Brown and White Vol. 89 no. 15

              lehigh university brown and white ■ v y i.ss»»twvw«vw>s i . 1111111l i.wwwymmuiiwstwwwwtwwwwwvwvwvw vol 89 — no is sethijehem pa friday october a 19ti „.■■■.■.■.■.■.■ ■....■-^ xis-mmttl m_i_«_m_a_m_hi_m_i_t_m_i_i_n_m_si_ma_a_i_a affirmative action transfer concerns faculty and staff by linda pickens the 42 faculty administrators and staff members who expressed concern over the transfer of the affirmative action office to the personnel office are drafting a letter expressing their concerns about af firmative action to university president deming lewis the group wants a more detailed definition of the administration's views on affirmative action according to mary jo hill editorial assistant in the research department and writer of the letter the letter the latest in a series of correspondences between the group and the administration results from meetings held by the group oct 11 and 19 and an evening meeting wednesday the letter should be delivered to lewis early next week according to hill the transfer of the affirmative action office from administrative services to the personnel office was proposed aug 15 by thomas verbonitz director of ad ministrative services two letters of concern were sent to lewis about the transfer late in september one signed by 25 women faculty and staff members and the other by 17 faculty and staff members including 1.1 department chairmen lewis then sent an explanatory memorandum to each of the signatories on oct 3 we're going to ask lewis if we couldn't thrash things out face-to-face at a meeting open to the whole university said barbara frankel associate professor of anthropology in the department of social relations we question lewis's definition of the position of the affirmative action officer we'd also like a clarification of the resources available to the office including personnel and budget frankel said outlining the group's major concerns other concerns involve the authority and role of the affirmative action directorate the body has no faculty student or research department representation although it has power over the whole university concerning affirmative action frankel said the faculty group's final concern is the idea suggested by lewis of an af firmative action advisory committee there is beginning to be a concensus that a faculty advisory committee would be a good idea said robert rosenwein chairman of the social relations depart ment and author of one of the letters sent to lewis the forum affirmative action sub committee chaired by peggy ota assistant professor of electrical engin eering met wednesday to discuss the same issues as the faculty group ac cording to frankel the faculty group doesn't want to duplicate efforts but the forum as a whole is not a good place to discuss these issues it takes too much homework and you can't expect everyone to get involved vice president for administration richard spriggs explanation to the forum of the affirmative action office transfer was superficial brief and not satisfactory frankel said all eyes forward sandra rubin 79 member of the forum academic regulations subcommittee and tom adcock 78 member of the university's com mittee on discipline listen to comments on cheating during a forum open meeting yesterday pumpkin patch lehigh university volunteers luv sold pumpkins in the lounge of the university center monday and tuesday the proceeds from the sa,e g0 to the united wav»a general charity fund cheating discussed at open meeting by jerry miller the real heart of cheating is the academic climate at lehigh that feeling expressed by arthur mann associate dean of students was shared by many of the 50 peryons who attended yesterdays open forum meeting on cheating mann said he was appalled at the change over the past ten years in students attitudes toward cheating students view cheating as the way things are done mann said and this adds to the poor academic climate at the university leonard wenzel forum vice chairman agreed with mann the climate is essential to the problem he said the names of students who are convicted of cheating by the disciplinary committee should be made public he said according to mann the names are kept confidential keeping with a long standing faculty resolution to keep the information confidential university chaplain hugh flesher expounded on the climate theme he blamed the emphasis on competition for grades for creating temptation to cheat on exams grades are overemphasized he said creating an unhealthy academic climate in which students will do anything to keep or stay ahead the whole atmosphere of the place lends itself to cheating flesher said flesher and a number of others at the meeting suggested the university in vestigate the possibility of creating an honor code to instill in students a sense of academic morality barbara frankel assistant professor of anthropology said the university should investigate what other colleges and universities do to create a healthy academic environment changing the climate and creating a more moral at titude toward cheating would help the university she said bruce rosenthal 78 chairman of the forum priorities planning and development committee said he favored an honor code statement for students rosenthal said he knew of students including himself and an academic dean who have ignored students who are cheating on an exam professors must bring cases before the committee on discipline mann said not acting on cases only worsens the situation he explained but instructors who study of frat living finds no adverse effect on gpa by joe burke fraternity life at the university does not have an adverse effect on students grades according to hershel dorney assistant to the dean of students dorney reached the conclusion after studying the results of research done by edwin kay assistant professor of psychology kay used the first and fourth semester cumulative grade point averages gpa for the class of 1979 as the basis of his study he compared the first semester gpa of the students who joined frater nities in the spring with that of those who remained in residence halls he repeated the comparison for the fourth semester gpas of the two groups although residence halls students grades were significantly higher both semesters the difference between gpas in both semesters remained relatively un changed the overall fraternity average for the spring 77 semester was 2.557 as com pared with the overall men's average of 2.635 non-fraternity men had a gpa of 2.66 for the fail 76 semester fraternity men finished the same semester with an overall average of 2.48 dorney the chief liaison between the dean of students office and fraternities said the results show fraternities are at tracting poorer students he noted two see honor page 17 see frat page 6 inside tenure policy p 5 shoplifters p 10 arena she p 15 lieberman medal p 20