March 18, 1994

EACH year at this time, the New Directors/New Films series invites New York's dedicated film audience to test its foresight. And it's best to bring hindsight to the task. Look backward, and you'll see how solidly this series is supported by its own track record. Recent selections have included "Proof," "Slacker," "Orlando," "The Living End," "The Music of Chance" and "Metropolitan," to name only a few of the festival's most auspicious finds. Part of the challenge is guessing which new films will take their place in this distinguished lineup and which will be more like "A Wopbopaloobop a Lopbamboom." (That was a grim 1990 selection from Luxembourg, a film with no relation to whatever Little Richard had in mind when he coined the phrase.) Whether each New Directors film is headed for glory or oblivion, it's likely to arrive here with little advance word and even less other baggage. The viewer is encouraged to take chances, and why not? This is pot luck of a high order.

Prompted largely by fears that Federal juries will grant large monetary awards in bias cases, more and more companies are requiring their employees to submit claims of discrimination, including sexual harassment, to binding arbitration. Some companies are unilaterally imposing the restriction on their nonunion employees, while others are insisting that job applicants forfeit their right to sue as a condition of employment. Still other companies are making such an agreement a condition for promotion, stock options or other benefits.

After tracing a parked sports car and the pistol left on its front seat, the New York City police arrested two men and were questioning a third man yesterday in the slaying of a young officer during a robbery that went awry. The two men arrested on charges of murder were identified as Rodolfo Rodriguez, 20, and Javier Miranda, 27, both of Washington Heights. Mr. Rodriguez, a Dominican immigrant who is suspected of firing the fatal shots, had been arrested a few weeks ago and charged with selling cocaine to an undercover agent, the authorities said. At the time of Tuesday's shooting, he was free on his own recognizance awaiting trial.

The news that Q'hana Gethers was failing gym because she never attended class seemed to exhaust the final reserves of her college mentor's patience. "Maybe you saw a different transcript last semester than I did," Kahan Sablo, multicultural affairs coordinator at Canton Technical College, told her pointedly, while Miss Gethers stared at the floor in his office. "I can see having a hard time with math, but this is something where you put on your tennis shoes, you participate and you get a good grade. I'm going to ask you again: Do you want to pass next semester?"

INSURER MISLED EXAMINERS, REPORT SAYS Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield repeatedly obstructed state insurance examiners and tried to mislead them about the company's operations and finances, said a report made public by the New York State Insurance Department. A1. NEW YORK CITY