Brown and White Vol. 118 no. 6

              Harassment techniques used to scare away crows
By DEANNA MCLAFFERTY
With more crows roosting in Beth­lehem’s trees during the night hours, Lehigh staff members continue to use harassment techniques to scare them away on campus.
The staff is using pyrotechnic equip­ment called “bird bangers” or “scream­ers and bangers,” which are essentially fire crackers sent 100 feet into the air to frighten the crows out of the trees. At last count, there were up to 15,000 crows in the area.
“It doesn’t hurt them,” said Brian Szabo, who is licensed to use the equipment. “It just bangs and scares them. We’ve used this for four or five years. It has been a problem longer than that, but we didn’t know what to do then.”
While Bethlehem has been home to these migratory birds for close to 30 years, there are different theories as to why they seem to be more visible on campus recently.
“Normally, they stay off campus, but officials are doing the same thing now on the North Side and scaring them back over here,” said Richard Benner, assistant director of ground maintenance.
Ralph Carp, Bethlehem’s director of parks and public property, believes the cause is simply an increase in numbers.
“The roost is on an increase,” Carp said. “We’re not trying to scare them from Sand Island to South Moun­tain. They are on both sides; they’re everywhere.”
Whatever the reason, the crows cre­ate multiple problems for the campus and city in general. They pose a safety threat to airplanes at the Lehigh Val­ley International Airport, cause health hazards, including respiratory distress from their fecal droppings, and dam­age property.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has partnered with the airport to try to combat the crow situation, Carp said.
The problems the birds create on
See BIRDS Page 2
Vol. 118 No. 7
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
‘All the Lehigh News First’
THE BROWN AND WHITE
Lehigh University’s Student Newspaper Founded in 1894
SPORTS
Swim team headed to championship
Page 12
ONLINE
Follow us on
Twitter!
twitter.com/lubrownandwhite
Lehigh research goes intergalactic
Page 5
LIFESTYLE
New contraceptive pill makes some wary
By AUBREY DETTERLINE
EllaOne, a new morning-after pill that is said to work effectively for up to five days after unprotected sex, but Dr. Susan Kitei, director of the Health and Wellness Center, is not completely sold on its effectiveness and will not yet rec­ommend it as a contraceptive to Lehigh students.
Kitei said she is not in a position to recommend ellaOne because it is not yet available in the U.S.; she was not even aware that it existed. However, after doing some research, Kitei said, “It is a new medicine, available only in Europe since October 2009.”
“Although HRA Pharma has a headquarters in New York City, it has not released an official date of ellaOne’s U.S. release,” according to the newsrecord.org Web site.
Kitei compared ellaOne to Plan B, which is the most commonly used morning-after pill at Lehigh.
Typically, Plan B is said to be effective for up to three days, which is why the prospect of ellaOne is so intriguing to many doctors and women; it could open up an extra 48-hour window for effective emergency contraception.
She also explained the two pills work in different ways, mainly because ellaOne is the first drug designed specifi­cally to be used as an emergency contraceptive pill.
“Plan B is a form of progesterone, one of the main ingredients in many oral contraceptive pills. EllaOne is a selective progesterone receptor modulator,” she said. “Plan B is believed to work by prohibiting the implantation of a fertilized egg.”
According to Kitei, studies show that ellaOne’s way of preventing pregnancy could include the blocking or delay­ing of ovulation and of delaying the maturation of the endo­metrium, the lining of the uterus.
She also finds there are several disadvantages to ellaOne, in spite of its one large advantage. It has not been studied in women under the age of 18. To get ellaOne in Europe, a prescription is necessary, whereas a prescription is not necessary for Plan B. EllaOne is also embryo-toxic, so a pregnancy test is highly recommended before using it. This is not needed with the use of Plan B.
“The Health and Wellness Center has had a lot of suc­cess with prescribing Plan B,” Kitei said. “Because of side effects that are not always evident when a drug is first ap­proved, it is safest to wait for several years of common use before recommending a new medication such as ellaOne.”
Michelle Issadore, assistant director of the Women’s Center, said she had heard of ellaOne through feminist blogs and knew it had been approved in Europe.
Issadore said it is difficult to know how morning-after pills are used on campus because many students do not have the Lehigh health insurance plan and also because morning-after pills are now sold over-the-counter to anyone
See PILL Page 4
A V-day for women
B&W photo by Amalia Safran
From left, Katie Johnston, ‘12, Samantha Priester, ‘12, teaching assistant Heather Mushock, Sam Miller, ’11 and Dianna Hank, ’10, perform “They beat the girl out of my boy, or so they tried,” a skit about hatred toward transgenders, at the Vagina Monologues dress rehearsal Sunday, Feb. 7.
IR department chair leaving after 25 years
By MACKENZIE BARTH
Rajan Menon, chair of the International Rela­tions Department and the Monroe J. Rathbone Professor, is leaving Lehigh after 25 years to pursue new opportunities as a professor at The City Col­lege of New York and at The City University of New York’s Graduate Center.
Menon began studying at Lehigh in the fall of 1974 and graduated with his master’s in Interna­tional Relations in 1975. Menon was a professor at Vanderbilt University for seven years before return­ing to Lehigh.
“He is unique because he was the only one in this department who was a student and then be­came a professor. He is unique because he is both a product and a builder of this department.” Oles Smolansky, professor and previous chair of the IR department, said.
Menon served as the chair of the IR department and has been a leader to the faculty and students over the years. “He has been an anchor for the department,” Janice Mattern, associate professor of IR, said.
“[Menon] has been a tremendous asset in attract­ing students to the department, in building the ma­jor into one of the best in the country and in bring­ing scholarly attention with first class research,” Henri Barkey, Bernard L. and Bertha F. Cohen professor, said.
“He has helped me become a better academic and teacher. He has exacting standards, and if you want to work with him, you have to rise up to them,” Barkey continued.
Menon taught IR 10, the introductory Interna­tional Relations course required of all IR majors, for years.
“His depth of knowledge and experience, com­bined with his clear presentation of ideas, helped me immensely in gaining my first insights into the academic field of International Relations,” Russel
See MENON Page 4