Brown and White Vol. 89 no. 8

              lehigh university brown and white bethlehem pa tuesday september 27 1977 ttmmgn vol 8f - no 8 forum acc opposition withdrawn by sharan daniel the forum no longer opposes the con struction of the athletic and convocation center acc or the use of university funds for its maintenance according to forum chairman brian finn 78 the acc is a fait accompli he said if we were to oppose it now we'd be hitting our head against a wall we tried and failed last semester forum vii referred the issue of acc construction back to the trustees for further consideration the board decided to proceed with the project over the summer despite forum ob jections the forum also recommended to the board last semester that if the acc was built a special endowment should cover its maintenance costs once it's here it the acc will cost us 100,000 a year ac cording to bruce rosenthal 78 chairman of the forum priorities planning and development committee finn said the trustees opposed the idea because it's not university policy to endow a building they decided instead to maintain the arena on the general university budget rosenthal said he advised the trustees to raise an additional 2 million now to cover maintenance and construction costs rosenthal saying he hopes grace hall will continue to be used for lectures still opposes the arena altogether i would hate to see us get in the position where we only have packard lab on this side of campus to accommodate speakers he said transporting students to saucon valley will cost more than speakers earn for their appearances he explained bruce rosenthal brian finn students admit ignorance of forum's role poll finds byjaynewelty one third of the student body un derstands the purpose of the forum ac cording to a recent forum survey of un dergraduates while 69 per cent of the students admit they know very little about the forum questions in the survey conducted last semester by forum member larry weitener 79 todd siegel 78 and claude kershner 78 were designed to cov er all aspects of university life of the 292 students questioned the represen tation of males to females and white to minority students was close to actual campus ratios as a result of the survey the forum contact subcommittee was established the committee purpose is to alleviate some student problems concerning the forum functions to do this the sub committee plans to provide newsletters and hold informational conferences in dorms and fraternities aiming specifically towards freshmen in addition the survey asked for the students household income for 1976 seventeen per cent of the students reported family incomes between 10,000 19,000,34 per cent between 20,000-$39,000 and 43 per cent with family incomes of more than 40,000 when asked how the university concerts should be funded 71 per cent said both university funding and ticket sales should absorb the cost only 23 per cent said funding should be totally covered by ticket sales five per cent said concerts should be entirely financed by the university approximately so per cent of the students responded favorably to a plan whereby the administration would sub sidize 1 for each student ticket purchased fifty per cent said they opposed a plan which would hold presidents and social chairmen of living groups responsible for the sale of a pre-declared amount of tickets under this plan the concert would not be held if the income generated from the sale of tickets could not cover the concert cost in addition students were questioned whether they had voted in the class elections fifty per cent said they had voted only 51 per cent knew their elected class president questions concerning university in tramural sports concluded that 82 per cent token lecture highlights—frank fi araonti east coast director of the national organization for reform of marijuana laws norml lectured sunday night in packard lab auditorium ftaramonti is responsible for lobbying for the decriminalizatioa of marijuana in new york he suggested students form a locuf chapter of norml b&w photo by glickman highrise committee ideas utilized bybillkimball recent changes made in the plans for the proposed plaza highrise agree with suggestions made by the student advisory committee last semester according to william quay dean of students and committee chairman quay has not called a meeting of the advisory committee < this semester to discuss the changes in the plans however he said he plans to meet with committee members and the forum to give an update before the oct 21 meeting of the board of trustees the university is working toward signing a lease for five floors of the building before that meeting changes in the plans have been alluded to by the administration according to caryn gorbunoff 80 an advisory com mittee member that's fine except that until we see the new plans we don't know what they did and did not do gorbunoff said some suggestions made by the committee last semester concerned area of adequate facilities for lighting bathrooms common lounge areas and kitchen facilities the biggest thing was changing the number of floors in the building for security reasons she said it is a plus that the number of floors was changed the university was working to comply with the committee's suggestions last semester she said however she em phasized i want to see the revised plans because i am not convinced that a highrise is a good alternative type of housing the university seems to be planning to go ahead with the highrise gorbunoff said all the committee can do now is make the highrise better in terms of design she said another committee member jim poulin 79 said more discussion is needed about security room arrangement dining facilities and operation he said the committee members do not know what changes have been made in the highrise plans and what problems still officers oppose academic credit for forurn work by meredith young the forum chairman and vice chairman oppose the proposed awarding of academic credit to students cor forum work according to a brown and white survey of forum leaders the forum academic environment committee formed a new subcommittee earlier this month to investigate the possibility of students receiving credit for their forum work forum chairman brian finn 78 said he wants students to become involved in the forum because they are interested in student government not because they want another credit however he did suggest another alternative whereby a student officer or chairman will maintain full-time student status even if he is not carrying the number of credits required for full-time status in agreement with finn was leonard wenzel chairman of the chemical engineering department and forum vice chairman students involved with the forum wil receive credit for their par ticipation when their transcripts are evaluated for jobs or graduate school he noted see ignorance page 8 see credits page 10 see student page 10 inside : college scholar p 4 poet-athlete p 6 penn downed p 12