NEWS TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 2018
PAGE 6 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 ELECTIONS also want to empower student organizations and Parliament by giving them more autonomy, reform TSG’s weekly General Assembly meetings and enhance campus safety and sustainability efforts.
UniteTU • • •
President: Daniel Borine, junior political science and criminal justice major Vice President of Services: Venise Salcedo, junior public health major Vice President of External Affairs: Adrienne Hines, junior political science major
UniteTU’s student leaders said they want to support students, improve services and hold TSG accountable, but purposefully kept further details about their platform “short.” “We’re here because we want to make a difference,” Borine said. “We’ve all had a great experience at Temple, and we want to give back.”
VoiceTU •
•
•
President: Tyler Lum, sophomore political science major and TSG’s director of Government Affairs. Vice President of Services: Almas Ayaz, junior supply chain management major and TSG’s director of Campus Life and Diversity Vice President of External Affairs: Bridget Warlea, junior legal studies major and speaker of Parliament
VoiceTU wants to unite Temple and North Philadelphia by increasing understanding between students and community residents. It also wants to expand resources for underrepresented students. The team members want to enhance sustainability efforts and improve the use of campus space. The campaign also wants to advocate for more affordable on-campus housing, increased mental health resources and campus
ADVERTISEMENT
safety efforts for active-shooter scenarios. Parliamentarian Jacob Kurtz announced at Parliament’s Monday meeting that he will step down from his position to run for the 2018 election. Jordan Laslett, the former Speaker of Parliament, will act as Parliamentarian until Kurtz returns.
CAMPAIGNING Starting Wednesday, campaigns will be allowed to advertise and host promotional events every day until voting begins on April 4. The first TSG debate will be held on Thursday, and the second on April 2. The winning campaign will be announced on April 6, said Daritza Santana, the TSG elections commissioner and a senior criminal justice major. Last Tuesday, Santana was appointed elections commissioner after Matthew Diamond, who previously held the position, resigned amid the Senior Leadership Team’s efforts to impeach him. This staff change occurred eight days before the tickets’ campaigning were set to begin. Many of the impeachment accusations — which Auditor General Morrease Leftwich determined were not credible — were based on disagreements between Diamond and the Senior Leadership Team regarding edits to the 2017 elections code, which caused confusion during last year’s election. Diamond attempted to draft a new code, but decided to use the 2017 code again after the Senior Leadership Team did not vote to ratify his suggested edits. Although the code wasn’t altered and Santana was appointed at the last minute, she said she believes the elections will still be successful. “I want to conduct a clear and fair election, and I want to avoid cheating,” Santana said. “Our goal is to also have a high turnout for elections.” Last election, 5,180 students voted. Thursday’s debate will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. in Room 217AB of the Student Center and will be moderated by The Temple News and Temple Update.
SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Cameron Kaczor, Trenton Reardon and Gadi Zimmerman (left to right) of IgniteTU present their campaign at TSG’s General Assembly meeting on Monday.
SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS UniteTU announces its campaign at TSG’s General Assembly Meeting on Monday. From left to right, the candidates are Daniel Borine, Venise Salcedo and Adrienne Hines.
alyssa.biederman@temple.edu @BiedermanAlyssa SYDNEY SCHAEFER / THE TEMPLE NEWS Tyler Lum, Almas Ayaz and Bridget Warlea (left to right) discussed their platform for VoiceTU at TSG’s General Assembly meeting on Monday.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 STADIUM port of local residents for a project.Bergman said a community-benefits agreement could be used in this case to make the university responsible for issues of trash, noise and other issues resulting from an on-campus stadium. “Anything you say you’re going to do you have to put down in a written document,” Bergman said. “We would gladly enter into that at any given time, but all the neighbors would need to get together and try and do that.” Still, Bergman said he does not see “legitimate missteps” on behalf of the university regarding last month’s town hall that was hosted five days after an anti-stadium townhall by community residents. “Right now, it’s obvious there are people that are not happy with [the stadium], and I think the way we tried to present in that large setting was extremely difficult,” Bergman said. “I thought there was a great deal of people there who wanted to see the presentation.” The best strategy moving forward, Bergman said, is to hold many meetings with small groups of community residents. At the university’s most recent meeting with residents from 15th and Page streets — which is close to where the stadium would be built — said their main concern was increased traffic, Bergman said. The university has yet to release the results of a $1.25 million feasibility study, which is said to include plans for traffic, parking and elements of the stadium’s design. The Board of Trustees approved the funds for the study in October 2015. The 35,000-seat stadium is proposed to built between Norris Street and Montgomery Avenue and 15th and 16th streets. 15th Street is the only uninterrupted southbound street in Philadelphia. Dozie Ibeh, the associate vice president of Temple’s Project Delivery Group, told PlanPhilly last week that an unreleased study determined traffic would not be an issue for residents if 15th Street was closed to build the stadium. The number of vehicles that use 15th Street at peak hours
News Desk 215.204.7419 news@temple-news.com
— about 310 — could instead be directed to Broad Street, which sees about 3,000 vehicles at peak hours, Ibeh told PlanPhilly. Ibeh was supposed to give a presentation about the results of the feasibility study at Englert’s town hall earlier this month, but did not since it ended early. As 5th District Councilman, Clarke would have to introduce the legislation to City Council to close 15th Street for the stadium project to continue. But Clarke said he is not convinced the university has properly communicated with the community, and he will not introduce or support “any City approvals for the stadium,” a spokesperson for Clarke told The Temple News last week. “What [Clarke] has always said is that he would want neighbors to be in support of it, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Bergman said. “I mean Clarke says, ‘You got to do a better job of communicating.’ Then, we’ll do a better job at communicating.” Clarke could not be reached for comment on Monday. Bergman said Temple had already submitted its proposal for the stadium to the Philadelphia Planning Commision. But on Monday, officials from the commission told The Temple News they had not yet received the proposal. Judith Robinson is the chair of the 32nd Ward Registered Community Organization, which oversees new development in the community. She said Bergman and several other officials from the Office of Community Relations met with her to discuss the stadium about two weeks ago. Robinson said she requested to see the results of the feasibility studies at the meeting, but was denied. University officials told her both reports would be provided to the RCO before the university submits its proposal to the City Planning Commission, she said. They did not provide her with a timeline for this process, she said. Robinson added that the group did not discuss a community-benefits agreement during the meeting. will.bleier@temple.edu @Will_Bleier
temple-news.com @thetemplenews