Brown and White Vol. 113 No. 37

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 113 no 37 friday march 17 2006 all the lehigh news first hogan waives preliminary hearing by rich shanfeld associate editor online former class of 2008 president greg hogan signed paperwork on march 9 consenting to surrender his right to a preliminary hearing on felony charges from a dec 9 bank robbery good luck to you son district judge carl l balliet said according to the morning call hogan was charged with armed robbery a first-degree felony and theft by unlawful taking a third-degree felony the maximum penalty for a first-degree felony convic tion is 20 years and the maximum penalty for a third degree felony conviction is seven years and a 15,000 fine if hogan is convicted he will likely face jail time dis trict attorney jim martin said in december hogan avoided eye contact with reporters and left with his parents without comment the morning call reported we want a resolution fair to greg his family and the commonwealth of pennsylvania said john waldron hogan's lawyer in an interview in january waldron said hogan's motivation to rob the bank was his gambling addiction and about 5,000 in gambling debt according to police hogan demanded money through a note to the teller saying he had a gun although officials said he did not use a gun state law says threatening to use a firearm is the same as having one hogan then walked out of the bank with 2,871 and entered a black ford explorer owned and driven by student senate president kip wallen wallen was ques tioned and released by the police and maintains he was an unknowing accomplice to the robbery hogan was arrested at 8:30 p.m at sigma phi epsilon fraternity where he and wallen are brothers hogan will not be waiting for his court date at lehigh vice provost john smeaton said hogan isn't enrolled for the spring semester at lehigh according to the student code of conduct lehigh has the authority to expel students even if civil action has not taken place more severe legal offenses typically result in more severe university sanctions by the university committee of discipline smeaton said student loan interest rates to rise with new deficit act by chris knight federal student loan interest rates assistant news editor loans from a variable interest rate of 4.7 percent to a fixed interest rate of 6.8 percent which may make lehigh more difficult to afford for lower-income students said linda bell director of finan cial aid at lehigh the interest rate on parent loans which are college loans paid by the parents will increase from a variable 6.1 percent to a fixed 8.5 percent this change will force college students and their families to pay b&w design by michelle brinker for more than 70 percent of 12.7 billion in governmental savings a typical college student receiving financial aid from the government will pay an average of 5,800 more on 17,500 in stu dent loans michele deegan professor of political science at lehigh said the costly loans could hinder a student's ability to succeed finan cially after college last december congress passed the deficit reduction act of 2005 which cut spending in federal student loans by increas ing interest rates which may affect the 52 percent of lehigh students who receive some form of financial aid beginning on july 1 2006 the government will change student congress passed the deficit reduction act of 2005 last december which will increase federal student loan interest rates as part of the effort to reduce the federal deficit changes go into effect july 1 2006 web site attempts to educate campus on diversity issues by desiree annunziato president gregory farrington provost mohamed el-aasser and members of the university diversity leadership committee helped launch lehigh's new diversity web site on march 2 to pro mote diversity on campus farrington and el-aasser sent an e-mail to lehigh facul ty staff and students saying they were creating a web site to inform and update the lehigh community on its diver sity initiative they encouraged students to visit the web site at www.lehigh.edu/diversity jean soderlund deputy provost for faculty affairs added information on the diversity initiative's structure mission and goals to the web site and explained why diversi ty is important to lehigh's aca demic excellence soderlund said the web site provides a location for infor mation about the wide variety of academic programs and organizations that attempt to create and support an inclusive community at lehigh amy fantasia the provost's manager of special projects designed the diversity web site she said she will periodi cally update the site with recent events and goals soderlund said a calendar news writer on the web site facilitates stu dent involvement in diversity related events through an events submissions page soderlund said the calendar will make the web site a center for information on multicultur al and international events on campus soderlund said the diversity committee is responsible for keeping students aware of the diversity initiative the web site provides information on three diversity-focused task forces for student diversity fac ulty diversity and staff diversi ty there are also links on the web site to student groups academic programs and cam pus resources the web site discusses four diversity-related goals campus climate retention recruitment and integration of diversity through operations and strate gic planning the committee urges student suggestions to help with the diversity initia tive through web site submis sions while lehigh has created committees like the committee to help with diversity goals farrington and el-aasser clari fied their goals in the e-mail it is also true that the diver sity of an institution does not lie with any one person or depart ment the e-mail said it is a shared responsibility and an expectation of each of us see financial aid page 7 new fashion shop sbp v wrestling wins daily coverage of opens in south j fifth-straight national wrestling bethlehem ajt iwa title championships page 9 i / / page 20 bw.lehigh.edu