tl19800229-000 "VOL. LX,XIII No, 18 lotuertig PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY ig se he !ar Ititlents may soon find it difficult to park off campus now the County Council has voted to issue permits for ""Ine residential areas like this in Towson. Permits will he let available only to residents and any car without one will be fined or towed away. It looks like a lot more students will have to hike from the Towson Center now. TL hie photo ounty Council bill may end off-campus parking by Quincey R. Johnson the Baltimore County council has ksed a bill that would enable the 14)ty's neighborhoods to restrict km, uter parking. 'he bill would affect any Towson te students who now park in off- Pus residential areas. Many stu-r! ts park in those areas to avoid aeing from the Towson Center. 'Ile parking restriction bill was educed by Councilwoman Bar-a P. Bachur, D-4th. 'aehur said the bill was patterned r similar bills from other parts of ,heountry. e bill intends to protect the '.ghborhood residents, who must ine and go all day and lose their t�king spaces to commuters, said 'aehur added that all people do not jig 121 o �0 0 �0 John Suter have nine-to-five jobs and the neigh-borhood residents need the parking spaces. Under the provisions in the bill, a neighborhood must petition the coun-ty for the parking restrictions. Once the county does a study of the area, a decision will be made. If the parking restrictions are made, neighborhood residents will have to pay $15 for parking permits. Stephen E. Collins, director of traf-fic engineering for Baltimore county, said that neighborhoods must adhere to the provisions in the bill in order to get parking restrictions. A neighborhood resident must send a letter to the traffic engineering department to get an official petition. The petition must have the signa-tures of 65 percent of the residents of the neighborhood. The signatures must be valid or the study of the area will not be done. In order to invoke commuter re-strictions, 70 percent of the parking spaces in the neighborhood must be occupied by parked cars. Twenty-five percent of the parking spaces must be occupied by commuters. When the study is completed, a public meeting will be set up. Com-ments will be solicited from residents of the area and commuters. The traffic engineering department will prepare a resolution and submit it to the county council for approval. The council passed the bill by a 6-1 vote with the one dissenting member being Councilman Eugene Gallagher, D-6th. Gallagher said he voted against the bill because ""taxpayers should not have to pay to park on public roads."" People who do not sign the petition will have to purchase a parking per-mit out of necessity, added Gallagher. The parking permits will be issued by the next school year. This was not meant to coincide with school open-ing, said Bachur. Milissa Murray, SGA president, said, ""I sympathize with the residents, because it is hard to get parking in an area like this. ""Maybe � the parking restriction plan will get the administration mov-ing on the parking garage project,"" added Murray. John Suter, director of campus planning, said the parking restriction will not hurt the university, because the university already has ample parking. The parking garage is just a matter of convenience. Milissa Murray CONTENTS Sports 8 Entertainment 6 Classifieds 3 Features 4 Week Watcher 5 Commentary .11 Newsbriefs 10 February 29, 1980 SGA Senate votes no tofee increase by Karen DiPasquale The Senate voted Tuesday to institute no Student Government Association fee increase until after April 1. The act, which goes into effect immediately after Milissa Murray, SGA president, signs it, was introduced into the senate last week by Senators Will Neumann, Jim Szymanski and Dennis Tully. The bill concerning fee increases was prompted by the failure of an act, introduced by the same three senators at last week's meeting, that said the SGA could not accept, appropriate or expend any funds derived from an SGA fee increase. Despite the failure of the act, some senators have solicited signatures for a petition to place an SGA fee limitation amendment on a referendum in March, during the SGA elections. The petition was signed by 500 full-time, fee-paying students. Neumann, one proponent of the amendment said, ""The students should have a say in how the SGA spends the fees. This way the students could keep a check on the SGA. "" Neumann and other supporters of the amendment said the main reason they are pushing for the amend-ment to stop fee increases is because Murray requested a fee increase of $1.75 earlier in the semester and did not ask the Senate's approval. Michael Burns, SGA vice president, said ""If we don't have this referendum, one person is always going to Abuse threatens carpool system by Dana Bennett Parking Services will temporarily halt the issuing of carpool parking permits. There are 180 parking spaces reserved for carpoolers and 187 groups of carpoolers. David Reuwer, director of organizations, said about 15 percent of the carpoolers are abusing the carpool system. ""The system works really well for the other 85 percent of the carpoolers,"" Reuwer said. Ideally, three students apply for a parking permit and all drive to school together in the saine car. Th p abusers of the system apply for a permit togethr and then take turns using it. Because of the abuse, the car-poolers not only have cars in the carpool lot but also in the other student lots. Reuwer said he is catching violators by watching the lot. When he catches violators their permits are taken away. Parking Services will still be accepting applications for carpool permits, but will not issue them until the abuse problem is solved. Reuwer said that he hopes to catch the violators and give their permits to students waiting for a permit. After Reuwer receives applications for 20 parking spaces he will contact