tl19720421-000 "towerlight Volume XXVI No. 10 Towson State College April 21, 1972 Towson, Maryland 21204 5.5% increase: Faculty gets pay raise by Ward Smith President James L. Fisher and Vice President of Business and Finance Wayne Schelle, have recently announced an average 5.5 per cent across the board salary increase for TSC faculty and unclassified administrators. This increase, the culmination of nearly a year's effort on the part of Dr. Fisher and Schelle was approved, effective April 12, 1972. Administratively, salary for unclassified administrative personnel has now been transferred from the State Department of Budget and Fiscal Planning to the State Department of Personnel. Administrative increase will also be realized May 3. Vice President Schelle said, ""This culminates a one year attempt to persuade the state of the unsatisfactory average of faculty and administrative salaries."" Last spring, in a lengthy controversy between Dr. Fisher and various state officials, Lieutenant Governor Blair Lee appointed a task force to study the salaries at Towson and to work with a recommendation of a 6.8 per cent increase in addition to normal increment. During the week of the spring vacation, Fisher attained a state committment for the 5.5 per cent increase for faculty, a ,1.3 per cent cut below the recommendation. During that same week, Fisher called Lt. Governor Lee and received the go-ahead, provided Fisher could get the money. The 5.5 per cent increase called for $225,000 out of the college financing. Schelle reiterated several times, ""The faculty increase to pay and increment has to be attributed to Dr. Fisher's efforts on behalf of the college and staff."" The details of the f a cul ty -unclassified administration increase are complex. Each recipient is to receive a 5 per cent increase, with the remaining .05 per cent be i n g used to correct inequities. This means that all instructors will receive a pro-rated raise based on a $500 increment; assistant professors, $800. The possibility of retroactive adjustments to January 1, 1972 has not yet been clarified. This retroactive adjustment is subject to decision of the Federal Pay Board, and indications point to a similar adjustment to March 1, 1972. A sideline benefit of the recent efforts was the attainment of the state unclassified merit scale for administrators. On this, Schelle said, ""The transfer of administrative employees to the state unclassified employment scale is a great stride forward."" Today is the last day of SGA election voting. Balloting ends at 5 p.m.: Today is last day to vote in SGA Executive Elections by Jud A Imond Today is the last day to vote in the SGA Executive elections. Voting began Wednesday at 9 a.m., and will continue through 5 p.m. this afternoon. Election results will be available at about 5:30 this evening. Should a runoff become necessary (if no one candidate for an office receives a clear majority), voting will again be held next Tuesday and Wednesday. Final results will then become available early Wednesday evening. Election Judges include the four class vice presidents, and four elected members: Senior Pat Welsh, Junior Mike Hamiln, Sophomore Sonny Gasdens, and Freshman Gary Miller. Lew Olshin, SGA Vice President and chairman of the election committee, comrriented, ""The candidates worked very hard at their campaigns and I urge every student to vote in these important elections."" Signs destroyed A misunderstanding ; on the part of the TSC grounds crew resulted in the destruction of a number of campaign signs placed near the entrances to various buildings on campus. T he Murphy-Dean-Danoff ticket lost ten signs, the Schloer-Michel team lost 10, and John Kipper found that eight of his signs were removed. ""We had put a lot of time and effort into the making of those signs,"" said Craig Schloer, candidate for vice president. Schloer's remarks came in light of the fact that many of the destroyed signs were expensively made silk screens. Promotion and tenure: Council scraps departmental procedures Election Committee Chairman Lew Olshin said that he was ""extremely regretful that the efforts. put forth by the candidates have been thwarted through the misunderstanding by the staff."" Voting will continue on the first floor of the College Center today. Anonymous donor gives $10,000 to initiate Trade Center support An anonymous doner has given $10,000 to be used by the students at TSC as seed money to initiate a national student organization in support of the International Cultural and Trade Center in Washington, D.C. Towson - State will be the founding chapter of the national student group. The Foundation,. a non-political, non-profit organization was founded by Simon Kriger, an oriental art expert and president of the Asian Cultural Exchange Fountiation. Kfiger, who donated art to Towson's Center for the Asian Arts, chose Towson to promote the Foundation because of the school's student oriented atmosphere. Towson State students will organize the nation-wide organization in order to provide student support for the construction of the Center in Washington, D.C. An eight member student committee is presently planning a charter and initial organizational activities. The Center, to be housed in five buildings representing the five continents, has been created to increase understanding and cooperation among the countries of world through education, culture and trade. It still offers an opportunity to exchange technical data, share arts and crafts, create workable trade and further human understanding. Students will play a major role in its development. Paul E. Wisdom, vice-president for institutional development at Towson, has been named to the Board of Directors of 1CTC. A student from TSC will also be named to the Board with additional student members once the. organization is completed. Students interested in participating in the International Cultural and Trade Center Foundation should contact Jeff Leber, 448-9471. A motion to allow any department to form its rank committees according to some plan other than that specified in the ad hoc committee report on Faculty Evaluation was passed by a 11-9 margin at the April 10 meeting of the Academic Council. The motion allows departments to structure their own committee ""provided that the plan is approved by three-fourths of the department and by the Promotion and Tenure Committee."" Such plans will have to be submitted annually to the department and the committee for approval. The new plan, which will allow greater flexibility in forming rank committees, is expected to aid departments with few members at higher ranks. A policy on final examinations was also passed, 17-3, by the Council prior to the defeat of a motion by Student Government President Steve Murphy which included provisions that finals carry no undue weight in determining course grades and that no comprehensive examinations be given. The rationale of the adopted policy included the belief that ""the instructor is in the best position to determine the need for final examinations."" The policy provides a period for the giving of final examinations at the end of each semester and provided the option of not including the final examination as part of the course. The policy also urges faculty ""to involve their classes in making decisions regarding special examination policies and options."" In other action, the Council passed motion to allow one semester of any course at a higher level than the first semester of an elementary course in Modern Languages to be counted as one course for the Group I General Education Requirement. Index page 1 news page 2 commentary pages 34 letters pages 5-6 campus news pages 7 news briefs pages 9-16 ....environmental special page 17 off-campus news pages 18-19 features pages 20-21 goings-on "
