Brown and White Vol. 86 no. 6

              lehigh university brown and white vol m — no • bethlehem pa tuesday september 24 1974 866-0331 mmmzm minority faculty in engineering hard to recruit karakash says by rob feldman third in a series although the college of engineering has the lowest percentage of minority group faculty members in the university dean karakash told the brown and white that he has made a concerted effort to alleviate the problem currently there are no women or black professors in the college karakash said he is keenly aware of the problems involved in bringing minority group members int the engineering disciplines karakash said statistics mean nothing to him since the problem is far more profound than hiring a token minority group member karakash said he insists on approaching the problem by its roots and has dedicated much of his time to trying to generate more interest among science-oriented high school students in the possibilities of an engineering career recruiting women for special engineering programs and organizing a conference for educators who are interested in helping solve the problem karakash said he is deeply concerned with such recruiting at the high school levels since most of the few qualified minority graduates of engineering programs choose to accept more lucrative jobs with industry institutions and organizations educational or otherwise failing to work toward changing the national condition which finds minorities virtually absent in some professions are either ignoring or defying one of the most momentous social developments of our time he said according to karakash he is actively pursuing the problem now but knows it will take a long time to solve we don't get overnight solutions he said it the scarcity of minority-group members in engineering fields took decades to develop and will probably take at least a decade to resolve since this is a condition rather than a limited problem capable of instant solution we must make the clearest distinction between those promotional efforts which seek to meet the quotas of the day and earn a few brownie points on one hand and those approaches which trace the condition to its formative roots and work towards their elimination karakash said karakash said he is vehemently opposed to engaging in bidding wars designed to lure the few qualified candidates this may be all right for those who purchase antiques in an auction but it is an insult to humans even if it sometimes appears to be the thing to do it is the scarcity we must attack he said to attack that scarcity karakash has become involved in various programs he has been working with several programs aimed at recruiting and introducing minority high school students to engineering pbecome involved in various programs he has been working with seversl programs aimed at recruiting and introducing minority high school students to engineering programs in collaboration with public school systems and industrial firms karakash also works with a program designed to interest women in enrolling in the college of engineering with more than 40 women entering the freshman year there is no question that the number entering graduate programs and possibly becoming faculty will increase openings blaze at frat might result in legal battle a fire was set 1:45 a.m sunday at the rock located at the base of the sigma alpha mu fraternity driveway gasoline soaked tires were found on the top of the rock the bethlehem fire department put out the two-alarm blaze tom delitto 75 a member of sigma alpha mu witnessed the event and alleged that the fire was started by members of alpha chi rho fraternity delitto said that when he was seen by the person at the rock the person ran toward alpha chi rho delitto said he then went to get help from some of my brothers rick mingione 75 president of alpha chi rho said he didn't know if alpha chi rho brothers were responsible for the fire 463,000 surplus won't cancel increases in tuition glick says by maria zu mas the excess of income over ex penditures transfers and appropriations for the year 1973-74 is going to be about 46,000 according to elmer glick treasurer of the university this is the amount left over from the university's operations and remains an unaudited figure at this time president w deming lewis annual financial report is expected to appear in the next few weeks with the exact figures glick said that despite the surplus the 200 increase in annual tuition fees was necessary becuase 70 per cent of the university's income is based on tuition money inflation is not stopping he explained we know expenses in the future will jump ahead as long as prices increase at seven eight or nine per cent per year and moat of our income comes from tuition fees we must raise the price glick said that the university collects tuition money at the beginning of the semester to pay salaries for the semester but does not use all the money at one time we buy commercial papers with the remaining amount glide said but the interest rates are not constant in fact it is expected that the federal reserve board will drop the rates in the near future by action of the board of trustees the surplus money is credited to a reserve fund for future contingencies on the university's balance sheet the trustees must approve all withdrawals a figure like this can be a deception glick warned deferred maintenance and depreciation on buildings are not charged to the university's operating account therefore these extra ex penditures which could total a couple of hundred thousands dollars could wipe out the surplus for example work on the chapel and playing fields and painting the steel b&w photo by schadt john j karakash elmer w glick two groups investigating small-scale law school by ed fiedler an ad hoc forum committee formed last spring and a committee formed by eric ottervik vice-president for planning are both working on a scaled-down law school proposal the board of trustees when they heard the original law school proposal was impressed with the academic angles it was the dollar issue which stalled the board said eric ottervik after the board of trustees rejected the original proposal an ad hoc forum committee for the law school was for med and chaired by then-forum chair man hugh flesher the purpose of that committee flesher said was to attempt to look at the original 9-million cadillac project and see if a less-expensive version could be drawn up although there is some question as to whether lehigh is willing to take less than a ' cadillac " the committee's findings included a figure of one-half million dollars to prime the pump and get a law school started ottervik said that his position on the law school is neutral but he said it was obvious there was still a lot of interest in the law school and the issue wasn't going to be dropped the board said it was willing to look at a law school again in a few years ot tervik said but you don't wait a few years to begin thinking about it he created his own committee to study a scaled-down law school rather than utilizing the existing ad hoc forum committee because he 7 said the forum is too politically-oriented to look at the matter in a slow deliberate way there is an overlap in the membership of the two committees he noted ralph lindgren associate professor of philosophy is chairman of ottervik's committee the other members are professor w beall fowler of physics jata^hßata^baßam al.^.l.^.l.^.o*s^.»ass»sms»sl photo by tuller during and after flame rtoe high around the rock at the driveway to sigma alpha mu fraternity at left at right fire engines come to the scene of the fire see engineering page 5 see early page 4 see smaller page 5 see tuition page 7 no paper there will be no issue of the brown & white on friday sept 27 the next issue will be on tuesday oct 1