Turned into a riffraffeteria

Don’t people have literally anything better to do than fight in public? like wtf is this world we’ve created

Why would any school dining hall have public access? Especially one in this area. Not a good policy at all, my campus was in a high-crime area of Norfolk, VA and you needed your student ID for access to just about any building.

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You can’t dine in in the cafeterias at temple?

It wasn’t a school dining hall. It is a food court (like a mall food court) that located in a temple owned building.

It was still a bad idea. Just clarifying some information.

Good to know, that is a little different. But yeah, I'm surprised they didn't take this measure years ago.

That makes more sense

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Morgan Hall also contains student housing. When you take that into account, there is absolutely no reason why it should be open to the public, food court or not.

What do people think this is…a cafeteria?

I have taught at several universities in NYC and only one, Columbia, allowed access to the general public, and only in certain buildings. All of the rest require you to swipe in if you are a student, faculty, or staff, or you need to register with security if you have another reason to be there. The exceptions are public events such as lectures, concerts, art openings, etc. but even then you generally need to tell a security guard why you are there. It seems like Temple needs to implement similar policies.

For people wondering why it was even like this in the first place, I think its because of the emphasis that Temple places on engaging with and being part of the surrounding community. That's my best guess based on their usual messaging, at least.

Given the hours they're closing are 2-5, it's not surprisingly at all teenagers getting out of school

Check out "The Society of the Spectacle" by Guy Debord and it will all start to make sense. Leave it to an essay written by a Frenchmen in 1967 to explain contemporary American life.

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I wish all the campus food was like this honestly. I’m tired of dealing with locals harassing me inside businesses meant for students.

Are all the locals bad? Absolutely not. Most are probably good people. But the loud minority that harasses students ruin it for everyone else, and when it comes down to their ability to eat at Chick Fil A or mine (a student at this university,) the university should do what it has to to make me comfortable using my facilities.

Now, for completely off campus food or open air ones like food trucks, it’s different. But afaik Morgan Hall is completely Temple, so I don’t see why non-Temple people have any business in there.

I mean, that sounds pretty entitled. temple did decide to expand their campus in a poor neighborhood, not build enough student hous8ng so students rent up a lot of the housing stock driving a lot of people out of the neighborhood, the least they could do, the Least, is allow public access to a food court. It's not a dinning hall, you are not directly paying the school to eat in there it should be given public access

We have similar policies. This is a food court on broad street that contains a chickfila, panda express and a Starbucks lol it just happens to be located right beneath the actual dining hall that only students have access to.

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Penn does this.

Temple isn’t responsible for the local neighborhood, though. It is a relatively affordable university giving jobs, a clean subway station, and the third largest police force in the state to the community, plus guaranteed customers every single year. I don’t think the dozens of food carts, local shops, or fresh grocer grocery store would be there (or be there in that quantity) if there weren’t 40k customers at Temple, do you?

The university has been around for well over 100 years, so everyone living near Temple chose to live there. Temple didn’t just buy the lot next door over night.

If the neighborhoods around Temple need more resources, they need to find investors or lobby the city. Temple is a university responsible for university students and employees. If you aren’t one of those two things, it really doesn’t owe you anything. If serving the locals helps the students or employees, then that’s great, but if giving locals access hurts the students or employees, then the right thing for Temple to do is exclude them. Put your own mask on before helping others.

Thanks for the clarification. Just out of curiosity, do you know what the rational is to allow this food court to be open to the general public?

Temple is causing a lot of gentrification within a very poor local community and the idea is if temple is going to exist in North Central Philly and expand it needs to help the local community that it was initially started to serve. Temple was founded as a night school for people who couldn't afford to go to university and only within the last 30ish years became a large university. With that a lot of rents are being driven up because Temple doest guarantee on campus housing for its students. It prioritizes freshman and even then some people aren't able to get dorms. So a significant majority of the students live in rentals off campus, which is causing a lot of displacement. The least they could do is let the community access an incredibly small portion of the amenities they build for students

Temple was founded as a night school to help poor people get college degrees, only in the last 30 or 40 years has it expanded to be a large university. Temple has expanded its campus through a significant chunk of North Central and has displaced thousands and created a rent bubble in the neighborhood. The school doesn't provide enough housing for students, and many live off campus. Temple has a responsibility, written or not, to ensure they at least provide some benefits for north central and giving them access to 1 indoor food court is the least they can do. They dont even allow memberships to the library which is absurd every single liberary, university or not, should allow the general public memberships to access the extensive amount of material they otherwise may not be able to get. It's not like the students don't cause trouble either. Just during the eagles game a month ago, they flipped a car a few blocks off campus.

