Brown and White Vol. 116 No. 41

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 116 no 41 tuesday march 31 2009 all the lehigh news first local lights go out to promote environmental awareness by courtney monlinaro packard laboratory the packer memorial chapel the bethlehem star and dozens of lehigh students turned off their lights saturday night as part of the worldwide earth hour 2009 the annual celebration promotes efficient electricity use people shut off their lights from 8:30 p.m to 9:30 p.m sav ing an enormous amount of energy worldwide about 20 people attended lehigh's ceremony at the flag pole socializing eating and waiting for the chapel lights to go out the lehigh environmental advisory group along with eco engineers without borders and green action orga nized and publicized the event for the past few weeks the groups hoped the lehigh community would either b&wphoto by steven balter venture to the memorial steps to watch the lights be extin guished with eco or turn off extra lighting in their dorms or off-campus houses to show their support for earth hour 2009 earth hour is the world wildlife fund's global initiative to support action on climate change according to the earth hour web site the organization has asked individuals busi ness and companies to switch off their lights to show their support for this cause people around the world turned off non-essential light ing for an hour to make a symbolic and unifying gesture to demonstrate their personal support for taking global action against climate change matt melillo 11 president of green action said the stu students gather near the flagpole saturday night in honor of earth hour a worldwide event that promotes environmental awareness and energy efficiency by having participants turn off their lights for one hour popular blue sky cafe adds longer hours dinner options by jennifer mccusker fresh healthy meals sometimes seem hard to come by at lehigh many meal options consist of fried and fatty dishes or previously frozen foods off campus at 22 w fourth st blue sky cafe provides quality food at reasonable prices and now has extended its hours to provide healthy dinner options to its customers we wanted to offer lehigh students an other option for their evening meal that does not include greasy fried food said tabitha petrecz the owner of the eatery courtney jackson 08 an enthusiastic regu lar at the cafe said the regular breakfast and lunch menus are still offered as are a few din ner specials starting at 5 p.m the dinner specials range from around 8 to 13 jackson said the new hours are tuesday through thurs day 7 a.m to 9 p.m friday and saturday 7 a.m to 10 p.m and sunday 8 a.m to 2 p.m jackson said she has seen many lehigh stu dents at the cafe and expects more will go now that the hours have been extended she said she wrote 90 percent of her thesis for her major at the cafe because it caters to students with its study-friendly environment and popular coffee petrecz said she also expects more lehigh students to come into the restaurant there is an option to call ahead and have food prepared before the customers arrive to save time during the week which is helpful for busy students she said the no-fryer kitchen supplied with lots of obama to increase student grants by molly o'neill at lehigh tuition for 2009-2010 will increase by 2.9 percent according to a february campus e-mail from president alice gast although lehigh's increase is the smallest in decades across the nation other schools are seeing costs spike with the deteriorating economy and the rising costs many students are drowning in debt or forgoing college altogether president barack obama said he has made it his mission to alleviate some of the financial stress students are experiencing he proposed a new budget plan for higher education that aims to make college more acces sible for students on thursday education experts briefed report ers via a media conference call on obama's budget proposals robert brandon director of campaign for college affordability said the president's plan will increase the percentage of pell grants and perkins loans given to stu dents a pell grant is a need-based federal grant distrib uted by the u.s department of education for post-sec ondary education the perkins loan is also distributed by the u.s department of education based on need it is a loan with a fixed interest rate the current average debt of a student graduating from college is 21,000 brandon said this sort of debt has an enormous impact on the economic and social de cisions students make ultimately affecting the economy as well he said it makes many young people put off the decisions like buying a car or buying a house which would help the economy brandon said christine lindstrom director of uspirg higher education program said the increase in the pell grants is the key point of obama's budget proposal the mon ey for the grants will come from cutting lender subsidies and rerouting it directly into student aid lindstrom said by cutting lender subsidies 47 bil lion will be saved over the next five years alone the average pell grant would increase by 121 and 260,000 new students would receive their first pell grant this is a stepping stone lindstrom said we have worked to make college affordable and accessible our nation's social and economic health depends on the amount of students obtaining a college degree hilary shelton director of the naacp washington bureau said the nation needs brighter minds and pell grants seem to be the answer too many students are overly-dependent on loans and are going into great debt because of it he said the move to enhance the pell grants is just the kind of investment we need shelton said see earth page 2 see cafe page 4 realities of registering page 7 cm women's lacrosse team | ' win fifth straight page 16 check online for new b&w videos thebrownandwhite.com