tl19810313-000 "VOL. 74 No. 21 4 PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY TOWSON, MARYLAND 21204 Beware the ides of March. �Shakespeare, Julius Caesar March 13, 1981 SGA structure retained Hark leads ticket in decisive victory by Jeff Pierce The students of Towson State de-cided in the Student Government Association election this week to leave the structure of the SGA un-changed rather than abolish the SGA and institute a new form of government. The entire Students for Unity ticket, lead by Keith Hark, won a landslide victory with Hark winning the presidency in a decisive victory over Leisa Kelley and Leonard Sati-sky. Both Hark's and Satisky's plat-forms advocated the continuation of SGA as is, compared with Leisa Kelley's platform, which called for a student referendum to abolish SGA and set up an ad-hoc commit-tee which would review the SGA budget and cut what was not need-ed. Hark took 57 percent of the 1,307 student votes cast for a total of 846 votes, with Satisky winning 22 per-cent of the ballots with 182 votes and Kelley winning 21 percent of the ballots with 181 votes. David Thomas of the Students for Unity ticket won 976 votes in his unopposed bid for SGA vice-presi-dent. Jeff DiLandro, also on the Stu-dents for Unity ticket, took 946 votes in his unopposed bid for SGA Treasurer. Beth Joseph was one of only two senators seeking re-election and led the senatorial candidates in votes received with 771. Rick Benton, SGA senator, also won re-election with 748 votes. The remaining senators elected were Sandra Bryan with 750 votes, Christopher Davis with 710 votes, Eric Thompson with 687 votes, Mark Schumaker with 675 votes, Brad Howatt with 669 votes, and Joann Bush with 662 votes. Also elected to the Senate were Deborah Riggin with 649 votes, Joseph Lis with 628 votes, Mike Richard with 613 votes, Pat Martin with 602 votes, Stewart Short with 558 votes and K.T. Welhoelter with 553 votes. SGA Winners Keith Hark 846 David Thomas 976 Jeff DiLandro 946 Beth Joseph 771 Joann Bush 662 Sandra Bryan 750 Debbie Riggin 649 Rick Benton 748 Joseph Lis 623 Christopher Davis 710 Mike Richard 613 Eric Thompson 687 Pat Martinez 602 Mark Schumaker 675 Stewart Shore 558 Brad Howatt 669 K.T. Welhoelter 553 After the results of the election were announced, Hark said ""I'm really happy will the results of the election, but I'm even more happy that the SGA will continue to exist."" ""The students have shown by their votes that they want SGA as is,"" Hark said. ""Both Dave Thomas and myself have the SGA experience, but we need to introduce the new senators to the workings of the SGA."" Hark ran on a platform to re-or-ganize the speaker-series and the residence council, improve the SGA lobby group, and promote rape awareness on campus. Besides the abolishment of the SGA, Kelley promised to reduce the mandatory SGA fees paid by students from the present fee of $23.25 to $11.50 by only budgeting organizations which the ad-hoc com-mittee decided were in the most need. Kelley said she was not upset with her loss to Hark in the election and added that she was glad she lost. ""In losing, I made a lot of peo-ple aware of the problems with SGA."" ""Considering I hardly campaign-ed at all and still came up with 181 votes shows that students are upset with how their funds are be-ing handled,"" she said. Kelley said she still plans to re-main politically active on cam-pus and will push for a referendum which would call for an itemized budget of the SGA to be published and offered to the students. She also said she endorses the establishment of a committee to continued on page 2 Kelley urges budget review by Jeff Pierce Leisa Kelley, the SGA presidential candidate who ran on a platform to abolish the Student Government Asso-ciation, is planning to continue her Political activity on campus despite her loss this week in the SGA elections. Kelley drew 21 percent of the votes In the election, compared to Keith Hark, the president-elect, who won 57 Percent of the votes, and Leonard Satisky, who drew 22 percent. Kelley's platform called for a stu-dent referendum to abolish the SGA and establish an ad-hoc committee to review the SGA budget. The committee would have been Comprised of four students, two fac- 44 members, and one staff member and would have been charged with eliminating any unnecessary funding to organizations. nark argued that the elimination of the SGA would have caused consid-erable legal problems with unfulfilled SCA contracts and would have dam-aged the student social life on campus. Roth Hark and Satisky said Kelley had not researched her data well enough and had ""shaky"" facts in her Platform. , Kelley said she had researched her Information, both with a number of deans on campus and also with Jay Blanton, SGA treasurer, whom she claimed reviewed the SGA budget with her. Kelley also claimed that, had she been elected, she would have cut mandatory SGA student fees, which students pay each semester, from $23.25 to $11.50. Kelley said she now plans to push for a student referendum which would require that an itemized budget of the SGA budget be regularly publicized, either in the Towerlight or in another publication. Kelley said that students are unaware of how much money the SGA has and how it is spent. ""Students want to see where the money goes,"" Kelley said. ""People are upset about what happens to the funds."" Hark agreed that the students have the right to review the budget but added, ""I don't think the students are interested. ""You're talking about a good 20 to 30 pages that would be needed to publish an itemized budget,"" Hark said. Hark said the budget is published each year during the budget hearings in May and also said, because of the complexity of the budget, it would be almost impossible to give an itemized account. ""I don't think everyone would understand, anyway,"" Hark said. ""We've