Brown and White Vol. 99 no. 14

              the brown and white vol 99n0.14 tuesday october 29 1991 lehigh university havel arrives at lehigh by marc j goldstein brown and white assistant news editor czechoslovakia eagerly wants to learn about the foundations of the 200-year old law-based society of the united states said czechoslovakian president vaclav havel in stabler arena saturday it is clear who can learn more from whom given the circumstances we from you said havel the sixth lecturer in the cohen international relations lecture series and the first head of state to visit lehigh while in office next year has been proclaimed in my country a year of teaching and educa tion havel said through an interpreter i hope that you will come to teach us how to build a decent and humane world for all citizens havel's speech to approximately 2,900 people followed a ceremony to award him moravian college's highest award the comenius medallion and an honor ary doctor of humane letters degree from lehigh the lehigh and moravian ceremo nies were combined because heavy morn ing fog delayed for several hours havel's landing at the airport vaclav havel has inspired the world's people and vaclav havel has touched the universal longing for freedom jus tice and peace said moravian president roger martin lehigh president peter likins said we all hunger for heroes individuals that become larger than life ... today we welcome to lehigh university one of the most authentic heroes in the world to day likins zdenek slouka the cohen professor of international relations and professor of economics arthur king traveled to czechoslovakia in 1990 to discuss the role of higher education in the newly forged republic slouka who is recovering from a re cent heart attack and will soon undergo heart surgery left the hospital to greet havel at the airport and attend his lec ture the two countrymen were friends in czechoslovakia before slouka left for america b»w photo by jason stanford the colors of fall campus is alive with autumn's brilliant hues and falling leaves what causes these phenomena see sciencepages page 5 handicapped triathlete encourages excellence by toriano boynton brown and white asst news editor six years ago a motorcycle accident threw yale football star jim maclaren 89 feet from his bike and doctors pro nounced him dead on arrival at bcllevue hospital in new york city several attempts were made to restart maclaren's heart but just before doctors threw in the towel a miraculous spark of energy quivered maclaren's lifeless body maclaren fought from within he was not ready to die after 18 hours of surgery and six days in a coma maclaren lived to tell his story maclaren now a success ful actor who has appeared on the top-rated sitcom a dif ferent world shared his in spirational story with lehigh students thursday in packard laboratory as a part of na tional collegiate alcohol awareness week oct 21-27 the program was sponsored in part by healthy u an organization that promotes wellness on campus in his speech finding the excellence in us maclaren talked about a unique source of energy that we all possess you can discover the innate will we all have to survive and how you can tap into that will he said the manhattan beach ca native confessed that after the motorcycle accident his life has not been the same it was like being an infant again like being born again you don't know what you're capable of maclaren said all i knew is that i was alive i'm not superhuman and i'm not a hero i know that will to survive is in all of us before the accident maclaren was 6 5 and weighed 295 pounds he is now 195 pounds and his left leg has been partially amputated he no longer can play football but he said he takes advantage of his most prized gift the gift of life each of us is missing a limb somewhere mine is visible he said doctors predicted mac laren's recovery to be slow and painful i was released from the hos pital in 11 days my competi tiveness from football ruled my life so i said i'm not going to be in the hospital for five months i'm getting out of here maclaren said maclaren's next stop was the kessler institute in west or ange n.j there he began the extensive and involved process of rehabilitation to get accus tomed to having half of his left leg about a year after the acci dent it finally hit me that i would be like this for the rest of my life maclaren said i didn't compare myself to the way i used to be something inside me told me that i had to go on i had to start a new life building a new life was no easy task for maclaren after going through stages of depres sion heavy drinking and obe see czech page 3 see athlete page 2