Brown and White Vol. 107 no. 42

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 107 no 42 tuesday april 18 2000 all the lehigh news first college of business and economics re-accredited for seven more years by stephanie bailer business pages editor the college of business and economics received its reaffirmation of accreditation by the aacsb the international association for management education last month which puts lehigh among only 142 colleges and universities out of 1,200 united states and canadian institutions that are accredited in business as well as accounting this accreditation shows that we are an elite school richard durand dean of the college of business and economics said we provide quality up-to-date education for our students the aacsb has accredited lehigh for the next 10 years retroactive to 1997 when the process began which means the board believes a business degree from lehigh will be competitive with degrees from other top business schools like the university of pennsylvania's wharton school of business and harvard university until the year 2007 when durand began his tenure at lehigh last june he had to jump into preparation for this accreditation which began in 1997 and ended in october i spent a lot of time getting the final stages done he said lehigh was evaluated on curriculum faculty resources admissions degree requirements library and computer facilities financial resources and intellec tual climate the process is voluntary for schools that want to undergo continual improvement durand said the faculty has played an integral part in all of the college's achievements bursar's resignation under suspicion by eli conner questions have arisen as to handling of craig wood's removal from bursar position editor at large denise blew lehigh's treasurer and former bursar craig wood's immediate superior told wood to resign when he arrived at a march 15 meeting wood said when asked about wood's departure blew said it is inappropriate to comment on personnel matters wood said he had a good idea what was going to happen when he was called to the meeting i wasn't surprised wood said had anyone warned me in advance no did i see the writing on the wall yes wood said he could tell it was coming because certain people began reacting to him differently there was such a distance and a lack of concern over his medical condition wood said wood who had been the bursar since 1990 was diag nosed with cardiomyopathy a type of heart disease in spring of 1999 in wood's case the cardiomyopathy is caused by a degenerative muscle condition similar to mus cular dystrophy his superiors were aware of his condition they wanted me to sign some papers but i would n't i told them to put them all in an envelope which i then gave to my attorney to look at in case i was being accused of something he said wood said he did not look at the papers and they are now in the possession of his attorney i'm not sure of the actual reasons if there were any wood said according to wood he asked if he could be the one to tell his staff that he was leaving he was told he could not instead wood was told that he wasn't allowed to go back to his office to collect his personal belongings things such as his keys and immediate personal effects were brought to him they got my stuff for me my car keys et cetera wood said he then turned in the keys to his office and left campus wood's voice mail and e-mail accounts were also locked that day he was allowed to return to his office the next evening march 16 to collect his personal files pictures and other belongings at least one lehigh staff person confirms that this is the way the university deals with dismissed employees and has seen people treated in such a manner before blew repeated her previous statement when asked why wood wasn't allowed to return to his office or why he would not be allowed to be the one to tell the staff that he was leaving rhonda gross vice president for administration and blew's superior was unavailable for comment certainly there were better ways to go about this than what they did wood said based on the circumstances i don't think it was warranted but i'm not going to fight to get back into an environment that isn't healthy for me wood felt that the dismissal came at a very inap propriate time two weeks before this happened i said to my boss specifically that i cannot afford to lose my job , the only thing that really disturbs me is the loss of benefits i'm going to have to insure myself now he said wood has asked the president's office for a continua tion of pay and benefits for a reasonable period of time the president's office has not responded to his request wood is concerned that if he must buy additional insurance now he will be required to have a physical which he said he could not pass his condition would be termed as a pre-existing condition which could mean it wouldn't be covered or he could be denied health cov erage completely marc mugnos 00 who has been an advisee of wood for the past four years was surprised by wood's sudden dismissal i was just shocked mugnos said i don't see why there was such an immediate need for him to be removed and it seems that no one at lehigh has an answer for that mugnos said wherever he goes he will make them successful it will be lehigh's loss and their gain photo courtesy of kate ball an unlucky challenger is defeated at crow's gladiator's competition thursday proceeds went to benefit the juvenile diabetes organization see cbe page 10 the spines on a newborn hedgehog start to appear within 24 hours source http://www.uselessknowl edge.com nasdaq scholar-in residence ken french 75 discussed e-tailers april 5 see page 11 business 11-13 corporate inequality 1 1 greek week events captured through photos see pages 4-6 news 1-10 world news briefs 2 jon stewart 7 feminist panel 8 hawks sweep double headers against lafayette and wagner colleges sports 1 7-20 jaron taaffe 20 women's tennis 20 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