The Towerlight, March 28, 1980

tl19800328-000 "VOL. LXXIII No. 23 P(15olmertig PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY CONTENTS Sports 10 Features 4 Entertainment 7 Week Watcher 5 Classifieds 11 Commentary 15 Newsbriefs 14 March 28, 1980 Rugby club rolls to victory Tuesday afternoon, the SGA raced across Education Street in wheelchairs against the rugby club as part of Awareness Week. Jim lVfanfuso, foreground, led the rugby club to victory over Rick Yent and the SGA as Craig Wolf tried to slow the pace to keep the participants from top-pling over. Awareness Week is sponsored by the AIDS office to bring attention to the problems of the handi-capped students on the Towson State campus. TL photo by Cindy Sheesley Campus towns go dry (CPS)�Thursday is Greek Night at the Village Bell tavern in Ann Arbor, Mich., home of the University of Michigan. Until a year ago, it wasn't unusual for 300 people to pack the bar. ""You couldn't even walk around,"" recalled the bar's assistant manager, Mark Zrull. But ever since 59 percent of Michigan's voters approved a con-stitutional amendment to raise the legal drinking age from 18 to 21, the Village Bell has been lucky to get 100 people. ""We knew it would have some ef-fect, but we didn't think it would be this drastic,"" Zrull said. ""We don't even have anyone standing at our busiest times."" Business has plummeted 85 percent at the T-Bird near the University of Illinois campus, said the bar's owner, Phil Bailey. ""I'd be out of business if it weren't for food sales."" Illinois raised its drinking age to 21 last year. The situation is the same nation-wide as more states join the growing trend to raise the drinking age. No fewer than 11 states have raised the minimum age in the last three years, six in the last 12 months. Momentum continues to build. There are more than 50 bills under consideration in a dozen state legislatures from Connecticut to Hawaii calling for a higher drinking age. A 1979 Gallup poll showed that 56 percent of the people in states with a drinking age of 18 or 19 favored rais-ing the legal age in their states. ""I really believe that if they tried to raise the legal drinking age to 30, it would pass sooner or later,"" said Dr. Terry Hagan, executive director of Michigan's chapter of the National Council on Alcoholism. He noted the movement to raise the drinking age has deep psychological and political roots. ""There's still a prohibition of the mind,"" he explained. ""You get con-servatives leading moves like this one. They impact highly on senior citizens. When those two groups work together, they're hard to stop."" All the states that have raised the drinking age in the last three years had previously lowered the legal age. Safety was a major issue. Accidents involving teenagers increased dra-matically in Illinois, Massachusetts and other states immediately after those states lowered their drinking age in the seventies. ""Anybody who votes against raising continued on page 1 6 Housing Proposal may limit off-campus rooms by Patrick Casey Last fall, over 100 Towson State students discovered how difficult it is to get dorm housing when they suddenly were moved into off-cam-pus apartments and motels. Students also might find it diffi-cult to gain off-campus housing in Towson neighborhoods if the Balti-more County Council accepts zon-ing rule changes proposed by the County Planning Board. The Planning Board's proposal would alter rules governing board-ing houses and rooming houses in the County, limiting the number of tenants allowed in such facilities. The Council will hold public hear-ings on the Board's proposal Tues-day at 7:30 p.m. in the Old County Courthouse on Washington Avenue in Towson. , Under current rules, a boarding house offers meals or rooms and meals to four or more individuals not related to the landlord, while a rooming house provides two rooms to individuals unrelated to the land-brad, with no rule governing the number in those rooms. A landlord must get a special exception from the zoning board if he is to exceed these limits in a residential zone. But several neighborhood organi-zations were disatisfied with the cur-rent situation, prodding the plan-ning board into action. ""Several neighborhood associa-tions came to us in the summer of 1978,"" said Norman Gerbr, Deputy Director of Planning and Zoning, ""That really is what precipitated the proposed changes."" Neighborhood associations believe a high proportion of renters leads to undesirable behavior which down-grades residential neighborhoods. Raymond Potter of the Towson Manor Improvement Association told The Star in November, ""Crowd-ed parking conditions, loud parties, obscene language and public drink-mg all arise from a high percentage of renters...there is a lack of con-cern by