Vol. 99.5 Issue 9

THE TEMPLE NEWS

TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019

ONE LAST

CHEERS Students and alumni are saying goodbye to The Draught Horse Pub & Grill, which is set to close on Feb. 21.

Read more on Page 16.

WHAT’S INSIDE NEWS, PAGE 4

The first round of Cecil B. Moore Scholars will be announced on March 1.

SPORTS, PAGE 29

A junior forward on the Owls’ women’s basketball team is averaging 11.3 points per game.

VOL 99.5 // ISSUE 9 FEB. 16, 2021

Small Business Guide 2021

Read on Pages B1-B8

temple-news.com @thetemplenews

The Temple News

PAGE 2

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

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

Follow us @TheTempleNews

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

Unsigned editorial content represents the opinion of The Temple News.

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

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

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

ON THE COVER

People dine inside of Draught Horse Pub & Grill on Feb. 14.

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS

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

CORRECTIONS On Jan. 19, an article on page 14 titled “From the ground up” misspelled Grant BLVD. Accuracy is our business, so when a mistake is made, we’ll correct it as soon as possible. Anyone with inquiries about content in this newspaper can contact Editor-in-Chief Madison Karas at editor@temple-news.com.

The Temple News

NEWS

PAGE 3

CAMPUS

Temple tops 36,000 COVID-19 tests in one month

Increased testing requirements successfully lowered the positivity rate on Main Campus.

BY JAREK RUTZ For The Temple News

A

lthough the number of COVID-19 tests Temple University administered each week increased this semester, the nearly $10 million Temple spent on spring semester’s testing program is comparable to the amount spent on testing during the fall semester, said Mark Denys, director of Student Health Services.

“The testing technologies have just become significantly less expensive,” Denys said. “Whereas back in August we were paying either $125 or $150 a test, we’re now paying $80. The testing with the medical school lab is down to almost $12, and some rapid testing is only $15 or $20.”

The effectiveness of this new program will be clearer in the long term, but it is promising that the COVID-19 positivity rate has dropped significantly since the fall semester, Denys said.

During the 16 weeks of fall semester from Aug. 24, 2020, to Dec. 7, 2020, Temple averaged a COVID-19 test positivity rate of 5.08 percent. During the first four weeks of spring semester beginning Jan. 17, Temple averaged a COVID-19 test positivity rate of 0.92 percent, according to the university’s COVID-19 dashboard.

Temple administered nearly 21,000 COVID-19 tests during the entire fall semester and 36,220 COVID-19 tests during the first month of spring semester, according to the dashboard.

“We’ve done just about as many tests in the first two weeks of this semester as we did during the entire first semester,” Denys said.

During the fall semester, Philadelphia Health Commissioner Thomas Farley labeled the number of cases at Temple as an “outbreak,” as Temple recorded a COVID-19 test positivity rate of more than 10 percent, The Temple News reported.

JAREK RUTZ / THE TEMPLE NEWS Olivia Delosreyes, a freshman health science major, self-administers a COVID-19 nasal swab test at the testing center in the Howard Gittis Student Center on Feb. 3.

Now, Temple is going “above and beyond” what the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention require of universities, said Matthew Rankin, a spokesperson for the PDPH. “Temple is taking it very seriously, and we appreciate that,” he added. “We don’t require that colleges or universities do that, but we believe it will definitely curb any sort of spike from college populations.”

Students can go to the Patient Health Portal to schedule an appointment beginning on Fridays for the following week, The Temple News reported.

Esther Kim, a freshman legal studies and international business major, has been getting tested twice per week this semester and wishes Temple would open the testing schedule earlier.

“I don’t get why you have to wait so long to sign up for a test,” Kim said.

Temple wants to continue to ensure that everyone who needs to get tested has the same number of appointments available to them each week, Denys said.

“There is an equitable distribution of appointments,” he said. “If people scheduled tests for the next four weeks, and you then add 200 people, they’ll all have far fewer choices.”

Test schedules don’t open weeks in advance due to snow days and people forgetting or missing their appointments, which is more likely if they schedule weeks in advance, Denys added.

With a vast increase in testing from the fall semester, Temple set up two asymptomatic student testing sites in Room 200ABC in the Howard Gittis Student Center and the Great Court in Mitten Hall, The Temple News reported.

Symptomatic students must make an appointment at the Morgan Hall test-

ing site, The Temple News reported.

Students who have tested positive in the last 90 days do not have to get tested, but those who received a COVID-19 vaccine must still get tested, The Temple News reported.

“It’s a little tough the first time, putting it up your own nose, but it’s definitely the best way to do it,” said Jeremy Smith, a freshman finance major, who self-administers two tests per week.

“You get used to it and you’re in and out of there in under five minutes. It’s the best way to be able to keep kids on campus.”

The current testing program will be in place throughout the spring semester.

Temple will announce the testing plan for the summer in the coming weeks, Denys said . jarekrutz@temple.edu @jarekrutz

PAGE 4

NEWS

The Temple News

COMMUNITY

Local high school students enroll in Temple classes The first 20 Cecil B. Moore scholars will be picked from the dual enrollment program on March 1.

BY VICTORIA AYALA Assistant News Editor Temple University is offering the Cecil B. Moore Scholars program to North Central high school students as an opportunity to receive college preparation, focused campus advising and mentoring and the chance to be awarded scholarships that cover base tuition at Temple, as part of the university’s $1 million anti-racist initiative announced in the fall.

Local high school students accepted to Temple during the early action period were admitted to the dual enrollment program, where they are taking a free virtual Temple course during the spring of their senior year. From there, Temple will select 20 students to be Cecil B. Moore scholars and attend a summer bridge program before starting their first semester at Temple.

These high school students began taking online courses at the start of the spring semester along with other undergraduate students, said Daniel Berman, vice provost for undergraduate studies.

Roughly 40 high school students are currently attending a dual enrollment course at Temple, said Chris Avery, vice president of programs at Steppingstone Scholars, a nonprofit college access program partnering with the initiative.

Only half will continue into the summer bridge program. This selection will be made based on each student’s performance in their dual enrollment course, an essay and a video describing why they wish to become a Cecil B. Moore scholar.

The 20 Cecil B. Moore scholars will be announced on March 1.

Cecil B. Moore scholars will receive four-year base tuition scholarships, take a two-credit summer course and receive

FERNANDO GAXIOLA / THE TEMPLE NEWS The acronym of George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science is spelled out on the school’s main entrance at 16th and Norris streets.

advising and guidance from Steppingstone Scholars, Avery said.

The program is available to students who attend the School District of Philadelphia or charter high schools and live in one of the eight North Philadelphia ZIP codes that surround Temple, including 19121, 19122, 19123, 19125, 19130, 19132, 19133 and 19140.

The program was created to combat inferior educational opportunities for most Black children in the K-12 system, said Valerie Harrison, senior advisor to President Richard Englert on equity, diversity and inclusion.

“This initiative, we believe, puts Temple at the forefront of providing access equity for historically underrepre-

sented racial groups,” Harrison said.

To be considered for this program, students had to apply for undergraduate study at Temple by Nov. 1, 2020, said Shawn Abbott, vice provost for enrollment management.

Those who completed their Common Application were automatically considered for admission to the university and the program itself. There was no separate application for the Cecil B. Moore Scholars program.

“They’re taking a general education course with anywhere from four to seven or so students in each course,” Berman added.

Along with their GenEd course, students who are a part of the program have

a number of resources, including weekly study halls and communication with faculty about topics related to student success, Berman said.

As part of the college preparation provided by Steppingstone Scholars, the organization hired Temple students to function as program coaches, who work with students during study halls and provide mentorship, Avery said.

“We’ve got a cohort of students that have already been qualified for admission to Temple,” Abbott said.

“That in itself gives us confidence that these students are poised for success.” victoria.ayala@temple.edu @ayalavictoria_

The Temple News

NEWS

PAGE 5

ADMINISTRATION

Student Conduct Code suggestions await approval The recommendations will allow the university to respond more effectively to hate speech.

BY VICTORIA AYALA Assistant News Editor Temple University’s University Counsel, a legal advisor to the university, approved recommendations made by the Student Conduct Code review committee on Jan. 15, said Valerie Harrison, senior advisor to President Richard Englert for equity, diversity and inclusion.

These suggestions, Harrison believes, will encourage the university to respond more effectively to hate speech than it did in the past.

The recommendations now move on to the Executive Vice President and Provost JoAnne Epps and Englert for additional review, Harrison said.

The committee’s specific recommendations will be released after their approval, Dean of Students Stephanie Ives wrote in an email to The Temple News.

After a handful of incidents in June 2020 involving racist comments made online by Temple students, the university was criticized after tweeting that students using “hateful speech” are protected under the Student Conduct Code.

One incident, on June 1, 2020, involved Jimmy Freas, a senior media studies and production major, who posted a video to his Snapchat satirizing George Floyd’s name and criticizing those who protested after Floyd’s death, The Temple News reported.

In a June 7, 2020, announcement addressing the comments, Vice Dean of Student Affairs Theresa Powell and Ives said they would meet with each student involved in the racist incidents, The Temple News reported.

Following the announcement, the university assembled an eight-person

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS The Student Conduct office at Temple University is located on the third floor of the Howard Gittis Student Center. A committee assembled by the university is tasked with reviewing the Student Conduct Code.

committee led by Harrison to make recommendations to modify the Student Conduct Code, The Temple News reported.

The committee consisted of Harrison, Ives, Temple students, representatives from University Counsel, Mark Rahdert, a constitutional law professor from the Beasley School of Law, and Megan Patrick, the assistant dean of students for student conduct and community standards, Ives said.

The original review committee, which began a regular review of the Stu-

dent Conduct Code in November 2019, was expanded to include students as well as faculty with knowledge in constitutional law to ensure a variety of perspectives and expertise were represented, according to Temple Now. The committee’s overall responsibility was “extending the review process to explore opportunities for addressing hate speech, racist behavior and other bias incidents that impact the campus community and cause a hostile environment based on a protected class,” Ives said.

The committee, which no longer meets, met regularly throughout the fall semester to gain a better understanding of the constitutional restrictions on public institutions, particularly how these restrictions are interpreted, Harrison said.

Additionally, they looked at other schools for comparison before making their suggested modifications to the current conduct code, Harrison said. victoria.ayala@temple.edu @ayalavictoria_

NEWS

PAGE 6

The Temple News

TSG

Parliament’s new leadership plans rest of semester

Eight Parliament members resigned since January, including three at-large representatives.

BY JACK DANZ News Editor Temple University Student Government’s Parliament sent a letter to the deans of all Temple schools and colleges on Friday asking for leniency for student class work and exams during the week of March 8, because students do not have a spring break, which was planned for March 1 to March 7.

This includes limiting homework, holding shorter classes, making assignments optional, rescheduling exams and offering extensions on assignments due that week, according to the letter.

Earlier in the semester, TSG had plans to advocate for more Wellness Days for the Spring 2021 semester in addition to the planned Wellness Days on Feb. 23 and March 24.

But with the change in Parliament’s leadership, TSG did not have time to advocate for more Wellness Days in Temple’s schedule, said Haajrah Gilani, a sophomore journalism major and the new speaker of Parliament.

“With a week of lenient workload, students will be able to re-energize and return to their regularly scheduled routines with lower chance of burnout,” wrote Gilani, who is also the Klein College of Media and Communication representative, and Kiara Marable, a senior philosophy and political science major and the new vice speaker of Parliament, in the letter.

Parliament is doing a wonderful job advocating for a decreased workload, wrote Sophia Tran, a junior psycology major and TSG’s chief internal services officer, in an email to The Temple News.

“Students are academically and socially exhausted, and extremely zoomed out,” Tran wrote. “We aren’t used to an online format, and two Wellness Days isn’t enough for our mental health.”

Members of Parliament elected Gilani and Marable as the new speaker and vice speaker, respectively, of Parliament on Jan. 18, The Temple News reported.

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS Haajrah Gilani (left), a sophomore journalism major and speaker of parliament, and Kiara Marable, a senior philosophy and political science major and vice speaker of parliament, sit on a bench near the Bell Tower on Feb. 15.

Gilani and Marable did not run on the same ticket, but they planned their campaigns together, said Marable, who is also the College of Liberal Arts representative.

“Parliament hasn’t had the most amazing public perception in the past, and I thought that I could maybe play a role in changing that,” Gilani said.

Parliament will continue the previous leadership’s initiatives, including rewriting Parliament’s bylaws, and will create its own initiatives, including opening TSG meetings to the public and creating a freshman representative orientation for TSG, Marable said.

Parliament elected new leadership after Issa Kabeer, a second-year diversity and leadership graduate certificate student and the former speaker of Parliament, and Arshad Shaik, a junior neuroscience major and the former vice speaker of Parliament, resigned from their positions on Jan. 13 amid frustration about their handling of a representative’s resignation, The Temple News reported.

Karim Alazzam, the former Freshman Parliament Representative, resigned from his position on Jan. 10 af-

Parliament also has a lot “more power than people realize, and there really is power to make actual change within Temple.

”

HAAJRAH GILANI Speaker of Parliament

ter posting a video to his personal social media that members of TSG perceived as anti-Semitic, The Temple News reported. “[Kabeer] realized that he had a lot going on, and maybe Parliament could use a new set of eyes, as he said in his letter,” Gilani said.

Shaik is still an at-large representative in Parliament, but Kabeer is no longer involved in it, according to TSG’s website.

Changing leadership halfway through the school year is difficult because of the new leadership’s change in tone and approach, Gilani said.

“We don’t have a lot of time to get the things that we want done, done,” Marable said. “So it’s kind of a matter of racing against the clock.”

Eight Parliament representatives resigned since January, including three at-large representatives, the freshman class representative, the sophomore class representative, the junior class representative, the College of Engineering representative and the College of Public Health representative, Gilani wrote in an email to The Temple News.

“That’s been something of an issue just because it’s so close to the semester ending, we don’t have enough Parliament members to really be hands-on with the projects we want to get done,” Marable said.

With TSG elections coming up in March and only two months left in this term, Parliament will not fill all the vacant positions, only one or two, Gilani said.

In March, Gilani and Marable will not run for a position in Parliament for next term.

“Parliament also has a lot more power than people realize, and there really is power to make actual change within Temple,” Gilani said. john.danz@temple.edu @JackLDanz

Haajrah Gilani is a Co-Intersection Editor at The Temple News. She played no role in the writing or editing of this story.

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OPINION

PAGE 8

The Temple News

THE ESSAYIST EDITORIAL

Inform students on funds As part of the most recent round of federal stimulus funding for colleges and universities, Temple University received $44.2 million, with nearly $15 million expected to go directly to students, The Temple News reported.

Temple secured more money than any other local college or university, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported.

The payments come from the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, which included $22.7 billion in federal funding for higher education institutions, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported.

Last year, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act allowed Temple to give Pell Grant recipient students a direct payment of up to $1,000.

This year, Temple’s direct payments to students will “at minimum” equal their payments from May 2020, The Temple News reported. Students with demonstrated financial need, particularly Pell Grant recipients, will be prioritized for these new payments.

Temple expects to receive the federal funding in the next two weeks, after which they’ll release the money to students in “about a week or so,” Ken Kaiser, the university’s chief financial officer, told The Temple News. As students await these payments, the Editorial Board encourages a concerted effort among the Temple community to distribute information about these funds when they’re available.

College students are experiencing the significant financial strain of continuing to pay for tuition, rent and class materials while dealing with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One in three college students lost their job as a result of the pandemic, and at four-year institutions like Temple, 41 percent of students

experienced housing insecurity and 38 experienced food insecurity, according to a June 2020 report by the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice.

