The Towerlight, February 2, 1979

tl19790202-000 "VOL. LXXII No. 15 otverlig PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSIT ( Weekend weather: Cold and windy today, highs in 30's. Partly cloudy Satur-day, lows in the teens. Chance of snow Sunday. February 2, 1979 Divesiture agreement reached by Paul Gilmore The semester-long debate over the divestiture of Towson Foundation investments in corporations that have business ties with the Republic of South Africa was ter-ulinated by a compromise motion at the final Academic Council meeting of the fall semester. The Council passed a motion by a vote of 17-2-1, that did not. call for divestiture of investments but urged ""the University Foundation Board and staff to take into con- Sideration the ramifications of its investment policies and Its portfolio . � ."" The motion also called for the Foundation to take steps to influence companies within its investment portfolio to increase their efforts in opposing apartheid."" �The motion requested the Committee Against Apar- 'neld, which brought the divestiture issue to the Council, ,provide Paul Wisdom, Executive Vice President of the lowson Foundation, with information concerning the Policies of companies within the Foundation's portfolio so ne could take ""constructive action designed to attempt changes in these policies."" OPPonents of the substitute motion introduced by stu-uent member Mickey Wilson and faculty member Herbert iCaPlon, said the motion ""did nothing"" and was not worth considering. 13. Obby Waddail of the Committee Against Apartheid Salcl, ""We felt it was marginally better than nothing. 'We will work with Mr. Wisdom as the motion requests itzs, to,"" he said, ""but we feel eventually the inadequacy of 2le Motion will show itself and the Academic Council may nave to face the issue again some day."" ,Waddail said the Committee had not established any fld of deadline upon which they would return to the Academic Council with a motion if the Foundation had not t ken any action concerning their investment portfolio, he said if they felt it necessary the Committee would retarn. Author Potok to speak Sunday Noted author, Chiam Potok, will speak Sunday is part of the SGA Speaker Series. night at 8 p.m. at the Towson Center. The event 10 candidates for president to visit campus by Evelyn Hoopes The Presidential Search Com-mittee has narrowed the almost 80 applicants for the presidency of the University down to 10 persons. One candidate. Mark M. Chamr-erlain. president of Glassboro State College in New Jersey, will visit Towson State Tuesday. lie will attend a special meeting of the Academic Council at 3 p.m. in the lniversity Union. Each of the candidates will visit the University for public interviews sometime throughout the semester. The names of the remainder of the candidates are held in confidentiali-ty at the candidates request. Di. Edgar Berman. chairman of the Presidential Search Committee. said ""We vant them to see and talk to every head of faculty and the financial directors while visiting the campus.' Each candidate NVill be guided around the campus by Dr. Patricia Plante. faculty representative of the committee: John Shehan, student representative:.Bob DiCicco. Board of Visitors representiatve, and John White.. Alumni Association repre.- sentative. The one specific criteria Berman said the cominittee was looking for in the applicants was the person who would be the best for Towson�for the advancement of Towson. We want to increase our scholastic excellence by instilling admissions requirements which no other Maryland school aside from the University of Maryland has."" he contended. 'Berman Stated that Towson is already known for its athletic and theatrical achievements and wants to see that success in other academic areas. John Shehan said that if the committee stays on schedule, inter-viewing one candidate a week. they should be able to narrow the search down to the projected three persons by early April. He added that it is very important that these persons are thoroughly screened so that, ""we get the most sound candidate.'' Both Berman and Shehan noted that the building era of the school is over and it is now important to attain a president who will lead the school into the position as one of the two premiere institutions of the state. The University of Maryland would be the other, according to the state Master Plan which is now in the process of being implemented. Shehan added that the new president will have to be able to attract good students. to Towson in the future as the number of students enrolling in college is dropping overall. Assembly will tangle with educational issues by Patrick :rho Maryland General Assembly rul consider a wide range of I(LIZislation concerning education and no state college system this s('Nsion, fueled by a new flurry of 'ontroversy over the state's system Ilf higher education. . Legislators will cast their votes on Iles ranging from an overhaul of ir Senatorial' scholarship system to no, controversial budget for state `,ileges submitted by Gov. Harry qughes. Newfound interest the state e''llege system has been stirred by a 'st'ries of eight late December ""IPapers editorials that dissected no state colleges and universities fld inspired lengthy responses from T e likes of Towson State Acting r,tesident Joseph W. Cox, Univer-tY of Maryland 'President John S. Morgan State University f resident Andrew Billingsley, and fuellitY and students from various 1Puses. (, The controversy also attracted \. Harry Hughes, who gave a '""to of confidence to Commissioner for Higher Education Sheldon Knorr in his effort to make the state college system conform to. the Master Plan introduced last spring and make his decisions, stick with the variims segments of Maryland higher education. Hughes noted in an interview with the Sunpapers that legislation may be necessary to give