Tag Archives: TSG

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.

Student government meeting on Oct. 21

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Sustainability was the word of the day for the Temple Student Government General Assembly meeting Monday, Oct. 21 in Room 200C of the student center.

Ivy Lane, assistant director of the Temple Fund, was the guest speaker discussing the senior class gift. After talking with university officials to see what would work on campus, Lane announced that this year’s class gift will be “two or possibly three” water refilling stations.

Lane said that they wanted to build on to the university’s efforts to further campus sustainability. The refilling stations are expected to further the lifespan of water bottles, therefore cutting down on the amount needed.

Lane asked each senior to donate $10.14 individually, making the total cost of the gift around $6,000. Seniors can donate at the Web site address giving.temple.edu/SeniorClassGift.

The locations of the stations have not been finalized but Lane said they will possibly be on Liacouras Walk and near the Bell Tower.

Lane added the class gift is being brought back to prominence like it was 40 years ago. This could potentially help the university’s national ranking as alumni participation plays into this, she said.

Melvin Hudson, TSG director of grounds and sustainability, also spoke on the topic of sustainability. He announced that this will be “Sustainability Week,” a series of events for students with a focus on green friendly practices.

Evan Feinstein, TSG director of university pride and traditions, then announced the winners of the clubs competition during last week’s Cherry and White Night. The Chinese Students and Scholars Association were congratulated on their win by standing for recognition.

After the Open Forum and Organization Announcements, the meeting came to a close. The next TSG meeting will be Oct. 28 in the same room 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

General Assembly meeting Oct. 15

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Business was short for this week’s Temple Student Government General Assembly meeting in room 200c of the Student Center on Monday. With no guest speakers, the meeting was mostly updates by members of TSG.

Starting with Darin Bartholomew, Temple’s student body president, the class gift for this year was announced as water bottle refilling stations. Donations for this gift will be accepted Friday at the inauguration celebrations.

Sonia Galiber, vice president of external affairs, thanked those involved with Sunday’s zombie run and Morgan Jenkins, director of local and community affairs, spoke about an upcoming event.

Avenue of the Treats, a Halloween event hosted by CSS for children, will be held Oct. 31 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Progress Plaza near the intersection of Broad and West Oxford streets.

Evan Feinstein, director of pride and traditions, discussed the Cherry and White Games to be held on Friday. This event will set student organizations in competition with the winner receiving a plaque.

Following that was the Open Forum where Bartholomew inquired as to concerns from students who were affected by yesterday’s lockdown on Willington Street. Bartholomew, who said he was neighbors with the student, told The Temple News he is looking in to ways to better the university’s response.

Organization announcements were last on the agenda before the meeting ended a few minutes earlier than usual.

The next TSG GA meeting will be Oct. 21 also 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

Student Government meeting of Oct. 7

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The new Speaker of the General Assembly, DeVaun Brown, opened up the Temple Student Government General Assembly meeting in room 200c of the student center Monday to an audience of roughly 200 people.

Joe Oleksak was announced as the new Auditor General, the other previously open TSG office.  

Darin Bartholomew, Temple’s student body president, was first to speak with the president’s report. He introduced Brown and Oleksak and explained that TSG is pursuing a solution to the long lines at the food court in Morgan Hall.

The first guest speaker, Sakinah Muhammad from Teach for America, spoke next. She explained how the program sets up college graduates as teachers to help with low-income students’ educations, and how students can apply.

Homecoming was the next topic with the candidates for king and queen describing themselves and why they should be elected.

Isaiah Gaymon, Kristian Pel, Kwashee Totimeh and Dan Busko spoke about their candidacies for Homecoming king. For queen, Tiffany Dean, Megan Fry, Joie’ Johnson-Walker, and Tasia Morgan stated their cases as well.

Voting for these titles is still open on Owl Connect via the Student Activities webpage. The Homecoming Pageant will be Oct. 18 at 7:30 p.m. in room 200 of the student center.

A few of the TSG directors then spoke individually on various events occurring soon. The Zombie Run will be on Oct. 13 and registration for the event is still available.

