Brown and White Vol. 87 no. 26

              lehigh university brown and white bethlehem pa friday december 12 1975 mmmmm 215-866-0331 vol 87 — no 26 tuition board increase of 350 to be recommended by lewis a 350 total increase m tuition room and board will be recommended to the board of trustees albert zettlemoyer provost and vice president told deans and department heads at the annual univer sity budget meeting tuesday zettlemoyer read a statement by university president w deming lewis m which lewis predicted a budget surplus for the current academic year lewis statement said the ad ministration will recommend a 250 in crease m next year's tuition as well as an additional 50 for dining service and 50 for residence halls the increases which would be identical to last year's increases represent a rise of 7.3 per cent such an increase will compare favorably with colleges and universities similar to lehigh lewis stated lewis attributed the anticipated surplus to conservative budgetary planning a consequence of conservative planning is usually a net balance at the end of the year he said in a press conference last december lewis forecast a budget deficit for this year last year however there were many uncertainties m the national economic environment he said m his statement making it difficult to forecast costs for this year because of the anticipated surplus the administration will recommend to the board of trustees additional ap propriations during the remainder of this year of approximately 375,000 lewis said exactly what these appropriations will be for has not been decided but examples of what will be considered are equipment faculty development and deferred maintenance his statement said present estimates indicate that after additional appropriations the university will be left with a net balance of about 135,000 for the current fiscal year about one-half of one per cent of the budget lewis said he said the system of conservative estimating and additional appropriations provides for flexible budget management conservative estimating makes a deficit less likely if things gets unexpectedly worse while the additional appropriations procedure lets the administration put back m the budget expenditures we would have liked to have included m the original budget if we could be sure we could afford it lewis said salary and wage increases to be proposed to the board of trustees will average 7.2 per cent which is ap proximately the same as the current year lewis said five and two-tenths per cent of the budgeted increases will be given at the discretion of each department chairman or head he said he noted that the budgeted cost of employee benefits will increase by ap proximately 9.1 per cent lewis urged the university to make the best use of its limited resources determination of university priorities becomes more and more difficult m these times but we can do better if we all work at it together he concluded b&w photo by baiz w deming lewis recognition of sororities established by jo fineman the university has granted recognition to the three national sororities establishing chapters on campus alpha gamma delta alpha phi and gamma phi beta the dean of students office announced tuesday an official letter of recognition will be sent by william quay dean of students to the active chapters and national sorority offices by the end of next week according to robert reeves assistant dean of students we have approved the sororities m principle we recognize there will be questions coming subsequent that we'll have to work out with the sororities many of these questions we may not even be aware of at this point reeves said he said the decision did not come sooner because everyone m all administrative areas wanted to be satisfied that all aspects of recognition had been reviewed it was not a question of sandbagging the issue reeves said commitments and guidelines the university could make over the long run had to be investigated he added in extending recognition there is one condition we are asking both sides to recognize for the first three years of their existence we would like to review their development as social organizations and m this sense would like to review things like forum passes motion to end saturday quizzes by ken bandler the forum voted unanimously to abolish saturday quizzes at its meeting wed nesday the resolution sponsored by the academic environment committee called for the consideration of five quiz scheduling alternatives to be sent to the faculty's educational policy committee edpol in other business which the forum concluded yesterday a resolution which retains the present lottery system with the modification that those students who were on the waiting list and were denied housing be lotterized with the rising sophomores m the following year was passed by a vote of 24 to 17 the forum also adopted a 15-point plan on residence policy submitted by the residence subcommittee of the student life committee math professor denied tenure brings suit against university by bill kimball a suit against the university is being filed by gary laison assistant professor of mathematics who was denied tenure last spring i am instituting legal proceedings against the university because i believe the action taken against me could not only have disastrous consequences to my life as a teacher and a scholar but also violates the traditional and legally guaranteed rights of faculty and the needs and in terests of students laison said the lehigh university regulations provide that m matters of tenure the administration must concur with the faculty decisions except for compelling reasons " he noted laison said the mathematics depart ment voted to give him tenure twice but the administration still refused to give him tenure the university administration has given the department no reason at all for its action laison said after 14 years of teaching at the university laison was denied tenure and given a terminal contract last spring he began teaching as instructor m 1961 and was appointed assistant professor m 1970 this year laison would have completed six of the seven years required before tenure is granted at the same time laison became assistant professor the univer sity formally adapted rules for tenure laison said that due to the new regulations his case was subject to a variety of interpretations laison said this explains how he was here for 14 years without receiving tenure laison said his seven probationary years were only counted from after the time he was appointed assistant professor this is how his case was interpreted he said the variety of interpretations will be one of the subjects m the litigation he added there was apparently a breach of written contract by the university ferdinand beer chairman of the department of mechanics and mechanical engineering and president of the local chapter of the american association of university professors aaup said m a brown and white interview last semester he declined to elaborate on the comment if the administration can arbitrarily fire me then it can violate university regulations at will and no faculty member is safe from capricious action laison said he said his attorneys have informed the university of their intention to challenge his tenure denial m court albert zettlemoyer vice president and provost was unavailable for comment laison said he believes it is possible that his outspoken political views may be playing a silent role m influencing the administration's actions he said he has been active m struggles against racism political repression militarism and economic insecurity he said he was outspoken m his op position to the vietnam war before it was popular m foreign policy m respect to relations with cuba and chile and m his fight to free angela davis the administration's actions are hard to explain so i am searching for what their reasons might be he said b&w photo by baiz gary laison see forum page 4 see university page 10 inside quadrangular p 12 debaters p 9 b&w poll p 70 richard ul p 6 last issue this is the last issue of the brown and white for the fall semester the first issue of the spring semester will be friday january 23 deadline for advertising m the issue is 4 p.m january 21