Offbeat Academia:Rainy day songs ease April showers

April can be a real bummer.

Spring may be here, and sure, the high temperature is consistently staying above 50 degrees, but this month is known for its precipitation. And for students, this month only brings us closer to finals with each cloudy day.

Imagine Paddington Bear, with his blue slicker and red hat, clambering into class to take an exam. It’s just sad.

My column isn’t about music, and I usually feel uncomfortable writing about music because I lack the vocabulary. But I like lists. Most of these songs don’t have anything to do with weather, but music can be great company when it’s drizzling outside. In no particular order, here are my top five rainy day songs, if there can even be such a thing:

1. “Puddle Splashers” by Cap’n Jazz.
I was introduced to this band by a very good friend of mine who put it on a mixtape for me. The song is upbeat and fun. It will make you get out of your house, your apartment or your dorm room, and if not, it will at least make you bounce around inside. It reminds me a lot of being a kid: immature, stupid and naïve. Even now, I feel like a kid – and I think a lot of you can relate to that every time you get embarrassed or you enjoy the freedom of being alone. Hopefully, sometime this month, you’ll have a chance to turn this song up really loud and jump on your bed. The title is suitable, too.

2. “Only in Dreams” by Weezer.
Oh man, does this remind me of high school. See, where I grew up, it wasn’t like the movies (as I’m sure most hometowns aren’t). We didn’t have big parties when parents went out of town because they never really left, and we didn’t have any money.

There was a house, though, where we did our “hanging out.” And those kids showed me The Blue Album. I will be forever grateful, and I hope you can scratch eight minutes into your schedule to check out this song ,if you haven’t already. It’s pretty epic – for high school, I guess.

3.“The Trembling of the Rose” by Two Gallants.
I figured if I’m doing a rainy day song list, I have to include a sad song. That’s what rain is all about, right? Crying. So, if you’ve felt loss, this one should really wrench your heart.

The most impressive thing about this song is its power on those who have caused the hurting, as well. Even the femme fatale can’t swagger to this – the guilt will build up in her throat. I don’t mean to get so gloomy (or maybe I do), but I felt like I had to throw a song in for the kids who like to sit and watch the raindrops trickle down the window pane.

4. “Virtue the Cat Explains Her Departure” by The Weakerthans.

Kitty-cat! Staying inside can be better than anything if you have a cozy, cuddly feline to snuggle with. This song is about a cat, which is absolutely delightful, and it’ll turn those Two Gallants blues right around. Unless you have an allergy (or an empty space where your soul should be), you can’t help but feel fuzzy after listening to this song. So, when the rain bids you to stay inside, pull your cat from under the bed and rock her like a baby singing, “I can’t remember the sound / that you found for me…”

5. “Hazy Jane II” by Nick Drake.
This has been my favorite song by the late Nick Drake ever since I started listening to his music. If you ever get a chance to learn about his life, I warn you the story is pretty sad. Although, from the sound of this song, it’d be hard to imagine. The trumpets will promise you there is always a silver lining to every dark cloud. Drake is always good for book readin’ or a long drive.

I was hesitant at first, but I feel pretty good about this list. Like any top five, it’s not permanent. In fact, by the time this is published, I will have scrapped the whole thing. Whether they remain in my top five or not, they’ll always be songs I connect to a person or a time.

This issue of the column is dedicated to Joseph Alan Sivick Jr.

Sarah Sanders can be reached at sarah.sanders@temple.edu.

Pillow Talk: Don’t spread your sex life too thin

My beloved readers, here’s a brief lesson for you in the world of music: in 1996, a little band named Weezer released its sophomore album, Pinkerton. After the wild success of the band’s self-titled debut (referred to by dedicated fans as The Blue Album), thanks to the single “Buddy Holly,” record sales weren’t as impressive as expected.

