Uncategorized

Summer in Philadelphia

News, Uncategorized

Kylie McGovern, Editor 

Although many La Salle students will be leaving campus for the summer the week of May 7 following their finals, for those who stick around campus there are a lot of activities happening in the Philadelphia area this summer. Before summer begins, there are a few loose ends for students to tie.

Students must pick up all packages and mail before they leave on summer break. All packages and mail will be sent back to sender starting on June 1, 2023. The mailroom thanks everyone for their cooperation and wishes students a great summer. In addition, on-campus students need to begin the move-out process. Students must move out 24 hours after their last final exam, or by 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 11 (whichever comes first). If a student needs to stay beyond 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 11 they must submit a May Housing Extension Application which is available in the student portal. Extension applications are due May 8 and anything applications received after the deadline will be subject to a $50 late fee. In addition, Summer housing applications are available. Students living in on-campus housing will be staying in single rooms in St. Miguel Court townhouses between May 21 and August 3. More information about preparing to move-out will be provided by res-life staff via email, and distributed via flyers throughout the residence halls, townhouses and apartments.  

Once students complete finals and the move-out process they can enjoy a summer in the City of brotherly love. Students can enjoy events like the Wawa Welcome America event which is multicultural programming from June 19 until July 4. The Manayunk Arts Festival on June 24 and June 25 is a crafts, food and music festival in mainstreet in Manayunk’s main street. In addition, The Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival will take place in Franklin Square from June 21 until Aug. 13. 

There will also be a variety of concepts in the area this summer. Dead & Company will perform at Citizens Bank Park for their final ever show in Philadelphia on June 15. Beyonce will be performing at Lincoln Financial Field on July 12. Citizens Bank Park will also host Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band on Wednesday, August 16 and Friday August 18.

The Philadelphia Phillies will be in season throughout the summer as well. The stadium district is accessible from La Salle via SEPTA. Students can take the Broad Street Line from Olney Transportation Center to the NRG station and walk from there to their summer concert or sports game. 

For students looking to explore something educational over the summer, Philadelphia offers several museums  that have student discounts. The Barnes Foundation, the National Constitution Center and Mütter Museum offer discounts, as well as many more listed by Campus Philly. Even though campus life slows down a bit in the summer, there are plenty of activities in the city that will keep life busy and culturally vibrant for students in the area. 

Interview: Pantalone on Pantalone

Foolegian, Uncategorized

Anthony Pantalone, Arts and Entertainment Editor

A couple weeks back, I had the chance to sit down with Anthony Pantalone for an interview. I would dare to say our exchange had been truculent yet illuminating for both parties. What follows is a transcript from our newspaper’s equivalent to Frost/Nixon.

Interviewer Anthony Pantalone (1): Hi! Thanks for taking the time to sit down with The Collegian today. We’re so excited to have you!

Interviewee Anthony Pantalone (2): Yeah, okay. Well, thank you. I guess I’m here.

Pantalone 1: So let’s get right into it! Please talk about some of the work you do.

Pantalone 2: Well, what do you want to hear? Everything you do, I do better. You throw out shoddy articles week by week and hope by the grace of God that something sticks to the wall. I sit down and actually think before I write. I don’t have to worry about deadlines, because the work I put out is genuinely good. People may or may not even waste two minutes of their day to read it.

(Pause for a minute)

Pantalone 1: Haha, okay! Well, um, let’s move on—

Pantalone 2: Let me be real honest with you for a second. What do you do? Like what do you actually do here?

Pantalone 1: I’m…I’m sorry, I am not sure what you mean.

Pantalone 2: What things of value are you actually giving us? Wait, let’s get to the root of it. What is this we’re doing right now? A vanity project? Narcissism? Hmm…maybe self-deprecation taking on a life of its own?

Pantalone 1: Uh well—

Pantalone 2: Look at me. No, look up. Look at me. Wow, are you gonna cry?

(long silence)

Pantalone 1: Your hair looks #@%&ing stupid.

(crashes and unintelligible yells)

End of Interview

La Salle Launches Student-Run Chess Club

News, Uncategorized

Kyle Storti, Staff

The Explorer’s Chess Club is a brand new student organization that is looking for members. The club conducts its meetings in College Hall 303 every Tuesday from 6:00-7:00 pm. Open to all skill levels, the club looks to create an environment where students can learn, play and watch chess with their peers in a fun, relaxed environment. The club plans on hosting tournaments and fundraisers online and on campus in the near future. If you are interested in joining, contact Kyle Storti (stortik1@lasalle.edu) for more information.

