Brown and White Vol. 99 no. 29

              the brown and white vol 99 no 29 friday february 14 1992 lehigh university convocation marks new forum constitution by lydia federico news writer students and forum member approved a new forum constitution at a university-wide convocation feb 5 in packer chapel forum member ken hoexter 93 announced the changes made to the constitution the new constitution allows for a total of three students two undergraduate and one graduate to represent the forum at board of trustees meetings prior to the change only two forum members attended the meetings the new constitution also states that after closed forum meetings members are required to open the meeting to any students interested in discussing either new or old business the old constitution had no such requirement according to the new constitution forum members will no longer be required to be a memberof student senate instead forum members will be selected by senate this change will require students to fill out an application and be chosen by the members of senate but students will no longer have to act on both bodies changes to the constitution clarified the definition of quorum stating that there must be 2 1 forum members present to have quorum previously the constitution said 40 percent of the forum members had to be present the last major change enacted by the new constitution addressed the problem of forum's transition meeting each year when new officers were voted into forum there had been discrepancies as to whether the old officers were allowed to vote orif the new officers were to vote the new constitution clarifies when each officer is to take over the small group which attended the convocation was mostly forum members christine cobb 92 forum co-chairman was happy to see the new constitution passed i didn't expect more students to attend because the students who are really interested are on the forum said cobb peter leis 92 went to the convocation to stay involved with campus activities i'm no longer president of my house so i want to continue to be active and i wanted to come out and show my support leis said the new constitution will go to the board of trustees for final approval on apr 3 indoor graduation causes student complaints about ticket availability by wendy elias news writer the number of tickets given to each stu dent for graduation this year will be limited because commencement exercises will be held in the stabler athletic and convocation center extra tickets will be given away through a lottery system run by the senior class offic ers and a limited number of tickets have been set aside for handicapped seating last year graduation was held outside in the stadium barb tallarico university events coordinator said we have had some bad experiences outside in fact we were playing russian roulette there were also extremely poor accommodations for the handicapped inside of stabler we have decent accom modations for the handicapped everyone is closer to the event and it will be air conditioned she said daren blumberg 92 senior class president said seniors can apply for one or two extra tickets through the lottery system a computer program will randomly select the recipients of the extra tickets from the pool of seniors who apply however if you want one ticket you have twice the chance of being chosen as opposed to those who want two he said a letter will be going out by the end of next week telling people exacdy how to apply blumberg said we re basically try ing to accommodate the students and have as many people as we can many students are opposed to graduation being held inside and they feel that they should be able to invite as many family members as they want marc ippolito 92 said they only give b&w photo by shai the new automatic doors to falrchlld martlndale library work by a remote control device that is given to handicapped students at lehlgh handicapped services upgraded by beth nussbaum news writer last fall lehigh responded to the needs of two incoming wheelchair-bound students by installing automatic doors and ramps to several buildings lehigh is required to improve its ex isting handicapped facilities by the re cendy revised americans with disabili ties act passed jan 26 the revised act is a civil rights act pertaining to hiring practices and ben efits for the physically and mentally handicapped it also deals with building related refinements for the handicapped patricia chase director of physical plan ning at lehigh said automatic doors were installed in chandler-ullmann and fairchild martindale library and ramps were built to make campus buildings eas ily accessible to the incoming students although it may appear that the new automatic doors have stopped working these doors have only been revised and are still functional the handicapped students were given remote control units which open the doors automatically like garage door openers said berry richards direc tor of university libraries the decision to make the doors remote control activated was based on safety con siderations and the concern that the staff would get too cold in the winter when the doors opened and closed richards said dan pratt 94 said that lehigh has been helpful giving him everything he needs he and other handicapped students are also given keys to the elevators on campus and are offered assistance using the elevators in addition to making the campus more accessible lehigh also made pratt s room remote control accessible and built him a see seniors page a7 see facilities page a7 lifestyles discusses sex in the 90s page b1