The Towerlight, April 3, 1981

tl19810403-000 "VOL. 74 No. 24 Towerli PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY TOWSON, MARYLAND 21204 Esteem is founded on compar-ison: To honor all men is to honor none. �1110liere April 3, 1981 Board violations reported Faculty fights for LLT by Gayle Griisser The Towson State faculty, Lida Lee Tall parents, and legislators are still attempting to take some type of action to save Lida Lee Tall. James J. Hill Jr., president of the Towson State Chapter of the American Association of University Professors, met with Governor Hughes last Wednes-day and the AAUP Faculty Association last Friday to discuss further action on Lida Lee Tall. ""While Governor Harry R. Hughes did not promise direct intervention, he expressed concern and sugges-ted several alternative courses of action,"" said Hill. Patricia Plante, Academic Council chairman, James Binko, acting dean of teacher education, Bernard Tay-lor, director of Lida Lee Tall, and Delegates Arthur Alperstein, Don Hughes and Gerald Curran also at-tended the meeting. Hill said, ""As the executive officer of the govern-ing board on campus, Dr. Hoke L. Smith must support the maintainance of the governing board. Faculty members, however, need not go meeldy to the block; nor need they allow their fellow faculty members to be un-ilaterally dismissed."" The Board violates its own policy on faculty re-trenchments as stated in ""Guidelines for Faculty Re-trenchment in the State Universities and Colleges"" by closing Lida Lee tall, Hill said. ""TSU faculty cannot allow eight faculty members who hold university tenure to be unilaterally dismissed. All faculty members, all departments, arid all programs are in jeopardy if the Board does not reverse its de-cision to close Lida Lee Tall,"" said Hill. Dr. Myron Scholnick, professor of history and chair-man of the faculty association's Freedom and Tenure Committee is in charge of examining the dismissal of the eight tenured members at Lida Lee Tall. Scholnick is ""to determine whether or not the dis-missal constitutes a presumptive violation of academics, freedom and tenure,"" said Hill. ""If a presumptive violation is found, the National Office of the A.A.U.P. will be notified and requested to initiate an independent investigation to establish whether or not it recommends censure of the Board of Trustees be approved at the National Convention,"" said Hill. Edwin Hirschmann, professor of history, Wayne L. McKim, professor of geography, and William F. Pel-ham, professor of physics, are preparing a petition which will enable each university department to re-quest the Chairman of the Board of Trustees to ""re-consider and rescind its order, March 19, closing Lida Lee Tall."" The Lida Lee Tall PTA has requested the State Board of Higher Education to review the Board's de-cision, Hill said. Hill also said the University will join the struggle to protect the rights of the eight tenured faculty. Yvonne Clark, president of the Lida Lee Tall PTA said Dr. Smith's letter to the faculty was premature and undermined the efforts to preserve traditional shared governance. Arthur Alperstein of the Baltimore County Dele-gation, at the suggestion of the governor, requested the Attorney General to rule if the Board has violated its own retrenchment guidelines, said Clark. Few harassment complaints by Amy Curl Executives chasing their pretty, well-built secretaries around the office is a popular gag in comedy sketches, but in real life it is not a laughing matter; it is sexual har-assment. It is difficult for women to face the fact that they are being sex-ually harassed. When working in an environment where there are sexual roles, there will be sexual harass-ment. In the past women were led to believe they were required to take a certain amount of abuse along with their jobs. That was the way our culture looked at working women. If they did not, they were subject to firing, skipped over for promo-tions, or demoted. When one person has authority over another, the opportunity for sexual harassment is at its greatest. Sexual harassment can be verbal or physical, subtle remarks about the body or way of dress, and even offers of a date. This may lead to something more serious than just harassment. Dual relationships Towson State's policy and the ethical standards of the teaching profession advise instructors to avoid having dual relationships with their students. ""This puts Pressure on the student, and you do not want to do anything that would make her uncomfortable,"" said Elaine Solez, affirmative action officer. Sexual harassment can be male to female, female to male, male to Male, and female to female. It is also considered to be a violation of the victim's civil rights. The Uni-versity has a sexual harassment Policy, and offers students an aven-ue to express their complaints. ""Students know it exists, but they are reluctant with their complaints because they fear repri-sals,"" Solez said. ""They think the University will not act on the com-plaints, but they are wrong. We have to hear about it first."" Students who feel that they have been sexually harassed should re- Port it to either Solez or Dorothy Siegel, vice-president of student services. The incidents are looked Into carefully because