The Towerlight, April 11, 1988

tl19880411-000 "The Towerlight Is late due to equipment fail-ure. Sorry for the inconven-ience. The Tower Published weekly by the students of Towson State University Towson, MD 21204 Index news business 1 2 3 4 features & entertainment 5 sports 7 8 classifieds 9 10, 11, 12 editorial 13 perspectives & letters 13 weekwatcher 14 Vol. 81 No. 19 April II, 1988 photo by Jim Egan _ People gathered by candlelight singing ""We Shall Overcome"" in remembrance of Martin Luther King. ""Dream"" revisited... by Michael Raymond Assistant news editor Members of the campus community gathered for a candlelight vigil in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Monday evening on the Susquehanna patio of the University Union. The event marked the 20th anniversary of King's death from a sniper's bullet in Memphis, Tennessee. Sponsored by the Student Coalition Against Apartheid, the purpose of the vigil was twofold. First, obviously, was the consideration of King's memory. Also addressed, however, was the issue of what this generation is doing to follow up on his efforts. The ceremony opened with a reading of the citation from King's Presi-dential Medal of Freedom, awarded posthumously on Independence Day, 1977. A series of 11 speakers followed, each reading a portion of the ""I have a dream"" speech. Following the obligatory moment of silence, the forum was open, and as flames flickered and wax dripped under starlight, several of the forty gathered took advantage of the opportunity. At one man's suggestion all of those gathered gave their names. A woman asked, ""Would anyone like to sing 'We Shall Overcome'?"", and was immediately rewarded with a chorus of voices. Finally, another woman asked if anyone on campus cared more about improving society than making money, and suggested that most people focus on social issues only on special occasions such as the vigil. The ultimate appeal was ""to live the dream every day."" Assessment forumplanned by Mary M. Patton Contributing writer The Self-Study Committee of the University Senate is holding open forums April 20 from 3-5 pm in the Chesapeake Room of the Univer-sity Union and April 21 from 7-9 pm in Linthicum room 100. This forum will address methods of asses-sing Towson State University con-sidered by the committee and the progress they have made over the past two years. A slide presentation will be made describing the corrunittee recom-mendations, followed by a ques-tion and answer session with the members of the committee. Academia is being called upon to be accountable for its product�the knowledge, capacities and skills developed by its students. The pres-sure for accountability has come from the public�taxpayers, legis-lators, governing bodies of higher education, students, parents of stu-dents and employers. In the spring of 1986, Towson State University president Hoke Smith responded by calling upon the University Self-Study Commit-tee, a standing committee of the University Senate, to formulate an assessment plan for Towson State University. The committee, chaired by Dr. Charlotte Cook-Fuller of the Health Science department, is in the process of putting together a proposal to measure institutional effectivenss. The committee is work-ing on a program that will fulfill this philosophy: ""Responding to the nation-al thrust for accountability in higher education, Tow- Senate speaks against by Robert Pattison News reporter The University Senate, speak-ing as the ""voice and conscience"" of Towson State University, reaf-firmed its position to uphold the free exchange of intellectual ideas in light of tecent stories revealing that the Federal Bureau of Inves-tigation has secretly attended lec-tures on campus about United States foreign policy in Central America. The Senate also dis-cussed a method of screening stu-dents majoring in business. The Baltimore Sun, using the freedom of information act, ob- , tamed and printed parts of an FBI I report on lectures held at Towson I State October 19, 1984 in which the I special agent reported on the atti-tudes and opinions of those per-sons attending the lecture. It is this instance that has prompted the Senate to make a stand against government intrusions on the cam-pus for the sole purpose of spying on political lectures. Dr. Dan L. Jones, co-chair of the English department, said, ""It is inappropriate for the FBI to spy. We should be free to express free intellectual exchange."" The Senate passed this resolu-tion 17-1-1 over some objections raised by Dr. Richard E. Vatz, associate professor of speech and mass communications. Vatz felt ""discomfort"" over the resolution and said this might op-pose any FBI investigations in-volving criminal actions on cam-pus. He said the FBI has the right to investigate crimes which may involve the University on issues other than political. ""In criminal investigations, does the FBI not have the right to come [onto] the campus of a public college? Think carefully of all FBI functions, don't we approve of some FBI functions."" Dr. Henry L. Chen, associate professor of physics, said ti is a ""statement of principles"" for the University to oppose the FBI investi-gations. ""Some courses require students to attend seminars on South Amer-ica and this [involvement] may affect careers if they [students] are on an FBI file for attendance,"" Chen said in support of the reso-lution. In other Senate business, a reso-lution to screen students who major in business administration passed 18-0-1 and will affect stu-dents in 1989 who declare this major. The resolution will make en-trance into business administra-tion competitive based on stu-dents' overall grade point average. The minimum 2.5 GPA necessary to qualify will be based on the core curriculum as defined by the de-partment. Dr. Sam Barone, Dean of busi-ness and economics, said ""any busi-ness college worth its salt is an upper division college"" and uses a competitive enrollment to ensure students get a quality education of the liberal arts courses and also enroll students in the major in their junior year. Barone said other