Theres a pretty absurd related subreddit r/sorceryofthespectacle

I was a Temple employee when Morgan Hall first opened, and I don’t remember, the public having access to it. I wonder if that was a recent thing? But sadly, you want to be welcoming to neighbors, but it’s just way to much going on around the campus, especially now. Students, faculty and staff, have to feel and be safe!

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That was before the game even started!!

Sadly the few ruin for it for the general. Looks like this is on campus so student safety should be prioritized

My point exactly. They want to talk about residents of north philly they also need to address their own students who think north philly is a place its okay to act like a dickhead

Student safety isn't prioritized when students decide to flip cars before an eagles game. They want to talk about the life long residents they also need to talk about their students' wrecklessness off campus. It's not acceptable for their students to be dickheads just because it's north philly

Cash Money. Temple is all about alternate means of revenue. Higher sales mean they can charge higher rent to businesses.

Should we compare rates of violence and property crime for students:not? Bc I guarantee you it’s not skewing how you think it is.

Students need to eat. It’s on campus and not public. They tried to do something nice and now it’s being revoked.

The people who flipped cars should face the court system and be expelled.

Welcome to American Crapitalism.

Excellent book.

Most people wouldn't be able to grasp its message though.

My god, I seriously don't need this diversion right now but from the few posts that I read that sub is bonkers in the best possible way! To be clear, though, I was being serious in my comment above. Debord's ideas are prescient, as are Umberto Eco's in his essay "The New Middle Ages."

just wanted to point out that students living off campus en masse is a relatively recent concept (within the last 30 years or so) while most people who have been living here since the 50s/60s. About 20 years ago my block was entirely non students, now it is 95% students. Just want to point out that a lot of the people who originally moved here only moved to this area because it was dangerous to move into other neighborhoods as black families. Redlining was very much legal then.

I guess the community doesn’t give AF based on this then, no?

Why are non-students allowed in their at all? Ridiculous.

teens are obsessed with Chik fil-A

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It’s also worth noting that prior to the riots after MLK was killed that area of North Philly was a thriving black owned commercial district. I lived near temple and older folks in the neighborhood told me how the city basically locked down the area and let the corridor that is now Cecil B Moore burn. It’s never recovered and many other policies contributed to its disinvestment. Now temple and the developers feeding off of its growing footprint are filling much of that void without offering much to the community. This doesn’t mean kids fighting in the food court are freedom fighters, it just adds context to the alienation and disinvestment that has lead the area to be so bad and the community to feel so at odds with the institution

Yeah it's not a great thing but there's always a material explanation as to why thing are the way they are. And temple, while important, is currently functioning like a tumor. Devouring the neighborhood and providing little to nothing for the local working class. Maybe some okay paying jobs at best while not allowing any true upward mobility.

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Good point

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Are university libraries typically open to the public? To my knowledge, the answer to this question is no. University libraries are for students who go to that school, not the general public, and that's how it should be. Providing a public library is the city's responsibility.

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The community will never agree with Temple, no matter what the university does.

When the on-campus stadium was still being debated, do you think the community differentiated between the students for vs against it? No, if you’re a student at temple you’re part of the problem for the community regardless of how you feel

It’s one of four buildings open to the community. It’s the student center, the Morgan hall food court, Pearson-mcgonigle hall, and the library. The last two require government-issued ID to enter

They weren’t students that flipped the car and they’ve been charged with serious crimes.

Have these kids been charged with crimes at least as serious? I highly doubt it.

It’s grade school / high school kids. As always.