the adminis-tration cannot act on just the stu-dent's word. Complaints will have more basis If the student's name is given, or if a series of reports are made over a Period of time by other students. But the administration cannot Pursue the case too far if the stu-dent wants to remain anonymous. An instructor cannot be dismissed on the basis of this type of com- Plaint because he has the right to know who his accusers are, Solez Faculty discussion The administration first discuss-es the problem with the faculty member if there is no evidence ex-eePt for the report of improper ehavior, because the person doing It may not realize that it bothers Others, Solez said. There are steps the administration can take to remedy the problem, such as making arrangements to get, the student out of the class after the drop date without a penalty, or having the student's work graded by another instructor. In unusual circumstances the University will offer to pay for a course if it must be repeated, said Solez. The best thing is to stop the pro-blem early, not letting it linger. If complaints are heard repeatedly, sometimes the action can be more direct. Then the administration can tell the instructor, reprimand him, and take additional disciplinary ac-tion if it happens again, Solez said. ""If it continues, it would be pos-sible to initiate the instructor's dismissal, jeopardizing his job, reputation, and career,"" Solez said. ""Students have less to lose if they come forward."" When an instructor has tenure, it can be a difficult process to dis-miss him. Sometimes it may take the Board of Trustees over a year to decide such a case. The instructor is suspended from teaching during this time, but his pay cannot cease. If the instructor is a part-time teacher. it is a simpler matter because they do not have tenure. Complaints are not taken lightly: questions are asked, and ad-vising sessions are arranged for instructors, Solez said. ""Circumstances make it possible for sexual harassment to occur in student/teacher relations in such areas as labs and coaching due to their continual proximity,"" Solez said. ""Students under so much pressure may not be able to say 'no."" Secretary grievance Secretaries at the University have a well laid out grievance pro-cedure, and can come to Solez with their problems the same as students. But secretaries have the Equal Employment Opportunity Com-mission's guidelines, and other government regulations to protect them where students do not. Stu-dents just have the student's Rights and Responsibility Committee. This committee determines if the student has been treated fairly, Solez said. ""I have not heard of any har-assment on campus, but then I just came here,"" said Leah Schoffield, director of the women's center. ""I am sure Towson has it; it per-vades society."" When students complain about sexual remarks made by in- Dorothy Siegel structors, they make themselves more of a target. If students feel comfortable confronting the in-structor, then they should do it. Students should either take a class-mate along with them, or go straight to the administration, Schoffield said. ""Students can come to me and ask me to go to a professor with them as a friendly witness; I am perfectly willing to do that,"" Schoffield said. ""Sometimes it is useful to talk it out with someone; it also puts the instructor on the defensive."" 'The most common line used by harassers is, 'Don't you have a sense of humor?' There is nothing funny in demeaning a group of human beings. Make it uncomfortable for them, do not laugh. When an in-structor gets applause and laughter, it helps his ego,"" She said. ""When they have to answer for their be-havior on any kind of level, students or the administration, it is not so comfortable,"" Schoffield said. ""When I was going to school here (Towson State), there was a very sexist professor who taught a specialty that I wanted to major in, but I would not put myself into a classroom with him. There was no affirmative action at TSU then,"" continued on page 8 Who's on first? Hit away, take the pitch, hit and run�who knows what Tiger third-base coach Carl Crispin� is trying to tell a Towson batter. Obviously the Tiger coaches are doing something right since Towson sports an 8-5 record on the year. Speaking of baseball, the Orioles' opening day is only one week away. TL photos by Merick Jeannier Souris named vice-president President Hoke Smith has an-nounced that Sally Vansant Souris, director of Alumni services, has been appointed vice-president for institutional development, to be ef-fective May 11, 1981. Souris will be replacing Paul Wisdom, who announced his resignation in August 1980. Wisdom served for ten years, and was the University's first vice-presi-dent for institutional development. Souris, as director of alumni ser-vices, initiated several programs and services for the University's 27,000 alumni. Souris built a network of volun-teers to raise funds for the Alumni Scholarship Endowment Fund, a $50,000 fund that was established to attract high quality students to the University. Souris is a member of the Coun-cil for the Advancement and Sup-port of Education; the National As-sociation for Women Deans, Admin-istrators and Counselors; the Amer-ican Personnel and