The Towerlight, April 2, 1976

tl19760402-000 "Author Isaac Asimov, appearing as the final lecturer in the 1975-76 Towson State Celebrity Speaker Series, spoke on the subject of space colonization in the near future. Asimov was introduced by Student Government treasurer Kathy Kolar. TL photos by Beej EXVII, NO. 23 te 51 TOWSON STATE COLLEGE APRIL 2 1976 ectivc Pall 76 D' accepted toward '120' graduation by Kathy Pascuzzi o A new y policy approved the Academic Standards the j' has established �D' grade as acceptable ward the 120-credit graduation requirement, ,effective Fall '76. Registrar kle.rard Sartori says that thle change and others n"" 1.3Preved by the committee Will not affect June '76 graduates. All TSC academic poli-dies were outlined in a single document titled ""Academic Regulations."" Sartori said that a sheet with the highlights from the document will be available to all students who complete pry-regis-tration for the fall '76 semester. Sartori also asserted that although the 'D' will be counted in the 120 credits, a 'C' will still be required of all students in Freshman Composition, and the Cum-ulative average required Senate Action by T.F. Troy duction of a budget request for the Rambler Magazine. , Business transacted at A new freshman class l !eesday's Senate meeting Senator, Debbie Leslie, okluded five Senate bills: '.13. was appointed. 80, 83r, 84, 86, 87; the rat ification of the Surf Club constitution; and the intro- Student directory plans Please turn to page 3 by Kathy Pascuzzi b 1%) student directory will t: Published this semes-c�. t.'s aYa Mark Lewis, SGA -.ucretery for Orgamza-tl� nal and General Ser- a.ceiss., The reason, says is ""a long story.' The story began much earlier this year, when the SGA discovered that the he�41Pany that used to vroduce the book for free CWeet out of business. Ed (348roe, who was secre-tary at that time, organized a fund-raising effort. Ap-proximately $1,000 was raised through ad sales. But bid problems and delays kept the directory from publication. The most recent prob-lem, said Lewis, has to do with the printing process used to reproduce the directory. TSC computers produce a large printout sheet, which carries all the information needed for the directory. ""This year,"" REW appeals Judge's decision by Joan Grabowski AS expected, the Depart- A.,,e,nt of Health Education a -gq Welfare has filed for PPeal on the March 8 dee1505 of Chief Federal sIBIstrict Judge Edward S. �rthruP, in a continuing over .�41ict the desegre- ---______ is The Student Government �Its announced that two 'enate rently positions are cur-open. Both of the �Penings are at-large posi- Ot ns and each can be filled 2' an uent. full-time day stu- The term of any 4.,nator appointed at this �71e will expire at the end ,0 n the aernester. For details the 111 procedures involved Dogf.i �ling for one of the -""glens, see the SGA ;eerete.q, Donna Serdehe- IY, before Friday, April 9. gation schools. Northrup's decision halt-ed, at least temporarily, HEW calls for an adminis-trative hearing, and pos-sible cut-offs of $65 million in federal aid to Maryland public colleges. Attorney for the State of Maryland, Walter Lohr would not speculate as to when or if the HEW request would be con-sidered by the 4th circuit federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia. He commented HEW might request, from the district court (Judge Northrup's court), a ""stay"" of Northrup's order, until the appeal is heard. Should this fail, they might re-quest a ""stay"" from the Richmond Appellate court. Until such an action is granted, Northrup's order remains in effect. f Maryland for graduation will still be 2.00. The list of regulations includes sections describ-ing academic standards for full-time students, marking and point system, and graduation requirements. The section on academic standards mentions the acceptance of the 'D' grade towards graduation, but it also includes other changes. Beginning with the effective date of the document, the grade point average will no longer be computed on the basis of hours passed, but will count all hours attempted. This settion also sets minimum standards for grades of students at various levels. Sartori pointed out that a first semester freshman will not have to meet standards for a minimum grade point average until he has corn-pleted two semesters of canceled said Lewis, ""they put more information on the print-out."" This means that the sheet itself is larger, though the letters remain the same size. The large pages must be photographed and reduced to the proper size for the book. Because of the size difference from last yeries, ""The print came out so small you'd need a mag-nifying glass to see said Lewis. He cited money as another problem. Esti-mates on redoing the directory amounted to a-bout $2,800. But he said, ""It's so late in the year now, it would already be out of date."" Lewis is planning now for next year's directory. First, he plans to ""budget for"" the printing of the books, since this year, the money was such a prob-lem. ""Also, we are work-ing with Mike Dunn in News and Publications,"" said Lewis. ""We may be able to stay in-house next year. That would save a lot of money."" Lewis said he is negotia-ting with the advertisers who already paid for space in the now-existant direc-tory. ""We're sure that they wouldn't want their ads in a book of poor quality,"" he said. ""I'm in the process now of making phone calls to the adverti-sers."" He explained that he is offering to print the ads in another student publication, or to return the money. study at TSC. This provi-sion will give freshmen a chance to get used to college life, and.to get into the study habits and skills needed for survival at TSC. The