The Towerlight, November 21, 1975

tl19751121-000 "0 Dean Kenneth Shaw Faculty evaluation shows: Students have a choice by Kathy Kraus Commenting on the faculty evaluation process via student questionnaires, Dean Kenneth A. Shaw believes student evaluations of individual faculty members ' are taken seriously by both students and faculty. ""We (college administration) require student evaluations of all faculty. Along with other sources of evaluation, student responses on the questionnaires form the basis by which a faculty member is granted promotion, tenure, and increment,"" says Shaw. The SGA has, in past semesters, distributed faculty and course evaluation forms of their own. This is not to be confused with evaluations circulated by the departments of the college, warns Shaw. ""Both evaluations have two very different purposes in mind,"" notes Shaw, Informs student population SGA faculty and course evaluations have as their purpose to inform, the student population. Ih-structors write a description of their courses and a brief statement of course objectives. These are composed into a booklet and made available to the students. HoweVer, this service has not been in existence since the spring semester of 1973, approximates Shaw, due to the LXVIII, NO. 12 TOWSON STATE COLLEGE NOVEMBER 21, 1975 Coupon system to chan by Marlene Milder The current $355 meal plan, which campus , resident students are required to purchase, will be reduced to $335 for the spring semester, according to Director of Auxiliary Services, John Suter. This reduction in cost will bring the average meal ticket price 10% below the costs of nearby colleges and universities previously surveyed, including Johns Hopkins and UMBC, reported Suter. After evaluating the food coupon sYstem to date, memebers of food Heads � get styled by Beverly Zaleski The Student Day Care Center has aPProxitnately $1,072 added to their budget because of the generosity of Harlow and Bogart. Last Monday, N ovember 17, Harlow and Bogart got to 175 heads with their scissors and blow dryers. Although the turnout consisted mostly of students, there were also some notable figures waiting to get the latest cut. Such participants included Ted Venetoulis, Bert Jones, and our own Dorothy Siegle, Vice P resident of Student Affairs. Many Other faculty members were also present to' get in on the deal. Vance DeGenova, instructor at the Day Care Center, stated that the angle of the haircutting extravaganza was to show ""how small businesses ean help Day Care."" Day Care has had numerous fund raising events throughout the year, but they don't stack up to the funds achieved by Harlow and Bogart. Because of its success, Day Care hopes to make it an annual and possibly a biannual affair. DeGenova also stated that ""this is the most charitable effort made towards Day Care,"" Harlow and Bogart provided everything they needed from sharaPoo and mirrors to blow dryers and professionalism. Ninety-nine percent of the effort Was made by the parents of Day Care Children . They set up, cleaned up, sold tickets, provided food for the operators, who by the way were there on their day off, did most of the advertising, and even got their hands into shampooing. Harlow and Bogart's cut in the deal was only that of publicity. They wanted no part of the income because they were there to help fund Day Care not themselves. Harlow and Bogart were so Pleased by the results of the first Project which only attracted 120 People that they were more than happy to come back. They mentioned that business had picked up con- siderably after they were on the TSC Campus last semester. If you didn't get the chance to let them do their thing to your hair Monday when they were in the Tower recreation room, why not jet them do it in their salon at 411 York Road. management services anticipate having a surplus of $80,000 in food coupons, indicating students had too much purchasing power. ""We really can't be sure of this figure,"" stated Suter, ""because we don't know the effects of the provisions for selling bulk food items."" So far, potato chips, pretzels, soft drinks .and cakes have been available to students in bulk quantity. ""Birthday cakes were in great demand,"" said Suter. ""We kept our chef busy the month of October after accepting orders for 62 cakes."" Currently a survey sheet is being circulated asking coupon holders what types cd foods they would want available in bulk. Requests for hams, turkeys, and fruit baskets have headed the list. In addition to a $20.00 price reduction, meal plan holders will receive a 5% premium in coupon value over the.cash price. Still anticipating the average student will have.. at least a book worth $51.00 in remaining coupons, Suter reported students may carry over up to $26.00 in coupons from this semester to be used in the spring. With the coupon carry over and the. 50/o premiums added, meal plan holders will have total purchasing power of $378.00 as compared to this semester's buying power of $408.00. ' Suter maintained food service's overestimates how much the average student could or wanted to consume. The current cost of $355 was based on a 15 meals a week system. Most meal card holders under the previous system utili/,ed the 15-a-week meal plan