The first song track on this album is called “Tired of Sex.” Lead singer Rivers Cuomo wails, “I’m tired / So tired / I’m tired of having sex / I’m spread so thin, I don’t know who I am,” and proceeds to complain about his inability to find true love on the road while surrounded by groupies.

The lead singer of a popular, rock band was seemingly tired of sex. And so am I. I mean, it’s not like I have rabid fans of The Temple News chasing me around campus, begging for entry into our sacred newsroom (hell, I don’t even get that) in order to spend time with me. So, perhaps I should elaborate.

I’m not tired of sex; then, I would probably be a terrible columnist, as well as inhuman.

But apparently, there’s some kind of magnet embedded in me that attracts the oddest males possible. In middle school, it was the one boy who had already started puberty without realizing he needed to use deodorant, who rocked a pencil-thin mustache. He told me all about his obsession with Anime porn and told the captain of our football team he wanted me to give him a blow job.

And last night, a Penn student I’ve been talking to off-and-on called me at 2 a.m. and told me I had a half-hour to get to his house in University City, so he could take advantage of me. Then he rapped freestyle for me — terribly.

Cuomo had it right when he sang about being “spread so thin.” Despite my arguably easy schedule this semester, taking care of extracurricular and social activities and family obligations has become a chore. I somehow managed to put off dealing with all of it and instead, spend too many hours complaining about the crazies who had found me. Needless to say, I’m ready for a break – not only from this semester, but also from getting involved with people I don’t necessarily need to keep around.

Are you feeling the last-third-of-the-semester blues, too? I’ve come up with a simple list to help us get through the sluggish weeks before spring finals and the exhausting process of ignoring phone calls and Facebook chats:

Focus on the family.
I would never condone a Republican think tank – especially one that would consider this sex column my one-way ticket to damnation. But they have something right with their name: no matter who your family is, it’s a support system. So, spend time and further develop your relationships with those people any time you can. Blood relatives, best friends and Greek brotherhoods or sisterhoods all provide networks of lifetime bonds that last longer than 15 minutes at the apartment of the guy you just met at the bar.

Put away the cell phone.
In class, of course! I know it’s extremely difficult to put your phone in your pocket and leave it there for 50 minutes of your life. But if you pay attention in class, you might actually get your tuition’s worth, might actually know what your professor is referring to when you come back to the real world after an interrupting daydream and might not have to deal with a text message from some girl who claims she left her leather jacket under your bed when she left your place early Sunday morning.

Avoid Facebook like the plague.
Reading wall-to-walls, painstakingly watching your list of available friends fluctuate until you see the name of the person you’ve been dying to hit up for some action, seeing that she’s “no longer listed as ‘single’” and going through recently tagged photos, wondering why the hell he took someone else to formal all suck. So, why do we keep doing it? Sometimes, ignorance really is bliss. If we’re not given the opportunity to creep, the less interested we become, the more time we can devote to scholarly pursuits.

Don’t take yourself so seriously.
We’re all college students, right? We all have those cyclical moments of debilitating stress, complete elation and ravenous lust. However, unless you really screw up in one of these cycles or consistently do things unhealthy for mental stability, the decisions and moods we find ourselves in on a daily basis change too drastically and too often for one of them to define the rest of our lives.

Take Cuomo, for instance: “Tired of Sex” shows a complete shift from the lyrics of “Buddy Holly,” where Cuomo croons “But you know I’m yours/and I know you’re mine/and that’s for all time.”

Apparently his “Mary Tyler Moore” moved on but so did he. Cuomo is still releasing music (albeit disappointing) and raising a family.

I guess he wasn’t so tired of sex after all, and I don’t blame him, really. I know my annoyance definitely won’t last forever, so for now, I guess I’ll just soak up the new spring sun and once again, see what happens this weekend.

Libby Peck can be reached at elizabeth.peck@temple.edu.

Women come in third, men finish fourth

The two-time defending Eastern College Athletic Conference champions, the men’s gymnastics team, took a backseat this year to the women’s team and one individual.

