The Towerlight, February 5, 1982

tl19820205-000 "Vol. 75 No. 15 owerlight PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY TOWSON, MARYLAND 21204 ""1 have to be an optimist. Pessimis in has no future."" Roger Tory Peterson February 5, 1982 Take this job and shovel it Towson State grounds crew kept fit and trim during minimester while others remained snowbound and suf-fered from cabin fever. Showers earlier this week assisted the crew and 10,000 pairs of feet will do the rest. Photo Courtesy of Eric Collins Reagan's budget request seeks cuts in student aid by Bruce Reid The Reagan administration plans to seek more than $1.5 billion in cuts to three financial aid programs for college students and to eliminate the low-interest Guaranteed Student Loans to graduate and professional students in the 1983 budget request to Congress Mon-day. Undergraduates would be required to pay a 10 percent origination fee for Guaranteed Student Loans (GSL). The fee, now at 5 percent, is used to process the students' loans. Interest rates on the loans, currently 9 percent after a 2 percent hike last October, would be increased to market rates now exceeding 19 percent, if the loans are not paid in full two years after a student graduates or stops attending school, an American Council on Educa-tion official said. Undergraduates can now borrow up to $2,500 a year and incur a debt of $12,500. Lenders require total repay-ment of the loans within 5 to 10 years. Figures from the Maryland Higher Education Loan Corporation reveal an estimated 76,000 student bor-rowers for the current school year, nearly double the number of loans underwritten in 1980. The last couple of years have been banner years for GSLs in Maryland the largest source of student aid in the state. U.S. Department of Education restrictions and possi-ble limitations for the GSLs effective October 1, 1981 harnessed the loans' accessibility to students from mid-dle income families. The latest proposals could require all students to undergo a test of their need for aid rather than the $40,000 income ceiling foi the need analysis. The $7.7 million borrowed through the GSL program last year cost the federal government $2.6 billion in in-terest rates that are subsidized while students are alten ding college. Students that could be ineligible for the loans may Make use of the Auxiliary Loans to Aid Students (ALAS) that were started last October, Harriet Griffin, director of financial aid, said. The loans have an interest rate of 14 percent and repayment must begin 60 days after graduation, or if a student drops to part-time status. Also targeted to be cut from the federal budget are the $278 million Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant program (SEOG), $179 million for the National Direct Student Loan program, and $74 million in State Incentive Grants, a wire service report said. About 826 students will receive NDSL's at Towson State in the current school year, amounting to $599,390. Proposed restrictions by the U.S. Department of Educa-tion could nearly eliminate any NDSL funds to the University, Griffin said. The Pell Grant program (formerly Basic Education Opportunity Grants) could stand to be cut by about 40 percent from $2.3 billion to $1.4 billion. Congress approved a continuing resolution in December restoring funds to the program. The resolu-tion lifted the income ceiling for students' family's eligi-ble for the aid to $28,500, but the new proposal would lower the ceiling to about $14,000. Such a move would make about one million students ineligible for Pell Grants in the 1983-84 school year. The maximum yearly grant would be cut from $1,800 to $1,400 under the new proposals. ""The students don't understand how bad it is,"" said Griffin. ""I would say that 20 to 25 percent of students would have great difficulty attending college � and that's conservative."" she added. The majority of the Towson State students are in the lower-middle to middle income brackets, Griffin said, and those are the students that will be affected the most. ""Its so changeable now. I've never seen anything like this year,"" Griffin said. ""We've never had one president throw out what another president did."" About 60 to 65 percent of the students that receive Pell Grants at the University are entirely dependent on the federal subsidies, Griffin said. The University handled about 2,100 Pell Grants for the 1981-82 school year amounting to about $1.9 million. Towson State students who have already mailed in their applications for federal financial aid may not receive notice of their eligibility until Congress decides how student aid fits into the 1983 budget. Continued on page 10 Hughes requests $41,527,829 Budget proposal hikes tuition 10% by Quincey R. Johnson Gov. Harry Hughes has recom-mended a $41,627,829 budget allowance for Towson State in his fiscal year 1983 budget message to the General Assembly. The recom-mendation provides for a 10 per-cent tuition increase for the Univer-sity; raising full-time tuition from $870 to $960. Fee increases include: a $15 in-crease in the athletic fee, a $6 Stu-dent Union Operation fee, a increase of five dollars in the credit hour charge for part-time graduate students, and an increase in room and board rates is also slated for FY 83. The budget is broken into three major areas: general funds, federal funds, and special funds. The recom-mendation for general funds, which come from the state, is $18,349,068, an increase of 1 percent in state sup-port over fiscal year 1982. Federal funds are monies that come from the federal government. The federal funds allottment is $177,500. The fiscal year 1982 figure was $177,683. 