Brown and White Vol. 115 No. 31

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 115 no 31 tuesday february 10 2009 all the lehigh news first dancing for a cause b&wphoto by michelle lumino bhangra an indian dance team performs friday at lamberton hall during the lehigh's got talent show sponsored by the vagina monologues bhangra's was the winning performance see story page 7 corporate cultural shifts hurt economy alumnus says by julie stewart speaking to a packed baker hall wednesday joseph perella 64 talked about the causes and implications of the financial crisis perella founder of perella weinberg partners a successful investment bank recently hired to advise the federal deposit insurance corporation said the current financial crisis was catalyzed by four factors a shift in corporate culture a shift in ownership of wall street firms from private to public a change in the makeup of corporate balance sheets and the explosion of technology perella said when he went to work on wall street in 1972 after completing his master's in business administration at harvard university wall street firms were privately-held companies the partners who owned the companies watched their money and the activities of managers closely over time perella said more and more wall street firms became public companies that changed the culture of these institutions perella said wall street firms switched from a client-centered focus to a performance-driven compensation-centered focus he said in 1972 a new employee with a master's in business ad ministration could expect to earn about 10 percent of what the chief executive officer earned by 2006 the percentage was much smaller in addition rapid technological transformation over time made it hard to keep track of transactions perella said when i started in the business things moved on paper he said therefore transactions only moved along as quickly as the piece of paper he also said using paperwork a slower mode of communi cation was a built-in check against exuberance technological innovation facilitated globalization and eliminated many of the checks in the system he said international students face travel hurdles by blake cote mamour ba just wants to finish his degree the senegalese ph.d candidate came to lehigh in 2003 to study electrical engineering but when ba decided to visit family in senegal in may 2006 he began to learn what many other international students at lehigh have the united states im migration and visa process can be difficult and inhospitable because of what the u.s embassy described as administrative processing on his re-entry visa ba wasn't allowed to return to the united states as if a two-year hiatus in his studies wasn't enough his mother died on april 2 one day after the u.s embassy said he could return to bethlehem his new visa stipulated that he be in the u.s by may 20 so he was unable to stay in senegal with his seven siblings he came to lehigh to fulfill the visa requirements and set up accommodations then ba the oldest child returned home for the summer to be with family and take care of the estate for which his mother hadn't left a will ba's new visa was supposed to allow unlimited re-entry but when he was ready to return to le high he had serious problems the u.s state de partment called his home and told him that his visa had been revoked i was shocked ba wrote in an e-mail from senegal when ba asked for a reason the state de partment referenced a section of the u.s immigra tion and nationality act called terrorist activities this accusation is not only a big mistake but also it is so insulting ba wrote international students began having difficulties with studying at lehigh and other universities after the passage of the border security and visa entry reform act of 2002 a response to the sept 11 2001 terrorist attacks the law imposes stricter re quirements on international students trying to study in the u.s despite layers of paperwork and seemingly arbitrary bureaucratic decisions that international global citizenship director named by geoff baird gisella gisolo was named the new director of le high's global citizenship program she brings a grassroots approach divya nayar 10 a member of the program and student senate president said she understands the challenges of the program even though she wasn't the founder global citizenship is an academic program in which students take classes and receive credit gisolo said first-year students replace their english i and ii classes with global literature classes while second-year and third-year students pick four courses from a selec tion of 60 to take over their two semesters she said senior year finishes with individual student projects gisolo said while many see the program as a club at lehigh is much more than that there is as much emphasis on the citizenship part of the program as there is on the global gisolo said gisolo said her previous experience studying abroad gave her the global perspective she needed for this position she had to undergo many different procedures just to gain permission to have a chance to study in a different country she said we didn't have a study abroad office like we do here at lehigh gisolo said gisolo originally came to lehigh to work in the study abroad office choosing international students for the botstiber scholarship a scholarship exclusively for international students she said there were some problems because she was only temporary so we didn't know what was going on orga nization-wise jackie ogden 12 said however the freshmen in the program met weekly in class and gisolo was always present so relationships improved as the semester continued ogden said by october gisolo knew she wanted to become the permanent director and decided to apply for the job which consisted of an extensive interview process despite the difficulties of trying to study abroad see perella page 4 see international page 5 see global page 2 showing off their talents page 7 ll l^wl wrestlin 9 beats bucknell at home group discusses obama and race thebrownandwhite.com