The Towerlight, April 12, 1984

Vol. 77 No. 25 The Towe flight It is time for a new generation of leader - ship to cope with new problems and new opportunities. For there is a new world to be won. —John F. Kennedy July 4, 1960 PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY TOWSON, MARYLAND 21204 April 12, 1984 Campus groups gearing up for the election By Terie,Wolan The word used most frequently to describe col¬ lege students is apathetic. Not only are students uninterested in the political process, but as any professor teaching American National Govern¬ ment has discovered, they are generally unin¬ formed or unsure about what the campaign is¬ sues are. While the focus has been on political apathy, there are signs of a resurrection of campus po¬ litical involvement. Three student political groups— College Republicans, Students for America, and Americans with Hart— are gearing up for the presidential and congressional races this year. The Towson State chapter of College Republi¬ cans was started in 1982; Students for America was organized this semester and is currently ap¬ plying to be affiliated with the Student govern¬ ment Association; and, although SGA does not grant affiliation to organizations that support on¬ ly one candidate, some members of the Hart or¬ ganization are working to create a Young Demo¬ crats group. Bill Wilson, College Republican president, said their primary purpose is to work for President Reagan’s re-election , as well as working tor 1 he election campaign s of some Republican congressmen. While College Republicans policy is not to en¬ dorse a candidate in a contested race before the primary election, Wilson said some members are individually working for Dave Smick, Republican candidate in the second congressional district. The group is working hard, Wilson said, to in¬ form students. “We want to educate the ordinary student, and hopefully change a few attitudes," he said. “I’ve noticed a change in the attitude of [students] youth, they’re much more conserv¬ ative. We’re a drastic change from the generation before us.” Wilson believes Reagan’s economic policy and his push for a strong defense will help him in the November election. “The Republican party’s strong point,” he said, “is it’s the party of prosperity, it’s hallmark is strength.” While Reagan has received criticism from cut¬ ting social programs, Wilson said the cuts “makes people less dependent on government, strengthening the economy as a whole. Wilson believes the cuts in student loans will not lessen students’ support of Reagan. "The Democratic philosophy in education ... is to throw money at it. Reagan has cut back on loans, but it’s still pos¬ sible for a student from a middle- to low-income family to get an education. He may owe a lot more, but if he wants a higher education, he still can get it.” Towson ’s College Republicans has 40 mem¬ bers, Wilson said, each of whom engaged stu¬ dents in discussion about Republican ideals as part of what he refers to as the “invisible arm” of the organization. Wilson said they’ll continue to invite Republican politicans to speak on campus and reach students personally and through CR literature. The College Republicans are also helping to es¬ tablish the Students for America Chapter cam¬ pus on campus. Students for America is a group of conservative students primarily interested in moral issues, such as abortion and school prayer and working with “New Right” evangelical leaders. Among those leaders is Jerry Falwell, himself a SFA national board member. Sophomore Shawn Hill, the main organizer of the campus group, approximately of 15 mem¬ bers, was at their recent SFA founding con¬ ference. Hill said the group’s purpose is not just the election, but to build a coalition of conser¬ vative students from Republicans to people who are involved in ROTC, to reach out to evangelical groups, and try to get them involved in politics. SFA does not require Republican membership, they accept independent voters. Hill said the> are targeting ROTC members, because they tend to be for a strong military and evangelical groups because churchgoers tend to be conservative. Hill characterized the group as activist and deeply, concerned with Judeo-Christian values. The group hopes to have a rally in May, support¬ ing President Reagan and focusing attention on conservative beliefs. Hill also would like to work with the Parkbench Society and Campus Cru¬ sade to register more voters. While literature by the national SFA says that group seeks “thousands of students to oppose the policies of liberal candidates . . . and defeat the organized left on campus," Hill believes “it’s more effective to be positive, rather than criti¬ cizing other groups.” However, they do “oppose See POLITICS, page 2 Hart draws student support ALBANY, NY —When a lonely candidate nam¬ ed Gary Hart visited Albany in May, 1983, Gov. Mario Cuomo was too busy to see him. Hart’s organizers gave up trying to book a room at the State University of New York-Al- bany (SUNYA) campus because, as one organizer remembers it, they were worried the candidate couldn’t draw a crowd big enough to fill one. Things have changed. In the weeks before the April 3rd New York primary, the campus chapter of Americans with Hart had about 100 volun¬ teers, about 40 of whom were “active,” Michael Schmall, the campus campaign’s co-coordinator, said. Indeed, for the first time since 1972, a Democratic presidential candidate seems to have caught fire among a broad cross section of stu¬ dents around the country. Over 5000 students heard Hart speak at the University of Illinois two weeks ago. About 1200 showed up to listen to him at Cal-Berkeley, while another 300 couldn’t get in. During the Mas¬ sachusetts primary, Hart handily won student precincts in Amherst. Mondale’s student organizers contend their volunteers are more concerned with issues than Hart’s. “Students who look at the issues and not at ap¬ pearance are swinging to Mondale,” Valarie White-, national student coordinator at Mondale headquarters in Washington, said. The Jackson campaign, which appears to have wilted after a uproarious campus start last fall, has had the most success in actually bringing new voters into the system, the obsrvers sug¬ gest. At SUNYA, the student Democrats’ ambi¬ tious voter registration plan has run out of money, and now relies on "word of mouth,” Salkin said. The College Republicans, on the other hand, say they have a registration budget, which they’ll use for the general election. At SUNYA, College Republicans chapter Pres¬ ident Will Kamishlian said that, until the