My Temple Experiences and Evaluation
Written: Apr 20 '05 (Updated Apr 21 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Diverse student body; Wonderful city
Cons: Campus politics
The Bottom Line: Depending on who you are, Temple might be the right school for you. EVALUATE CAREFULLY. Talk to former students in your field.
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| Helga17's Full Review: Temple University |
I attended Temple University for graduate studies in the area of scenic design for theatre from Fall of 2001 through graduation in Spring of 2004. While I will try to include as much general information as I can about the school, I’m afraid that in the end my review is limited by the limited scope of my personal experiences. Therefore, this particular review will be most helpful to those considering attending Temple University for the theatre program. To help those who are looking for particular things I have created a code.
Sections that are most likely only interesting to potential Theatre Grad Students will be preceded by a G.
Sections interesting to only Theatre students will be preceded by a T.
Sections interesting to any potential Temple students will be preceded by an ALL.
G- The Assistantship (OR How I got Suckered In)
I attended a conference called U/RTAs, which is basically a theatre grad school recruiting conference. I was interviewed by fifteen schools, and MANY of them made offers. Temple offered significantly more money than any of the other schools. There were a few things I wished I had paid attention to in this process. First, I didn’t compare the cost of living in the different locations. If I had, I would have realized that Philadelphia was also the most expensive place to live of all the offers I received, and financially it might have actually been better to have gone elsewhere. Second, my contract actually didn’t GUARRANTEE three years worth of money. There were big contract issues, and at the end of my first year there was actually debate as to whether any of the theatre grad assistantships would be renewed. SO, I was almost stranded without any financial aid at the end of my first (and most difficult) year of grad school.
Also, in my contract it stated that I would work NO MORE than twenty hours a week in the scene shop for my assistantship. I often spent SIGNIFICANTLY more time working, and it wasn’t because I volunteered. If they had been honest about the amount of time I would be working from the beginning, I would have no cause to complain… then again… I might have chosen a different school. The fact that they were insistent that I would work only that number of hours was another huge factor in my choosing Temple.
ALL- The Politics
The abuse of my assistantship brings me to my next topic. Internal politics at Temple. They’re really bad. They don’t seem to affect the undergrads as immediately as they affect the grad students, but beneath the surface, at least in the theatre program, they really do a lot of damage. For example, at the end of the 2003-2004 school year, teacher contracts were in major limbo, and many teachers, on the last day of school, didn’t know if they would have a job the following year. Because of this situation, the person who I considered the best teacher in the theatre department applied for and received a job at a different college. It wasn’t the first time Temple had played games with his contract, and he was tired and fed up, so now a different school has the benefit of his expertise.
There is a somewhat new union for grad students. They seem to be having a decent amount of impact on the working conditions of grad students. I regret not getting more involved with them.
T- Film and Theatre Politics
Another example is evident in the Film versus Theatre issues. I’m not sure if this kind of thing takes place in other areas of the university, but it’s worth noting. The film and theatre department have been a part of the same school within the university for years upon years. The school is called SCAT (School of Communications and Theatre). The dean of SCAT since the onset had been theatre friendly. As a result, the theatre program at Temple had a stellar reputation. About five years ago, however, the old dean retired, and the dean who took over seems to hate the theatre department. She has been reallocating theatre department funding to the film side of the building. My second year of grad school the theatre department lost six graduate assistantships to the film side of the building. She promised in a private meeting with a group of theatre students to return them the following year, but they were not returned. In the meantime, the film side of the building has received brand new, state of the art labs, and multi-million dollar improvements, while the theatre department has been fizzling. In other words, at the moment, the film program at Temple is an exciting place to be, but I’m pretty sure the theatre program is in the process of suffering a slow and painful death, so it is not such a happy place to be.
T- Theatre Department Facilities
There are essentially two theatre spaces that are used by the department. Tomlinson Theater is the big one with a fabulous fly system that impressed me when I toured the school. I was disappointed to learn, upon attending, that I would never actually be allowed to design anything that flew in this program. They build an extension out into Tomlinson Theater, and all of my sets always had to end before the fire curtain, which is the first line behind the proscenium. The reasoning is that the fly space sucks up sound and most of our actors are not vocally strong enough to carry the space if we actually design in the intended stage space. The music department does an opera every year in the intended space. They use a little tool called sound amplification, and it works quite wonderfully. In the extended setup, the sightlines are horrible, and lighting needs dictate way too much of the design.
