{"id":40510,"date":"2025-11-21T09:35:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T09:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/40510\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T09:35:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T09:35:27","slug":"i-survived-a-day-at-lehigh-the-lafayette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/40510\/","title":{"rendered":"I survived a day at Lehigh \u2013 The Lafayette"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, it was more like three-and-a-half hours, but that was enough for me. I still shudder thinking about the miserable grey cobblestone, the boring brown everywhere and worst of all, the stairs. If you thought our staircase was bad, you\u2019ve never been to Lehigh University.<\/p>\n

I had never visited the main campus of our rival school before The Lafayette coordinated a little swap between us and Lehigh\u2019s student newspaper, The Brown and White. Managing editor senior Mariel Kavanagh and I swapped gossip in between catching our breath during my tour, and I was able to return the favor when she visited me on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"\"Shoutout my girl Mariel! (Photo by Selma O\u2019Malley<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Mariel first took me to Saxbys, a coffee shop next to campus that best reflected our popular Mojo 516 Cafe. The caf\u00e9 was larger in space and in menu, but lost points with me for being a chain and its subpar matcha latte.<\/p>\n

My tour guide said that her college experience was made by her fellow students, and that she especially likes the size of the population \u2014 Lehigh has about 6,000 students, twice the size of Lafayette.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can walk to a class and I\u2019m like, I don\u2019t know any of these people,\u201d she said. \u201cI just like how big it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there are other times where I\u2019ll be on campus and I see every single person I don\u2019t want to see,\u201d she added, something any Lafayette student can heavily empathize with.<\/p>\n

I asked Mariel about campus celebrities. She explained to me Napoleon Boy, Patriot of Linderman Library and Pink Girl \u2014\u00a0use your imagination. Disappointingly, I did not encounter any of them.<\/p>\n

Mariel\u2019s least favorite part of the campus, however, is the very, very steep slope it sits on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be rough, especially in the winter,\u201d Mariel said. \u201cWhen you have a backpack and it\u2019s either 95 degrees or it\u2019s 10 degrees, you\u2019re in for the worst trek of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"I\u2019d consider myself decently athletic, but my God, there were so many stairs. This isn\u2019t even the half of it. (Photo by Selma O\u2019Malley)<\/p>\n

Even worse, Lehigh has just 10-minute intervals between classes instead of Lafayette\u2019s 15.<\/p>\n

Mariel and other students lean heavily on the bus system that goes up and down campus, but we walked our way slowly up to the top. I was genuinely surprised every time there was another flight to conquer and felt like a little kid complaining on a road trip \u2014 \u201cAre we there yet?\u201d<\/p>\n

The view, however, is pretty unmatched.<\/p>\n

\"\"I love the view of Easton on the hill, but this is pretty epic. (Photo by Selma O\u2019Malley)<\/p>\n

Mariel and I discovered that we had more in common than we thought. Just as Milo\u2019s Place inflated one-dollar beers to $1.50, Tally Ho Tavern in Bethlehem increased dollar drinks on Wednesday to $2.<\/p>\n

However, the nearest Wawa is a five-minute drive away, so the late-night snack spot is El Jefe\u2019s Taqueria, which closes at 3 a.m. week-round.<\/p>\n

Additionally, we both have a \u201cmediocre Starbucks\u201d option in our libraries and dining halls that sell nothing but stomach issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do not want to eat a Rathbone,\u201d Mariel emphasized, a dining hall that students refer to as \u201cBone.\u201d I explained to her what \u201cBone\u201d means in a Lafayette context.<\/p>\n

I am admittedly jealous of Lehigh\u2019s on-site pok\u00e9 and ice cream spots, among a slew of other on-campus dining options, including a new Lehigh University Pub.<\/p>\n

They also have permanent food trucks next to the Front Lawn, their version of the Quad, which is appropriately dappled with brown and white Adirondack chairs.<\/p>\n

\"\"At least our lawn is flat. (Photo by Selma O\u2019Malley<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I grabbed a Brown and White sandwich \u2014\u00a0roast beef, provolone, caramelized onions, garlic aioli \u2014\u00a0 from F\u00fcd Truk. It wasn\u2019t bad, though it was $10 and I didn\u2019t have any \u201cClutch Cash,\u201d the equivalent of Pard Dollars, to spare.<\/p>\n

Both schools had rivalry banners accusing the other of being in the Epstein files. Lehigh makes theirs with spray paint, which I can imagine is more efficient, but makes for a less bold look than black acrylic paint, in my opinion.<\/p>\n

I discovered that everyone can agree that brown and white are not optimal school colors, nor is a mountain hawk an ideal mascot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe bring the hype,\u201d said sophomore Amelia Coulton. \u201cConsidering our colors are brown and we have a bird as our mascot, I think we\u2019re doing pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n

I asked Coulton why she thinks Lehigh is better than Lafayette.<\/p>\n

\"\"The beloved Jefe\u2019s was apparently on fire recently; this banner hung outside of Mariel\u2019s sorority house. (Photo by Selma O\u2019Malley)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re more historic,\u201d Coulton said, referencing rivalry traditions such as bed racing and a band interrupting classes.<\/p>\n

She mentioned that The Brown and White is a \u201creally, really old newspaper.\u201d I pointed out that The Lafayette is the oldest college newspaper in Pennsylvania. Coulton backtracked to acknowledge that \u201cwe\u2019re both really historic schools\u201d (Lafayette was founded 40 years earlier).<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you guys like, a tiger?\u201d she asked me.<\/p>\n

Mariel is not attending the Rivalry, but she will be present for \u201cmocos\u201d \u2014\u00a0morning cocktails \u2014\u00a0a football season tradition of day-drinking and silly costumes, for some reason. She also cited the transportation cost as a big deterrent for Lehigh students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know anything about sports, but up until this year, no one really went,\u201d Mariel said. She added that a lot of people are particularly excited about this game, given Lehigh\u2019s undefeated record so far this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do I think Lehigh is better than Lafayette?\u201d sophomore Adam Klinge repeated back to me. \u201cWell, one, because we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that he hears a lot of historic inventions and experiments were created at Lehigh \u2014 \u201cLafayette is not the reason we have an escalator, I know that much.\u201d<\/p>\n

I mentioned that a Lafayette student invented the football helmet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy\u2019d y\u2019all invent that?\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing to protect up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess to beat you guys,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Lehigh sophomore Adam Klinge said that he\u2019s visited Lafayette before and prefers Lehigh\u2019s cobblestone to Lafayette\u2019s brick. (Photo by Selma O\u2019Malley<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well, it was more like three-and-a-half hours, but that was enough for me. I still shudder thinking about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-40510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40510","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=40510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}