The Towerlight, October 21, 1982

tl19821021-000 "ill The Towerlight � PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY TOWSON, MARYLAND 21204 Towerlight graphic Campus administrators are reviewing Towson Center scheduling priorities. , October 21, 1982 Departments dispute use of Towson Center facilities By James Hunt During their recent Invitational Tournament in Burdick Hall, the women's volleyball team posted signs on the front doors which, in effect, questioned the priorities of those responsible for scheduling events at University facilities. The team, said head coach Arlene Geppi, ""was�and is�upset"" that the tournament and the East Coast Con-ference (ECC) Championship Tourna-ment in November were moved from the Towson Center to make room for ""outside"" events. Geppi is particularly angry because she ""found out only a month ago"" that the ECC tournament could not be held at the Towson Center. She says, however, that her team's scheduling problems with the Towson Center date back to last November when she first filed a written request with the Department of Events and Conference Services (ECS) to use the Towson Center for the first weekend in October for the Invitational Tournament. The ECS, which schedules all non-academic events at the University, also received a request from the Daughters of the American Revolu-tion (DAR) to use the Center the same weekend, said Rob Riley, direc-tor of the Towson Center. Israeli diplomat explains Mideast turmoil By James Hunt t.�It's been a stormy summer in the middle there East ... and the problems are not finished,"" said Ben ii�btleah, Consulate General of the Taraeli Embassy in Washington, at �wElon State last Wednesday. tL Abileah's speech, advertised under I'te headline ""Israel in Lebanon; Can pt,Survive?"" emphasized that the 4iestine Liberation Organization's ILe.sence in Lebanon was Israel's Wary reason for invading Lebanon triti that its continued presence there :Presents a ""turning point"" for ""eke in the Middle East. Abileah touched only briefly on the ece t massacre of 300 Palestinians in a Beirut refugee camp. He said that while the Israeli army's role in the massacre has yet to be deter-mined, ""the Israeli people regret this [the massacre] more than anyone else"" and must investigate. At the same time, he denounced those ""with an axe to grind against Israel"" who used the massacre to crit-t icize Israel ""for reasons of political expedience."" He said, however, that the PLO, which he said terms itself ""the pro-tectors of Lebanon,"" said nothing in the wake of the massacre. Abileah then reviewed the circum-stances which originally led to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. For the past several years, he said, Pulitzer columnist WILL: By Bob Tarleton ""Rewriting the Constitution is the worst idea in a century of bad ideas."" Student dies of heart attack during intramural football game stA Irlemorial service was held at M�40:1 4111'8 Moravian Church of t ""'on, Maryland, for David Shard Lohr, a junior at Towson e. h Lohr died last Thursday after-en of a cardiac arrest while ii53Pirig intramural football on olud.rdick Field. He was 20 years 4 b P,riends said Lohr was walking icis to his team's huddle after a :10When he ec collapsed. The nurse rg M rled to the field immediately uistered CPR but Lohr never gained consciousness. WhAtterriPts made by paramedics, � arrived soon after, were futile. Lohr was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital. An autopsy is being performed to determine the exact cause of death. Lohr was described by those who knew him as ""a great guy."" At the memorial service, his brother Robert said, ""David loved football. It was very appropriate that he died doing something which he loved so much."" He is survived by his parents, Robert and Sandy Lohr, of Upper Marlboro; two brothers, Michael Thomas and Robert G. and a sis-ter, Janice Sheppard. Contributions may be made to the St. Paul's Moravian Building Fund. settlements in northern Israel had been repeatedly shelled by PLO forces in southern Lebanon. To put an end to this shelling, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launched an attack to push the PLO guns 25 miles from Israel's borders and out of the range of the northern settlement. Having pushed the PLO from their borders, the IDF decided that there was ""no sense in stopping at an arbi-trary point, so [they] continued to pursue the PLO to the source of fire: Beirut."" In time, he said, the IDF was able to push the PLO from Beirut and Lebanon. The result, he said, is that Lebanon can now ""reconstitute itself, free of Palestinian interference ... the shop of international terrorism has been closed,"" and the residents of northern Israel can now breathe free. He added that Israel gave the free world a little present; it sent the Soviets ""back to their drawing boards with their weapon plans."" During the invasion, Israel fighters repeatedly destroyed or captured Soviet armaments. He