Brown and White Vol. 78 no. 51

              lehigh university brown and white vol 78 - no 51 bethlehem pa - friday may 19 1967 866-0331 seniors may need 1.7 in 68 by donald palmer any member of the class of 69 beginning his senior year with a 1.5 cum will have to get a 2.3 during his entire senior year in order to graduate this is in effect what the committee on grading practices says in s proposal it will submit to the faculty for approval next month the proposal advocated ths raising of ths graduation and probation averages from s 1.5 to s 1.7 and the rede fining of the grades of c and d if passed in its present form the proposed probation average increase will go into effect in september 1968 and the c and d redefinitions will go into effect next fall the committee on grading practices which is a sub committee of the committee on education policy is made up of prof alan pense of the department of metallurgy prof robert mills of the accounting department dean of students charles brennen registrar james wsgner and prof j donald ryan chairman of the department of geology the committee formulated these proposals in an attempt to raise the all-university average by 0.2 to around a 2.5 or 2.6 according to committee chairman ryan according to ths committee tha need to improve tha university average became apparent after s survey was msde in which lehigh wss compared with 14 other colleges and universities in this survey lehigh's all university average ranked last while ths lehigh student college boards indicated that the university should have been ranked in the middle also 20 per cent of lehigh's grades were d's or f's.this percentage waa considerably higher thsn that of any other schools the committee said the redefining of c's and d's involves s smsll but significant change at present a c means " average , and s d means " passing . in the future the committee wants a c to stand fat " continuation competency , meaning that the student has done well enough in a course to take the next higher level course on the other hand a d should represent " unsatisfactory but passing , or that the student may take the next higher course at his own discretion according to the committee the committee hopes that this distinction will encourage instructors to give students a c instead of a high d prof j donald ryan new chairmen named to three u departments three new department chairmen were announced today by dr w deming lewis all three appointments are effective july 1 john a van eerde professor of romance languages has been named chairman of the depart ment of romance languages he succeeds allen j barthold who will retire june 30 joseph a dowling associate professor of history will become chairman of that department dowling whose promotion to a full professorship effecti ve july 1 was announced last week succeeds prof raymond g cowherd who requested to return to teaching and to his research john h übben associate pro fessor of german has been named chairmen of the depart ment ot german übben whose promotion to a full professorship effective july 1 also was announced earlier has been acting chairman of the depart ment since the retirement of prof ralph c wood in january van eerde joined the lehigh faculty in september 1960 as associate professor of romance languages he was promoted to full professor in 1964 prior to coming to lehigh he taught at the university of rhode island for six years and also served on the faculties of johns hopkins uni versity smith college and amherst college van eerde was graduated from harvard college with the bachelor of arts degree and received his master of arts from harvard university and his doctor of philosophy degree from johns hopkins university dowling a student of american intellectual history american radical movements and the work of william dean howells has been at lehigh since 1958 when he joined the staff as assistant professor of history dowling is director of the american studies program at lehigh he received his bachelor of arts degree from lincoln mem orial university and his master of arts and doctor of philosophy degrees from new york university übben a specialist in the field of 19th century german literature first came to lehigh during the academic year 1960-61 a native of germany übben is a u s citizen and is theprinci pal author of a second-year german reading text " an deich und strom alma rogge , as well as 16 articles on german literature in professional journals and magazines a graduate of central college in lowa übben received his master of arts degree from the university of kentucky and his doctor of philosophy degree from the university of chicago dr john a van eerde dr joseph a dowling dr john h übben tak gets u approval for national af filiation by peter n littman tau alpha kappa lehigh's only local social fraternity has received university approval to seek national affiliation tak had petitioned the university in december to affiliate with a national fraternity and last thursday received approval from the student activities committee the committee had become involved in the question as a result of a recommendation from the university administration preston parr dean of student life and head of the committee said that tak would have to affiliate with a national which conformed to two major qualifications it must be a fraternity which will not discriminate because of race color or religion it must give the local chapter complete autonomy with respect to voting procedures william quay assistant dean of student life said that the local chapter's qualifications for membership acceptability must l»e accepted by the national quay also said that the student activities committee had made certain recommendations to tak which did not have to tie followed the committee suggested that tak choose a national which has chapters at schools similar to lehigh and that its financial position las strong enough to build up library facilities and scholarship funds mark heutlinger vice president of tau alpha kappa said that seven prominent national social fraternities have expressed a desire to become affiliated with tak and that the members of tak are considering all of them he also said that for the first two weeks of next semester secretaries from each national all of whom have already visited tak will be invited back for a final visit then the brothers will vote to determine with which national to affiliate heutlinger said that besides the advantages which tak will gain from national affiliation the national will get prestige by " gaining a chapter on the lehigh campus one which is already an established functioning social fraternity the approval of the student activities committee is the result of activity which began two years ago when tak was first organized by 16 freshmen in march 1963 it was formed under the assumption that it would dissolve when the original members graduated students to be advised by john seitz on conscientious objection " conscientious objection to war is valid morally and legally and " every man should be aware of the choices open to him these two statements form the policy of a new group designed to counsel a student on becoming a conscientious objector co herb ford 68 president of students for a democratic society said that the group will he nonideologlcal and nonpolitlcal he added that the school and the academic community have a respon sibility to inform students about the possible alternatives to military service since the process of becoming a co is extremely difficult and lengthy ford said that it is often necessary for a potential co to receive counseling john cheezum assistant director of the institute of research and a faculty advisor to the group called the counseling " a necessary service although the group is small cheezum pointed out that there is interest in conscientious objection as evidenced l>y the response to literature which has already been distributed a table of literature set up in the university center was cleaned out in a matter of minutes he said ford said that the counseling will take the form of information displays and si ens posted around campus he is optimistic that the group will receive formal university recognition by next fall a statement o policy has already been formed and ford expects its approval cheezum emphasized that the group will •*• strictly a counseling organization and not an " action group ford noted that there is already a draft infor mation center at the lehigh valley peace center located at the frlsnds masting house on bath pike he said that the group being formed is not connected with ths peace center rlast b&w | this is the final issue of the brown and white for this semester amen i imm i