LehighWeek Volume 12, Issue 26

              Colombian economy
Two-day conference
set for this week
See page 8
Volume 12, Issue 26
LehighWeefc
The campus digest for innovation, news and events with SouthMountaineer
Sports Update
Strobel named
Olympic coach
See SouthMountaineer   12
April 14,1999
Lech Walesa:
A velvet glove
The inauguration of Lehigh's 12th president
If Robert Schumann once described the music of Frederic
Chopin as flowers veiling a cannon, a similar observation could be made about
Lech Walesa, the former
Polish president and labor leader who won the
Nobel Peace Prize for his
role in toppling communism.
In a 90-minute speech
here Monday (April 12),
Walesa poked gentle fun
at himself, at politicians,
and even at the many
foreign conquests that
have carved up Poland's history.
Beneath the bouquet of humor, however, one could discern
the iron will that enabled Walesa
to prevail against his country's
A ceremony of the first order
Lech Walesa
Soviet-backed dictatorship. And
one could sense a warning to
those who would enjoy the
fruits of the Cold War's end
without appreciating the work
that remains to be done.
"We are a very special generation," said Walesa, whose
speech was translated by interpreter Magda Iwinska. "We
have a wonderful opportunity to
establish world peace and economic prosperity. That requires
us to be more active, to put more
order in the world.
"But I'm sorry to say we lack
politicians of vision in the
world. Today's politicians focus
on local constituents and the
next election. They are people
not of vision, but of television."
Inattention to the broad picture, combined with young
people's disinterest in politics,
has left the world without the
new order it needs to deal with
problems such as ethnic strife,
pollution and disparity of
wealth that are every bit as
dangerous as communism,
Walesa said.
The war between NATO and
Yugoslavia that was triggered
by that country's persecution of
the Albanian Kosovars could
have been avoided, Walesa said,
either by timely intervention by
Russia "on the appropriate side"
or by an earlier, unequivocal
warning to Yugoslav leader
Please see Walesa on page 5
Rob Uplon
Holding the university mace, Gregory C. Farrington prepares to address an inaugural crowd
of nearly 1,000 in Stabler Arena. The mace, a 700-year-old tradition symbolizing responsibility and authority, was given to Lehigh by the Class of 1966.
Rain is often accused of
spoiling a parade, but
Gregory C. Farrington
took inspiration from the showers that fell most of the day Fri
day (April 9), when he was formally inaugurated as Lehigh's
12th president.
"The Talmud says rain is a
sign of God's blessing,"
Farrington told a crowd of nearly
1,000 people in Stabler Arena
and a live Internet audience, after Ronald J. Ulrich '66, chairman of the board of trustees,
vested Lehigh's new leader with
the presidential silver medallion
and the university mace.
With that remark, Farrington
set the stage for an inaugural
address both serious and humorous, capping a ceremony of colorful tradition, fine music and
gracious speeches.
As he delivered an address on
"The Nature of the University in
the Information Age," Farrington
looked directly out on several
hundred visitors from other universities, members of learned societies, and Lehigh professors,
all dressed in colored robes representing alma mater, field of
study and academic achievement.
Seated behind the academic
guests were the 50-member
Lehigh University Choir and the
Fairmount Brass quintet from
Philadelphia. The choir, under
the direction of Steven P.
Sametz, professor of music, performed "Alleluia," a many-layered a capella composition by
Paul F. Salerni, professor of
music, along with Sametz's
"Exigi Momentum aere
perennis" for choir and brass.
The quintet performed Purcell's
Leadership Agenda
for Lehigh
The following are seven
areas in which Lehigh
must lead:
■ In inventing what it
means to be a university
in the Digital Age.
Lehigh should prepare
students for leadership in
the age of the Internet in
part by creating programs that bridge
traditional academic
boundaries.
■ In inventing new and
more effective teaching
methods.
■ In generating new
knowledge.
■ In being a wise
steward of its resource.
"The noble purposes of
higher education do not
exempt us from the
mundane laws of economics."
■ In being a strong
regional partner. "Lehigh
has a special obligation
to help strengthen the
South Side community of
Bethlehem."
■ In seeking diversity in
its faculty, staff and
students - "It's just the
right thing to do."
■ In keeping faith with
its alumni. "Their lives
were energized by their
Lehigh experience and
[their] support can
transform the lives of
present and future
students."
Gregory C. Farrington,
President, Lehigh University
"Trumpet Voluntary," and mezzo-
soprano Vanessa L. DeVett '99
sang the National Anthem.
Seated behind Farrington
were the officers of the university, the other speakers, and
members of Lehigh's board of
trustees. Members of Lehigh's
staff and student body sat in the
bleachers to the new president's
left and right.
Farrington, who came to
Lehigh last August from the
University of Pennsylvania,
where he had been dean of engineering, warmed up to his theme
with a brief summary of Lehigh's
134-year history. He saluted his
two immediate predecessors,
Peter Likins, who was president from 1982-97, and William
C. Hittinger '44 (1997-98), then
told of Lehigh's founding in 1865
by Asa Packer, a man he described as a "wealthy visionary
who knew that the key to future'
economic leadership would be
knowledge."
The new president did not disappoint those who know his
quick wit. He called Lehigh's
first president, Henry Coppee,
a "one-man school of arts and
sciences" who had taught history,
logic, rhetoric, political economy
and Shakespeare at Penn before
coming to Lehigh. "It's a perfect
background for this job,"
Farrington said. "Especially the
Shakespeare whose plays are
useful guides to understanding
academic politics."
A century later, Farrington
said, universities face their main
challenge*in the information
technologies that are "changing
the world at the speed of light."
He described a hypothetical
Please see President on page 4
Lehigh will continue to
operate bookstore
A university committee formed
last summer to examine
the operation of
Lehigh's bookstore and
evaluate the possibility
of outsourcing it has recommended that Lehigh
continue operating the
store itself. The committee was chaired by
Barry Gaal, assistant
vice president for business services, and included three professors,
an undergraduate, a
graduate student, and
several staff members.
Rhonda Gross, vice
president for finance
and administration,
who convened the committee, announced April 8 the
administration had accepted the
committee's recommendation.
The committee reviewed the
bookstore's performance and reviewed proposals from three outside vendors to operate the store.
Two major bookstore companies,
Barnes and Noble and Follett,
were invited to campus to make
presentations, along with the
existing bookstore managers.
"It was a long, thorough process that was fair and objective,"
said Gaal. "We used eight criteria in evaluating the proposals,
and the bookstore beat out two
very aggressive proposals from
the vendors."
As part of the process, the
committee surveyed faculty, staff
and students about the customer
service provided by the bookstore. Gaal said 92.5 percent of
the respondents rated the bookstore excellent to good on customer service. The committee
also evaluated the store's current
financial performance against
national benchmarks from other
college stores of similar size. The
bookstore's current financial performance significantly exceeds
all industry benchmarks and
averages, and slightly exceeded
the offers received from the outside vendors.
"Other schools, such as Duke,
have found similar results when
evaluating their bookstores, and
have decided to continue running
the stores themselves," said
Gaal. "If you are running a good
store, the store can return more
to the campus (with the university running it) than an outside
vendor."
"I'm very pleased with the
way it (the process) turned out,"
said Mike King, director of the
Bookstore. "I'm proud of my staff
for handling the uncertainty
while still performing their jobs
admirably through a difficult
and uncertain time. Despite the
distraction of this process, we are
enjoying our fourth consecutive
year of success financially while
maintaining a high level of service to customers.
Please see Bookstore on page 8
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