Temple student featured on Wheel of Fortune

Temple junior Drew Magathan will be a contestant next week on Wheel of Fortune!

According to a Facebook events page:

So, I got onto Wheel of Fortune’s College Week 2009: Spring Break and my life is forever changed. I hugged Vanna White on multiple occasions, held quality banter with Pat Sajak, met some of the most incredible people from so many different colleges across the country, spent three fantastic days in Los Angeles, California, and… oh yeah, COMPETED ON WHEEL OF FORTUNE!

Magathan said on the event page he can’t divulge how he did — “(I was specifically told NOT to… BELIEVE me, I want to)” — but we’ll all find out Tuesday.

Wheel of Fortune featuring Temple student Drew Magathan
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
7:30 p.m.
ABC, Channel 6 (Temple channel 7)

America’s Most Wanted stops by Temple

John Walsh

Of course it does.

The production crew from America’s Most Wanted, the long-running FOX program, completed filming an episode Monday in sections of North and South Philadelphia for an upcoming show to be aired this Saturday.

AMW’s star John Walsh and crew were on hand Monday afternoon at 15th and Norris streets trying to trace steps of a runaway fugitive, Marshall “Munch” Thomas, 19, who critically shot and wounded Adrian Schultz in front of a Temple security booth on May 13, 2008.

The Temple News had breaking coverage of the shooting here, here and here.

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Temple supporting rally?

In Monday’s Temple Today e-mail, the university listed the Temple Student Government Rally to raise awareness of Temple being left out of the governor’s tuition relief act as a miscellaneous calendar item.

“Temple Student Government rally:   11:15 a.m. Bell Tower. Temple University, along with three other state-related universities will not be receiving financial aid from Gov. Edward Rendell’s proposed Tuition Relief Act. Join Temple students along with Pennsylvania State University students and representatives in a rally to raise awareness of the tuition relief setback. Sponsored by Temple Student Government.”

Is the university secretly hoping that the outrage from the student body can change policy in Harrisburg and alleviate Temple’s budget problems?

Growing Pains at TU

Think Ellen Page – riding a bike on 12th Street and buying licorice rope at the Rite Aid at Susquehanna and Broad.

This week’s issue of Philadelphia Weekly features a Juno-esque cover story written by Jennifer Merrill, a freshman journalism major at Temple. In the personal essay, Merrill challenges the pregnant-teen stigma and chronicles stages of her pregnancy.

The story’s stirring up some controversy on the PW Web site. Some readers are praising Merrill (who also wrote a TTN Opinion article on maternity unit closings last December) for sharing her story while others are questioning the article’s newsworthiness.

Is Merrill’s story cover-worthy? Or, as reader “jan” asked, is PW the new Seventeen Mag?

Arabic studies growing at U.S. colleges

The Metro gave Temple a nod yesterday for its fast-growing Arabic program in the Department of Critical Languages. According to the Metro’s piece, Arabic is a fast-growing program and major at U.S. colleges and universities, and Temple is no exception to the trend.

Courtesy Getty Images via www.metro.us

Courtesy Getty Images via www.metro.us

Still, though, Temple only offers a specialization certificate in Arabic. As of now, only nine universities on the East Coast offer majors in the language.

Tyler not ‘artsy’ enough for one critic

Inga Saffron, the Inquirer’s architecture critic, had some harsh words to share about the new Tyler School of Art building at 12th and Norris streets. Agreeing with some Tyler students, she’s not happy.

Despite Tyler’s importance to the university, Temple dumped what should have been a statement building at the far end of the campus universe, plopping it down seemingly at random, so that its main entrance looks out onto the dumpsters for the Biology-Life Sciences Building.

Saffron goes on to say the “enormous, sprawling building, whose exterior resembles a run-of-the-mill high school, fails to forge a desperately needed sense of place,” as it lies among a hodgepodge of campus buildings.

She also takes a jab at the “morbidly obese” Alter Hall, “a mausoleum for the egos of the nation’s financial titans.”

Your thoughts? Do Temple’s newest buildings have a place on the crowded campus?

Photo courtesy of Temple.

“Choke” Movie Review

You know the stories – the guy in the emergency room with the hamster/light bulb/champagne bottle stuck in his rectum, the lady with the peanut butter and a hungry dog… But have you ever heard the one about the sex obsessed guy who may be the illegitimate offspring of Christ?

Sam Rockwell stars as med school dropout and sex addict Victor Mancini in actor Clark Gregg’s directorial debut Choke. Victor spends his days working at a colonial theme park, acting as a “historical interpreter” while he hits on the milk maids and wastes time with his chronically masturbating, scene stealing buddy Denny (the hilarious Brad William Henke).

Due to the expense of keeping his mother Ida (Anjelica Huston) in a pricy psychiatric hospital, Victor makes additional income by choking at restaurants, allowing himself to be saved by unwitting diners. As Victor explains it, these people feel indebted to him, sending cards and cash to help the poor bastard out.

Through flashbacks, we learn of Ida’s unorthodox method of child rearing, which consists of kidnapping young Victor from foster families in order to teach him such life-saving lessons as the hidden meanings of announcements at department stores.

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AP: The average Temple student is president of something

In a recently released AP story, several Temple students are interviewed along with other Pennsylvanians about their political priorities.

However, the article fails to identify the two quoted Temple students as the head of the College Democrats and College Republicans.

Temple University student Ryan McCool, 20, said his No. 1 frustration is the war. The Philadelphia resident said he’s a supporter of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

McCool said he often thinks about the troops overseas, the ones who are his age, and supports McCain’s Iraq position, which does not include the withdrawal timetable favored by the two Democrats. He’s also uneasy about the threat of domestic terrorism.

“If you’re not a secure nation, you don’t really have much,” McCool said. “You want a commander in chief who knows what they’re doing.”

McCool is the president of the College Republicans as reported in The Temple News.

Anna Walker, president of the Temple College Democrats also does not have the proper title assigned to her.

Anna D. Walker, 20, a student at Temple University, said she’s seen how troubled the health care system has become.

“I grew up in urban settings so I’ve seen the long lines of people who have to go to the ER because they don’t have insurance,” said Walker, who is split between Clinton and Obama.

Walker suggested that because young people know they will face the high costs of health care soon, if they haven’t already, they’ve been turning out in big numbers for this year’s primaries.

Temple professor has film in national online contest

On the heels of the Philadelphia Film Festival, there is a national film contest ensuing online and Temple has its horse. Eugene Martin, a filmmaker and professor in Temple’s broadcasting and telecommunications department, has his Bloodlines documentary, which debuted to a packed audience in University City’s International House last week as part of the Philadelphia Film Festival, in From Here to Awesome: A Discovery and Distribution Festival.

The cat is Philly born and bred and reps the city hard. Give him love. Check his submission jawn for the PFF below.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjoCC845JFo 350 292]