In a study of 1,500 students at a large public college in the United States, researchers from Arizona State University and the University of Michigan found four in 10 students lost a job or internship and 13 percent of them delayed graduation due to the pandemic.

When Temple students received CARES funding in June 2020, they spent it on rent and summer tuition and saved some of it, The Temple News reported.

The Editorial Board encourages students to learn about the application process to receive this new federal funding from the university when it’s available. Students should apply if eligible, as it could help give them short-term relief as the pandemic continues to put financial stress on them and their families.

The Editorial Board also encourages faculty, staff and mentors to help distribute information about the federal stimulus funding application process when it’s available. Simply mentioning it at the start of class or posting an announcement on Canvas may help a student pay their bills for the month and ease part of the stress of being a student during the pandemic.

Lastly, the Editorial Board encourages Temple to find multiple methods of delivering information to students about eligibility and application information for these funds when they are available, as they did with the CARES Act in May 2020.

The pandemic is affecting us in many difficult ways and any information that could lessen that burden is crucial.

Lights, camera, movies theaters are back in action Every quiet and quarantined night of A student describes her anticipation March 2020, my family and I sat together on to see movies in a theater again one the couch and picked out a movie. Although year after the Oscars.

I

ALLISON NIKLES For The Temple News

t’s hard for me to forget the smell of liquid butter pouring onto my large bucket of popcorn.

The salty but sweet smell lingered around the theater halls, leaving my mouth watering.

Friday nights in my small hometown of Yardley, Pennsylvania, didn’t bring much excitement. Instead, my friends and I searched the Fandango app to see which movies would be premiered at our local theater.

One of my favorite memories was on a chilly April night in 2019.

Social media was exploding because “Avengers: Endgame,” the sequel to “Avengers: Infinity War,” was premiering after a year of anticipation. As we stepped out of my car, we noticed we weren’t the only people excited to see “Endgame” on the big screen.

The entire theater parking lot was filled with cars.

Young kids carrying blankets and older couples latching hands headed to the ticket booth of the Regal UA Oxford Valley movie theater to score the perfect seat.

I didn’t care where I sat as long as I was there.

My friends followed me to our seats with excitement in our eyes. We couldn’t wait to sit in the leather reclining seats.

After three hours of thrilling action and a tear-jerking ending, I couldn’t help but applaud. Even though the movie just ended, I was excited to buy my tickets for a new movie the following weekend.

Little did I know that my weekends would become humdrum one year later.

When a state of emergency was declared last March, businesses began to abruptly close. Unfortunately, movie theaters were one of the first nonessential businesses to shut down.

the surround system created an entertaining environment, it wasn’t quite the same as the big screen.

Most nights, we binged-watched our favorite movies and television shows, like “A Star is Born,” “The Greatest Showman” and “The Mandalorian.” Due to COVID-19, release dates for many new movies were being pushed back. Although I love watching the heartfelt chemistry between Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, nothing beats the feeling of watching a new movie for the first time.

Quarantine felt like a never-ending cycle, and I wondered if I would ever be able to leave my living room couch again.

The thought of movie theaters going out of business was hard for me to imagine. My love for movies began at such a young age that I didn’t want to lose a piece of my childhood.

It wasn’t until Jan. 8 that theaters reopened in Pennsylvania. Last year around this time, I would have been watching the Oscars, but this year, they’ve been postponed until April 25.

So far, my cautious attitude has kept me from enjoying one of my favorite activities again. But with restrictions and guidelines in place, I feel comfortable knowing that theater workers will do everything they can to create a safer atmosphere.

I’m glad to see movie theaters gradually open again. I’ve come to terms with the reality that movie showings won’t be nearly the same as the premiere of “Endgame,” but I’m grateful that I will be able to enjoy the theater seats regardless.

Even though I won’t be able to eat the theater’s buttered popcorn during these unprecedented times, I think I’m finally ready to purchase a movie ticket yet again. allison.nikles@temple.edu

The Temple News

OPINION

PAGE 9

HEALTH

Students can stop the variants with vaccinations A student argues that eligible students should be vaccinated to slow down COVID-19 variants.

One year into the pandemic, we are in a race against time again.

Two vaccines created by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, CHRISTINA MITCHELL but new COVID-19 Opinion Editor variants may throw a wrench in Philadelphia’s less-than-perfect vaccination plan.

Seven variants have now been detected in the U.S and are believed to have originated domestically, The Hill reported on Monday.

These are in addition to three international variants, originating from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil. They are more transmissible than the original strain of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. While the authorized vaccines are believed to be effective against the U.K. and Brazilian mutations, they may be slightly less effective against the South African variant, CNN reported.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the variants will prove a challenge to ending the pandemic, but even moderate protection against COVID-19 is significant, United Press International reported.

Although many students are still months away from being eligible for their first dose, those who have been offered either of the two available vaccines should receive it before COVID-19 continues to adapt.

If more people are vaccinated, the virus will have fewer places to infect and mutate, said Jason Gallagher, a clinical professor in the School of Pharmacy.

“The more antibodies are in the pop-

HANNA LIPSKI / THE TEMPLE NEWS

ulation, the less virus there will be,” Gallagher said. “The population it spreads in the most is young adults because they’re the most social. The reason this is moving through the population so intensely is because no one’s immune.”

Philadelphia is currently in phase 1B of its vaccination plan, which includes some essential workers, seniors over the age of 75, people with certain medical conditions and health care workers eligible in phase 1A, Philly Voice reported.

Phase 1C will include essential workers not eligible in 1B and people ages 65 to 74 years old. College students who do not fall under one of these categories will not be vaccinated until phase 2, the last phase, according to the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

It will take an estimated 75 percent

of people in the U.S. to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity, a threshold at which enough people are immune that the virus can be contained, CNBC reported.

Currently, 10 percent of the population has received their first dose, and only three percent has received both, Business Insider reported.

The way we communicate about vaccination is important, said Sarah Bass, a social and behavioral sciences professor and director of Temple’s Risk Communication Laboratory.

“Vaccination is one of the number one public health tenets,” Bass said. “In the case of COVID, because it’s so infectious, a vaccine is one of the only sustainable ways to control the spread of the disease.”

On Jan. 15, Susan VonNessen-Scanlin, associate dean of clinical affairs and interprofessional education at the College of Public Health, emailed students and faculty informing them they were eligible to receive the first dose of the Moderna vaccine on Jan. 20, Jan. 21 or Jan. 27 at the Bell Building, The Temple News reported.

I scheduled my vaccines right away for Jan. 27 and Feb. 24.

Rachel Rakowski, a senior public health major, was among one of the first to receive the vaccine on Jan. 20. She is completing a hybrid internship, she said.

“I feel more comfortable volunteering in higher exposure situations that need support right now, but it also allows me the peace of mind that I’m unlikely able to spread it to loved ones who might not have the immune response to survive,” Rakowski said.

On Jan. 19, the College of Public Health announced that only 50 percent of those who were offered the vaccine signed up to receive it.

While 700 “clinically facing frontline faculty, staff and students” had been vaccinated by Jan. 25, the email urged students who hadn’t signed up to do so.

Moraine Kisenda, a senior biology major, volunteers for the College of Public Health’s vaccine clinic in addition to working at her in-person internship.

She was vaccinated on Feb. 1, she said.

“I’m one step closer to protecting myself and others by performing an effective preventative practice, and it was a historical moment I had a chance to partake in,” Kisenda said.

The university should strive to vaccinate 100 percent of eligible students.

Students who do not have access to the vaccine can prevent the spread of the variants just like the original strain by social distancing, wearing a mask and washing their hands.

christina.mitchell@temple.edu @clmitchell1799

PAGE 10

OPINION

The Temple News

STUDENT LIFE

Stop enforcing professionalism during COVID-19 A student argues professionalism on Zoom during a pandemic is unnecessary and classist.

Professionalism is elitist and gratuitous, especially during a pandemic.

Professionalism varies depending on the workplace, but it is generally defined as an individual’s conMAYA RAHMAN For The Temple duct and appearance News at work. This includes arriving on time, being respectful and dressing appropriately, the Balance Careers reported.

While no one is objecting to the fact that being punctual and honest are positive traits, professionalism often has classist, ableist and gendered implications, like emphasizing expensive clothing and polite mannerisms. Censoring the way a person expresses themselves perpetuates a hierarchy and suppresses individuality, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as many students are working from home in their bedrooms.

Madison Buffardi, a 2019 strategic communication alum, has always been told to cover up their tattoos or take out their piercings at job interviews, they said.

“As a queer nonbinary person, when I am not presenting in traditionally feminine ways, there have been times when people have made it clear that they do not like that part of who I am, nor respect it,” Buffardi said.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to pivot to remote work, employers are trying to bring the office home too.

A Wall Street Journal article from July 2020 titled “Seven Rules of Zoom Meeting Etiquette From the Pros” prohibited “rookie moves,” including poor Internet connection, loungewear, eating, pets and family members in the background, or “lurkers.”

But we’re not in a conference room.

We’re in a pandemic. And we’re students.

ALI GRAULTY / THE TEMPLE NEWS

In the era of online school, some professors are placing pre-pandemic expectations on students, adding unnecessary stress during an unprecedented time, Buffardi said.

“I’ve had professors scold me for having my pets in view during class, eating during a three-and-a-half-hour class and wearing hoodies or loungewear during class,” they added. “If you are able to show up, do the work and do well during a global pandemic, that should be all that matters.”

Professors should be developing trust and rapport with their students.

Karen Turner, a journalism professor and faculty member on Klein Rising, pointed out one of her student’s lovely backgrounds.

“I kept complimenting her on it. If it’s appropriate, you can certainly ex-

press some of your personality,” Turner said.

Many students do not have a quiet office space or high-speed internet connection for interviews, nor can they afford business casual clothing deemed as the only acceptable attire by employers.

About 4.4 million households in the United States do not have consistent access to a computer, and 3.7 million households lack internet access, according to a 2020 Household Pulse Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.

If schools and workplaces require high-speed internet, it shouldn’t become the burden of the students, said Julia Rivera, a 2018 international business and Spanish alumna.

“It just doesn’t cross [employers’ and professors’] minds how privileged they are to never have to think about having

internet access,” Rivera said.

We should be focused on defeating COVID-19, not scrutinizing someone for eating a snack or wearing pajamas in the comfort of their own home. We’re humans, not robots.

Students can succeed in their classes and internships and still prioritize their mental health and identity, Buffardi said.

“There is a lot of ableism, classism and binaries that take hold when people try to create expectations for professionalism,” they added. “That is something we all need to unpack. I think COVID-19 has only made it more clear to me that there are a myriad of things that get overlooked in the name of ‘good work ethic.’” maya.rahman@temple.edu

The Temple News

OPINION

PAGE 11

POLITICS

Raising the minimum wage helps essential workers A student argues President tween 1989 and 2016, Forbes reported.

Jana Calhoun, a senior dance major, Biden should gradually raise the makes $10 an hour as a stage crew workminimum wage to $15 an hour.

President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion dollar stimulus plan initially included a federal minimum wage increase from $7.25 to $15 an hour, but it is unlikely to survive in the final package, USA RYAN ZAJDEL For The Temple Today reported.

News While a federal minimum wage increase would help people earning less than $15 an hour, small businesses would not be able to keep up with wage increases. Doubling the federal minimum wage right away will put 1.4 million people out of work, the New York Times reported.

Biden should combine individualized benefits with small business tax credits and then increase the federal minimum wage gradually to at least $15 an hour. This would be a win-win scenario for small businesses and individuals, as employers would be able to pay their employees a higher wage, and college students working at these businesses would be able to have a higher standard of living and dedicate more hours to studying.

Congress’s 2007 amendments were the last federal increase to the minimum wage, raising it from $5.15 to $5.85 per hour in 2007 to $6.55 per hour in 2008 then $7.25 per hour in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Two-fifths of workers under the age of 25 earn minimum wage or less, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.

But for these college-aged students, the price of attending college has increased eight times faster than wages be-

er at Temple Performing Arts Center.

“To be living comfortably, I’d need to work 30 to 40 hours a week at this job, which isn’t very plausible because I’m a full-time student,” Calhoun said.

Personally, I need to work 3 jobs that pay less than $15 an hour to pay my rent and tuition as a student.

As a cashier and delivery driver, I am also an essential worker, putting my safety on the line for a few extra bucks.

As an economics major, I know that I work for corporations that would survive if they increased my wage.

In 2019, a living wage in the U.S. was $16.54 per hour before taxes for a family of four, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

But in Pennsylvania, the minimum wage remains $7.25 an hour, WGAL News reported.

Yet in every area except housing, the cost of living is higher in Philadelphia than elsewhere in Pennsylvania, according to Best Places.

As a result, 26 percent of the Philadelphians lived below the poverty line in 2017, including 45 percent of North Philadelphians, according to a 2018 Pew Research study.

The federal government sets the minimum wage knowing that these regional differences exist, but it may be more beneficial for states and cities’ economies to let local governments decide their own minimum wage based on their area’s needs, said Pedro Silos, an economics professor.

“The federal government could say, ‘Let’s set the minimum wage as a fraction of average wages in a specific area,’” Silos said.

Systems like the Earned Income Tax

LAILA SAMPHILIPO/ THE TEMPLE NEWS

Credit help people earn money back on their taxes. This program reduces taxes and increases refunds for low and middle income earners.

Unfortunately, these types of programs often lack accessibility due to means testing, which gauges a person’s financial situation using various documents and paperwork, said Grace Spurrier, a junior political science major and president of the Temple College Democrats.

“To apply for these programs, one must have these materials on hand and the time and the ability to apply for something, assuming you apply for it correctly and it goes through,” Spurrier said.

In addition, students under the age of 25 who are claimed as dependents are ineligible to receive these benefits, making a minimum wage increase all the more important.

The U.S. could benefit from a graduated corporate tax, a system where taxes

are divided into brackets and earnings are taxed at different levels, said Nate Wooding, a senior economics major and member of the Temple Economics Society executive board.

“Under this system, smaller businesses pay lower taxes and larger businesses pay slightly higher taxes, which could cancel out some of the costs of increasing the minimum wage,” Wooding said.

The “Fight for $15” has been a long, uphill battle, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed how little some of our country’s most vital workers earn.

These essential workers, many of whom are college students, are the backbone of our country, but they should not have to work to the bone just to afford basic necessities.

Nobody working full-time should be living under the poverty line. ry.zajdel@temple.edu

LIVE Philly in

BY ALLIE IPPOLITO Assistant Photo Editor

FINDING THE

PURRFECT MATCH

The Pennsylvania SPCA brought adoptable cats to Philadelphia Brewing Company for a Meowentine’s Day cat adoption event.

O

ALLIE IPPOLITO / THE TEMPLE NEWS Barry, an adoptable cat from the PSPCA, stands in his cage at the Meowentine’s Day cat adoption event at Philadelphia Brewing Company on Feb. 13.

n Saturday, the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals brought 13 adoptable cats to Philadelphia Brewing Company for their Meowentine’s Day cat adoption event.

Potential adopters were taken to the brewery’s tasting room on a firstcome, first-served basis to interact with the cats, have a drink and purchase decorated Valentine’s hearts to benefit the PSPCA as they waited.

Prior to COVID-19, Philadelphia Brewing Company, located on Hagert Street near Martha in East Kensington, hosted “Caturdays,” which were monthly adoption events with animals from the PSPCA. Saturday’s Valentine’s themed event marked almost one year since Philadelphia Brewing Company held a “Caturday.”

