Monthly Archives: April 2014

250 forced to sleep in SAC after steam burst in Towers

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Close to 250 residents of Temple Towers were forced to sleep overnight in the Student Center after a pipe burst in a mechanical area of the building released large amounts of steam which shorted the electrical system.

Acting Executive Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone said the entire building was evacuated shortly after 1 a.m. on Saturday, April 26, when the power in the building failed due to the steam burst. Residents of the hall reported seeing steam in the first floor hallways. Leone said there was no actual fire in the building.

Leone said CSS monitored the effect of the steam burst and power outage at nearby 1300 Residence Hall, but determined there was not an issue.

Residents of Towers who attempted to spend the night in 1300 reported that they were told not to stay there due to the possibility of evacuation.

The all clear was issued around 6 a.m., and crews were in the building Saturday afternoon to fix electrical equipment.

Around 3 a.m., the fire alarm went off in 1940 Residence Hall, although Leone said that incident did not appear to be related. It was not immediately clear as to the reason for that alarm.

Board selects Seattle-based management for OAR fund

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Temple will hire the Seattle-based Pugh Capital Management to manage its fixed-income Operating and Auxiliary Reserves fund, the investments committee of the Board of Trustees announced in a meeting Wednesday morning.

Pugh, which has $2.8 billion in assets, also manages the investment portfolio for corporations and the University of Washington.

Kaiser told the trustees that his office, with help from Temple’s financial advisors Cambridge Financial Associates, considered five firms and interviewed three before recommending Pugh.

The university will notify Pugh this week and ask for a final fee negotiation, which Kaiser said was currently 26.7 basis points, or 0.267 percent of the managed assets. Investments committee chair and local investment banker Christopher McNichol said that he would like to see the fee reduced, and noted that the committee only approved the selection of Pugh, not the fee.

The OAR fund exists to manage university debts through the use of fixed income sources, Kaiser said.  Since the income is fixed, no risk is involved. “You just need to align your investments with your liabilities,” he explained. Though his office could manage the fund, it was more efficient to leave it to Pugh.

The Investments committee recommended that the OAR Fund, founded in 1984 as the Retirement of Indebtedness Fund, be renamed in a meeting March 26, a resolution waiting for approval at the May 13 general body meeting.  The general body rarely rejects committee recommendations.

The trustees’ audit committee met at 2 p.m. in executive session and lasted about an hour, Kaiser said.

The next trustees meeting is the facilities committee on May 5 at 12 p.m., a newly rescheduled date from the originally scheduled April 30 meeting.

Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@temple.edu or on Twitter @JBrandt_TU.

TSG holds penultimate meeting

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Temple Student Government held its second-to-last general assembly of the semester Monday, and announcements were made about a new role for TSG in Temple’s Board of Trustees and preparations for a transitioning to the next administration under Ray Smergilio.

Student Body President Darin Bartholomew announced that TSG will now be giving an address at each Board of Trustees general assembly meeting, starting on May 10. Bartholomew said he would deliver the first address, focusing on off- and on-campus security, alumni school pride and food services.

“I’m really excited because this is a way to get more student input to the board,” Bartholomew said. “They have been incredibly receptive about that.”

While TSG was previously allowed appointees to the board’s public committee meetings, it did not have a garunteed voice at gatherings of the entire board.

Incoming student body president Ray Smeriglio announced his administration is looking for students to fill TSG executive positions. Applications are due April 25.

Next week, TSG’s current administration will update the constitution before the new group takes office.

Morgan Jenkins, director of local and community affairs, invited students to volunteer for the Adopt-a-Block beautification program on May 3. In an open forum at the meeting, students discussed ways to use Adopt-a-Block to unify Temple and the surrounding community instead of just participating in a clean-up effort.

Captain Eileen Bradley of Campus Safety Services said that ideally block captains and residents work with volunteering students, but participation has died down since winter.

Students for Monteiro hold second rally outside Sullivan Hall

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More police officers were present at Sullivan Hall on April 16 than the protest a week earlier.

More police officers were present at Sullivan Hall on April 16 than the protest a week earlier. MARCUS MCCARTHY | TTN

Students for Monteiro, the student coalition supporting the reinstatement of African American studies professor Anthony Monteiro, marched around Main Campus and held a rally with other community protesters Wednesday, April 16.

In anticipation of the protest, Temple police officers were outside Anderson and Gladfelter halls and security guards were checking identification at the doors instead of inside.  The protesters did not march to these buildings.

More police officers were present at Sullivan Hall on April 16 than the protest a week earlier.

“We just want people to feel safe,” Acting Executive Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone said. “We don’t know what [the protesters] are going to do. It’s just a precaution.”

Temple police officers were also posted at the entrance to Sullivan Hall and crowd control barriers were again in place on Beasley’s Walk by the time the protesters arrived an hour later.

Monteiro’s students and community members from his class “Philosophy and Black Liberation,” taught on Saturdays at the Church of the Advocate, attended the rally and joined in the march.

The protesters set up speakers outside Sullivan Hall and about 20 people spoke, including Glen Ford, executive editor at the Black Agenda Report, a Black Left site that Monteiro has contributed to before.

