Brown and White Vol. 123 no. 10

              By ALLISON SCHWARTZ
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett visited the Ben Franklin TechVentures2 Business Incubator located on Lehigh’s Mountaintop Campus Oct. 9.
Many media outlets have recently praised Ben Franklin TechVentures and the Baker Institute for their consistent support and service to entrepreneurs. This coverage prompted the governor’s visit.
Ben Franklin TechVentures is an award-winning technology-based in­cubator that provides emerging com­panies with an experienced incubator staff, low rental costs and access to Le­high’s equipment, facilities and student and faculty resources. The program is made possible through its partnership with the Ben Franklin Technology Part­ners of Northeastern Pennsylvania and Lehigh University.
The facility expansion, Ben Franklin TechVentures2, opened in October 2011 and added 47,000 square feet to the existing building, including wet labs, office space and a parking deck.
The Dexter F. Baker Institute for En­trepreneurship, Creativity and Innova­tion leases 5,000 square feet of space in the TechVentures2 building that serves as business incubator space for Lehigh student entrepreneurs. This amounts to five office spaces and a common meeting area that are made available to winners of the Baker Institute’s Eureka! Ventures Competition Series awards for outstanding Lehigh student entrepreneurs.
“Lehigh students have created green technologies, fashions, start-up ventures, gaming and more,” said Jordan Reese, director of media relations at Lehigh. “The Institute not only serves Lehigh students, but keeps its focus firmly on the region. Most, if not all, the institute’s success stories involve employees, manufacturers and companies stationed right here in the Lehigh Valley.”
Vol. 123 No. 10
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
‘All the Lehigh News First’
THE BROWN AND WHITE
Lehigh University’s Student Newspaper Founded in 1894
SPORTS
Swimmers
dive into season
Page 12
ONLINE
Follow us
on Twitter
@lubrownwhite
Ghost Tours
on North Side
Page 5
LIFESTYLE
Photo courtesy of LAURA EPPLER
Professor Todd Watkins, Lehigh President Alice P. Gast and Gov. Tom Corbett converse at Ben Franklin TechVentures2. Corbett toured the TechVentures2 facility and spoke with Lehigh student entrepreneurs.
By DARCY MONAGHAN
The Rainbow Room “came out” Thurs­day afternoon in celebration of National Coming Out Day. All of the furniture from the Rainbow Room was moved outside to the University Center front lawn along with rainbow balloons, a door to symbol­ize coming out of the closet and messages, such as “Love is Equal,” scrawled onto the sidewalk.
“The most important part of the event on this campus is showing people that there is a community here,” said Haleigh Smith, ’15.
She said that many people think that the LGBT community is filled with weird and eclectic people, and that’s why many don’t associate the community.
“You don’t need to have short hair and dress masculine to be a lesbian,” Smith said.
Will Valliere, a graduate student at Le­high who is gay and an ally to the transgen­der community, talked about the event.
“[It’s] to celebrate people who are com­ing out or have previously come out,” he said.
This event is particularly important to Valliere because he came out at Lehigh dur­ing the second semester of his sophomore year. He noted that everyone in the Rain­bow Room was so nice and accepting.
“I gained a lot of confidence in that one semester,” Valliere said.
Smith shared her appreciation for all of the accepting people in the Rainbow Room as she shared how scared she was when she made the decision to transfer to Lehigh. She decided to transfer because of Lehigh’s impressive academic reputation and to be closer to her girlfriend who also attends school in Pennsylvania.
Smith also said that when researching the school, she was unable to find any infor­mation about LGBT services and was afraid that she would be alone here. However, once she discovered the Rainbow Room she said she knew she had “found her people.”
“I am proud to be a lesbian,” Smith said. “Now I want to help other people find that place.”
Marlee Milkis, ’16, a student who considers herself an ally but she does not
Gov. Corbett visits LU, compliments programs
By ALEX BLOOM
Greek students are criticizing the effectiveness of Lehigh’s Office of Fraternity and Sorority Af­fairs policy on chapter probation. A general notion among Greek students is that social probation does not lead to significant behavioral changes with the chapter.
OFSA uses probation as a tool to ensure good behavior amongst fraternities and sororities and their members.
“Our system is educational in nature; it’s not simply punitive or enforcement,” said Chris Mulvi­hill, assistant dean of students in the Office of Stu­dent Conduct and Community Expectations.
The University Code of Conduct defines proba­tion as “the conditional continuation of a group or organization for a specified period of time not to exceed four semesters.”
As of Sept. 18, there were four fraternities on probation, according to Mulvihill. Two of the frater­nities received the sanction during this semester and two others did in spring 2012.
A common probation-worthy violation is host­ing non-registered parties, which often include the unauthorized serving of alcohol.
“If [a chapter] gets in more trouble while [it’s] on probation, things are going to get a lot worse and [it] could be dissolved or terminated,” Mulvihill said.
Mulvihill pointed out that terminated or dis­solved chapters had committed a serious offence while on probation, either due to repeat offences or a serious offence that warranted their probation.
However, there are some who believe probation is not effective in curbing violations of the code of conduct, particularly unregistered parties. A high-ranking fraternity brother, who will be referred to as the brother, has extensive knowledge of the rel­evant issues and spoke on the condition of anonym­Students
question
Greek social probation
Rainbow room celebrates ‘coming out’
See PROBATION Page 3
See VENTURES Page 4
See RAINBOW Page 2