The Towerlight, October 28, 1977

tl19771028-000 "Julia and Mr. Goodbar"" reviewed. See page 7. 10 d e' VOL. LXX NO 8 ans�P tSunday at 8 p.m. Towson uenter Pearl Bailey TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY OCTOBER 28, 1977 I Kern*, the Circle K mascot, helped raise $2,039 for Multiple Sclerosis in last wee kends Rockerthon. See story page 3. TL photo by Mark Gail dd 'Senate adjourns without considering concert bill � Hanks elected All students covered until deadline Insurance deadline set at Nov. 6 by Art Goldberg Due to a poor student response, the October 27 payment deadline for the TSU student Insurance Plan has been extended to November 4, ac-cording to Robert Wolf, associate director of Finance for the Univer-sity. However, the plan has actually been in effect since September 1. In essence, all full-time day students may file claims until November 4, whether they have paid for the insurance or not. ""I feel committed to the concept of a good, basic, sound student health insurance program,"" said Wolf. As underwritten by the Guarantee Trust Life Insurance Company (Chicago) the $42.40 premium entitles students to 24-hour, 12 month coverage, including accident and sickness benefits up to $2,000 as well as a major medical benefit of 80 percent of all expenses up to $5,000. Waiver Cards Included in fall registration materials was an insurance waiver card that students were required to wF by Steve Verch Tired and frustrated after nUlterous attempts to fill a Senate vacancy, the SGA Senate adjourned Tuesday without considering any of , the bills listed on the Senate Agenda, p; and left the fate of advanced ticket 184es for the recently scheduled England Dan and John Ford Coley (�iced in jeopardy. Last week the Senate approved ' legislation subsidizing an additional 81) 1,000 tickets available to Towson , 6i students at a $2 discounted price to the r November 19 Bob Seger concert at the Towson Center. ne However, when Seger cancelled his entire East Coast tour due to a record-ing cornmitment, John Scallan, the University promotions director, was able to contract England Dan and tJ,01in Ford Coley as replacements for 'Ile same date. SGA President John Ruark vetoed 'he Seger subsidy since that concert as cancelled. This week Senator ete Binns introduced Senate Bill #28, act authorizing that 1,500 tickets be senunted to Towson students for the ''ngland Dan and John Ford Coley concert, Speaking in favor of SB #28 at the start of the Senate meeting, Ruark 3, aid that since the Senate had few ob- Jections to subsidizing the Seger con-cert (only Senator Tony Tubman voted in opposition last week), and that since the SGA does have the ,11,_1an1 eiYll,. the Senaate should approve In addition, he called the replace-rnent concert ""a much better act,"" and urged the Senate to ""help St Urged directly by subsidizing tIckets for this concert."" With ticket sales dates already 3. advertised for today, Ruark said that the Senate's inaction Tuesday meant that the entire ticket distribution system would be affected since the distributors would not know how many tickets to allocate for Towson students. Senator Brian Ridgeley, who Tues-day seconded Senator Brigid Ross' motion to adjourn, stated after the meeting that he was opposed to SB #28. ""I don't think most people on this campus want England Dan, or for that matter wanted Bob Seger."" The attempts to fill the Senate vacancy which precipitated the aforementioned situation, were at times chaotic and time-consuming. The senators took nearly an hour to decide upon a procedure and to con-duct a vote to fill one vacancy. There were motions to nominate, renominate, consider, reconsider, vote, roll call, secret ballot, discuss, and debate. etc. Vice President Debbie Leslie, citing the Senate rules requiring that vacan-cies be of primary concern to the Senate, turned control of the meeting over to Ridgeley, president pro tern of the Senate. Ridgeley reported that the Univer-sity Affairs Committee, charged with the responsibility of making a recom-mendation to the Senate, had been unable to decide among the five can-didates. The five candidates were: Erik Hanks, Thyron Scott, Michelle Wilson, Linda Rogers, and Melissa Murray. Returning to the task of filling a vacancy, the Senate went from com-mittee of the whole to its original order, and the motions began to deter-mine procedure for the vote Senator Nancy Payne tried to � � nominate Hanks, but several senators objected, saying the procedure was unfair. Payne moved to nominate three of the five and the motion was seconded, though her motion to end debate was denied. The motion was reconsidered and please turn to page 5 return to Financial Operations or else they were automatically billed the $42.50. From out of the 8,900 eligible full-time day students, only 4,500 waiver cards were returned, indicat-ing that another 4,400 were possibly interested in purchasing insurance. However, only about 750 of these students have actually made the premium payment, leaving approxi-mately 3,500 students whose deci-sions are unknown, but who due to the extension of the final payment