Brown and White Vol. 96 no. 2

              t he brown and white lehigh university bethlehem pennsylvania vol 96 no 2 friday september 7 1984 215 861-4184 john irving to deliver commencement address by scott cagan editor-in-chief john irving author of the world according to garp and other best-selling novels has agreed to deliver the principal address at lehigh's 117th commencement exercises on sunday june 2 i feel a sense of enthusiasm president peter likins said wednesday in announcing the choice with senior class president tom healy we're really lucky to get him irving who will receive an honorary degree at the ceremonies is also the author of setting free the bears the water method man the 158-pound marriage and the hotel new hampshire which along with the world according to garp was produced as a major motion picture i am extremely excited and pleased healy said he was one of our top choices irving's fiction has been recognized with a grant from the rockefeller foundation a fellowship from the national endowment for the arts and a fellowship from the gug genheim foundation the work according to garp his fourth novel was nominated for the national book critics circle award for fiction in 1979 and won the first american book award for fic tion in 1979 this has been a presidential favorite for three years i must confess said likins who has read all his books i hoped very much it would be possible to bring him to lehigh i'm enourmously pleased that it is actu ally going to happen this will not be the first visit to lehigh for irving however irving who has just com pleted his sixth novel which will be released next spring lectured on campus a few years ago for the english department irving also visited campus just last year when he watched his son compete in a prep school wrestling tournament at stabler arena likins called irving a creative fun per son who will offer a very refreshing expe rience for lehigh it'll be a nice change for lehigh healy said having an author as opposed to a businessman of scottish decent irving was born in exeter new hampshire after graduating from exeter academy he studied at the university of pittsburgh and the university of vienna before enrolling at the university of new hampshire where he received his bachelor of arts degree he published his first novel setting free the bears at the age of 27 irving a former collegiate and aau american athletic union wrestler pro vided a fictional focus on the sport in the world according to garp irving was called the most successful serious young writer in america by time magazine in 1981 time's other acco lades included irving takes considerable pleasure in bucking the normal expectations of an audience irving's popularity is not hard to understand his world is really the world according to nearly everyone john irving dean devotes life to college campus by pete trumbore editorial page editor editor's note this is a partial transcript of a conversation the brown & white had with dean of students john smeaton it is the last of a two-part series b&w what hopes do you have for the coming year as far as your position and your office are concerned smeaton one is that with the fairly substantial number of new people on the dean of students staff this year we need to be committing a lot of our energy to developing an effective team that can fulfill the duties of our offices part of that is learning how each other works and working together sort of supporting one another i see as the central mission of this institution the intellectual development of our students and i see the dean of students office as performing a vital role in enhancing the opportunity for that education experience to occur what we do should be supportive of the academic mission of the institution i really see student affairs and the dean of student's role as one of most importantly education we are educators we don't stand in front of a classroom and lecture but we work on the person if you will and character development i think we have many opportunities in different settings to aid in the education provide an educational experience for our stu dents which then enhances what happens in the classroom so the two together combine to provide a much richer fuller experience for our students but what we want to make sure we're doing is that what we do has to be supportive of what s happening in the classroom we want to complement the academic growth of our stu dents so i see that educational experience as very important for me that puts us all in the same business the focus is on our students the focus is on their growth and development and we are engaged in that development it's really a mutu ally beneficial experience i like working with bright stu dents and that's why i've chosen the types of institutions i've chosen they the students keep me on my toes they are fun to work with because they understand they question but that's all part of the educational process questioning reason ing discussion debate all these lead to more enlightened opinions and i think that that is one of the most rewarding parts of working on a college campus this is the environment in which i've chosen to spend the rest of my career it's a very important reason the contact with the students in exchange for what we do boy i got way off the track there we got started with inside out b&w photo by rob sternufb seth parkoff right and pu wang enjoy a room with a view in the partially completed mart library addition they beat the rush and got a good seat in the facility which is expected to be com pleted by the fall of 1985 social objectives altered by kathy golpstein associate editor a recommendation to the board of trustees proposing the transfer of authority over social regulations from the trustees to the administration and forum is the new objective of the ad hoc summer committee on social policy as the result of recommendations made by uni versity president peter likins the committee had originally worked towards presenting a proposal to suspend the current social regulations to various forum committees and the board of trustees according to senior jeff brotman forum co chairman this action may huve been inappropriate this no longer accurately reflects what we need to dis cuss he said at the commit tee's meeting wednesday the committee now revised as the social policy subcommit tee of forum xv is charged with drawing up a set of stand ards of social behavior to be fol lowed by the lehigh commun ity brotman said under the proposed system the dean of students office with the forum would have the authority to change the standards into rules if standards were repeatedly violated he explained according to dean of students john smeaton the ideal situation would be a set of standards that are clear about social behavior and that are fol lowed because they make good sense to lehigh community members if there is agree ment between all members of the community then this is pos sible he continued he allowed that closely enforced rules might be deemed necessary if this agreed upon behavior is not a full commitment or in cases involving safety smeaton feels positive about the progress of the committee there is a commitment on their part to work diligently to prepare and move ahead with the standards he said the october board of trustees meeting was targeted for pres entation of the new resolution the committee agreed that see social page 6 see smeaton page 10 editor's note due to unanticipated costs associated with delivering the saw via campus mail copies of the paper will be delivered to students residence halls start ing today