Campus Square - Lehigh University

Lehigh University’s Microfinance Club will support the efforts of artisans around the world by bringing a festival sale featuring handmade gifts, home decor, jewelry and personal accessories to the Lehigh University Bookstore. The event, which will be held on December first though fifth from noon to eight pm at the Café in the Bookstore, offers a unique opportunity for people in the Lehigh Valley to invest in their world by shopping fair trade. Shoppers will also learn more about skilled artisans in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

This is the first year that the Microfinance Club has hosted the festival. Sale organizer Puja Parekh says, “For more than 60 years Ten Thousand Villages has worked with talented artisans around the world providing vital, fair income in exchange for their beautiful handcrafted items. By holding this sale of handpainted ceramics, intricately woven basketry and handmade jewelry, we give the Lehigh community a chance to help create employment opportunities for people around the world.”

The Bookstore currently has one mini-display set up so those interested can stop in to see some of the merchandise that will be featured. Additionally, the Barnes & Noble Café is stepping up to encourage people to shop the sale. Steve Schatten, general manager of the Bookstore, says that “customers can get one half-price beverage with any Ten Thousand Villages purchase” during the sale days. The buyer must present the receipt from Ten Thousand Villages to Café baristas to get the half-price drink.

Sales like the one sponsored by the Microfinance Club owe their success to dedicated local volunteers. Microfinance is currently accepting Lehigh students as volunteers to help unpack the crafts, serve as sales clerks, and clean up following the event.

During the event, items can be purchased with cash or GoldPlus only. There is an ATM on site.

Ten Thousand Villages is a fair trade retailer of artisan-crafted home decor, personal accessories and gift items from across the globe. Featuring products from more than 130 artisan groups in some 36 countries, we are part of a network of more than 150 retail outlets throughout the United States selling Ten Thousand Villages products. For more than 60 years, Ten Thousand Villages has been establishing long-term buying relationships in places where skilled artisans lack opportunities for stable income. All artisans are fairly paid for their products.

For information regarding the festival sale, please contact Brynn Buskirk at brb207@lehigh.edu or 610-758-4652. For more information about Ten Thousand Villages, please visit www.tenthousandvillages.com/home.php. 

Ben Pawlowski, local maze artist and art teacher will once again bring his talents to Campus Square. This past summer, Pawlowski completed a six-week installation of mazes on the large windows in Campus Square. The installation was one more project that has helped develop Pawlowski as a sought-after local artist.

The event, which starts at 5pm on November 18, will be in the Barnes and Noble Café in the Lehigh University Bookstore and is open to the public. Pawlowski will conduct a demonstration on how he turns a face into a maze, exhibit techniques in using found objects for art, and conduct a basic question and answer session.

Pawlowski’s a featured artist at the Wired Gallery and Cafe on Main Street in Bethlehem. He can also be seen at various art shows and events around the Lehigh Valley. His artwork commonly contains double meanings and hidden messages reflecting both the world of art and his own personal life.

“I try to get my audience to see more in the world around them, to see things from a different perspective,” he says.

Inspired by artists such as Rene Magritte and graffiti artists of the 70’s and 80’s, Pawlowski creates pieces ranging from immense mazes to found object art, such as the chair he has in his living room that was once a television.

Silagh White, director of ArtsLehigh and guarantor for Pawlowski’s work appearing in Campus Square says, “It’s been wonderful to see people look at things differently, stop for a moment, wonder and be changed.”

View the Campus Square installation at campussquare.net.

For the third year in a row, Lehigh University Business Services, the Bookstore, and Athletics have joined forces on developing a new tradition at Lehigh. “The Shirt” is a specialized shirt designed each year and unique to the year it represents. The goal of The Shirt is to foster unity on campus and increase spirit at athletic events.

The design of The Shirt 2008-09 features Lehigh’s Mountain Hawk mascot in a rarely used format– the soaring hawk. Tyler Osler, director of athletic merchandise, says “this logo has been available for some time, but we were waiting for a suitable occasion to use it.” Last year, the Shirt Committee reached out to students for an idea for the 2008-2009 Shirt, and students said they wanted something different than the usual brown shirts with plain logos. Osler then agreed to bring the seldom-used logo out of the Lehigh vault. “It was time,” he says.