general election in the fall, his group will “sit back and watch the Democrats slit each others’ throats.” “The interest is there” in supporting President Reagan’s re-election drive, Kamishlian said, though “it’s not on the surface.” —College Press Service Is El Salvador the ‘new’ Vietnam? Clarence Long thinks it could be By James Hunt When Clarence Long considers the American involvement in Cen¬ tral America, he sees a situation “so much like Vietnam, it’s almost un¬ canny.” "First,” he explained,” the U.S. moved in to help them (the South Vietnamese) with money, until we realized their troops weren’t fight¬ ing. So we put our troops in there and we became the enemy.” Although the U.S. has not yet in¬ stalled troops and President Reagan has publicly announced that he has no plans to do so, it is obvious that Long is not very confident about the future of Central America. Long, the 11 -term representative for Maryland’s Second Congres¬ sional District— which covers most of Baltimore County— recently re¬ turned from a “fact-finding” mis¬ sion in Central America. While much of what he saw there is classi¬ fied, he has not been shy about elab¬ orating his views on the future of that area since his return. Tuesday night, he was in the Chesapeake Room of the University Union, ad¬ dressing a group of about fifty stu¬ dents, professors, members of the local media and an assortment of po¬ litical activists. He began by taking President Reagan— as well as many of the presidents who preceded him— to task for “usurping” the power of the Congress by getting the U.S. in¬ volved in “foreign actions’ without the consent of Congress— “a direct violation of the Constitution.” “Congress,” Long said, “ is the real custodian of foreign policy, not the President.” Yet during his re¬ cent trip to Central America, which took him through much Of El Salva¬ dor, Honduras and Nicaragua, he saw things which convinced him that the United States is engaged in a “covert war” in Nicaragua. He said he was not at liberty to discuss what he saw, ■ however, as it was classified secret by the State De¬ partment. Long makes no secret, though, of the fact that he does not believe Communists are the most serious threat in Central America. Al¬ though, he concedes that he “may be wrong,” he believes that “there are not enough Communists [in Cen¬ tral America] to overturn that area . . . nobody claims that there are more than 9 or ten thousand Communist guerillas— if they [the guerillas] are all Communists.” He is more concerned about the money the United States is spend¬ ing in Central America and the pos¬ sibility that troops may be sent in, creating a situation similar to that in Vietnam. “If you put U.S. troops in (Central America), you are going to get these people really stirred up,” Long warned. He is also critical of increased aid to Central America and, as chair¬ man of the Appropriations Subcom¬ mittee on Foreign Operations, he will have a large зау in determining the amount of aid that area gets. In El Salvador, whose govern¬ ment is backed by the U.S., Long said he wants to see three reforms before that country receives more aid. First, he wants that country to revamp its judicial system with the help of American legal advisors. “The thing that makes El Salvador so hopeless is the tremendous amount of murders without any con¬ victions,” Long said, recalling the murder of four American nuns sev¬ eral years ago, for which the govern¬ ment has yet to bring any suspects to trial. The second reform Long proposes is to stop theft and corruption among government officials. "Aid money doesn’t go where it is sup¬ posed to,” Long said. Lastly, Long wants the army to become "a sufficient fighting mech¬ anism.” There are some good soldiers in El Salvador, Long said, but many soldiers are “press- ganged” off the street and into serv¬ ice and are paid poorly and, as a re¬ sult, moral is low. “They don’t send small groups of soldiers into the fields because they are afraid they’ll desert,” Long said. The ranks of the Salvadoran commanders need to be improved as well, Long said. “The officers are the worst problem,” Long said. Many are chosen through nepotism, and once in power frequently steal aid and arms intended for their troops. “What you have to understand is that armies (in El Salvador) are not for fighting they are for grabbing power.” Furthermore, Long said, the armies “are responsible for half the murders” in the country, "none of which are ever brought to trial.” Long said that El Salvador is cur¬ rently seeking an additional $62 mil¬ lion in U.S. aid. He said he intends to see that aid is tied to those pro¬ posed reforms. “My strategy is to keep them poor ... let them know tht they’re not going to get any money” unless those reforms are enacted. “My obli¬ gation is the taxpayer.” Long con¬ ceded that El Salvador could receive funding from the U.S. Defense De¬ partment, although he warned that such a move could cost that depart¬ ment funding later. Longs visit was sponsored by the Parkbench society, a group founded earlier this year “to promote politi¬ cal and contemporary awareness. Top 10 lacrosse Men’s Lacrosse beats UMBC for a 10th place national ranking . Page 10 The bridesmaid Men’s tennis takes second place at last weekend’s Tiger Classic Tournament . Page 10 A look back Mark Baltimore reminisces on a career in college journalism page 15 Parking resolved Judge dismisses January's Cross Campus fines A Baltimore County judge ruled Monday that most of those stu¬ dents whose cars were ticketed along Cross Campus Drive at the end of January will not have to pay the fines, according to Ralph Valle, director of office services. Valle, who represented the stu¬ dents in court, said the judge dis¬ missed the case after reviewing testimony from the University, the Baltimore County Police Depart¬ ment, and the Department of Traf¬ fic Engineering. The cars involved were ticketed in the early morning hours of Mon¬ day, January 30, after the Depart¬ ment of Traffic Engineering had posted signs over the weekend plac¬ ing a four-hour parking limit for cars along Cross Campus Drive. The University, which had sought the four-hour limit to open additional parking spaces for com¬ muters during construction of the Lot 1 1 garage, had also requested a two-week grace period” to inform students of the change, but Traffic and Engineering apparently failed to communicate this to the police department until after approximate¬ ly 95 cars had been ticketed. Valle said he represented 55 stu¬ dents who had requested a trial either individually or through Park¬ ing Services.