COVID-19 precautions were in place, as masks were required and only one family at a time was allowed in the tasting room where the cats were located.

Nancy Barton, co-owner of Philadelphia Brewing Company, was elated to see the event happening after so long.

“This is the first one we’ve done in a year,” she said. “So it’s exciting, and I think it’s working out to have people come up one family at a time. I’m so happy to be doing it again.”

Since the pandemic hit, the PSPCA saw an increase in adoptions due to people staying at home and wanting some sort of companion, said Rachel Golub, adoptions and behavior manager at PSPCA. “Adoptions have definitely increased and the interest is higher,”

Golub said. “The big thing is, you know, people are home more, so they’re more interested in having a companion now, especially since you can’t socialize as much.”

There’s been a lot of interest in adopting pets during the pandemic, but COVID-19 safety restrictions make visiting shelters challenging, Golub said.

“What’s challenging is, of course, we can’t have people just walk into the building like we used to, so managing the flow of people and the demand has been kind of challenging,” Golub said.

“But it’s been good because we’ve gotten a lot more animals adopted.”

Angelica Steele, 22, who lives in Fairmount, came to Philadelphia Brewing Company wanting to adopt a cat.

“I have a dog and I wanted to get a friend for him,” Steele said. “You know, especially during the pandemic, I’m working all day and right there, but I’m not giving him attention. And he loves cats. And I love cats.”

After checking out the cats in the tasting room at Philadelphia Brewing Company, Steele found Leia.

“I felt a connection to her in a day,” Steele said. “I guess it’s a little cheesy, but as soon as I started holding her, she just felt like she was perfect.”

Anette Castro, a junior neuroscience major, attended the event to find a cat to accompany her and her dog.

“I’m really looking for the right cat to match my dog, to match my energy,” Castro said. “I want it to be a long-lasting relationship with the cat. So I just want to make sure it’s right.”

Allison.ippolito@temple.edu @allieippolito

MOVING CLOCKWISE FROM THE TOP RIGHT Angelica Steele and her family sit with Gianna Davila, lead lifesavings counselor at PSPCA, as they go over adoption paperwork for Steele’s newly adopted cat at the Meowentine’s Day cat adoption event at Philadelphia Brewing Company on Feb. 13.

Anette Castro, a junior neuroscience major, plays with one of the cats.

Gigi, an adoptable cat from the PSPCA, sits in her cage at the Meowentine’s Day cat adoption event.

Patricia Haer, a 55-year-old Bensalem resident, checks out one of the cats.

PAGE 14

LONGFORM

The Temple News

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS Students in a social science research methods class sit socially-distanced in a classroom in the Paley Building on Feb. 15.

STUDENT LIFE

Enrollment declines as classes stay mostly virtual More students are taking time off, creating concerns about enrollment and faculty job security.

BY ASA CADWALLADER For The Temple News

F

or Joseph Burch, a sophomore undeclared major, the thought of another semester of online instruction amid the COVID-19 pandemic filled him with dread — enough dread, in fact, that he decided to take a leave of absence for the Spring 2021 semester.

“I realized I had completed two semesters of online classes and really didn’t have much to show for it,” Burch said. “I was still undecided, had seen my grades dip, and just wasn’t getting the college experience I had wanted through Zoom.”

Some students like Burch are taking time off this semester as COVID-19 keeps most classes online and students reconsider their immediate academic futures. As a result, lower enrollment and the subsequent loss in tuition dollars has made a ripple effect throughout Tem-

ple University’s administration, causing the institution to change its admissions strategies and worrying adjunct faculty about their job security.

The effects of COVID-19 on student enrollment were felt almost immediately, with universities seeing a four percent dip in enrollment within the first month of the Fall 2020 semester alone, Forbes reported.

Temple’s attempt at holding nonessential classes in person during Fall 2020 fell through when an outbreak of the virus forced the university to transition to mostly online instruction only weeks into the semester, The Temple News reported.

The pandemic accelerated a gradual decline in enrollment in higher education nationwide. Between 2011 and 2019, enrollment at colleges and universities nationwide declined 11 percent, largely due to a combination of factors including the economy, demographic changes and the rising cost of tuition, NPR reported.

With this changing admissions land-

scape, Temple is navigating enrollment declines as students question whether they want to continue attending school during a pandemic.

LOWERED ENROLLMENT

Shawn Abbott, vice provost of admissions, financial aid and enrollment management, said that Temple’s decline in enrollment for the Spring 2021 semester is consistent with the national average and represents a major shift compared to what numbers looked like prior to the pandemic.

“We are in a very different world than we were one year ago,” he added.

Overall, the Fall 2020 semester saw a 4.4 percent decrease in undergraduate enrollment, InsideHigherEd reported.

Despite hopes that in-person learning would be safe by Spring 2021, the pandemic wore on and continued to affect student enrollment, Abbott said.

“Unfortunately, our hopes that by spring there would be some return to normalcy didn’t end up being true at Temple or any other university across

the country,” he added.

Not only are more current students taking time off, Temple also saw a record number of incoming students defer their admission, Abbott said.

Temple has also seen a decrease in transfer students from community colleges, a demographic which historically makes up a significant part of the university’s admissions pipeline, Abbott said.

“Community colleges have been some of the hardest hit by the pandemic,” he added. “And we’re seeing that reflected in the lack of students transferring from these institutions.”

While the pandemic has undoubtedly exacerbated declines in enrollment at colleges and universities across the country, other systemic causes, like a slowing economy, a reduction in the number of international students and fewer high school students graduating in Temple’s geographic area, may also be playing a role, said Raymond Betzner, a spokesperson for the university, in an email to The Temple News.

The Temple News

“If you are at the lower socioeconomic end of the spectrum and struggling to stay afloat or meet your basic needs, it’s likely that seeking admission to an institution of higher education is not an immediate concern,” Abbott said.

TAKING TIME OFF

In addition to the frustration and fatigue associated with online instruction, some students took time off due to grievances with the cost of tuition for online instruction.

Rebecca Werez, a senior journalism major, said the idea of paying full tuition to take online classes was not worth falling further into debt. She decided to take both the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters off, choosing to work at Reading Terminal Market and save money.

“Despite the best efforts of my professors, I really struggled with online classes when they first started last spring,” Werez said. “Approaching the fall semester, I kept thinking, ‘Why should I take a class that I could very well fail while paying full price for a lesser experience?’”

Last spring, an online petition calling for the lowering of tuition for the Fall 2020 semester received more than 15,000 signatures, illustrating the widespread discontent among students about the university charging full cost tuition for online instruction.

Temple froze tuition for the second consecutive year in the 2020-21 academic year, The Temple News reported.

In July 2020, university chief financial officer Ken Kaiser said in a Temple Now announcement that freezing tuition “was all we thought we could afford while still keeping the university financially viable,” rather than discounting it this academic year.

While Werez has not yet formally withdrawn from Temple, she plans to transfer to culinary school at the Community College of Philadelphia this coming fall.

Burch is also considering pursuing an alternate path outside of the traditional academic route, partly due to the loss of his merit-based scholarship.

Per university financial aid policy, students with merit-based scholarships risk losing them if they choose to take a leave of absence.

Burch’s time off led him to consider possibly not returning to Temple at all

LONGFORM

PAGE 15

and instead pursuing trade school.

“Without this time off, it’s probably not something I would have ever considered,” Burch said. “With not taking classes, though, I’ve had the opportunity to look at other options.”

Abbott hopes that when things stabilize with the COVID-19 pandemic, students who are currently taking time off will rematriculate, although enrollment trends have been hard to predict.

“The pandemic has us operating on a semester-to-semester basis, so the amount of students that will return after taking time off is still unknown,” he said.

FACULTY CONCERNS

Students weren’t the only ones facing difficult decisions regarding their potential return to Temple. Adjunct faculty, who are hired on a semester-by-semester basis, continue to face uncertainty surrounding their employment as enrollment declines, said Steve Newman, an English professor and president of the Temple Association of University Professionals.

In October 2020, intellectual heritage professors received an email, which The Temple News obtained, warning that “significantly fewer” adjunct professors would be rehired in the Intellectual Heritage department for the Spring 2021 semester.

The email, sent by the director of the IH department, Dustin Kidd, cited financial concerns for the uncertainty around the rehiring of adjuncts after Temple projected a $45 million loss the semester prior due to its refunding of students the cost of housing, meal plans and parking passes, The Temple News reported.

“I don’t envy the decisions the university has had to make, but with that said, a lot of our faculty have experienced a lot of uncertainty and confusion, especially around who was being picked to teach for spring and how,” Newman said.

Deborah Lemieur, an intellectual heritage instructor since 2009, is teaching only one section of the course this semester, one less than usual.

“I’ve loved teaching in IH and have poured my heart into this job, despite the various trials of being an adjunct,” Lemieur said. “But when this spring I learned they had taken one of my classes away, I was shocked and furious.”

Amid lower enrollment, Temple’s

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS Rebecca Werez, a former journalism major who is now taking a leave of absence, stands outside of the Reading Terminal Market where she works on Feb. 14.

administration remains committed to providing the best quality education possible while keeping costs as low as possible, Betzner wrote.

“On the one hand, the issue is simple having fewer students means the need for fewer classes, and fewer people to teach those classes,” Betzner wrote.

A NEW STRATEGY

With enrollment declining, the university’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions is adapting by changing aspects of their admissions strategy by relaxing testing standards and expanding their virtual admissions programming.

With 75 percent of applicants for Fall 2020 opting not to submit standardized test scores, Temple’s admissions department has pivoted to alternative ways to evaluate prospective students, Abbott said.

“We’re putting greater emphasis on academic performance and rigor in high school, extracurricular impact outside the classroom, as well as work experience,” he added.

Following the outbreak of COVID-19, safety concerns prevented many high school students from taking college entrance exams, leading many colleges to drop standardized testing requirements as part of their applications, U.S. News reported.

Despite the ongoing pandemic, Temple saw a large increase in early ac-

tion applications for the Fall 2021 semester, and a “drastic increase” in Black and international applicants, Abbott said.

“Among the 16,000 early action applications we received, which was a university record, we saw a 27 percent increase in the amount of Black students that applied and a 22 percent increase in the number of international students that applied,” Abbott added.

This increase is partly thanks to increased virtual admissions programming available to prospective students, which is traditionally done by admissions counselors in person at high schools across the country, Abbott said.

Amid trepid hopes that the pandemic will have subsided by next fall, Abbott is hoping that the potential return to in-person instruction next fall will stabilize enrollment.

Newman is also hopeful that higher enrollment and more class offerings next fall could lead to the rehiring of adjunct faculty.

“The hardships caused by this pandemic are being felt at all levels of academic institutions right now,” Newman said. “Still, we have to be doing everything in our power to protect and bolster the interests of both our students and our faculty.” asa.cadwallader@temple.edu @asacadwallader

PAGE 16

FEATURES

The Temple News

OFF CAMPUS

Students, alumni reminisce about Draught Horse The restaurant and bar, which who weren’t big drinkers, the Draught has been around for 20 years, is Horse was a cornerstone of the campus,” Verlin said. “It was always vibrant and closing this month.

BY GREG VAN RIPER For The Temple News

O

n March 23, 2001, when Temple University men’s basketball edged out Penn State in the third round of the NCAA tournament, people piled into the newly opened campus bar, Draught Horse Pub & Grill.

“Having an absolutely packed, you know, sold-out atmosphere for a tournament and away game at a time when people rarely came to the campus and nobody really lived ‘round here, that was a pretty cool moment,” said Mike Frost, a 2002 criminal justice alumnus and general manager of Draught Horse.

Draught Horse, located on Cecil B. Moore Avenue and 15th Street, announced it is closing on Feb. 21. After 20 years of serving the Temple community, students and alumni are sad to see a restaurant where many met for drinks and created memories close its doors.

The restaurant is closing permanently, as they were not able to secure a longterm lease from Temple, who owns the building, The Temple News reported.

“It’s always something you think about when your lease is coming to an end, something that weighs on people’s minds, with the pandemic and everything,” Frost said. “It wasn’t like it was fresh and sudden, it felt like something we kind of knew was a possibility.”

When he was a student, Josh Verlin, a 2012 broadcast journalism alumnus, met his dad in the booths of Draught Horse for lunch and ordered burgers together.

Verlin isn’t shocked that the Draught Horse is closing because the past year was tough for many restaurants and bars, but he’ll be sad to see it go, he said.

“Even for those of us Temple students

buzzing like a great college bar should be.”

As of Dec. 7, 2020, 17 percent of restaurants in the U.S., or more than 110,000 establishments, had closed permanently or long-term due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the National Restaurant Association.

Kurt Gibson Jr., a DJ who frequently played at the Draught Horse, said the bar’s staff members were dedicated to making sure Temple students and community members had a great experience every time they came to the restaurant, he said.

“I’m positive that the owner, the bartenders, security and everyone involved has put their entire emotion and well-being into bringing a room to life over the past two decades,” Gibson Jr. said. “I am lucky to say I had the pleasure to be included and involved.”

Meredith Gibson, a sophomore psychology major, hasn’t visited Draught Horse yet, but feels like it’s special because it seems like a tradition for students to go there, she said.

“I’m kind of sad that it’s closing because now I won’t ever have the chance to go,” Gibson added.

Julia Eustace ate at Draught Horse with her parents when they dropped her off at campus or when her parents came to visit. She always ordered her favorite menu item, the grilled chicken caesar wrap and fries, she said.

Eustace, a freshman undeclared business major, is disappointed to see the Draught Horse closing because it takes away an option from the already small selection of restaurants around campus, she said.

“It’s like a restaurant desert out here, compared to like, Center City,” she said.

“If they want bar food, I don’t know where else they can get that around here.”

Lee’s Hoagie House, a sandwich shop

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS People dine inside of Draught Horse Pub & Grill on Feb. 14.

previously located on Cecil B. Moore Avenue near 15th Street, permanently closed in December 2020, and Pazzo Pazzo, a pizzeria located on Cecil B. Moore Avenue near Willington Street, filed for bankruptcy in October 2020, The Temple News reported.

Sam Zeller, a senior communication studies major, worked at Draught Horse from August 2018 to March 2020, when the managers began scheduling fewer bartenders and servers because COVID-19 decreased business.

Serving at Draught Horse was the best job she’s ever had, and leaving felt like leaving a community of close friends, Zeller said.

Zeller has seen people posting memories from Draught Horse on Instagram, which brings back memories for her from her time working there. She’s upset she won’t be able to participate in Draught Horse traditions, like Fifty Cent Friday or Wild Wednesday, Zeller said.

“All the memories and stuff like it really just reminded me and like solidified how much the Horse means to literally everybody at Temple,” Zeller said. “It was like really bittersweet to watch all of them.”

While Frost is upset that Draught Horse is closing, he is more sad that students, faculty, staff and community members won’t have a place to go for lunch, meetings or happy hours, he said.

“I knew we were so much more than the bar everybody knew about on a Wednesday night,” Frost added. “We were a bonafide restaurant, a place that parents felt comfortable coming to dinner with their kids when we visited campus. I feel bad for everyone that used us for those things, that will never have that exact chance again.” greg.van.riper@temple.edu

Natalie Kerr contributed reporting.

Support artists

Shop small

y

Bu l

ca

lo

Small Business Guide

Student-run

a special issue of

The Temple News

Communityoriented

SMALL BUSINESS GUIDE

B2

Shop small, shop local

S

mall businesses are often considered the lifeline of our communities, and if we’ve learned anything from the last year’s COVID-19 restrictions, closures and limitations, it’s that they are essential.

