Author Archives: Joe Brandt

Fox’s online MBA earns top spot in national ranking

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The Fox School of Business announced today that U.S. News and World Report, a publication known for its annual rankings of colleges and academic programs, named Fox’s Online MBA as No. 1 in the nation.

“I am pleased that U.S. News & World Report has recognized our Online MBA program as the best in the country,” Fox’s dean Moshe Porat said in a press release. “Our Online and Digital Learning team continues to deliver the best advancements in technology to a quality, online-format education.”

The program, which can be completed in as quickly as 20 months, received a “perfect score” and climbed up eight spots in the rankings from last year.

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

Student robbed on 18th Street near Susquehanna

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Police are searching for three suspects in connection with the armed robbery of a Temple student around 9:30 p.m. Sunday on 18th Street just south of Susquehanna Avenue.

Executive Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone said three suspects, who are believed to be 18 to 22 years old, approached the student and showed him a gun. They took the student’s wallet and fled west on Diamond Street.

A TU Alert was sent out about the incident around 10 p.m.

The suspects were wearing black hooded jackets and jeans at the time. The student was not injured, Leone said.

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

Fox School to use budget surplus for new scholarships

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Temple’s Board of Trustees on Tuesday approved the allotment of $3.5 million to match donation for endowed scholarships in the Fox School of Business.

Moshe Porat, Fox’s dean, wrote in a September memo attached to the board meeting’s agenda that the school had a $7.5 million surplus which came from a tuition differential – in other words, higher tuition than most of Temple’s other schools and colleges – that was first implemented in 2007. The surplus later grew to $8.25 million.

According to a Fox press release, the differential stemmed from a need to add faculty, advisers and new technology quickly, in order to accommodate the growing demand for attending the school. While in-state tuition for a lower-division undergraduate in the College of Liberal Arts is $14,006, Fox students in the same financial category are charged $18,084 before financial aid.

Of the surplus, $3.5 million will be used for matching endowed scholarships, so potential donors can be reined in with the promise that donations greater than $25,000 to scholarship funds will be matched by the university. In total, $7 million will be added to the scholarship fund for the school.

Five new professorships will be offered as well, Porat said in a statement released to The Temple News.

In the memo, Porat wrote that he was requesting new professorships since Fox’s six were already occupied.

“In an extremely competitive landscape of the Top 50 quality business schools, our best faculty members are constantly being recruited to other schools with offers of chairs and professorships,” Porat wrote. “The only tool we have in our war chest is to be able to offer them named professorships to stay in the Fox School.”

The professorships will be named after deceased former presidents of the university, including Charles Beury, Millard Gladfelter, Paul Anderson and Marvin Wachman, the namesake of academic buildings on Main Campus.

 

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

 

Universities split ways with Cosby amid allegations

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Other universities around the country have cut ties with Temple trustee and alumnus Bill Cosby after a recent surge in allegations of rape and other sexual misconduct dating back to the 1960s.

At administrators’ request, Cosby on Wednesday stepped down as honorary co-chairman of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s $300 million fundraising campaign. According to the Washington Post, Cosby had through a benefit performance and personal donations helped raise almost $2 million for the school where he received master’s and doctoral degrees in education.

Cosby, who has never been charged with a crime for any of the allegations, also saw High Point University in North Carolina temporarily remove him from an advisory board. Freed-Hardeman University in Tennessee canceled a scheduled appearance at a Dec. 5 fundraiser.

Joe Wiley, president of FHU, told the New York Daily News that “names we have seen in the media represent real people who will be affected long after FHU’s dinner has passed.”

The Berklee School of Music in Boston removed Cosby’s name from a scholarship it awards.

A Temple spokesman told The Temple News last week that Cosby remains a trustee, but declined to comment further on the allegations or the comedian’s future on the Board.

Cosby was re-elected unanimously at the Board’s October meeting.

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

Two suspects sought in robbery on Berks Street

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Philadelphia and Temple police are searching for two male suspects in connection with an armed robbery which occurred on the 1600 block of Berks Street around 10:30 p.m. yesterday, police said.

Executive Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone said in an email that a non-Temple-affiliated male was turning onto Berks Street from Willington Street to retrieve items from his vehicle when the suspects approached him and brandished weapons.

The suspects obtained two iPhones before fleeing north down 16th Street in a red sedan, driven by a third male, Leone said. The victim told police that one suspect wore a blue hoodie and the other was wearing orange running shoes.

Detectives from Temple Police are working with Philadelphia police to review security camera footage from the area and search for potential witnesses, Leone said.

A TU Alert was sent out about the incident around 11:00 p.m. which encouraged anyone with information to call 911. The alert said the incident occurred on the 1800 block of Willington Street since the victim was turning off that block onto Berks Street, Leone said.

