tl19840216-000 "The Towerlight I never the t a man I didn't like. �Will Rogers Vol. 77 No. 17 PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY TOWSON, MARYLAND 21204 University Union offices affected SGA restricts phone service By Mike Judge Last Monday, callers in many offi-ces of the Student Government complex in the University union dialed 9 to call off-campus and heard the words, ""We're sorry, your call cannot be completed as dialed."" Their phone service had been re-stricted to the on-campus centrex System. An executive order by Student Government Association president Robert Barnhart requesting a re-striction of long distance phone ac-cess led to the elimination of off-campus service in many phones in the offices of SGA organizations. The action was taken to stop abuse of long-distance calling ac-cess. All long distance calls made in organizational offices are charged to the SGA. Among the abuses which prompted the restrictions were phone calls made at odd hours of the night, including hour-long phone calls to Italy. ""Over the years, we have asked organizations to restrict their long-distance calls and have locks put on the phones, but the abuse continues,"" Arlene Campeggi, busi-ness manager of the SGA, said. ""Students have learned tricks to get around the restrictions."" The end of long distance service, however, means the end of local ser-vice as well. ""The centrex system here at Tow-son State was not set up to handle for partial restrictions,"" Katherine Moore, supervisor of telecommuni-cations, said. ""C & P did try restric-tions in the past, but students found out the trick and got access to the WATS and long-distance lines."" All organizations with offices on the second and third floors had their service restricted to on-campus ex-cept for the student media (The Towerlight, WCVT) and the SGA main office. Among the offices affected is the Religious Activities Office, where Baptist Campus Minister Bobby Waddail spends four days of the week. ""I understand the SGA's right to provide whatever service they want, but for anybody who has any contact off campus, things are extremely difficult now,"" Waddail said. Off-campus callers trying to reach the restricted numbers are now refer-red to the central switchboard, which refers the callers to the. SA main of-fice. ""I've received at least one message a day from there�the first week of the restrictions,"" Waddail said. The restrictions went into effect February 6th; however, no prior no-tice was given to the organizations affected. Among the abuses which promp-ted the restrictions were phone calls made at odd hours of the night, in-cluding hour-long phone calls to Italy. ""Those calls could not possibly have been business,"" Campeggi said. Last year, the estimated phone bill for the SGA was $26,000. This fiscal year�July 83�June '84, the SGA budgeted $14,000 for phone calls, hoping for a voluntary restric-tion of long distance calling by stu-dent organizations. Exact figures for this year are not known, since the SGA receives its phone bills four months behind. The number of long distance calls made in September led to the restriction. ""We could fund ten organizations on the money spent for phone bills,"" Campeggi said. Waddail hopes phone service for the office will be re-installed. ""If that doesn't happen, I'll have to do some-thing; like get our own phone for the office,"" Waddail said. However, in-stallation charges for a new phone will be at least $80 plus monthly charges for usage. ""I would be perfectly happy to have a system with only local ser-vice and no long distance access,"" Waddail said. UMBC has a centrex system that allows dorm residents and organizational offices to call off-campus with certain offices retain-ing full service. Barnhart could not be reached for comment on his plans for re-instal-ling phone service or continuing the restrictions. Mole misery John Simpson reviews Mole magazine, Washington, D.C.'s answer to the National Lampoon Page 6 Tiger s Victorious Basketball team edges American University in double overtime Page 7 Campaign Heat Dr. Richard Vatz examines political polls in an election year Page 11 February 16, 1984 Getting out the vote udent Absentee Ballot Application---for Registered Voters of Maryland OIVLY ETA -6118EFORE ltiA/L/NG / arn a student at a college or university and / will be unable to vote in 0 PRIMARY e apply for LEASE PRINT) lection May 8, 1984 election day / hereby an absentee ba//ot for the following ele person on ct/6,7(v- NAME AND HOME ADDRESS (P If this address (4'� 0 GENERAL election November 6, 1984 Conference overflow crodwradws By James Hunt CAMBRIDGE, Mass.�Out of the reams of data produced and distributed each year by the Census Bureau, the following statistics have emerged: *In the November, 1980, elections, 16 million eligible 18-24 year-olds did not vote. *In the same year, 4 million of the 5.5 million eligible minority voters in that same age bracket did not vote. *In February, 1984, an estimated 14 million 18-24 year-olds have not registered to vote. Ostensibly, it was a concern for statistics like those�particularly the 14 million unregistered voters�that brought over one thousand stu-dent government officers and college news-paper editors here last weekend to the National Student conference on Voter Registration at Harvard University. The conference, sponsored by the Boston-based national student Public Interest Re-search Groups (PIRGs) and organized by stu-dents from several PIRGs around the country, was, in most respects, nothing out of the ordi-nary. It offered workshops on registering and organizing voters, and featured a number of speakers, including consumer advocate Ralph Nader and former congresswoman Bella Abzug. Democratic candidates Jesse Jackson and George McGovern also made speeches. What was out of the ordinary was the attendance at the conference. Estimates ranged as high as 1600 by Saturday afternoon, well over the 500 the conference organizers ori-ginally had hoped would come. Seven students attended from Towson State: Student Government Association president Robert Barnhart, Vice President Jim Clark, Treasurer Kelly Ray, and directorbf Public Re-lations Mary Walsh. The Towerlight's