Brown and White Vol. 100 no. 23

              the brown and white vol 100 no 23 lehigh university tuesday december 8 1 992 court decision affects financial aid by vivian shpigler news writer last week the pennsylvania supreme court ruled that non-custodial divorced par ents can no longer be forced to pay for their child's college education the case involved a student's suit against his non-custodial father who refused to fund his part of the student's college education in determining a student's eligibility for federal financial aid it has always been the case that non-custodial divorced parents are not required to provide financial informatioa colleges award aid from their own funds after collecting data from non-custodial par ents to determine how much he or she can contribute toward the child's education william stanford director of financial aid said we'll continue to do that but this ruling will make that much harder to do according to stanford the ruling won't change the way in which colleges determine parental contributions the majority of non-custodial parents are cooperative in working with lehigh to deter mine their child's financial aid eligibility but some non-custodial parents are not willing to contribute financially to the child s education state rep lois hagarty said when financially able parents ought to help their kids pay for college stanford said lehigh tries to determine what both divorced parents can afford to pay . with divorced parents two residences are maintained therefore the expected contribu tion is less than that of a married couple of equivalent income stanford said it is the parents responsi bility to work together for their child's sake and not make it difficult for the office of financial aid in some cases the non-custodial parent is out of contact with the child for so long that no contribution can be expected stanford said these cases are a minority and must be documented by the courts he said stanford is concerned that it will become more difficult to determine what divorced parents can contribute lehigh and other private institutions will continue to acquire financial information from both custodial and non-custodial parents despite the recent court decision he said unfortunately kids are our casualties in this war he said christmas vespers spread cheer by amy mulligan assistant news editor the lehigh community joined in the spirit of the holidays as the lehigh choral arts presented two performances of the annual christmas vespers a festival of lessons andcarols"sundayinpackermemorialchurch the church was filled to capacity as the lehigh university choir and choral union entered carrying moravian candles singing o come o come emmanuel the proces sion was led by area resident bill shunk at the first performance and joan dorcely 93 at the second both performances were directed by steven sametz professor of music who included in this year's concert a wide selec tion of music from around the world the program opened with giovanni palestrina's canite tuba in sion sung in latin catholic chaplain john mraz presented the invocation at the first performance le high chaplain lloyd steffen presented the invocation at the second performance many people in the audience stood and joined in the singing of o come all ye faithful and how bright appears the morning star the audience was next treated to edvard grieg's how lovely art thou sung in norwegian los pastores a selection of traditional spanish melodies arranged by sametz and sung in spanish were also per formed the concert closed with irish lullaby for the christ child highlighted by soloist alyssa lesko 93 jennifer kasch 93 who participated in the concert said the lullaby brought back childhood memories it reminded me of a lullaby my grand mother used to sing to me when i was a little girl kasch said after this performance the church lights were turned off and candles were lit as the group sang lo how a rose e'er bloom ing heather nelson 93 said it was beau tiful when they turned off the lights many students said they enjoyed the concert jennifer hallowell 94 said it was a good way to start the season it put me in the holiday spirit lori owen 94 said it was uplifting during the time of finals a capacity crowd enjoys annual choral union holiday performances b&w photo by micha * l paulson pesticide use raises safety questions by karen sch achter news writer foram discussed whether the use of pesticides and heibicides on mountaintop campus was contributing to the loss of local wildlife john abel professor of molecular biol ogy said faculty members have been con cerned with the scarcity of wildlife on mountaintop the faculty and students wanted to know what chemicals were being used and if they were at risk the chemical in question 24d is a herbicide used to kill dandelions and other weeds the lawns are sprayed once a year and maintained with periodic spot checks 24d is controversial because it is carci nogenic but according to a representative of the brickman companies the company which is responsible for the maintenance of the lawns consuming loocupfulsofgrass sprayed with 24d at a rate of one pound per acre is no more toxic than drinking two and a half cups of coffee a day according to the pbi/gordon corpora tion material safety data sheet the only health hazards are mild irritation to the skin and severe irritation to the eyes brian jennings a representative of state maintenance said he has never had any troubles with 24d he said the chemical has been approved by the government and his company is licensed to use it by the com monwealth of pennsylvannia faculty members on mountaintop cam pus also complain of odors that penetrate through the buildings during the spraying jennings admitted 24d smells but he main tained that it was not harmful abel said it is obvious that these people see forum page 7 page 9 president-elect plans fora cleaner greener u.s