Brown and White Vol. 96 no. 10

              the brown and white lehigh university bethlehem pennsylvania vol 96 no 10 tuesday october 9 1984 215 861-4184 pi lam appeal dismissed by pete trumbore pi lambda phi fraterni ty's appeal of the disci pline committee's verdict m their hearing has been denied by the faculty appeals committee the committee's decision was released to the brown and white at 10 30 this morning by pi lam associate dean of students robert cohen refused to release the decision as did appeals committee chairman and pro fessor of economics robert mills the fraternity was placed on both social and disciplinary pro bation for the duration of the academic year and is prohi bited from having alcohol m the house or at any of their func tions after being found guilty of four violations of the university code of conduct by the disci pline committee pi lam filed a four-point appeal citing instances of alleged denial of due process by the university the fraternity charged that the university mis used the fraternity file m the sanctioning that there were no rebuttal witnesses for the defense that the hearing panel acted outside its authority m making the sanctions and that the sanctions were too severe for the offenses the committee ruled that the use of the fraternity file m mak ing the sanctions was done m accordance with the university code of conduct and thus did not constitue a denial of due process it also ruled that the fraterni ty's claim that rebuttal wit nesses were not present at the hearing was pi lam's responsi bility and that they were • informed at the pre-trial hear ing of their right to have rebut tal witnesses present the committee also decided that the hearing panel acted within its authority when mak ing the sanctions and the sever ity of the sanctions themselves did not constitute a denial of due process we will follow the sanc tions whether we agree with them or not pi lam president eric hoffman said rules and standards drafted by chris palmeki in the first of two open hearings forum xv presented a draft of the rules and standards which could replace the university's current social policy pending the board's approval on oct 19 the purpose of the open hearings according to chaplain hugh flesher co-chairman of the social policy subcommittee is that anybody can walk m and speak their mind about 20 stu dents faculty members and administrators attended chaplain flesher said that the new policy will not be a repeat of the current social regulations imposed by the board of trustees there is an entirely different spirit here the rules and stand ards are creatd by the students rather than imposed upon them they are much more posi tive specific details currently included m the social regulations and interfraternity council ifc rules such as the time limit to serve alco hol and the limit on numbers of registered parties would be omitted or rather left to the judgement of the individual houses there have been two rules and eight standards suggested thus far the first rule would require groups to register parties to aid the campus police groups that register their parties would have them listed m the brown and white unless they would rather not the second rule would ban advertisements that promote irresponsible drinking unlike current regulations which prohibit any mention of alco hol promotion of special drinks would be allowed for example a whiskey sour party would be allowed while a chug till you blow pubnight would not be each of the standards was discussed m detail it was suggested that one standard which says that party themes should not be sexually racially or religiously offensive-be made into a rule other standards suggest that parties be kept to a reasonable size and to hours that would not con flict with study time another standard would remind party hosts that they are responsible for the safety and behavior of all guests tom wheeler co chairman of the social policy subcommittee explained that if a fight breaks out at a fraternity party the president of the house could be sued if someone is injured other standards would be that taps should not be left unsupervised and that attractive and equally accesible non-alcoholic beverages always be available there would also be v standard supporting a closed party weekend every month m which the student organizations ifc panhellenic council residence halls council and student activities council work together to create alternatives to fraternity beer bashes one of the most debated standards suggests that food be served at all time's alcohol is served irs imposes stricter regs on alumni gifts to universities by rhonda stone the internal revenue service irs is cracking down on how tax-deductible money contibuted to educational ogani zations is distributed among living units and specifically to fraternities charged dick metz director of auxiliary services if the fraternity is appreciably more comfortable or appreciably less expen sive than that of other living units including dorms , then a tax-deductible gift to the university that goes to a fra ternity is really a gift to that fraternity and would jeopardize the university's tax-deductible status metz complained according to steve smith manager of fraternity services there are basic designations for organizations for tax purposes there are non-profit organiza tions irs code 501c3 which include fraternities which are tax exempt but are not tax-deductible organizations you can't contribute money to a fra ternity directly and legally claim a tax deduction smith said lehigh on the other hand is an educa tional institution irs code 501c2 and does have tax-deductible status which means that alumni can donate money to lehigh and get a tax deduction because lehigh university owns the fraternities and claims them as resi dence hall buildings smith explained they can accept money from alumni earmarked to fraternities to go into upgrading the houses lehigh offers alumni the opportunity to contribute to fraternities and take advantage of a tax deduction metz said however the university wants to make sure that the use of these funds complies with irs guidelines a three-year program was instituted by lehigh whereby alumni of fraterni ties were allowed to give a gift used for university properties and therefore tax deductible which was earmarked to their chapter house to bring it up to a standard level set by lehigh according to metz the money was raised through alumni of fraternities metz said who called fel low alumni who had donated undesig nated money to lehigh and asked if they would redesignate their contribu tion to their chapter the university gave up a large tail end tb&w photo by dave zellinqer citing unruly student behavior the university hat banned student tailgates in the parking lots by taylor stadium see story below forcing them to move their pre-game festivities elsewhere tailgates banned due to rowdiness by doug grossinger lehigh has decided to prohibit students as of last week from tailgating m taylor stadium parking lots because fraterni ties have gathered there fordrinking sessions that disturb the alumni ticket holders charged assistant athletic director craig anderson anderson stressed that the original intention of the parking lot was to have alumni pay to park and congregate but over the past two years the situation has progressively worsened because of raucous students and a dearth of space to fit the partiers after a meeting attended by anderson athletic director william leckonby , dean of students john smeaton and inter fraternity council ifc president marshall wenrich it was decided that the prohibition of student tailgating was the best solution to the problem according to wenrich the prohibi tion extends to the centennial ii and physics lab parking lots m addition to the taylor stadium lots it seems that a sizeable number of alumni had problems watching the game because of the large crowds of students and additionally there were problems with some students walking on top of cars anderson said wenrich added that some fraterity alumni gave parking tickets to fraternity stu dents which compounded the problem wenrich suggested that students use the parking lot opposite the power plant for tailgating purposes because it is really close to the stadium and you can fit a lot of people there see irs page 2 simon bourgin's sched uled visit this week to le high has been cancelled due to health reasons no new date has been set