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
