Brown and White Vol. 114 No. 38

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 114 no 38 tuesday march 20 2007 all the lehigh news first vice provost of research to lead uah by ryan ruggiero â–  university of alabama in huntsville chooses david williams lehigh's vice provost for research over 200 others as fifth school president assistant news editor david williams vice provost for research was chosen as the new president of the university of alabama in huntsville last week after working at lehigh for more than 30 years williams will of ficially begin his position on july 1 according to the lehigh web site williams will replace current university of ala bama president frank franz after franz held the position for 15 years it is a great honor to serve as the university of alabama in huntsville's next president williams said on the lehigh web site i am impressed by the wonderful faculty staff and students and the people in the surrounding huntsville area and look forward to becoming a member of this large warm campus community williams said on the lehigh web site on the uah web site williams said what also has impressed me is the remarkable fashion in which this university and the entire community has embraced the commitment of developing a high level of curiosity and a passion to solve problems williams was the chair of the department of the materials science and engineering in the engineering school before serving as vice provost for research for the past seven years research revenues grew from 28.5 million in 2000 to 48.1 million in 2005 under the influence of williams according to lehigh's web site williams was chosen over 200 other candidates who applied for the job after franz announced last breaking the ice b&wphoto by chris knight a university bus was temporarily stuck after sliding off the road friday night onto the hill behind williams hall the accident was caused by ice and snow falling throughout the day but no one was injured structural engineer advocates innovation during khan series by blake cote news writer man-chung tang chairman of the board of internationally-recognized engineering firm t.y lin internation al spoke friday about the potential for innovation in engineering tang a structural engineer has been involved with the design design review and construction engineering of more than 100 major bridges in the world according to the lehigh web site engineering is an art not a sci ence tang said when structural engineer man chung tang was commissioned to design the san francisco-oakland bridge he faced a tough decision of creating a bridge that although struc turally sound was unattractive instead of settling on something he did not believe in tang decided to design a single-pole tower suspension bridge that could stand up to seismic activity the first bridge of its kind there are no other bridges of this type in the world tang said it changed forever how suspension bridges are expected to look like the title of the lecture was why why not what if tang asks him self these questions when designing a bridge asking why allows the engineer to think and challenge conventional ideas such as the notion that only a portal tower bridge could work in san francisco tang said whatever you read from books could be wrong tang said asking the question why not cbe rank drops to no 20 in business week by george skrapits news writer lehigh ranks 20th out of undergraduate business schools in the country according to business week's annual b-school rankings the college of business and economics scored straight a+s in grading of teacher quality facilities services and job placement these grades along with being ranked 15th overall in academic quality put le high in the no 20 spot a drop from no 18 last year thomas hyclak interim dean of the business school said the drop shouldn't be cause for concern and students should pay more attention to where le high is ranked compared to other schools another way to look at it is we're one notch above carnegie mellon we're one notch below usc hy clak said given these other names on the list it's meaningless which number is matched to us business week called lehigh a tight-knit group that offers students a diverse but centralized campus life while preparing them for a-list job placement according to business week lehigh's strong ac counting program wins student praise but many say they could use more advanced computer training hyclak said he didn't know what the complaint about advanced computer training was referring to i'm not sure what that complaint is based on hy clak said it's hard for me to read that the college of business and economics requires computer courses as part of the curriculum students must pass a microsoft excel competency test during their first semester at lehigh or if students transfer during their first semester in the business school the college also offers training for students needing help with excel according to the college's web site if they can't pass the test hyclak said there are programs they can take to become proficient hyclak said there are no immediate plans to change the curriculum and that they aim to maximize students exposure to business ethics issues and communication issues and to improve their writing business week's rankings are produced through data see williams page 3 see khan page 7 see business page 2 see photo page 7 students talk s fe^j wrestling team check online about plastic falls snort for breaking surgery sj at ncaas news page 9 page 20 bw.lehigh.edu