Nothing Happened At Franklin Field Over Weekend: La Salle Women’s Lacrosse Week In Review 2/21/23

Sports, Uncategorized

Nicholas Signoretta, Editor

The La Salle University Explorer at Franklin Field. (February 18, 2023, colorized)

The University of Pennsylvania administration unveiled a new addition to their historic Franklin Field, home of the Penn Quakers’ football, lacrosse, and track teams.  A plaque, paid for by several donations from the La Salle University women’s lacrosse team, is to be erected at the stadium to commemorate the event of absolutely nothing significant happening recently at the famous Philadelphia sports venue.  The plaque is said to read “Franklin Field: On This Site, In 2023, Nothing Happened.”  The plaque is to be placed at the foot of the east end of the stadium, the side at which the Quakers’ women’s lacrosse team has not scored thirteen goals on this season.  The decision to create the memorial for such a nonexistent reason was a choice that has no real purpose, considering last Saturday was totally uneventful and had nothing interesting surrounding it.

The plaque that is to be erected at Franklin Field. (courtesy of “The Simpsons”)

Penn Quakers’ women lacrosse (0-0) will have their home opener on Wednesday, Mar 22nd, against the #6 ranked Maryland Terrapins (1-1).  It is strange that the Quakers do not play a single home game for the first month of the season, but that is something the university’s administration is clearly set on considering they just never thought to schedule any home games earlier in the year.

A child running on Franklin Field’s track because there definitely was not a game played there recently. (courtesy of the child’s mother)

The La Salle Explorers’ women’s lacrosse team (0-1) continues their season with a road trip to the Villanova Wildcats (2-0) on Wednesday, Feb 22nd.  The game is set to tip off at 1PM EST and will be streamed on flolive.tv.  Hopefully the Explorers are well rested for this contest considering they are coming off a long break after opening their season with a narrow loss to the Iona Gaels.  The girls have most certainly not played another game this season and their trip to Iona is the only time they have touched the field this year.  If you enjoyed this article, please send any positive feedback or the Navy Seals my way because I am definitely not being forced to write this article against my own will.

The Awkwardness of Going Home

Satire, Uncategorized

Emily Allgair, Editor

Don’t get me wrong, at the end of last semester, I too, was ready to go home and take some time off from papers, readings, and what have you. But I’m from a small town where everyone knows everything about everyone, so running into people who know too much about you comes with the territory.

There’s a coffee shop, my favorite one, right down the street from my house. So when I would have to do work or wanted to catch up with someone I wouldn’t mind seeing over break, I’d set up shop there. This, however, is a tricky decision because it’s also the only coffee shop in my town that isn’t a Starbucks or Dunkin. 

via YouTube

Maybe it’s just me, but when I knew I would be going out to any place that risked seeing someone I wasn’t friends with, I would mentally prepare myself for the following:

Oh my God! How are you? Where do you go to school again? You like it? Oh, good! Yeah, I’m good! I go to [insert any college ever] and I love it. I know, break is too short. Well, it was nice seeing you!

And that’s only those who don’t care to ask you what you’re studying, when you’re graduating, if you’ve done any traveling through school, etc. 

So yeah, going home is great. But running into people you had no intention of seeing past diploma day is… well, I guess it’s a hazard of the job. And definitely not worth it, at least in my experience. 
If you have experienced this, and don’t really want to anymore, I recommend going out at the most random times of the day, on the most random days. If you’re avoiding current high schoolers, go while they’re in school. If you’re avoiding people from your graduating class, go on like a Tuesday at 2. But, keep in mind, you pretty much always run the risk of seeing someone. And for that, I’m sorry.

Bagel Reviews with Luke and Claire: Fill A Bagel: Jenkintown, PA

Features, Uncategorized

Claire Ortiz and Luke Szyszkiewicz, Staff Writers

via Luke Szyszkiewics

This week, to celebrate Halloweekend and the Phillies in the World Series, Claire and I decided to go somewhere closer to school. Fill A Bagel seemed to be the perfect spot. We had heard so many good things from those around us that we just had to try it. They also had the BEST bagel to celebrate the Phillies: The Phils Bagel, a plain bagel the same color as the red of the Phillies logo. Although neither of us personally ate one, we did bring some home to friends, who all said they were so fun and so very delicious. 

