The Towe flight
It was the best of times, it was the worst
of times.
— Charles Dickens
Vol. 76 No. 27
PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY TOWSON, MARYLAND 21204
May 5, 1983
Kile photo
Cheer up . . . this Is the last issue of The Towerlight until next fall. In the
meantime, have a good summer . . .
in this issue
A feature on Tim Topper, TSU
graduate and stage, screen and
television star . page 3
Mike Martin’s review of “Some¬
thing Wicked This Way Comes”
page 4
Carl Runk wins TSU Coach of the
Year award during Monday
night's Sports Banquet . . page 5
Billy Hunter gets his baseball
squad ready for post-season play
page 6
“Women and minorities” have different fates
Photos by Rod Mayhew
“Almost anything goes”
These “superstars” met on Newell Field last Sunday during Family
Weekend to (clockwise from top) hold up the Earth (ball); chase each
other blindfolded with wheelbarrows; and do kinky dances with soccer
balls. The events were sponsored by the Residence Department.
In this age of retrenchment, the two
most important new disciplines to
emerge from the sometimes— wild
curricular experiments of a decade
ago — black studies and women’s
studies — are experiencing complete¬
ly different fates.
As black studies struggle and even
nearly die out on some campuses,
Women’s studies programs are enjoy¬
ing unprecedented popularity on the
nation’s campuses.
Administrators and faculty
members attribute the two programs’
fates — they’re often mentioned
together, as in "women and
minorities” — to a wide variety of
forces, from campus politics to ill-
advised academic strategies to
outright racism.
All told, American colleges are of¬
fering about 20,000 women’s studies
classes this school year, compared to
just 17 in 1969.
But little more than half the black
studies programs around in 1973 are
alive in 1982-83, according to Howard
University Prof. Mary Berry’s recent
study for the Urban League.
Berry found 325 black studies pro¬
grams, compared to about 600 in 1973.
In 1976, 396 students received
bachelors degrees in black studies.
Only 182 received them in 1981, accor¬
ding to the National Center for Educa¬
tion Statistics.
By contrast, over 100 new women’s
studies programs have begun since
'980, says Dr. Virginia Cyrus of the
National Women’s Studies Associa¬
tion.
“It seems,” Cyrus says, “that we
are surviving.’
“Many colleges that list black
studies have pulled them together to
Placate the students and com¬
munities, ” observes Robert Johnson,
® black studies professor at
Washington University in St. Louis.
“Many of those programs aren’t
really viable,” he says. “Now, some
schools find it politically expedient to
eliminate those programs, for which
mey had very little commitment in
the first place.”
“The situation with the administra
tion is one of benign neglect,” says
Darrell Millner, head of Portland
State’s black studies department. “If
we are able to build a strong program,
they aren’t going to try and stop us,
but they aren’t going to be very
helpful, either.”
“Current economic factors have put
a damper on black studies,” says Dr.
Joseph Russell, head of the National
Council for Black Studies. “Black
studies is taking its lumps along with
the rest of education, but the expecta¬
tion is that it will hold its own.”
At Towson State, African-American
Studies advisor John Gissendanner
said he was aware of the problem na¬
tionwide and acknowledged that it
“occurs to a large extent here.” He at¬
tributed the declining enrollment to
students who “take courses preparing
for jobs and employment
possibilities” instead of the more
general courses such as those offered
by African-American Studies.
The African-American program
does not appear in any immediate
danger of being removed from the
University’s curriculum, however.
“The way the program was set up
saves it,” Gissendanner said, explain¬
ing that the University only offers a
concentration in African studies and
that its courses, such as Survey of
African-American Literature, are in¬
terdisciplinary, and can be applied to
other majors.
This is not the case at all Univer¬
sities, however. At New Mexico, for
example, a former black studies
director insisted in the name of
autonomy that his department’s
courses not be “cross-listed” with
related courses in sociology, political
science or other disciplines in the
course catalog.
“We lost students who might have
considered a black studies class in
their major,” Williams said.
