Brown and White Vol. 114 No. 32

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 114 no 32 friday february 16 2007 all the lehigh news first faculty vote to endorse new college by megan schatzman news writer after considerable debate the proposal to cre ate a new themed college south mountain col lege passed in its entirety following a faculty vote monday afternoon in sinclair auditorium the approval moves the project one step closer to its goal of implementation in the fall of 2007 with the faculty vote secured south mountain college will become a college within the college of arts and sciences smc will be a community of students and faculty that will explore how to solve real-world problems and delve into ideas that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries the plan is that smc will provide students with an innovative intellectual experience chal lenging them to think outside the box in a non traditional way smc promotes a self-directed experience in which students assume responsibility for their own education the exploratory nature of smc will come from students ability to decide which topics to study and how to study the content the program will begin every august when south mountain college mountaineers consist ing of students and faculty meet for a retreat the goal of the retreat will be to identify one or two themes for the semester that will be the basis for study after admission into the college smc students will declare a major in a regular discipline but their curriculum will differ from that of a student in one of lehigh's other colleges smc students will be required to devote one-third of their total credit hours to fulfill requirements for a major one-third will be devoted to south mountain col lege seminars courses activities and projects and the remaining third can be used for free electives library to reopen after two-year renovations by rachel charlesworth news writer after 19 million worth of renova tions to the historic building linder man library is scheduled to reopen at 8:30 a.m on march 19 the formal opening ceremonies will take place during the may 17 dedication which coincides with alumni weekend and the board of trustees meeting president gast plans to greet people on opening day at the doors of the library followed by tours of the reno vated building in addition free coffee and handouts of the library's layout will be available at the event linderman was originally scheduled to reopen in january but the opening was delayed by three months because the work could not be completed in that time anthony corallo associate vice president of facilities services and cam pus planning said the original goal was too ambitious at some point reality sets in he said corallo said the renovations were necessary from a technical standpoint the building had to be brought up to code for fire safety and wheelchair ac cess and the library also needed better storage for books b&w photo by andrew miear there is no doubt that linderman was great corallo said but there were necessary things that had to be done corallo said the general feeling of linderman has not changed despite the renovations he said the library now appears more open and symmetrical lehigh wanted to make linderman into a place where people would enjoy studying as well as socializing he said this goal was completed by the many group study areas and the cafe which will serve assorted breakfast goods pre made sandwiches and coffee renovations to improve the quality and condition of linderman library began more than two years ago the building was originally set to open in january but because of delays the library will now reopen on march 19 campus climate survey results shared in forum by alison stravitz survey results 11 percent said they have expe rienced something affecting their ability to work or live on campus 17 percent said they experienced discriminatory conduct 31 percent of people observed some sort of harassment on campus 82 people reported being sexually assaulted at lehigh ■ results of survey taken last semester show that while some students may feel comfortable with the campus climate many say the school has long way to go news writer the results of the campus climate survey long touted by administrative officials as the first step toward improv ing diversity and easing climate tensions were shared for the first time tuesday night by the senior research associ ate of rankin & associates in packard auditorium sue rankin said a concentrated effort was made to hear the voices of those who are not the majority students who answered are mostly in the white catego ry she said thinking about all findings as the majority findings and in a lot of studies that's what we usually find what the majority is seeing rankin said more than 3,000 people submitted answers to the climate survey the highest response rate she's seen the survey said many students at lehigh have never experienced or witnessed anything that might interfere with the ability work or learn on campus a large portion of the campus however still does not feel the classrooms are welcoming rankin said you have half the people both students and faculty who feel that the classroom climate they work in is not wel coming she said eleven percent of people who responded said they experienced something that affected their ability to work see college page 5 see library page 6 see survey page 3 lehigh plans mm 4jli k men's lacrosse check online future of phone team t0 ace °" or snow system tj against delaware photos page 7 [ page 16 bw.lehigh.edu