deadline have free coverage until November 4. Actually the extension to Novem-ber 4 follows an earlier postpone-ment that had set an original deadline of October 20. Wolf reiterated that there is no financial penalty for students who failed to return the waiver, but do not want the insurance. ""If we (Finance Department) haven't heard from students by the extended cut-off date, they. (stu-dents) will not be responsible for paying any money,"" he said. ""Our target is for the participa-tion of all students who don't have other insurance but who might need it,"" he added. ""We need their decisions (about insurance) right away."" Wolf and his associate Gerry Hartung are currently attempting to assess the numbers of students covered by other outside insurance policies, based on information supplied on returned waiver cards. '1For instance, students who are still dependent on their parents would still be covered ,by their parents' policies,"" said Wolf. Increase in Premiums ""We are not getting the (student) responses back this year,"" corn-mented John R. Miller, director of purchasing at TSU. ""The increase in premium may partially be responsible,- he said. This year, the cost of the Guaran-tee Insurance Company's student plan was increased from the 1976 price of $31.50. However, the benefits offered to students are basically the same. ""I know that compared to costs outside, individual coverage would be excessive,"" said Miller, ""much more than $42.50; I know that the costs of individual coverage is really expensive."" Certain health services are avail-able to all students who are not included in the student health plan because these students would probably use local hospitals in case of accident or injury, resulting in higher costs to the insurance company. In an effort to put a finger on possible ways to prevent delays in the future, Miller said ""From an administrative standpoint, we have to work out a better system of internal processing, to cut on (processing) time,"" Last year, the insurance bills were mailed as part of the regular statement of student fees. However, this year, separate invoices for the insurance premiums were not mailed out until October 1. ""The insurance company is really sticking their neck out, they're pushing to get the names of the insured students,"" said Miller, who added that he doubted there would be another extension of the final payment deadline. 1977 Claims Yet Pat Schwabbe, the Health Center twenty-five insurance Secretary in said about claims have been filed in the facility since September 1, and ""there may be more we don't know about."" ""Students who file insurance claims are not required to give a copy (of claim form) 4) the Health Center,"", she said. Students filing claims can mail forms directly to the insurance company. Schwabbe, however, said that out of the twenty-five known claims since September 1, some may have been filed by students who have yet to pay the bill for the premium to Wolf in the Financing Department. In the 1976-77 term that just ended in August, the Guarantee Life Insurance Company settled claims of $60,904.30 as 383 claims were filed. Approximately 2100 students had purchased the policy, generat-ing about $66,150 in premiums. However, the company will most likely show a deficit for last year, as several outstanding claims left over from 76-77 have yet to be settled. ""This (deficit) is why the premium rate did go up this year,"" said Miller. Towson State deals with about eleven different insurance com-panies, including Blue Cross/Blue Shield which covers University employees. Full-time students who partici-pate in inter-collegiate sports are covered by a completely separate policy. Football players are covered by even another separate policy. All are encouraged by Athletic Depart-ment officials to purchase the Student Health plan in order to provide additional insurance. All the insurance companies that deal with Towson State were selected by the State of Maryland through normal contract bidding procedures. Two-year accreditation process underway i� � by Debbie Pelton Preparation is underway for an evaluation that will determine TSU's eligibility for reaccreditation by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. According to an information publication, the Middle State's As-sociation of Colleges and Schools is ""a non-profit independent member-ship organization established in 1887 for the improvement of educational institutions and for the development of effective working relations among schools, institutions of higher education and other educa-tional agencies...."" The evaluation, which occurs every ten years, involves a self-study by the institution of progress achieved in reaching goals set up by the University. In a bulletin issued by Vice Presi-dent Joseph Cox, the reaccreditation' is identified as ""an invaluable challenge to reflect on our goals, to October blood drive succeeds in surpassing goal of 400 pints Phil Ross, Safety Coordinator, reported that the Towson State University October 3-6 Blood Drive was successful in reaching its goal of 400 pints with 415 pints