Temple United, made up of candidate for student body president Darin Bartholomew, candidate for vice president of services Cree Moore and candidate for vice president of external affairs Sonia Galiber, has defeated Diamond Nation in this year’s Temple Student Government election.
Check back with temple-news.com later for a full recap of the election results.
Joseph Lucia, the director of the Falvey Memorial Library at Villanova University, was named dean of University Libraries, according to University Communications. He will assume his new role on July 1.
Lucia had previously visited Temple on Feb. 13 and 14 during the search for a new dean. Mary Case of the University of Illinois at Chicago and David Lewis of Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis were also named as candidates for the position.
Carol Lang is currently the interim dean of University Libraries, a position she has held since August 2011.
Check with temple-news.com for more information as it becomes available.
Members of Temple’s African American Studies Department held a rally in front of the Bell Tower today in protest of the appointment of Jayne Drake, a white woman, as chairwoman of the department.
The rally, which was held between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., featured undergraduate and graduate student speakers, as well as many speakers from the North Philadelphia community.
“We just hope to put pressure on the university so that they can have more respect for minority studies, and that’s all disciplines, africana studies, asian studies, women’s studies, queer studies,” said Sabrina Sample, a political science major who is minoring in African American studies.
One protester at the event stood in silence, waving two large Pan-African flags, one sign held by a protester read “save black studies.”
Ronald Amour, a local community activist, spoke at the event and helped introduce several of the other speakers. Amour complemented the crowd that had gathered in from of the tower, saying that the diversity of the students assembled showed solidarity with the people in the African American studies department.
The crowd was openly critical of Teresa Soufas, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, for appointing Drake to the head of the African American studies department. They called for Molefi Asante, the former chairperson and current professor in the department, to be given the appointment as the popular decision among the departments students.
The crowds repeatedly broke out in chants of “We want Asante,” and “Soufas must go.” Several speakers at the event, which was open mic, accused Soufas of being a “racist,” and irresponsive to the needs and wishes of the professors and students in the department.
A party west of Main Campus took a scary turn Friday night when the basement steps collapsed, leaving party goers stuck in the basement, said Deputy Director of Campus Safety Services.
Police and firefighters arrived at the party on the 1700 block of Arlington Street at approximately 11:35 p.m., Leone said in an email, and helped students out of the basement and to safety. No injuries were reported, Leone said.
The residents of the house on Arlington Street were unavailable for comment Saturday afternoon and Leone said the students will be in contact with their landlord.
Margret Carney, university architect, announced Craig Dykers of the Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta, which is planned to design the next university library, at Temple’s Architecture Alumni Lecture on Thursday night.
Dykers delivered the keynote address at the event, which was attended by many alumni of the architecture school, as well as current students at the Temple Performing Arts Center.
Dyker spoke of his firm’s experience in designing libraries, such as the Alexandria Library in Egypt, Ryerson University Library in Toronto, and the James B. Hunt Memorial Library at North Carolina State University.
The libraries, keeping in trend with many of Snøhetta’s modern designs, served to incorporate social activity to create more interactive meeting spaces, Dyker said.
Carney, who along with Provost Hai Lung Dai visited the construction site of the Hunt Library, said she was excited to begin working with Snøhetta on the design of the new library.
“We have high expectations that it will be a great process to design a building that is everything we envision for great architecture and an iconic building,” Carney said.
Carney said that there are many challenges in designing a modern library, and that one of the factors the university looked at when choosing the firm is their experience in designing state-of-the-art libraries around the world.
“We can’t point to another building and say ‘we want that’,” Carney said, describing the the process to design the building would be a “invention.”
The event was held in honor Brigitte L. Knowles, a former professor of architecture at Temple who received a dedication for her career in the Philadelphia architecture community prior to the keynote address.
A pipe burst in room 1002 early this morning in Johnson Hall, causing Temple police and firefighters to respond to an alarm which went off at 4:15 a.m., Deputy Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone said.
Freshman biology major Ashley Rapp is one of the two students staying in room 1002 and said she noticed that a pipe in her room was making strange noises.
“I woke up and there was a screeching noise and I thought it was the air conditioner. I stepped in really hot water. I saw really dark brown water coming out of the vents,” Rapp said.
Rapp said she quickly moved the belongings under her bed off the floor and notified security and an on-duty resident assistant. Upon returning to her room, Rapp said the fire alarm was going off and quickly spread to the whole building. She said students quickly filled out of Johnson once the alarm sounded.
“The people on this floor were more concerned because they knew it was coming from this room. But the whole room turned from where you could see to where you couldn’t see anything,” Rapp said. “It was complete fog and steam.”
The fire sprinklers in the room did not go off, which Rapp said saved some of her personal belongings from being completely damaged. Rapp said that everything under her bed and her electronics received water damage.
