Brown and White Vol. 116 No. 19

              the brown and white home away from home vol 116 no 19 b&wphoto by christopher chew jonathan akers 08 takes a walk in front of the university center with his mother glenda akers during family weekend the weekend included a comedy show a football game and parent-oriented lectures gast condemns reported racist acts on campus by autumn gould reports of racist comments toward black lehigh students made their way to president alice gast she said in a campus-wide e-mail the comments which began after sen barack obama was elected to be the first black president cannot be toler ated gast said rather than celebrating a landmark event in american history we are ad dressing hateful acts of racism and igno rance gast said in the e-mail gast wrote in the e-mail that she met with a group of students friday morning who said they were victims of hateful comments all the events are under in vestigation she said gast urged students to report any other racist or hateful incidents to the dean of students office lehigh university police the council on eq uity and community or any faculty member any person found responsible will be charged with the appropriate crimi nal offense and referred to the universi ty student judicial system with a recom mendation for suspension or expulsion gast said in the e-mail gast said she was deeply saddened by the events saying they are a threat to the entire campus community our community must come togeth er and create an environment where such behavior is not tolerated gast said in the e-mail we must resolve to affirm that such behavior is abhorrent at lehigh and is unacceptable it is unclear whether events men tioned in gast's e-mail were related to leaflets stating your president is black comprehensive bethlehem plan will go to vote by emily iwan all the lehigh news first bethlehem's planning commission hopes to design a trolley between the north and south sides implement a passenger railroad increase parking and reduce traffic and begin a wide-rang ing recycling program according to plans pre sented at a town hall meeting thursday night we would like to make the city more walker and biker-friendly said darlene heller director of bethlehem's planning bureau we are look ing into the feasibility of a trolley loop between the north side and the south side the commission which met at 10 e church st also recommended looking into other ways to improve public transportation such as supporting regional passenger rail initiatives we understand that additional study and analysis is necessary on the passenger rail issue but we should move forward on this if it is fea sible because we have heard so much public sup port for this heller said passenger rail was a high priority transportation issue for the public paul driscoll vice president of urban re search and development corporation was con sulted on the comprehensive plan and presented recommendations during the meeting driscoll said the comprehensive plan will ad dress parking concerns on both the north and south sides and lessening traffic will also be a top priority in the plan's transportation strategy in addition to transportation issues the comprehensive plan also outlines strategies for housing downtown revitalization and economic development environmental conservation parks and recreation historic preservation and commu nity facilities and services heller said the plan takes into account the de velopment of the new casino beth works we include strategies to address the impacts international week hosts 32 activities this year by pamela oyerbide â–  lehigh hopes to keep its spot among top universities as a national provider of international education the global union with the help of a variety of different clubs will host the seventh annual international week from nov 9 to nov 15 the week will include 32 different activities all of which contribute to the celebration of diversity clubs and organizations from across campus are contributing to the week of programming clubs really step up to international week said veronica demkin-dick 11 vice president of educational programming for the global union it's really great when we come lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 tuesday november 11 2008 in and we are there for three hours reading proposals between 1,000 and 1,500 students are ex pected to participate in international week said bill hunter director of the global union hunter said even as a small school lehigh is a large national provider of international education last year we were one of the largest na tional producers of international education week hunter said lehigh was the third larg est provider of international education in the united states beating out harvard cornell georgia tech and mit lehigh is way ahead of them it truly is a national distinction for lehigh to be at the top of its game through in ternational week hunter said b&wphoto by christopher chew two students take food at the international week's kickoff event in the ulrich student center which served food from around the world see racism page 3 see planning page 3 see global page 2 families invade w^w w^*l hawks lose to check online for campus colgate 34-33 breaking news page 7 page 16 www.thebrownandwhite.com