Brown and White Vol. 133 no. 22

              The Brown and White Vol. 133 No. 22
Friday, December 1, 2017 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
January grads seek employment Bethlehem
schools accept
By HOLLY SANTERO hurricane victims
B&W Staff
For some Lehigh students, grad-uation
comes early.
Every October, the Registrar
receives an average of just under
300 applications from graduate stu-dents
and seniors who hope to grad-uate
in January instead of May.
This year 159 graduate students
and 130 undergraduate students
applied for January graduation.
Now they are waiting to receive
final clearances from the Registrar.
“The minimum amount of credits
a student needs to graduate is 120,”
associate registrar Ashley Baker
said. “And all students, whether
they graduate in January or May,
can apply up to a year in advance
for graduation and must do so by
going online to the Banner.”
Students may decide to gradu-ate
in January to complete their
degree in less than four years.
Conversely, students who need an
extra semester at Lehigh also grad-uate
in January.
Katie Morris, ’18, has worked
toward early graduation since her
sophomore year.
“I knew coming into Lehigh that
I wanted to major in journalism
and global studies,” Morris said.
“So I didn’t take many classes that
weren’t on those topics in order to
be on track to graduate early and
save money on loans. I had to take Roshan Giyanani/B&W Staff
In this May 22, 2017, file photo, Lehigh’s mascot, Clutch, gives a thumbs up during the
149th spring commencement in Goodman Stadium. The Registrar receives about 300
See GRADS Page 2 applications from students seeking to graduate from Lehigh in January.
Kate Morrell/B&W Staff
“Take a Knee” by Emma Kwasnoski, ’20, currently installed on the UC Front Lawn, is one of the many sculpture installations from
Professor L. Gans’ ART 013 class. Recent installations of sculptures made of plaster casts can be seen across campus. SEE PAGE 3
INSIDE: CHRISTMAS
IN BETHLEHEM
By MICCO BRISKER
B&W Staff
An estimated 64,000 people of
Puerto Rican heritage live in the
Lehigh Valley.
After Hurricane Maria made
landfall and ravaged the island in
September, some families fled to seek
comfort and refuge in the Lehigh
Valley. As a result, local schools have
started admitting children who left
the desolation in Puerto Rico to start
over.
Bethlehem area superintendent
Joseph Roy said as a public school
district, Bethlehem schools are
accepting all students regardless of
circumstance. He said the magnitude
of Hurricane Maria’s destruction
has led to an increased number of
Puerto Rican families seeking refuge
in Bethlehem.
Roy said the Bethlehem Area
School District has accepted 76 stu-dents
so far and is expecting a mini-mum
of 100 students total.
“The level of devastation to Puerto
Rico, particularly the damage to the
electrical grid and the lack of potable
water, creates very, very difficult sur-vival
circumstances,” Roy said. “Since
many people in Puerto Rico have
relatives on the mainland, it makes
sense they will evacuate here for a
See SCHOOLS Page 2