Brown and White Vol. 132 no. 14

              The Brown and White Vol. 132 No. 14
Friday, March 31, 2017 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
LUcy on the lookout
Courtesy of Lehigh University
LUcy joined the Lehigh University Police Department on Jan. 11. She is undergoing training to become a certified bomb, chemical and tracking dog.
LUPD receives canine officer donation
Lehigh students receive award for high-tech bracelet
Party text
extends Theta
Xi probation
By AUSTIN VITELLI
Managing Editor
Theta Xi fraternity was placed
on disciplinary probation effective
March 28, according to the Lehigh
Greeks blog. The probation will
last until Dec. 31, 2018.
Theta Xi’s probation comes as a
result of multiple incidents — the
most recent being an individual
associated with Theta Xi sending
an inappropriate text message to
members of the Lehigh communi-ty
regarding a party March 8.
The blog stated that Theta Xi
violated three parts of the Lehigh
Code of Conduct: respect for com-munity
(encouraging others),
respect for others and respect for
community (failure to comply).
The fraternity took responsibility
for all three charges.
The blog also stated that future
violations within this time peri-od
could result in additional
punishments for the fraternity,
including suspension and expul-sion.
Other requirements could be
added before the fraternity can be
reinstated, according to the blog.
Multiple requirements were
laid out for the fraternity to com-plete.
“Host a workshop for fraternity
men about the ‘rush text’ culture,
appropriate communication, the
messages that you want to send to
future brothers and using social
media,” the blog stated. “This
workshop should be hosted during
By MADISON HOFF
Assistant News Editor
A new canine unit has been
donated to the Lehigh University
Police Department for added secu-rity
on campus.
LUcy, a Belgian Malinois, is
LUPD’s first canine unit. LUcy
was named after one of Asa
Packer’s children after a sugges-tion
from one of the officers.
LUcy is in an eight-week train-ing
period and will be certified in
bomb detection, chemical detec-tion
and tracking upon comple-tion.
LUPD Chief Edward Shupp
said she will only investigate dorm
rooms if there is a need to check
for chemicals or bombs.
Shupp said LUcy is learning
the skills quickly in the program.
Officer Gregory Norf has admin-istered
LUcy’s training and will
continue to work alongside her.
“She’s part of the family now,”
Shupp said. “She lives with (Norf)
and his wife, so it has to be a bond-ing
experience for everybody.”
LUcy was donated by Missy
Robbins of Saucon Valley. Under
normal circumstances, a canine
unit would cost approximately
$20,000 after training and other
amenities.
Shupp said Robbins loves dogs
and knows how important the
canine unit can be.
He said Robbins is an advo-cate
for safety and thought a dog
would be a good fit for LUPD.
She had previously donated a
dog to the Bethlehem City Police
By SAM BENCHEGHIB
B&W Staff
Two Lehigh students were
awarded $10,000 for their smart
bracelet that introduces its user
to basic programming.
Kira Gobes, ’18, and Kelsie
Strobel, ’18, were awarded the
money through Davis Projects
for Peace, a national initiative
inspired by the late internation-alist
and philanthropist Kathryn
W. Davis. The pair’s invention,
titled “Kuungana,” is a high-tech
bracelet that teaches beginner
programming by allowing its user
to customize its functions through
entering code.
“You could code it to do things
like light up or vibrate, sense
where you are and sense where
your friends are,” Gobes said.
Gobes and Strobel said they
came up with the idea after tak-ing
a class in international social
entrepreneurship. They learned
how to create an effective start-up
in a developing country and trav-eled
on a Lehigh-sponsored trip to
Kenya for part of the class.
Strobel said in Kenya, gender
stereotypes were noticeable and
the women had far fewer edu-cational
opportunities. She said
all of the young women she met
in Kenya who were interested in
engineering had few resources to
pursue an education locally.
“This is a serious issue,” Gobes
said. “We have always been cog-nizant
of this growing up, and
now being one of the few female
engineers in some of our classes
we wanted to create a girl’s edu-cation
tool.”
Gobes and Strobel said their
goal for the smart bracelet is to
get middle school-aged girls inter-ested
in coding and engineering
to help close the gender gap in the
engineering world.
See KUUNGANA Page 3
See POLICE DOG Page 4 See THETA XI Page 4
Aminat Ologunebi/B&W Staff
Kira Gobes, ’18, left, and Kelsie Strobel, ’18, are pictured with their prototype, the Kuungana
Tech Ring. Gobes and Strobel won a $10,000 Davis Project Peace Award for their invention.