Brown and White Vol. 71 no. 23

              president whitaker physics professor peter havas aaup's vice-president is currently heading the organization he ex pects the group to meet shortly to consider eckardts resignation and elect a new president if neces sary eckardt's resignation fol lowed his objection to the pub lic release of a statement signed by eight other members of the aaup executive com mittee the vote was 8-1 with eckardt dissenting although he favored sending the letter to president martin d whit aker eckardt objected to its pub lic disclosure in a letter to the brown and see aaup page 13 army antitank development these raised cement blocks greeted the returning lehigh student after christmas installed to deter speeding on the road behind drown hall they also caught the under carriages of many cars result yesterday a two inch layer of macadam was laid between them financial pressure alleged by thomas philip mezey 61 will be president of the 14th arcadia other officers nominated by the solons in caucus yesterday are richard shulman 61 vice-president orlin livdahl 61 secretary and joseph pittinger 61 treasurer although not official until a formal election is held shortly after the installation of the new council next semester members are bound by a gentleman's agreement to elect the four-man executive committee they nominated yesterday , other candidates for the hotly-contested presidency of the student body were paul miller 61 myron olstein 61 and shulman heated discussion and extremely tight votes marked the hour plus meeting to select officers for the incoming group competing against shulman for the vice-presidency were miller olstein and livhahl livdahl was unopposed for the secretary post mezey will succeed jack branning 60 as president of the stu dent council the presidential nominee's campaign speech called for —¦———-— —^—— —--•¦-¦¦---—-—¦—————¦ the following 1 interviews with students and faculty to obtain public opinion and establish arcadia's objectives 2 a priority list of things to do 3 more information to arca dia on national and international issues as well as information on other student governments to better serve the interests of le high students 4 leadership in establishing an investigation of education at lehigh 5 closer student-faculty relation ship 6 arcadia's travel committee not just to concentrate on aid ing student travel to europe but perhaps also to provide bus service to new york and phila delphia 7 an annual report to the board of trustees on arcadia's accom plishments philip mezey by robert walters socialist leader norman thomas has publicly implied that financial pressures possibly from the bethlehem steel company — have made him an unwelcome visitor to the lehigh campus in a letter addressed to the lehigh chapter of the american as sociation of university professors thomas yesterday made his first public comment on the campus controversy which centers around charges that the administration unjustifiably thwarted his appearance as a public lecturer indicating that he is aware of the current controversy thomas seeks the advice of the aaup members as servants of both academic liberty and academic endowments although thomas states he had planned to return to the campus for bach festival this spring he is hesitant because he does not want to -____-_______-———— — — i jj m pc(p e j c the university's money-rais ing activities or stir undue contro versy in your peaceful bethlehem in which a steel company lowly born has grown to great strength . . ." insisting that he can hardly be an invisible auditor should he again appear on campus thomas asks the aaup mem bers to advise him as to a course of action two alternatives he suggests are not coming to bethlehem for the festival this year or seeking per mission ". . . either from the presi dent of the university through proper channels or more directly from the president of the bethlehem steel company thomas query is addressed to see thomas page 13 half of seniors sign gift plan with 52 per cent of the senior class signed up for the class of 1960 memorial gift plan richard sprenkle chairman is hoping to beat last year's campaign last year's senior class sub scribed to a record 75 per cent for the life insurance-endow ment policy sprenkle stated last october the goal would be 175,000 — 100 per cent partici pation — but only 90,600 worth of policies has been pledged so far monday the captains will hold see possibility page 11 see sac page 3 fund requests must be in wed all requests for student activities committee funds must be made by student organizations by next week wednesday committee chairman preston parr announced this week requests should be submitted by those organizations recog nized by the committee on student activities of a per manent or relatively permanent nature which are open to ben eficial to and of interest to all students financially sound and efficient showing a genuine need for funds and which are unable to procure same by disagrees over publishing statement eckardt quits as aaup prexy thomas denial attacked by nsa a letter of protest decrying la high's norman thomas ban as a violation of academic freedom has been sent by the national executive committee of the national student association to lehigh university president martin d whitaker the announcement of this letter was made by james kweder a program vice-presi dent of nsa at the final meet ing of the 13th arcadia wed nesday night in the university center , , . arcadia voted to support the re port and conclusion submitted to the president by eight members of the executive committee of the le high chapter of the american asso ciation of university professors the vote followed a motion by solon robert walters after a discussion of the voting procedure involved in the recent referendum of the new arcadia con stitution the solons declared the votes for the code lost and decid see solons page 3 prof a roy eckardt poetry readings range from beats to browning the beats will be domesticated this afternoon at 4:10 as prof james frakes reads samples of their works in the faculty lounge of the university center as a counterweight the following will hear the works of longfellow and browning read in the same panelled surroundings by prof ev erett emerson and bruce snyder 60 a behind-the-scenes disagreement over whether to issue a public statement questioning the univer sity's policy on guest speakers led to the resignation of the president of the lehigh chapter of the amer ican association of university pro fessors prof a roy eckardt head of the department of religion confirmed this week that he submitted his resignation as president of aaup to that group's executive committee before the christmas recess although the executive com mittee has not accepted the resig nation rehable sources indicated that final acceptance would be only a formality whitaker explains thomas ban see whitaker page 13 the nsa action was taken at the organization's national ex ecutive committee meeting in minneapolis over the christmas recess citing its basic policy on academic freedom nsa de plored the sacrifice of academic freedom basic to the educational process at lehigh . . .** whi takers statement con tained a review of both the thomas affair and the univer sity's standard policy on ap proval of guest speakers he told the faculty that since versity's board of trustees at its next meeting gilhool de clined to comment on the report the u s national student association and arcadia added their protests to the decision not to have thomas deliver a pub lic lecture at the same time aaup president a roy eck ardt resigned following last month's statement on the issue by eight other aaup executive committee members arcadia's action came at its wednesday night meeting when the student council voted 8-1 to strongly support the faculty statement university president martin d whitaker this week stated his position on the norman thomas controversy in the administration's first public statement on the issue whitaker told a monday after noon faculty meeting the question before us on this occa sion was not whether mr thomas was to come to the campus but whether a different answer was to be given to the same request through two diff erent channels whitaker's statement indicates that thomas was denied access to the university as a delta omicron theta speaker because of a procedurally incorrect re quest he told the faculty it is believed that the concern of some members of the faculty about this incident is due in large part to a lack of ... in formation and to a possible misinteipretation of the quoted regulation in other developments on the two-month old controversy in formed sources disclosed that delta omicron theta president thomas gilhool 60 will appeal the decision to bar the socialist from the campus to the uni solon caucus names mezey arcadia prexy bethlehem pa vol 71 — no 23 friday january 8 1960 brown and white