Personally, Claire and I didn’t have the experience we thought we might have had. Claire ordered, as always, a sausage, egg, and cheese on a poppy bagel, while I ordered a bacon, egg, and cheese on an everything. The classics. 

One big complaint that Claire had was the choice of egg on the bagel, and I can’t help but agree with her. Some bagel places use scrambled eggs, and Fill A Bagel is one of them. Both of us prefer fried eggs on breakfast sandwiches. This took down their score pretty far for us. I also didn’t think the bagels were truly seasoned enough. Although the everything bagel did have salt in it, one of my favorite things, there just wasn’t enough of the everything else for me. 

Overall, we’d probably rate it a 2.5/5 Gritty’s, or to celebrate the Phillies in the Fall Classic, Phanatics. Join us next week as we take a trip into Fishtown to review Kismet Bagels, as well as hearing reviews from some potential guest reviewers!

Wellness at La Salle

Health and Wellness, Uncategorized

Kori Deibert, Faculty

Each week, Student Wellness Services at La Salle hosts Wellness Wednesday, a weekly tabling program centered around the 8 points of wellness. These 8 dimensions of wellness contribute to our holistic wellbeing, which is key for students to succeed as a student and a person. Some of the previous Wellness Wednesdays held this semester included “Build Your Own Thriving Kit,” “Plant De-Stress,” and “Build a Bestie.” Build Your Own Thriving Kit focused on our physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness. Students built and decorated a thriving kit for when things got tough throughout the semester. Plant De-Stress was all about environmental wellness and the importance of keeping our physical space clean and organized, as well as the benefits of adding plants to our physical space. Students who attended were able to plant and take home their own succulent plant. Build a Bestie was all about social wellness and attendees constructed a bestie based on the qualities that they found important in that  relationship. These weekly programs offer students a chance to pause and reflect on their personal wellness, take a break from the day’s workload, and connect with their PEERS. Wellness Wednesday happens every Wednesday from 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. either on the Union Patio or Union Lobby, weather dependent.

PEERS are Peer Health Educators who promote health and wellbeing in our campus community by hosting fun workshops and events, such as Wellness Wednesdays, design engaging health resources, and craft social media content. For students who have a passion for health and wellness and are looking for a way to make an impact on the La Salle community, email deibert@lasalle.edu to learn how to become a PEER Health Educator.

La Salle’s rising population and ranks 

News, Uncategorized

Kylie McGovern, Editor 

via @lasalleuniv on Instagram

On Sept. 11, La Salle University announced that enrollment increased by 13% over the last year. 996 new explorers joined our campus community. 92 of these students have parents or grandparents who have previously attended La Salle, but on the other hand 2/5ths incoming students are first-generation college students. Furthermore, more than 50% of students are people of color. La Salle keeps up with its traditions being one of the most diverse universities in Philadelphia with these statistics. 

This increase is the first since 2018. According to CNBC, the pandemic has made college enrollment decline, so this increase in enrollment here at 20th and Olney is going against current trends. In addition to being a larger class, this year’s incoming class has better academic stats than years previous because they have a higher median GPA and honors program enrollment increased by 25%. Furthermore, the nursing program increased the enrollment of first-year students by 40% and the 4-year B.S./MBA program in Accounting doubled the size of its first-year enrollment.

According to U.S. News, there is a valid reason La Salle’s enrollment is increasing as they rank La Salle University in the top half of national universities overall. La Salle is ranked No. 202 among institutions that are identified as national institutions, which are the top-half of all institutions ranked. In addition, U.S. News also ranked No. 1 among Lasallian national institutions in the U.S. In addition, U.S. News ranked La Salle as the third-most diverse national university in Pennsylvania. 

In addition, La Salle’s esteemed speech-language pathology program presented a 100% pass rate on the Praxis test, which is the national certification exam for speech-language pathologists. This passage rate is just a testament to the success of students once they are at La Salle. 

Editor’s Note: As I was writing this article, I became very proud of La Salle. As a journalist, I have to be skeptical and look at things from an unbiased lens. But, as I read these statistics and write this article I felt true pride and honor to be an explorer. This is an institution that wants wants what is best for its students and I know that La Salle, like many other institutions has had their struggles, but higher enrollment and high passage rates can only bring good things for La Salle and I am excited to hear this news about increasing enrollment and high passage rate on the Praxis. 

La Salle’s troubling lack of counseling services for fifth-year students

Uncategorized

Elizabeth McLaughlin, Editor

La Salle boasts multiple 5-year programs. But they don’t offer free counseling services to students in their fifth year. Why?

