Brown and White Vol. 94 no. 44

              brown and white lehigh university vol 94 — no 44 bethlehem pa friday april 15 1983 215 861-4184 forum asks board to review tobak decision by patti re illy the board of trustees will be informed of student opposition to the tobak tenure decision according to a resolution passed by forum xiii at a wednesday meeting the resolution also states that student representatives of the forum will request that the board of trustees investigate the decision the controversy centers around the dean's council decision to overrule the business faculty's vote by denying tenure to assistant professor of law james tobak in december the faculty committee voted 8-2 in favor of granting tenure on january 7 tobak was told that he was not to receive tenure ' the year is rapidly closing said jeff brotman 85 a member of both the forum and the tenure tobak commit tee which consists of seven students from various student groups he explained that this is the reason for forum inter vention in an issue not under its jurisdic tion we're not asking that due process be changed he emphasized all we're asking is that the board of trustees be informed right now we're trying to have influence in a process before it's final tobak is presenting the decision to the university personnel committee in an appeal tobak is not the only one to ques tion the decision however as students have voluntarily begun a protest in response to the issue in response to the tenure tobak com mittee's determination to bring the mat ter to the attention of the board of trustees university president peter likins said go right ahead you should ask yourselves what they will do when they see your resolution likins pointed out that the board of trustees cannot yield to the committee's request that they investigate the tenure decision more crucial than the individual mat ter of tobak's tenure is the one of student voice students say our main com plaint is that there is no place what soever for the students to have any input said dave bailin 84 chairman of the administrative committee of the forum he said that he felt the adminis tration ignored student opinion likins stated that you feel ignored i submit there is a difference between ignoring you and disagreeing with you you are being heard he pointed to his response in a letter to the brown and white as evidence that i'm not stonewalling you student activities council sac president-elect eric altman 84 faulted likins for reneging on a promise to listen to student views right now we have more student input than this university has probably seen in the past 25 years he said this is truly an important cause bailin added it's a question of student rights the protest did not originate in the forum because its constitution does not allow it to deal with matters of tenure as a result members of the tenure tobak forum smags proposal advocates sorority move by kathy goldstein a proposal resolving that three 40 person living units in saucon mar ried and graduate students apartment smags now occupied by sororities be made available for upperclass student occupancy as of september 1984 was passed at wed nesday's forum xiii meeting alternatives for the living groups were given as 40 students of both sexes living in single sex four-person apartments 40 students of one sex liv ing in a collective arrangement and/or groups in multiples of four wishing to occupy apartments within the smags units by the proposal sororities will be moved into the centennial i complexes provided the smags units can be filled according to the proposal a maximum of one new sorority group may be permitted to occupy additional centennial units provided the residence hall bed spa ces can be reallocated lynn miller 85 representing delta gamma sorority proposed an amendment to the resolution which also passed forum voting it provides for delta gamma to be given priority over any newly-colonized sorority if it is able to move from its present house university president peter likins reported a productive exchange between interfraternity council ifc presidents and himself regard ing social regulations he said that he has been worried about the social reg ulations because they are our rules rather than your the student com munity's rules and externally imposed regulation of social behavior doesn't work students sit in uc in peace protesting denial of tenure by patti re illy hints of the sixties occupied the uni versity center wednesday as students protesting the tobak tenure decision staged a peaceful sit-in it's for real and we're going to be here as long as it takes said mark holmes 83 senior class vice-president to a crowd of about 50 students in grace lounge at 11 a.m however the sit-in was over by 4 10 p.m when the last of the participants went to the meeting of forum xiii monday morning a flier was deli vered through the campus mail which announced the sit-in and called for stu dent participation the flier emphasized that there was to be no violence and advised that students bring pillows and books and wear armbands on their right arms to signal their support dave bailin 84 a member of the tenure tobak committee a group of seven students from various student groups vowed that the group would stay as long as we have the support of the students the committee moved the furniture out of the center of the lounge as students sprawled in an array of books maga zines pepsis knapsacks ashtrays newspapers and sweaters no pillows in sight the question of whether you know professor tobak is not the issue holmes said what we're doing here is symbolizing an idea angelo spinosa a graduate student of history arrived with his guitar to per form his renditions of some simon and garfunkel songs reminiscent of an ear lier era he also sang we shall over students staged a peaceful protest of the decision to deny tenure to james tobak assistant professor of law approximately 30 students turned out for the afternoon of non-violent sitting in in grace lounge group may plan greek upkeep by rhonda m stone it was recommended at tuesday's meeting of the priorities planning and development pp&d committee of forum xiii that a fraternity mainte nance subcommittee be established to facilitate the process of developing responsible proposals regarding frater nity self-organized maintenance pp&d co-chairman robert raffo 84 recommended that a subcommittee on fraternity maintenance be established one member of the subcommittee pre sumably a fraternity member would work with the interfraternity council ifc fraternity management associ ation fma maintenance committee to draw up proposals for maintenance changes that would then be submitted to pp&d he said the ifc-fma maintenance commit tee is going to draw up a shopping list of proposals specifying what changes need to be made in the currently-existing university auxiliary maintenance pro gram raffo said the ifc is working on a list with rea sons for why fraternity maintenances should be formally amended raffo added raffo continued in this way ifc is generating what they feel are the neces sary changes and they can bring it to the forum subcommittee on their own or through their reps the proposal would then go to the pp&d committee for approval and ultimately to the forum he said according to george kane chairman of the department of industrial engi neering who is chairman of the budget subcommittee the situation that exists right now is one of tight cash flow by assuming some of the responsibilities of maintenance the money would be kept in the ifc it would put a burden on fraternities and sororities but they would do it the maintenance at a fraction of the cost he added john saitta 84 a member of the ifc fma maintenance subcommittee agreed with kane auxiliary mainte nance takes unplanned money out of our ifc-fma operation budget see forum page 13 see smags page 13 see students page 14