Brown and White Vol. 135 no. 21

              The Brown and White Vol. 135 No. 21
Tuesday, November 20, 2018 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
Election turnout among Lehigh students up from 2014
By CHRISSIE FAENZA
B&W Staff
Northampton County election
results have been made official,
revealing that 865 voters, or 25.8
percent of those registered, casted
ballots at the Litzenberger House
polling center for the 2018 midterm
election on Nov. 6.
Voter turnout at the Litzenberger
House, which largely services Lehigh
student voters, was over four times
larger than that of the 2014 midterm
elections. In that cycle, 204 voters, or
6.62 percent of those registered, cast
their ballots at the polling location.
Voter statistics of Bethlehem’s
3rd Ward, the precinct which
Litzenberger House polls, is reflective
of the Lehigh student vote because
students’ on-campus and some
off-campus addresses route them to
this location. However, the statistics
are not a direct representation of
Lehigh students, some of whom may
have voted in their home district or
by absentee ballot.
Northampton County as a whole
saw a turnout of 56 percent for reg-istered
voters in 2018. In total, 113
million Americans voted this year,
which accounts for 49 percent of all
eligible voters. This is up from 36.4
percent in the 2014 midterms.
Sara Boyd, ‘21, the president of the
Student Political Action Coalition,
said more millennials voted this year
in response to their concerns about
the current government.
“I think a lot of voters in the coun-try
were angry with the way that
the government no longer looks like
them, and as a result, there are more
women in Congress than ever, there’s
the most diverse Congress ever,
there’s the first Native American con-gresswoman,”
she said.
Vera Fennell, a professor of polit-ical
science, said the candidates in
this year’s race also motivated young
people to go out and vote.
“There were attractive candidates,
and when people find attractive
candidates, they come up and vote,”
Fennell said. “They’re convinced that
it’s important and that it’s needed
and that it could make a change.”
Though millennials are the largest
demographic of the electorate, their
voter registration and turnout is
consistently significantly lower than
other groups. The estimated turnout
for Lehigh’s polling area is slightly
lower than the nationwide turnout
for those aged 18 to 29 – about 31
percent.
Brian Fife, a professor and the
Graduate Student Senate addresses parking concerns
Rachel Zuckerman/B&W Staff
In this April 23, 2016, file photo, graduate students park in graduate lots on
Mountaintop campus. The Graduate Student Senate sent a letter to Provost Pat
Farrell on Nov. 7 to express concerns about the new parking policies which will go
into effect in July 2019.
By EMMA DILLON
Assistant News Editor
Lehigh’s Graduate Student Senate
sent a letter to Provost Pat Farrell
on Nov. 7 to express its concerns
about parking plans under the uni-versity’s
Path to Prominence.
According to the letter, Graduate
Student Senate believes the new
parking services, fees and regula-tions
that will go into effect on July
1, 2019, will “significantly impact
(graduate students’) financial sta-bility,
(graduate students’) ability to
carry out innovative research, and
(graduate students’) ability to carry
out our duties as teaching and grad-uate
assistants.”
As part of a pilot program, grad-uate
students are only allowed to
park in Alumni Parking Garage and
Zoellner Parking Garage. When the
upcoming changes take effect, grad-uate
students who wish to park on
Asa Packer campus will have to pay
$500 for the academic year.
Iiona Scully, the president of
Graduate Student Senate, said the
new parking policy will be detrimen-tal
not only to graduate students,
but also to faculty and staff as well.
Scully said the financial con-straints
of parking on Asa Packer
campus is immense, as the fee is
2.5 percent of the average teaching
assistant income.
A cheaper, yet more inconve-nient
option, would be parking on
Mountaintop Campus for $250.
Graduate students who have
researcher assistant, teaching assis-tant
and graduate assistant permits
will also have the option to park on
Goodman campus for no charge.
“These changes are very inconve-nient
for graduate students because
most of us teach and work on Asa
Packer campus,” Scully said.
Scully is also concerned that the
parking pass is only valid during the
academic year.
“Graduate students don’t stop
working during the summer or win-ter
breaks — as a matter of fact,
that’s when we do most of our work,”
she said.
Under the new parking regula-tions,
graduate students will not be
allowed to park on campus between
11 p.m. and 6 a.m., which Scully said
does not coincide with how a gradu-ate
student’s schedule works.
“We’re on campus until very late
or very early for TA purposes or
research,” Scully said. “If the librar-ies
are open until 2 a.m. we should
at least be allowed to park until
then.”
The cost to park during the eve-nings
and weekends during the
school year would be $86 and $190
during academic breaks.
Graduate Student Senate’s letter
also highlights the issue of park-ing
accessibility at Saucon Village,
where many graduates students
live. Saucon residents’ current pass
permits them to park anywhere
on campus, but the new changes
would restrict their parking to strict-ly
Saucon. This new Saucon-only
pass would not allow students to
park there over the summer — even
though many graduate students
stay over the summer — unless they
pay an additional fee.
On top of other inequities, Scully
said faculty and staff will receive
a $250 salary increase for the first
year of the parking plan, which will
not be offered to graduate students.
“We’d like to be offered an equi-table
amount of money, especially
since we are on the side of lower
income,” Scully said. “It doesn’t
make sense for only part of the
population that is being forced into
this new parking fee structure to be
given an incentive.”
Edward Gallagher, a retired
Lehigh professor, has expressed con-cern
over the new parking plans in
his blog, “The Bethlehem Gadfly.”
Gallagher believes lower-paid
graduate students, faculty and staff,
See PARK Page 3
See ELECTION Page 3