The Towerlight, April 10, 1987

tl19870410-000 "Inside Sports... Full TSU sports highlights and updates.. .page 3. The Published weekly by the students of Towson State UniversityTower ightTowson, MD 21204 1 1111 Index news sports � 12 39 classifieds 4 7, 9 features & entertainment 5 6 visuals 10 editorial & perspectives 11 weekwatcher 12 Vol. 80 No. 22 April 10, 1987 Senate adopts smoking ban Assaults, abuse by Robert Pattison News reporter The Towson State University Senate voted Monday in favor of a bill that will allow the University to designate specific areas either smoking or non-smoking in all Uni-versity buildings and facilities to control exposure to tobacco products. The Smoking Policy and Guide-lines that determine what rooms can be designated for smoking was passed, 18-0-0. Classrooms, laboratories, semi-nar rooms, lecture halls, audit-oriums, stairwells, elevators and hazardous areas will not be de-signated as smoking permitted areas, according to the University bill. The areas were determined by Eric Seaborg, manager of Safety and Insurance for the University. In residence halls, greater care will be taken to select students with the same smoking prefer-ences. Where students are as-signed to rooms where occupants have different smoking prefer-ences, then the room will be desig-nated non-smoking. Students will be allowed to be reassigned to another room pro-vided a vacancy exists. Until then the room will remain a non-smoking room. In dining facilities separate rooms will be designated for smokers or non-smokers if pos-sible. If it is not possible, then sections of the dining area will be designated, for smoking and non-smoking provided proper guide-lines are met, such as proper vent-ilation. If the proper guidelines cannot be met then the area will be off limits to smoking. Professor Richard E. Vatz, of Speech and Mass Commun-ications, said this motion ""repre-sents a good faith effort for (both) smokers and non-smokers."" How-ever Vatz added that there is ""no way to make the guidelines that determine whether an area should be smoking or non-smoking clear (to departments)."" The bill will allow meeting rooms to bedesignated smoking or non-smoking by the members using the room in accordance with State fire codes. However since some meetings are held in class-rooms, and classrooms are desig-nated non-smoking areas by State fire codes, there was Senate debate over what defines a classroom. Professor Dan L. Jones said that because ""of limited facilities at Towson State people are forced to share their use"" of classrooms for meetings. The bill will allow smoking in these rooms to accomo-date people who want to smoke during meetings, but it will also giveeveryone a choice whether to allow smoking or not, Jones said. Signs will be used by depart-ments to clearly designate which areas are for smoking. If an area does not have a specific desig-nation then it will be a non-smoking area. Other joint-use rooms including hallways, rest rooms, lunges, will be designated as either smoking or non-smoking by authority of each department located in the in-dividual buildings. In the instancc where two or more departments share an area then each must agree jointly which areas will be designated either smoking or non-smoking. The Smoking Bill grants authority to designate areas for smoking to individual depart-ments, and they in turn report to their respective deans which areas have been designated for smoking or non-smoking. The bill also grants authority of staff, faculty or students who are using a classroom for a meeting room to decide whether they will allow smoking or not. An amendment to the smoking bill further defining areas for meeting rooms passed, 11-6-1. The amendment said, ""areas cus-tomarily and primarily used for meetings may be designated as smoking or non-smoking by vote of the group scheduling and using the room."" Senate revises faculty handbook, graduate catalog by Robert Pattison News reporter The Towson State University Senate approved an amendment to the Faculty Handbook that will change the frequency that course and faculty evaluations are con-ducted. The amendment to the Faculty Handbook defining the method of techer and course evaluation was passed 18-0-2. The amendment added the following to existing provisions: ""in any semester in which a department conducts evalutations, Graduate and Con-tinuing Studies teaching Will also be evaluated. In addition, all classes taught in the summer ses-sions must be evaluated:"" Professor Henry L. Chen said it ""may be onerous at times to con-duct evaluations but it is some-thing we as professionals must do."" The motion will provide con-sistency within the departments in evaluating faculty members and courses, Chen said. The motion to amend the Gra-duate catalog to list only those faculty members who are actively involved in graduate studies failed, 15-4-1. It was sent back to the Graduate Committee, to decide whether to list those faculty mem-bers who teach a 500-level course that graduate students take, even though these teachers are not in-volved directly in Graduate Studies. Chris Krivos, SGA President, suggested printing two lists showing those faculty members actively involved in graduate studies and those who are qualified to teach at the graduate level. ""Students definitely look to see who has the credentials to teach (graduate courses) and who See AMENDMENTS, page 2 Experts explain facts about AIDS, STD's by Martha Mallonee Editor-in-chief ""Every person in this room should carry condoms,"" Dr. John Johnson of the University of Maryland Hospital said to audience at Towson State Uni-versity's second annual College Symposium on AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and other STD's (Sexually Trans-mitted Diseases) last Thursday morning. He was ttothing one of the best ways to prevent getting AIDS--use of condoms. The symposium, sponsored by the colleges of Allied Health Sciences and Physical Education, presented Johnson, a pediatrician specializing in children with STD's, and Dr. Diane Dwyer, from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Johnson