tl19840405-000 "The Towerlight And the spring canes shnely up this wav. 'Samuel Taylor Coleridge Vol. 77 No. 24 PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY TOWSON, MARYLAND 21204 April 5, 1984 Senate boosts teacher's ed. requirements... Starting in the fall of 1985, it will be more difficult to become a teacher education major at Towson State. The University Senate Monday approved a screening process for ed-ucation majors sought by the Col-lege of Education and Instructional Technology to improve the quality of students entering and graduating from its four programs. The screening process will include stricter academic standards. Stu-dents will be required to have a grade-point average of 2.5 to gain admission and will have to maintain a GPA of at least 2.75 to qualify for student teaching, a pre requisite to earning a degree from that college. A basic skills test in mathematics will also be required, in addition to tests in spelling, reading and writ-ing. The level of the mathematics test has not yet been determined; how-ever, it is expected to be consider-ably more difficult than the Califor-nia Achievement Test presently administered to some students seek-ing admission to the University. According to Dr. James Binko, dean of the College of Education and Instructional Technology, the screening process was sought, in part, to improve the college's image. Binko told the Baltimore Sun last week, ""What we're really trying to demonstrate is that teacher educa-tion at Towson is not going to be viewed as a dumping grounds for people who can't make it into other programs."" The screening pi-ocess was also encouraged by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Educa-tion, which recently conducted an evaluation of the University's teacher education programs. According to President Hoke Smith, ""one of (NCATEs) concerns was whether or not faculty had sig-nificant control over standards in that program."" He noted that this would not mean the college would become autonomous of the Senate. ...moves to cut ist week cutting In other business, the Senate ap-proved a resolution paving the way for a stricter attendance policy dur-ing the first week of class. Under the resolution, the details of which must still be worked out by the Senate's Academic Standards Committee, students who are ab-sent during the first week of a class must notify the faculty member in writing of a valid reason for the absence. ""Otherwise,"" the resolution reads, ""the faculty member may, if the student has not been in at-tendance by the third meeting of a class that meets three times a week or by the second meeting of a class that meets one or two times a week, bar the student from the class and may assign that student's place in the class to another student."" The student who was removed would then have to drop the course. Senate member Dan Jones, co-chairperson of the English depart-ment, cautioned that the resolution ""needs to be worked out very care-fully"" by the Academic Standards Committee, but added, ""we need to do simnething about this issue."" ""There are students dropping classes on the last day of drop/add who had never attended those classes, while other students are trying to get in to fill graduation re-quirements."" No date has been established for implementation of the resolution. It must still be worked out by Aca-demic Standards and be returned to the Senate for final approval. James Hunt Correction An article in last week's Towerlight incorrectly stated that Towson State's faculty had received a six percent cost of living increase in their salaries from the state legislature. No decision on salaries is expected un-til next month. The Towerlight regrets the error. 3,7 the Inside John Anderson will speak Monday, April 9 in Stephens Auditorium ....page 9 Sweet win Towson State's softball team defeats Salisbury State 3-2 for their victory of the season Page 11 Name Game John Bennett looks at one of the hot-test 1984 campaign issues � changing names Page 14 grey skies ilka"" Aff\ girdi�\ *4 et t tbirroi r:sineras 0.i11/4 votkew ti07, ta t t PIW tArsit Vitt �op '.4 /440: Aiititftiarl P-t4yA 4A#l4i4ti4o0r4AtA t t krwitio to *A 401 The grey skies of March have given way to the grey skies of April. Feeling depressed ? Spring Break is only eight days away... By Jerry Trout Colleges increasingly being hauled to court Rocky Mount, NC�After a De-cember, 1980 night basketball game, a non-student named Kermit Smith jumped three North Carolina Wesleyan College cheerleaders as they were leaving the gym parking lot. Smith forced them into his car at knife point, and drove them to a nearby quarry. There, he raped and then mur-dered 20-year-old Whelette Venita Collins. When he turned to free and attack the other two women, how-ever, he was overpowered by them. They fled to safety. Smith was later caught and con-victed. He's now in prison, on death COW. North Carolina Wesleyan, how-ever, is still on trial. The two survivors of the night-mare sued for a second time last De-cember, almost