Brown and White Vol. 118 no. 9

              By DANI TODD
Lehigh has received a “red light” rating from The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) this year. FIRE is a non-profit watchdog organiza­tion that monitors speech codes at public and private universities across the country, according to the FIRE report’s Web site.
The organization rates universities based on the rules they place upon students regarding free speech. The ratings range from green light to red light. A red light rating, like Lehigh received, indicates the school has at least one policy that both clearly and substan­tially restricts freedom of speech, according to the organization’s Web site.
FIRE does not distinguish between private and public universities. Legally, private universities are not required to uphold students’ first amendment rights, said Kathleen Olson, associate professor of journalism.
“Most students are unaware the first amendment doesn’t apply to Lehigh,” Olson said. “In its place though, we have a strong tradition and a commit­ment to free speech, but it is never a constitutional violation.”
Olson said she does not believe Lehigh deserves the worst rating from FIRE’s organization.
“Given their ranking system, I see why they did it,” Olson said. “I think there is room, however, to dif­ferentiate between private universities, who have per­fectly good reason to enact speech codes, and public universities, who are legally bound to not have speech codes.”
Lehigh is under scrutiny by FIRE for policies found in the student handbook. The policies all involve forbidding harassment. Harassment is defined by the handbook as “offensive verbal or physical conduct that has the purpose or effect of interfering with an individual’s work or educational performance, or has the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating, hos­tile or offensive environment.”
Olson believes Lehigh’s policies are reasonable. It is the execution of said rules upon which a university should be judged, she said.
“Interpretation and enforcement of a school’s rules is where the proof is about how committed a school is to freedom of speech,” Olson said. “In my experience, draconian measures have not been taken on what people consider ‘political’ views. There is not a whole lot, and to me, they seem reasonable.”
Jennifer Tucker, assistant vice president of commu­nications and public affairs, said she was not expecting the rating.
“I think anyone within the university would be surprised by the rating,” she said. “We have several policies and faculty members that support free speech. The policy on harassment clearly states that we up­hold academic free speech.”
Tucker also said the university has brought several
Lehigh gets lowest free speech rating
See SPEECH Page 2
By MICHAEL BODNEV
Recent changes to the National Panhellenic Conference’s re­cruitment system have given rise to a potential housing shortage in Lehigh’s sororities.
With increased recruitment quotas, sororities are faced with accommodating much larger pledge classes, forcing some junior sisters to seek housing outside their sororities.
“The sororities have had much higher quotas for how many girls they have taken in each pledge class both last year and this year, because we began using a new sorority recruitment system,” Jaclyn Weissman, ’10, a Lehigh Panhel representative, said.
She said a lot of houses are worried about capacity issues be­cause they “may have to force junior sorority members to move off campus for the first time in Lehigh’s history.”
Normally, all sophomore and junior sisters are welcome to live in the house and typically choose to do so, Weissman said.
Increased quotas pose issues for sororities
See HOUSING Page 4
Race erased?
B&W photo by STEPHANIE LIN
Pulitzer Prize winner Eugene Robinson questions whether America has transcended racial issues one year after President Barack Obama took office on Tuesday in Perella Auditorium.
Vol. 118 No. 10
Friday, February 26, 2010
‘All the Lehigh News First’
THE BROWN AND WHITE
Lehigh University’s Student Newspaper Founded in 1894
SPORTS
Men’s lacrosse to take on Villanova
Page 16
ONLINE
Men’s basketball preview
www.thebrownandwhite.com
A helping
hand
Page 7
LIFESTYLE
Home invasion case to go to trial
By AUTUMN GOULD
The man who allegedly robbed 10 Lehigh students at gunpoint in Dec. 15 faced charges Wednesday in Northampton County Court.
Police reported that Felix J. Pagan, 24, and two other men entered a house on East Fifth Street and robbed the students who were gathered in the liv­ing room.
The judge decided that the evidence collected was enough to move the case onto the next step and into a higher court.
During the pre-trial hearing, witness Patrick Mulligan, ’10, testified about the robbery.
Mulligan said he told the prosecutor that three men wearing ski masks, one of who had a gun, came into the house through the open back door.
“He stressed questions about wheth­er or not I saw the gun and what kind of gun it was,” he said.
Mulligan said he identified the gun used by one of the men inside the house as similar to a photo of a gun police found under a car near the place of the robbery.
He also identified that same gun as the weapon used to hit Ray Legault, ’10, in the face during the robbery.
“Everything went well for us in terms of evidence,” Mulligan said. “The defendant’s main de­fense was that all the evidence was circumstantial.”
Police found all the evidence scat­tered from the home on East Fifth to where Pagan was picked up by police a few blocks away.
Mulligan said he was not able to identify Pagan as one of the robbers because he was wearing a ski mask.
Police are going to make another arrest in connection to the robbery, according to Mulligan.
“It was scary to see [Pagan] in the courtroom,” Andy Glass, ’10, said.
“I was disappointed I didn’t get to testify because it was a lot of waiting around.”
During the robbery, the students handed over $178 and their cell phones.
Police responded quickly because Matt Wojciechowski, ’10, was in an­other room and called police when he heard the ruckus.
According to The Morning Call, Pagan’s charges include robbery, con­spiracy to commit robbery, simple assault, receiving stolen property, tres­pass, burglary and theft.
He remains in Northampton Coun­ty Prison under $750,000 bail.
n Student testifies in pre-trial hearing after December
robbery off campus.