- Title
- The Towerlight, April 26, 1984
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- Identifier
- tl19840426
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- Subjects
- ["Music -- Reviews","Bars (Drinking establishments) -- Maryland -- Baltimore","African American college students","Universities and colleges -- United States -- Administration","Student publications","Student activities","College sports","Performing arts","Universities and colleges -- Law and legislation","Towson University -- History","Student organizations","Books -- Reviews","College students"]
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- Music -- Reviews
- Bars (Drinking establishments) -- Maryland -- Baltimore
- African American college students
- Universities and colleges -- United States -- Administration
- Student publications
- Student activities
- College sports
- Performing arts
- Universities and colleges -- Law and legislation
- Towson University -- History
- Student organizations
- Books -- Reviews
- College students
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- Description
- The April 26, 1984 issue of The Towerlight, the student newspaper of the Towson State University.
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- Date Created
- 26 April 1984
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- Format
- ["pdf"]
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- Language
- ["English"]
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- Collection Name
- ["Towson University Student Newspaper Collection"]
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The Towerlight, April 26, 1984
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tl19840426-000 "u�j The Towerlight One has to multiply thoughts to the point where there aren't enough policemen to control them. �Stanislaw Jerzy Lec Vol. 77 No. 26 PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY TOWSON, MARYLAND 21204 April 26, 1984 Asbestos removed from Union By Mike Judge During the spring break, workers removed a small amount of asbestos material from three locations in the University Union, including the main stairwell. Asbestos was also found and remov-from the area of a walk-in freezer near the loading dock on the first floor of the Union, and between the second and third floors of the back stairwell near the freight elevator that serves the back of the Chesapeake Rooms. Asbestos is a known carcinogenic substance that only becomes a poten-tial health problem when it becomes airborne. The work was done Monday and Tuesday after the campus emptied for spring break. ""The contractor (David Ruskey) set up some equipment before the break, but no work was done until everyone was gone from the building,"" Katie Ryan of Universi-ty Relations said. The main stairway was closed off both days while the asbestos was removed and a sealing compound was put in its place. The stairwell remain-ed closed for an additional day, after the air samples taken after the work was completed showed a level of asbestos deemed hazardous by Maryland state safety standards, but within the guidelines of the federal government's Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (OSHA). The state safety standards were not met and the stairwell reopened last Thursday. ""The problem in the Union came when people drag their fingers along the ceiling and knock loose the ceiling materials,"" Ryan said. The work took place after a survey by an electrical contracting company discovered asbestos in February. The survey was done before wiring could be started on a cable to link the Union to the new campus-wide computer system. After the survey results were reported, campus safety coordinator Phil Ross and the State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene began taking air samples in the building built before 1973 to determine if there was any potential health problem because of asbestos in those buildings. The initial samples from the Union did not show any problems, and the reports on the samples from the other buildings have not been returned yet by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Ryan assumes from newspaper reports that the state's priorities are with the five Baltimore County schools where traces of asbestos have been found. The last time asbestos was found and removed from campus was dur-ing the summer of 1980, when workers renovating Van Bokkelen Hall remov-ed asbestos insulation from the pipes in the utilities tunnel that services Van Bokkelen, Stephens, Richmond, and Newell Halls, and the Physical Plant. In a Towerlight article dated December 9, 1982, Pat Walsh, assis-tant director of the Physical Plant, said, ""There is no more asbestos on campus, other than possibly in the walls of Stephens Hall."" Today, ""The standards have been changed by the state Department of Health in the last few years,"" Walsh said. The new standards for asbestos that is friable (in the air) is .05 parts per million, down from the former standard of .15 parts per million. ""In the past, we complied to the standards. The new standards came about because of the problems in the county schools,"" Walsh said. The Physical Plant has identified the areas in the specific buildings that might contain asbestos and the action to be taken to correct the problem. There is no set timetable for removing or encapsulating the asbestos, depen-ding on the availability of funds. ""If it is not considered urgent, they will handle the asbestos during any upcoming electrical work or renova-tion,"" Ryan said. ""Wall and pipe in-sulation in the Power Plant will be fix-ed when it is renovated."" By