Category Archives: News

Campus planner meets with students on Visualize Temple

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Representatives from SmithGroupJJR, the architectural panning firm hired to develop the Visualize Temple campaign, met with students on Tuesday night in the Architecture Building to hear ideas for the the university’s next master plan.

Douglas Kozma, the principal campus planner for SmithGroup, led a slideshow explaining to students the various factors SmithGroup is looking at in planning their outline. The presentation included graphic presentations displaying the concentration of residential housing, classrooms, and faculty offices around Main Campus.

Based on the data presented, Kozma said that the group had concluded that general and liberal arts activities were focused near the Bell Tower area on campus. The campus map outlined the area around Norris Street as the creative center on campus, 12th Street as the technological corridor and the south of campus as the hub of professional studies. Kozma said that Broad Street represents the public face of campus.

When asked what they saw as the future of Main Campus, students responded with a variety of answers including greater integration with other city and regional campuses, more green space, organic and healthy dining options and better transportation services.

“A master plan, if done well, should address cars, bikes, buses and trains,” Kozma said.

Sibia Ranjbar, a PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering, said that Temple needed to improve services for graduate students. Ranjbar suggested that in building the new library, the designers include resources specifically geared towards researchers.

Other students said the university needs to do better at reaching out to the surrounding community and easing relations between the growing student population living off-campus and local residents.

Some suggestions proposed by the students included building more on-campus housing and shopping.

Kozma reiterated that no plans as part of the Visualize Temple campaign include expanding on the current footprint.

Kozma did say that SmithGroup has discovered that there are no legal restrictions against building a bridge across Broad Street, though there appeared to be an unwritten rule.

Another part of SmithGroup’s presentation included the idea of placing the new library in the current location of Barton Hall, which is to be demolished after the new Science and Technology Building is finished.

“I think if you don’t consider the library the center of campus then the university is doing something wrong,” said Nick Kokiko, a senior sports recreation management major.

The university is expected to unveil the Visualize Temple master plan this fall.

Continuance set for former Temple football player awaiting trial

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A motion of continuance set by the commonwealth for a former Temple football player charged with raping a woman on campus has been delayed until Thursday.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph McGlynn was attending another trial while the defendant, Praise Martin-Ogikue, 19, was waiting in the courtroom with his parents by his side.

Martin-Ogikue is pending trial for an alleged rape of a woman during Memorial Day weekend in May 2012.

According to numerous news sources, a 21-year-old female Temple student was inside the defendant’s dorm room when he allegedly attacked her, forcing the victim upstairs and raped her before signing her out of his dorm apartment as if nothing happened.

During the motions hearing, Defense Attorney James A. Funt was not reluctant to mention his need to continue, expressing concerns of collecting and filing more than 40 text messages to be used as evidence for trial.

The trial is set to begin on Oct. 7.

Crime Logs for 9/9/13

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Main Campus

An incident of criminal mischief occurred on Sept. 9 at 6:45 a.m. in Mitten Hall. No arrests have been made at this time.

An incident of indecent assault occurred on Sept. 5 at 11 p.m. on the 1100 block of West Diamond Street. No arrests have been made at this time.

A theft occurred between 12 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Sept. 9 in Morgan South Hall. No arrests have been made at this time.

A theft occurred between Sept. 7 at 12 a.m. and Sept. 9 at 4 p.m. in Morgan South Hall. No arrests have been made at this time.

A theft occurred on Sept. 9 at 4:45 p.m. in Greasy Field. The incident has been cleared.

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No incidents have been reported.

Temple rises four spots in US News ranks

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In the U.S. News and World Report’s annual college rankings published today, Temple rose four spots from last year’s report, moving from 125th among national universities to 121st.

The university’s ranking remained the same among pubic universities, placing at 60th. The Fox School of Business’ graduate program fell six spots to 58th, while the College of Education’s rose six spots to 47th. The Beasley School of Law rose two spots to 56. Temple’s medical school fell four spots to 51.

U.S. News and World report’s rankings are calculated on a variety of factors including selectivity of admissions, financial resources, graduate performance and as well as evaluations by high school guidance counselors and administrators in peer institutions.

TSG holds first meeting

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Temple Student Government had their first general body meeting of the school year Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. in room 200C of the student center.

