The Towerlight, February 13, 1981

tl19810213-000 "VOL. 74 No. 17 ovverright PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY TOWSON, MARYLAND 21204 The superstitious man is to the rogue as the slave is to the tyrant. �Voltaire February 13, 1981 If the Board of Trustees decides to close Lida Lee Tall, this student and this teacher may be looking for a new school for next September. The Board held a Public hearing Monday to hear testimonies of Lida Lee Tall supporters. TL photo by Colleen Kadan 2 senators resign as term nears end by Jeff Pierce Craig Wolf, Student Government Association vice president, announ-ced at the Senate meeting Tues-day, the resignation of two senators, Brock Ware and John Bohannon and said that the SGA will attempt to fill the vacancies, although only 43 days remain in the term. Ware, who officially resigned Wednesday, was hired last Decem-ber by Coppin State University as a data based manager. ""It was an offer I couldn't refuse,"" Ware said. Ware said his full-time job and night-school classes forced the formal resignation, because he would have been expelled from the Senate had he failed to attend fur-ther Senate meetings. ""I hope the school has gotten from me what I've gotten from it,"" Ware said. In review of the Senate's per-formance this year, Ware said he Was ""glad they accomplished as much as they did."" ""I don't think the senate is Perfect,"" he said, ""but overall, my memories have been good."" Ware said he hoped that the Unity in Action ticket, under which the present Senate ran, would run for another term, although some senators said they doubt the party Will seek a second term. John Bohannon, who resigned laecause he graduated, could not be reached for comment. Wolf said the Senate will be ac-cepting petitions for the vacancies until February 24 at 4:00 p.m. ""We'll go through the process of finding replacements,"" he said later, ""but I doubt the vacancies will be filled."" Five appopriation bills were in-troduced at the Senate meeting, as well as the Constitution for Yedid, a Jewish Outreach and Fellowship organization. Four of the bills and the consti-tution were referred to committees, but a bill to appropriate $700 to the Forensics Union was unanimously passed. Friday 13: by Dan Zeigler T.G.I.F. is a popular expression on Fridays that are not the 13th day of the month. On these fateful occasions, when the 13th is a Friday, there is more to Worry about than just surviving the last eight hours of the work week. For the superstitious, Friday the Thirteenth is a 24-hour shift. ' This superstition has probably caused everyone, at one time or an-other, to look back over his shoulder, drive the car a little slower to work or Sit at the breakfast table a few Minutes longer, speculating about the Odds and wondering ""what if."" .Unfortunately, people may become di,stressed by the mysterious ""what that Friday the Thirteenth is [aMous for, and even develop a phobia about it. ""A phobia is a step away from rational, scientific thinking and into occult or irrational thinking about a sornetimes fearful reality,"" said Dr. '-'avid Fox, director of the phobia clinic for Psychology Consultants A ssociated. F�x, who also coordinated biofeed-uack and neuropsychology training at North Charles General Hospital and is assistant professor at Loyola Col- Lego, talked about the difference vetween a superstition and a phobia *A, Brock Ware 44 Board's decision due soon Supporters testify to save LLT by Gayle Griisser Towson State administators, profes-sors, parents and education majors testified before the Board of Trustees of State Colleges and Universities Monday night, urging the Board to reconsider the closing of the Lida Lee Tall Resources Center. The Board called the public hearing after receiving over 100 letters pro-testing the closing, said Jack Surrick, staff assistant for the Board of Trus-tees. University officials learned in October from the Board's staff that it intended to recommend closing the Center. The recommendation has never been made. ""The Board is here to listen,"" said Marshall W. Moore, chairman of the Board. There were 52 speakers, each having three minutes to address the Board. President Hoke Smith, Dr. James Binko, acting dean of teacher educa-tion, and Dr. Patricia Plante, Aca-demic Council chairperson, presented the University's view. All three stressed that Lida Lee Tall serves a vital service to the campus and community. Smith said the University may decide to close Lida Lee itself but that should be the University's decision. He also said the campus community should be able to decide how its own money may be spent. Plante said the Board has stressed strong internal management. There-fore, the University retrenchment committee should decide Lida Lee Tall's future, Plante said. Dr. James J. Hill, American Asso-ciation of University Professors (AAUP) representative, said that since eight of Lida Lee's teachers have tenure, the faculty will view the closing of Lida Lee as a direct viola-tion of retrenchment policies. Binko presented statistics ranking the University as the second largest producer of teachers in Maryland. In 1979-1980, 72 percent of the elemen-tary education majors, and 73 percent of the early childhood majors found teaching positions. Nationally, the average is 40 to 50 percent. Three out of four students are employed within one year of graduation. Moore said the Board will reach a decision about Lida Lee Tall in a few weeks. Several University personnel testi-fied in support of Lida Lee's function in all departments. Binko said Lida Lee served 1,000 students last se-mester, and 50 faculty members from 16 departments. Carolyn Parmenter, assistant profesor of occupational therapy, said she sends 30 students to observe Lida Lee children each semester. Shirley Gillespie, theatre instruc-tor, teaches eight theatre courses and seven of them use Lida Lee. She said, each semester, 100 students are in contact with the children for a total of 2,000 hours. Gillespie said in 1974 she traveled off campus for one year to teach the class but parking and gas-oline problems made the traveling inconvenient for students. Dr. Clifford D. Alper, professor of music, said Lida Lee offers interac-tion between music majors and the center's children. He said music majors' student teaching is enhanced because of their previous experience. Several off-campus personnel also addressed the hearing. Wallace Mandell, professor of men-tal hygiene of