The Shirt 2008-09 is now available at the Bookstore (in-store and online at Lehigh.bncollege.com), Lehighsports.com, and select athletic events such as football and basketball games. It retails for $15.99 at all locations and is only available for the 08-09 school year.

For 2008, both the Lehigh Valley Dairy Store-The Cup, and Johnny’s Bagels and Deli, two of Lehigh’s Campus Square Restaurants, won Best of the Valley titles.

Both The Cup and Johnny’s Bagels in Campus Square have been voted the region’s “Best of the Valley” by the readers of Lehigh Valley Magazine in their 13th annual Best of the Valley Readers’ Poll. More than 4,000 readers completed paper and online ballots to select winners like The Cup and Johnny’s.

Owners of the restaurants, along with the other 100 plus winners were announced at an awards ceremony at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Fogelsville earlier this summer.

Johnny’s Bagels was awarded the title of Best Bagels. Known valley-wide for their hand-rolled, huge, New York style bagels, Johnny’s has held fast to the Best Bagels title for three consecutive years now. Unique flavors such as cranberry orange and sundried tomato make their selections both appealing and memorable.

The Bethlehem Dairy Store- The Cup was awarded for Best Ice Cream. This also was not the first time they received a “Best of the Valley” award.  Over forty hard ice cream flavors, including sugar free, low fat, and seasonal flavors, continue to draw enthusiastic crowds year after year. Recently, the Cup was also featured as one of The Morning Call’s Top Ice Cream Parlors in the Lehigh Valley. 

Co-owner of the The Bethlehem Dairy Store, Bill Burkhardt, was not only enthusiastic about The Cup’s win, but also about Johnny’s and what it means for Campus Square. ”I am a very big supporter of community and small businesses,” he says. When asked what he thinks contributed to being a “Best of the Valley” title winner, Bill jokes, “Stop in Johnny’s for a bagel, then pop over to us for some ice cream and find out!”

All “Best of the Valley” winners are featured in Lehigh Valley Magazine’s July/August issue and on their website.

The six week temporary installation of local artist Ben Pawlowski’s “aMAZEing” art is complete, leading many faculty, staff, students, and visitors to ponder the images, wondering “What does it all mean?”…

Pawlowski was happy to explain, as only he can do in his own words. “There were many ideas and goals that went into this project. I had some limitations – the project had to be temporary and it couldn’t interfere with regular Campus Square activities – so I needed to embrace these limitations to get my message across.”

With these things in mind, Pawlowski created the theme, which spells out the solution to the mazes, “Change happens when you imagine”. Pawlowski’s artwork commonly contains double meanings and hidden messages reflecting both the world of art and his own personal life.

Pawlowski explains, “To capture the essence of change, I designed a project that would slowly change over time.” He hoped that while this change was going on it would cause people to imagine what the final images were going to depict.

“To reinforce the theme, I wanted to use people who followed this school of thought –which change only comes when we embrace our imaginations, and I wanted to use people who represented different types of imaginative thought.” Pawlowski says.

He chose images of the following people to portray his message: Ghandi represents spiritual thought, Benjamin Franklin represents inventive thought, Mark Twain depicts literary thought, and John Lennon represents artistic thought. Various colors used were to represent the different stages of the project, each color representing another step.

Silagh White, director of ArtsLehigh and guarantor for Pawlowski’s work appearing in Campus Square says, “It’s been wonderful to see people look at things differently, stop for a moment, wonder and be changed.”

His installation in Campus Square is one more project that has helped develop Pawlowski as a sought-after local artist. He’s been a featured artist at the Wired Gallery and Cafe on Main Street in Bethlehem. He can also be seen at various art shows and events around the Lehigh Valley.

The Bethlehem Farmers’ Market will host a “Green” Community Day on September 4th to promote sustainability awareness in the Lehigh Valley. 

