TL20060410-01 "Monday, 4/10/06 www.thetowerlight.com Published by and for the students of Towson and Baltimore -- twice weekly Dance team dominates competition Resident fees to increase 8 percent Regents approve higher room and board rates; funds will boost security, self-support efforts INSIDE: This Week..........3 Perspectives......5 News................9 Beyond...........15 Arts................17 Music..............18 Classifi ed.........21 Sports.............24 Arts: �Little Women� comes to Hippodrome sans Christian Bale, sorry ladies Arts: Bands battle for performance time at Tigerfest during annual competition Towson leaves Daytona Beach, Florida with eighth straight national championship trophy COMING IN THURSDAY'S TOWERLIGHT: Big ballers: Towson students join together to form pingpong club News, page 9 Matisyahu, Kanye West, Counting Crows highlight HFSTival�06 Arts, page 17 The Towerlight Brian Stelter/The Towerlight The International Student Association moved the annual International Festival to Burdick Gyms I and II after last year�s event exceeded the capacity of the University Union Chesapeake Rooms. The change served them well; see more photos on page 14. International Festival draws hundreds to Burdick Hall Brian Stelter Editor in Chief After eight years and eight nation-al championship titles, the Towson University Dance Team is used to winning. But that doesn�t mean the competitions are easy. �There are a lot of teams that just want to surpass Towson, so it gets harder every year,� junior exer-cise science major Christy Tarrant said. �Every year you have to prove that you deserve the national title again.� Coach Tom Cascella puts it this way: �You�ve got to convince the people that want you to lose that you�re too good to lose.� That�s exactly what the team did over the weekend. On Sunday the team arrived back in Towson with two national cham-pionship trophies from the Chick-fil- A Cheer & Dance Collegiate Championship in Daytona Beach, Fla. Judges decided the team�s two-minute 15-second performance was the best of the 22 Division I teams in attendance. Teams competed in several divi-sions, and Towson�s score of 9.54 was the highest of any team in any division, making them the grand champion and giving them a grand trophy, as well. �We�ll have to find a way to fit that trophy on the plane,� Cascella, also interim chair in the dance department, joked on Saturday. See FLORIDA, page 10 Brian Stelter Editor in Chief Towson University resident students will pay 8 percent more to live on campus next fall, according to fiscal year 2007 charges and fees approved by the University System of Maryland Board of Regents Friday. The increase is higher than at any other state university. Vice President for Administration and Finance James Sheehan said the increase would ensure that the residence halls operate a self-support arm of the University. �The increases in the past few years haven�t quite kept up with inflation,� he said. Residents will pay an additional $334 to $418 next year, The Baltimore Sun reported. Room rates increased 5 percent last year. The additional money will be used to off-set increased utilities costs and to catch up on maintenance needs. �We�re not putting enough money into renewal and replacement right now, so we�re not generating the kind of reserve [funds] we need to do replacement and refurbishment,� Vice President for Student Affairs Deb Moriarty said. The funds will also help boost security in and around the residence halls. �We�ve been trying to get every hall card-swipe accessible,� Moriarty said. �We�re also trying to put alarms on side doors so people can�t come and go freely through supplemental access points� And eventually what we want to do is add security cameras.� Before increasing the costs, officials spoke to the University Residence Government and compared Towson�s housing rates with those at University of Maryland College Park and University of Maryland Baltimore County. Other fees will increase as well. The cost of �board,� measured by students as the cost of a meal plan, will increase 3 percent in the fall. �The contractor gets an increase based on the consumer price index,� Sheehan said. At Friday�s regents meeting, the board also approved USM enrollment projections. In the next ten years, the system headcount is expected to grow 39 percent. "
