A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921.
TEMPLE-NEWS.COM
TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 2016
VOL. 94 ISS. 28
Tuition increase expected
Alter appointed to BOT after case with FDIC
Officials said trustees will likely raise tuition again at a public meeting in July.
Dennis Alter, the namesake of Alter Hall in the Fox School of Business, was reappointed in March after settling with the FDIC in 2015. HOJUN YU TTN
By STEVE BOHNEL News Editor
O
n March 15, Dennis Alter was unanimously reappointed to the Board of Trustees to a new four-year term, which ends on Oct. 1, 2019. The decision comes about nine months after court records showed Alter settled a case with the FDIC last June for $23.5 million, after the agency had sued him for more than $219 million, according to a complaint filed in June 2013. On the Board of Trustees’ site, Alter is listed as a tourist,
with no place of business. He told The Temple News last week he was happy about being re-elected to the board, and declined to comment on his settlement with the FDIC. “As they say in the legal field, it’s old and cold,” Alter said of his decision not to comment. The Temple News previously reported that Alter was initially appointed to the board in 2012 by the state. Last month, he was reappointed by Mike Turzai, speaker of the state’s House of Representatives. Turzai, who has been speaker
ALTER | PAGE 6
AARON WINDHORST TTN
Aron Cowen, (left), shakes hands with Ryan Rinaldi.
Derrek Thomas chases down a receiver during the Cherry and White game.
By JULIE CHRISTIE The Temple News
Thomas embraces new role on defense
awkward with it at first.” After appearing in six games in his 2014 freshman campaign, Thomas redshirted last season. Before the team traveled to Boca Raton, Florida, for the Mar-
Following a nearly nine-month-long budget impasse, undergraduate tuition is expected to increase between 2 to 3 percent when the fall semester begins, officials said. The Board of Trustees will vote on an increase at its July 12 meeting. Last year, the board passed a 2.8 percent tuition increase for both in-state and out-ofstate students, following a 3.69 percent increase in 2014 and a 1 percent increase in 2013. The Temple News reported in July 2015 that the university has increased its tuition by an average 2.4 percent during the past three years. University CFO and Treasurer Ken Kaiser said the increase is most likely going to be “2-point-something [percent]” when the board votes. “What we do is we take a look at how our expenses change and grow, and based on how the costs change, tuition increases,” Kaiser said. “The costs of the university are mainly driven by people, whether that’s through salary increases, cost of benefits, utilities and any new initiatives.” Kaiser added the university would first look to make cuts in the budget before increasing tuition. Since 2010, the budget has been cut by $113 million through academic, administration and department cuts as well as layoffs, he said. “There’s always a salary push. For the last four to five years some unions didn’t get salary increases,” Kaiser said of the 11 unions on campus, which negotiate contracts
THOMAS | PAGE 18
TUITION | PAGE 6
Redshirt-sophomore cornerback Derrek Thomas switched from wide receiver to defensive back at the end of last season. By MICHAEL GUISE Sports Editor With Keith Kirkwood lined up across from him, Derrek Thomas got in his stance and prepared to challenge the redshirt-junior wide receiver in one-on-one drills. In the team’s first practice of the spring season, the redshirtsophomore defensive back was transitioning to life on the defensive side of the ball after entering the program as a wide receiver. Following the snap from the quarterback, Kirkwood ran past Thomas, who could not react in time to stay with the receiver. “When I first got to corner, I thought I was going to line up and run with guys and it was going to be easy,” Thomas said. “But when I got burned and exposed, I knew my technique had to be right. Everything has to be on par. I was so
When I got “burned and
exposed, I knew my technique had to be right.
”
Derrek Thomas | defensive back
Talking with the A legacy of jazz in new TSG team Empower TU looks to engage more students through its parliament system, and remains undecided about a proposed football stadium. By TOM IGNUDO The Temple News Student Body President Aron Cowen was inducted yesterday at a General Assembly meeting alongside vice president of external affairs Jai Singletary and vice president of services Kelly Dawson. On March 31, Empower TU won Temple Student Government’s 2016-17 election by capturing 32 percent of the 4,112 total votes cast. Empower TU plans to bring change to TSG by implementing a 40-person parliamentary system to better represent the students, build relationships with the community and continue to improve policies introduced by the previous administration, Future TU. The 40-body parliament will
NEWS PAGES 2-3, 6
consist of 20-at large representatives, 13 representatives from each undergraduate college and seven issued-based representatives. In this year’s TSG election, voter turnout dropped by 467 votes. Empower TU, however, hopes its new parliament system will make students feel like their voice matters. “We represent a body of now roughly 38,000 individuals and it would be wrong to segregate a portion of individuals who aren’t wrong, per se, but what they are is passionate about the community,” Singletary said. The group, however, has yet to take a side on the talks of a possible football stadium that could be built in North Philadelphia after Temple’s record-setting football season.
TSG | PAGE 3
Update on stadium proposal
Officials said logistics about game days on campus are still in preliminary discussions. PAGE 2
OPINION PAGES 4-5
Temple investing in academics, too
Philadelphia
Philadelphia’s Jazz Appreciation Month celebrates the city’s role in the genre, but may not successfully showcase the full story. By EMILY THOMAS The Temple News Philadelphia percussionist Jim Hamilton fondly remembers growing up in his father’s dance studio in Kensington, learning about different kinds of musical styles from a young age. “The concept of things that swing was something I started to understand when I was very young,” he said. “This idea of jazz and its evolution comes from a mixture of cultures … and a big part of jazz’s evolution of course is in the city that we’re living in and where I was born and raised.” Philadelphia played a large role in the development of jazz music throughout the 20th cen-
tury. The city’s multi-ethnic population was attracted to the unrestricted, diverse style of music. Producing renowned artists like John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus, Philadelphia was home to many jazz musicians who helped the progression of the genre in America. “In a place like New York where there’s every professional jazz musician in the world … and when you’re a student or trying to do something different, it’s not easy to get accepted and play at different places,” said
JAZZ | PAGE 11
PATRICK CLARK TTN
Sophomore jazz performance major Brad Neely plays his upright bass in Presser Hall.
LIFESTYLE PAGES 7-8, 14, 16
Play tells stories with ‘love’
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT PAGES 9-13
The Institute on Disabilities produced a play to tell the story of the intellectual disabilities civil rights movement. PAGE 7
In a new exhibit called “Explicit Female,” Zornitsa Stoyanova uses art, video and photography to explore what it means to be a woman. PAGE 9
Local artist examines femininity
SPORTS PAGES 17-20