The Towerlight, March 10, 1983

tl19830310-000 "Vol 76 No. 21 (AN. The Towerlight Most of the sighs we hear ;awe been edited. �Stanislaw Jerry Lee PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY TOWSON, MARYLAND 21204 To honor 'Doc' Minnegan Senate moves to re-name stadium By Terie Wolan The University Senate showed Enthusiastic support at its meeting N!unday for a proposal to change ,tne name of the Towson Stadium to ,a0nor Donald ""Doc"" I. Minnegan, 'orrner teacher, chairperson of phys- 141 education department, and athletic director of Towson State. , University President Hoke Smith �ascribed Minnegan as not only a successful coach, but a dedicated Educator who was concerned with the importance of academics. Smith quoted from Minnegan's writings in which he said. ""The athlete is first a student . .. the coach is first a teacher . ."" ,Minnegan was the head of the fiYsical education department for �yea' 40 years. He was especially alterested in soccer and recognized rilltinnaly as an authority in that }Tort. Minnegan was well known for ,8 strong commitment to education nil his efforts to provide a variety sPorts to the community. 1.n addition to his work at the 1fliversity, Minnegan initiated the altirnore County recreational pro- ,trsial, developed a physical fitness 'at for the U.S. State department, d Was alternate manager of the U.S. Olympic soccer team in 1964. The motion for the name change was passed unanimously and will now be considered by the Univer-sity Board of Trustees and the Board of Public Works. Smith ex-pects that these organizations will receive the idea favorably. The other major business of the Monday meeting was the revision of a letter from the senate to the Maryland General Assembly stat-ing the senate's opposition to recent legislative action which could cut incremental increases in pay for University faculty and admin-istrators. James J. Hill, Jr., associate pro-fessor of English and president of the Towson chapter of the American Association of University Pro-fessors, drafted the original letter. Hill said the letter's purpose was ""to tell the assembly how strongly the University Senate, the elected representative of the entire Uni-versity, how much this body disap-proves of the action of the House's appropriation committee in cutting the governor's budget in respect to higher education."" The disputed portion of the budget would cut the percent of incremental pay increases by one-half the amount requested. .01111�01111 March 10, 1983 behind the scene... h....from the lighting director's chair, a view of the festivities at the wfvIAR-TV/Variety Club Telethon held Sunday at the Towson Center. The ""low aired 1 p.m.-11 p.m. and raised more than ;500,000 to help fight chlldren's diseases. Studies show decline By John O'Loughlin In student drug use CPS)�Student drug use seems have declined over the last year, ""ecording to two recent studies. ""Since 1979 there's been a level-rsg off of the use of marijuana .4gr""ng young people,"" reports 0,11Yie Saunders, a spokeswoman for 'Le National Institute on Drug UUSe (NIDA), which sponsored a 4 orge Washington University di4rveY of some 5000 households' 41.1g habits. I There has also been a ""significant !cline"" in the use of other drugs, !�r1tch NIDA reads as ""a reversal of Tiler trends of escalating drug Saunders adds. i Similarly, the University of Mich- P g rs'S annual survey of some 17,000 till h school seniors found declines in til e uses of marijuana, cocaine, stim-allts, sedatives, tranquilizers and 'q uucinogens. 11""A serious recession,"" observes 41.,. Lloyd Johnston, director of the higan study, ""has its own sober- ,influence on youth."" 4.,�1 x out of every 10 seniors have b ed marijuana, the survey found, qt. only 29 percent used it fre-luently in 1982. In 1979, when the u Wnward trend in daily marijuana -;3e began, 37 percent of the seniors aiMed to smoke marijuana daily. ""It is important to put the good news in perspective,"" Johnston wrote in a statement accompanying the study's release. ""While it's true that there has been a decline or leveling for vir-tually all types of used drugs, it is still the case that an exceptional number of American young people are involved to some degree in illicit drug use,"" he says. ""By the time they finish high school, nearly two-thirds of our young people have tried an illicit drug and over one-third have tried an illicit drug other than marijuana."" Johnston attributes the decline in the use of amphetamines, which ranked behind only marijuana and alcohol as the most used drugs, to tougher state laws against the sale of non-prescription ""look-alike"" drugs. Michigan and NIDA disagree on alcohol and cigarette use patterns. NIDA found that, among 18- to 25-year-olds, fewer people are drink-ing and smoking regularly. In 1979, 76 percent of the ""young adult"" population drank alcohol, versus 68 percent in 1982. Thirty-eight percent of the young adults now smoke, compared to 43 percent in 1979. The SGA Elections are Monday, March 14 and Tuesday, March 15... Weekly 'free time' held impractical By Chuck Jones A weekly period of free time in which faculty, staff, and students could meet and discuss problems"" would be nice to have, ""but the con-sensus of most faculty members who attended a forum last Friday was that it would be impractical to implement. The forum, which meets once a month, dealt with the possibility ui having a university-wide free time in which the entire University commun-ity could meet to talk out differences and problems. Bob Albright, Catholic Campus Minister, said everyone seems to be in favor of scheduling the free time if