Brown and White Vol. 124 no. 21

              THE BROWN AND WHITE
Lehigh University’s Student Newspaper Founded in 1894
SPORTS
Crew celebrates 25th anniversary Page 16
ONLINE
Take our online poll:
Int’l Bazaar representa­tive of Lehigh diversity?
Students light up off campus
Page 7
LIFESTYLE
Vol. 124 No. 21
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
‘All the Lehigh News First’
B&W photos by SOFI BARRIONUEVO and MICHAEL NESTER
Lehigh’s Colleges Against Cancer hosted its annual Relay For Life Friday night in Broughal Middle School. The middle school was packed, and the club surpassed its goal of 67 participating clubs and $82,000 in donations.
Relay ‘unites’ campus against cancer
By LAURA MELONE
Lehigh University’s Colleges Against Cancer club held the 16-hour Relay For Life fundraiser on Friday night and Satur­day morning at Broughal Middle School.
Members from all areas of the Lehigh community, including Greek houses, sports teams and numerous other clubs and organizations, came together in order to raise money for cancer research and patient programs.
Relay For Life is the official fundraiser of the American Cancer Society, an orga­nization aiming to raise awareness about cancer and to hopefully find a cure for various forms of cancer. With the money raised from Relay For Life events, the American Cancer Society sponsors activi­ties and programs like Hope Lodge, can­cer research, summer camps for affected children and cancer screenings.
The Relay is a nation-wide event that provides information about the effects of cancer to people of all ages and races, and contributes to the program’s message that cancer does not discriminate.
The event was originally scheduled to
First-ever Islam Awareness Week aims to widen student views
By JADA GREEN
Lehigh’s first-ever Islam Aware­ness Week concluded on Friday with a powerful and informative event, a “Fast-A-Thon” at Johnny’s Bagels.
Students pledged to fast for at least a portion of the day in order to gain an understanding of the practice of dawn-to-dusk fasting done by Muslims during the month of Ramadan. The Fast-A-Thon, hosted by the Muslim Student Association, came to an end at Johnny’s, where the students broke their fast following the Islamic tradi­tion of eating a date and drinking a glass of water. The owners of Johnny’s then provided homemade food free of charge for participating students.
Imam Atef Mahgoub traveled to campus from Pittsburgh, Pa., to speak at the event. He taught students that the purpose of fasting is a demon­stration of gratitude to God, and he stressed the fact that even non-Mus­lims can find value in the tradition.
“In the end it’s about feeling the same feelings as people who have less than what we have,” Mahgoub said. “The point of fasting is not just having a big meal at the end of the day, it’s about showing gratitude to God and being good people.”
“I’m really glad his speech talked a lot about how important it is to be thankful for what we have,” Kaamilah FurQan, ’16, said. “I feel like people forget about that, and it serves as a good reminder.”
Members of the Muslim Student Association feel that Islamic culture is underrepresented on the Lehigh
Sigma Chi hosts second annual Derby Days
By DANIELLE DiSTEFANO
The Lehigh University chapter of the Sigma Chi fraternity hosted its philanthropy event, Derby Days, for the second time in two years, and con­cluded the proceedings last week.
Derby Days is a competition among sororities on campus to raise money for the Huntsman Cancer Institute and first took place in 1916 at the Univer­sity of California at Berkeley. It is one of the fraternity’s largest annual phil­anthropic events and is held across the nation on many college campuses in the beginning of April.
The weeklong event fundraises for Sigma Chi’s national philanthropy organization, the Huntsman Cancer Institute. The Huntsman Institute pro­vides healthcare for cancer patients and training for physicians and re­searchers, according to its website.
This was the second year that Derby Days took place at Lehigh, so the fra­ternity was eager to increase overall participation and boost turnout from competing sororities.
“Last year was a great success for the first annual year and we are really hoping to improve this year,” said the chapter’s president Steven Ernst, ’14.
Sigma Chi announced before the week began that half of the money raised would be donated to the Hunts­man Institute, while the winning sorority could donate the rest of the funds to its respective philanthropy organization.
During the week, Sigma Chi broth­ers facilitated different events and competitions among the sororities. Derby Days ran from Monday through Thursday, with one competition each day. Each sorority was paired with a Sigma Chi liaison to help plan and organize the events scheduled for the week.
Derby Days kicked off the begin­ning of the tournament with a dance competition. Prior to the performanc­See
FAST-A-THON Page 2
See RELAY Page 5
See DERBY Page 6