LehighWeek Volume 03, Issue 02

              MARIE C. BOLTZ
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Vol. 3, Issue 2
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
September 12,1989
This catalog helped author Les Whitten produce a believable wine auction scene in his novel "A Day
Without Sunshine" PHOTO by YOUNG HONG
Students Investigate The Writer's World
By Robert Fisher
Instead of studying works of literature and journalism
from a distance, about 50 Lehigh students are bringing
their reading alive by discussing works with their authors
in an innovative course exploring "The Writer's World."
Each week students read novels, poetry, or non-
fiction works in preparation for a rambling group
interview of an author led by Robert Harson, associate
professor of English.
Author Les Whitten, '50, a former war correspondent
and investigative journalist who has written several
thrillers and is a translator of Baudelaire, opened the
semester by talking about his Muse and his novel "A Day
Without Sunshine."
"I am an artist. I'm a sixth-rate artist, but I am one,"
Whitten said. "I take the stuff of clouds and mix it with
my own experience to create a book."
Noting that he waited 14 years after his graduation
from Lehigh to see a book in print, Whitten warned
aspiring writers in the group that they must keep writing
even when they aren't being published.
"If I'm not writing something, I feel there is
something missing from my life," he said. "There's
nothing like it — it's the most beautiful feeling in the
world."
The writer noted that his experiences covering
"every ill that flesh falls heir to" in his years with The
Washington Post, Hearst Newspapers and columnist Jack
Anderson and a passion for painstaking research help him
produce accurate, believable fiction. He also advised
students to show their writing to anyone who Will read it
— "You've got to show it to other people and get used to
the idea of being chopped."
Through the semester the class will read and
interview Maria Roy, an expert in domestic violence,
local poet Barbara Cooker, romance novelist Jane Gentry,
Reuters correspondent John Kotter, and Jere Knight,
widow of Eric Knight, author of the Lassie stories.
Asbestos Survey, Repairs Proceeding Smoothly
By William Johnson
Lehigh is in the early stages of an asbestos assessment
and management program, and all but a few of the buildings
on the Asa Packer Campus have been surveyed as part of the
program's first step.
Of the 65 buildings surveyed so far, most of them have
asbestos in various locations.
Richard Freeman, director of environmental health and
safety, says Lehigh's buildings, like buildings everywhere,
contain asbestos in places like pipe insulation, ceiling
material, fireproofing, floor tile, wall board and tank
insulation.
"Most of the asbestos material we've found is in good
condition and does not pose a health hazard." says Freeman.
"If asbestos material is found and is in need of repair,
specially trained personnel perform the work."
Gary Falasca, Lehigh's director of physical plant and the
university's asbestos program manager, says four asbestos
removal projects have been completed since the survey
began last'spring.
The removal projects include the basement ceiling in the
University Center, the Mclintic-Marshall House hallway
ceilings, fireproofing in Room 325 of Sinclair Laboratory
and the floor tile in Room 248 of Chandler-Ullmann Hall.
Falasca says asbestos also is being removed from
ceilings in Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity house. That project,
to be completed by the end of the semester, required the
temporary relocation of 33 Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity
members to Hillcrest House, formerly Alpha Chi Rho
fraternity.
"In neither the completed removal projects nor the
current project was their any health threat due to airborne
asbestos." says Freeman.  "These are just areas that we
identified as high priorities for asbestos removal."
Freeman says the asbestos in the University Center was
Continued On Page 7>
Mellon Foundation
Funds Will Aid In
Restructuring
By William Johnson
The Andrew F. Mellon Foundation of New York
recently notified Lehigh that the university will receive a
grant of $275,000 over five years to support its administrative and academic reorganization and consolidation efforts.
"We're extremely grateful to the Mellon Foundation,
which recognizes with this grant that something must be
done to stem the ever-rising costs associated with higher
education," said Lehigh President Peter Likins.
In an effort to control spiraling costs that plague all of
higher education, Lehigh University in March began a 15-
month process to review how its resources are managed.
Likins announced Lehigh's resource-management
review and took the lead by appointing a visiting committee
on university resource management, and by reducing his top-
management team from 12 to 10 through consolidation.
"It was far from clear in March how Lehigh's resources
would be managed more effectively throughout the university," said Likins, "since Lehigh for many years has been a
well-managed institution blessed with hard-working,
dedicated people."
But, Likins said, Lehigh officials are determined to
realize economies, and if they can't achieve them by
"managing better," they will achieve them by "managing
less."
"Managing less will enable us to use our resources in
the pursuit of our primary objective, which is to be a place
where nationally recognized teaching and scholarship
prepare students and others to contribute to society," Likins
said. "We need to keep our mission in focus as we develop
this process."
Likins said that universities are generally very thorough
in evaluating proposals for new initiatives, and Lehigh is
particularly effective in this area. But university management procedures are less effective in the review of continuing expenditures for established programs, and Lehigh
intends to make improvements in this area.
There are no specific recommendations yet from the
review process, which will not be completed until June of
1990. After that time there will be contractions in some
areas in order to accommodate growth elsewhere. Wherever
possible, consolidation wjll be accomplished through
attrition and retraining of personnel for new assignments.
The Mellon funds can be used to facilitate this process in a
great variety of ways.
INSIDE:
New Faculty Profiles
Lehigh Newsmakers
Chinese Scholar's Perspective
Enrichment
In the South Mountaineer:
Lehigh Whips Fordham
1,000th Game Plans
SPECIAL SECTION
1989 United Way
Campaign
*A list of services
'United Way Honor
Roll
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