The Towerlight, March 21, 1980

tl19800321-000 "VOL. LX1U11 No. 22 PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY Spring is here Prior Co the opening of Unthicum Beach, students this Week searched for warm sunny places to relax. Here, shidents gathered in front of Linthicum Hall to bask in the 411. Van Bokkelen supplemental sun. Now that spring is finally here, there will be students everywhere you look trying to get an early tan. photo by Bill Breidenbaugh New budget accepted by Quincey R. Johnson The supplemental budget request tor Van Bokkelen Hall has been ac-kPted by the state planning de-krtment, and awaits final approval horn the General Assembly. Van Bokkelen Hall, built in 1932, 11/8-9 originally a teaching laboratory; its present state it is not suit-able for the mass communications 4174 speech pathology departments, therefore renovation is needed. Gen- Mal renovation is also needed be-kuse of the building's age. Alan Povey, capital, improvement Ptogrammer for higher education, 'add, The renovation of Van Bokke-len was given high priority by the University, as far as renovation goes."" John Suter, director of cam-pus planning, said Van Bokkelen was given priority, because Smith Hall is inconvienent but is still fun-ctional. The University was appropriated $1,665,000 in fiscal year 1979 for the renovation of Van Bokkelen Hall. Upon the near completion of the de-sign of the building, planners saw a need for more money. In fiscal year 1981. $400,000 was requested for the renovation project. For the completion of the project, $200,000 will be requested in fiscal year 1982, said Suter. Suter added that the renovation should be complete by the fall of 1981, provided that the contractor meets the fourteen-month construc-tion deadline. At this time, the state has ap-propriated $90,000 for planning, $1,360,300 for construction, $62,000 for utilities, $52,700 for site impro-vements and $330,000 for equipment. The current request for fiscal year 1981 is $445,700 for construction, $9,300 for utilities, $7,900 for site improvement, and $119,000 for equip-ment. By the direction of the state continued on page 2 CONTENTS Sports 7 Features 4 Entertainment 5 Week Watcher 3 Classifieds 10 Commentary 11 Newsbriefs 10 March 21, 1980 Council keeps calendar, adopts block scheduling Minimester by Halaine Silberg The Academic Council voted Monday to retain the present academic calendar for next year. This move post-pones the final decision on eliminating minimester until next year. The proposal to revise the academic calendar came before the Council at its regular monthly meeting March 3 in an attempt to reduce fuel consumption. Under the pro-posed calendar, the spring semester would begin earlier, thus eliminating the minimester. The Council also considered a proposal for a three-session summer calendar during June and July, which would eliminate most of August from the academic calen-dar. This year, the summer session will end after the sec-ond week in August. Joseph Cox, vice president for academic affairs, advis-ed against changing the academic calendar at this time. ""I have grave misgivings about tampering on the spot. I honestly would prefer that you keep the calendar that you have adopted,' he said. Both Cox and President Hoke Smith agreed it would be wiser for the Council to begin a longterm hwetigation into calendar changes beginning next fall, rather than try to institute changes this late in the academic year. ""What we're going to do right now is stick with a fairly conventional approach,"" said Smith. James Hill, professor of English, said before a reviiion concerning miriimester is proposed, the individual depart-ments should be surveyed. ""I don't think we should im-pose a radical change hi the minimester until we have surveyed the departments who use the mininiester,"" he said. After much debate concerning the preservation of the minimester versus a revised academic calendar, William Pelliam, professor of physics, issued a proposal to keep the rninimester while still revising the calendar. Pelham suggested having the minimester December 29 to January 23. Under this proposal, the spring semester would be continued on page 2 Shaw:Guiding Towson's growth ':i rtils is the second in a three-part ., es dealing with Wayne Schelle, F. Kemieth Shaw and Dr. James her, men who played key roles in by Michael Bennett oWson State's growth from teacher's L,nege to university. This week's arti- '`e focuses on Dr. Kenneth Shaw, � er vice-president for academic litairs. buring his tenure as vice-president 7, academic affairs, Dr. Kenneth .16iizz"" Shaw was to the development !Towson State's academic programs ""hat Wayne Schelle was to the growth 41 the University's physical plant. Shaw became