The Towerlight, November 21, 1985

tl19851121-000 "19 Smoking banned on local campus The University of Maryland, College Park, is just a signature away from implementing one of a toughest smoking policies of Y college campus, according to the College Press Service. The police would ban smoking In Classrooms, lecture halls, braries, hallways, a third of the campus' dining halls and lounges, and in any office where a non-smoker objects to smoking. Maryland is not the first SChool to enact smoking policies. The Florida State Unitersity Ystem is working to comply ith a June law prohibiting lainoking in public places. According to the national Lung association 35 states and some ('ountys have enacted smoking I Nislation affecting college tompuses. Maryland however, was not rt'sponding to any higher law 'hen it began discussing whether 0,r not to develop a smoking ban. he faculty members were rt'vonding instead to a 1984 ri)ort by the Surgeon General that cited the harmful effects of (Igarette smoke to non-smokers. Students at UMCP have not len totally receptive to the plans. Student Government Association President Kim Rice P�einted out to the College Press Service that although ""students here favor some sort of policy, 'f)Ine did object because it had bl'en instigate& by faculty, but Would primarily affect students."" Rice and other SGA members Passed a resolution that would 'often the original measure put together by the campus Senate. ""They (the campus Senate) didn't recognize that students niust be able to smoke somewhere indoors during the day,"" Rice said. The SGA's Proposal would allow smoking in seine designated areas. � UMCP Chancellor John B. 'laughter will sign one of the two measures or a combination of the ,Lwo once the university's legal uePartment finishes reviewing the Plans for enforcement of the Polley. Towson State has been 4,1fected by similar action since ellitember of 1984 when a Slhoking policy was enacted in Van Bokkelen Hall. The policy utually agreed upon by the SDeech and Mass communication department and the aintnunication Sciences and ulsorders department, and was ..,t1Pported by the chairs of the s'ePartments. � is limited in Van II Smoking to the central foyer on the main level and the elevator LI Nas on other levels. According ta mass communications Processor Dr. Richard Vatz, there has been about 98 percent ernpliance with the policy."" When someone is smoking in a 4�n-designated area, ""they are l'aually asked to move to a \ seloking area,"" said Vatz. ""There have only been one or two times 1,11 the past sixteen months where 'here has been a problem with thi s."" CON AMS sets policy Students who fail to attend the first two class meetings of a lab course in the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences (CONAMS) and do not contact the CONAMS office will be automatically dropped from the Class and receive a grade of FX. �1 his new policy will be instituted In the Spring 1986 semester. The policy is needed, according to Robert Caret, CONAMS Dean, because of the increased demand for class space. Unless class vacancies are identified early in the semester, the space is left unfilled. Under the new policy, available class spaces will be filled as soon as possible with students on a waiting list. The CONAMS departments I 'ave made efforts to inform students of this policy change through announcements in the Spring 1986 Schedule Booklet. Phone numbers are provided for students to contact the departments to inform them of their intent. To eliminate the FX grade, students will have to Withdraw from the class before the established deadline. Caret said he does not expect e4Y major problems with the new sYstetn. He pointed out that the chemistry department has used thls type of policy for several Years without major difficulty. The University Senate aPproved the CONAMS police on trial basis to determine its effectiveness. After the trial period, Caret will report to the Senate the results of the new Policy, �Jean Kane The Towerlight will not be published next week clue to the Thanksgiving holiday. The next issue of The 'l'owerlight will be December 5. campus notes Inside 011P1tifikilpiNi11' 1i11 Rockin' Exibit A is more than just a girl group 10. Winter outlook Men's women's basketball and gymnastics start up this week .5 Still controversial Twain biographer Justin Kaplan praises Huckleberry Finn, defends it against critics charges of racism 8 AIA is absurd Accuracy in Academia, a conser-vative group looking for pro-fessors' liberal bias, is a threat to academic freedom 17. Gobble, Gobble Tards offers the latest in turkey-catching garb 15. U.S. studies are too narrow American studies are too provincial, according to