Evan Feinstein, director of University Pride and Traditions, announced that Cherry and White Championships will be held on Oct. 18 during Cherry and White Night.

For the open forum, Bartholomew asked the audience, which consisted mostly of students, what event they would like to see in the spring to replace the cancelled Spring Fling. The conversation mostly focused on a childhood throwback themed showcase of some student organizations.

The organization announcements were last before the meeting came to an end.

The next TSG General Assembly meeting will be held Oct. 14 at 4 p.m. in room 200c of the student center.

Student Government Meeting held Sept. 30

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Andrew McGinley, manager of Public Affairs and Policy, was the guest speaker at the Sept. 30 TSG general assembly meeting in the student center. In front of an audience of roughly 200, McGinley announced expansions to the Owl Academy program.

Last year, the Owl Academy went to the state capitol in Harrisburg to lobby for university funding.

Now, the Owl Academy will be extended to include experiences in talking to more officials. Monthly sessions with Temple officials and planned meeting times with elected officials are to be created this year with in order to allow Temple students networking opportunities.

This is also aimed at fostering a stronger voice for university funding among state policy makers.

“We’ll lay the groundwork for a great relationship with Harrisburg,” McGinley said.

According to McGinley, they will be posting their information via the TSG social media accounts.

Morgan Jenkins, director of local and community affairs for TSG spoke next. She thanked the people who showed up for Adopt a Block, a series of community service events, on Saturday.

Then Sonia Galiber, vice president of external affairs, spoke about the upcoming Zombie Run on Oct. 13.

Ray Smeriglio, director of communications, spoke last. He exhibited the new TSG website which now includes a directory of staff, complete explanation of the platform and a contact page for clubs allocations.

The open forum and organization announcements were held before the meeting ended.

The open hours for the TSG Office were announced as 12-6 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 12- 4 p.m. on Fridays.

The chosen candidates for Speaker of the General Assembly and Auditor General will be announced for the next meeting on Oct. 7.

Good Neighbor discussed at TSG

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The advancement of the Good Neighbor Policy was the main topic of discussion for the TSG General Body meeting held on Sep. 23 in the student center.

The new advertising slogans of the policy were displayed to an audience of about 200 by Kate Schaeffer, a program coordinator at HEART and Andrea Seiss, senior associate dean of students.

The duo was speaking in place of the scheduled Andrea Swan, director of Community and Neighborhood Affairs, who wasn’t able to attend the meeting.

“Respect the block” and “taking neighborly to the next level” are the new slogans for the policy. Student Activities will also form a backing committee focused on encouraging student interaction with the local community.

“We’re definitely a block by block campus,” Schaeffer said.

Schaeffer said the committee will include one member from TSG and expressed interest in collaboration with any student organizations participating in community service.

Ray Smeriglio, TSG director of communications spoke next at the meeting about a new program called Hoot Squad which will soon begin holding meetings.

“It’s an organization dedicated to connecting you students to alumni,” he said.

The director announcements were next then the open forum. For the first time, the organization announcements had some of the groups’ information already in the PowerPoint presentation. As announced last week, organizations can email TSG ahead of time to guaranteed being able to speak.

The deadline of applications for Speaker of the General Assembly has been extended to Friday.

Due to time constraints, most of the organization announcements not emailed in ahead of time were cut off with the meeting ending.

CSS speaks at second TSG meeting

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Charlie Leon, acting executive director of Campus Safety Services, spoke at Temple Student Government’s second meeting of the semester Monday night, Sept. 16, in room 200C of the Student Center. He went over past incidents, the trend of campus safety so far this semester and new initiatives.

The first incident from this semester which Leon highlighted was a Temple student who was jumped by other students on Aug. 22. The accused aggressors are being charged with aggravated assault.

The other incident Leone discussed was the block party on North 15th and Fontain streets on Aug. 23. He explained how Temple police, in cooperation with the other police forces in the area, broke up the block party early. After all was said and done, there were over 250 citations and referrals, 30 people were taken to the hospital for alcohol and four people arrested for operating an illegal bar.

Leone displayed a chart comparing number of incidents in August 2012 to August 2013 with a noticeable drop across the board.

