Brown and White Vol. 107 no. 27

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 107 no 27 tuesday february 8 2000 aji the lehigh news first rha offers fun with winterfest activities by alexandra goldmacher news writer the residence hall association gave students an opportunity to participate in a number of activities during winterfest 2000 which began saturday and ends today it was a great time and i can't believe so many people showed up sakib qureshi 02 said i think they should do it more often winterfest events included ice skating movie night the phat pad contest and a musical performance tonight all activities were free and students have also been given winterfest t-shirts ice skating was held saturday from 10 p.m to 1 a.m at the lehigh valley ice arena buses were provided by transportation services and students received free skate rentals this is the first time i didn't eat ice qureshi said grumpy old men and good will hunting were shown sunday at 7 p.m in the sayre park village lodge hot cocoa and desserts were provided the phat pad contest was held yester day students with unique rooms participat ed in the contest to determine the room with the most unusual setup lehigh administrators and rha executive board members judged all the rooms everyone who entered received a 10 gift certificate to the lehigh bookstore and winners received larger gift certificates to the lehigh valley mall singer and guitarist dave binder will perform the james taylor cover fire and rain tonight at 8 o'clock in the great room at ulrich assistant director of residence life barbara hawkins said planning for winterfest began in early november i think the timing of winterfest is really critical hawkins said it gives stu dents an opportunity to have fun and to participate in campus activities winter can be a really stressful time of year for people we want to do something fun that we know the students like rha wanted winterfest to be a week long event but it didn't want to interfere with other campus activities so it only spanned four days rha executive board members shared responsibilities for planning the event treasurer holli warholic 01 planned the ice skating vice president cynthia crookston 02 took charge of the movie session at sayre park secretary susan rubow 02 organized the phat pad contest and hawkins planned the night with dave binder rha programming director laura schwamb 02 and rha president anthony hillman 01 also played criti cal roles in scheduling the events b&w photo by melissa brown students enjoy an evening of ice skating saturday at the lehigh valley ice arena this event was part of this year's winterfest activities year of dragon celebrated at lamberton by tovah ross news writer not even a snow delay could stop 150 students from celebrating the chinese new year with members of the asian cultural society acs thursday at lamberton hall the acs has sponsored the celebra tion since the club's inception in the mid 1980s it remains one of the clubs largest and most popular events each year february 5 marks the official chinese new year called the year of the dragon in chinese culture the dragon is the most auspicious animal of the zodiac and is a symbol of strength life and power the chinese will continue to pay respect to the dragon throughout the year to con tinue the new year's good fortune acs began plans for the event which included importing decorations from the chinatown neighborhood in philadelphia in the weeks following winter break kari coy 00 attended the event and was impressed by the celebration you could tell a lot of work went into the night coy said the lion dance was a lot of fun this was a really great experience the night began with the distribution of candy-filled red envelopes a tradition found in many chinese households parents usually stuff the envelopes with money to bring their children good luck amanda leong 03 appreciated the traditional aspects of the evening i came here to follow the tradition of the chinese new year that i followed at home she said catered traditional chinese foods and dishes cooked by members of acs was a a major part of the evening's festivities additional food was brought in to make up for the shortage caused by the large number of people who attended some of the dishes served were tofu salad dumplings congee a liquid rice soup with pork and 1,000 year old eggs preserved duck eggs the members of acs later performed the zodiac a play that explains the roles of the 12 different animals of the zodiac each zodiac animal has its own personality and each person bom in a certain year will share those traits the traditional lion dance followed the play the dance combines art history and kung fu moves and uses loud sounds and firecrackers to rid the dancers and those watching of any evil spirits the music of the dance follows the moves of a lion that brings good luck and prosper ity to all who participate in the dance traditional chinese games ended the night the winners of chadaidee a game similar to poker were rewarded with a set of chinese teacups for some the evening was their first experience with the chinese new year mark aevermann 03 admitted he knew litde about the holiday the only thing i knew about the chinese new year is what i have read in take-out restaurants he said others went to the celebration to con tinue their own new year traditions graduate student yves deiss said she read about the celebration in an advertise ment but had already been celebrating the chinese new year for three years the chinese new year not unlike the american new year is a celebration that brings in the upcoming year with hopes of good luck in the future although the chinese new year has many traditional elements like the lion dance and the red envelopes the acs hoped to bring american culture into the celebration the acs used the zodiac as one way of integrating cultures replacing the rat with a more friendly and recognizable character mickey mouse lan cui 00 is vice president of the cultural committee she said the hope was to add an american element and mix the cultures we didn't want to exclude anyone so we brought american and asian culture together that is the point of acs it was once against the law to have a pet dog in a city in iceland http://www.sbt.bhmedia.com monkey head trans plants and other odd scientific matters see page 5 science 5-7 science briefs 5 needle-free insulin 7 members of chinese culture club perform open at zoellner see page 3 news 1-4 world news briefs 2 club council 4 men's and women's j swimming and diving mm teams cruise past marist see page 12 pp sports 10-12 ski team 10 women's basketball 11 , *^- track and field 12