{"id":130150,"date":"2026-03-05T07:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T07:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/130150\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T07:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T07:59:09","slug":"helble-hosts-community-conversation-addresses-greek-life-pause-and-campus-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/130150\/","title":{"rendered":"Helble hosts community conversation, addresses Greek life pause and campus concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday morning, President Joseph Helble, \u201882, hosted a \u201ccommunity conversation\u201d at the Health, Science and Technology building.<\/p>\n

The conversation was open to undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff, and was meant to allow open discussion about the Lehigh community.<\/p>\n

To open the session, Helble provided updates on recent admissions statistics and changes related to demographic cliffs and research funding. He said the university received 20,444 applications this cycle, making it the largest applicant pool ever. He also discussed recent incidents regarding racism on campus.<\/a><\/p>\n

Caedmon Holland, \u201828, said he came to the discussion because he was excited about Lehigh\u2019s recent choice to adopt the Chicago Principles<\/a>, but he felt the university hadn\u2019t followed through after fraternity and sorority social events were paused.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt sort of foolish for championing free speech and saying that the university had done something great when they just sort of flip flopped on it,\u201d Holland said.<\/p>\n

Holland said he cares about the Chicago Principles, and Lehigh\u2019s decision to adopt them was a big factor in his decision to attend the university.<\/p>\n

He also referenced the Chicago Principles during the conversation, noting that without a strong commitment to free and open inquiry, a university can\u2019t truly function as a university.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Holland said this technically renders the university unaccredited.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He asked Helble what \u201cretribution\u201d will be pursued against the administrators involved in what he described as an \u201cegregious violation\u201d of the Chicago Principles.<\/p>\n

Helble passed the question to Katherine Lavinder, vice president for student affairs, who said the decision to pause Greek life social activity was made collectively by the Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council in an effort for the community to reflect on the issues and make a plan to move forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a student implemented decision,\u201d Lavinder said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She also said there have been administrative decisions based on certain chapters that appeared to be involved in the incident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Holland said he\u2019s been receiving \u201cvague answers\u201d from Helble regarding the concerns he raised.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did not respond to my call for any action, any retribution to be taken against the administrators who violated the principles,\u201d Holland said.<\/p>\n

Helble said his mindset going into community conversations like these is to be open.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"President Joseph. J Helble speaks to an audience of students, faculty and staff at an installment of community conversations Monday, Mar. 2, 2026, at the Health, Science and Technology building. Helble focused on the topic of the Greek pause, the First-Year Rossin Experience and more. (Max Randall\/B&W Staff)<\/p>\n

He said the events give him an opportunity to hear about issues that aren\u2019t moving forward and make sure the administration is paying attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regarding the racial bias incident, Helble said he hasn\u2019t released a statement because he believes it\u2019s best to rely on those who are closest to the problem to comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not an algorithm that we follow,\u201d Helble said. \u201cIt\u2019s looking at what the issue is that\u2019s of concern and asking whether it\u2019s the right moment for me to be speaking to the campus community. I try to speak pretty judiciously to the campus community, particularly by email. So that\u2019s the conversation. That\u2019s the thought process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Raposa, a religion, culture and society professor, said he came to the conversation to hear what Helble had to say with no specific agenda in mind, but the discussion led him to think about whether Greek life should exist at all on campus.<\/p>\n

Raposa said his daughter was in a sorority at Lehigh and told him through tears that it\u2019s not possible to have a social life at Lehigh if a student isn\u2019t part of Greek life or athletics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why Lehigh is supporting a residential life setup where a certain section of the community controls the social life for everyone,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition to discussing the Greek pause, Helble also highlighted plans for the near future.<\/p>\n

Helble talked about his goal to add at least 370 beds by 2028 into a new residence hall between Drinker and McClintic Marshall houses.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

He said there would be more information regarding the new dorm at the end of the semester.<\/p>\n

Helble also said he will be announcing a major gift from David Jackson, \u201867, and his wife to create the \u201cJackson Laboratory,\u201d which will be the first space renovated for the First Year Rossin Experience in the Rossin College of Engineering.<\/p>\n

He said an announcement will be coming later this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Monday morning, President Joseph Helble, \u201882, hosted a \u201ccommunity conversation\u201d at the Health, Science and Technology building.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[3946,153,155,154,5609,1197,1198],"class_list":["post-130150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-4-min-read","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-event","tag-feature","tag-student-and-campus-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}