I think it’s simply about money. I’d always see crowds of teenagers coming in after school to buy food.

my guess is in order to get national chains to open there, they had to be able to sell to more than just the students who are only there half the year.

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Between the "..who flipped *one* car" comment and the generalization of people from an area that spans 15 different zip codes... this is a dumb contribution I'm sorry

>The Society of the Spectacle" by Guy Debord

Just read it and that essay neatly captures where we are now. It's all about the views. No community, just images of outrage trapped in a continual present.

Fox News took Orwell’s two minutes hate idea and made it a 24/7 enterprise.

“The measure comes five days after Temple police arrested a person who brought a gun inside the popular dining and residence building and several weeks after a brawl involving non-Temple students.”

All the restaurant in morgan hall n shops foot locker the hair store shouldnt be there the wendys q Doba oh brother (what college kid has 25 bucks to eat a cheeburger n fries everyday let alone a community member) if morgan hall is temples cafeteria than they should be providing meals to the students not allowing chic fila n the others to be there but becuse temple in in the middle of the of a neighbour hood the corporate companys want to serve the comunity n and the students. But i agree the chick fila the sushi place n the other should be student only resturants due to their location inside the building

The bank of mom and dad pays for many a meal at Temple

True but they shouldnt be to allowed . To be on campus temple has a caffeteria bank of mom should be paying for meals at the caffeteria

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Same issues at uop drexel too n its comes down to corporate greed

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When I went to temple, our RD decided to host a haunted house in our dorm for the community kids. So we all decorated our halls and hid. I got a big bowl of candy to put at the end of our hall for them….that lasted two groups coming through. The bowl was gone, a kid broke into one of the rooms and was rifling through my neighbors stuff, another kid was spraying axe body spray (that he took) into our faces and my friend Yesha was groped pretty badly by an 11 year old. We ended up locking our hallway door and wouldn’t let anyone else in after TWO groups. It honestly just made me sad. We were all really excited to do it.

That seems like a good idea

That makes sense!

The chains came in as part of the switch from Sodexo to Aramark for dining

This is just the food court, the dining hall (which is more cafeteria style) is upstairs and has never been open to the public

This is the downstairs of morgan hall on broad. Its full of normal fast food chains. The dorm food courts the floor above, so i think thats why the first floor was treated as open

Temple does this. This specific spot isnt a Temple food court really, its the floor below the temple food court and is filled with fast food spots along broad. The vendors probably want the local traffic as well as students. Locals cant go to the actual food court or any school buildings without a student I believe.

Why does temple not make their buildings only accessible by ID card like every other school

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Is there reduced tuition for people in the community at Temple or is that only for CCP?

The current leadership there (and I get this just from reading the news) seems to be misguided. They finally reconciled with their graduate student union and the president was supposed to move into a house near Temple but they haven't moved in there yet. Why pretend to care?

FWIW I don't think a food court in a residence hall should be open to the public, especially not in a dangerous neighborhood. That makes no sense. Let the people who are not staff/students of Temple who want to eat in there show ID (and have it be scanned or collected) or pay some kind of subscription to eat in there. If they know that their name and face is documented then most won't go in there or they won't act up. You can't get into any other building on Temple's campus without presenting an ID and signing in.

back in the day on TU's campus citibank used to give out free shirts that said "college" on the front paying homage to the movie animal house.

I was walking back to my home on the fringe of campus, and a local resident screamed at me from her stoop "YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME BECUASE YOU GO TO COLLEGE, WEARING THAT SHIRT THINKING YOU THE SHIT?"

The reality is she hated everything that school brought to the neighborhood, while I just didn't want to do laundry so I got the shirt

In general I agree with you.

State universities (depending on the state) usually have community access to the libraries although you still need to prove you are a resident with ID. Temple is a "public" university but not part of the state system or is it? Penn State will let community visitors use the library but they have to register first for access.

Because they're trying to be the saviors of the neighborhood.

I didn’t create this… the boomers and geriatrics of gen x have… leave us millennials and the younger folx outta it

A sad day for Temple. CLA 1971, SSA 1982.

