The Towerlight, February 6, 1981

tl19810206-000 "VOL. 74 No. 16 Towerlight PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY TOWSON, MARYLAND 21204 ""Beauty is truth, truth beauty,"" that is all ye need know on earth, and all ye need to know.� John Keats February 6, 1981 Nursery rhymes 101 She may not be ready for school this semester, but by the time she is she won't be able to afford the books. This penny-wise shopper is getting an early start buying them. Someone should've told her about the SGA book exchange. TL photo by Colleen Kadan Rape panic spreads (CPS)�Two years ago this month, Theodore Bundy entered the Chi Omega sorority house on the cam-pus of Florida State University, sexually assaulted and then killed two women, and beat two others who ultimately survived. Since then, Bundy has been caught and convicted of the crimes, and life at the Chi Omega house has assumed a studied calm. But the women at Florida State have apparently become one of the few groups of students this year who are not talking about violence against women on campus. College security officials say that, nationally, rumors and reports of rapes have seemingly increased at a much faster rate than campus crime itself over the first half of the school year. ""It's been highly unusual,"" said the police chief of a large west coast university. His department got ""six or seven"" reports a week of rape and sexual assault during Oc-tober, although ""the campus has been as quiet as a church as far as actual commited crimes of that nature go."" ""Rape,"" said James McGovern of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Admi-strators in Atlanta, ""is a relatively infrequent crime on college campus-es. The incidence of rape and homi-cides is very low compared to as-sault, robbery and burglary."" Still, rape is also a ""highly emo-tional"" crime, and one ""that re-ceives a great deal of publicity,"" he noted. Consequently one repor-ted incident�true or not�can lead to somethinglike panic. For example, a reported sexual assault at the University of Maryland dorm in October (the Port was later withdrawn) lead not Only to a campus-wide Rape Aware-ness Day but to ""a spurt"" of sub-sequent rape allegations ""through November,"" said Captain Robert Anderson of the campus police. Anderson said the major problem L been in denying that a rape epidemic was under way. George Huntington, police chief at. Indiana University, agreed that ,his hardest job of the school year has been dispelling ""rampant rum-ors"" of a transvestite knifing and raping women in one campus area, and someone else lurking in the Woods behind the Student Union. Though ""we've had just three for-ht,.. al reports down from last year,"" tritintington said he has gotten calls n'orn worried parents ""from half the states in the union."" At the University of Idaho and th.e Univesity of Vermont, the acti-vities of peeping Toms during the all semester led to pained denials campus police, who, when con-tacted by College Press Service, still were not sure anyone believed them. Clemson University police called for and got a special session of the Student Senate in order to deny rumors that ""several"" rapes had oc-curred in the campus within a two-week period in early November. Earlier in the fall, a police denial of sexual assaults at the University of Oklahoma apparently left one campus women's group uncon-vinced. It staged a ""Take Back the Night"" rally which ended when eight demonstrators were physi-cally shoved around by some un-identified men, who also shouted sexual epithets at them. The cycle of rumor-denial-disbe-lief- more rumors has begun again with the re-opening of schools after break. An Ann Arbor women's group has spray-painted 150 sites around the city with the claim that ""a woman was raped here."" University of Michigan pol-ice say that, while they encourage rape awareness programs, they fear this one may cause unnecessary alarm. Part of the reason police denials do not always calm the nerves of campus women is the ambiguity of most campus crime statistics. The ""only compilation"" of college statistics, said McGovern, is done by the FBI, and campus law enforce-ment officials themselves are often the first ones to attack the credibil-ity of the FBI's annual report. Perhaps under pressure to pro-tect their colleges' image by dis-missing crime reports, campus pol-ice typically waste little time in questioning the FBI's numbers. Withh a week of the release of the 197 FBI report last October, for exam le, security officers at Ala-bama, Missouri and Nebraska pub-licly challenged the FBI counts on their campuses. Other protests were lodged later. One usual complaint was that the FBI counted all ""sex-ual assaults"" as ""forcible rape,"" thus inflating the crime rates. McGovern said the FBI's statis-tics may be further distorted be-cause ""it's just in the neighbor-hood of ten percent of the campuses that are participating in the crime report program."" Student acceptance of police ef-forts to dispel rape rumors is also inhibited by the difficulty of pro-viding security. ""You don't design the security in any institution in reaction to one particular crime,"" said McGovern. Rape prevention techniques, he added, are usually part of ""residen-tial security."" ""Of course, if you had a series of crimes you'd take specific ac tions,"" McGovern pointed out. In the wake of Bundy's Florida State rampage, the university pol-ice department outfitted all sor-ority and fraternity houses with some ""type of intrusion alarms,"" said Sergeant William Marsh. ""We have different security guards in the dormitories, he con-tinued. 'Retired persons used to watch them. Now guards are young-er, more vigilant. They're equipped with CB radios, and remain in con-tact with the police department."" Lida Lee hearing set for Monday The Board of Trustees of State Colleges and Univer-sities will hold a public hearing on the fate of the Lida Lee Tall Resources Center Monday, 7 p.m., on the third floor of the University Union. In October, University officials learned from the Board's staff that it intended to recommend that the Center be closed. The recommendation was never made to the Board, said Fran Minakowski, University relations spokesperson. The recommendation to close the Center was an effort to save money. Since then, the Board has received over 100 letters from people opposed to closing the Center, said Jack Surrick, staff assistant for the Board of Trustees. Letters announc-ing the hearing were sent to all those who wrote to the Board protesting the closing. A three-minute time limit has been established for those speaking at the hearing. Persons wanting to speak