Brown and White Vol. 106 no. 44

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 106 no 44 tuesday april 27 1999 all the lehigh news first grain alcohol banned by liquor control board by jennifer keenan assistant news editor vice provost john smeaton thinks the ban could reduce binge drinking on campus the pennsylvania liquor control board enacted a ban on the sale of grain alcohol in the state april 19 you can easily match up the college communities with the statistics plcb chairman john jones ju said it's a cheap high octane drink labels on the bottles even tell you it's flammable vice provost john smeaton supports the ban it seems grain alcohol tends to lead to abuse there is no middle ground because of the extent and inherent abuse to which students are drinking it smeaton said the problem with grain alcohol is that it has no taste and that is considered dangerous when it's 190 proof students may not even be aware they are drinking it and that could lead to over-consumption the plcb said the sale of grain is highest in college towns selling the most in the state is the liquor store clos est to lehigh the wine & spirits shoppe the store sold 642 bottles this year which was 15 percent higher than the second leading store in 1990 state liquor stores removed bottles of grain from the shelves and made them only available upon request sales declined at first but slowly rose as people realized all they had to do was ask we were not actually aware of the significant use of grain because it had not come up in the surveys as a signif icant problem smeaton said the beverage of choice seems to be beer smeaton thinks the ban can possibly reduce binge drink ing but not eliminate it since students pick beer as their choice beverage the university previously banned the use of grain alco hol more than a decade ago in 1988 the ban was a result of a long discussion with students and alumni about alcohol related problems smeaton said at the time grain was a big concern and students seemed to be having a lot of negative experiences with it we could find no good use for grain also banned at that time were hotels scorpion bowls and organized drinking games in addition the university made it a rule that no alcohol could be served between 2 a.m sunday and 4 p.m friday or after 2 a.m both friday and saturday even though the ban in 1988 was not very successful smeaton is still confident project impact will work project impact is about creating a healthier and safer environment we are doing this through awareness efforts and additional programs so the social life does not focus on alcohol he said so to focus on the lack of success of one policy can not really determine the success of project impact smeaton said currently grain is banned in ohio and new york but not in new jersey there is some speculation that students may drive across the state border to phillipsburg to buy the alcohol even though transporting alcohol across state lines is illegal it depends on the motivation of students if they are deeply interested in it there's nothing that can stop them from driving 12 miles to get it smeaton said removing grain alcohol from the shelves will create a loss of 3 1 1 000 a year in sales it will continue to be sold to hos pitals that use it for medicinal purposes and companies that use it to clean machinery if a person is found possessing grain alcohol within the state they will be fined 25 a bottle and could serve up to 90 days in prison class of 00 officers are announced by jessica engel news writer new class officers for the 1999-2000 school year have ideas ranging from more senior week activities to more flexible library and health center hours each said they are ready and willing to take an active role on campus by listening to students in order to better the university as a whole the new senior class officers are jay clemens president gregg hilzer vice president bryan perler treasurer and kelly collins secretary perler is a class officer for the third year a member of delta tau delta fraternity and its executive board he is looking forward to getting a lot done next year one of perler's main responsibilities is finding a commencement speaker every one wants by conducting a mass polling of b&w photo by amanda henry members of university productions l to r sharon chinthrajah 00 erin willey 01 alexis glunz 01 and caroline streicher 01 helped out at sundaze saturday afternoon at sayre field four bands performed at the event see page 7 see officers page 6 qffl*r the average person laughes about 13 times each day source sbt.bhmedia.com global science projects spark interest and push boundries see page 9 science 9-11 science briefs 11 sundaze 99 attracted a record crowd to sayre field saturday see page 7 news 1-8 world news briefs 2 art exhibit 3 greek week 4