Brown and White Vol. 114 No. 9

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 114 no 9 tuesday october 3 2006 all the lehigh news first tenants fight landlord charges by olivier lewis senior news writer more than 35 off-campus students said fasnacht prop erty management unfairly billed them this summer ac cording to interviews and e-mails given to the brown and white fpm is a local rental company that owns more than 100 south side properties one e-mail sent by ryan siu 06 to more than 440 recipients lists 36 student complaints tyler spencer 06 who settled in a case against fpm last month said a group of student tenants started e-mail ing each other toward the end of may the group consisted of students who had or were cur rently renting houses from fpm as the leases ended some students were surprised to receive repair or cleaning charges spencer said they corresponded via e-mail to gather information from one another spencer said fpm billed him 934 for damages clean ing and water bills the company would not show them the water bills spencer said although they weren't the cleanest kids and that some of the charges were valid they left the house the way they found it both siu and fasnacht refused to comment according to tenants landlords face off for rights april 5 2005 in the brown and white fasnacht said students failed to grasp the costs of minor repairs students don't realize the extent involved in repairing a hole in the wall or repainting a room fasnacht said they're going to say they bought a gallon of black paint for 30 at home depot why am i charging 300 to paint their black room back to white well now i'm going from a black wall to two coats of primer and then paint and i have to hire someone to do it dale kochard executive director of community and regional affairs said he thought some of fasnacht property management's acts were suspicious i don't have enough years here to tell you that this is unique kochard said but there seems to be much more activity because of the number of students that have contacted us there seems to be something going on there i don't know what triggered it but according to the local district court and dean of students sharon basso the number of complaints has not risen magisterial district judge nancy matos gonzalez said there were 20 complaints against fasnacht property management in 2005 and five complaints in 2006 as of august i haven't seen an increase or a spike basso said mike palos the chief of the bureau of housing for the city of bethlehem christina bell the associate director of students discuss stereotyping by comedians by chris kohler news writer students discussed racial comedy and the perpetuated stereotypes it creates during a presentation in packard audito rium on wednesday the lecture why is ev eryone laughing presented the audience with various clips from several stand-up comedi ans such as dave chappelle carlos mencia rodney car rington gary owen and others by showing the audience these clips the facilitators hoped to spark conversation on the topic of race while present ing the stereotypes in the vari ous shows although the point of the presentation was not to criti cize comedians brandon ice a residence coordinator at the university of miami said the presentation makes students think twice about the shows method of delivery if students are laughing it might be helpful for them to understand why they are laugh ing ice said the speakers hoped to show how such types of com edy can potentially influence thoughts about others the lecture was the kickoff event of the conversation on race series participants in the series will meet with trained facilitators for two hours a week in a six week period through dialogue par ticipants will explore race and racism considering multiple and varying viewpoints alta thornton assistant dean of multicultural affairs was one of the developers of the conversations on race series which began at indiana univer sity bloomington in 2000 the rest of the semester will include the actual series itself thornton said students commit to a two-hour session each week for six consecutive weeks and we will have one large wrap-up session with as many participants can attend at the end the lecture featured three speakers ty crisman a com munity development educa tor at new york university thomas bell a resident director at the university of vermont and brandon ice residents upset about trash noise off campus by leigh gilsenen senior news writer students living off campus received a letter from the uni versity about an increase in complaints from bethlehem residents on sept 15 the letter which did not go to all off-campus students but only to the biggest problem areas stated residents were complaining about loud noise and trash generated from parties michael palos chief of bu reau of housing said residents usually have many complaints about student behavior in the first month of school then it settles down he also said the past two years have been the worst in regards to resident complaints about student behavior in the south side palos said complaints include damaged property excessive trash and public urination according to john smea ton vice provost for student b&w photo by john conner affairs complaints came main ly from east fifth street and hillside avenue he also said since the letter has gone out he is not aware of any more complaints it is an issue that often surfaces in the fall semester smeaton said this particular circumstance was more severe in recent years the complaints in past years have generally focused trash and noise pollution on east fifth street and hillside avenue caused the university officials to send a letter to off-campus residents about complaints from bethlehem residents see race page 4 see complaint page 4 see landlord page 5 morning after pill bf men's soccer team speaker discusses to be available m beats american sex ratio imbalance over the counter 4-0 in asia page 7 **>? page 16 bw.lehigh.edu