Brown and White Vol. 81 no. 1

              lehigh university brown and white vol 8 1 - no i bethlehem pa friday sept 12 1969 866-033 black proposals endorsed by john seitz fifteen proposal to make life for black students at lehigh a more meaningful and relevent experience were unanimously endorsed by the participants at the anal session of the seventh annual kirby house conference tuesday the proposals expand upon demands is sued y the organization for the enhance ment of afromanity oea last spring and call for the enrollment of more black students a black administrator a black admissions office black faculty a mack studies program and other programs to make black life both at lehigh and in the community a more relevant and meaning ful experience see compute text of proposals below the two day conference held at the kirby episcopal house north of hazleton and attended by 37 students faculty and administrators began as a learning ex perience for many of the participants oea members explained the group's demands while white participants listen ed and questioned past and present uni versity efforts to improve the black experience were explained ■ see letter from dr lewis page 3 but by tuesday morning enough learn ing had occurred to make the participants anxious to draft a meaningful and specific statement generalities expressed by university president w darning lewis the night be fore such as lehigh will make serious thoughtful efforts to enroll more black students and do whatever we can to help with the education of black people were not sufficient for the rest of the delegates instead they were stirred by the words of guest dr carl a fields assistant dean of the college princeton university who warned that non-specific demands might be easily brushed aside as a result the group asked that spe cific and immediate goals be fulfilled setting quotas and time 11 mite where they felt it was necessary the group closely followed the guide lines set down by the black students who had been given charge of the planning for this year's topic lehigh and the black the first session dealing with educa tional policy was begun by oea member reginald jennings 70 who cited five of the demands presented to dr lewis including the increased enrollment of black students and the hiring of black faculty in response to these demands as ad hoc committee of the educational policy committee had been established to in vestigate special courses james frakes professor of english and a member of the committee said that many existing cour ses could be adapted to contain aspects of black culture and that new courses could be created he suggested titles such as the economics of poverty urban justice and courses in black literature art and music responding to the demand for mot black faculty william shade assistant professor of history concurred that more black faculty would have a good effect 1 but cited recruiting problem that have to be faced in overall faculty recruiting both black and white shade said lehigh is not doing well and then pointed out two specific problem areas — that the hiring procedure is decentralized and that father sullivan resigns post the rev francis j.sullivan university advisor to catholic students until this semester has found fulfillment helping poor blacks in baltimore rev sullivan is la an ianer-city ministry at st ann's parish in baltimore contacted by telephone rev sullivan erpjetnert that inner city connotes a changed neighborhood he said his neighborhood which was once white and solidly middle class is now mostly black although the economic distribution ranges from poverty level to middle class rev sullivan originally intended to take a sabbatical to study law at the university of pennsylvania but authorities of the diocese of allentown changed his intention rev sullivan said that he offered his resignation from lehigh to avoid " duplicity in his work after the diocese accepted his resignation several options were open to him including law school and college administration which several lehigh administrators urged him to consider see related stories on pages 13 and 16 rev sullivan went to baltimore when urged by several baltimore priests whom he had met earlier on previous visits he was familiar with their work and c-rcknil flheehan of baltimore accepted htm for service at st ann»s i am dealing with very concrete prob lems of society in baltimore such as poverty and race and by opening the parish to the people we hope to do the neighborhood sone good he explained rev sullivan stressed that he enjoyed ms work at lehigh and found it very worth while i really enjoyed the students and some of the faculty he said he enjoyed an especially good rapport with ike social relations bdaiaajluaal relations psy chology and religion departments as well as some engineers * - fat her sullivan said he found the uni versity as a whole to be a fine institution tsatt produces well-brained worthwhile individuals however he noted that not everything at lehigh is as rosy as it first appears he said that lehigh exhibits a close mi tried ness and nineteenth-cen tury atmosphere in its views on religion