Brown and White Vol. 81 no. 3

              lehigh university brown and white vol 81 no 3 tuesday september 23 1969 ■=- it.ammum 866-0331 richards house fire admitted by freshman a 17-year-old freshman now at home under a physician's care has admitted setting a fire which caused up to 3,000 damage in richards house saturday evening according to university and fire department sources tt«a blaze was dis covered at 8:45 p.m and was under control in less than 15 minutes after the arrival of bethlehem firefighters according to donald speiivogel 73 the freshman's roommate an aromatic candle was left burning on top of a chest of drawers when he left his room at 8 p.m with the door unlocked students who later discovered the fire had to force their way into the room according to city fire officials who are continuing the investiga tion the blaze began in one of the beds james herget of congdbn house was treated at st luke's hospital for inhalation of gases from a fire extinguisher used to fight the fire before the arrival of the city fire companies baw photo by balsai charred beds and smoke blackened wall are the remains of a satur day night fire which gutted room 202 of richards hall there were no per sonal injuries whit t en hits alumni groups discusses pearson column by john seitz lehieh's alumni association and alumni bulletin were the principal targets at tacked by visiting associate professor and columnist leslie whltten in an interview before his friday night class whltten was chosen last week to assume the number two position behind jack an derson who will take over the column written by the late drew pearson a 1960 graduate in journalism whitten who conducts a creative concepts course in creative writing considers the uni versity more liberal now than when he was a student but adds that it is not lib eral enough whitten urged the university to gel rid of what he called the windbroken tro glodytes of the alumni association hie ideal he added would be if the alumni would give money and shut up speaking from his experience at a mem ber of the alumni magazine editorial ad visory board whitten said i saw one of the best alumni magazines i n the country ruined by cowardice and inanity and added that the deposing of john murphy was the result of powerful alumni with more in common with louis xtv than 20th century university graduates on a positive side he said he was hear tened by that act there was a solid mi mi nority of faculty interested in the alumni bulletin although he said that it would be pre sumptuous for hjm to say what the uni versity should do he expressed confidence in university president w deming lewis calling him the best kind of president you could have he commended dr welfare system called inadequate py robin reinhold the public welfare system in the united states is grossly mismanaged and inefficient for the present need of welfare cases according to dr prances plvin of columbia university's school of social work dr pivtn spoke at whltaker laboratory at 8 p.m monday night the public lecture opened a series of lectures concerning america's underclass sponsored at the university by the forum for visiting lecturers committee according to dr pivln the system now receives 10 billion to be allotted to 10 million people she added that the amount was nominal compared to the number of eligible cases she continued on the subject of the systems inefficiency by a description of the procedure to which the needy are subjected dr plvin referred to the red tape and the eligibility limits as exclusionary laws and charged the administrators of concealing welfare opportunities and of creating an intolerable in-take system for applicants initially the system developed in time of crises to quiet the needy instead of helping them she added that when an emergency ends it marks the end of an interest to aid the needy and the beginning of an interest to unburden the taxpayer in her opinion welfare did not aid the needy adequately at present it is designed purposely to force people to work under unsatisfactory conditions and wages dr pivin proposed solutions to the problems of this welfare system first more money must be given to more people who fall within the limits of reasonable eligibility second the availability of welfare aid must be improved third the federal govern ment must control the procedures of welfare spending which is now almost exclusively in the hands of the states arcadia to expand with lower house we hope to have under the new system a more viable arcadia with the ability to reach out into all the areas of university policy in which there is student unrest while at the same time we can fulfill through the administrative council the administrative functions so absolutely necessary to a student government these arc the aspirations of norman monhait vice president of arcadia and constitutionally chairman designate of the purposed administrative council the concept of a council was the result of a compromise over the issue of a bicarmel legislature the original proposal was to restructure arcadia into a two house system similar to the u.s congress as this would require a constitutional amendment and because the allocation of powers would cause difficulties the proposal was modified and the council was created under the jurisdiction of arcadia an action permissible under existing by laws the council's term of office will run from february to february concurrent with that of arcadia members will be chosen as each arcadia takes offl f membership will be delegated to the various living groups as follows six students living in fraternities six living in residence halls at least three of whom must be freshmen living in residence halls and three living in town in addition the president of the senior class will be a member while this 16 is the minimum number additional members may be added at the council's discretion the administrative council has a two fold function in monhait s opinion its main reason for existence is to relieve the 20 regular members of arcadia of the purely mechanical tasks of administra tion in order to allow kham more how town center dedicated rooney presents u.s flog the town house of the university town council was dedicated on sunday at 2 p.m present were many students administration and alumni among them dean of stu dents charles brennan dr albert zettlemoyer vice-president and provost and congressman fred b rooney < • larry jordan chairman of the council's administrative committee and acting presi dent of the town fraternity alpha lambda omega introduced dr zettlemoyer himself a former commuting student kays to the town house were presented to jeff parks its president by zettlemoyer parks cited the need for such a house as a base tor the commuters to get involved in university life congressman rooney presented council w-itti a flag that had flown cvsr the capi tol building he also made a brief speech and said that he was very proud of lehigh and the other area schools because they still know what this flag stands for parks then presented rooney with honorary membership lft town council and alo according to parks a new spirit has arisen among the commuters before its foundation it was difficult tor the stu dents to get to know each other and they therefore limited their lehigh experience to just formal classes and exam schedules the council's academic committee is already making provisions to tutor fel low students we are entering a full slate of intramural athletics something which town students were formerly unable todo we are also arranging for numerous parent-son dinners our prime goal is stated in our motto alter ipse amicus - a friend is another self the house is to serve to develop leadership among its members and to promote better relations with on campus students congressman pred rooney presents capitol flag to town council president jeff parka u letter cites frat problems in a letter addressed to all fraternity presidents ifc officers and national offices preston parr dean of student life spelled out a problem of fraternity finan ces and house management which is not a problem of individual fraternities but of the fraternity system as a whole the letter states over the past sev eral years a significant number of frater nities have encountered serious financial crises . ." . many fraternity houses have not been maintained in a satisfactory way • . . in much of the fraternity system adequate standards of fire safety sanitation and general housekeeping are not being met see lehigh page 5 sse administration page 9 see members page 9 pre-law seniors an informal meeting of all pre law seniors will be held tonight at 7:30 p.m in ux cx 403 dean mark ellis and mr howard whit comb will provide details regarding application procedures and offer suggestions based upon the experi ences of pre-law students in the last two senior classes a quest ion and answer period will follow