This year, The Temple News is showcasing small businesses on and around Temple University’s Main Campus. From an alumnae who owns her own storefront in Bristol Township, Pennsylvania, to a pair of students starting a screenprinting business in their apartment basement, some small businesses found ways to survive statewide shutdowns and closures for nonessential businesses.

Some students took advantage of their extra time during the pandemic to pick up new hobbies, turning them into profitable businesses. Others expanded their established businesses, reconnecting with their passions and turning their business into a career. When unemployment rates rose last year, some students turned to their small businesses as their main source of income.

North Central is also home to many small businesses, providing haircuts, hardware, nail art and more to the community.

When I purchase from a small business, I know the process is deeper than a simple transaction. Buying a handcrafted good or service from someone benefits me, but it helps the seller pay bills, buy groceries or continue their work. Every sale is a success and motivation to continue their livelihood.

A homemade good or small business service is like buying a part of someone: it’s the product of their labor, creativity and love for their craft, and supporting that passion is meaningful and worthwhile.

Take our first Small Business Guide issue to learn about small businesses around Temple, and support these entrepreneurs or others in your hometown.

Sincerely, Emma Padner Features Editor

The Temple News

COMMUNITY

Businesses find new strategies Small business owners are company’s online branding, she said. indoor dining, Wargo said.

“It’s not only about having the “For most restaurants, it’s just not learning to market and offer products online but putting your face viable,” he added. “The lack of dining new services to stay afloat.

BY LAWRENCE UKENYE Assistant Features Editor Ninety-nine percent of businesses in the United States are small businesses with 500 employees or less, according to JP Morgan Chase, an investment banking firms.

“They are the engine that keeps the country going,” said Donald Wargo, an economics professor.

While retail and restaurant industries have suffered closures for the last 11 months of the pandemic, many surviving small businesses are rethinking their services or business models due to restrictions and capacity limits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Breanna Hitchens, a 2018 international business alumna, grew her vintage furniture refurbishing business, Re-URBAN-it, and began offering delivery services and curbside pickup, she said. She went from posting on her Instagram once per day pre-pandemic to now posting about 30 times per day, she added.

Online marketing plays a key role in how businesses stay afloat and attract new customers during the pandemic, Wargo said. Businesses reliant on face-to-face interactions may be permanently hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic if they don’t adapt by expanding operations online, he added.

Re-URBAN-it’s total profits doubled since the pandemic began, and Hitchens attributes that to her

behind it,” she added. “It’s about being open with your customers because if they can’t come to you, then you have to go speak to them.”

She did this by increasing the amount of posts on her social me-

“[Small businesses] are the engine that keeps the country going.

”

DONALD WARGO Economics professor dia accounts and using Facebook to alert her customers to any changes in hours and operations, she said.

While home, auto and professional service industries experienced a low rate of business closure during the pandemic, the restaurant and retail industries each suffered more than 30,000 business closures by Aug. 31, 2020, according to Yelp’s September 2020 local economic impact report.

The food delivery market soared in the months after the pandemic began, according to JP Morgan Chase, but these gains often don’t cover the revenue restaurants lost from limited

can cut their revenue in half, even if they lay people off, they still have all the overhead costs.”

Philly Style Pizza & Grill on Broad Street near Norris shifted toward delivery services like DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats to make up for a 50 percent loss in sales, said Bryan Levash, manager of Philly Style.

Delivery services might offer an opportunity to make up some sales, but it’s tricky once the food is out of Philly Style’s hands, he added.

“We went on those apps because our customers just like using them rather than them being better services,” Levash said.

Philly Style closes at 10 p.m., instead of staying open late until 2:30 a.m., like pre-pandemic time.

Levash is hopeful the COVID-19 vaccine will restore some normalcy to his business, he said.

Between 70 and 85 percent of the U.S. population needs to be vaccinated for life to return to a sense of normalcy, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in a Dec. 20, 2020, interview on CNN. “I’m hopeful everything goes back to normal,” Levash added. “I keep hearing next fall, but that could obviously change, but we really can’t wait to be back open late nights.” lawrence.ukenye@temple.edu lawrencee_u

The Temple News

SMALL BUSINESS GUIDE

B3

ALUMNI

Maya’s Bites bakery whips up business and batter Maya Kaplan plans to turn her baking business into a career through pastry school.

BY BRIANNA FAIRMAN For The Temple News As a teenager in Sherborn, Massachusetts, Maya Kaplan spent her Saturdays pacing the baking aisles of her local A.C. Moore, clutching the company’s weekly coupons tightly, hunting for new additions to her ever-growing collection of cookie cutters, frosting tips and cake pans.

“If you walk into my room, it’s just baking supplies,” said Kaplan, a 2020 public relations alumna.

Kaplan founded Maya’s Bites, a baked goods business, in 2017 after friends and family kept asking her for custom-made orders. Maya’s Bites specializes in three-layer cakes frosted with Italian buttercream and adorned with intricate designs for birthdays, anniversaries and holidays.

In the past year, Kaplan sold more than 1,500 cupcakes, cookies, macaroons and other baked goods, she said.

A three-layer cake with two layers of filling and buttercream frosting typically takes her between two and four hours, but more intricate designs can take her days to complete, she said.

Most of her sales are in her hometown of Sherborn, although recently she has been reaching out to Temple University students to sell more in Philadelphia, she said.

Kaplan’s love of baking began with her mother’s affinity for making “really fun birthday cakes” when she was growing up, she said.

“The first thing I probably sold was to my mom’s best friend,” Kaplan said. “I made like, a cupcake bouquet. That’s actually one of the things I’m most proud of.”

Last year, Kaplan churned out nearly 100 baked goods ranging from cakes to brownies using 20 pounds of butter, 35 pounds of sugar and 100 eggs during her busiest Christmas season to date, she said.

Arnie Marcus, 69, Kaplan’s family friend and customer who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, praised her talent

PHOTO BY MAYA KAPLAN / COURTESY DESIGN BY HANNA LIPSKI AND INGRID SLATER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Maya Kaplan creates custom baked goods through her business Maya’s Bites, which she founded in 2017.

and “amazing peanut butter brownies.” “[Kaplan] has certainly found something she’s really enjoyed and is very good at,” Marcus said. “You can tell just from talking to her how excited she is about what she’s doing.”

Kaplan is mostly self-taught and spends a large amount of time studying baking techniques from YouTube videos, she said.

“One day I was watching YouTube videos, and then I was like, ‘You know what, I’m gonna start making cakes,’” Kaplan said.

After starting Maya’s Bites, Kaplan worked at both Guilty Bakery in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Clara’s Groovy Deliciousness on Manning and 20th streets.

“It was clear Maya was interested in [baking],” said Amy Cotter, co-owner of Guilty Bakery and one of Kaplan’s former employers. “We could throw any project at her that we might not be able to throw at other people.”

Kaplan accepted an offer to study baking and pastries at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, for the Fall 2021 semester, she said.

After completing her associate’s degree, Kaplan hopes to expand her online baking business and open a year-round storefront in Philadelphia, she said.

Kaplan studied abroad at Temple University Rome in Spring 2020, where she baked tiramisu with her mother during a trip to Florence. Although her time abroad was cut short due to

COVID-19 travel restrictions, the experience inspired a love of travel, she said.

Kaplan dreams of retiring to South Africa to explore the country’s landscape and wildlife, but she doesn’t think she’ll stop baking and eventually wants to open a bed-and-breakfast.

“I definitely want to keep baking in my life because I love it,” Kaplan said.

For now, Kaplan is focusing on growing her business’s clientele and perfecting her baking skills, she said.

“I don’t care if I’m on my feet from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.,” Kaplan said. “Baking is really fun, and it calms me down. I get lost in it.” brianna.fairman@temple.edu

SMALL BUSINESS GUIDE

B4

The Temple News

ART

Student pours creativity into resin art business Rachel Suter started selling resin work in October 2020, and plans to grow her online business.

BY NATALIE KERR Assistant Features Editor During winter break, Rachel Suter received a notification that someone favorited an item from her online store.

Five minutes later, when she made her first sale to the buyer in California, she could hardly believe her eyes.

“That was so exciting, I was just on top of the world, over the moon,” said Suter, a junior biology major. “I felt amazing.”

Suter is the owner of Resin by Rach, a small business she started in October 2020 that sells products made from epoxy resin, like coasters, ashtrays, trinket dishes and jewelry. Suter began creating resin art in September 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and started selling her art to friends and posting photos to Instagram the next month.

Since October 2020, she’s made 60 sales.

Suter loved the functionality of resin art and how customers used her products in their homes, she said.

“That’s like, my favorite thing, to know that just like, someone will have something that like, I created,” Suter said. “They might not know me, but like, they have like a piece of me.”

Suter’s products are vibrant, sometimes swirling with a rainbow of colors, and often filled with dried flowers, leaves, gold foil and whatever else catches her eye at the craft store.

Suter’s resin studio is currently her mom’s bathroom at their home in York, Pennsylvania, because it has the best space and ventilation to work with materials, though it’s not an ideal setup because epoxy resin can cause irritation and its fumes can be harmful if breathed in, she said.

Suter struggles to create regularly because she does not have space to use resin when she is living in her apartment near Temple University, she said. As her business grows, she hopes she can devote more time to her art.

“I really do want to do it for a while,” Suter said. “I’m really excited for one day,

PHOTO BY ALLIE IPPOLITO / THE TEMPLE NEWS DESIGN BY HANNA LIPSKI AND INGRID SLATER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Rachel Suter sells resin products through her Etsy store, Resin by Rach.

like maybe after graduation, I can maybe find a place where I will be able to have like, a separate office.”

Although her experience has been “a lot of trial and error,” Suter plans to continue growing her business and improving her resin work to include more products and designs.

Suter makes both premade and custom ordered resin pieces, and is excited when customers commission custom products because it helps her accumulate reviews on her online Etsy store, which attracts more customers to her shop.

“The fact that I am getting sales and people that I don’t know are interested and even just following my Instagram means so much,” Suter said. “It like, kind of gives me validation that I’m like, kind

of good at it.”

Amber Cialone, a 2019 music education alumna, found Suter’s products through Facebook and commissioned an ashtray for her sister based on a design Suter posted to her Instagram.

“When I saw [her ashtrays] on Instagram, I thought they were really pretty, and I thought that they would be a really good gift,” Cialone said.

Emily Madara, a junior marketing and entrepreneurship and innovation management major who is in the service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega with Suter, helps her choose which photos to post, manage her posting schedule and engage with her audience to help Suter get more followers and sales, Madara said.

“She definitely has the potential to

grow, and she’s just gotta find her niche, she’s gotta find her audience, she’s gotta find her brand voice,” she said.

Suter is considering taking time off between undergraduate and medical school, which she plans on attending after graduation, to focus on Resin by Rach and potentially pursue an associate’s degree in business to help her operate her shop.

“There’s some times at the beginning, where I was just like, ‘This is expensive, like, I keep having to throw stuff away,’” Suter said. “But then when someone wants me to make something like, I do it, and then when it turns out good, it motivates me to keep going.” natalie.kerr@temple.edu @natliekerr

The Temple News

SMALL BUSINESS GUIDE

B5

ART

Students’ quarantine hobbies become side gigs During the COVID-19 pandemic, students are turning their free time activities into profit.

BY SARAH HEIDELBAUGH For The Temple News When the COVID-19 pandemic began and life seemingly came to a halt, Olivia Chiaravalli didn’t put her life on pause.

Instead, she pulled out her grandmother’s old sewing machine from her basement and spent her sudden free time learning to sew.

“I didn’t think it would really become anything, I just learned how to make masks and posted on my story to see if anyone would want them,” said Chiaravalli, a junior communication studies major.

Like Chiaravalli, students found motivation to pick up new hobbies while staying home. For some, these hobbies became more a simple way to pass time, but a small side business from their bedrooms, creating and selling masks, bags, embroidered clothes and digital designs.

“That’s just one of the silver linings of COVID,” Chiaravalli said. “People have been able to use their creative outlet to like, bring some positivity to their lives.”

In November 2020, Chiaravalli created FruitClub and began selling handmade accessories like masks, bags, hats and wallets. Chiaravalli hopes to add crocheted products to her bright, patterned accessories.

Abby Misbin, a senior marketing major, spent the pandemic learning to make custom cowboy hats covered in glitter and modeled after alcohol brands for parties.

“I originally just did it for me and my friends to wear, and then more people started asking for them,” Misbin said.

In early August 2020, Misbin created her online Etsy page, TrendingByAbby, which received 3,000 visitors by September 2020, she said. In October 2020, she created an Instagram page for her business, where she posts pictures and pricing information for the hats.

Tori Steger, a sophomore communication studies major, began selling custom-made digital products, like social

PHOTO BY ALLIE IPPOLITO / THE TEMPLE NEWS DESIGN BY HANNA LIPSKI AND INGRID SLATER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Olivia Chiaravalli, a junior communication studies major, sells accessories through her shop FruitClub.

media advertisements, logos and business cards, through her Instagram page, Tori Steger Creations.

After receiving 235 likes on a post she created for the Klein College of Media and Communication communication studies media team about how to celebrate Halloween during the pandemic, Steger realized she had a talent and a passion for content creation.

Steger used her extra time from online classes to focus more on advertising and promoting her business, she said.

“Putting yourself out there is like the best thing to do when you have a small business,” Steger said.

Maria Nguyen, a third-year pharma-

ceutical sciences student, learned to embroider by watching YouTube videos in October 2020 after seeing an Instagram post of a whimsical flower embroidery, she said.

Her first products were embroidery hoop Christmas ornaments, which she initially sold on Instagram, later creating an Etsy shop called Threaded Creations.

Nguyen expanded to creating custom designs for quarter zips, sweaters and sewn scrunchies. Although the scrunchies are currently only available in solid colors and satin material, Nguyen plans to add different patterns and materials in the future.

Nguyen’s business allowed her to

overcome her introverted nature to advertise her business, she said.

“I have to do social media, I have to advertise around on Facebook, I have to get the word out to my friends,” she said.

“It’s a one-woman team.”

People who want to start small businesses should get started, even if not everything is perfect and they feel unsure of themselves, Nguyen said.

“Try something new, whether it be for themselves or for profit, it’s definitely a worthwhile thing,” Nguyen said. “It can get your mind off the stresses of the world.” sarah.heidelbaugh@temple.edu

SMALL BUSINESS GUIDE

B6

The Temple News

COMMUNITY

Shop North Central Here are six small businesses to support around Temple University’s Main Campus.

BY NATALIE KERR AND EMMA PADNER For The Temple News COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS

FLOWER & BOUTIQUE

BALLOON

Girard Avenue near Carlisle Street Ray and Cecilia Borres, owners Opened in December 1986, Flower & Balloon Bouquet offers flower arrangements and bouquets for special occasions, like Valentine’s Day, anniversaries and birthdays.

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS

MECCA UNISEX SALON

Cecil B. Moore Avenue near 15th Street Henry Collins, owner Mecca Unisex Salon opened shop in 1994. Ever since, it has provided haircuts and styling for men, women and children.

ALLIE IPPOLITO/ THE TEMPLE NEWS

BBMI (BRAIDED BY MI)

Cecil B. Moore Avenue near Gratz Street Miarei Harris, owner

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS

Harris, 25, started braiding hair when she was 15 years old. She now travels to clients homes to do braids, twists, locs and other styles.

