The Towerlight, November 13, 1986

tl19861113-000 "Inside Prank Phone Calls The University Police caught a suspect on 14 counts of telephone mis-use page 2 The dAl �ToNveriPubliVied weekly by the students of Towson State University gTowson, MD 21204ht Index news 1 2 sports 3, 4 visuals 5 features 6 7 entertainment 8 9 classifieds 10, 11 editorial 12 perspectives 11 weekwatcher 14 VOL 80 No. 9 photo by Jay Woernle Margaret Hayes director of Judicial Affairs, will be handling the Judicial hearings for semester suspensions 'for Towson State students caught using an illegal or altered Identification card at campus events. New tougher policy November 13, 1986 inrierm False ID users to receive suspensions by Elizabeth Buck News reporter In an attempt to deter students from using altered or illegal iden-tification cards, Towson State Uni-versity will adopt a tougher policy for the punishment of offenders beginning after the Thanksgiving break. According to Margaret Hayes, director ofJudicial Affairs, any student caught using an iden-tification card with a false date of birth will receive a suspension from the University for one semester. Currently, the penalty for using an altered identification card is a three-month social probation, which bars students from all cam-pus events and requires them to complete 15 hours of community service. ""Under the old policy, an individual is liable for suspension [for one semester] only if he vio-lates social probation or commun-ity service,"" Hayes said. Although the new penalty will not be in effect until after Thanks-giving, University Union officials have been checking identification cards more closely since the be-ginning of the semester. ""There have been big warning signs up all ""Organic waste"" spill in Smith Hall by Robert Graham News editor and Vince Russomanno Assistant news editor Almost a gallon of ""organic waste material"" was spilled Sun-day in Smith Hall setting into motion a host of ""hazardous waste Material safety precautions."" The spill in Room 587 was reported to the University Police at 1:33 p.m. by a student using the laboratory, according to Lieute-nant Joseph Herbert, Operations manager for the University Police. following standard procedure for a chemical spill, the Baltimore County Department of Health's Hazardous Waste Division was called in by the police. The building was then sealed-off by the police until ""a contractor (JNL Industries) could be con-tacted to clean the spill up,"" Jeff Kiefer, Towson State Risk Manage- Mont director, said. He added that finding a contractor was ham-pered by the fact that the accident occured on a Sunday. A licensed clean-up person cleaned up the spill and ""stored it (the spill material) in a chemical storage department of Smith Hall,"" according to Herbert. Baltimore.County checked on the situation as did the state and left after deciding that the accident was not major. The entire Smith Hall area was sealed-off, according to Herbert, to keeping people from tampering or getting near it"" from the time the accident was reported until approx-imately 8 pm Sunday to allow for material identification and clean up. ""We had some bottles con-taining organic waste which were being held under a ventilation unit until pick-up,"" Dr. Nordulf Debye, Chemistry Department chair, said. One of the bottles broke ""for an unknown reason."" ""A student in the building noticed the smell and went to in-vestigate,"" Debve said. semester stating that the use of altered IDs is a violation of the student Code of Conduct,"" said Robert Baeuerle, University Union Director. ""After Thanks-giving, the penalty will also be on the warning signs."" The University also has plans to use a computer system like that in the dining halls to determine students' birth dates rather than relying on the date printed on the card. The computer will read the magnetic strip on the back of the identification card and indicate whether the student is under 21 or not. Baeuerle said he hopes this computer system, which still re-quires the installation of phone lines, will be in operation by November 15. When a student is found to be using an altered identification card, the card will be immediately confiscated by University Union officials and a report will be sent to Judicial Affairs. According to Hayes, the start of the suspension will depend on the point in the sem-ester when the violation occurs. ""If the violation occurs on the last day of the semester, there is the likelihood that since the person causes stir Kiefer said the spilled material was classified as a ""general flam-mable,"" but that it posed no threat to the community. It is only slightly flammable and toxic,"" he said. ""It's not something to be inhaled to a great degree."" Because no faculty member was on hand Sunday to determine the nature of the spill, the standard hazardous waste material pro-cedures were enacted. ""No faculty member was there to revaluaethe'Situ6tiMn-4f there had been, we (the Chemistry Depart-ment) would have handled it our-selves,"" Debye said. Kiefer said that the contractor's cleanup would cost the University $1,600 ""It was double what it usually would cost because it was a weekend,"" he said. The University pays between $12,000 and $14,000 a year for chemical waste pick-up, he said. The incident is bring considered an accident by Police , according to Herbert. Eric Seaborg was called in to help deal with Sunday's chem-ical spill. SGA Judicial Board hands recommendation to Ski Club by Robert M. Graham News editor A Towson State University Student Government Association Judicial Board inquiry investi-gating the actions of former Ski Club president Scott Fine, as that organization's president, ended Friday with one requirement and two recommendations directed at the Ski Club. The Ski Club will be required to hand in a new charter renewal form with updated information be-cause the first renewal form, sub- Mitted to the SGA by Fine, was incomplete and inaccurate. The Ski Club was also recom- Mended to meet with Brad Gorski, Office of Organizational Advance- Ment director, to become more fully aware of SGA procedure and to discuss organizational structure. The requirements and recom-mendations handed down by Chris Krivos, SGA Judicial Board chair, after the inquiry by three Judicial Board members, included no decisions pertaining to Fine personally. The Judicial Board was looking into whether Fine, who resigned from his post October 29 at the first Ski Club meeting of the year, ""knowingly violated charter re-newal procedures"" for an SGA affil-iated organization, and whether he ""acted as an agent