Monthly Archives: April 2013

Greek Week celebrates sorority and fraternity life

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Greek Week, a week that celebrates the various social fraternities and sororities on campus, ended with an awards ceremony held on Thursday night.  Throughout the week a variety of competitions were held that placed sisterhood against sisterhood and brotherhood against brotherhood.
Jessica Goldberg, a member of Alpha Epsilon Phi, reflected upon the experience.

“This week brings a lot of people together.  It’s not about who wins,” said Goldberg.

For many organizations Greek Week 2013 was their first time actively participating in the event.  Events included Greek Sing, Greek God and Goddess, Greek Olympics, and a Can Castle Competition.
Greek Sing, the annual song and dance competition between Temple’s Greek organizations took place April 10. Organizations belted out their best tunes and put their musical skills to the ultimate test.
Phi Sigma Sigma placed first and was able to edge out second and third place winners Delta Zeta and Delta Phi Epsilon in the National Panhellenic Conference division. Alpha Tau Omega took home first in the Inter-fraternity Conference division. Delta Chi Psi’s vocals were enough to earn them first place in the National Multicultural Greek Council division.  Kappa Alpha Psi took home first in the National Pan-Hellenic Council division.

The Greek God and Goddess pageants were held on April 6. Select members from each fraternity and sorority represented their chapters in the contest.

Delta Phi Epsilon was the champion of the National Panhellenic Conference division with Delta Zeta placing a close second.  Kappa Sigma and Alpha Tau Omega tied for first place Inter-fraternity Conference division. Iota Nu Delta took first in the National Multicultural Greek Council division while Alpha Phi Alpha triumphed in the National Pan-Hellenic Council division.

“Best Greek Week ever,” said Joseph Sebastian the president of Iota Nu Delta.
In the Greek Olympics organization members put their best athletic foot forward and competed for the coveted gold medal last Sunday on Temple’s athletic fields.  Delta Zeta was able to clutch the gold medal in the National Panhellenic Conference division.  Alpha Chi Rho placed first in the Inter-fraternity Conference division while Delta Chi Psi won the National Multicultural Greek Council division.

Greek Week’s annual Can Castle Competition took place on April 8. Cans of food were collected and used to build castles by the organizations.  All donations were donated to Philabundance. Delta Phi Epsilon and Phi Sigma Sigma tied for the best castle building skills in the National Panhellenic Conference division. Kappa Sigma and Sigma Alpha Mu also tied in the Inter-fraternity Conference division.  Iota Nu Delta took home first place in the National Multicultural Greek Council division.

Wayne Miletto, a member of Kappa Sigma, was thrilled with a tie.

“I feel great about the whole thing.  We got work done,” said Miletto.

The overall Greek Week winners were Delta Zeta for the National Panhellenic Conference division, Kappa Sigma for the Inter-fraternity Conference division, Alpha Sigma Rho for the National Multicultural Greek Council division, and Alpha Phi Alpha for the National Pan-Hellenic Council division.

The Greek organizations were also able to raise $500 through Relay for Life and two can shakes.

Threatening messages written on bathroom stall

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Two notes threatening actions similar to the infamous shootings at Columbine High School were found written on a bathroom stall in Gladfelter Hall, Fox 29 reported Thursday.

The station reported images of the messages which read: “April 20, 2013, I’ll bring honor to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold,” and on the same date, “you will all learn the meaning of suffering.”

According to the report, the university first found out about the messages in March. No alert has been released through the TU Alert system.

Fox reported a statement from the university officials which read: “The safety of our students is a top priority. Temple Police have been conducting an investigation into the graffiti message, security has been enhanced on our campus.”

April 20 is the 14th anniversary of the Columbine massacre in Colorado which left 12 dead and 21 injured.

Temple United wins TSG election

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Temple United, made up of candidate for student body president Darin Bartholomew, candidate for vice president of services Cree Moore and candidate for vice president of external affairs Sonia Galiber, has defeated Diamond Nation in this year’s Temple Student Government election.

Check back with temple-news.com later for a full recap of the election results.

Director of Villanova library named University Libraries dean

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Joseph Lucia, the director of the Falvey Memorial Library at Villanova University, was named dean of University Libraries, according to University Communications. He will assume his new role on July 1.

Lucia had previously visited Temple on Feb. 13 and 14 during the search for a new dean. Mary Case of the University of Illinois at Chicago and David Lewis of Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis were also named as candidates for the position.

Carol Lang is currently the interim dean of University Libraries, a position she has held since August 2011.

Check with temple-news.com for more information as it becomes available. 

Students protest African American Studies chair

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Members of Temple’s African American Studies Department held a rally in front of the Bell Tower today in protest of the appointment of Jayne Drake, a white woman, as chairwoman of the department.

The rally, which was held between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., featured undergraduate and graduate student speakers, as well as many speakers from the North Philadelphia community.

“We just hope to put pressure on the university so that they can have more respect for minority studies, and that’s all disciplines, africana studies, asian studies, women’s studies, queer studies,” said Sabrina Sample, a political science major who is minoring in African American studies.

One protester at the event stood in silence, waving two large Pan-African flags, one sign held by a protester read “save black studies.”

