Brown and White Vol. 97 no. 11

              the brown and white lehigh university bethlehem pennsylvania vol 97 - no 11 friday october 11 1985 215 861-4181 phi psi denied recognition by ifc by stuart m silberman after two years of fighting for university recognition the phi kappa psi colony was officially denied en , trance to the interfratemity council at a special meeting held tuesday night ifc president howard goldstein said the vote was not only for ac ceptance as a member of the ifc but also for a recommendation to the dean of students office for university recognition phi psi president david lerner said we're a little disappointed but we kind of expected it lerner explained that three years ago gary angstadt executive director for phi kappa psi national fraternity spoke to then coordinator of greek affairs larry philippi about forming a colony at lehigh although there is no written evidence angstadt claimed that philippi never explained there might be a problem with university recognition of a new fraternity lerner said there may be problems with housing but philippi never gave any indication of the problems with recognition lerner said he added that most of the phi psi brothers joined the house even though they knew there was a chance that they might not be officially recognized goldstein explained that the decision was made in two parts on oct 1 , the members of phi psi had an op portunity to present reasons for ad mittance to the ifc to fraternity presidents at a regularly scheduled ifc meeting at this meeting the presidents participated in a preliminary round of questioning 1 . , then at a special ifc meeting tuesday the phi psi members were available to answer a second round of questions goldstein explained that this procedure was followed so that the presidents could discuss the matter with their houses it was a really good discussion goldstein commented adding that thirty out of thirty-one houses were present and the house that was not present sent in a proxy vote " the fraternities voiced a number of concerns such as whether the addition of another house was necessary because of the increasing female ratio according to goldstein rush was the major concern especially to the off-campus houses after the questions the phi psi brothers left so the discussion could continue and the vote could be taken goldstein explained that the ifc constitution requires a 90 percent approval to admit a new fraternity to the system which would be twenty seven affirmative votes he said that the results were 11 yes 18 no and 2 abstentions eleven yes votes was pretty good lerner said a lot of people had their minds made up before the discussion but we'll be around we're not going to be asking every year but when we're strong enough they'll let us in he also said that their national was stiu backing them and that they'll be there when we try again lerner said he didn't feel the previous intramural cheating incident involving phi kappa psi played any part in the ifc decision all fraternities have to deal with something like that the fraternity see ifc page 4 sammy not guilty of hazing ... w ~^ by stuart m silberm an sigma alpha mv fraternity was found not guilty of hazing at monday's inter fraternity judiciary committee meeting * the charge stemmed from a sept 18 incident where sophomores matthew russo and scott switzer were allegedly blindfolded and driven to hellertown the two were arrested after pushing a car into a road according to lower saucon township police the fraternity was brought up on the formal charge of hazing which according to university anti-hazing policy includes any action taken or situation created intentionally whether on or off the campus to produce mental or physical discomfort according to the lehigh handbook such activities include kidnapping specifically sammy was charged for allegedly kidnapping two pledges sept 18 and leaving them in the riverside drive area of lower saucon township " sammy requested that ijc chairman gary pan step down from the proceeding because he had presided in a case involving the fraternity last year and they felt he would not be im partial in a statement released by acting ijc chairman john mallet the committee failed pv . . ...,-...-,-.-."..;-;-:■;■:■; a x-v to find clear and convincing evidence to prove = the guilt of sigma alpha mu mallet said there was a discrepancy between the lower saucon township police report and the testimony given by the pledges we took in all relevant information including how the pledges testified and did not find enough clear and convincing evidence to find them guilty pledgemaster al bluestine said i'm very happy with the ijc decision i thought it was a fair decision and totally impartial the pledges were just on a scavenger hunt they had pillowcases to collect artifacts because they were arrested for criminal mischief they said it was hazing no brothers were involved except to make up the clues the police said they were kidnapped and blind folded none of that was true bluestine said house president brian okun said the pledges weren't blindfolded or kidnapped...speaking for the house all of the seniors are very happy that we can have parties for the rest of the year pledgemaster larry berlyn stated i was very impressed with the ijc there was a lot of pre-trial publicity and it would have been easy for ijc to ignore the tacts they acted see sammy page 5 >„. < aurj^m^mi cutter sheds light on foreign policies by pete trum bo re editor in chief editor's note the following is a partial transcript of an interview the brown and white conducted with visiting woodrow wilson fellow and former foreign service of ficer curtis cotter cotter served posts in asia and latin america the brown and white what is the united states policy in central america today curtis cutter it appears that their basic concern in central america is the encroachment of communism in the hemisphere they see the problems of central america in that light and they are basically trying to contain what they see as the spread of communism b&w is that a valid concern cutter i think our adversaries in the world arena use whatever circumstance they can but i don't think the basic problem in central america is the problem of communism the problem in central america is one of poverty and long-delayed social change economic problems i think take the forefront and solutions to those problems are what are needed not a sort of a knee-jerk reaction that because these problems exist the com munists are going to use them to take over america or the western hemisphere b*w has the traditional u.s policy of gunboat diplomacy in the region been effective and should that policy now be moved away from cutter if you look at it strictly as a question of power politics and hegemony in the hemisphere as long as you can be top dog i guess it's hard to tight against it even if it might not be the best policy for the long term the truth of the matter is we hve in a very pluralistic world right now no country big or small is going to tie its wagon strictly to the united states and almost all countries that are in the process of development need such enormous inputs of resources that we are not able to supply those alone obviously they are going to look elsewhere to the world bank international financing communities and in some cases to the soviet bloc for assistance i think it's see poverty page 13 - 1 „ . . . . .. . „ „ . ._"■ ■- - -•--•• ■ . ■ . ....... bx-ijh w _ » m '■;'■.■:■' ;■: :■ " .:■. . 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