Brown and White Vol. 103 no. 4

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 103 no 4 tuesday september 19 1995 all the lehigh news first students rally against federal cuts by dianne shelton news writer as the u.s congress prepares to vote on a bill monday that would cut federal student aid by two-thirds lehigh students are mobilizing to voice their opposition to the pro posed cuts lehigh's progressive student alliance is on the forefront of the movement on campus psa co-chairman brendan brinkman 96 and other members have been working since last semes ter to increase student awareness of the potential cuts and to encourage them to become involved in the movement to stop the bill according to brinkman less than 2 percent of the federal budget is spent on student aid over 5 million students in this country receive federal financial aid brinkman said these cuts will affect a lot of students students are an easy political target brinkman said they think we won't fight back brinkman would like to see tax payer dollars spent less frivolously it's just ridiculous what they're congress is spending their tax payers money on he said they're raising the military's bud get five times above what the penta gon says it needs the pentagon says it needs x amount of bombers and then the next week congress is giving them money for five more above that william stanford director of fi nancial aid said lehigh would be unable to absorb the cuts although there is no way of telling whether some or all of the cuts will be made the worst case scenario would be a disaster for all of higher educa tion he said stanford said when congress first proposed the cuts both undergradu ate and graduate students would be affected in similar ways at one point the argument was we would lose the federal interest subsidy on all federal stafford loans he said then they compro mised and said only graduate and professional stafford loans would be affected brinkman said approximately 75 percent of financial aid comes from the federal government thus the majority of students financial aid would be lost if the bill is passed the republicans are saying that this is a shared sacrifice that if we want to balance the budget we all must sacrifice but i don't believe students should have to bear such a large part of the burden he said representatives from lehigh's young republicans club would not comment while students wait for the vote in congress brinkman is trying to educate and involve as many stu dents as possible originally we thought the vote would be coming up sooner than it is so we may scale up our efforts he said we've gotten a number of gryphons involved and are hoping to get into the residence halls to educate more students i've also contacted all of the fraternity and sorority presidents in an effort to get them involved too brinkman and other psa mem bers are having a petition drive to send signatures to congress in pro test of the impending cuts shannon mahon 96 said she is concerned the cuts will affect her new radio transmitter location allows for greater listening radius by david butler news writer in a move expected to double its listening base wlvr 9 1 3 fm has relocated its transmitter from the roof of the university center to mountaintop campus general manager of wlvr bridget marshall 96 said the range from our old transmitter site was about one-half of a 30-mile radius around the campus since the mountain was in the way of our signal we only reached listeners on this side of it the new site will enable us to transmit to the full 30 mile radius the physical move of the trans mitter occurred in mid-august after extensive planning and organization telecommunications completed the hook-up last week after the actual move the marshall plan the switch over to the new transmitter will be imple mented after pacing break we will be able to tum the trans mitter on and off via a remote from the station in the basement of the university center we are linked to the transmitter through fiber-optic phone lines marshall said the estimated cost of the move is 11,500 which includes a consult b&wplmui by rehecca murphey members of the indian student association gather outside maginnes hall to play a friendly game of cricket rotc combats falling enrollment numbers by tracy tumminello news writer faced with continually decreasing enrollment numbers lehigh s rotc program is looking for more ways to recruit students the decrease can be attributed to a number of factors former cadet georgette landberg 98 said the rotc program is not as popular as it once was because of students changing attitudes today's youth don't feel the same sense of national pride as their parents once did she said landberg left the rotc program for medical reasons and plans to return by next year major ralph gabriel said students don't realize the value and benefit and the service we can provide for them cutbacks on rotc scholarships may also be a contributing factor in the decline in the past year alone the number of students enrolled in rotc has not dropped significantly however the trend of enrollment has progres sively dropped in the past 6 to 8 years there has also been a decrease in the number of four-year rotc scholarship winners on cam pus in most years there have been about eight while this year there are only two the insufficient number of freshmen enrolled in the program affects the number of students that are commissioned as lieutenants when they gradu ate gabriel said gabriel said ideally there are 22 freshmen enrolled last year there were only 15 and this year the number has dropped to 10 rotc has begun looking for ways to increase the number of students enrolled landberg sug gested inviting students interested in the program along on the trips so they can get a glimpse of rotc life gabriel said he is already planning to include non-enrolled students in rotc activities last weekend several non-enrolled students partici pated in adventure day which included repelling teamwork activities and confidence courses andy russell former cadet said reminding students of the $ 1 2,000 scholarship and the ben efits of being involved in the army could also encourage students to participate in the rotc program the rotc program offers numerous benefits to students landberg said cadets feel a sense of pride and accomplishment please see congress page 4 please see wlvr page 4 please see rotc page 4 nklaaa btw the women's tennis team defeated holy cross 8-1 improving the team's record to 3-2 1-1 in the patriot league see page 15 sports 12-16 field hockey 14 volleyball 16 football 16 the student center a new web-sight designed specifically for students needs is now available to lehigh students it offers easy access to a variety of news sources see page 6 news 1-6 campus candids 3 debating society 5 jazz trio 6 due to the overuse of fossil fuels such as coal oil and gas they are in short supply this over use may be furthering ozone depletion as well see page 7 the lehigh valley area has had 22.97 inches of precipitation to date 8.53 inches below the normal reading for the same time period source the lehigh valley area international airport allentown bethlehem-easton weather service