Brown and White Vol. 94 no. 34

              lehigh university brown and white vol 94 — no 34 bethlehem pa friday february 18 1983 215 861-4184 sac says students denied preferred seats for hope by tom dipiaiza the student activities council sac has objected to the way the bob hope concert was brought to the stabler arena charging that students should have been given preferential seating for the event anyway you slice it the lehigh students are supporting stabler and they should have first right to any thing that goes in there said sac president dave dender 83 dender said sac should have been contacted before the concert was announced and given an opportunity to help sponsor the event in doing so sac would have secured preferred seating for students he said students deserve this consideration because stabler is a university building and its deficit is financed by the tuition of students dender said sac was never approached about the hope concert basically what they did was cir cumvent the system we have set up for scheduling campus events dender said i feel that they're infringing on our rights as students an agreement does exist between sac and stabler giving sac the option to co-produce student-oriented events richard fritz director of events at stabler said he did not con sider the bob hope show a student oriented event i don't think that myself or any of the people coordinating the show ever considered it to be a total university event and a total student event fritz said he agrees that students should be offered tickets before the general public for events with expense hassle of food cited as open-party problem by kathy goldstein the expense hassle and the fact that it doesn't work are reasons for change in the present social regulation requiring food at open parties according to neil colligan 83 interfraternity council ifc president the regulation issue brought heated discussion at tuesday's social policy subcommittee meeting of forum xiii colligan estimated a 35 cost per open party for food people don't go to par ties to eat l don't think the regulation is serving its purpose lie said chaplain hugh flesher questioned whether food us an element of a party contributed to a better social atmos phere barbara frankel professor of sociology argued that a social gathering is enhanced by the serving of food she expressed concern that you've deve loped a social system that encourages ludicrous drinking " food is not the issue involved in the sac budget showing profits by steve morrow the student activities council sac is showing a profit for the second year in a row according to sac treasurer pete demaria 84 although he said exact fig ures were not available the organization's surplus owes its thanks to careful fiscal planning crea tive movie scheduling and concert prof its demaria said he explained that when the sac's current president dave dender 83 was treasurer in 81 82 he instituted a strict budgeting procedure reversing the trend of debt and loss before he was treasurer according to dender the sac received its allocation from the university at the beginning of the year and doled it out haphazardly as various sac committees asked for it his budget process he explained which has been continued this year by demaria requires that each sac committee draw up a budget in september and stick to it with minor exceptions for the rest of the year forum approves reduction ; subject to convocation vote by kathy goldstein the motion to reduce the size of the forum from 60 faculty and 60 student voting members to 30 each passed yes terday by an 84.8 percent majority the motion must now pass at an all university convocation by a simple majority before the change becomes a part of the forum constitution the proposal which was narrowly defeated at the forum's january meet ing was reintroduced because of ques tions raised by forum members over the validity of the previous vote john tar duno 83 forum co-chairman requested that a roll call vote be taken rather than a show of hands for more accurate results the vote yielded a total of 79 votes 67 for and 12 against the reduction this cleared the 75 percent margin needed to pass a constitutional amendment the vote brought mixed reactions at the meeting i don't know if you've ans wered this issue said neil colligan 83 interfraternity council president he said that an issue of this importance should require the entire forum to vote one of the reasons we want this reduc tion in size is that we can't get the people here to vote responded tarduno 84 percent is an overwhelming majority he added i think the issue has been decided i think this is just the first step to the answer " commented bob raffo 84 who originally introduced the proposal the rest of the answer comes with eve ryone deciding that it's time to partici pate if you want to have a part you've got to make yourself a part that's how you answer the question forum co-chairman donald ryan professor of geology said he was very cover-up b&w photo by rob weisstuch while the rest of the lehigh valley received approximately 25 inches of snow from the blizzard of 83 maginnes hall was espe cially hard hit courtesy of dumptrucks mt maginnes is expected to thaw out by finals bsu naacp join to support bell rape appeal by brett lowy the black students union bsu and the naacp have joined in an attempt to influence the appeal-decision on robert bell's rape conviction bell a former university student and bsu member was convicted june 11 1982 of raping a woman in drinker house on dec 3 1981 he was also convicted of criminal attempt to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and indecent assault bell's appeal case went to argu ment court on feb 1 1983 the argument court is used to determine if there are grounds for an appeal of bell's case trial judge alfred williams has yet to reach a decision the bsu and the naacp national association for the advancement of colored people are circulating petitions on campus to show support for bell after reading accounts of the case we couldn't agree with the decision " andre hanks president of the bsu said we want to possibly let the judge know how we feel i read the transcripts and i talked with robert's family emmet burns region 7 director of the naacp said based on the transcripts and the talk i feel a gross injustice has been done given the evidence there is no way he is guilty region 7of the naacp includes maryland virginia and washington d.c bell's case is being handled by burns because bell lives in washington burns cited the petition's two-fold pur pose we're asking the judge to grant a new trial he said we're also trying to let the judge know that robert bell does not stand alone burns said public outcry does influence a decision burns said that he felt the university and the bsu are a fairer judge of bell than the all-white jury that convicted him it the decision was the most racist verdict i have ever read he said it's a goddamn shame what we're doing is not only for robert bell but for every black man burns said what happened to him shouldn't happen to anybody in addition to individuals support theta delta chi fraternity has pledged the support of its entire house we feel that the university and its ratio has an inherent unfairness towards its black students ted choma 84 house presi dent said he bell didn't get fair sup port on campus or in the trial see sac page 9 see size page 6 see expense page 7 see sac page 6