Brown and White Vol. 126 no. 11

              By KERRY MALLETT
Lehigh marketing students gained real-world experience by preparing a marketing strategy for Lehigh Valley International Airport in Queen City Friday.
The group of eight students presented its strategy to the gen­eral employees of the airport. Ashley Knowles, ’14, a market­ing major who was involved in the project, said the proposal was well-received.
“They were very happy with what we already presented and we don’t see why it wouldn’t be approved,” she said. “Hopefully more projects will come from them, maybe even from the commercial airport as well.”
The next step in the ap­proval process is a presentation to the board of directors, which will be scheduled for later this month.
The airport is a sister airport of the Lehigh Valley Interna­tional Airport but serves indi­vidual pilots rather than passen­gers. It competes with similar airports in Reading, Pottstown and Quakertown.
This competition figured prominently into the final strat­egy of the project.
Some key components of the plan include competitive bench­marking, which includes com­pares aspects of the four airports like fuel price, percent occupied for hangars, café, location and customer service.
“We used a marketing tem­plate which took us through where to hone down on and what we thought they should position themselves as,” Knowles said. “We examined branding and used the competi­tive benchmarking process.
“By finding their key success factors, where they excel and where they are at a disadvan­tage, we determined what they should be doing in the future and how to go about achieving those strategies.”
The students came to the conclusion that the airport needs to improve its infrastruc­ture, add hangars so that it is no longer at full capacity and add amenities.
The new brand promise cen­ters around community, and the proposed changes are all tied to this overarching goal.
The Lehigh Northampton Airport Authority approached the chair of the marketing
Vol. 126 No. 11
Friday, February 28, 2014
‘All the Lehigh News First’
THE BROWN AND WHITE
Lehigh University’s Student Newspaper Founded in 1894
SPORTS
Women’s lax falls to 1-1 at home
Page 12
ONLINE
Poll: What is your ideal spring break?
thebrownandwhite.com
Workshop explores aphrodisiac foods
Page 5
LIFESTYLE
Made with Love
B&W photo by KAREN BELLINGER
The Women’s Center hosted an event where students explored the nature of aphrodisiac foods Monday. See Story, Page 5
Photo courtesy of MORGAN NELSON
From left: Michaela Acton, ‘14, Ashley Knowles, ‘14, Professor Steven Savino, and Ryan Kautz, ‘17, discuss the students’ marketing strategy proposal to LVIA, Queen City Friday. Editors’ Note
The Brown and White will not be publishing issues during spring break. We will resume publica­tion on Friday, March 14.
LVIA offers ‘real’ experience
By KELSEY LECK
An academic organization on Lehigh’s campus that is working to change people’s definition of diversity is SQUAB, the Society of Queer & Undergraduate Allies in Business.
Elizabeth Pines, ’16, the vice president of SQUAB, said that the idea for the organization emerged last September when its current president, Eryne Boyle, ’15, was sitting in one of her inter­mediate accounting classes. The presidents and vice presidents of other diverse organizations, like the National Association of Black Accountants and the Association of Latinos of Finance and Ac­counting, were talking about their events.
“There are entire organizations dedicated to bridging the gap between diversity and business in terms of race and ethnicity, but there’s nothing for LGBTQIA students,” Pines said.
Although there are multiple resources on campus for social outreach for LGBTQIA students, such as Spectrum, LGBTQIA Services and the Rainbow Room, there were no academic services dedicated specifically to LGBTQ­IA students.
From there, Pines and Boyle brainstormed, and the pair de­cided that Lehigh needed an or­ganization to represent the needs of LGBTQIA students in an aca­demic setting. Because both Boyle and Pines are in the College of Business and Economics, they formed their organization with a business focus, with Professor Matthew Melone, a law professor within the business school, as its faculty advisor.
“We think is the greater need
Society aims to diversify workplaces
Smeaton presents new social policy to Student Senate
See SQUAB Page 3
n SQUAB hopes to help LGBTQIA individuals gain more professional rights with employers.
See LVIA Page 3
By WILL ASH
Lehigh University’s Student Senate XXVI held a meeting Tuesday in the University Center.
Student Senate President Andrew Callahan, ’14, announced that he is pleased with the Senate’s cur­rent progress, but said that the group’s hard work is not over yet. With the semester half over, the council will continue to make more changes than all year as it searches for new members and appoints experienced delegates to new positions.
The meeting kicked off with speeches from guest speakers John Smeaton, vice provost of student affairs, and Ian McConville, ’14, another member of Greek life.
Smeaton recently inducted a new chapter event policy that prohibits any of Lehigh’s student orga­nizations, including the Greek chapters and student
See SENATE Page 4
n Students developed their marketing skills by developing strategies for the local airport.