Many students in their fifth, and final, year of their program — whether that be Communication Sciences and Disorders, Secondary Education or Social Work, to name a few — also attend La Salle for their undergrad. In other words, these students are used to utilizing services such as the counseling and health centers as means to cope with their ever-stressful lives in both academia and the workforce. Some of them build profound and valuable relationships with their counselors, meeting with them on a weekly basis.

These students continue paying tuition, obviously, and they also continue paying the university fee and student activities fee — but once they officially enter their fifth year, they can’t see their counselor anymore. Now, if their counselor has a private practice, they have to pay out-of-pocket to continue maintaining their mental health. If their counselor doesn’t have a private practice, students are met with a dead end. 

According to Thervo, an average therapy session in Philadelphia costs between $60-$120 per session. Say a student meets weekly with their counselor throughout the school year; based on two 16 week-long semesters, that rounds out to $1,920 to $3,840 spent out of pocket on therapy per year. For many of my out-of-state friends, their insurance won’t cover a dime of therapy costs. I don’t know a single college student who could manage that extra cost on top of everything we already pay to this university. 

So why doesn’t La Salle offer the same counseling and wellness services to its fifth year students that it does to its undergraduates? In September of 2018, La Salle received “a three-year Garret Lee Smith Suicide Prevention Grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Systems Administration, worth over $300,000.” Those three years have passed, and I’m unclear on exactly how La Salle utilized this grant. I have researched and read the plans published by La Salle and the grant manager from 2017 and 2018, but I have yet to find any updates on the program since then.

All of that information on the grant is only supplementary to my point: that La Salle provides no public reason as to why fifth year students cannot access student counseling or wellness services. Instead, they tell students who utilize these services throughout their undergrad, “Good luck! We won’t be helping you anymore.” Or, at least, that’s the impression that one of the students entering her fifth year of the Communication Sciences and Disorders program is under. “I still pay all my fees; I’m actually paying more now than I ever have for school. I pay $1,050 per credit and for some reason, I can’t keep seeing my counselor. It’s beyond frustrating.”

And she’s right, it is beyond frustrating because it’s a liability. Is it really in La Salle’s best interest to not offer free counseling and wellness services to its overworked and underpaid (if at all) graduate students? Another student entering her final year of the five year Communication Sciences and Disorders program showed me her current balance. $9,450 in tuition for 9 credits, plus a $285 “general university fee.” What is that “general” fee going toward, if not a service to help manage depression, anxiety and all the stress that comes with being in an accelerated program?

On Sunday, May 1, I worked my last ever event as a tour guide. Before the admitted students arrived to submit their deposit and commit to La Salle University, my fellow ACEs and I went around the quad, putting up signs with various fun facts about our school. One of the signs reads, “La Salle offers multiple five-year programs.” But what we don’t tell incoming students is that we can’t offer them free counseling services during that rigorous fifth year for their mental wellbeing. We don’t tell them that they’ll reach their final year, feeling more overworked and exhausted than they’ve likely ever felt in their entire life, and that they’ll have to work that out on their own.

Why not?

La Salle TV reminiscing: My favorite moments on LTV

Uncategorized

Jeriann Tripodi, Editor

As a graduating senior reflecting back on some of my most memorable experiences at La Salle University, I can certainly say that being on La Salle TV played a significant role in shaping my happiest college memories. I’d like to share some of those memories with you here to show how much fun you can have on La Salle TV. 

On a 2019 La Salle TV special, “Explorers Got Talent,” I had the opportunity to be a contestant and perform one of my favorite songs of all time. This classic 1960s hit song is titled “Where the Boys Are” by Connie Francis. This was a great memory because I had the chance to entertain the audience and make them smile. I hope you enjoy the following video clip: 

For several years, I have been a host, producer and writer for “Backstage Pass,” which is a televised program that focuses on celebrity and entertainment news and content. Each episode, I reported celebrity news, reviewed albums and movies and engaged in fun ad-libs with my co-host. I also created a new segment, “Entertainment Trivia.” “Backstage Pass” was a great memory due to my passion for the world of entertainment, in addition to the fun I had while on camera. Below, you will find a video clip that highlights my most memorable moments on “Backstage Pass.” 

Thank you for reading this article. If you would like to watch the full “Explorers Got Talent” episode, you can click here. Also, be sure to watch La Salle TV’s “Backstage Pass.” Check out the student-produced show on its YouTube channel, LaSalleTV Philly.