for Ski and Sun Tours."" When Fine was handed a photo-copy at the inquiry of the 1986 renewal form submitted by him, he Scott Fine is pictured at a booth in the Union last year trying to promote the ski trip. said that not all of the information contained on it was written by him. Fine also said that the listing of eight full-time, fee-paying, day students on the back of the form was not in his handwriting, and that he had been told that he could ""copy"" the 1985 form. The writer of eight names, four of which were not full-time stu-dents this semester, was not de-termined. For an organization to maintain SGA affiliation eight full-time, fee-paying, day students who are members of the group must be listed. Fine said that he was unaware of the requirement of the eight full-time student listing and that he did not want to fill in the information required until the first Ski Club meeting because he ""was not plan-ning to be involved; I planned to step down,"" he sad. Fine said he was not a full-time student this semester; the last time he was a full-time student was ""almost a year ago."" The SGA was supposed to send a letter concerning both his student status and the full-time require-ment, but Fine said he never re-ceived it. The SGA could show no proof that he did indeed receive the letter. When Fine was asked if he is an agent for Ski and Sun Tours, he said he is not. ""I do it [arrange ski trips through Ski and Sun] to get a job after I'm out of here [grad-uated],"" Fine said. ""I am not paid by Ski and Sun,"" he added. He said his responsibilities for planning a ski trip through Ski and Sun are to ""organize and co-ordinate"" the trip. When Krivos called to notify him of the hearing date, Fine answered the telephone by saying ""Ski and Sun."" At the inquiry, Krivos ques-tioned Fine's motives for an-swering the phone in such a manner. ""I answered 'Ski and Sun' as a courtesy,"" because they pay for the line, Fine said. Krivos asked Fine, ""On your honor, has the Towson State Ski Club been open to the best estimate [for a ski trip]?"" ""Without a doubt,"" Fine replied. Krivos explained that the Judicial Board inquiry was or-ganized ""to help the Ski Club get on its way,"" after the inquiry ended. SGA approves disaffiliation by Vince Russomanno Assistant lieu's editor The Student Government Assoc-iation, through a motion by Senator Dale Graham, moved to disaffiliate the Theta Beta Gamma sorority. ""We became a chapter of a national sorority (Alpha Omicron Phi) so we really do not need to be ""I known as Theta Beta Gamma any- = more,"" said Senator Ginger Mylander, Chapter Relations 5. Chairman. In a committee report by Uni-versity Affairs concerning the Buddy System, Mylander corn- � men ted on the establishment of the program at Towson State. This program, if adopted, would seek upperclassmen to offer guidance to incoming freshmen, according to Mylander. The project is aimed mostly towards ""the freshman commuter who comes and leaves right after class,"" said Mylander. Two hundred of the 400 surveys have been returned and Mylander finds ""most are for it and a few are against the program."" Further finding will be reported to the SGA after all the surveys have been returned and evaluated, according to Mylander. has gone through the semester, the student probably wouldn't be sus-pended until the next semester,"" Hayes said. ""If it [the violation] occurs earlier, the suspension would go into effect immediately and it would be as if that sem-ester's grades never happened."" Hayes said she does not foresee any use of the current policy of social probation after Thanks-giving. ""I don't want to say we'll never use it, because depending on circumstances, we could,"" she said. ""But I'd say that anyone knowingly using an altered ID will be suspended."" Since the University began look-ing more closely at dates of birth, Baeuerle has noticed a decrease in the number of false identification cards used at campus events, and Hayes and Baeuerle hope the trend will continue once students be-come aware of the new penalty. ""It's really important that the students know that we're not here to be punitive�to be the police� but it is important for students to know the consequences of violat-ing the student Code,"" Baeuerle said. Most cases of altered cards in-volve Towson State student identi-fication cards, though there have been some cases of altered driver's licenses. Hayes said there were 22 cases of illegal identification card use of some sort reported to Judicial Affairs in October. However, Baeuerle said he be-lieves the number of cases is mis-leading because many of the al-tered cards go undetected. ""There are a lot of fake IDs floating around. I took a random sample of 20 students and then checked the birthdays with Uni-versity records. Four of twenty turned out to be bogus which I think is a pretty high ratio,"" Baeuerle said. The University has made other See II), page 2 Falsified identification use by students is expected to drop with the new policy. Homecoming banners after game ""misplaced,"" by Robert M. Graham News editor Fifteen of the student-made banners that were included in a contest during the Homecoming Weekend festivities have been ""misplaced,"" according to Harriet Griffin, Office of Commuter Affairs Director and organizer of the contest. ""One stayed up, but I don't know if the other 15 were taken down or not,"" Griffin said. The Towson State University Grounds employees hung the ban-ners initially from the Parking Garage October 31. The banners were then moved to the fence out-side the entrances to Minnegan Stadium by the Grounds em-ployees for the Homecoming foot-ball game. It is unclear who took the banners down after the game. ""I drove all over the campus Monday [November 3] trying to find out where they were,"" Griffin said. A University Police report was filed this Monday stating that 15 banners are missing, according to Lieutenant Joseph Herbert, Oper-ations manager. An investigation is being handled by Patrol Division, but no motive or leads have been reported, Herbert siad. Griffin said she thinks that ""someone took them."" The Towson Center had nothing to do with the hanging or the taking down of the banners for the Homecoming game. ""No arrange-ments had been made for us [Towson Center employees] to take down those banners,"" Jay McCabe, Towson Center director, said. Paul Thomas from Grounds was unavailable for comment on the situation. But the police report indicated that his employees were uninvolved with the removal of the banners. This is the last place that the 17 homecoming banners were seen November 1. "