Brown and White Vol. 82 no. 34

              brown and white brown and white vol 82 no 34 bethlehem pa tuesday march 9 1971 866-0331 forum stalls on guidelines for residence by dave morrison " i>ean campbell must proceed with the filling of dormitories for next vear the forum can not l>e an obstruction to administrative progress said president w deming lewis at yesterday's forum meeting concerning the recommendations sub mitted to the forum by the subcommittee on residence president lewis and other forum members challenged the assertion that the forum must review in detail the subcommittee's recommendations be fore action by dean of residence clarence campbell could lie taken campbell pointed out the necessity of moving ahead with decisions regarding next year's room assignments im mediately " i presently have 400 to 600 students bugging me aboui hcre the v ' r «» going to live next vear campbell said because there was not a quorum present at the time the issue arose forum chair man ferdinand beer allowed it to be assumed that dean campbell could proceed with the plans outlined bv the subcommittee on residence what were the issues which created this heated hassle basically it was a question of priorities should overcrowding in the freshmen quad be alleviated at the expense of providng housing in wtvatever form for all who desire it should intergration of fresh men and upperclassmen be increased at the expense of selectivity who in fact deserves to go to rh 10 next year some memliers of the forum wanted these decisions to be made by the forum thev would not accept the decisions of the subcommittee on residence dean campbell emphasized several times the i mpossibility of postponing action toav/ait forum decision at least for this vear the subcommittee on residence has been meeting at least once a week since september having extensively reviewed the residence situation the subcommittee compiled ten basic recommendations which campbell feels confident to follow also discussed at the forum meeting was the manner in which that body would review all administrative appointments at tiie rank of dean and above as out lined in the forum constitution procedure for this was proposed by the academic affairs c ommittee again forum mem tiers questioned the ability of a committee to act wisely on behalf of thc forum but the motion passed easily b&w photo by mccormick march really came in like a lion by dumping six inches of snow on campus the whiteness lasted only a few days for the transformation of march-lion into lamb-removed the snow and hinted at the arrival of spring poll indicates frosh favor in tegrat ed dorms " it seems to favor the idea that freshmen on the whole were benefitting from the exj-erience of living wi th i_pper'la.ssm*»n ( said gene mater 71 commenting on the results of a poll cirriilated bv the residence halls council the results wore released at a meeting of the forum sub-committee on residence thursday the poll showed that there was a vast difference between the views of integrated and non integrated freshmen in their views of student life nearly 80-percent of the integrated freshmen said thev were highly satisfied with their general con dition while only 24-percent of the non-integrated expressed this opinion none of the integrated frosh were unsatisfied but 6-percent of the non integrated were the remaining percentage of each group were " somewhat satisfied in another question 8-percent of the integrated fr".h air the v f *>'* unsatisfied with freshman living while 24 percent of the non-integrated said the same thing however other questions indicated that the place of living did not affect where the freshmen would tie living next year approximately the same percentages of both groups said they would make the same institute of pathobiology combats snail fever in unique research by richard whiffen with all the new buildings sue has sinclair lab and maginess hall recently being occupied one would think tliat a large number of vacant offices and labs would exist to the contrary all of the available space was snapped up by one department or another within days one such example is the recently formed institute of pathobiology headed by professor thomas cheng which im mediately moved into the offices vacated bv the national printing ink research institute in the basement of the chemistry building the institute of pathobiology was only recently formed and organized in the summer of 1970 cheng stated tliat the purpose of the institute is to give faculty members who are interested in understanding the disease state in plants and animals to conduct research in these fields the mam area of interest for the institute at present deals with the disease of schistosomiasis or snail fever cheng said that this is the most prevalent disease in the world at this time infecting over r.0,000,000 people the disease occurs mostly in tropical ii mates the disease is carried by a parasite which lives in mails and can burrow its wav through human skin once in the blood stream there is no known wav of curing the disease a light infection of the disease can shorten a person's life span bv 20 years while a heavv infection can cause death in the past research on snail fever has been directed towards therapy or curing the disease cheng and his group at the institute of pathobiology are working on thc problem from a different angle if a biological control could be found so t fiat the snails which carrv the parasite would become resistant to the parasite then possibly the disease could be eradicated at present the institute has found a strain of snails which is susceptible to the parasite when they are voung but the older mature snail is resistant if the biochemical change tliat brings about the resistance could be found one of the keys to the disease would be discovered 4-1-4 semester plan by 1972 editor's note this is the first in a series of three articles concerning the concept of a 4-1-4 calendar by donald suss students attending the university in 1972-73 mav find themselves engaged in a new educational experience -- that of going to school during the month of january this will occur if the university decides to institute a calendar known as 4-1-4 the basic idea of the 4-1-4 calendar is that the student will take a four course load during the spring and fall semester each semester will last four months this means that the fall semester will end in december and final exams will be com pleted by christmas vacation the interim or winter term occurs for a four or six week period and is usually used bv the student to concentrate on one course or study project the plan however lias manv variations which can be instituted the concept of 4-1-4 with its many variations has been adopted by nearly 400 colleges around tb country , including two lehigh valley schools moravian and cedar crest mit and tufts are among the larger universities that have adopted the plan that also have large engineering curriculums according to vice provost eric otter vik the university is still in the early stages in its study of 4-1-4 a report prepared by dr robert jones professor of social psychology has been distributed to the chairmen of each department at the university in addition a subcommittee of the forum is also beginning research on the matter jones who is one of the manv pro ponents of the 4-1-4 concept feels that this is one of the few innovations that's come along in the last 10 vears that makes sense he added that it is an encouraging sign tliat with one exception all of the institutions that iiave adopted the system are satisfied with the interim term in his report jones noted that the major drawback of the present calendar lies in the fact that january yields a very low rate of academic productivity as it stands now the only formal academic activity between dec 23 and feb 3 is final exams the major advantage of the interim term is that it uses this period to provide an opportunity for types of educational en deavors that fit better into a single and generally all-consuming activity the in terim period has mainly been used togive students an opportunity to pursue their interests in diverse fields of independent studv concentrated course study in a single area is also usuallv provided which allows the introduction of innovations and experimentations in learning opportunities there are many variations on the 4-1 4 ( alendar that are presently practiced by colleges the first major variation has to do with the nature of the interim term most colleges on the calendar have a required winter term whereby the student must engage in some approved course or project in each of his four years variations on this include a completely voluntary interim term or a partially voluntary term whereby the student ls required to participate in only two or three terms during his four years see upperclassmen page 4 see engineers page 9