D&J HARDWARE

Cecil B. Moore Avenue near Sydenham Street Jason Kim, owner D&J Hardware opened in 1992. The store sells building materials and repair projects like plumbing and electrical repairs.

ALLIE IPPOLITO/ THE TEMPLE NEWS

NAIL IMAGE

Broad and Oxford street near Oxford Lynn Nguyen, owner Located in Sullivan Progress Plaza Shopping Center, Nail Image opened on Halloween 2017 and provides all nail services including nail art, manicure and pedicure treatments and eyebrow waxing.

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS

SMOKES N’ THINGS

Cecil B. Moore Avenue near Bouvier Street Elliott Broaster, owner Just two years old, Smokes n’ Things sells smoking accessories at the store, like ashtrays and various vape products.

The Temple News

SMALL BUSINESS GUIDE

B7

STUDENT LIFE

Clay Date Co. carves out homemade clay earrings Morgan Yoder started selling jewelry after rediscovering her love of clay sculpting.

BY MCKENZIE MORGAN For The Temple News On her dining room table at her home in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, Morgan Yoder sat molding the first earrings for her business.

After posting photos of them on her personal Instagram, Yoder a senior speech, language and hearing science major, received messages from her friends asking if they could buy a pair, she said.

“I feel like it kind of fueled me to create more and more,” Yoder said.

Now back at her apartment on 18th Street near Montgomery Avenue, Yoder runs Clay Date Co. which she started in May 2020 when she moved home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although she started her business as a hobby, it’s become her main source of income, she said.

Within her first month of selling the earrings on Instagram, Yoder sold more than 35 pairs. Almost a year later, she’s now sold over six times as many.

Yoder’s earrings incorporate different materials, like gold metals and macrame fabric pieces. She sells studs, hoops and chandelier-style earrings ranging from $6 to $20.

More than 1,300 people follow Clay Date Co. on Instagram, and Yoder’s sold almost 250 pieces, she said. Her next step is to move the company from her website to Etsy to gain more customers, she added.

Yoder first worked with clay her junior year of high school in a ceramics class and began using it again last year to ease her boredom during quarantine, she said.

Once Yoder has a design plan, she lays out blocks of colored clay, fabrics and metals on her desk and isn’t afraid of making a “complete mess” to make a pair

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS Morgan Yoder, owner of Clay Date Co., rolls out clay to make earrings at her home on Montgomery Avenue near Gratz Street on Feb. 8.

ALLIE IPPOLITO / THE TEMPLE NEWS Yoder creates and sells jewelry that incorporates clay, macrame, metal and fabric.

of earrings, she said.

“It really helps me put together ideas if I can see everything in front of me,” Yoder added. “I can kind of picture it in

my mind a little bit better.”

Jenna Camacho, a senior music education major, found Clay Date Co. through Instagram, and she immediately

liked the jewelry and wanted to support a small business, she said. She purchased Clay Date Co.’s crescent moon earrings from Yoder in July 2020.

“She had a unique style that I kind of haven’t seen,” Camacho added. “It wasn’t just clay earrings, she was also offering other options, too.”

Yoder, a sister of Tri Delta Epsilon Phi since her freshman year, said her sorority sisters were her main supporters and first customers.

“It makes me feel really good because I feel like they want to support me,” she said. “Them wearing it and even just like a simple social media post like tagging me on it means a lot to me because that’s a way that can further my business and they’re actively trying to do that.”

Madison Okkerse, a junior international business major and member of Tri Delta, was one of Yoder’s first customers.

“It’s just so awesome that she kind of built a business during a time where things are not going great in the world, and she found a way to make a positive out of it,” Okkerse said.

Tri Delta held virtual recruitment the weekend of Jan. 30, and several of Yoder’s sorority sisters were wearing her earrings and promoting Clay Date Co. Yoder is an inspiration to her other sisters, Okkerse said.

After graduating in Fall 2021, Yoder plans to attend graduate school to become a speech pathologist, but she hopes to continue Clay Date Co. during that time, she said.

“I’m kind of playing it by ear,” Yoder said. “I know right now that clay earrings are super trendy, but a fear of mine is that they’re not going to be trendy anymore, for like, in years. But for now, I like where it’s going.” mckenziemorgan@temple.edu mckenziesage_

SMALL BUSINESS GUIDE

B8

The Temple News

ON CAMPUS

Small businesses start in Temple classes, clubs Businesses began through cam- screenprinting process and gave him acpus bake sales, art markets and cess to the Tyler art studios and equipment, which made their idea of starting screenprinting classes.

BY KRISTINE CHIN For The Temple News An assortment of inks, fabrics, papers and screens blanket every surface in Dominic Lanza and Noah Marcuse’s apartment basement — far from the setup of the screenprinting class their clothing company Suburban Shore was born in.

From selling art for the first time at campus art markets to beginning at campus bake sales, student businesses at Temple University utilized techniques from classes and resources around campus to get their start before expanding.

Lanza, a senior information science and technology major and marketing lead of Suburban Shore, and Marcuse, a graphic and interactive design major and lead designer of Suburban Shore, hand-design and print shirts with designs that represent Philadelphia.

They currently have a new “Philly Squirrel” design, and take inspiration from funny experiences in the co-creators’ lives, like their “Evil” design, which was based on an inside joke.

Prior to their current setup, Lanza and Marcuse printed their shirts in a screenprinting studio in the Tyler School of Art and Architecture after Marcuse’s screenprinting class, Survey of Printmaking Techniques.

The class taught Marcuse about the

an apparel business possible.

“That kind of opened the door for us because he was like, ‘Oh, like, we have a studio now to print in, we have all the equipment,’” Lanza said.

Like Suburban Shore, Dani Brodsky attributes the start of her tufted rug art business, Dani Brodsky Art, to her experiences as an undergraduate student at Tyler. Brodsky, a 2020 fibers and material studies alumna, realized she could use her art for business when she participated in the Art Market at Tyler in 2018.

Before transferring to Temple, Brodsky was never exposed to the idea of selling her own work, she said.

“Tyler changed that for me, they really taught me how to sustain myself financially as an artist,” Brodsky said.

Through her experiences at the market and a Business Practices in Crafts course she took in her senior year, Brodsky learned about the commercial side of art, which helped prepare her for starting her business in 2020, she added.

Brodsky’s business was also an opportunity to continue making fiber arts after graduating. Since August 2020, she’s created freelance art by tufting, or punching a needle and yarn through woven fabric, to create rugs and other art.

Mary Tran started her business, Mary Makes Macarons, during her junior year when she became fundraising chair for the Temple Vietnamese Student Association and needed to raise

PHOTO BY ALLIE IPPOLITO / THE TEMPLE NEWS DESIGN BY HANNA LIPSKI / THE TEMPLE NEWS Noah Marcuse (left) and Dominic Lanza own Suburban Shore, a screenprinted clothing company.

money for the organization. She then hosted bake sales at the Howard Gittis Student Center, she said.

Tran, now a third-year pharmacy student, started Mary Makes Macarons in 2018 to sell her homemade macarons for profit. Baking helps her express her creativity through macaron designs, and as a busy student, it’s a way for her to relieve stress, Tran said.

“People can tell whether or not you’re passionate about your product or not,” Tran said. “I started doing that, and

people really liked it.”

Her first customers were her friends from the Temple Vietnamese Student Association, and many of them helped advertise her business, which has now expanded to selling in the city.

“I like, also sell out really quickly and then I have a hard time like, keeping up with my orders, so I guess it’s considered a blessing in disguise,” Tran said. kristine.chin@temple.edu

Can’t get enough?

Find the full small business guide online at

temple-news.com

The Temple News

FEATURES

PAGE 17

RESEARCH

Student, faculty use AI to help with employment The software will aid people with neurodevelopmental disorders in information technology jobs.

BY FALLON ROTH Staff Writer Only 26.3 percent of people with neurodevelopmental disorders ages 18 to 64 are employed, according to the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability 2017 Disability Statistics Annual Report, cited in a team of Temple University researchers’ project proposal.

The Temple researchers are in the beginning stages of a four-year project to develop artificial intelligence software to address employment barriers like decreased mobility or being unable to travel to work, for people with neurodevelopmental disorders, like autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, said Slobodan Vucetic, the project’s principal investigator and a computer and information sciences professor.

By providing a virtual coach to assist with tasks, the research will help individuals “find and keep jobs in the information technology industry,” Vucetic said.

In September 2020, the researchers received a $2.3 million Future of Work Award from the National Science Foundation, which is given to researchers whose projects improve the future of internet-based jobs, Vucetic said.

The project focuses on people ages 18 to 25 with mild to moderate neurodevelopmental disorders who are not college-educated, according to the project proposal.

Previous workshop models that aimed to aid neurodiverse people in the workplace created a stigmatized environment for the worker by separating individuals into different work atmospheres, said Donald Hantula, a co-principal investigator on the project and a psychology professor.

ALLIE IPPOLITO / THE TEMPLE NEWS Slobodan Vucetic, the principal investigator for the artificial intelligence research team, sits in his office at the Science Education and Research Center on Feb. 5.

“Would you want to go to work in a place that’s labeled as, ‘Here’s where the people with disabilities go every day?’” he added. “How’d you feel if you had someone following you around your job every day telling you what to do?”

Individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders often need a coach at their jobs, which companies have to hire in addition to the individual, said Eduard Dragut, a co-principal investigator on the project and a computer and information sciences professor.

“Many companies overlook people from this segment of our society, now our goal is to create the software that kind of creates a sort of virtual coach,” Dragut added.

Existing programs that help people with neurodevelopmental disorders pursue careers after high school are typically underfunded, and the students only receive a few months of training before they’re left on their own, Vucetic said.

These transition programs help people age 18 to 21, but after they age out of the program, they’re no longer provided support from the school system, wrote Beth Garrison, a second-year computer and information science student, in an email to The Temple News.

Many individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders that are employed are usually working minimum-wage jobs, Hantula said.

Under Section 14 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers are allowed to pay employees with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage after they receive permission from the Wage and Hour Division, according to the United States Department of Labor website.

“We have to make work that is satisfying and sustainable,” he added. “We have to make that kind of work available to everybody who is going to be qualified and

who’s going to seek it.”

Last summer, the team led an eight person study to see how participants with neurodevelopmental disorders would interact with materials, like training protocols. The investigators recorded how participants worked with the material, like how long it took to complete a task to test the team’s proposed software materials, Garrison said.

The development of the entire project is still in the beginning stages and will require more studies to fully determine what the final AI product will look like, Hantula said.

The team envisions an app that could be used on various platforms, like a desktop, PC, phone or tablet, that will guide the user through whatever task they are working on, Garrison said.

Although the software has not yet been developed, the program may have the ability to clarify written instructions and help deliver feedback to users to enhance job performance, said Matt Tincani, a co-principal investigator on the project and a professor and chairman of Temple’s teaching and learning department.

Besides getting a job, Tincani believes there will be additional benefits to broader inclusion of individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders in the workplace.

“If you’re able to get a decent job and maintain it like, when you’re in the work setting, you’re more likely to build social relationships and develop social networks, you’re more likely to, you know, have the opportunity to meet a romantic partner and date,” he said. “You’re more likely to be able to live independently and not with your parents or not, you know, with assistance because you’ve got a job where you can pay your rent or you can pay your mortgage.” fallon.roth@temple.edu @fallonroth_

PAGE 18

FEATURES

The Temple News

STUDENT LIFE

Mutual aid group hosts drives for food, clothing Three students created Love at the Bell Tower from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The organization received $650 in Your Neighbor Philly in January monetary donations and around $150 2021 to donate to charities.

BY MATTHEW AQUINO For The Temple News Since her freshman year, Destiny Shembo witnessed litter around Temple University’s Main Campus pile up from students who threw disruptive parties.

“We noticed that our influence as students and as an institution in North Philly has a large impact, some positives, but honestly we see a lot of negatives,” said Shembo, a junior Africology and African American studies and Spanish major.

Shembo and two of her friends, Jane Shea Mannard, a junior early childhood education major, and Alanis Santiago-Comas, a junior bioengineering major, created a mutual aid organization. The program, called Love Your Neighbor Philly, started in January and collects donations for community organizations and supplies funds to people in Philadelphia who are struggling to pay rent, food or utility bills.

Mutual aid organizations provide resources, like food or monetary donations, to community members who need assistance or aid. Mostly run by volunteers, these organizations are different in each community, as they are specific in their need-based aid, Vice reported.

Since June 2020, the team has hosted a total of four drives, including tampon and pad drives, food drives, coat drives and toy drives, that they organized together and advertised by posting flyers on their Instagram.

When more than 50 people donated to their first drive, the team realized they could increase their reach, which is what inspired them to start Love Your Neighbor Philly, Shembo said.

After collecting donations, the team packs up the donated food and drives it to community fridges. They use the Venmo donations to go to grocery stores and purchase food to add to the community fridges, Mannard said.

Love Your Neighbor Philly hosted a food drive for the Germantown Community Fridge, community-run outdoor fridge that provides free food, on Feb. 10.

worth of food donations, which were split between the Germantown Community Fridges, located on Armat Street between Germantown Avenue and Greene Street and High Street near Germantown Avenue.

Janelle Suchocki-Alonso, the captain of the High Street fridge, said mutual aid organizations are useful because people can donate or collect goods on their own time and remain anonymous if they wish.

“It’s just really, I think, empowering in that way that it’s on your own terms,” Suchocki-Alanso said. “So many times people are at the whim of other people when they are receiving items and this kind of lets them be in control of it.”

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated one in five Philadelphians suffered from food insecurity, which is defined as having unreliable or irregular access to food, the Philadelphia Citizen reported.

Julia Hall, a junior environmental science major, volunteers by taking the organizations’ monetary donations and purchasing food, like pasta, frozen meals, produce and canned goods for community fridges. She also donates food or funds when she’s able to, she added.

“Going to school in Philly, through Temple being in a gentrified area, you should try and give back as much as you can to that community,” Hall said.

The team feels supporting the neighborhood students live in is important, even if it’s only during a couple of semesters or for a few years, Santiago-Comas said.

“We definitely think that Temple students need to take more accountability and responsibility to provide to the community that we are taking from every single day,” she added.

The team wants to expand by raising funds for mental health services and helping people who are uninsured or can’t afford therapy and host meditation and yoga sessions in public once people feel comfortable, Shembo said.

“We really want to nurture like, the full aspect of humanity, not just finances and food, but mental health too,” she

JEREMY ELVAS / THE TEMPLE NEWS Destiny Shembo (left), a junior Africology and African American studies major, Jane Shea Mannard, a junior early childhood education major, and Alanis Santiago-Comas, a junior bioengineering major, talk about their mutual aid organization, Love Your Neighbor Philly, during a food drive at the Bell Tower on Feb. 10.

JEREMY ELVAS / THE TEMPLE NEWS Destiny Shembo (left), a junior Africology and African American studies major, Jane Shea Mannard, a junior early childhood education major, and Alanis Santiago-Comas, a junior bioengineering major, display food donations during a food drive for their mutual aid organization, Love Your Neighbor Philly, at the Bell Tower on Feb. 10.

added. “That’s something that’s extremely underrated that none of us really want to see go flying under the radar with this discussion.”

The team is excited about the turnout they’ve seen and are hopeful the organization will grow, Mannard said.

“We’ve honestly gone in with low expectations just because we are starting, so we know that we’re not reaching a large number of people yet, but everytime we have exceeded our expectations and hope to have continued success,” she added. matthew.aquino@temple.edu

The Temple News

FEATURES

PAGE 19

IN THE CITY

Alumnus’ photobook captures summer protests Matthew Barber published his photography of last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests.