spoke on AIDS and Dwyer spoke on the many other kinds of STD's cur-rently found in society. The standing room only aud-ience was made pp of TSU stu-dents, faculty, and members of the community. the symposium was held in the Chesapeake Rooms of the University Union. Some of the consequences of STD's, such as herpes and gonor-rhea, are, according to Dwyer chronic abdominal pain, liver cancer, AIDS-related cancers, eye infections that can lead to blind-ness (gonorrhea � and clamydia), ectopic (tubal) pregnancies. This occurs when the fetus attaches to the Fallopian tube instead of the uterus. theonly way to fix an ectopic pregnancy is to abort the fetus. From 1970-1983, the number of ectopic pregnancies has risen with the incidences of STD's from, less than 20,000 to over 70,000. Dwyer then listed ways to pre-vent contraction of an STD:! --Abstinence. Alternatives can include romance and mastur-bation. Though his may not seem to be a good Solution for many, it is the best way to avoid getting an STD. --Having a mutually faithful relationship. --Limiting the number of sexual partners. --Having routine STD and AIDS testing done, to find out before the disease progresses too far. --Knowing one's sexual Partner(s). Talking beforehand, looking for telltale signs (such as ulcers, lesions, etc.) can help. Avoid people with these symptoms. --Condoms. They prevent most STD's if used properly because they act as a barrier between partners. ""No agents in, no agents out,"" Dwyer said. ""It's okay for a woman to carry a condom,"" she added. --Washing with soap and water directly after sex. While this does not prevent most pregnancies, it can prevent transmission of an STD. Also, urinating afterward can cleanse the mah's urethara and wash out a possible contagion. As for the most talked-about STD today, AIDS, Johnson des-cribed it as an epidemic. He claimed that there are about 30,000 cases of. AIDS right now, and in the next ten years there will be five times that number. In the 1990s there will be between 200,000 and 300,000 cases, withover 150,000 deaths. There is one baby born every week with the virus at the University of Maryland hospital. AIDS is a virus that attacks the On-line Fall registration yields faster results by Bill Stetka Special to The Towerlight When Towsor State University. senior Karen Watson went through registration Monday for her fall classes, she was amazed by the ease of it all. Certainly, she said, it beat previous semesters when whe mailed in her schedule and prayed she got the classes she wanted. ""I'll take this any day. Even going and getting all the special permits to get into the classes was better,"" said Watson, a second bachelor's degree candidate who was among the first students to go through the University's new on-line computerized registration process. It took only 10 minutes from the time she signed in to the time she had left with a copy of her fall schedule in hand. ""For convenience, the other way was better when I just mailed in my registration,"" said senior Connie Helton. ""But I didn't have any trouble with this. And then I had all my classes right there. I expected to wait in a long line like at late registration. But there wasn't one."" She didn't even seem to mind When the computers ""froze"" for 10 minutes, delaying her registration Process. And when Wayne Ivusich was stalled because the computer spit back that ""ENG-311-101"" class� Writing Poetry�for which he was registering was an ""invalid Course ID,"" it didn't bother him. ""I'm used to this,"" the senior said. ""Last semester they screweed up my Social Security number."" With a couple phone calls and some computer reprogramming, however Ivusich had his poetry class for the fall. The early days of Towson State's first on-line registration went ""much Wetter than anticipated,"" said David Decker, associate director of registration and scheduling. The new system is designed to ease the registration process and enable students to leave the registration area knowing exactly what their schedule will be. It also gives registration priority on a seniors-through- freshmen basis. The first days went off with only minor hitches, Decker said. ""The horrors that we feared, we've faced,"" he said. ""Some stu-dents were lopped off the com-puter, so we had to input their information back in. Some courses that were in the system March 27 (when a trial run-through took place) aren't there now. Ther have been some schedule changes since the (schedule) book came out, where there are time conflicts. And the computers occasionally lock up. At one point we were only able. to fire up seven of the 15 terminals we have available."" But that hasn't been a major problem, because ther have been few lines. there was a 30-minute line when afternoon registration began Monday, but withing an hour the computer operators were idle. Another line was waiting when registration began Tuesday morning, but it, too, quickly disappered. ""Where we were slowed was at check-in,"" Decker said. ""And we're working on what to do there. blit once we got them in the door, it went fine."" A total of 388 of the 720 students scheduled for Monday's morning and afternoon sessions showed up and registered. Another 153 stu-dents were registered in the first hour and 15 minutes Tuesday morning. In the past, about 75 percent of the students used the mail-in registration. On average, students had their fall schedule in hand barely seven minutes after sgining in. As class sections are filled or time conflicts arise, the computer is able to scan quickly for other sections and times tlIat fit the student's schedule. But students can then see what their other options are and 'work out a scheu dle, instead of having to come back for late registration because classes are filled. This will come into play See SENIORS, page 2 lymphocytes in the bloodstream (the immunity cells) and becomes part of the genetic makeup of the body. ""Once infected, you are always infected, ""Johnson said. After the virus begins, other in-fections can take over the weakened body, which can no See