closed his talk by outlining some of the obstacles to peace in the Middle East. Chief among these is the PLO's military arm, which he labels a ""radical, uncompromising objecture to peace."" Abileah also answered questions from the audience of 20 to 30 people in Linthicum Hall. rates U.S. focus By John Simpson On Monday evening, ""America's only conservative,"" as he describes himself, addressed an audience of erudite listeners at the Stephens Hall auditorium. George F. Will, the Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning colum-nist, came to Towson State to inform his listeners that ""the task of today's politicans is to break promises and in-flict pain,"" and added, ""there are no gains without pains."" Will's epigram is his prescription for America's economic recovery. According to Will, the pain we as citizens will experience is that of higher tax rates to increase government revenues. We need the revenues to sup-port our massive but justified welfare state. He also supports the seemingly exor-bitant military budget, stating that ""70 to 80 percent of,that budget goes to pen-sions, benefits and salaries."" The estimated 400 persons present were receptive to Will's arguments, and during the lengthy questioning ses-sion the Oxford graduate was the red-pient of more than one round of am plause. The Student Government association's guest was honored at a quiet reception before the lecture in Hooligan's ""library"" where he met members of the campus political science department. There, Will revealed a dark secret: He comes across as exceedingly well-read, but he learns many timely literary quotations by listening to recorded novels on his Walkman tape player. Most of the evening, however, was devoted to sober observation. When defending his position on defense spen-ding he declared that ""Americans are wishful thinkers and we have exhausted See SPEAKER, page 4 Committee seeks Cook improvements By Loraine Mirabella A committee of Towson State's Chapter of the American Association of University Professors have stud-ied the effect of budgetary support on the quality of library service at the University. The committee, chaired by Paul E. Jones, chairperson, Instructional Technology, was directed in the spring 1982 semester by James J. Hill, Jr., president of the University's AAUP/Faculty Association. ""We're not getting as much money to support the library per F.T.E. [Full Time Equivalent] as other schools,"" Hill said. The study showed that the budget allocation per F.T.E. for Albert S. Cook Library was $153 in 1982, while it was $333 at Bowie State, $251 at Frostburg State, $294 at Morgan State, $313 at Coppin State, and $218 at Salisbury State. Each year the most pressing issue facing University faculty is studied, Hill said. The faculty recently became aware of the effect of inflation on library service, he said. ""They [faculty] were concerned when they realized that if they were buying fewer books themselves, then the library must be doing the same."" The impact of the library budget will be felt to a greater extent in the new few years when new programs are developed. ""Our mission is quality education within the framework of a compre-hensive university,"" Hill said. ""We're developing more master's programs and being asked to do quality work without state support to upgrade the library. No criticism is aimed at the library itself since it can only work with the money it's given. Hill said new programs at the mas-ter's level require materials in more specialized areas. Cook Library's col-lection of materials is weakest in the newer areas of nursing, occupational therapy and accounting, and in ex-panding areas such as business and mass communications. The study also addressed library staffing showing the University's student/librarian service ratio to be 177.8 F.T.E. students per librarian as compared with 72.6 at Bowie State and 113.8 at Coppin State. Cook Library with maintenance problems such as poor air condition-ing is ""not an inducement to study and keeps students away,"" Hill said. ""The ambience of an educational facility affects the quality of educa-tion,"" he added. The committee recommended in-creasing the library's budget alloca-tion, replacing the air conditioning system and adding photocopying machines, requiring reports by the University Senate about Cook's materials in new programs as they are introduced, and increasing in pro-fessional and clerical staff over the next three years. The ECS decided in January to give the DAR use of the Center for that weekend. Both Riley and Charles Eckels, director of the ECS, said that the decision to give the DAR use of the Towson Center was based on an effort to ""maximize use of the facil-ities"" at the University. That is, they decided that both events could be held on campus at the same time, but that the volleyball tournament could be better accommodated at Burdick Hall than the DAR. Geppi, however, did not agree and protested the decision to Hoke