ’s nearly four-decade history, a variety of office spaces and other non-traditional academic environments had served as the campus’ home. Now, and for the first time, a beautiful new facility in a student-friendly neighborhood on a true university campus awaits Temple students, whether they are visiting or studying at TUJ. As dean, I am among the campus administrators who welcome students from more than 50 countries worldwide. American and Japanese students comprise the majority of our student body, to be sure, but there has never been a better time for students globally to consider enrolling at TUJ — or for Temple students enrolled at any of our United States campuses to explore their study abroad options.

You have likely heard the expression, “Owls are everywhere.” As a faculty member at Temple since 2008, I know this to be true.

Quite literally, our students were everywhere.

TUJ’s previous home, with its long hallways and lack of common spaces, created a transient environment that led students to disperse once their on-campus commitments had been met.

Beyond the beauty and practicality of our new campus, the appeal of TUJ’s location in Tokyo cannot be overstated. TUJ thrives on its relationship with businesses, governmental organizations, embassies and other uni-

versities. Whether our students are studying business, art, Japanese language or political science, they all want to be where the action is — and downtown Tokyo is action. Keeping TUJ in Tokyo was a critically important component of our relocation.

TUJ’s historic place in the global higher-education landscape has already been etched. At no other university in Japan can a student earn an undergraduate or graduate degree from an accredited American university.

Through our partnership with SWU, students now have access to dual-degree programs that will further enhance their academic and intellectual pursuits. Also, TUJ’s collaboration with SWU creates an educational advantage for all of our students. It’s my hope that the union of our universities serves as a model of an international educational partnership that will open new vistas worldwide for fellow providers of higher education.

Studying alongside peers from around the world and becoming immersed in global cultures is merely one reason why students should consider their study-abroad options.

Our campus is rich in multicultural, ethnic and geographic diversity. Students hail not only from the U.S. and Japan, but also France, Sweden, Saudi Arabia and beyond. Through intercultural collaboration, our students challenge themselves by accessing exceptional learning opportunities in and out of the classroom.

Also worth noting are Japan’s historic shrines and sites, beautiful cherry blossoms, picturesque views of Mt. Fuji, unique cultural and dining experiences and Tokyo’s bustling downtown districts.

I encourage our students, current or prospective, to speak with Temple’s Office of Education Abroad and Overseas Campuses to learn more about TUJ, Temple Rome and other international academic partnerships.

We hope to see you soon at Temple University Japan on the campus of Showa Women’s University.

Bruce Stronach is dean of Temple University Japan. He can be reached at stronach@temple.edu.

letters@temple-news.com

OPINION TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

PAGE 8

EDUCATION

New change to FAFSA is harmful to those in need This move could complicate that Recent tax changes complicate the financial aid application pro- process for the majority of the incomcess, meaning higher error risks. ing students, as 70 percent of first-year I’m the first in my family to go to college, and I’m deeply proud of being able to succeed in school when there was no pathway set before me. But with that pride came challengTYLER PEREZ es, one of them being Opinion Editor the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. The FAFSA was a difficult application process, and at one point we accidentally entered some incorrect tax information. The result? My financial aid award was withheld for weeks, while Temple’s Student Financial Services and the United States Department of Education verified my identity.

I spent weeks anxious about my financial situation and whether I’d be able to afford college. I didn’t receive a finalized financial aid letter until October of that semester, only weeks before my final tuition payment was due.

My experience isn’t unique, as onethird of all FAFSA applicants go through further verification, the Washington Post reported in 2017. This number could increase due to recent FAFSA changes.

In 2017, President Donald Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act aimed to simplify the tax filing process by having individuals file tax schedules separate from their 1040 form, NJ.com reported. But this has complicated the Internal Revenue Service Data Retrieval Tool, which takes tax information to automatically fill in certain of the application.

Now, many families have to manually enter vital information, like unemployment earnings, student loan interest deduction and more, NJ.com reported.

These changes to the application process need to be reverted immediately as more students begin applying for financial aid, which opened Oct. 1. letters@temple-news.com

Temple students receive financial aid, according to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions’ website.

“It’s complex and it can be very difficult for particularly students who maybe don’t have family members who’ve been to college before to figure out ‘What are we putting into here,’ especially if their parents may not have been doing their taxes properly,” said Edward Conroy, the assistant director for community engagement and research application at the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice, a higher education research center at Temple.

“It’s not the student’s fault, but then the student is left stuck by not being able to complete the process at all,” Conroy added.

“With data entry, if it comes out wrong, you could get a mistake in the system and it’s gonna be a hassle to get that fixed,” said CJ Retto-Kane, a freshman biology and psychology major who had problems filing the FAFSA in the past and did not receive financial aid this year because of this.

With students manually entering information, they’re at a higher risk of user error through typos and unintentionally falsified information, which could delay the process for students and even deny financial aid eligibility, NJ.com reported.

“The later students receive financial aid information, the more compressed their timeline is between when they receive the information and when that May 1 date arrives by which they have to commit to an institution,” said Joseph Paris, an associate professor of policy, organizational and leadership studies.

FAFSA completion rates are expected to decline this year as a result of this change, according to Frank, a financial technology company, which helps students file the FAFSA for free.

Reforming this complicated, lengthy and error-prone process requires a collaborative effort from schools, colleges

HANNAH LIPSKI / THE TEMPLE NEWS

and the government, but it’s necessary to make this system more accessible to the students that need financial aid.

The Department of Education should collaborate with high schools and colleges to get a stronger grasp on how to make the financial aid application process simpler for students to navigate.

As a first-generation college student, struggling to navigate the FAFSA should be the least of my concerns, but it was the most stressful part of applying

to Temple.

Education is a right, and every student deserves to be able to finance their education without having to navigate complicated paperwork and wait for months for federal verification.

“The times have changed and the FAFSA needs to change, too,” Paris added. tyler.perez@temple.edu @tyler7perez

temple-news.com

OPINION

PAGE 9

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

MUSIC

To support local musicians, go beyond streaming Musicians only get a fraction of a cent for every stream on Spotify, and this hurts small, local artists.

I can’t stop listening to Roy Blair.

He’s one of my favorite artists now. This past summer, I saw the pop artist perform at the Voltage Lounge in PhiladelDAVID JOHNSTON phia.

For The Temple I watched his News Spotify monthly listeners grow every month over the past year, eventually reaching almost 1.2 million. But as I watched his songs gain streams, I wondered what do these streaming numbers actually do for him?

It turns out, streaming does little to compensate artists.

Spotify pays artists about $0.006 to $0.0084 per stream, and that revenue can be split into even smaller pieces among the record label, producers, artists and songwriters, CNBC reported in January 2018.

