Brown and White Vol. 129 no. 4

              The Brown and White Vol. 129 No. 4
Tuesday, September 15, 2015 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
As part of Lehigh’s sesquicen-tennial
year celebration, mem-bers
of the department of art,
architecture and design are cre-ating
a Catalan-style vault on the
grass near the Alumni Memorial
Building.
The vault is being built as part of
the Hammerschlag Design Series,
and is being funded through a
grant awarded to the department.
Ground has already been broken
for the project.
The department initiated the
series last year with a few short-term
visiting designers on cam-pus
who were building workshops
and giving public lectures. This
Lehigh has started to experiment with the
implementation of open bars at on-campus
events, with a definitive ruling to come after
an official vote Sept. 22.
Last year, Senate hosted the Gatsby Gala,
the first university-sponsored event at which
alcohol was served.
Allowing alcohol at on-campus events like
this can give students the opportunity to
socialize on campus and get involved with uni-versity
organizations.
Aislinn Strohecker, ’18, is a member of
Student Senate who was involved in the plan-ning
and execution of the Gatsby Gala last
spring.
“We were thrilled that those who did drink
were responsible and there weren’t any inci-dents,”
Strohecker said. “Even though students
under 21 couldn’t drink, it was a great example
of how someone can have a good time, drink
and be responsible. And while it was huge for
us to have alcohol at the event, it wasn’t the
main reason that students came or why they
had a good time.”
The Gatsby Gala was part of
Lehigh’s pilot program in which
student groups are using por-tions
of their Senate funds to
purchase alcohol for pre-ap-proved
events.
The pilot program was
sparked by requests from
student organizations to
have alcohol at campus
events.
Staff members from
offices such as the Office
of General Counsel, Risk
Management, Conference Services, Auxiliary
Services, Student Activities, Student Center
Facilities and the Dean of Students Office met
to discuss this as a possibility.
As of right now, fraternities are the only
groups on campus that are allowed to have
events with alcohol.
It was a goal of the pilot program to expand
this privilege to other campus groups to create
a more inclusive setting.
Another goal of the pilot program was to
enforce safety and regulation of alcohol con-sumption.
For example, there was a three drink limit
imposed at the Gatsby Gala, which ensured
that students of age could enjoy themselves
while also being allowed to safely drink.
Anna D’Ginto, ’16, the president of Student
Senate, said that Senate is supportive of the
pilot program initiative.
“We are debating how to amend our bylaws
so that student groups can have greater flexi-bility
in using their Senate funds to purchase
alcohol for pre-approved events,” she said.
At a school where much of the social scene
that involves alcohol seems to be rapidly
moving off campus into South Bethlehem, the
approval of open bars at Lehigh-sponsored
on-campus events is a potential way to
begin to move Lehigh’s social scene back
onto campus.
Lehigh’s administration
can also look to University
Productions for guidance
if they choose to approve
this proposal. University
Productions is an on-campus
student group that organizes
concerts, comedy shows and
other social events for Lehigh
students.
This past spring,
University Productions
started having open
bars at some of their
events.
U n i v e r s i t y
Productions original-ly
encountered a few
issues with getting
the open bar to be
a success, including
having police pres-ence
and figuring
year, the series invited a visiting
professor, Richard Kroeker from
Dalhousie University in Nova
Scotia, Canada.
Kroeker will work closely with
Lehigh professors Nik Nikolov and
Anthony Viscardi, who is the proj-ect’s
leader, in coordinating the
planning and building of the vault.
“I am the executor, also the pro-fessor,
and also the guy that digs
in the dirt,” Viscardi said. “I kind
of wear all hats.”
The goal of the series vault proj-ect
is to involve students in the
creation of a unique and interac-tive
space on campus. The vault is
a way to connect one department
to another.
Viscardi sees the vault as a way
Construction begins on vault celebrating Lehigh’s 150th
Vote to decide campus event alcohol policy
By HENRY GREENBERG
B&W Staff
By GRIFFIN LEE
B&W Staff
See VAULT Page 3
Chris Barry/B&W Staff
The department of art, architecture and design’s Catalan-style
vault is under construction between Packard Lab and the Alumni
Memorial Building. The project is part of Lehigh’s sesquicentennial
celebration. Courses to help in the building of the vault are being
offered to students in the civil engineering and architecture
departments as a way to create a collaborative space on campus.
The Catalan vault is an architectural style which utilizes
brick placement to create a domed shape on the ceiling of
a building
Designed by Liz Cornell/B&W Staff
See VOTE Page 3