Parking Services to set up more spots. There is still a problem with non-carpool cars parking in carpooling spaces, said Reuwer. One solution to the problem would be to develop a decide when the SGA is going to raise the fees. By us not putting the issue to the students on a referendum, we (the senators) are saying the students are too stupid to know what goes on in the Senate."" Murray said she is against the idea to limit SGA fees because the students do not know the SGA issues enough to vote on them. ""I'm not saying the students are stupid, but they (senators) know the issues better than the students. If we have the students deciding all the issues, we wouldn't need the SGA."" Neumann said a breakdown of information between the SGA and students is the reason students do not know the issues fully. ""I've heard from a lot of stu-dents that they don't feel involved with the SGA any more."" continued on page 2 special sticker to issue to carpool students, Reuwer said. For example, a carpooler might receive a different type or color sticker than other students. Another possibility to discourage violators, he said, would be to block off a section of the University Union parking lot for carpoolers and have a gate keeper admit only their cars. These are only ideas and any type of action to put them into operation would need administrative consent and cooperation. Reuwer said that he hopes the planned parking garage behind Linthicurn Hall will help eliminate some of the parking problems. Final Council minimester decision due Monday by Theresa Herbert a result of rising fuel costs, the ester may be cancelled. At 11:Llay's Academic Council meeting, kt Oros and cons will be weighed to k,,r1rtine if the academic calendar t;11111 he changed. k:es i dent Hoke Smith will present ;It irrnation gathered by a task force ',studied the cost of fuel needed to ')1 `� and air condition the University. Joseph W. Cox, vice president for academic affairs, said, ""Dr. Smith will discuss the estimated energy sav-ings if Towson does not have a mini-mester over January."" Cox said, ""I like the flexibility of our academic calendar. I would hate to see money taken out of instruction to pay for oil. It is not an academic problem, but an economic one."" Donald McCulloh, vice-president for business and finance, said the University would save about $80,000 to $90,000 if the buildings used for mini- In this issue e ic Hiker Bruce Reid `Nif i is set to conquer ' the Appalachian Trail. Page 4 Senior Tim Top-per may be danc-ing his way to stardom. Page 4. Tiger women basketballers, led by Janet Flora are EAIAW tournament bound. Page 9. mester were closed during those sev-en weeks. Several department chairmen and faculty members have mixed feelings about the cancellation of minimester. They said they understand the predic-ament Towson State is in over rising fuel costs. Dr. Irene Shipman, chairman of the speech and mass communication de-partment, discussed the limitations that would be placed on the depart-ment without minimester, ""The chances for students to have an internship would be quite limited, but if they tell us we can't have it, then that's it,"" she said. Over minimester, the department offers several courses and students are able to get credit for working at area newspapers, radio and television stations. Michael Stanley, instructor of speech and mass communication, said, ""I think minimester is very valuable and provides stueents with an opportunity to pursue specific courses. Minirnester gives students a better chance to have an internship, instead of just during the fall, spring and summer semesters."" Stanley said he understands the problem with fuel costs and that the University is going to have to make a choice. Dr. David Marchand, chairman of the music department, said his department utilizes dormitory space over January for several workshops. About 400 to 500 students from across the United States participate in these programs. ""If the dorm space isn't available then there would be prob-lems, but if classes could start the third week in January, that would be fine. We could still have the workshops,"" Marchand said. The art department would be able to work its minimester courses into the regular academic year. Dr. James Flood, chairman of the art depart-ment, said, ""We offer intense courses that are heavily attended during minimester, but we would be able to add these to the regular curriculum,"" he said. Flood said he believes the students would suffer if there is no minimester. ""A lot of students depend on minimester to complete their studies. I'd like to keep it,"" he said. William Brown, chairman of busi-ness administration, said the loss of minimester ""wouldn't be a big factor at all for the business department. We usually offer three or four classes which are basically experimental and might be added to the general cur-riculum later."" Mary Catherine Kahl, chairman of the history department, said she would like to keep minimester. The department sponsors travels abroad over January. ""We could have these Dr. Irene Shipman travels in the summer but the costs would be higher, because it is at the peak time,"" she said. She said many of the instructors use the time over January to prepare courses, articles and do other research. Some faculty members would like to keep minimester, but they realize that if Towson is going to have a substantial amount of money, then maybe it is better to do away with minimester. Cox said he is only will- Dr. David Marchand ing to give it up if there will be a significant saving. The faculty members are not the only ones involved with the question of minimester. Some students also said they have mixed feelings about the issue. While some enjoy the long va-cation between semesters, they ac-knowledge it is hard to get back into the swing of studying after such a long break. Some feel that a shorter break would be enough. "