The Towerlight, March 27, 1981

tl19810327-000 "VOL. 74 No. 23 Towerright PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY TOWSON, MARYLAND 21204 I enjoy living where the past and the future meet. �Thoreau March 27, 1981 The Board of Trustees voted last Thursday to close Lida Lee Tall by June, 1982. Members of the Board said it is not their role to run an elementary school, but some Lida Lee Closing strains relationship Tall supporters said the Board should not tell the Univer-sity, what and what not to cut. Nevertheless, the closing will affect many programs on campus. TL photos by Medd( Jeannier Board/TSU tension builds by Gayle Griisser The closing of Lida Lee Tall has raised questions on the relation-ship between the Board of Trustees of the State Universities and Coll-eges and Towson State. The Academic Council may begin discussion at its April 6 meeting on a motion to follow up a Middle States recommendation to study the relationship of the Board and Towson. John Blair Mitchell, professor of art, made the motion in November but the Council tabled it because it John Mitchell did not want to antagonize the Board and wanted to wait for the de-cision on Lida Lee Tall. ""The motion was tabled because the Council didn't want to prejudice the Board,"" said Mitchell. ""My understanding is that it [the motion] will be lifted from being tabled and discussed."" The Middle States Evaluation Team, after its visit in March of 1979, said in its report, ""The team finds this tension between Board and University so grave, so pervasive and corrosive, that it strongly recommends that the Mary-land State Board of Higher Educa-tion or some agent of its choosing address the problem by a thorough and objective study. Until this is accomplished this issue can only distract the Towson administration from even more substantive issues."" Mitchell said the recommendation was, ""strong stuff and prophetic stuff."" The University agreed with the Team's view and said in their res-ponse to the report, ""The only com-ment that migHt be added to the analysis and recommendation with respect to the relationship between Towson State University and its Board of Trustees is that if the Board staff and Board members follow through with the commitment made to fully support the incoming Presi-dent [Hoke Smith] and Towson State University, then the need for a sep-arate Board may not exist."" Mitchell's motion in November asked the Council ""to request the Maryland State Board Higher Edu-cation to address the basic Middle State's recommendation."" ""Recent actions by the Board of Trustees regarding Lida Lee Tall have greatly aggravated relations between the faculty and the Board,"" said Mitchell. Jean Spencer, executive director of the Board, said, ""I'm sure the decision will not be well received by some. Many will see this as reason for their own board. I think there will be a strain in the relationship but I hope it will be temporary."" The Board's decision to close Lida Lee Tall is ""usurping the aca-demic authority,"" said Mitchell. Patricia Plante, Academic Coun-cil chairman said, ""By tradition, faculty has made the decisions con-cerning academic affairs."" James J. Hill Jr. AAUP/Faculty Association president, Towson State chapter, said at the public hearing Febri�ary 9, ""Faculty will view the closing as a direct violation of re-trenchment policies."" ""The AAUP/Faculty Association will support all legislative efforts of the Maryland General Assembly to keep Lida Lee Tall open,"" Hill said. Board axes LLT funds Bills introduced to save school by Gayle Griisser The Board of Trustees of the State Universities and Colleges last Thursday voted 6 to 2 to close the Lida Lee Tall Learning Resources Center no later than June 30, 1982. The Board strongly recommended that Lida Lee Tall seek continued funding through grants and tuition. The Board will consider any continued funding only if it is submitted before June 15, 1981. University officials said they would not be able to raise Lida Lee Tall tuition. Most of the Board members expressed their view that the Board of Trustees should not be operating an elementary school. Jean Spencer, executive director of the Board, said, ""the question is whether it is the role and mission of the Board of Trustees of the State Universities and Colleges to run an elementary school."" James Sensenbaugh, Board member, agreed. ""The main mission of the state colleges is not to run an elementary school,"" he said. Another reason the Board gave for deciding to close the school is their belief that Lida Lee Tall has not met two of the three conditions it set for the school in 1975. The recommendations were set to integrate the student body, to conduct and disseminate re-search on elementary education and to spend less than $100,000 in state subsidy annually. The latter two, the Board felt, have not been met. In 1968 the state abolished all lab schools except, Lida Lee Tall. In 1975 the Board examined the school and set the three goals. ""It is time to make a final decision because it will be a continuing question mark,"" said Sensen-baugh. ""It's contribution to education in the state of Maryland has not been significant."" George M. Brooks, Board member, said, ""It's