Musicians are grossly underpaid by streaming services, and while titan companies, like Spotify and Apple Music, might be convenient for listeners, we shouldn’t stop there when it comes to supporting our favorite artists.

This starts with going to these artists’ shows, buying their music and sharing it with friends.

The way in which consumers interact with music has changed drastically since we entered the age of streaming.

The consumer is closer to the artist than ever before, and yet artists are paid close to nothing for their streams.

@TheTempleNews

CALVIN ATHEY / THE TEMPLE NEWS

“There’s a balance between growing the industry of streaming services and paying artists what they deserve,” said Isaac Schein, a freshman music technology major.

Even the most well-known artists make less than executives and streaming profits have affirmed this trend. Philly’s own Lil Uzi Vert made an estimated $900,000 off of his 1.3-billion streams hit “XO Tour Llif3,” while his label raked in close to $4.5 million, Fader reported in September 2017.

If we as responsible consumers want to fully utilize the benefits of streaming, then we should also acknowledge what our support actually does, and maybe more importantly, what it doesn’t do for the artists we love.

“When you’re like us, at the foun-

dational stages of a band, you’re never really thinking about how much money you’re gonna make off of it,” said Troy Simpson, a junior finance and management information systems major. Simpson is the keyboardist and singer for Della Croix, an indie-pop band that he started with his best friend this year.

“It would obviously be great if Spotify and other streaming services would be able to kick back a little bit more of the profits because they obviously make so much money, it would be great if they could kick back some of that to the artists,” Simpson added.

Spotify and Apple Music have normalized paying artists fractions of cents, and the top 10 percent of most-streamed songs make up for 99 percent of all music streamed, Pitchfork reported.

But if you can’t afford a ticket to a local band’s show, talk about them to your friends or on social media.

“I think the biggest thing that’s going to help out with music today is to spread the word and to support,” said Scout Cartagena, a sophomore glass major and a fan of small, local bands, attending their concerts regularly. “Even if you can’t financially support an artist, go talk to someone else who maybe could.”

Attending concerts and purchasing merchandise are the best ways to support an artist because this is how they receive the majority of their revenue.

British rock band U2, for example, made 95 percent of their total earnings in 2017 from touring, and they were the highest-paid musical act that year, Business Insider reported.

In 2017, the music industry generated $43 billion — the highest in 12 years.

Still, recording artists only took home 12 percent of that, with the majority of revenue coming from touring, Business Insider reported.

We have the opportunity to close that gap by supporting our favorite artists — especially local musicians — in person at their shows.

“When you’re at the very beginning stages, people have to realize that the act can’t grow if people don’t support the artist. I know that it can be a little difficult sometimes to take a moment and share the record or take a moment and tell your friend, ‘Hey, I just found this new band,’ but it all has to come from somewhere.” Simpson added. davidjohnston0002@temple.edu Editor’s Note: Isaac Schein is a freelance photographer for The Temple News. He played no part in the editing of this story.

letters@temple-news.com

OPINION PAGE 10

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

POLITICS

Social media: A vital tool for gun control advocacy With mass shootings occurring High School in Parkland, Florida, frightmore frequently, social media ened students filmed the tragedy happening right before their eyes on social can be used to enact change.

Your phone has the power to help curb gun violence.

I learned this when the non-profit organization Sandy Hook Promise released a video on Sept. 17 that remindLOREN SIMON ed me of the gravity For The Temple of our nation’s gun News crisis.

The dramatized video starts out as any normal back-to-school commercial does: kids smiling and showing their supplies for the school year. But these supplies quickly turn into tools for survival when a shooter begins to open fire on students.

I never thought I’d see kids running for their lives or bleeding out in the hallways of their schools. My eyes sting with unshed tears every time I hear the young girl’s voice break as she realizes she may never see her parents again in that video.

Videos like this show just how easy it is to go from a normal day at school to becoming a victim or witness of needless and avoidable violence. I’ve never been so desperate to see sensible gun control, and social media, through videos like this, has the power to make that happen.

There were 94 incidents of gun violence in schools last year alone, making it the worst year on record for school gun violence, Vox News reported.

As a college student, my greatest fears should be having a low GPA or piles of student debt. In reality, it’s the possibility of dying.

And this is why social media videos similar to the Sandy Hook Promise commercial are so vital. It’s shocking and graphic, but that’s the point. They show our reality and offer a platform to talk about these topics.

Similarly, during the Feb. 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas letters@temple-news.com

media platforms like Snapchat so the world could see the calamity.

In the months following that shooting, survivors tweeted directly to their lawmakers and organized protests through social media. National media outlets, like CNN and Fox News, reported stories about their social media campaigns, Vanity Fair reported.

In 2013, David Glynn created a petition on Tumblr, calling on Congress to pass gun control legislation in the wake of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the Daily Dot reported. Within days the petition reached 25,000 signatures and prompted a video response from former President Barrack Obama, according to a 2015 study by the University of South Florida, demonstrating how social media can facilitate social and political change.

These shootings required more than people’s thoughts and prayers. These victims and survivors deserve justice, and social media gave survivors the tools to work toward that justice. It allows us to challenge our culture’s desensitization toward gun violence.

“Unfortunately, school shootings have to compete with other news stories and often disappear from the headlines, and public conversation, quickly,” said Thomas Wright, an assistant professor of communication and social influence.

The news about these shootings shouldn’t just become white noise.

“It gets forgotten after a week, it’s really sad,” said Kilian Laverty, a senior political science major. “It’s just human nature. We move on from things really quickly. We might focus on it for a week or two, and then we move on.”

There are many ways for us to get involved with this epidemic, and one of our greatest tools in this battle for gun control is social media. We can talk about gun violence, organize rallies and protests and petition for change, all from our keyboards.

AMANDA MUTH / THE TEMPLE NEWS

“Social media is a helpful tool in spreading awareness about many pressing societal issues, including school shootings,” said Stephanie Miodus, a Ph.D candidate in school psychology at Temple. “But activism must extend beyond social media campaigns to advocacy that directly targets change in policies from the local to national level.”

Achieving that change, however, starts with discussions and petitions on

social media. Use your phone to reach out to your senators and start a conversation with others.

Don’t let children dying in schools be another post that you just swipe past.

Use social media to advocate for your own cause. loren.simon@temple.edu @lorensimon_

temple-news.com

FEATURES TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

PAGE 11

COMMUNITY

New memorial to honor formerly enslaved woman The monument will better represent the life of Dinah, a formerly enslaved woman.

BY ASA CADWALLADER For The Temple News

A

t Stenton, a historic house museum in the Logan neighborhood of Philadelphia, a 1912 memorial plaque for Dinah, a formerly enslaved woman, describes her as a “faithful colored caretaker.”

