LehighWeek Volume 13, Issue 26

              Forging networks
Computer    science
major takes his cue
from music
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Volume 13, Issue 26
LehighWeeA:
The campus digest for innovation, news and events
South Mountaineer
Women's
softball
faces  key
league
games
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April 5, 2000
College of Ed,
RCEAS in top 50
The College of Education broke into
the top 50 schools of education in
the latest annual listing of
"America's Best Graduate Schools"
by U.S. News and World Report.
The college finished 50th
among 187 education schools
with a total overall score of 46.
Last year the college ranked 59th
with a score of 44.
The P.C. Rossin College of
Engineering and Applied Science
(RCEAS) took 40th place among
219 engineering schools, the
same position as last year.
"We're very excited," said Ron
Yoshida, dean of the education
college. "We set a vision three
years ago and we stuck with it.
We are working as a team to move
forward in realizing the opportunities that we see. I owe a debt
of gratitude to [President] Greg
Farrington, [Provost] Nelson
Markley and my colleagues in
the college, as well as the faculty
and staff throughout the university who are partners with us."
U.S. News ranks graduate
education programs in the following manner: Reputation
among education deans counts
for 25 percent of the total, and
reputation among school superintendents, 15 percent. Student
selectivity counts for 20 percent,
and research activity, 20 percent;
this category includes total research expenditures and expenditures per faculty member. Faculty resources, which includes
student-faculty ratio and percent
of faculty awarded Fulbright,
Guggenheim, Humboldt, American Education Research and Spencer Foundation-Young Faculty fellowships, counts for 20 percent.
For graduate schools of engineering, reputation among engineering school deans and deans of
academic affairs counts for 25 percent, and reputation among corporate recruiters, 15 percent. Faculty resources, including faculty-
student ratio, number of Ph.D.s
granted and number of professors
who are members of the National
Academy of Engineering, counts for
25 percent, as does research activity, which includes total research
expenditures and expenditures
per faculty member engaged. Student selectivity counts for the remaining 10 percent.
Lehigh's RCEAS ranked 29th
among corporate recruiters and
45th among academics. The student- faculty ratio is 2.2, and research grants totaled $21.9 million, or an average of $288,000
per faculty member.
The education college has 480
students and 27 full-time faculty
members, and offers programs in
educational technology, special
education, teacher education,
counseling psychology, educational
leadership and school psychology.
The survey can be accessed at
usnews.com/edu.
Towards a new era
in U.S.-Africa relations
Randall Robinson, founder
and president of
TransAfrica, an organization devoted to influencing U.S.
policy toward African and the
Caribbean, urged students and
faculty to travel and study history at the 14th annual Cohen
International Relations Lecture
on Monday night.
"Understand that education
cannot be gotten fully at Lehigh,"
said Robinson. "See your country
from the outside in."
A reading of African history,
Robinson said, reveals that the
continent experienced a period of
greatness that was extinguished
by slavery and colonialism. Suffering was exacerbated by the
Cold War and the collapse of the
Soviet Union.
"U.S. policy in Africa
protects the interests
of the wealthy and
powerful."
—Randall Robinson
Americans have played a role
in the oppression of Africa,
Robinson said. For example, two
years ago, President Clinton
billed his trip to Africa as an effort to promote African economic
development and make Africa an
equal trading partner with the
U.S. But the U.S.'s "terms" included removing import tariffs
and privatizing public assets for
Americans to purchase. This
prompted African governments
to stop subsidizing health care
and led to an increased incidence
in such diseases as tuberculosis,
dyptheria and AIDS - the last of
which is causing the destruction
of the African population.
"U.S. policy in Africa protects
the interests of the wealthy and
powerful," Randall said, adding
that, by traveling, Americans
could understand the shortfalls
of their foreign policy and see the
need for campaign finance reform in the U.S.
Robinson said the U.S. has
invalidated the trade relationships between the Caribbean islands and Europe thus destroying countries' livelihoods to support a major a campaign contributor.
Robinson answered questions
about his book, The Debt, and
defended his proposal that the
U.S. government pay restitution
to black Americans for slavery
through educational programs
Photos by Rob Upton
Randall Robinson, founder and president of TransAfrica,
delivered the 14th annual Cohen Lecture in International
Relations on Monday in Baker Hall, and met with a select
group of students for breakfast on Tuesday morning.
and the infusion of economic deposits into black communities.
Such a move, he said, would uphold the American ideal that the
nation has a moral and legal responsibility to make its victims
whole again.
"America applauds other
countries' acts of reparations but
never attempts to do the same,"
he said, citing the requirements
by America and its World War II
allies that Germany make restitution to the state of Israel.
The Cohen International Relations Lecture Series is made
possible by an endowment from
the late Bernard L. Cohen '36
and his wife, Bertha F. "Berte"
Cohen.
-Amy Walts'00
Photo by Bill Adams
President Farrington
LU "E-Mountain"
could help fight
valley brain drain
Lehigh will study the feasibility
of converting its Mountaintop
Campus into an "E-Mountain,"
a research and technology park
integrated with the university's
programs of teaching and research, President Gregory
Farrington said in a speech last
week to state and local community development leaders.
"We are only studying the idea
at this point," Farrington told an
audience of 235 on March 28, kicking off a two-day visit by the state
Department of Community and
Economic Development (DCED).
"But our concept is that the
Mountaintop might be transformed
into a resource that attracts businesses that want to work in a creative environment, hire the greatest students, have easy access to
faculty and corporate partners,
and contribute to the intellectual
richness of the university."
Across the valley, Pennsylvania
Gov. Tom Ridge, addressing the
Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp.'s meeting in AUentown,
echoed Farrington's sentiments.
"I believe for the Lehigh Valley
and Pennsylvania to succeed, we
have to become an acknowledged,
aggressive technology leader,"
Ridge said. "There is a collection
of quality institutions here, including Lehigh University."
Farrington, in his address at
Iacocca Hall, pledged that
Lehigh would continue to "scour
the world to attract a thousand
or two of the finest young minds
each year," and try to keep some
of the best working for Lehigh
Valley companies after they
graduate.
Farrington said Lehigh would,
in part, focus its intellectual strength
in areas that translate into economic strength, such as information science and technology, and
advanced materials and structures in the P.C. Rossin College of
Engineering and Applied Science,
and biosciences in RCEAS and the
College of Arts and Sciences.
The College of Business and
Economics is re-inventing itself
for the "age of-E," he said, and
the College of Education is redefining what it means to educate in the information age.
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