'Special funds are revenues created by the University e.g. tui-tion. The special funds recommen-dation for FY 83 is $23,001,261. The budget also allows for 482 full-time faculty positions. Ronald Garrison, vice president for business finance management said, the FY 83 budget provides 14 more positions than last year's number, since 14 faculty from Lida Lee Tall Learning Resource Center were transferred to the regular instruc-tion. There will be a 17 to 1 student faculty ratio. The budget also allows the library to operate 89 hours each week. The amount of money allotted for book expenditures was cut by $13,800. Garrison said the library is over the American Library Association guidelines for book expenditure, so the budget was cut back. The library also has a $19,500 special budget from library fines. The campus police department, in FY 83, expects to issue 25,750 park-ing citations and collect $160,000 in parking fines. An incremental pay increase for some campus police of-fers is expected. Auxiliary Enterprises is a self supporting program that expects $7,894,316 special funds expen-diture. Auxiliary Enterprise in-cludes residence halls, food service, bookstore and snack bars. Inter-collegiate Athletics is also a self-support program that derives most of its funds from a $90 athletic fee. Higher education received 7.79 percent of all state fund allowances recommended by the Governor. It was recommended that the Board of Trustees be allotted $56,810,607 in general funds � an increase of .05 percent. Legislators draft bills to save LLT by Gayle Griisser With the drafting of a new bill the question of continued existence and funding for Lida Lee Tall Learning Resource Center once again makes its way toward the General Assembly. And Lida Lee supporters are hoping for a better trip than last year's. After the Board of Trustees of State Colleges and Universities voted last year to close the school effective June, 1982, legislation was introduced in the Maryland General Assembly to establish the con-tinued existence of Lida Lee and provide funding. Of the two bills introduced, one Was struck down as unconstitu-tional and the other went through the Budget and Finance Committee With a recommendation for passage but never made it out of appropria-tions committee before the session ended. This year, Del. Frank C. Robey, 0-Baltimore City, has drafted a bill Placing Lida Lee under the jurisdic-tion of the Education Coordinating Committee whose main concern is the linkage between primary, secon-dary and higher education. l'he bill first establishes exactly what a learning resource center is and establishes one learning resource center on the campus of Towson State University effective July 1, 1982. ""The bill allows it to exist but under a totally different system"" said Bruce Manger, Lida Lee's PTA co-president,. Two other bills have been drafted, one by Sen. F. Vernon Boozer, R-Baltimore County who introduc-ed legislation back in 1975 to allow state funds to pass through Baltimore County school system budget, to Lida Lee. In all, three bills have been drafted, but in all likelihood only Del. Robey's bill will be introduced since the other two provide only for the continued existence of Lida Lee with no mention of the Education Coordinating Committee, Manger said. President Hoke Smith said he is maintaining neutrality on the pro-spect of current legislation. ""I don't know what the character of LLT will be under the provision of the bills. Since the bill does not provide funding, Manger and John B. Mit-chell, a Towson State art professor and Kenneth Bichell. a student. met with Gov. Harry Hughes and presented a two-component pro-posal. Manger said they made a presen-tation on the concept of laboratory schools and made a request for the Governor to provide $150,000 in his supplementary budget for Lida Lee. ""As we expected he wanted to wait before making a committment,"" Manger said. But he called the Governor's response ""interested and receptive."" Manger said he expects the Governor will confer with in-dividuals such as Sheldon Knorr, commissioner of the state board of higher education and David Horn-beck, state superintendent of schools. ""The implementation of his deci-sion is contingent on passage of the bill,"" Manger said. Legislators hesitated last year on the bills, Manger