Brown and White Vol. 112 No. 37

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 all the lehigh news first vol 112 no 37 friday march 18 2005 angelou named as speaker by jessi schimmel editor in chief maya angelou has been named as lehigh keynote speaker for the 137 th com mencement ceremony i was ecstatic when i heard said erika murdock 05 the class gift chair she's a nice mix that appeals to everyone she's so compas sionate and full of wisdom i think she'll bring a nice added touch to graduation angelou 74 is the author of 12 best-selling books including i know why the caged bird sings she has been nominated for the pulitzer award for her poem just give me a cool drink of water fore i diiie the tony award for her role in look away and the emmy award for her part in the miniseries roots she also read an original poem at president bill clinton's inau gural address we are thrilled with the selection of dr angelou as speaker president gregory farrington said in a press release building on the engaging insight offered in past com mencement speeches ... dr angelou's message of under standing perseverance opti mism and strength is sure to get the class of 2005 thinking as they head out into their future the selection process began last spring when the class offi cers culled a list of hundreds down to the 10 most preferable you think of it we named it murdock said the class officers explored speakers in academia pop culture and the news media she said the officers then presented the list of 10 to the commencement speaker selection committee which was composed of eight faculty and staff members the ultimate decision to host angelou was handed down from this committee mark erickson vice presi dent of administrative and governmental affairs said simply she is an extraordi narily interesting speaker it is expected that angelou will receive an honorary doc torate last year five individuals photo courtesy of lehigh university received these degrees this year's recipients have not been named angelou will address the 1,343 graduates alumni fami ly and friends in goodman stadium on may 23 the cer emony begins at 10 a.m maya angelou pieces of columbia shuttle examined by ross abramsohn news writer lehigh's material science engineering department recent ly received 50 pieces of the columbia space shuttle each student in the failure analysis class matsci 338 has been given one piece of the shuttle to work with during the semester the students will be using microscopes to determine how these parts failed the shuttle tore into pieces killing the seven astronauts on board while descending toward earth in february 2003 lehigh was sent pieces from all different parts of the shuttle these range in size from six inches to three feet each part is very different they failed in different ways said matt kampner 05 it is our task to figure out exactly how our part failed we do this by examining the fracture sur faces and other aspects of the parts using our department's renowned microscope facili ties by determining the reasons for failure of certain parts changes can then be made to ensure that what happened to columbia will not happen again the space shuttle travels at hypersonic speeds and experi ences very high temperatures in excess of 2,000 degrees fahrenheit said angela capece 05 sometimes it takes a catastrophe like columbia to discover inadequa cies in the design or manufac turing of a piece of hardware after gathering their data the students will publicly pres ent their findings in front of nasa officials on april 12 and 14 in a presentation that will be open to the public when students found out that they would be working on this project they were excited to know that they would be helping nasa as well as the future of space travel in such a dynamic way we're honored that nasa has selected lehigh to work on such a timely project capece said this project has put lehigh in the spotlight and has given it the chance to demon strate the intellectual and tech nical capabilities of its material science department it's a great learning experience to be able to have the opportunity to become part of a real engineer ing analysis that has many implications for the future of our space program previous failure analysis classes did not include items of this magnitude."this is a great opportunity for all of us said iping lam 05 when will we ever get a chance like this to work on such an amazing proj ect past failure analysis classes have been given failed gym equipment we are given a national tragedy this is our chance to show the public that lehigh is a top engineering institute and worthy to take on such an amazing project i am thrilled to be part of this great opportunity other students were also proud to have the privilege to work with such important parts of history it's sort of like holding a moon rock kamprner said you look at it and think wow this was actually in space new education doctorate created internationally competitive degree integrates all four colleges by lucy mele news writer the college of education has created a new ph.d in learning sciences and technolo gy which employs all four col leges in a study of the psycho logical social and technological processes of learning the doctoral program will investigate how humans tech nology and culture interact to enhance or inhibit learning in both academic and nonacade mic settings ward cates pro fessor of education and facilia tor of the project said that two and a half years ago a group of faculty decided to create a joint degree for the college of education we wanted an interesting higher level prestigious and internationally competitive top-level doctoral program cates said in order to create this pro gram cates and his group investigated the strengths and weaknesses of the university and its colleges the ultimate decision was that the program would be most effective if it included all four colleges we have very talented col leagues here cates said we have more power and strength as a group than any one of us alone cates said that it was impor tant to require the students to take a variety of courses because students are often tempted to stay within a major's boundaries he said that this interdisci plinary feature is very unusual in most doctoral programs when i tell people at other universities what we've done they're very surprised cates said they usually react by say ing we could never make that happen here cates attributes the ease in the construction of the degree to the flexibility of the colleges within the university he said that the idea was presented to every college which in turn provided feed back and support lehigh doesn't believe in barriers he said its one of those places where it's possible to take things outside your major see columbia page 5 see education page 5 wrestling team estab lishes dynasty with fourth eiwa title see story page 24 sports 18-24 men's basketball 19 women's basketball 21 baseball 24 global union presen tation promotes the acceptance of islam see story page 3 news 1-6 college board 4 recycling club 6 christianity provides guidance and solace for students see story page 7 lifestyle 7-14 in tune 9 no man's land 13 bands battle for the limelight of the sundaze concert overture this saturday bw.lehigh.edu quick fact pluto is the only planet in our solar system that has not been visited by a spacecraft source www.amusingfacts.com