“Thursdays are fucking mandatory.” It was only a text message, but I could hear the shrill words of my pledge master ringing in my ears. What bullshit, I thought, as I often do after reading almost any text message that is sorority-related. I wasn’t going anywhere; I erased the message without responding.
What’s Your Agenda, Alice?
On January 21st, three days after President Gast publically announced her desire to hire a Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) at Lehigh, (an event already embedded deep within an email sent to the campus at large concerning the Martin Luther King Day celebration), the student body received word of a hateful incident that happened sometime “in the past week.” For students interested in the details of the event, President Gast’s correspondence was a disappointment. The hateful incident involved an undefined “hostile and racist symbol” in an unidentified elevator.
The Controversy Free Zone
The Brown and White eagerly described ten days worth of events honoring Martin Luther King Jr, but excluded many details that those that those in attendance would be quick to point out. While events such as convocation and the oratorical contest were summarized, the Brown and White failed to report on the underlying issues and concerns associated with these events. The large majority of students who did not attend any of these functions now may have a broad description of what occurred, but still cannot understand the meanings and implications of these events as well as someone who had attended.
A Hard Core Look at College Education
President Gast has been out in front of a number of initiatives designed to finally rectify some of Lehigh’s old Achilles’ heels (ahem, diversity) and push the University towards new heights of academic prestige and national significance.
Four Questions for President Gast
President Gast’s tandem of emails to the student body at-large last week simply reeked of politics. With everything that is going on in Washington D.C. right now, it’s hardly a surprise that our President has decided to play a similar game here at Lehigh to pass her agenda…
Save the Environment: Print a Patriot!
Even though we printed our environmentally-friendly copies of the Patriot already, you may not have received one. If that’s the case, The Lehigh Patriot now offers a convenient and environmentally conscious solution: print your own right on Lehigh’s free printers!
The Common Sense Climate
The climate is changing. It always has been, and it always will be. The question that drives discussion on environmental policy of late is, “What role does human activity plays in climate change?” Based on the huge changes that some politicians support…
A Waltz with Free Speech
Start a conversation with a Jewish student at Lehigh on the topic of Israel, and the ensuing moments will look a lot like the movie Flubber…
Climate Compassions
Even with the Copenhagen climate change summit fast approaching, the average American could care less about the environment or related legislation…
The Mass Transit Mess
Public transportation is often seen as the answer to a variety of issues and has become popular in the eyes of environmentalists, urban planners and traffic-haters…
Busing Blunders and Parking Peril
I am no logistics major, or heck even a good driver, but there is something wrong with the transportation system here at Lehigh…
An Education in Equity
Recently, Lehigh invited Paul Gorski an interesting academic concerned with the issues of social equity and justice that face our schools today. Be satisfied that this was not another counselor’s lecture on the importance of equality or cultural awareness…
The Great Climate Farce
On Friday, hackers infiltrated the Climate Research Unit (CRU) and posted hundreds of documents and emails regarding CRU’s research, climate models, and publications…
Sustainably Stupid
Lehigh’s Environmental movement has finally realized that organizations and committees are not enough to change the world….
Re-Evaluating Hazing
On Sunday, May 4th, 2003 a group of junior and senior girls gathered to participate in an unsanctioned school game of Powder Puff football…
Fundamentally Flawed
My wife and I came to Lehigh University from Pakistan just a few months ago on a Rescue Fellowship, which was sponsored by the International Institute of Education (IIE)…
Leaning Greek
Let’s be honest: students in search of the quintessential Lehigh experience will go Greek. Those who move onto The Hill after freshman year will tell you they wouldn’t have done it any other way…
The Competitive Disadvantage
s the Dow marked a psychological rebound at 10,000, few analysts were quick to verify this achievement. With an unemployment rate heading for 10% and no clear connection to revenue…
The Other Public Option
With sweeping health care legislation making its way through Congress, our leaders are overlooking one of the most pressing issues in the US: public education…
Lehigh Cuts Back
Think back to before your freshman year. You were a senior with a life changing decision to make. Were you going to attend Lehigh or another similar school?
Guns For Freedom
Basic human rights have always been defined as simple things – life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness. However, none of these four principles are possible without one other key element: the ability and willingness to defend oneself…
Senate Pushes Amethyst
There exists an ongoing debate between the Student Senate and the administration, specifically President Gast, as to the merits of adopting the Amethyst Initiative, a public statement signed by over 130 university presidents…
Who is Scott Ott?
