Brown and White Vol. 84 no. 24

              brown and white vol 84 no 24 bethlehem pa december 1 1972 bs6-0331 study finds morale problem among university undergrads the jones report a three year analysis 1968-1971 of lehigh student life using cues scores and other psychometric data has drawn the conclusion that the lehigh undergraduate culture is ex periencing a morale problem of major proportion which seems by all evidence available inescapable besides discussing the student morale problem at the university the report suggested ways that lehigh can improve its present educational and social en vironment the concluding comments on the en vironmental study were written in august 1971 by then associate professor of social psychology robert g jones jones is currently associated with the university of virginia jones based his conclusions on cues college and university environmental scales — student questionnaires designed to give a comprehensive view of the educational environment jones stated these cues clearly point to a prevailing opinion that lehigh is not what students expected or what they think a preferred collegiate environment is like it is difficult to examine these findings and not conclude that lehigh students are harboring a sense of disap pointment regarding their college ex perience in fact when lehigh cues scores on campus morale were compared with other universities throughout the country the university placed in the first lowest percentile morale a major problem according to jones the morale problem among undergraduates stands as the major problem threatening the future welfare of the university if it persists it is reasonable to expect that the retention rate will deteriorate and recruitment effort require continual lowering of standards to fill classes however jones also noted that the lowering of admission standards will not necessarily solve the morale problem for social and economic factors have caused a decline in the number of potential lehigh students specifically the youth sub culture is less oriented toward the career pattern of the typical lehigh un dergraduate than previously and the economy is putting the financial squeeze on parents and eroding interest in the purchase of an expensive private education jones pointed out several possible causes for the morale problem first is the fact that the institution has for the past few years had its attention and resources directed toward building its reputation in graduate education while its attention was diverted from the plight of dr robert g jones administrators faculty polled on law school a summary of the interdisciplinary benefits of a university law school was presented to an academic affairs com mittee meeting nov 21 by raymond cowherd professor of history the report will be presented for ap proval at the next meeting when copies will be made available the report con tains two parts the first concerns the reaction of the various lehigh faculty administrators and department chairmen to the proposed law school the other part summarizes the advice and opinions of authorities from other colleges which presently have law schools on campus the main conclusions drawn from the report indicate that a law school at lehigh would be beneficial for the college of business and economics the school of forum creators return to lehigh for evaluation many of the students instrumental in bringing about the creation of the forum will return to campus dec 5 to evaluate the organization's performance the highlight of their stay at lehigh will be a public panel discussion with present forum officers at 8 p.m in whitaker lab auditorium the discussion will be part of this semester's forum convocation the panel will grapple with the question of whether the forum has lived up to the expectations of spring 1970 returning activists will be don parsons 70 kenneth rilander 70 mike golden 71 todd tieger 71 and don miles 71 parsons was the next-to-last president of the now defunct student government arcadia and was the most widely respected student leader at the time his persistence in achieving an equitable governance system at lehigh swayed blum guards are most effective guarding the hill reynolds says by ed mier the use of the private guards has proved most effective and we plan on continuing their use in the future said joseph h reynolds assistant to the dean of student life concerning the hiring of private detectives for additional campus security on weekends according to reynolds the private detectives have worked out very well on the recent two experimental weekends they have been used for lafayette weekend and the weekend prior to that what we needed was a larger force of foot patrolmen said reynolds ex plaining that something had to be done concerning the influx of undesirables around fraternity parties on weekends according to reynolds the detectives roam the hill and spot-check any in dividuals particularly between 15 and 18 years of age who appear to be uninvited reynolds explained that there have been numerous complaints about underage drinking at fraternity parties on the part of uninvited bethlehem teenagers on lafayette weekend said reynolds there were 10 detectives operating bet 1 ween 8:30 p.m and 2 a.m during which numerous persons were asked for iden tification those who could not produce any were asked to leave and sometimes were escorted off the campus the detectives who work in coor dination with the campus police are hired by the inter-fraternity council ifc and will be working on weekends yet to be designated by the council reynolds said that they will not be used every weekend but will be used especially when there is a great deal of fraternity activity the detectives are hired from the blum detective agency in bethlehem and according to the ifc and the dean of student life exactly when or how many will be used has not yet been precisely scheduled reynolds noted that these private detectives are available at a lesser cost than pinkerton guards who had been used in the past according to bob moe 73 ifc president the hiring of the detectives provides a means through which all fraternities on the hill can be afforded security as opposed to the previous methods in which individual frats each hired a guard who stood by the front door all night the detectives generally are armed and they are all capable men they work very well with the campus police said moe all we have to do is give them one week's notice and they can have as many men up here as we need he said their purpose said moe is merely to prevent trouble and their performance on lafayette weekend demonstrates their effectiveness there were no recorded disturbances during the weekend b & w photo by rich baker smags members of the forum's residence subcommittee listening at wednesday's meeting where dean clarence b campbell was the keynote speaker 200 undergrads may use smags housing project by martin baron dean of residence clarence b campbell said wednesday that the housing of 200 un dergraduate students in smags saucon married and graduate student housing next year appears to be necessary speaking at a meeting of the forum's residence subcommittee campbell stated that the fact that rh-11 will not be completed in september has produced this housing problem the residence subcommittee also told campbell in a formal letter that freshman upper class integration is acceptable at present they added that more centennial houses might be integrated campbell said that despite the placement of 200 students in smags the original designation of the apartment complex as married and graduate student housing has not changed the apartments are being erected for married and graduate students he said the initial concept and purpose has not been changed no one in the administration has considered a change in the original policy campbell noted after next year he said undergraduates may be housed in smags only after married and graduate students have been placed campbell said that priorities would have to be worked out by observing the leasing see law school page 8 see 200 undergraduates page 4 see forum creators page 8 see morale problem page 4