At next Thursday’s market, it won’t only be about buying local produce and baked goods. For the first time, the Market is hosting a “Green” Community Day that they are planning to hold annually every fall.

The Community Day is scheduled for September 4, 2008 from 12-4 pm at Campus Square (New and Morton Sts. in south Bethlehem).

Local, environmentally conscious groups, businesses, and organizations will be there to educate and inform patrons on the importance of sustainability and to show attendees the many ways they can make a difference right here in the Lehigh Valley.

Local groups represented at the event will be the Alliance for Sustainable Communities- Lehigh Valley, Lehigh Valley Food Co-Op, Clothesline Organics, The City of Bethlehem Bureau of Recycling, and Lehigh’s own Environmental Initiative.

Dork Sahagian, Earth and Environmental Science professor and chair of Lehigh’s Environmental Initiative at Lehigh comments, “it’s wonderful that the community has a chance to become more aware of the options for sustainable living in the Lehigh Valley and that groups promoting sustainability have a chance to get together to build on each others efforts”. 

The local groups represented at the event are in addition to the nine vendors represented weekly at the Farmers’ Market. The Community Day will also feature live music by Crush Duo and giveaways.

The market, which has been extended to run until mid October, provides a unique shopping opportunity unequal to what customers typically find at a grocery store. At the Bethlehem Farmers’ Market, customers can sample the goods, develop relationships with the vendors, learn about unique food varieties and cooking tips, and greet their neighbors. The market supports farming and sustainability in the Lehigh Valley.

Market on the Square, the new convenience market located in Campus Square, opened last week.

Lehigh is following the successful pattern put in place by schools such as Texas A&M and Wayne State, which have bookstores and standalone convenience markets operated by Barnes and Noble. 

Steve Schatten, the new manager of the Lehigh University Bookstore, is enthusiastic about the convenience market. 

“This will allow us to offer students an increased selection of general merchandise,” he says. “We are excited about bringing in new products based on student requests and feedback.” 

Until students return, hours for Market on the Square are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Once the semester starts on Aug. 25, Market on the Square will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturdays, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. 

Last spring, Lehigh announced a contest for students to name the convenience market. Mark Ironside, executive director of business services, was astounded by the number of entries his department received. The winning nomination was Market on the Square, an entry submitted by College of Education graduate student and Bethlehem resident Gerry Kasten. Kasten received a gift certificate for textbooks at the bookstore. 

By opening Market on the Square, the bookstore was able to construct the Barnes and Noble Cafe on the main floor of the bookstore. The newfound space in Market on the Square for convenience items also allows an expansion on items such as organic and natural foods, energy bars, makeup and toiletries, and grocery foods. 

The Barnes and Nobel Café in the bookstore opened Aug. 11. Both the Café and Market on the Square will have grand opening celebrations sometime during the fall semester.

…faces taking shape…

Ben was featured in the Morning Call! Read about it HERE!

The Barnes and Noble Café in the Lehigh University Bookstore is scheduled to open for business on Monday, August 11, 2008.

After a month of major construction in the Lehigh University Bookstore, the Barnes and Noble Café is slated to open Monday, August 11, 2008. The Café, which is in the lower level of the Bookstore, will seat over 50 occupants and offers Starbucks regular and iced coffees and specialty drinks. Amenities of the Café include wireless internet and comfortable, spacious seating.

Opening week and until students return, hours are 8-5 pm. Once the semester starts on August 25, extended hours of operation will be 7:30 am to 9:30 pm Monday through Friday, 9:00 am through 9:30 pm on Saturdays and 10:00 am to 6:00 pm on Sundays.

The idea for the Barnes and Noble Café came out of a survey conducted by Lehigh University Business Services last spring. Steve Schatten, the new general manager of the Bookstore, is excited about the atmosphere the Café will generate. “We’re creating a versatile environment well suited for studying and socializing. We are excited about the possibility of using the newly created area for author events.”

To make room for the Café, convenience items were relocated into a convenience market next to Johnny’s Bagels called Market on the Square. Market on the Square is also scheduled to open sometime next week. Both locations will have grand opening celebrations sometime during the fall semester.