Beginning a new year at Lehigh comes with a unique set of challenges, from buying books to organizing classes and from arranging housing, to getting involved in clubs. Amid all this complete chaos…
The Swine Flu Story
It seems as though the big news on the local, national, and world scene for the past decade has been the constant threat of the next big pandemic…
Team Excitement: Go Team?
We’ve all witnessed heart wrenching losses when athletes walk away in defeat, coaches shake their heads wishing the game had gone their way, and fans sigh with disappointment…
Welcome to the New LehighPatriot.com
For those who have visited The Lehigh Patriot website in the past, you’ll notice we have a new look. With the new website you should find it easier to access our articles, and join in the discussion.
Sparing Change for a Changing Climate
The Waxman-Markey bill, touted as “transformational legislation,” would require the U.S. to reduce emissions of CO2 and other gases by 17 percent within the next 10 years and by 80 percent before 2050. Should the bill pass through the Senate, the government will use a “cap and trade” system to regulate the emission of CO2…
The War on What?
If the current economic crisis leaves behind a substantial legacy, it will be embodied in lost educations. These educations will primarily be lost to minority and low-income students now that many colleges, including Lehigh, are quietly eliminating the practice of “need-blind” admissions…
A Great Day in Deathlehem
When many people gather to live together in close proximity, it is inevitable that there will be crime. Such holds true for the Lehigh Valley, where the most urban areas have a pressing problem with a rise in gang activity and the violent crime that is coupled with it…
Opening the Dialogue on Race
In recent years, diversity has been a high-priority issue for President Gast and Lehigh’s administration. The issue took center stage with the well-publicized incidents and subsequent town hall meeting last semester. A theme at that town hall meeting, and the subsequent Council for Equity and Community (CEC) meetings, was the role that Greek Life played in thwarting the construction of a diverse and accepting campus…
CPAC: Not Your Father’s Republican Party
The first CPAC was held more than 30 years ago, with then governor Ronald Reagan (not yet the deity in the Republican Party that he is today) presiding over less than 100 dedicated conservatives. It was the birth of a movement that would lead to convention halls filled with hundreds of solicitors hawking, lobbying, or supporting the conservative movement in some circumstance, over a three day period at the Omni Shoreham hotel in Washington DC, with more than 8500 in attendance this year. Dignitaries, such as former President George W. Bush (with much of his cabinet in tow) made appearances at last year’s CPAC.
Self-Evident Rights Denied
The week of January 18th was extremely eventful for our campus, the nation, and the world. On Monday, we celebrated the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. On Tuesday, we witnessed the inauguration of the first African-American President of the United States of America. Indeed, in these events, we remembered the brighter side of America and our devotion to social justice.
Tracking The Tressolini
Pinaire brushed aside suggestions that this year’s lecture was somehow being scaled down, even when past speakers have lectured in Zoellner Arts Center’s grand Baker Hall and included names like Antonin Scalia, Janet Reno, and Jesse Jackson Jr.
A committee of Lehigh’s “most trusted” professors is responsible for Rosen’s selection. Pinaire said the committee considers about ten speakers and tries to anticipate a topic that will be most compelling in the Spring.
History Repeats Itself
But it will happen again, over and over again. Being an advanced nation only makes the danger more subtle. Humanity is the same. How likely is it that highly educated and technologically advanced nations like ours could ever let something like this happen? Seventy years ago, Germany was home to millions of intelligent humans who were seduced by a cruel dictator who killed over 6 million people in a few years. This utter insanity was bought into by millions of Germans! Our own nation, the land of the free and home of the brave, murders well over a million little babies a year. It is quiet and under the radar, but agonizingly real.
The Economy of Change
With trillions of dollars on the line, the solutions put forth will play a critical role in how this country progresses over the coming decades. While the course of action seems to be determined at this time with the $787,000,000,000 stimulus package, the perception of this package’s effects is the most important component. To prepare for the upcoming onslaught of spin and exaggeration by politicians, everyone must be briefed on what is really going on.
Are We Sufficiently Stimulated?
