The Towerlight, February 12, 1987

tl19870212-000 "Inside Record Reached Towson State men's bas-ketball team beat Delaware 75-61 to reach the highest victory total, 11, since the 1980-81 season page 3 The Towerlight Published weekly by the students of Towson State University Towson, MD 21204 Index news sports 3 features & entertainment 4 5 classifieds 2 8,7, 9 editorial 8 perspectives 8 weekwatcher 10 01. 80 No. I 6 February 12, 1987 tates consider tuition prepay option Since Jan. 5, legislators in seven tes have proposed creative ne'.N �grams to let moms and pops enroll"" their infants and children College years in advance. The programs�arguably now a it among administrators�vary detail, but generally let people ePay tuition for their children up 18 years before the kids get to liege. While as many as 60 private, enerally small campuses have Opted such programs since 1984, recent weeks whole states oved toward applying them to fist public college systems. Michigan adopted a prepaid ition plan two months ago. Now orida, Illinois, Indiana, Mary-nd, Missouri, Pennsylvania and eras lawmakers have jumped on e still-untested idea. As many as �others have expressed interest it. Yet some financial advisors are unwilling to endorse it. Still others voice dismay about it. They argue the programs may be risky for students, parents and even the states that finance them. ""Like with any investment, there is some risk,"" said Ralph Hodel of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, which expects to adopt a prepaid tuition plan of its own by April 1. Here's how a state college pro-gram would work: Parents pay a lump sum of money -- say $5,000 -- to a college fund when their child is very young. The state treasury man-ages the fund and invests the money, which earns interest. In theory, the interest will multiply into enough money during 15 to 18 years to pay for tuition by the time the child gets to college. Parents get a guarantee they will not have to pay more in tuition even if prices rise, and don't have Students and faculty members joined together Thursday at a balloon ascention at the University Union to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. 'Shuttle bus rides become luxurious by Robert M. Graham News editor , A shuttle bus ride from one place '0another on the campus of Tow- !.�11 State University Thursday was a different experience for some littldents. The sudden breakdown of three (1'f the University's four shuttle '418es and the unavailability of khool buses from the Shaw Bus eL rviee, Inc. in Catonsville meant 1?at some students would get to hde in one of three coaches e,q01Pped with plush seats, bath- 'non's, and drivers wearing ties. Richard Auth, deputy director 1�r the Physical Plant which ,701clles transportation needs at University, said because three ��?.. 1 Correction In the Feb. 5 issue of The t)iver4ht, remarks attributed Marion Hoffman, Dean of 16. t � ;Ident services, in the SGA art- `le, were, in fact, not her words. buses broke down on Wednesday his staff could not repair the broken buses in time for Thursday morning's shuttle service needs. Shaw, who the University has a ""standing contract with,to provide buses when necessary,"" was called to fill the University's need for three temporary buses, but all of their schoolbuses were in service, so coaches were sent, Auth said. ""None [of the school buses] were available,"" a Shaw employee said. Auth said the $220 per bus fee for the coaches was the same as it would have been for schoolbuses. The Shaw employee explained that the fee was ""a special deal because of the situation."" The damage in each bus varied. One bus had two springs break, another had difficulty with its front brakes and the third stopped shifting due to transmission pro-blems, Auth said. The University runs between ""three and four shuttle buses de-pending on the workload,"" Auth said. ""During heavier periods We run four buses."" Four run during the busier morning hours, three in the after-noon hours and one in the evening, Auth said. photo by Koren McMahon Two students and SGA Vice President Chris Krivos (center) are reading the literature on each speaker at last week's �Pen House to pick the final two speakers for the Speaker Series. to pay taxes on the interest money their lump sum investments earn through the years. . ""It's like buying a service con-tract on an appliance,"" explained Robert Kolt of Michigan's Trea-sury Department. ""You might pay $50 today for what may be $200 worth of service in the future."" In Michigan's program�called BEST (Baccaulaureate Education System Trust)�parents of a five year-old child today would pay $3,484 to the fund. By 2005, when the child would be a freshman, that money will have multiplied into enough to pay tuition at one of the state's colleges. Kolt said the plan will help ""middle-class and lower-income workers,"" even if they have to bor-row the money to pay now. But there are risks. Deanna Malone of Merrill Lynch Co., is not sure it's a good investment. Her brokers, she said, ""might say 'No way. Why should you pay tuition when 10 or 15 years down the road your kid might decide not to go to college?"" See TUITION, page 5 Fire valve leak hampers phone use by Robert M. Graham News editor Water damage to the mainframe phone panel over the weekend caused many phones in the Uni-versity Union, Burdick Hall, and Towson Center to be inoperable late Sunday and during most of. Monday. A leak from an open fire line valve in Stephens Hall caused water to get into the area housing all the phone wires that service Towson State University, ac-cording to Charles Thomas of the Physical Plant. ""The valve leaked out where the hose connection is made,"" Thomas said. H� said he could not determine when the leak that left ""an inch of water in the corridor"" began. ""I assume it happened sometime Saturday night,"" Thomas added. The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company began re-ceiving calls about broken lines Sunday, according to John Everett, a C&P Personnel employee. ""We received 10 to 15 trouble calls at Towson State which we learned about Sunday morning and a couple more Monday,"" Everett said. ""Sunday, they (C&P) started to dry the system out,"" Valle said. The mainframe panel is where all phone lines connecting the University with the rest of the C&P phone system are housed. The location is also the distri-bution point for phone lines to every campus building. Phone service to the University Union was disrupted Monday in-conveniencing operations at the Auxiliary Enterprises, Student Government Association and the Towerlight offices and some pay phone lines on the second floor. The cause for the Stephens Hall fire line being opened has not been determined. Stephens Hall has been closed for renovation since the end of last Spring's semester. Thomas said that since Stephens Hall is not being used the Physical Plant will ""drain the line"" after the Baltimore County Fire Department is notified. Debaters to improve continue by Ted Smith Special to the Towerlight The Towson State University Forensic Team continued to im-prove its regional and national ranking with a strong showing last weekend at Ohio University's Winter Classic Tournament in Athens, Ohio. Debaters Deborah Edmund and Ted Smith were undefeated (6-0) in preliminary rounds and were top seeds going into a tough final round against Marshall Univer-sity. Though they lost to Marshall in the finals, Edmund and Sn:+h still captured First and Second Speaker honors, respectively. Towson State's individual events speakers also continued to amass points toward qualifying for the upcoming regional and national tournaments in March. At Ohio University, speaker Shari Warnick advanced through pre-liminary rounds to capture Fifth Place in the informative speaking category. Her showing at Ohio, coupled with teammate Barbara Giuliani's earlier First Place showing in persuasive speaking at the University of Utah, will qualify at least two Towson State speakers for the national tour-nament to be held in Minnesota. Parents plannini to send their children to colleges like Towson State University may soon be able to pay for tuition while their children are still infants, if legislation in eight states passes this year. SGA allocates $500 to Honor Society by Doug Wood News reporter A bill to allocate $500 to the Towson State University Honor Society for a national affiliation ceremony was unanimously passed at Tuesday's Student Government Association meeting. Senate Bill 1986-87 #15, which originally requested an appro-priation of $378.10, was raised to $500.00 after additional requests for funding were taken into account. According to Senator Dale Graham, director of the Senate Appropriations Committee, ""The Honor Society requested the bare minimum. After talking to Presi-dent Goldsmith and two members of the committee, they requested additional funding for other things."" The bill passed by a vote of 12-0-0. The Honor Society, which re-quires money for a ceremony in which they will become nationally affiliated has already raised $400. According to President Chris Malanga, the society, which now includes 24 undergraduate stu-dents, 5 alumni, and 7 faculty members, ""is a leadership honor society formed by the University Affairs Committee about a year ago. It is designed to combine student membership with faculty membership."" Malanga said requirements for membership in the honor society included being a full time under-graduate student, maintaining a 3.0 GPA, a Junior class standing, and a demonstration of leadership in the following areas: scholar-ship, athletics, social service, and religious