our prerogative to evaluate certain things. The Board did not view it as a program but as an activity which supported a program."" The Board made its decision after reading a report from the task force (set up by President Hoke Smith) and the public hearing held February 9. Both the task force report and the hearing were positive said Bernard Taylor, director of Lida Lee Tall. President Hoke Smith said the decision was ""un-wise and misguided both substantially and procedurely. ""I thought they would return it to the campus,"" he said. Smith said he will request the Board to reconsider the decision.Although University officials thought the public hearing was a good sign of support, Edgar Berman, Board member, said, ""the public hearing was too well orchestrated to be authentic and the task force was slanted."" ""Despite all the evidence, the Board chose to ignore the results of the task force and the open hearing,"" said Taylor. The closing of Lida Lee Tall will affect many people anthprograms on campus. James Binko, dean of teach-er educatin, in his testimony at the public hearing, said the school serves 1,000 students and 50 faculty members in 16 different departments. Marilyn Lewis, early childhood education chair-man, said the closing is a ""devastating blow to the early childhood education teachers program."" She said she did not expect the Board to close the continued on page 8 by Gayle Griisser Two bills have been introduced to the House of Delegates supporting the continuation of Lida Lee Tall, one by the Baltimore County Delegation and the other by two delegates acting independently of the Delegation. The Delegation has introduced a bill that states, ""there is a Lida Lee Tall Learning Resources Center at Towson State University."" While the bill calls for the continued existence of Lida Lee Tall, it does not create funding for the school. Arthur Alperstein, chairman of the Delegation, and Don Hughes, chairman of the subcommittee on educa-tion in the Delegation, were notified several months ago about the Lida Lee Tall issue. When the Board of Trustees voted Thursday to stop funding Lida Lee Tall, the Delegation voted unani-mously to send the Board a letter opposing its de-cision, Alperstein said. Alperstein said the Delegation unanimously voted to support the bill which would continue the existence of Lida Lee Tall. The bill was then sent to the Rules Committee. Alperstein was scheduled to address the Rules Committee yesterday on the Delegation's bill. The Rules Committee will decide what committee, if any, the bill will go to next. Delegates Tom Kernan and Don Hughes introduced a bill which would not only continue the operation of the school, but would also fund it. The Appropriations Committee heard the Kernan- Hughes bill Tuesday. Alperstein said the wording of the bill had been changed to read exactly like the Delegation's bill, which does not provide for funding of Lida Lee Tall. He said the bill, as it had originally been written, would have been unconstitutional because ""it tells the Governor to put a certain amount of money in the budget, and you just can't do that."" If the bill does pass the Appropriations Committee, Alperstein said he hopes it will go to the Constitu-tional and Administrational Law Committee. Alperstein ' said he became involved immediately when he heard about Lida Lee Tall. ""If Hoke Smith wants to cut it [Lida Lee Tall] from his budget, that's is prerogative, but I don't feel the Board should. It's an intrusion by the Board and an abrogation of its authority. I feel it is an arbitrary and capricious act on the part of the Board,"" Alper-stein said. President Hoke Smith said, ""I appreciate their support, but I will oppose any legislation to keep Lida Lee Tall open."" He said the legislature can pass anything it wants, but it is the Board that oversees State education fund-ing. ""More importantly,"" Smith said, ""the Board was created to shield against political intervention. If I sup-port it, I've weakened the Board's role to oppose legislative intervention. The principle is more impor-tant than the particular issue."" Smith said he would not appeal to the State Board of Higher Education, nor support an appeal be-cause it ""would mean I regard the SBHE as a super governing body."" Smith said if he acted, pro-legislative people would view the University as orchestrating public reaction. He said it is better to have people respond on their own. Blanton supports Towson council by Rich O'Brien A plan-to-establish a Greater Towson Coordinating Council is be-ing promoted by Jay Blanton, outgoing SGA treasurer. The proposed council would be a ""non-political, loosely knit group, established to recognize each other's interests,"" Blanton said. The plan calls for membership by Towson State, Goucher College, Towson businesses and other community in-stitutions. Blanton said he sees a real need for such a council in Towson. ""We're all so close. We're all part of the same community, but right now we're all separate entities not work-ing together. We want to improve that."" The idea for the council emerged last Fall. Blanton called a meeting of all interested parties in Novem-ber, and the plan was discussed. At the meeting Blanton evaluated