renters for the surrounding community."" Under the proposed rules, either a boarding or rooming house would be able to rent to only two individuals without special exception. An ex-ception also would be required if the property in question were not the landlord's domicile. Mary Lee Farlow, director of residence at Towson State, had speculated that the proposal might inchlude a ""grandfather clause"" which would allow landlords to continue current rental practices, placing re-strictions only on new boarding or rooming houses. But Gerber said, ""There is no grandfather clause proposed. What is proposed is that a boarding or continued on page 2 Students may bear dorm costs by Dana Bennett Students may have to pay for building new dorms at Towson State if the, Maryland General Assembly does not pass a bill to fund the new dorms, Donald McCulloh, vice-president for business and finance, said. Smith spoke in support of an Assembly bill that would spend $4 million to fund the planning, design, construction and equipping of a new dormitory at Towson State. The bill also would allocate $4 million for a dormitory at Morgan State Univer-sity, President Hoke Smith told the House Appropriations Conunittee in Annapolis on March 14 that the University needs new dorms to sup-port the trend of students choosing to live on campus. HB 2023 is sponsored by Del. Howard P. Rawlings, D-Baltimore, and Del. Mark C. Medairy, Jr., D-Baltimore Co. Smith said the main reasons to in-crease on-campus housing are to keep better students in the state, to help stabilize enrollment and to improve the student retention rate. The University's goal is to increase the number of residents on campus from 14 percent, the current figure, to 35 percent, said McCulloh. Medairy said both Towson St-ate and Morgan State must turn away stu-dents because of insufficient on-campus housing. ""Students have had to turn to the local community to find housing and some parents have even bought houses for groups of students to rent,"" said Medairy. ""The state of Maryland is commit-ted to keeping students, especially higher caliber students, in the state,"" said Rawlings. Medairy and Rawlings view this bill as a part of keeping the state's commitment. Smith said 49 percent of the students admitted to Towson State without housing in 1979 did not attend the University."" Most of the students said the lack of housing was one of the reasons for their decision. Dr. Jean Spencer, President of the Board of Trustees for State Colleges and Universities, also spoke in favor of the dorm bill. She said in the past students were expected to pay for dorm maintenance and construction. Current inflation along with the need to keep costs competitive with other states has made it impossible for stu-conanued on page 2 Fisher: Guiding Towson St. to university status by Michael Bennett This is the third in a three-part series on Wayne Schelle, Dr. Kenneth Shaw and Dr. James Fisher, three men who helped direct Towson State's growth from teachers' c ollege to university. This week: Dr. James Fisher, president of the University from June, 1969, to September, 1978. Inftwou There are as many different assess- Men Is of Dr. James Fisher and his tenure at Towson State as there are People willing to voice opinions. To some, he was a dynamic and far-sighted leader whose drive and administrative abilities made the growth of Towson State from college to university possible. To others, he was little more than a fast-talker who hitched his wagon to an institution on the move. Regardless of the opinion of Fisher, it cannot be denied that while he was president of Towson State, dramatic changes were made. Part of Fisher's image problem may have been the result of his Pres-idential style. Describing his actions as president , Fisher said, ""I tried to live up to the image of president I wanted Towson State to speak with one voice."" Fisher said when he first came to Towson State there seemed to be a lack of clear-cut direction. ""Some-times there were as many as three dif-ferent positions on one issue coming from Towson State. This amused state legislators and members of state agencies with whom we had to deal."" Presenting a unified position from Towson State did not preclude dissent on campus, Fisher said. ""I invited in-put from each part of the campus. We had arguments on campus, but when we made representations off campus, we were together."" Fisher said a university president should try to find a way to ethically exploit the collective intelligence of the university community, because In this issue Junior Ted Thomp-son sings for his supper. Page 6 Marsha Mason stars in Neil Simon's movie ""Chapter Two."" Review on page 8. new Towerlight looks at Milissa Mur-ray's year as SGA President. Page 13 that intelligence