tl19730216-000 "towerlight Volume XXVI, No. 17 Towson State College February 16, 1973 Towson, Maryland 21204 Wayne Schelle Dr. C.R. Gillespie Dr. James L. Fisher Vice-presidents recommend removal of three SSFGB areas by Ward Smith Recommendations have been presented to President James L. Fisher concerning the removal of three areas of control from the jurisdiction of the Student Services Fee Governing Board (SSFGB). The recommendations were offered by Vice Presidents Wayne N. Schelle and C. Richard Gillespie, and would alter financial control of three major areas. They are the Student Center operating funds, athletic funds, and Day Care funds. The recommendations followed a request from Dr. Fisher for a study of the current system under the SSFGB. This study revealed certain inefficiencies in the SSFGB system, and it is hoped that these changes will rectify the problems. Currently, the SSFGB has complete control over allocations from the annual $60.00 per student activities fee. Organizations currently receiving money from the SSFGB include student organizations, publications, the four classes and the three areas previously mentioned. The SSFGB, now in its fourth year, was initiated in Fisher's first year, in cooperation with SGA President Charles Johnson. it was enacted in an effort to achieve a greater working balance between various areas of student-related financing. Commenting on the imbalance of budgetary operations, Fisher said, ""When I first arrived at Towson, I found a pressing need for more consistent distribution of funds."" At that time, there was such budgetary inequity, that while some areas were starving, others were abundantly funded. The SSFGB, in cooperation with the college administration, took control of the areas in question, bringing to them some degree of financial equity. In a letter to SSFGB chairman John Kipper, Gillespie explained the changes. On Student Center operating funds, he wrote ""In a recent audit of the College Center, the state auditors and staff members of the Board of Trustees have indicated that operating monies for the Center should not be included under the auspices of the SSFGB. Rather, it should pass directly to the College Center management and not be subject to approval either in whole or in part by the student board."" Commenting on problems in the Athletics area, he said, "".. .the difficulty lies in two areas, (lack of) 1) a clearly articulated policy and 2) a dependable and predictable source of income to support the program after the policy has been articulated."" He also called for a change in governance of the Day Care Center, which ""must be given a projected security not now provided by the procedures of the SSFGB."" Decisions regarding the future of the Day Care Center came from the Affirmative Action Committee, charged with bringing all operations of the College in line with the H.E.W. Guidelines for Equal Opportunity. These guidelines said that a properly run Day Care Center is an important part of extending equal rights to female students. Gillespie offered his assurance that the Day Care Center will maintain its status as an exclusively student service. Faculty and staff will be allowed to register on a one-semester basis only when vacancies are provided by lack of student registrations. Commenting upon the recommendations from the two vice presidents, SSFGB chairman John Kipper said, ""Although I am not fully informed about the proposals before President Fisher concerning the reasons for removing the three areas from the jurisdiction of the SSFGB, it appears that this may be another way of silencing, or at least quieting, the increasingly outspoken voice of the students in the running of their college. With the current hassle in Annapolis concerning removal of (Continued on Page 7) Harris: Trial begins for ""Switchboard Four"" by Ward Smith Four Towson students will go on trial Thursday, facing trespassing charges for the November 27 takeover of the telephone switchboard in Stephens Hall. The switchboard room was entered at approximately 11:45 a.m. The ""Switchboard Four"" as they were later named by the SDS, allowed the operators to leave the room before they locked themselves in the room and cut off all external telephone communications for the campus. College officials immediately declared the four students inside to be under arrest, as county and riot police were arriving. Reports say the police were unarmed. Testifying for the college will be campus security officer Bob Baeuerle. Tuesday, two of the defendants in the case appealed to have Dr. James L. Fisher subpoenaed to testify at the trial. One area of significance was the presence of Baltimore County policemen on campus. This represented a reversal of an earlier position by President Fisher. Whereas Fisher had insisted that county police remain off campus, he later told the ""Repeal bed tax"" by Brian Harness Jesse Harris, SGA President. has announced that he will attempt to persuade the State Board of Trustees to repeal the controversial ""Bed Tax,"" an act which was instituted at all Maryland State Colleges last September. The bed tax was originally scheduled for enactment during the winter of 1971, but President Fisher's administration successfully delayed its implementation for a year and a half. Wayne Schelle, Vice President of Business and Finance at TSC, stated that the administration had been opposed to the tax originally for two reasons. The primary reason was the concept of the tax, and the secondary cause was the proposed time of implementation, which would have been during the middle of the 1970-1971 academic year. The concept of the bed tax, set down in the guidelines established by the Board of Trustees, says that every resident student who is in attendance at a Maryland State College must pay a bed tax of $50 annually, or $25 per semester. The income that is then derived from this tax will supposedly aid in the construction of new dormitories on campuses which are primarily residential, such as Frostburg State College, which hosts a relatively small commuter population. Harris, meanwhile, has denounced this tax as being ""grossly unfair, because they're taxing Towson students for the construction of new dorms which are to be built at Salisbury and Frostburg."" Ironically, Frostburg is ""having problems filling the beds that it already has,"" Harris added. In his efforts to see the tax repealed, Harris is currently � preparing a package which will be sent to each member of the Board of Trustees, the content of which is definitely anti-tax and pro-annulment: The administration, however, while maintaining that it has been anti-bed tax from the outset, has refused to endorse Harris' actions, because they feel that if a commitment has been made, they should go along with it. ""The administration,"" declared Schelle, ""would be favorable to a repeal only if it wouldn't repeal a financial commitment that the board had already made, but obviously they have made some sort of commitment towards the construction of new buildings."" faculty, ""because of (recent) conditions, I am of the opinion that we should no longer expect members of our staff to make arrests during times of turmoil. While I have nothing but praise and admiration for virtually all of those who performed these tasks, I believe that it is beyond reasonable expectation to ask continuously for such performance."" The takeover occurred during a period of protest on campus in sympathy for the two students killed at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As such, it was the culmination of a series of events on this campus, beginning with the Presidential Proclamation from Fisher. It was issued after Fisher met with his four vice-presidents, as well as Mr. Julius Chapman and Dean Tom Knox, late on the evening of Thursday, November 16. The proclamation declared the period from November 17 to November 22, to be a time of moratorium, in which, ""the affairs of this campus will be conducted in an atmosphere of dignity and solemnity, and campus activities not related to the ongoing academic program will be cancelled."" Following a quiet weekend, approximately 45 students rallied in front of Linthicum Hall, where two symbolic graves had been dug, in memory of the two dead students. After this short rally, an abbreviated group marched to the Administration Building to present Dr. Fisher with a list of six demands: 1) banning all military recruiters from campus, 2) the disarming of all security personnel, 3) the establishment of sickle-cell anemia and gynecology centers, 4) the banning of all racist textbooks, 5) the elimination of racist firing, and 6) a boycott of the use of non-union lettuce. These six demands are currently the prime objectives of the SDS. Referring to the problem of racist textbooks on campus, the SDS referred to the Ed Psych textbook ""Psychology of Education and Learning"" by Dececco. The author was quoted as saying, on page 196, ""If you were to assume that the Negro were inferior to the average white, you would be wrong 30 out of 100 times."" The next day Dr. Fisher again met with a group of concerned students, and reiterated his stand on the presence of recruiters on campus. The trial Thursday will begin at 9:00 a.m. at 111 Alleghany Avenue in Towson. The SDS is planning a campus rally at 8:30 a.m., in front of Linthicum Hall. to be followed by a march to the courthouse. "