the present ""mutually beneficial relationship."" He said the Univer-sity benefits from the services and functions provided by the Towson business community, while at the same time enhancing the commun-ity through the patronage of the student population. Blanton concluded that, given Green ribbons: concern, understanding for Atlanta crisis by Deborah R. Feaster Since July of 1979, 20 children have been found Inurdered in Atlanta. Two others are missing, ,Presumed dead. All of the victims were black and between the ages of 7 and 16. All but two were These 'deaths and disappearances have caused varied reactions in different parts of the country. :rile news media has reported curfews being put 1�t0 operation in Atlanta. Many Atlanta school Children have developed fears of going outside. I' President Ronald Reagan said extra funds will I', supplied to those working to find the killer or killers. ""The Guardian Angels,"" a group of con-cerned citizens who are skillful in the martial arts, traveled to Atlanta to help patrol the streets. The rO ijoe and other concerned citizens are searching r clues to the killer's identity. And in other places, people wear ribbons, as '44ring the American Hostage crisis, to show their Nncern about the situation in Atlanta. On Towson State's campus, many students wear black, red or green ribbons attached to their clothing. Even many of the trees and lamp posts between Cook Library and the University Union display green ribbons. ""I started wearing them because I want to show that I understand and I care about the events in Atlanta; it's my thinking that we should do some-thing symbolic to show our concern about the atrocities in Atlanta,"" said Dan Mahone, a junior philosophy major. Along with some of his friends in Section 12, a feminist/socialist group, Mahone tied ribbons to trees and lamp posts between Cook Library and the University Union. He said this heavily-trav-eled area is where Towson State students are more likely to see them. In various places people are wearing ribbons of black, red, green or blue. Mahone explained why the ribbons used on the trees are green. ""Green is the symbol of life. Green is very powerful; it's growth�it indicates life. When you have a situation that's going on in Atlanta, people who are trying to deny our children the right to live, then we have to respond with a positive state-ment, with positive things�such as green. Green is positive, green is go. It's not to remain stagnant, it's to do something about the situation,"" he said. Mahone said he believes wearing green ribbons as far away from Atlanta as Towson is important. ""What happens is there is a sort of process that goes on, at least to me, when I see the green ribbon. First I see the green ribbon, and I immedi-ately begin to associate that with what's going on in Atlanta. Then it's helpful because you see your affiliation with the people there and the problem there,"" he said. ""You begin to associate that what's going on there is actually happening here or could possibly happen here. Also you have something to remem-ber the children by. The green ribbons are at once a sign of life and a sign of death; like if you look at those green ribbons just think of it as a child, one of those that's been killed,"" Mahone said. John Yori, a junior political science major, gave out green ribbons during one of his friends' cam-paigns for SGA senator. When Yori and Duane Verderaime, a junior psychology major, gave out the ribbons, many people did not understand what the green ribbons represented. ""People kept coming up and asking what they were for,"" Yori said. ""One girl came up and asked if there was some type of club or something you had to join to get them. ""I think the green would be a little bit easier to show support. Black would stand for mourning and red stood for blood. The green is a sign of hope and I think that's what the ribbons are all about: The people united, hoping that they'll find the person,"" Yori said. ""We not only gave them out but explained the whole thing to them,"" said Verderaime. ""We sort of got sidetracked a lot of times, talking about it. Then you had a whole lot of people around there talking about it . . . maybe it hurt my votes; I should've talked about my campaign more too."" Both said they believe the ribbon-wearing is a beneficial show of support. ""The whole problem with the last ten years was that there wasn't continued on page 8 this relationship, ""all parties should be anxious to communicate and work together for the common good of the community."" Although he proposed the idea last Fall, Blanton said an almost identical plan was being developed by a Goucher student at the same time. IncoFnteibnFebruary, o'n p Blantonage6 was in- In this issue BASEBALL: The Tiger baseball squad held on to beat Delaware, one of the best hitting teams inthe country, Wednesday. The team's record now stands at 6-2. Story on page 4. HUGGING: To hug or not to hug may be the question, but do you know why? For the answer read page 2. CLASH: Sandinista, the Clash's fourth album, is out. However, you may have to listen to the three-record set several times to appreciate the complexity of the group's daring effort. Review on page 3. "