Rapp said she was not sure if she would be compensated for the loss of her belongings. She said the Resident Director of Johnson Hall Megan Connelly would be working with her and maintenance to assess the amount of property that had been lost.
Connelly and Housing of Residential Life declined to comment on the incident.
“They said that it was alright to try to see if the TV worked and try the laptop and they tried to see if the electricity was secure to turn back on, “ Rapp said.
Rapp is communicating with Residential Life to inform them on how much damage their was to her belongings at which time she said they will “come in and check internally” to determine if she will receive compensation for her losses.
Rapp said that students were outside for no more than 30 minutes and then were allowed to go back into the building.
Rapp said that when repairs were made,she was told a cap had been worn down on the pipe, causing pressure and the pipe to burst out hot water and steam. Leone said engineers informed him that it was also due to previous water damage and was in no way the fault of the student. Though this was a serious incident, Leone said no students were injured and Temple officials had control over the situation.
Rapp has been given permission to safely return and stay in her room at this time.
Despite the fans that arrived at 4 a.m. awaiting Green Day’s concert at the Liacouras Center tonight, most have already taken refuge from the wind, leaving coolers and chairs in their place.
Some troopers remain in line, braving the gusts, though having arrived at 10 a.m., maybe a more reasonable hour. Gillian Malkin, 16, came with her parents, Marjorie and Lance from East Brunswick, NJ, while friends, Dylan Tracy, 20, Dana Terry, 21, and Vikki Schermund, 38 came together, also from Central Jersey.
Lance Malkin says, “I’ve been fans of theirs since 1994 now, and we decided to let Gillian skip school today so we can rush the stage.”
While no official contract has been signed, the university expects to formalize deal with the Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta within days to design the next Temple University Library on North Broad Street, Assistant Vice President of Government, Community and Public Affairs Ray Betzner said.
The firm, based in Oslo, Norway, has designed projects around the world, including the the Oslo Opera House, the James B. Hunt Jr. Library at the University of North Carolina, the Bibliotheca Alexandria in Egypt and the museum pavilion at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
No design has yet been submitted for the building, which is expected to be located on North Broad Street at the current site of the Pavilion.
In March, the Board of Trustees approved a $17.5 million budget for the project’s design, and construction will be funded by $140 million from the state.
James Creedon, senior vice president for construction, facilities and management, said that the firm was selected from a pool of three candidates that were decided upon out of 30 proposals. After interviewing the three firms on August 21, a committee made up of Creedon, University Architect Margaret Carney, representatives from the Board of Trustees, the School of Architecture, the Provost’s Office and library staff, along with representatives from the state, chose to select Snøhetta for their recommendation to the state.
“They have incredible experience with libraries,” Creedon said, “they really impressed us with their ideas, and not so much with the specific idea’s of what we should do, but how they would help us reach a consensus here on what we ought to do.”
Snøhetta will partner with Stantec Consulting Services, a Philadelphia company, to design the library.
No preliminary terms to the contract have been released, including how much the university will pay the firm.
Creedon said the university will begin the first phase of the design, which is programing the university’s needs into the project, when the contract is announced. That phase will likely take place throughout the summer, Creedon said.
Diamond Nation and Temple United, the two tickets competing for Temple Student Government executive positions, were introduced during “Meet the Candidates” at the General Assembly meeting yesterday, March 25.
Monday marked the first official day of campaigning for the two teams seeking to win the election scheduled for April 9 and 10.
Diamond Nation, led by candidate for student body president and junior human resources management major Anthony Torres, has set a platform on three pillars: community, opportunity and diversity.
According to Diamond Nation’s website, its mission is “to provide all students with viable and accessible opportunities, integrate the Temple and Philadelphia communities, and cultivate dynamic relationships among our diverse student.”
Candidate for vice president of services Patricia Boateng and candidate for vice president of external affairs Danube Johnson complete Diamond Nation’s ticket.
Diamond Nation will face off against Temple United led by student body president candidate Darin Bartholomew.
Bartholomew, a junior management information systems major, is joined by candidate for vice president of services Cree Moore and candidate for vice president of external affairs Sonia Galiber.
Temple United’s mission is to solve the challenges on campus through unifying the student body. “Through making information more easily accessible and representing a diverse student body, we will advocate for the Temple Community,” Temple United’s website states.
Temple United and Diamond Nation will debate next Monday, April 1, at the General Assembly meeting.
The School of Medicine was ranked the 51st best research medical school in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report. Temple’s rank was second of all medical schools in Philadelphia behind the University of Pennsylvania, which ranked fourth.
In 2012, Temple received nearly $94 million in National Institutes of Health grants, according to the university.
Check back with The Temple News Tuesday, March 26, for a full recap of the School of Medicine’s U.S. News and World Report Ranking.