“It talks about her loyalty to the house and the Logan family but leaves out so much of her life,” said Isabelle Heller, a junior history major. “That’s an issue with a lot of monuments. They tell stories but at the same time create these massive silences, which lead to a sort of false history.”

In a Museum History course last semester, Heller began creating a new monument proposal to Dinah. At the end of the semester, the class submitted their proposals for a new monument to Dinah, which would replace the current memorial plaque. The proposals came as a part of a larger, two-year project from Stenton called “Inequality in Bronze” which focuses on creating a new 21st-century memorial to Dinah to better reflect her life and the reality of slavery around 1607-1776.

Heller fell in love with the research in the class and is now writing her thesis on the project.

“What we wanted to do was to create a monument proposal that provided better context to Dinah’s life and try to fix the issues we saw in the old memorial,” she added.

James Logan, a Scottish-American statesman, served as secretary to William Penn and was the founder and trustee of the University of Pennsylvania. Dinah, who is referred to only by her first name in documents, was enslaved under Logan’s son, William, but was freed in 1776 after the increasing pressure from the @TheTempleNews

JIDE YUSUF / THE TEMPLE NEWS Isabelle Heller, a junior history major, takes notes on pieces of Dinah’s history at Stenton in the Logan neighborhood of Philadelphia on Oct. 19.

Quaker community to abolish slavery, said Tom Snow, a tour guide at Stenton.

Dinah had famously saved Stenton, also known as the James Logan House, from destruction by the British army in 1777. After being granted her freedom, she stayed at Stenton as a paid housekeeper.

The museum looked to the public for memorial project proposals, and three finalists were selected to create the new memorial. The finalists are La Vaughn Belle of the Virgin Islands, Kenturah Davis of Los Angeles and Karyn Olivier, who lives in Philadelphia. The winner will be announced within the coming weeks.

Dinah’s existing memorial plaque was commissioned by the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America, an early women’s organization for indi-

viduals’ who trace their ancestry to the Revolutionary War. “During this time period, white women are making headway in society, while simultaneously pushing down women of color,” Heller said.

Historically, there hasn’t been a strong connection between Stenton and its surrounding community, Snow said.

“If you live in a predominantly African American neighborhood, chances are you don’t care very much about some old white rich guy, in this case, James Logan,” he added. “Hopefully, the new memorial will change that.”

Carla Wiley has reenacted Dinah’s character at Stenton for the past ten years and said communicating her story as a part of the museum’s history to visitors, especially members of the surrounding community, is important.

“When people hear she was enslaved, they sometimes automatically assume she was unintelligent, uneducated and make assumptions about her saving the house of her enslaver,” Wiley said.

“But this was her home. She was not simply defending Mr. Logan’s home, but her own.”

Heller thinks the new memorial to Dinah will be a part of a larger movement in the historical community.

“We saw this in the past year with the effort to remove the Frank Rizzo statue downtown, while around the same time creating a monument to Octavius Cato, an African American man who fought for black suffrage in Philadelphia,” she said. asa.cadwallader@temple.edu

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FEATURES PAGE 12

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

ON CAMPUS

Oates discusses music industry tips with students

The first “Visiting Artists: A Day in the Life” event focused on working in the music industry.

BY MILES WALL For The Temple News At 71 years old, John Oates’ hair is still about as thick and curly as it was in the ‘70s and ‘80s, when he was at the peak of his popularity as half of the alltime best-selling pop duo Hall & Oates.

Continuing a more than half-century-long music career, Oates, a 1970 journalism alumnus, is still playing music to massive audiences.

Oates, along with three of his longtime colleagues and collaborators, David Haskell, Anthony Aquilato and Phil Nicolo, spoke to a crowd of students at the Charles Library on Monday about their careers in the music business and advice they’d give to students entering the industry. It was the first event of Klein College of Media and Communication’s “Visiting Artists: A Day in the Life” series.

Oates, who will continue touring his solo act next month, highlighted the importance of playing live shows, which he said he’s done almost constantly over the last several decades, whether as a solo artist or with Daryl Hall, the other half of Hall & Oates who also attended Temple.

“If you’re an instrumentalist, it keeps your chops up,” Oates said. “I like nothing better than to come into the recording studio immediately after coming off tour because I’m playing better than I’ve ever played.”

Nicolo, a 1977 journalism alumnus and media studies and production instructor, produced several of Oates’ records. He emphasized the importance of passion for a career in the arts.

“We’ve been doing this for at least 30, 40 years, and yet we’re all still excited

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about what we do,” Nicolo said. “Keep pushing that passion because let me tell you, it’s five times harder than you think it is, but when you get there it’s a hundred times better than you imagined it could be.”

Brandon Liemer, a media studies and production master’s student, said that he thought it could be hard to follow your passion because many people are doing the same thing, but it is important to find a niche in the industry.

“It’s awesome to hear what the artists have to say about their legacy, and how they’ve grown in the industry, from being unsure to now being at the top,” he added.

Oates and Nicolo both said attending Temple was key in equipping them for their success in the music industry.

Nicolo gained technical knowledge for audio production, and Oates met Hall during his freshman year.

On the night they met, Hall and Oates were playing in separate soul bands at a dance party in West Philadelphia, when gunfire between two rival gangs broke out. Hall and Oates ended up striking friendship while fleeing in the same elevator, said Temple’s Dean of Libraries Joe Lucia.

The two then grew out of Philadelphia fame to top world charts, with hits like “Maneater,” “You Make My Dreams” and “Rich Girl.”

Gabriela Barrett, a freshman history major, attended the event with classmates from her music course.

“I do think that the messages that they communicated were really important regarding how you can continue your life not only doing what you love but maybe making a little money on the side for it as well,” Barrett said.

Mary Swingle, a sophomore media studies and production major, said she

ERIK COOMBS / THE TEMPLE NEWS (From left to right) John Oates, Phil Nicolo and David Haskell speak on a panel for Klein College of Media and Communication’s “Visiting Artists: A Day in the Life” series in Charles Library on Oct. 21.

attended the event in part because she’s interested in working in the music industry. She said she enjoyed how Haskell discussed the importance of your attitude.

“Your personality and how you interact with the people around you is probably the most important thing you can have,” he added. “Bark less, wag more, you know? And listen, listen, listen, listen.”

Aquilato, Oates’ tour and production manager, said that his job is crucial in helping the artist make their art.

“When you’re putting it all back into

the truck at the end of the night, you’ve had a really successful event, you’re one with everyone,” Aquillato said.