Jerry Trout By EdvinsUngzdint, Committee seeks to retain more students By Jackie Yost ""There is an increased sensitivity (towards students who withdrawal),"" said Dean Doro-thy Siegel, Vice President of Student Services and Chairperson of the Retention Committee. This increased sensitivity involves a full-time effort to increase retention rates at Towson State University. The committee, which began in 1981, was started for the purpose of studying retention. Since that time, the committee has been con-ducting longitudinal studies for each freshman class. ""We've broken it (the study) down into four years (freshman-senior),"" explained Siegel. ""We now have a system of tracking students (from entrance to graduation or dismissal)."" In addition to this, the study is also broken down into males, females, minorities and SAT scores. Some of the study results may seem sur-prising, but are comparatively average, ac-cording to Siegel. 'Throughout the country, you lose 30% by the beginning of the sophomore year,' said Siegel. ""At the end of four years,"" she con-tinued, ""you have lost 60% of the (original class) students."" It is important to note that these study re-sults do not distinguish those students who have graduated from those who have with-drawn or been dismissed. However, this does not greatly affect the results. ""The percent (of the students who leave the University) come back and finish within the next couple of years,"" said Siegel. However, this still leaves 50% of the students unac-counted for. Why are so many students dropping out? ""We tend to think of it as a confluence of a lot of factors,"" explained Siegel. ""We really look at all the environmental factors (when trying to draw conclusions),"" she added. Some factors considered are study habits, difficulties with the bureaucracy, and personal problems. The economy is also a major factor. Eighty percent of those surveyed answered ""economic"" as their reason for withdrawal. Unfortunately, the committee has little con-trol in this area. One conclusion reached from the study re-sults is that, ""Students don't know of their options. There is so much here (at Towson State) that you may not know what is here,"" said Siegel. ""We have aggressively found ways to get advising to students,"" Siegel said. One such attempt has been the extension of Triad. Rather than having only one advising session during the summer before admission, there are now Triads II and III. According to John Bowen, Director of Academic Advising, ""The only form of mandatory advising applies to freshmen in Triads II and III ... all the rest (of the advising) is purely voluntary."" Siegel emphasized that, ""We have to see (the) students to make suggestions."" In addition to conducting retention studies, the committee, ""tries to interview every stu-dent who elects to withdrawal,"" said Siegel. ""We try to search ourselves (for solutions to students' problems) and inform you to the greatest point that we possibly can,"" she said. Academic Advising is also working to raise retention rates. ""What really needs to be done is to make sure that many of the students you have stay,"" said Bowen. Bowen feels that, ""Academic Advising is probably the most important tool in the reten-tion program."" He believes that many stu-dents are ""confused about what they are do-ing (academically),"" and that Academic Advis-ing ""makes them feel more confident and in-volves them with someone from the commu-nity (so that they can get the information they need)."" One conclusion drawn from numerous stud-ies is that involvement in extracurricular activities plays an important part in a stu-dent's collegiate life. Most of the studies in-dicate that students who are socially involved are more likely to stay in school even if they are not doing well academically compared to those who are doing badly academically and have no connection with the University, said Siegel. In some cases, the University is simply not what the student is looking for. ""There are students who come here that would be happier at a smaller college, said Siegel. The results of a survey sent to full-time day students who attended classes during the Spring of 1982 but did not return the follow-ing Fall, indicate that the main reasons for withdrawal include: disatisfaction with major department, needed a temporary break, un-sure about choice of major, lack of money, and personal problems. In addition to working with students who withdrawal, the retention committee also strives to prevent students from simply walk-ing away from the University without ever go-ing through the formal withdrawal procedures. Although it is a simple one involving, ""just a form, walking over here (the Administration Building) and talking to another bureaucrat,"" said Siegel, the process is often never com-pleted. Many students simply stop going to classes or never register. ""The person who comes in to withdrawal may be covering his tracks for transcripts to be forwarded or for later return (to the Univer-sity),"" said Siegel. ""The other (students who do not go through formal procedures) sees no use in it,"" she added. .1 Pride or a sense of failure may also cause a student to walk away. As pointed out by Sie-gel, though, simply because a student with-drawals does not indicate failure. In some cases, such as a student who is going on to a more specialized school, withdrawal may be viewed as progress. Anyone considering with-drawal should definitely speak with an ad-visor. Siegel feels that the committee's job is to ""help the students fulfill their wants and needs."" One of the committee's other tasks ""is