Brown and White Vol. 112 No. 32

              - the brown and white - lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 112 no 32 friday february 18 2005 ah the lehigh news first pace program invests 31 million by kate mcloughlin news editor lehigh became the newest member of a program that will provide 31 million in engineering and design hard ware software and education al tools top officials from sev eral companies that partici pate in pace announced tuesday morning in wilbur powerhouse pace the partners for the advancement of collaborative engineering education is a conglomeration of companies that seek to better prepare engineering students for their future jobs by providing them with more advanced technolo gy during college several major companies participate in the pace pro gram including general motors eds sun microsystems and ugs elaine chapman-moore manager of pace partner ships at general motors said students can expect to see an increase in virtual production technology and in internation al collaborative student expe riences you come to pace as no stranger but the critical path lies ahead chapman-moore said the availability of new technology will benefit stu dents said robert kruse executive director of vehicle integration for gm north america engineering for students being profi cient with the latest computer based design tools not only improves their skills and con fidence but it also opens up new career opportunities and this isn't just in the automo tive industry kruse said the new tools lehigh will receive are primarily intended to benefit students who partic ipate in the computer science and business design arts inte grated business and engineer ing and integrated product development programs the modeling and simula b&w photo by jim norris tion programs will be installed in numerous academic build ings and computer labs on cam pus such as wilbur powerhouse and packard lab according to the press release students will be able to use the new tools to create their engineer ing capstone projects."we require our students to work in interdisci plinary teams not just because it's fashionable said john ochs pro fessor of mechanical engineering director of the ipd program at lehigh and co-founder of the wilbur powerhouse which he said is dedicated to collaborative interdisciplinary project-based education mounds of envelopes fill the admissions office while lehigh staff carefully consider each application this year the university broke its record receiving more than 10,000 applications for the class of 2009 applicant levels break record by evan sachs 10,400 packets were sent by prospective students news writer the admissions office received a record 10,400 applications this year surpass ing its previous record high of applicants with a 6 percent increase this rise in applicants can be attributed to lehigh's aca demic potential an increase in out-of-region applicants expanded on-campus visit opportunities and lehigh rep resentatives traveling to more high school destinations said eric kaplan dean of admis sions and financial aid the applicant pool has grown dramatically in the last several years because the stu dents are increasingly aware of the strength of a lehigh education kaplan said in an e-mail to the brown and white kaplan said the prospec tive students interactions with current students faculty staff and alumni convey that lehigh is an institution that affords tremendous opportu nity academically and as a community students who reside in areas outside the northeast including those in the south midwest west and abroad are considering lehigh in greater numbers kaplan said in addition we are need blind in our admission policy which means that we do not consider a family's ability to meet the cost of lehigh when making admissions decisions we have a comprehensive financial aid program that ensures economic diversity on campus kaplan said potential applicants and admitted stu cost of attendance nears 40,000 by davina attar assistant news editor president gregory farrington announced a tuition increase of 7 percent or 2,040 for the 2005-2006 school year thursday tuition will be 31,180 next year room and board charges will increase by 330 and the technology fee will increase by 40 making the total cost of attending lehigh 39,980 the increase was approved by the board of trustees on feb 4 according to a cam puswide e-mail sent by farrington and provost mohamed el-aasser the biggest challenge we faced in creating next year's budget stems from the linger ing effects of the stock mar ket's 2001-02 downturn and subsequent slow recovery farrington and el-aasser said in the e-mail peggy plympton vice presi dent of finance and adminis tration reinforced the e-mail's explanation it all depends on the econ omy — as costs for everything from heating oil electricity postage and printing goes up tuition inevitably increases plympton said if we continue to see the prices of fuel dou bling that will be a problem we have to take into consider see applicants page 6 see pace page 3 see tuition page 5 list of 2009 football recruits released see story page 20 sports 18-20 lacrosse preview 20 coach troyan 20 presentation on how to build an atomic bomb see story page 2 news 1-6 senate update 4 bethlehem's best merchants uncovered see story page 7 lifestyle 7-14 gelseyßell 13 healthy body 9 track team finishes strong at the thomson invitational at the university of delaware bw.lehigh.edu quick fact a person will burn 7 percent more calories if they walk on hard dirt compared to pavement source www.amusingfacts.com