activities, campus govern-ment, speech and mass media, and the creative or performing arts. In other news, the new con-stitution was drafted after the original was misplaced. ""The Young Democrats needed to send a copy of their constitution to their national affiliate. They came to SGA to get a copy of their constitution, and we didn't have one,"" said Sen. Jeff Rinaca. It was resolved that the new constitution, which was approved with only a minor language change, be ac-cepted without the normal pro-bationary period. Additionally, Senate Bill 1986- 87 #I6, which would declare the University ""Nuclear Free Zone"" (NFZ), was introduced by Senator Vicki Francese.The bill, which is sponsored by Students Against Nuclear Destruction (STAND), pro-poses to prohibit: (1) the Univer-sity from investing in companies that manufacture nuclear wea-pons, (2) research of nuclear wea-pons, and (3) the transportation of nuclear materials on campus. The University would also enter a sisterhood relationship with ano-ther university that has already joined this program. The SGA would be required to fund an anti-nuclear peace education seminar each semester, and University funds would be invested in socially responsible businesses. Currently, there are 3,000 locally declared NFZ's in 17 countries and two in Maryland: Takoma Park and Gar-rett Park. If the bill passes the Senate, it would appear on the SGA's elec-tion ballot in March. Krivos plans second Speaker Open House by Lisa M. Quill Managing editor A second Open House to pick the two remaining speakers of the Towson State University Student' Government Asociation's 1986-87 series is tomorrow, because the initial one was inefficient, according to SGA Vice-President Chris Krivos. Krivos's original plan called for Towson State students to give their opinions regarding speakers proposed by a selection committee. However, the few students, most of which are members of Students Against Nuclear Destruction (STAND) and the women's center, that appeared at the first Open House, held Friday, Feb. 6, did not comment on the committee-pro-posed speakers, but opted instead to propose their own. ""A group of students in a clan put forth their wishes of how [the Open House] should be run,"" Krivos said. ""I don't think the people who came down are a majority of the student body; the majority is silent and not involved."" STAND could not be reached for comment. Although holding the first Open House put Krivos behind schedule, Krivos is still continuing with the second, more structured Open House. This time, input will be in a ballot format, and only SGA fee-paying students may vote. The bal-lot will consist of the top five nominees from the original selection committee and the top five from STAND's proposed list, and each student will be required first to rate those ten before adding new suggestions. ""It's really important to get input from all over, to form a con-sensus, but one group rallying or unionizing won't do that,"" Krivos said. ""Those students are determined and are activists because they care,"" Krivos continued. ""Any-body who works as hard as they do deserves to get their shar. But I don't think a majority of the stu-dents will come to listen [to those chosen by STAND]. They will a Max [Weinberg] or an Oprah [Winfrey]."" Weinberg and Winfrey are two committee-proposed speakers. Following Friday's Open House, Krivos will systematically attempt to schedule one of the two final speakers (SGA president Melanie Goldsmith has choice of the other). ""I will make a list prioritizing the speakers based on the number of votes each gets,"" Krivos said. ""Then I will go down the list and try to schedule each one. Krivos said that he would not recommend to next vice-president that he hold an Open House to get input. Rather, he would recom-mend a structured committee of two people from each college or organization and let each do his own polling. The vice-president could then get feedback based on the entire University's opinions. ""This way, it leaves the selection wide open. Now, the majority isn't represented, and the majority is suffering,"" he said. PROPOSED SPEAKER LIST SPEAKER Malcolm Forbes, Jr., president & editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine Ellen Goodman, nationally syndicated colomnist Abbie Hoffman, infamous political activist & community organizer Stephen King, author of horror and suspense novels Pat Schroeder, Congressional representative from Colorado Wityne Smith, former diplomat Mike Wallace. star of ""80 Minutes."" Robert White, former ambassador to El Salvador Oprah Winfrey. actess, talk-show host Russian Cosmonaut and American Astronaut #figures from STAND's proposed speaker listing 'figures from SGA Vice-President Chris Krivos ELX 18,000 #$8,500 qvariable *variable 142,000 #$3-500 ""117,000 #$3-5,000 115,000 18,000 "