to find a support system for each student."" These tasks are accomplished through the use of numerous surveys and questionnaires sent to students. Upcoming projects for the committee in-clude more detailed questionnaires and addi-tional advising. The committee, according to Siegel, has just suggested that when a stu-dent drops a class, they ask why. This would hopefully stop a student from withdrawaling completely. It would also give the committee the opportunity to learn more about students and their problems. More information would enable the committee to produce even more ef-fective programs to increase the retention rates. Across the country, colleges tighten disciplinary codes SPRINGFIELD, MO (CPS)� Southwest Missouri State Universi-ty senior Jim McWilliams was sur-prised several weeks ago when cam-pus security officers abruptly corn-ered him, and announced they were charging him with a crime. The crime: he'd helped a friend distribute ""The Southwest Rag,"" an offbeat paper the campus offi-cials claim contained defamatory and obscene remarks about admin-istrators and students. While the McWilliams case might be an extreme example of how many campus administrators are moving aggressively to control student be-havior more closely than any time since the early 1960s, it is far from the only one. Last week, for instance, adminis-trators at the nine-campus Univer-sity of Florida system announced they're considering tightening their student conduct code. In recent months, colleges have gone to court to try to reinforce their rights to punish and suspend students, invalidate diplomas, with-hold transcripts and impose disci-plinary penalties without providing students with the same due process they'd receive in public courts. Pennsylvania, Kent State and Michigan, among many others, are also reviewing and looking to tighten their student conduct codes in meetings this month. Notre Dame, Southern Metho-dist, Idaho, Baylor and Washing-ton, to name just a few campuses, have banned or plan to ban all drink-ing as a way to help control student behavior. Over the last year, countless other schools have tightened rules on student drinking by requiring students to register and get ap-proval before throwing parties. And this school year, a surprising number of colleges has begun hand-ing out stiffer penalties to fraterni-ties for a range of misdeeds, some of which used to be routinely dismis-sed with a ""boys will be boys"" atti-tude. Ohio State has become so strict in enforcing its student conduct code that the student judicial review board now has cases backed up into next summer. At Western Illinois, administra-tors last month banned overnight guests of the opposite sex from cam-pus dorms. The crackdowns and rules, of course, are reminiscent of the days when colleges actively regulated all kinds of student behavior, from sex to how they dressed. ""There are still a lot of adminis-trators who'd like to return to the days when they ruled campuses with an iron hand, and you didn't breathe without them knowing says Bob Bingaman, field director of the United States Student Asso-ciation. Administrators themselves say fear, not hunger for power, is what's driving them to rein in their stu-dents. With more judges holding schools themselves liable for stu-dent drinking accidents, rapes and other crimes, many colleges are just trying to make sure their students don't get them into legal trouble, says Tom Goodale, vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Denver. A former student currently is su-ing Denver over an injury he re-ceived in an accident at a campus fraternity house. ""Schools are very scared by the cost of liability, about pressure from the public,"" Goodale explains. ""A lot of concern over student discipline is happening because of efforts by students themselves,"" Bingaman adds. ""I think there is definitely a more conservative trend and more con-cern for students to be treated like adults and act like adults,"" ob-serves Mary Anne Bestebreurtje, who is overseeing Florida's conduct code review. But regulating students' behav-ior in their rooms, recreations and even reading matter isn't often con-fused with being treated like adults, and some administrators worry pro-spective students might be offended by it. ""There's real conflict in clamping down on discipline and making the campus as attractive as possible for students,"" Goodale says. ""But the problem (of liability) is progressing, and schools can't ignore it."" Students shouldn't ignore the im-pact the national crackdown could have on their constitutional rights, adds Alan Levine, co-author of the American Civil Liberties Union's ""Handbook on the Rights of Stu-dents."" ""Often, there is a tendency to put due proces aside in order to get on with discipline,"" he says. ""Not just in college administra-tions, but in hospitals, prisons, any-where someone is charged with dis-cipline (violations), they always find it difficult to enforce (conduct codes) when you have to observe due pro-cess,"" he says. Levine, however, doesn't see all the efforts to control student behav-ior as a return to ""in loc parentis,"" the legal doctrine that gave colleges the right to act ""in the place of the parent"" through the 1960s. The doctrine, he explains, was dis-credited, and probably couldn't withstand a lawsuit today. On the Inside Spring photo essay Warmer weather draws students out-doors P 7 Student terrorism Stephen Hyde looks at Muammar el Kadafias a professor of terrorism p. 13 Spring break sports The tennis and rugby team head south for break p 12 "
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