Brown and White Vol. 124 no. 14

              Vol. 124 No. 14
Friday, March 8, 2013
‘All the Lehigh News First’
THE BROWN AND WHITE
Lehigh University’s Student Newspaper Founded in 1894
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Executive Offices unanimously voted to suspend DG’s charter on Feb. 21.
Former Central Asian ambassador visits campus
By NICOLE MONTALBANO
Lehigh’s department of international relations sponsored the former U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan and Arme­nia, John Ordway, to discuss current and important affairs in Central Asia. Ordway’s lecture, titled “The Great Game in Central Asia-Revisited,” was held in STEPS 101 Monday.
Ordway opened his lecture with a brief history overview of the “Great Game,” a term he used to describe im­perial expansion by Western powers in the region.
“It really all began with India as a colony under the U.K.,” Ordway said. He elaborated saying that the other player in the Great Game was Russia when its colonial interests expanded south toward India. London questioned the Russian expansion and sought an alliance with Afghanistan, which later proved unsuccessful.
“What about now?” Ordway asked. He concentrated on the question of whether or not the Great Game has been revisited, focusing on five major countries in Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. His question addressed the three major powers, Russia, China and the United States, and each of their national interests in Central Asia.
“I would say Russia’s biggest interest is psychological, something called post-empire stress syndrome,” Ordway said. According to Ordway, Russia is deter­mined to maintain interests and access in Central Asia, by controlling major pipelines that allow resources to enter and exit the region.
In addition to economic, labor and stability interests, he also noted the significance of Russian interests in the large Russian populations in Kazakh­stan and Turkmenistan.
“China also has economic interests in Central Asia—trade, investments,” Ordway said. He went on to list inter­ests in accessing resources such as oil and gas, and preventing any anti-China activity in its vicinity.
The third major player in Central Asia is the U.S. Among U.S. priorities, Ordway listed energy and oil trans­portation as a major interest that could potentially lead to economic stability, considering significant U.S. investments in three major oil companies in Central Asia. He also emphasized U.S. interests in promoting democracy and economic reform, and preventing terrorism in the non-democratic states of Central Asia.
Ordway then commented on Tur­key’s previous interests in post-Cold War Central Asia. Referring back to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ordway said, “When the Soviet Union fell apart, Turkey thought it would be a big brother and a good Islamic model to the new-born states. Turkey got the treatment that big
By ABBY SMITH
On Feb. 21, Lehigh’s chapter of the Delta Gamma sorority became the first DG chapter nationally to have its charter sus­pended for reasons other than low member­ship and financial trouble.
“DG’s been on some sort of probation, or status as it’s called by their national headquarters, for many, many years now,” said Tim Wilkinson, director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs. “Unfor­tunately, they’ve constantly been a work in progress.”
Two years ago, the sorority was placed on Disciplinary Deferred Dissolution sta­tus by the university regarding a hazing incident where a woman was hospitalized, Wilkinson continued. He described this status as a warning, meaning that DG could not make another mistake.
DG’s Executive Offices, maintaining concern about the direction of the soror­ity, began its own investigation following an incident in the chapter house in the fall semester.
“In September, a woman from DG’s Executive Offices came to stay with us for a few days, as it is standard protocol for these women to come and visit periodically,” a junior DG member said. “Unfortunately, there were inappropriate run-ins with two sisters and this woman, from which concern was raised with our chapter.”
Wilkinson elaborated on the instance, commenting that the girls in question had been intoxicated and alcohol was present, which is forbidden in the chapter house because DG is a dry house through its na­tional office. These intoxicated women said some less than flattering things to the Ex­ecutive Offices representative, he said.
“At that point, looking over the cumula­tive challenges of the chapter, the national office decided they were going to run a ‘member review,’” Wilkinson said. The “member review” process entails personal
National office suspends DG charter
interviews with each member of the chap­ter, in which the Executive Offices repre­sentative attempts to gauge a member’s commitment to the chapter and the organi­zation, as well as her understanding of what it means to be in DG and the values of the organization as a whole.
Lauren Jensen, ’15, DG’s recently elected president at the time of the investi­gation, described the process and explained that the sorority’s advisors had directed the girls to treat the “member review” just like an interview, being prepared to talk about why they loved DG and why they thought they were an active, committed sorority member.
“The actual interviews were quite differ­ent than expected,” Jensen said. “We aren’t really allowed to talk about what went on, but I can tell you that a lot of girls left in tears. I personally did not have a bad expe­rience, but the majority of our house report­ed that they felt disrespected and bullied.”
Diana Vesselinovitch, ’13, indicated a similar sentiment.
“At the review, in addition to being asked to report on my sisters, which I an­ticipated, I was scolded about the negative past of DG, and most troubling of all, had my character continually brought into ques­tion,” she said. “I felt hurt and offended that these Executive Offices representatives were attacking me and making assumptions about my character upon only having just met me. I was not given the opportunity to explain myself, my hopes and plans for the chapter moving forward or describe to them my personal contribution to DG.”
Following the member review, DG Executive Offices decided to pursue an investigation.
“There’s no doubt there was a small group of women who were committed to moving the chapter forward, but they felt like there was no way to separate the much larger group of women who weren’t neces­sarily committed to where DG needed to go from that smaller group,” Wilkinson said.
On Dec. 19, DG received a letter from Executive Offices informing the sorority that the national office was “providing a 60-day notice of intent to consider the matter of suspending the Epsilon Lambda charter.” A final decision had not yet been made, and DG members were encouraged to sub­mit letters petitioning the proposed charter suspension. All letters would be read and considered by the Executive Offices coun­cil, who would make the decision following the 60-day period.
While Wilkinson said that he believed only 30 of the 80 or so sorority members to have written letters, but Jensen attested to many more.
“There are indeed roughly 80-90 girls, and while I know not every single girl wrote a letter, there were definitely more than 30,” she said. “Additionally, current active members had been in contact with over 100 alumni, asking for supportive letters, so they had those to consider as well.”
Jensen continued detailing other steps
See DG Page 4
See AMBASSADOR Page 2