TL20060216-01 "Sharon Leff Associate News Editor Reports of serious campus crimes have dropped dra-matically in the last 10 years, from 450 in 1995 to 144 in 2005, according to Towson University Police Department statistics. The data compiles Part I crime incidents over the course of each year. Part I crimes, which include aggra-vated assault and theft, are considered more serious than Part II crimes, which include destruction of property or assault. Though there has been a significant decrease between 2004 and 2005 (212 Part I crimes in 2004 versus 144 in 2005), Col. Bernie Gerst, director of public safety, said it is important to look at crime trends over the course of more than just one year. �You have to look at the trend over a period of time,� he said. �We�ve been very fortunate our trend has been going down overall.� Gerst said he couldn�t cite just one reason for the decline in crime. The classification of Part I crimes is standardized across the country so that the definition is universally understood. �The whole idea behind uniform crime reporting is it�s something that is done across the country,� Gerst said. �There are set definitions and we report based on those definitions. It�s the only way to measure crime across the 50 different states.� Brian Stelter Editor in Chief It may be hard to imagine college stu-dents saying �Raise my tuition!� But that�s essentially what several student leaders have told state officials recently. Student government presidents from across the state, including Towson SGA President Darcy Accardi, joined the University System of Maryland Student Council in opposing a freeze on tuition in a letter to the Maryland General Assembly earlier this month. The letter was sent in response to legislative analyst Erika Schissler�s recommendation that state law-makers put a cap on tuition costs. Since 2002, tuition for full-time undergraduates has increased an average of 42 percent system-wide, according to the legislative analy-sis. Next fall�s 4.5 percent increase, approved by the Board of Regents last month, would be the small-est in four years, but it would be an increase nonetheless. So the Department of Legislative Services recommended a tuition freeze for the coming school year. Almost immediately, USM Chancellor Brit Kirwan and institu-tional presidents expressed opposi-tion to a freeze. The USM student council agreed. A letter to legislators dated Feb. 2 said: �Tuition increases are not desirable for students and their families; however, given the circum-stances our institutions are facing, we do not support a tuition freeze without additional state support as this would mean more cuts in the quality of our education. With that said, if the State were to provide the additional state support needed to implement a tuition freeze, stu-dents would support such action.� Additional state support is exactly what Sen. Sheila Hixson (D-Montgomery) wants to provide. Thursday, 2/16/06 www.thetowerlight.com Published by and for the students of Towson and Baltimore -- twice weekly Tuition freeze causes hot debate Crime down, police report See DATA, page 11 INSIDE: This Weekend....3 Perspectives......5 News................9 Beyond...........14 Arts................17 Movies............18 Classifi eds.......21 Sports.............24 News: CBE welcomes TU students to jump into �mosh pit� for $30,000 in prizes Arts: Towson students with local band Taken make music video See DECISION, page 10 COMING IN MONDAY'S TOWERLIGHT: Badass Samuel L. Jackson takes on racial inequality, unfit mothers, snakes on planes Arts, page 18 Modern ink paintings travel from Taiwan to Towson Arts, page 17 The Towerlight SGA reforms election policy LEGISLATIVE SESSION �06 Officials will not support new bill to cap rising education cost without supplementary funding Study finds that TU crime has decreased over 10-year period Stephanie Dylinski/The Towerlight What is Black History Month, Alex? Below: Hosts Will Lugo, Yodit Lawson test contestants� knowledge of black history in a jeopardy-style debate to commemorate Black History Month. Right: Tonee Lawson buzzes in with an answer. Rachel Frederick Contributing Writer The Student Government Association approved a significant reform to its elec-tion policy on Tuesday, paving the way for a more independent Senatorial body. Beginning this April, parties are only permitted to include the four executive board positions: president, vice president, treasurer, and attorney general. All sena-tors will run independently. In recent years, parties have included up to 18 senators on their tickets, and because tickets usually received more votes than independent candidates did, the chance that a senator could win without the sup-port of a party was slim. �In the party system, if you weren�t on a ticket, it was pretty difficult to become elected, at least for a senator position,� SGA president Darcy Accardi said. �This way everyone is on an equal footing.� In Spring 2005, the Towson DREAM party won by a landslide, putting 17 sena-tors from their ticket into the 18 elected positions in the senate. (Two freshman senators are added each fall, bringing the total number of senators to 20.) But on Tuesday, the SGA decided that senators should run independent of the parties. In a 70-minute discussion in University Union Chesapeake I Tuesday afternoon, the Senate discussed two competing reso-lutions. Legislation limits party ticket, mandates senators run independently See RESOLUTION, page 15 "