Knorr the full power the governor envisions, but said he foresees no such legislation ( this session.; But Sen. Melvin Steinberg, D-12th Baltimore. Monday intro-duced a bill that would specify the commissioner proceed by judicial remedy to enforce his authority, a move . which could strengthen the commissioner without drawing . the yet reluctant Hughes into the fray. Steinberg, chairman of the Senate Finance committee, also loosed a shower of five other bills .concerning higher education, Monday, inc-luding a bill that would eliminate service fees students pay when they use credit cards to pay tuition and fees. Another issue likely to draw major attention this session is proposals to overhaul the state's Senatorial Scholarship system. ProponentS of tile iwerhaul would make the system fully needhased, using criteria established for the award of Basic Grants. Thus the system would be eligible for matching funds from the federal government's Student Incentive Grant Program. Provisions to keep unspent monies in the scholarship system rather than return them to the state's general fund as they are now also are touted by overhaul proponents. A third interest of scholarship reformists is placing the award of Senatorial Scholarship in the hands of a Scholarship Board rather than 'individual Senators in an effort to fight patronage use of the scholar-ships. The system was rocked by several scandals when some senators allegedly awarded scholarships to friends and family in the early 70's, and while reformists agree there is no evidence of corruption in the program today. they are concerned that the very appearance of im-propriety id the tIniver _ sit V 0 NI arv!,,no %'ho hoads the State Higher 1.,.�Ication Committee for Scholarship Reform said. ""I'm concerned with the appearance of political hmsideration. I don't believe there is corruption, but there is certainly the opportunity for As well as Howenstein's commit-tee. the drive for scholarship reform is backed by the State Board of Higher Education, the student advisory committee to the board, and the Delaware, Maryland. D.C. Association of Financial Aid Admi-nistrators. These organizations plan to lobby heavily in Annapolis to assure passage of scholarship reform legislation. though they have yet to find a sponsor to introduce a bill in the Assembly. Reform proponents are busily seeking a sponsor, however, and the names of Steinberg and Sen. President James Clark, D -14th Howard have been mentioned prominently. Towson State's $16.3 million operating budget and 53.3 million C, budget, part of the gover-nor's S.I.2 billion budget %Nil! also face legislative smiting. but the Assembly USUally ru b be r-st a m ps spending recommended by the Department of Budget and Fiscal Planning and the Board of Trustees of State Colleges and Universities for the governor's budget. , ""The legislature plays only a 10 to 15 per cent role in the budget process,"" said Wayne Schelle, Towson's vice president for busi-ness and finance. The legislature by law can only cut money from . the budget submitted by the governOr, though they can approve supplemental budgets. Other educational issues the Assembly will consider include: 'Formation of a Maryland Higher Educational computing Consortium to centralize the data processing of state colleges. Towson state Opposes the proposal, claiming it would give management of higher education data to persons unfamiliar with education. 'Proposals that would allow income tax deductions for educa-tional expenses, one giving the deduction to self supporting stu-dents and another offering deduc-tions to taxpayers who pay dependents' educational expenses. �Extension of property tax exemption to fraternities and sororites associated with colleges. *Some proposals sought by various segments of the higher education community but not yet introduced in the legislature inc-lude: *Consolidation of campus police forces at six state colleges (including Towson) under the Board of Trustees, a move the University opposes. *Removal of campus police from classified employee status, allowing a college to hire persons for the police force they judge best qualified rather than requiring them to hire classified employees. Pailure of popular contraceptive noted � (CPS) --""The most talked about ""untraceptive since the pill, i 4.,noounced inch-high headlines n 'us running last month in over 100 1.'llege papers. t� The makers of the new contracep- �sly� Encore Oval couldn't have been s-If)re correct. Encare Oval is a i lThhository-type product that, when ,n8erted in the vagina before (Intercourse, melts to provide chemi- 0,41 and physical barriers to sperm, t,� ads say. People have been Ilking about Encare since its U.S. A'4rketing began in October of 1977. pt'd they're still talking now that (care has become the nation's t4stest-selling over-the-counter con-ruceptive. , Rut while many' cite Encare's vantages over other methods of ciuntraception -- it has none of the 0..40gerous side-effects attributed to ; Pill and the intra-uterine devices 'Os), and less of the messiness :n d inconvenience of most foams P1ci jellies -- others are telling a 1,ferent story. oespite the advantages, says the �d and Drug Administration and, more recently, several `418gruntled college family planning �enters, Encareinay not provide the t extvemely high sperm-killing pro-tion"" the ads promise. , t�eurthermore, they say, although 'tleare originally claimed effective- 11�e1_ss rivaling the pill and IUDs, it not been proven"" any more . l iective than present foams and ' lies, which have one of the hest actual failure rates of all `ontraceptives. Encore's critics acknowledge the new 'advertising avoids the direct claims the FDA has since judged untrue. but some health profession-als are still concerned. Many worried doctors and pharmacists are still recommending Encore based on its earlier claims, and that