should arrive early and sign up. In addition, a written testimony is desired from the speakers so their comments may become part of the Board's record. Students, parents, faculty and University represen-tatives are expected to speak at the hearing. The entire Board was asked to be at the hearing and a majority of the members are expected to attend the hear-ing, Surrick said. Lida Lee Tall is the only lab school left in the state. All other state lab schools were closed by the Board in 1974. In April, President Hoke Smith commissioned a task force to study the Resources Center. The task force was created before they knew the closing might be recom-mended, Minakowski said. The task force's findings were reported to Smith on December 12 and a copy was also sent to the Board. The task force concluded that the Board of Trustees and the University, itself, should make further commitments to supply Lida Lee Tall with adequate findings so it may continue its service. It was also recommended that the Center be evaluated every five years as are the other divisions of the education department. Through Dr. James I3inko, acting dean of teacher edu-cation, Smith recommended that Lida Lee Tall expand its educational resources capabilities to include other univer-sities, specifically Morgan, Coppin, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County campus. The task force said this would give students from those institutions beneficial experience from working at the Center. It was also recommended in the report that Lida Lee Tall should strive to ensure a closer relationship with the public and independent school system to enable the Center to share results from teaching experiences. The task force also recommended changes in the research functions of the Center by getting a half-time staff member and a workable system for transmitting research to other schools. Between 1970 an 1978 the Center had a research staff person and a newsletter called Probe. Both had to be discontinued because there was not enough money available. Finally, the task force recommended that consideration be given to increasing the number of students per grade and expanding the Center's educational offerings. This is what the Lida Lee Tall Resources Center could look like if the Board of Trustees of the State Colleges and Universities decides to close the Center. Parents, stu-dents, faculty and University representatives are expected to speak at the hearing Monday night. Board members will be present to hear those views. TL photo by Bill Breidenbaugh Business prof suspended after arrest by Francis C. Broccolino Towson State has suspended James Riffin, an assistant professor of business administration, after the instructor was charged Jan-uary 14 with kidnapping and at-tempting to mui tier a Hechinger Co. employee. ""Mr. Riffin has been suspended with pay until the review of the entire matter,"" said Fran Mina-kowski, director of University relations. ""The review will be done by Dr. Smith (Hoke Smith, presi-dent of the university) in consulta-tion with the college's attorney They will re view everything con-cerning the crime with which Mr. Riffin is charged."" The crime occurred January 5 on Hechinger's parking lot in the 8600 block Pulaski Highway, said Jay Miller, Baltimore County police spokesman. As Christi Nicholas Geankoplis, the assistant manager of the store, walked to his car, a gunman wearing a ski mask forced Geankoplis into the front seat of the gunman's car. ""As soon as the gunman forced the victim into the car, he com-mitted the act of kid.iapping,"" said Miller. When a police car sped by with its emergency lights on, Geankoplis jumped from the car and started' running. However, within seconds, the gunman subdued Geankoplis. ""This time, he told Geankoplis to get in the trunk of the car,"" explained Miller. Instead of getting in the trunk, Geankoplis began struggling with the suspect. During the fight, the .22-caliber revolver the gunman was holding misfired, alerting three Hechinger customers to the inci-dent outside. As the two men rolled around on the ground, one of the customers slammed Riffin in the head with a 2 by 4. For nine days, Riffin altered between states of col ciousness and a coma. After being released from Frank-lin Square Hospital, the suspect was taken to Towson District Court where bail was set at $200,000. In addition to being charged with kid-napping and assault with intent to murder, Riffin was charged with a handgun violation. The police spokesman said Rif fin also had two sawed-off shotguns and a homemade bomb hidden un-der clothing in the back seat of the car. The bomb, a propane tank wired to a battery, was handed over to the federal Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Division. The suspect's motive for the at-tack was apParently revenge, said Miller, because Geankoplis had testified against Riffin on a shop-lifting charge in July. In that case, Riffin was convicted of shoplifting from Hechinger's and sentenced to 18 months in jail. He was freed pending an appeal. Geankoplis no longer works for Hechinger's and is reportedly living in another state. Although Riffin has not been convicted, the University suspend-ed him ""because the Univesity's interest. is in protecting the insti-tution and the students,"" said Min-akowski. ""But,"" she added, ""we al-so are respectful of Mr. Riffin's privacy and rights."" For this reason Riffin is still being paid. The University's final decision may take some time because ""it is likely Dr. Smith will wait until the outcome of the trial."" Although Riffin is still in police custody, Judge William Hinkel of Towson District Court ordered him transferred, January 30, to Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center for psy-chiatric tests. In this issue The parking lot at Hechinger's hardware store, located at 8666 Pulaski Highway, was the scene where James Riffin, an assistant professor at Towson State, allegedly attacked Christi Geankoplis, an assistant manager of the store, in an act of revenge. Since the January 5 incident, the University has indefinitely suspended Riff in. TL photo by Ed Gore BASKETBALL: The Tiger basketball squad had an up and down January. Early in the month they led the ECAC-South, but three straight losses knocked them from the top. Story on page 6. SOAPS: Soap Opera fans, rejoice! Beginning this week, Towerlight brings you Lynda Hirsch's ""Daytime Dial,' a syndicated wrap-up of the tor-rid world of daytime drama. Page 3. UNDERCOVER: Ace To wertight reporter Lisa DeNike recounts her harrowing experiences as an under-cover reporter. Read about how she infiltrated an ""illegal gambling ring"" on page 3. "