While the men’s team did not have the finish it wanted at the ECAC Championships, placing fourth, it was not entirely its fault. Several of its top performers, sophomore Adam Al-Rokh (third place on pommel horse), senior Jason Russo and junior Patrick McLaughlin had nagging injuries. It was especially disappointing for the departing Russo (strained wrist) and McLaughlin (strained oblique), who was the defending floor exercise champion. Al-Rokh’s injury was not any less painful, as he dealt with a pulled pectoral muscle.

However, the women’s team had its best team finish in Temple history at the ECAC Championships, placing third, just less than two points behind second-place Cornell and first-place Towson.

For the Owls, the season has been yet another improvement. Third-year coach Aaron Murphy, who took the job in 2007 after serving as an assistant under men’s gymnastics coach Fred Turoff, earned his first ECAC Coach of the Year Award. He also coached the team’s first individual to NCAA Regionals since 2005, when Lexi Zafferes qualified for vault.

Sophomore Katie Canning not only made it to the NCAA Regionals, but she shined as the only Temple women’s gymnast in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Murphy didn’t know how Canning would respond when he brought her to the biggest stage in women’s gymnastics.

“As a coach, I was thrilled to bring this girl here,” Murphy said. “Some of the best girls in the country are at this meet, and I didn’t know how she would react to it. I think there was close to 8,000 people in the crowd, and she hit four-for-four [events].”

Canning’s emotions got the best of her before the meet, exactly when she needed to let them out.

“I was definitely intimidated. I called my dad, and I was crying,” she said. “I said, ‘Dad, I’m so out of my league here.’ I talked to my coaches, and they told me I made it this far, and that I know I can do it. Just be confident and hit your routine, and that’s what I did, and it worked out pretty well.”

Temple has a solid nucleus returning next year for the women in Canning, junior Nina Oteri and freshman Kaity Watson, despite saying goodbye to some of its best competitors in the conference in seniors Winter Sneed, Natasha Crawford and Nikki Berrian. Sneed placed second on floor exercise at the ECACs, and Berrian was honored as the ECAC specialist of the year for her consistency and hard work in the uneven bars.

The men’s team’s hard work and consistency did not earn it a third consecutive ECAC Championship. The Owls started off the year strong and healthy, especially when senior John Vogtman returned to the Owls’ lineup after missing almost the entire previous season because of injury. However, the injury bug proved to be too strong this year.

The Owls fell to two teams they beat handily earlier in the year, Navy and William & Mary. The Owls scored a season high as a team against William & Mary in their previous meeting, despite a poor finish on the high bar when several Owls were penalized with falls. Turoff noted this was a problem for the Owls again this weekend.

For the Owls’ individual finishes at the ECAC Championships, it was mostly disappointing, as they brought back defending champions in the floor exercise and vault, junior Patrick McLaughlin and sophomore Scott Bloomfield, respectively. Neither of them could defend their crowns, although McLaughlin did repeat as the third-place finisher in the all-around.

The Owls counted on their youth, freshmen like Matt Martin and walk-on Evan Burke, for a big portion of this season. It was no different during the ECACs, as the Owls had an emerging performance from freshman Chris Mooney. Mooney took second place on vault (15.600) and third place on rings (14.550). Overall, in individuals, the Owls did take home six medals.

Turoff is optimistic about next season, as the Owls return all the individual medalists from this year, but says every year ultimately comes down to health.

“The other teams are going to be better and bringing in some good guys, too, but I look at the talent in the gym,” he said. “If we have good health and good training, then I think we can challenge for the championship again.”

The women’s team finishes its season at the USAG Nationals in New Haven, Conn., Thursday. The men’s team is still waiting to see who will go to the NCAA Qualifier, which begins next weekend.

Eric Pellini can be reached at eric.pellini@temple.edu.