women, too., are buying them based on that knowledge. And some, like Dr. Warren Hemn of the Boulder (Co.) Abortion Clinic, feel Encore's ads are still ""dis-honest and misleading."" Hem n feels, as do physicians at the Kent State University's birth control service, that the ads and information on the packages don't give specific and complete information. For now, Encare's makers simply maintain that the product is ""highly effective,"" while declining to cite a specific percentage, or to compare it to other products until ""ongoing studies"" are completed. Mean-while. their public relations firm. Shaller-Rubin of New York, notes more advertising is planned. An account executive said Encare ads will be continued in the professional journals where they first appeared, on campus in newspapers as well as on over 100 campus radio stations, and that a campaign has begun in leading' women's magazines. To date, most of the non-promo-tional information about Encare comes from the dealings of the FDA with the ""most talked about"" contraceptive makers, Eaton-Merz Laboratories of Norwich, New York, An FDA Advisory Panel on Over-The-Counter Contraceptives and Vaginal Drugs. a group of healthcare specialists and non-vot-ing representatives of the .pharma-ceutical industry. consumers and the FDA. began investigating the product shortly after it appeared in the U.S. market. In October, 1977, the panel requested information about En-care's effectiveness claims. Because Encore's active ingredient, non-oxynol 9, had been used and approved by the FDA for other products, the company wasn't required to get prior approval before marketing.. The FDA was specifically con-cerned, as a later memo shows, about two claims. First, the accuracy of the studies that produced the purported 99 percent effectiveness statistics. These, the ads said, were based on German studies that reported 43 pregnancies after 10,017. women completed almost 64,000 months of Encore use. Encare has been on European markets for six years, and the FDA wanted more details of the testing. Second, the FDA wanted more proof of Encare's claim that, when the suppository melted, a viscous ingredient formed a physical barrier over the entrance to the uterus that was sufficient to ""prevent. sperm penetration"" even without the spermicide. But Eaton-Merz, says the FDA. refused to submit promotional and testing material to the panel, and declined an invitation to attend the panel's next meeting. The panel then asked FDA's Bureau of Drugs to investigate the situation. When the Bureau didn't have a report. in. three months, the pafiel chairwo-man, Dr. Elizabeth Connell, became. concerned that the delay could produce the kind of confusing situation the panel was designed to help avoid. The panelists decided, rather than to wait and mention their concerns, in the panel's final report due in the surrimer, they would write a detailed memorandum about Encore to FDA Commissioner Donald Kennedy. The memo charged that Eaton-Merz was negligent in fulfilling a ""moral , obligation to do all that is reasonably possible to protect the health of the consumer."" The German effectiveness study. the panel said, had ""apparent inadequacies"" that made the data ""unacceptable to any scientific group or regulatory agency."" Thus. the panel said, the close to 100 per cent effectiveness figures consti-tuted an ""unsubstantiated chino."" The sperm barrier claim ""lacked I roof.' ' It was during this time. though, that the popular media began reporting on Encore. Because the FDA report was not formalized yet, the articles reported Encore's claims as the company promotion touted them. Magazines like Cosmopolitan. McCall 's. and Giumour reported that the new contraceptive was ""possibly better than any you've ever known before."" Many college papers ran features on Encore, which ranged in time from cautions descriptions to enthusiastic en-dorsements of the product. Then in July, the FDA showed its first public concern in an article in the FDA Drug Bulletin. The Bulletin criticized Encore's '.'overpromo-tion"" of efficacy claims, which the FDA said ""has led to inflated popular expectations for the pro-duct."" Health professionals and consumers, the FDA said, should ""consider the product probably no more or no fess effective than the other vaginal contraceptive drugs available."" This warning was reiterated in the September, 1978 issue of the FDA Consumer. Encore users, the report says. can expect an effectiveness range of that for non-prescription foams and gels, which range from 71 to 98 percent. The percentages vary because of ""substantial variations in the care with which women follow directions for use."" Encare's viscous barrier claim, the FDA says, is ""weak.� � Eaton-Merz, meanwhile, says that the FDA's conclusions are based on no real proof, either, and that consumers like Encare. Kath-leen Breen of Encare's public relations firm. Herbert Farber Associates, said their survey of 600 users found 86 percent were satisfied. and ""quite a lot of them"" said they would buy the product again. Breen added that while the company hadn't received reports -of unexpected pregnancies while using Encore: they were hearing of continued on page 12 In This Issue Depression When you're down you're not alone. Depression is a com-mon problem, especially among college students. An examination of what it all means and some comments on the problem by those who make it their business to know. page 3 Off the wire A few peeks at what's happen-ing on other campuses in the ""campus line,"" a new addition to these pages page 2 Cage turmoil Tiger glory no longer lives in the Towson Center as the once-mighty men's basketball team is beset with morale problems, academic trouble and a schedule of unbeatable foes page 7 Mime John Kassir performs materi-al he wrote and produced himself in the Fine Arts Building this weekend . page 6 "