Brown and White Vol. 128 no. 12

              The Brown and White
Vol. 128 No. 12
Friday, March 20, 2015
‘All the Lehigh News First’
During the school week, Lehigh’s campus buzzes with college life: stu­dents racing from class to class, chat­ting in the dining halls and typing away at library keyboards. On week­ends, though, this hectic buzz calms down and classes take a short break.
This break, however, also extends to some major services provided to students during the week. For exam­ple, Lehigh’s buses are not available on weekends, which often strands students who live on “the Hill” and isolates them from the rest of cam­pus.
Jigar Patel, ’17, a resident of Sayre Park B, often finds himself stranded on weekends. Sayre Park is located on the upper part of “the Hill,” which makes it difficult for its residents to travel to the main campus without the bus service.
“It’s not that bad in warmer months,” Patel said. “But definitely in the wintertime, the last thing any­one wants to do is walk up the hill in single-degree weather.”
Patel also said that because the buses do not run on the weekends, he often feels discouraged to venture from his dorm.
“Going to visit friends in houses on the hill is fine, but if you want to visit your other friends down on campus you really have to think about it,” he said. “There have been some days this semester where I just stayed in my apartment all weekend because it was too cold to walk all the way down.”
Bob Bruneio, the manager of Transportation Services, said that the office is conducting research to determine if enough people would use the bus service on the weekends.
“We’re currently working on meet­ing them to discuss ways in which we can offer the best service possible to students,” Bruneio said, comment­ing on the office’s collaboration with Lehigh’s Student Senate.
The student senate will be conduct­ing a trial run for a weekend route beginning March 29 and on Sundays for the rest of the semester. Instead of providing a Lehigh bus, students will be able to take a ride in the T.R.A.C.S. van from 12 - 8 p.m. The van will run every half hour and fol­lows the traditional T.R.A.C.S. route.
In addition to limited transporta­tion, there is also a decrease in din­ing options on weekends. Students who stay on campus every weekend — especially those without access to their own kitchen and cooking supplies — see a restriction in their options during the weekend. Rathbone and Hawk’s Nest are avail­able throughout the weekend, how­ever, Lower Cort closes after lunch on Fridays and does not open until Monday.
In past years, the entire University Center, including Upper Cort, was closed during the weekends. Now, some parts of Upper Cort stay open on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Pandini’s, Flame and the Simply to Go section are avail­able for students’ convenience on the weekends.
David Joseph, the executive direc­tor of Student Auxiliary Services,
By TORI VISBISKY
B&W Staff
See WEEKEND Page 3
Megan Burke/B&W Staff
The T.R.A.C.S. van, which will run for a trial period on Sundays for the duration of the semester, will stop at Drown bus stop pictured above. Student Senate and Transportation Services partnered to accommodate a student need for weekend transportation.INSIDE | A local restaurant owned by a Bethlehem native features a specialized menu with dishes that take an original perspective on classic breakfast and lunch dishes.
See Page 5
Phi Delta Theta and Delta Chi fraternities have both been awarded chapter houses for the next academ­ic year, according to Allison Gulati, the associate dean of students.
House 97, formerly Lambda Chi Alpha’s house, and House 84, for­merly Delta Phi’s house, will be home to the two chapters. Gulati said a decision of which chapter will move into which house will be made by March 25.
Both Interfraternity Council chapters, which are currently non-residential fraternities, were given the opportunity to apply for House 97 earlier this semester. In the interim, Delta Phi lost its rec­ognition because of violations of the university code of conduct. Its chapter house, House 84, was then made available for next year.
Gulati said both chapters did a phenomenal job during their pre­sentations and had strong plans for how they would incorporate a residential aspect into chapter life.
Neither chapter has had conduct issues, and both have done well in the accreditation process and have been accomplished since recoloniz­ing.
“Both groups have diverse mem­bership and really, as organiza­tions, are doing a lot of values-based work,” Gulati said. “They have built their entire fraternity around their values, and we are incredi­bly impressed with how they are doing things organizationally and how hard they are working from a recruitment and member education standpoint.”
This led to her proposal to John Smeaton, the vice provost for Student Affairs, that House 84 remain Greek housing for next year.
Smeaton and the University Space Committee approved the pro­posal, and Phi Delta Theta and Delta Chi’s presidents Greg Potter, ’16, and Phil Vendola, ’17, respec­tively, were notified of the decision Wednesday.
Both chapter presidents expressed excitement for the decision.
“We’ve been really excited even at the idea to have one communal place,” Potter said. “As a brother­hood over the last few semesters, we’ve seen more and more that we are flocking to (crappy) off-cam­pus houses that don’t have enough space. It was easy for us to visualize living in an environment where we can all be together and do things together.”
Vendola said Delta Chi is happy to have the opportunity to make an impact on the Greek community by having a house on “the Hill.”
One of the major considerations by the selection committee was how
Requests for weekend transportation
Fraternities offered on-campus housing
By KERRY MALLETT
Managing Visuals Editor
answered with pilot program
Inside Lifestyle
See HOUSES Page 3