document states, ""It is expected that a student will attain one hundred and twenty semester hours of credit and complete grad-uation requirements in eight semesters,"" but it allows for some students to use a maximum of ten semesters. Students will still be allowed to elect 21 credits under a pass option, but provisions for the pass option will change. Sartori said that if a student's grade for a course taken under this option is 'C or better, the grade that appears on his or her record will be P'. If a student gets a 'D' or an 'F', that grade will appear and be averaged into the cumulative point average. ""Of course,"" said Sartori, ""the student will still be able to repeat a course once."" Under the section on the marking and point system, the 'F' grade was rein-stated, to be given to students for ""work of such unsatisfactory quality that no credit is given."" A new grade, `FX', will be given to students who register for a course, and then do not either attend, or with-draw officially from the course. `FX' will carry the Voting (again) SGA run-off elections for president and vice-presi-dent, and new elections for the 14 Senate positions will be held today on the first floor of the College Center across from the snack bar between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Run-off elections for president and vice presi-dent are being held be-cause the results of elec-tions two weeks ago did not give any candidate more than a fifty per cent majority. Senate elections of two weeks ago were voided when it was discovered that one of the candidates had been mistakenly left off the ballot. Therefore, new elections are being held. same weight as an 'F'. The section covering graduation standards con-tains eight sections. In-cluded in the graduation requirements are, ""Dem-onstration of personal qualities which are ex-pected of an eduated person, a minimum of 120 credits,"" and ""completion of a major."" In addition, the student must complete for credit all courses that are required for all students, including Freshman Composition. Sartori said that this is the only course not in the major that requires a student to complete it with a 'C' or better. The graduation requirements also state that the success-ful completion of a major means that all courses applied to the major must be completed with a grade of 'C' or higher. The last 30 credits must be com-pleted in residence at TSC, and 32 of the 120 credits must be in upper division courses. Sartori stated that the new academic regulations will have no effect on the College's campaign for university status. He said, ""We've always been corn-parable to other schools in our standards. We're ac-credited, so this will be no problem to university status."" ALBERT TOWSON M'CI 2 1916 AsimoYmoseumes need A for space colonization at TSC Speakers' Series by Alan Reese It is rumored that Dr. Isaac Asimov is not an individual, but a literary collective, creating a single public image and body of published work. There is the avuncular, humorous gentleman with large grey sideburns who appears on talk shows, and does television commercials for radial tires. This is the figure who appeared in Stephens Hall last Friday evening wearing a yellow shirt, blue jacket and western string tie. Then, many people believe, there is the staff of literary drudges locked in some subterranean library turn-ing out a diverse and prolific quantity of books. Whatever the degree of veracity to this story it is fitting testimony to the scope and range of Dr. Asimov's writing. Dr. Asimov's name ap-pears on the title page of more than one hundred and seventy volumes of children's literature, his-tory, non-fiction, and science fiction, which in-clude a two volume Guide to the Bible, a guide to Shakespeare's plays, an annotated edition of Para-dise Lost and a volume on the universe. Despite the amount of writing Dr. Asimov has done in the area of pure science, he is best known for his work in the the genre of science fiction. It is a position which is not always pleasant, as evidenced by Dr. Asimov's opening remarks. The lec-ture, the last in this year's Speaker Series, began with a gentle jibe at the sneering individual aware of Dr. Asimov's reputation as a science fiction author. ""For instance,"" he stated, ""I am frequently greeted by my loving friends with some remark such as, 'Now that we have reached the moon, Isaac, what are you guys going to write about, ha, ha, ha!!"" The answer to inquiries like this, according to Dr. Asimov is ""that we can continue to write about anything we want. The present is just the platform from which we jump up in the air."" Dr. Asimov then pro-ceeded to jump up in the air using the platform of the present for projections of the future, touching on such topics as space colonies, global awareness, population, solar energy and nuclear fusion. Although the space pro-gram is winding to a halt, Asimov believes traveling into the space in the future will be absolutely obliga-tory. Mentioning the objec-tions to the expected cost of a space colony, which would be one hundred billion dollars developed over fifty years, Dr. Asi-mov pointed out that ""this is more than the American Parking lot, walkways planned for Media area by Ruth Ann Leftridge Construction is now underway for a new park-ing lot and a pedestrian walkway system surround-ing TSC's Media Center. This work is part of the over-all improvement pro-ject for the campus. Richard Blocher, director of College Media Services expressed dis-appointment and disappro-val with the impending construction plans. Blocher explained that his office had submitted recommen-dations for a driveway loop which would enable cus-tomers to drive directly up to the Media Center door. These