BY SAMANTHA SULLIVAN For The Temple News On May 30, 2020, Matthew Barber attended what began as a peaceful protest in memory of George Floyd at City Hall that proceeded to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Hundreds of demonstrators, protesting the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, kneeled at the steps of City Hall at 2 p.m., before marching down Broad and Vine streets, Penn Live reported.

As police and protestors clashed, Barber pulled out his camera to document what he felt was history in the making.

Barber, a 2020 strategic advertising and marketing alumnus and photographer, compiled photos from the week of protests in Philadelphia and published a photobook “PHL Black Lives Matter” in December 2020. All of the book’s proceeds are donated to Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity, a nonprofit that provides free legal advice and representation to Philadelphians trying to expunge their criminal records.

The book includes black-andwhite photos of people marching to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and groups of people lying peacefully outside of City Hall in protest during the summer.

After the first day of protests, Barber took a week off of work as a brand partnerships and experiential marketing manager at Subaru of America to document protests in the city. He photographed everything from speakers at marches addressing crowds to the defaced mural of former mayor Frank Rizzo in the Italian Market.

Approximately 15 to 26 million Americans participated in peaceful protests in support of Black Lives Matter during summer 2020, making it the largest protest in United States history, the New York Times reported.

Barber sold out of his initial 200 books,

ALLIE IPPOLITO / THE TEMPLE NEWS Matthew Barber, a 2020 strategic advertising and marketing alumnus, stands outside his house at Iseminger Street near Morris on Feb. 11.

which cost $20 each, and plans to publish another 100 books in the near future.

Barber chose to donate to Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity because he wanted to help people who may have criminal records due to unjust charges, he said.

With the proceeds, he donated nearly $3,500 to Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity, enough to provide legal assistance to 10 people, he said.

“Our goal is social equity, we are seeking racial justice, so of course we would be in support of these protests,” said Sarah Coyle, a staff attorney for the Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity.

“We are seeking criminal justice reform as part of our larger mission, so we definitely wanted to support the folks

who are supporting us by going out into the streets and making their voices heard.”

In 2010, 33 percent of Black men had a felony conviction, while only 8 percent of all adults had convictions, according to a 2018 study by the Sentencing Project, an organization that researches the criminal justice system.

Philadelphia artist Halimah Smith, whose digital illustration art focuses on celebrating the Black community, created digital illustrations of Barber’s photos for the front and back covers of the book.

The front cover shows a person kneeling outside of City Hall with a sign that reads, “Justice for George,” and the back cover is a woman raising her fist

in the air during a protest, capturing the emotion of the protest, Smith said.

“Some of these minor decisions don’t get to determine your life,” Smith said. “Black people are some of the major people that are affected by these types of racism, bias and systems put in place that can prevent them from moving forward because of a bad decision.”

The conversations his books fostered are what he’s most proud of, Barber said.

“People found out in my hometown in upstate New York which I think is really cool because I’m hoping that might change some people’s perspectives,” Barber said. “I want to keep printing them until no one buys them anymore.” samantha.sullivan0002@temple.edu

PAGE 20

FEATURES

The Temple News

VOICES

ADVERTISEMENT

Do you support student-run businesses?

TORI MILLHEIM Junior biology major I try to, because I like to support other people’s dreams and if it comes from a small business rather than a big corporation, I find that as a bonus.

DEVEN SOONTHAROTHAI Freshman management information systems major If I was given a choice between a student-run business or not, I would probably choose the one that isn’t run by a student, but I don’t see the problem with a student-run business.

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JOHN KAKOYAN Freshman economics major I haven’t really, I don’t know of any student-run small businesses, but I would buy from them to help them out if I knew of any.

ASHA KUNCHAKARRA Junior management information systems major I don’t buy from many student businesses, not just because I don’t want to support them, I just naturally don’t.

The Temple News

INTERSECTION

PAGE 21

RELIGION

Students, staff discuss anti-Semitism in politics Anti-Semitism often flies below the radar in political conversation, alienateing Jewish people.

BY EDEN MACDOUGALL Co-Intersection Editor In middle school, Hannah Rose Roach had pennies thrown at her by classmates for being Jewish.

Two days after former President Donald Trump was elected during her senior year at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, someone defaced Mount Tom, a local attraction, with swastikas and anti-Semitic slurs.

“A lot of people were up there scrubbing in a way, and helping take down some of the graffiti,” said Roach, a second-year medical student and former co-president of the Jewish Student Union. “So that was really inspiring, but it was also really exhausting to go there and see all those things.”

With attention to hateful or targeted political discourse in recent years, some Temple University students and faculty are worried about the rise in anti-Semitism in politics.

Anti-Semitism has been and continues to be a pervasive force in American politics and can be both overt and covert, said Lila Corwin Berman, a history professor and director of the Feinstein Center for American Jewish History.

Overt anti-Semitism can be anything that is openly against Jewish people or Judaism, including negative comments about someone’s Jewish identity, said Carly Goldberg, a senior communication studies major and former co-president of Hillel’s Tzedek Board, which oversees community service efforts.

Hate crimes against Jewish people increased nationwide by 14 percent in 2019, according to data from the Federal Bureau of Intelligence, Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.

Reported anti-Semitic incidents in Philadelphia increased from 33 in 2018 to 52 in 2019, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a national civil liberties group.

There is often debate, even among Jewish people, about what leads to vi-

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS Hillel at Temple University is housed inside of the Edward H. Rosen Center for Jewish Life on Norris Street near 15th.

olent anti-Semitism, with some of the Jewish community blaming political rhetoric and others focusing on extremist branches of Christianity, Berman said.

Covert anti-Semitism often relies on “historical tropes,” like Jewish people being “puppet masters” who are secretly running the world, Berman said.

Conspiracy theories about investor and philanthropist George Soros play into the larger conspiracy that Jewish people secretly control the world and are destroying society as revenge on Christians and are a popular version of this, Berman said.

“If you walked in from Mars, you might not think that someone saying ‘puppet masters’ has anything to do with Jews,” Berman said. “But it might be in a particular white nationalist, ethnonationlist community, like the Proud Boys,

that language is clearly about Jews.”

During his first presidential campaign in 2016, Trump regularly retweeted neo-Nazi memes and used coded language to spread conspiracy theories about Jewish people, the Washington Post reported that year.

In October 2020, the Pennsylvania Republican Party sent a mailer that featured an image of State Rep. Jennifer O’Mara speaking at a Democratic Jewish Outreach Pennsylvania event with a stylized Star of David in the background of the photo, the Delaware County Daily Times reported.

Incidents like the one involving O’Mara are “unacceptable” and disturbing as they “correlate corruption and Judaism,” Goldberg said.

Covert anti-Semitism can also take the form of caricatures that use features commonly associated with Jewish peo-

ple, like hooked noses, or memes about Jewish celebrities like Mark Zuckerberg being a “lizard person,” Roach said.

“The world is built, kind of built around anti-Semitism in many ways,” Roach said. “The idea of like, the witch and how a witch looks is rooted in anti-Semitism and so from like, the first Disney movie you watch you see a Jewish-coded character be evil.”

Although she’s experienced instances of overt anti-Semitism, it’s this subtle anti-Semitism that worries Roach the most.

“The ones that really scare me are the ones like friends who assume that I have some secret control,” Roach said.

“That doesn’t happen very often. But people do play with that kind of anti-Semitic trope of control. I remember when I was in college, like my undergrad I was both on the college newspaper and on the radio, and I had a friend say like, ‘Oh, you’re controlling the media.’”

Anti-Semitism on the right tends to be more hateful, while on the left, anti-Semitism often takes the form of dismissing Jewish people’s minority status and struggles, Roach said.

“A lot of the progressive conversations can sometimes leave us out,” she added. “Because it’s kind of this idea that Jews are fine now. Like, the Holocaust happened and Jews are fine now, you know, which isn’t true.”

Both Goldberg and Roach stressed the need for communication between Jewish people and non-Jewish people to bridge the gap between communities.

For instance, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jewish Student Union, Muslim Students Association and the Catholic Medical Student Association were working together on an event about how different religious groups handle end-of-life care, Roach said.

“With increased communication and increased community-building between Jews and non-Jews, you get closer to knowing when to include them,” Roach said. eden.macdougall@temple.edu

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The Temple News

GENDER AND SEXUALITY

Women in STEM reflect on career inspirations Multiple women were inspired to opportunities for other female scientists go into their fields thanks to fe- and increasing diversity in the sciences in general, Bonfim said. male science teachers.

BY HAAJRAH GILANI and JENNIFER PENNISE For The Temple News On the first day of class, Amanda Hughes’ high school biology teacher instructed the students to draw what biology looks like to them. She drew a double helix DNA strand with a person climbing up it.

“I was just like, ‘This is me at the beginning of this journey, and maybe I want to be a doctor someday,’” Hughes said.

Female mentors can increase women’s academic experiences and retention in engineering, according to a 2017 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study.

Female Temple University students and faculty recall their initial interests in science and how those experiences sparked their interest in teaching.

Mariana Bonfim, who lived in Sao Luis, Brazil, until 2015, is a fifth-year biology student. Her interest in science was also sparked by her high school biology teacher.

“I feel as if in my country, it is not popular to be a biologist, as many STEM majors are often directed toward the health sciences,” Bonfim said. “But my teacher was a field biologist, which was exciting to see that people actually do that.”

Since then, Bonfirm has invested time outdoors studying both deciduous forest and marine ecosystems, she said.

While she appreciates her work in the field, she discovered her true passion is for teaching others.

Bonfim has worked with elementary, middle, high school and college students, and is inspired to share her passion for science with others, she said.

Her current advisor for her Ph.D. program is very engaged in providing

“That’s really important and that definitely had an impact on me and, you know, inspiring me to do the same for other female scientists,” she added.

Similarly, Ann Valentine, a chemistry professor and associate chair of the chemistry department, was inspired by a high school teacher at an early age.

Though science had intimidated her, Valentine’s teacher gave her opportunities to participate in research projects, which made approaching science easier for her. Through those opportunities, her teacher gave her the push to pursue her career, Valentine said.

Valentine’s teacher also made sure to teach both male and female students about women in STEM and once made everyone in the class do a presentation on a female scientist, Valentine said.

“I don’t think a male teacher would have been so clear and intentional about those things,” she added.

Valentine is now a full-time academic professor who teaches General Chemistry, runs a research lab and manages academic affairs within the department. Valentine also works with graduate students, helping direct their Ph.D. research.

While Valentine is grateful for the opportunities she has had, there have been times when male colleagues have treated her differently for being a woman, she said.

“I could tell horror stories of jerk behaviors and awkward things at conferences and weird people stalking me while I’m out trying to do collaborations, where things happen and you’re like, ‘This would not happen to me if I were a male,’” Valentine added.

Bonfim has also experienced difficulties while pursuing her career.

“Being a minority, you face limitations, as English is not my native language, it is often a barrier with me and other researchers,” she said.

With the events of the past year like

ALI GRAULTY/ THE TEMPLE NEWS

COVID-19, Black Lives Matter protests and the presidential election, Bonfim stressed how important it is to address the differences among others in the field as well.

African American and Hispanic individuals are underrepresented within the STEM field, as they make up only nine percent and seven percent, respectively, of science and technology jobs available in the U.S., according to a 2018 study by Pew Research Center.

“We have to acknowledge that there is a gap and gender bias,” Bonfim said.

“We are starting to reduce that gap in science, but we have to continue this conversation.”

As part of the international push to get more women in STEM, the United Nations observed International Day of Women and Girls in Science through webinars and panel discussions on Feb. 11.

Temple is playing a role in addressing that gap with the chemistry department composed of 29 percent women tenured faculty, Valentine said.

“I hope we don’t let go about the urgency for diversity,” Bonfim said. “Be-

ing an ecologist, you see the benefits of diversity in the world, the stability of a system is dependent on variations and diversity, which applies to a human society as well.”

As she continues building her career, Hughes is also working to provide a good life for her future children. It’s added pressure women have that men don’t typically have, she said.

With more women involved in the field, more understanding will be provided when someone needs to take time to focus on their children, Hughes said.

“We’re in such an amazing time for women to have a voice, women to shed their trauma and be accepted and embraced and to carry on stronger and find community in almost every aspect of this society,” she added. “And there are still the dark spots, but I think everyone is becoming more aware.” haajrah.gilani@temple.edu jennifer.pennise@temple.edu

Eden MacDougall contributed reporting.

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THE ESSAYIST

Finding my faith and purpose throughout college A student explains her relationship with religion and how she found faith during high school.

BY OLIVIA DAN For The Temple News I was 17, and I hit rock bottom.

I felt tension with my family, friends and boyfriend. Crushed by the pressure from my parents to be a perfect student and the constant need for me to prove myself worthy to others, I struggled with my mental health and didn’t see a future for myself anymore. I had no idea how and if things were going to get better.

It was a 2016 night, I was 17 and alone in the house, staring at my blotchy, tear-stained face in my bedroom mirror.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my copy of the Bible sitting on my nightstand. I had been reading it from time to time, but irregularly.

I said to myself, “God if you’re real, if you care about me, and if you will bring me out of this, I need you to show me.”

Next thing I knew, my hand had flipped to a seemingly random page.

Immediately I saw John 16:33: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

My knees buckled as I fell to the floor. On came the uncontrollable sobbing and an overwhelming sense of peace I had never felt before. I lay on the cold, wooden planks crying tears of joy and relief. In an instant, God met me where I was, and my once unbearable pain melted away.

He spoke to my broken heart in His kind and loving words, “Olivia, my child, I have loved you since before you were born. I have always been with you, and I will never leave you.”

I felt as if I were being held by someone who knew just how to hold me.

At that moment, I knew I was safe. I finally understood that I was fully known and loved by the God who I had known to be real all my life. I decided that I was going to put my life in my Father’s perfect, trustworthy hands. That night, my life changed forever. I was in for one heck of a ride.

GRACE DiMEO / THE TEMPLE NEWS

Growing up, my household wasn’t religious. My family has a Romanian Orthodox background, so while culturally they believed in God, they never dragged us to church or taught us anything about Christianity.

For as far back as I can remember, I had a sense that God was real. I prayed every night as my grandma had taught me to when I was young. Yet ultimately, I was only living for the secular world.

When I was about 12 years old, I began attending a Christian theater arts camp in the summer, which sparked my interest in learning more about this God that I was convinced existed. I continued to attend for eight summers as I started to learn more about the Bible and someone named Jesus Christ.

Fast forward to the present day, and I’m now a senior at Temple University.

It’s been just more than four years since I decided to live for Jesus. I’ve learned so much about who God is, and who I am in Him. I study tourism and hospitality management. I aspire to be a wedding planner and own my own business someday.

I am the president of a campus ministry called Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship, where I help facilitate a loving, welcoming community for students who want to seek God’s heart together. I serve on two different worship teams at two different churches, where I have found friends who have become family.

During the past four years, I’ve experienced excruciating heartbreak through a long, painful split from my first serious boyfriend, someone I thought I would spend the rest of my life with. I also stepped into and flourished in a leadership role in Chi Alpha that, at first, I didn’t feel I was cut out for.

But above all, I’ve found my purpose and identity in Christ.

I’ve come to a place in my life where I am healthier, happier and more fulfilled than ever before. I no longer rely on relationships, social media, success in my education or career, or the opinions of others determine my worth. It has been a journey to get to where I’m at now, but every step along the way, every heartache, every obstacle, every hard decision, my God has worked together for

my good.

