Brown and White Vol. 104 no. 32

              the brown and white lehigh university '_• student newspaper founded in 1894 vo l 04 no 32 friday february 28 1997 * all the lehigh news first campus crime continues to fall by patrick doherty news editor campus crime has declined for the second straight year according to the summary report issued by the campus police the uniform crime report charts crime over a three-year period dividing crimes into two categories based on the serious ness of the offenses this year's report showed a three-percent drop from 1995 to 1996 which followed a 28-per cent drop from 1994 john smeaton vice provost for student affairs said he is encouraged by the drop in the crime rate we had a precipitous decline two years ago and a continuing decline last year smeaton said smeaton also pointed out that the drop may have been greater because his office and the campus police encourage students to report crimes that occur the number of crimes actually reported in recent years reflect a greater portion of the crimes committed than they had recog nized in previous years the ucr is divided into two sections one section lists serious felonies such as homicide rape and theft the second section lists less serious crimes such as van dalism and alcohol violations the ucr gives absolute crime figures as well as rates per 1,000 in 1996 vandalism and theft together accounted for 63 percent of the crimes reported alcohol related offenses such as public drunkenness and driving under the influence accounted for another 20 percent of the reports smeaton said pennsylvania state law began requiring institu tions such as universities to report crime figures for thc preceding three years in 1988 a similar federal law was passed in 1991 lehigh however was well ahead of the national trend and began issuing the ucr in 1982 the ucr is available to any student prospective student lehigh employee and anyone applying for employment b&w photo by mike weiss kristin schubert 97 and kelly stelsing 97 enjoy all of the comforts of home in their trembley park apartment changes in housing accomodate students by tracy tumminello news writer the residential environment report called for a change in this year's housing lottery selection process by guaranteeing on-campus housing to all sophomores the change was approved by the board of trustees because they claimed it was necessary for lehigh to remain competitive with other schools many of which guaran tee housing for four years ozzie breiner associate director of resi dential services said this year they had more sophomores apply for on-campus housing than in past years we felt in order to remain competitive with new students we needed to be able to say we at least guarantee two years of hous ing breiner said we have never given sophomores the option of choosing between residence halls and accepting a bid from a fraternity or sorority before either in previous years students had to proposal for supermarket turned down by m umar rahman news writer lehigh's 17.9 acre property on friedensville road is still available to interested buyers after the bethlehem city council rejected a proposal for a giant supermarket to be built on this land the proposal made for the supermarket and a shopping center by royal ahold was especially popular among residents of saucon village the use proposed by royal ahold delighted students and families living in our adjacent grad uate student housing complex because it offered needed services within walking distance rhonda gross vice president for finance and administration said in order for the agreement between royal ahold and lehigh to stand it was necessary for the city council to rezone the property royal ahold had an option with lehigh to purchase the property contingent on the zoning changes gross said some of the residents of the society hill development in lower saucon township were opposed to the plan because of the effect it would have on the rural setting of the area a shopping center and supermarket would increase the flow of traffic although gross mentioned lehigh is not actively searching for a buyer of the land a few offers are on the table and will be considered within upcoming months we are not actively pursuing a sale of the property but if an appropriate buyer comes along we would consider selling it gross said the present zoning of the land is institutional which means even without the council's approval a hospital medical clinic religious center stu dent facility or a number of other buildings could be constructed royal ahold needed the property to be com mercially zoned in order for the deal to be suc cessful even for residential housing it would be necessary for the bethlehem city council to see crime page 6 see lottery page 6 see property page 6 __»____! __■ "^ ___ s-t i 1 „_ m__________-ti ii i -___--— i for the second time in five years the patriot league basketball tournament comes to lehigh see page 24 sports 20-24 basketball 20 sports briefs 21 golf 23 swimming/diving 24 the student senate has proposed a system of obtaining grades by phone see page 4 news 1-6 world news briefs 2 senate proposal 3 auditions 4 john chen 5 dating violence is not just a national problem see page 7 lifestyle 7-16 culture corner 8 horoscope 9 look who's talking 13 crossword 1 4 not just a face 15 a record low temperature of 128.6 degrees fahrenheit was registered at vostok antarctica on july 21 1983 1997 guinness book of world records