Oates said he hoped that sharing his and his colleague’s experience at the event would help students get a real-world idea of the music industry.

“We can present it in a way that makes it a little bit more realistic for kids, rather than operating in a void that, ‘Oh what is this really about?’” he said. “We can actually talk about what it’s like to be out there every day and every night.” miles.anthony.wall@temple.edu

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FEATURES PAGE 13

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

RESEARCH

Student works to preserve tribe’s history, culture

Jessica Locklear received a grant for her work interviewing Lumbee Native Americans.

BY TYRA BROWN For The Temple News Growing up in Montgomery County as a Native American, Jessica Locklear felt she lived in a seemingly Black and white environment.

“The struggle is trying to figure out where I socially fit in,” said Locklear, a public history master’s student. “It’s just been a lot of pain, telling people this is who I am and trying to figure out where I fit in, but I’m not sorry if it doesn’t fit people’s expectations.”

Locklear, who is a part of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, started Lumbees of Philadelphia project last year after seeing a lack of research about local Philadelphia Lumbee citizens. Earlier this month, she won a $2,500 grant from the Leeway Foundation, an organization that focuses on women enacting change within their community.

Locklear’s project will preserve the oral histories of Lumbee citizens, which she hopes will start conversations about what it means to be indigenous in modern societies. She’s collaborating with the Temple’s Center for Public History and with the community. She hopes to use the grant to fund her project and events on Main Campus for Lumbee citizens to share their stories.

“Historically speaking, this is a significant story,” she said. “Native history is under-represented in the archives.”

Lumbee Native Americans migrated from North Carolina to Philadelphia in the late 20th century, looking for employment in northern cities.

Tribe citizens have historically maintained records of its history, Malinda Maynor Lowery, a Lumbee Indian, and associate professor of history and director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, told News & Record in March. @TheTempleNews

JEREMY ELVAS / THE TEMPLE NEWS Jessica Locklear, a public history master’s student, holds a photo album at Barnes & Noble on Broad Street near Cecil B. Moore Avenue on Oct. 16.

Interviews with the Lumbee community provide Locklear with generational perspectives on working life and the hardships they faced, she said.

Her grandmother, Carolyn Chavis, moved to Philadelphia in the early ‘60s, Locklear said.

“She moved here because she didn’t want to farm, and she didn’t want to pick cotton for the rest of her life,” she added.

“There were a lot of opportunities here in factories.”

Jason Harris, who is of Lumbee descent, is one of Locklear’s interviewees.

His family migrated to Philadelphia in the late 20th century. His grandfather was a pastor at the now-closed Native American Church on Frankford and Allegheny avenues.

“We are a tenacious people that have been overlooked by society,” Harris said.

“There are some really great people who have come from our tribe, and I like to think that you recognize people’s groups for the types of people they produce, and I’m one of them.”

Harris is the first person in his family to graduate high school and receive a master’s in teaching from the University of the Arts. He is the superintendent of the Morrisville School District in Bucks County, and credits his success to the Lumbees who came before him.

“There are significant Lumbee Indians who lived and still live in the area who survived significant odds,” he said.

Locklear’s work is published on her blog, and she’ll also produce a thesis on her research. Her work is being considered to become archived at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in the Southern Oral History program.

“When we talk about Native Americans we have a tendency to talk about them in the past tense,” said Seth Bruggeman, the director of the Center for Public History. “What [Locklear] is doing is reviving us that these people are not past tense and that this is very much a solidarity that remains present in our lives today.”

Locklear is capturing the Lumbee experience to ensure its Lumbee history is not erased, he added.

“At the end of the day, we all know who we are, we know who our people are, and we know who our ancestors are,” Locklear said. “We deserve to be recognized, and it is my job to tell everyone about the reality.” tyra.brown@temple.edu @tyrabrown_

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FEATURES

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

PAGE 14

HORROR MOVIE WORD SEARCH THE SHINING THE EXORCIST IT PSYCHO SCREAM THE CONJURING INSIDIOUS POLTERGEIST

THE RING THE THING NOSFERATU CARRIE ALIEN A QUIET PLACE BIRD BOX

ANIMAL CROSSWORD DOWN

ACROSS

2. Domesticated animal used for making cheese

1. Small green amphibian known for long jumps

4. Reptile characterized by its long and legless body

3. Semiaquatic egg-laying mammal

5. Mammal that has a leathery shell

6. White mammal that inhabits polar regions

7. Flightless bird from New Zealand

9. Rodent with dense fur native to South America

8. Mammal known for slow 10. Small mammal with a movement and hanging spiny back from tree branches

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FEATURES TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

PAGE 15

ALUMNI

Google strategist recognized for post-grad work David Lopez, who currently works at Google, was a recipient of Temple’s “30 Under 30” awards.

BY EMMA PADNER For The Temple News After graduating in 2013, David Lopez celebrated his birthday by walking into the White House for his first day of work.

“To have worked in the White House as my first job out of college, not a day goes by that I don’t think about how fortunate I am and how lucky I am to be given that opportunity,” said Lopez, a political science alumnus. “If I could do it all over again I would in a heartbeat, and I wouldn’t take a single second of it for granted.”

Since the end of former President Barrack Obama’s administration, Lopez, who formerly worked in the Office of Management and Administration and the Office of the Chief of Staff, moved to work as a senior strategist on the global elections integrity team at Google.

He celebrated his one-year anniver-

VOICES

What could Temple do to help the opioid epidemic?

@TheTempleNews

sary at Google on Oct. 15 and was honored as one of this year’s Temple Office of Alumni Relations’ “30 Under 30” recipients.

Lopez is incredibly grateful for the award, he said.

“To read about all of the great things all my fellow Owls are doing and have been doing since they graduated, and in such a short period of time, its pretty incredible,” he added.

At Google, Lopez prevents people from using political platforms to spread misinformation.

“As we know it’s particularly important heading into 2020 in the United States,” he said.

He was drawn to Google because he was curious to see what positive impact a person can make in the private sector, Lopez said.

“I know that we...are moving in the direction where people question the actions and work within the tech industry,” he added. “It’s particularly important right now given the environment we’re in to have an understanding of how the tech industry work and what their focus

is and what drives them.”

Ileana Ovalle works with Lopez on Google’s global trust and safety team.

One of Lopez’s assets is his ability to assess situations and find ways to get work done efficiently, she said.

“He is able to understand an issue from a micro level and then also from a macro level, meaning he is able to strategically look at something, put all the pieces together and all the people together,” Ovalle said. “That’s really important when you’re working at Google because it’s such a large entity with a lot of different players.”

Google is much more than just a search engine, Lopez said. He has seen energy and creativity at the company, he said.

