Brown and White Vol. 83 no. 4

              lehigh university brown and white mmmmmmmmmmmm vol 83 - no 4 sh ■■■■■ .:•:%.:.::•: bethlehem pa tuesday september 21 , i 971 866-0331 justice black leaves court but constitutional views prevail by howard whitcomb the retirement of associate justice hugo l black from the united states supreme court for reasons oi ill health marks the end of one of the longest and most distinguished careers in the history of the court only two justices stephen j field and chief justice john marshall had greater longevity and had mr justice black served one more year he would have bypassed them in term of service on the court few justices have had the opportunity to see so many of their own views on constitutional questions prevail during their tenure on the court un questionably justice black will leave an indelible imprint on constitutional inter pretation especially in the area of the bill of rights ironically the franklin d roosevelt appointment of hugo l black in 1937 which broght charges that the court was already one ninth packed was roose velt's first appointment in five years as president now the vacancy occasioned by the black resignation gives president richard nixon his third opportunity to fill a vacancy in less than three years in office the resignation of justice black will make possible the realization of the burger if not the nixon court mr justice black a native of clay county alabama was fifty-one years of age at the time of his appointment to the high bench on august 12 1937 although black a graduate of the university of alabama law school had served briefly as a police court judge in birmingham his primary political credentials at the time of his appointment were that he had been a democratic senator from alabama since 1926 and a loyal supporter of roos evelt's new deal in september 1937 after senate con firmation of black's appointment a pitts burgh newspaper disclosed that black had been a member of the ku klux klan upon return from a european vacation black spoke via radio to the american people he conceded that he had been a member of the klan but that he had resigned prior to becoming a senator the appointee's explanation apparently satisfied the american people and the controversy subsided any lingering doubts as to black's identification with the common man especially those of racial or religious minorities were dispelled by the justice's majority opinion in chambers v florida 1940 a case in which the court reversed the murder convictions of four black defendants on the grounds that their con howard whitcomb professor of constitutional law u forum committees report on their summer activities the gears of the university's governing machinery were again set in motion monday night as the 1971-1972 forum met in general session for the first time of the academic year in contrast to the tense and sometimes turbulant situations which brought it into ext stance the forum quietly and method ically dispensed with the business of governing the university in the early days of the new semester representatives of the forum's five standing committees academic affairs student affairs priorities planning and resources community relations and budget gave brief reports and several apologized for the delinquence of their committees in not having covered as much ground as they might have mentioned during the course of the reports was the fact that a large number of the university's enrollment comes from pennsylvania new york and new jersey with only a token enrollment from other states a more balanced distribution was suggested it was noted that the library is facing a problem of having 10,000 worth of books stolen every year and that a monitor ing system of some sort might be in order the budget committee reported the possibility of lowering prices in the bookstore through a cooperative arrangement a study is being conducted the community relations committee has been in contact with william mitchell of the city's recreation department with regard to the possibility of using lower campus land as playground sites for neighborhood children also under con sideration by the committee is the possibility of community service applicable to course credit after taking care of what little old and new business there was chairman curtis clump ended the meeting saying if s almost embarrassing to adjourn so early the next forum meeting will be held on oct 11 at 4 p.m in the osbourne room donchez is hopeful by gary s haut security prevails commending the usual propriety of lehigh students captain frank donchez of the university police force said that he anticipates few problems with the university's going coed he expressed hope that the student body would maintain the level of responsibility they have shown in the past few added security provisions have been made simple because the coeds have arrived donchez noted that the police force has taken on no new men and is continuing basically the same security procedures as last year preston w parr dean and vice-president for student affairs accounts for this lace of added security by stating we don't want to start out with an armed camp which would make the freshmen apprehensive although no intra departmental changes have been made captain donchez said the campus force will continue to rely on the frequent aid of the bethlehem police several incidents last year including an emery house party which was disrupted by south side teens resulted in allegations that definitions of city police power on campus were unclear and that campus police were unsure of how to handle situations involving town students in reply to these accusations however donchez stated that certain guidelines of action have always been understood by both the university and the city of bethlehem and that these guidelines will become even more concrete when put into writing by the end of this year while on campus university police have all the powers of city police and handle violations of university regulations according to circumstances it has always been understood however that if the campus force should need help bethlehem police would be called in and all arrests and prosecutions would then fall under the jurisdict ion of northampton county captain donchez noted that certain types of violations of the law are totally out of the power of lehigh police for instance any tips of on campus using or pushing of drugs must be reported to the bethlehem police through the office of the dean of u professor appointed wetlands institute head dr sidney s herman professor of biology at lehi^h has been appointed director of the south jersey wetlands institute a newly established educational and reserach organization founded at stone harbor n.j beginning next semester herman will direct experiments at a laboratory pre sently under construction donated by the wetlands institute the institute concern ed with the preservation of the coastal salt-swamp lands in the area purchased 5000 acres of the jersey wetlands and has designated 34 acres for the research the purpose of the research is to find out what makes the salt lands tick herman explained this will be the first major study of its kind done in the area although other isolated studies have been conducted in the past he said the wetlands which herman said is probably one of the most productive areas in the world is in great danger of be dr sidney s herman class schedules heavily debated at university by maria c zumas class scheduling has been the target of some heated argument by students and faculty this semester lawrence h leder professor and chairman of the history department and 15 of his col leagues introduced a resolution intended to alleviate the controversial scheduling problem the resulution read resolved that the registrar shall pre pare a trial schedule of classes for each semester shall distribute this trial schedule to each academic dean depart ment chairman and division head at least one week before pre-registration and shall only promulgate and publish the official schedule for a department chair man division head or dean of the college in which the courses are offered further resolved that this proce dure be implemented with the spring 1972 schedule of classes a memorandum from provost albert c zettlemoyer read that he agreed with distributing a tentative schedule in ad vance but this could only happen if we computerize and there is not adequate time leder stated that the previous statement is fallacious because the rae istrar could request the necessary information from the departments this see leder page 5 see black page 4 see police page 4 see wetlands page 4