Honors experiment in non-traditional learning

At the beginning of the semester, I dragged my reluctant roommate, junior psychology major Cana Sarnes, into the only class being offered that piqued my interest. The class, an honors history and religion course titled Refuge and Refugees: Contemplating Asylum, is taught by history professor Kathleen Biddick.

Ten minutes into the first class, Cana turned to me and said, “I’m definitely taking this class.”

That day, my roommate and I, along with 11 other students, embarked on our semester-long community-oriented, educational, emotional and spiritual journey through this new-age pedagogy.
Our class consisted of an intellectual, intuitive and humanitarian professor and students.

The community we built became a place of refuge from our daily lives as university students, and we fostered a strong bond in which we were comfortable enough to explore global and domestic issues spiritually, emotionally and mentally.

“This class is very much a group endeavor, a collaborative effort for each of us to center ourselves physically, mentally and emotionally in order to think deeply about humanitarian issues,” said Tony Keddie, a senior religion major. “In this class, [the] professor, students and guests are able to look at their world objectively while being distinctly subject to their own convictions.”

Guests from the university and Philadelphia community, including refugees, a dancer, a cantor, a meditation leader and various professors spoke to the class.

We studied the history of concepts of refuge and asylum in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and other faiths. Other materials studied include the philosophical writings of Immanuel Kant, the Geneva Convention and the International Cities of Refuge Network. Also investigated were cases from films about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the genocide in Srebenicá and the suffering in Tibet.

Contemplation, which occurred at the beginning of each class, was a favored component of the course.
Biddick or a student would lead the contemplation. Sources of contemplation ranged from poems, religious texts, music, word slams and finger painting.

We once performed a walking meditation, in which we linked arms with a partner and slowly walked the halls of the Tuttleman Learning Center.

We gained many stares and smirks from fellow students we encountered on our walk, just as we did the second day of class when we danced in front of the elevators on the fourth floor with assistant dance professor Jillian Harris.

We were all in class and learning. We weren’t just sitting in a room being lectured to and copying notes from a PowerPoint presentation.

The class contemplated on peace and war and everything in between. Important values such as love, acceptance, understanding and forgiveness exist in our community.

We have grown as individuals and as a community in our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Contemplation had an invaluable impact on all of us and our ability to comprehend, analyze and reflect on issues pertinent to each individual.

“Professor Biddick has given us the opportunity to learn in a truly innovative environment,” said Zack Groff, a freshman political science major. “Temple is at the foreground when it comes to technological innovation, but the unique pedagogy of this class is much more valuable.”

“I think contemplation offers a unique insight toward other peoples’ own train of thought and how they perceive the world,” said Paul Kuhne, a senior political science and Spanish major. “There’s nothing more moving than a group of people quietly contemplating the depths of human compassion.”

This class, however, has been unique from the start. The course was initially approved by the university, but Biddick applied for and received a fellowship from the Fetzer Institute, a nonprofit foundation that supports contemplation in higher education by funding Contemplative Practice Fellowships.

“Compassion, hospitality and scholarship can go together,” Biddick said, “thanks to the wonderful students in our class who are living proof of this.”

According to the Fetzer Institute, its mission to “foster awareness of the power of love and forgiveness in the emerging global community rests on the conviction that efforts to address the world’s critical issues have to go beyond political, social and economic strategies to their psychological and spiritual roots.”

“This class has ultimately offered a path to discovering the true compassion and beauty of human nature through meditation and its application to refugee crises,” Kuhne said. “Putting aside limitations and bureaucracy, our contemplation of asylum has led me to believe that interpersonal and simple human kindness frequently can surpass the roadblocks found in complicated frameworks like the Geneva Convention.”

We became companions on a journey of epic proportions, searching for peace in a busy university and for awareness and knowledge of our world, Keddie said. In this class, students find asylum through contemplation, which transforms the university from an oppressing force to a peaceful place of refuge.”

