Brown and White Vol. 87 no. 14

              lehigh university brown and white vol 87 — no 14 bethlehem pa friday october 24 1975 i 215-866-0331 forum ruling remains valid sarubbi says by ken bandler the forum academic environment committee has determined that resolutions abolishing saturday classes adopted by the forum m 1971 remain valid and that the issue was over politicized robert sarubbi committee chairman and associate professor of mechanics told the forum monday afternoon about saturday quizzes sarubbi reported his committee needs more in formation to find out what has hap pened special times have been set aside to give quizzes to multi-section courses to achieve more uniform grading he ex plained sarubbi said the committee expects to have a proposal about saturday quizzes by the next forum meeting he added it is not yet certain whether there will be a meeting of the committee with the faculty com mittee on educational policy about saturday quizzes ferdinand beer chairman of the forum priorities planning and development committee pp&d and chairman of mechanical engineering and mechanics b&w photo by heidecorn eric ottervick libsch reports increase in funds for research despite heavy cutbacks m national research spending the university received a 14.5 per cent increase m research funds according to joseph libsch vice president for research the national science foundation nsf a federal agency which makes grants specifically for basic and applied research m science and engineering reported an 8 per cent decline m real spending on basic research according to an article last summer m the chronicle of higher education according to the article this is the sharpest percentage decline ever recorded by nsf according to libsch nsf research grants make up about 25 per cent of the total research support to the university one of the most critical phases m the use • of university research funds has been the new incentive plan libsch said in ap propriate situations ' the university charges an indirect cost m addition to the direct costs of research he said this cost as direct university income helps pay for services that make research possible he added the plan allows the university to share m increased research funds m order to maintain and start new research efforts outside maintenance firm hired to supervise over custodial staff by michael silverman and annette taylor approximately 200 employes now working for the university will be em ployed by allied maintenance corp as of nov 1 allied will be contracted by the university to manage campus custodial and maintenance services the announcement was made monday night by eric ottervik vice president for planning at a meeting of university personnel involved m the change sharon drager assistant dean of students con currently made the announcement at a meeting of the gryphon society the employees affected are custodial and maintenance personnel from the departments of residence halls and buildings and grounds except for campus police and telephone operators according to ottervik the office and professional staff of buildings and grounds will also remain as university employes because of allied's professional ap proach to the training supervision and productivity of employes we anticipate increased economies services and ef ficiencies m many ways otterfik said the reason for the change he said at the meeting is the university's inexperience m providing proper training and professional opportunities for all em ployes in the long run they allied will be able to provide leadership and experience which has not been here m the past said david lee director of residence halls operations perhaps with more training employes could work more efficiently and take on added responsibilities which could result m reduction m the size of the staff ac cording to lee reductions would not occur through lay-offs and firings but rather through attrition or employees retiring lee said although allied will now have hiring and firing power over the employes ottervik said we cannot stress too strongly that no employe will be losing a job because of this change every involved employe will continue with allied with exactly the same salary and fringe benefits as he or she now has insurance coverage tuition payments and pension benefits will also be the same with allied as they have been with the university the only change he said is that all employes will work for allied rather than the university and will be under a different level of supervision robert w numbers director of buildings and grounds commented that we will be handling buildings and grounds as m the past all work will be going through our office numbers said that to the best of his knowledge buildings and grounds will be controlling the operations while allied will be supplying the manpower lee stressed that allied works for lehigh university he said the university has an agreement with allied and could terminate the contract if things don't work out the university will be consulted on all changes m custodial and maintenance operations he added allied will have office space • m the bottom of rathbone hall to facilitate communication on a daily basis lee said lee explained that allied will have a project manager on campus and three supervisors responsible to him the housekeeping supervisor will tem porarily be housed m our offices he said frank cancilliere project manager for allied will supervise the university's custodial and maintenance services and will also have an office m rathbone hall ed salmon assistant director of per sonnel for allied at the employe's meeting explained that allied employs over 20,000 maintenance and custodial personnel and skilled tradesmen throughout the united states and has a great deal of knowledge and experience m the supervision of these areas the company provides maintenance and new grade requirement proposed for gryphons dean of students william quay has proposed that members of the gryphon society now be required each year to have an average that is at least equivalent to that of their class gryphons have been expected to keep only a 2.0 average the announcement of quay's proposal followed the issuance of a job description for gryphons both developments have riled a number of gryphons although disturbance over the description has subsided gary liddick 76 gryphon society president asked gryphons m a meeting monday to discuss quay's proposal later with area coordinators m order to organize and present their grievances liddick said some gryphons were upset at the grade proposal it was dropped like a bombshell he said liddick said the gryphon society will attempt to revise the proposal but he does not know whether it will succeed liddick said the proposed grade requirement would affect a substantial number of gryphons even though the overall average for the gryphon society is a 2.9 which is above the overall university average although he acknowledged that he has heard that some gryphons may resign liddick said he does not know how many are involved or whether the reasons stemmed from the recent developments he said some gryphons had already planned to resign because of personal reasons one gryphon remarked at the monday meeting that if members are forced to earn a higher average the freshmen might be neglected quay said however that a 2-0 average is too low and added that since gryphons are m key leadership roles they should set a good example for freshmen quay said he felt this would be an in centive for gryphons to work harder but he said some waivers would be granted for extenuating circumstances once the decision is finalized quay said it would only apply to upcoming gryphons the job description was developed so that new gryphons who are m the process of being selected will be able to review it before signing a contract drager said liddick said gryphons were originally upset at the description because of a misunderstanding he said gryphons felt they weren't consulted but the description was only a first draft liddick added and there now has been ample review and revision he said gryphons are now satisfied with the description liddick said many of the duties listed m the description were accepted as a matter of course but that other provisions were new and controversial elliott michael 76 said one of the original provisions of the description stated that gryphons should limit time spent with personal friends m order to develop better relations with their fresh men he said this was changed to read that gryphons should spend sufficient time m their halls to develop relationships in the first job description it also stated that gryphons should have some ex perience m working with individuals this was changed to state that a gryphon must be able to reach out and establish a rap port with others a provision which limited a gryphon's academic load to 16 hours was deleted m the revised copy see maintenance page 4 see library page 6 see increase page 6 inside op ed p 3 weekender p 4 maine preview p 8