Letters: Temple's trouble with a capital 'T'

TEMPLE University is in trouble.

The communities surrounding the North Philadelphia campus are up in arms about its expansion and displacement of black and brown people.

Growing numbers of students are upset at everything from sexual harassment and violence against women to the state of African-American studies to the $15-an-hour wage.

But the board of trustees and the top administrators seem to be out of touch and unwilling to hear the voices from the community or its students. It's a matter of how large public institutions are governed.

The University of Pennsylvania and Drexel are private institutions. Everyone knows that Penn has a large endowment. It, of course, doesn't pay its fair share of taxes to the city. Neither does Drexel. But they're private. We expect something more from Temple. Especially since president Neil Theobald said he envisions Temple as Philadelphia's university.

When I look at what Temple does in relationship to its neighbors and its students, Theobald's words are empty rhetoric. First of all, 85 percent of the members of the board are white and mainly wealthy men. Philadelphia is about 50 percent black, brown and Asian.

I recently participated in a rally calling for the reinstatement of Anthony Monteiro to his position as professor in the Department of African American Studies, held outside a meeting of the board of trustees. I am a strong advocate for Monteiro because I think his return is important to revitalizing African-American studies and to improving relations between Temple and North Philadelphia. Monteiro is a lifelong resident of North Philly and a scholar-activist of national note.

What struck me was the diversity of those at the rally: Temple and Penn students, religious and community leaders, labor leaders and advocates for public schools. But what also struck me was the armed police presence "protecting" the board of trustees from its students. Even after agreeing to allow four students to come into the board meeting to present their grievances, and having those students wait until the board had finished its official business, the meeting was adjourned without hearing from the students.

It was an outrageous display of hubris. As I witnessed this, I thought of the video showing a white fraternity chapter at the University of Oklahoma singing, with reportedly drunken glee, about how excluding and enacting violence on black men were values the fraternity proudly upheld. Their song used the N-word to express their racist contempt for black folk. What was amazing was the actions of the university's president, David Boren. He kicked the fraternity off the campus, expelled two students identified as ringleaders and said that racism would not be tolerated.

His actions are not popular, nor supported by all segments of that university, nor of the nation. But he did the moral thing. President Boren's courage should be an example to university presidents around the nation.

Although Temple has not experienced a public incident quite like the one at the University of Oklahoma, it is experiencing problems that flow from unresolved issues of race, gentrification, university/community relations and sexual violence.

What disturbs many people is Theobald's public silence in the face of a mounting crisis at the North Philadelphia campus, a silence that speaks volumes when combined with his unwillingness or inability to listen to and have a dialogue with those outside of Temple's power structure.

What Temple needs is courageous and moral leadership. Leadership starts when you listen, when you're not afraid of dialogue and you respect people who might not look like you or share your views. That doesn't mean I want to let Penn off the hook. I agree with the Penn students demanding that Penn make a sizable contribution to help the public schools overcome their financial crisis. But others and I hold Temple to a higher standard, precisely because Theobald invited us to.