PHP news feed not working

[soupi]

I have a news feed on this page, https://library.syr.edu/ bottom left but the preview text is not appearing on the the headline. why is that?

This is the code

<?php

/* FOR L1 LEVEL PAGE NEWS CAROUSEL */
/* CALLED FROM WITHIN L1 PAGE FORMAT */
/* CJB 2-6-2017 */


$site = "http://libnews.syr.edu/";

$file = "http://libnews.syr.edu/category/spotlight/feed/";

$xml = simplexml_load_file($file);

$tempCounter = 0;

//Missing image placeholder
$tempImage = "/news/images/news-placeholder-200.png";

echo "<div class=\"page-row-block news-single-column\">";
echo "<h2 class=\"section-heading\">Latest News and Events ";
echo "<span class=\"carousel-controls pull-right\">";
echo "<button class=\"prev hidden-xs\" data-slide=\"prev\" href=\"#testimonials-carousel\">";
echo "<img alt=\"Scroll left\" src=\"../_siteassets/img-arrow-left.png\"></button> ";
echo "<button class=\"next hidden-xs\" data-slide=\"next\" href=\"#testimonials-carousel\">";
echo "<img alt=\"Scroll right\" src=\"../_siteassets/img-arrow-right.png\"></button>";
echo "</span>";
echo "</h2>";
echo "<div class=\"section-content\">";
echo "<div class=\"testimonials-carousel carousel slide home-page\" id=\"testimonials-carousel\">";
echo "<div class=\"carousel-inner\">";


foreach($xml->channel->item as $item) {

# DISPLAY 3 ITEMS
    if ( $tempCounter < 10) {
 
    if (isset($item->title)) {
    $title = trim((string) $item->title);
    } else {
    $title = "";
    }
    
    if (isset($item->description)) {
    $desc = trim((string) $item->description);
    } else {
    $desc = "";
    }
    
    if (isset($item->description)) {
    $excerpt = trim((string) $item->description);
    } else {
    $excerpt = "";
    }
    
    if (isset($item->link)) {
    $link  = trim((string) $item->link);
    } else {
    $link = "";
    }

    //Load  <description> into XML object
    $descxml = new SimpleXMLElement("<xml>".$desc."</xml>");
    
 
  //Get <img> src and  <description> text
  if (isset($descxml->div[0]->a->img['src'])) {
    $image = trim((string) $descxml->div[0]->a->img['src']);
  } else {
    $image = $tempImage;
  }

  //Get <img> alt and truncate to avoid long alt text error
  if (isset($descxml->div[0]->a->img['alt'])) {
    $alt = trim((string) $descxml->div[0]->a->img['alt']);
    $alt = substr($alt, 0, 80);
  } else {
    $alt = $title;
    $alt = substr($alt, 0, 70);
    $alt = $alt." photo";
  }
    
  //Escape description
  $excerpt = (string) $descxml;
    
  //remove line breaks and tabs from string
  $excerpt = str_replace("\n", "", $excerpt);
  $excerpt = str_replace("\t", "",  $excerpt);
 
 
  //WRITE EACH ITEM
 
  if ($tempCounter == "0") {
      echo "<div class=\"item active\">";
  } else {
      echo "<div class=\"item\">";
  }
    echo "<div class=\"pull-left col-lg-4 col-md-4 col-sm-4 col-xs-12\">";
    echo "<a class=\"read-more\" href=\"$link\" title=\"Read $title\"><img class=\"pull-left\" src=\"$image\" alt=\"$alt\" width=\"100\" onerror=\"this.src='$tempImage'\"/></a>";
    echo "</div>";   
    echo "<div class=\"pull-right col-lg-8 col-md-8 col-sm-8 col-xs-12\">";
    echo "<h3>$title</h3>";
    echo "<div class=\"hidden-xs\">$excerpt</div>";
    echo "<a class=\"read-more continue-reading\" href=\"$link\" title=\"Read $title\">Continue reading →</a>";
    echo "</div>"; 
    echo "</div>";

 
}
$tempCounter = $tempCounter + 1;

}
    echo "</div>"; //CLOSE CAROUSEL INNER
    echo "<div class=\"clearfix\"/>";
    echo "</div>"; //CLOSE TESTIMONIAL-CAROUSEL
    echo "</div>"; //CLOSE SECTION-CONTENT
    echo "</div>"; //CLOSE PAGE-ROW-BLOCK   
    echo "<div class=\"btn more-news-bottom pull-right\">";
    echo "<a href=\"$site\">More News</a>";           
    echo "</div>"; //CLOSE MORE BUTTON   


?>