never hidden our records,' Hark said. ""They're open to any student."" Kelley also said she would endorse the establishment of a committee to review the budget. ""During the election debates last week, it was mentioned that Towson State is the only campus in the state which doesn't have a committee to review the SGA budget,"" Kelley said. ""Well, I think a committee is a good idea. ""The SGA wasted all this money on the SGA speaker series because of poor planning,"" she said. ""They have not proven to the students on campus that the SGA is capable of making such decisions."" Kelley said that only 250 students on campus benefit from the SGA budget, instead of the entire student body. ""If they [the SGA] didn't have something to hide, then they wouldn't have attacked me so vigorously dur-ing the debate,"" she said. ""All I know is I want them investigated."" Hark said the budget is reviewed by both the state auditors and the Finan-cial Advisory Board. ""What she is proposing now is a statement as uneducated as her plat-form,"" Hark said. ""Miss Kelley better get her facts straight before she hits continued on page 2 EFF LANI)110 colas owls s'Es0 BRAD 14011%fAll F OR SEP4A7 OR TL photos by Bill Breidenbaugh and Cindy Sheesley Resignations trigger residence council study by Dana Bennett 4,The resignation of the members of `ipIle residence council has triggered Ze.lth Hark, SGA president-elect, to 'Junk about planning a group to study Craig Wolf whether the University needs a res-idence council. A little more than two weeks ago, the members of the residence council and its president, Gregory Nicholson, resigned. ""The residence council is not needed,"" Nicholson said. ""We were doing almost nothing."" He said that other existing orga-nizations could handle the respon-sibilities of the residence council. ""The house councils got their money elsewhere and created their own funds from the CA's,"" Nicholson said. When the houses were able to get their money from other sources, the main function of the residence council was cut out, Nicholson said. He also said there was no need for the residence council to hold dances and events when other organizations were already performing that func-tion. Cheryl Dougherty, residence coun-cil treasurer, said the organization is ""far away from its goals"" of being a governing body. She said the res-idence council used to be the most powerful organization on campus. Nicholson said that the members of the residence council need to receive some type of reward for all the work they put into it. ""The CA's get rewarded with free room and board,"" Nicholson said, ""but we put all our energies into the residence council with no reward. ""Why should I waste my time on something that is not doing anything?"" he said. Craig Wolf, SGA vice-president, said he thinks the residence council folded because of a ""lack of organiza-tion and a lack of communication be-tween the [residence council] officers and the house councils."" ""We [the residence council leader-ship] did not get along,"" Nicholson said. Hark said there was friction between the members of the resi-dence council. ""They fought among themselves,"" he said. Hark said the house, councils saw the friction between the leaders and lost respect for them. Steve Horn, SGA president, said the residence council meetings were infrequent and disorganized. ""This gave the residence council members the feeling that the organization was not important so membership started to drop off. ""There was a total lack of leader-ship,"" Horn said. ""They need some-one to lead and provide direction. ""When an organization fails or suc-ceeds it is due to the leader. There may be circumstances beyond his control, but that does not mean the organization will fail, it will just have weaknesses,"" Horn said. ""A weak organization with a weak leader will crumble,- Horn said. The weakness within the residence council did not start this year, Horn said, ""it started about two to three years ago."" Dougherty said the residence coun-cil inherited problems this year that started over two years ago. The residence council has had a suc-cession of weak leaders over the past several years, Horn said. When the residence council lost over $6,000 on Oktoberfest, the SGA decided it was time to help the residence council become more organized. The loss of money at Oktoberfest was only a symptom of the problem that existed, Horn said. After Oktoberfest the residence council's budget was frozen. To use its funds, the residence council needed approval from the SGA. The SGA executive officers met with the members of the residence council to give them ideas for future events. The SGA also co-sponsored several events with the residence council. ""We tried to be a leader for them,"" Horn said, ""but it just didn't work. There was too much tension."" Wolf said the members of the resi-dence council worked pretty well with the SGA, but they did ""not communi-cate with us."" Horn said that about four or five members of the residence council were really trying to make it work. When the SGA was helping the res-idence council with its events, Wolf said, very few people came out to help. Now that the residence council offi-cers and members have resigned, the continued on page 1 2 sE 4 ni:? In this issue. LACROSSE: Coach Carl Runk has the 1981 lacrosse squad ready for the March 18 season opener against Loyola. The Tigers have a young team this year, but Runk is confident the team will surprise people. Preview on page 7. BASEBALL: Head coach Billy Hunter and the TSU baseball team hope to improve on last year's 5-20 season. Hunter is counting on junior college transfers and freshmen to fill the weak spots. Preview on page 8. COMPUTERIZED: Did you know that computers are addictive? Well, they are. Today's casual pocket calculator user is tomorrow's IBM junkie. Read about it on page 4. "