Editor-in- Chief Mark Baltimore, Managing Editor Paige Jansen, and News Editor James Hunt also attended. Although the conference organizers felt the large turnout would help ""dispel the notion that today's campuses are 'hotbeds' of apathy,"" they cautioned that the ultimate success of the conference would be reflected in the number of students who register and vote. ""What is important is that we get a lot of stu-dents going out to the polls on election day, one student organizer told the audience in Harvard's Memorial Hall. A goal of one million new voters by the general elections in Novem-ber has been set. That may be a rather formidable task con-sidering that voters in the 18-24 age bracket generally have the lowest turnout rate of any age group. In the November 1982 elections only 25 percent of those 18-24 reported voting, com-pared to 45 percent of 25-44 year-olds, 62 per-cent of 45-64 year-olds, and 60 percent of those over 65. Most of those involved in voter registration agree that there are three reasons for poor voter turnout. The Park Bench Society is moving to register voters at To State ""Democracy isn't the type of thing that you set up and it runs by itself�you have to renew it. While that idea is not particularly new, it is significant, particularly since the speaker is Brandt Kamka, one of the founders of the Park Bench Society. It is significant because it embodies one of the goals of the Society: to bring more students into the democratic process through a voter registra-tion campaign. Accordin g to Census Bureau statistics, less than half of the eligible 18-24 year-olds are registered to vote. The Society, Kamka said, is planning to get the name of those Towson State students who have not registered to vote and encourage them to do so. The ""major push"" for registering voters, he said, will be in the dorms and the Society will also try to get absentee ballots for out of state voters. Voter registration is not the only function of the society, however. They hold regular discussions on Thursday s to provide an ""outlet for student voice"" on topics ranging from the United States' nuclear policy to the war in Lebanon, The Society also hopes to bring in speakers, such as congressman Clarence Long, who they hope will discuss his role in Central America and views on the Chesapeake Bay. Although the society was formed last semester, ""a couple of (the founders) had had the idea in-dividually for a few years,"" Kainka said, ""There was no place for students to discuss among themselves how they felt about issues."" Nothing came of it, though, until following last semesters round table discussion on Central America when the individuals organized and gain-ed SGA affiliation. How did the Society get it s name? ""We fooled around with a couple of names until we got the idea of two old guys sitting on a park bench discussing things, that were important to them,"" Karnka said. James Hunt The first, they concede, is that there has not been a strong enough effort to register 18-24 year olds and urge them to vote. The second, they say, is that many of those in that age group grew up in the Watergate era and have become ""disenchanted with the political pro-cess, and, third, don't believe their vote will have any influence in the community. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who first rose to prominence in 1968, said students today are a more potent political force than they were in the '60s, but that they use methods that don't make as many headlines. ""There is far more student activity [today],"" Nader said,"" but because it isn't sitting in, because it isn't smashing windows, it isn't on the national news."" Applications for voter registration forms and absentee ballots are available in The Towerlight offices, Rm. 232 University Union. By Bob Tarleton University police are seeking to expand their jurisdiction to the roads surrounding the campus. Would expand officer's jurisdiction Police bill reaches committee By Mike Judge A bill seeking to increase the jur-isdiction of Towson State's police to the roads surrounding and crossing campus went before the State Sen-ate Judicial Proceedings committee in Annapolis last Thursday. Two members of the University police spoke before the committee, along with Ray Lenzi, representa-tive for the Maryland Classified Employees Association (MCEA), who drafted the legislation for the police. ""The committee seemed to favor our request. I feel the bill has a good chance to pass the commit-tee."" Dr. Jean Spencer, executive direc-tor of the board of trustees for the state college and university system, and Donald McCulloh, vice presi-dent of business and finance, spoke in opposition to the bill. ""The ad-ministration's position on the issue is very clear. We want the police of this University to have jurisdiction only on campus. We don't want our officers on the Beltway or Charles Street with the ability to arrest or shoot people,"" McCulloh said. Police chief Gene Dawson is not taking a position on the issue. ""The bill was introduced by MCEA (for the officers). The department will follow the advice of the administra-tion and the state's attorney gen-eral,"" Dawson said. University police drafted the bill to clarify questions of their jurisdic-tional powers on the roads sur-rounding campus. Under the pres-ent law, police can only direct traffic or assist Baltimore County police in emergencies on the roads near cam-pus. University police have no off-campus jurisdiction in any other sit-uation, In December, 1982, for example, a University police officer observed a driver run a red light at York Road and Burke Avenue. The officer pursued the suspect to his home and was struck while attemp-ting arrest. The officer secured an arrest warrant for the man and had him charged. The trial judge dis-missed the charge, however, be-cause the incident did not occur on University property. The bill, sponsored by Baltimore County Senator Vernon Boozer, needs to receive a favorable commit-tee report before it can go to the full Senate. If the bill passes the Senate, it then goes to a House of Delegates committee, and then before the en-tire House. It then must be signed into law by Governor Harry Hughes. "
