Brown and White Vol. 115 No. 20

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 115 no 20 friday november 16 2007 all the lehigh news first sudan ambassador says no genocide in darfur by leon osterhaug and matt schwartz ■ sudan's ambassador to the u.n said genocide in darfur is a myth created by the u.s the situation in darfur is a tribal conflict not genocide the ambassador to the u.n from sudan said tuesday in perella auditorium ambassador abdalmahmood ab dalhaleem mohamad spoke about the conflict in darfur a region in sudan a question-and-answer session followed mohamad began by giving the audi ence a brief overview of sudan empha sizing his nation's size — the largest in africa — its history and its diversity the ambassador said americans are ignorant about the size of sudan which is about the size of texas or france before his explanation of the darfur situation he talked about an 1885 treaty that established many of the modern african state boundaries he said these arbitrary borders are part of the reason for strife between dif ferent tribal groups mohamad said the main cause of the tribal conflict in darfur is climate change which has caused drought and desertification in the area he referenced u.n environmen b&w photo by jessica bandy tal committee findings to explain the situation he said some darfurians are nomad ic herdsman the nomads in the north have experienced severe droughts in recent years and have migrated south as they began to move south their herds encroached upon the fields of the farmers in southern darfur he said these conflicts escalated be cause of lack of resources to sustain the swollen population of southern darfur he then said the conflict is a tribal conflict and not genocide he said a u.n committee examined the region to determine if genocide was abdalmahmood abdalhaleem mohamad sudan's ambassador to the u.n addresses a packed crowd at perella auditorium tuesday he called the violence in darfur a tribal conflict due largely to climate change bonfire not bad for environment director says by desiree annunziato rumors that president alice gast withdrew fund ing for the annual lehigh-lafayette bonfire due to environmental concerns are not true alumni asso ciation executive director chris marshall said gast did however voice concern about carbon dioxide emissions and a possible negative environ mental impact marshall said president gast did request assurance about two issues the environmental impact of the event and the safety precautions that are in place marshall said gast was not available for comment to address these concerns marshall said stu dents researched the potential impact on the envi ronment and found that burning the wood panels would be less harmful than leaving them in a land fill burning the panels is carbon neutral marshall said marshall said the bonfire is monitored by cam pus police and the lower saucon township fire department athletics staff will also be on hand maintenance staff pile the wooden panels - not stu dents marshall said this is gast's first bonfire marshall said and that is why she asked questions about the environmental impact and safety of the event gast wants to avoid harm to students at the bonfire he said to be clear president gast did not withdraw funding for this event and is fully supportive of stu dents taking the initiative to plan events like this one where the entire lehigh community is involved marshall said marshall said rumors spread about gast with drawing money after he addressed students with gast's concerns before the rumors were clarified alice kodama 10 a green action member said she wondered why gast would focus on a bonfire when the uni students surveyed 91 % didn't vote nov 6 by nicole nigro ■ in a survey of 85 undergraduates from all classes 64 said they planned to vote in 2008 but only 8 voted in this year's elections voters across pennsylvania went to polls last tuesday to elect local county and judicial figures but few lehigh students actually turned out according to a non-scientific survey of 85 students by the brown and white out of 85 students surveyed 11 students 90.5 percent students did not vote according to many students questioned one reason for not voting was they did not know about the election i didn't know it was election day until the day after natalie green 08 said others said there was a lack of interest be cause it was not presidential if there's no national election i don't care aj coukos 11 said several out-of-state students said they simply did not know how to vote i didn't know where to go nick hrynkie wicz 11 said i'm not from pennsylvania i don't know what elections i would vote in that wouldn't be national i don't know where the ab sentee ballots are joe manbeck 09 also had difficulty getting a ballot i forgot to get an absentee ballot request form manbeck said by the time i got one it was too late to send it in out of 85 students polled 11 did not vote in nov 6 election 8 participated in election 7 participated via absentee ballots 15 are not registered voters 64 will vote in upcoming presidential election 3 will not vote in presidential election 10 advocate a democratic candidate for president 3 advocate a republican candidate for president b&w design by lindsey sutkus in an non-scientific survey by the brown and white the majority of students polled said they did not vote on nov 6 see sudan page 6 see bonfire page 7 see survey page 7 accounting adds up vs lawette the history to success wv.\\i s pec'a section of the rivalry page 13 page 9 thebrownandwhite.com