Brown and White Vol. 102 no. 30

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 102 no 30 friday february 17 1995 all the lehigh news first crier chosen as graduation speaker by paul hare editor in chief broadcast journalist catherine crier has accepted the university's invitation to serve as the commencement speaker for graduation on may 28 crier is best known as a correspondent for abc's newsmagazine program 20/20 and a substitute anchor for other abc news pro grams like world news tonight and nightline."priortoherworkwith abc crier co-anchored cnn's news programs inside politics 92 and the world today she also hosted her own cnn half hour news talk show crier and company julie gayle 95 senior class president and member of the speaker selection committee is pleased with the selection i'm ecstatic that she is coming gayle said she is such an accomplished person she never sits back and she's always on top of the news reaction among graduating seniors to crier is mixed i don't know who this person is todd russo 95 said i'm not excited about the speaker but that reflects how apathetic we are they chose a bad speaker but whose fault is that ours for not having more input brian ellas 93 said people might not recognize her as a celebrity but she can speak well on a lot of different topics she's young intelligent and will make a difference in the future it will be a good experience to listen to her gayle feels students are too oblivious to know crier people who don't know who she is don't watch the news gayle said when people leave lehigh for the real world and become involved with news they will be very excited that she was our graduation speaker gayle said students were sent a survey over the summer asking for potential speaker ideas but most student responses were not realistic suggestions some of the people suggested were david lett erman howard stern and oj simpson gayle said these people are just out of the question because we don't have the contacts to ask those people we are limited because we don't pay our speakers we just offer them an honorary degree if people are concerned that this is not a good choice then they should probably watch the news and not the simpsons gayle said crier is not new to lehigh she spoke at lehigh as part of the litigation journalism symposium last may crier previously served as a state district judge for the 162nd district court of dallas county texas she became the youngest elected state judge in the history of texas in 1984 photo courtesy of office of media relations broadcast journalist catherine crier black is not a crime says patrick-stamp by annabel lukins news writer leslie patrick-stamp associate professor of history at bucknell uni versity delivered a speech on wednesday in maginnes hall in which she justified black crime in philadelphia the migration of blacks inphilly was due to people in search of free dom and work patrick-stamp said through her research patrick stamp examined the view that life in philadelphia for blacks from 1790 to 1 835 was fullof tragedy and struggle in 1780 the act for gradual aboli tion of slavery was approved which was the first such legislation of its kind in this country it constituted that if a black per son was born on or before march 1 of that year he or she was technically considered a slave if born after that date he or she was to be considered free or a servant patrick-stamp conducted her re search by studying prison records hoping to uncover information on prison life especially in 1790 she focused primarily on the es tablishment of the first state prison located on walnut and 6th streets in philadelphia according to patrick-stamp black punishment began in 1700 when blacks were tried in separate courts than whites if found guilty there were harsher punishments for blacks than whites and freemen by 1 700 the population in phila delphia was changing dramatically with the ethnic and racial composi tion the influx of black immigrants increased by 176 percent most blacks came from other states and countries mostly from the french caribbean and some even claim to have been bom on the afri can continent patrick-stamp said employment for these immi grants was limited to the maritime industry women who were excluded from the labor force faced employment obstacles and were limited to do mestic servitude patrick-stamp said blacks re sorted to crime to support themselves when employment was not feasible they would turn into thieves and steal immediate goods such as jew elry food money clothing animals and other usable and readily ex changeable items she also said 84 percent of the offenses were larceny and many minority women were convicted for arson laurence silberstein director of the bemoan center for jewish stud ies asked patrick-stamp what the proportion of blacks in philadelphia was compared to the number in the walnut street prison she said that baw photo by phiussa williams leslie patrick-stamp addresses black crime in philadelphia senate improves freshman advisers by kimb krl v haas assistant news editor two recommendations by the academics committee for improv ing the system of faculty advisers for students were agreed upon at the student senate meeting tuesday kristin woodcock 98 academ ics committee member introduced a proposal to make the present fresh man advising system in the college of arts and sciences more efficient the setups in business and engi neering are ok but in arts and sci ences you could have a biology ma jor paired with a history professor woodcock said the academics committee pro posed to have incoming freshmen declare a general field of interest and then each student will be placed with an adviser in that field kerimkotan 95 assignment and recognition chairman felt this should be done in the college of business and economics and the college of engineering and applied science as well the scope of the problem is bigger than the arts and sciences school kotan said doug herman 98 academic committee member said the proposal only dealt with the college of arts and sciences but the business and engineering schools will be discussed at a later time the other advising recommenda tion introduced by karyn richman 98 academics committee member addressed the lack of a comprehen sive evaluation process for all stu dent advisers the recommendation includes a random selection of one fourth of advisers in each department in all three colleges each adviser will be evaluated at the end of each year by six advisees both recommendations were voted on and passed by the senate please see senate page 4 please see crime page 4 h world news briefs 2 panhel and forum 3 abortion clime violence 5 anna mia's 7 women's basketball 15 men's basketball lehigh prevails over lafayette 97-75 page 16