The Towerlight, April 14, 1983

tl19830414-000 "The Towerlight A man cannot be too careful in his choice of enemies. �Oscar Wilde Vol. 76 No. 24 PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY TOWSON, MARYLAND 21294 The Greeks One year later many feel they have not recovered from their 'tarnished' image By Ingrid Floyd At 2:45 a.m. on March 30, 1982, an Alpha Omega Lambda pledge from Towson State died in an auto-mobile accident after his car hit a %Way pole. News reports at the time said the driver had spent a long day in pledge activities and was exhausted when the car crashed. The incident apparently startled the administration which promptly expelled the fraternity from the campus and investigated hazing Practices in the Greek organizations. But although the acuninistration set new guidelines for pledging, many of the Greeks believe the fraternities have not recovered from their tarnished image resulting from that fatal accident. ""Fraternities, on the whole, suffer from the scandal of Alpha Omega Lambda,"" said Keven Bris-coe, a member of Kappa Alpha Psi. ''The campus administration now looks at fraternities in a negative light."" Dean Tyrone Lewis, administra-tor in charge of fraternities and sororities, supports Briscoe's view. ""People across campus have very little insight to fraternities or Greek letter organizations,"" Lewis said. His wooden mug with letters from his own fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi, sits on his desk. Their perceptions of student opin-ion of fraternities is not unfounded. Many students say they will not Join the organizations because they consider fraternity men childish. To them, students become fraternity members as an excuse to drink and goof off and to avoid developing as individuals. Even many faculty members wonder about the educational value of fraternity life. Lewis said he receives many calls from irate professors who claim students are Sleeping in their classes because of Pledge activities. Others blame vandalism at the University on fraternity members. ""The fraternities don't do the kinds of things they are accused of doing,"" Lewis said. He emphasized the positive attributes of fraternity life. All the fraternities are involved in activities serving the community and school. Indeed, many Greeks complain that not enough attention has been focused on the contribu-tions of the fraternity to TSU life. ""Generally sororities and frater-nities are conscious about what is going on in school and want to take part,"" said George Tudder of Phi Kappa Sigma. ""Who are the most spirited people on campus? Who are showing the colors at the games to cheer the teams on?"" Lewis commented, ""They do more good on campus than any other organization."" Many of the students active in the Student Government Associa-tion and other campus organizations are members of fraternities and sororities. Dan Suisse of Sigma Alpha Epsi-lon suggested that fraternities encourage student involvement at TSU. ""When I first came on campus, I wanted to be an SGA treasurer, but when I was in the dorms, it didn't appeal to me, so much apathy on campus�it's ridic-ulous."" He noted how his fraternity brothers inspired him to become active in the University. ""When I lived in the Tower for two years, I didn't feel part of anything; when I joined the frater-nity I realized what I had missed,"" he added. Many transfer students involve themselves in fraternities as a way to meet people. Dean Lewis emphasized that the fraternities were ""trying to make a significant contribution to the University community"" to improve their image. ""All fraternity orga-nizations plan to be involved in a drive for leukemia,"" he said. He heneq it will draw more attention to C organizations as a whole. Other fraternities are engaged in their own activities to serve the community. See GREEKS, page 9 April 14, 1983 Trustees approve degrees; Senate amends conduct code By James Hunt The state Board of Trustees last week approved programs for a Mas-ter of Music degree and a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in art at Towson State. In her report to the University Senate Monday, Vice President for Academic Affairs Patricia Plante said that both programs must now go before the State Board for Higher Education (SBHE) for review and approval. Plante said that she expects the art program will receive ""strong opposition"" in the SBHE from the Maryland Institute College of Art, which currently offers a program similar to the one Towson is seek-ing. (Plante noted that ""the Institute was good enough to tell us that they were going to oppose the program."") The Institute is located on the northern edge of downtown Baltimore. According to an article in the Towson State University Report, the music program