However, as The Temple News reported in the Sept. 17 issue, campus police crackdowns have resulted in around 270 arrests or citations in the first four weeks of school.

He also announced a number of new programs including student focus groups for feedback, new safety awareness videos and a bike registration program designed at cutting down bike theft.

Temple Police will also be issued electronic tablets to make incident reporting easier, according to Leone. The last of the announced initiatives is called “Walking Escort Program” which allows Temple students to request an escort to get home by calling 8-9255 from a campus phone or 215-777-9255 between 4 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The second scheduled guest, Institutional Advancement’s Associate Director Student and Employer Networks, Maureen Fisher, was absent.

Next, the directors of TSG’s individual departments were announced then individually introduced themselves and explained what they are planning to accomplish for the future.

Two positions are still open within TSG, Speaker of the General Assembly and Auditor General. Both applications can be found in the TSG office and interviews will be conducted soon.

The meeting ended with the open forum where, among other issues, a number of students noted problems with their academic advising.

 

 

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.

Assembly meeting provides preview for TSG work next semester

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Amid the final days of classes and the stress over approaching final exams, Temple Student Government held their final General Assembly meeting on Monday.

The meeting provided a summation of the work TSG had accomplished during the fall semester and a small preview into spring semester.

Student Body President David Lopez first thanked his administration and all students who served on TSG committees and then provided a summary by the numbers of the work accomplished this semester.

Lopez said that TSG registered over 3,500 students to vote, 1,500 students for Temple Advocates Legislative Outreach Network, completed 990 hours of community service through TSG sponsored events, and started the Adopt-a-block initiative.

Lopez said that he did not want to register more than 2,000 students for TALON, because he wanted to make a push for registration next semester.

“Our goal is 4,500 [students], so according to our timeline we are exactly where we need to be. We didn’t want to register more than 2,000 this semester because it is more important to register them second semester closer to Cherry and White day,” Lopez said.

TSG takes students to the state capital in Harrisburg on Cherry and White Day to both advocate for higher education funding and thank legislators that fight for funding for Temple. Cherry and White Day is scheduled for March 5.

Lopez and TSG also plan to organize a large volunteer initiative on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. On Thursday, Dec. 6, TSG has a meeting with student activities, community relations, and alumni relations.

“[We will] talk about a coordinated effort towards something to do on MLK day. We want to make one coordinated effort to promote locations that are available and then assign student orgs and assign alumni groups to places and do community service on that day,” Lopez said.

The TSG administration is also in the preliminary phases in conjunction with university officials to create a class wait list in the self-service banner.

“We had a meeting with one of the vice-provosts and we talked to them about implanting the class wait list system into banner, so that students rather than registering for a class and trying to green card and finding out it is not available will [instead] be put on a waitlist and be notified when it becomes available, so that they can register,” Lopez said.

Lopez approximated that the wait-list will be implemented during the summer semesters, according to his discussions with university officials.

The TSG general assembly will reconvene in late January to begin work for the Spring 2013 semester.

Laura Detter can be reached at laura.detter@temple.edu.

Teach me how to pony

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Children in the North Philadelphia neighborhood take turns riding a pony in the street during a labor day block party. CONNOR SHOWALTER TTN

Philadelphia residents, Lonnie Sullivan, 50, and his son Jamal, were at the block party to teach children and adults how to ride ponies around the block.  Lonnie Sullivan, who said he is the boss of the organized pony rides, has been traveling around the Philadelphia community with his horses throughout the summer.  He receives his business from residents who hold events ranging from catering parties to sweet sixteen birthday parties.

“Any events that they call me for I do the events,” Lonnie Sullivan said. “The message is to let the kids see that there’s more stuff in the city then just selling drugs.  We don’t want our kids to be on the corner selling drug, so we got horses.”

The cost to ride the pony to the end of the block and back is $3 per kid, $5 per adult.  If a person wants to take a joy ride to center city, they can rent a horse for $75 an hour.

For more coverage of the community block party sponsored in conjunction by Temple Student Government, continue to visit www.temple-news.com.