The 15 best student artists:Uchenna Okere

Year: Junior
Major: Architecture

While most youngsters in his hometown spent their Saturdays playing outside or watching television, Uchenna Okere would busy himself with art classes at various universities. It came as no surprise when one of his paintings was accepted and displayed at a permanent art collection in Jersey City, N.J.

The multitalented junior architecture major said he continues thinking about art as a progression. Instead of using a pencil to draw a picture, Okere said he’d use watercolors.

“No matter how vague an idea someone gives me about anything, I automatically come up with something much more creative,” Okere said. “Everything I create is a reflection of my thoughts.”

What’s keeping Okere busy these days is the Green Hotel project, in which he and other Tyler students are involved in building a lifesize structure of a 900-foot environmentally friendly hotel. The studio-wide project is carried out by second-year architecture major students at Fairmount Park.

Okere said he’s designing a system that will harness all natural resources of the site and recycle rain water to be reused for gray water within the hotel, restoring the natural look of the site that was lost with the addition of expressways and overpasses.

“This hotel is meant to reshape our vision of sustainability, and true green design that fully engages the user from the underground entrance to the above ground occupancy, containing trees, vegetation, natural light, outdoor trail paths, a pool pavilion and an overall great educational experience.”

Even though he’s prolific in many areas of art like painting, sculpting, pottery, graphic design and model making, architecture is what he prefers most. He said he finds it to be the most difficult activity of everything he has learned so far.

“It’s really just a thought process that’s difficult,” Okere said. “Every decision and everything you do has to be thought out and well-explained.”

Being able to master many things at once may not be as important to some as it is to Okere. He stressed that it is essential for an artist to be multitalented.

“I think when you finally sit down and say, ‘OK, I’m going to master something,’” he added, “all those other things that you know as background will ultimately start to reflect itself.”

Sergei Blair can be reached at sergei.blair@temple.edu.

The 15 best student artists:Ebun Olaloye

Year: Junior
Major: Architecture

It’s a common assumption that most architecture students set out to achieve goals like mapping skyscraper blueprints. But this isn’t always the case.

“I still want to be an architect,” said junior architecture major Ebun Olaloye, “but there are things I want to do besides designing buildings.”

Olaloye began designing shirts as a sophomore at Pennsauken High School in Pennsauken, N.J. Since then, he has hand-painted more than 300 shirts.

“Most of them are separate designs,” he said. “Only a few of them were actually for my friends and family.”

Born in Nigeria, Olaloye brought his love for soccer to the United States when he immigrated to the country nine years ago.

Today, soccer athletes and themes are on many of Olaloye’s clothing creations.

“Eventually, I want to put together a line of shirts geared toward soccer,” he said. “I’m looking for what appeals to other soccer players.”

Some of his work extends to word play and typography. One of Olaloye’s favorite shirts has the words “Creative People Must Be Stopped” printed in clumsy and bubbled letters.

“A lot of people liked it,” he said. “It had a feeling of irony.”

By keeping up with his high school hobby, Olaloye said he shows off his traits while giving others the chance to do the same. He added that soccer, art and fashion were always his primary interests.

“I felt it was a way to express these things to everyone else, a way to tie these things together,” he said.

Olaloye said toying with clothing styles helps a culture just as much as drawing building designs.

“Shirts are the first thing you see on someone,” he said. “I want to find ways to make things with style and comfort.

“If I’m a well-refined designer, I don’t have to just design buildings. T-shirts, clothes and shoes are an extension of my creative style.”

Ian Romano can be reached at ian.romano@temple.edu.

Consumer, college debt bury student

Krista Boshinski is in “horrible, horrible debt.”

The senior theater major, whose parents aren’t “financially equipped” to provide the cash for every facet of her college life, needs loans to pay for her education and four credit cards she uses for living expenses.

“I’m in two different worlds of debt,” Boshinski, 22, said. “Tuition and all that stuff world, and then, there’s credit card debt world. The two are going to merge when I graduate, which is absolutely terrifying.”

