Brown and White Vol. 97 no. 29

              216 861*4181 bethlehem pennsylvania lehigh university vol 97 — no 29 state of the union addressed pa's proposed budget includes homer grant bydaveleiqht editorial page editor pa gov dick thornburgh's proposed budget includes a 10 million grant toward lehigh's purchase of homer research laboratories university vice president and treasurer john woltjen said wednesday the thornburgh budget announced tuesday will be debated until june by the pa state house of represen tatives and senate woltjen said but the university is optimistic about the outcome if the grant is passed it will give lehigh slo million over a three-year period to buy the facilities from bethlehem steel corp we obviously are very pleased that the governor has proposed a slo million grant woltjen said but there's a considerably greater sum of money we will need to secure homer labs the eight-building south mountain facility includes 1,000 acres and was assessed for tax purposes by nor thampton county at 31.5 million negotiations are still pending and the university will not make a final decision about the purchase until the end of june woltjen said lehigh is looking for additional funds through other grants president likins said at the faculty meeting monday so as not to take money from an arts center or a business building the administration is also trying to find a third party to purchase the facility lease it to both the university and bethlehem steel corp and eventually donate the entire property to lehigh he added woltjen said the governor proposed the grant as a gift in recognition of lehigh's willingness to acquire homer research laboratories with the purpose of helping the lehigh valley in a visit to the lehigh valley tuesday lt gov william scranton told reporters that the proposal would not only provide bethlehem steel with needed cash but provide a state-of-the-art research lab and incubator of business ideas all we had was grace hall fire marshalls and other people were beginning to complain about over crowding at wrestling meets franz also indicates that space for commencement exercises was very tight in grace hall the building in which it was traditionally held we were running out of room for com mencement he says we just had to have the space ultimately perhaps the issue of whether the facility was to be built at all was decided by the donors to the new century fund campaign ac cording to supporter eric ottervik vice president for administration and planning the funds donated for the construction of the arena were dedicated funds meaning that donors wished their money to be used only for that specific project the facility that became stabler arena ottervik says was one of many items on the new century fund list of projects needing support and because some individuals made restricted donations money for the facility could not be used for anything else see stabler page 2 from its initial planning and ap proval by the university board of trustees in 1971 up to its completion in late 1979 the stabler athletic and convocation center has been the source of much dispute and con troversy within the lehigh community in 1971 and again in 1977 views on the issue polarized there were those who supported building the facility led by the university board of trustees and those who did not led by the forum at both times the need for an athletic and convocation complex was the basic point of disagreement in 1971 supporters of the acc as it was called pointed toward lehigh's lack of adequate recreational space as the main reason for it they also indicated that the facility could be used for non athletic events and rented for other events in order to defray operating costs and perhaps make a profit those in opposition maintained that the acc complex not only was un necessary but that building it would take funding away from important academic needs opposition to the facility took tangible form when the by dan ryan managing editor priority in terms of the new century fund while saying it could not raise funds for scholarships and although he says he viewed the development of the facility as desirable leder says i thought they were putting the cart before the horse curtis clump associate dean of the college of engineering and physical sciences also disapproved of building the facility my feeling at that par ticular time clump says is that there were greater academic needs than to build an athletic facility that would get minimal use from tile university " for clump other needs included scholarships increases in financial aid and renovations of existing university buildings and laboratory equipment i felt there were bigger needs that the university had than a building that most people thought of as a wrestling arena on the other side of the debate were those who felt the arena was an im portant addition to the lehigh campus by serving as a selling point for the university and by benefiting recreational programs paul franz vice president for development viewed the arena as essential explains franz it was a space we had to have stabler acc funding cause of much campus debate forum formally opposed the acc in october 1971 however the trustees reversed this decision in jan 1972 because of the long planning designing and fund-raising process the acc did not become an issue again until 1977 by april of that year 2.5 million had been raised for the 3.5 million arena through the new century fund campaign a capital fund drive to raise money for campus projects at this time the board of trustees ap proved plans for constructing the facility in reaction to this the forum passed a resolution requesting that the trustees reconsider their action according to the resolution operating an arena complex would put a significant drain on the university's operating budget which is in part derived from tuition and that this drain would take funding from more vital needs such as library renovations and scholarships history professor lawrence leder was a sponsor of the forum resolution to him and to others in support of the resolution the question was not necessarily one of finances but of priorities according to leder the university was making the arena facility its first the brown and white friday february 7 1986 by chris palmeri assistant managing editor there's something radically wrong with a government that racks up a 200 million deficit in one year john ehrlichman said about ronald reagan and the state of the union in packard lab auditorium tuesday night asked his opinion of the true state of the union ehrlichman said we're in deep economic trouble because trade imbalances declining productivity and the deficit could signal the return of high inflation rates ehrlichman pointed out that in 1969 nixon's administration passed what would become the last balanced budget ehrlichman former counsel and special assistant to president nixon spoke to an audience of approximately 300 people im mediately after president reagan's state of the union address was broadcast to the audience we all have to agree that was vintage ronald reagan he said referring to the speech there is very little difference in reagan's philosophy of 25 years ago and what he said today ehrlichman gave an inside view of the preparations for a presidential address the speech contains very little of substance he the president hits one or two highpoints in the congress ehrlichman said that while nixon had six speech writers reagan's current staff numbers 52 we knew back in nixon's time that people fell asleep after is minutes if the president didn't resort to theatrics according to ehrlichman pointing out people in the balcony is a theatrical technique unique to reagan addresses there's always someone in the balcony he said i thought it would be one of the shuttle astronauts families this time no one expected a collection of young achievers during his speech reagan singled out four young people with ex traordinary accomplishments see ehruchmanpage 4 john ehritohman fommr counsel and special assistant to president nixon spoke on the state of the union tuesday night in packard lab auditorium in ma lecture ehrilchman criticized many of president reagan's policies and briefly spoke of his years with the nixon administration