Brown and White Vol. 86 no. 21

              lehigh university brown and white vol 80 — no 21 bethlehem pa friday november 15 1074 866-0331 m new federal law to authorize student inspection of school files by rob feldman a new federal law scheduled to go into effect nov 19 will grant students the right to inspect and review any and all official records files and data directly related to them including all material that is in corporated into each student's cumulative record folder and intended for school use the bill which was sponsored by sen james l buckley c-r-ny is an amendment to the omnibus education bill which in addition will give parents of elementary and secondary school students access to files on their children also the amendment specifically disallows parents of college students to have access to their children's files even though the college students may now inspect them them selves at lehigh the full impact of the bill has not been felt yet although most ad ministrators seem aware of its impending problems arthur mann associate dean of students said that it has always been the policy of his office to allow a student to look at his files which largely contain academic and disciplinary records provided it is reviewed with one of the deans he said however that the registrar's file contains most of the confidential in formation on the student such as high school recommendations according to the new law mann agreed that the university will probably allow students access to such files although we are going to have to study the bill very carefully and have some legal advice on it before an official policy is made deborah dwyer assistant director of financial aid and an officer in the ad missions office said that aa of nov 19 admissions files will be open to students if they so request it anything in the financial aid files is already open to the candidates and their parents dwyer said that the possibility of some parents not wanting their children to see confidential financial forms as would be allowed by the new law is of little concern since most students on financial aid are aware of this information already b_w photo by flanagan arthur mann forum urges faculty to review plus-minus and drop limit plans by ed bogucz the forum voted 60-19 tuesday to urge the faculty to reconsider the decisions adding plus and minus grading categories and reducing the limit for dropping courses to seven weeks the motion was originally presented at the oct 21 forum meeting but was recommitted for revision because of loose wording in other business the forum defeated a motion regarding investigation of possible changes in the fall 75 calendar and passed a motion concerning restrictive enrollment policies forum members also heard a report from the administration by preston parr vice-president and dean of student affairs who detailed problems with the present legal counseling and bail system regarding the faculty decisions to change grading and course drop-limit policies the motion stated that student input should be actively sought in matters which affect students and are decided by the faculty it also asked that adequate prior publicity of such faculty decisions be given so that interested students could express their views the motion recommends that since this was not done at the may 1974 faculty meeting when the decisions adding plus and minus modifiers to grades and changing the course drop limit to seven weeks were made the faculty should reconsider these decisions the motion was signed by forum vice chairman janet scagnelli 75 david shakes 75 rich petigrow 76 and mike maskaleris 75 maskaleris said that the motion was criticizing the decision making process used by the faculty to make the changes there was not enough publicity for what was discussed he said robert t folk professor of physics and original proponent of the plus-minus system argued that the faculty had passed a motion announcing the vote on plus minus grading which gave one whole semester notice he said there was also sufficient coverage of the matter in the brown and white prior to the vote ferdinand beer professor of mechanical engineering noted that without an a category the plus-minus system was unsound he said that it would be appropriate for the forum to suggest reconsideration of the system and if not i will urge it at the next faculty meeting j ralph lindgren professor and chairman of philosophy suggested that it was 100 early to judge the decisions and that they should be given a trial period of operation his amendment to make the motion a statement on the need for student input did not pass the amendment did not ask the faculty to reconsider their decisions after consideration of the lindgren amendment the motion was passed all students present and voting except for one charles nippert a graduate student voted for passage of the motion faculty members were evenly split one of five administration members preston parr voted for approval his affirmative vote was greeted by laughter and applause and a joking you're fired trom w deming lewis university president in other business the forum considered a motion which charged the calendar committee to determine the extent of dissatisfaction with the present fall 74 b&w photo by leidner robert t folk new arts minor plan approved by debb y cawthon the college of arts and science faculty voted at their nov 4 meeting to establish an optional minor program and a university scholar program the proposals will now go the the educational policy committee edpol norman melchert associate professor of philosophy and chairman of the college of arts and science committee said a minor shall consist of at least 15 hours the specific content being determined by the department division or staff concerned the proposal must be approved by the university departments divisions and dean hunt melchert said that the minor would be optional for students and will appear on the transcript in the same manner as the major he added that " a 2.0 minimum grade point average would be required for courses in the minor students would declare minors through their major advisers melchert said he added that one of the advantages of having a minor program is that it will provide guidance for students who want a rational group of courses in a second field beyond their major melchert said that another advantage of establishing this program is that it provides additional visibility for the student's actual work someone who majors in government and can claim a minor in geology might increase his prospect of getting a job with the govern ment in connection with energy resource planning there are a number of such com binations which might be attractive to the prospective employer melchert said if the university scholar program is approved it will replace the in terdepartmental honors program which will be phased out as students now in the program graduate melchert stated in a memorandum to the arts faculty in order to graduate as a university scholar a student must fulfill the distribution requirements achieve a cumulative average of 3.5 submit a thesis and take a comprehensive examination in his area of concentration a candidate should also take honor seminars and electives meeting safety standards too costly ottervik says by kevin flanagan the university could not possibly comply with all of the standards set forth in the occupational safety and health act osha this year according to eric ot tervik vice-president for planning ' if we were to do it all this year we couldn't afford it ottervik said the osha was passed by the u.s senate in 1970 the purpose of osha according to the senate report is to reduce the number and severity of work-related in juries and illnesses which despite current efforts of employers and government are resulting in wer increasing human misery and economic loss the main thrust of the legistaion is aimed at setting national safety and health standards for industry but universities are profoundly affected by it as well tbe normal physical plant operations of the university and the research laboratories are covered like any industry several universities have been cited in violation of osha standards and have been fined subsequent to an inspection by osha compliance officers osha achieves its purpose through the development and administration by tbe secretary of labor of uniformly applied occupational safety and health standards according to robert numbers director of buildings and grounds the standards existed before osha's inception but now there is a way to enforce them i've been digging into a lot of it at tending conferences working on the campus and requesting money with regard to osha the rules of osha are not new they now have a means for citing people who do not comply we in buildings and grounds are doing our best to com ply numbers said ' the university relies on inspections by the pennsylvania manufacturers association insurance co pma to see faculty page 4 see meeting page 5 see minor page 7 see law page 6