Brown and White Vol. 114 No. 31

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 114 no 31 tuesday february 13 2007 all the lehigh news first new diversity positions created by lisa luzzi news writer lehigh administrators have chosen professor jeffrey fleischer as the director of the joint multicultural pro gram and are continuing in their nationwide search for a director of the lgbtqa services on campus this recent round of hiring is part of presi dent gast's response to the list of demands by the movement fleischer is a major asset in helping the university promote a more welcoming environment to all stu dents faculty and staff vice provost for student af fairs john smeaton said he will work closely with the office of multicultural affairs career services alumni association africana and latin american studies and other faculty and university offices in his position he will act as a liaison between students and faculty the goal fleischer said is to bridge the work that happens on the faculty and student affairs sides of the university to achieve this goal he said his office will sponsor programs that encourage all students to think about and engage with issues of diversity as they do for example in the conversations on race program in addition the joint multicultural program spon sored a pre-orientation program titled south beth lehem experience which allows students to get to know the surrounding community and begin to break down the invisible division between the university and the south side fleischer said fleischer said the program is committed to advanc ing diversity and improving the experience of multi cultural students on campus one of our main aims is to ensure that students of color share in the complete lehigh experience fleischer said and helping them to achieve their de sired intellectual and personal goals he suggests this can be achieved by improving the overall climate at lehigh which can be done through programs helping students of color and connecting ethnic racial representation of class of 2010 b&w design by vicki danta the class of 2010 is largely white according to statistics from the admissions web site nearly 25 percent of members of the class of 2010 are from minority backgrounds sixty-eight percent of the class is white diversity effort falling short of integration students say by marjan maghbouleh another typical nigger this is what one student wrote on the dry-erase board hanging on his dorm room door referring to hall mate calvinjohn smiley 08 the nigger just needs to get over it and stop living in the past another stu dent said to smiley at a party referring to all black people smiley said these are regular occur rences he said he constantly experi ences racism bigotry and stereotypes at lehigh it's the real world he said and whatever college you go to you'll prob ably face that i got in two different fights freshman year that were stemmed off of racism sources of segregation even after the administration's recent efforts at diversity one aspect of lehigh life remains constant the division be tween races nayla raad a graduate student and co-founder of the movement said she thinks students tend to keep to their own social groups if you talk to underrepresented students on campus i bet you most of them will say they've tried hard to in editorial pages editor teract with someone of a different race she said but their reactions have been hostile or disinterested and it's exhaust ing to constantly have to approach people and prove to them that you're not what they think you are during raad's freshman year her friends asked her about her plans for christmas we're gonna be in new jersey they said we should all meet up but raad didn't get the chance to respond oh wait you don't celebrate christ mas her friends said racial slur use demeans blacks discussion finds by kaitlin kelly news writer in a discussion wednesday on the use of the word nigger by both blacks and whites speakers condemned the casual and hateful uses of the phrase in society john mcknight residence life coordinator for warren square and taylor residential college began the talk with information on the history of the word and why people use it today mcknight said some blacks use the word because they believe it gives them the power they lost during slavery but he doesn't believe the word should be used william scott professor and director of the afri cana studies program said he does not understand why some blacks use the word fondly to me it's extremely demeaning he said you're fooling yourself by thinking you can convert the meaning changes in the use of the word may be related to its use by younger people scott said our feelings about the word may have a lot to do with our generation he said it was the word that was used to refer to us when they took our rights away it's hard for those of us who have those memo ries in our backgrounds to see how it can be referred to as a term of endearment scott also said the use of the word may hurt black morale maybe at a deep level we really think of our selves as niggers he said before using the word people should ask themselves what role that plays in taking us from this point to the next point scott said using the word as a term of endear ment may weaken the argument that certain people shouldn't use it i wonder if we begin to lose the right to be of fended he said what gives us the right to be of fended if it's a word you use on a common basis i think that's a hard argument to make alta thornton interim assistant dean of students see positions page 2 see diversity page 3 see n-word page 7 finding true love at lehigh page 9 ul^ta^fe i i wrestling team wins big against rutgers army page 20 check online for breaking news bw.lehigh.edu