Brown and White Vol. 127 no. 15

              The Brown and White
Vol. 127 No. 15
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
‘All the Lehigh News First’
When Bethlehem resident Javier Toro first moved to the area, he and his family would picnic on Lehigh’s campus. But when Toro began to meet more people in the Hispanic community and mentioned his fami­ly picnics, he received alarmed reac­tions.
“They said, ‘You’re crazy, you can’t do that,’” Toro said. “I said, ‘Why, I don’t see any electric fence around it.’ Then I started to see the relationship between Lehigh and the community wasn’t the best one.”
Today, campus-community rela­tions continue to be affected by students’ concerns about safety and local residents’ perceptions of the university and its students. The reasons for this gap are difficult to answer concisely, said Breena Holland, director of Lehigh’s South Side Initiative. She said the prob­lem generally stems from power imbalances, a lack of trust, cultural and economic difference, a legacy of cultural disrespect, a history of eco­nomic exploitation, transient stu­dent populations and a university that is primarily run by people who do not live in the local community.
Two years ago, Bethlehem res­ident Katelyn Armbruster, ’15, transferred from Northampton Community College to Lehigh.
“It was an upsetting realization when I first came here, but now that I’ve been here and experienced both cultures, I can say there is a lack of communication and par­ticipation from both sides,” said Armbruster, who is president of Lehigh’s permaculture club.
In July, Lehigh students were notified via email of two intrusions into student off-campus homes within 24 hours of each other. The second was an attempted homicide and attempted rape of a Lehigh graduate student.
In mid-September, senior Zoe Grossman’s off-campus house on the 500 block of East Fifth Street was broken into and the TV was stolen.
Despite Grossman’s experience, she said she has a positive view of local residents. On the day she and her roommates moved in, her neigh­bor, a local, greeted them with fresh tomatoes.
Another time, she said, a house­mate of hers left her purse outside. A Bethlehem man returned it to her after walking door-to-door looking for its owner.
Students often don’t hear of pos­itive encounters like Grossman’s very often, and that may be part­ly due to the fact that Lehigh as an institution discourages students from going into the community, said Gerardo Calderon, a Lehigh alumnus who lives in the area and works on campus to improve the
Misconceptions strain Lehigh-Bethlehem relations
See RELATIONS Page 3
In a response to overcrowding on the Mountaintop-bound buses, Lehigh’s Transportation Services plans to add a new route to the current bus system.
The route, which is included in the master plan as the “Packard Express,” will run about every 10 minutes and just make stops on lower campus. The Mountaintop route will continue along its normal route, but the Packard Express will serve residents of “the Hill” and take some of the pres­sure off of the Mountaintop ser­vices. With this new route in place, Mountaintop buses will start to run every 15 minutes, instead of 10 on the current schedule.
Robert Bruneio understands student concerns involving cam­pus transportation options. As the manager of transportation ser­vices, part of his job is to oversee all four transportation routes.
Bruneio made it clear that his foremost goal is to provide stu­dents with a safe and convenient way to get around campus.
The Mountaintop route has two main buses that can hold up to 95 students each. The buses that are in place now are much bigger than the original buses, which can only hold about 48 students.
“(The) Mountaintop (bus) is the most popular,” Bruneio said. “With the bigger buses, we are gener­ating more ridership — that has certainly increased and improved.”
Bruneio said he could not give an exact date of when the plan will be implemented, but Transportation Services has it planned for the near future.
“We are looking into moving the bus wait time to 15 minutes to accommodate, because 10 minutes is stretching it,” Bruneio said. “We have had an increase in traffic, pedestrians and construction, so our buses are barely making that 10 minute (time frame).”
Heidi Cacciola, ’15, rides the Mountaintop bus to the Packard Avenue stop. As a commuter stu­dent, Cacciola has no other option but to ride the bus up to her car.
“Every day, it is overcrowded,” Cacciola said. “(The times) it is most crowded (are) noon and 4 p.m. It’s just really annoying. I have to use the bus system to get to my car versus (the) people that don’t want to walk somewhere.”
Kaitlin Fisher, ’14, ‘15G, has a different opinion on the bus system. She rides the bus most days to Mountaintop and usually departs at the Packard stop. While she said that the bus is usually full
See BUS Page 4
By ELIZABETH HALLER
Lifestyle Editor
By KATIE ZABRONSKY
B&W Staff
New route plan aims to combat bus overcrowding
Kelsey Alpaio/B&W Staff
The Bethlehem Steel Stacks are a shared symbol of history for both Lehigh and the South Side of Bethlehem. The relationship between the communities has experienced tension due to misunderstandings on the parts of students, administration and citizens of Bethlehem.