acting dean of the col-i! ge in August of 1969. Six months %ter he became dean. Later, his title ,Was changed to vice-president for jleademic affairs and dean of the col- In June of 1977, Shaw left the University to become Chancellor of the Southern Illinois University (SIU) system, a public university system comprised of two campuses, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. As chancellor of the SIU system, Shaw is the chief executive officer of the system and the primary link be-tween the universities and their Board of Trustees. The presidents of the system's two campuses report direct-ly to Shaw. SIU at Carbondale is similar to Towson State, because it too began as a state normal school whose primary purpose was teacher education. Like Towson State the Southern University system has grown considerably in the last 25 years. In addition to the undergraduate and graduate programs offered, the SIU system has three professional schools, a school of nursing in Ed-wardsville, a law school in Carbon-dale and a medical school in Springfield. Shaw said the changes in the academic program at Towson State were the result of a period of positive evolution rather than radical change. ""What we had going for us at Towson was a strong liberal arts faculty, a nucleus of people who could move as the University moved,"" he said. The major curricular change that occurred during Shaw's term was the development of the allied health department, which includes the nurs-ing, medical technology and accu- In this Issue The TSU Dance Company wM per-form Stravinsky's L'histoire du Soldat. Page 6. Richard Gere, male sex symbol of the '80s, is here. Page 6. 'The men's lacrosse team faces its first season of tough Division I competition. Page 7. pational therapy programs. These programs now attract a large number of students. The business administration and mass communication departments grew substantially while Shaw was vice-president for academic affairs. Today they are the two largest depart-ments on campus. We were given money to spend, but we were never allowed to spend it as we saw fit. �Shaw Dr. Joseph Cox, present vice-president for academic affairs, said Shaw was very important to the devel-opment of the University. ""He presid-ed over a tremendously significant period at Towson State."" Cox said that under Shaw the University developed its present governance structure: the divisional system, which broke the University into five divisions. He also said that the present structure of the Academic Council, particularly the election of members from the faculty at large in-stead of from specific divisions or departments and the inclusion of students on the Council, was a product of Shaw's administration. Shaw remembers his years at Towson State positively, but he also remembers having difficulty with the Maryland higher education system. ""The state never gave support to the autonomy of the state colleges. We were given money to spend, but we were never allowed to spend it the way we saw fit."" Shaw said the Board of Trustees did little to protect the autonomy of the University, because decisions for Towson State were made by state off i-dals who often had little or no understanding of the situation at the University. To illustrate his point Shaw cited two incidents, one involving rabbit cages and another involving band shells. ""Someone in one of the science departments wanted to do an experi-ment with rabbits. We had a grant, so we ordered the rabbit cages. We were continued on page 12 Scheduling The Academic Council accepted plans to establish a ""Block Schedule Option"" for freshmen entering Towson State in fall 1980-81. Under block scheduling, students would be able to choose a prearranged schedule of nine to 10 credits as well as additional courses to round out their course loads. The ""Block Schedule Option"" would attempt to extend aspects of the support system introduced during orienta-tion. Participating freshmen would become part of a 15-member group taking at least three classes together throughout the semester. Dorothy Siegel, vice president for student services, said the block scheduling program would be an attempt to combat loneliness, a primary factor in high attrition rates. She said the increased feeling of alienation at Towson State is due to a change in student attitudes. ""Students have depended more on formal introductions,"" she said. President Hoke Smith said the ""Block Schedule Option"" could give the University an opportunity to expand its role in the student community. Smith said the university expe-rience should not be strictly educational but should embrace a social aspect. The general structure of the stu-dent's personality, Smith said, should not be left entirely