Brown and White Vol. 105 no. 10

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 105 no 10 tuesday october 14 1997 all the lehigh news first founder's day ceremony honors faculty students by lisa a jones news editor the installation of nelson g markley as provost and vice president for academic affairs highlighted the sparsely attended 119th founder's day exercises thursday in packer memorial chapel founder's day is held every year to recognize excel lence and achievement among faculty and students this year the ceremony was also used to acknowledge bobb carson the new dean of the college of arts and sciences patti ota vice provost and the new dean of the college of business and economics and ron yoshida the new dean of the college of education interim president william c hittinger 44 gave introductory remarks and markley delivered the founder's day address dean's scholars in each of the three colleges roy c eckert college scholars lacocca scholars martindale scholars tauck scholars president's scholars and dean's list recipients were also recog nized at the ceremony markley spoke about various aspects of lehigh's growth over the past years he said each year the incoming freshman class is more and more qualified and he hopes this trend of excellence will continue in past years the ceremony was held to honor mid-year graduates bill ribbecke 98 a dean's list recipient in the college of business and economics and a martindale scholar attended the ceremony they changed the ceremony in a good way ribbecke said you don't want to lose the founder's day tradition it's an important day david bellows 98 an lacocca and martindale scholar also enjoyed the event it's a nice way for the faculty and the students to be given recognition for their accomplishments bellows said i think the turnout was pretty good considering it was different in the past . ribbecke attributed the low attendance to timing you're not going to get a large turnout on a schoolday afternoon he said people were just get ting out of class and many had activities at that time there might be a better turnout on a weekend b w photo by justin t hall rotc cadets jake civitts 98 and bill gross 98 prepare a rope for stream crossing at fort dix n.j this weekend greg mcneal 99 and nick cherrone 99 look on see story on page 3 black students straggle for equality on campus shannon rivers 99 walked out of the cool darkness of fairchild-martindale library blinking in the hot sun and dreading the long uphill walk to her dorm she met up with a few friends and they decided to take the bus up the hill when the bus arrived rivers asked the dri ver if he would be stopping in front of drown hall the dri ver carefully looked at rivers and her friends all of whom are african american and told them that he would not be driving up because the roads were closed although the students saw no evidence of such a closing they began walking up they reached drown just in time to see a bus pulling up in front at the wheel was the same driver who had refused to pick them up five minutes earlier although rivers does not like to jump to conclusions this situation seemed obvious ly racist what else could it have been she said we were all black since the first african-american student came to lehigh in 1964 the road has not been easy for minorities on campus a special feature story by natalie cantor i assistant news editor african-american students often see a very different lehigh than most majority stu dents from the lack of social opportunities to academic challenges to culture shock stu dents of color often face a whole host of dif ficulties that white students couldn't even imagine academic pres sures are something that all lehigh stu dents must learn to deal with most stu dents are familiar with the struggle of a late night study session or past-due research paper however most lehigh students have never felt that they have to prove themselves because of the color of their skin they've never looked around a lecture hall and found that no other faces looked like theirs they've never been asked to speak for an entire race of human beings many african-american students feel that in order to combat negative stereotypes about their race they must work twice as hard to prove that they are just as intelligent or hard-working as any other students or that they were admitted to lehigh on their own merits karen lovell 97 often felt increased academic pressure simply because she is an african-american when i'm the only black student in the class she said i feel that pressure to do well because in the back of my mind i'm thinking that they expect less from me because i'm black and they think i got here because of some quota or affirmative action program lovell said and that makes me work harder that drives me i don't know how it feels not to have that pressure lovell remembers a time when a profes sor in one of her accounting classes instruct ed the class to get into groups although lovell felt she had participated in the class and proven that she is a capable worker none of the other students approached her to be in their group when she asked one of the groups if she could join she was told they had too many people lovell did not auto matically assume that all of her classmates were racist but it made her wonder when a group is getting together in class she said i always feel something in the back of my head like people are thinking i don't want that black person in my group " andre williams,'97 also felt pressure due to his skin color i usually feel that i just have to learn on my own williams said a lot of times other people will get together to do the work together or homework and a lot of times i don't feel comfortable just aking do you mind if i join your group i never know how it's going to be received by white stu dents so why put myself in that position white students often question the acade mic credentials of minority students who attend lehigh they wonder if those stu dents really had to work just as hard in high school as they did to gain admission into this university or whether affirmative action and quotas are the real reason why people of color are here in the admissions office no special consideration is given to students based on the color of their skin maurice willis 90 is assistant director of admissions he helps to recruit and inter view minority candidates for admission we never use a lower standard for minorities willis said you have kids who are athletes here you have kids from california we like to see that kind of diver sity we're going to take a look at the whole see personal page 4 5 the football team personnel committee advances in animal llj defeats penn 24-7 examines sexual cloning raise ethical kul see page 24 harassment policy questions sports 16-24 news 1-10 science 11-13 men's soccer 20 network services 6 science briefs 1 3 the miss america contest began in 1921 as a bathing beauty contest to extend the summer tourist season source miss america organization web page