Brown and White Vol. 86 no. 50

              lehigh university brown and white bethlehem pa tuesday april 22 1175 vol k6-no 50 86*4331 bell elected forum vi chairman calendar proposals discussed by ed bogucz raymond bell assistant professor of education was elected chairman of forum vi at the group's first meeting saturday forum v secretary-treasurer gary lacocca 76 defeated ira schulman 76 in the race for vice-chairman in other forum elections daniel gomez 76 defeated three other candidates for secretary-treasurer and david amidon steven krawiec ira schulman and mike maskelaris 75 were appointed forum representatives to the board of trustees the new forum members also approved a report by the tenure subcommittee and tabled a motion concerning the creation of a social lounge on campus in other business the forum received a report from its self evaluation committee and debated proposed university calen dars university president w doming lewis also addressed the new members regarding the forum's role in the university community bell chairman of the forum v calendar committee ran unopposed for forum vi chairman after his election bell discussed possible academic calendars and presented the recommendation of the calendar committee for the 1976-77 academic year the proposed calendar would be modeled after the present experimental system bell said he said the proposal will call for fall instruction to begin on or before august 30 the fall semester would include 14 weeks of classes four days of vacation at least two days for review and consultation prior to exams and eight days of exams the spring semester would begin on the third thursday in january bell said it would include 14 weeks of classes seven days of vacation two days for review and consultation and eight days of exams raymond bell nine week drop period preferred by registrar by effie combias i basically favor a shorter drop period than the nine-week period recently passed by the university faculty said registrar james wagner wagner added however that he prefers the uniform nine-week period for upperclassmen and freshmen rather than the current seven-week period for upperclassmen and a 12-week period for freshmen wagner pointed to the university's three-week drop period in the 1950's as an equitable length in general what you start you should finish and be held accountable for he said adding that he opposes long drop periods because they allow more students to drop courses it is not fair that students who drop courses and carry less than 15 credit hours are judged oh the same basis as students who do not drop wagner said students that drop courses go up in the ranks he said while students who stay with a course may fail however wagner said medical reasons may be one reason to allow students to drop courses wagner said he is not convinced that freshmen should have a longer period to drop courses they are 18 and in college and should not be treated differently than upperclassmen he said the uniform drop period will also be better for adminstrative purposes he said it is hard to interpret whether some transfer students are freshmen or up perclassmen and it takes extra effort to research their standing under the current system he said you can tell in the first 10 days what the course will be like and what your grades will be on a quiz wagner said adding that 10 days is enough time to decide about keeping a course james wagner some students sought to halt issue of b&w the brown and white has learned that three university students peter buchsbaum 78 jack pariseau 78 and curt byk 77 approached a university business law professor to discuss the possibility of getting a court injuction to stop the brown and white from printing the story on an audit of sac accounts a reliable source also informed the brown and white that several students considered confiscating all the issues of the brown and white as soon as they were distributed buchsbaum pariseau and byk ap parently concerned with the impact of the story on william conrad 76 sac treasurer approached seymour traub assistant professor of law hoping to find a legal method to restrain publication of the story in an interview last wednesday buchsbaum said the story would be unfair to individuals for further stature in life byk confirmed thursday night that he and others had explored the possibility of a court injunction he saia he and others were concerned about the fairness of the story and the harm it might do to conrad buchsbaum and pariseau reportedly are friends of conrad both are former pledges of alpha chi ro fraternity where conrad is a member byk is the visiting lecturers hanging on the last few weeks before graduation are driving gene connell up the wall . but he's holding on until he gets that diploma forum group prepared 2 opposing acc reports by rob feldman third in a series the controversy over the athletic and convocation center developed into a major campus issue there were those who supported the acc saying that it not only would be a selling point for the university but would greatly benefit its recreational and cultural programs as well opponents argued however that the acc could not be justified because money was more badly needed for academic projects not only were stronger sides being taken on the acc issue throughout the campus but also within the forum's planning priorities and resources pp&r committee itself as a result of this division when it came time for the pp&r committee to present their report to the forum in october 1971 the committee did not have one it had two at that time the pp&r committee which played the central role in the acc controversy was headed by dr charles guditus professor of education and director of the division of educational administration guditus favored con struction of the acc and was among 11 of the committee's 15 members who ap proved the majority report which supported the acc as part of the new century fund's phase i campaign however there was also a minority report written by the four dissenting members of the committee all students who opposed construction of the acc because of what they felt were more pressing academic needs they were bob grzywacz 72 paul maloney 72 oldrich foucek 72 and paul maco 74 the dissenters argued that lehigh's academic reputation was deteriorating and that money to be used for the con struction of the complex was urgently needed elsewhere they stated that lehigh might be slipping in the area of student quality the average sat scores of the class of 1975 are the lowest since 1964 the report stated eighty percent of lehigh's ap plicants were accepted ... in the past lehigh has offered admission to only 45-55 percent of its applicants if we are to maintain student quality rising tuition costs must be offset by increased financial aid to incoming students therefore the minority report includes an increased endowment allocation for student scholarship in addition to the increase in endowment funds the minority report allocated 2.2 million for the intramural program and 2.5 million for the renovation of grace hall which included plans for the con struction of a 800-1,000 seat theater grace hall the dissenters said thus transformed could be adequate for the role it is playing in providing special events and other attractions to which we are now committed as well as serving in its former capacity for commencement and athletic events to put it simply the minority members argued that the acc was a luxury which the university could not afford the stage was set for discussion and a vote by the forum the question was whether the dissenting members of the pp&r com mittee could rally enough faculty support behind their minority report after all every faculty member on the committee itself supported the majority report was that an indicator of things to come the debate of oct 11 was a long one dr curtis clump professor of mechanical engineering and chairman of forum h asked that the rule limiting discussion of see self-evaluation page 6 see forum page 5 see three page 4