said, because the bills were introduced while there was still a chance for further negotiations with the Board. The legislators, Manger said, were""concerned that they should not be meddling in the authority of the duly appointed Board."" Now, however, the ""Board of Trustees have removed themselves from the situation"" and the sup-porters efforts to educate the general public on the concept of a lab school has generated a lot of favorable press, Manger said. ""Other legislators have expressed an interest in co-sponsorship and support,"" Manger said. If, however, the legislation does not pass, Lida Lee will close leaving eight tenured faculty without jobs. Patricia Plante, vice president of academic affairs, said the Universi-ty is doing ""all we can do to help them"" including assimulating Lida Lee's library into a position in Cooke Library. Plante said Bernard Taylor former Lida Lee principal is now principal of the Phelps Luck Elementary School in Columbia and that another teacher has been given a medical disability. The closing of Lida Lee and subse-quent dismissal of eight tenured faculty last year prompted the Academic Council to send a letter requesting the SBHE to in-vestigatge the relationship between Towson State and the Board. Room fees recommended are as follows: double occupancy no. 1, $1,210; double iiccupancy no. 2, 1,260; single occupancy no. 3, 1,266; single occupancy no. 4, $1,320. Board fees are as follows: ten-meal plan, $976; 14-meal plan, $1,064; 19-meal plan, $1.146. The nursing program was placed into a high cost program category. The program would receive a General fund appropriation of $357,311. Tuition makes up $132,800 of the Nursing budget. The budget faces the scrutiny of the General Assembly on Feb. 11 and Feb. 16. The General Assembly can only make further cuts in pro-posed budget; it is not empowered to increase the budget except through a separate funding bill. The budget does not include an expected 9 percent state pay in-crease that would add $1.9 million to the budget. The department of fiscal service, the leislature's budget analyst, has proposed cuts in state funding to Towson State amounting to approx-imately $147,000. Fiscal services proposes creating a tuition differential for part-time in-state and out-of-state students. Presently, per-credit charges are equal for Maryland residents and non-residents. The $87,000 revenue, created by the differential would be taken from the general finds recom-mendation. Garrison said. The legislative budget analyst also proposed to cut $18,000 in general funds from the physical plant. The proposal will put the in-tercollegiate athletic vechile use in-to the intercollegiate budget and take it away from the physical plant. A chart of the major mandatory tui-tion and fee charges appears on page 10. The budget's trail by Anita L. Hisley Without a road map, the budget process is a maze through which the neophyte might never emerge. As an assist, here is a ""ball of string"" to help you find your way . . . Department X wants to purchase a typewriter. In December, the department receives a request from the Towson Administration � a call for detailed budget requests. Dutifully, our department re-quests a typewriter. Analysis In March, TSU prepares the ma-jor budget goals for the institution, including any new positions, new programs, one-time items, and any major renairs to the facia-Jo. Hearings are held in April with the Board of Trustees (BOT), State Board for Higher Education (SBHE) and the Department of Budget and Fiscal Planning (DOBFP) to discuss TSU's MARC request (Maximum Agency Request Ceiling.) The State Board for Higher Education and Department of Budget and Fiscal Planning present their MARC recommendations to the Governor. It is now May. In June, the Governor provides a MARC allowance, through the DBFP, to the BOT. The Board, then, distributes it to the Institu-tions. Two months later, in August, TSU submits its final detailed budget request tothe Board. For the sake of argument, assume the typewriter request has not been cut from the budget request. September finds the budget re-quest at the Board who submit it to the SBHE and DBFP. In October, the SBHE reviews the budget with TSU and makes recommendations. The DI3FP will review the budget with TSU in November and will make judgement and adjustments (will the typewriter besnt?) In January, the Governor submits budgets for the entire state to the General Assembly. During February the General Assembly holds reviews with the BOT and TSU and other institutions and makes adjustments. Some sixteen months have pass-ed. It is now March and funds can be distributed, as appropriations, to the various divisions. Perhaps, the mythical typewriter has survived the maze. Details . . . details Long lines and closed courses mark annual in-person registration as students try to add needed classes. The last day to drop a class without charge or grade, or change a class to Pass/Fail is February 19. TL Photo by Colleen Kadan "