Brown and White Vol. 133 no. 11

              The Brown and White Vol. 133 No. 11
Friday, October 13, 2017 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
Students affected by Hurricane Maria
By EMILY PREBLE
B&W Staff
Helpless.
That’s the word Sunny Berrios,
’19, used to describe her thoughts
on Hurricane Maria and the dev-astation
it left behind in Puerto
Rico.
Berrios hasn’t heard from her
father in more than a week. The
last contact she had with her fam-ily
in Puerto Rico was a message
from her grandmother informing
her that her father had broken
four ribs in a bike accident trying
to get to the closest town with cell
service.
She knows food supplies are
close to gone, telephone poles
are down with no anticipation of
repair and not one organization
has visited her relatives in Las
Piedras to help them.
Beyond that, Berrios knows only
what the news stations report.
“It’s just an overwhelming feel-ing
of helplessness,” Berrios said.
“I’m just stuck waiting to see
what’s going to happen. It’s just
been a waiting game.”
Berrios is just one student who
represents Puerto Rico at Lehigh.
At age 5, she moved from Humacao
to Hazleton, Pennsylvania, with
her mom. Now, years later, she
joins a band of students who
watch Hurricane Maria wreak
havoc on their homes.
Berrios said the time since
Hurricane Maria hit has been
“unreal,” especially after hearing
the news of her father’s inju-ry
when she previously thought
everyone she knew in Puerto Rico
was OK.
“I feel like every week, as soon
as I start to feel better about
something, they just throw some-thing
else,” she said.
With no way to contact her
By CHRISTOPHER D’AGOSTINO
B&W Staff
Thousands of people rallied in
downtown Barcelona on Oct. 1 to
protest after Catalan political leaders
voted on a controversial indepen-dence
referendum. Violence quick-ly
erupted between civilians and
Spanish national police. More than
850 people were injured when riot
police raided polling stations and
forcibly removed voters.
The Spanish autonomous commu-nity
has descended into an aggres-sive
struggle between Catalan
natives and the national police force.
Despite the protests, the Office of
International Affairs and organiza-tions
such as IES Abroad Barcelona
plan to continue their study abroad
programs without any changes.
During their tenures at Lehigh,
44 percent of students participate
in internships or study abroad pro-grams.
Some of these students choose
to study in areas that have been
marred by recent terror or violence,
like Barcelona.
However, the IES Abroad
Barcelona crisis management team
and the Office of International
Affairs at Lehigh assure that regions
such as Barcelona remain safe for
student travel.
In an email to IES Abroad
Barcelona spring 2018 students,
Michael Green, the associate vice
president of college relations, wrote
that the program prepares for uncer-tainty
but hopes the current situa-tion
will be resolved peacefully prior
to the start of the spring semester.
He said IES plans to run the spring
program in Barcelona as scheduled.
Katie Welsh Radande, Lehigh’s
director of study abroad, said the
university is not making any changes
to its programs for the current and
upcoming semesters.
“However, if students are uncom-fortable
traveling to any region,
that’s a decision they have to make
themselves,” she said.
Welsh also said Lehigh has meth-ods
for ensuring students’ safety,
not only in Barcelona and regions in
Spain, but for all students who travel
abroad.
Welsh said Lehigh partners with
Study abroad continues despite violence in Europe
See ABROAD Page 3
family or send supplies due to
a nonoperational postal system,
Berrios said she feels the well-be-ing
of her family is utterly out of
her control.
Furthermore, she said the lack
of response from the U.S. govern-ment
has only exacerbated her
feelings of hopelessness.
“It’s beyond frustrating,”
Berrios said. “(President Trump)
is talking about how the casualty
number is low, but that’s only the
initial impact. We have people
that are sick and can’t get to hos-pitals
and can’t get water. That
number is going to increase if we
don’t do anything.”
Berrios’s outrage reflects many
of the feelings other Puerto Rican
students on campus share. Berto
Sicard, ’20, said coming to terms
See MARIA Page 3
Courtesy of Emma Kravitz
Casa Batlló is located on one of the main streets in Barcelona. Recently there have been
violent protests in the city after a Catalan independence referendum vote.