Today’s economic woes tend to bring out the worst in any situation, and there is no silver lining in debt. As college students continue to pass the buck, the burden becomes insurmountable.

In a 2005 study conducted by Nellie Mae, the average undergraduate was found to have an outstanding credit card balance of $2,169.

Boshinski has credit cards for Gap, American Eagle and Target. She is nearly $2,500 in credit card debt.

“I am a girl,” Boshinski said, “so there are times when I just need to buy a shirt, but I’m definitely not one of those girls who are like, ‘Oh my God, look at that $500 Coach purse, I have to find a way to have it.’ I’ve been paying the minimum payment because I don’t have the money to pay more, so it just stays at that limit and accumulates interest, which is even worse.”

The ambitious actress doesn’t have time to get a job after school due to rehearsals on nights and weekends, so she relies on tuition reimbursements to get her through each semester. During her first three years at school, she lived in an apartment with a friend, taking care of her own bills.

“I took out my first couple credit cards to try and establish credit,” Boshinski said. “My major one is a Capitol One card, which has a $1,500 limit that has been at the max limit for months and months now.”

Boshinski said she used the cards for groceries and taking care of her two cats.

“Unfortunately, being a student is so hard these days,” she said. “I’m just trying to maintain a mentality where I will take it one day at a time, try and make all of my minimum payments until I can do more, and that’s the best I can do.”

Seventy-four percent of undergraduates reported using credit cards for school supplies, the No. 1 reported use of cards, according to Nellie Mae. The second most common use of credit cards reported by undergraduates was a tie between textbooks and food, with 71 percent reporting these as charged expenses. Slightly less than 24 percent reported using credit cards for tuition.

Fortunately, Boshinski learned her lesson on buying extravagant things or wanting to splurge on new items.

“I got a Target card with a $500 limit because we needed furniture in our apartment my first year,” she said.

Boshinski now lives at home with unneeded furniture and an outstanding limit on her Target credit card.

Undergraduates reported freshman year as the most popular time for getting credit cards, with 56 percent reporting having obtained their first cards at age 18.

At 18, students will pay for anything using their credit cards – food, clothes, tickets, all-terrain vehicles and, yes, even furniture.

If you can’t wait until you’re gainfully employed to enjoy the fruits of your labor, then you’re inevitably going to find yourself in a bad situation. If your apartment is empty, borrow some couches and chairs or try to inherit from an outgoing senior.

Keep the plastic at bay for a few more years, and $200 coats and $500 handbags will be a killer accessory rather than a ridiculous burden.

Tom Rowan can be reached at thomas.rowan@temple.edu.

2008 success not enough for Neblett

Andre Neblett disagrees that last season was some sort of success.

Sure, the football team finished 5-7 — which is as many wins as the previous two years combined.

Sure, Neblett, a senior defensive tackle, posted 36 tackles, two forced fumbles and a sack en route to his second straight Second Team All Mid-American Conference selection.

The thing that still haunts the defense’s leader up-front is the wins that were left on the field against teams like Buffalo, Connecticut and Navy.

“Last season, people would call it a good season. I would call it a nightmare,” he said. “Last year, we had a lot of close games that we lost by that much.”

As April 18 nears, the annual Cherry & White Game at Edberg-Olson Hall will conclude spring practice. Neblett returns to anchor a defensive line that is hoping to attack the quarterback and give opposing offenses nightmares.

Joining Neblett as the other leader of the unit will be senior defensive end Brian Sanford.

“We’re happy with the way our practice is going,” Sanford said. “I feel everyone on the [defensive] line is going real hard, and we’re learning a lot.”

It was a learning experience last season for Sanford, who, in his first season as a full-time starter, recorded 31 tackles with three sacks.

While Sanford was the new man on the line last season, the unit has a new man in charge.

The Owls hired Randy Melvin as their defensive line coach last month. He will replace Jared Backus, who coached the defensive line the previous two seasons. Backus will take over the linebackers, replacing Curtis Bray, who left for Iowa State.

