LehighWeek Volume 09, Issue 26

              LEHIGHWEEK
with South Mountaineer
Volume 10, Issue 26
Lehigh University Campus Weekly
April 24, 1996
INSIDE
News
Events
People
Jobs
Calendar
1-4
5-7
8-10
in
12
THIS    WEEK
Christine Smith
to direct international
advancement
3
Student's
research may
help AIDS
patients
4
Choral Union
to encoure
Verdi
'Requiem'
6
25-year and
retiring faculty
honored
8-9
Cel<
Sec
Wee
Bac
L
ase
league I
week
South
Mounl
Cohen lecturer talks politics, not poetry
It may seem unusual for a
Nobel Prize winner in literature to spend nearly a day on
campus and talk about
politics, but then Wole
Soyinka, the 10th Annual
Cohen Lecturer, is not your
typical Nobel Laureate.
Soyinka, who escaped from
his native Nigeria in December, delivered the traditional
lecture April 17 in Packard
Laboratory auditorium to 400
students, faculty, staff, guests
and members ofthe community. The next day he had
breakfast with a small group
of students.
Founder of the Nati°nal
Democratic Coalition of
Nigeria, an exile opposition
group, Soyinka used both
occasions to speak out
against the military rule of
General Sani Abacha.
During the lecture, he said
American and European
nations are overlooking
oppression in Nigeria. He
said that even Louis
Farrakhan and Roy Innis left
Nigeria after a recent "factfinding" mission as good
friends of Abacha. "They
came, saw and were conned,"
said Soyinka.
He said American black
leaders need to extend their
attention from the under-
"< Kevin Chapman, assistant
director of admissions '94
(left) and Paschall Simpson
'97 have their books signed by
Soyinka (right) after his talk in
Packard Lab.
Elizabeth Keegin Colley
See Soyinka on page 2
SAFAHRIS 2000 aims to streamline work, enhance technology
by Robert W.Fisher
In an age when computer networking
can allow people continents apart to
collaborate, Lehigh students still have to
cart papers all over campus to register
for classes or change their schedules. "I
have to meet with my advisor, go to
departments for approvals and then go
back to my advisor for a signature," says
Elan Freydenson '98, a computer
science major. "The technology exists to
call up the courses that I need to take,
route that schedule to departments and
finally my advisor for electronic signatures."
"As an advisor, I see the registration
processes as slow, inconvenient for
students and out of date," agrees Gregory L. Tonkay, professor of industrial
engineering.
Registration is just one of the everyday tasks for students, faculty and staff
that seem bent to the limitations of
computer systems rather than served by
them. From admissions applications to
transcripts, paychecks to alumni records,
information is the lifeblood of the
university. And Lehigh is at a crossroads
in the evolution of its information
systems.
"Although Lehigh has been among the
most advanced of American universities
in network development and the academic use of computing and communications technology, we have known for
years that our information systems for
student affairs, advancement, human
resources and business operations were
becoming increasingly antequated," says
Pres. Peter Likins. As the need to
update systems increases, the
SAFAHRIS 2000 project has brought
together a team of faculty, staff and
students to look not just at hardware
and software but at the tasks they serve,
with the goal of letting technology help
people do the work they need to do,
rather then dictate how they do it.
"We're looking to provide students,
faculty and staff with the information
they need when they need it, in the form
they can use," says Roy Gruver, chair of
the SAFAHRIS Process Reengineering
Team. "And we want to use technology
appropriate for a world-class institution."
SAFAHRIS 2000 was endorsed by the
University Council in March. The project
draws its name from the charge of
reengineering the business processes
that are supported by the Student,
Advancement, Financial And Human
Sesources Information Systems by the
turn of the century.
SAFAHRIS involves first determining
how to make these processes and
systems flexible, responsive and adaptable to quickly changing information
See Safahris on page 2
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