The Towerlight, April 5, 1974

tower light April 5, 1974 Vol. XXVIII No. 26 Towson State College Towson( Md. year looks gloomy TSC faces deficit: Next fiscal by Sue DeBolt Vice President of Business and Finance Wayne Schelle reports that the 1975 fiscal year looks like a “gloomy” one for the Maryland state colleges. Schelle called Towson’s budget “skimpy, below the minimal level for the already lowest-cost school in the state.” Calling this year the Leadership program passed by Sue DeBolt To institute a leadership program for newly-elected Student Government Association executives, senators, class and organizational officers and the residence council, Towson’s Senate passed the SGA Leadership Program at their ; Tuesday, April 2 meeting. This program is designed “to educate student leaders to the structures and procedures utilized between the SGA and the perspective college divisions and its departments, and to make students more aware of the college administrative officers and institutional goals.” There will be a pilot program this semester but no definite date has been set. A permanent program will begin as a 13 week team-taught concept next year in the Spring semester. Two credits will be allotted for the program. Three bills, the Budgeting Process Bill, Amendments to Senate Bill 58 and the Amendment to the Budget Policy and Procedures Act, were sent to the Appropriation and Policy Committees. All three were sponsored by Eric Martin. Senator Rudy Forti attempted to pass sections of his Budget Policy and Procedures Act but failed. Forti sought to make the following sections effective immediately till June 30: 1- before any monies are budgeted for a specific event or a program of events, the requesting organization must submit a date, or list of dates, when the events will be held; 2-how meetings shall proceed when budgets are submitted; 8- the Executive Branch shall possess the authority to resolve scheduling conflicts; and 4- budgets will be made in the spring and the fall. In other business, Francia Campbell was elected to the Student Financial Advisory Board. Two Senate positions are currently open, and will be voted upon at the next Senate meeting, April 16. “toughest” to try to raise well-justified funds. Schelle explained the long process of attaining TSC’s budget. The final results indicate a one percent increase in general funds with 1.1 million dollars. Schelle said that Towson would probably face a deficit of between $250,000^350,000. This deficit could be combatted by deficiency appropriations, a fee increase for students of between $40 and $50, and-or. reduction of spending by using freezes. Towson originally called for a general fund increase of over one million dollars, but the Board of Trustees changed that to an increase of $640,000, with 1.1 million dollars in special funds which are mainly self-generated by the school. The Department of Budget and Fiscal Planning lowered the general fund increase to $137,000, a decrease of $145.000. which did not include $300,000 for equipment, $200,000 for general salary funds, and $40,000 in other race grant funds which were one-time extras. Schelle and TSC President James L. Fisher then worked with the legislative analyst to reduce the general fund increase by only $95,000 rather than the original $145,000. At this point. Senators Jervis Finney and Roy Staten, who Schelle praised highly, jointly sponsored an amendment to add four full professorships at a by Mike Dilworth A large group of students called for the resignation of Sylvia Weaver, Towerlight Editor, last Friday for publication of a graphic they termed, “an insult to all blacks.” One hundred and fifty to two hundred students, most of them black, voiced considerable outrage at a graphic which appeared on . page three of Towerlight last week. Accompanying a letter by an unnamed student, the illustration pictured a stereotyped black in Ku Klux Klan garb, carrying a torch and labeled, “BSU”. Assembling in the College Center at noon Friday, the group was joined by officers of the Black Student Union who had earlier that day discussed their discontent of the graphic with Weaver, the Editor-in-Chief . Dennis Joy, BSU president, said Monday, “I believe the graphic was an insult to all black people and especially to the black people at Towson State College. The graphic was a stereotype, the kind we are trying to get away from. The Editor lacked forsight and value of $54,000 to the TSC budget. Although the House first refused Senate amendments, the first Conference Committee in fifteen years, was established, with three senators and three delegates to discuss the issues. The amendments were later accepted so that the fund increase was cut by only $40,000. In supplementary budgets, $300,000 and $75,000 items were added. Schelle added that no funds have been established for the Occupational Therapy Program at TSC. Reporting that there would probably be no second supplemental budget but that there was a very real possibility of a deficiency appropriation, because the Department of Budget and Fiscal Planning had admitted several mistakes they had made in the original cutting of the budget. Those mistakes included counting Lida Lee Tall faculty as Towson State faculty, which cost a loss of $128,000 and eliminating for the next fiscal year the use of money which has been used in the present fiscal year collected from a fee increase package for financial aid. Schelle said the situation looked very “dim” with only a one percent increase in general funds and a probable five percent increase in student population and an eight to ten percent inflation rate. responsibility in permitting the graphic to be published.” Weaver admitted the drawing was in poor taste and said she approved its publication because she didn’t realize the reaction it would produce. She maintained that the graphic was not an editorial comment, but only a description of the accompanying letter. “The Black Student Union saw the cartoon as Towerlight’s agreement with the letter,” Joy said. The letter, unsigned with the writer requesting that his name be withheld by the paper, blasted the Black Student Union, the Black Cultural Center, the Black Studies program and black TV shows. Joy said, “The letter doesn’t matter because it was a personal opinion.” He charged that the letter was designed for “other things” indicating that it came at a time when the BSU budget was before the SGA for review. A BSU committee met Monday to determine whether the BSU would officially call for the Editor’s resignation. Tuesday, Joy announced that it had been Group of students call for photo by Buddy Rehrey Vice President of Business and Finance Wayne Schelle Class election held Ed Edsel captured the Sophomore Class Presidency last week in a run-off election with John Dillon. Fran Schramm took one write-in vote for the Presidency. In the contest for the Vice Presidency, Frank Nardo received 103 votes to 93 for Bob Bratt. Pam Phillips took one write-in vote for the Vice Presidency. Edsel called for “more communication between students and class officers” in a previous Towerlight interview In the same interview, Nardo cited the need to establish an advisory commission to accumulate opinions and ideas expressed by the students. editor's resignation decided that the editor's resignation was not necessary. Dr. C. R. Gillespie, Vice President of Student Services, said Monday that the administration would permit no prior censorship of the paper or any opinion on campus. He said he disagreed with the Towerlight letters policy. Gillespie emphasized that the administration would never dictate policy to the paper, but he felt all letters should be signed in print, and that any graphic drawn by a Towerlight staffer must be construed as editorial comment, wherever they appear in the paper. “I believe the cartoon was in severely bad taste and it was insensitive to the college’s true efforts to bring about desegregation on the campus. It was bad use of a bad cartoon,” Gillespie said. Addressing himself to the letter, Gillespie said, “There is a white student center. There is a white student association, whose primary functions are for the interests erf white students. Black students, like other minority groups, find it necessary’. because of the historic lack of sensitivity, to support drives for cultural identity.” “Such a drive is not racist,” Gillespie said, citing the Jewish Students Association, the International Student Union and other cultural groups. Joy said the BSU would not have been so concerned had the letter appeared without the cartoon. He said participating in college activities was a valuable learning experience and students, must be allowed to make mistakes. Towerlight is a learning experience, just as the BSU is a learning experience, he said. To the charges made in the letter, Joy maintained that the BSU was not a racially biased group, saying that anyone could participate in BSU activities. He felt the letter-writer was ignorant of BSU functions and cited community projects promoted by the group, including the three-year old tutorial project, the East Towson Day Care Center, the Black Cultural Center and Black Library on campus and the black fraternity, lota Ptu Epsilon.