Brown and White Vol. 89 no. 37

              lehigh university brown and white vol 8f - no 37 bethlehem pa tuesday march 7 1978 21s-ttt-0831 students recommend birkel reconsideration by ed bogucz the seven student members of the plaza review board friday called on the ad ministration to consider student housing in the off campus birkel estate homes in stead of the proposed 4th street highrise given that the new mayor is willing to consider the university's purchasing of the birkel estates we urge the ad ministration to seriously study the possibility of obtaining the birkel estates and then using the college theater site for something that would benefit the city more directly the students said in a letter to william quay dean of students although there will be problems in obtaining these houses we feel that this should be pursued rather than the plaza project the letter continued paul marcincin who became mayor of bethlehem in january last week told the brown and white that city officials would be willing to reconsider a university plan to house students in the birkel estate homes three years ago pressure from the previous mayor gordon mowrer forced the university to abandon a plan which would have housed 216 students in the 18 double homes along birkel avenue in talking with students we have found significant interest in birkel the student board members said in their letter we do not see any enthusiasm . . . from our fellow students for the proposed plaza highrise the letter stated eric ottervik vice president for plan ning told the brown and white last week the administration would reconsider the birkel project only if current negotiations for the proposed highrise fell through the plaza project has been the only plan for new residence space the administration has considered seriously for the past 13 months the students letter was part of a report they submitted to the administration containing their recommendations con cerning plans for the highrise in addition to urging the administration to study a possible birkel housing project the students report also detailed the minimum specifications required for the plaza plans to be acceptable to students see story page 5 forum vii chairman brian finn 78 a member of the plaza review board said he thought the administration would probably not consider a birkel housing plan despite the students request at this point there are too many ad ministrators committed to the plaza project finn said he explained that many administrators became committed to the project when it was first proposed because it looked like a good way to solve the housing problem but times have changed finn con tinued i think it's time for people to reconsider their commitments the birkel homes are an attractive housing option because they are close to campus they provide a popular residence alternative and rooms in the homes probably would rent for less than residence space in the plaza finn said b&w photo hy bandler meet the press president jimmy carter fields a question during a half-hour press conference with college editors and media directors approximately 200 students attended the session carter commends student initiative by ken bandler college students have an ability and a freedom to make their voices ex traordinary in their effect president jimmy carter said friday i don't think there is a dormancy among college-age students he continued carter spoke at a press conference with college newspaper editors and media directors in the old executive office building approximately 200 students attended a half-hour session the president has allotted 20 half-hour sessions during the year for non washington editors to meet with him i hope you won't relinquish your right standing and responsibility for in dependent analysis and deep inquisitiveness and expressions of concern and other expressions of criticism when public officials like myself don't reach the standards that you set for our country carter told the students carter pointed out that college-age students were a major force in the work of martin luther king . . . deploring an unnecessary and ill-advised war and recommending methods for improving the quality of our environment the same opportunity for expression exists for college-age students today as it did for past generations of young people he said carter asked the students to join him in a partnership to make our great country even greater he expressed hope that students could help him discern those kinds of things like peace fairness decency human rights and honesty carter fielded questions during most of the session the questions covered a wide range of topics including tuition relief abortion and the federal reserve board april recommendation due on coed living experiment by phil klein a decision will be made in june on whether williams house should be made coed room-by-room for the 1979-1980 academic year milton grannatt chairman of the visiting residence committee to the board of trustees said the committee will arrive at a recommendation at its meeting in mid-april the matter will then be put to vote at the june meeting of the board of trustees he said grannatt said the committee members haven't had an opportunity to visit the residence halls he said information from housing people will influence the committee's recommendation no students or outsiders will be present at the april meeting he noted student input dave van doren 78 forum representative to the board of trustees said he would like to see the visiting residence committee return on campus after april for student input before a decision is made in june grannatt said interested parties could communicate their point of view by send university staffer enters primary by christoph szechen yi donald ritter university manager of research program development has been announced as one of two republican candidates opposing state representative fred rooney d-pa for the 15th u.s congressional district seat ' ritter 37 a new york native sought an east penn school district director's seat in 1971 he was graduated from lehigh in 1961 and received his masters and doc torate degrees from massachusetts in stitute of technology he has been with lehigh since 1969 and assisted in ad ministering 6 million in research the coopersburg-area resident recently changed his political affiliation from the democratic party to the republican prior to that he had been registered in dependent although he admitted he is a novice in the political arena ritter emphasized his experience in washington obtaining research funds and the urgency of drawing people's attention to the govern ment's energy program and the health of industry one cannot simply stand by and get angrier and angrier about the way things are going the president's energy program is in shambles and the ad ministration is trying to put a band-aid on the vital steel industry's problems he said hitter commenting on his reason for entering the political scene said i sense this is the right time for the republican party it wants to grow strong by opening its organization to fresh ideas and new people ritter commenting on his reason for entering the political scene said i sense philadelphia and washington d.c as further reasons for seeking election to congress donald ritter see coed page 11 see carter page'l4 see manager page 12 inside : state fines p 5 mini courses p 10 eiwa results p 16