tl19790330-000 "VOL. 1.470CII No. 22 fr(totvertigit PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY Praise to the gods! A crowd of rowdy celebrants offered hosannas to the gods of wine, dance an song at Monday's Animal House Party, just part of the ""Greek Week"" festivities that started Monday. The partying continues today, with a talent show at noon on the UU patio, a ""Case Relay"" at 4 p.m. on the Burdick track, and a dance in the UU at 9 p.m., featuring ""Destiny in Time"" an ""Fizz."" Tomorrow there will be a softball game between the IFSC All-Stars and a faculty/administration team at 1 p.m. and a disco in the UU at 9 p.m. TL Photo by Stan Obcamp Zoning law may leave students homeless by Robert Krummerich Baltimore County's Zoning Com-mission today will hold housing Violation hearings, some of which involve Towson State students. Two sessions were held last Friday but no TSU administration officials attended and it seems they were not aware of the hearings. Both Terrence Smith, of Auxiliary Services, and Mary Lee Farlow, director of residence, said they had received no notice of the hearing. One of the problems confronting students in off campus housing is a 1955 zoning ordinance that prohibits boarding or rooming houses within 300 feet of another residential dwelling. A boarding house, as defined by Section 101 of the Baltimore County Zoning Regulations is ""A building other than a hotel in which meals or rooms and meals are provided for compensation for four or more persons, including a ""Care home"" as defined by the Maryland State Health Department."" A rooming house is defined as ""A building, other than a hotel or In This Issue Grease We all know the best place around town to ""grease your palate."" C'mon, you all know where it is! Now get a review of every tasty, greasy morsel. page 4 Another WAY E Progressive rock has breath-ed its last on Baltimore AM radio. On April Fools' Day, WAVE will change its format, and all you who have only AM radios in your cars had better watch out page 7 - I Crackdown? Many students are certain the administration has launched a crack-down on partying in the dorms. The administration answers just as strongly that they haven't. Who's telling it like it is? page 3 Reflections After a year in office, SGA president John Shehan Sunday ends his tenure. Shehan re-flects on his year of student leadership page 13 motel, where more than two rooms are rented."" Up to three roomers are allowed to live in a home and any house renting to more could be in violation of the zoning regulations. Property owners could ultimately be prosecuted in the District courts and made subject to the following penalties � as describes in Section 503: Any violation of regulations and restrictions adopted pursuant tot his Ordinance shall be a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not to exceed $100 or by imprisonment not to exceed 30 days, or both fine and imprisonment. Any person who shall violate such regulations and restrictions shall be deemed guilty of a separate offense for every day that such violation shall continue."" According to Gary Reedy, zoning inspector, the policy of the Commission (or at least S. Eric Di Nenna who heard Friday's hearings) has been to allow students until the end of the semester to find new housing. Smith said, if any students are displaced the University will at-tempt to assist them, in finding new housing."" There are two methods of\ operating boarding houses and rooming houses: the Special Excep-tions request which ""requires a public hearing at which time it must be shown the proposed use will not be detremental to the health, safety, or general welfare of the community involved."" Or, the non-conforming use clause which allows any house which can prove it was operating as a boarding or rooming house prior to 1955 to continue in operation as one. Smith said someone from the school administration would be attending today's meeting. Weekend Weather: Warm and breezy today. Partly cloudy with a chance of storms in the afternoon. Mild and partly cloudy Saturday and Sunday. Mini-mester could go March 30, 1979 Council to vote Monday on 1 980 calendar by Debbie Felton The Academic Council will begin debate Monday on how the 1980 academic calendar will be adjusted to meet the State Board for Higher Education requirement that state universities hold 15-week semesters. Towson presently operates under a 14-week schedule. The registrar's office has submitted three proposals that the Academic Council may accept, reject or modify. One proposal would have fall semester classes starting before Labor Day. Also, the Easter vacation would be shortened to include only Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The second proposal would not af-fect the spring vacation. Instead, it would extend spring semester to the first week in June. The third proposal would not affect the beginning or end of the semester, but it would eliminate the winter mini-mester session. The equivalent of 15 weeks must be attended by state schools in com-pliance with the Carnegie unit system, said Gerald Sartori, of the registrar's office. Students must attend 2,250 minutes of classroom in-struction and six days of examina-tions. Acting vice president and dean of students Norman Sheets said Towson State's Board of Trustees requires a 15-week semester also, but it was not strictly enforced. Most reaction to the proposals in-dicates a preference for retaining mini-mester. Sheets said he thinks mini-mester has ""proven to be a unique experience for students"" that could not be possible any other time during the semester. Sheets also said the Curriculum Committee plans to extend mini-mester offerings to include more general university requirements. This would increase enrollment, he said. About 1,500 students attended mini-mester last winter. Dr. Dean Esslinger, president of the Academic Council, said