Brown and White Vol. 94 no. 13

              lehigh university brown and white vol 94 — no 13 bethlehem pa tuesday october 19 1982 215)861-4184 by sarita singh black student's guide draws mixed reaction statements such as lehigh has its share of ignorant professors making racist comments and black-white interaction at lehigh leaves much to be desired are to be published next spring in a black students guide to colleges compiled and edited by barry beckham head o f the graduate writing program in brown university's english depart ment the book provides statistics on 114 col leges concerning the number of black students and faculty tuition and finan cial aid a two-to three page essay is also included which evaluates black-white interaction counseling and support ser vices faculty and the social scene for black students the information for the essays came from questionnaires filled out by five black students from each campus the report is one-sided not unbi ased it was one institution writing about another institution with which it is in direct competition said roger wat kins , assistant dean of students who dis tributed the questionnaire for the university it's an ongoing controversy some students believe yes it's true but as a whole it's not true according to andre hanks 84 president of the black stu dent's union bsu presented in another way the statements could be true the way it's presented is more than negative it's biased i don't even like talking about it it's just like the new york times guide of last year anyone with common sense wouldn't take it too seriously accord ing to samuel missimer director of admissions mark holmes 83 a member of the bsu remarked this is not a represen tative sample no scientist should ever use the opinion of just five people how ever good or bad to represent a substan tially larger body i hope everyone who reads it does not go by this essay alone they should visit and talk to students at lehigh hanks added one statement in the essay concerned racist professors watkins disagreed with the statement in the oct 16 issue of the morning call assuring that the black students i am sure would bring it to the attention of the administration and something would be done holmes said he had never felt any prej udice from professors yet he said most black students would like more black faculty and administrators right now there are two black faculty members out of 350 according to the report with respect to black-white interac tion the university did not rate very well there is some interaction but on the whole i feel most white students don't consider us at all and are ignorant of what black people are like " one student was quoted as saying in the essay kevin greene 83 a member of the bsu sug gested a good way for white students to see what it s 1 ike to be black at lehigh is for them to go to a predominantly black school like grambling or even into the bsu many black students agree with holmes who said black-white interac tion is not that bad here it's just a pre dominantly white environment and we have to adapt felicia howell 86 another member of the bsu added we're forced to deal with white people all the time but sometimes if a black person sits at a table in the cafeteria white students will move to another table as to the statement that only one out of folks festival the voices of the members of the university choir filled packer chapel saturday the choir led by steven sametz performed in the annual parents day concert university re-evaluated in latest college guide by kendra kaye twenty students have received questionnaires to aid in a re-evaluation of the university for next year's publica tion of the selective guide to colleges 1983-84 according to linda seeloff assistant to the president last year the publication of the new york times selective guide to colleges 1981-82 was written by edward fiske education editor of the new york times and included a controversial description of the university as a beer-swilling jock school for the 1982-83 school year fiske pub lished a new edition which was essen tially a reprint of the first book for next year's edition however fiske is solicit ing information and re-evaluating all schools in the book seeloff said the administration received 20 questionnaires which were sent to a selected group of students we tried to draw a cross section of students whether they be members of residence halls or fraternities or sororities we did not just choose leaders and we also balanced the group in terms of curriculum we tried to choose a group to accurately portray the institution " seeloff said the questionnaires involve informa tion about curriculum social life area environment and living conditions according to william quay dean of stu dents quay stressed we did not intend in any way to rig or manipulate we want to let the students be frank in their appraisal of the university questionnaires were sent not only to students but also to members of the administration including the president the director of institutional research and the director of financial aid of each school seeloff said noting that these surveys require mostly statistical information the a im of both the student and adm in istration questionnaires is to provide fiske with accurate information for his book seeloff commented the concept of trying to capture the characters of dif ferent institutions is very interesting but they missed the mark last time some of what they said was accurate but a beer swilling jock school is not an accurate portrayal of lehigh lehigh is very diverse and i hope that comes through heath's new observations spur university discussion a haverford college psychology pro fessor's observations of university life were presented to a male-female rela tions committee last week for discus sion according to martha mahoney 84 a member of the committee for the second time in two years the observations of the university atmos phere compiled in a report by haverford professor douglas heath are being used as a focal point for discussion of possible changes in university life according to mahoney we're using this report because it was prepared by an outside expert who could give us an objective view that we could use as a basis for discussion and decisions said ken foster 84 another member of the group last saturday the group met heath and got his first-hand perspective of the male ethos of lehigh . ' ' according to one group member who asked not to be iden tified heath seemed to be relaying the message that the faculty could and should play a more important role and create a moral aura for the university since they are the main link between the institution and student life the same student said that heath seemed to con vey a great deal of disbelief when he learned of the low level of actual faculty involvement in student affairs out of the classroom setting he added heath also believed there was no actual vent for student opinions into the university and the main reason for student apathy was because the stu dents needed to feel that their ideas financial status cited indecision to close chapter by michele gerencher a spokesman for the sigma phi alumni corporation said the chapter's financial status is the only reason we are closing the house " greg confair vice-preident of the cor poration and alumni adviser to the house said our position on what is hap pening in the house is different although the results will be the same as what was previously released by the dean of stu dents office the house will be closed for the spring semester he said but only because it is not financially viable to keep it open unfair said he did not agree with the portion of the release that said the frater nity members were academically infe rior last semester the brothers had a cumulative average over 2.45 he said confair added that since seven of the 10 brothers are engineers their average was not wonderful but not really terri ble for sophomore engineers the brothers academic performance was not a concern we had he said according to confair the corporation does not feel that the current member ship failed to uphold their end of the bargain he said in the summer of 1981 alumni were given the option to re-open the house with the 10-member pledge class they did the best they could con fair said we owe a debt of gratitude to them for trying to make it work see black page 6 see heath's page 4