Brown and White Vol. 134 no. 16

              The Brown and White Vol. 134 No. 16
Tuesday, April 10, 2018 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
WARREN SQUARE A VANDALIZED
A room in a university residence
hall was vandalized with racist lan-guage
Thursday night, according to
an email sent to the Lehigh com-munity
by President John Simon.
The residence hall has since been
identified as Warren Square A.
In addition to writing racist slurs
on a surface in the room, the perpe-trator
also destroyed personal and
university property.
The suspect, Yukai Yang, ’18, was
identified in the Lehigh University
Police Department’s crime log.
Simon wrote in another email that
the suspect has been arrested and
charged with ethnic intimidation,
institutional vandalism and crimi-nal
mischief.
Yang was remanded to
Northampton County Prison, and
after a preliminary arraignment,
his bail was set at $10,000. The
charges will go to the district jus-tice
early next week and a for-mal
arraignment will be scheduled,
according to the email.
He was released on bail as of
Saturday afternoon, according to
Northampton County Department
of Corrections.
Simon wrote that the process
of physically removing the acts of
vandalism, replacing windows and
locks, and further ensuring the
safety of the residents is ongoing.
However, he wrote, such an act
leaves a wound that can not be
addressed so easily.
“ALL members of the Lehigh
community have a right to feel
safe, to feel respected and to feel
welcomed,” Simon wrote. “NO
individuals have the right or the
authority to take it upon them-selves
to commit acts that threaten
or demean anyone. This behavior
will not be tolerated and will be met
with severe consequences, includ-ing
prosecution to the fullest extent
of the law.”
Though hate speech and vandal-ism
are not explicitly mentioned
in the Lehigh Code of Conduct,
Simon wrote that the consequences
for violating student conduct and
university policy with such actions
may represent grounds for expul-sion
from Lehigh.
LUPD is cooperating with the
Northampton District Attorney’s
Office on this case.
Jane Henderson/B&W Staff
Warren Square A is home to the Creative Vibes themed community. A room in the building
was vandalized with racist language by Yukai Yang, ‘18, Thursday night.
Lehigh Valley cities combat unemployment
By CASEY FARMER
Managing Editor
The Allentown-Bethlehem-
Easton metropolitan statistical
area — informally referred to as
the Lehigh Valley — reports a 4.3
percent unemployment rate, fall-ing
just above the United States’
national unemployment rate of
4.1 percent as of October 2017,
according to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics.
The area’s three largest cities
have unemployment rates that
are more than 20 percent higher
than the national average.
According to the bureau,
Bethlehem’s unemployment rate
as of October 2017 was 5 percent,
while Allentown’s was 6.5 per-cent.
Easton fell at a 5.9 percent
unemployment rate.
The explanation for higher
unemployment rates is not sim-ple,
but economists believe there
are a few factors common to pop-ulated
urban areas that explain
why unemployment persists.
Allentown and Bethlehem have
long boasted a large Hispanic pop-ulation,
and community advocates
note that finding a job is more
difficult for people whose first
language is not English.
Meanwhile, local economists say
the skills the economy demands
have varied over the years. Before
Bethlehem Steel Corporation shut
down in the mid-1990s, the steel
industry dominated the Lehigh
Valley.
The number of manufacturing
employees sharply declined in the
early 2000s.
Irina Panovska, an assistant
professor of economics at Lehigh,
said when low-skilled workers of
a certain industry are no longer
needed, they typically must be
retrained, as their skills are not
often transferable into a different
sector.
Panovska said two industries
with steady or increasing employ-
See UNEMPLOYED Page 4
By CATE PETERSON &
JESSICA HICKS
Managing Editor & News Editor
Suspect charged with ethnic intimidation and two other crimes
See Page 2
INSIDE NEWS
The Hispanic Center of the Lehigh
Valley, located on East Fourth Street
in South Bethlehem, offers English
classes to residents looking for
employment as well as those who
are already employed, but would like
to improve their English-speaking
skills.
Kate Morrell/B&W Staff