<p>The Lehigh of years gone by, is just that...gone by. The campus police walk into houses, dorms, whatever, without just cause, and will breathalize anyone and everyone. If you are walking at night, they will stop you and breathalize you.........all this while we have a rapist running around. Lehigh is committed to stopping all types of parties, and their goal is to eliminate the frats within the next few years. </p>
<p>Their goal is to turn this school into a culturally diverse, (OK, that may not be too bad....but it is when that is a driving force), non alchohol based (OK, that may please your parents), no party anything school.</p>
<p>Your parents will be pleased........but you won't be. Long gone are many of the good times our alumni participated in.........it just isn't happening. The Greek Scene is slowly being eroded....although they don't want you to know that. </p>
<p>Whatever you read about Lehigh being fun, beirut tables, etc. is long gone. Don't believe me? Read their newspaper, the Brown and White. See what the campus police did last semester. It's becoming worse. </p>
<p>The Lehigh of old is quickly being eliminated. Don't read the Campus *******, or any Insiders Guide, etc., because they don't reflect the Lehigh of the 2000s. They are still reporting on the 1980s and 1990s. Don't waste your $50K unless you want to go to school with book nerds who stay in their room studying all nigiht, because that is what Lehigh is turning this place into.
Glad I only have one year left to go. When you get your acceptance letter, just throw it in the trash.........unless they are paying your way.</p>
<p>From US News & World Report last year:
Lehigh is one of many colleges putting a damper on wild, Animal House-style bashes. Prompted in part by dozens of alcohol-related student deaths in recent years, schools are bypassing educational campaigns of the "Just Say No" variety and taking concrete steps to change the culture of drinking on campus. Some are banning alcohol entirely; others are drying out aspects of student life, such as fraternities and athletic events, or cracking down on underage drinkers. "It's not about trying to stop students one drink at a time," says John Smeaton, vice provost for student affairs at Lehigh in Pennsylvania. "We're looking at this as a complete cultural change." The university is one of 10 well-known party schools involved in a new $10 million national initiative, managed by the American Medical Association, to reduce binge drinking on campus. END</p>
<p>In other words, it is good that they are putting an end of out of control drinking, but, by the same token, they are trying to end drinking and greek life altogether. That might be what some people want, which is OK...but if that is what you are looking for, then don't come to Lehigh.</p>
<p>well actually this is a + for me..because im not a huge drinker & partier... i think its good that they are cracking down on out of control && binge drinking b/c it has many negative consequences...</p>
<p>the hugggge party scene at lehigh was actually a slight drawback for me.
but now, i might have to rethink things....</p>
<p>i suppose it all depends on the individual.</p>
<p>Yea i think its awesome that they are eliminating party scenes too. I hope they just ban all alcohol for everyone, underage or not. They should probably ban fun too because that has many negative consequences...</p>
<p>The drinking, the sex, the partying and other stuff that takes place in every other college was a slight drawback for me. But now, I might actually consider Lehigh. just as long as they have locks on my doors so I can shut out the outside world. </p>
<p>I suppose it all depends on the individual.</p>
<p>i'm a a freshmen now and i've heard some pretty crazy stuff about greek life in the past. but if you want to party, hopping around the hill is pretty manageable and you'll have a good time. what i really like about lehigh is it's "work hard, play hard" atmosphere. i'm proud my friends study hard like nerds and then go out on weekends.</p>
<p>to be honest with you, lehigh without greek life is unimaginable. perhaps it'll get smaller over the years, but i think it will always be a dominant part of social life.</p>
<p>Under-occupancy frats faced tough two weeks
By
News Writer
2/2/2007 - Published in the Brown and White</p>
<p>With the forced departure of two fraternities in a single week, mandatory compliance to national standards and university rules are no longer empty threats. </p>
<p>Lehigh is slowly trying to eliminate the frats off the hill (meanwhile groups of thugs are roaming the campus beating up students).......Where are the priorities?</p>
<p>They have stepped up the process of evicting frats from the hill: Here is one persons' response to how one frat was dealt with:</p>
<p>......."We are greatly saddened and deeply concerned about the recent events concerning blank fraternity. We are aware of the new policy the university has adopted in regards to the 90 percent occupancy, and it is very unfortunate that blank has lost its house on the Hill due to the new policy.</p>
<p>We have read all the letters from administration stating the young men were perpetuating a fraud and we have heard these young men explain misunderstandings and time sequence. We are not absolving the boys of responsibility. There is much blame and responsibility that needs to be shared by all the parties involved, students and administrators alike. We refuse to play the blame game because we believe it is totally counterproductive.</p>
<p>Our concern is the way in which the university handled the situation. We were dismayed to learn that the brothers were told Monday evening they were to vacate the premises by noon the following Wednesday. The upperclassmen had to disperse and scramble for available housing. When they should have been focusing on their studies, they were forced to place the primary reason they are at Lehigh on the back burner.</p>
<p>We do not put our dogs out on the street in the middle of winter, so why would the administrators at Lehigh put our sons, grandsons and brothers out to scramble for a place to live? We entrusted our brother to you when he entered your university and we feel you had a responsibility to us as well as to our brother.</p>
<p>You still would have made your point if you had them vacate the house at the end of the semester. You now have a house on the Hill that will remain vacant for the remainder of the semester. As a business venture, that is nonproductive. As humanitarians, that is a disgrace. If your rationale was to bully your students into submission, then bravo, mission accomplished!</p>
<p>It is most unfortunate this incident overshadows the many contributions that frat had given the community. They have been active participants in Greek life and have had a positive impact on the commuity through their philanthropic endeavors. Their Particle food drive and adopting families for Christmas, to name just a few, have been both successful and rewarding. What a shame that so many positive attributes have been eradicated by such negativity....."
