The Philadelphia Media Network will begin a collaboration with Temple’s Center for Public Interest Journalism in an effort to provide in-depth reporting on Philadelphia’s mayoral race this year.

Stan Wischnowski, vice president of news operations at the Inquirer, Daily News and philly.com, said in an email on Tuesday that “‘The Next Mayor’ project will provide voters with critical, timely content on mayoral candidates and the major issues facing Philadelphia.”

Wischnowski added that the project is being funded by a $350,000 grant by the Wyncote Foundation, which issues grants in many different fields, including arts & culture, education, the environment, health & human services, preservation and public media & journalism, according to its website.

Other outlets that will be involved in the project include WHYY/Newsworks, Young Involved Philly and The Committee of Seventy, Wischnowski said.

He said he hopes that “The Next Mayor” is the start of further collaborations between media outlets.

“We hope ‘The Next Mayor’ project will pave the way for other initiatives that similarly support innovative news practices, while retaining our journalistic mission and integrity,” Wischnowski said.
Steve Bohnel can be reached at steven.bohnel@temple.edu or on Twitter @Steve_Bohnel.

A new dean and associate dean were named to lead the College of Liberal Arts, the university announced in a press release today.

William Stull, the former chair of the Economics department who served for 18 years, will serve as interim dean. The former chair of the Political Science department, Richard Deeg, will become senior associate dean for operations.

Teresa Soufas, who had served as CLA dean for seven years, resigned Jan. 7 due to health reasons, according to a memo to faculty sent by Provost Hai-Lung Dai.

Stull had previously served as a senior associate dean in the Fox School of Business.

A national search will be conducted for the new dean during the 2015-16 academic year, and an appointment will be announced by 2016, the release read.
Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@temple.edu or on Twitter @JBrandt_TU.

On Jan. 21, only his second day in office, Gov. Tom Wolf recalled more than two dozen of former Gov. Tom Corbett’s eleventh-hour appointments, including Jim Cawley, the former lieutenant governor who served on Temple’s Board of Trustees as an ex-officio member during Corbett’s term.

“Prior to being sworn-in as governor, my predecessor put forth several eleventh hour executive nominations,” Wolf said in a statement provided by his Press Secretary Jeff Sheridan. “These moves were murky and the process was anything but open and transparent.”

“We must work to make sure every Pennsylvanian has good reason to trust the government that serves them, and these are the types of actions that make people legitimately distrust their government,” Wolf added in the statement.

The move has already upset Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman.

“The honeymoon is over,” Corman told the Inquirer. “[Wolf] is not off to a flying start, for someone who said he was going to do things differently.”

Temple offered a short statement on the appointment: “The process for the appointment of Commonwealth trustees to Temple’s board is handled by the Governor and the General Assembly,” a spokesman said in an email.

Cawley, a Bucks County native who received Temple degrees in political science and law, now serves as head of United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. Temple trustee Lon Greenberg serves as chair of the regional United Way’s Board of Directors, and trustee J. William Mills, formerly a regional president of PNC Bank, serves as a regular member of the board.

Cawley could not be reached after multiple requests for comment on the Temple appointment. He told the Inquirer that his “whole career has been about public service and has been about improving the quality of life for the people who were in whatever community that I was part of. I see this role as continuing that.”

Greenberg told the Inquirer that Cawley’s experience in state government could be beneficial for the charity.

“As Lieutenant Governor, he also has a unique understanding of how United Way’s impact areas connect, and how strategic improvements in education, income, and health can lift the entire region,” Greenberg said.

Cawley served on the board twice as a governor’s non-voting representative – once under Mark Schweiker and again under Corbett. He told The Temple News in an interview before the 2014 elections that he would appreciate a future at the university.

“I am happy and honored to to serve Temple University in any way that I can,” Cawley said. “If there’s an opportunity [in the long-term] future … I would jump at the chance at any time.”

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

Steve Bohnel contributed reporting.

OLD TUCC BOOKSTORE TO CLOSE

The bookstore located on the third floor of Temple’s Center City Campus on 15th and Market streets will permanently close at 4 p.m. on Feb. 6 in anticipation of the opening of a new bookstore.

William Parshall, executive director of Temple’s Ambler and Center City campuses, wrote in an email that a new café and Barnes and Noble bookstore is expected to open on the ground floor on March 2.