Darin Bartholomew, Temple’s new student body president, opened up the meeting with the TSG student pledge to a crowd of roughly more than 100. He then discussed the “Cherry On” slogan and Cherry Fridays campaign which both focus on school pride as well as support for the university’s athletics program.

“No more wearing other schools’ clothing anymore,” Bartholomew joked, “don’t be that guy.”

Patrick Kraft, Temple’s deputy director of athletics, spoke next to stress the importance of student involvement in the athletics program including attendance at sporting events.

“[Students] are a critical part of the success of this program,” he said.

Kraft also asked for student feedback about what can be done better, or what is missing from Temple Athletics. He urged for students to email him with these comments at patrick.kraft@temple.edu.

Adriane Reilly, a program coordinator for Student Affairs, also spoke to the students gathered about Owl Connect, a database set up by Student Affairs for all student organizations.

Reilly stressed that this program works by user input. If the leadership of an organization changes and they don’t modify the contact information on Owl Connect, then no one will and the page becomes outdated, Reilly said. She added that the program is also meant to work closely with groups’ Facebook pages making it simple to link them.

At the end of the meeting, TSG held an open forum for various student groups to meet with students and provide meeting time schedules.

Man arrested for ‘showing off’ to cops

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A Philadelphia resident was charged with indecent exposure in the Montgomery parking garage on Sept. 3rd at 10:18 p.m. campus police said.

29-year-old James French of the 5300 block of Washington Lane was found by Temple Police officers whilst exposing his privates inside of the garage and was  immediately processed.

“He just wandered in,” said the Acting Executive Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone, “We have never had this person before.”

Leone said that this event has caused TU police to examine the garage’s current safety measures and to consider new processes to prevent such events from happening in the future.

Crime Logs for 9/5/2013

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Main Campus 

A warrant was issued at 12:05 a.m. on Sept. 4 on the 1500 block of West Cecil B. Moore Avenue. An arrest was made in regards to the issue.

A theft occurred between 8 a.m. on Sept. 3 and 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 4 on the 2000 block of North 11th Street. No arrests have been made at this time.

A theft occurred between 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 3 and 8 a.m. on Sept. 4 on the 1200 block of West Norris Street. No arrests have been made at this time.

A theft from an auto occurred between 9 p.m. on Sept. 3 and 2 p.m. on Sept. 4 on the 2000 block of North 10th Street. No arrests have been made at this time.

A theft occurred between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Sept. 4 on the 2000 block of North 13th Street. No arrests have been made at this time.

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A theft occurred between 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 4 at the Emergency Department. No arrests have been made at this time.

Crime Logs for 9/3

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Main Campus

An incident of criminal mischief occurred between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Aug. 30 on the 1400 block of West Berks Street. No arrests have been made at this time.

A theft occurred at 9:03 a.m. on Sept. 3 on the 1000 block of West Norris Street. No arrests have been made at this time.

An incident of criminal mischief occurred between 12:30 p.m. on Aug. 20 and 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 3 on the 2000 block of North Carlisle Street. No arrests have been made at this time.

A burglary occurred between 6 p.m. On Aug. 30 and 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 2 at Alter Hall. No arrests have been made at this time.

An incident of indecent exposure occurred at 9:35 p.m. on Sept. 3 at the Montgomery Garage. An arrest has been made in regards to this issue.

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A theft occurred between 9:45 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Sept. 3 at Boyer Pavilion. No arrests have been made at this time.

A DUI occurred at 12:42 p.m. on Sept. 3 on the 1300 block of Rising Sun Avenue. An arrest has been made in regards to this issue.

Temple student dies in AC car crash

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A 25-year-old Temple student died in a car accident yesterday, Sept 2 in Atlantic City, the Press of Atlantic City website reported.

Issac Baggs, a senior journalism student, was transported to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, City Campus in Atlantic City, shortly after he was involved in a single-car crash on Route 30 around 3:30 p.m., the website reported.

He was pronounced dead at 4:18 p.m.

Man killed by punch on 17th

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A 49-year-old male died after being punched in face by a 18-year-old male on the 1600 block of North 17th Street earlier this morning. Philadelphia plain-clothes police officers witnessed the event and chased down and arrested the suspect, Charlie Leone, acting executive director of Campus Safety Services said.

Leone said the officers apprehended the suspect on the 1500 Block of Bouvier Street around 1 a.m. The victim was transported to St. Joseph’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead around 2 a.m.

According to a report by ABC6, the teenage suspect is facing homicide charges.