Brown and White Vol. 87 no. 43

              leigh university vol 87 — no 43 215-866-0331 bethlehem pa tuesday april 6 1976 forum chair candidates tress different issues by eileen canzian * the two announced candidates for the position of forum vii chairman have expressed differing views concerning the kinds of issues which the forum should address in separate interviews friday lawrence leder professor and chairman of history said the forum should be concerned primarily with long-term questions of university policy while david amidon lecturer m urban studies emphasized the forum's role m dealing with day to day issues on other matters the candidates said they would like to encourage more faculty in terest m the forum and both said they were opposed to closed forum meetings unless the meetings were for the purpose of drafting a written report b&w photo by connery speaking tonight sen richard schweiker r-pa will speak at 8 o'clock tonight on perspectives from washington m packard lab auditorium forum vi and the visiting lecturers committee are cosponsoring the speech the public is invited to attend schweiker has served on the house armed services committee and government operations committee he is chairman of the select committee on intelligence b&w composite by baiz lawrence leder and david amidon amidon according to amidon it's m the nature of any political body that unpredictable day to day contingencies will determine a fair amount of what it does he added that when it comes to long-term questions neither the forum nor the administration is prophetic enough always to know what will be important m the long run amidon said the forum would be more effective if it had a say m some of the day to day decisions now made by the educational policy committee or by the faculty as a whole referring to plus-minus grading and the length of the course drop period as examples he said he would like to see the forum research the question of creating a faculty-student senate to deal with such issues amidon said a forum chairman must have a bargaining skill to act as a broker between competing interest groups he said he feels both he and leder have this capability however amidon said that he is dif ferent from leder m that leder tends to have strong attitudes about issues and to see day page 4 leder leder said the forum's proper function is to set or to help set long-term policies and to check on the effectiveness of those policies he added if all of the forum's attention is focused on putting out immediate brush fires it will get bogged down m administrative details job offers running behind 1975 statistics show 8 per cent drop by ted hindenlang statistics indicate that known job of fers to university seniors are lagging behind last year's recession-ridden job market there have been 8 per cent fewer offers than last year when only 64 per cent of the graduating seniors gained employment or went to graduate school according to eugene seeloff director of university placement services the previous year 95 per cent of the seniors were working or attending graduate school by that fall seeloff said despite the worsening trend seeloff said the present state of the job market for seniors is pretty respectable for this kind of market he added offers are coming m daily and the situation is clearing speaking about specific disciplines seeloff said the market for engineers is still strong and will continue but it is not as wide open as before the job market is excellent for well-qualified individuals and lehigh engineers are well-regarded he said ottervik says birkel leasing out of question by olga yannitsadis the possibility of leasing 36 birkel townhouses for university undergraduates use is pretty well closed for now ac cording to eric ottervik vice president of planning a whole series of possibilities is being explored for other undergraduate housing next fall he said new housing alternatives include leasing houses from a realtor m the surrounding area as well as sorority housing according to william quay dean of students concerning long-range housing plans ottervik said the administration is still talking to one developer about the possibility of building a high-rise on the site of the college theatre on fourth street the plans are very skeptical ot tervik said but it is not a dead issue quay said the sorority houses under investigation could provide a base of operations for the sorority and house about 10 students quay said the sorority housing in vestigation will be settled m a couple of weeks sorority houses would be financed like other off-campus housing quay said math and computer science candidates are m pretty high demand right now as are some sciences but there is a greater supply than demand m the arts seeloff stated business students are m a fairly good situation although that is a buyer's market also he added a recent time magazine article and college placement council survey stated the national job market has been im proving over the last few months but it still has a long way to go before it catches up to last year the reason for this major market bust after a 25-year boom m the college job market is due to the worst slump m the nations economy since the 19305 employers are expected to make 5 per cent fewer job offers to recipients of all kinds of degrees than last year when the recession was at its worst the situation varies according to specific disciplines with liberal arts majors being the hardest hit the humanities and social science disciplines have felt the greatest bachelors level decline m volumn of offers at 26 per cent engineers are next with a 23 per cent drop followed by the sciences with a 12 per cent decrease and the business fields with a 4 per cent drop there are a number of reasons for the employment crisis of the well-educated the main problem is a structural one which was almost unforeseen a decade ago the output of the u s educational system and the needs of u s economy are see known page 6 see leder page 6 see new housing page 4 inside courageous play p 5 sac elections p 6 saw game p 8 frampton sold out the student activities council has announced that friday night's peter frampton concert has been sold out