departments on campus do the same thing, such as nursing and occupational ther-apy. Freshmen would be admitted as pre-majors and only after meet-ing the department's requirements of 2.5 GPA will they be admitted in their junior year as official majors. There was some debate raised by Vatz over the use of the GPA as the sole criteria for competition into this major. ""The goals are resonable but using the GPA is not right,"" Vatz said. Barone said in the resolution's defense that there is an ""element of arbitration in setting a 2.5 min-imum as the criterion"" but there must be some measure by which to guage a student's learning. Barone also said ""students are getting into upper division classes without taking the prerequisites that are the building blocks [of their formal education]."" Several of these prerequisites pass as GURs and will expose stu-dents to classes they may not normally take, said Dr. Annette Chappell, Dean of the college of liberal arts. Dr. Neil E. Gallagher, chair of ""spy,, health science, asked Barone how the department will handle stu-dents who are screened out of the major. Barone said they can transfer to another major, or university, or they may keep trying ""at their own risk"" to get into the major. He added that there are a limited num-ber of new openings, about 500, and some students may not get in even if they meet the department's requirements. Barone said the colleges of Lib-eral Arts and Natural and Mathe-metical sciences will control the quality of students who go into business administration since these colleges administer the core classes students will take in their first two years of college. Another question about transfer students was raised by Dr. George S. Friedman, professor of English, over those students who have achieved an Associate of Arts de-gree. Would they have to compete on the same level as Towson State students? Barone said a ""2.5 [GPA] may be hard to maintain for native stu-dents and may not be as hard for students at [a college whose aca-demic standards are lower]...we ' are trying to do what other busi-ness colleges are doing...to im-prove the quality of education. ""We have committees to screen potential majors, an affirmative action committee...and hopefully this will flatten out enrollments into business,"" Barone added. This, he said, is necessry to deal with the large numbers of students who declare business administra-tion as a major and keep the ratio of students to teachers within reason-able limits. Racism to be addressed by Sean Brohawn News reporter Towson State University will host a forum on racism this Wed-nesday, April 13, from 3:30 to 9:00 pm in the University Union Poto-mac Lounge. The forum will include discus-sion of general topics of racism as well as specific issues on campus, and will be similar to the Ethics forums of the past. A film entitled ""The Eye of the Storm,"" and theatrical skits per-formed by Towson State students are the activities that will be used to generate the small group discus-sions that are the primary concern of the forum. Camille Clay, assistant vice-presi-dent for Minority Affairs, said, ""A lot of things go unsaid,"" and addea that the forum will provide an ""oppor-tunity for us to increase interracial dialogue."" A main goal of the dialogue is to encourage people to ""think more"" about the problem of racism, ac-cording to Marion Hoffman, the forum's coordinator. Hoffman feels there is a ""need to talk about [racism] on a regular basis;"" the University will fill this need by holding a racism forum every se-mester. This semester's forum is now closed to additional participants, however, it is possible for inter-ested students to leave informa-tion on where they may be reached in the office of student develop-ment, University Union 313, so that they may be contacted for the next forum. son State University recog-nizes the need to assess the degree to which the institu-tion is achieving its stated mission and goals. The broad purpose of asses-sment at Towson will be to improve the quality of the students' entire educational experience at the Universi-ty."" The committee has completed a preliminary decsription of the assess-ment strategies currently being used at the University. These in-clude measures obtained through the accreditation process, admin-istrator evaluations, alumni stud-ies, certification, diagnostic test-ing, faculty eveluations, retention, non-retuming students, screening/place-ment and program evaluation. According to Cook�Fuller, ""There is already a lot of assess-ment going on on this campus. We are filling in the gaps. These cur-rent measures do not assess the total undergraduate experience and it is to that issue that this committee is attempting to re-spond."" Assessment procedures and strat-egies of other universities and state-wide systems are being evaluated to determine if they might be of benefit to the Towson State asessment program. Preliminary recommendations were made regarding the areas to be assessed. These include 1) expres-sion and communication skills, 2) knowledge and understanding of general facts, terminology, pro-cesses, and theory and 3)intellec-tual skills. The committee has determined that the purpose of the assessment plan will be to ""evaluate the qual-ity of the University by measuring student outcomes. The results of such assessment will identify strengths and weaknessess of the University."" Cook-Fuller said, ""We are cur-rently in the process of an inten-sive review of all instruments/strate-gies available to assess general university knowledge, reading and writing skills. Once the decisions are made about the instruments/- strategies, we have proposed a four-year pilot study, knowing that we are going to have to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the recommendations and knowing that changes will have to be made."" One issue that will not be de-cided until the end of the pilot pro-gram is whether these assissment measures will serve any gatekeep-ing function�either in passing in-to upper-class standing or in quali-fying for graduation. ""The committee is