Most people have heard of Christianity before. There tends to be a stigma that comes with the idea of religion.

When I tell people I’m a Christian, I can see the underlying judgment in their eyes, immediately labeling me as a “religious” person. And I don’t blame them.

We, humans, get it wrong constantly, and I too fall under this category. I am imperfect, just as we all are, and I humbly accept that. What’s important is that we do our best every single day to show the love of Jesus and share the truth with others as humbly and respectfully as possible.

I no longer wake up every morning to an oncoming wave of nausea due to the stress of what the day will bring. Instead, I smile, thank my Father for another morning of breath in my lungs, and crack open my Bible to soak in His sweet promises of everlasting life and encouragement. olivia.dan@temple.edu

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INTERSECTION

The Temple News

THE ESSAYIST

I’m tired of comic books queerbaiting LGBTQ fans A student shares his thoughts on why he wants to see more openly LGBTQ superheroes.

BY EDEN MACDOUGALL Co-Intersection Editor One of the first comic books I read was “X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills.”

In the Marvel universe, mutants are a group of people who are born with an X-Gene that gives them superpowers, and they’re primarily featured in the X-Men line of comics. But because they are born different, they are hated and feared by normal humans and sometimes even by other superheroes.

In 1975, writer Chris Claremont took over the X-Men franchise and turned the mutants into a metaphor for real-life minority groups. In 1982, Claremont, along with artist Brent Anderson, wrote the seminal graphic novel, “X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills,” and brought the metaphor to the forefront of the franchise.

The main villain is William Stryker, a conservative televangelist who preaches hate against mutants and feels the need to keep the human race pure. The X-Men, being mutants, disagree with Stryker and try to get him to see reason.

It doesn’t work, but Stryker and his followers are dealt a temporary blow by the end of the comic and the X-Men reaffirm their own humanity.

Is it any wonder that I was drawn to them? The X-Men have had queer subtext for decades but could never fully express it on page due to censorship from higher-ups or outside regulatory bodies like the Comics Code Authority, which served a similar purpose to the Motion Picture Association and approved comic books for general audiences from 1954 to 2011. For decades, the Comics Code Authority forbade any mention of homosexuality and only changed the rules on that front in 1989, restricting writers to leaving subtle hints about a character’s real sexual orientation.

HANNA LIPSKI / THE TEMPLE NEWS

The X-Men have been fighting bigotry, metaphorically and literally, for decades. They stand for equality and resist the notion that they are less human or freaks of nature. And as society has become more accepting of LGBTQ people, more and more X-Men have come out of the closet, starting with Northstar in 1992.

Prior to Northstar’s coming out, there were no other mainstream superheroes who had declared their sexuality on the page, despite the loosening of the rules years earlier. Everything else was subtext, the comic book version of being in the closet.

Some superheroes who have had LGBTQ subtext have gotten to come out, so to speak, as LGBTQ in text. Kitty Pryde has been hinted to be in love with her best friends and teammates Illyana Rasputina and Rachel Grey and fans speculated about her sexual orientation for years.

“My identity is not a

market gimmick. Comic book companies need to stop playing around and actually deliver LGBTQ content. LGBTQ people read comic books and we deserve to be treated with respect.

”

Pryde finally kissed another girl in the “Marauders” issue #12, published in September 2020, confirming that she is not straight.

But more often than not, writers are still reluctant to make characters explicitly gay in order to avoid alientating the straight audience and wind up queerbaiting LGBTQ readers as a sort of messedup and unfair compromise.

Queerbait, subtext’s evil cousin, is when writers tease LGBTQ content in order to draw LGBTQ audiences in but never follow through in order to avoid alienating cisgender and heterosexual audiences. This is incredibly frustrating because there’s no good reason for queerbait.

I came out to my parents as transgender in my senior year of high school.

They read my heartfelt coming out letter, told me they would love and accept me no matter what, and then ignored my gender identity, chosen name and preferred pronouns until my sophomore year of college.

I still get misgendered at home by my parents. My extended family has put no effort into learning my new name or using the correct pronouns, and I don’t know if my parents even bother to correct them when I’m not around. I can’t talk to them about the way they treat me without my mother bursting into tears and making the situation about herself.

Each time a character gets to come out of the closet and fans embrace them, it’s a small victory, a reminder that even though my coming out didn’t go so well, there is still hope for others.

But more often than not, the subtext goes nowhere and morphs into queerbait.

My identity is not a marketing gimmick. Comic book companies need to stop playing around and actually deliver LGBTQ content. LGBTQ people read comic books and we deserve to be treated with respect. eden.macdougall@temple.edu

The Temple News

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SPECIAL FEATURE

INGRID SLATER / THE TEMPLE NEWS

John Chaney: Temple University’s greatest coach

Chaney served as a critical role modChaney coached the Owls for 24 on Friday. Temple men’s basketball during this difficult time.” coaching staff wore red ribbons on their Throughout the years, Chaney was el for McKie both as a player and as a seasons and led the team to 17 shirts during the game against the Green a worthy mentor of many young players coach, McKie said.

NCAA Tournament appearances.

BY DANTE COLLINELLI Sports Editor In a moment of silence to honor the passing of former coach John Chaney, Owls’ players and coaches stood side by side, linking each other’s arms on the court of the Liacouras Center surrounded by empty seats before taking on Tulane on Jan. 31.

Head coach Aaron McKie, who played under Chaney from 1991 to 1994, broke the line first after the moment of silence ended and led the team to the bench where they huddled together before taking the court for tipoff.

Chaney, 89, who coached the Owls for 24 seasons from 1982 to 2006, died

Wave in memory of him.

The winningest men’s basketball coach in university history, Chaney had a record of 516-253 and a winning percentage of .671 in his career with the Owls. After his hiring in 1982, he led the team to 17 NCAA Tournament appearances.

Chaney was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001, but to Fran Dunphy, Temple’s acting athletic director and Chaney’s successor as head coach, Chaney was a hall of famer in life too, Dunphy wrote in a release Friday.

“He touched countless lives, including my own,” Dunphy wrote in the release. “I will miss him dearly and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family

who struggled in academics by advocating for them to focus on their studies as much as basketball. He had a significant impact on the program long beyond his tenure.

After his retirement, Chaney was always in contact with Dunphy after games, especially when the team committed a lot of turnovers, and he frequently talked with the players as well, Dunphy said.

“Coach Chaney was like a father to me,” McKie wrote in the Temple Athletics release. “He taught not just me but all of his players more than just how to succeed in basketball. He taught us life lessons to make us better individuals off the court. I owe so much to him. He made me the man I am today.”

“I’m here now because of him,” McKie added. “He was one of few Black men I could look at in society and say I want to be just like them.”

McKie started his playing career under Chaney during the 1991-92 season and helped lead the Owls to the NCAA tournament while averaging 13.9 points per game. McKie was a local recruit from Simon Gratz High School in Huntington Park and grew up in Philadelphia. He ranks sixth all-time in points scored at Temple with 1,650 points.

McKie’s first memory of Chaney is from before high school when he went to watch Big-5 games at the Palestra on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus when Chaney was coaching Temple against the Quakers, he said.

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“I had heard the name so many times, but I never saw him in person,” McKie added. “He has such a commanding presence and an aura about him.

When I watched him coach and watched his antics and everything else, I would say, ‘That’s a tough guy right there.’ It was always something as a kid I wanted to be a part of.”

Before Temple, Chaney coached at Cheyney University for 10 seasons where he finished with a record of 22559 and won an NCAA Division II championship.

“He forever placed Cheyney in the history books by accomplishing a major feat no other DII school in Pennsylvania has ever done,” wrote Cheyney President Aaron Walton in a press release following Chaney’s death. “He tremendously impacted the lives of his players, education, culture, the Philadelphia region and the entire country.”

Chaney took over Temple from former coach Don Casey, who coached the Owls for nine seasons but only led them to one NCAA tournament appearance.

Former forward Granger Hall led the Owls with 14.9 points per game the year before Chaney was hired.

In his first season as a head coach in 1982, Chaney guided the Owls to a 1415 record. It was the only time the Owls finished with a losing record during his tenure.

Chaney’s first win as the Owls’ head coach came on Nov. 30, 1982, when the team defeated George Washington University 68-67. ”Terry Stansberry connected the first of two free throws with four seconds left to give the Temple Owls a 68-67 victory over George Washington in the season

The Temple News

JOSEPH LABOLITO / TEMPLE ATHLETICS ARCHIVES Former Temple University men’s basketball head coach John Chaney points across the court during the Owls’ game against Maryland at the Liacouras Center on Jan 28, 2006.

opener for both teams,” was printed in The Temple News on Dec. 1, 1982, in an article by Mark Morgan, “Men barely win.” “It was the inaugural matchup for the new Atlantic 10 conference, and the first win for the Owls under new head coach John Chaney.”

Chaney came to Temple because former President Peter Liacouras told him the university would keep opportunities open for young people from the inner city, Chaney said during his hall of fame induction speech in 2001.

During his speech, Chaney was jovial but reflective of all those who helped him get to the Hall of Fame. He spent a large portion of the speech thanking his family, his assistant coaches and bosses at Temple.

“Temple would be a school that offers opportunity and access, even for its law school, its dental school, its hospital, all of the offerings in an inner city, and it would stay its course,” Chaney said in the speech. “Not leave the inner city, but stay there and serve the people who need it. That’s what convinced me to come to Temple, and I never thought about leaving Temple ever again.”

Chaney was well known for demanding maximum effort from his players, and would routinely start practices around 6 a.m. Yet, this tough style of coaching is what led the Owls to five Elite Eight appearances in 1988, 1991, 1993, 1999 and 2001, with the first one coming after Temple defeated the University of Richmond 69-47 on March 24, 1988.

During the 1987-88 season, Temple finished with a 32-2 record and 18-0 record in Atlantic 10 play, and Chaney was named the Associated Press coach of the

JOHN CHANEY COACHING TIMELINE MARCH 15, 1984

AUG. 18, 1982

Chaney and the Owls defeat Saint John’s University for his first victory as coach in the 1982 NCAA tournament.

John Chaney is hired

by Temple University as head coach of the men’s basketball team after 10 years coaching men’s basketball for Cheyney University.

NOV. 30, 1982

Owls win first game with Chaney against George Washington.

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The Temple News

ROBERT DIAS / SPECIAL COLLECTIONS ARCHIVES John Chaney (left), Kenneth Cundy and Mark Macon attend Temple University’s commencement ceremony on May 21, 1992.

year.

The team was led by then-freshman guard Mark Macon, who Chaney recruited to Temple from Buena Vista High School in Saginaw, Michigan in 1987.

Macon was a significant recruit for the team because of how well he played as a freshman which led to Chaney giving him leeway to shoot whenever he wanted, Chaney said in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel in 1988.

“I wanted him here, with every fiber in my body,” Chaney said in that interview.

Macon led the team in scoring with 20.6 points per game in the 1987-88 season and was the Owls’ main catalyst for

I’m here now because of “him.

He was one of few

Black men I could look at in society and say I want to be just like them.

”

AARON MCKIE Men’s basketball head coach

MARCH 24, 1988

conference and started yelling at John Calipari, the then University of Massachusetts Amherst head men’s basketball coach and current University of Kentucky head men’s basketball coach.

The entire game was tightly contested as the Owls and Minutemen swapped leads multiple times. In the end, Temple lost by just a single point, 56-55. Chaney was upset at Calipari because he thought he manipulated the referees during the game. However, the two later reconciled their differences and became friends.

“I’m so saddened to hear that we have lost John Chaney, a coaching icon, a hall of famer, a molder of young men, the ultimate competitor and a dear friend,” wrote Calipari in a statement on Twitter after Chaney’s death. “Being able to compete against the best at a young age gave me a great opportunity to grow and learn.”

While Chaney’s conflict with Calipari played endlessly on television, it wasn’t the only time Chaney and his Owls were under scrutiny. Chaney never reached a Final Four and suffered some upset losses in the NCAA Tournament.

Temple came into the 2000 NCAA Tournament with high expectations after finishing the regular season with a 27-6 overall record and a 14-2 record in conference play. In the second round, on March 19, 2000, they came into a game against Seton Hall University and expected to win easily against the 10th seated Pirates, but instead suffered an 67-65 upset loss in overtime. The frontpage headline of The Temple News four days later read “Owlch.”

Still, Chaney’s reputation wasn’t plagued by his outbursts and unsuccessful attempts to make it past the

MARCH 13, 2006

Cheany and Temple defeat Richmond University to make the team’s first Elite Eight appearance.

Chaney announces his retirement from coaching, ending with a record of 516-253 and a winning percentage of .671 in his career with the Owls.

MARCH 26, 1993 Chaney and the Owls make it to their thrid Elite Eight appearance.

their Elite Eight appearance.

Macon served as an assistant coach under Chaney from 2003-06 before he left to coach at Georgia State University. He now serves as assistant to the head coach on McKie’s staff.

“Coach Chaney was [a father figure] to me,” Macon said in an interview with The Temple News on Sept. 23, 2020.

“We always talked about what was happening in life and about being good citizens. We talked life.”

Chaney’s impact on basketball and Temple earned him a spot in the basketball hall of fame, but even when Chaney couldn’t make it past the Elite Eight, Temple fans defended him.

On March 27, 1991, in a letter to the editor in The Temple News, fan William Barnes wrote that Temple fans needed to appreciate Chaney more, even though the team lost in the Elite Eight to the University of North Carolina three days prior.

“Three weeks ago, Mark Macon and John Chaney were being railroaded out of town,” Barnes wrote. “There were those who said Macon shot too much, that he was not enough of a team player. Now, however, is not a time to split hairs. Rather, it is a time to truly appreciate the passing of an era.”

Temple’s roster would change significantly after this game as Macon entered the 1991 NBA draft and McKie joined the team as a freshman. It took the Owls just two years to return to the Elite Eight in 1993 when McKie and Chaney led the Owls to a 67-59 victory over Vanderbilt University on March 26, 1993.

On Feb. 13, 1994, when McKie was a senior, Chaney burst into a press

PAGE 27

FEB. 22, 2005

Four years after geing inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Chaney is suspended for the season after encouraging a player to commit hard fouls.

PAGE 28

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The Temple News

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS Temple University men’s basketball players, coaches and staff bow their heads during a moment of silence in remembrance of former head coach John Chaney before the start of the Owls’ game against Tulane University at the Liacouras Center on Jan. 31.

Elite Eight. He was known more for the strong relationships he developed with other coaches like Dunphy.

Dunphy and Chaney became friends while Dunphy was the head coach at the University of Pennsylvania. Dunphy’s mom always enjoyed having Chaney around, and Chaney enjoyed her cookies, Dunphy said.

“I had the honor of succeeding him here at Temple,” Dunphy added. “For that, I am very honored to have done that. I just think the man was a phenomenal human being who left a phenomenal legacy. I’m just grateful for my time with him.”

Chaney’s last Elite Eight appearance was in 2001 when the team lost 6962 against Michigan State University, which was the last time Temple made it past the second weekend of the NCAA tournament.

During Chaney’s final season in 2005-06, the Owls finished 17-15 overall and 8-8 in the conference. Temple averaged 62.6 points per game and lost against St. Joseph University in the Atlantic 10 tournament 73-59 on March

10, 2006.

Chaney’s final win of his career was on March 9, 2006, against George Washington, who was ranked inside the top 14 in the country at the time. Temple finished with a winning record in the 2005-06 season and eventually earned a bid to the National Invitational Tournament.