Ronald Amour, a local community activist, spoke at the event and helped introduce several of the other speakers. Amour complemented the crowd that had gathered in from of the tower, saying that the diversity of the students assembled showed solidarity with the people in the African American studies department.

The crowd was openly critical of Teresa Soufas, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, for appointing Drake to the head of the African American studies department. They called for Molefi Asante, the former chairperson and current professor in the department, to be given the appointment as the popular decision among the departments students.

The crowds repeatedly broke out in chants of “We want Asante,” and “Soufas must go.” Several speakers at the event, which was open mic, accused Soufas of being a “racist,” and irresponsive to the needs and wishes of the professors and students in the department.

Steps collapse at party

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A party west of Main Campus took a scary turn Friday night when the basement steps collapsed, leaving party goers stuck in the basement, said Deputy Director of Campus Safety Services.

Police and firefighters arrived at the party on the 1700 block of Arlington Street at approximately 11:35 p.m., Leone said in an email, and helped students out of the basement and to safety. No injuries were reported, Leone said.

The residents of the house on Arlington Street were unavailable for comment Saturday afternoon and Leone said the students will be in contact with their landlord.

Event features Snøhetta speaker

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Margret Carney, university architect, announced Craig Dykers of the Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta, which is planned to design the next university library, at Temple’s Architecture Alumni Lecture on Thursday night.

Dykers delivered the keynote address at the event, which was attended by many alumni of the architecture school, as well as current students at the Temple Performing Arts Center.

Dyker spoke of his firm’s experience in designing libraries, such as the Alexandria Library in Egypt, Ryerson University Library in Toronto, and the James B. Hunt Memorial Library at North Carolina State University.

The libraries, keeping in trend with many of Snøhetta’s modern designs, served to incorporate social activity to create more interactive meeting spaces, Dyker said.

Carney, who along with Provost Hai Lung Dai visited the construction site of the Hunt Library, said she was excited to begin working with Snøhetta on the design of the new library.

“We have high expectations that it will be a great process to design a building that is everything we envision for great architecture and an iconic building,” Carney said.

Carney said that there are many challenges in designing a modern library, and that one of the factors the university looked at when choosing the firm is their experience in designing state-of-the-art libraries around the world.

“We can’t point to another building and say ‘we want that’,” Carney said, describing the the process to design the building would be a “invention.”

The event was held in honor Brigitte L. Knowles, a former professor of architecture at Temple who received a dedication for her career in the Philadelphia architecture community prior to the keynote address.

Pipe burst leads to early morning evacuation

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A pipe burst in room 1002 early this morning in Johnson Hall, causing Temple police and firefighters to respond to an alarm which went off at 4:15 a.m., Deputy Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone said.

Freshman biology major Ashley Rapp is one of the two students staying in room 1002 and said she noticed that a pipe in her room was making strange noises.

“I woke up and there was a screeching noise and I thought it was the air conditioner. I stepped in really hot water. I saw really dark brown water coming out of the vents,” Rapp said.

Rapp said she quickly moved the belongings under her bed off the floor and notified security and an on-duty resident assistant. Upon returning to her room, Rapp said the fire alarm was going off and quickly spread to the whole building. She said students quickly filled out of Johnson once the alarm sounded.

“The people on this floor were more concerned because they knew it was coming from this room. But the whole room turned from where you could see to where you couldn’t see anything,” Rapp said. “It was complete fog and steam.”

The fire sprinklers in the room did not go off, which Rapp said saved some of her personal belongings from being completely damaged. Rapp said that everything under her bed and her electronics received water damage.

Rapp said she was not sure if she would be compensated for the loss of her belongings. She said the Resident Director of Johnson Hall Megan Connelly would be working with her and maintenance to assess the amount of property that had been lost.

Connelly and Housing of Residential Life declined to comment on the incident.

“They said that it was alright to try to see if the TV worked and try the laptop and they tried to see if the electricity was secure to turn back on, “ Rapp said.

Rapp is communicating with Residential Life to inform them on how much damage their was to her belongings at which time she said they will “come in and check internally” to determine if she will receive compensation for her losses.

Rapp said that students were outside for no more than 30 minutes and then were allowed to go back into the building.

Rapp said that when repairs were made,she was told a cap had been worn down on the pipe, causing pressure and the pipe to burst out hot water and steam. Leone said engineers informed him that it was also due to previous water damage and was in no way the fault of the student. Though this was a serious incident, Leone said no students were injured and Temple officials had control over the situation.

Rapp has been given permission to safely return and stay in her room at this time.

Crowds await Green Day at Liacouras Center

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Despite the fans that arrived at 4 a.m. awaiting Green Day’s concert at the Liacouras Center tonight, most have already taken refuge from the wind, leaving coolers and chairs in their place.

Some troopers remain in line, braving the gusts, though having arrived at 10 a.m., maybe a more reasonable hour.  Gillian Malkin, 16, came with her parents, Marjorie and Lance from East Brunswick, NJ, while friends, Dylan Tracy, 20, Dana Terry, 21, and Vikki Schermund, 38 came together, also from Central Jersey.

Lance Malkin says, “I’ve been fans of theirs since 1994 now, and we decided to let Gillian skip school today so we can rush the stage.”
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