the Johns Hopkins University, said he has brought psy-chiatrists and psychologists to observe children at Lida Lee. Dr. Misbah Khan, associate 'professor of Pediatrics School of University of continued on page 2 She wasn't quite old enough to speak at the hearing so this little girl found other ways to amuse herself. It might look like she's coloring but she just may have been preparing a letter to the Board. TL photo by Judy Krasnick Screening detects high blood pressure by Rich O'Brien A November blood pressure screen-ing at Towson State revealed that 12 percent of the 200 people screened, most of whom are students, have high blood pressure. Sandy Queen, community health education coordinator at St. Joseph Hospital, conducted the screening. ""For the youth of the population, I think it's high. There were lots of borderline cases. I work with seniors [citizens] a lot and don't find these numbers,"" Queen said. ""It's true that we came during midterm week but we can't just slough it off because of that."" Out of 24 positive results, two people already knew they had high blood pressure. Three people found out for Knock on wood because there is. indeed, a difference. ""Suprstitions are a screen people erect as a defense against pursuing a correct understanding of the world and the events that often humble and confuse us,"" he said. He said that we attempt to control these events by finding fanciful and mystical explanations for how these forces control us. Fox believes that understanding the history of superstitions will help clarify this point. ""The Druids an ancient Celtic priesthood] for example, belieied that a god was alive in the trees and if you knocked on wood you placated this god,"" he said. ""Few people today question why they knock on wood but I have had patients come into my office, which has a metal desk, wall-to-wall carpet-ing and no wood on the floor, no wood anywhere, and ask me if I have a pencil. They had to knock on wood before or after mentioning ideas that made them anxious."" he said. But contrary to a superstition that makes us anxious, Fox explained that ""a phobic or neurotic trend serves to keep the person in control of anxieties."" Fox offers several theories about the origin of the Friday the Thirteenth superstition. He said the number 13 has long been considered unlucky and a symbol of the unknown, speculating that this may be because in most ear-ly cultures, each day was divided into 12 hours. Thus, the 13th hour repre-sented the unknown and the occult. Thinking for a moment about what other foreboding unknowns the num-ber 13 symbolizes, Fox recalled that in George Orwell's book 1984, the opening line warns: ""And the clocks were striking thirteen."" Although the Bible says the Last Supper was on a Thursday, Fox said there is evidence that it may have occurred on a Friday. ""Since 13 people attended the Last Supper and the Christian savior was reportedly crucified the next day, a connection might have been made,"" he said. He added that because many people are unaware of possible reasons for the superstition, they maintain fearful thoughts and behavior when confront-ed with it. Because many fail to ques-tion the reasons for their beliefs, a superstition like Friday the Thir-teenth continues to be preserved by cooperative magic, he said. Cooperative magic, as he defined it, is the general public's subtle affir-mation of a superstition. In our soci-ety, for example, office buildings continued on page 4 the first time that they have high blood pressure. Those three were found to be severely hypertensive when their blood pressure was taken. Several students with high pres-sures admitted to having just finished coffee and cigarettes. When checked a half-hour later, their blood pressure had dropped 20 to 40 points. ""Ninety-five percent or higher of this is life style. People have to under-stand that these habitual things do something to the body,"" said Queen. ""Life in the fast lane"" can result in a person becoming an asymptomatic, one who has a tendency for high blood pressure but does not know it, said Queen. The bodies of asymptomatics con-stantly compensate for the stresses put on it, she added. Queen recommends that people who suspect they might be asymptomatic should see a doctor. Other than life styles, smoking, large amounts of coffee, little sleep, and stress, Queen had no explanation for the results she found. She said, however, that across the board, about 95 percent of high blood pressure falls in the category with essential hyper-tension. ""These people have high blood pressure and we don't know why. It's not in their life styles or in anything that can be detected. The control for these people is medi-cation,"" said Queen. Whatever the cause of the high inci-dence, the screening resulted in at least two people who, after seeing a doctor, went on medication. Several others went to their doctors and are being monitored. Queen's outreach program seeks to catch hypertension early. If it is not caught early the effects of certain stress can make hypertension perma-nent. ""Before WWII about seven per-cent of the population of Stalingrad suffered from hypertension. After the war, the figure went to 80 percent. And these people had permanent high blood pressure,"" she said. Queen would like to see a perma-nent program at the University, as a result of the November program. ""I'd love to see an ongoing health awareness program set up. Not just blood pressure screening, but maybe eventually seminars on life habits or classes in wellness. These would help in life style assessment and knowing how to study for exams, things like stress breaks,"" she said. ""The body doesn't know whether it was run over by a truck or if it's an exam. It reacts the same way."" So far there is no evidence to indi-cate how the hypertension rate at Towson State compares to other uni-versities. The figures do show that it is too high. In this issue._ RECRUITING: Sophomore Donald Leslie joined the Tiger basketball squad last year, the team's first in Division I. Now that the program has gone big-time, recruiting is a brand new ball game. Story on PAGE 8. SHOW BIZ: Getting that first break into the world of show business can be an ordeal, as Molly Burnsky learned when she auditioned for a summer job with Kings Productions. Read about it on PAGE 4. SHRUNK: In a world of shrinking dollars, it's only fitting that someone make a movie like ""The Incredible Shrinking Woman."" Review on PAGE 6. "