Brown and White Vol. 66 no. 27

              storm snags student traffic mishaps occur lehigh university bethlehem pa dry ' parties lifeless ' ; drive minors to pubs tuesday february 15 1955 scl to present symphony friday volume 66 — number 27 by mahlon b simon dry parties are dull that's the consensus of those lehigh men who attended rushing parties last week end it was generally concluded by both the rushers and rushees wlrn off status rule quiets air the internationally famous na tional symphony orchestra of wash ington d.c under the direction of howard mitchell will feature the student concerts-lectures series committee's february presentation friday at 8 in grace hall recording exclusively for westminster records the talent ed ensemble has been referred to as the orchestra of presi dents because of its part in the inaugurals of presidents tru man and eisenhower during the 1930's the orchestra played two command performances at the white house at the in vitation of president franklin d roosevelt since it organization by dr hans kindler in 1931 the national sym phony has grown until it is now rec ognized as one of the major orches tras in the united states under the leadership of mitchell who took over on dr kindler's resignation as musical director in 1948 the activities of the orchestra have undergone a huge expansion it now spreads its classical rendi tions to suburban and small town areas along with a doubling in the number of its traditional subscrip tion concerts the current high fidelity re leases on the westminster label by the national symphony are paul creston's symphony no 2 and symphony no 3 brahms violin concerto and aaron copland's appalachian spring howard mitchell the group's in spired conductor has risen to musi cal eminence in a relatively short period of time the 44-year-old maestro since taking over the reins of the national symphony from dr kindler in 1948 has embarked on an ambitious program of bringing good music to the general public raised in sioux city lowa mitch ell was one of a family of seven mv howard mitchell sicians his early studies encompass ed the piano and trumpet later his proficiency on the violincello earned him a scholarship to the peabody conservatory in baltimore in 1928 during his younger years he had taken time out from his music les sons long enough to win the sioux city golf championship at the age of 15 in 1929 mitchell won a schol arship to the curtis institute in philadelphia for his excellence on the cello he graduated with honors in 1935 while at curtis mitchell attracted the attention of kindler then in the development of his embryo national symphony orchestra in 1933 kind ler engaged mitchell as first cellist with the aggregation during the next seven years mitchell made soloist appearances in washington and on tour he first appeared as conductor of the na tional symphony in 1941 serving as guest maestro at a summer pops the heavy but short-lived two and one-half inch snowfall last friday afternoon was the cause of scattered accidents and much inconvenience john a steinbrunn 58 driv ing a 54 ford without chains skidded into a 53 mercury own ed by bill a dean 57 while dean was putting on his own chains the accident took place in front of packer hall just after dean had his car pulled out of a ditch into which it had skidded by curtis e scott 57 and gary l tinkham 58 fred u smith 58 was a rider in steinbrunn's car hal r handler 57 a member of tau delta phi driving a 54 ply mouth collided with a 50 ford owned by a bethlehem resident both cars insured suffered heavy damages when the accident at bth and broad streets occurred handler had snow tires but no chains on his car he was bringing some dates to the house for a party at the time there were no injuries george a brent father of jason g brent 56 skidded his 52 buick onto the lower part of the hill di rectly south of the lamb er ton hall delivery entrance at 12:45 a.m last sunday mr brent was trying to climb the road leading to the drink er parking lot in an effort to get his car back on the road he let it slide down off the hill the car finally came to rest in the culvert on university aye phi sigs to build on campus and richard c wallis interviewed that in those houses which were meticulously fol lowing dean byron c hayes liquor policy the parties were lifeless boredom was relieved in some quarters by bands dates and illegal serving of booze as predicted in the b&w after the hayes memo was circulated those who were not allowed to drink in lehigh houses retired to bars pri vately-rented barns and other places where they could drink unobserved forms of boredom-relief were as varied as they were unusual for a lehigh party diversion ranged from singing to sleigh rides most houses took their freshman guests to the princeton-lehigh wrestling bout in grace hall on sat urday night group singing some planned with mimeographed song sheets and others spontaneous was a part of the bill in many of the fra ternities most houses provided dates for the rushees a majority also provided music some played records for dancing while pick up combos comprised of house members sprang up in others at last 10 houses hired bands one house held square dancing sessions another a campus house took its guests sled riding on the mountain others served midnight snacks games were standard bill-of-fare for some of the fraternities while others treated their guests to a mo vie most houses avoided violating dean hayes memo by moving off campus with their weekend enter tainment these parties held in barns and skating areas were de scribed as great by the visiting frosh a few fraternities took their charges to town pubs after the wrestling matches others went barn-partying and skating at various places where they could imbibe in peace sunday afternon comments were varied some proclaimed the new party conditions beneficial to rush ing others a majority claimed that their selling job was hindered by their inability to serve beer etc a spokesman for one north side house stated that you can't have a good party without alcoholic bever see parties page 10 after 54 years as a fraternity at lehigh the nu chapter of phi sigma kappa will build a new house in sayre park on the campus with the ground-breaking set for the alumni weekend in june phi sig which has had over 400 men in its ranks since its in - stitution at lehigh is continu ing a trend in fraternity build the radio voice of lehigh univer sity wlrn temporarily left the air at noon saturday in compliance with a letter from the dean's office the suspension of activities is for an indefinite period the temporary termination of broadcasting at the 640 spot on campus radios is necessary in order to check the status of the power lines and to determine what remedial steps if any are needed to control any excessive radiation that may be present the edict from dean byron c hayes came after the federal com munications commission had check ed the station lines last wednesday afternoon and notified the dean that a thorough check of the radiation problem would be advisable the fcc is currently examining all members of the ibs network under wlrn's present setup the station programs are carried to the various parts of the university over ines which are only 30 per cent efficient with 70 per cent of the transmitting power lost to radiation according to george ryerson sta tion manager a coaxial cable which has proven to be 90 per cent efficient in use was suggested by ryerson as a so lution to the transmitting problem however the problem will be sub mitted to the electrical engineering department for consideration and there is a possibility that they may come up with another solution stat ed ryerson the coaxial cable would cost an estimated 1000 and would require a week or more to in stall ing on the campus within the past two years sigma chi and sigma phi have built new houses on the campus and at the moment kappa alpha and theta kappa phi have had fund-raising drives for the same purpose most of this building progress is made possible through a plan by which the board of trustees helps finance the new houses in the case of phi sig the university has ad vanced 75,000 to the campaign which is one-half of the total re quired amount university officials expect the building trend to continue so that someday all lehigh men can be housed on south mountain the university itself will build a new 340-man dormitory in the near fu ture according to edward a cur tis 25 who is co-chairman of the project and also a member of the university alumni fund raising 1 committee the new house will be completed early in 1956 curtis stated that the money for the house has been almost raised he said that the entire project will cost 150,000 the nu chapter will replace the cross-town residence which is ex tremely overcrowded and in poor physical condition it will be locat ed near the phi gamma delta house on a curve in the sayre park road designed by jens fredrick see phi sigs page 11 brown and wh ite the friday evening snowstorm apparently signalled the beginning of the car-mating season this was the snowy scene in front of pack ard lab during the storm with bill dean 57 stalking off at the left and gary tinkham 58 watching in apparent amusement this is the architect's conception of the phi sigma kappa fraternity house to be built in sayre park construction of the structure will be gin this june and its completion is expected by february of 1956 see scl page 3