“In our classroom, students have solidified their worldviews based on academic contemplation in a peaceful atmosphere,” Keddie said. “We are a group of ambitious students finding peace in our own lives, and we are eager to help others do the same.”

Kathryn A. López can be reached at kathryn.lopez@temple.edu.

Shop Class: Going the distance to shop

Rice’s Sale & Country Market
In the middle of rural Bucks County lies little Canal Street, or Rice’s Sale & Country Market. Though it’s surrounded by barns, this open-air market has all the makings of Philadelphia’s South Street and Canal Street in New York City. Dozens of vendors wake up before dawn to set up their tables and stands full of handmade jewelry and designer handbag knockoffs. If you’re lucky, you may just find the real thing – or a perfect clone.

Chloe and Fendi Spy bags hang from the ceilings of stands where vendors are always willing to negotiate prices. Check out the sunglass vendor who carries Ray-Ban Wayfarers for only $5. Sure, they’re not real, but no one will ever know. A handful of vendors specialize in genuine designer goods for super cheap, like Citizens of Humanity jeans, Ed Hardy tees and Juicy Couture sweat suits.

There’s also an abundance of Tiffany & Co. knockoffs that look like they came straight from a little blue box. It’s worth the trip through winding roads and little hamlets to stock up on faux designer pieces for cheap.

Historic Bethlehem
In Historic Bethlehem, where buildings date back to the Revolutionary War, there are streets full of shops with the latest fashions. Step into a modern art fantasy by visiting Popmart. Half-art gallery and half-boutique, Popmart is a flash back to the days of Andy Warhol’s Factory, with modern art pieces from local artists and designs for men and women. Betsey Johnson is just one of the designers you can expect to find among racks of clothes organized by style and color.

There’s always a large clearance section toward the back of the store with great markdowns. Look for Jackie-O sunglasses and an armoire stuffed with chain necklaces and long dangle earrings, first made popular by pop art princess Edie Sedgwick.

Located on Main Street is another art and fashion destination – UnderWired. The boutique’s stock is 90 percent vintage styles from various decades, while the other 10 percent comes from local jewelry designers like Lalala, whose love of owls is reflected in her hand-painted glass charms and other owl-themed pieces.

Across the street is Pat’s Boutique, the perfect place to find Vera Bradley products. This place has everything Vera, and it’s getting new shipments in constantly. Aside from the handbags and totes, they also have other Vera Bradley merchandise like lampshades, umbrellas and even stationery. A favorite are the ID card key-chains, which are only $10.

New Hope
Spend an early winter evening in New Hope, Pa., where white lights adorn trees and shoppers in hats and scarves pass from store to store. Along the cobblestone streets lie vintage boutiques, garden shops, antique galleries and coffee shops. Panda Eyes Vintage is a vintage boutique so stocked that it would take a few trips to look at everything.

Also check out A Beautiful Life, a bath and body boutique that carries women’s apparel and jewelry. It’s the place to go for new designs from Sailor Jerry and cute holiday T-shirts by Made U Look. Prima Donna’s Closet is a women’s shop stocked with girly pieces from Gracia and party dresses from La Femme.

Nicole Saylor can be reached at nicole.saylor@temple.edu.

A student’s wish list for the break

Among the papers, the parties, the books and the beer, the Temple community had other worries this semester, including eviction, violence and a threat of a professor strike.

So, this holiday season, students, administrators and professors alike should be hoping to find more than new laptops and iPods wrapped up as gifts. The Temple community should be hoping for quick change and solutions to some of its most serious issues by the start of spring semester.

Students living in Yorktown could still face eviction six days before Christmas.

Off-campus dwellers worry that new legislation proposed in response to the Yorktown issue could allow the university unlimited access to their lives, while others think twice about answering their front doors after a string of near-campus home invasions.

Seniors, especially, fear the threat of a professorial strike that could potentially mean suspension of some classes for a period of time.

