The Brown & White

"We are not as smart as a Lehigh student," Lehigh faculty members shouted on Tuesday night in Packard auditorium at the Residence Hall Association's event, "Are you Smarter than a Lehigh Faculty Member?"

Raffle tickets were given out at the entrance, and five students were selected to compete against professors.

Those five students were up against five faculty members: the Director of Jewish Student Life Seth Goren, Residence Life coordinator Gina Donato, Residence Life coordinator Tyrone Russell, professor Beth Gallant and professor Keith Schray.

"There were a bunch of fliers I saw around my dorm, and I decided to go," said Brian Castell, '11.

"A few of the questions were hard, like SAT questions, but they were in the right age range," he said.

The host, Taha Haque, '10, began by explaining the rules to the audience.

One student and one faculty member went up and chose a category for a question. Each player had 20 seconds to write his or her answer and to ring a bell.

If the contestant was unsure of the answer they had an option to either "cheat" or "copy."

By cheating, contestants would be allowed to see what their whole group answered.

By choosing to copy, they would be allowed to see only one person's response.

The first question was: "In the song 'Down by the Bay,' what animal has a polka-dotted tail?"

"I have never heard this song before; it must be a newer one," Goren said.

"I have a donkey and a question mark."

Vincent Duran, '12, chose to copy and got the correct answer: a whale.

"I thought we had such an enthusiastic audience, which I was thrilled about," said Jessica Stewart, graduate student adviser.

"If it wasn't that good of an audience, it wouldn't have been as fun."

Haque asked the faculty members what kind of students they were in grade school.

"They put me in the back of the classroom where no one could talk to me because I talked too much," Donato said.

Faculty members were also asked to share an embarrassing story from grade school.

"Once I got my hair stuck in a Ferris wheel," Gallant said. "It just went round and round."

"When I was in high school, my friend's mother put me in charge of his birthday party," Schray said.

"And I forgot to invite anyone."

Gallant and student contestant, Rayanna Azar, '11, were asked: "What month of the year is Columbus Day?"

A majority of the audience and Azar were unsure.

"I don't know, Lehigh never gets anything off," she said.

Azar answered almost all of her questions right, except for one involving a math problem.

She correctly guessed the second most populous country, which is India; the U.S. state with the biggest bears, which is Alaska; and the part of a plant where photosynthesis occurs, its leaves.

"It was fun competing against my Orgo professor Keith Schray," she said.

In the final round, Castell was tied with Schray, knocking them into the Fastest Fingers round.

Both contestants got into position to ensure they would be the first to ring the bell.

Castell was the first to ring the bell and shout out the correct answer.

The students were declared winners, and Castell ran around the auditorium.

"We won by a substantial amount," Azar said.

The student winners of each round were awarded $20 Barnes and Noble gift cards.

The faculty members just received apples.

RHA President Adam Kohn, '11, said, "We do activities every semester for residence students. We thought it would be good to have teachers and make the event more interactive."

The event was free and open to the public.

A portion of the budget was donated to Haiti relief efforts.