The once-widespread insistence on
academic independence is still strong
among administrators, Russell says,
but his group has advised depart¬
ments to include their “courses as op¬
tions for required liberal arts
classes.”
Women’s studies, by contrast, have
long opted to integrate courses into
other areas of study.
Dr. Elaine Hedges and Dr. Sara
Coulter have been working to
mainstream women’s studies into the
curriculum at Towson State. The
mainstreaming program, which is in¬
tended to “make it easy” for faculty
to integrate women’s studies into
their courses, “just began this year,”
Coulter said, and is expected to take
three to five years to complete.
Coulter said that she and Hedges have
been very busy organizing main-
streaming workshops for faculty and
are currently seeking a $270,000 grant
to further the mainstreaming pro¬
gram.
“I worked in the early years of
women’s studies, documenting
various proposals for departments,”
said Florence Howe, now editor of
Women's Access Quarterly.
“Mainstreaming was a plan written
into every women’s program that was
issued.”
Coulter said that mainstreaming
will provide a more “accurate ver¬
sion” of history by including studies of
women’s roles and contributions in
society.
But there is an emerging debate
over making the programs more in¬
dependent.
“Integrating is a good thing, but I
would much rather have my own
faculty to work with,” said Prof.
Arlene Avakian of the University of
Massachusetts, which this term had
to turn away registrants after cutting
off one class at 250 students.
“Mainstreaming” arguments don’t
move Russell too far, however. “The
cultural differences are too broad for
black studies to be incorporated into
the standard curriculum," he main¬
tains.
But isolation apparently has its
risks, too. Departments have had a
hard time convincing students to
cross over to sign up for their classes.
“There’s an increased interest
among students in courses of study
that will make them successful,”
Washington’s Johnsons says.
"Students fail to realize that it’s not
simply course content that will get
them a job.”
Missed too many meetings
SG A expels senator
By Shawn Hill
The Student Government Associa¬
tion Tuesday voted not to reinstate
Senator Renee Johnson to her posi¬
tion. Johnson was expelled from the
Senate for being late to two commit¬
tee meetings and absent from a
Senate meeting without providing
valid excuses.
Johnson was subject to expulsion in
accordance with an act within the
SGA Rules under Order of Business.
The act states, "Any Senator absent
and/or late, without leave, to any
three out of four consecutively assign¬
ed Senate and/or Committee meet¬
ings shall be expelled from the
Senate, as of the day that said conduct
is brought to the attention of the
Senate, unless two-thirds of the pre¬
sent Senate decide otherwise.”
A motion to reinstate Johnson as
Senator was made by Senator Vicki
Otradovec and was seconded by
Senator Kevin Shabow. The motion
was not open to debate, and the
Senate, forced to vote, decided not to
reinstate Johnson.
Jim Clark, SGA Vice President,
said that the Senate voted to expel
Johnson simply, “to adhere to SGA
policy.” Bob Barnhart, SGA Presi¬
dent, added, “(The SGA) would be in
violation of our own policy by not do¬
ing it.”
After the meeting, Johnson
responded to the Senate’s decision
with strong emotion, Johnson said
“I’ve never seen the rule in the
manual,” and added, “I never receiv¬
ed any warning.” The former Senator
said that she was first told of her
situation only 15 minutes before the
meeting started.
Johnson was also upset that the
matter was not open to debate and
said, “Half of the Senate went into the
situation without knowing my side of
the story.” Despite that fact, Johnson
said, “You would have thought that I
would have some more support than I
received. Only two (senators) voted
for me and the rest voted against
me.”
In response to Johnson’s com¬
plaints, Vice President Clark said,
“there was a warning at the last SGA
meeting,” concerning the conse¬
quences of missing Committee and
Senate meetings and noted that
Johnson was absent from that
meeting.
Senator Chip Dipaula said that the
specific bill affecting Johnson is in the
SGA manual and, “Every Senator is
responsible for reading the manual.”
