Brown and White Vol. 82 no. 16

              brown and white vol 82 no 16 866-033 bethlehem pa friday november 13 1970 south side 76 discusses u housing plans by paul trautman vice-president for development paul franz repeated to the south side 76 committee wednesday night the uni versity's plans to build married and graduate student housing in saucon valley but he termed encouraging the gruen proposal for a high rise structure on fourth st as a solution to future housing needs a letter from the gruen firm outlining the university's two major options for south side housing was read at the open meeting held at ss cyril and methodius church school on pierre st the first is for property owners at fourth and new sts to pool their land and form a non profit corporation which would lease the site to the university for a high rise structure retaining the ground floor for retail use and services the city would finance a multilevel parking structure adjacent to this complex the second proposal is a similar non profit corporation to be formed by the university for the erection of a high rise building on the university's morton st parking lots again a multilevel parking structure would he constructed adjacent franz welcomed the first option as providing a new direction for the solution of the university's housing problem but he repeated that married and graduate students mags housing was a very pressing issue which could not be delayed furthermore a survey had indicated a preference among graduate students for garden-type units he said the high rise proposal could not be implemented m time to provide 148 mags units by next fall bethlehem mayor h gordon payrow m the audience suggested that the city and university could cooperate m erecting housing on morton st by next june the vice-president again implied that this was a closed issue we're talking about the next phase of housing now he said committee chairman reese jones ex plained that the committee had not yet backed an option with housing and edu cation subcommittee reports not due until march it will be may 15 at the earliest before a master plan for the entire south side can be prepared by gruen associates only then can the university and the com mittee discuss definite plans for a housing retail-services complex m the fourth and new area franz then outlined a 10 year growth projection which includes a student body of 6,000 the consequent need for 1,300 new housing units 265 already under con struction and the renovation of taylor stadium asked if after the construction of new academic buildings there would be any room toft for housing he replied we think so jones said he thought this would depend on the master plan forum to consider saturday classes by mike halperin a topic which is not new to the university but is new to the forum is the possible elimination of saturday classes a subcommittee of the forum's academic affairs chaired by william alpert 71 was established to investigate the desirability and feasibility of the elimination of saturday classes and make recommendations last spring the education policy subcommittee conducted a student poll on saturday classes of 453 respondents 426 or 94 favored the elimination of saturday classes while 27 or 6 did not if it were necessary to increase the number of night classes 268 or 59t f favored the elimination of saturday classes as opposed to 185 or 41 who did not finally only 96 or 21 favored the elimination of saturday classes if courses were restricted to a greater extent than they already are 357 or 79 valued th«ir education more than their leisure time the subcommittee also polled the faculty last week of the faculty approximately 50 response 56 would prefer to teach an evening class to a saturday class while 38 did not favor the evening class of the latter group about 1/3 indicated that they would not strongly object to teaching an evening class thus 75 of the faculty would not strongly object to an evening class in addition 33 of the faculty who have recently taught a saturday class have admitted to informally re-scheduling it to another time it is general knowledge that the educational experience of saturday classes is inferior due to lack of attention and attendance of the students,and lack of preparation of the students and some times the faculty as don miles forum representative stated " friday night extra-curricular activities dampen the educational experience of saturday classes the major disadvantage to the elimination of saturday classes may be an increase m course conflicts thus reducing the number of course offerings as indicated previously if it should come to this a good majority of the students would prefer the status quo finally saturday class elimination may increase the tendency of students to leave the campus on weekends adversely affecting attendance at weekend cultural and athletic events it is estimated by the department of athletics that the university would lose receipts of 1000 per football game and wrestling meet generally a feeling exists that saturday classes tend to keep the student body on campus during the weekend this has abso lutely nothing to do with the academic considerations of saturday classes while at the same time the university is setting itself up m place of parents by keeping the students on campus over the weekends the polls indicate that generally both students and faculty favor the elimination of saturday classes an argument which alone outweighs all the aforementioned disadvantages the sub committee therefore suggests that the elimination of saturday classes is desirable the subcommittee then proposed various alternatives to saturday classes before it could examine possible schedules the sub committee established various constraints the members realized that they could not schedule classes from 4 to 6 p.m these hours are an integral part of the university's extra-curricular program panel discusses problems of puerto rican society by john klucsik leadership and communication were the recurring themes of a panel discussion monday which included members of the puerto rican community and representa tives of the university professor victor valenzuela moderated the discussion which afforded all parties concerned a chance to face each other ask questions and offer suggestions as to what the university can do to help the spanish american community the dialogue centered on the problems of spanish youth m bethlehem and what might be done to solve them louis rodriguez a student at moravian and trini huertas a student at northampton county community college represented spanish youth at the meeting they said that not only is there a communication gap between youth and the people of bethlehem but also a gap between americanized spanish youth and their parents who are still culturally oriented to life m puerto rico because of this gap parents some times find it hard to help their children because they themselves don't know how american systems operate an example of this problem is school work it is very likely that the parent won't understand it and won't be able to help or give any kind of guidance concerning it the students said that guidance toward a college education is either very poor or doesn't exist at all for puerto ricans m the bethlehem school district they felt that the firehouse situation is a direct result of the high dropout rate among puerto ricans due to this lack of guidance there is a great concern about the fire house and what will happen to the young people who used it alex trujillo presi dent of the holy infancy holy name society miguel manero president of the spanisl council and jesus oritz former president of the puerto rican beneficial society said that their organizations would be will ing to provide the kind of adult supervision required by the city for the reopening of the firehouse huertas said that a young leader from the puerto rican community is necessary at the firehouse he would have to be a parson trusted by the city fathers and by the youths who frequent the firehouse those m attendance felt that no one m city government really cares about reopening the firehouse they said it has become a political issue between the mayor and city council and nothing is being done the youths who came to the firehouse now go to hang up house and the problems of the firehouse move with them miss barbara solt and dean preston parr were thanked for the university's efforts to help the spanish community miss solt director of the university's volunteer services and dean parr represented the school at the meeting the extensive search for a woman dean is futile by steve glickstein the student affairs committee will ask the forum monday for the authority to assist and advise in the definition of qualifications and the evaluation of the candidates for the position of assistant or associate dean of student life to be concerned with women's affairs the move was prompted when president w demlng lewis overruled vice-presldent for student affairs preston parr and the dean of student life william quay on the hiring of the new administrator the apparent mix-up resulted in the premature offering of the joh to a particular candidate and the subsequent withdrawal of the offer according to the minutes of the student affairs committee of the forum on nov 3 it was decided that one candidate had a edge by dean quay's office and this fact was made known to the various groups that had interviewed her with the endorsement of dean parr the candidate was offered the job " the next day dr lewis vetoed this offer saying the candidate lacked actual ex perience in the position of dean the president takes full responsibility for this d artel nn members of the south sid 76 committee question paul franz vice-president for development right about the university's south sid housing plans they urged cooperation of til city university and committee for the development of a retail housing complex on 4th street b*w photo by doster see area page 8 sm new pag 4 see 94 page 8