he favors re-taining mini-mester. He said it doesn't matter to him whether classes start earlier or end later. -Students are going to have to go longer one way or the other,"" he said. ""Students are going to have to go longer one way or the other."" Dr. Margaret Kiley, education in-structor who is also on the Academic Council, said she thinks mini-mester ""has proven itself as a valuable ex-perience."" She said ending classes a week late might disadvantage Towson State students in the job market. This delay could be very harmful to graduating seniors, she said. Kiley said a member of the educa-tion department suggested compen-sating for the extra week by adding 15 minutes to Monday, Wednesday, Friday classes and 10 minutes to Tuesday, Thursday classes. She said she would have to thoroughly in-vestigate the suggestion because it would affect evening studies classes and athletic practice. Kiley said she is anxious for feed-back from faculty and students. ""I'd like to hear a lot of discussion"" on the issue, she said. Kiley said she doesn't ththk students are aware that Academic Council meetings are open to all students. Acting president Joseph Cox said he'd ""like to see what the Council has to say. The only thing I have a clear consensus of,"" said Cox, ""is that peo-ple want to be over with the first semester by Christmas and they are willing to start before Laborbay to do it."" Dorm security system proposed for fall by Katherine Dunn A new desk security system has been proposed for all residence halls beginning in the fall of 1980. Due to the many problems with outsiders in the dorms including a sexual assault last fall, new security measures are being considered by the campus police and the residence council. Greg Reopke, assistant director of the university police, said that no definite plans have been made but there is a good chance that some sort of security system will be implemented. Reopke said that the desk system is the most logical for this university. The system will be similar to the system at UMBC that is also thl standard system in most universities. ""We have had many reports of people wandering through the residence balls and now anyone can walk in off the street and wander around and there's no way to check it. They aren't students. Hopefully the security system will stop this,"" said Gene Dawson, director of the campus police. Terry Smith, director of auxiliary services, said, ""Each hall except Dowell would have a person at the front door and all other doors would be alarmed. Residents must show positive identification to get in."" Any non-resident admitted to a residence hall would have to be the guest of a resident. He would have to leave his II) and go into the dorm. . But he would be the responsibility of the resident at alltiems, said Reopke. Special ID cards would be issed to residents, said Reopke. He is not sure whether the Ill's would be different for each dorm or would be all the same for all resident halls. If they are different then residents of other halls would have to be guests when not in their own dorms. If they are separate, said Smith, they may be color coded or have some other distinction, but as of now that has not been decided. 'When problems. did occur, they seemed to be during socially active times,'! said Smith, so the system now being considered would operate about three nights a week, probably Thursday, Friday and Saturday between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. ""A 24-hour system every day is just too expensive,"" said Smith. ""It would cost $25,000 for just the three days."" ""The system is being started for the benefit of the students, to maintain privacy and security,"" said Smith. ""It is not a fool-proof system; itis not designed to be a fool-proof system. It is designed to help many of the problems now occurring. Anyone can get into the residence halls on weekends and we have many complaints of loud parties. It is against university policy to do this. The police come in, disperse them and a half hour later there will be another call,"" said Dawson. ""It has to help,"" he said. ""Things will not get worse."" ""The key is that the environment in higher education changes because each class is slightly different than the class before. Students have different ideas and concerns. Their morality is diffeent,"" said Smith. Perhaps the times are changing so we really do need it because we have a high number of incidents but maybe students want to feel more secure because times change and attitudes change,"" he said. , After the problems early in the semester students ralized that they had to lock doors and they did not have to let people in, said Smith. The system will try to eliminate problems with outsiders, especially assault and robbery, said Reopke. But it will probably not help much with the recent problem of vandalism, because the vandalism is suspected of being mostly inside jobs. The system will be managed by the police department, said Reopke, because if there are any problems they would be called anyway. It is also difficult to use students because of the hours and the peer pressure, said Smith. ""I've got a really good idea of how it should go but I have to wait for residence,"" said Reopke. ""Housing will finance it. They will have to determine the equipment needed. I have to hire, train and fully staff the positions by the start time. They will take at least four months,"" said Reopke. Reopke said he will have to know by May if the program is to start in September so he will have enough time to prepare. If residence decides to wait until February he will have to know by October. A proposed security system for the dorms may go into effect in the fall. The system is ex-pected to eliminate some of the problems in the dorms, but one of the major problems it may not eliminate is vandalism. Much vandalism is done by insiders. TL Photo by Greg Foster "