Smith, president of the University. She argued that Burdick Hall would be ""too small to hold the 16 teams in the tournament"" and cited overcrowded locker rooms and show-ers as proof. Smith, however, upheld the deci-sion to allow the DAR to use the Towson Center. He said that at the time he also felt that the volleyball tournament could be accommodated in Burdick and that it would be ""good public relations"" to allow the DAR to use the Center. The DAR has had an event in the Towson Center every year since it opened in 1977. Smith said later that it was a ""bad decision"" and that he ""misunder-stood the scope of the tournament."" As a result, he set up an advisory committee to decide who would use the Towson Center. The committee includes Riley, Charles Haslup, assistant to the president, Joseph McMullen, athletic director, and Ellen Eason, physical education chairperson. As a ""conciliatory"" gesture, Smith suggested that the volleyball team host the ECC Championship Tournament. Geppi says she immediately ""re-quested the dates [November I3#14] for the tournament at the Towson Center and was told that Amway was 'on hold' for those dates."" ""On hold"" means no contract has been signed but that group has priority for scheduling events on those dates, according to the ECS. See TOWSON CENTER, page 8 Handicap problems cited By Gayle Griisser As Towson State readies to celebrate its fourth annual Handi-capped Awareness week beginning Monday, there is cause for satisfac-tion and contemplation. The University has come a long way since 1978 when the federal government mandated that higher education institutions must make their campuses accessible to disabled students, said Lynne Dowell, director of the Office of Special Needs. At that time the University lacked even the most basic curb cuts to enable wheel-chair students mobility. Since 1978 the University has spent $20,240 of an original grant of $370,000 from the state on access to building parking lots and sidewalks. Dowell said although improve-ments have been made the University still has problems with heavy doors, inaccessible bathrooms, classrooms and buildings. The Counseling Center is inaccessible to students because of the lack of a wheelchair ramp, and several classrooms into Stephens Hall are impossible to enter. Dowell said she has been told bathroom modifications are included in the renovation plans for Stephens in 1985 but believes three years is a little long to make someone wait to go to the bathroom. A survey taken three years ago suggested flattening the campus and starting from scratch. ""I have been promised [this year] electric doors on all major buildings,"" Dowell said. Included in the 1984 University budget are major door modifications, bathroom modification and the instal-lation of audio and visual alarms. David Garafola, business manager for the physical plant, said all the work should be completed between this Christmas and the fall of 1983. Garafola said the reason that the University had spent little of the grant money within the past three years is that the physical plant had to get specifications together for all the contract work and meet with aca-demic officials to determine the needed changes and modifications. ""We are moving along a little faster now,"" Garafola said. The phys-ical plant is still looking at different methods of making Glen Esk accessi-ble to wheelchair students and no bathroom modifications are included for Stephens Hall. While improvements are still needed, Dowell said the University has a ""good reputation for student services."" Through an $11,000 budget from the Board of Trustees of State Universities and Colleges, the AIDS office provides readers and students to read and record examinations for blind students. ""A tremendous boon for totally blind or dyslexic students"" will be the new Kurzweil reading machine, Dowell said. ""It is going to attract more blind students."" The Xerox Corporation awarded the machines to 200 institutions out of 3,000 submissions. Towson State received the machine on the strength of its handicapped services, said Dowell. The University also has a visual tech which enlarges print 64 percent, a braille typewriter, a machine which allows deaf students to telephone and communicate by visual screen, and a mini computer terminal that prints out letters corresponding to beeps which allows deaf students to com-municate by phone. Sally Souris, vice president of institutional advancement, is also working to secure a donation from a private source for students with cerebral palsy. ""It's awfully exciting,"" Dowell said. Four cerebral palsy students attend the University now but the grant could allow more students handicapped by cerebral palsy to attend the University and provide attendants. Dowell said she would like to see the University obtain a talking ter-minal for blind students since the computer science is a major field for disabled students. By Joanna Cumming Student finds happiness in the bookshelves. "