The fight over illegal student housing in Yorktown, continuing contract negotiations between the Temple Association of University Professionals and the university and violence in the community are issues that will be no easy feat to solve. But if this university is to move forward as a community and an educational institution as early as next semester, there needs to be a way to work them out.

TAUP professors will add fair raises and better health coverage to their wish lists this season, while the university hopes to convince them a merit-based pay system will suffice. Negotiations are set to continue during winter break, and students will return in January in hopes that no professors are on strike and classes will go on as planned.

Either way, the university and TAUP should come to some sort of agreement before the Spring 2009 semester. Students do appreciate what professors do and in most cases, are supportive of their fight for what they see as “fair pay,” but most of all, we just want to take our classes and graduate on time.

Some Yorktown community members are hoping to have Temple students out before the holidays, while students scramble to find places to live in the spring, so they can still attend school.

The obvious compromise here is not to go Big Brother on all off-campus students, requiring them to register their addresses and vehicles but to address individual problems community members have.

Drunk, rambunctious or loud students in the community? Keep a better eye on them, not everyone. Ask them to tone it down a notch, then if it’s too much, go ahead, evict them. But don’t displace an entire community of students mid-year. Is it really worth interrupting someone’s education? Many are not so sure.

While administrators and university police have been right to aid students by giving advice and offering on-campus residences for evictees, people should be asking why this happened in the first place.

As far as community violence goes, police protection aside, students should be educated as to where to look for off-campus housing. Students come to Temple from all over the world, and while it is their right and privilege to live in the neighborhoods of Philadelphia, they should have ways to find out what they’re getting themselves into, so to speak, in certain communities.

Yes, it’s been a stressful semester to be a Temple student. But here’s hoping.

And, on the bright side, remember this – Philadelphia is taking the recession much more lightly than most other places, and college students have been less affected than young working professionals. Hey, if you never have a boom, you can’t quite have a bust.

Morgan Zalot can be reached at morgan.zalot@temple.edu.

Book Worm: A trip through history

I live around the corner from Henry George’s house – he’s the economist whose ideas inspired the creation of Monopoly – and just a few short blocks from Joseph Bonaparte’s – the elder brother of the Emperor Napoleon and a deposed king in his own right.

Every day, on my way home from school, I linger just a bit in front of the PSFS Building – the first skyscraper in the “International Style” to be erected in the United States – and Ricketts’ Circus – the site of the first complete circus performance held on American soil.

Whenever I visit my friend’s house on Bainbridge Street, I walk past the homes of jazz singer Billie Holiday and William Whipper, a lumber baron and founder of the American Moral Reform Society. I buy my produce at the Ninth Street Curb Market – one of several to emerge in response to food shortages of the World War I era – a trip that often takes me past the grade school attended by Joe Venuti, the “Father of Jazz Violin.”

No one will deny that Philadelphia possesses a rich and varied history, and thanks to the efforts of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, nobody can deny it possesses a lot more of it than you’d ever guess.

Without the iconic, blue Pennsylvania State historical markers erected by the PHMC, who but the most inquisitive of history buffs would realize the nation’s first Girl Scout cookies were sold at 1401 Arch St. or that Mother’s Day was founded by Philadelphian Anna Jarvis? Were it not for the commission’s diligent efforts at preservation, who would there be to keep alive the public memory of Lehigh Avenue’s sporting heritage, or W.C. Fields’ tenure as a Strawbridge’s employee?

The PHMC’s markers have always fascinated me, and I approach the knowledge they impart with a reverence most would reserve only for the most sacred of religious texts. The moment a blue plaque catches my eye, I cannot but stop to scan its text and in doing so enrich my understanding of the character of whatever place I find myself in.

Nor are these plaques, of course, limited solely to the streets and parks of Philadelphia. In fact, my earliest memory of a Pennsylvania State historical marker is one that commemorates the two years great songwriter Stephen Foster – he of “Oh! Susanna” and “Camptown Races” (itself commemorated by two PHMC markers) – spent living in my grandmother’s hometown of Towanda, Pa.