Melvin spent the past four seasons in Cleveland as the defensive line coach for the Browns. He has coached collegiately with Illinois, Rutgers, Purdue, Wyoming and Eastern Illinois. Melvin also was the defensive line coach for two years with the New England Patriots and was part of their Super Bowl run in 2001.

“I think he’s a guy we needed as far as the [defensive] line goes,” Neblett said. “He’s going to come to work every day, make sure we’re working and push us every day to get better.”

And with that motivation comes what Melvin brings to the table with his long career in coaching.

“He had the opportunity to coach in the NFL,” Neblett said. “Just his experience, he’s teaching us a lot of things we didn’t know.”

Melvin is excited with Neblett’s work ethic so far this spring and knows he wants to leave Temple a winner.

“He wants to play well and leave this place with a good taste in his mouth,” Melvin said. “Through this spring, he’s showing that he wants to be a better player.”

Neblett is a Preseason First-Team All-MAC selection by four sources and a candidate for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy and the Rotary Lombardi Award.

Along with getting praised, Neblett dished some out to his fellow defensive leader.

“He’s a big, physical guy,” Neblett said of Sanford. “He’s always bringing energy in the weight room, on the field, off the field. Just energy 24/7.”

As a matter of fact, the same can be said for the rest of the defensive line.

“It’s a hardworking group,” Melvin said. “They have some experience, and a lot of guys have played, so I think there’s a good foundation here.”

Starting alongside Neblett and Sanford will be junior defensive tackle Elisha Joseph and sophomore defensive end Adrian Robinson. Joseph started three games last season and finished with 20 tackles. Robinson also started three games and had 20 tackles along with a sack.

“What we’re working on is trying to be a little more disruptive,” Melvin said. “Getting off the football, getting off the blocks and trying to make plays.”

Physicality is a word that was mentioned often by the defensive line, as Neblett and Sanford spoke about what they are hoping to improve on. The defense allowed 165.9 yards on the ground and recorded just 18 sacks last season.

“We would say sacks,” Neblett said. “We’re on the D-Line, and that’s what we do. So, sacks, and we definitely want to improve on the rushing game. A lot of teams think they can run on us and do whatever they want on us.”

The biggest question mark on the defensive line is the status of senior defensive end Junior Galette. Galette, who played just eight games last season but recorded eight sacks, will not practice this spring due to injury.

Galette was suspended indefinitely after the game against Navy last November due to an undisclosed incident. Al Golden later decided to give him a second chance after the 2008 season ended.

“He won’t be behind,” fourth-year coach Golden said at the beginning of spring practice. “He’s a senior. He’s been through it all.”

Melvin agrees and is excited to get Galette back on the field.

“What I’ve seen on film I really like,” he said. “Once we get him practicing, there are some things we can help him get better at.”

As minicamp and the season opener against Villanova inch closer, Neblett and Sanford know this is their best shot, along with their last.

“Three years already, going into a fourth year,” Neblett said. “We know the coaches, we know what they want, and we know the routine. [We’re] very confident and know what we have to do this year.”

Pete Dorchak can be reached at pdorchak@temple.edu.

The 15 best student artists:Kelsey Morton

Year: Sophomore
Major: Printmaking

Kelsey Morton is a creator. When she’s not busy creating artwork, she’s creating a name for herself in the art community.

The Tyler School of Art sophomore has always held art in high esteem, trying her hand in countless media ever since she was able to hold a pencil.

“Everything you look at that is man-made was touched or influenced by an artist in some way,” Morton said.

Originally from York, Pa., Morton came to Tyler to be a painting major but decided on printmaking, a technique that combines drawing, painting, woodcutting, engraving or etching to produce a unique sequence of prints.

Her most recent work is a series of detailed baseball card-sized prints depicting Queen Victoria and the caste system.

Although she is the only one in her family to pursue art as a career, Morton attributes her success to her parents and the Tyler staff.

