Temple President

According to Temple president David Adamany, John Chaney will remain the school's basketball coach next season. Adamany said just that in a telephone interview yesterday, stating: "He will be coaching Temple basketball next season. " Adamany said that he expected there would be a discussion with Chaney about "whether he wishes to go on coaching beyond next year," but that discussion will be held in the fall, a time when the contracts of all of Temple's coaches are regularly reviewed.

Peter Liacouras, president of Temple University, yesterday hailed Bill and Camille Cosby's $20 million gift to Spelman College in Atlanta as "an absolutely wonderful event. " Cosby is a Temple graduate and serves on the university's board of trustees. In 1986, Bell of Pennsylvania and General Foods Corp. each gave Temple $50,000 in scholarship funds in the Cosbys' name. Cosby is a Conwell Fellow at Temple, which means he has personally donated in excess of $10,000 to the school.

A Philadelphia sports era is ending. Temple president Peter Liacouras, who will officially retire on Friday, put more emphasis on sports than any other modern college president in this region. He began his 18-year reign by saying he expected Temple's football team to get to the Sugar Bowl. The jokes still haven't stopped about that one. Liacouras hired John Chaney, now a Philadelphia icon, to be Temple's basketball coach, fought to build the school's new basketball arena, and had a sports-loving former Temple trackman and freshman football player named Bill Cosby buy out the contracts of a couple of Owls football coaches.

Elmarko Jackson, a 21-year-old Temple University football player with a troubled past, was stabbed late yesterday afternoon outside his dormitory on North Broad Street, authorities said. Jackson, a 5-foot, 11-inch, 205-pound running back who had just completed an injury-plagued final year of college football, was stabbed several times in the neck and chest - once in the heart - and was listed in critical but stable condition early today at Temple University Hospital. The confrontation occurred outside the James S. White Student Residence Hall about 5:50 p.m., according to George Ingram, Temple's vice president for university relations.

Temple University's pledge to build a community and entertainment center in a struggling neighborhood near campus, made seven years ago during a standoff with the city over construction of the Liacouras Center, moved a step closer to fulfillment yesterday. Mayor Street, who joined Temple president David Adamany at groundbreaking ceremonies, alluded in remarks to the 1995 battle he waged as a city councilman to make neighborhood improvements a condition of city approvals for construction of the sports arena.

Temple University expects to exceed its fund-raising campaign goal of $350 million by its December deadline, but not by as large of an amount as officials had originally anticipated. "We're projecting to cross the finish line, but the question is just how far beyond we'll go," said Stuart P. Sullivan, senior vice president for institutional advancement. Some donors who were considering giving seven- and eight-digit amounts are pulling back and saying "not right now," he said.

Temple University may someday require its graduates to be fluent in Spanish. At least that's what Temple president Peter J. Liacouras is asking the faculty to consider. In a request to faculty members written last week, Liacouras asked them to consider incorporating into Temple's long-range academic plan a requirement that "every undergraduate who earns a Temple undergraduate degree become fluent in the Spanish language" by 1990. Requiring Spanish, Liacouras said, could help promote "a shared understanding of each other's cultures.

The recent housing boom within sight lines of Temple University is a contradiction to the recession's impact on the construction industry in other parts of Philadelphia. But with the rapid addition of new and reconstructed housing primarily for students have come the typical town-and-gown issues, including late-night partying and all-day parking shortages. That's not to mention the tension that comes when a traditionally residential community finds itself changing to a collection of foreboding academic and other institutional buildings that make nonstudents feel unwelcome.

After months of speculation about Temple's future as a member of the Big East in football, the college presidents in the conference yesterday announced that they have confirmed the Owls as a program in good standing. Using the criteria adopted last year by the conference's athletic directors, the presidents examined each school in the league. The criteria included expectations in the areas of compliance, academics, finances, schedules, competitiveness, control of stadiums and attendance.

