Brown and White Vol. 115 No. 30

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 115 no 30 friday february 8 2008 all the lehigh news first lawyer know your rights b&wphoto by logan strenchock c.l lindsay 111 discussed students rights at off-campus parties monday night he emphasized the importance of understanding the law before confronting a problem see story page 3 district grants university 492,000 in research money by katy jacobson lehigh was granted 492,000 for cancer research in a bill passed in december according to a press re lease from the office of u.s repre sentative and congressman charlie dent researchers will use the grant to improve cancer detection with the development of advanced cellular and bimolecular imaging capabili ties according to the press release this grant is a part of the omni bus appropriations package which has awarded more than 12 million for projects in the 15th district of pennsylvania the 15th district includes northampton county and parts of berks lehigh and montgomery counties according to the press release from dent's press secretary when this money is combined with the defense appropriations bill the 2008 federal budget will provide more than 22.5 million to the district dent said when he was ap proached by lehigh for the grant he was told the funds would focus on the cancer detection program a bio atomic force microscope research programs and other various cancer detection activities dent said he has been working closely with william d michalerya associate vice president for gov ernment relations and economic development at lehigh to see this project through michalerya was unavailable for study abroad programs under question by sarah freeman â–  as schools are investigated for accepting kick-backs from study abroad programs officials say lehigh is not part of the problem in august 2007 investigations into the relation ships between universities and the third-party pro viders of study abroad programs began according to a new york times article the inquiry sparked by new york attorney general andrew m cuomo focused on whether certain third-party providers were giving universi ties rebates free and subsidized travel unpaid seats on advisory boards assistance with back-office services and marketing stipends and even perks to students to influence and limit where students would be able to study according to the new york times cuomo first issued subpoenas to five of the major study abroad providers recently the investigation was expanded and subpoenas were sent to 15 universi ties to question their practices of selecting and ap proving the programs available to students universities and colleges under investigation are alfred brown columbia harvard american brandeis cornell fordham northwestern and pace universities the college of new rochelle hobart and william smith colleges manhattan ville college siena college and the state univer sity of new york college of technology at alfred according to the chronicole of higher education's web site investigators were suspicious that the universi ties had affiliation agreements or other beneficial relationships with providers according to the the new york times the purpose of the investigation is to develop a school fails to hire new vp of communications by brandon sherman â–  president alice gast ends search for new vice president of university relations moran to continue as interim lehigh ended its search for a new vice president of communications without filling the position president alice gast announced in an e-mail last week the vice president would have presid ed over university relations and served as a close advisor to gast an independent search firm provided the university search committee with be tween 80 and 90 candidates from which less than 10 were selected for on-campus interviewing joe sterrett dean of athletics and chairman of the search committee said the ultimate hiring decision was in the hands of gast it's like any relationship fit ster rett said there was always the issue of whether any of the candidates presented to us would be the right fit for the presi dent and the culture of the university at this time although gast and the committee didn't find the fit they were looking for sterrett said all of the applicants were well-qualified the applicants were a diverse group of people who had held senior level communications positions in higher education the corporate sector as well as not-for-profit and govern ment organizations sterrett said they were highly skilled and trained and identified by the search firm as ex perts in their field the search committee conducted pre liminary interviews with a larger number of candidates and then brought a select group back to campus for another round of more in-depth interviews sterrett said the outcome of the search shouldn't pose any difficulties for the administration in the short run president gast has elected to utilize the strong staff that's there sterrett said this is a search for a position that would oversee the entire university relations enterprise which al ready has a lot of talented people sterrett said because there is already a strong staff the department is func tioning well despite not hiring a perma nent vice president interim vice president for university relations tracey moran said she antici pates staying in her position as long as she is needed there are a lot of exciting initiatives taking place throughout the university right now moran wrote in an e-mail including a long-term strategic thinking and collaborative planning process led by president gast as well as the shine forever campaign moran said she is excited to be a part of these projects as well as others in the see grant page 5 see abroad page 5 see relations page 8 mmiim^mm^mim m m m mmmm mm mmmm i m k m \* i^csf_-j m^m m tmmaaaama mm l bringing women's basketball check online for engineering back y takes on american breaking news page 9 \^"\ page 16 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