The Towerlight, May 5, 1983

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