Brown and White Vol. 131 no. 14

              The Brown and White Vol. 131 No. 14
Friday, October 28, 2016 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
Ph.D. candidate
imprisoned for
alleged credit
card theft
By MADISON GOUVEIA
Lifestyle editor
Lehigh University Ph.D. can-didate,
Jinze Li, was sent to
Northampton County Prison
under $10,000 bail Thursday
after allegedly making three
unauthorized purchases totaling
$1,732.97 on another student’s
credit card, according to court
documents.
Li was released from
Northampton County Prison
Monday, after the bail was post-ed
in cash by Arup SenGupta,
a professor of civil and environ-mental
engineering at Lehigh. Li
worked with SenGupta to invent
the world’s first filter capable of
removing both fluoride and arse-nic
from groundwater, accord-ing
to the P.C. Rossin College of
Applied Science and Engineering
website.
Fellow Ph.D. candidate Zhengyu
Xia told Lehigh University police
that he noticed purchases made
at B&H Photo Video of New York
City and called the company who
told him the purchases were made
under Li’s name, police said.
Xia told police the two men
share an office in STEPS room
370, and when Xia confronted
Li asking to view his browser
history Li initially denied access,
police said. Eventually, however,
Li allowed Xia to view his brows-er
history where Xia was able to
find the purchases placed on Li’s
account with B&H Photo Video.
Peggie’s Bell introduced to campus community
Lehigh’s political clubs duke it out
By MATTHEW COSSEL
B&W Staff
Kate Morrell/B&W Staff
People wait for Lehigh professor Anthony Viscardi to speak about his project to build Peggie’s
Bell on Oct. 21 on the Sacred Grove next to the Alumni Memorial Building. Viscardi had spent
almost a year working on Peggie’s Bell to create an outdoor acoustic structure on Lehigh’s
campus.
Grace Rountry/B&W Staff
LEFT: (from left) Christel Langué, ’19, Zach Vinik, ’20, and Josh Finkelstein, ’17, represent the College Democrats during a debate Monday in
Lamberton Hall. The College Democrats and College Republicans representatives went head-to-head in a debate on current political issues. RIGHT:
Megan McMichael, ’17, takes the floor at the political debate Monday evening in Lamberton Hall. McMichael identifies as a Democrat and also
holds Libertarian views.
College Democrats, Republicans hold issue-based debate
By ALEXA BERLINER
B&W Staff
Lehigh’s College Democrats and
College Republicans held a debate to
discuss issues on society, healthcare,
the economy, national security and
immigration at Lamberton Hall on
Monday.
The debate was entirely stu-dent-
run and was organized by the
political science honor society, Pi
Sigma Alpha, in collaboration with
the College Democrats, College
Republicans and the political sci-ence
department. Preparation for the
event began in September and was
spearheaded by Pi Sigma Alpha.
“We wanted to have an event that
raised political awareness on cam-pus,”
said Amanda Donohue, ’17, the
president of the honor society.
She said the society wanted to
have students share their opinions,
and thought presenting a student
perspective would be useful during
this election.
The Democratic and Republican
panels each consisted of three stu-dents,
ranging between first-years
and seniors.
Every statement made reflected
the student’s personal views. A stu-dent
panel moderated the debate
and allowed four to five minutes for
open debate after each topic, as well
as five minutes for audience partici-pation.
The moderators created and asked
questions during the debate, which
began with questions about the econ-omy
and expanded to other social
and security issues.
Members of the opposing par-ties,
as well as individual panelists,
expressed many differing perspec-tives
throughout the debate.
College Democrats, for example,
argued American infrastructure
is crumbling and that the wealthy
need to pay their fair share of taxes.
They also argued there should be
increased state spending toward
higher education and that inequality
and the gender gap are major issues
in our society.
Some of the College Republicans’
main arguments included the govern-ment
is spending too much money it
doesn’t have and illegal immigration
needs to be reviewed and reformed.
Despite several disagreements,
there were also some issues that
members of both parties agreed
upon, including equality in the work-force,
increased funding for voca-tional
training, the maintenance
of relations with allies, issues with
Obamacare and the need for more
gun control regulations.
Peggie’s Bell, an acoustic shell locat-ed
on the Sacred Grove lawn next to
the Alumni Memorial Building, was
inaugurated Oct. 21 in a ceremony
held by Anthony Viscardi, the faculty
adviser to the bell project.
Viscardi said the bell was created
to serve as an acoustic environment
for the use of singing groups and
individuals looking for space to sing,
relax and converse.
The choral arts department from
the Lehigh Valley Charter School
performed in the shell during the
inauguration ceremony.
“This is an important moment for
me and the school,” Viscardi said.
He said he believes this is one of the
most sacred art projects at Lehigh.
Viscardi worked as an architect
in his own firm for about 15 years
before becoming a professor in the
art, architecture and design depart-ment
at Lehigh. He has complet-ed
about five projects on Lehigh’s
campus, but this was the first time
in many years he was an architect
outside of the classroom.
Peggie’s Bell was designed as a
gift for Lehigh’s sesquicentennial by
Viscardi and Richard Kroeker, a pro-fessor
of architecture at Dalhousie
University in Halifax, Canada.
The name of the structure is
inspired by Kroeker’s mother-in-law,
who loved collecting bells. She
passed away during the structure’s
construction.
Viscardi said the idea for the proj-
See DEBATE Page 3 See THEFT Page 2
See BELL Page 3