Brown and White Vol. 113 No. 14

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 113 no 14 friday october 28 2005 all the lehigh news first greek houses look to bright future by patrick thornton editor in chief vice provost john smeaton was touring greek houses a few years ago when he found dis turbing conditions he walked into one stu dent's room t(3 find the fraterni ty brother didn't even have a bed - just a mattress on the floor layers upon layers of old carpet were stacked on top of each other trash was strewn all over the floor it was awful smeaton said it certainly didn't meet anyone's standards that i know of scenes like that sent an alarming message to the administration lehigh had become a top-tier academic institution with a less-than-stel lar greek system dean of students sharon basso associate dean of students tom dubreuil and smeaton met in 2002 to discuss where to go from there other universities had begun to sanction or eliminate their greek systems we decided we had to make a choice smeaton said we could just continue the sta tus quo and watch the decline happen if things didn't change or we could roll up our sleeves and make a comprehensive effort to try to improve greek life the turn of the tide the administration decided to make a commitment to the future of greek life at lehigh lehigh has a rich tradition of greek life spanning over 100 years the administration was not ready to abandon it greek life has such an important legacy at lehigh that we owe it to lehigh and to the students to try to see if we can help the system get better so it can have a positive future instead of this continual negative decline smeaton said assistant dean of students tim wilkinson said lehigh wouldn't be the same without the greek system in place in my opinion the greek system is such a vibrant part of the school wilkinson said it is part of the fabric here at lehigh and i think everyone recognizes that the key for smeaton is hav ing the right greek system for lehigh greek life done well can be a real asset to a campus smeaton said greek life done poorly can be a real detriment to a campus a troubled past smeaton started working at lehigh in 1984 and he remem bers coming into an alcohol drenched greek culture there would be major parties six nights a week on the hill pub nights would be held with abundant kegs mid-week concerns arose among staff members about the impact alco hol was having on students academics suffered because of the culture there were lots of concerns in the 80s about students com ing to class on friday morning hung over or not coming at all smeaton said the system however faced more than just academic problems smeaton was greet ed every monday by a stack of police reports of mostly greek-related problems often an inch-and-a-half thick it was a different place at that time smeaton said smeaton basso and dubreuil met in the spring of 2002 two houses had been eliminated the previous year alcohol and haz ing violations were becoming routine risk management was a huge concern and safety issues were raised after two students fell off balconies in the late 19905 we had too many problems that were associated with greek life to just kind of stand by smeaton said it was a matter of survival for president gregory farrington b&w graphic by jared sinclair if we had just ignored it fra ternities would have put them selves out of business one by one by one farrington said the greek system faced more trouble one in three freshmen offered a bid in 2001-02 to join a fraternity declined according to the greek life task force report the two most common reasons cited were a fear grades would suffer and substandard housing conditions many houses began suffering from occupancy problems and found it increasingly expensive asa volunteers fall into the streets by kati noderer news writer members of the association of student alumni asa vol unteered at six locations throughout the lehigh valley on saturday for a day of com munity service titled fall into the streets cheryl kaplun 07 and other asa volunteers donated pumpkins to the boys and girls club of bethlehem and made a banner to help the club prepare for a halloween haunted house planned for the children kaplun said she loved hav ing the opportunity to help out children in the community every little bit helps kaplun said even if we just helped with decorations they were very happy to have us there helping out and we were all glad to do it michael scannella 08 helped give two rooms in the children's home of easton a much-needed new coat of paint he said the paint jobs made a world of difference the caretaker we assisted was more than pleased with our work and took down our names in order to write us a formal thank you scannella said he also asked if we would be willing to come back and help again in the future vice president of membership for asa lindsay martin 06 assisted with a bingo event at kirkland village a bethlehem retire ment community the task was simple yet extremely rewarding when you saw the reaction of the resi dents who may not have many visitors or family in the area martin said martin said she encourages the retirement community to contact asa again with further volunteer opportunities other members helped run an auction at the salvation army worked at the crayola factory in easton sold raffle tickets at the brewfest in easton and transported resi dents of holy family manor a retirement community in bethlehem to church martin said the association has only received positive feedback from asa members and the people they helped the purpose of fall into the streets was to benefit the community but martin said the asa volunteers were impacted as well julie ottaiano 06 commu nity outreach chair for asa said people who were assisted by the asa volunteers are very appreciative and hope for continued service fall into the streets enables asa members to get to know each other and mem bers of the community while working toward one of the organization's basic goals to forge stronger ties between the university and the community ottaiano said not only was it a great way to get involved in improv ing lehigh's town-gown rela tions it is also a nice way to get to know the other mem bers of the asa organization outside of regular meetings that we hold scannella said asa's community outreach committee which organized the community service day is responsible for improving lehigh's relations with the bethlehem community there are so many oppor tunities for lehigh students to make a difference in the sur rounding community martin said and asa looks to tap into as many as possible open ing up future relationships whether it is through asa or campus-wide events fall into the streets and the program's spring counter part spring into the streets are annual community service events that began in 2003 when asa was founded see greek future page 3 sports 14-16 news 1-4 men's soccer 16 amputee lecture 2 women's soccer 16