Monteiro, a non-tenure track associate African American studies professor, was notified in February that his contract would not be renewed for the next academic year. Students for Monteiro claimed the decision was a “retaliatory firing” in response to his activism and calls for the firing of College of Liberal Arts Dean Teresa Soufas, student representation on the Board of Trustees and better relations between Temple and the surrounding community.

The rally ended with a 15 minute speech from Monteiro. The protesters then went to meet and discuss their future plans.

Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@temple.edu or on Twitter @JBrandt_TU.

Study finds fake orgasms provide pleasure

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A study by a Temple doctoral student has found that women who fake orgasms often do so not just to please their partner, but to get a little added pleasure themselves.

Clinical psychology doctoral student Erin Cooper began her research while she was an undergraduate student at Kenyon College.

“Some friends and I were reading a women’s magazine and the phenomenon of faked orgasms was mentioned in an article,” Cooper said. “We read the article’s advice and cracked a few jokes … but then I began to wonder ‘how do they know what they’re saying is true?’ So I did what any good psychology major would do: I went to the library and did a lit search.”

Cooper said her findings surprised her: only two studies were published in peer-reviewed journals, one in 1986 and another in 1997.  At the time, Cooper was in the midst of planning an independent research study, and presented the proposal to her advisor and second author on the manuscript, Allan Fenigstein.  While she was a senior at Kenyon, a pilot study was conducted.

When Cooper arrived at Temple to begin the clinical psychology doctoral program, she continued her work with Psychology Chair Robert Fauber.

There were no experiments conducted to collect data.  Instead, Cooper and her team gave women in their research study a series of questionnaires about their sexual experiences.

The team found that the most common motive for a faked orgasm was “altruistic deceit,” which means faking an orgasm in order to avoid hurting the partner’s feelings. According to Cooper, altruistic deceit is often deemed by popular culture to be the only reason for women faking orgasm, but her study showed otherwise.

Cooper suggests that the scale used in the study is unique because for the first time there is quantitative data suggesting other reasons for faking an orgasm.

“Women may also fake orgasm for far more ‘selfish’ reasons,” Cooper said.

The study suggests that women may fake orgasm to increase their own arousal, known as “elevated arousal.”

“I view this strategy as one of the many ‘tools in the toolbox’ women may use to enhance their own sexual experience,” Cooper said.

      Logan Beck can be reached at logan.beck@temple.edu.

Police suspect identified in shooting of 11-year-old boy

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Philadelphia police have identified who they said was involved with the shooting of an 11-year-old boy on the corner of Gratz and Oxford streets. Police wrote in a press release that Marcelus Temple, a 25-year-old male whose home address is unknown, is a suspect in the incident.

On April 6 around 4 p.m., the 11-year-old male was playing basketball with friends when they were hit as a bystander in a drive-by shooting, according to the police press release. The 11-year-old was found by police bleeding from a single shot to the side and ducking in a doorway. Police said they found 15 bullets on the scene.

The 11-year-old was taken to Temple University Hospital for surgery and was in critical condition. The boy was later stabilized and transported to Saint Christopher’s Hospital for Children for additional treatment.

Police are asking for anyone with information of the incident to call the Central Detectives Unit.

Marcus McCarthy can be reached at marcus.mccarthy@temple.edu or on Twitter @marcusmccarthy6.

Trustees hold committee meetings on finances and policy

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Temple will pay off Temple Japan’s debts, shift a small pension plan from monthly payments to one final lump sum and allow different offices to have their own credit cards, the Board of Trustees announced at two committee meetings today.

Temple Japan owes $6.3 million on a loan that could be paid off now since the dollar’s value is high, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Ken Kaiser explained to the trustees. Paying off the loan immediately would save about $1.2 million.

“This seems like a no-brainer,” Chairman Patrick O’Connor said. The recommendation was passed with one motion to abstain from trustee J. William Mills, who is PNC Bank’s Regional President for Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. The loan in question was a PNC loan.

The executive committee also discussed the termination of the Interest Pension Plan, a plan started in 1946 that gives retired employees annuity payments. MetLife, the disperser of the payments, urged Temple to reform the plan.

Of the initial 200 signed up, 28 retired employees still draw from the fund. They will be given a lump sum that can be re-invested into another retirement plan, Kaiser said. The fund’s total value is $185,000.

The third recommendation concerned an amendment of a policy concerning credit cards for university offices to pay certain expenses. With the new policy, there will be a higher spending threshold before offices are required to obtain administrative pre-approval.

The Budget and Finance Committee met first in executive session before moving to public session, and made one recommendation concerning Temple Japan’s finances. Then the meeting shifted to casual chatting, where Provost Hai-Lung Dai and President Neil Theobald, when asked about the current state of admissions, revealed that 28 thousand students were competing for 4,700 undergraduate seats.

The executive committee met next and made the three recommendations. The public session meeting, which consisted of many of the trustees from the Budget and Finance Committee including McNichol and Lewis Gould Jr., lasted for about fifteen minutes.

The trustees’ general body will meet on May 13 at 3:30 p.m.

