Brown and White Vol. 118 no. 10

              Vol. 118 No. 2
Friday, January 29, 2010
‘All the Lehigh News First’
THE BROWN AND WHITE
Lehigh University’s Student Newspaper Founded in 1894
SPORTS
Track to take on Lafayette Saturday
Page 16
ONLINE
Check out our new sports blog
www.thebrownandwhite.com
Hello to ‘auf Wiedersehen’
Page 7
LIFESTYLE
By DANI TODD
Lehigh police will partner with Bethlehem police in a new safety initiative to increase understand­ing between students and perma­nent residents, as well as general community safety, Lehigh Chief of Police Edward Shupp said.
The initiative, already in place, will have Lehigh police working with Bethlehem police to patrol a 15-block radius off campus. Although the initiative does not grant the Lehigh police forces’ jurisdiction in off-campus areas, their presence will improve quality of life for residents.
“There were a couple of bases for this to go ahead,” said John Smeaton, vice provost of Student Affairs. “There have been a few long standing issues. We want to be sure that our students who live off campus feel safe and sure and recognize they are part of the Bethlehem community.”
After several disconcerting incidents that occurred this fall, a sense of urgency was made clear.
“With 30 percent of the student body currently living off cam­pus, it is important that there is a university police force present in these areas,” Shupp said. “Before, there was nothing where the uni­versity supported the students and helped them be better residents.”
Along with increasing safety, police present in the off-campus community will be able to assist permanent residents with com­plaints such as loud noise and trash, Shupp said.
“There are people who have lived in South Bethlehem for 50 or 60 years, and they have these students who live there for a year and are constantly changing. This causes tension,” Shupp said.
Smeaton said the quality of life for South Side residents has been an issue for a long time.
Shupp said the university and the Bethlehem community hope to institute other city projects such as a crime watch that will bring permanent residents together with students in a common effort to improve their community’s safety and well-being.
Shupp said the city completely supports the initiative.
“It is a win-win situation for all those involved,” he said. “Pres­ence will deter crime, but we will also deal with quality of life is­sues such as loud music, garbage outside, parking issues — a lot of issues we see. This is mostly an educational piece, more of a preventative measure, working to build bridges between the univer­sity and city residents.”
Rob Van Sciver, ’11, said the increased patrols by Lehigh police make him feel safer in his off-cam­pus home located on Pierce Street.
“I always receive e-mails about robberies occurring right near
Bethlehem and university police join safety forces
See POLICING Page 3
B&W photo by LUKE SAHAGIAN
The remodeled and expanded cafe at Rauch Business Center, Common Grounds, opened this semester. Students can get a full lunch or grab a simple bite to eat in between classes.
Stop and snack
Employees to save money on mortgages
By AUBREY DETTERLINE
Lehigh announced a new mortgage incentive plan that will encourage full-time faculty and staff to buy homes in South Bethlehem.
This program has been in effect since 1999, but the im­proved incentives are expected to boost home sales.
“We have structured the new improvements to provide better monetary resources in order to make the program more effec­tive,” President Alice Gast said. “We have been able to offer these new resources through our partnership with Wells Fargo.”
According to Gast, the part­nership with Wells Fargo allows university faculty and staff to buy homes in South Bethlehem through a combination of forgiv­able loans and discounts.
David Hammer, Lehigh’s assistant treasurer, said, “Now, Lehigh employees are receiving a forgivable loan at 10 percent of the purchase price in order to buy a single-family home, forgivable after five years. In the past, they were only receiving 2 percent.”
Furthermore, the Curb Ap­peal Program will give employ­ees a one-time $2,500 deferred payment loan for exterior home improvements, provided the total cost of improvements ex­ceeds $5,000.
In order to qualify, employ­ees have to work at least 75 percent of a full-time sched­ule, according to a university press release. Employees who work as cafeteria workers and as groundspeople are not em­ployed by Lehigh, but rather by
See MORTGAGE Page 3
By ANYA BINGLER
The Center for Public Integrity, a non-profit, nonpartisan and independent digital news organi­zation aiming to produce original and investiga­tive journalism, conducted a nine-month project on the systematic handling of sexual assault on college campuses and released the findings in December.
The results showed a number of stressful bar­riers a student faces when he or she is the victim of sexual assault in college. It seems sexual as­sault in college often leads to silence or feelings of victimization.
According to Dr. Deoborah Gardner, staff psy­chologist at Lehigh’s counseling and psychologi­cal services, factors that can influence how one responds to and copes with sexual assault include the support system available to the survivor, de­velopmental maturity, his or her relationship with the offender, the level of violence used, social and cultural influences, the individual’s ability to cope with stress and the attitudes and responses from community resources that the survivor reaches out to.
“There are caustic societal forces at work that can make it difficult for anyone to report rape or sexual assault,” Gardner said. “Survivors who have internalized myths, prejudice and stigma as-
Sexual assault study concludes no one’s talking
See ASSAULT Page 4
n A newly released project details the reaction of sexual assault victims and the troubling conclusions.
Sexual assault by the numbers
10 - 16% of rapes are reported to police
1/4 of women in college campuses reported experiencing an attempted or completed rape
1 in 6 women has been raped or sexually assaulted