Brown and White Vol. 129 no. 9

              The Brown and White Vol. 129 No. 9
Friday, October 2, 2015 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
At Lehigh, social fraternities
seem to have a notable hierarchy
over most other clubs and organi-zations
on campus. This can make
the memebrs of other groups, like
honorary, professional and service
fraternities, feel they are not get-ting
their due recognition.
Rob Dorrycott, ’16, the president
of the coed honorary band fraterni-ty
Kappa Kappa Psi, said he doesn’t
always feel his organization is ade-quately
recognized as a fraternity
by the campus community.
“If you go around on campus
and ask someone, ‘Can you name
a bunch of fraternities that are on
the Hill?’ most people can say quite
a few,” Dorrycott said. “If you go
and you say, ‘What’s Kappa Kappa
Psi?’ a large majority of people do
not know what that is.”
Many professional and honorary
fraternities have expressed their
desire to gain more recognition on
campus, which would allow them to
have a wider reach.
It can be difficult for these orga-nizations
to attract a broad audi-ence,
as most of them are interest
groups that are specific in the peo-ple
they recruit.
“(An honorary fraternal orga-nization)
is a community,” said
Christelle Salloum, ’18, the public
relations manager of Phi Sigma Pi,
a national honors fraternity. “You
actually do join a brotherhood. You
do go through a rushing process,
it’s just less intense than the one in
(social) Greek life.... (The members)
all want the same things — to be
part of a community, a brotherhood
of people who are there for you, who
share your interests.”
Honorary, professional and ser-vice
fraternities at Lehigh are rec-ognized
by Student Senate, while
social fraternities are represent-ed
by the Interfraternity Greek
Council, the Panhellenic Council or
the Multicultural Greek Council.
Six fraternities and sorori-ties
from Lehigh – Phi Sigma
Pi, Alpha Phi Omega, Alpha Chi
Sigma, Kappa Kappa Psi, Sigma
Phi Delta and Alpha Omega
Epsilon – are recognized national-ly
by the Professional Fraternity
Association, a national organiza-tion
that was formed in 1978. They
are each either service, honor or
professional in nature, thus distin-guishing
them from social Greek
organizations on campus.
Both the Lehigh and the
Bethlehem police received a grant
this year from the Pennsylvania
Liquor Control Enforcement
Board that will be used over the
next two years to increase the
quality of education and enforce-ment
around Lehigh’s campus.
The two grants, which amount
to a total of $39,000 for the two
years, were the result of a propos-al
that the Lehigh and Bethlehem
police departments presented to
the board.
“It’s always hit and miss because
there’s only so much money avail-able
in the legislation that is put
aside for this,” said Lehigh Police
Chief Edward Shupp. “They get
somewhere around 250 applica-tions
and they give out about 30,
so if you can write it (the propos-al)
in a way that really catches
their attention, that’s how you
get it.”
Each police department wrote
up their own separate propos-al,
which stated exactly what it
would use the money for and what
it hoped to achieve through doing
these things.
The Lehigh police department
wrote their proposal to include all
the things they need to improve
the alcohol-prevention education
on Lehigh’s campus, including the
materials to create pamphlets,
new equipment such as breath-alyzers
and increased police to
educate people.
Bethlehem Police Capt. Ashley
Heiberger said the officers who
are working because of the grant
have two main goals.
“The primary duties of officers
working the grant-funded patrols
are education and enforcement,”
Heiberger wrote in an email.
Many believe Lehigh and
Bethlehem police are crack-ing
down on parties, barbecues
For the past 10 years, Lehigh
has actively contributed to youth
NGO programs through its part-nership
with the United Nations.
This year, Mikayla Cleary-
Hammarstedt, ’18, is being
given the opportunity to work
with an organization in India
called Tarumitra. Due to Cleary-
Hammarstedt’s involvement with
this program, Rev. Robert Athickal,
the president of Tarumitra, came
to Lehigh to talk about his NGO
and its mission.
Tarumitra began in 1988 when
a group of students in India
decided to start a rally for the
and MoCos thrown at off-cam-pus
houses. Lehigh students have
noticed an increase in the number
of parties that get stopped early
into the night.
“We’ve been told the police have
threatened to issue a citation for
any house that is having any
event that involves underage
drinking, which is something that
did not commonly happen last
year,” said Tashi Eng, Theta Chi
fraternity’s social chair.
Students have also noticed an
increase in police patrolling the
streets on bicycles, on foot and on
horseback. Lehigh recently donat-ed
a horse to the Bethlehem police
department, which they named
Asa.
“People are approachable on a
bicycle, on a horse, walking on
foot patrol,” Shupp said. “They
aren’t approachable in cars, so
that’s one of the things that we
thought about and that the city
wanted to try to do to get to know
students a little bit better.”
All of these changes are having
an impact on the social scene
at Lehigh and they are causing
those who throw parties, includ-environment.
Since then, it has
grown exponentially and recently
received the highest NGO honor
from the United Nations. In addi-tion,
it has had an impact on both
the students who attend one of the
Tarumitra campuses, as well as
the environmental issues of India.
Several students have even gone
on to become prominent environ-mental
figureheads in the U.N.
“At Tarumitra, our main goal is
to create more spirituality with
the environment and be more
environmentally responsible,”
Athickal said.
Tarumitra is an organization
that strives for better treatment
Lehigh, Bethlehem police receive grant Professional
fraternities
seek to be
represented
Indian environmental NGO brought to Lehigh
Chris Barry/B&W Staff
President John Simon introduces Bethlehem Police officer Jason
Holschwander and Asa, the Bethlehem Police Department’s Mounted
Patrol Unit’s newest horse, at a press conference on the UC front
lawn on Sept. 24. Simon announced Lehigh’s donation to the
Bethlehem Police Department, which was used to purchase Asa.
By DANIELLE BETTERMANN
Assistant News Editor
By KLAUDIA JAZWINSKA
Associate News Editor
By GRIFFIN LEE
B&W Staff
See GRANT Page 2
See TARUMITRA Page 2 See FRATS Page 3
Courtesy of Tarumitra.org