scholars in both the United States and abroad. American studies became established in the United States in the 1920's as a way to study American culture because scholars thought the field was being overlooked. Since then, however, American studies have preemted world studies at universities across the country, experts say. ""It (the American Studies Association) has looked at American history and culture as autonomous, a thing onto itself, rather than looking for themes that might be operating throughout the world,"" said Pedro Castillo, associate professor of history at the University of California. ""We need to look for shared experiences with the rest of the world,"" agreed Esim Erdim, an exhange scholar from Turkey. Daiyun Zhang, director of American Studies in the Training Center and Foreign Language Institute in Shanghai noted that ""American culture as it is taught abroad�at least as it is in China�is one�way. It presents itself as completely different."" This presents problems, such as alienating the world from American culture, history and literature. In addition, people tend to forget that the American culture is a blend of many. ""One culture stems out of another ... refers back to it, influences it,"" Perosa said. Comparisons could also aid students in the United States in understanding ""those aspects of history where the American experience seemed to go astray, Erdim said. Some scholars, however, did not agree. David Flaherty, director of American studies at the University of Western Ontario, pointed out that ""There are difficulties in doing comparison well ... even studying a small part of American history or literature is hard because it is so complex."" �The Chronicle of Higher Education The �oweriiPublished weekly by the students of Towson State University 'Towson, Md. 21204 Vol. 79 No. 12 November 21, 1985 Campus notes are continued on page 2. Silent stadium A desolate Minnigan stadium will see no more football this season. The scheduled game against Liberty was cancelled, leaving Towson State bereft of its usual fall entertainment. Sports money redistributed By Lisa Quill The Intercollegiate Athletics Com-mittee has concluded its work for the 1984-'85 year, a large portion of which dealt with Title IX, a ruling that re-quires proportionate funding of women's sports, and Towson State's compliance (or lack thereof) with the ruling. A few years ago, there was talk about suing the University over its non-compliance with Title IX, but that is no longer a concern. As a result of the Committee's activities, a five-year program has been designed to bring the percentage of scholarship money given to women athletes close to the proportion of women active in inter-collegiate sports. During the '83-'84 school year, women athletes at Towson State received only 11.5 percent of the total available funds for athletic scholar-ships. In '84-'85, that figure improved to 15.3 percent, and this year reached 23.7. At the end of the fifth year of this program, the percentage of money received by women athletes will reach 29.8. Although a larger percentage of the funds are going to the women's sports than before, 11 sports (6 men's, 5 women's) will be receiving more scholarship money to improve their respective programs. Under the five-year program, the scholarship money allocated for the Lodge parties ended By Scott Hollenbeck The Board of Trustees of the Towson Elks has voted to close their lodge to parties sponsored by organizations affiliated with Towson State. The decision came after the green and white awning, valued at $4,000, was vandalized sometime after 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning after a Fri-day night party sponsored by Pi Lambda Phi fraternity. The ""B.P.O.E. 469"" was cut out of both sides of the awning. The act, according to Pi Lambda Phi Presi-dent Matt Conn took place ""after the party was over."" He reports see-ing no damage to the awning when the fraternity left the lodge after cleaning up. Elks president Jim Gede said he contacted the fraternity after he discovered the damage. ""They offered to come right up ' and pay for it,"" Gede said, but he did not hold Pi Lambda Phi respon-sible because the incident ""did not happen within the confines of the hall."" Gede said ""a couple of hundred dollars of damage"" was incurred and insurance would probably cover it. The Baltimore County Police in 'rowson were not called to in-vestigate the incident. Gede told Pi Lamda Phi ""you deliver us the person who did it, and we'll give you your parties back."" He added ""the college is not respon-sible for this type of thing."" When asked why the fraternity offered to pay for the damage, Conn said ""we wanted to take care of the