Brown and White Vol. 108 No. 3

              the brown and white vol 108 no 3 lehigh university's auiueui x r ~ r ~ tuesday september 12 2000 all the lehigh news first by amanda henry hassles of renting often overpower situation problems with unkempt housing lackadaisical landlords make for many disgruntled renters office and file a complaint we will inves tigate with the landlord and our inspec tors make sure vital repairs are made and follow up with the tenants and landlords for future reference he said erika blood 02 rents a three bedroom house on montclair avenue this summer she withheld rent and sent letters to her landlord insisting upon repairs that had been promised but not made some off-campus landlords are a step above slumlords blood said for two months my roommates and i were promised a lot of repairs our landlord started working but we haven't seen him recently blood's house is set up for a central air conditioning unit which has not worked all summer despite the fact that the house was occupied during the summer and the rental price per month includes air conditioning there is also a non-working heating system in the house a growing concern as winter approaches blood is agitated that the major prob lems are not being handled effectively he's done a lot of little things around the house but none of the big things basically there are a lot of unkept promises blood said the handbook explains that tenants editorial pages editor students living off-campus have several options for dealing with uncoop erative landlords according to the bethlehem bureau of housing the landlord-tenant handbook spon sored by the bethlehem community development block grant program and the bethlehem community housing resources board resolves many common questions and concerns stu dents may have while renting a house or an apartment housing bureau chief tom herstitch investigates complaints coming into his office and says he would like to see more lehigh students inquiring before they rent my first piece of advice to someone thinking about renting off-campus is to call our office before they even start looking at houses herstitch said we will check in our files to see if the house has recently been inspected he said otherwise you could potentially rent a house that is falling apart and not know it for tenants that are in a bad situation with their landlord either not making the right repairs or attending to other con cerns i would advise them to call our b&wphoto by ryan ucwinko must fully understand the system before making demands on their landlords one important legal principle is that any promises which are made at the same time as the lease but not included in the lease are not legally enforceable according to the handbook kristina munsch 02 has lived in her off-campus house on montclair avenue for a year and has seen how different two landlords can be the landlord she has now is part of a mortgage company tension builds between landlords and tenants when repairs are not made amenities are nonexistent and houses do not meet appropriate living standards panhellenic bagel brunch kicks off pre-rush by gina montana news writer a tradition for the sorority system and future rushees was continued sunday morning at the panhellenic bagel brunch held on the front lawn of the university center the event commenced the pre-rush season any woman interested in spring sorority rush was invited to attend becky carlson 04 thought the brunch was an effec tive tool for becoming acquainted with the basics of the greek system this is a great way to learn about sorority life in general without the details carlson said the brunch offers an opportunity for freshmen women to ask questions and learn about greek life at lehigh on a whole beth mcdermott 03 agrees that the event is the perfect setting for freshmen women to be gradually and informally introduced to the greek system bagel brunch is a great way for the girls to get excited about rush and greek life in general mcdermott said the brunch was an informal rush gathering where sisters were not permitted to wear their house letters or speak about their affiliation with any of the sororities these regulations allowed freshmen women to receive unbiased information and advice from sisters and to better evaluate the greek system without being bombarded by specific house information and details brooke travis 01 panhellenic rush chair felt the event showed that lehigh cared about the freshmen the brunch is a good way to show our interest in the freshmen women showing them that we are not looking down on them just because they are fresh men travis said amy georges 04 felt the brunch was an excellent way to nonchalantly meet the sisters this activity is a good idea for meeting people a little awkward at first but that is to be expected georges said a week prior to the event the freshmen women were introduced to their rho chis who escorted them to their first pre-rush event the rho chis are senior sisters of several houses who until rush ends in february have signed an agree ment promising they will remain unaffiliated with their houses so they can provide their freshmen with impar tial information and advice during the rush season erika lawson 01 is a rho chi for this rush season she said she is looking forward to being able to experi ence an alternative side to greek life lawson said rho chis are an important part of greek life a different side of greek life for me it is a way to look back and reflect upon my freshman year and experiences the rho chis are active with their freshman hall for the entirety of the rush season they help to explain the process of rushing pledging and being a sister in a sorority also they provide support and advice for the fresh men women as they go through this new experience common questions asked of the rho chis usually refer to how the round system of visiting each sorority works the round system has changed this year from visiting eight houses in two days-six houses four and then two on the last day-to a nine-seven-four-two schedule the freshmen will learn more about this process from their see housing page 3 see panhel page 3 men's soccer beats st theta chi has been | learn the truth about peter's forced out of their genetically altered see page 16 house foods ill ifiiiiiiiiilyißi cc pa9e see pa9e 7 i crosscountry 13 college news briefs 2 science on campus 7 football 16 new statues 4 science briefs 9 men's soccer 16 quick the average person has more than 1,460 dreams a year source:www.sbt.bhmedia.com