UPDATE: Leone said the suspects may have been involved in a robbery of three students which occurred near 18th and Diamond streets on Nov. 12 around 11:10 p.m. One suspect from the Nov. 12 robbery ran past the students walking east on Diamond Street and turned around and pointed a gun at them.

The students dropped their bags and cell phones on the ground, and the suspects fled east towards Broad Street in a dark-colored sedan that was parked, Leone said.

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

 

Student robbed near 11th and Susquehanna

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Temple Police responded to the robbery of a student around 11:10 p.m. yesterday at the student’s residence near the corner of 11th Street and Susquehanna Avenue, Executive Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone said in an email.

The student told Temple Police that a 20- to 25-year-old man who was wearing a black hoodie and dark pants pointed a gun at him and demanded his cell phone, which he surrendered before running home.

Leone said the student could not recall exactly when or where the robbery occurred and was drinking a beer when an officer came to his house to take the report. The robbery is believed to have occurred in the 2100 block of North 12th Street around 10:40 p.m.

A TU Alert was sent out about the incident around 11:50 p.m. which said the incident occurred at 11:15 p.m. and urged anyone with information to call 911.

The victim did not want to prosecute and declined to report the incident to Philadelphia police, Leone said.

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

 

Student shot in attempted robbery off campus

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Police are looking for a suspect in connection with a shooting and an attempted robbery which occurred off campus around 1 a.m. Saturday in the 1500 block of North 17th Street.

According to multiple news outlets including The Inquirer and NBC 10, a suspect – described in a subsequent TU Alert and other reports as a male about 35-40 years old wearing a red hooded sweatshirt, red beanie cap and blue jeans – tried to enter a party being held on the block. 

When the suspect was denied entry since he was not a student, the outlets’ websites reported that he pulled a handgun on the victim, a 22-year-old male student. The suspect allegedly fired a round into the student’s hip when he charged at him.

The student was rushed to Hahnemann University Hospital and has since been released, according to The Inquirer.

An investigation is ongoing.

Two Temple students robbed at gunpoint, tied up

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Six people, some of whom are Temple students, were tied up and robbed at gunpoint in their home on 18th Street near Berks Street Sunday night, according to multiple news reports.

A TU Alert was sent out around 8:50 p.m. which noted two suspects, both African-American males. One had facial hair and was wearing a Bucks County Community College sweatshirt. The alert advised students to avoid the area.

The suspects allegedly took the students’ laptops and other electronics, according to NBC 10, who also reported that the students were not injured in the robbery.

CBS 3 reported that one of the students was beat with a gun.

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

Trial date to be determined for brick assault defendant

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Zaria Estes, the 15-year-old who is accused of assaulting a Temple student by hitting her in the face with a brick in March, will schedule her trial on Oct. 1.

Estes’ scheduling conference was confirmed in a decertification hearing held in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County around 10 a.m. Friday, attended by Estes and her parents.

Prior to Friday’s proceedings, Estes’ most recent court activity was a Sept. 9 hearing which confirmed she would be tried as an adult.

Judge Benjamin Lerner, who has presided over Estes’ pre-trial hearings since May, will hand over the role to Judge Michael Erdos for the October scheduling conference.

Estes, who was arrested March 26, faces charges of aggravated assault, conspiracy, possession of an instrument of crime with intent, terroristic threats with intention to terrorize another, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.

The maximum sentence for aggravated assault in Pennsylvania is 20 years in prison.

The March 21 incident happened in the 1700 block of Norris Street when Estes and two 16-year-old girls allegedly harassed a Temple student before Estes hit her in the face with a brick. The student suffered a mild concussion and a fractured jaw.

The two 16-year-olds were initially charged as adults, but those charges were later dropped.

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

Patricia Madej contributed reporting. 

Anderson Hall robber sentenced to 17-35 years

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The man who beat and robbed an Intellectual Heritage professor in his Anderson Hall office last October will face 17 to 35 years in prison, according to court documents.

Darryl Moon, 46 of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault and robbery in a June hearing. He received his sentence yesterday, and today the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County released Moon’s criminal docket.

Moon entered Anderson on Oct. 29, 2013 and went up to the Intellectual Heritage offices on the second floor. He punched the victim in the face, demanding his wallet before putting a knife to the professor’s throat, according to a post on the Philadelphia Police website. After obtaining the wallet, Moon hit the victim again.

The 81-year-old professor suffered lacerations to his face and head in addition to swelling and bleeding in his brain. He is not scheduled to teach classes this semester.

A security camera caught Moon leaving Anderson through the second floor mezzanine doors, which were sealed off this summer to improve security.

Philadelphia police arrested Moon on Oct. 31.