Johnson concluded, “Despite the
non-support that I received from the
Senate, I will still continue to help the
students at Towson State.”
The vacancy will be filled next fall
by the University Affairs Committee.
Those interested in taking the position
need to contact the SGA to receive a
petition form and further information.
Faculty receive salary
increase (sort of)
By James Hunt
Faculty salaries will increase $255
next year, a figure Vice-President for
Academic Affairs Patricia Plante
termed “exceedingly low.”
“We’re definitely disappointed,"
said Plante “When you divide (the
$255 increase) by bi-weekly
paychecks and take out income
tax.. .it amounts to virtually no in¬
crease.”
The increase was determined by
dividing the faculty salary increase
allocated by the Maryland legislature
among the approximately 500 instruc¬
tional faculty at Towson State, Plante
said.
(The average salary among the four
ranks of instructional faculty — pro¬
fessor, associate professor, assistant
professor, and instructors — is cur¬
rently $27,500 for 10 months, accord¬
ing to Donald N. McCulloh, vice-
president of business and finance).
Plante announced the salary in¬
crease in her report to the University
Senate last Monday and said the
faculty would receive a letter inform¬
ing them of the increase sometime
this week.
The Senate, meanwhile, approved a
proposal to offer a graduate program
in professional writing beginning in
the fall of 1984.
The proposed program would offer
a master of science degree in profes¬
sional writing to approximately 15
students in its first year (increasing to
85 students in five years) and would
“emphasize the special techniques of
writing within the profit and non¬
profit sectors,” according to the writ¬
ten proposal developed by Don Craver
and Dan Jones, co-chairpersons of the
English Department.
The program must still be approved
by the State Board of Trustees and
State Board of Higher Education
before it can be enacted.
Free beer helps break up
fight at glen party Friday
Gissendanner noted that general
studies courses such as those offered
by the African-American program,
“give students a perspective they
wouldn’t normally have “and” in¬
crease (the student’s) sellibility” in a
wide range of job markets.
Independence also makes black
studies an easier budget target. While
black studies programs have been
abolished or cut back with alarming
frequency, only five women’s studies
programs were threatened last year,
Howe reports.
All were rescued, she adds.
Johnson thinks there may be an ele¬
ment of racism in the relative failure
of black studies programs in the fun¬
ding wars.
“The reasons behind the decline are
legitimate in view of economic condi¬
tions,” he says, but “the economic
situation is being used by some ad¬
ministrators to exercise their
racism.”
“Students should know that a poor
economy increases racism,” he adds,
"and that means black studies is
more important than ever.”
Edited by James Hunt, Na¬
tional Reports from the College
Press Service.
glen party was hesitant to break up
the fight. However, University
police said that that officer was
ordered to remain by the cashbox
and had immediately radioed for a
back-up.
Members of Lambda Chi Alpha,
the fraternity sponsoring the glen
party, and police broke up the fight,
and the fighters left the area.
Police said the fight involved six
men, four of whom were resident
students, but they had not yet
determined how the fight began. At
around 4:30, the same men met in
front of the Residence Tower and
fought again. One of the residence
students then decided to press
charges against the two other men.
The two men, James Psoras of
the 500 block Woodbine Avenue
and George Carey IV of the 700
block Morningside Drive, were
charged with assault and battery,
destruction of property, and dis¬
orderly conduct.
By Mike Judge
An offer of free beer is being
credited with helping dispel a fight
which broke out at last Friday’s
glen party.
According to several reports, the
fight broke out around 4 p.m. in the
grassy area behind the beer truck. A
crowd quickly gathered and for
several minutes encouraged the
fighters until Bob Barnhart, driver
of the beer truck, successfully
diverted attention away from the
fight by offering free beer for one
minute.
Offering free beer is against the
Towson State alcohol policy, but
Ted Johns, assistant director of
Special Services, acknowledged that
"it was good thinking on [Barn¬
hart’s] part.”
Several persons present at the
fight complained that the Univer¬
sity police officer stationed at the