suggestions were made ""well in advance of the planning stages -- over a year ago,"" according to the Media Services' Direc-tor. Under the existing plans, clients collecting audio-visual equipment must park at a distance of at least 80 feet from the Center. Blocher feels that the conveyance of heavy pieces of A- V supplies and periods of inclement weather will make the 80-foot distance inconven-ient. ""We'd like to make this easier for clients; that's why I proposed the loop,"" he stated. John Suter, Director of Campus Planning, dis-cussed Blocher's recom-mendations, ""His plans were reviewed by the people who make deci-sions, by the architects, and by his superiors. His prime concern is that he have the ability to park trucks in front of the door. It was felt that the pedestrian walkways were more important."" However, a week-long survey conducted by the Office of Media Services revealed that a great majority of faculty and students use the sidewalk which runs directly along the front wall of the Media Please turn to page 4 people perhaps are en-thusiastic about spending, but we are talking about one hundred billion dollars spread over fifty years, which is two billion dollars a year. And two billion dollars a year is not really very much when we con-sider the American public is willing to spend more than two billion dollars a year on tobacco, and more than two billion dollars a year on alcohol."" It is true that Dr. Asimov indulges in neither because he is too ""mean and miserable,"" adding that he doesn't ""even indulge in teen age cosmetics,"" the annual price of which amounts to one-third the projected annual cost of a space colony. Disregarding these costs assuming ""that people are going to insist on smoking, drinking and painting up their teen-agers"", Dr. Asi-mov moved on to the topic of war and the wasteful cost of military machines. The practice of war, he observed, in the classical sense is obsolete and the three billion dollars spent annually, exorbitant. Dr. Asimov concluded that in the future we may reach a level of intelligence to perceive this and reduce the military machines ""to the barest minimum neces-sary to maintain order"", rechanneling the shaved costs into space colonies. ""Besides which,"" Dr. Asimov continued, ""the only problems which face the world today of any importance whatsoever are planetary problems."" It is his feeling that a single nation is no longer able to solve these problems in-extricably tied into the world network. In order to maintain a comfortable standard of living, according to Dr. Asimov, ""we need a stable world order and we need a decent system of world trade"" since the United States absorbs ""one third of the earth's resources and a lot of this one third is obtained from abroad."" It is then necessary to ""co-operate with the rest of the world in order to solve global problems the only way they can be solved -- globally."" Dr. Asimov believes we are already moving in this direction, pointing to the formation of a number of organizations dealing with world problems. Eventu-ally, he feels we will become internationalized and under some form of world government despite holding tenaciously to the vestiges of the nineteenth century concept of the nation state. This movement toward world civilization must first deal with basic problems such as population, in Asimov's opinion. As he stated, ""we are going to have to have a markedly reduced birth rate all over the world if we are going to avoid catastrophe."" The Please turn to page 4 Subway stalls TSU by Bill Stetka Senate Bill 1037, which would make Towson State a university, has made its way to the floor of the State Senate, but filli-bustering over the contro-versial Baltimore subway bill has slowed the move to get Towson's bill into the House of Delegates. The university bill passed its second reader in the house early this week, but efforts by Senator John C. Coolahan (D., Baltimore County) to delay the sub-way project have put a temporary halt to Towson's move. Coolihan is coordi-nator of the anti-subway group, trying to modify or kill the proposed $700 million rapid transit sys-tern. Officials of the college speculate that it could be sometime next week before Towson's bill comes up for its third and final reader in the Senate, and the possi-bility exists that the bill, if passed in Senate, could bypass the House Consti-tutional and Public Law Committee and go directly to the floor of the House. Dr. James Fisher, presi-dent of the college, has approaced the Speaker of the House, John Hanson Briscoe, about that pros-pect, and Briscoe told the Towson president that he would attempt to take the bill right to the House for vote. ""It is essentially the same bill the Constitutional and Public Law Committee passed last year,"" said Dr. Fisher. ""There really is no need to do it (take it through committee) a-gain."" Last year's bill was passed by the Constitu-tional and Public Law Committee and the House before being vetoed by Governor Marvin Mandel. Senator Coolihan is in favor of Towson's bill, but the debate over the pro-posed subway system, which would run from Charles Center downtown to Reisterstown Road Plaza in northwest Baltimore, is too important an issue, and the debate in the Senate is getting deeper every day. Steny Hoyer, president of the Senate, said he is not considering ""cutting off debate at this point."" ""A $700 million subway system is certainly worth three or four days of debate,"" he said. Until debate on the subway measure is ended, Towson's hopes of becom-ing a university remain at a standstill. Richard Blocher, Director of Media Services, discusses his disappointment of the plans for construction of Media Center walkways. TL photo by Beej "