Brown and White Vol. 83 no. 28

              lehigh university brown and white vol 83 - no 28 friday february 4 1972 866-0311 trustees approve all u complex by steve glickstein overturning a forum derision for the first time ever the board of trustees approved the controversial all university complex at its regular january meeting the 6 million multi-purpose complex to be built in saucon valley will house facilities for convocations conferences and major cultural programs as well as for intercollegiate and intramural sports although no official trustee statement has been released the board's decision appears to have been based to a great degree on a report submitted to them by university president w deming lewis that report showed lehigh to be rated favorably in facultv salaries and librarv average in financial aid but poorly in athletic facilities when compared to 11 other pennsylvania colleges including bryn mawr haverford carnegie-mellon and lafayette lewis again emphasized that the minority plan which eliminated the all university complex in favor of increased endowment and library expenditures would leave too few unrestricted to funds for a building program p^xpprience has shown most endowment must be obtained through unrestricted gifts if too large a portion went to endowment not enough would remain to complete building projects which are never totally covered by ear marked funds lewis listed the advantages of the majority plan as fund raising potential land use adequacy for special events theater athletics and value to the city the minority plan had the edge only in transportation theater and academic en deavors although considerable doubt was raised as to whether money could be raised for the latter lastly lewis emphasized that his pro posals were not cast in concrete and that priorities could be changed if new circumstances arise particularly if an arrangement could be worked out for a joint bet hie hem lehigh theater the controversy surrounding the decision began six months ago when a special committee headed by trustee kirk pendleton recommended modifications in the 10 year plan approved by the forum last spring a major feature of that plan was a proposed 4.5 million creative arts centej»<however conversations with traditionally large donors showed that project to have little drawing appeal moreover the pendleton committee was concerned that the arts center served too narrow a need for so large an ex penditure the trustee committee urged the dele tion of the arts center and its replace ment by a 6 million multi-purpose facility since intercollegiate sports would be moved to the complex grace hall could be freed for remodelling as a theater the new proposal met wtth immediate criticism particularly from students on thft forum priorities planning and re sources pp&r committee these students argued that the revised 10 year plan did not provide adequate emphasis on academic pursuits and instead squandered a good deal of monev on the luxury of an all university complex in its place was an additional 1.3 million for library acquisitions and 3.0 million extra for endowment to be used pri marily for financial aid and faculty salaries large expenditures were also envisioned for intramural facilities and a creative arts annex opponents of the all university complex stated that lehigh's survival as a high quality institution depended upon its con tinued excellence in the academic area proposed budgetary deficits coupled with increasing competition from public col leges made increased endowment and library expenditures mandatory the students on the pp&r committee could not persuade faculty members to their side however the majority of the committee believed the complex to be in t he best overall i nterests of the university they believed student life needs could finances tight says lewis but lehigh balances budget by tom swan if higher education is to continue its highly-held status in this country people must be willing to pay the bill said president w deming lewis in a recently released report on lehigh's financial standings lewis reported that lehigh's budget rate will most likely follow the increasing patterns shown over the last decade a problem faced by nearly all institutions in the country a study made by elmer glick lehigh treasurer of about 25 institutions with which lehigh compares most com monly found most of the institutions running a deficit it was reported that lehigh while it ran in the red two years ago was doing better than most lewis called this a small comfort even though the budget balanced last year " . . it remains to be seen how we will continue to avoid deficits he said it is going to be tight statistics presented in the report indicate just how tight spending is likely to become in a report from the national center for educational statistics under the department of health education and welfare spending figures for the fiscal year 1959-60 1969-70 and 1979-80 were given in the first of these three periods 6.7 billion was spent on higher education during 1969-70 24.9 billion was spent projected spending for 1979-80 is es timated at 42 billion in a similar 10-year period for the fiscal years 1961-62 through 1971-72 lewis reported an increase of lehigh's total non-research budget from 6.3 mil lion to 17.3 million a 174.5 per cent increase lewis attributes these increases to a growing student population about 8.5 million students in 1970 and an increase in the percentage of the population that goes on to college from less than 50 per cent in 1959-60 to nearly 60 per cent in 1969-70 lewis said this can be expected to increase to 65 per cent in 1979-80 also contributing to spending increases are a growing number of conferred degrees which according to lewis means that more people stay in college ten years ago around 400,000 bac calaureate degrees were granted in 1969 70 that number doubled to around 800,000 and for 1979-80 about 1,150,000 are pro jected — an increase on the order of another 4t per cent during the 1961-62 to 1971-72 period undergraduate enrollment increased only slightly while costs increased drama tically said lewis graduate enroll ment has more than doubled he said during this same period he re ported undergraduate tuition increased 1,050 or 75 per cent while graduate tuition increased 1,500 or 187 per cent this has not been enough to offset increased costs however said lewis as a reflection of the country's present economy non-salary expenses — such as benefits utilities building maintenance etc increased 186.6 per cent in the last decade 2.7 million in 1961-62 to 7.9 million projected for the current fiscal year reported lewis salaries and related costs are generally more than 50 per cent of the total institutional operation costs said lewis lehigh's faculty and staff have received salary increments averaging just over five per cent per year during 1961 71 . while fringe benefits such as in creased social security and medical and life insurance programs added to the overall 165 per cent increase when compared to some industrial labor contracts which have averaged 12 to 18 nader raider will speak at university byron bloch a noted crusader for man and his environment--will speak in - packard laboratory auditorium on feb 8 at 8 p.m the public is invited he will discuss consumer advocacy movement or myth admission is free of charge for the program which is being sponsored at lehigh by the visiting lectures committee a native of the lincolnwood area in california bloch received his master of arts degree at the university of california ucla liaving previously studied at northwestern university he now heads his own independent consulting firm in " human factors engineering which applies biotechnology and industrial design to the man-machine-environ ment problems of today bloch focuses on four major areas the medical-surgical-hospital fields automotive safety and design writing and tv and the new area of products liability where the product itself causes an accident or injury as a medical consultant bloch updated the surgical suite and equipment design for the cardiovascular research center in houston there he worked closely with noted heart surgeon dr michael deßakey bloch said designers must be willing to become immersed within the unique nature of the profession that they are trying to help . ." byron bloch see raider page 4 see alumni page 4 see complex page4