End of letter.</p>
<p>i am...astounded. ever since hearing about lehigh i've heard almost non-stop about
a) the partying and greek life
b) the ridiculous financial aid (from my friend who applied there)
c) how its a solid school academically</p>
<p>i think its crazy that a college would try to change its own campus culture.</p>
<p>This looks very different to students and to a college administration, which can take a longer view of the situation. What an administrator at Lehigh sees is schools like Amherst, Bowdoin, Colby, Middlebury, Williams, et al., who have gone further than Lehigh, banning fraternities altogether. </p>
<p>You don't hear many people on the ground at colleges who do crack down on or eliminate the Greek system--once they get through the inevitable difficult transition and passions of the moment--saying, "that was really a change for the worse in our campus culture."</p>
<p>It's true that 2 fraternities have been kicked off the hill - </p>
<p>one was under occupency for 3 semesters and tried to "fraud" the system (debatable),
and
the other was NOT kicked off by lehigh admins. in fact, the national charter revoked lehigh's charter due to a alcohol violation.</p>
<p>the greek system really is engrained in the lehigh tradition. banning fraternities doesn't seem like a plausible situation here at all. </p>
<p>regardless, lehigh still offers solid academics and tons of partying.</p>
<p>The "fraud" the students are accused of is very debatable. The school rushed to judgement, went in hells bells without ALL of the facts, evicted the students (well, they gave them a week to pack up). In order for the school to save face, and they discredited the frat up and down in the schools' newspaper and on the school's website without the frat having the opportunity to defend itself.</p>
<p>The school is the receipient of a multi-million dollar grant by the American Medical Association to get rid of alchohol on school campuses. They are going full steam ahead on this. </p>
<p>They hide "brownies" outside of dorms, behind trees, etc. to check to see if kids have been drinking. Doesn't this smack of a violation of civil rights?</p>
<p>I don't know. As I said before, I have one year to go, and that's it for me.
I would never recommend this school to anyone, and I will never donate a penny back. In fact, if I become a billionaire, I will build a building over at Lafayette.</p>
<p>And from what I hear from friends, the thing the guys at the frat didn't do was initiate the new brothers into the frat.....in other words.......they didn't HAZE the guys, because the potential new brothers didn't want it to interfere with studying for final exams. </p>
<p>I guess Lehigh is still all about "initiation", ie., hazing.</p>
<p>Justaperson, if you think drinking is the number one reason for attending Lehigh, then you had better take a serious look at your alcohol consumption. This kind of "alcohol above all else" thinking is a hallmark of alcoholism, whether you want to admit it or not.</p>
<p>But let's just say that you don't drink every day or that you don't drink to excess several nights a week. The fact is, most students on campuses today are underage - and Lehigh's enforcement of the law is hardly a civil rights violation. Also, I suspect that Lehigh is beginning to realize that its heavy drinking culture is chasing away some excellent students. Maybe you should sit in on accepted student's days in the spring. I was there last year, and the FIRST question asked was about the partying. My d said that in the student-only groups, the same concern was voiced by the MAJORITY of accepted students.</p>
<p>Parties will always exist at Lehigh, just as they exist on every campus across the country. The administration won't - and can't - take that away. All they can do is regulate it somewhat so that kids aren't rushed to the hospital with alcohol poisoning or aren't arrested by the local police.</p>
<p>Your Lehigh will not disappear. It's a strong institution with a student body and an alumni group that will remain loyal forever.</p>
<p>The issue here really isn't a matter of drinking. It is a matter of Lehigh cracking down on the privacy of students. Did you hear about the student who got really hurt and his buddys took him to a hospital that was further away because they were afraid the closer hospital would contact Lehigh and they would get in trouble? It's that Big Brother 1984 attitude that Lehigh is now turning into that is the concern. They are more interested in diversity and non-drinking that they are forgetting the fundamental rights of their general population. And, did you read about what how they "fibbed" about the credentials of their professors? And they crack down on the students about integrity, when they are loosing their own. </p>
<p>As far as the alumni, yes, they have the old school alumni that will remain faithful, but they aren't making inroads with many of the students on campus now. They seem to have forgotten that shortly down the road WE will be alumni also. And our pocketbooks will remember how we were treated.</p>
<p>As a fellow Lehigh student, I can honestly say that Justaperson is out of his mind. Yes the Lehigh police cracked down hard on one party this year, but that is all. Parties are still safe, though more are registered on campus now. However, every weekend night there are at least fifteen parties on the hill, and dozens more off campus. For a school over only 4500 undergrads, that is a large population of the school at those parties. If anything, the Lehigh administration has ben making the party scene safer. Greek life is decreasing, but thats more at the will of the students, as less people pledge. THere will always be fraternities and sororities on campus, but now their is more social life for the non-Greeks too. Students still drink and they still have fun as the school climbs academically. If the party scene got you interested in Lehigh, I wouldn't worry about it, the parties are here to stay.</p>