The Towerlight, April 21, 1983

tl19830421-000 "iii The Towerlight I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused. �Elvis Costello Vol. 76 No. 25 PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY TOWSON, MARYLAND 21204 April 21, 1983 by Bob Tarleton Dr. Benjamin Hooks, executive director of the NAACP, spoke last Thurs-day in the Chesapeake Room. Hooks, NAACP chief, addresses TSU audience By James Hunt Benjamin Hooks does not want People to forget. Fifteen years ago, on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Memphis, Tennes- See. Very few people are likely to forget King; the civil rights leader has since been honored with a national holiday and many public buildings have been dedicated in his name. But, as the years pass, the rnemory of King's struggles for the Civil rights of blacks seems to fade, br. Hooks said, particularly in the nlinds of young people. ""Many people do not like to dwell O n the past, they think that it's dead and boring,"" Hooks said, but�echoing the words of the author George Santayana�cau-tioned, ""any nation of people who forget history are doomed to repeat Hooks, executive director of the NAACP, was addressing his re- Narks to an audience of almost 100 People at Towson State last Thurs-day, most of them black, and many of whom could not have been more than nine or 10 years old at the time of King's death. Hooks does not want people to forget the last speech King gave before his death in which he warned that there were ""dark, difficult daYs ahead"" for the civil rights Novement. ""He was absolutely right,"" Hookso said. ""After all the bat-tles� Montgomery, Selma�there Were many who thought in April, 1968, that the fight was over. ""Maybe King could see the battle shift: to Boston, where they stone and spit on children"" in protest against court-ordered busing, and Chicago with its 'divisive race' for mayor. ''Maybe King saw Ronald Wilson tteagan sitting in the White liouse."" , Hooks seems to hold no great 'ove for Reagan. He told the audi-ence, ""If you're already sold on keagan], I'm not going to try to Change your mind .. . but you ought to have your head examined. ""In today's world, in America, c'ne out of 10 are unemployed, one �Ilt of five among blacks,"" Hooks said. ""What does Reagan say to the Ilnemployed? 'Read the want-ads.' ,,, ""In 1984, let's send him to �-alifornia and let him read the want-ads."" Although Hooks said that he could put people from the poorest sections of the country in office in Washington ""and it couldn't get any worse,"" he does not hold the Reagan administration entirely responsible for the social ills of blacks. The 30 million blacks in America, said the ordained minister, control $180 billion of the Gross National Product. He suggested, however, that not all of that money is well spent, noting that ""blacks drink more scotch than all the white peo-ple put together, and if they didn't buy Cadillacs, [General Motors] would go out of business."" Hooks presumably knows some-thing about money, having spent 14 years Lig vice-president of a savings and loan that he co-founded in 1955. Prior to that he practiced law in his hometown of Memphis and served as an assistant public defender and the first black judge in the criminal court. In 1972, Hooks was appointed to the Federal Communications Com-mission and was chairman of the FCC when he was selected to be executive of the NAACP in 1977. Recalling how he became chief executive, he told the audience an anecdote about a man who went to a church as a minister. After a month at the church, Hooks said, the con-gregation voted unanimously to make the man pastor, which was unusual in that it generally took a man a long time to become pastor. ""So he asked the deacon how it was he came to be elected pastor and the deacon said, 'Well, most of the members didn't want a pastor, and you were the closest thing we could find to no pastor.'"" Despite such self-deprecating good humor, Hooks speaks proudly of the NAACP, an organization which has been ""at the forefront of the civil rights fight"" since it was founded in 1909. ""The NAACP engaged in and won every significant legal victory . .. [it] filed lawsuit after lawsuit until we knocked down inequities,"" such as voting restrictions in the South and white-only house selling. Hooks urged the ""young people"" in the audience to show similar per-sistence: ""Learn something, burn the midnight oil .. . if you want something, go after it. Let me remind you that these are rough days .. . but they aren't the worst."" Towson State: grounds for arrest By Stephen Hyde To the educated viewer, Towson State is a bastion of organized knowledge. For some violent crimi-nals, however, it has been a hiding place, a prowling ground or simply public acreage. ""It's almost impossible to keep tabs on who comes and goes around here,"" says Major Joseph Kelly, deputy chief of the University police. With a physical plant of 29 public buildings and structures, Kelly notes that ""we can't control access to them"" on a daily basis. Access to residence halls is limited to resident students and their invited guests, according