Brown and White Vol. 98 no. 45

              the brown and white bethlehem pennsylvania v01.98 n0.45 tuesday april 14 1987 215)758-4181 beer blamed for crashes by marisa feltham brown and while desk editor the major problem i saw at greek week was the continual throwing of beer at all the events but especially at bed races mike boyd coordinator of greek affairs said yesterday boyd was annoyed that there were beers thrown at many events throughout the week however he said it is more dangerous at bed races he attributed many of the crashes to drivers not being able to see because of beer while one driver was hit on the head with an empty beer box although he had not seen all the police reports boyd said he was aware of several arrests for summary offences such as van dalism fights and throwing beer at friday's bed races there are usually incidents that do not come to light for a few days he added so it will be a while before all problems are known fortunately there were no major in cidents associate dean of students terrence curran said at the time curran had seen the police reports and stated there were a number of reports that do bring concern he also said another major problem of greek week is students missing classes especially on friday interfraternity council president sean kelly said the week went pretty well but also pointed to beer throwing as a problem kelly said the shorter course for bed races seemed to work well but there were problems with bad construction of beds we will probably suggest new specifications for next year such as requiring the bed have four wheels he said both kelly and boyd commended the 40-50 students and administrators responsible for crowd control at the bed races there was less of a problem keeping people off the road than in the past boyd said neither kelly nor boyd felt free to discuss possible changes for future greek weeks since there has not been a chance for them to meet with each other as well as dean of student john smeaton to discuss the week's events b4w photo by young hong the beastie boys rapped over pre-recorded music to the wednesday-night stabler arena crowd story page 7 history prof parallels aids to past plagues by catherine clinton brown and white news writer the aids epidemic and its effects on society are similar in many ways to the cholera and yellow fever outbreaks of the 1800s according to history professor john ellis a specialist on medicine disease and epidemics in history aids victims of today and plague victims of the past were seen as social undesirables he said according to ellis the great plagues of the 19th century — yellow fever and american-asiatic cholera — struck mainly poor immigrants most native born americans were part of the upper classes and saw the poor as the great unwashed drunken and immoral annual losses to the plague were seen as a manifestation of god's will ellis said the truth was they were merely more susceptible to disease because they did not have the natural immunity of the native-born upper classes he explained ellis said people today wrongly perceive the personal difficulties of homosexuals and intravenous drug users as anothei manifestation of god's will they regard these high-risk groups as deserving of their problems and not worthy of medical treatment or concern in his opinion this is an expression of the primitive concept of disease as a breach of taboo — a punishment for the breaking of divine law another parallel between aids and the great plagues is society's strong desire to flee from the disease as an example ellis cited the hysterical emigration from new orleans every summer as disease gripped the city the upper classes were the only people with the means to leave their city homes leaving the poor to fend for themselves ellis said the response to aids is a different kind of flight today parents are taking their children out of school for fear of them coming into contact with aids-infected children and blood donations have drastically decreased due to a fear that donors can catch aids health officials and newspapers in the 19th century often covered up the extent of the plagues in their cities new orleans for example did not want to scare away its commerce and tourism they hushed up the fact until it couldn't be denied ellis said and they were overwhelmed by their own deceit ellis said this is similar to aids today and suspects the number of actual cases of the disease is nowhere near the estimates he explained that cover-ups have occurred to some extent due to human nature and pressure from the gay community when discoveries about the disease were first made the medical com munity did not know what they were competitiveness topic of talks bymarygreczyn brown and white chief desk editor the conference on in ternational competitiveness a program to discuss lehigh's role in an era of increasingly pervasive global concerns related to international competition is aimed toward an objective to have the university community focus on what we should do to better prepare our students for what's coming ahead according to finance department chairman carl beidleman the conference will be held in neville hall april 23 from 9 a.m to 5 p.m it is intended to bring informed people to the campus in each of the major areas where lehigh has a presence — business engineering arts and science — and have a strong linking with international activity beidleman who co-chaired the con f erence s organizational committee with university trustee william hittinger explained closed circuit television will monitor the proceedings in neville's main auditorium for audiences in the adjacent two auditoriums for a total of 280 people so faculty can move in and out of the two auditoriums without disturbing the main proceedings according to beidleman students planning to attend may register with university events coordinator barbara tallarico in the community relations office we are hoping that faculty will bring whole classes beidleman said the conference will be divided into sessions in which authorities from the lehigh valley and the nation at large will discuss repercussions of international competition to guide lehigh toward for mulating answers to questions raised by several issues i don't think that students are going to come out of the conference transformed university president peter likins said explaining its purpose is to focus on the questions what should we do after the conference he said it's important not to expect the conference to resolve the questions it asks but to elevate the awareness throughout the campus of needs to address the _. msi b aw photo by kathleen gorman indian composer/sitarist ravi shankar improvised the entertainment friday night in grace hall see conference page 4 see aids page 5