Brown and White Vol. 94 no. 1

              lehigh university brown and white vol 94 — no l bethlehem pa friday august 27 1982 215)861-4184 welcoming celebration today the student activities council sac and the dean of students office are sponsoring university day today from 4 30 to 8 30 p.m at sayre park to welcome freshmen and to welcome back returning students according to dean of students william quay planning for university day was begun last spring so the event cou id be held on the first friday of the semes ter quay said the dean of students office and the sac wanted to do it very early so that the students would have a good chance to get to know everybody among the activities scheduled are a live band free artists caricatures free old-fashioned photographs games a parachute jump beer truck and a barbeque from 4 30 to 6 30 p.m sac president dave dender 83 said he expects a bigger crowd than last year primarily because of the barbeque according to lorraine scheibener student activities coordinator the dean of students office believes that the university needed a welcome back type of event adding that this year is just an experiment assistant dean of students roger watkins explained that last semes ter's university day was paid for by a special fund from the provost's office to increase cultural programming on campus he noted that since no m oney was available from that source for this semester the dean of stu dents office and sac footed the bill he also expressed the hope that money will be earmarked for the event next year buses will be available to shuttle students to sayre park for university day this afternoon the buses will leave every 15 minutes from the flag pole starting at 4 00 p.m ex-student found guilty of rape appeal follows by mary frances donley a former university student is appeal ing his june 11 conviction in northamp ton county court on charges of raping a female student in a residence hall lounge last december robert bell 19 of washington d.c was convicted of rape criminal attempt to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and indecent assault according to northampton county assistant district attorney richard pepper the case is at the first level of appeal and will be heard by northamp ton county court en banc sept 7 according to dean of students william quay the university is awaiting the out come of the court case to determine what if any disciplinary charges should be filed against bell in the event he does return to the university bell withdrew from the university after the tall semester the charges against bell stemmed from an incident dec 3 in the drinker house lounge the victim who has since graduated from the university testified that she was typing a paper due the next day when bell assaulted her attempted to force her to perform oral sex and raped her according to the allentown morning call bell testified that he did not hold her against her will and that she was a will ing participant bell's defense attorney renald baratta suggested in his closing statement that the victim claimed she has been assaulted in order to proviae an alibi if she became pregnant according to the call baratta also emphasized the fact that the victim unished the paper on which she had been working and received a grade of 90 on it according to the call university basketball coach brian hill testified that bell a former basket ball player at the university was recru ited for the team as a national honor society student and had excellent high school recommendations according to the call the prosecution's closing statement stressed the fact that bell although claiming a close relationship with the victim referred to her by her given first name her father roommate and boy friend had testified that she was known by a nickname the call said the reason she completed the paper pepper said was that despite being in a state of shock she needed the paper to complete graduation requirements the jury of eight men and four women deliberated for four hours before reaching their ver dict and bell was released on bail until further action in the case cause of williams hall fire remains under investigation by tom dipiazza the cause of a july 9 fire at williams hall which resulted in an estimated 50,000-$60,000 in damages is still unde termined according to bethlehem fire marshall william reinhard . we're still at a standstill as to the cause of the blaze reinhard said we talked with people who worked there and they weren't able to help us reinhard said the fire was limited to a suite of third floor graduate student offi ces he said he has ruled out smoking and faulty electrical wiring as sources of the fire but the investigation is continuing a campus police officer who reported the fire at 3:34 a.m was rescued by bethlehem firemen and hospitalized after he was overcome by smoke while investigating the blaze after the fire was extinguished the discovery of broken bottles containing a toxic chemi cal stored in the office sent bethlehem firemen campus police officers and cus todial personnel to the hospital for blood tests campus police officer doug geisner investigated the building after noticing an unusual amount of steam coming from a basement window although he said he did not know if the steam was related to the fire he smelled smoke upon entering the building geisner said he searched the first and second floors but failed to locate the fire he discovered the blaze upon reaching the third floor when i hit the third floor the entire hallway was filled with heavy black smoke geisner said geisner said he fell to the floor and radioed the bethle hem police to report the fire and campus more applicants fewer enrollments for fall semester by scott cagan of the 6,915 applicants for the fall semester of 82 47 percent were offered admission to the university and 34.2 percent of those decided to enroll according to samuel missimer director of admission although there were more applica tions received this year the percentage of students who actually decided to enroll declined last fall 36.9 percent of those offered admission chose to attend this fall 34.2 percent of those offered admission chose to attend the university missimer however was not surprised by the decrease we expected this drop missimer commented he cited the economy the tuition increase and the cutback on financial aid as the probable causes this year marked the tenth consecu tive year that the number of applications to the university increased the 6,915 applications received this year were a drop us a line b&w photo by rob weisstuch . . . or is that add us a line students waited in halls like this one all over campus as rooms schedules and bills were finally straightened out during this week's registration see fire page € see missimer page 5