three years to the day after the tragedy, claiming the college negligently contributed to the crime by not providing adequate security or lighting in the gym park-ing lot. Students, in fact, are taking their colleges to court in increasing num-bers recently, observers say, charg-ing them with negligence in mis-haps ranging from minor cuts to rape and murder. It is all leading to higher educa-tion costs, strict new rules for stu-dents, defensive administrators and even a sense of lost collegiatity, they say. But the cases continue anyway. A court recently made Ohio University pay damages to a student who, while trying to open a jammed dorm win-dow, shattered the glass and cut himself. In mid-January, a student par-alyzed in a University of Denver fra-ternity house trampoline accident took his university to court, claim-ing the University was responsible for the accident. A court last fall held Notre Dame liable for injuries suffered by a stu-dent who got drunk at the football stadium and fell over a railing. The ""creeping legalism,"" as some administrators call it, has affected all kinds of schools. Seventy-two percent of the schools belonging to the Christian College Coalition, for example, have been sued by their students recently. ""One would have thought that the Christian mission of the these colleges and the Christian commit-ments of their constituencies would have mitigated the litigious ap-proach to resolving differences, complaints and wrongs,"" said Dr. W. Richard Stephens of Greenville College. Stephens oversaw a study of suits against coalition colleges. ""Ohio State,"" OSU presidential assistant Larry Thompson re-ported, ""has had three suits in the last month."" ""Universities,"" said Sheldon Steinbach, lawyer for the American Council on Education, ""are increas-ingly being held liable for the well-being of their students."" The suits, he speculated, are ""a part of modern society. We're an in-creasingly litigious society."" ""Society is changing,"" said Amos Link, attorney for the murdered North Carolina Wesleyan cheer-leader's family. ""These atrocities may have always been occuring, but See LITIGATION, page 5 Between life and death Who decides who should die By Teresa Graber Accepting the death of someone close is difficult, but the situation often becomes even more traumatic when that person lies between life and death. The case of Karen Ann Quinlan and others like her have fo-cused attention on the question of who decides to remove life support systems. Dr. Robert Veach, who spoke here last Thursday, believes that the choice should rest with the person's family and be made ""Based on their own beliefs"" when the person is not competent to decide for themselves. Veach, a professor of medical ethics at Georgetown University, explains that controversies often arise in deciding the treatment such a person will receive and determin-ing whether it is useful. Treatment, Veach said, ""depends on the goal of intervention."" In the case of Quinlan, the New Jersey wo-man who has been comatose and at-tached to life-support systems for several years, the goal is to main-tain her ""vegetative"" state. Any-thing more than that, Veach said, would be ""useless."" A goal is more than that, if (treatment) is useless."" If treatment is useful, but involves a grave burden for the patient, such as major surgery or a great deal of pain, the treatment can be foregone. Veach said the President's Com-mission on Medical Ethics recog-nizes a ""durable power of attorney in 42 states."" This attempts to make sure the wishes of the patient are expressed in ways that can be acted on when a person lapses from a competent state. Difficulty occurs when a person is incompetent, such as children or the mentally retarded, or if someone has never expressed such wishes. If a person is incompetent with no fam-ily member or guardian available, a medical staff makes a temporary de-cision, ""based on principles"" Veach said. All such decisions ultimately go to court for approval, and the court is suppose to make the deci-sion in the best interest of the pa-tient. Veach believes that if there is a family, they should have the legal right to choose, although they should be informed of their options so that they can make the best choice. The family should be involv-ed in the decision making and be al-lowed to ""choose among the courses available based on their own beliefs,"" Veach said. Currently there are two ethical choices, Veach said. The first is the ""social utility calculus, which pro-vides the greatest good for the greatest number."" However, Veach warned this ""puts the most vulner-able members of society in danger."" The second option tries to allocate scarce resources fairly, taking into consideration the patient, the fam-ily, and the medical staff involved. ""We cannot give the family un-limited discretion in decision mak-ing. We need to see a carving out of a range of limited, reasonable discre-tion. With preparation the result can be an affirmation of the dignity of the patient."" "