Chaney announced his retirement on March 13, 2006, and did not coach in the Owls’ last game of the season when they lost to Akron in the NIT because his wife was undergoing a procedure for an undisclosed health problem, ESPN reported.

“It’s always a very traumatic time, but it is time,” Chaney said during his retirement speech. “Temple gave me a chance to make my own decision and that’s the great thing about it. Right now I’m faced with another problem with my wife, so it’s the right time to go.”

In his final season, Chaney would be remembered for emphasizing to his teams the importance of giving back and being a responsible member of their community, said Christopher Vito, a

He turned players, who “would have otherwise been strangers to him, into sons, and for them, he was a father figure. He would talk to the players off the court on life lessons and cornerstones because he got that basketball didn’t last forever and he would prepare these young men for life beyond the court.

”

CHRISTOPHER VITO Former sports writer for The Temple News

2007 journalism alumnus who wrote for The Temple News covering men’s basketball during the 2005-06 season.

“He turned players, who would have otherwise been strangers to him, into sons, and for them, he was a father figure,” Vito said. “He would talk to the players off the court on life lessons and cornerstones because he got that basketball didn’t last forever and he would prepare these young men for life beyond the court.”

During that season, Vito and The Temple News’ editors had begun creating a catalog on John Chaney’s legacy during the early parts of the basketball season, even though Chaney hadn’t announced he was retiring just yet, Vito said.

“We tried to lay down groundwork, so if an announcement was coming we would be able to commemorate the way it should be,” he added.

Even when Chaney retired, he made frequent appearances at important men’s basketball events, like attending McKie’s press conference when he officially became the head coach on April 2, 2019.

When the press conference was over, a scrum of reporters gathered around Chaney, prompting McKie to come over and make a joke about Chaney stealing the show.

Chaney put Temple’s basketball program on the map, but along the way he did more than develop athletes for the next steps in their professional career: he made them better people.

“He tried to bring in the identity of the community, the identity of this city,” Mckie said. “This is a blue-collar, hard-working city with a lot of tough people, and he wanted to encompass all of that. This is who we are, this is Broad Street, this is Temple University.” dante.collinelli@temple.edu @DanteCollinelli

Isabella DiAmore and Adam Aaronson contributed reporting.

This story originally ran online on Feb. 2, 2021. It is being printed today to be part of The Temple News’ archival record.

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The Temple News

PAGE 29

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Alexa Williamson gives Temple offfensive stability Williamson is also making an impact The junior forward is averaging 11.3 points per game and leads on the defensive end of the court by leading the team with 22 total blocks this seathe team in blocks this season.

BY BRIAN SAUNDERS Women’s Basketball Co-Beat Reporter It took junior forward Alexa Williamson some early season success and reassurance from her teammates for her to find the confidence to become one of Temple University women’s basketball’s leading scorers.

“It just comes down to confidence,” Williamson said. “My teammates are very supportive and the guards get me the ball really well.”

The Houston, Pennsylvania, native is stepping up in the middle of the Owls’ offense as a potent interior scorer and on defense as the team’s best shot blocker while Temple looks to secure a high seat in March’s American Athletic Conference tournament.

In the five games prior to Temple’s 58-57 victory over East Carolina on Feb. 13, Williamson averaged 14 points per game, including a career-high 21 points against Cincinnati on Feb. 3.

Temple went 2-3 over that stretch, and Williamson shot 49 percent from the floor and took 34 free throws.

The Owls’ offense works best when Williamson and senior forward Mia Davis get the ball close to the basket and score or generate free throw opportunities. “[Williamson] and [Davis’] presence inside, I feel like right now they’re really focused on trying to get those post touches because those are higher percentage shots,” said head coach Tonya Cardoza.

Williamson’s high scoring in the paint is also helping Temple’s guards find easier opportunities to score because the defense is focused on collapsing into the paint, leaving the perimeter open.

Freshman guard Jasha Clinton is averaging 13.1 points a game and notices a difference in how the defense plays when Williamson is playing well, Clinton said.

“When you have guys like [Davis] and [Williamson] to pick you up on and off the court, it helps,” Clinton added.

son, including three blocks against Cincinnati on Feb. 3.

Her 6-foot-1-inch height is a mismatch defensively, and she makes it difficult for teams to score in the middle of the paint by forcing offensive players to shoot in awkward ways to get the ball above her.

This was evident when Williamson missed a Jan. 13 matchup against Cincinnati when senior forward IImar’I Thomas scored 24 points for the Bearcats. In the rematch on Feb. 3, Williamson guarded Thomas one-on-one and limited the AAC-leading scorer to just eight points.

“When [Thomas] got into foul trouble early, coach told us we need to double down on her in the post when she gets the ball,” Williamson said.

It worked, and Williamson’s man-toman coverage was key to the Owls’ 69-53 victory, as she towered over Thomas and forced her to take difficult shots.

Foul trouble is the only thing holding Williamson back during her breakout season. When Williamson can stay on the court, defenses have a tough time containing her and Davis, but she’s averaging just higher than three fouls per game.

On Feb. 13 against the Pirates, Williamson only played 16 minutes due to foul trouble but scored nine points and blocked a shot.

Williamson picked up at least four fouls in seven of Temple’s 16 games and fouled out once against East Carolina on Jan. 6.

Keeping Williamson on the court is key for the Owls to make a run in the AAC tournament this season, Cardoza said.

“She knows that she’s really good, and for us to be successful, she has to score for us,” Cardoza said. “She has to be out on the floor. I think she’s put the pressure on herself now that she knows that we need her and she’s, she’s counted on and she’s stepping up to the plate.” brian.saunders@temple.edu @SportsWriter_BS

NICK DAVIS / THE TEMPLE NEWS Junior forward Alexa Williamson attempts to make a basket during the Owls’ game against the University of Houston at McGonigle Hall on Feb. 10.

“When you have guys

like [Davis] and [Williamson] to pick you up on and off the court, it helps.

”

JASHA CLINTON Freshman guard

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MEN’S BASKETBALL

COLLEEN CLAGGETT/ THE TEMPLE NEWS Temple University men’s basketball players and staff sit on the side of the court during the Owls’ game against Tulane University at the Liacouras Center on Jan. 31.

Owls grapple with frequent AAC schedule shifts The Owls’ original schedule was games have not taken place as scheduled ficulty of dealing with a makeshift schedSeven of the Owls’ games were ule, he believes it will help his players in postponed so far this season scrapped before it even started. On Nov. this season.

The team has played games with the long run, he said. due to COVID-19 complications. 26, 2020, just two days before the sched-

BY ADAM AARONSON Assistant Sports Editor Before Temple University men’s basketball’s season even started, the team was faced with difficult obstacles sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You can’t really build chemistry on a Zoom call,” said senior forward J.P. Moorman II on Oct. 14, 2020. “You’ve got to hang out with guys and get in the gym with guys to get to know them.”

The 2020-21 NCAA basketball season is bringing unfamiliarity to the sport for more reasons than one. For Temple men’s basketball (4-8, 3-8 The American Athletic Conference), the most prevalent problem is the constant adjustments made to their schedule. Seven of the team’s games were postponed, and one was canceled.

uled season-opening contest against Virginia Tech, Temple announced that a 14-day quarantine would be in effect due to a positive COVID-19 test within the Owls’ program.

The two-week period of isolation led to the cancellation of the Owls’ game against Villanova on Dec. 3, 2020, and the postponement of their Dec. 6, 2020, contest against La Salle.

“The health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches and staff is always the number one priority with our program,” wrote head men’s basketball coach Aaron McKie in a press release when the quarantine was announced.

“Our medical staff and administration have done an incredible job of creating a safe environment for our team.”

In a sport where schedules are usually honored without fail, teams are struggling with the fluidity of this season’s scheduling. Nearly half of the Owls’

limited time to practice and had to make quick changes to its travel schedule in order to get to new games. The Owls were scheduled to play East Carolina on Feb. 11 but the game was postponed, so they traveled to play Cincinnati on Feb. 12 instead.

“With the American conference a lot of teams are testing positive, and we have to reshuffle the deck, seems like we’re doing it every week now,” McKie said on Jan. 22. “We want to be one of those teams that’s readily available, so if we have to postpone a game we can get up and go or have someone come to us.”

The Owls won their first game of the season after weeks away from the floor, but they haven’t had the same luck since.

On four separate occasions, they dealt with midseason postponements, and in all four of those instances, they lost their first game following the postponement.

While McKie acknowledged the dif-

“The turnaround is a little bit different for us,” McKie said. “It gives these guys the experience of understanding quick turnarounds and mental focus and all of the other things you need.”

Stopping and starting repeatedly is a difficult task for the Owls. A single postponement can lead to a layoff that in some cases lasts more than a week, making it difficult to stay in a rhythm, said senior forward De’Vondre Perry.

As the Owls continue their season, there is no telling how many games they will play, who their opponents will be and where the games will take place.

“Throughout this whole season, it’s been challenging,” Perry said. “Of course that’s tough, but we’re not looking for excuses.” adam.aaronson@temple.edu @SixersAdam

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MEN’S SOCCER

Pierre Cayet focusing on leadership this season He was also named to the All Amer- I think we have the tools for it.”

Cayet was named The American become the best version of themselves by sharing some techniques he’s learned ican Athletic Conference second team Sophomore forward Sean Karani Athletic Conference preseason through the years, Cayet said. last season after playing every minute of also hopes to win the AAC championdefensive player of the year.

BY SEAN McMENAMIN Men’s Soccer Beat Reporter Temple University men’s soccer senior defender Pierre Cayet loves challenges.

“I’m definitely expecting to have a good season,” Cayet added. “I’m really looking forward to what I’m going to be able to bring to the team and to show that I deserve this award.”

Cayet became the first Owl to win The American Athletic Conference preseason defensive player of the year on Jan. 25, but for him, winning the award comes with a greater challenge and responsibility to be a leader for his teammates this season.

The Owls’ season started on Feb. 6 and they are currently 1-1, with Cayet starting in each of the team’s games.

Cayet is showing up early to practice, running a half marathon in his free time and trying to help the younger players

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28 VOLLEYBALL “Kids will commit to institutions because they don’t want to wait and maybe they do it without going through this process properly,” he added. “Because of that it might not be the right fit.”

Teams can start reaching out to recruits over the phone and sending them emails starting on June 15 after their sophomore year, according to Next College Student Athlete, a website that helps student-athletes navigate the recruiting process.

This season, the Owls’ roster has four international players. Freshman outside hitter Ilayda Dincer is from

The extra running Cayet is doing helped him stay fit during the team’s extended offseason when the season was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cayet is also hoping his teammates will see the hard work he puts in and will do the same, he said.

“I lead by example,” Cayet added. “So I think every day I practice, I try to be the best I can be.”

Head coach Brian Rowland is also hopeful the younger players take note of Cayet’s work ethic because it could “leave a mark” on the program, he said.

“We got a really good young freshman group that I hope takes on his lead,” Rowland added. “That rubs off on the culture of the program and the players in the program, then we’ll be in a much better place.”

Cayet has already had a significant impact on the Owls’ program. He started in all 18 of Temple’s games last season while recording three goals, six shots on goal and one game-winning goal.

every game last season.

“He’s a very big piece of the success we’ve had and obviously very well deserving of individual accolades,” Rowland said. “I think he’s one of the best defenders in our league and one of the best defenders period.”

One of Cayet’s goals is to make the NCAA Tournament this year after the team didn’t make it after the 2019 season, along with winning the AAC championship.

The Owls haven’t made an NCAA Tournament appearance since 1985.

Temple’s 2019 season ended when the team lost on Nov. 13, 2019, to Central Florida 5-0 in the second round of the AAC tournament.

“We were very close last year, so now we want to make sure we take care of those little details that can cost us the competition bid,” Cayet said. “We really want to make sure we win the championship, winning the conference. So I think it’s big, but we are ready for it and

ship this season and believes Cayet winning the preseason defensive player of the year is a step in the right direction, he said.

“The new coaching staff that we have are doing a great job of turning this program around,” Karani added. “It showed when [Cayet] won that award and was selected for that, and now there’s also a lot of great players in our program, and we have high expectations.”

If Temple is going to make it back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 36 years, Cayet will have to play a big part in their success, Rowland said.

“He’s a competitor,” Rowland added.

“He’s one of those guys you can count on every game, every practice to play at 110 percent, and be a guy that’s willing to do whatever it takes to win anything, whether it’s a game or a small activity in practice. He’s a winner.”

Ankara, Turkey, senior outside hitter Katerina Papazoglou is from Thessaloniki, Greece, junior outside hitter Miray Bolukbasi is from Istanbul, Turkey, and senior setter Selina Merfol is from Apeldoorn, Netherlands.

When recruiting Dincer, Temple’s only international recruit last summer, Ganesharatnam wasn’t allowed to travel to visit her, and had to use Zoom to talk to her.

“A lot of embassies in a lot of these countries were closed, and for good reason, but we were able to find solutions,” Ganesharatnam said. “It was certainly different than the years before, but I feel like nothing is normal nowadays.”

The conversations they held on

Zoom were “fun” and helped convince Dincer to come to Temple after three weeks, despite having offers from other schools, she said.

The two talked about the benefits of coming to Philadelphia and what playing opportunities she would get when she arrived. Dincer has played in seven sets this season and recorded 11.5 points.

“I always wanted to study in the U.S.,” Dincer said. “I never thought of studying [in] my own country.”

Ganesharatnam heard about Dincer from his connection with coaches and players he met when he played volleyball in Germany.

Those connections will be pivotal if the NCAA recruiting suspension is

extended past April 15 because Ganesharatnam won’t be able to travel and watch potential recruits again this summer.

Ganesharatnam has a lot of trust in his connections overseas, and he values their evaluations highly which led him to recruit Papazoglou in 2017 and helped him recruit Dincer, he said “It is good to have those connections, especially now,” Ganesharatnam added.

“Because you are forced to possibly make a decision on a player you couldn’t see live. In that situation, it certainly helps if you have people you trust.”

sean.mcmenamin@temple.edu @sean102400

valerie.pendrak@temple.edu @ValeriePendrak

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ZOOM VOLLEYBALL

RECRUITING The current NCAA dead period prevents coaches from talking with or visiting recruits in person through April 15.

BY VALERIE PENDRAK Volleyball Beat Reporter

T

emple University volleyball is delaying its recruiting process for its 2022 class to deal with complications created by the COVID-19 pandemic, said head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam.

“At this point we are making decisions with less information than we had before,” Ganesharatnam added.

“Usually we would be done with the 22 class. Timeline-wise we are a little behind.”

Ganesharatnam is changing his process of recruiting international students this season since he’s not allowed to see them play by using Zoom to communicate with them and talking with trusted

coaches he knows overseas.

The NCAA extended its suspension of all in-person recruiting through April 15, 2021, due to the pandemic, according to the NCAA’s website.

During a normal recruiting cycle, Ganesharatnam or an assistant coach would travel to see a potential recruit play at least once before they would officially sign with the Owls.

Any upcoming international recruits can not make official visits to campus, and Ganesharatnam isn’t allowed to travel to watch them play.

Ganesharatnam believes one of the consequences of recruits not making official visits is they will be more inclined to transfer later in their career, he said.

VOLLEYBALL | 22

COLLEEN CLAGGETT / THE TEMPLE NEWS Freshman outside hitter Ilayda Dincer bumps the volleyball during the Owls’ game against Morgan State University at McGonigle Hall on Jan. 23.

Dincer is an international student recruit from Ankara, Turkey.