Brown and White Vol. 89 no. 13

              lehigh university brown and white vol o 89 ~* no 13 21&-8im331 bethlehem pa friday october 21 1977 bethlehem steel cancels fall recruiting schedules by ed bogucz the bethlehem steel corp has canceled its fall campus recruiting schedule at the university unfavorable business con ditions forced the company to cancel its recruiting activities at all schools it usually has visited a bethlehem steel spokesman said wednesday last year bethlehem steel hired 19 members of the lehigh class of 1977 more than any other employer over the past 20 years the company has employed 197 university graduates which makes it second only to the bell system companies in terms of number of university students hired the recruiting schedule cancellation comes during a nationwide crisis in the american steel industry american steel producers claim that a recent influx of lower-priced materials from european and japanese steel producers has caused layoffs and slowdowns throughout the domestic trade because of business conditions two other steel companies wheeling pittsburgh steel corp and youngstown sheet and tube co , also have canceled fall recruiting activity at the university according to eugene seeloff director of placement services the three steel companies still planning to recruit at the university this fall all have reduced their interview schedules he added one year ago the six steel companies had reserved a total of 36 interview schedules for the current semester seeloff said each interview schedule permits a maximum of 13 interviews he explained as of yesterday nine interview schedules still were reserved he said bethlehem steel had reserved a total of 15 interview schedules between oct 31 and nov 4 seeloff said this recruiting schedule could have permitted a maximum of 195 interviews last year the company interviewed 188 students seeloff said seeloff said bethlehem steel normally recruits only during the fall semester although often companies will add or delete spring interviews as business conditions change dining out today in fortnight center pages colleges back affirmative action in varying ways by linda pickens the means for complying with af firmative action regulations vary widely among members of the lehigh valley association of independent colleges lvaic as well as other institutions comparable to the university according to a brown and white survey of seven such institutions in some institutions administrators also serve as affirmative action officers depending on the needs of the institution the other responsibilities of these ad ministrators often dictate the position of the affirmative action office within each institution muhlenberg bucknell carnegie mellon and the university of pennsylvania are required by law to have a designated af firmative action officer according to officials at these schools the university is required to have an officer because we have research contracts amounting to several million dollars making lehigh a federal contractor said austin gavin executive consultant to the president cedar crest moravian and lafayette do not receive sufficient federal funds to require affirmative action officers and plans according to officials at these schools at bucknell judith becker serves as assistant to the provost as well as af firmative action officer an equal em ployment committee oversees faculty and staff hiring according to becker bucknell has had an affirmative action plan for 10 years and its goals include increasing the number of women and minorities on the staff the progress in numbers hasn't been as much as we'd like but we've made progress in terms of raised con sciousness becker said she added that the administration is behind the program absolutely and that any opposition is not loudly voiced professor joseph kadane chairman of carnegie mellon's affirmative action com mittee has a writ from the president of the university to enforce affirmative action practices if i didn't have that kind of support i'd resign kadane said carnegie mellon's affirmative action plan was written by an affirmative action officer who later resigned she recom mended that the plan be implemented by a planning lag causes delay in arena groundbreaking by jim donahue groundbreaking for the proposed arena in saucon valley has been delayed until sometime in november according to eric ottervick vice president for planning the groundbreaking was originally scheduled for october the reason for the delay is that final architectural drawings for the arena have not been completed he said the architect and the university are working with a professional construction estimator in an attempt to insure that the cost of the arena stays below 3.5 million he said the estimator tells the university how much various aspects of the arena cost if something is too expensive the drawings have to be changed he said the university wants to avoid a situation where it will have to accept bids which put construction costs at a figure much higher than the estimates otter vik said ottervik said he did not know when the final drawings would be completed however he continued there may be some kind of groundbreaking ceremony scheduled for lehigh-lafayette weekend the university has made some progress in raising the remaining 1 million needed for the arena according to paul franz vice president for development an amount of 2.5 million already has been raised franz said he will tell the board of trustees at its meeting today how much additional money has been raised money is being sought in two ways franz said first the university is seeking leadership gifts from friends alumni and foundations the university hopes to raise 750,000 in this manner he said the second way is through the 1978 annual fund franz said the arena has been included as one the objectives for the fund and 250,000 of the money raised for the fund will be used for its construction the 1978 annual fund has a goal of h jorib rosse 40,000 books rotting away in storage forum is told by jerry miller valuable old books and periodicals are rotting away in the service building on 4th street according to ted bahr 80 bahr spoke during courtesy of the floor at wednesday's forum meeting many of the 40,000 volumes stored in the building which is used by allied main tenance are being destroyed by rats and through neglect he said explaining that the building is not air conditioned and is not suitable for book storage books are stacked on the floor he noted bahr said the books should be sold if they are not going to be properly cared for in other business the forum heard administration reports on the plaza highrise project and the recent relocation of the affirmative action office to the personnel office standing committee reports also were presented richard spriggs vice-president for administration explained the university's decision to move the affirmative action office to the personnel office spriggs said the move was made to strengthen af firmative action's position and help it better fulfill its goals in answering a number of questions put forward by the forum's affirmative action subcommittee and an ad hoc faculty committee spriggs said that progress has and will occur on the affirmative action front the office was placed in the personnel office to put it in closer touch with hiring procedures and other equal opportunity problem areas he said a report on the university's progress in implementing its affirmative action plan will be presented to the forum in early november spriggs noted preston parr dean and vice president of student affairs told the forum that there is a possibility the university would consider buying the proposed plaza highrise housing project after it is con structed however he said the financial aspects of constructing the building are see college page 14 see arena page 13 see steel page 9 see liss page 10 inside rh-11 dedicated p.s library addition p 9 engineers stunned p 20