Brown and White Vol. 98 no. 31

              weak economy worries students seeking jobs byadrienetsang special to the brown and white while the recession has many economists worried loc al directors of college career placement offices said they feel it has caused the field to be more competitive but as graduation nears for the class of 1991 some stu dents fear they may be among the ranks of the unemployed patmatteo director of care er development at muh lenberg college said it does not seem like on-campus recruiting has been affected by the economy matteo said by in large they recruiters don't think they will be affec ted negatively by the econo my according to the wall street journal the unemployment rate rose to 6.2 percent in january from 6.1 percent in december making january's unemployment rate the highest in three years economists who believed this recession might be short lived are changing their minds neal soss chief econ omist at first boston corpora tion said in the feb 4 issue of the wall street journal that class of forecasters is now on the defensive this recession still has plenty of steam in it while the economic downturn has many economis ts worried local directors of college career placement professor talks on war psychology by michael hempstead brown and white news writer two lehigh professors spoke to approx imately 50 students and several faculty mem bers and answered questions concerning the war in the persian gulf at a teach-in last thursday the teach-in was the most recent of several conducted at lehigh and was open to all students and faculty members similar teach ins have been held at many colleges and universities across the nation since the out break of war in the persian gulf bruce e moon associate professor of inter national relations and robert e rosenwein professor of social relations discussed issues in their areas of expertise the brown and white vol 98 no 31 tuesday february 26 1991 a&s college reduces requirements lehigh university by meussa campinell brown and white news writer the college of arts and science has approved new distribution require ments that significantly reduce the number of required courses for maj ors in the college we were starting to feel that the required courses were becoming hurdles to the students rather than opportunities julie williams assoc iate dean of the college of arts and science said the changes will affect the class of 95 but will not be retroactive for students already enrolled williams said the change from 49 required credits to 40 will include a new three-credit freshman seminar three credits in math six are currently required nine credits in social science current ly 12 nine credits in arts and humanit ies currently 12 and no required credits in performing and studio arts the freshman seminar is someth ing new that we hope will be very interesting,"williams said there will be approximately 16 seminars offered to freshmen who will rank their top five choices williams added what we are looking to do is attract motivated students who want to take an active role in developing their education williams said having few er requirements will give students more flexibility to take courses in williams added it began almost two years ago and involved a committee of faculty and students who eventually propsed two different options option a was a drastic reduction in requirements requiring students to take only 31 distribution credits among the changes it included were six credits in science instead of nine six in social science and six in hum anities option b the plan that was ultimate ly adopted is a compromise between what is currently required and option a it will still require courses in broad areas but will require a fewer number of these courses see curriculum page 7 areas that interest them she said we hope that students who are interested in becoming educated will take some of the classes that are no we were starting to feel that the required courses were becoming hurdles rather than opportunities julie williams associate dean longer required anyway williams said the process of changing the require ments was long and carefully planned b4w photo by ross bell students held a candlight ceromony last thursday in rememberence of malcom x pictured from left to right katrina young lachelle veals wayne be thea alissa richardson mike gowdy ginelle julien j.p welc h and ayisha mckenzie see teach-in page 6 rosenwein a social psychologist discussed how governmental leadership is able to mobil ize people for war and how they maintain public commitment to war any leadership can count on a certain body of psychological resources from which it can draw said rosenwein he said one of those is the way in which we are socialized we're socialized early and then by our schools and further by the media to have very positive attitudes toward our government and toward our government leaders by and large so that people are usually willing to give leaders the benefit of the doubt see jobs page 8 offices feel it has caused the field to be more competitive marilyn mackes director of career services at lehigh said the tone expressed by employers has been cautious yet 160 firms conducted inter views on campus this fall up from 143 last fall mackes said this is mainly due to the fact that lehigh has a strong relat ionship with many of the com panies she said while some companies may be cutting down on the number of schools they are recruiting at lehigh seems to be one of the key target schools marvin roth director of career planning and place ment at lafayette college said 85 companies interviewed on campus last fall slightly less than the fall of 1989 we have held our own companies have a more con servative attitude this year they are not looking to grow but to mainly maintain pro grams and fill attrition said roth he added that there will be fewer offers this year to students the recruiters that i have spoken to have said that they aren't looking at as many stu dents it's going to be a fairly competitive pool said roth in fact according to roth the number of students interview ing on campus at lafayette science polymers and plastics page 8