Brown and White Vol. 108 No. 1

              the brown and white lehigh unkw t vol 108 no 1 tuesday september 5 2000 all the lehigh news first class of 2004 proves most selective yet by bevin milavsky senior news editor the members of the class of 2004 have diverse reasons for making lehigh their 4-year home but the indisputable fact remains that lehigh chose these stu dents because they stood out among a vast sea of applicants barron's profiles of american colleges ranks lehigh as one of 50 highly selective universities this year's freshman class continues the tradition of lehigh's difficult selection process there were 9,270 applicants vying for a spot in the 1,137-member class this number represented a five percent increase in applications from last year and a nearly 30 percent increase over the past five years according to lehigh's web page www.lehigh.edu the class of 2004 is 58 percent male and 42 percent female the most popular majors are mechanical engineering chemical engineering computer engi neering computer science - through the college of arts and sciences and finance lehigh's academic reputation beauti ful campus and helpful faculty are major selling points for new students sarah smith 04 chose lehigh because of these reasons i knew lehigh would provide me with a good education that will certainly prepare me for any career smith said also when i came here everyone was extremely helpful unlike at other schools where they do not take time for the students todd scurci 04 agreed that lehigh went above and beyond the call of duty i came here for scholar's weekend and they impressed me with every aspect everything just fell into place and now i'm so glad i came here he said this year's freshman class comes from 41 states with more than 30 percent of the students hailing from outside of pennsylvania new jersey and new york but they're all preparing for life at lehigh brian quinlan 04 was immediately swept up by lehigh's community the atmosphere here is so happy quinlan said i looked at the campus and thought i really wanted to live four years of my life here i knew it would put me on the road to success kelly bouchard 04 said when she came for a recruiting trip last year she instantly fell in love with lehigh everyone was so nice i just felt like i belonged here she said bouchard said her expectation of lehigh is that it will successfully launch her into a career i want to be prepared for the business world after spending my last four years carothers girls from left to right katerina karmokolias 04 melissa duerbig 04 kristin pzalgowski 04 christine michalerya 04 and louise shaw 04 growing up she said the freshmen are scattered among the three colleges with 41 percent of the class choosing the college of arts and science thirty-five percent of the class will be in the p.c rossin college of engineering and applied science and 24 percent are pursuing studies in the college of business and economics scurci who's pursuing business said i know lehigh will help me to succeed in getting an education that will put me in the b&w photo by stella maher extra training begets improved orientation by christine metz online managing editor a greater sense of community wel comed this year's incoming freshmen thanks to three extra training days for orientation leaders in april orientation leaders had three day-long sessions to meet other leaders and develop a bond long before any freshmen arrived on campus alexandra duggan assistant dean of student activi ties said head of orientation week for three years duggan said in the past the two-and-a-half days of training prior to the freshman arrival was too short a time for the group to come together by providing ice breakers and intro ductions in the spring semester for leaders duggan said the brief two-and-a half day training sessions allowed leaders to concentrate more on what information they needed to impart to freshmen and less on getting to know each other duggan said the extra training paid off and cited that with their sense of community and positive outlook this year's leaders were the best group she has ever had we gave them more information to use during group meetings duggan said they bonded and got to know each other we are building a community as well as letting the new students see how well the leaders get along duggan said this relationship between leaders allowed freshmen to experience more of a community feeling during orientation week katherine schenderlein 01 an orien tation leader veteran agreed the group of students combined with new programs really benefited the freshmen schenderlein said a member of this year's orientation planning committee schenderlein said she saw the freshman participation rise from previous years while in the last two years schenderlein said most fresh men would not return for the second and third days this year the majority of freshmen attended all of the orientation week activities titled a whole new ball game this year's orientation and welcome week offered the traditional freshmen features such as a hypnotist tom delucia casino night and many ice breakers duggan said orientation leaders mainly followed their own agendas which included tours of south side bethlehem and beach volleyball games duggan said the hypnotist has become so popular with not only freshmen but also upperclassmen that she had to change the layout of the performance in grace hall to accommodate the crowds another change in this year's orienta tion program was the increased involve ment of faculty for two orientation groups faculty joined student leaders in two days of question and answering ses sions ice breakers and large group activ ities for freshmen increased faculty involvement began in april when deans joined members of the orientation planning committee to discuss how faculty could be more visible during orientation week duggan said incoming freshmen need to know more about academic issues on campus and that faculty members are well-suited to provide information about them during orientation week following the positive response to this year's orientation program duggan plans to extend the training program to hold leadership training sessions throughout the spring semester to begin training at the start of the spring semester duggan said orientation leaders will be selected by november see 2004 page 4 m "\ phil stambaugh 16 u.s news and world report ranks lehigh as 38th in the nation see page 5 news . 1-5 college briefs 2 rock la casa 3 new sorority 5 job searching through the internet see page 7 business 7-9 business briefs 7 alumni e-mail 8 look who's investing 9 quick the placement of a donkey's eyes enables it to see all four of its feet at the same time source www.sbt.bhmedia.com