Reuben "Ruby" Greenberg, 83, a longtime Burlington County dairy farmer, died Sunday at Cooper Hospital-University Medical Center, Camden, from injuries sustained in an automobile accident Sept. 5. Mr. Greenberg was born in Williamstown and raised in Mount Holly. A second-generation farmer, he got his start in the business after school, when he would work on the family's Vincentown dairy farm. In 1948, he purchased his own farm in Columbus, where he continued to farm until becoming ill in 1995.

Philip B. Schaeffer was an adventurous sort. As a teenager, he enlivened two summers by hopping freight trains from Pennsylvania to Yosemite National Park. "One of those sojourns," daughter Nevin said in a Wednesday interview, "yielded a close encounter with a bear that he escaped by jumping on the running board of a passing car. " Good experience, perhaps, to ride herd later over a newsroom. On Thursday, March 15, Mr. Schaeffer, 94 city editor of The Inquirer from the early to late 1960s and then assistant to three presidents of Temple University from 1969 to 1989, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease at Courtside Cottages, a facility in Vacaville, Calif., that defines itself as a memory support community.

With one in five city schools now under investigation for possible cheating on state achievement tests, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission on Tuesday announced the appointment of a "testing integrity adviser" to help address past allegations and guide future exam procedures. David Adamany, a former president of Temple University, will serve in the unpaid post starting immediately. The next round of the achievement tests, known as PSSAs, begins Monday. Adamany, who said he had been "personally very distressed to see the condition of the Philadelphia public schools over the years," said the district must restore credibility concerning the exams.

The news wasn't all bad today for Temple President Ann Weaver Hart. On the same day Gov. Corbett announced a 30 percent budget cut to her school and some other state colleges, the University of Arizona named her as its sole candidate for president. Hart had announced her departure as Temple's president in September, saying she wanted to move to Utah to care for her ailing mother. She is in her sixth year as president. Hart declined comment. "President Hart has seen Temple through a period of great accomplishment and progress," Temple Board of Trustees Chairman Patrick J. O'Connor said in a prepared statement.

Apologies to Penn and due respect to Drexel, but the most remarkable and encouraging local higher education story of the last 15 years has been the rebirth and reinvention of Temple University. Encouraging because the forces behind Temple's transformation bode extremely well for Philadelphia's future. Remarkable because not that long ago, Temple was a pit. Think back to the 1980s and early 1990s, when Philadelphia was in sharp decline. Temple was, too. Enrollment was low. The university was so starved for cash and kids that it welcomed even weak applicants.

Temple University is searching for its 10th president after Ann Weaver Hart surprised students and faculty on Friday by announcing she would step down. Hart, 62, said in an interview that she was caught between the twin demands of family and profession: A sick mother who needs her in Utah and a school that needs a president committed to the long haul. Hart will stay at Temple through this academic year, concluding her sixth in office, before moving to Utah. A national search for her replacement will begin immediately.

Temple University President Ann Weaver Hart is stepping down after five years, moving to Utah to care for her ailing mother, officials said today. There was no immediate word on her replacement. University administrators plan to announce Hart's departure later today. At Temple, Hart was known as a stable, calm and able force who sought to transform the North Philadelphia campus through her signature 20/20 program. She came here in July 2006 from New England, where she was president of the University of New Hampshire, taking over Temple following the tumultuous tenure of the previous president.

Faced with a potential 50 percent decrease in state funding, Temple University president Ann Weaver Hart on Friday announced administrative salary and hiring freezes, possible staff consolidations and benefit cuts, and other reductions, including a delay in filling five dean positions. Nearly all nonunion employees, including school administrators, will be affected by the freezes, which will take place immediately, said Ray Betzner, a Temple spokesman. The cost-cutting measures come in response to Gov. Corbett's proposed deep cuts in higher-education funding.

The recent housing boom within sight lines of Temple University is a contradiction to the recession's impact on the construction industry in other parts of Philadelphia. But with the rapid addition of new and reconstructed housing primarily for students have come the typical town-and-gown issues, including late-night partying and all-day parking shortages. That's not to mention the tension that comes when a traditionally residential community finds itself changing to a collection of foreboding academic and other institutional buildings that make nonstudents feel unwelcome.