Category Archives: News

Student Government meeting of Monday, Nov. 4

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Senior Vice Provost Peter Jones spoke on a slew of topics for the majority of the Temple Student Government general assembly meeting on Nov. 4 in room 200c of the student center.

Speaking to an audience of roughly 200 people, Jones mostly explained the e-SFF data which is now available on TUportal. This is a database which is in its first semester of full activation, containing student reviews of all Temple teachers.

Jones argued that this new system is more reliable than the popular ratemyprofessor.com since the e-SFF data was collected from students guaranteed to have taken that teacher.

Of all the multiple-answer and open-ended questions filled out by students on the s-SFF forms, only four of the multiple choice questions go into the grading of the teachers on the viewable reviews.

The system caught a lot of student flak for its policy which requires students to have participated in the review process in the spring semester in order to access the grading reviews this semester.

After answering questions and concerns, Jones quickly wrapped up speaking by finishing with discussing other initiatives. The university is looking into a more advanced alternative to SafeAssign, an anti-plagiarism program that filters through its database of work to ensure original ideas. A required gen-ed class may also be instituted next school year which focuses on ethics along with an honor code put in place for all students on a similar time frame.

After Jones was finished speaking, a noticeable amount of various students left the meeting.

Afterwards Dylan Morpurgo, TSG director of government affairs, urged students to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 5 in the general election.

Tom Montalbano, TSG co-chairman of allocations, announced that there are $76,000 left in allocations for student clubs.

The next TSG meeting will be held Nov. 11 in room 200c of the student center at 4 p.m.

 

Marcus McCarthy is the TSG beat writer for The Temple News. He can be reached at marcus.mccarthy@temple.edu or follow on Twitter @Marcus.McCarthy6

Students, community rally against police brutality

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An officer overlooks a rally against police brutality at Columbia Park, Monday, Nov. 4

An officer overlooks a rally against police brutality at Columbia Park, Monday, Nov. 4

About a hundred community members and students  gathered at Columbia Park on the corner of Cecil B. Moore Avenue and Broad Street Monday evening, Nov. 4 to protest police brutality.

“Two of my good friends were recently assaulted by cops right outside Broad and Cecil by Dunkin Donuts,” said organizer Sarah Giskin, a junior.
Student Kashara White, who also saw the incident unfold, said it was the starting point for her and Giskin’s campaign.
“After this incident, we’ve been connecting with a lot of people in the community who’ve been in situations very similar to that.”
Organizers of the event called on city officials to form a Police Accountability Council, through which elected community members can investigate corruption and repeat use of excessive force.
“It’s unacceptable for cops to abuse their power. There’s no reason they should be laying a hand on anyone unless it’s 100 percent necessary and that person is a physical threat,” Giskin said.
Following the rally, protesters marched to the 22nd District Police Station on 17th and Montgomery.
“This is furthering the local community and Temple coming together and looking out for everybody,” attendee Mia Reed said. “People need to have their voices heard, to talk about police brutality, because we feel like its something often overshadowed and needs more attention.”
Police presence was felt at the event, although they kept their distance. Patrol cars from both the Temple University Police Department and the Philadelphia Police Department followed alongside the marchers on their way to the police station. The officers declined to comment.
-Rob DiRienzo

Crime logs for 10/31

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Main Campus

An incident of criminal mischief occurred between Oct. 27 at 11 p.m. and Oct. 30 at 11 p.m. on the 1600 of North 13th Street. No arrests have been made at this time.

A vehicle theft occurred between Oct. 30 at 11:30 p.m. and Oct. 31 at 9 a.m. on the 1800 block of North 18th Street. No arrests have been made at this time.

An incident of harassment occurred between Oct. 7 and Oct. 31 in Johnson Hall. The incident was handled by the School Code of Conduct.

A theft occurred on Oct. 30 between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. in Geasy Field. No arrests have been made at this time.

A retail theft occurred on Oct. 31 at 4:50 p.m. on the 1500 block of North Broad Street. An arrest was made in regards to this incident.

