The Towerlight, April 10, 1986

tl19860410-000 "University Senate passes final exam resolutions At the April meeting of the University Senate, the senate passed a motion that outlines student procedure if a faculty member is absent or late to a final exam. The policy, which passed the senate by a vote of 17 to 4, states that ""a student should wait thirty minutes after the beginning of a exam period for an absent professor."" The policy goes on to say that if the instructor does not show at all, students should sign an attendance sheet and appoint two class representatives to take the list to the department chair. Mary Lu Larsen, Physics instructor felt the motion should not be passed because she was ""basically opposed to using policy to solve problems that rarely occur.'' Other senate members were concerned with how the policy would be communicated to students. Student senate member Andy Kohn suggested the policy be published along with the final exam dates in the schedule booklet. In other business, the senate voted to approve a policy that requires faculty to retain unreturned final exams for one Year to facilitate appeals on final exams. The senate also passed a resolution honoring faculty member Ben Swenson who recently passed away after a struggle with cancer. In his statement to the senate, University President Hoke Smith announced that enrollment figures for the coming year show that the number and quality of applications received is on the rise. Smith added that although there are more applications not as many applicants have been accepted to date, as were accepted by the same period last year. University Vice President Don McCulloh reported to the senate that the budget for the Stephens Hall renovations has been approved by the Maryland General Assembly, and that construction of a walkway and sitting area between Hawkins Hall and the Lida Lee Tall School will be completed by summer. Jeff B. Spence Poster contest winners announced The results of the Handicapped Awareness Week poster contest Were announced by the Office of Special Needs. MacArthur Crawford took first place honors With Larry McCusker coming in Second and Kate White winning third place. The contest was Judged by Jim Flood, chairperson of the Art Department. All of the Winners received gift certificates from the University Store. Michele Hart Golf tournament kick-off of alumni Weekend Towson State University's ,4nntlai ""Doc"" Minnegan Golf vournament for alumni and the general public will be held Priday, May 2, at the Longview Coif Course in Timonium. The golf tournament is part of the University's 1986 alumni Weekend during which reunions for the classes of 1931, 1936, ,1941, 1951, and 1956 will be floated by the University May 2 and 3. A 1986 Pontiac Fiero is being donated to the tournament as a kize by Town and Country Pontiac Nissan for the golfer who 31nks a hole-in-one on the designated hole. Persons interested in lerticipating in the golf Lournament should pre-register Y April 25. For further 14formation contact alumni 4th/ices, 321-2234. �4101111.......r?resormi?oiliimisorliiimmeniumodimmloommosiondi Campus Notes Inside A first first Discus thrower Bill Robert-son garners TSU's 1st win ever at the Colonial Relays 4. Alarm gaining strength Band member Dave Sharp talks about touring and the album, Strength 9. Turn the volume down Terie Wolan discusses fractured feminism 13. Towson represented Uruguay at Model OAS Nine Towson State students participated in the Seventh Annual Model Organization of American States March 17-22 at the OAS Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Towson State joined universities and colleges from the eastern United States and Puerto Rico in the Model OAS, which operated comparatively to the Organization of American States. The OAS is comprised of 31 nations from North, Central, and South America that meet to discuss economic, political, and social issues. Each college was assigned a nation to represent during the Model OAS and was provided with information to study in preparation for the delegation. ""We represented Uruguay, so the students had to be prepared to follow the opinions of that country on the issues discussed,"" said Jorge A. Giro, faculty advisor for Towson State's chapter of the OAS and chairperson of the Modern Languages Department. In order to prepare for the program, the students completed several courses and worked with Giro and David Dent, Director of International Studies, Political Science at Towson State, on the background of Uruguay. Once in Washington, the delegation was divided into separate committees including a general committee and one each for political issues; economic and social issues; educational, scientific, and cultural issues; and administrative and budgetary issues. ""In a certain way, it was like a debate. Each group discussed resolutions for the issues in its area, and there was debate within the committee,"" explained Giro. ""The groups had to approve or disapprove the resolutions as the country they represented would."" After the committees completed their meetings, each made a presentation to the entire delegation for evaluation. ""There was an awards committee as well that decided which committee made the best impression, the best speech, and rated and selected the best delegation and best chairman,"" Giro said. This was the fifth year of participation in the Model OAS for Towson State, and Giro expects the program to continue in the future. ""The students participated very well, even though they won no awards,"" he said. ""And I definitely think this will be an annual event for us."" Elizabeth Buck University media release Campus Notes cont. on Page 2 The � Published weekly by the students o Towson State University Towson, MD 21204 Vol. 79 No. 23 April 10, 1986 By Fdviris Pardon our dust,. 4 4110,- � !P'4116. � sg .401; L( '1 .i"" 11. ,.4151111,1117.7 � '11 The dust flying between Hawk ins Hall and the Lida Lee Tall School should be gone by summer when a new walkway and sitting area will be finished, according to University Vice President Don McCulloh. SORT battles against campus sexual abuse By Kelso Sturgeon There has been one rape, one at-tempted rape and five sexual assaults reported to Towson State police since 1984, but a committee appointed by University President Hoke Smith in spring 1984 feels that most cases of scxual violence and harrassment go unreported. The committee, called Sexuality: Options and Responsibilities for To-day, attempts to coordinate educa-tional and counseling programs de-signed to prevent sexual harrass-ment, sexual assault and rape. An informal survey of 1000 stu-dents done last year by Towson State Vice President of Student Services Jan Sherrill found that 65 percent of the University's stu-dents questioned had been the vic-tims of some form of violent assault while on campus. ""If the same crime statistics (for college campuses) were reported for my neighborhood I would be very alarmed,"" Sherrill said. Sherill, who is not a SORT com-mittee member, and other universi-ty