Brown and White Vol. 134 no. 19

              The Brown and White Vol. 134 No. 19
Friday, April 20, 2018 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
STUDENTS REACT TO D-LIFE DISPARITIES Lehigh Valley
explores
medical
marijuana
By CHRISTOPHER GAETANO
B&W Staff
Keystone Canna Remedies, which
opened in Bethlehem in January,
is the first medical marijuana dis-pensary
in Pennsylvania. It aims
to improve patients’ quality of life
by allowing them to take control of
their healthcare.
Victor Guadagnino, the chief
business development officer, said
the dispensary sees an average
of about 60 patients each day. He
said Keystone’s goals are to educate
patients, create a safe regiment and
build a relationship with patients
using their backgrounds in health-care.
“Patients are from all different
walks of life,” said Joan Guadagnino,
the chief operations officer. “They’ve
come here and they are just seeking
a new way, a new relief. We’ve seen
some of our patients walk out of
here and come back with no canes
and no pain.”
Victor Guadagnino said those at
Keystone do not consider cannabis a
cure — however, they want it to be
a part of patients’ regiments to stay
healthy.
“If we can get you moving better,
sleeping better and eating better,
then you are going to feel better,”
Victor Guadagnino said.
Keystone Canna Remedies was
opened in Bethlehem because it was
seen as a centralized location not
too close to Philadelphia. In April
2016, the Pennsylvania Medical
Marijuana Program was signed into
law with the goal of providing access
to individuals suffering from serious
medical conditions. Since then, med-ical
marijuana dispensaries have
opened across the state, with many
clustered in Philadelphia.
Peter Melan, a member of the
Easton city council, sees the benefits
of having a medical marijuana dis-pensary
in the Lehigh Valley.
“I think that the fact that they
opened up a legalized dispensary
within 15 minutes of the city is
going to truly help those who need
it for medical purposes,” Melan said.
“I’m hoping to see one open up closer
to Easton so it can help out our res-idents,
and provide better access to
medical marijuana.”
Olga Negrón, a Bethlehem city
council member, proposed a reso-lution
to decriminalize marijuana
in Bethlehem during the council’s
April 17 meeting.
The city of Easton also proposed
an ordinance to decriminalize mar-ijuana
usage. However, the ordi-nance
did not pass in a council a
See MARY JANE Page 2
Courtesy of Jennifer Castro
Bruke Mammo, ‘17, ‘19G, gives participants in Diversity Life Weekend a tour of campus,
starting at the Alumni Memorial Building. The aim of D-Life Weekend is to encourage
students from different regional, socioeconomic and racial backgrounds to enroll.
By ANNIE HENRY
Community Engagement Manager
A thick brown and white enve-lope
laid on the table when Kiara
Damon arrived home from school.
Inside awaited informational
pamphlets and a letter congratulat-ing
her on her acceptance to Lehigh
University. Among the documents
and flyers — an additional letter:
“Congratulations! You are among
a select group of students invit-ed
to attend Lehigh University’s
Diversity Life Weekend!”
“Why would I want to go to that?”
the high school senior thought, as
she stood in her home in Brooklyn,
New York.
“We want you to be a part of the
Lehigh family, so we hope that you
will continue to explore the wealth
of opportunities available to you
here before you make a final deci-sion,”
the letter continued.
Damon, ’21, was one of the stu-dents
invited by the admissions
office to participate in its annual
Diversity Life Weekend, commonly
referred to as D-Life.
The program invites between 75
and 90 admitted students for a
weekend on campus to get a feel
of what being a Lehigh student is
really like. When considering invi-tees,
the school prioritizes students
of color who otherwise would not be
able to make it to campus.
Before attending D-Life, Damon
visited Lehigh’s campus twice. Both
times she said she didn’t like it
because it seemed like a predomi-nantly
white school.
However, after some persuasion
from her mother, Damon reluctant-ly
attended the single weekend that
would change her mind and future
decision.
“I came, and I met a lot of diverse
people, and it was nice to see that
they actually exist on campus,”
Damon said.
See DIVERSITY Page 3
Erin Garrity selected as student speaker
By EMMA SATIN
Assistant News Editor
When Erin Garrity, ’18, checked
her email in the middle of March
and saw there was an opportunity to
apply for the senior class commence-ment
speaker, she first thought it
was fake.
She reached out to Student Senate
President Matt Rothberg, ’18, to
double-check that the email was
real. Rothberg said this was the
first year Student Senate selected
the student who will speak at com-mencement.
In past years, the class president
spoke at commencement. Since the
class officer program is being phased
out, Student Senate has determined
a new selection process for gradu-ating
seniors to apply to be the stu-dent
commencement speaker.
Garrity, who serves as the vice
president of Greek relations on
Lehigh’s Panhellenic Council, has
held a variety leadership roles
throughout her time at Lehigh and
plans to share her experiences with
her graduating class.
“I think that my experience here
has been well-rounded enough
where if I went up and spoke about
Courtesy of Erin Garrity
Erin Garrity, ‘18, has been selected to be
the senior class commencement speaker.
She has served as vice president of
Greek relations on Panhellenic Council
and multiple positions in Lehigh’s chapter
of Pi Beta Phi.
what I have done here, many dif-ferent
people could relate to me,”
Garrity said.
Garrity has also served as the
vice president of membership devel-opment
and accreditation chair of
Lehigh’s chapter of Pi Beta Phi, and
she expanded her reach in the entire
Greek community as a mentor and
ultimately the coordinator of the
Greek Emerging Leaders program.
She also served as a tour guide.
At commencement, Garrity
will share the stage with Fortune
500’s 16th Most Powerful Woman,
Deloitte CEO and Lehigh alumna,
Cathy Engelbert, ‘86.
Juan Shiraishi, ’18, the chair of
Student Senate’s commencement
committee, said the committee was
composed of four Senate members
and one representative from the
Association of Student Alumni.
During the selection process, they
wanted to choose someone who
would say something valuable to
the senior class.
“We wanted to pick someone
who is going to leave the senior
class with a feeling of pride in what
they’ve done at Lehigh and a feel-
See SPEAKER Page 2