“People are focused on so many different things to kind of really foster or bring in new levels of creativity across the industry, and it’s pretty amazing to be surrounded by people like that,” he added.

Chris Carey, the associate dean of students, was the advisor to Temple Student Government during Lopez’s senior

LUCAS RUBENSTEIN Freshman marketing major

Educating students better about what’s going on.

year, when he served as student body president. From the first time the two met, Lopez impressed him, Carey said.

“There are some people that are selected for roles and put into roles and you have a lot of confidence they are going to succeed, and David was one of those individuals,” he added.

While student body president, Lopez worked to increase hours at Tuttleman Counseling Services, registered more than 4,000 students to vote in 2012 elections and launched the “Temple Made” campaign, Carey said.

“To see him connected to leaders of industries is, I think appropriate given his work ethic, his leadership, the way that people enjoy being around him,” he added. “To continue to be impressed by his work has been the norm for him though it’s not the norm for anybody else.” emma.padner@temple.edu @emmapadner

JERRIN JOHNSON Fourth-year dental student I’m not sure about decreasing the issue but Temple could have volunteer things, to clean up areas like Kensington, and provide counseling or helping out victims.

DIANA HOANG Third-year pharmacy student

N’FALY KOUYATE

I feel like not putting a stigma on it would help so that people are more open to admitting their problem and I think that would be one of the beginning steps.

I’m really not sure, maybe put more money towards programs educating more people about the effects of drug use and how they affect the people about them.

Sophomore economics major

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FEATURES PAGE 16

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

LIVE IN PHILLY

JEREMY ELVAS / THE TEMPLE NEWS

Jack-o-lantern trail features pumpkin art

On Saturday, hundreds of people gathered in West Fairmount Park to see Jack’s Pumpkin Glow, a one-thirdmile trail decorated with more than 5,000 pumpkins from local farmers that were hand-carved by local artists.

Kristine Vo, a senior bioengineering major, said she looked forward to seeing the pumpkins and decorations.

“I really like how artistic it is, how creative they can be with it,” she added.

At the trail entrance, Jack’s Pumpkin Glow hosted family-friendly activities, like face painting and a small pumpkin patch photo booth for children.

Angela Scarpa, 56, from Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, attended the event for her first time.

“I was close enough to see all the pumpkins and how it was made, but some of them were set back so far that it almost looked like they weren’t pumpkins,” Scarpa said.

Along the trail, massive pumpkin structures depicted aliens, dinosaurs, a lighthouse and a ship.

Chris Whelan, 36, from Hatboro, Pennsylvania, attended the event with his wife and three daughters.

“We had a great night here. Everyone loved it,” Whelan said. features@temple-news.com

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INTERSECTION PAGE 17

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

DISABILITY

Grad program encourages disability awareness The disability studies certificate through attending events centered educates students about social around disability pride and listening to speakers with disabilities. policy and disability.

BY MYKEL GREENE For The Temple News

C

ourses offered in Temple’s disability studies graduate certificate allows students of all backgrounds to look at society through the lens of disability.

The program is provided by the Institute on Disabilities through the College of Education. There is a 12 credit requirement to complete the certification and classes are offered in the fall, spring and summer semesters.

Disability studies is kept alive not only by scholars but the people who live with visible and invisible disabilities, said Kate Fialkowski, the director of academic programs for the disability studies graduate certificate.

Disability and Social Policy, which is a course offered in the spring semester, helps students think about how people with disabilities are ignored in some social policy, said Sarah Mueller, a 2019 master’s in public policy graduate who received the disability studies certificate.

“It makes you think critically about the role policy plays and its intention or lack thereof on the lives of people with disabilities,” she added.

There is an effort in the program to create a “first person narrative,” when addressing issues in the community, Fialkowski said. In Disability Rights and Culture, there is an emphasis to engage disability studies outside the classroom

@TheTempleNews

“We’ve moved long past that kind of stereotypical traditional research voice into something that includes activists, advocates and just people,” Fialkowski said.

This course helps to address an important issue raised by the disability rights movement, which is present on college campuses, as students with disabilities didn’t see themselves represented in existing disability course materials, Fialkowski said.

“When we identify as people who have disabilities, we are looking for that content, we’re looking for leaders, and we’re looking for lived experiences that match ours,” Fialkowski said. “When we don’t see it, we start writing it, we start teaching it, we start engaging other people about it.”

Susan Fullam, the director of communication at the Institute on Disabilities, said the objective of disability studies is to create an understanding of what proper accommodations can accomplish for people with disabilities.

“What disability studies does is that it intellectualizes and normalizes people with disabilities so that they’re not viewed as incapable,” Fullam said. “They don’t need the pandering. They don’t need the help. They just need the accommodations.”

Students pursuing careers in public policy, social welfare programs, human resources and education are not the only ones who can benefit from taking courses in disability studies, Fialkowski said.

“We struggle putting people into

ALI GRAULTY / THE TEMPLE NEWS

this program because I don’t know if there’s a full understanding of it,” Fullam said.

Fialkowski added there are efforts to reach students in other colleges and majors because the mindset that disability studies are exclusive to students in health and policy creates barriers in expanding the program.

The definition of disability is not

fixed, so disability centered studies are needed to address misconceptions, Fialkowski said.

“Everyone who interfaces with students should have an understanding of disability as an identity, a history, a culture, a language, and not just a medical phenomenon,” Fialkowski added. mykel@temple.edu

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INTERSECTION PAGE 18

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

DISABILITY

New course simulates traveling with disabilities Disability Identity in Contemporary Society was taught as a study abroad course in Rome.

BY ALESIA BANI For The Temple News Alexis McKenney, a health and rehabilitation sciences professor, led a new study abroad course about disability identity during the Summer II semester through Temple Rome.

The course Disability Identity in Contemporary Society provides students with opportunities to learn about issues surrounding disability and accessibility in an international context. The program teaches the challenges people with disabilities experience while traveling abroad and at tourist destinations.

This program was designed to be done overseas as an immersive experience, and through her research, McKenney saw students’ attitudes shifted from a sympathetic to an empathetic response.

“What became more important is they turn into advocates,” she added.

“And the other thing is we’re doing them in cities that are extraordinarily challenging.”

Marina Salvatore, a senior speech pathology major, was one of the 12 participants in the program.

One night the group had a “silent dinner,” a simulation about communicating with a hearing impairment. It was created by two of McKenney’s former students who are deaf.

“The waiters and waitresses had to work with us to try to get our order and it was just a really frustrating experience, but it also made me realize that there are things that we can work toward to help people who are deaf or hard of hearing in certain situations,” Salvatore said.

During the dinner, one of the former students FaceTimed McKenney and Salvatore talked to the student over the phone using American Sign Language.

