Brown and White Vol. 89 no. 42

              lehigh university brown and white vol 89 no 42 bethlehem pa friday april 7 1978 v.v.vv.^^%v:v.^v.\vvv.s--sy:-.vv-v,>v 2kv866-0331 finn cites low faculty staff morale blames administration insensitivity by jim donahue the administration's insensitivity has caused low morale among faculty and staff members forum chairman brian finn 78 charged wednesday night administrators have not actively sought faculty and student input before making decisions finn said at the forum ix convocation this insensitivity to the opinions of the university com munity is the primary reason for the low morale among faculty and staff he said finn challenged university president deming lewis to make a public corn mitment to listen to faculty and student opinions and to consult with both before committing lehigh to any course of action otherwise the president will not be doing his part to develop a sense of com munity at lehigh and thereby directly undermining the purpose of the forum he continued lewis made no response to finn's comments during an open discussion see text of finn's remarks page 6 session following the forum chairman's address forum by-laws require the group's chairman to give a report at the annual forum convocation finn addressed the operation structure and actions of forum viii finn said he has noticed three main problems with the forum namely communications committee structure and participation a timely flow of in formation is crucial for the forum to function he said if we are not told of issues before it is too late then we cannot adequately represent the interests of the brian finn austin gavin university secretaries divided over unionization bycaryngorbunoff * a letter opposing a movement towards unionization has been sent to the univer sity's employe relations advisory committee erac by approximately 30 university secretaries and clerical workers the movement was initiated by a group calling itself the lehigh university secretarial office and clerical employe organizing committee this group has been in contact with the retail clerks union and has initiated procedures to join that union by petitioning the national labor relations board wlrb the letter to erac states we chose to come to work at lehigh rather than go back to industry government or wherever we had worked before we chose to come even though we knew the pay scale was not as high as it was at a profit making corporation this came in response to the statement of the organizers earlier letter which contends many of us are finding it in creasingly difficult to live on our salaries officials confident plaza proposal will win approval by ed bogucz university officials are confident that plans for the proposed plaza highrise will be completed and approved within the next few weeks construction of the contro versial student apartment building could begin next month the officials said several details of the plans including the design of the dining-recreation area and the final room configuration still have to be determined however adminis trators close to the project said they do not foresee any problems which would delay trustee consideration of final plans for project i think we'll be able to make the project work one administrator said the plaza review board the vehicle for student opinion in the highrise planning process met tuesday and recommended that the latest design for the building be changed to provide windows in every suite living room to accommodate their recommendation the group suggested that one-half of the 50 suites in the building be changed to include two double bedrooms no decision on the recom mendation has been made presently all suites are designed to contain one double bedroom and two singles however under the current plan former head of nasa to speak at commencement james fletcher former head of the national aeronautics and space ad ministration nasa will deliver the graduation address at the university's 110th commencement may 28 it was an nounced wednesday fletcher who also served as president of the university of utah will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree at trie ceremony he currently is director of the energy resources program at the university of pittsburgh and is a con sultant for the president's science ad visory committee fletcher was selected by the adminis tration on the basis of concurrence by the senior class cabinet according to a university news release fletcher sworn in as nasa ad ministrator in 1971 served in that position until 1977 when he joined the staff cf the university of pittsburgh he holds a degree in physics from columbia university and a ph.d in physics from the california institute of technology fletcher developed patents in several areas including sonar devices and missile guidance systems he has served on more than 50 national science committees fletcher was president of the university of utah from 1964 until 1977 born in millburn n.j fletcher was graduated from bay side high school in bayside n.y other honorary degree recipients will be announced sometime before graduation when approximately 1,000 men and women will be granted degrees james fletcher gavin resigns as member of equal opportunity group by linda pickens austin gavin executive consultant to the president withdrew from the equal opportunity advisory committee to the president shortly before spring break according to linda turner admissions counselor and cochairman of the group gavin declined to comment on the matter in addition the group feels it is ap proaching the point where getting an interim affirmative action officer is worthless turner said the feeling of the committee members is let's get a permanent person gavin was one of four administrators serving on the 16-member committee those remaining are nan van gieson assistant provost preston parr vice president and dean of student affairs and richard spriggs vice president for ad ministration the committee is not in entire agreement because gavin left it wasn't him versus the committee at all turner explained in a march 21 brown and white story turner explained that a proposal made by gavin at the group's march 9 meeting shook up the works a little but it isn't the death knell of affirmative action in that article turner said that partially because of the proposal the group was split into three sides i can think of at the moment but there may be 16 also in a march 10 brown and white story turner said the committee rec ommended an interim officer to the president's office for appointment after the group's march 2 meeting she said we hope to have the appointment made in the next few weeks because time is a major concern of the committee turner said she and robert rosenwein chairman of the social relations department and committee cochairman are drafting a document en where to go from here we're in a position where we could fall apart we're making suggestions because we have to move on our feelings are mixed because we'd hate to have put in all this time and have nothing come of it she said turner added that the possibility of allowing reporters to attend the com mittee's sessions was discussed at yesterday's meeting see secretaries page 11 see rabold page 14 see faculty page 6 inside : lecture payments p 4 bedside manner p 9 election results p 13 baseball sweep p 16