Brown and White Vol. 115 No. 2

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 115 no 2 friday september 7 2007 all the lehigh news first delta sig told to leave kappa sig allowed back by larissa staszkiw the 2006-2007 greek accreditation report resulted in the disbandment of the delta sigma phi fraternity delta sig received a poor accredita tion rank for the second year in a row and was requested to leave campus said tim wilkinson director of frater nity and sorority affairs wilkinson said delta sigma phi was making progress in recruitment after low occupancy in 2005-2006 but failed to implement 90 percent of the committee's recommendations after the first poor report wilkinson said when the chapter returned for its second accreditation presentation it told the committee its recommendations were completed but the chapter had not made the nec essary changes it was a tough decision because you never want to see a chapter go wilkinson said but it was also a deci sion that was evident to us because when we look at the recommenda tions and the recommendations aren't complete it's hard to justify why that chapter should be more than a poor chapter mike puopolo 08 former presi dent of delta sig said the chapter is disappointed puopolo said the office of fraternity and sorority affairs had told the chap b&w photo by sara oberrender ter it was making good progress according to puopolo the chapter did not use the accreditation commit tee's suggestions to improve scholar ship and leadership because it was already improving puopolo said the fraternity's gpa was unacceptable for both the fall and spring semesters in the 2005-2006 ac creditation earning a 2.273 gpa in the fall 2006 semester the lowest of all lehigh chapters he noted that the chapter's gpa improved to 2.745 dur ing the spring 2007 semester puopolo said the chapter had a scholarship plan in place and did not the former delta sigma phi fraternity house on the corner of west packer street and birkel avenue is now a residence hall the chapter is no longer recognized by lehigh after two consecutive years of poor accreditation report outlines efforts needed to globalize by desiree annunziato the global lehigh advisory committee is attempting to increase global studies at the university by implementing a more interna tionally-focused educational experience rajan menon an international relations professor and chair of the committee said the committee had one semester to prepare a plan that was creative feasible and compelling menon also said the students were enthusiastic and spent hours at nightly meetings which made the meetings his favorite part of the whole experience goals for the committee include recruiting a greater number of international students adding more international course offerings increasing the study of international languages and encouraging more international program ming he said the hardest part will be imple menting the plan because not all of the goals can be met at once the report describes a required inter national experience or rie which is a mandatory international experience for all undergraduate students including study abroad languages international internships or research abroad menon said this minimum international requirement will give students a choice in or der to avoid cookie-cutting be lehigh-specific and try to accommodate the major require ments of the engineering and business schools the proposed position of vice president for global programs would be put in place by the provost and the president when the committee first began discussion of the report menon said the students at the meetings came up with some of the ideas in the report and that their feedback was used new director to improve campus climate by lisa luzzi â–  timothy gardner will work with faculty and students to improve sexual orientation issues at lehigh timothy gardner was appointed first director of the lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer and ally program started at lehigh in mid-july sharon basso associate vice provost and dean of students said the dean of student's office has been providing support services and programs related to the lgbtqa for some time with the existing staff the time seemed right to expand the staff to ad dress the campus climate which basso said is a uni versity-wide priority according to the climate survey report which was presented to students in february 65 percent of sexual minority students said they have experienced offensive conduct due their sexual orientation the search began last spring when the new lg btqa position was created as a result of the survey a search committee comprised of faculty adminis tration and students reviewed over 100 applicants basso served on the committee with jacqueline matthews associate vice president of human resourc es kristin handler former director of the women's center and professor of computer science and engi neering henry baird hannah stewart-gambino for mer professor of political science and associate dean of the college of arts and sciences also served on the board before leaving university to take a position as dean of lafayette college the candidate the committee was looking for had to have worked as an advocate of issues related to gender identification sexual orientation and broader issues related to campus climate basso said the committee also recommended the candi date have at least three to five years experience knowledge and expertise in lgbtqa issues and an ability to relate to the university community and alumni basso said the committee believed gardner exhibited all of the qualifications set forth by the members we believed he met all of the criteria basso said he was passionate about working with students and collaborating across b&wphoto by katlayman timothy gardner was appointed the first lgbtqa director see greek page 4 see global page 5 see lgbtqa page 5 how to deal with *. former duke coach check the web site homesickness eyes on the prize for breaking news page 7 page 16 bw.lehigh.edu