is expected to enroll its first student in the fall of 1983 if approved by the SBHE. In the regular meeting, the University Senate approved the Towson State University Judicial Code to replace the present Towson Student Code of Conduct. Accord-ing to the agenda prepared by Senate Secretary Neil Gallagher, the Judicial Code ""presents no new substantive changes to the Code of Conduct, but only a redrafting for clarity and legal sufficiency."" The Senate also approved the formation of an ad hoc committee to regulate the sale of books to stu-dents from their professors. Gallagher said the motion to form the committee was a result of charges now before the state Ethics Commission in which a professor is being charged with having a sep-arate business to sell books to stu-dents not necessarily appropriate to his course. The Senate also voted in favor of the Retrenchment Appeals Policy which sets guidelines by which faculty may appeal their dismissal. The Senate's final action of the day was to approve the 1984-86 academic calendars which once again provide for a four-day Spring Break. The University Senate will meet again on April 26 to discuss items on the April Agenda which were not covered Monday. The next regular meeting will be on the first Monday in May. SGA announces events; nixes poll restrictions Photo credits/top: Stephen Hyde, middle: file photo, bottom: Bob Tarleton The Greek life: Phi Kappa Sigma's house (top); Sigma Alpha Epsilon on a keg roll for charity (middle); and an Omega Psi Phi paddle and initia-tion certificate. WCVT fundraiser nets $20,000 By Marty Kerr If you happened to tune in to WCVT between March 25 and April 4 you probably heard their Plea. WCVT, the campus FM radio station, held their annual fundraiser. ""It ran for 11 days and We talked about [the fundraiser] over the air for about 10 minutes each hour,"" said Teresa Houle, general manager of WCVT. The talking paid off; the station received over $20,000 in pledges which, combined with the $24,000 WCVT already has, will be used to fund their upcoming increase in broadcast power. ""We didn't think that the fundraiser was going to be this successful,"" Houle said. ""It started off slow and we were hoping that we'd make at least $10,000, and then have it pick up by the first week and then it went slow again. Houle expects that of the $20,255 pledged, 75 Percent will actually be sent in by the listeners. The average pledge was $20 for which the donors received a WCVT T-shirt. WCVT has filed with the Federal Communica-tions Commission for the power increase and Houle hopes ""we'll get the increase by late ,atlinmer to early fall, but then again, you never 'thow with the FCC, but it is official."" , Houle said the majority of the money received oy the station through pledges will go toward Purchasing equipment needed to boost the Power. by Edvins Lagzdins Cars . . . as far as the eye can see Towson State's commuters may end up parking on top of each other, even if the proposed parking garage isn't built (article below). By Shawn Hill At last Tuesday's SGA Senate meeting, President Bob Barnhart announced two final SGA events planned for this semester. First, the Second Annual Towsontown Block Party will be held on Saturday, May 14, between 12 noon and 6 p.m. The event will be cosponsored by the SGA and the Coca Cola Com-pany. The party will cost 50 cents for residence students. Food for the event will be donated by Servoma-tion and prizes from Coca Cola will be awarded. Also, the SGA will also sponsor the last Glen Party on Thursday, May 5. The event will be held be-tween 12 noon and 6:30 p.m. The event will feature a promotion by the National Carling Brewery. The National Premium Stackup '83 will be a beer can stacking contest open to SGA organizations and residence house councils. The grand prize for the event will be a Ms. Pacman arcade game. First prize is an Atari 800 computer system. Other awards will include T-shirts, bar lights, bar mirrors, and painter's hats. Also, the G. Heileman Brew-ing Company is going to donate a total of $250 to the charities chosen by the first three winners of the contest. G. Heileman Company will also donate 6 cents for each can and bottle used in construction to the American Cancer Society in the name of the SGA. In other business, the Senate voted not to change the distance restriction from the polls which candidates can campaign in SGA elections. The Government Opera-tions Committee, chaired by Alison Dubbert, recommended changing the distance from 20 feet to 40 feet. After debate, the Senate voted to keep the 20-foot limitation. The Senate also voted to unfreeze the budget of the Grub Street Wit. The organization's budget had been frozen becuase they had not sent a member to work at the SGA elec-tion polls. The