and so this was assumed an adequate amount for this semester, Harlow and Bogart do it for free. SGA president cleared: TL photo by Beej said Suter. Suter reported several other factors led to students having more purchasing power than was needed. ""Students conserved their coupOns early in the semester because they were afraid they would run out,"" said Suter. ""It was a new concept in dining and many didn't know how to handle it."" Aho, ""after surveying eating habits."" said Suter, ""it can be seen that in many cases women do not eat as much as men do, again causing an excess in coupons:"" Suter found the campus resident population to be 67% women. Plans are being laid now in an-ticipation of the reopening of Newell Dining Hall with the possibility of further modification of the Coupon Plan to take advantage of that facility. tremendous amount of work such a project entails. Shaw feels that the evaluation conducted by the SGA perform a great service to the students, ""the biggest service being that the in-structor speaks directly � to the student about his/her particular course and invites registration in the course."" Evaluations a ""good thing"" Although Shaw feels SGA faculty and course evaluations are ""a good thing,"" he cannot and would not use them for professional evaluation of Towson State (acuity. ""Student .questionnaires composed by the various departments are done more professionally and with the sole purpose of ' being used in the evaluative process."" states Shaw. Sources of Evaluation According to Appendix I of the Faculty Handbook of Towson State College, the evaluation of faculty members is based upon activities in two broadly defined areas: activities in which the instructor comes into direct contact with students in a teaching-learning .situation and professional activities which are related or supplemental to teaching but in which there is not necessarily a direct interaction between instructor and student.. A faculty member's teaching ability is a primary � source for evaluation. It is defined in the hand-book as the faculty member's per-formance in the classroom situation, whether it he lecturing, conducting � discussions, or directing laboratory experiments. It also includes ac-tivities such as field trips. supervising student projects, or other functions appropriate to teaching a course for which credit is granted by � the I ollege. Professional , activities and responsibilities are another source for evaluation. The faculty plays a vital role in determining the policies, character. and activities of Towson State College. Individual faculty members are responsible � to the degree of their accepttnce of such responsibility � for the quality of Towson State. College, both ex-ternally and internally. . The responsibilities of faculty menibers tor the excellence of this institution do not end with fulfillment of their teaching assignments. While each department may make ad-justments or additions to suit its particular discipline, faculty members expect evaluation in the following four areas: achievement of ap-propriate formal degrees, scholarly growth, service to the department and to the College, and community-related activities. Methods of Evaluation The evaluation of a faculty member's teaching ability is done by the students, his/her peers, a self-evaluation, and evaluations by the Department Rank and Tenure Committees. Student opinion must be sought as part of the faculty evaluative process. ""Feedback from students is essential to the educational system,"" notes Shaw. To obtain student opinion of in-dividual faculty members, each department develops its own evaluative !Omits) and decides the time of administration. All faculty members are expected to participate each year in this part of the evaluative process and are cautioned about the following mat-1 ters: Ill evaluation forms must have the formal approval of the depart-ment: 121 to preserve students' anonymity, faculty members must not allow students to sign their names to the forms: 43) someone other than the faculty member who is being evaluated must administer and collect the evaluation forms. Departments cautioned Departments are cautioned to protect the security of the in-formation obtained. Because the evaluation of u faculty member is not a public process, the results of student. evaluations are not made public information. Copies of the data are given to the faculty member and the department chairperson who, in turn, make the summaries available to the Department Rank and Tenure Committees. While the role of students in the evaluation of teaching is important, the role of the faculty in making judgments about its membership is of primary importance. The methods which the faculty can use to evaluate teaching include classroom visits, conferences, and consideration of written materials and statements submitted by the person being evaluated. Spangler is new PR replacement by Man j Mayers ""I'm still all ears, just in the learning process, waiting for some feedback from the students,"" noted Bill Spangler, SGA's new director of public relations. ""But right now I want; tO get things organized."" Spangler replaces Steve Schaffer who resigned as public relations director in October because of