Brown and White Vol. 101 no. 39

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 101 no 39 friday april 8 1994 all the lehigh news first off-campus houses burglarized by david mederrick associate editor approximately 18 student houses on east fifth street and adjoining blocks have fallen prey to break-ins in recent weeks according to john yerk bethlehem police commis sioner the burglaries many of which occurred during spring break have left students feeling victimized un safe and wondering if the university and police are doing enough to pre vent these crimes the burglars have made off with a large number of stereos televisions videocassette recorders and jewelry capt herbert goldfeder of the bethlehem police said there have been no leads in the case unfortu nately right now there are no sus pects goldfeder said there have not been too many clues to go by and there hasn't been a lot of physical evidence at the scenes we don t have any information on whether it is the same group or individual it is a possibility but the similarities in the robberies like breaking through the back door are not an uncommon way for burglars to enter a building hillary reuter 94 and eliza beth meyer 94 residents of 303 e fifth st were robbed on two sepa rate occasions prior to spring break the first time occurred on a wednes day afternoon when one of the resi dents was in her room the burglar got away with a vcr another or possibly the same burglar finished back door with their jewelry stereo and other valuables before they were able to open the front door there was not much we could almost every person i know on east fifth has been burglarized brad mcgill 94 428 e fifth st the job the following monday night by jamming the front door with a broom handle leaving time to escape if the house occupants came home in the middle as was the case reuter said the burglar heard them come home and quickly fled through the do but lock our doors they had obviously looked around and watched us leave reuter said since then we demanded that an alarm system be put in but it shouldn't have to reach that point many victims feel that lehigh has not made enough of an effort to protect off-campus students meyer feels the university only interferes with social policies but not safety issues the university is so stringent about the alcohol policy and worried about partying meyer said i think it is their jurisdiction to worry about the student's protection and safety they get involved in one issue but not the other unfortunately it will have to start affecting admissions before the university gets involved which is wrong because so many students are forced to live off cam pus new leader athletics director joe sterrett left named kevin higgins as the new lehigh football coach on march 29 higgins had been assistant coach and defensive coordinator at lehigh since 1988 higgins will head the team following a patriot league championship last season for more see sports page a2o photo courtesy of sports information grace hall to be new ulrich student center by jennifer newman news writer stiff necks and crammed legs will be a thing of the past as the plans for lehigh's student activity center which includes a 140-seat movie the ater with retractable seating and por table staging as renovations are un derway the new grace hall is ex pected to be completed by october 1994 the center will be named the ulrich student center after ronald j ulrich 67 who gave the sizeable naming grant the project is esti mated to cost 2.3 million john smeaton assistant vice president of student affairs said ulrich was extremely generous in making his gift which is a substan tial portion of the overall gift we are deeply indebted to mr ulrich for his generosity and his commitment to making this facilities available on campus smeaton said the new center will include a large multi-purpose base called the great room which w be a wide open lounge area and can be con verted to suit various needs smeaton said this is a facility that we expect to be a very active place night and day jenny volchko associate dean of student life said students need a place to gather a central place to go to relax put their feet up see and be seen it will be like a family room the center will be the sight of the new post office and will hold indi vidual mailboxes for every under graduate at lehigh this includes fraternity and sorority members who now have community mailboxes at the university center this is ex pected to improve mail distribution efficiency and security volchko said of the new student center it's exciting it's really ex citing because i think it's the type of space students will be comfortable to use tony corallo assistant vice presi event to raise handicap awareness by lee sperling news writer students have had the opportu nity this week to vote in the univer sity center for the candidates they most want to serve the handicap role volunteers include peter likins lehigh president bob robeson as sistant deanofstudents keith schray professor of chemistry ; john babson 95 phi gamma delta brother stephanie sajda 95 alpha chi omega sister and jeff stull 95 beta theta pi brother seventy-five percent of the pro ceeds from the event will be used toward the improvement of handi cap accessibility on campus the remaining 25 percent will be donated to the good shepherd home a handi cap rehabilitation home in allentown darlene dreyer lehigh for life vice president said we'd like to see something tangible on campus to aid the temporarily and permanently handicapped she said dan pratt 9s awheelchairbound student hopes to see a rise in aware ness on campus i think it's a great idea to make people aware of the handicap chal lenges he said most lehigh students freely walk up the steep pathways and awkward stairways on campus without think ing about the difficulty of getting around but what ifyou were bound to a wheelchair several prominent lehigh fig ures have volunteered to participate in lehigh for life's a pro-life orga nization event in which top vote getters will spend wednesday in ei ther a wheelchair or on crutches please see burglary page a6 please see grace page a6 g^a news al-8 world news briefs a2 concert preview a3 mb student senate a4 lifestyle 81-b8 fraternities and sexism bl '~~*% tanning salons b2 sports al5-20 women's lacrosse a lb baseball lehigh beats moravian 10-2 for more see sports page a2o