PLANS FOR
BUILDING ON HOC
CAMPUS HALTED
PAGE 7
Difficult economy causes administration to tighten budget
Cost of Commons Faculty frustrated
weighs on Chartwells with salary freeze
LAUREN SLAVIN
Editor-in-Chief
After a heavy snowfall, many
Towson students head to Speaker's
Circle or Cross Campus Drive,
armed with the poor college-stu¬
dents’ sled: a dining hall tray.
In previous years, the number
of trays broken or left in the cold
after sledding was a cost Dining
Services had the resources to
cover, according to Dining Services
Resident District Manager Roy
Cubbler.
But since the opening of the
West Village Commons, Dining
Services has begun to feel the
financial stress of operating a new
all-you-care-to-eat dining facility
and several chain a-la-carte loca¬
tions.
"Use the trays, just bring them
back," Cubbler said.
"1 lose hundreds of trays when
it snows. You took the time to
bring it out, take the time to bring
it back.”
The cost of building the West
Village Commons, an auxiliary
building- or one not paid for by
the state, but built on state loans-
- will be paid to the state of
Maryland over 20 years, according
to Associate Vice President for
Auxiliary Services Joe Oster.
The University pays for some
initial costs of opening a dining
hall, such as silverware and trays,
but Chartwells, the company that
manages Dining Services, must
replace items that are lost or sto¬
len.
The University contracts
Chartwells, but Chartwells is oth¬
erwise not directly associated with
the University.
"Other initiatives could be
funded if I didn't lose thousands
of pieces of silverware to stu¬
dents,” Cubbler said. "We’re not
in a position to put money back
into the program.”
Chartwells also has to foot
the cost of training and paying
new employees and providing the
food that circulates through the
Commons daily, as well as the
costs of utilities, maintenance and
the start-up equipment needed to
open a dining hall.
Even with the opening of two
new residence halls and a net
increase in the on-campus popula¬
tion, the increased hours of service
in the Commons and new workers’
wages were not
See DINING, page 9
ALISSA KATZ
Senior Editor
A state-imposed salary freeze,
now in its third year, has left
some University faculty and staff
with lowered spirits and an abun¬
dance of frustration.
"Salary freezes that last over a
period of three to six years, com¬
bined with furloughs or tempo¬
rary pay cuts, are devastating to
faculty morale," tenured English
professor Peter Baker said. "We
have had a hard time retaining
newly-hired faculty. And faculty
of longer standing with obliga¬
tions such as mortgages, children
in college or in daycare, feel the
pinch as well."
Alex Storrs, a tenured associ¬
ate professor in the department
of physics, astronomy and geo¬
sciences, said one of the main
predicaments with the freeze is
salary inversion - newly-hired
faculty and staff whose starting
salary is higher than that of fac¬
ulty and staff who’ve been at the
University longer.
"Obviously it’s unfair and not
a huge problem, but it is a bit of
a morale problem," Storrs said.
"Salary inversion is just an exten¬
sion of salary compression that
we’ve been complaining about
for years."
Storrs said he is concerned
for some of his colleagues
who’ve been teaching at Towson
University 15 to 20 years.
Interim Provost Terry Cooney
said there are modest exceptions
to the salary freeze, for example,
if a university can pay more to
retain a particular faculty or staff
member who has been offered a
position elsewhere with higher
pay.
“If the employee is particu¬
larly valuable and received a job
offer from another institution,
then the University can make an
adjustment in attempt to keep
that position," Cooney said. "The
general idea of an exception is in
cases when there’s a compelling
reason that’s very important to
the University. Then an increase
can be considered."
Adjunct salaries increased
beginning this fall, but are still
low compared to surrounding
institutions, according to Cooney.
Cooney said the $500 increase
per course was what Interim
President Marcia Welsh and for¬
mer
See FREEZE, page 10
Tigers rally
from 1 1
down to
stun ODU
Towson connects
on 63 -yard TD on
fourth and 29
ALEX GLAZE
Staff Writer
There aren’t many plays designed for
fourth and 29, but Head Coach Rob
Ambrose and the No. 17 Tigers found one
that worked Saturday.
With the game on the line, quarter¬
back Grant Enders not only converted
the fourth down attempt for Towson. He
found Tom Ryan for a 63-yard touchdown
that shocked the 19,818 fans at S.B.
Ballard Stadium and gave the Tigers a
39-35 victory over the Old Dominion
Monarchs.
“You would have had to be there to
believe it,” Ambrose said. "Basically, we
drew up a play in the dirt. It’s a play that
I’ve had in my back pocket for a while.
We really haven’t had the time or the
opportunity to cover it, so we drew it up.
I knew that if we did it the way I thought
we could do it, we would get a first down.
Tom caught the ball and it would have
been a first down, and then Alex Blake
made a great block. I think they were a
little in shock that we were actually going
to convert, and then Tom would not be
denied."
The Tigers (5-1, 3-0 Colonial Athletic
Association) remain tied with Maine for
first place in the CAA.
"That’s nice, but it’s October,"
Ambrose said. "It’s still only October.
We’re 5-1, and we still have five more
games to play. I’m glad that we’re here.
We worked our rear ends off enough to be
here. But where we are in October doesn’t
mean nearly as much as where we are in
November."
Towson was missing two key defen¬
sive captains in Jordan Dangerfield and
Danzel White because of injuries, but the
defense stepped up and did not allow Old
Dominion (5-2, 2-2 CAA) to have any first
downs in the fourth quarter.
"We played team defense," Ambrose
said. "We stopped them when we had to.
It was another fantastic team win."
The Tigers did allow 482 yards of
offense, including numerous big plays,
but held up and dominated Old Dominion
in the final minutes of the game.
Towson had struggled to put pressure
on quarterback Taylor Heinicke through¬
out the game. But on the final drive, Matt
Morgan and Frank Beltre got to the fresh¬
man and recorded the only two sacks of
the game for the Tigers to seal the win.
See ODU, page 23