“The teachers are willing to work with you and develop new ideas, expand on your knowledge and really push you to become a better artist,” she said.

Morton is also working toward receiving a teaching certificate while at Tyler and hopes to one day educate high school or college students.

Until then, she spreads her love of art throughout the community by returning to her high school to speak with students about careers in art. She plans to start a cross-stitching and needlepoint club with her church members this summer.

When she’s not in the studio working on projects that may take more than 70 hours to complete, Morton works at a hospital transporting patients.

“I work with every kind of patient there is, and I think that transpires into my art,” she said. “It has helped me network and learn how to talk to people.”

Morton said communication is one of the most important parts of being an artist because of the stereotypically secluded nature of the field.

Morton regularly schedules her art exhibitions and will be showing at the Maryland Federation of Art’s Emerging Artists Exhibition April 18. Her work will also be on display May 9 at “Jazz on the Ave,” an annual jazz festival and health fair that takes place at Broad Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue.

This may only be her second year of art school, but Morton is already a confident and passionate artist.

“Artists may only be 3 percent of the world’s population,” she said, “but we’re an important 3 percent.”

Julie Achilles can be reached at julie.achilles@temple.edu.

Police adopt new, simpler crime report

The Temple News will no longer run its normal “Crime Report,” as Campus Safety Services changed the format to comply with Clery Act guidelines.

Campus Safety Services recently made the switch to a differently formatted daily crime log. Executive Director Carl Bittenbender said the change was made to better comply with college crime report regulations set forth in the Jeanne Clery Act and to parallel those of other local universities.
Now, instead of a detailed description of each incident, including affiliation to Temple and whether it was reported or perpetrated by a student, employee or non-student, each report includes the crime, time, date, location and information on whether an arrest or a University Disciplinary Committee referral has been made.

Bittenbender said the change was in the works for some time, and it will help make campus crime reporting more uniform and less tedious.

A link to the campus crime map will still be available weekly on temple-news.com.

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

Safety Endangered

When students and their parents think of crime on Main Campus, they imagine late-night muggings, broken car windows and missing Owl Cards – all common listings in Campus Safety’s crime report.
What students don’t consider is their safety inside their residence halls and off-campus apartments – their homes away from home, where they eat, sleep and store everything worth keeping.

But recent events are the source of unrest among students living on and off campus, as The Temple News reports this week.

On Feb. 27, two residents at The Edge were followed to their apartment by a man they shared an elevator ride with. The man slipped past security when resident Amy Gargulio scanned her I.D. upon entering the building. The security guards – who are not required to check Temple I.D. cards since there is a machine that does so – did not stop or question the man, who police believe is mentally ill.
The man tried to force his way into Gargulio’s apartment, even after she threw hot coffee on him. Gargulio said she is not satisfied with AlliedBarton’s reaction, though a spokesperson said the guard who was on duty at the time has been reprimanded.

Two weeks later on March 11, Patricia Dullek and Eric Williams’ house on 18th and Monument streets practically collapsed. The newly constructed building split in half at the foundation following construction on an adjacent lot. After being told by their landlord that the house was too unstable for them to enter, Dullek and Williams returned to their home, which is occupied by three other tenants, to find some of their belongings missing and damaged. The tenants say they had seen the landlord and a few neighbors removing their belongings from the home.

How are students supposed to feel safe in their homes if they can’t trust the people who are supposed to be watching over them?

AlliedBarton guards are employed with the express purpose of monitoring the buildings they patrol. A machine cannot take the place of a person, no matter how fool-proof it proposes to be. It is a landlord’s job to keep an eye on the property, not take advantage of what is already an infuriating situation.

With limited campus housing and impending Yorktown evictions, student housing like The Edge and off-campus homes have become the norm for Temple students. Now that these options are becoming less desirable, it’s only a matter of time before the housing situation becomes and enrollment issue for the university.

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