Brown and White Vol. 100 no. 10

              the brown and white vol 100 no 10 friday october 16 1992 lehigh university debates spark student reactions by lara cohn news editor in verbal sparing the 1 992 presidential and vice presiden tial candidates met face-to-face on national network televi sion this past week to debate the issues while some lehigh students and faculty members were home watching the american league championship series sunday night the three opponents squared off in st louis from taxes to crime to foreign policy president bush ross perot and gov bill clinton outlined their visions for the future of the country tony sayegh 94 a syrian citizen who will become an american citizen next year said he likes perot and feels he is the only candidate who is coming out with new ideas i was very surprised at perot's performance sayegh said and i feel he won the debate although i don t have my citizenship yet i would vote for either perot or clinton definitely not bush amy gorman 95 said she thinks perot won the debate clinton was too vague she said perot was decisive in his plans he had that just do it attitude gorman said she didn't like any of bush's ideas the debate made her indecisive between perot and clinton , honestly don'tknowwholamgoingto vote for,"she said giovanni maggipinto 94 also felt perot won with clinton second and bush third perot had the most to show with nothing to lose maggipinto said he had astrong performance bush wasn't as aggressive as he had to be tuesday night in atlanta the scene of the second of the 1992 debates switched to the ninning mates frank colon chairperson of the government department said vice president dan quayle didn't do as well as he needed to do bethlehem steel cuts costs to save profits by robert dellinger news writer the bethlehem steel corp in conjunc tion with the united steelworkers of america announced that approximately 500 employ ees will participate in a voluntary retirement termination program in a last-ditch effort to lower operating costs and to raise profitability . the plan involves early retirement incen tives for older employees and job termina tion bonuses geared to help recipients finan cially while in search of another job the employees affected will consist pri marily of union-represented workers on both hourly and salary wages executive level positions remain unaffected by this program gary graham associate editor of corpo rate communications for bethlehem steel said that current attempts to cut back the work force are different from past reductions because of a focus on the locally based struc tural products division in the past the bethlehem plant has been profitable graham said but now we've got to cut costs so we can compete with the foreign competitors and non-union mini mills the structural products division produces approximately three million tons of raw steel annually and is the largest american pro ducer of structural shapes.pilings and foundry products its products are primarily used in building and bridge construction as of nov 30 the division's employment will drop from approximately 3 500 to 3 000 the new program is designed to reduce the workforce without the effects of dramatic layoffs by providing two choices for partici pants workers can either take a 15,000 payment upon early retirement or 400 a month until the age of 62 both incentives include a pension plan as well graham also said that the employment reductions reflect the company's need to modernize its facilities under increasing competition in the industry the plan to reduce employment is all tied with attempts to modernize graham said if we can reduce our costs and make the modernization which is vital for future prof itability according to graham the company's problems in the past have stemmed from an array of market conditions including imports subsidized by foreign governments and the rise of american based mini-mills which are smaller modem and for the most part non union graham also blames the economy for the company s inabil ity to turn over a good profit b&w photo by robert guttman bethlehem steel has released employees to cut costs business school names new dean by fred taylor news writer james schmotter associate dean of the johnson graduate school of management at cornell university was named dean of lehigh's college of business and economics and will succeed richard barsness who becomes the executive director of the lacocca institute nov 1 i am looking forward to working with lehigh students at the undergraduate level schmotter aid schmotter hopes to develop a clear mission statement unique for the college and lehigh he did not want to be presumptuous however and come to lehigh with a specific vision he wants the business school to come together and identify for themselves their own particular strengths you should know yaurstrengths and know what you can do better than everyone else he said schmotter has also set some goals for lehigh's business school i feel that right now we have one of the leading undergraduate programs in the country but in a few years we can be one of the very top schmotter said lehigh was one of 60 schools that had deanships open and schmotter said lehigh seems b&w photo by michael york just one more hour of studying rob levinso 95 and bill graham 94 relax in martindale-fairchild library see debate page 8 see steel page 6 see dean page 8