Parshall added that the three-week transition period is needed for moving inventory, products and security and computer systems from the third floor to the ground level.

Students who need to purchase books during the transition period should contact the Main Campus bookstore at 215-204-5578 or by email at sm693@bncollege.com. Books can be ordered and picked up at the Main Campus location or shipped to a home address at a standard shipping speed for free. Orders can also be placed online and picked up at the new TUCC bookstore location once it opens.

Parshall wrote that students looking to buy school supplies should shop at the Staples located on 15th and Chestnut streets, and that snacks and beverages are still available in vending machines located on the second, third, fourth and fifth floors in the Center City building.

The Inquirer reported in December that Accesso Partners LLC, a real estate firm located in Florida, bought the property that includes TUCC for $85 million. The previous owner of the 502,000 sq. ft. building was Winthrop Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust based in New York and Boston.

-Steve Bohnel

NONPROFIT TRAINING OFFERED

Two international Temple campuses have joined efforts to start a nonprofit training program.

Temple’s Harrisburg and Japan campuses started offering the International Nonprofit  Training and Leadership Program on Jan. 30, according to a university press release.

According to the program’s website, six courses are taught by instructors who have experience working in the nonprofit sector in not just the United States, but also worldwide. The classes are offered on a completely online platform via WebEx, a web conferencing site.

Two of the six courses are in collaboration with Temple University Japan, while the remaining are created for audiences from the United States.

Eugenia Medrano, director of continuing education at Temple University Japan, said in the press release that the program should be effective for students looking to break into the nonprofit sector.

“Students will gain exposure to diverse concepts and ideas and will have a tool kit to immediately apply what they have learned at their places of employment,” Medrano said. “The scope of the nonprofit sector continues to grow internationally – more and more nonprofit organizations and businesses are working together locally, nationally and globally to provide the best possible service to their clients.”

The program is scheduled to run through December 2015.

-Steve Bohnel

NEW SCHOLARSHIP FOR ‘FLY IN 4’

A member of the Board of Trustees recently created a scholarship fund in collaboration with the university’s ‘Fly in 4’ Program.

According to a university press release, Alan M. Cohen, executive vice president and global head of compliance at Goldman Sachs, created The Alan and Deborah Cohen Goldman Sachs Scholarship Fund because of a recommendation by Goldman Sachs Gives, a donor-advised fund where current senior employees can suggest grants to qualified non-profit organizations.

The scholarship, named after Cohen and his wife, Deborah Cohen, is worth $350,000. Both contributed funding, and Deborah said in the release that she and her husband wanted to give back because they were fortunate enough to attend college themselves.

“Both of us were in the first generation of our families to attend college, and that was largely because Temple was so affordable,” Cohen said. “We feel like we were given a huge gift to get a high-quality education and pursue our dreams, so this is our way of giving back.”

The first two recipients of the award are freshmen Melanie Tucci and Brianna Seay, who are both from Philadelphia. Tucci and Seay are majoring in international business and psychology, respectively.

Alan Cohen was elected to the Board of Trustees in May 2014, The Temple News reported. His term started May 13 and is scheduled to end Oct. 10, 2017.

-Steve Bohnel

RECORD YEAR IN ATHLETIC GIFTS

Last year, donations to major college athletic programs totaled $1.26 billion dollars, the third time in the last four years that institutions have eclipsed the billion-dollar mark, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported.

The figure was calculated through a “Voluntary Support of Education” survey from the Council for Aid to Education, which is the first organization to offer statistics on private individuals donating to higher education, according to its website.

Almost 400 colleges provided information about athletic donations for the survey, and last year was the highest mark the donation total has reached in the survey during the past decade.

 Leading the way in athletic donations was Texas A&M University, whose $93.6 million total almost doubled any other college that was included in the survey. The University of Michigan was in second, tallying $54.6 million.

Greg Byrne, vice president for athletics at the University of Arizona, said that donations will be needed more in the future due to decreasing funding from state budgets.

“A lot of the facilities we compete in were built with state dollars, and that will rarely happen anymore,” Byrne told the Chronicle. “Many of us have had to look ourselves in the mirror as our infrastructure has needed replacing, and realize that philanthropic gifts are going to be the only way to solve that issue.”

The record year represents a huge increase in athletic donations – according to figures the Council for Aid to Education provided to the Chronicle, athletic departments brought in approximately twice as much money from them last year than in 2004.

-Steve Bohnel