An incident of underage possession occurred on Oct. 31 at 9:10 p.m. on 1300 Residence Hall. The incident was declared exceptionally cleared.

A bike theft occurred on Oct. 31 between 4:30 p.m. and 10:20 p.m. on the 2000 block of North 13th Street. No arrests have been made at this time.

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No incidents reported

 

Professor assaulted, robbed at Anderson Hall

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Temple Police responded to Anderson Hall today around 11:55 a.m. to a claim from a professor that he was assaulted and robbed on the building’s second floor.

The professor told police that he was sitting at a computer in a side hallway when a man came up from behind him and punched him once. The man then took his wallet and left.

The suspect is described as an African-American male, 6 feet tall, in his early 20s, wearing tan pants and a tan shirt. A TU alert was sent out at 12:27 p.m. discussing the incident. Temple police did a sweep of the entire building, but did not find someone who matched the professor’s description. A suspect has not been taken into custody.

Acting Executive Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone said the professor is at the Temple Hospital with possible cuts to his head.

Leone said there were no witnesses to the incident but they were interviewing people who were near the scene at the time of the alleged assault and robbery. They have also searched the video from the security cameras. Police presence will be bolstered in Anderson and nearby Gladfelter Hall.

Temple Police were waiting for detectives from the Philadelphia Police to arrive as of 12:50 p.m.

Student Government meeting of Oct. 28

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Temple University Alumni Association will be holding 21 events on one day across eight states and out of two of Temple’s international campuses Christine Brady, director of alumni offices said. Brady discussed the event with an audience of roughly 200 people at the Temple Student Government general assembly meeting in room 200c of the student center on Oct. 28.

Brady, the only guest speaker of the meeting, explained that students are invited and encouraged to attend any number of the 11 events TUAA is hosting in Philadelphia as part of the Global Day of Service on Nov. 9.

The day of events is intended to demonstrate how the Temple community can change the world, according to the event web page. Participants can RSVP to any number of the Global Day of Service related events on this web page.

Chris Carey, director of student activities, was scheduled to speak next but was not present at the meeting.

The director announcements were held next with Evan Raines, TSG director of campus life and diversity, starting off. Raines announced collaboration with Temple NAACP to hold an event to discuss self-segregation. This event is scheduled to be in room 217d of the student center at 7 p.m. on Nov. 12.

After the announcements, Student Body President Darin Bartholomew led the open forum on the topic of instituting an honor code. These are a group of student-made rules which are in place at other universities such as Harvard, Penn State, and UPenn, aimed at keeping students academically honest.

Students seemed interested with the exception of a few who questioned the point of instituting a code all together.

“There’s no problem in holding ourselves to a high standard,” Bartholomew said after the meeting ended.

The meeting came to a close after the organization announcements.

The next TSG meeting will be held Nov. 4 in room 200c of the student center at 4 p.m. Dr. Peter Jones, senior vice provost, will be speaking further about an honor code at this next meeting.

Crime logs for the weekend of 10/26

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Main Campus

An incident of underage consumption occurred on Oct. 26 at 12 a.m. in Morgan Hall South. The incident was handled by the School Code of Conduct.

An incident of underage consumption occurred on Oct. 26 at 1:25 a.m. on the 1500 block of West Cecil B. Moore Avenue. The incident was handled by the School Code of Conduct.

An incident of underage consumption occurred on Oct. 26 at 2:55 a.m. on the 1300 block of West Cecil B. Moore Avenue. An arrest has been made in regards to this incident.

An incident of underage consumption occurred on Oct. 26 at 3:20 a.m. in 1300 Residential Hall. The incident was handled by the School Code of Conduct

A bike theft occurred on Oct. 26 between 9 a.m. and 12:20 p.m. on the 1800 block of North Broad Street. No arrests have been made at this time.

An incident of criminal mischief occurred on Oct. 27 at 2:20 a.m. on the 2000 block of North Carlisle Street. An arrest was made in regards to this incident.

A DUI occurred on Oct. 27 at 3:07 a.m. on the 1900 block of North 16th Street. An arrest was made in regards to this incident.

