Brown and White Vol. 131 no. 19

              The Brown and White Vol. 131 No. 19
Tuesday, November 15, 2016 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
Professor under fire for alleged racist comments
By KLAUDIA JAZWINSKA
News Editor
An adjunct professor is under investigation for
making discriminatory comments to students
Editor’s note: The names of
students in this story have been
changed to protect their security
while the investigation is ongoing.
Daniel Bayak, an adjunct
accounting professor in the College
of Business and Economics, was
accused of allegedly making inap-propriate
comments regarding a
student’s ethnic heritage in a class
Wednesday. John, an Intermediate
Accounting II student whom The
Brown and White has chosen not
to name to protect his securi-ty,
filed a complaint to Lehigh’s
Equal Opportunity Compliance
Coordinator and the university
initiated an investigation into the
matter.
John said Bayak bragged at the
start of class Wednesday that he
won $10,000 from a bet he made
that Donald Trump would win the
election, and made various discrim-inatory
comments to non-white stu-dents
about the election.
For example, John said, Bayak
asked one Indian-American stu-dent
how late he stayed up the
night before watching the election,
because his eyes “looked like slits.”
Moments later, Bayak, who
knew John was an American with
Mexican heritage, allegedly asked
him, “What about you? Are you
staying or are you going back to
your country?”
When John, who was in disbelief,
asked, “Excuse me?” Bayak repeat-ed
his question.
John said he told Bayak he
thought the question was inappro-priate,
especially given the circum-stances
of the election.
Maria, another student in the
class, said Bayak had made com-ments
to John about his heritage
on several other occasions. She said
though John’s responses to the pro-fessor
were respectful, it was clear
he was visibly upset by the com-ment.
“Then professor Bayak said some-thing
along the lines of, ‘I’ve been
teaching for x amount of years, I
ask these questions all the time, no
one’s ever had a problem before,’”
she said.
John said he was shaken and
angry, because he felt the language
Bayak was using was threatening
to his grade. As he began to pack
his things to leave the classroom,
Bayak said, “‘Oh my God, you’re not
going to throw a temper tantrum
now, are you?’”
Maria said the rest of the stu-dents
sat in stunned silence after
John left, and the professor contin-ued
to teach the class.
“I think a lot of people wish that
they had done something, but every-one
was just so shocked and no one
really said anything,” she said.
Anna, a third student in the
accounting class, said she was glad
someone said something and stood
up to the professor, “instead of let-
Initial plans set
for business
school expansion
Post-election silent rally draws hundreds
By CATHERINE MANTHORP
Assistant News Editor
Lehigh’s business program, pres-ently
housed in Rauch Business
Center, is in the process of plan-ning
to build a new facility to
accommodate the university’s No.
32 ranked undergraduate business
school.
In early October, with the support
of the university’s board of trustees,
President John Simon announced
plans to expand Lehigh and allow it
to become more competitive among
higher education institutions. This
expansion, known as the “Path
to Prominence,” will bring about
changes throughout the university.
“The ‘Path to Prominence’ is
everybody and we all contribute to
it in different ways,” said Georgette
Phillips, the dean of the College of
Business and Economics.
Phillips said an architect hasn’t
been hired yet, but a walk-through
of Rauch Business Center has been
scheduled for the end of November
for those who are interested in
submitting proposals. She said the
process will take at least two years.
Once proposals have been sub-mitted,
a faculty committee, among
others, will meet in January to
choose the architect who will do
the study drawing over the next
few months.
Phillips said the location of the
new building has yet to be deter-mined,
but it will be on Asa Packer
Campus. She said the building may
be an expansion on the current
building or it may be an entirely
Roshan Giyanani, Annie Henry/B&W Staff
TOP: Members of the Lehigh community gather in a circle for a silent
rally Thursday in front of the UC Front Lawn. Many people held up signs
regarding issues in the United States, such as sexual assault, women’s
rights and xenophobia. BOTTOM LEFT: A Lehigh student holds up a sign
titled “Lehigh denounces xenophobia” at a silent rally Thursday on the
UC Front Lawn. The rally first gathered on the front lawn before walking
throughout campus, including into Fairchild-Martindale Library. BOTTOM
RIGHT: A participant in the silent rally holds up a sign Thursday in front of
the UC Front Lawn. People held a variety of signs during the rally, which
See EXPANSION Page 3 was held as a response to the recent presidential election.
See BAYAK Page 4