Brown and White Vol. 116 No. 43

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 tuesday april 7 2009 all the lehigh news first steppin up for haiti b&w photo by andrew maier lu's finest step team performs at rock 4 haiti a benefit event to raise awareness about social issues in haiti the event on march 20 was sponsored by the association of international students and the black student union senior formal canceled due to lacking ticket sales by ben rautenberg the annual senior formal scheduled for march 28 was canceled by class officers according to a march 26 class of 2009 e-mail the event originally set for jan 31 was pushed back to march because of low ticket sales but the still-low number of students who signed up for the event led to the cancellation at least 100 formal tickets needed to be sold in order for the event to go on as scheduled according to scott wojciechowski senior class president by the week of the event only 32 tickets had been sold the class of 2007's se nior formal was attended by about 200 students and 2008's drew about 160 he said it's a mystery wojciechowski said everything was there i don't know what happened the e-mail specified that tickets purchased online will be refunded and the tickets purchased at the bookstore can be fully refunded with a receipt class of 2009 officers are disappointed considering the amount of work they put into planning and organizing the traditional event according to christine dolan 09 senior class secretary the e-mail also apologized for any inconvenience the cancellation may have caused the lack of interest in the event may have stemmed from a variety of reasons cost was one reason some seniors said they weren't able to participate in the formal i don't want to spend absurd amounts of money to hang out at a strictly senior event said paul jones 09 student-run company offers storage during summer months by allison rolish â–  two students open lehigh branch of a storage chain to ease the burden of hauling dorm goods home two lehigh students have opened a branch of student sherpas a storage business with the goal of providing safe cheap and environmentally friendly storage for students during the summer jeff boyarsky 09 and binay patel 10 said they started the business because they were sick of hauling their belongings to and from school every year after realizing that there were no student run storage organizations patel and boyarsky brought student sherpas to lehigh after students register online and provide a time and location student sherpas provides transportation and supplies if needed there is not a minimum or maximum amount a student can store boyarsky said the storage units are located in climate-con trolled facilities throughout the bethlehem area he said prices for boxes and storing other items be gin at 20 and shipping fees are charged by the pound in addition one percent of profits goes to patagonia an outdoor-gear manufacturer and its 1 for the planet fund the organization encourages businesses to donate one percent of their profits to help environmental causes ac cording to student sherpas web site boyarsky and patel are speaking to groups across campus to raise awareness of its new business we are excited by the reactions we have re ceived whether from the area or from places far lehigh hosts expo for small businesses by hubert dagbo billion-dollar bailouts and bank failures have domi nated our current economy but for those attending the first lehigh valley microenterprise expo wednesday one thing was clear small businesses need love too companies looking for promotion new clients networking and publicity were out in force at the small business expo which was held at the rauch business center lobby the small size of the expo and the price - free - brought out 50 companies the difficulties of high priced advertising and the inability to afford that big billboard has drawn me to the expo where word of mouth is the best means of marketing said linda mcgoey the owner of spoon ers cafe in allentown i am relying on loyal custom ers to grow my businesses as i maintain optimism for the future the expo offered a new way for small businesses many of which have seen a downturn in traffic to market themselves said karen hicks of the martindale center which helped organized the event it's the first-ever experience for these business own ers to be part of an expo hicks said one of those first-timers was kyle dunleavy 09 who was promoting his college book buyback business i never had experience managing people how ever over the years i have learned that owning a small business is all about balance and progression dun leavy said i have gone from recording my sales on my notebook to excel also attending the expo was lynne walls who works with other small businesses to do administra tive work so they can focus on their core business for walls the eureka moment came after she heard about the business idea on the internet i worked for crayola helping set up new business and thought i can do that just as easily from home said walls who plans to expand into the lehigh valley microfmance club president colin sloand 09 who helped organize the event said the idea for the expo came from a club member who said lehigh hadn't done enough to help promote local small businesses the goal is to strengthen the community enterpris es because these businesses couldn't afford other expos that charged for tables at 500 sloand said the tables at this lehigh expo are free see storage page 2 see seniors page 2 see expo page 2 ems not your usual student club page 7 â–  men's lacrosse team defeated 10-8 page 16 a religious take on the death penalty thebrownandwhite.com