Brown and White Vol. 129 no. 2

              The Brown and White Vol. 129 No. 2
Tuesday, September 8, 2015 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
In the fall of 2000, former Lehigh
president Gregory C. Farrington won
the support of the board of trustees to
build Campus Square, a community
hub to foster stronger ties between
Lehigh and the city of Bethlehem.
Nearly 15 years later, the cam-pus
centerpiece now bears the name
Farrington Square to honor the 12th
university president’s efforts to elim-inate
the “moat” between the univer-sity
and Bethlehem.
The original plan for Campus
Square was approved with the pur-pose
of offering additional student
housing and retail shops on New and
Morton streets, according to a Brown
and White article from 2000.
“Campus Square will provide us
with another on-campus housing
option, but it will do more than that,”
Farrington said in the article. “We
are consciously locating this complex
at New and Morton streets because
we think it will be a catalyst for
downtown revitalization. Our goal is
to blur the boundaries between uni-versity
and town, entice students off
campus and be a magnet for students
and residents to infiltrate and mix.”
Today Farrington Square is home
to Lehigh staples such as the uni-versity
bookstore and the post office,
but it also houses local businesses
like The Cup and Johnny’s Bagels.
Farrington’s drive to link locals and
members of the university commu-nity
together led to the creation of
key role during the construction of
Campus Square.
“Former President Farrington was
a driving force behind the creation
of Campus Square and was a major
proponent of strengthening ties
between the city and the university,”
Friedman wrote in an email.
The official dedication of Farrington
Square is part of a larger celebration
of Lehigh’s sesquicentennial year,
and will occur Oct. 2 during the
the annual Bethlehem Farmers’
Market, where local vendors offer
fresh produce, prepared food, home-made
baked goods, flowers and live
music. The Farmers’ Market is open
every Thursday from 11 a.m. to 3
p.m. beginning in May through the
end of October.
According to Lori Friedman, the
interim director of media relations
in the Office of Communications and
Public Affairs, Farrington played a
Lehigh@150 weekend from Oct. 1-3.
The renaming is one of many events
planned for the weekend, which
will also include a block party, the
installation of Lehigh’s 14th presi-dent
John D. Simon at the annual
Founder’s Day celebration and a foot-ball
homecoming tailgate, according
to the Lehigh website.
“Everything that has the Campus
Square name will be renamed,”
said Doug Snyder, the manager of
Lehigh’s mail center.
Since all student mailboxes are
located in the mail center, the new
moniker warrants changes to all stu-dent
mailing addresses. According to
the Mailing and Shipping Services
website, the mail center is in the pro-cess
of updating address information
with postal carriers, so all letters and
packages should now be addressed to
Farrington Square. All students have
already been notified of the change.
The website says UPS and Fedex
may not have the new address updat-ed
in their databases yet.
“If they do not accept 4 Farrington
Square as a valid address, please use
4 Campus Square instead,” the web-site
reads.
The Campus Square residence
halls and surrounding small busi-nesses
will also be renamed.
Mark Ironside, the executive direc-tor
of Campus Square, said many
people are excited about the renam-ing.
“We are really looking forward to
the dedication and the opportunity to
continue President Farrington’s work
as we continue to partner with the
community,” he wrote in an email.
Lehigh’s Pride Center for Sexual
Orientation and Gender Diversity
has moved locations within the
University Center to UC212,
which is in the same wing as
the Women’s Center and Office of
Multicultural Affairs.
The center also hired a new
director, Chelsea Fullerton, after
the departure of Trish Boyles.
“It was important to the entire
institution that the Pride Center
was seen not as a hub for just
LGBT students to come and find
a safe space, but to promote insti-tutional
change – much like the
Women’s Center and the Office
of Multicultural Affairs have for
many years,” Fullerton said. “So,
the move was in part symbolic –
to show that we are a center, we
are a source of support, but also
a source of change and advocacy.”
Fullerton said the aim of the
move was also to make the center
more accessible to students. The
old space, formerly known as the
Rainbow Room, is now an office.
“The former location was maybe
not the most friendly or welcom-ing
depending on who you are,”
she said. “You had to go up stairs
and it was in a really visible
location. You could see who was
inside.”
Fullerton said the new location
provides a more confidential and
private space, so all students feel
comfortable visiting the center.
Emma Strong, ’18, is the secre-tary
of Spectrum, Lehigh’s gay-straight
alliance. She said she is
excited about the move because
the wing with the Women’s Center
and Office of Multicultural Affairs
is very welcoming. She is hoping
more people will feel comfortable
enough to enter the Pride Center.
“I feel like (the move) is sort of
bittersweet,” Strong said. “It was
nice having (the Rainbow Room)
in a public area, but at the same
time, it’s better to have it a little
more hidden away so it’s not as
public. There was a bit of stigma
that anyone who walked in had to
be gay. People didn’t want to walk
in because of that.”
Fullerton said the closer prox-imity
to the Women’s Center and
Office of Multicultural Affairs was
a very important reason for the
move.
She hopes to build a hub where
people can use it for meetings,
study groups and utilize it as a
space of comfort.
“The Pride Center is about edu-cation,
advocacy, also giving a
safe space for students on campus
to meet other students and just
be a place to gather,” said Kim
Ketterer, the office coordinator for
Jackie Peterson/B&W Staff
Fountains add to the atmosphere of the Farrington Square courtyard
on Sunday. Farrington Square, formerly Campus Square, will be
officially dedicated during Lehigh’s sesquicentennial celebration.
By ABBY MCBRIDE
B&W Staff
‘The house that Farrington built’
Campus Square renamed in honor of former Lehigh president
Lehigh Pride Center relocates to fight stigma
See PRIDE Page 2
Preview: In this new week-ly
feature, students tell The
Brown and White why they
chose to attend Lehigh.
See Page 6
By Karli Wachtel
B&W Staff
& dANIE LLE DI STE FANO
Editor in Chief
‘Hawk Talk’