Brown and White Vol. 126 no. 12

              Vol. 126 No. 12
Friday, March 14, 2014
‘All the Lehigh News First’
THE BROWN AND WHITE
Lehigh University’s Student Newspaper Founded in 1894
SPORTS
Wrestling takes
second at EIWAs
Page 16
ONLINE
Visit our
website
thebrownandwhite.com
Bethlehem celebrates St. Patrick’s Day
Page 7
LIFESTYLE
Davis, Nas reflect on incarceration
By SAM TOMASZEWSKI
Activist Dr. Angela Davis and rap­per Nas discussed mass incarceration in belated observance of Martin Lu­ther King Jr. Day in Baker Hall Mon­day night.
The event, entitled “The Incarcer­ated Justice Series: Civil Rights in the 21st Century,” was organized by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Cel­ebration Committee and sponsored by many different groups on campus.
It was previously scheduled to take place Jan. 21 and to feature rapper Lupe Fiasco, but was postponed due to poor weather conditions.
Dr. James Peterson, director of Afri­cana studies and associate professor of English, moderated the talk.
Davis and Nas began with an over­view of mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex.
Davis cited many facts about those who are in prison: 70 percent are illit­erate, there is a 66 percent return rate and there are about two million people currently imprisoned, many of whom are people of color, she said.
Nas was able to take from his real-life experiences of growing up on the streets of New York City.
“The cop cars would drive by slower and slower,” he said. He spoke about how police would often arrest large groups of people without much evidence.
He attributed this to the war on
By ABBY SMITH
Lehigh University officials learned last Thursday morning that Fraternity Management As­sociation, a company that handles billing for 15 Greek chapters on the Hill, would be filing for bankruptcy.
FMA was established in 1967 by Greek alumni and university officials as a buying cooperative, but evolved into a full-service financial assistance organization. In 2010, the organization became completely independent of Le­high and moved its offices off campus to 301 Broadway St., said Ozzie Breiner, director of resi­dential services, in a meeting with students Monday.
“Fraternities and sororities have independent contracts with FMA to provide various services, including food and dining,” said Sally Gilotti, Lehigh’s assistant director of media relations. “Par­ents and students pay the FMA directly for those services.”
The company’s shutdown has affected about 800 students in 13 fraternities and two sororities. FMA aided these chapters with billing for food services, as well as facilities management; philanthro­py opportunities; chapter-wide events, such as date parties and formals; and even dues.
“We lost a very sizable amount of money, and it currently does not seem like we will be able to recover any of it,” said Rand Monaghan, ’16, president of Kappa Sigma. “We owe our food vendors for the last three months of bills still. In addition, because we are unable to afford food, we’ve had to let our chef go for the remainder of the year.”
Monaghan detailed other ex­penses his chapter has incurred, including trailer rentals for sum­mer storage, house equipment purchases, new kitchen equip­ment and maintenance and repairs.
Gilotti expressed that the uni­versity understands the significant burden this situation is placing on the individual Greek chapters and is trying to help where possible.
“To help alleviate the immedi­ate impact on affected students, Lehigh is providing the roughly 800 students with meal plans through the remainder of the se­mester,” she said. These students will be receiving 14 meal swipes
By CHRISTINA CAVANAUGH
On March 3, former Lehigh football player Russhon Phillips pleaded guilty to simple assault and public drunkenness in the wake of a fight outside of Leon’s bar last year.
Following the fight, Phillips and three other members of the football team were removed from the roster. The other three men have returned to the lineup, but Phillips is no longer a student at Lehigh.
In the altercation — which be­gan following a heated exchange of words — fellow Lehigh student Paul Graham, 22, sustained in­juries including multiple facial fractures. Phillips did not start the fight, but two witnesses stated that they saw Phillips kicking Graham while the fight took place, accord­ing to court papers.
His additional initial charges, according to court papers, includ­ed aggravated assault, disorderly conduct related to fighting, ha­rassment and underage purchase of alcohol. These were withdrawn by assistant District Attorney Richard Pepper in accordance with his plea.
He will face sentencing on April 8 in front of Northampton County Senior Judge Leonard Zito.
Phillips also faces outstand­ing charges for a Dec. 14, 2013 incident when he rear-ended a vehicle while intoxicated in a Burger King drive-through shortly after 3 a.m., police said. This led to a confrontation dur­ing which he spit on one of the people who had been in the other vehicle, attempted to kick one of them and threatened to assault her, police said.
See FMA Page 5
See DAVIS Page 5drugs. “We grew up in a war. Beyond all the warnings, we knew there was something else out there, focused on us.”
These mass arrests due to the drug war also connect to Davis’s activist work. Davis first became involved in prison reform by working to free po­litical prisoners.
“It became apparent to me that I had to get involved,” she said. “All I had to lose was a job, and they had to lose their lives.”
In an attempt to help free the three Soledad brothers — African-American inmates who had been charged with the murder of a white prison guard in 1970 — she ended up getting arrested herself.
At the time that Davis was in jail, there were 200,000 people imprisoned.
“That seemed like a huge amount of people. I remember thinking, ‘How can we incarcerate so many people?’” she said.
She emphasized that many people are not imprisoned for serious offenses.
One audience member asked a question regarding the “three strikes rule” — a law where three offenses re­sult in life imprisonment.
“Most people are not in jail or pris­on for violent crimes,” Nas said.
Davis and Nas also spoke about the education system and how it is an institution that can help reduce crime and arrests.
“The abolition of prisons is the cre­ation of schools,” Davis said. “My par­ents taught me how to love learning. It shouldn’t be a task.” She added that she believes schools are too focused on disciplining and testing their students.
When asked which public policies she would change to help social jus­tice, she answered that all education should be free.
The two also encouraged the audi­ence to reconsider the stigmas that are associated with those who are in prison.
Charges settled
in Sept. bar fight
B&W photo by CHRIS BARRY
Davis and Nas lead the discussion on imprisonment before opening it to questions and comments form the audience that packed into Baker Hall Monday evening.
Chapters lose thousands as FMA goes bankrupt