in-ternal differences. Director of Development Mike McFall, under whose department public relations falls, recommended Spangler as Schaffer's successor. ""I received several requests from qualified people,"" said McFall. ""Bill . met :ill of the qualifications, plus he has a �lot of new ideas which we really like in terms of student corn- Bill Spangler photo by Kathy Dudek Senate defeats bill to censure Nevins by T. F. Troy. .1r. A bill declaring ""Senate's devout and absolute disapproval of certain acts committed by President David Nevins"" was defeated in today's -Senate meeting by a vote of 10 to 2. The bill of formal censure was introduced by Senators Fran Schramm and Lucy Reed to point up and reprimand Nevins for ""the in-tensity of disrespect twhich he has) shown the student Senate and the student, body of Towson State College."" Charges stated The specific charges had to do with Nevins refusing to cooperate with Senate by asking its approval of committee appointments. Par-ticularly, Schramm and Reed were angered over Nevins' alleged mishandling of Speaker Series tickets and selections of speakers. Nevins under attack...again Nevins, who will be relinquishing his post after Thanksgiving, has come under attack recently for choosing speakers for the Speaker Series without consulting the Senate. Most vehement has been opposition to his hiring of former South Vietnamese V..1). Nguyen Cao KV for the speakers appearance tonight. Before the censure bill was � voted on. several Senators took the op-portunity to voice their (Minions. Everyone can make a mistake ""We should take it to mind that everyone is entitled to make a mistake,"" said Senator Sheila Culberson. ""David make a mistake and I think he has learned from it. I think we should kill this thing,"" referring to the bill. Senator Vicki Bass was more blunt: ""I don't even want to see :mother bill like this. It lowers the image. of SGA."" Senator Mike Fell expressed the prevailing mood towards conciliation. He suggested defeating the censure, but avoiding such situations in the future by means of ""more com-munication between contending parties."" Senators discuss ousting Nevins Lately, some members of SGA have complained about all the fac-tional quarreling that goes on. Steve Schaffer, former director of public relations for the SGA, quit his post several weeks ago saying that he couldn't deal with certain ""egocentric individuals who are out for glory and self-preservation"" in the ""high power circles"" of SGA. And last week, former Senator Maria Williams, cautioned against the ""internal bickering"" that has characterized SGA this semester. . Other actions Senate killed a request for money by Campus Crusade for Christ because no representative of that organization has shown up at the Appropriations Committee meetings. Senate agreed to let the Forensics Union have a telephone in its office. For this purpose it appropriated $117.30.. Senate authorized $5,000 to be paid out of FCAI for the hiring of visiting professors and scholars. Senate passed a resolution neutralizing all discriminatory terms in the SGA Constitution and By- Laws. ""Mister Chairman"" and ""Madame Chairman"" shall hereafter be referred to as ""Mister Chair-person"" and ""Madame Chairperson"" and masculine pronouns, except where otherwise specifically in-dicated, shall be denoted ""he/she"" or ""he or she"" or ""him or her"" or ""him/her."" munication."" A mass communications major, in his junior year, Spangler's special interest lies with the public relations field. But of special importance to McFall is the fact that Spangler has held no previous position in student government. ""We wanted to bring in some new blood,"" McFall stated. ""Bill provides that new blood."" Responsibilities outlined McFall outlined Spangler's new responsibilities as public relations director, emphasizing the aspect of ""providing for two-way com-munications between the students and SGA."" Among his many duties, Spangler will ""handle advertising for the executive department of SGA and some of the organizations"" as well as ""information dissemination con-cerning such things as the faculty grants program, research projects, and general public relations."" Spangler will work with the campus media as well as the students, McFall commented, ""to tell the SGA story. But our most important concern is feedback from the students."" Also concerned with student feedback, Spangler expressed a special desire to ""attack the problem of student non-participation."" Problems are many Noting that the problem ""could be a lot of different things,"" Spangler felt the problem was ""not so much a lack of participation in social events but more in terms Of (a lack of par-ticipation concerning) organizations."" Working alongside Spangler will be John Shehan, Jr. A freshman, Shehan is one of the many students SGA hopes to train in order to take over the administration when the majority of the staff graduates May, 1976. ""We're planning ahead,"" noted McFall. Library closed The Albert S. Cook Library will be closed Thanksgiving Day and Friday, November 28. The library will be open Saturday, November 29 from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Sunday, November 30 from 1 p.m. - 9 p.m. "