editor of the Grub Street Wit, Christopher Sharp, explained that his organization had received no memorandum stating their need to be represented at the polls. The Senate voted to unfreeze their budget. in this issue Pizza Palace will close this summer . . . then reopen after expansion page 4 Movies, Spring Break and Bad Boys, are reviewed page 5 Rick Brotman reviews the Auto-matics page 6 Hunter's bunters post 9-9-1 mark, story page 7 TSU stickmen are hot, win fifth straight page 8 Parking garage may go up in the University Union lot in the fall By James Hunt and Chuck Jones , Construction of a 700-car parking garage in front of the University Union (Lot 11) 1�Ity begin by the fall of 1983, Vice-Presi-dent Donald McCulloh reported this week. McCulloh, vice-president of business and onance, said Towson State has sent out a request for proposals for the construction 4nd financing of the garage. t Sixteen con- ractors will be presenting their proposals ;lay 6; if a suitable proposal can be found, mcCulloh said, ""the garage could be in the direction of construction by fall."" Construction of the garage is expected to ;eke six months and cost approximately iD5 million. At present, the University has tess than $1 million in its parking garage ""Ind, so it has requested that contractors Submit proposals for financing the con- 8truction. Such a proposal might have the contractor financing the construction et,oats, then renting the structure to the 'fliversity, McCulloh said. . . . but so will the parking fees Though the design of the garage must follow state requirements, no state funds will be used in the construction of the garage. The state, however, could possibly sell a bond�to be paid off by the Uni-versity� to finance the construction, McCulloh said. Regardless of the means used to finance the garage, parking fees will increase across the board for faculty, staff, and students. Full-time students who currently pay $38 per year in parking will face an increase of at least $7 and possibly as much as $22. ""I can't see [the parking fees] going over $60 [per year],"" McCulloh said, ""but I honestly can't see it under $45."" Space will become more scarce Parking spaces will be scarcer: McCulloh estimated 355 parking spaces will be lost while the garage is under construction. ""[The University] is exploring the possi-bility of finding other spaces,"" McCulloh said, but parking ""might be tight for six months"" during construction. The completion of the new dormitories may also reduce the number of parking spaces available, particularly for com-muters, according to Jim Hull, chairman of the parking committee. Hull said that it is estimated that there will be at least 500 more cars on campus after the dorms are filled and, because res-ident cars are permanently parked, the rate of parking space turnover will decrease. The rate of turnover is important, Hull said, because the University issues twice as many parking permits this year as there are spaces on campus. Presently, the average turnover of a space is three times a day, Hull said. Garage may be only solution Though Hull has said that the addition of a parking garage will not solve any of the parking problems, the garage may be the only viable proposal. Hull said there have been several pro-posals in years past to try to improve parking conditions including a plan to charge higher parking fees for prime park-ing spots. Hull said one official proposed that stu-dents pay a $200 fee for a guaranteed space in Lot 11 near the University Union but added that the proposal was not approved because the space would be a reserved spot and the three-car-per-day turnover would not apply to the Union lot, thus causing more problems. Another proposal was to turn Burdick Field into an extension of Lot 11 but was not approved because President Smith did not want to pave over any more University-owned land. Hull said that a few years ago there was a proposal to build an additional lot on the far side of the Administration Building near Charles Street but was not approved because it was thought that students would not make use of the lot because of the distance from the main campus. ""Parking is a blight,"" Hull said and added that the parking committee has reviewed many proposals but has not come up with any workable solutions. ""Any way you shake it, it's a problem [and] we have no money to solve the problems."" Hull said he believes that the construc-tion of a parking deck will not solve any of the parking problems and added that the parking committee will consider any rea-sonable suggestions from anyone in the Towson State community. ""I wish [the parking problem] would go away, I wish there were solutions ... I'd like to see more students ride buses and bicycles,"" Hull said. "