Temple’s investment in academic advising featured in New York Times’ “Education Life”
In an article in the Times’ “Education Life” supplement about different models of academic advising, Temple’s fast-growing team of professional academic advisors and its “proactive approach” to promoting retention and graduation were featured prominently. Reporter Jeff Selingo visited Temple to observe advising sessions and to learn about Temple’s innovative strategies to identify students who are most at risk of dropping out, so advisors can intervene personally to get them back on track. Temple began to focus on improving advising in 2006, and since then has doubled its advising staff. The number of students graduating in four years has risen to 43 percent, up from 35 percent in 2005—while the nationwide average for public colleges is 32 percent—and many students report higher satisfaction with advising at Temple. Why invest in advising? “To make sure students don’t drop out when they don’t have to,” said Temple Senior Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies Peter Jones.
New York Times | April 11, 2014
Front page of the Inquirer: Film by quadriplegic Temple student to be shown at prestigious festival
The film is grim: A young woman's husband is incapacitated by a neurological condition, leaving her to care for him and their baby. For the film's producer, Rob Wunder III, the predicament hits close to home. He became a quadriplegic after a devastating accident when he was in high school. His father gave up teaching to live with him in a residence hall while Wunder studied film at Temple. Earning his degree a year ago was a thrill, but it did not rival the excitement Wunder felt when he learned that “Sweepstakes,” the 15-minute film he produced as a senior, was one of 58 shorts selected from more than 3,000 entries to be shown during the Tribeca Film Festival. Wunder and classmate Mark Tumas, who wrote the film, underscored the help they received from other Temple students, including cinematographer David Dominguez and editor Ben Wellington. Film and Media Arts instructor Rodney Evans advised them and helped secure the lead actress, Maria Dizzia of Orange is the New Black.
Philadelphia Inquirer | April 16, 2014
Temple University Hospital launches new public cord blood donation program
Temple University Hospital has established a public cord blood donation program that will enable new parents to donate stem cells from otherwise-discarded umbilical cord blood for use in potentially lifesaving transplant procedures. The donations will go to patients in need of stem-cell transplants and be used by researchers to advance new treatments. “This cord blood is a rich source of stem cells, which can be used to treat leukemia, lymphoma, sickle-cell anemia, and about 70 other cancers and diseases,” said Dimitrios Mastrogiannis, Temple’s director of Obstetrics and Maternal Fetal Medicine and Director of Labor and Delivery. “Ethnically diverse groups are underrepresented as cord-blood donors and have a lower chance of finding a matching donor. Having a more diverse registry helps to increase the likelihood that all patients will find a match.”
Philadelphia Business Journal, WHYY/NewsWorks, Philadelphia Tribune, KYW News Radio, Philadelphia magazine, Comcast SportsNet, more | April 11-13, 2014
Temple graduate student’s research finds lead in soil of Philadelphia parks
Industrial fumes, old paint and now-banned gasoline additives put toxic metals such as lead into Philadelphia's soil for generations. Sampling 24 sites in parks across the city, Stephen Peterson, a graduate student in Temple’s College of Science and Technology, found lead in higher-than-expected concentrations. “Sixteen percent of the soil samples were above the EPA soil saturation limit for residential use, which is 400 parts per million,” Peterson said. In a few sites, he found extremely high levels of lead—with one in North Philadelphia clocking in at 10,000 ppm, roughly 1 percent of the entire soil makeup. Around one in five of Philadelphia's community gardens is in a park, so testing for lead in those areas became a focal point of Peterson's research.
WHYY/NewsWorks, NBC10 | April 11, 2014
Fox research in Financial Times: The perils of the chief who stays too long
The dangers of a CEO who overstays his or her welcome are clear and well documented: The boss carries on with a strategy that worked once but is outdated, seeks advice from a clique of obsequious insiders and steadily becomes more isolated. How long should a chief executive serve? As it happens, 4.8 years is the optimal length of time. A recent study tracked shareholder returns against CEO tenure and found that those who hung around for more than a decade were the most ineffective. One of the study's authors, Xueming Luo in Temple’s Fox School of Business, says the longer CEOs stay in the job, the more popular they are with employees and the more out of touch they become with customers. “You become isolated from the market and the people you promote are your friends, so they lose touch, too,” he says.
Financial Times | April 16, 2014
Farley featured on CNN’s “One Last Thing” with Michael Smerconish
Is there something that separates politicians from the rest of us? Nationwide, public officials have been accused of corruption and other types of bad behavior. Is there a behavioral trait that makes politicians more likely to take risks in their professional and personal lives? Psychologist Frank Farley in Temple’s College of Education coined the term “Type-T Personality” to describe people who are thrill-seekers with a high tolerance for risk. Farley says politics attracts people with Type-T personalities. “I am convinced, after having studied political behavior for a long time, that the risk-taking personality and behavior is a key ingredient in much of that corruption and destructive behavior.”
CNN | March 31, 2014
Temple Law’s Rahdert on the dark side of the “selfie”
An art installation on a busy corridor in West Philadelphia is asking the selfie-obsessed to rethink their willingness to share their personal images. “We are trying to examine the difference between surveillance and sousveillance, which is self-surveillance,” artist Sarah Zimmer said. A Temple law professor says the artists’ mission shines a light on a matter that should cause greater concern in the general public. “People should be much more conscious of how private information gets distributed and much more wary of the ways in which they disclose that information,” said Mark Rahdert of the Beasley School of Law. “There is a need for greater attention in the law for protection of people’s private information from widespread data harvesting.”
NBC10 | April 17, 2014
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