Students pay the price for long-distance love

A few weeks ago, I wrote a story for The Brown & White about long distance relationships and how the economy is affected. My sources (Lehigh students and a phsyciologist from the counseling center) said making a long distance relationship work takes a lot of time, effort and money. They also talked about what types of relationships they see on campus and how common these relationships are. All three sources said committed relationships are not very common, but casual "hook-up-based" ones are. They also said this seems to be a trend at colleges country-wide. This made me think about how relationships have changed over the past 10-20 years. It seems like my parents and my friends parents are always talking about how students used to go on dates when they were in school. Today, while it does happen, it is rare to see two Lehigh students "on a date," eating at an upscale restaurant or going to the movies.

So, why have things changed? Does this have to do with the media, including movies, television, magazines and so on?

Here is the link:

http://media.www.thebrownandwhite.com/media/storage/paper1233/news/2009/02/13/Lifestyle/Students.Pay.The.Price.For.LongDistance.Love-3627120.shtml

Commuter students face challenges

The lifestyle story, "Commuter students face unique challenges," by Danielle Gorman talks about the issues commuters face. Living at school or a block away from campus, it is easy to forget that their are students commuting from home. This article made me think a lot about how the "Lehigh/ college experience" differs for a person who lives at home and commutes versus a student who lives at School.

Driving an hour to school everyday seems like it would seriously change the way a student went about his or her day. For example, the article says, if you forget a book, you can't run back to your room to get it. It also would be harder to fully use the schools academic and social resources. A commuter would have a harder time getting to a professors office hours and would have less time to socialize. Most of the time I spend socializing with my housemates happens at random moments during the day. I might see them when I am running off to class in the morning, when I stop home for an hour lunch break, and most frequently at night, when I take time to unwind. If I had to drive to and from school I may only have the minutes before and after class and possible lunch to visit with friends.

Here is the link to the article:

http://media.www.thebrownandwhite.com/media/storage/paper1233/news/2009/02/24/Lifestyle/Commuter.Students.Face.Unique.Challenges-3643391.shtml