Brown and White Vol. 116 No. 45

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 116 no 45 friday april 17 2009 all the lehigh news first give me a greek b&wphoto by daniel cobar the new pledge class of alpha gamma delta sorority displays its banner on stage at greek week's opening ceremonies monday at sayre field the greek community will spend the five days competing at various events majority of clubs see budget increase up down 25,000 by elaine hardenstine amidst an economic downturn and a universal call to tighten spending student senate announced an increased or stagnant budget for over 80 percent of minor clubs and over 83 percent of major clubs on campus for the 2009-2010 school year chris basilico 10 senate treasurer said the weakening economy had no impact on budgeting no increases or decreases were based on the economic crisis or the overall cut in the funding pool he said in an e-mail wednesday university productions a major club responsible for plan ning sundaze thursday comedy series and lehigh-laf a-palooza is the organization facing the largest decrease in funding the club was awarded 195,000 a decrease in 25,000 from last year according to the budget released by the senate alloca tions committee last friday they said they weren't happy with the way we were allocat ing some of the money said mike airosus 10 president of university productions really i think a lot of it has to do with the economy instead basilico insists up's budget decrease reflects the events club's expected rakeback unspent funds leftover from this year will roll over into the 2009-2010 funds and the senate took that extra money into account when allocating the new budget the allocations committee considers two criteria when de ciding budgets said divya nayar 10 senate president first it considers how individual clubs used their allocated funds that year was all the money used was it used effectively and with good purpose second it reviews the individual clubs proposed budgets and what they plan to use the money for in the upcoming year students abroad in italy experience earthquake by megan cody several lehigh students studying in italy this semester were unexpectedly awakened early in the morning on april 6 when accord ing to the new york times an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the richter scale rocked central italy fortunately none of the students were near the quake's epicenter around the city of l'aquila italy northeast of rome i woke up and saw my roommate in his bed dave colbert 10 said in an e-mail i saw him shaking and i thought he was mess ing around with me so i went back to sleep i didn't realize something actually happened until the morning rachel sachs 10 who is studying at the american university of rome had a similar experience i had taken a nyquil and the earthquake woke me up sachs said in an e-mail how ever i was pretty delirious from the nyquil and thought it was the wind that was making my room and bed shake so i got up closed the window and went back to sleep in my shaking bed sachs said she didn't realize an earthquake had hit nearby until she woke up the next day it was only in the morning when i checked the new york times that i saw there had been an earthquake and realized that that is what i had felt she said according to the new york times the quake devastated the city of l'aquila killing nearly 300 people left an estimated 28,000 homeless and destroyed numerous buildings including part of a building that housed stu dents at the university of l'aquila former chief of staff defends bush by julie stewart andrew card former chief of staff under president george w bush offered insights on the economic crisis president obama's economic plans and washington politics in an address at baker hall monday in the zoell ner arts center card said politicians contributed to the economic col lapse by encouraging people to take on risk as they pur sued the american dream of home ownership the government helped to create a climate of risk that was not well-understood card said politicians created opportunities for borrowing and devised a myth that undertaking risk is irrelevant if it leads to home ownership he said consumers bought into the idea and began to pur chase homes as investments card said the risk in the form of mortgages was then bundled and sold around the world most of the risk was attractive he said some of it was ugly but the ugly didn't show up until sept 7 on sept 7 2008 the federal government took control of fannie mac and freddie mac two mortgage com panies that had been privately owned with government support president bush and former federal reserve chair man alan greenspan recognized that fannie mac and freddie mac were getting too big card said but most members of congress didn't want to take action presi dent bush had planned to make sure that his successor as president had an easy transition but on sept 7 every thing changed the economy went in the tank and the best minds in the world didn't know what to do he said in the weeks before president obama's inauguration card said president bush invited president-elect obama to take a look at his economic plans and work on a stimulus package card called their level of coordination remarkable card said obama will not be able to fulfill all of his campaign promises because the economy is too unstable and the deficits too big he said obama's slogan yes we can will have to take on a different meaning be cause not all of his goals can be achieved in the reality of today's economy i don't think barack obama knows where he is in this process yet he said card also criticized obama's economic plan saying it see budget page 4 see earthquake page 5 see card page 6 exterior exercising page 7 b men's lacrosse to take on lafayette page 16 class of 2009 don't give video thebrownandwhite.com