Brown and White Vol. 109 No. 2

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 109 no 2 friday september 7 2001 all the lehigh news first drinker stairs get rebuilt for safety by amanda macmillan news writer in addition to all of the usual adjustments college students must make within the first few weeks of school the residents of drinker house have one more obstacle to work around this semester the reconstruction of the front stairs and the wall that sur rounds the front of the dormito ry is scheduled to continue through mid-october at an expected cost of 100,000 residential services along with facilities services and an outside consulting firm felt that the retaining wall and the stairs were beginning to show signs of age as a result reconstruction was started on the stairs over the summer david joseph director of residential services said that facilities services came to his department with concerns about the safety of the building over the summer they had begun to notice cracks in the cement and also that the retaining wall was beginning to bulge out toward the street joseph said the wall runs from the street up to the front entrance and walkway of drinker and had not been changed since the building was completed in 1940 the engineering consulting firm barry isett and associates was hired by the university to assess the potential problem the firm saw no immediate danger but explained the possi bility of problems developing within the next 10 years they recommended that the stairs be rebuilt over the summer a plan that was originally scheduled to be finished before classes began our primary goal was to be done prior to freshmen move in but as the summer went on we saw that that was not going to be possible joseph said when we realized we wouldn't be finished we just made sure it was fenced in as well as possi ble and that it looked a little better it is a construction site so our first concern was the safety and well-being of the stu dents the entire front sidewalk outside drinker is fenced off and the front door is boarded up from the inside to keep students away from the construction zone residents must use the side and back stairs and entrances it is a little inconvenient but we feel as though a lot of students don't even use those stairs very much since there are others that lead down more b&wphoto by chrissy richter the stairs outside drinker house have been under construction all summer they are scheduled to be finished by mid-october task force decision finalized by regina linskey fraternity houses will choose to join residential system or remain independent l\ews writer the fraternity task force has decided to allow each fra ternity house to choose whether or not they want to become a part of the universi ty residence hall financial system according to an e-mail sent by president farrington aug 30 once a house has decided to become part of the resi dence hall system it will not be able to become indepen dent again fraternities began experi encing financial troubles when lehigh mandated sprin kler systems be installed in each house over the next five years in addition to the demands for sprinkler systems the university hired an outside engineering consulting firm to assess the current financial situ ation of each individual house it was discovered that many of the buildings were not up to safety standards and the frater nities did not have adequate funds to take care of the damages and pay for sprinklers as well as of now the sprinklers for all residences will be financed by every university residence hall together this means that the dorms sororities and frater b&w photo by au roberts problems many of the houses were facing the task force consisted of 20 greek alumni who were either past or present members of the board of trustees twenty-six fraternity chap ters are present on campus and have cemented a legacy that started around 125 years ago according to farrington's e-mail the task force has been meeting throughout the past year with representatives of the interfraternity council the greek alumni council and the alumni association executive board students and any other interested parties also had the chance to voice their opinions on the task force web site vice provost john smeaton stood behind the goal and establishment of the task force the primary emphasis of the fraternity task force is on student safety and preserving the physical condition of the fraternity chapter houses nities that choose to join the residence hall financial system will all share the costs of this endeavor the fraternity task force was created last fall to decide the best way for the fraternity system to deal with the financial chi psi fraternity is one of the houses that now must decide whether or not to become part of the residence hall system see stairs page 4 see task force page 5 ! hmsnsl^ifp m i ii ■ in vl — field hockey loses to monmouth university 2-1 see page 20 sports 15 18-20 sports brief 15 cross country 19 women's soccer 20 summer experience in slovenia rates high for mechanical engineer see page 3 news 1-5 world news briefs 2 lehigh briefs 4 police reports 5 new uc food court receives mixed reactions see page 7 lifestyle 7-14 hidden treasure 8 horoscopes 9 look who's talking 11 qgfi a human can see a candle flame from 50 kilometers on a clear dark night source www.uselessknowledge.com