philosophy and human beings he said that an " efflciency-at-all-ccsts at mo sphere predominates at lehigh 11 and that the university is the first place he found in a long time where people were asking old questions such as is religion the opium of the masses ' rev sullivan said that a disturbing university problem he encountered is the distrust of the humanities they really think that by trying to upgrade the humanities they're taking away from the education of engineers bringing the subject back to baltimore father sullivan said he is working for ecumenism there as hard as he worked for it at lehigh together with the three other priests who have an equal share of the responsibilities at st ann's parish father sullivan was instrumental in setting up the mid-city churches association mcca the mcca members are seven protestant and two catholic churches working together to solve common neigh borhood problems father sullivan has also helped in establishing a dialogue between catholics and jews and hopes to expand it to include the protestant mem bers of the mcca since " the black-jewish problem is very real he quoted camus who said know what must be done if not to reduce evil at least not to add to it . the program for the future is either a permanent dialogue or the solemn and significant death of any who have experienced dialogue which are father sullivan's goals rev francis j sullivan dr lewis welcomes frosh to significant opportunities dmt members of the class of 1973 it isa great pleasure for me to welcome you to the lehigh campus you an about to begin one of the most significant and rewarding periods of your lives many rich opportunities for intellectual and personal development lie i mirattately ahead of you it nid not all be easy but you are a highly selected and able class and i know you have it in you to continue to excel if i do so you will be laying firm foundations for later achievements in life both in the service of society and in personal fulfillment you win find all yon need to reach lull intellectual maturity in the classrooms and libraries and laboratories of lehigh in the living units the many and varied extra curricular activities such as student government the many clubs and other groups and the atmetic and social programs you will find all you need to round out your lives as university students you will hava a wide choice of friends and perhaps for the first time in your lives the way in which you use ail these rich opportunities is primarily in your own hands the faculty and administration are here to instruct and counsel you i look forward to seeing you many times during the next four years . ■ ' . .-.'-'.•- " .-' •>'..', - . . . -■— fapmsbmbegbbtmay kirby house proposals to dr lewis the final session of the 7th annual kirby house conference whose theme was the black student at lehigh was attended by the following prof w.g shade donald f parsons prof joseph logsdon robert j stelnman prof r.c herrenkohl john c seitz prof james frakes norman monhait prof p.g beidler philip d selim prof g.a dins more john ryan dr e.v ottervik john a schrcedel dean c.b campbell william t marks dean preston parr tom dlßugglero mr herman j lumsy mark d friedman dean w quay patrick doyle charles c terry albert hayes william g taylor stanley h taylor reginald a jennings v ako odotei glenn g wilson craig hageii dr carl a fields princeton mr elliott moorman princeton marcellus floyd leap it was the unanimous opinion of the above delegates that the following pro grams are imperative to lehigh s continued excellence in responding to the c li*xß at the times therefore acting on your suggestion in the monday evening meeting to prepare a statement we the delegates address this document to you as president of the university and are sharing copies with the leading representatives of all the major constituencies within the university the suggested programs are 1 thai 80 black men be included in the class of 1974 with adequate resources allocated to obtain this goal 2 that lehigh acquire a full-time black admissions officer immediately 3 that lehigh institute a comprehen sive live-in summer remedial program for black students to help them gain admission to and succeed at lehigh university 4 that the orientation period for black students held this year be continued and expanded 5 that 10 black faculty be added to the staff by the fall of 1970 at least five of whom will be permanent staff and the others either permanent temporary or exchange staff 6 that the university assume responsibility for securing housing for its black staff 7 that a black cultural week be sponsored and supported by the univer •« y in conjunction with the oea as part of its ongoing attempt to highlight the cultural richness and diversity of its constituents 8 that a full time black administrator to be attached to the president's office be hired immediately to assist and advise the president concerning the mack com see kirby page 7 see 15 page 7 ! applications \ freshmen must pick up appllca i tions for 2-6 draft deferments as | soon as possible applications may \ ''' fa it t h h ■ 2-s classification need not re-apply '