to University policy. But one reporter was able to enter five of these halls in one evening this month by follow-ing groups of bona fide residents as they used their keys on outside doors. Campus vtilnerability has caused concern at all levels of the Uni-versity because of the increase in the Baltimore area of what police agencies classify as Part I crimes: murder, rape, arson, robbery, assault and certain other offenses. Kelly points out that only five or six suspects of such crimes have been positively identified on campus in the last four years. Some suspect files center around an Identi-Kit facial composite drawing, while others have positive identification from other agencies' files. An FBI document obtained by The Towerlight reveals that a white male who was identified on campus in 1977 had a record of 20 arrests and at least seven convictions dat-ing back to 1957. The prior arrest charges include armed robbery, breaking and entering, possession of firearms, escape from Clifton T. Perkins State Hospital, and assault with intent to kill a police officer. Since the fall semester began last year, University police have been alerted to search for at least three suspects of Part I crimes: � During a gospel music concert in the Fine Arts auditorium on November 12 witnesses claimed to have seen Damen Jones among the audience. Jones was apparently wanted as a suspect in a highly-publicized murder three days earlier of a Baltimore City high school student. University police responded to a call from the building manager in charge at the time, but what occurred next is unclear because of differing accounts. One or more officers changed into plainclothes, but there were inher-ent risks in sending a white officer into a predominantly black capacity audience to question the suspect, much less to arrest him. ""Sure, we could have called for a black undercover officer from the county, but who's to say he's avail-able?"" notes Kelly, who was not on duty that evening. ""The same thing with the city detective in charge of the murder case: unless he's right there on duty at his phone .. . this isn't like television."" According to one source, an hour and a half passed between the response of the University police and the end of the concert, but as the crowd exited the building, there was still no way to determine which person was Damen Jones, or if he had been there at all. Jones was arrested in the city several months later and is being held on a murder charge. � On January 24 this year an unidentified white male in his mid-20s robbed a victim at the rear of the University Union by inferring that he had a gun in his pocket, and escaped on foot. A wanted poster with an Identi-Kit composite facial drawing has been distributed, but the suspect remains at large. � Raymond Lee Branham, Jr., a 19-year-old rape suspect in the cus-tody of Baltimore City jail guards, escaped March 29 on arrival at the Towson Circuit Court building and fled on foot to the Towson State campus. Branham had been sched-uled to appear for an appeal of a District Court narcotics conviction, and according to Randy Corcoran, deputy warden of the city jail, the two guards ""made every mistake possible"" in transporting their prisoner, chiefly by handcuffing him but forgetting to shackle his legs. Baltimore County and University police searched the campus from 11:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., aided by a state police helicopter, then aban-doned the search. One University official commented that ""he prob-ably found a nice hole and stayed in Kelly estimates that 70 percent of his current staff are qualified to handle Part I criminal suspects. -continued in next issue-by Bob Tarleton Activities board lets you tell them where you're money's spent By Terie Wolan Every Towson State student pays $131 a semester in activity fee, yet un-til now, students had little or no say in how that money was used. In March, the TSU Activity Board was formed as a student group whose purpose is to plan activities throughout the school year. (Faculty and staff may join as non-voting members). University Union manager Robert Baeuerle said, ""the concept is that all students that attend the University are paying an activity fee, regardless if they use it or not. Traditionally, . . . activities have been planned by the SGA or the Union."" The board was introduced, Baeuerle said, to ""let students decide for themselves what activities they want."" Currently, the Activities Board is planning to co-sponsor a billiards tournament with the Union Recrea-tion Center the last week in April, and is presenting a ""TGIF"" event, free live entertainment from 11:30 to 1:30 for the remaining Fridays this semester in the Union. Also, tentative plans have been made to hold a ""Time Wasters"" tour-nament in September. The tourna-ment is a competition for those who have developed the art of wasting time in the Union bowling, playing video games or billiards. Baeuerle said he hopes to see the board increase the scope of events in the future, including cultural ac tivities. He said that the events are not held to produce a profit, but