In fact, it amazes me that these blue markers have not become the object of countless college-student pilgrimages, that cars packed with reckless, young undergrads do not stream forth from Philadelphia to stand in awe of the marker for Bristol, an early river port, the first Bucks County Seat and the site of an astounding three markers officially listed as “missing” by the PHMC (unless, of course, a more surreptitious stream is actually to blame for the previous disappearances).

Philadelphia alone houses around 230 markers. Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties boost that number to upwards of 480, and the addition of Berks, Lancaster, Lehigh and Northampton counties yields approximately 730 officially-recognized sites, with Pennsylvania as a whole containing more than 2,000.

Planning a themed pilgrimage – or simply a tour – of officially-recognized sites has never been easier, thanks to the “Stories from PA History” (complete with a list of markers corresponding to each story’s theme) provided by ExplorePAHistory.com, a joint venture of the PHMC and several other state and nonprofit organizations. From William Penn and the Underground Railroad to jazz and baseball, these prepared lists are more than adequate for planning your first pilgrimage.

More advanced planners, however, might instead opt to use the search function provided on the PHMC’s Web site. I did and managed to plot out the George Washington themed tour you’ll find in this column’s sidebar.

As for me, I’ll continue slowing down every time I walk past Edgar Allen Poe’s house on Spring Garden Street, or Siegmund Lubin’s on North 15th Street, and nod my hellos to George every time I run to Superfresh.

Peter Chomko can be reached at pchomko@temple.edu.

Republican coverage commended by Democrat

Dear Editor:

Although I am a longtime registered Democrat, I would like to thank The Temple News for the extensive coverage it gave to our university’s Republican minority both during and after the recent presidential election. A university should serve as an open forum for all responsible points of view, and the editors of our student newspaper deserve praise for their even-handed treatment of this important transformative event in American history. Before Fox News boasts about being “fair and balanced,” it should make its producers spend some time in the offices of The Temple News to learn what those words really mean.

Gregory J. W. Urwin
Professor of History
Associate Director
Center for the Study of
Force and Diplomacy

SCT equipment office tells its side of the story

The equipment office for the School of Communications and Theater is not the most popular place. Any media class can erupt in complaints about the office’s strict policies and steep fines. Perhaps it deserves some of the criticism it gets.

However, the equipment office has a side to the story, too, and one worth listening to. It starts with more than a hundred students picking up equipment in an afternoon and includes cameras worth close to $40,000.

The office, located on the first floor of Annenberg Hall, distributes video and audio recording equipment to film, BTMM and journalism majors.

When students enter the office, equipment isn’t the only thing they find. Hand-drawn cartoons hanging on the walls depict “John Q. Filmmajor” and “Slatey the Slate.” The two act out scenes from the office, such as students upset at the fines they receive for turning equipment in late, and not being able to reserve cameras over lunch.

These cartoons are snarky and perhaps biting to those who find themselves acting out the scenes, but they are actually popular.

“[Students] have been asking why there aren’t any new ones yet. They can see the comedic side to our side of the story,” said John Sedlak, the video systems coordinator. Sedlak manages the equipment office, and answers to the director of operations for SCT.

Slatey began when a new slate that had been ordered turned out to be only a few inches, much smaller than what was needed. It was given the nickname Slatey and became the unofficial mascot of the office. One of the eight student workers who staff the office began drawing cartoons involving Slatey, and the idea took off.

The equipment office has between 80 to 90 cameras, which with all the other microphones and lights is worth “in the millions” of dollars, Sedlak said.

“On the busiest day, we’ve had 129 undergrads in one afteronoon,” Sedlak said. “On average, we have roughly a thousand registered undergrads” per week.

When asked why he thinks there is such a disconnect between the office and the students, and why such animosity exists between the two, Sedlak said much it is the volume.

“A lot of it comes from the numbers and lack of resources. We don’t have the space to have more cameras. We have strict policies. They don’t usually like that,” Sedlak said.