to society. ""There is an opportunity here to do some experimenta-tion,"" said Smith. ""In some ways we are in a situation where we are not sure what the answers are."" Dan Jones, co-chairman for the English department, said block scheduling could possibly serve as a substitute for shared experiences of residence life at a primarily commuter institution. ""I would be willing to recommend a pilot program,"" he said. Jones proposed an amendment limiting a block sched-ule pilot program to the 1980-81 academic year. During this time both the curriculum and academic standards committees will follow the success of the program, noting specific problems to bring before the Council for the following year. continued on page 2 Dr. Kenneth critical years Chancellor of �Buzz,,Shaw was vice-president for academic affairs during eight hi Towson State's development. He left in 1977 to become the Southern Illinois University system. Ti file photo UM prof retained despite off-campus capers (CPS)�Tenants demonstrate on his front lawn. Maryland and Washing-ton, D.C. prosecutors want him jailed for perjury, assault and renting out a condemned apartment he owns. He threatens students and others who criticize him. He boasts of conducting unauthorized searches into students' private files. Yet Dr. Shao Ti Hsu, a University of Maryland engineering professor who also happens to be a millionaire landlord, said he is not worried. He said he will not lose his faculty job. His accusers, he will tell you with a wide grin, are mere ""barking dogs"" jealous of his wealth and intelligence. Students and workers \ to can lose careers on mere suspicions can also be jealous of Hsu's job security. Despite a rising chorus of off-campus criticism and some long-delayed on-campus calls for his dismissal, Hsu's confidence in keeping his tenured job may be warranted. ""Getting professors out of tenured positions,"" said an attorney for a midwestern school that recently lost an eight-year fight to fire a tenured professor, ""is ironically getting harder. It's ironic because younger faculty want to move older faculty out of the tenured positions, and they're more willing to sue. But so are the tenured faculty willing to sue Ito keep their jobs], and they seem to be win-ning more."" The attorney, who requested anon-ymity because ""we'll have more of these cases"" said professors hang on-to tenure by suing under laws ""like equal opportunity statutes that some-times aren't related to educational competence or on-campus behavior."" Judges, moreover, are reluctant to rule on teaching competence, the lawyer said. Professors unwilling to inadver-tently weaken the tenure system, are often reluctant to give expert testimony on competence. ""Tradi-tionally,"" said another lawyer involv-ed in university law, ""faculty have taken the view that tenure meant not only that faculty was safe from being canned for incompetence, they were flat-out safe from being canned for any reason."" Indeed, few have questioned Hsu's classroom competence. Until recent-ly, most of the criticism has been of his off-campus capers and the pro-priety of keeping him on the Maryland faculty. And until recently, the only ones calling for Haus dismissal were off-campus critics like the Hyattsville city government and coalition of neighborhood groups angered by con-ditions at Hsu's apartment properties. Those slum-like conditions�rang-ing from sewage-flooded apartments to crumbling walls to collapsed ceil-ings� have long vexed the professor and his holdings. He's been warned and fined often. In 1976, a court con-victed him of perjury when it found Hsu had falsely claimed he had never received a court order to improve con-ditions. Hsu escaped a jail term on an appeal. In response, university officials termed Hsu an embarrassment, and decided the conviction amounted to ""moral terpitude,"" a firing offense. Three years later at a retrial, the con-viction was overturned when an inspector's key testimony was disallowed because of the inspector's health. Soon thereafter, the Washington Post reported that the FBI had tapes of Hsu, former U.S. Senator Vance Hartke and a Maryland housing offi-cial discussing an alleged attempt to bribe another official to overlook cer-tain code violations in buildings the three planned to buy. Hsu and Hartke denied the charges, but inspired a state legislator to launch a private crusade to pry Hsu off the Maryland faculty. Hsu responded by hiring investigators to examine the legislator's personal life. The detectives, Hsu said, have discovered the legislator is ""a very fat man, and unhappy."" When the enraged lawmaker said he would introduce a special bill to fire Hsu, Hsu only laughed. Then on December 12,1979, Hsu was continued on page 2 "