Brown and White Vol. 114 No. 43

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 114 no 43 friday april 6 2007 all the lehigh news first urban studies prof to retire after 42 years by caitlin kingsley news writer amidonian a student who has taken even one class with professor dave amidon although this word cannot be found in any dictionary or googled on the internet chris marshall executive director of the lehigh alumni association considers himself one we call ourselves ami donians not in any weird religious sect or political party kind of way ... just in a mutual common respect for the profes sor the teacher and the man said marshall a former amidon student but with the coming of pro fessor amidon's retirement after the fall 2007 semester there will be few new amidonians many say amidon has made a name for himself during his time at lehigh amidon started at lehigh in 1965 as a history instructor like many other social science teachers amidon said the plan was to soon complete his doc torate but instead he became too involved with teaching after five years and still without a thesis amidon was removed from the history de partment instead of being fired amidon said he was given ex traordinary academic freedom i was on my own a one man operation amidon said i was given the freedom to decide what courses i wanted to offer and when amidon said his job was good and bad the freedom and lack of supervision were an advantage but amidon suffered what he called rotten raises and a lack of a department to defend him with his newfound freedom amidon had to create a job for himself he began teaching two introductory urban stud ies courses and an upper-level course on the history of phila delphia amidon also wanted to preserve his interest in ethnic groups and eventually started teaching courses targeted at spe cific groups besides his classes amidon's teaching techniques have also been called unique in the early 1980s he began to switch from essay-style tests to more in depth multiple choice tests i noticed that a problem with education is that students don't do the reading - they pre tend to do the reading which actually may be a useful skill for the future amidon said but i thought it would be a good idea clothesline project aims to stop sexual violence by noel mclaren news writer the clothesline project a program designed to raise awareness about violence to ward women was displayed this week in the university center during the first week of sexual assault awareness month the women's center has taken part in the clothesline project by decorating t-shirts and hanging them in the uc's dining area michelle issadore the faculty head of the clothes line project said hanging the t-shirts in the uc is an eye catching way to bring attention to the issue of violence against women the clothesline project began in cape cod mass in 1990 according to the project's web site as a unique way for women to share their stories the idea of using a clothes line was natural according to the web site doing the laundry was always considered women's work and in the days of close-knit neighborhoods women often exchanged infor mation over backyard fences while hanging their clothes out to dry viewing the shirts on a clothesline educates people b&wphoto by chris ferenzi about violence toward women offers support to women suffer ing in silence and acts as a heal ing tool according to the web site by hanging the shirt on the line survivors friends and fami ly can literally turn their back on some of that pain of their experi ence and walk away it says shirts are decorated and color coded to show the form of abuse and whether the victim survived for example red pink and orange shirts represent sur vivors of rape and sexual assault for more information about the clothesline project visit www.clotheslineproject.org t-shirts designed to raise awareness about violence toward women hang in the university center the display was part of sexual assault awareness month which runs during april athletic council attempting to improve community by gaby saade news writer fanatical sports fans screaming at athletics events stu dents scampering to buy the last tickets before an event is sold out and large crowds swarming through the south side to stand up for a righteous cause all bound by school spirit a student would rarely come across a scene like this at any lehigh event today but trying telling that to the stu dent athlete council which is committed to build a sense of community among lehigh campus organizations the sac is a committee of captains from each of le high's intercollegiate teams who meet with various depart ments to discuss student-athlete issues and concerns the committee is pursuing a new initiative to create unity among lehigh's campus plans to write a pledge of commitment a renewal process to engage underclassmen student athletes and spirit week the pilot event to test lehigh's capability to show school spirit julie sterrett 07 president of the sac is the pioneer of this initiative we have the ability to make an impact if we really want to sterrett said we just have to have the right moti vation and enthusiasm sterrett said she wants to see more students and faculty take pride in lehigh and show support for all the organiza tions on campus she said she has heard students talk about the lack of support campus organizations have for one an other and it is time to take action to resolve these issues to accomplish more school pride the sac designed spirit week to promote unity among athletics greek orga nizations charity multicultural and faculty events theatre productions and inaugural ceremonies the calendar of events features campus programs from april 11 to april 18 the beauty of spirit week is that we are not schedul ing or creating any brand new events mcl lepko 07 said instead we are highlighting various events that have already been planned and are going to promote and publi cize using the spirit week calendar sterrett said the sac has organized this calendar to en courage student attendance and ensure that the entire le high community is aware of what is occurring on campus i would like to see a lot of attendance at these events and really show support stefanie forlenza 07 said i think it will make a lot of noise forlenza said she hopes this year's spirit week is the first of many and will keep growing in years to come according to spirit week chair greg horn 07 the see amidon page 5 see spirit page 2 psychologist j baseball team check online discusses internet % - \ preys on owls for breaking addiction at home news page 9 1j page 20 bw.lehigh.edu