problem."" He said the ""Greek system is very young, it doesn't need a bad name."" Gede said this is not the first time the lodge has been vandalized. Lamps have been ripped out of walls and ceilings, ""storm doors torn off hinges"" and people have broken the glass in doors, he said. Elks Lodge member Dick Davis seems to agree. ""They're not children, they're not pcople, they're animals."" Dick Davis Elks Lodge Member Davis said people ""tend to break down doors, tear doors off hinges and urinate in the bushes."" He also said the kids waiting in line call other people ""foul, foul names and there is all sorts of kiss-ing going on."" Davis said after the awning was vandalized, ""we cut the fraternities right off, they're not children, they're not people, they're animals."" ""Would I call it van-dalism? there's no other name for See ELKS, page 2 The Towson Eiks lodge was damaged after a fraternity party, causing the Elks to cancel all university events. women's gymnastics team ( now an ""emphasized sport"" at Towson State) has already increased ten times the '84-'85 figure, and is expected to go up another five times that figure by '88-'89. ""We were getting short chanarii little bit ( before the Title IX ruling),"" said head gymnastics coach Dick Filbert, ""but I don't think it had anything to do with whether we were men or women. We were treated much better than the men ( when there was a men's team) in terms of gymnastics."" Filbert feels that the university has aided the team with its redistribution of funds. ""At this point.. the University, for me, is doing much more than I ever thought they could. They are really giving us the opportunity to be a na-tional contender."" The coach continued, ""I could not have done what I'm doing without the five-year program. The program [gymnastics ] would have died�just like the men's program."" ""They can't survive without it [the increase in scholarship dollars.] You can compete in Division III; you can get beat in Division II but still stay alive; but you can't go near Division I � I'm talking about making NCAA regionals and being ranked in the top 20 nationally. I can't do that without what I have. That five-year program has changed everything about gym-nastics here at Towson State."" Arlene Geppi, the women's softball coach, believes the five-year program is a beginning, but things still need to be improved upon. ""It's a start,"" Geppi said. ""Things are beginning to improve under Billy Hunter. But there's still a long way to go."" By Erik Kociiankin Athletic director Bill Hunter Sheila Collins, the women's basket-ball coach, agrees. ""There's a lot more to be done,"" said Collins. But ""I have to understand, and I know that some of the other coaches have to understand, we're not the great big money-making institution that some of the other universities are. We're trying to work within our framework and build the best we can. It's just go-ing to take a while."" See SPORTS, page 2 Freshmen scores rise By Jim Pickering Towson State's 1985 freshmen corn-pare favorably with The College Board's national Scholastic Aptitude Test data. The combined SAT average of Towson's freshmen is 956, 50 points higher than the national average of 906. Towson's freshmen averaged 29 points higher on the SAT verbal and 21 points higher on the SAT math than did the national cohort. ""Traditionally and historically, TSU freshmen SAT scores have been higher than the national average,"" said Linda Collins, Director of Admis-sions. Since 1980, TSU freshmen have con-sistently scored higher on both verbal and math SAT exams than the na-tional average. The only exceptions occurred in 1980 and 1981 when TSU math scores were six and five points below the national average, respec-tively. Also, in 1980 TSU freshmen verbal scores tied the national average for that same years ""There is a strong trend across the country to raise the admission stan-dards of incoming freshmen,"" said Collins. She added that ""there is a strong effort in Maryland for secon-dary education officials to strengthen the high school curriculums."" The combined SAT average of Towson's black freshmen is 862; while over 90 points below the freshman class average, this score is 140 points above the national average for blacks. Towson's black freshmen scored 78 points higher than the national average for blacks on the SAT verbal ( 424) and scored 62 points higher on the SAT math (438). Towson State SAT averages 1 Average SAT: verbal Year TSU National 1978 437 429 1979 431 427 1980 424 424 1981 430 424 1982 440 426 1983 437 425 1984 448 426 1985 460 431 _Sourc..: Admissions Ditmiont Average SAT: math ISO National 469 468 464 467 460 466 461 466 471 467 474 468 480 471 496 475 "