During dinner, one of the former students FaceTimed McKenney and Salvatore wanted to converse with him using American Sign Language. She was intersection@temple-news.com

able to ask McKenney in writing as the restaurant had paper table cloths.

“It was just a super cool experience because it was the first time I ever really got to sign with a deaf person,” she said.

McKenney noted this experience as one of the most poignant moments of the trip.

“I held the phone up while the two of them had a conversation and the rest of the class gathered around and thought this was the greatest thing ever,” McKenney said. “They were actually getting to talk to somebody who facilitated this and actually has a disability.”

McKenney was amazed as this was the first class to suggest making the activity last an entire day instead of one dinner. Students suggested avoiding choosing restaurants with paper tablecloths, making students communicate without pencils and pens.

“They were able to see where it needed to be even tougher for them to grasp what the challenge was for,” McKenney said.

Brooke Dutton, an occupational therapy graduate student, said the class experienced accessibility issues with wheelchair lifts, ramps to restaurants, handicap parking and the cobblestone lining parts of the city.

During a wheelchair simulation, the class went to the Spanish Steps but the wheelchair lift was out of service. After asking for assistance and finding no solution, the class carried the wheelchairs up the stairs, Salvatore said.

“It really hit home for me to see how hard it could be just traveling to these places and not having equal opportunities for everyone,” Dutton said. “It’s one thing to talk about it. It’s another thing to experience it.”

This program gives students a “trained eye” in thinking about people in wheelchairs going through flooded curb cuts when it’s raining, or noticing a restroom at their job only meets the basics of the Americans with Disabilities Act, McKenney said.

Although there are barriers, McKenney wants to see more students with

CAMRYN SHEASLEY / THE TEMPLE NEWS

disabilities not only pursue her program but to also study abroad.

The first thing she did when she started working at Temple in 2018 was meeting with the Department of Education Abroad and Overseas Campuses and Disability Resources and Services about accommodating students.

“My suspicion is that students with disabilities, particularly if they’re going to need an interpreter or they’re blind, or they need to bring a wheelchair, a lot just think ‘I’m not going to bother,’”

McKenney said.

Salvatore described the experience as “eye opening” and encourages any student to participate in the program.

“This trip really lit a fire inside of me. You can do something about it even though you’re just one voice. You can rally people around you either in your class, your program or in your profession,” Dutton said. alesia.bani@temple.edu @alesia_bani

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INTERSECTION PAGE 19

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

THE ESSAYIST

Embracing my Haitian culture

A student discusses how she balances her Honduran and Haitian identities.

BY MAYA BEAUVOIR For The Temple News It was my first day of sixth grade, and I was nervous to meet the new kids.

I sat in my assigned seat, excited and prepared, and then the dreaded moment came — roll call.

“Maryanna Beaver?”

“Mary-ann Bovwar?”

“Mayannah Beauvoir (MY-ANNA BOOV-WAH),” I’d correct them. My name reflects the cultural blend of my Haitian father and my Honduran and Curaçao mother.

I started to hate my name around that time. Even as an adolescent, everywhere I went — classrooms, job interviews, doctor’s offices — I prepared myself for the sad attempt to pronounce a name I think wouldn’t be so hard with a little more cultural awareness.

My mother always reassured me that my name was important because my father named me. My first and last name were a testament to his memory. He died the day after I was born, so it was very hard for me to connect with my Haitian identity without his presence. The only memories I had of him were old photographs.

It was an odd experience looking at the sepia-stained images with his handwriting on the back. He wore Hawaiian shirts and light-wash jeans, his hair in long dreadlocks. I loved looking at these images. It felt like looking into a mirror — it was someone with the same face,

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PHOTO BY JEREMY ELVAS / PHOTO DESIGN BY NICOLE HWANG / DESIGN

nose and eyebrows as me. But in many ways, it also felt like staring at a stranger.

After my father’s death, I spent most of my time in my Honduran grandmother’s house, Martha Martes. She raised her children and grandchildren to embrace their Honduran ancestry and be proud of it. She displayed Honduran flags with three blue stars all over the house. She showered us with love and affection and made sure we knew about our history and followed the news in Honduras on Spanish news channels.

I often felt out of place as the only person at home with a different last name. Everyone had my mother’s Hispanic maiden name: Martes. It’s easy to

pronounce, rolls off the tongue and even means Tuesday in Spanish. I felt ostracized because there was no one to share the name Beauvoir without my dad around.

I grew to hate having a name to which I felt no connection. But there was one name I always loved to be called at home: Maya. I think my little cousins came up with this nickname because it was easier for them to pronounce.

I don’t spend as much time with my Haitian family as I would like to. I call them on holidays, see them around my birthday and get check-ins every once in a while. It’s not that I’m distant from

them but I didn’t see them as much as the Honduran side of my family. I didn’t always like the food they made and I always wished that we were closer. I knew about Haitian culture through books that my mother encouraged me to read.

Before leaving for Temple, I visited my Haitian grandmother, Virginia Beauvoir, and spent time with my aunts and cousins. After being apart for months, I remembered just how good it felt to hear them call me by my nickname.

As I started a new chapter of my life, I decided to further embrace my Haitian culture.

I read up on Edwidge Danticat, arguably the most prolific Haitian writer of her generation. Her short stories about being a Haitian immigrant growing up in Brooklyn, New York — like me — was inspiring and made me want to write my own.

I made a lot of friends with Haitian parents in the Student Organization for Caribbean Awareness meetings and we discussed our shared experiences. While I’m not fluent, I’ve picked up some Haitian phrases I have proudly perfected, “Wap kon Jorge” being my absolute favorite. I’ve kept up to date with Haitian news and I try to bring Haitian patties and other foods for my friends whenever I come back to Philadelphia from Brooklyn.

Now, on my first day of school, I demand the proper pronunciation of my name. I correct them and ask to be called Maya Beauvoir — a name that reminds me of my family and allows my father’s legacy to live on. mbeauvoir@temple.edu

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INTERSECTION PAGE 20

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

DISABILITY

Students with disabilities navigate the workplace Services on campus accommo- you get that experience.”

Aronoff recommends that students date students with disabilities find an internship during freshman year. who are seeking employment.

BY GIONNA KINCHEN For The Temple News Disability Resources and Services and the Career Center collaborate to help students with disabilities enter the workforce.

Shannon Conklin, director of the Career Center, said students with disabilities often come to the center seeking help with employment. The most common question is how and when to disclose their disability to a potential employer, and how to request accommodations during the interview process.

The center also connects students to potential employers.

“It’s really important for [students] to realize that there’s employers that have a culture that is accommodating and can value what everyone brings to the table,” Conklin said.

