Brown and White Vol. 132 no. 12

              The Brown and White Vol. 132 No. 12
Friday, March 24, 2017 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
Academic honors cut from commencement ceremony
By JULIAN LYNN
B&W Staff
Graduating Lehigh students
who receive academic honors,
awards and prizes will not be pub-licly
recognized during this year’s
commencement and convocation
ceremonies.
In past years, individual accom-plishments
were announced at the
ceremonies, giving students the
opportunity to be acknowledged by
their classmates and professors.
“I don’t think it’s fair because
you work really hard through-out
your four years here,” Emilee
Strange, ’17, said. “It feels as
though recognition of your hard
work is taken away.”
According to the Office of
University Events, the reason for
this change can be attributed to
the extra week that was added
during the 2014-15 academic year
to accommodate a new winter ses-sion.
This caused the posting of
final grades to be delayed until
after commencement due to a
shorter spring semester.
Starting this year, the students’
academic honors will be listed in
the ceremony’s program and will
only take fall semester grades into
account. These awards are subject
to change after the inclusion of
final GPA and class grades.
Jazmine Alicea, ’17, thinks this
new system is unfair to students
who have worked hard for their
good grades. She said Lehigh
should clearly inform award recip-ients
that their academic honors
might be changed after commence-ment
weekend.
Steve Wilson, the director of
Institutional Assessment, wrote
in an email that commencement is
mainly a ceremony of celebration
for those who are expected to com-plete
their degrees.
“We include the names of stu-dents
who have registered their
expectation of graduation,” Wilson
wrote, “but sometimes circum-stances
delay their completion by
one or more semesters.”
Once final grades and GPA are
calculated, a confirmed academic
honors list, including final spring
semester grades, will be posted
online by July 1.
Meg Kelly/B&W Staff
In this May 23, 2016, file photo, Lehigh’s
Class of 2016 commencement and
convocation takes place at Goodman
Stadium. This year’s ceremony will only
include honors, awards and prizes in the
pamphlet.
Fall semester grades to determine graduation
awards, spring grades to be factored in later
Tackling the ‘Sketchlehem’ myth
By SAM TOPP, KATIE MORRIS
Associate News Editor, Special to B&W
Study shows interaction with Bethlehem residents improves relations
The use of terms like
“Sketchlehem” to refer to the
Bethlehem community and “townie”
to refer to its residents is common-place
on Lehigh’s campus.
Although some students might
consider them humorous, these
terms are reflective of a deeper
divide between Lehigh students
and South Bethlehem residents.
Anonymous data collected from
16 South Bethlehem residents
and 126 Lehigh students shows a
positive correla-tion
between the
amount of times
the two groups
interact with each
other and their per-ception
of the rela-tionship
between
the groups.
“Calling peo-ple
‘townies’ allows a distinct oth-er-
ing that dehumanizes residents,”
Megan McMichael, ’17, said. “It is
in this way that Lehigh students
can leave behind their empathy
for their neighbors. Better behav-ior
from Lehigh students will most
likely encourage a warmer recep-tion
from South Side residents.”
The majority of Lehigh students
who have attended one or more
events on the South Side rate their
interactions with South Bethlehem
residents as positive. When stu-dents
attend an average of two
events, the student population
views its relationship with resi-dents
in a favorable way.
Most South Bethlehem residents
said they haven’t seen a significant
change in their relationship with
Lehigh students. Six of the 16 par-ticipants
said the relationship had
not changed at all over the last few
years.
However, they said they would
like to see a stronger relationship
develop in the future. The majori-ty
of students who have attended
any South Side events also want
a stronger relationship to create a
sense of community between the
two groups.
“I think that students think the
relationship with
the South Side is
negative because
they don’t try to
get to know any
of the full-time
residents,” Dani
Joy, ’17, said.
“(Students) just go
off of stereotypes
and rumors.”
Carolina Hernandez, the director
of the Community Service Office,
works to improve Lehigh’s relation-ship
with the local community by
ensuring community members feel
comfortable on Lehigh’s campus.
She said when she first started at
Lehigh, there were teenagers living
in the homes surrounding Lehigh
who had never even stepped foot
on campus. Many local residents
believed they were not allowed on
university grounds.
“Our job is to be a good neighbor
and work with each other, not for
See BETHLEHEM Page 3
“Lehigh was not
here first.
Scott Burden
Pride Center, asst. director ”
Anna Simoneau/B&W Staff
Anna Simoneau/B&W Staff