Brown and White Vol. 85 no. 22

              lehigh university brown and white vol 85 - no 22 bethlehem pa friday november ic 1t73 mm33i forum committee seeks insight into tenure issues by jeff bodenstab the tenure subcommittee of the forum committee on academic environment began interviewing department chair maen in an effort to gain greater insight into the tenure decision making process at the university speaking to the 13 pairs of interviewers frank hook professor of english and chairman of the committee outlined the responsibilities of the in terviewers and discussed the specifics of their task in a letter to the interviewers hook stressed the committee's desire to cover general procedures rather than specific incidents the committee has no desire to become entangled in individual problems we are gathering information we are not a grievance committee he said speaking on the taping of interviews for purposes of accuracy hook said he ex pected full cooperation but added there are people who don't want to say anything if there is a tape recorder going at this point in time you don't know how people are going to react the tapes will be erased once they are used to check for accuracy he added the purpose of conducting interviews rather than using questionnaires is to stimulate further discussion clear up vague ideas and to act as an educational process for the interviewers themselves hook said paul maco 74 a member of the com mittee emphasized that the interviewers were investigators he urged them not to be reluctant and to probe into b&w photo by myde watch out below this was the scene after the lehigh-lafayette game two years ago won by the engineers 48-19 the engineers hope for a repeat dr frank hook solving energy problems is goal of u task force by peter menard about 27 members of the university faculty have formed a task force to assist in finding solutions to the energy shortage problems headed by alistair macpherson associate professor of , mechanical engineering and mechanics the group was formed six months ago to work on problems at the state and national level most of the work is done either in dividually or in small groups in order to utilize each member's expertise in his given field macpherson said that many different departments in the university are involved with the task force since the task force is still in its initial stages there have not been many grants awarded to it for research joseph libsch vice president of research and dr donald ritter assistant to the vice president are working with the state of pennsylvania to involve lehigh in the state's energy priorities to fulfill energy needs ac cording to ritter libsch serves on the governor's science advisory committee and pennsylvania science and engineering foundation task force on energy concerns the only plans which are being con sidered for direct application to lehigh concern the possible monitoring of one of the dormitories to measure energy dissipation the university is providing funds to the task force for speakers and to allow members to travel to other institutions one of the major areas of research is in methods of utilizing coal in its solid state to provide short term aid in alleviating the fuel shortage according to ritter lehigh is becoming involved with the state of pennsylvania in providing ex pertise towards quickening the short term applications fostering a more rapid ap plication of coal in its solid state forum passes proposal to convert power house by beth troy a resolution providing for the conversion of wilbur power house into a drama facility was passed unanimously by the forum tuesday also at the meeting university president w deming lewis reported on the affirmative action program the goal of which is to reaffirm and expand university commitment to equal op portunity employment wesley r smith chairman of the ad ministration committee and professor of physics said that the cost of a new central facility for performing arts would be too great to be included in the new century campaign part of the drama needs however could be satisfied by the conversion of wilbur power house into a small theater and classrooms smith said he pointed out that the growth of interest in drama at the university now involving approximately 600 students has made some kind of lab facilities necessary smith said that the estimated cost of the power house renovation would be 300,000 one potential source of funds is the portion of phase i new century funds that had been allocated for drama facilities in grace hall the plan to convert grace hall to a theater was rejected because it is needed for intramural purposes he said in other business lewis said that the university is and has been an equal op portunity employer he said our goal is to increase materially the use of women and minority groups in the university work force the affirmative action program's purpose is to further this goal in the areas of recruitment hiring training and all forms of compensation lewis said that several women have been hired recently but that efforts to hire blacks last september were unsuccessful he added that the increase in the sac vetoes bill to change method of picking concerts by mary ann ferrante a proposal for the creation of an ad visory board to the student activities council sac for the selection of a big name concert was defeated by a 2 to 9 vote at a sac meeting tuesday the sac concert advisory board saccab proposed by sac president keith snyder 74 would have consisted of 13 voting members a representative of fraternities residence halls in dependents the media and sac the chairman of saccab and only non voting member would have been the sac president the function would have been to recommend concerts to sac and the concert committee based on student b&w photo by xlouser keith snyder holds up a sac poster of events to be held tonight after the bonfire at the last sac meeting forum attendance called acceptable by conway by robert feldman in response to charges of poor at tendance by student forum members forum vice chairman rich conway 74 and treasurer nick noel 74 said that attendance records were very ac ceptable and above average conway said that for the first two forum meetings of the semester more than 50 percent of the student members were in attendance he cited classes tests and meetings of other organizations as reasons for absence on the part of some students on the whole however he said that at tendance by student members was very acceptable he added that faculty members constitute the major attendance problem at meetings i can't avoid the fact that there are some members who are derelict in their duty conway said but on the whole there is not a lack of interest as for the brown and white's reinstated policy of publishing forum attendance records conway said that he is ab solutely positive that it would help in fluence greater attendance noel said that he would like to see special emphasis in the brown & white on those who were not in attendance i see tenure page 11 see forum page 4 see forum page 5 see sac page ll bonfire the lafayette bonfire starts at 7:30 friday night in saucon valley buses leave taylor gym at 6:30