In 2016, 30 percent of workplace discrimination offenses involved disability, according to data from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a government agency that enforces anti-discrimination laws.

Kristen Aronoff, the coordinator of assistive technology at DRS, said she has witnessed this type of discrimination.

“If your resume states that you have a disability, that will often get you kicked out of the running,” Aronoff said. “It’s unfortunate, and it shouldn’t happen, but it does.”

Aronoff believes there are ways that students with disabilities can navigate these issues.

“One thing that’s unfortunate but true is that in order to get a job when you have a disability, you should be very qualified for it,” Aronoff said. “You need experience, which of course is challenging as a student. So the big question is how

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Jonathan Atiencia, a film and media arts major with a learning disability, believes support for disabled students begins in the classroom.

“Professors need to know what’s going on with their students with disabilities,” Atiencia said. “They need to be ready and prepared to have the best accomodations for them in the classroom.”

In 2017, about 14.8 percent of disabled individuals in the United States had a bachelor’s degree, as opposed to 34.5 percent of people without a disability, according to Cornell University’s Disability Statistics.

Individuals with bachelor’s degrees are half as likely to be unemployed as individuals who only received high school degrees, according to the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, a research, policy and advocacy organization. This means a lack of accessibility in higher education can directly affect a disabled individual’s ability to become employed.

Atiencia, who is also the Disability Resources and Services representative for Temple Student Government’s Parliament, said he has never experienced discrimination in the workplace, but attributes that to the fact that he works at Temple’s Institute on Disabilities.

“I’m a coach. I make sure [students with disabilities have] support so they can become independent on their own.

I’m there to guide them,” Atiencia said.

Atiencia said he hopes to establish a positive environment for disabled students through his work, and break the stigma of disability in the workplace.

“I have a learning disability and I’m not ashamed of it,” Atiencia said.

VY LE / THE TEMPLE NEWS

gionna@temple.edu @gionnakinchen

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SPORTS PAGE 21

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

FOOTBALL

Defensive end hopes to be ‘role model’ in classroom Zack Mesday, a higher education gradute student, wants to teach elementary school students.

BY ALEX McGINLEY Assistant Sports Editor Defensive end Zack Mesday was always the troublemaker in school.

To help guide kids like himself, the graduate student decided to pursue a career in teaching.

“Growing up, I knew I wanted to work with students,” said Mesday, a higher education graudate student. “I was always the kid who got in trouble in school, so I wanted to be a teacher and help the kids out who were like me growing up. It’s really just having someone that can look up to me as a role model.”

He is certified to teach kindergarten through fourth grade and wants to teach social studies or history.

Mesday wants to teach elementary school students because it allows him to influence them as they are aging, he said.

“I feel like getting ahead of the game and working with the future generations as they’re young and really help develop them, that’s gonna make more of an impact than when they’re in high school already,” Mesday said.

Mesday graduated in May 2018 with an early childhood education degree.

Prior to graduating, Mesday taught literacy, math and social studies to thirdgraders at Julia de Burgos Elementary School in Kensington.

“It makes me incredibly proud when students say ‘I hope to do some of the things you do,’ or ‘I hope to be in K-12,’” said Jodi Laufgraben, one of Mesday’s education professors.

“Whether [Mesday]’s working with students in K-12 or he chooses to work with college students, he will have a tremendous impact on young people’s lives.”

@TheTempleNews @TheTempleNews

JUSTIN OAKES / THE TEMPLE NEWS Graduate defensive end Zack Mesday runs onto the field before the start of the Owls’ game against Memphis at Lincoln Financial Field on Oct. 12.

Mesday also wants to coach high school football, preferably at his former high school, Nottingham High School in Hamilton Township, New Jersey.

Mesday and his former high school teammate, Saquan Hampton, want to go back to Nottingham to coach when their playing careers are over, Mesday said.

Hampton, who is a safety, was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the sixth round of 2019 NFL Draft after playing for Rutgers University football.

By coaching, Mesday wants Nottingham to receive more support from the community and to help the program be successful, he said.

“There really isn’t any support coming back from the community,” Mesday said. “When I was there, we won

our first state championship in school history. We have the talent to do so, but in recent years we’ve fallen off.”

During his freshman year at Temple in 2014, Mesday redshirted and then tore his ACL. He sustained the same injury the next year. From 2016-17, he only played in six games.

Mesday finally saw significant playing time last season, when he played in all 13 of Temple’s games and recorded 33 tackles, four sacks and two forced fumbles.

Mesday has played in all seven of Temple’s games this season and has recorded 12 tackles and 2.5 sacks. One of his sacks came in Temple’s 30-28 win over then nationally ranked Memphis on Oct. 12.

“[Mesday] has a consistent effort and a motor that just doesn’t stop,” coach Rod Carey said. “[He’s] a smart football player too. That usually results in good things. It certainly did in that case for him.”

Mesday hopes to play football professionally when his eligibility at Temple is over after this season and plans to start his career in education after his football career ends.

“I know it’s a long shot,” Mesday said. “I know there’s an opportunity.

I’m not putting my marbles in a basket for that. It’s definitely something I look forward to and I hope it happens.” alex.mcginley@temple.edu @mcginley_alex

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SPORTS PAGE 22

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

CREW

Women adjust to ‘different world’ of men’s crew Men’s crew has three women on the roster who serve as the team’s coxswains.

BY ADAM SLOATE For The Temple News Inside the East Park Canoe House on the Schuylkill River, banners hang in the rafters, signifying the victories of Temple’s past crew teams.

Senior Cassidy Lorenz, junior Nina Sponheimer and sophomore Olivia Morris are all invested in raising another banner to the rafters once the Dad Vail Regatta, the largest regatta in the country, rolls around in May, they said.

Lorenz, Sponheimer and Morris are the only women on the men’s team.

They serve the important role of the team’s coxswains. They stir the boat, give instructions to the rowers and communicate with officials at races.

The person in this position must be lightweight, which is why teams often have women in this spot.

Other Philadelphia schools, like Saint Joseph’s University and the University of Pennsylvania, also have female coxswains.

All three athletes learned much of what they know from Caseyann Sweeney, a 2019 accounting alumna and former coxswain at Temple. “[Sweeney] was the one told me that girls could be in the varsity eight,” said Sponheimer, a junior engineering technology major. “She encouraged

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me and [Morris] to work together and introduced a sense of camaraderie among the girls.”

It’s still difficult to be the only women on the team, they said.

“I almost felt like I had to overcompensate for how tough I had to be,” Sponheimer said. “You don’t take any crap from anyone, and I felt like I had to be harsher in the beginning.”

