LehighWeek Volume 13, Issue 01

              Staging Mozart
Music department to
present 'Figaro' at Baker
See page 2
Volume 13, Issue 1
LehighWeefc
The campus digest for Innovation, news and events
On the gridiron
LU kicks off 1999 season
at Fordham on Sept. 11
September 1, 1999
In wake of
earthquake:
"We need   .
3 help!"
Lehigh's Turkish students are joining with
the Global Union, the
office of international
education and the
Lehigh Valley Chapter of
the American Red Cross
to raise money for survivors of
the disastrous earthquake which
struck Turkey two weeks ago.
"The devastation is terrible
— TV cannot describe it,"
Gulbin Boz, an employee of the
English as a Second Language
program and native of Turkey,
said at a press conference on
Aug. 20. "We need help."
Selcuk Avci, a Turkish student studying for his Ph.D. in
industrial engineering, said the
quake, which has killed 40,000
people and injured thousands
more, struck a region of western Anatolia that is home to a
quarter of Turkey's (37 million
people and much of its industrial infrastructure.
The damage to the region —
and to Turkey's economy — will
take years to repair, Avci said.
"The situation is almost incomprehensible," he said. "There
is no food or water, and we are
very worried about epidemics."
Boz and Avci said people
wishing to help should send
money, which will be used to
purchase food, water, medicine
and supplies to build temporary
homes and "tent cities." Donations can be dropped off at the
Global Union office at 344
Whitaker Lab (info: x84859);
they will be-.forwarded to the
Red Cross. Checks payable to.
"American Red Cross" and inscribed with the words "Turkish relief can be mailed to the
American Red Cross, Lehigh
Valley Chapter, 2200 Avenue A,
Bethlehem, PA 18017. Credit
card donations can be made by
calling the chapter at 610-865-
4400.
About 60 graduate and undergraduate students from Turkey attend Lehigh. They make
up the third-largest group of
students from a single country,
after China and India. More
than a dozen natives of Turkey
serve on the faculty and staff.
William D. Hunter, director
:f the Global Union, said he
knew of no students who lost
family members in the quake.
Hunter said Lehigh was offering emergency funding to
l^elp Turkish students purchase
plane tickets to visit their country. Students needing time off
from their studies would be
granted leaves of absence without repercussions, he added.
Welcome, Class of 2003
The newest Lehigh class arrived
on campus on Friday, Aug. 27,
and classes began on Tuesday,
Aug. 31. Orientation will continue this week, concluding Sunday evening, Sept. 5, with a concert by Dave Binder in the
Ulrich Student Center.
The Class of 2003 contains
1,084 members, who hail from
43 states. Sixty-five percent of
the class is from New York, New
Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Nearly 42 percent of this
year's freshmen are enrolled in
the College of Arts and Sciences,
nearly 23 percent in the College
of Business and Economics, and
nearly 34 percent in the P.C.
Rossin College of Engineering
and Applied Science. About 1
percent have declared majors in
arts-engineering.
The average SAT score for the
class is 640.5 math, 598.7 verbal.
The class includes 154 minority students, or 14.2 percent.
There are 452 women students, nearly 42 percent.
A Lehigh Legacy Continues...
Michael D. Hill '03, son of
Douglas Hill '72, and
Stephanie Sterrett '03,
daughter of Joe Sterrett '76,
director of athletics, proudly
welcome the class of 2003.
Both freshmen follow the
footsteps of many family
members to South Mountain.
Students foray into community
through Habitat for Humanity
The sound of nails being
pounded into wood, saws cutting boards and foremen shouting directions echoed at Ninth
Street and Lynn Avenue on a
recent sunny August morning.
Instead of hiring a contractor to build three area houses,
the local Habitat for Humanity Chapter, along with 10 incoming Lehigh students,
helped with the volunteer
project.
Each August, during the
week before students return to
school, Lehigh holds several
volunteer projects for freshmen. Habitat for Humanity
was one opportunity the students could partake in. The activities help incoming students
get to know each other and the
community.
During the week, students
hammered nails, measured and
cut beams for the house, and
cleaned up.
Students chose Habitat for
Marshall Kurtz '03 of Lancaster hammers away during a
recent Habitat freshman volunteer project.
several reasons.
"I participated in Habitat before in my church group. I enjoyed it. It's a great way to meet
other freshmen," said Heather
Bremenstuhl '03, an architecture major.
"I came here early to get to
know people and become familiar with the campus. I wanted
to help with Habitat because it's
such a good cause," said
Please see HABITAT, Page 7
Lehigh
ranking
improves
Lehigh climbed from
36th to 34th in U.S. News
& World Report's "Best
Colleges" rankings of national universities, and
the university's efforts
to curb binge drinking
were featured by the
magazine on its Web site
(www.usnews.com) and
in its "Best Colleges"
guidebook.
Cal-Tech was ranked
no. 1 in the magazine's annual
ranking of America's 228 national universities, which was
released in late August.
U.S. News ranked Lehigh
32nd among 314 accredited undergraduate engineering programs in its first survey in three
years in that category.
"The U.S. News rankings
show that the Lehigh Valley is
brimming with diverse and
high-quality institutions of
higher learning," said President
Gregory Farrington. "It's important to realize, however, that
rankings can help students begin a college search, but cannot
replace visits and the careful
evaluation of schools by families.
"A prospective student would
have to talk to students and faculty to discover that we offer a
personal learning experience because of our relatively small
size, as well as some of the learning opportunities that graduate
students might have at a large
research institution."
U.S. News includes Lehigh
among the leaders in addressing binge drinking, a problem on
campuses across the country. In
1996, with support from the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Lehigh launched Project
IMPACT, a coalition of students,
faculty, staff and community
leaders working to create a
healthier, safer environment by
reducing the frequency of alcohol abuse. The article quotes
Ryan Scanlon '99, who worked
on the project, and John
Smeaton, vice provost for student affairs.
Among national universities,
Lehigh ranked 35th in terms of
"Best Values," a measure the
magazine uses to determine
where students can get the best
value for their tuition dollar.
Lehigh is the only school in
the region classified as a "national university," a designation
determined by the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. National universities offer a full range of
majors as well as master's and
doctoral degrees and receive federal money to support research
activities.
-William Johnson
LEHIGH
University
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