The office does not have the luxury of simply expanding. Its funding comes from the tech fees the journalism, BTMM and film majors pay as part of their tuition. More cameras means higher fees, which few would be eager to turn to.

“I’ll be meeting with the heads of the departments” to see if there are any solutions, Sedlak said. When asked what those solutions might be, he said, “Ideally, a new office built on” but he wasn’t expecting it any time soon.

It’s understandable that there is a lot of frustration with its policies. Late fines turn into hundreds of dollars within days, and pickup and drop-off times are strict. However, with millions of dollars of equipment, and hundreds of students reserving equipment in a week, the office really doesn’t have much choice.

“It is a very stressful environment,” Sedlak said.

There are legitimate concerns about the equipment office, but the solutions mostly involve what students have so very little of: money. In the meantime, the office has to make do with what it has, and that leaves it little choice but to continue draconian policies.

Stephen Zook can be reached at stephen.zook@temple.edu.

Pa. budget cuts force Temple to scale down

This year’s holiday shopping season might be contingent upon how many more budget cuts Temple will see this upcoming year.

So far, Temple has set aside $11.4 million to give back to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania after Gov. Ed Rendell made numerous budget cuts. Temple initially set aside $7.5 million, but has recently set aside an additional $3.9 million.

The three largest sources of revenue for the state are the personal income tax, corporate income tax and sales tax.

While the economy is in a recession, Temple’s Chief Financial Officer Anthony Wagner said more cuts are coming.

“I don’t think it would be prudent for us to think that these are the end of the cuts,” he said.

Because of this, Temple has set aside more than what was asked by the state, but Wagner said the university has little “wiggle room” if more money is requested to be returned.

“The way we’re trying to cobble it together, we thought it would be best to overshoot the amount,” he said.

In a press release from Oct. 30, Rendell announced he and his staff identified $350 million in cuts that would preserve the state’s budget.

“The revenue situation may get worse before it gets better,” he said. “We will continue to monitor these volatile economic conditions in order to maintain the Commonwealth’s balanced budget.”

The economy’s recent downward spiral forced Rendell to report an additional $128 million in cuts last week.

“Everything is on the table for consideration and review. We have to balance our budgetary restraint measures with our obligation to provide quality public services to the citizens of the Commonwealth,” Rendell said.

Wagner said these steps are an effort to balance the budget, but he said it isn’t the end.

“My concern is that there are going to be more cuts,” he said. “The state currently has reserved a total of $478 million. Some of that $478 million they’ve reserved, the governor doesn’t have the unilateral right to reserve.”

Wagner said there are other members of state government who need to voluntarily comply with the cut. He also added the state government’s shortfall was more than $600 million, an amount the state hasn’t fully reserved for.

The state has a rainy day fund of about $750 million, but Wagner said not to expect the state to be using it to dig itself out of the deficit.

“Every year when the state has a surplus, which it has had the past few years, a certain amount is transferred into that fund for times like this,” Wagner said.

When the first cut was made, Temple restricted out-of-state travel and hiring practices. The restrictions were instituted not just because of the budget cuts but to restrict people from hiring at their own will, Wagner said.

With the two largest revenue collections — March and April —months away, Wagner said it will be late in the fiscal year before Rendell has a sound footing on how the budget will end up.

LeAnne Matlach can be reached at leannematlach@temple.edu.

A fresh coating in the paint

Staying strong on the inside – it’s a tactic the women’s basketball team has relied on heavily so far this season.

Senior forwards Shanea Cotton and Shenita Landry account for just about 40 percent of the Owls’ offense, averaging 25 points per game combined. Cotton leads the team in scoring, averaging 12.9 points per game. Landry is right behind her at 12.1.

“I feel as though in order for our team to be successful, I’m going to have to average double figures,” Cotton said. “I can’t continue to be just in the background. I have to step up and become more aggressive. So that’s my mindset now. If I don’t average double figures, I feel like if we lose it’s my fault.”