Now, Sponheimer now prefers to row with the men’s team because they are faster, she said.

“Ever since I started [coxing] for men’s teams as a sophomore in high school, I didn’t really want to go back,” Sponheimer said.

It was more difficult for Lorenz because she had previously only worked with women’s rowing teams and needed COLLEEN CLAGGETT/ THE TEMPLE NEWS some time to adjust, she said.

Senior coxswain Cassidy Lorenz (left) and sophomore coxswain Olivia Morris sit in the Temple “For women, you try to tell them University Pavilion indoor practice facility on Oct. 21. to use their upper body more to finish a stroke, whereas with the men, you try to ADVERTISEMENT tell them to use their legs more to start,” said Lorenz, a communication studies major. “It’s almost like a different world between the two teams.”

Morris, a psychology major, has a different perspective.

“There was no real issue for us joining the men’s team,” Morris said.

“You earn respect based on the kind of coxswain you are, not your gender.”

The Owls will compete next at the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta on Oct. 26. adam.sloate@temple.edu

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SPORTS PAGE 23

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

VOLLEYBALL

Owls aren’t focusing on record after losing streak

Temple has lost nine of its last 10 games and are tied for last place in the Eastern Division.

BY ARI GLAZIER Volleyball Beat Reporter

Temple volleyball’s (10-9, 1-7 The American Athletic Conference) season has been split between two opposite runs — a program best 9-0 start followed by a six-match losing streak.

The team has avoided being swept up in these highs and lows by not dwelling on just the good or bad aspects of matches, coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam said.

“One of the things is really making sure the focus is not just on wins and losses,” Ganesharatnam said. “The focus is on building the team, getting better in different aspects, becoming a team, and improving as individual players and as a team.”

The Owls’ losing streak started on the road against Villanova (14-6, 5-3 The Big East) on Sept. 17. The Owls then lost their first four conference matchups of the season against South Florida on Sept. 27, Central Florida on Sept. 29, Connecticut on Oct. 4. and Houston on Oct. 6.

The Owls were held without a single set victory against the Bulls (7-15, 1-7 The AAC) and the Knights (14-6, 7-1 The AAC). Temple won one set against the Huskies (8-12, 2-6 The AAC) and then pushed the Cougars (13-10, 7-1 The AAC) to five sets.

Since their loss against the Wildcats, Temple has lost nine of their last 10 games with its only victory coming against East Carolina (15-6, 3-5 The AAC) on Oct. 11.

“We always try and see both positives and negatives out of it,” junior middle hitter Baleigh Jean-Philippe said.

“Like what we could have improved or

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JIDE YUSUF / THE TEMPLE NEWS Junior middle hitter Baleigh Jean-Philippe hits the ball during the Owls’ game against East Carolina at McGonigle Hall on Oct. 11.

what we did well, and try and either do better with the next match or keep that same mentality if it’s something good.”

Ganesharatnam believes the pressure that comes with playing conference matches is a factor in the teams’ losing streak, he said.

“Now, conference play, every win, every set, every point is worth double, so that really puts a whole different mental pressure on you,” he added. “So it’s not so much the volleyball quality that increased, it’s just the pressure that increased.”

Senior outside hitter Dana Westfield

knows the team has not met expectations since the start of conference play, she said.

“We take a lot of time and reflect on it as a team, in smaller groups or even individually,” Westfield added.

“We know we need to keep working on something when we’re doing well or when we’re not doing well still acknowledging the stuff that we are succeeding at.”

Temple is tied for last place in the Eastern Division of the AAC. The top six teams in the conference will participate in a single-elimination tournament on

Nov. 22-24.

“I think this team is very stable, very strong characters,” Ganesharatnam said.

“Those are some of the aspects that really helped us not to get too carried away when we were winning nine in a row, but also those same attributes not to get too worried when we were losing six in a row.”

Temple’s next matchup will be at home against Tulsa (12-9, 5-3 The AAC) on Friday. ari.glazier@temple.edu @AriGlazier

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SPORTS

PAGE 24

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019

GOLF

Owls’ top two golfers work for ‘bragging rights’ COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS Junior Dawson Anders (left) and sophomore Conor McGrath practice their swings at BQ Golf Academy driving range in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania on Oct. 21.

to beat everyone, even though you’re on Junior Dawson Anders and soph- I’m just trying to take what I learned 14-15. He placed 17th out of 97.

Anders tied for 72nd in North the same team.” omore Conor McGrath are the from them last year and how they led the team and try to put that into what I’m Carolina with 74 average.

Both Anders and McGrath are Owls’ best golfers this season.

BY WINSTON HARRIS Golf Beat Reporter

J

unior Dawson Anders and sophomore Conor McGrath have been among the top three performers for Temple golf in each tournament this season.

Anders is currently the Owls’ No. 2 player. McGrath is the No. 1 player after competing in 23 of 32 rounds as a freshman in 2018.

For McGrath, the transition to being a key player has been a challenging adjustment, he said.

“Being a freshman, you had to know your place and kind of hang back,” McGrath added. “I really learned a lot from [last year’s seniors] and this year, sports@temple-news.com

doing this year.”

Anders competed in several Temple outings when he was a freshman in 2017, but only appeared in three tournaments during his sophomore year. He is back to playing regularly but is grateful for his time off last season.

“I was going through some changes to make my game better, which I knew it would become what it is now,” Anders said.

As the team’s top golfers, Anders and McGrath feel pressure to play well enough for Temple to compete against other teams in the American Athletic Conference, they said.

McGrath came out a 69.6 average per round at the Owls’ last tournament in Burlington, North Carolina on Oct.

This season, Anders has a 73.9 stroke average and McGrath has a 72.66 stroke average.

Both Anders and McGrath were in the field of qualifiers for the U.S. Open Amateur Tournament in August, but only Anders qualified, though he didn’t move to the final rounds.

“It was good to finally see my hard work pay off and play at the highest level of amateur golf,” Anders said.

Temple golf is ranked 193rd in the country, but the team finds ways to motivate each other despite its low standing.

“Bragging rights are a big part of our team,” McGrath said. “We’re always talking trash and stuff, and if we’re out there you want to be the best, you want

highly competitive with each other, but this motivates them, they said.

The key to a good team is always trying to beat each other, Anders added.

“I know there’s a lot of competitiveness,” coach Brian Quinn said. “Everyone wants to shoot the best score, be the low man for the week, win the tournament, but I think that’s a healthy thing.”

The opportunity to play the game against other schools is what fuels them both to play at the high level.

“You just want to play well for [the team] and do your best and get as good as you can for them,” McGrath said. “We’re all working towards a common goal.” winston.harris@temple.edu

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