Brown and White Vol. 129 no. 14

              The Brown and White Vol. 129 No. 14
Friday, October 23, 2015 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
Facebook
page used as
student forum
Courtesy of Guian Bolisay
By REBECCA WILKIN
Assistant News Editor
Lehigh Class Confessions
Facebook page created by
Student Senate provides
forum for discussion of
socioeconomic issues
By PATRICK TURPIN
B&W Staff
A recently established Facebook
page, Lehigh Class Confessions,
invites students to anonymously
share their experiences at Lehigh
with respect to socioeconomic
class identity through a Google
form.
The page, created by Student
Senate member Chang Sun, now
has almost 350 likes and is grow-ing
in popularity among Lehigh
students.
The idea for Lehigh Class
Confessions emerged when
Student Senate leaders met last
year to discuss the next year’s
goals, such as tackling different
issues at Lehigh like LGBT inclu-sivity
or women’s issues.
A personal goal, Sun wanted to
bring more awareness about lower
income students on Lehigh’s cam-pus.
After her experience attending
public school in a metropolitan
city where everyone in the school
came from different kinds of socio-economic
backgrounds, Sun said
she wanted to bring more aware-ness
the lower income groups that
exist at Lehigh.
“When I moved to Lehigh, I
didn’t see this kind of diversity
here,” she said. “It seems like
everyone comes from middle upper
Local organization Angel 34
carries on the mission of its late
founder by providing services
to children battling cancer.
See Page 5
Inside Lifestyle
As of Oct. 14, Parking Services
has received 357 appeals this
semester, 178 of which have been
granted.
The number of citations issued
by Parking Services has been
declining over the past three
semesters, but so has the per-centage
of appeals being granted.
“Each semester we work to give
fewer citations through education
and sign improvements,” wrote
Sharon Field, the manager of
Lehigh’s Parking Services, in an
email. “The number of tickets
issued in the spring semester of
2015 is lower than the two semes-ters
before it.”
In the 2015 spring semester,
Parking Services issued 4,011
citations. In the fall of 2014, 4,346
citations were issued, and in the
spring of 2014, 4,545 were issued.
An appeals committee meets
weekly to review the appeals,
which are read in the order that
they are submitted. The appeals
are normally reviewed within one
to two weeks after the submis-sion
date. However, breaks and
holidays may cause delays, due
to the fact that the committee
only meets when classes are in
session.
Last semester, 755 appeals
were submitted and 415, or 55
percent, were granted. This per-centage
has decreased since the
fall of 2014, when 63 percent of
the 828 appeals submitted were
granted. In the spring of 2014, 67
percent of the 899 appeals sub-mitted
were granted.
“The number of people on the
appeals committee varies from
week to week, but it typically con-sists
of six to 12 individuals,” said
Sasha Clark, ’18, a first semester
member on the appeals commit-tee.
“The appeals are read, and
if we believe that the person’s
appeal is on justifiable grounds,
then we waive it.
“It is a typical voting system
where majority rules. It’s all anon-ymous.
The only people who know
who the ticket is intended for are
the manager and the assistant
manager of Parking Services.”
The Parking Appeals Committee
consists of one faculty member,
one non-exempt staff member, one
graduate student and four under-graduate
students. According to
Clark, there are several upper-classmen
on the board but no first
year students.
“Our members reach out to us
and volunteer,” wrote Field. “We
try to keep this ratio of faculty to
students to staff. No parking or
transportation staff are permitted
to serve to maintain an unbiased
committee.”
The most common appeals that
are submitted to the committee
are ones for citations for parking
at expired meters, in restricted
parking zones and in reserved
medical spaces. Often times, if
the citation is not appealed, the
fine will be reduced. Once the
appeals committee makes a deci-sion,
it is final.
Most fines fall within the
range of $25, and these penalties
include failing to display a park-ing
permit and illegal and care-
See PARKING Page 2
See CLASS Page 3
Parking Services issues fewer citations
than past two semesters
Parking tickets on decline