the practicalities could be worked out. He said the teachers' and students' struc-ture of classes would make such free time hard to schedule and that the problem is that ""no one is willing to change their schedule for this great idea."" James Hull, professor of biology, said that students and teachers would have to ""get accustomed"" to setting time aside each week for meetings. Andrea Diegel, Lutheran Campus Ministrer, said one idea would be to move back classes one hour to make room for the meeting, making the day's first classes begin at seven o'clock. Hull said he believes that students would not be receptive to seven o'clock classes and added that most students probably would not par-ticipate in the University meetings if accommodations in the schedule were made. He said another solution may be to shave 15 minutes off classes each week to add minutes up for the meetings, but added that the plan would be hard to implement. Albright said that if a University meeting were scheduled during a cer-tain time of the week he feels that students would not schedule them-selves to be free during that time because they could get into classes they normally would have trouble get-ting into. Bobby Waddail, Baptist Campus Minister, said a meeting of this type has never been tried before at Towson State, but added that Morgan State, University of Maryland at Baltimore County and the University of Baltimore already have such meetings. Armin Mruck, professor of history, said the possibility of having a University meeting should be discuss-ed within the University's individual colleges before presenting the pro-posal to the University. He added that individual teachers should ask the chairpersons of their departments for suggestions on how to approach the university with proposals. Originally an hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays was scheduled for the meetings but Albright and other staff members thought an hour may not be enough time for the meeting. Administrations 'cracking down' on fraternities TUCSON, AZ (CPS)�University of Arizona officials ""just couldn't stand it anymore."" Over the last five years, .Sigma Nu fraternity members had done everything from driving golf balls off the roof of their fraternity house �occasionally hitting cars, win-dows, and bystanders�to dumping trash on parked cars, and even throwing oranges and other objects at the campus police. But then officials at the nearby campus hospital discovered bullet holes in an office window, and a .22-caliber bullet lodged inches from where a hospital worker normally sat. Police traced the angle of fire to a third-floor window of the Sigma Nu house. ""That was the straw that broke the camel's back,"" recalls Dean of Students Robert S. Svob of the shooting incident. ""We finally had to get tough."" Less than a month later, on Janu- The SAA: By Lynn Weber ary 10, 1983, one Sigma Nu member was facing charges of illegal fire-arms possession, and the remaining 69 members of the fraternity � which had been on campus since 1918�were ordered to vacate the house indefinitely. There are, in fact, increasing numbers of homeless brothers like Arizona's Sigma Nu. Scores of fra-ternity chapters around the country are being disciplined and suspended in a new, nationwide get-tough administrative crackdown. It is the first time in decades �some observers say it is the first time ever�some colleges have actu-ally disciplined their fraternities. A couple of schools are even toying with the idea of banning the Greek organizations altogether. At Towson State last spring, University officials revoked the charter of Alpha Omega Lambda for violations of the University hazing policy, including allegedly forcing some of Towson Sta This semester marks the beginning of a new student group, the Student Ambassador Association, that direc-tor Joanne Bracken believes will soon be ""one of the most prestigious organizations on campus."" Bracken was hired a year ago to begin an Alumni-Admissions Council and its student counterpart, the SAA, to help with recruitement. ""The whole purpose of the SAA,"" Bracken said, ""is to have students more involved with the university and recruitment itself."" Students will help host Admissions Open Houses, resi-dence programs like Residence Awareness Week (March 28-30) and Parents Weekend, Bracken said. They will also serve as a personal link with prospective students by writing them notes, talking to them on the telephone or at the homes of alum-ni, ""letting them know someone cares,"" she said. This ""personal touch"" improves the chance that the student will come to Towson State, Bracken said. Police open communications center By Mike Judge jile Towson State University police 41'4 recently installed a new com- 414111cation center to bring the depart-ueot up-to-date with other area police `Partments. r 'I'Ve have added a recorder to :;eord all radio and telephone corn-kiLtIlications,"" said Lieutenant Steve iPhY of the University police. (lst police departments have wtiZrders. Now we will know exactly .1 has been said."" to LA rie recorder will enable the police laZve a description of a suspect in a orLbreaking crime on tape, instead 5fiqui ving to rely on the memory of the icer recording the call. With the new system, University police can now trace calls such as bomb threats instantly. ""The recorder allows us to get a voice iden-tification of the caller,"" Murphy said. Last year, before the system was in-stalled, University police received four bomb threats during one week in late April. ""Knowing that the system is operational will hopefully act as a deterrent and will make apprehension of suspects