An aggravated assault occurred on Oct. 27 at 2:51 a.m. on the 1200 block of West Susquehanna Avenue. No arrests have been made at this time.

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A theft occurred between Oct. 25 at 12 p.m. and Oct. 27 at 2:30 p.m. on the Rock Pavilion. No arrests have been made at this time.

An incident of harassment occurred on Oct. 27 at 7:15 p.m. on the Rock Pavilion. No arrests have been made at this time.

Water leak shuts down Weiss Hall

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Weiss Hall was shut after a water leak on the 2nd floor tripped the fire alarm leading to an evacuation of the building Friday, Oct. 25.

Acting Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone said there are no reports of smoke or fire in the building, but it will remain closed as crews work on cleaning up the leak, which went into the 1st floor and basement and may have affected a “few” rooms as of 5 p.m. Friday.

Leone said it is too early to tell when the building will be fully cleaned and ready to be reopened.

New library still planned for Main Campus

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Contrary to reports earlier today, university officials told The Temple News that the university hasn’t scrapped plans to build a new library. Reports suggesting that Temple will update Paley Library instead of constructing a new facility are false.

“We’re building a new library,” said James Creedon, senior vice president for facilities, management and operations. “We will reinvigorate or do something new with Paley, but it won’t be in place of a new library.”

The library was previously slated to be built on North Broad Street as part of the 20/20 plan, which was the university’s “framework for campus development” under former President Ann Weaver Hart.

President Neil Theobald said last September, a month after he was named president, that he was excited about the prospect of a new library and its location on Broad Street.

“The ability to plan, from scratch, a new library, I can’t think of anything I’d rather do as someone who’s been a professor most of my life,” Theobald said at the time. “There is little at a university, especially a 21st century university, that is more important than a library, so I love the idea that it’s right on Broad [Street] and very visible.”

In an interview with The Temple News in April, he reiterated that the library wouldn’t be like Paley, however, he said he would like to see it on the east side of Main Campus.

“The library is going to provide us an opportunity to rethink how students learn. This will not be a library like [Paley Library], nothing like that. It won’t be stacks of books,” Theobald said. “In my mind, Broad Street kind of divides us. The east side is the academic side and the west side is the Liacouras Center and some housing. I think it’s very likely to end up on the east side.”

The president confirmed this in August when he said the library is “certainly going to be on the east side of Broad” Street.

The exact location of the new library has not been announced as the university develops its new master plan through its Visualize Temple initiative, which was launched at the end of last semester.

Snøhetta, a Norwegian firm that has designed the Alexandria Library in Egypt, the James B. Hunt Memorial Library at North Carolina State University and the Ryerson University Library in Toronto, is designing the library.

Professor feedback forms go live

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A new website that allows student’s access to professor evaluation forms went live earlier on Oct. 8  has drawn 8,000 hits from 2,000 unique students, Senior Vice Provost Peter Jones said.

The site gathers data from online Student Feedback Forms and will update four times a year Jones said, after the spring, fall and both summer semesters.

All incoming freshmen and transfer students will be given automatic access to the data, and returning students who completed all their spring semester SFF forms will eligible to look at the data.

Students who didn’t complete the spring forms but did so for summer classes will also be given access, Jones said.

The data from this fall semester will update the site in early January, Jones said.

The site is the result of an initiative by several Temple student governments in the past few years who have lobbied for access to professor evaluations. Jones said his office will be reviewing student feedback to the site when it updates in January.

Police looking for robbery suspects in Hartranft

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Philadelphia police are looking for two suspects in a robbery that occurred on the 2300 block of North Watts Street around 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 6.

The suspects, two black males in their 20s, one wearing a purple shirt and jeans and the other dressed in a white T-shirt and shorts, approached two women walking east from Broad Street and robbed them before running away north on Watts Street, video surveillance shows.

The first suspect threw one of the victims to the ground and snatched her purse while the second suspect attempted to steal the other victim’s cell phone, police said.

Acting Executive Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone said the victim who was robbed was not a student, while her friend who witnessed was.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Philadelphia police at 215.686.TIPS  or text a tip to PPD TIP.