Brown and White Vol. 89 no. 12

              lehigh university brown and white bethlehem pa tuesday october 11 1977 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 113 m till 3-month communications breakdown preceded transfer plans liss says by michele macdonald tliere was a breakdown of communi cations between the affirmative action office and its supervisor thomas ver bonitz from may until aug 15 when verbonitz proposed that the office be transferred according to lora liss af firmative action officer i don't know what his motivation was liss said but there was a complete lack of communications between us for three months she added that she sent several reports to verbonitz during the period and never heard any response from him at all verbonitz director of administrative services said he had communications with liss m may but may not have had con tact with her the rait of the summer he said it was difficult to see persons under his direction then because of differing vacation schedules liss was on vacation from aug 1 through aug 15 verbonitz's proposal to transfer the affirmative action office stressed the necessity of day to day supervision of the affirmative action officer he said the lack of contact with liss during the summer did not influence the proposal which was based on the affirmative action office's performance from november to april the affirmative action office is responsible for identifying conditions discriminatory to women and minorities and for recommending improvements the office's transferral from ad ministrative services to the personnel office was announced last week m a deming lewis faculty concerned over liss transfer by linda pickens most of the 42 faculty staff and ad ministrators who signed letters of concern to university president deming lewis seem willing to compromise with the administration about the transfer of af firmative action office and its officer lora liss to the personnel office the transfer of the office announced last week was the third m three years to lower ranking supervisors we hope the administration doesn't take this as an attack according to robert rosenwein department chairman of social relations the people who signed the letter just wanted clarification and explanation rosenwein and robert barnes depart ment chairman of philosophy drafted a letter of concern signed by 17 persons including 11 department heads another letter was drafted by barbara frankel associate professor of an thropology m the department of social relations a total of 25 woman members of the faculty and professional staff signed frankel's letter which reflected the strong interest women m the university have m affirmative action frankel said both letters were sent to lewis m late september and objected to the transfer of the office the move was proposed by thomas verbonitz director of ad ministrative services m a oroposal sent to the administration aug 15 i'd venture to say it's just a bad move said nathan harris assistant dean of students it's a very sad situation in spite of the justifications offered by the grade-seller search lacks concrete facts by ken handler the administration's investigation into the grade-buying scheme revealed months ago that five undergraduates allegedly paid an as yet unidentified person to change their grades today ad ministrators disagree as to whether that identity ever will be determined the five students told investigators of an unidentified person who lured them into news analysis the scheme and gave them instructions for payment procedures only three of the students ever met this person whom they described only as a male in his early 30s i have no information as to whether there is such a person or who he might be at this point said austin gavin executive consultant to the university president and coordinator of the in vestigation all we've got is hearsay one administrator said recently that the unidentified grade seller has his tracks well-covered and will never be found arthur mann associate dean of students and case officer for the discipline com mittee shares that pessimism as things stand now i don't see any substantial lead to any particular person suspicion is there but you can't do anything with suspicion he said however gavin exhibits a sizable degree of confidence that the mystery will be solved hopefully we will get it together and it will fit like a jigsaw puz zle he said some information indicates the scheme was done without the aid of someone currently or formerly working m the registrar's office according to gavin however this is not definite he said the anonoymous letter sent to four administrators m early may which prompted the investigation has been supplemented since by bits of information much of it hearsay from one source or another gavin explained sources have included students presently enrolled at the university and former students in one case someone who graduated several years ago provided information gavin has received long distance phone calls relaying bits of in formation a couple of weeks ago gavin received an anonymous phone call the caller was fishing for information and not offering any gavin explained he caid the caller may have been the author of the anoymous letter nevertheless the total number of people offering information whether bits of evidence or merely hearsay has been very few both gavin and mann maintain that many more students have some knowledge of details m the grains-buying scheme and fall graduation btw photo by haoenbuch doctor of laws u,s rep fred rooney stressed reform of she federal govern ment's power m his address at the 99th annual founder's day activities rooney and three other guests received honorary degrees from the university sunday m grace hall university has surplus of 15,000 by caryn gorbunoff the university showed a 15,000 budget surplus for the fiscal year 1976-77 ac cording to john woltjen newly appointed university treasurer woltjen said the university was m a better position than most institutions financially this is due to prudent budget management he said elmer glick former university treasurer predicted last year a possible 150,000 deficit for 1976-77 last year the university had a surplus of 160,000 m the combined residence and dining budget the university had a 568,000 overall budget surplus m 1974-1975 university income is generated from four sources the largest source is student fees such as tuition room and board fees other sources are endowment in vestments gifts and grants and miscell aneous donations i look at the budget as the development of the programs for the university not necessarily the development of a mechanical process that has to do with dollar allocation the budget tells the community what will happen m a given year woltjen said woltjen who succeeded glick oct 1 explained university programs are dic tated by available resources but that certain programs may be given priority so that funds are made available in this way the budget and programming work together he said certain aspects of the university are self-perpetuating these include income see tight page 9 see secretive page s see transfer page 4 see supervisors page 4 inside 1-78 delayed p 5 trembley park p 8 gridders'4ih p 12 next issue the next issue of the brown and white will appear on friday oct 21 due to mid-semester break ad vertising deadline for that issue is wednesday oct 19 at 4:30 p.m