Brown and White Vol. 95 no. 23

              university initiates program to improve minority relations the challenge for success program to be targeted at minorities will consist of three main areas recruitment reten tion and relationships vicki sanders director of the program and university % admissions counselor said the program emphasizes recruitment to attract minorities to attend the uni versity and retention to ensure that minority students do not feel socially iso lated once they are here sanders explained the program includes peer counseling by university upperclassmen social adjustment counseling tutoring pro grams individual monitoring and academic advising she said many components of the program are already established at the university but sanders explained that the tutoring and advising will be more in-depth than what already exists the program should be completely implemented by july part of this tutoring and advising will take place in a pre-freshman year summer program developed to familiar ize incoming minority students to the campus as well as to supplement the stu dents academic background in mathe matics and english sanders said the summer program will incorporate many other areas of the students aca demic interest an intensive study skills lehigh university brown and white 215 861-4184 bethlehem pa tuesday december 6 1983 coaches supportive of colonial league extension vol 95 — no 23 see newly page 10 the same conditions the most important of those being a common scholarship program schultz added that he would like to see the league extended to include two more schools of equal academic standing which would bring the total number of teams in the league to eight judith baxter assistant director of athletics and coach of the women's lacrosse and field hockey teams said she thought the formation of such a league for the women's sports programs at the university would be a terrific idea i'd be thrilled with the idea of better and more realistic competition for the women's sports teams at lehigh bax ter said i'd definitely be interested in competing against schools with similar playoff schedules and freshman partici pation these policies will be compatible with those of the ivy league although there are no discussions right now on extending the league to other sports it may be possible to extend the league in the future where it would prove feasible " likins said although the football program was chosen because it has a high visibility and is the most popular in general according to likins coaches of other sports teams at the university said they would favor having their respective teams involved in such a league if it were possible tom schneider varsity basketball head coach said i think it would be a great idea if we could be involved in a league with a common set of rules regarding recruitment and scholar ships while schneider was skeptical whether or not teams such as those from holy cross college and the college of william and mary would be willing to give up their present programs which involve athletic scholarships for their players scheider said that if such a league ever became a possibility it could greatly contribute to the interest in basketball at the university i'd be all for it if it could generate some additional support for the team schneider said varsity baseball head coach stan schultz agreed with schneider i think it would be a very good idea especially if all the schools involved operated under by gregg rogers a possible extension of the newly formed colonial league to include all the university's sports teams except wres tling would be supported by a number of the coaches at the university according to university president peter likins the present colonial league was a creation of the various university presidents in an attempt to foster competition between schools of the same academic caliber the new league formally approved in november will initially only include the member institutions football programs major topics which still need to be resolved include scholarships recruit ing tv contracts league funding recent regulations for hotel parties working smoothly by rhonda m stone according to william quay dean of students and various student leaders the new hotel party regulations insti tuted earlier in the semester are work ing without any hitches the problems we initially had with hotel parties under the old regulations are pretty much taken care of under the new regulations john compton 84 interfraternity council ifc president said the regulations instituted after a see new page 10 good sax common freshman program viewed with mixed reactions by ronald gregory the common freshman year program considered for adoption by the uni versity has been viewed with mixed feelings by the deans of the universi ty's three colleges a common freshman year would be a fine thing to try if we can do it john hunt dean of the college of arts and science said while he said that he believes education at the univer sity should have a common base some problems could arise because of the necessary rigidity of the curriculum according to an article in the oct 1 1 issue of the brown and white the com mon year would mean a broader var iety of courses that the students would be required to take the common pro gram would be an attempt to bring some degree of uniformity to the freshman year hunt said that whether such a pro gram would be possible at the univer sity is a question of feasibility whether we can do it i don't know richard barsness dean of the col lege of business and economics said that he was basically sympathetic to the idea he pointed out that there would be less difficulty in students making the transition from the com mon program to the specialized major programs in the business col lege than there would be in some of the other colleges particularly the engineering college donald bolle dean of the college of engineering and physical sciences said that the uniform freshman year was an interesting concept but he expressed his concern over the possi ble impact that the common year might have on enrollment in the dif ferent colleges and transfers according to frank colon profes sor of government the uniform fresh man year would help to prevent back-door transfers transfers from one college to another within the uni versity but could lead to other problems such a common program colon pointed out would force stu dents to take general education courses their freshman year and then make them squeeze the specialized majors courses into their last three years this colon said would make things particularly tough for engi neering students colon said that for the above rea sons and others he believes that the chances of it being approved are not very good barsness said that right now it is simply too early to tell whether or not a common program would work at lehigh seminar as well as a special orientation for minority students that will be con ducted at the beginning of each aca demic year the third aspect of the program is establishing relationships between minorities at the university and outside corporations christine smith director of corporate and foundations resources who is doing fund raising for the pro gram said that international business machines corp ibm air products inc general electric co and alumi num company of america alcoa have already expressed interest in support by providing the funds necessary for the program the program has been met with enthusiasm by the community the cor porations were really happy that they were called and had been hoping that lehigh would do something like this smith said the corporations will form an advi sory board to provide input on the pro gram's operation as well as seeing how their own donations have been allocated they will also be providing summer jobs and internships for minority students in order to satisfy company needs smith continued the idea for the challenge for suc cess program was originally suggested by a task-force committee that met in 1982 to study minority affairs by kyle friedman martin bahner 86 steps up to the spotlight to take a tenor sax solo as the lehigh jazz band played its cool b&w photo by john treichler sounds to an audience of about 60 at the snack bar friday night