Joe Brandt can be reached at joseph.brandt@temple.edu or on Twitter at @JBrandt_TU.

Owls on the Hill Day changes to email only

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Administrators announced on Wednesday that Owls on the Hill Day would be cancelled and instead students, parents, alumni, faculty and staff are being asked to electronically submit personal letters to lawmakers advocating for Temple’s state appropriations.

Andrew McGinley, public affairs and policy manager, said that many of the students who wanted to go were unable to because of the event’s proximity to final exams. The annual Cherry and White Week events were planned for a later date than is typical in the past due to scheduling conflicts at the State Capitol building, McGinley said.

The previous two years’ Cherry and White weeks were held in late March.

“The scheduling is beyond our control,” McGinley said. “It’s based on space availability in the Capitol Building. We use a lot of space during that week and there’s lots of other unions and charities and other groups that also want space in the capitol building. So it got pushed back.”

Other Cherry and White Week events include an academic presentation in Harrisburg by the Institute for Public Affairs, followed by art and music students as well as researchers presenting to lawmakers. These events will still be held on April 28 and 30, respectively. Owls on the Hill Day was originally planned to have students personally meet with lawmakers on April 29 to lobby for state appropriations.

McGinley said the letters don’t need to be long or formal, just personal.

“Elected officials want to hear from constituents,” McGinely said. “This year we’re asking people to just write a note…[It will be] via email. It will go through our system so they [those writing to legislators] don’t have to look up emails. Its very quick and simple.”

McGinley said the switch is not expected to be a permanent decision.

Marcus McCarthy can be reached at marcus.mccarthy@temple.edu or on Twitter at @marcusmccarthy6.

TU Believe win 2014 TSG elections

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The results of the 2014 Temple Student Government elections were announced Thursday afternoon, and TU Believe won the leadership, defeating opponents Renew TU. Ray Smeriglio will take over as student body president beginning next semester, and his running mates, Julia Crusor and Blair Alston will serve as vice presidents.

“I had a small crying fit,” Crusor said of the victory. “This is something we really wanted for a long time.”

Rachel Applewhite, vice presidential candidate from Renew TU, said the loss was disappointing because her team worked very hard to win.

“I hope [TU Believe] will use some of our ideas going forward,” Applewhite said. “I would love to help out on TSG where I’m needed.”

A total of 1,716 votes were cast, according to a tally by TSG election commissioners. It was lower than the total from last year’s election, which counted 2,075 votes.

TU Believe won 961 votes, or 56%, and Renew TU received 755 votes, or 44%.

TSG election commissioner Dylan Morpurgo said the drop-in voter turnout meant TSG didn’t communicate as effectively as it could have to students.

“Voter turnout can always be higher,” Morpurgo said. “Because campus is so busy and diverse, people are not always connected to what’s going on.”

In other ways, Morpurgo said the election was an improvement. “Both teams made a really concerted effort to run a clean campaign,” he said. “The debates were very cordial. That wasn’t always the case in the past.”

Crusor said TU Believe has “big shoes to fill,” as they prepare to lead the student body in the fall.

Joe Gilbride can be reached at joseph.gilbride@temple.edu.

Students for Monteiro hold rally, march to Sullivan Hall

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Students stood outside Sullivan Hall to hand in a petition. They waited roughly 30 minutes until administrators came outside to take the petition.

Students stood outside Sullivan Hall to hand in a petition. They waited roughly 30 minutes until administrators came outside to take the petition.

Members of the coalition Students for Monteiro held a rally this afternoon to demand the reinstatement of Anthony Monteiro, an adjunct African American studies professor whose contract is not being renewed.

People Utilizing Real Power and Temple Democratic Socialists, the main student organizations in the coalition, spoke about topics ranging from gentrification to alleged racism in the College of Liberal Arts and their feelings about Monteiro in front of the Bell Tower. The students said that Monteiro was scheduled to speak, but he was not present and told The Temple News he had not planned to.

After the speeches, the group of about 30 protesters marched toward Anderson Hall and north past the Tyler School of Art before circling back and arriving at the doors of Sullivan Hall, which houses administrative offices.

The protesters chanted “Monteiro in, Soufas out,” “beat back Temple’s attack” and “up with the people, down with the police.” While the protesters gathered around the front door of Sullivan Hall, Temple police put up crowd control barriers on Beasley’s Walk, where there is a side door.

After about a half hour of chanting, Acting Executive Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone along with William Bergman, special assistant to President Theobald, came outside to receive a petition from the protesters. Estimates for the number of signatories to the petition varied, with members of Students for Monteiro citing numbers between 500 and 900.

Last week, the protesters were stationed in front of the Bell Tower gathering signatures for their petition, which made four demands: reinstate Monteiro with tenure, fire CLA Dean Teresa Soufas, get student representation on the Board of Trustees and foster better community relations for Temple.

After Bergman and Leone took the petition, PURP member Paul-Winston Cange dismissed the crowd and announced a joint community-and-students protest on Wed. April 16 at 1 p.m.

“We’ll be right back here next week,” Cange said.

Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@temple.edu or on Twitter @JBrandt_TU.