Brown and White Vol. 129 no. 1

              The Brown and White Vol. 129 No. 1
Friday, September 4, 2015 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
President John Simon began
his tenure as Lehigh’s 14th presi-dent
July 1, 2015, taking over for
Interim President Kevin Clayton.
The Brown and White sat down
with Simon, who comes from the
University of Virginia, where he
served as the executive vice presi-dent
and provost.
How has the move to
Bethlehem been for you and
your family?
I think it’s going great. So we’re
a split family this year. I have a
son who is a high school senior, so
he and my wife will be staying in
Charlottesville, and my other son
The first Friday of the fall semes-ter
marked both the end of the first
week of classes and the beginning
of a new Lehigh tradition.
Brown and White Day was held
for the first time on Friday, Aug.
28 and called upon students, fac-ulty
and staff members to don the
university’s colors.
President John Simon and
Provost Patrick Farrell introduced
the new tradition in an email Aug.
25, describing it as a “campus-wide
initiative to enhance Lehigh pride.”
Roseann Corsi, a partnership
representative for Lehigh ath-letics
and a founding member of
the Brown and White committee
– which was responsible for the
initiative – said the goal is to build
unity and display Lehigh pride.
Members of the South Side com-munity
also are encouraged to join
the initiative.
“To bring us more of one, to bring
us together as a family (is the
goal),” Corsi said. “We’re trying to
reach out to a lot of the businesses
that students go to, and we pro-vided
them with Lehigh shirts for
them to wear them on Fridays.”
In addition to providing brown
Lehigh shirts to members of the
Lehigh and South Side commu-nities,
the committee posted “Got
Brown?” and “Got White?” signs
around campus that encouraged
the wearing of school colors each
In early 2014, consultants came
to Lehigh to review the university’s
local and regional community-en-gaged
practices. Their investigation
brought about a recommendation
to create a center that would help
to unify the many service-oriented
groups on campus.
This semester, Lehigh intro-duced
the Center for Community
Engagement, a new hub for stu-dents,
faculty and community mem-bers
looking to engage in meaning-ful
and reciprocal community work.
Sociology professor Sarah
Stanlick, who has about a decade
of community-engaged research,
human rights and service learning
experience, is now the director of
the center.
“They found that there’s a lot
of really great stuff happening
but sometimes it’s not connect-ed
or sometimes it’s happening
and nobody else knows about it,”
Stanlick said.
A committee of professors from
the College of Arts and Sciences,
co-chaired by professors Judith
Lasker and Elizabeth Dolan, col-laborated
during the past academic
year to create a center that would
facilitate academically-engaged
research, learning and service.
With the help of Donald Hall, the
dean of the College of Arts and
Sciences, they crafted a request to
the provost’s office for seed fund-ing
for three years to establish the
center.
See Q&A Page 4
will be here and I’m here.
It’s going great, we have a lot
of boxes.
If anyone wants to volunteer
to help us unpack, we’re game.
We’ve been exploring the area
and stuff like that.
What has the transition
between you and Interim
President Clayton been like?
What initiatives and projects
that were started last year are
being continued?
So (Clayton) and I got to know
each other really well over the
last year and spent a lot of time
together.
I’d say we developed a pretty
good friendship. It’s been a very,
very smooth transition from my
point of view. Kevin goes back to
work next month in his new job,
I have my new job. We’ve been
meeting for dinner in the middle
in New Jersey. So I think from
both of our perspectives it’s been
very smooth.
I think (Clayton) did fantastic
work in laying out the Lehigh
150 and the initiatives framing
what the next steps are with
Mountaintop, what next steps are
around the DataX initiative and
the renovation of the UC and
related projects.
I plan to continue those, there
should be no disruption there.
I’d actually like to push it fur-ther
and working with Pat Farrell
Q&A: John Simon talks Greek life, CORE report
Chris Barry/B&W Staff
President John Simon, the
university’s 14th president,
sits at his desk Friday.
Simon assumed his role as
Lehigh begins celebrating its
sesquicentennial year.
week.
This year marks Lehigh’s ses-quicentennial
year and Brown and
White Day is one of the projects
aimed at promoting unity between
the Lehigh and South Side commu-nities
for this celebration.
Silagh White, the director of arts
engagement and community cul-tural
affairs, has been involved
with the planning of the sesqui-centennial
year activities. White
hopes the Brown and White ini-tiative
will unite and celebrate
both the South Side and Lehigh
community.
“I gave a heads up to the local
retailers,” White said. “I said,
‘Stock up! We’re going to need some
brown.’ I think it’s a great thing.
The whole idea of campus unity
and spirit through doing some-thing
together, I think it’s fantas-tic.
It shows amazing institutional
spirit.”
Many members of the commu-nity
dressed in brown and white
on Friday, and Corsi believes the
first Brown and White Day was the
start of a successful tradition.
“I’ve talked to some of the stu-dents
and they were excited,” Corsi
said. “I think it’s a good thing, but
we have still have a lot to go.”
Despite the day’s perceived suc-cess,
some members of the campus
community did not participate.
Members of the Brown and White
Lehigh colors unify school and South Side Community
Engagement
center provides
service work
By EMILY OKREPKIE
Associate News Editor
By KLAUDIA JAZWINSKA
Associate News Editor
By SAMANTHA TOMASZEWSKI
News Editor
Roshan Giyanani/B&W Staff
Kendell Garden, ’16, and Rebekah Campo, ’16, hand out shirts to
students Nicolette Dunphy, ’18, and Julianna D’Orazio, ’17, on Friday
outside Rauch Business Center. These free shirts were given to
students on Lehigh’s first official Brown and White Day.
See COLORS Page 2 See COMMUNITY Page 3
Lehigh administration
encourages Bethlehem res-idents
and students alike
to don brown and white to
foster community spirit