I feel like that's what happened with Trump and left wing media. Dude would fart and it would get 24/7 hate coverage

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I went to Rutgers Camden and our dining hall is open to the public with little issue. The campus is a million times safer though. The only people who really came in when I was there were local workers to get Starbucks.

I'd probably been going to the Porter Exchange in Cambridge, MA for over a year before someone told me it was a Lesley University food court. This concept isn't unique or even particularly rare.

As far as I know, the people who flipped the car were not Temple students.

Also, anyone with a state ID can already use the library and borrow materials, not just Temple students and faculty. You just sign in at the security desk on the 13th street entrance.

I agree that Temple not providing sufficient student housing screws over people living in the surrounding area though. There really needs to be more student housing offered by Temple.

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>if you’re a student at temple you’re part of the problem for the community regardless of how you feel

what a lovely community where educational systems are resented and met with violence!

I personally loved watching college students get the equity they preach for

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I'm sure it exists. I've just never seen something like it at an urban university. I was just in Cambridge for some professional activities at Harvard and MIT. Both seemed to be locked up pretty tight and I needed to register as a guest at both about a week in advance. Both sent me a pass for my phone so I could swipe into the buildings that I needed to be in. I wasn't looking for a food court though.

People be like “highschool kids are violent because they have no where to go after school”…meanwhile the highschool kids have a place to go & immediately start being violent there.

? Most university libraries are open to the public to browse. To check books out you sometimes have to pay. If it is a major library (which is most university libraries) then it is a federal depository library which is required by law to be open to the public.

The community didn’t riot during the MLK death; you’re talking about the 1964 riots.

And what should Temple be offering to the community aside for what they already do? Genuine question.

Idk why do people pick on Temple so much. Literally all colleges are in some kind of neighborhood. But we don’t expect them to “pay off” the neighborhood residents the way ppl often say with Temple. LaSalles in a poor neighborhood

Who still hate them

I think because Temple is not a private school, it's a public university that receives funding from the state, people feel like it should be accountable to the citizens since we pay taxes. That said Temple has some 37,000 students while LaSalle, a private university, doesn't even have 4,000. The impact of LaSalle on the neighborhood will be much less. Also LaSalle DECREASED its tuition by 29% in 2017, according to wikipedia so that it would be more accessible financially. They aren't a wealthy school either so they are probably seen as doing more for the surrounding community or having a neutral effect.

Wow down vote for speakin truth wow

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Maybe, Pitt is large and it doesn’t have problems in Oakland. Because people see the benefit of having a major research and health institution at your doorstep.

Temple is more important to the region as a whole and does more for the region than not (they are state related so they’re private in administration in exchange for discount tuition for local) (they provide healthcare for the neighborhood victims regardless of insurance) (they provide jobs; many of which are accessible to people of the neighborhood) (they offer services like free computer use and tutors and other stuff when I was there) (because of them amenities like movie, markets and shops/restaurants are there to the benefit of everyone that wouldn’t be there were it not for temple) (they enroll more African Americans than most schools in the state not an HBCU and have the legacy of one of the first afam programs in the USA)

Because all of this I am jaded about the delusional residents and if I’m selfish I want temple to be the best it can be, rise in the rankings and be this side of the state’s Pitt…the safety of the neighborhood gets in the way; the neighbors complain about temple but don’t complain enough about their children and their brothers and cousins shooting and being shot and other acts of crime….if it was up to me…TUs survival is essential…..ram through their program; stadium and all 😬😂….fu*k what anyone thinks.

I've been to Carnegie Mellon and it is right next door to Pitt if I remember correctly. I didn't see any poor neighborhoods around those universities, but I was only there for a weekend and this was about 7 or 8 years ago. We stayed in a hotel near Pitt and it was not anything luxury but I didn't think the neighborhood was comparable to N.Philly.

There are always town-gown problems in cities, especially if they aren't paying taxes on their buildings, which many do not. I think some universities have a better time of it because of the perception of the community, and that sometimes has more to do with what kind of respect university administration and leadership show to the community rather than if they are actually doing anything to benefit or harm.