Guidance As-sociation; the Association of College and University Housing Offices; and the Towson Business Associa-tion. Prior to her appointment as alum-ni services director, Souris served as the coordinator of the alumni volunteer leader program, and pre-viously served as the associate dir-ector of residence. Souris received a bachelor of science degree from Towson State and her masters of education degree from Loyola College. Annette Flower, dean of human-istic, social and managerial studies, and a member of the screening com-mittee, said that the basic screening procedures began with a meeting of the screening committee and Smith to discuss the nature of the job. A time�table for the review and an advertisement explaining the position were distributed. Each ap-plicant was asked to state what he thought was the function of the vice presidency. The screening commit-tee then reviewed these submissions. The candidates were then interview-ed by the committee and by Smith. On March 18, each candidate was discussed and a recommendation was given. Financial aid processing frozen In an attempt to make families contribute more to their offspring's college education, the Reagan ad-ministration has imposed an unpre-cedented temporary freeze on pro-cessing federal financial aid appli-cations. Last week Terell Bell, secretary of education announced the govern-ment wanted to change certain eligibility requirements for Pell Grants (formerly Basic Educational Opportunity Grants). 'and would not process any more applications for the grants until Congress voted on the change in requirements. Congress has until April 28 to react to the proposed rules changes, though Representative Peter Peyser (D-NY) of the House Post-secondary Education Subcommit-tee hopes to debate the proposals sooner than that to minimize the freeze's impact. If the requirements are changed as Bell requested, ""maybe 100,000 students"" would be knocked out of the Pell Grant program, said Skee Smith of the U.S. Department of Education's Student Special Ser-vices office. In the meantime, the freeze ef-fectively stops the awarding of fed-eral financial aid for the moment be-cause Pell Grants are sued to de-termine students' eligibility for other forms of financial aid, said Dells Martin of the National As-sociation of Student Financial Aid Administrators. ""They are frozen, but they are only frozen for awhile,"" said Harriet Griffin, director of financial aid. Harriet Griffin The Basic Grant branch is going to send postcards telling students their Student Eligibility Reports (SER's) are delayed, Griffin said. SER's let students know how much financial aid they will be receiving. Griffin said approximately 2300 Towson State students will have their SER's delayed. If the SER's are delayed a very long time, June for instance, the checks may be late in arriving to students, she said. Martin said the freeze is a ""tra-vesty."" They're going through a process both questionable and ille-gal."" The freeze is a new procedure, said a House education committee staffer. ""Normally when final re-gulations are printed as Pell Grant regulations were printed in January, they are not withdrawn for reconsid-eration."" ""I am sure the freeze will be an inconvenience for many financial aid officers,"" Smith said. The House of Representatives is expected to conduct hearings into the legality of the administration's maneuver. The administration's aim is to change the way families figure their eligibility for Pell Grants, and to make families contribute more to-ward their children's education. A December, 1977 study by the College Entrance Examination Board found that the wealthier the family, the less willing it is to pay more than is needed for its off-spring to qualify for student aid. ""We don't think we ought to be subsidizing the very wealthy in this country,"" Bell explained on the ""Good Morning, America"" tele-vision show. At present, a family's eligibility for aid is calculated by subtracting certain living expenses from total family income. Regulations say families can increase their living expenses estimates by 121/2 percent to cover inflation. The administration, however, wants to scrap the 121/2 percent increase, thus saving $183 million in the next fiscal year. By figuring eligibility the ad-ministration's way, more families would show higher net incomes, and thus become ineligible for Pell Grants. Bell said he also wants to set up-per limits on how much a student can deduct from his or her income estimate. New regulations would set maximum amounts on how much a student could spend�at least for purposes of determining eligibility for Pell Grants�for hous-ing, books and related school ex-penses. In this issue__ LACROSSE: The TSU lacrosse squad had a good week, defeating Washing-ton and Lee and the University of Baltimore. Their record now stands at 2-2. Read about the games on page 4. POETRY: Poetry has been with us for as long as men have had language and dreams. It survives today in a world of Big Macs and disco darlings. Read about poetry's continuing strug-gle on page 2. WEAVER: Spring training isn't over yet, and Orioles' manager Earl Weaver has already had a run-in with the baseball powers that be. Read about it in Tom White's column on page 4. "