A young boy is playing basketball after school in his backyard in South Bethlehem. He repeatedly shoots and hits his ball off of the back of his plastic Fisher-Price basketball hoop.
After a few shots he misses, and the ball rolls up to his neighbor’s fence, which is taller than he is. He runs to retrieve the ball to resume his game.
As he picks up the ball, he glances at the group of college students in the yard next to him. A metal chain-link fence is all that separates him and his game of basketball from Lehigh students and their game of flipcup during an afternoon BBQ.
His backyard, where he plays basketball, borders a house occupied by Lehigh students who throw parties. His family home, where he will grow up, neighbors a home where four or five different students will live each year.
As Lehigh students, we are transient members of the South Bethlehem community. We are generally here from August to May, and we don’t usually stay more than four or five years.
While we’re here, we tend to develop an “us vs. them” mentality. We’re Lehigh students, but they’re “townies.” We’re members of the Lehigh community, but they’re residents of the “Dirty B.”
It seems to go unnoticed that share a zip code with South Bethlehem residents. We share a town. We are not neighbors of the South Bethlehem community — we are members of the South Bethlehem community.
Because of this, our choices affect our neighbors. When we blast music on any given Tuesday night, our neighbors who will be up in a few hours for work can hear us singing every word in or out of unison.
Our partaking in seemingly usual college activities disrupts their daily lives. At the same time, we complain about the quality of the area, which is often different from the communities where many affluent Lehigh students were raised.
When Lehigh students visit Pantry 1 at midnight in a loud manner, they’re just being college students. When South Bethlehem residents shop for food there, they’re townies who have the audacity to not shop at Wegmans for their food.
Lehigh’s No. 5 ranking on The Princeton Review’s list of colleges where “town-gown relations are strained” makes sense. Regardless of how accurate this ranking is as it pertains to other schools’ relationships with their towns, it is important to acknowledge that, at least here, the relationship between students and members of the surrounding community is tense at best.
This relationship in part is affected by the stark contrast in the lives of Lehigh students compared to South Bethlehem residents. About one in four adults in the South Bethlehem community do not have a high school degree, according to the American Community Survey of 2014. On the contrary, a high school degree is necessary to live in South Bethlehem if you are attending Lehigh. As Lehigh students pay for meal plans that cost thousands of dollar every semester, 89 percent of Broughal students are eating free or reduced lunch every day because their families’ incomes are less than $45,000 a year — which is less than the tuition at Lehigh.
There are numerous programs run by Lehigh to partner with South Bethlehem residents to make a positive impact on the community, but these programs can only do so much. Unless we all change our vocabulary toward our fellow South Bethlehem residents, the relationship will continue to be strained.
We attend a school whose annual costs exceed what many of our neighbors make in a year to survive. We have achieved a level of education the boy playing basketball in his backyard may never have the opportunity to achieve, even though there is a university across the street.
Regardless of these differences, we are all members of the South Bethlehem community, even if we are only here for four years. If we don’t feel a sense of gratitude for the opportunities we have, we should at least feel obligated to respect the area in which we live.
We shouldn’t bounce around South Bethlehem as if we are better than the residents who live here all year long. We are all part of the Lehigh community. We are all part of the South Bethlehem community. Technically, we are all townies.
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4 Comments
Townies don’t shop for food at Pantry 1. It is way too overpriced, maybe A-Harts would be a better example.
“Here’s how these people are different from you, please be nice” doesn’t work. College student that don’t care cannot be made to care. They turn their music down when you ask but they’ll vandalize your home when you’re asleep later.
Way to draw a sharp contrast disguised as a PSA. Whatever illusory divide students see between them and the people around them, this article only reinforces it- rather than ramping it down. Also, proof read. Don’t you go to Lehigh?
Thank you again Brown and White for your voice. I commend the strength that it takes when students risk their own existence with normative peers to stand up for others and work to bring substantive and positive change. The issues you speak of address the greater good and remind us that we must all be mindful, responsible and empathic souls. Your voice tells that although we may observe and attempt this empathy we cannot really do much more than shift our lens and our perspective until we have really walked in the shoes of another. Perhaps those of you who wrote this story grew up differently than most of the white affluent population who attends Lehigh and other elite institutions. Perhaps some of you were that boy playing basketball, or were raised by a single struggling mother. What I can say is that you have heart, you have a mature voice and you have reached out to your own student body to perhaps reach just one someone else who may reflect on your words before blasting music on a weeknight when that little boy has to go to school the next morning under perhaps less than perfect circumstance. This comes down to immaturity, inconsideration and a complete lack of respect for others. For some of the elite the rules don’t apply, and these people unfortunately lack a moral compass. Your colleagues however are not to blame, but rather it is their parents who somehow in the process lost their way. One is either compassionate, benevolent and respectful of others or not. To your previous piece on the selection process, this is where we as a school must begin. What kind of student do we seek? Admissions must begin to look at the character, integrity, community minded and the substance of our next admitted classes. Our son graduated from Columbia University in the City of New York where most of the student body advocated for and with the Harlem community. Muslim writings on bathroom walls, egging the home of UMOJA, suspending 85% of all Hispanic students, and making those who are black or LGBTQ somehow feel different and unequal to the Lehigh elite. This is not only very sad but unconscionable.
Our students at Lehigh who disrespect others must somehow shift the elitist entitled mindset and find their way to a life that respects and honors everyone. Moving forward, Lehigh must change by deep introspective process in candidate selection. The world is a glorious and diverse place, stop the partying children and make some noise to leave your mark on the world. Believe and practice noblesse oblige.
Keep up the good work Brown and White. You all are the change we need and your hearts are in the right place. To everyone else, let students like this this serve as your mentors and stop being mindless, spoiled and ungrateful for your opportunities. Make a difference and empower yourself and others.
Cheers.