AIDS, Page 2 increase in dorms by 50 percent by Vince Russomanno Weekwateher Editor In a report to the Alcohol and Drugs Concerns Committee, mary Lee Farlow, Director of the Resi-dence Program noted a 50 to 60 percent increse in the number of assualt and physical abuse cases occuring within the residence facilities over the past year and a half. ""It seems more and more the acceptable resolution to a con-frontation. Instead of talking or arguing you physically assault another person,"" said Farlow. Statistics. also indicate that van-dalism is down 15-20 percent in the residence program. This seems to indicate that people are venting there frustrations on each other rather than inanimate objects, according to Farlow. ""Ninety per-cent are definetly related to alcohol,"" said Farlow. ""The problem does not exist only within our residence program; it's nation-wide,"" said Farlow, siting it as ""an outgrowth of domestic vio-lence, in which you take it out on the people closest to you."" ""People see so much violence that it seems exceptible for solving a con-frontation,"" Farlow added. The residence contract, signed by every on-campus student, states very clearly that assault and phy-sical abuse will not be tolerated, according to Farlow. Students who violate that clause of the contract ""can be suspended from the resi-dence hall and sometimes from the University depending on the severity of the action,"" said Fallow, ""filed assualt charges go immediately to the Judical Hearings Officer."" Stopping the rise in violence presents a problem in itself. ""We can talk about the problem, but how do you prevent someone from slapping another person until it has occured,"" Farlow pondered. ""In some ways we can consider ourselves fortunate, some cam-puses have actually had murders; said Farlow, based on information froin the National Conference on Violence on University Campuses held at Towson State last January. According to Margaret Hayes, Director of Judical Affairs, ten alcohol-related incidents in the residence facilities have been referred to her office between February and March. Of those ten, four involved physical abuse. Ano-ther seven reported cases of phy-sical abvuse were apparently un-related to alcohol. ""When I look at this problem I see so many factors involved with each individual case that I can not pinpoint the cause of the problem,"" said Hayes. Some variable factors sited by Hayes include the amount of violence that the individual has been exposed to, his relationship with the other person involved in the conflict and how much, if any, alcohol is involved. Further complicating the de-finition of causes in these acts of violence is there individualitic nature. ""What may cause one per-son to react to a certain situation may not be the same for another person in the same situation,"" said Hayes. According to Dorothy Siegel, vice-president of Student Services, ""In the beginning of this year we had more incidents involving assault in the first two to three months then we had all last year."" ""We called other schools, including the University of Delaware, they all ,had some increase [in the number of as-saults] but the extent of our increase is so unbelievable,"" added Siegel. In compliance to what both Hayes and Farlow previously said, Seigel had no explanation for the increase in acts of assault occuring in the residence facilities. ""This represents a change in our corn-munity and we do not know why,"" said Seigel. Schools attempt to save aid College Press Service College officials throughout the country are scrambling to make sure every campus has some sort of ""drug education program"" in place by April 15. Students at colleges that do not have a drug program installed by the deadline stand to lose their fed-eral student aid. But an official at the US De-partment of Education, which last year ordered campuses to adopt drug programs and set the April 15, 1987, deadline, said schools do not have much to worry about, at least this year. ""Congress has constrained the secretary [Secretary William Ben-nett] from defining or setting any criteria for the programs. Schools will self-certify their drug educa-tion efforts,"" said Ron Bucknam, director of the Education Depart-ment's Drug Prevention Program. That means Bucknam will ap-prove nearly any plan a college offers in hopes that compliance will make administrators look closely at their drug education efforts. ""One wag in the Education De-partment commented that a school's drug education program could consist of a college dean photo courtesy of Liniversity RchitIolk, Students have been having very few problems using the com-puterized registration process, which began Monday in the Administration Building for seniors. standing on the campus quad at midnight shouting, 'Don't do drugs!' if that's what the college wants to certify as their program,"" Bucknam quiped. ""Personally, I think the plan is meant to get administrators think-ing about drug education, and they, must do that when they examine their current programs to self- See DEADLINES, page 2 New SGA meets for first time by Doug Wood News reporter The 1987-88 Student Govern-ment Association of Towson State University held its first Senate meeting of its term Tuesday. SGA President Chris Krivos and Vice President Jeff Rinaca wel-comed all the senators and took time to explain some Senate procedures. Among the issues discussed at the meeting was Senate Bill 1986- 87 #24R, which states that any senator who is going to be late to or absent from a Senate meeting must contact the SGA vice president before the meeting. Three un-excused absences will result in automatic expulsion from the Senate. Each senator was appointed to one of the three SGA committees. The members of the Appropria-tions Committee are Pam Flynn, Judy Jenkins, Ken Krucenski, Jon Long and Laurie Sears. The members of the Government Operations Committee are John Campbell, Kathy Gross,. Michelle Meeden, Vince Russomanno and Colleen Ryan. The members of the University Affairs Committee are Mike Aronin, Terry Brown, Deborah Kane and Darby Simmons. "