For Cotton, all the attention from opposing defenses is rather new.

Last year, she averaged only 6.3 points per game, starting slightly more than half of Temple’s games after transferring from Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Fla.

This year, she’s frequently seen double teams, especially with the way she’s picked up her game versus nationally ranked opponents, scoring 17 points against then-No. 21 Auburn and a career-high 18 against then-No. 15 Rutgers last Monday. Dartmouth even threw a triple team in her direction last Wednesday.

“I like to compete against top-ranked post players, and I feel as though if I can do it against top-ranked post players, then I should be able to do it against anybody,” Cotton said. “I get yelled at a lot because I don’t recognize the double team or triple team at first, but once I slow down and get composed, I can figure it out.”

And it’s to be expected that Cotton is still learning out there on the court. After all, she only started playing organized basketball in ninth grade.

“I had a 4-inch growth spurt my eighth-grade summer. I was a cheerleader before basketball,” Cotton said. “I had never played before, and I tried out, and I made it. I’ve stuck with it since then.”

Landry, on the other hand, might as well have been born with a basketball in her hands.

Her older brother, Carl, played power forward at Purdue University and earned All-Big Ten Conference honors his senior season. He’s now in his second year in the NBA with the Houston Rockets.

Another brother, Marcus, a senior forward at the University of Wisconsin, is the Badgers’ second leading scorer. His wife, Efueko Osagie-Landry, played basketball at Marquette University until she graduated in 2006.

“Basketball runs in my family,” Landry said. “Everybody plays basketball. One through five — my sister, my mom and my three brothers, but my mom taught us how to play. Many people don’t know that, but she’s the one who actually taught us how to play. She played in high school and got in a real bad accident when she was 21, and she really can’t play anymore, but she tells us she can beat us all, no matter who we are.”

That lengthy experience, along with Landry’s levelheadedness and composure on the court, led coach Tonya Cardoza to name her a captain before the season.

“I love Shenita’s leadership,” Cardoza said. “You know, sometimes it’s hard for a post player to be a leader and to get everybody together out there, but I think she’s been able to do it, and her teammates gravitate toward her. She’s just the hardest worker. She’ll go through a wall for you.”

Both Cotton and Landry will have to be hard workers as the new focal points of the Owls’ offense.

“Any challenge is good,” Landry said. “[It means] you’re somebody.”

But they aren’t just anybody to Cardoza.

“First-team All-A-10, that’s what I think they’re both capable of doing.”

Jennifer Reardon can be reached at jennifer.reardon@temple.edu.

Abroad just long enough

One morning at my internship, Kartel Creative, an indie record company in Hackney, I was responsible for getting contact information for blogs and putting music into the air. Something to ease into – something lo-fi enough for a work environment but still something impressive. 

Tom Robinson’s show on BBC 6 is usually the easy choice, playing world music and a few great indie-rock tracks. I decided to find common ground in the best of U.S. radio – a West Philadelphia studio and British producer. I put on an NPR World Café broadcast of the Fleet Foxes’ Lillywhite Session. 

After the band opened with “White Winter Hymnal,” show host David Dye asked lead singer Robin Pecknold how his environment affected the creation of the songs on the record.

“Sometimes it’s good to get out of your element to write, but other times, it’s good to stay in your element and wish you were out of your element,” Pecknold said.

True enough. Three months and counting down, London represents both sides of that idea.

I can remember the summer preceding this journey – stuck at home with anticipation inflating my heart to my lungs.

Right now in London, Philadelphia is on my mind. Small, dirty, windy, sometimes shady, dollar-for-a-dollar, Yuengling drinking, cheesesteak-gulfing Philadelphia. 

London is the learning experience I can’t draw lines around. It’s where I don’t belong, where I sometimes fit in and where I fit in beautifully all the same. Big, clean, dripping damp, seemingly harmless, 60-cents-a-pound, bitter-ale drinking, chips-masticating London. It would do my soul well to stay here forever. But as I stand here now, I still wish to go back to a more fully-formed idea of home.
 