is superior to that of one man. ""You must be able to chan-nel the collective intelligence or chaos will result,"" Fisher said. At the first meeting of the Academic Council, Fisher said the President must have final authority. He told the Council, ""If we part company too many times, maybe we should part permanently."" Another controversial aspect of Fisher's presidential style was his ability to effectively manipulate the Maryland politicians. Fisher said Towson State was not considered im-portant when he became president,. ""We had to build our image and gain respect. When I first testified before a legislative committee, I noticed one man flirting with an administrative We wasted hours, days and years in absolute nonsense with state agencies. Fisher assistant, three men reading news-papers and another sleeping. When I finished, I told Ken Shaw, Wayne Schelle and Paul Wisdom they'd never treat Towson State like that again. They did not."" Fisher said he was able to gain respect for the University by lacing himself into the Maryland political community. Throughout his tenure as President, rumors continued to sur-face touting Fisher as a potential political candidate. ""It benefited Towson State for me to be considered a political candidate. In fact, they still offer, even though I'm no longer at Towson. I viewed my radio show and the articles I wrote for local newspapers in the same light. They were good for the University. [But] I never had serious political aspirations,"" he said. During his term as president., Fisher came into repeated conflict with the Board of Trustees. At one point Fisher referred to the Board as a group of ""friendly eunuchs."" How-ever, Fisher said that shortly after that comment appeared in print the wife of one Board member told him that her husband was neither friendly nor a eunuch. Fisher said some of the problems with the Board of Trustees come from the fact that the Board is appointed by the Governor. ""As long as the Gover-nor can use an appointment to the Board as a political payoff, you are in danger of getting a Board that is more politically oriented than academically oriented. Considering the potential for abuse, we were fortunate to have as good a Board as we had,"" he said. While Fisher felt that the Board of Trustees was less than it should have been, he found the most fault with the bureaucracy of the Maryland higher education system. Fisher said, ""The state system was managed like a 19th-century country store. We were forced to use pro-cedures that would make a business-man blanche in stunned disbelief. We wasted hours, days and years in abso-lute nonsense with state agencies."" The inconsistencies of the state higher education system were brought home to Fisher when Board politics caused him to lose the Presidency of San Francisco State University. In 1974, after S. I. Hayakawa was elected to the United States Senate, Fisher was offered the Presidency of San Francisco State. While in California for an interview, Fisher received a call from Governor Marvin Mandel. Mandel asked Fisher if he would ac-cept the Chancellorship of the Maryland State Higher Education System. Fisher said he would accept, but only if the offer came from the Board of Trustees and not just from Mandel. According to Fisher, the Board called a special meeting and of-fered him the Chancellorship. Fisher declined the San Francisco State post and called Mandel to accept the Chan-cellorship. He was told he would take over on July 1. He returned to Towson State and told people that he was leav-ing. Later the offer was withdrawn. Fisher was never told why. Fisher was president of Towson State during the late '60s and early Dr. James Fisher was President of Towson State from 1969 to 1978. He is now President of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Photo courtesy of CASE he was talking to a group of angry radical students outside of the Admin-istration building. As two young men dressed in grey pin-stripe suits left the building, they commented on how well they thought Fisher was handling the crowd. One of the protesters shouted, ""What do you think we pay the bastard for?"" When Fisher left the University in 1978, he became President i,f the Council for the Advancement and Sup-port of Education (CASE). Fisher continued on page 3 '70s, and yet Fisher and the Universi-ty managed to escape unharmed by the unrest that struck many cam-puses. Fisher said the period was good for Towson, because they were smarter, not lucky. ""We followed the advice of our intel-lectual mentors. We understood the concept of civil disobedience. The example had existed for centuries. I was amazed at the number of institu-tions that ignored the writing of men like Locke and Plato,"" Fisher said. Fisher tells the story of a day when "