Brown and White Vol. 119 no. 6

              Vol. 119 No. 6
Friday, September 24, 2010
‘All the Lehigh News First’
THE BROWN AND WHITE
Lehigh University’s Student Newspaper Founded in 1894
SPORTS
Women’soccer to play La Salle
Page 12
Musik at the
Sands
Page 5
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Students fall asleep at the wheel in bus challenge
By COURTNEY BUCHANAN
Moravian College beat Lehigh University in the first LOOPapalooza Scavenger Hunt Challenge, promoting the Loop bus that travels between north side and South Side Bethlehem on Saturday.
“I wanted to highlight college students and the Loop bus,” said Samantha Schwartz, the Down­town Bethlehem Association manager who coordinated the event.
The Loop bus is Bethlehem’s shuttle bus that has 19 stops around the town. LOOPapalooza highlighted the ability for Lehigh students to access north side Bethlehem and for Moravian students to access the South Side.
Students were given a scaven­ger hunt sheet with questions to answer. The questions prompted them to explore the area by ven­turing into participating restau­rants and shops.
However, they weren’t as simple as going to Tika’s Restau­rant and asking, “What consists of making one of your drinks?”
There were secret clues to every question. Each clue held a mystery to be revealed.
Moravian students competed against Lehigh students to see who could answer the most ques­tions from 2 to 8 p.m.
“I wanted to create some ri­valry,” Schwartz said.
See LOOP Page 3
Cell phone ban provokes
controversy among officials
By JENNIFER MCCUSKER
Since the passing of Bethle­hem’s ordinance prohibiting the use of cell phones while driving in May, police officers have had to make tough choices about whether to enforce the new law.
Pennsylvania’s constitution calls for a uniform vehicle code, and according to Bethlehem Po­lice Sgt. Donald Hoffman, Beth­lehem’s ordinance violates state law, which Pennsylvania police officers take an oath to uphold.
The ordinance bans the use of handheld electronic devices while driving.
It does not clarify whether GPS devices are included in the ban, but hands-free devices are permitted.
“I actually think it’s an illegal law,” Hoffman said. “There’s con­troversy in the police department to enforce this or not.”
Hoffman explained that be­sides a division within the police department about the ban, the deputy commissioner and city commissioner also do not agree on the ban.
“Deputy Commissioner Jason Schiffer is a very strict constitu­tionalist,” Hoffman said.
Schiffer, he explained, be­lieves the ordinance goes against state law, though the city commis­sioner fully supports the ban.
Hoffman wrote about his thoughts on Allentown’s cell phone ban in an opinion piece in The Morning Call in March called “State should worry about all distracted drivers, not just a ban on cell phones.”
He said in the piece, “… for many of us who do the rule-of-law thing for a living, seeing grandstanding municipal politicos passing ordinances they know violate state law is quite bizarre. But a cell phone ban for drivers
See BAN Page 4
How to save a life
B&W photo by ERICA GOLD
Students donated blood from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday in the Ulrich Student Center. The university hosts blood drives several times a year through the Community Service Office.
Businesses gather to spur green initiatives
By MEGAN CODY
The Green and Clean Sus­tainable Business Products and Services event, hosted by the Dexter F. Baker Institute for En­trepreneurship, Creativity and Innovation, was held Monday in the lobby of the STEPS building.
“There has been an increas­ing interest of students in green initiatives…[this event reflects] a re-emphasis on the environ­ment in the entrepreneurship program,” said Todd Watkins, executive director of the Baker Institute.
Watkins also said the en­trepreneurship program is at­tempting to expand into social entrepreneurship.
The event began with seven presentations by representatives of local businesses of varying sizes, community activists and other individuals involved in sus­tainability initiatives.
The presenters included indi­viduals from Cobalt Computers, Back Door Bakeshop, Nicos Polymers Group, the Alliance for Sustainable Communities - Lehigh Valley, Rosemont Envi­ronmental Management, Crayola and Smarter Fuel.
Most of the speakers are in­volved in both entrepreneurial and eco-friendly initiatives.
Presenter Dave Dunham, a
By LARA KOVANT
From Sept. 13 to 16 the sorority extension process came to a head when four chapters gave presentations of why they should be chosen to colonize on Lehigh’s campus.
The contenders, Phi Sigma Sigma, Delta Zeta, Kappa Delta and Zeta Tau Alpha all bring something different to the table.
The Panehellenic Council decided to pursue a so­rority extension for various reasons.
“Lehigh is unique in that almost every sophomore and junior lives in their chapter house,” said Meaghan Phipps, ’11, the vice president of recruitment for Pan­hel. “With increasing sizes of new member classes, chapter houses are becoming over-occupied, leading some women to move off campus.”
The hope is a new sorority will help alleviate the stress put on current sororities’ shortage of living space.
“Panhellenic and Lehigh University decided to go through extension because after formal recruitment last year, there were almost 40 women that were not placed into chapters,” Phipps said.
The addition of a chapter will allow all of those interested in joining the Greek community the oppor­tunity to do so.
“I think it would be nice to have a ninth sorority to choose from,” said Jourdan Friedman, ’14, who expressed an interest in rushing a house. “It creates more options for us, which definitely decreases anxiety because it ensures that there will be a house I will feel comfortable in and want to belong to.”
The process began over the summer when Lehigh announced to the Panhellenic Conference that the uni­versity was looking to go through extension.
The committee charged with choosing the chapter received applications of interested organizations.
After weeding through preliminary applications, the committee chose four chapters to come to campus and make presentations.
The committee is “looking for the new sorority to complement our Greek community by bringing to campus their particular values, mission statement, phi­lanthropy focus and programming,” Phipps said.
She also said it’s important that the new chapter fits well with the values of the fraternities and sororities
Four sorority contenders pitch ideas for colonization
See SORORITY Page 3
See GREEN Page 4