Brown and White Vol. 135 no. 23

              The Brown and White Vol. 135 No. 23
Tuesday, December 4, 2018 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
By MARISSA MCCLOY
News Editor
Jason Loew, a former professor
in Lehigh’s computer science and
engineering department, was fired
from the university on Nov. 20.
His termination letter indicated
he was fired because he communi-cated
with students after he was
removed from teaching CSE 303:
Operating System Design. He was
also removed from his section of
CSE 109: Systems Software.
Loew said the department wanted
a different professor to administer
and grade the CSE 303 final exam
because grades in Loew’s classes
were low. Loew said he refused,
and he eventually lost administra-tive
control of the course.
Department Chair Daniel
Lopresti declined to comment on
specific personnel matters, but said
in an email that four CSE faculty
have been hired away by other
institutions in the past year. Three
of the faculty were tenure-track
and one was a professor of practice.
Loew said he planned to give his
resignation at the end of the semes-ter
anyway.
“The situation kind of boiled
down to: I knew I was going to get
fired at some point, I just didn’t
know when,” Loew said.
Michael Spear, a professor of
computer science and engineering
who has taught CSE 303 before,
has taken over Loew’s CSE 303
class. Mark Erle, a professor of
computer science and engineering
Austin Vitelli/B&W Staff
Professor Jason Loew from the computer science and engineering department was fired from Lehigh on Nov. 20, 2018. The
department, which is located in Packard Laboratory, has faced challenges hiring faculty.
who taught the second section of
CSE 109, has taken over Loew’s
section of that class.
Spear will assign the final of the
four CSE 303 programming assign-ments
and will write and adminis-ter
the final exam. He said 45 per-cent
of the course material has yet
to be graded because a remaining
programming assignment is worth
5 percent of the grade, and the final
exam is worth 40 percent.
Spear will calculate two grades
for the class — one that follows the
exact breakdown on the original
syllabus, including the students’
See PROFESSOR Page 3
Campus expansion impacts student services
approximately 225 more students
will seek counseling services.
Birky said the counseling cen-ter
will likely feel some strain
from the expansion of the student
body, as will other offices and the
students.
While no plans have been
finalized, administrators will
not only need to consider an
increased demand for counseling
services, but also the potential
need for staff in other offices
within Student Affairs, such as
the Health and Wellness Center,
the Center for Academic Success
and Health Advancement and
Prevention Services.
Birky said staff are challenged
by the increasing number of stu-dents
coming to the counseling
center reporting anxiety and
interpersonal discomfort.
“Staff will continue to maintain
faith that humans are wonderful-ly
made, and despite change with
its consequent stress and anxi-ety,
students and other members
By MADDIE HAYES
B&W Staff
Over the next 10 years, Lehigh
will welcome 1,000 more under-graduate
students and 500 more
graduate students.
The expansion under the Path
to Prominence initiative will
impact the demand for student
services on campus.
Counseling Services
Ian Birky, the director of coun-seling
and psychological services,
said his staff is already at full
capacity.
“Any time more students are
added to a university, there is
likely to be a percentage of those
students needing counseling at
least equal to the numbers seek-ing
assistance as in the past,”
Birky said.
At any given time, 15 percent of
students utilize Lehigh’s counsel-ing
services.
With the expansion of the stu-dent
body over the next 10 years, See SERVICES Page 3
CS professor fired, department short on faculty