The smaller space is Randall Theater. I believe it was initially intended to be a black box, but it is semi-permanently set up as a tiny proscenium. I really enjoyed designing for this intimate space. Being an audience member in this space is also a very special experience, as it is very easy to become engaged in the action.
There is also a rehearsal hall that is sometimes used as a performance space for special student projects. It has bleachers at one end, and mirrors along a wall, with curtains that can be pulled across to hide them. It has those divider doors that are often found in gyms, so the room can be divided into two spaces. Or, the divider doors can be closed a little on both sides to create a proscenium for performances. At one end of the room, there is a huge doorway with the thick sliding curtain doors that can open directly across a hallway into another huge door directly into the backstage left of Tomlinson. There is a similar pair of doors backstage right that open into the scene shop, and another set all the way upstage that open into the backstage right of Randall Theater. These doors make the space extremely flexible in terms of potential set changes and load ins. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been money in the budget for the kind of set that would make use of these wonderful set changes in years. It does come in quite handy for loading in and striking scenery.
The costume shop is in the basement. I did not use this space all that much myself, so it is difficult for me to give tons of helpful information. There seems to be inadequate storage for old costumes. There seems to be plenty of work space and the equipment seems to get the job done. I never heard complaints on either of those items.
Under Tomlinson Theater there is a trap room that doubles as storage space for the rolling carts full of lighting equipment. Adjacent to that are a storage area for small props, a storage area for furniture and the lighting lab. The lighting lab is FREEZING in the winter. There seems to be a draft directly to the outside somewhere in the room. Otherwise, it is a really nice space to have a lighting class.
T- Theater Department Staff
There has been a large turn-over in a lot of the theatre department staff in recent years. Many teachers have retired and one passed away. They are still working on finding permanent replacements for many of these teachers. Depending on who they eventually hire, the program could really become quite good again, or die. It is not possible to predict what will happen. I’m hoping it will excel, but the skeptic in me is doubtful. We’ll just have to wait and see. Darlene, the theater department secretary is the most helpful person on the face of the planet, and just as sweet as she is helpful. Daniel Boylen, the scene design teacher and department chair, is a very free-flowing artsy individual. His design classes lack a large amount of structure, but he greatly impacted my design style, and I thank him for that. He has an obvious love for theatre that reaches beyond the walls of Temple University. Tony, the shop TD, is a kind individual, who doesn’t yell when angry (which is a HUGE plus in a TD). David Hale is currently back at Temple, even though I think he retired. He is filling in one of the gaps until they hire a more permanent person. David Hale is a legend in this part of the country, and an exceedingly excellent teacher. I can’t really say much about the acting staff, because I didn’t have them. The acting students seem to really like all of them. The other teachers I had at Temple have all moved on.
ALL- Other Facilities I Used While at Temple
The library at Temple is huge and wonderful. The staff was not so helpful in my experience, but I still really enjoyed spending time there. I did have an experience once where I returned a book, they tried to charge me for it saying that I hadn’t returned it and I was able to retrieve it from its home on the shelf and show them that I had indeed returned it. I know other people who also had this experience.
I often ate lunch at lunch carts. I didn’t have a meal plan. I thought I got wonderful deals at a number of the carts. I ate at the student activities center once and thought it was a rip off by comparison. When I was on campus late at night or on a weekend, there was a 7/11 that was open 24 hours.
ALL- Security on Campus
Temple University is in a rough part of the city. With that said, this part was much worse 10 or so years ago, and there are neighborhoods that are MUCH worse than this one now. Mayor Street, with all his faults, has done a WONDERFUL job of reviving Broad Street. The area of Broad Street from Center City up to Temple has been experiencing huge amounts of revival, and this has affected Temple’s neighborhood as well. On campus, my experience with security is as wonderful as it could possibly be, considering the neighborhood. At night, it is lit up like a football field. There is excellent coverage of the campus by security officers in cars, on bikes and on foot. There have been incidents with local hoodlums causing a bit of trouble, but to my knowledge campus security has always had a wonderfully prompt response to on campus incidents. Most of the on campus incidents I have heard of include items of value periodically being removed from parked cars. I, personally, wouldn’t leave an item of value in my parked car most anywhere in the city, so that doesn’t surprise me here. Just off campus, however, is a bit of a different story. For example, there is one subway station, Cecil B. Moore, that is on campus. This station is patrolled by campus security, and I don’t know anyone who has a problem here. There is another station, Susquahanna, that is just north of the campus. It is actually closer to walk to that station from some of the campus buildings. This station is not patrolled by campus security and I know a couple people who have been mugged at this station during evening hours. So, to sum this section up, the security is not absolutely perfect in that there are issues from time to time, but I don’t think the security could be any better than it is on this inner-city campus.