not currently in favor of using these measures as a gatekeeping function. But, it is an option and out job is to look at all options,"" said Cook-Fuller. These measures can be used for comparisons of individual perfor-mance, indicating change over the course of the educational exper-ience, comparisons among stu-dents within the institution, or comparisons among schools. Once the test methodologies have been chosen, the committee will need to see how best to use them to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the University. The committee is currently work-ing in the assessment of that uni-versity experience that is common to all students. Assessment proce-dures for the major areas will be made by the departments them-selves. The committee expects to de-velop a set of guidelines common to all good assessment procedures to offer guidance to the departments. Beyond that, assessment proce-dures will be determined within each department. Once the committee formulates a proposed assessment plan, ti must be approved by the University Sen-ate and published in a catalog to begin the following fall with the entering group. According to Cook- Fuller, ""we would hope the assess-ment plan would be implemented within the next couple of years. The earliest possible would be fall of 1989 and that seems unlikely standing where we are now."" URG candidates debate issues by Brenda Brown News reporter The University Resident Govern-ment of Towson State University held a candidate debate for the offices of president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, and national communications coordinator Tues-day in the University Union. URG is the primary voice behind decisions governing all resident students. They are responsible for answering questions, discussing issues, and making or changing policies that effect resident stu-dents. Running for president are David Cameron and Philip Pokorny. As president Cameron said he would be interested in improvements that will give resident students a feel-ing of ""security and pride."" Ac-cording to Cameron, ""URG's pur-pose is to promote a living and learning experience for residents."" Cameron currently holds posi-tions as vice president of URG and treasurer of Outdoor Adventure Unlimited. He was a peer advisor for the fall semester 1988 and recently has been nominated Out-standing Youngman of 1988. ""URG needs strong leadership,"" said Pokorny. As president, Po-korny plans to hold two forums a month, develop a resident section in The Towerlight, and hold office hours. Pokorny said ""80 percent of stu-dents are unaware of the Univer-sity Resident Government,"" If el-ected, he plans to change this per-centage by keeping in touch with residents so they can see first hand what the URG is doing. He wants to be a voice for the residents when it comes to parking problems, security, and campus activities. Pokorny has been president of Tower B for the last year and has held positions as vice president and URG representative of Tower B. Rachel McAtee, running unop-posed for vice president, believes the ""URG is the principle force to make changes on campus for resi-dents."" She said that candidates � should have proven motivation and leadership ability. These qual-ities are evident in McAtee through her involvement over the years as treasurer for Tower A and president for Tower C. Patrick Clark and Christopher Deaver will be competing for the position of URG treasurer. Clark said his goals include promoting safer surroundings for students traveling from parking lots to dormitories, bringing old and new sides together by having a formal and improving the bul-letin board system. In short, he wants to get stu-dents involved in their environ-ment. He spoke about taking the money that is currently not being spent and using it on the residents to promote practical and social growth. Clark said he feels capable of being treasurer due to his expe-rience as a volunteer youth direc-tor. Through this job he ""has learned to lead and serve the peo-ple."" He was also required to work with a budget of over $7,000 a year, a budget very similar to that of URG. Deaver, who has been treasurer for the last year, said, ""I have the experience, time, and dedication"" to continue as treasurere. Deaver added that ""no matter who is elected to fill the other offices, I think I can work with them."" Deaver has been involved in the Student Activities Board and URG fund raising events. He also held the position of Student Govern-ment Association senator. Running unopposed for the posi-tion of URG secretary is verteran Carole Stutzka. Stutzka has been the secretary for the last year. Her goals include getting more people involved in the resident organiza-tion. She has attended several na-tional conferences and feels confi-dent that she can continue to do a good job in this position. Dann Berkowitz is the only can-didate running for the position of National Communications Coord-inator. Berkowitz currently holds the NCC position and said ""that only recently has the position of NCC gained respect."" Responsibilities for an NCC in-clude being a ""liason between TSU and other colleges,"" said Berko-witz. He travels to national confer-ences and makes contacts at many other colleges, which in turn ena-bles him to bring innovative ideas back to Towson State. Berkowitz has participated in many committees, including park-ing committeess and the student activities board. Berkowitz said that he feels the position of NCC ""should be an appointed position, not an elected position,"" since it takes years for a person to build up contacts at other colleges. URG will hold elections April 19 and 20. Voting will take place in communityn centers and dining halls during lunch hours. ""All res-idents should make an attempt to get out there and vote,"" said Berk-owitz. Pictured from left to right are the candidates for University Residence Government: Davis Cameron (pres.), Phillip Pokorny (pres.), Rachel McAtee (vice pres.), Patricia Clark (treas.), Christopher Deaver (treas.), Carole Stuzka (sec.), and Dann Berkowitz (coordinator). "