Brown and White Vol. 116 No. 46

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 116 no 46 tuesday april 21 2009 all the lehigh news first business programs see sharp drop in rankings by david craig the college of business and economics saw a significant decline in undergraduate business program rankings according to business week's annual best undergraduate business school poll released on thursday lehigh's accounting program which was ranked as the number one program in the country last year fell to no 51 while the finan cial management program fell from no 18 to no 76 despite these sharp drops the college of business and economics overall ranking fell only one spot from last year dropping from 25 to no 26 according to businessweek the rankings are compiled using a system that surveys the quality of a college business program using the responses of students institutions and corpo rate recruiters students are polled on the quality of teach ing and recreational facilities while institu tions are polled on the average sat scores of their student body and their faculty-to-student ratios corporate recruiters are surveyed to see which schools produce the best equipped grad uates and have the most innovative curricula finance major greg hilbert 10 said he doesn't believe the businessweek rankings are a valid representation of the quality of lehigh's business programs obviously as a student in the business col lege i'm going to be partial but lehigh has a very rigorous curriculum and i think students here are extremely well prepared to enter the workforce when they graduate hilbert said sunny days b&w photo by andrew maier the roots perform for sundaze lehigh's annual music festival at sayre field saturday the crowd enjoyed musical performances inflatable games and beautiful weather at the festival for more pictures see page 4 economy forces center for families in need to close by elaine hardenstine for the father of three who just lost his job it was a place to pick up dinner for the woman adept at drawing but not so great at calculations it was a place to file her taxes for the family stuck in low income jobs unable to pay its bills it was a place to find support and solutions but as of march 20 due to lack of funding the place shut its doors the south bethlehem neighborhood center a service center for families in need in the lehigh valley can no longer sustain a food pantry counselors and financial and job place ment advisors at its buchanan and evans streets building all the center's employees and board members were laid off amidst the closing announcement minus the standing board president we're talking about a lot of programs that affect a lot of people said carolina hernandez director of lehigh's com munity service office the real deficiency in the community will result from the lack of proactive counseling services said rita koller president of the sbnc board the center's main goal had always been to promote self sufficiency — the staff wanted to help clients uncover the root problems in their lives and find meaningful reasonable solutions especially now when the atypical middle class person may be out of a job the community needs a center that offers support and fulfills needs koller said it's a bad situation and it really hurt our board to make relay sees large increase in funds raised with 61k by meg grant from 5 p.m saturday night to 5 a.m sunday morning members of colleges against cancer hosted lehigh's fourth-annual relay for life in rauch courtyard raising a total of 61,000 for cancer aid the event raised 34,604 online and when combined with a rough estimate from sunday totaled 61,000 the relay raised almost 20,000 more dollars than last year when 42,500 was collected participants walked around a track and took part in on-site fundraising activities like alpha phi sorority's marriage booth where two people could wed for 2 the ceremony was com plete with a veil picture and exchanged rings other booths included alpha omicron pi sorority's cake walk a cancer education table hydration pong and a bone marrow drive there was also live entertainment from lehigh's a capella group on tap the lehigh dance team and a performance from local band formerly unknown relay for life an event sponsored by the american cancer society raised money to fund cancer research and provide help to those who are fighting the disease the event is typically emotional for those in b&wphoto by meg grant local band formerly unknown performs at relay for life saturday night in rauch courtyard see center page 3 see relay page 2 not available not available not available