ALL- Diversity
One of Temple University’s biggest strengths is the manner in which it intentionally fosters an ethnically diverse environment. I think that to fully realize the benefits of such an environment, you just have to experience it. I did not realize what a blessing this would be to me until I was there.
ALL- City Life
Temple is in the city. This is both good and bad. You can get public transit to anywhere easily and at a relatively inexpensive cost. People complain about the public transit all the time, but it really is an advantage. Because you’re in the city there is always something to do, so if you get bored it’s your own fault. On the flip side, there is always a distraction to take you away from school work. Living in the city is more costly than many other places.
ALL- Green Space on Campus
A lot of the city is rather paved. The main campus at Temple has lots of nice little park-like green spaces. It was great to hang out and eat lunch on the grass… especially since I live in South Philly where even the local park is paved. It really is a very pretty campus in many ways.
ALL- Climate
The weather here is much nicer than where I went to undergrad in the snow belt of Western New York. We do get 2 or 3 actual snow storms a year here. (I’m not counting flurries or dustings.) Public transit doesn’t shut down when it snows, and neither does Temple. They might shut down early, but I had exactly one snow day the entire time I was here, and that was when we had an official blizzard. Everyone else in the area had at least two if not 3 or 4 days off because the snow was so bad. (Snow removal in this city is much slower than in the Buffalo area.)
ALL- Dorms
I did not live in the dorms, but I heard a lot about them, so I will share what I have heard. There are a couple different styles of dorms. Some are the traditional style, with people sharing rooms and the bathroom down the hall and an RA nearby. This is the style of dorm you are likely to live in your freshman year. These dorms are on the main campus and a convenient walk to most of your classes. Some are suite style dorms. I didn’t hear much about those. Then there are Temple run apartments. They are farther away from campus, but there are campus-run shuttles to these dorms. These seemed to be the favorite style dorms for sophomores and juniors who were still living on campus. Whenever students from these dorms were late for the lab I taught, they always blamed the shuttle for running late. I’m not sure if the shuttle actually ran late all that often, or if it was just an easy excuse. The dorms at Temple seem nice for dorms, but they are still dorms, and you still have an RA and hall meetings that you have to attend and it seems that most students really prefer getting off campus housing if they have that as an option. Sometimes financial aid dictates staying on campus.
ALL- Off-Campus Housing
I remember that when I first moved to Philadelphia, finding housing was a VERY daunting task. It’s easier to find housing once you’re in the city, because you have more knowledge of neighborhoods, and you get the best deals by word of mouth. If you are moving here and you want to find off-campus housing right off the bat, I have some advice for you. Paying LOCATORS to help me find a house was the worst choice I’ve ever made, but it was an act of desperation because I was having such a hard time. The Philadelphia Craigslist web-site is a wonderful place to find a deal and it is free. (I wish I had known about that back then.) I ended up finding my house through a church. I am a Christian, and I was able to contact a minister from my denomination and one of the people from his church happened to own rental property in a nice neighborhood in South Philadelphia. I was blessed with a wonderful deal, a wonderful landlord, and a wonderful church all at the same time. If you have religious conviction, I highly recommend contacting and visiting a church/ synagogue/ place of worship of your background, and see if they can help you out. If you are not a person of organized faith, think of what kinds of social activities you are into, and contact local related clubs. You’ll probably find that you’ll get the local know-how help in finding a place, and a social support system all at the same time. I don’t think you want to live in walking distance of the school and not be on campus, so if you’re living off campus, you will have to plan to commute. Parking is pricey and public transit is what it is.
In Closing
If I had it to do over again, I might have picked a different school for my graduate studies. My personal feelings are that the school is so-so on most levels, but the city and people I met at Temple were both great.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Helga17
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Member: Laura Salvaggio
Location: Utica, NY
Reviews written: 73
Trusted by: 68 members
About Me:
I love Jesus, Bernie and theatre.
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