Brown and White Vol. 86 no. 4

              brown and white vol m — no 4 bfithlehem pa tuesday september 17 it74 866-0331 wmm new affirmative action director to upgrade status of minorities by amy satuloff the university has recently appointed its first full-time director of the af firmative action program the ap pointment of lora liss to the post is ef fective immediately the program is designed to improve the status of minority groups at every level of the institution it involves recruitment and all other procedures and practices of the institution since arriving on campus two weeks ago liss has been familiarizing herself with the university she said she sees her role as one of an analyst and an additional resource to help in recruitment according to liss the recently increased effort to recruit minority staff members and students can be broadened liss said the top priority of her program at the present time is to comply with the federal requirements and guidelines of utilization analysis specifically to uncover areas not being tapped compared to the available labor pool the method used to achieve these goals will be one of sensitizing the university to possible changes effective change cannot be administered radically but must in stead be linked to tradition so all involved will nave an understanding of the tran sition she said according to liss increasing the numbers of minority group members on campus will develop a more comfortable atmosphere no individual is being displaced from his or her position she said as there is a vacancy preference will be given to a minority group member there is no area that is exempt from the affirmative action program she added liss said she was impressed with the efforts of the engineering school to reach black high school students and encourage them to attend college and pursue careers in engineering liss taught sociology at fairleigh dickinson university for four years where she said she had much interaction with minority students she said she felt a need to commit herself to expanding the op portunities of these people and sees her position at the university as a great challenge and very exciting builder says rh-11 deadline was not set according to james tiefenbrunn assistant director of residence halls andrcyn and schnabel contractors for rh-11 made a verbal commitment to complete at least three units by aug 15 sam norley " spokesman for the con tractors refuted this claim tiefenbrunn said that construction was to be slowed on some units in order to have three units ready for student occupation norley said that andrycn and scnabel , had made no commitment to complete rh-11 before december although the brown and white talked with several administration officials no one would explain why action was not taken to guarantee an early completion date no official was able to say definitely if any proposal such as a penalty clause financial difficulties stall convocation center plan by linda bondemore construction of a field house part of the planned 6-million athletic and con vocation facility in saucon valley began last week a 6,000-seat arena originally scheduled for construction has been delayed ac cording to eric ottervik vice-president for planning ottervik said the main problem is money the convocation cen ter is a major objective of the first phase of the 67-million 10-year new century fund drive although 23.5 million has been committed over the first two years not enough has been designated for the convocation center said ottervik dollars are not always where they are needed he said the 2-million arena would have to be started within the next six months in order to meet the scheduled completion date set for the fall cf 1976 according to ottervik with the present financial situation this does not seem feasible the 60,000-square foot field house should be completed by next fall at a cost of ap proximately 1.3-million said ottervik the field house which includes ah indoor track will be available for intramurals and sports practice although conceptual drawings for the arena have been started no final designs have been made when completed the ifc reviewed initiation practices following death of mitch fishkin by linda bondemore the death of mitch fishkin 76 oft sept 13 1973 helped bring the subject of fraternity pranks up for further review during the year since fishkin's death the interfraternity council ifc has changed its constitution to further restrict pranks according to ifc president steve nowick 75 the ifc has done sub stantial revision to the constitution since the p ral-hau tkfftßrtmfnot tj^&tktaw^&mi he said the pledge fraternity relations committee pfrc had been informed before the incident that changes and revisions were needed the fishkin death only served to underline the fact that we were doing the right thing nowick said last year the executive committee of the ifc in conjunction with robert reeves ifc advisor formed the pfrc in an effort to establish a workable definition of hazing that could put the situation under ifc control the committee redefined hazing as any action taken or situation created in tentionally whether on or off fraternity premises to produce mental or physical discomfort the committee decided it would be impossible to list every activity which constitutes hazing but did include some specifics in their definition among these are paddling in any form creation of excessive fatigue physical and psychological shocks kidnapping which creates a potentially dangerous situation morally degrading or humiliating games and activities late work sessions which interfere with scholastic activities and any other activities which are not con sistent with fraternal law ritual or policy or the regulations and policies under the lehigh university code of conduct for starjents according to nowick the pledges are well-informed of ifc policy and have channels through which they can combat any hazing with which they come in contact charges are brought before the ifc judiciary committee the committee evaluates each case and has the power to assess a maximum fine of 300 to any house found guj*!y of committing in fractions against the hazing amendment the pledge review board hears ibnilahiiiii 11 m1 rntaafasaialn ariflaatj^frarri any source it investigates every complaint and refers cases to the ifc judiciary for judgment honors proposal includes language requirements by kevin flanagan an ad hoc committee of the college of arts and science committee is formulating a new honors ba program which will include a five-semester language requirement the proposal is expected to recommend that the present interdepartmental honors program which contains no language requirement be discontinued the university faculty voted last year to eliminate the language requirement from the regular bachelor of arts program joseph maurer professor of classics and chairman of the ad hoc committee said that the report is not finalized but that there will be a language requirement in the proposal it the honors ba program is designed for those who want a rigorous academic program there will be an open meeting at which a person can ask questions or make suggestions before we have the final report maurer said norman melchert professor of philosophy and chairman of the arts and science committee appointed the ad hoc committee last year to look at the honors program in the college of arts and science and to work out new proposals the program will not replace depart mental honors but may replace in terdepartmental honors melchert said he added that creative concepts courses will not be included in the proposed honors ba program the proposal now contains specific requirements in english language social science mathematics natural science and humanities a senior thesis and comprehensive examinations in the area of concentration will be included the special committee has been working through the summer in order to meet the deadline for the proposal which was originally oct 31 but has since been moved ahead to mid-october so the honors w_bbf yy>wmimmmmmmmimmmmmmmimmmmxrr:y saw photo by tonnell eric v ottervik lora liss see rh-11 page 7 see languages page s see field page 7