Brown and White Vol. 89 no. 46

              lehigh university brown and white vol 89 — no 46 215-866-0331 bethlehem pa friday april 21 1978 lewis links faculty morale to economy by ken bandler faculty morale is a real problem at lehigh university president deming lewis said tuesday he termed it a national problem and cited the economic status of the university teaching profession as the main cause lewis expressed satisfaction with the present condition of communications between the administration and faculty lewis m a meeting with editors of the brown and white covered a wide range of university topics among these lewis said administration communications with students for planning the proposed plaza highrise was better than on past construction projects the dispute with the city of bethlehem over the brodhead will is still pending but lewis hopes funds from the will could be allocated to the plaza the president voiced opposition to a home club proposal to offer no-need wrestling scholarships ■ lewis endorsed a forum resolution adopted last saturday calling on him to meet regularly with forum leaders historically raises for faculty that the university could afford to give have been modest compared to the cost of living lewis said this is disturbing to faculty as well as to staff and administrators he continued it is true of universities across the nation he said lewis said faculty morale also was low because the university's payments to tiaa-cref the faculty retirement plan were adjusted to offset part of the m crease m social security taxes the adjustment has had a very serious adverse affect on the benefits upon retirement he continued the administration is working with the faculty com pensation committee to correct the retirement benefits situation lewis said the committee created unanimously by the faculty m march has met six times with the administration to discuss faculty salaries and compensation lewis said it is a little premature to disclose details of those meetings the problems in volved are quite complex he said no lack of communication in his first public answer to faculty charges of ad ministration insensitivity lewis said there has never been any lack of communication on our part he ex plained that sometimes communications channels through the vice presidents and deans do not work well affecting faculty morale however lewis pointed out that the administration has never failed to discuss matters with any faculty member or student who wanted to discuss them lewis expressed satisfaction with the communications between the administration and student members of the plaza review board during the planning process for the proposed plaza highrise i believe there were more changes m the plans for this building as a result of student input than any other building on the campus with which i am familiar but sooner or later we have to make up our mind and move forward lewis said m explaining last week's approval of the administration's plaza plan by the b&w photo by glickaaan university president deming lewis defends university policy decisions to the brown and white editorial board m an interview tuesday board of trustees delays decision on plaza highrise by ed bogucz a final decision concerning plans for the proposed plaza highrise would not be made by the university board of trustees this week trustee frank rabold said wednesday rabold told the brown and white sunday that he had expected his physical plan ning and plant pp&p committee to have been able to present a final proposal to the board at their meeting yesterday he said wednesday that several details of the project remained to be determined but declined tc explain what problems were delaying the trustees decision a report concerning the progress of planning for the highrise would be presented to the trustees rabold said wednesday however we do not intend to ask the board for final approval at this time he said last week the trustee executive com mittee — a group of five board officers — approved an administration plan for the residence project proposed to be con structed on the site of the university owned college theater the approval of the executive com mittee gave the administration the power to proceed with necessary commitments relative to the proposed plaza project according to a confidential trustee report obtained by the brown and white the decision of the top officers of the board must be ratified by the entire board before construction of the residence facility can begin the executive committee may act before the trustees june meeting on behalf of the entire board to approve final plans for the project so that construction of the building will not be delayed rabold said thomas verbonitz ivory b*w photo by banet ivor richard british ambassador to the united nations explained the race relations nromem m sonth africa monday m packard l»h andharhnm high-level shift moves verbonitz under ottervik thomas verbonitz director of adminis trative services will report to eric ot tervik vice president for planning rather than richard spriggs vice president for administration the major organizational change effective last monday was an nounced in a memo from university president deming lewis the major objective of the shift is to enable the president to devote additional time to increasingly important matters of long term significance the memo stated spriggs will assume certain additional duties within the office of the president according to the memo lewis told editors of the brown and white tuesday that ottervik's respon sibilities would now include planning and services ottervik's title could be changed to vice president for planning and ser vices but lewis said this probably would not happen athletic group to research wrestling no-need grants by jim morrison the visiting committee on athletics must do much research before reaching a decision on the proposal to give no-need scholarships to wrestlers according to morgan cramer committee chairman cramer said the proposal currently is being examined by the committee prior to making a recommendation to the board of trustees the committee is discussing the proposal with various parties at the university and is comparing it with aid programs at other institutions cramer said cramer added that a similar proposal was defeated by the committee several years ago the current proposal cramer said is more tempered and could be something more acceptable than the other one was however he continued the committee plans to take its time m deciding and no decision has been discussed as yet the committee may make a decision before the june 2 meeting of the board of trustees cramer added according to the head coaches of five intercollegiate sports a single standard for financial aid in athletics at the university is desirable reservations head football coach john whitehead had some reservations about the no-need see coaches page 10 see student page 4 see otter vik page 9 inside ; secretaries union p 4 wlv ft defended p 5