easier,"" Murphy said. The University police designed the communication center with room to expand as campus needs increase. The system includes fire and burglar alarms for the new dormitories and dining hall. Another piece of equipment that will soon be added to the communica-tion center is a computer terminal. ""We are now on the waiting list to get a computer that will link us with the National Crime Information Center, which is the FBI's national computer system,"" Murphy said. ""The money is already allocated; we just have to wait for the comptuer to come in."" The computer will give the Univer-sity police instant access to criminal records and identification of stolen property. ""We won't have to call the county or state police to get an iden-tification through their computer, like we do now,"" Murphy said. The computer will also link the University police with the State Motor Vehicles Administration, so the police will be able to identify stolen cars reported on campus. The SAA members will also invite prospective students for overnight visits on campus. Such visits, known as ""sleeping bag weekends,"" would allow prospective students ""to go to classes, basketball games, theater productions, really get a taste of what it's like to live here,"" Bracken said. Though student recruitment groups can be found at other colleges, ""the SAA is unique among public in-situtitons in Maryland,"" said pledges to eat adulterated food ana then eat the vomit when they became sick. For the first time in 20 years, the University of Georgia last spring abolished a fraternity�Chi Phi�be-cause of alleged hazing and drug use. Alabama A&M permanently banned Omega Phi Psi last semes-ter for repeated disorderly conduct over the last two years. The final straw: members abducted a student and threw him over a cliff. ""The idea of excusing all extremes of fraternity behavior under the notion that 'boys will be boys' just isn't the case anymore,"" observes Noise, litter, catcalling and even violence aren't all that new along college Greek rows, she says. What's new is the reaction against it. Eileen Stevens, founder of the Com-mittee to Halt Useless Campus Kill-ings (CHUCK), a citizens' group te's best hit rec potential to be a leader as well as the desire to work at it,"" Bracken said. Lynn Collins, director of admis-sions, said ""We expect to get our name out in the public sector"" through the SAA."" Applications for admission are up 10% and applica-tions from those seeking housing and minority students are up also; ""this can't be attributed totally to the SAA, it is a reflection of their efforts,"" Col-lins said. ""The whole purpose of the SAA is to have students more involved with the University and with recruitment itself"" SAA Director Joanne Bracken Bracken. ""The students involved are some of the best Towson has to offer,"" Bracken said. The criteria for their selection were that they ""felt a sense of loyalty"" to Towson State, and a commitment to help it grow. ""They needed to be real assets in terms of appearance, motivation and academic achievement. I need lead-ers, and every one of them has the Stacy Wiedenhoff, an SAA member, said one reason she joined the SAA was to improve Towson State's image in private schools. ""I went to St. Paul's and Towson was never men-tioned as a possibility for college,"" she said. In a survey taken of all 9th through 12th graders, one question asked if the student considered attending Towson State University and only one person working to stop fraternity violence. ""College administrators and na-tional offices of fraternities aren't tolerating the antics and pranks anymore,"" she notes. ""There's really a pendulum effect involved here,"" says Jonathan Brant, president of the National I nterfra terni ty Conference. ""Fifteen years ago most schools kept a closer watch on fraternities. Then, for about 10 years we got away from that, and adopted the attitude that 'You're all adults, and you can supervise yourselves.'"" But Brant adds, ""Now we're see-ing more interest and concern and better suprvision. Many schools are bringing onboard someone specif-ically to supervise fraternity members and to work with them."" Brant attributes the crackdown on fraternity violence and problem behavior to ""a higher caliber of awareness"" among administrators and students. ruiting trail replied, ""Why don't we aim high?"" ""No one I knew ever chose Towson State as even a 3rd choice. I want to change that,"" Collins added. Bracken said the organization has a lot to offer students. ""The program is much in the hands of the students,"" she said. Invovlement with the SAA shows that students are capable of planning programs from the begin-ning and are capable of coordinating the activities for a large alumni body, Bracken said. ""This will mean something in today's world where practical work experience is respected,"" she added. Bracken also said, ""We're not in-terested in students who just want something that will look good on their resume."" The optimum number of students involved per semester is 25, Bracken said, and many were nominated by faculty and selected for that reason. About half of the students heard about the SAA through letters sent by the residence department and depart-ment chairpersons and by word of mouth, Bracken said. in this issue The bone-chilling conclusion to Eric Mills' epic ""Murder U.S.A."" page 2 The SGA elections candidates answer The Towerlight question-naire pages 4 and 5 The Towerlight Reader Survey � your chance to get even page 8 IL.. SGA election endorsements page 9 "" 'it Officer Warrick at the helm of the new Police Communications Center. "