for ""a lot of people to show up and have a good time."" The SGA and the Union are co-funding the board's programs. However, although the board is finan-cially solvent, members said there was a need for more student involve-ment. Board secretary Liz Margiottiello, a senior business major, said ""we've got the money, what do you want us to do with it? We need a direction."" To get more students' opinions, the board is sending out a survey next semester for activity suggestions. Phil Pelletier, social chairman, commented on ""the raging apathy on commuters' parts. Most of the students think this is a big high school. They come to class and go home, there's no social interaction."" Vice-president Michelle Morris noted the absence of a commuters organization to act for them and hopes that commuters will make use of the board to become more involved in the University. Kevin Campbell, board president, said the academic part of college is stressed, but that he would like to see more students enjoy the social aspect and ""to say I had a good time at Towson State."" The TSU Activity Board meets every Wednesday at 6:00 in the Union Recreation Center. in this issue Dr. Yes returns with a fishy letter page 3 The Fop searches for Hoke Smith page 9 Paige Jansen on 'The Meaning of Life' page 4 CLARIFICATION The Second Annual Towsontowne Block Party announced last week in an article in the Towerlight is open to Stickmen move to top of ECC page 5 residence students only. Hazing among some Greeks a little more than a whack on the tail By Ingrid Floyd second of two parts on the Greek system Fraternity life can offer several benefits for the student, but many do not join because of the tough pledge programs and alleged hazing practices. Though hazing is prohib-ited in Greek organizations, it is done, according to some students who prefer to remain anonymous. Many fraternity brothers fear that if they told what really occurred during some pledging on campus, they might receive a brick through their window the next day; conse-quently few have anything to say. The ones, though, who are willing to share information report in-stances of mental abuse. One student said on his second visit to the fraternity to learn more about it, he was instead told to put a bag over his head and then was driven with the other pledges to a stream. There each pledge, one by one, had to stand on a rock in the middle of the water holding a candle while the brothers splashed him and degraded him with remarks such as ""you are scum,"" ""you're nothing"" and sexual references about his mother, among other lewd comments. The student said he had asked the fraternity from the start whether he would be mentally or physically abused or kept from his schoolwork during pledging. They replied ""no"" and told him they had a mandatory study hour. The hour, however, turned out to be a period of learning fraternity history instead. Another student who did complete the pledge program complained that his grades were terrible, that he didn't have time for schoolwork and that he was tired during it. Dr. Tyrone Lewis, administrator in charge of Greek organizations, however, said that no incidents of hazing have been reported to him. He added that it was difficult to monitor individuals and ""hazing is defined by so many people."" The University Judicial Code defines hazing as ""any action taken or situation created, intentionally . . . to produce mental or physical discomfort."" Brad Howatt, member of Lambda Chi Alpha, thinks the administra-tion's attitude coward hazing is lax. ""I don't think the University has done a damn thing about hazing,"" he said. ""They were hard on the Alphas, but the administration sits around. They will wait until some-one else gets hurt again before they do anything."" But Lewis said there was ""little one could do until something hap-pened."" He said pledges usually had to go through some form of initiation to become a member of a fraternity, but not hazing, and he explained that pledging demonstrated how much preseverance and motivation a young man had to join. Many of the Greeks defend their pledging ac-tivities as an integral part of their system. George Tudder of Phi Kappa Sigma said, ""If a person signs up for a fraternity, will that person be a productive member or will it just be for his record? Is he going to con-tribute to leadership?"" The philosophy of some of the fraternities nationwide is not what a fraternity can do for an individual, but what an individual can do for a fraternity. It is for this reason that many fraternities have tough pledge pro-grams, said a student from another school. The pledges are made to work hard to break them down in order to observe how they react under stress. In his fraternity during spring break, the pledges stayed and repaired the house. They were allowed only a few hours' sleep during a 40-hour period. The brothers never let them off the hook, making them individually sing a song, tell a joke or call themselves some name. If a pledge could laugh at himself during this time, the brothers felt, he would work well in a group because it see GREEKS, page 10 "