Daily Archives: 05 May 2014

BOT committees approve facilities renovations and professors’ tenure

Posted on by

In preparation for its May 13 general body meeting, Temple’s Board of Trustees’ Facilities, Academic Affairs and Alumni Relations and Development committees met on May 5.  After the public session meeting of the Facilities committee, the trustees moved to executive session, which is closed to the public.

Trustees not on the Facilities committee including Athletics committee chairman Lewis Katz and local philanthropist H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest attended the executive session meeting, likely to discuss plans for developing Main Campus.

The Facilities committee met in public session at noon to approve a 23-item agenda that included spending for demolishing and renovating buildings.

The committee approved a recommendation to demolish the Triangle Apartments near the corner of Broad and Norris streets at a cost not to exceed $1.4 million. The apartments, formerly used as graduate housing, were deemed unsafe by a structural engineer and closed in September.

“There were a lot of safety concerns in the building and they were really not in a situation where they could be repaired or used,” Senior Vice President for Construction, Facilities and Operations Jim Creedon explained to the trustees. “We’ll certainly clean up the site, landscape the area, make sure we get some grass growing, and add some benches and lighting.”

The committee also approved recommendations to renovate central heating and air conditioning systems for Speakman and Anderson halls, fire alarms and sprinklers for Ritter Hall and Ritter Annex and new elevators for the Bell Building, which houses the TECH Center.

The trustees will also improve security for the Telecommunications area on the third floor of the Bell Building to make space for five network employees from Fox Chase.

“The Bell Building is really the last open space area we have,” Creedon said. “We try to use it judiciously.”

The Academic Affairs committee met that morning first in executive session before moving to public session. The committee approved five recommendations, including the go-ahead to Theobald’s recommendation regarding granting of faculty tenure, and also approved tenure for a list of faculty, which is available at the Office of the Provost.

“Some tenure cases were presented to the Academic Affairs Committee,” Assistant Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs and Faculty Development Erin Palmer said, adding that the committee would review them and may disclose the results at the next general body meeting.

When asked if the tenure cases were related to African American studies professor Anthony Monteiro, Palmer said she had no comment.

The trustees will next meet on May 13 at 3:30 p.m.

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

Ray Smeriglio, TU Believe inaugurated

Posted on by

Following the inaugural ceremony, the newly sworn in administration cut a decorative cake to celebrate the occasion. JOHN MORITZ | TTN

Ray Smeriglio was sworn in as the student body president for the upcoming 2014-15 academic year on Monday, May 5. Darin Bartholomew, the outgoing student body president, introduced Smeriglio and his administration in the inaugural ceremony that took place in room 200c of the student center.

“The three individuals we’re about to swear in here today, I have full faith that they will accomplish a ton next year and make us all very proud,” Bartholomew said. “I’m really looking forward to seeing everything that these guys will do.”

Students, faculty, staff and family members attended the event, many personally congratulating Temple Student Government members from both administrations after the meeting ended. Blair Alston and Julia Crusor, Smeriglio’s running mates and vice presidents, were first sworn in followed by Smeriglio.

“You don’t get to this point without awesome support emotionally, physically [and] psychologically,” Smeriglio said in his speech following his inauguration. “Thank you guys so much. You all mean the world to mean and I’m so excited to be your next student body president.”

Smeriglio, Alston and Crusor ran under the TU Believe ticket, which won by more than 200 votes over Renew TU. The elections, which took place on April 8 and April 9 online via Owl Connect, had relatively low voter turnout falling nearly 360 votes short of last year’s numbers and more than 900 below the year before that.

Smeriglio’s previous position was as TSG director of communications. He thanked his communications team in his speech, among other friends, coworkers and family members. Following the ceremony, the newly sworn in administration cut a decorative cake to celebrate the occasion.

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