Brown and White Vol. 131 no. 23

              The Brown and White Vol. 131 No. 23
Tuesday, December 6, 2016 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
Stephanie Ruhle, ’97, has been
announced as the speaker for
Lehigh’s 149th commencement
ceremony in May.
Ruhle earned a Bachelor of Arts
in international business from
Lehigh in 1997. Now, she is an
anchor at MSNBC where she has
a daily show.
“In 1997, I was sitting at com-mencement
surrounded by those
who would become my lifelong
friends and extremely proud of
the foundation Lehigh helped me
build,” Ruhle said in a statement
to University Communications.
“But I never expected the honor
of returning 20 years later to send
off an esteemed group of next-gen-eration
leaders.”
The 40-year-old journalist
recently announced she’s leaving
the “Today” show, where she was
a weekend co-anchor, to devote
her full attention to MSNBC.
During her time at Lehigh,
Ruhle wrote several articles for
The Brown and White in the fall of
1994. She studied abroad in three
countries — Kenya, Guatemala
and Italy. She was a student
ambassador, a tour guide and was
on the Dean’s List, according to
the 1997 Epitome yearbook.
Ruhle returned to South
Mountain in October 2013 to mod-erate
a panel with other alumni,
focusing on the national debt.
Previously, she was an anchor
and managing editor for Bloomberg
Television and editor-at-large for
Bloomberg News. Before entering
media, Ruhle worked at Deutsche
Bank as a managing director in
global markets senior relationship
management.
“It’s always special when we
get to welcome back one of our
own as commencement speaker,”
President John Simon said. “I am
thrilled that Stephanie is return-ing
to Lehigh to share her story
with our graduating students and
their families and friends.”
Freddy Coleman, ’17, the presi-dent
of the class of 2017, said he
is excited to conclude his time at
Lehigh by hearing Ruhle speak.
“The class of 2017 looks forward
to hearing what she has to say on
life and how she was able to use
her Lehigh degree to get where
she has gotten,” Coleman said.
Recent commencement speak-ers
include Marty Baron, Walter
Isaacson and Joseph Perella.
Ruhle is the first female honor-ee
since Ellen Kullman spoke in
2011.
Lehigh’s 149th commencement
will take place May 22 at Goodman
Stadium starting at 10 a.m.
Stephanie Ruhle announced as commencement speaker
By SAMANTHA TOMASZEWSKI
Editor in Chief
Courtesy of NBC Universal
Forum held
to address
int’l students’
concerns
By KLAUDIA JAZWINSKA
& CATE PETERSON
News Editor & Associate News Editor
High costs deter textbook purchases
By CARLY NYMAN
Special to the B&W
A college education comes with
a hefty price tag — tuition, room
and board, and more. The cost of
textbooks, however, has separated
itself from this collection of college
expenses.
Since 2006, the price of college
textbooks has increased by 87.5
percent, according to the Bureau
of Labor and Statistics. The sec-ond
most inflated expense is college
tuition and fees at 62.7 percent,
which is 25 percent below the price
increase in textbooks.
Many publishers have hiked up
prices and produced new editions in
an attempt to compete with online
offerings in the once stagnant text-book
industry. College students are
turning to cost-saving alternatives
like choosing used or rental text-books,
sharing textbooks with peers,
borrowing from the library and even
forgoing a textbook all together.
This cycle has brought students,
faculty and publishers to a cross-roads,
where all parties are frustrat-ed
and searching for a solution.
Michael Santoro, a management
professor who has worked at Lehigh
for 19 years, said the increase in
textbook prices has been “exponen-tial,”
especially in the last five to
seven years.
At Lehigh, 75 percent of respon-dents
to an Office of Financial Aid
survey said they pay less than $500
for textbooks. The other 25 percent
said they pay more than $500 on
textbooks. The office did not provide
a further breakdown of the values
within that range.
Brian Adler, the manager of the
Lehigh University Bookstore, wrote
in an email that Lehigh students
are slightly more likely to purchase
a new textbook, closely followed
by rentals, used, and then digital,
which is only 1 percent of bookstore
textbook sales. About 85 percent of
textbooks are available for rent, but
not all materials are offered in this
format.
Adler wrote that publishers set
the textbook prices and the book-store
applies an industry standard
markup to the publisher price, which
is used to cover costs like freight,
labor and maintaining the bookstore
itself. A percentage of bookstore rev-enue
is paid to Lehigh to help fund
scholarships, special programs and
faculty positions.
Mark Canney, the manager
for lending services at Fairchild-
Martindale and Linderman librar-ies,
said one reason the textbook
market is so inflated is because
there is no consumer choice. This
means students, who are the buy-ers,
do not have a say in what they
are purchasing. Thus, prices are
escalating because a small number
of publishers control the majority of
the textbook market.
Traditional college bookstores are
not the only successful retailer in
the textbook market anymore. Many
students are ordering books from
websites like Chegg and Amazon.
Suzanne Fernandez, the director
of organic chemistry, said her stu-dents
are savvy when it comes to
buying textbooks because she can
Members of the Lehigh commu-nity
gathered in Lamberton Hall on
Tuesday to discuss international stu-dents’
concerns about how they may
be affected by impending changes in
the U.S. presidential administration.
Cheryl Matherly, the vice presi-dent
and vice provost for internation-al
affairs, told The Brown and White
that in recent weeks, many offices on
campus have received inquiries from
international students about visas
and immigration status, safety and
environment, and interpreting the
political situation in the U.S.
Kathleen Hutnik, the associate
dean and director of graduate stu-dent
life, said she received many
questions from students about cam-pus
resources that could help them
understand the situation and how
they might be affected.
She brought these concerns to
Matherly and Clara Buie, the pro-gram
director of the Global Union,
both of whom she serves with on the
Council for Equity and Community.
Together, they decided to organize
an informational panel to answer
students’ questions and address their
concerns.
Many senior Lehigh adminis-trators
participated in the forum,
including President John Simon and
Provost Pat Farrell, as well campus
See TEXTBOOKS Page 2 See FORUM Page 4
Roshan Giyanani/B&W Staff