officials, including Towson State Police Chief Stephen Murphy, are preparing reports on nationwide campus violence that will be pre-sented to the National Association of Student Pers(snnel Admin-istrators in earls April SORT was formed because no of-fice existed at Towson State to pro-vide ongoing programs concerning sexual violence, committee member and university affirmative action, officer Elaine Solez said. ""The ISORTI committee makes sure that there are continuing pro-grams (designed) by the residence department, the police, the counsel-ing center and the women's center NCYSP hopes to curb nationwide suicide rise By Maria Vailas Only car accidents claim mon college student's lives than suicidE according to information publicized by the National Committee on Youth Suicide Prevention (NCYSP). The number of suicides has more than doubled in the last three years. Every 90 minutes a young person commits suicide. Due in part to these statistics the NCYSP has recently begun to develop chapters in each state in-cluding Maryland. Towson State Vice President of Student Services Dorothy Siegel is a member of the Maryland group. ""The main goal of this committee is the prevention of suicide. To help us do this we are hoping to get federal provisions for grants for state and local governments and school systems in the development of suicide prevention programs. The committee would also like to develop hotlines for people who want to talk to someone and who want to find out where to go."" According to Siegel on the na-tional level there is one successful suicide per 10,000 students annual-ly and suicide among the young has increased by more than 300 percent in the past 30 years. ""The actual number of suicides is estimated to be as much as four times the number reported,"" Siegel said. The Maryland chapter of the NCYSP is recruiting students who are interested in sitting on the com-mittee. ""We feel that it is important for different ages to be represented."" Siegel hopes to find two college students to join the two high school students already on the committee. According to Washington psy-chologist Alan Berman, also a member of the Maryland chapter of the NCYSP, ""One in every four young people now considers suicide to the point of developing a plan for his death. About 500,000 young people a year in the United States actually attempts suicide."" ""Students who withdraw from friends, parents, begin sleeping too See SUICIDE, page 11 Dean of Student Services Dorothy Siegel is a member ot the Maryland chapter of the National Youth Committee on Suicide Prevention, whose main goal is to educate and inform people about suicide. that, deal with sexual violence. We also communicate with the athletic department, fraternities and sorori-ties,"" she said. Counseling Center Director Charles Maloy said that the most common form of sexual violence on college campuses today is the ""date"" rape or ""acquaintance"" rape where the victim knows her ""at-tacker'� and is psychologically coerced into sexual intercourse. ""IDate rapei occurs hundreds of times every weekend when the psy-chological pressure for sexual inter-action becomes so strong that the recipient of the pressure is no longer able to handle it,"" Maloy said. Law-enforcement officials believe that rape is the most underreported crime. Only eight percent of stu-dents surveyed who had been raped reported the incident to police, ac-cording to a study by Kent State Psychology Professor Mary Koss. Maloy said that education efforts must be aimed at men because peo-ple are conditioned to accent roles in which male aggression is accept-able. ""What [date rape] amounts to is one person saying that another per-son's rights are not going to be respected. We need to be more re-spectful. It's easy to say, but dif-ficult to do,"" he said. SORT has established regular on-going types of process that will in-form and educate the Towson State community about the problems of sexual harrassment, sexual assault and rape, Maloy said. The committee published a book-let about sexual violence in an at-tempt to educate students about the problem. But, the committee does See SORT, page 11 Nightwalk points out dark spots to University By Scott Hollenbeck With one eye on student safety and the other on the University budget, a group of female Student Government Association senators put together another in the series of many Nightwalks to promote safe-ty and the need for more or better lighting around campus. The 45-minute walk covered the main points of campus that receive the most student traffic, whether commuters, residents or night students. The first stop was near Burdick Hall stairwell. ""This is a dark area,"" said Senator Fran Burman. The area is lit by only stair lights and one distant pole. The group con-cluded that the area was not safe. The next stop on the walk was the running track between Burdick Hall and the Residence Tower. President-Elect Melanie Goldsmith said ""we hope to have it lit"" in the future. However, University Presi-dent Hoke Smith said the track is ""a low priority area."" He added there is no central power supply available to connect lights to without expensive and awkward wiring. The group then walked by the driveway entrance to the parking area behind the Residence Tower, commonly called ""the pit"", and observed a few lights that were out. However, this was dismissed as a low priority area because of the small amount of student and vehi-cle traffic. Walking between the Power Plant and Linthicum Hall, Burman See NIGHT, page 11 Republicans and democrats square off over aid to Contras By Scott Hollenbeck The battle lines were clearly drawn as the College Republicans and the Young Democrats of the University debated the issue of sending aid to the Contras in Nicaragua. Democrat Anthony Livanios, in his opening statement, asked the Republicans ""why must the American taxpayer pay 100 million dollars? For what purpose? How will United States benefit?"" Republican Gerald Thomas, re-plied that in Nicaragua, ""we are dealing with something very impor-tant here�freedom"" and the Reagan administration is ""trying to diffuse a threat of communism."" Debbie Kratton, who recently spent 10 days in Nicaragua, feels that their system is working well in relation to health and education. ""After the Samoza overthrow, volunteers from the masses, 80,000 teachers went to teach in the countryside."" Gratton also said the infant mor-tality rate decreased from 144 out of every 1,000 babies to 25 out of every 1,000 babies. She said the amount of people being vac-cinated against diseases rose 100 percent and ""polio has been eliminated."" Gratton said ""11,000 civilians were killed by the Contras and the Nicaraguan government spends 40 percent of its budget on defense."" She mentioned that 30 tutors were killed by the Contras, which are referred to as ""the Guard."" Republican Al Mendellsohn said Gratton made an ""absurd state-ment that the Contras are the guard. When the Sandanistas took over, they implemented martial law."" See DEBATE, page 11 "