Brown and White Vol. 117 no. 12

              By ADRIENNE SMITH
A program aimed at connecting LG­BTQIA issues with Greek life launched at the start of the 2009 academic year. The program, called Greek Allies, will reach out to students within the Greek community who identify themselves as LGBTQIA – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, In­tersex or Ally.
Celinda Stanton, ’11, said Greek Al­lies hopes to foster acceptance among any and all students within Lehigh’s Greek community.
“We’re doing campaigns to make our Greek system just a bit more friendly to LGBTQIA,” Stanton said. “I feel like sometimes it’s hard to be LGBTQIA or even an ally within the Greek system.”
Greek Allies expect to offer edu­cational programs, post informative flyers around campus, host panels and incorporate more allies into fraternity and sorority houses. Events are still be­ing planned and the selected allies are undergoing training.
“Right now the first round of allies is going through the weekly training process,” Christa Wessels, Greek life coordinator, said of the program’s cur­rent focus. “They learn what it means to be an ally, how it ties into Greek life, how the values can intermix.”
The office of fraternity affairs paired up with LGBTQIA services to help create Greek Allies, but two Lehigh students sparked the idea.
Ryan Leichtweisz, ’10, and Jake Natalini, ’08, had noticed the rising national attention to LGBTQIA issues within collegiate fraternities and sorori­ties and decided to investigate the issue further.
“Two [Lehigh] students attended the Out & Greek conference in 2008,” Wessels said. “It was the first confer­ence ever held for students who are
See ALLIES Page 8
By ELAINE HARDENSTINE
One hundred years ago, a man had a dream to create a state-of-the-art, flourishing aca­demic and research facility for Lehigh’s civil engineers.
Thanks to that man, John Fritz, university trustee and celebrated engineer, that dream came to fruition. Over time, the Fritz Engineer­ing Laboratory would house multiple genera­tions of world-renowned researchers and stand-out students, cementing Lehigh’s place as one of the top centers for infrastructure education and research.
To commemorate Fritz’s creation and years of student, alumni and professor suc­cess, Lehigh is hosting a 100-year anniversary celebration.
The centennial will run from Oct. 22 to 24, beginning with a Thursday evening kickoff re­ception and concluding with a dinner gala and presentation on Saturday evening.
It will include three days of activities be­tween alumni and students, attempting to fur­ther bridge the gap between Fritz’s engineering dreams of the past and Lehigh’s expectations of the present.
Stephen Pessiki, professor and chairperson of the department of civil and environmental engineering, can sum up in a word what he hopes the centennial celebration will achieve.
“Continuity. Our goal is to help preserve for future civil engineering students the cen­ter of gravity that is Fritz Lab, the place that has housed our department for a century and
B&W photo by MATT BREITEL
A variety of events will be held at Fritz Lab from Oct. 22 to 24 to celebrate its centennial.
Fritz Lab to celebrate a century of success
See FRITZ Page 7
By GABRIELLA CASANAS
For decades, the complexity of the financial aid application process has caused problems for stu­dents applying to college.
In some cases, confusion about how to get fi­nancial aid has deterred low-income students from applying, but a recent study shows that with proper information more of these students may apply to and attend college.
The confusion surrounding the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the federal ap­plication for financial aid, led the National Bureau of Economic Research to create a project to conduct experimental treatments that examine the simplifica­tion of the FAFSA and the effectiveness of receiving assistance while filling out the form.
The project is led by Eric P. Bettinger, associate professor of economics and education, at Stanford University and his associates.
“Individuals who received assistance with the FAFSA and information about aid were substan­tially more likely to submit the aid application, enroll in college the following fall, and receive more financial aid,” according to a document titled, “The Role of Simplification and Information in College Decisions: Results from the H&R Block FAFSA Experiment.”
The project’s analysis says federal and state finan­cial aid policies have neglected to narrow the gap between high and low-income families who have the ability to send their kids to college.
According to the project, students are not going to college for two main reasons: First, there is not enough information about higher education tuitions and second, there is a lack of awareness and under­standing of the availability of financial aid.
The latter factor is nationwide and has taken a toll on prospective and enrolled students here at Lehigh, said Linda Bell, director of financial aid.
See AID Page 8
Study outlines financial aid form problems
Vol. 117 No. 12
Friday, October 16, 2009
THE BROWN AND WHITE
Lehigh University’s Student Newspaper Founded in 1894
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LIFESTYLE
B&W photo by STEPHANIE LIN
T-shirts hang on a clothesline in front of the UC on Wednesday as part of The Clothesline Project, hosted by The Women’s Center. The display is part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month and is aimed at urging students to speak out against domestic and sexual violence.
Greek Allies reach out to LGBTQIA community
‘All the Lehigh News First’