The truth is, London can be a lonely town, and without my Temple flatmates, I’m not so sure I’d get along so well. The confines of Temple students have been a blessing and a bane. When all you have is the people you live with and paradise versions of friendships turn awry, the ‘OK, I’m not dealing with this person for two weeks’ is suddenly awful discourse. Nice try, Philly kid – try being honest from now on.  

With less than two weeks left in this semester, haste is on its way. Haste to write unnecessarily long-winded papers and reach a finish line we’re hoping to push away for a few more memorable moments. 

This is a moment, if only for a moment. In a condensed space, this is where we begin. As time becomes polarized, our focus changes rapidly, and we start getting answers to questions like “What’s important to you?”

This moment is sentimental, idealistic and a part of every feeling I avoided heading into this trip. I’m thinking about sunsets outside of airplane windows, having a concrete direction and leaving everything about this place. These are the kind of moments in deconstruction where we have a choice in who we are. 

If this semester in a foreign land has taught me anything, it’s travel. Get out of Philadelphia. Get lost for the sake of fatigue and stagnation. Things about yourself will take form, and if only for a moment of clarity, we are in a garden state.

Chris Zakorchemny can be reached at chris.zak@temple.edu.

Track and field gets off to fast start

After a successful 2008 campaign, the track and field team got back to work for the first time this season at the Jack Pyrah Invitational at Haverford College.

The meet, on the women’s side, was highlighted by senior Amanda Cole breaking the school record in the weight throw and winning the shot put. For the men, sophomore Josue Louis won the high jump and finished second in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 7.72.

Ultimately, the Owls combined to finish first in seven events at the Invitational.

Temple was selected to finish fifth in the Atlantic Ten Conference for both men and women. The men’s team will enter competition this year with experience from junior Tim Boeni and Louis, the 2007 Atlantic Ten Conference Indoor Rookie of the Year. As for the women, sophomore Paris Williams, along with seniors Cole and Devon DuPont, will lead a young squad that only lost one senior from last season.

Also a central figure to the Owls will be senior Jim Waddington, who is a middle distance runner. Formerly the No. 2 runner on the squad, Waddington is expecting big things from his team this year.

“I have very high expectations for the team this year,” he said. “We have a lot of leadership and experience on the team that is going to help us improve in the conference and possibly contend for the A-10 title.”

So far, the Owls are in a decent spot to get that done.

In addition to the achievements of Cole and Louis last weekend, sophomore Brittany McRae won the long jump, breaking the meet record and meeting ECAC qualifying standards in the process.

On top of that, for the women, Talitha Smith won the high jump and Williams won the 300-meters.
But perhaps most notably for the women, DuPont, the Owls’ first-ever heptathlon winner, finished second in the 55-meters with a time of 7.34, second in the long jump and third in the 55-meter hurdles.

DuPont’s second place finish in the long jump broke the previous meet record and qualified her for ECACs.

The men were not outdone, as sophomore Miles Dryden won the long jump, sophomore Lou Parisi finished second in the 800-meters, freshman Travis Mahoney finished third in the 300-meters and junior Grant West finished second in the weight throw.

West is all about being competitive and working hard.

“My individual expectations for the coming season are very high,” he said. “My goals for indoor track are to break the school record, win the A-10s [in my respective event] and make the All-East team at the IC4As. Ultimately, [my goal is] to go out every meet and set a [new] personal record.”

Like West, senior Mitchell Stroh also talked about his competitiveness and the expectations he set for himself and the team.

“I’m shooting for an individual medal, as well as two relay medals in the 4×800 and 4×400,” he said. “As [far as] the team, I think that we should finish in the top three in the conference, but we are always looking to take the top spot. We have a lot of young talent, and there is a great amount of dedication on the team.”

The Owls return to action Jan. 9 for the Metropolitan Invitational in New York.

Joe Polinsky can be reached at joe.polinsky@temple.edu.

Next Page »