Brown and White Vol. 100 no. 1

              the brown and white vol 100 no 1 lehigh university friday september 11 1992 theta delta chi suspended for hazing by lara cohn news editor theta delta chi fraternity has been sus pended for four years for hazing pledges during the fall 1991 semester the fraternity pled guilty to the charges at a disciplinary hearing in august after ac cepting the guilty plea director of student life mark erickson reviewed the evidence and the fraternity's history of previous haz ing and suspended university recognition of the fraternity for four years for violating the university code of conduct according to erickson a university employee was closing and locking doors in the house after a routine cleaning by an outside contractor this summer in plain view on the floor was a videotape clearly labelled hell night 1991 which was turned in to terrence curran associate dean of student life in a letter to theta delt president mark bovenizer,'93 erickson said there is no doubt that your fraternity forced pledges to engage in a variety of serious hazing activi ties the tape showed forced consumption of food and drink which resulted in vomiting sleep deprivation scavenger hunts blind folding and ridiculing throwing food at pledges line ups and other hazing violations however the tape did not show any activi ties involving drugs sexual perversity al cohol or physical harm according to john beddia 94 an executive officer of theta delt according to erickson the northampton county district attorney s of fice reviewed the tape and felt that the man ner in which it was obtained was legal i think they made the right decision he said erickson said the district attorney felt that it was more appropriate to allow lehigh to press charges internally against the house they knew they were wrong erickson said this is a group who has had prior hazing incidents in 1987 theta delt was brought up on hazing charges in 1991 the house leader ship turned in a hazing-free pledge program the brothers of theta delt felt that al though their behavior was disgusting the house has made a significant change since last fall we are admitting that there was a prob lem beddia said but thought there could have been a more constructive solution rather than a destructive solution erickson said it is always hard to make tough decisions like this erickson said the rationale behind the four-year suspension was to allow a genera tion of students to graduate the fraternity will be able to recolonize in the third year of the suspension beddia said the irony of the situation is that the only guilty class is affected the least while the victims are affected the most at least i had a semester to live in the house he said the pledges never had that chance according to gary kull house corpora tion president the brothers feel that they will be able to bring theta delt back in four years as a stronger and more positive member of the lehigh fraternity system beddia said this decision hurts because it was right in the middle of when our house was making strides to become a betterhouse that's why it hurts so much he said the videotape recorded during twonightsinoctoberof 1991 shows footage of theta delta chi hell week traditions the fraternity appealed the sanctions to a five-member faculty discipline appeals com b&w photo by samantha ganz the vacated theta delta chi fraternity house where the hell week 1991 videotape was found off-campus fire devastates lehigh student residence by julie fishman news writer four lehigh students were rescued from their burning off-campus house by firefighters early sunday morning seniors lydia randolph melissa baker jennifer kochenthal and joanne o ' callaghan were pulled from the second floor of 547 hillside ave after a refrigerator motor exploded the bethlehem fire department received a call from a neighbor at approximately 7 a.m and had the fire under control within 15 minutes a fifth resident jennifer gentile 93 was not home during the incident a firefighter said the four occupants were treated for smoke inhalation by city paramedics baker and randolph were taken to st luke's hospital one bethlehem firefighter was treated for lacerations on the lower arm due to flying glass brad foss 95 , of 560 hillside ave , said that he heard sirens and people screaming outside of his off-campus home at 7:30 a.m i went to my window and saw four girls sitting on their roof foss said there was a lot of dark smoke coming out ofthe windows ofthe house and a fireman was getting a ladder to rescue them the fire resulted in 80,000 worth of damage to the kitchen dining room and living room ofthe first floor as bethlehem man charged with indecent assaults by marc j goldstein managing editor a bethlehem man is being held on 5,000 bail in northhampton county prison charged with the inde cent assault of two female lehigh students on tues one student was walking west on the south side of rauch business center at 9:20 am when a male approached her according to lehitjh police as he passed police said he grabbed her breasts and made an indecent remark the second student was walking east on packard avenue at 9:30 a.m when she wa similarly as_ault_>d the first student reported the incident to tehlgh see fraternity page 8 see arrest page 8 see fire page 8 the battlelines are drawn in the abortion debate section b