Brown and White Vol. 122 no. 13

              Vol. 122 No. 13
Friday, March 16, 2012
‘All the Lehigh News First’
THE BROWN AND WHITE
Lehigh University’s Student Newspaper Founded in 1894
SPORTS
Men’s basketball
headed to Big Dance
Page 16
ONLINE
Check online for breaking news
thebrownandwhite.com
Jumbars serves up fresh food
Page 7
LIFESTYLE
By Doug Bajan
Six three-person teams, comprised of both undergraduate business and engi­neering students, took the opportunity to enter the 2012 Ingersoll-Rand case com­petition, titled “Building a Sustainable Future,” in February.
The students were required to submit their recommendations on how the com­pany could improve helping its customers choose green products. Applicants were also encouraged to propose processes that would make the verification of various products’ green and sustainable claims possible.
Ingersoll-Rand is a $14 billion global business and manufacturer of golf carts, refrigeration equipment and HVAC units, along with other products. The company predominantly finds customers in mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineers.
“We have a sustainability think-tank within our company,” said Conner Mc­Nicholas, ’10, a mechanical engineer in the accelerated development program at Ingersoll-Rand. “It’s a small team, and they’re devoted to making our manufac­turing process and policies more sustain­able. The case was designed by them and a team of people throughout the organization.”
Applicants for the competition were restricted to certain fields of study: finance, accounting, marketing, busi­ness information systems, supply chain management, industrial engineering, me­chanical engineering and electrical engi­neering. No team could consist entirely of first-year students nor could any team
See COMPETITION Page 3
B&W photo by MATT BREITEL
Students enjoy the warm, summer-like weather on Wednesday and lounge on the University Center front lawn.
By STEPHANIE PEREZ
The 40 Years of Women Celebration Committee has finished a large timeline of the progress women have made throughout Lehigh’s history since its first year of coeducation.
The timeline is to be re­vealed and act as the kick-off event to Women’s Empower­ment Week 2012 on March 19 at the University Center.
The “Women of Lehigh Timeline” was first thought of in spring 2010, according to Carly Potock, ’11, who was asked by the Celebration for the 40th Anniversary of Un­dergraduate Women to help create a lasting representation of the yearlong celebration.
Potock has worked all year with a student subcommittee to create the timeline that will be a collection of letters, news articles and pictures of the women on campus for the past 40 years.
While researching and dig­ging for information for the timeline, the committee was able to find original letters from President Monroe Rath­bone regarding the decision to admit women.
They collected pictures from databases and archives of past articles from The Brown and White and several
Competition compels students to think about sustainability
Committe continues cluster hiring
See TIMELINE Page 4
By TIANLI ZHANG
Lehigh has remained committed to its tradition of interdisciplinary research and made steps toward improving faculty cluster development initiative hir­ing, as well as developing the existing clusters on campus.
“Lehigh has a reputation and tradition of being very interdisciplinary,” said Daniel Lopresti, co-chair of the Faculty Cluster Development Commit­tee. “Some of the most important problems that we face today in society really require interdisciplinary approaches for their solution.”
The interdisciplinary collaborations could occur between two similar departments; they could be done between dramatically different departments; or they could even happen across the boundaries of the four colleges at Lehigh.
“One of the challenges with academic research is how do you bridge the gap between academic and practice,” said Anne Anderson, co-chair of the Fac­ulty Cluster Development Committee. “And I think the cluster development initiative is one way that academic research can help bridge the gap.”
The discussion of the cluster development initia­tive started in spring 2010. There was a working group that examined the concept and made recom­mendations to the administration, but there was no hiring at that point.
The 2011 academic year was the first year of hir­ing following the startup of the cluster development initiative.
“So there’s this recognition that for some, but not for all, of the hiring that we do to attract the kind of revolutionary thinkers and scholars that we would like to continue to attract to Lehigh,” Lopresti said.
Those faculty or scholars are all going to be working on a theme — a theme that’s common; a theme that spans departments or colleges. It’s a very different way to approach recruiting faculty and de­fining problems, he said.
See CLUSTER Page 4
n Teams of Lehigh students compete to have Ingersoll-Rand implement their ideas
Timeline honors women at Lehigh
Sweet springtime