The post-election story was that we just had to wait until January for Bush to leave office, and then we’d begin a steady road to economic recovery. Well, January has come and gone, and signs pointing toward the economic yellow brick road have been chopped down by local vandals. Three weeks into the Obama presidency, we find ourselves in the midst of a bitter partisan battle over the proposed economic stimulus package.
A Diverse Opinion
The good news is that the CEC doesn’t discriminate – it sees racism in every single person at Lehigh. Students need more classes that explain diversity and a curriculum that works those classes into a student’s schedule. Faculty members need a “Social Justice Leadership and Service Learning” seminar. For the Administration, the CEC will be meeting with the deans “to identify plans in place to diversify the faculty and retain underrepresented personnel” and to print a “diversity statement” on all recruitment and application materials. Clearly, future students are racist too.
Poetry Princess Fit for a King
As she was a humorous woman, I am still not sure whether Giovanni was kidding when she claimed at one point during the lecture to have a tattoo on her arm reading “Thug Life,” which she had supposedly gotten to honor the late rapper Tupac. Her spunky personality, as exemplified by the tattoo, had won me over so much that I almost didn’t mind when she referred to the bus driver who had Rosa Parks arrested by the racial slur “cracker.”
Undue Resistance
Building upon their success, Students for Obama invited Kal Penn, a crude humorist and Indian-American actor to spread then-Senator Barack Obama’s pandemic maxim of change. Penn, speaking during the Diwali cultural show, challenged students to “vote for change.”
On October 28th of last year, the Global Union sponsored a program entitled “Who Would the World Vote for?” This grossly partisan event concluded that the pariah and peddler of change, now-President Obama, would be the optimal choice from a so-called global perspective.
On Board the “Straight-Talk Express”
With just under a month to go before the election, the Straight Talk Express rolled through Bethlehem, PA on October 8th, making a campaign stop for a rally at Stabler Arena.
Misundereducated
Education plays a critical role in every nation’s development. Just as leaders today make decisions based upon their past education, the leaders of tomorrow will formulate their actions based on what they learn today. Our future depends on the education of today to produce a well-informed and educated generation.
A One-Party State
In the current state of affairs, the results of the presidential elections are essentially a shoe-in for Senator Barack Obama. Unless some significant and unforeseen news is reported, either severely negative to Senator Obama or highly positive to Senator McCain, Senator Barack Obama will win the United States Presidential election with a comfortable margin to spare.
Olda: A Rare Reluctant Leader
As August 20, 1968 turned into August 21, Czechoslovakia was overrun by Russian tanks, and the puppet Communist regime was reined in by the granddaddy of Communist states. The Prague Spring was over, and the reforms of Alexander Dubček, which President Gorbachev later copied for his famous perestroika and glasnost reforms that helped cause the collapse of the Soviet Union, were reversed…
In Defense of Elehightism
Does one’s partisan biases have root in their quasi-predestined role in higher education? That is to say, do Lehigh’s conservative students tend to accept the so-called social inequalities that Lehigh’s left-leaning students often cite within the institution itself?
A Festschrift for Eli
At 4:00 on a leafy-golden late October afternoon, a group of professors from Lehigh’s business college will gather for drinks and light refreshments to celebrate the career of Eli Schwartz, an economics professor at Lehigh from 1954 to 1991…
Words of Inaction
Election year politics always provide a tremendous amount of political banter on both sides. While following this year’s contest, I have read countless well-thought and articulate articles on the current political climate…
To Educate or Indoctrinate?
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees every American the right to free speech. Yet this fundamental liberty is not preserved on Lehigh’s campus. Instead, political correctness has paved the way to restrictive speech codes that govern what can and cannot be said…
Climbing Mt. eHarmony
“On a scale from one to seven, to what degree do the following words apply to you? The first word is: Kind.”
“Is a one high or low?”
“One is low and seven is high…”
NObama
“I found solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother’s race,” states Senator Barack Obama in his book, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance…
The Case Against a CDO
Diversity is a word with dichotomous meaning, based on the individuals engaged. In the specter of life, as it should be – that is, true to meaning, diversity refers to the inclusion and accepting of difference, be it ideological, physical, sexual, racial, religious or otherwise. I truly do not believe that Lehigh harbors many, if any students who would oppose this point of view; those who grew up in circumstances much like mine have not been lacquered with a veneer of intrinsic hate – we do not relegate individuals to inferior positions based solely on any of the stated criteria above.