Brown and White Vol. 87 no. 39

              lehigh university brown and white vol 87 — no 39 bethlehem pa tuesday march 9 1976 wmmmmm 215-866-0331 laison tenure denial protested by ellen feldman and dan tillis more than 25 letters written by un dergraduates graduates and alumni have been received by the administration vehemently protesting the decision to deny tenure to assistant professor of mathematics gary laison according to math department teaching assistants a random sampling last week of 12 students who now have or have had laison as a professor produced 11 very positive ap praisals of his teaching effectiveness one student declined to comment john hunt dean of the college of arts and science refused to comment on laison's case because it is under litigation the case is due to come to trial this month a everett pitcher chairman of mathematics and other faculty m the department also refused to comment laison who has been teaching at the university for 14 years was issued a terminal contract last spring m his sixth and final year of probation he said the administration gave him no explanation concerning his tenure denial tenure is to be granted to an individual excelling m two out of three categories according to the university's procedures rules and regulations the categories are effective teaching scholarship and research and service to the university the brown and white contacted 20 students selected at random who are junior or senior math majors or graduate students m mathematics of the 20 12 said they were former or current students of laison's one of the 12 declined comment the remaining 11 all said that laison was well prepared for class and was readily available to help students outside of the classroom the eleven students also said that laison's speech impediment he stutters did not hinder the students learning process because he writes his lectures out on the board graduate math student dave anderson said laison may have been denied tenure because he hadn't published a great deal of material they the administrators don't seem to consider how good a teacher you are lecturer dave maher said thatalthough laison hasn't published a lot of material he has researched more than anyone m the department everyone has respect for his scholarship maher said anderson expressed concern that laison would not be able to find another job why should another school hire you when your old employers denied you tenure he said graduate student donna kumagai said the respect for laison's teaching ability is proven by the letters requesting a review of his case and protesting the issuance of a terminal contract kumagai showed the brown and white more than 25 such let ters she said many were from former students who claimed laison was responsible for much of their success after graduation you've never seen any teacher inspire such respect kumagai said laison said that when students go out of two interested in forum vii chair by peg pfenninger lawrence leder chairman of the department of history and urban studies lecturer david amidon have expressed interest m running for forum vii chairman elections for executive offices will be held during the first session of forum vii on april 10 forum student and faculty representatives will be elected during the last week m march no student has declared interest m the chairmanship of next year's forum this year's chairman raymond bell said the forum was not ready for a student chairman nominations for forum executive position's will be made from the floor during the group's first meeting a candidate must receive more than 50 per cent of votes cast to be elected neither leder or amidon has for mally announced his candidacy for the position amidon said he will definitely make his decision before the semester break leder said he is not actively seeking the chairmanship but will run if i am nominated i realize the very heavy burdens the job entails and anyway this is not a job that someone should actively campaign for leder said adding the forum doesn't need politics leder was interested m the forum chairmanship last year but was not nominated during elections bell was the only person nominated for the position several forum members asked amidon to run for chairman last year but he declined saying he would con sider running for chairmanship of forum vii bell refused to comment on which prospective candidate he would sup port he said the next chairman should be well-known to the university with secure standing and have the support of the administration faculty and students david amidon lawrence leder gordon mowrer by jeff bloom and dave klucsik city exerted political pressure wants university-built high-rise second of a three-part series top officials of the city of bethlehem exerted strong political pressure which prevented the university from entering into a leasing arrangement of 36 townhouses on birkel avenue last sum mer after renovations the houses would have accommodated 216 students the official reason for opposing the lease deal offered by bethlehem mayor gordon mowrer and city director of community development franklin gaugler was that the university would be expanding outside the boundaries drawn m the lehigh master plan which was filed with the city 13 years ago but the real reason for city opposition to the proposed lease deal may be much more subtle last november mowrer publicly called upon the university to build a high-rise on the site of the college theatre on 4th street m south bethlehem mowrer wants apartment dwellings to be built m the upper floors with scores rented on the street level if the leasing deal went through there would no longer be a need for additional student housing and therefore no need for the university to construct a high-rise politically mowrer seems dependent on lehigh to build the high-rise the bethlehem redevelopment authority has recently purchased a part of fourth street at the corner of new street the city was notified late last week that its bid for federal subsidies from the u.s depart ment of housing and urban development hud to construct a high-rise for senior citizens on the site of the new merchants hotel had been turned down instead hud funds will go to the boroughs of hellertown and northampton for construction of senior citizen housing without hud funds the high-rise probably will not be constructed and the city will be left owning a decayed block with nothing to build on it a high-rise at the new merchants site probably will not be built for at least another year with the university construction of a high rise down the block on 4th street at least some south side revitalization would be shown they lehigh might be the higher wages discussed by teamsters a 1 per hour across-the-board increase m wages will be asked by university employes m contract negotiations with allied maintenance corporation the brown and white has learned the workers will be represented m negotiations by recently elected team sters local 773 tentative demands for contract negotiations were presented by allied employes at a meeting with teamsters representatives saturday allied currently employs approximately 170 maintenance workers grounds keepers and maids who had previously worked for the university approximately 80 employes attended saturday's meeting union negotiators will push for privileges which had been m the workers past contract with the university as well as some modifications according to one source some of the changes will include an increased number of holidays per year for the workers new vacation benefits and changing of the overtime wage policy the brown and white was told some past benefits would be lost under a new contract union organizers told the workers a committee of eight workers will attend negotiating conferences with the union organizers the source said the representatives will try to negotiate a two year pact the brown and white was told richard hantz a teamsters organizer working with the employes refused to comment on the situation until a tentative bargaining agreement is reached with allied see city page 5 special issue the brown and white will publish a ncaa wrestling special issue on march 23 regular issues of the paper will resume on march 26 the b&w will not be published this friday see liason page 11 see leder page 10 inside forum preview p 7 bouton speaks p 8 luv & the elderly p 9 fite night results p 15 nationals preview p 16