collected. The Blood Drive continues to enable all donors full coverage in the event blood is needed and at no expense. The blood drive not only afforded the availablity of free blood but also enabled students the opportunity to gain experience in community service. Professors Ed Roulhac and Carol Molinari of the Health Science Department encouraged the parti-cipation of their students as volunteers. They took an active part by working with publicity, donor registration and assisting the American Red Cross during the donations. Student evaluations are not futile exercise by Patrick Casey Although many students view t ::ern as an exercise in futility, -'uclent evaluations of teacher Performance are used and valued by stIltrilacthi nt<i )f the faculty and admini-according to Joseph W. C�x, dean of the University. Cox said although ""you could get an argument in any department, tiler� is ""a consensus that they are useful and necessary."" C�rnpleted at the end of each 'ernester, the evaluations consist of clUantitative data and written cernments. They are handled by the various c partments. Evaluations have two uses; they re used by individual instructors to 1 ""i 7-tuutite tneir course content itou aching methods, and by the niversity in general to select candidates for promotion and tenure, Por the individual teacher, written commets often draw the greatest at tention. ' ' Frequently,"" said Cox, they are the most useful."" Of evaluations of one of his courses, he said, ""I learn things from them, I'm 1.1(it sure Would have occurred to me. completely changed the format Of one of my courses because of the comments."" Cox said further, ""Most faculty take them very seriously."" Student evaluations were made an official part of the University's promotion and tenure process by a document adopted by the Academic Council in 1973. Cox said the document ""codified practices which were in effect for years but which had never been succinctly stated in one document. The promotion and tenure process relies on three sources: student evaluation, peer evaluation and recommenations from the commu-nity and from scholars at other institutions. Asked whether any of these sources were weighted more hea-vily, Cox said, ""The likelihood of sOmeone being promoted who wasn't outstanding in all three categories is slim."" ""Most faculty would say, I would think, that they couldn't imagine an evaluation system without them,"" said Cox. The initiative for recommending teachers eligible for promotion or tenure rests with the department. ""The teacher's department will utilize peer and student evaluations to make their judgment,"" said Cox. Having built ""their best possible case,"" the departments send their recommendations to one of five divisional promotion and tenure committees. These committees are elected by faculty, and consist of at least one representative from each depart-ment. The divisional deans sit on committees ex-officio. With the task of reviewing recommendations and ranking them in order of priority, the committees, said Cox, ""need the strength of Hercules and the wisdom of Solomon. They look very seriously at peer and student evaluation."" Recommendations are then sent to Cox, who with the divisional deans, must make the final decision. ""That's when it's really tough,"" said Cox. ""Only the superstars make it to the top...and not all can be promoted."" ""At every one of these stages, student evaluations are an integral part of the process,"" said Cox. Student-run evaluations were once used to compile a student course guide according to Debbie Leslie, SGA vice-president. But the guide disappeared due to faculty dissatisfaction with its contents. Cox said, ""The problem with it was that it was not very systematic. It depended on who asked which questions of what faculty member."" Leslie expressed some interest in reviving the course guide, but offered no definite plans. Cox said, ""There's nothing to prevent the SGA from doing its own evaluation of the faculty. ""The problem is,"" he said, ""that competition for faculty members' time is so great that many are reluctant to give up more than they already are."" Cox was dubious about circum-venting this problem by giving students access to the faculty-run evaluations. ""The students write them in confidence,"" he said. ""If they are published, it might have the effect of making students more circum-spect in their commentary.- ' Students are not identified in any way on their evaluations. Cox said, ""It's not conceivable that they could gain access with the approval of the Academic Council. But they would have to go through the process."" identify problems we may have in meeting them, to take steps toward solving them, and to consider where our future efforts may lead us."" Self-studies are conducted by academic departments, administra-tion, students and library staff. The evaluations are submitted to a 16- person Steering Committee that was appointed by Dr. James Fisher. The committee is composed of five faculty members, four adminis-trators, four students and three members of the library staff. Chair-person of the committee is Dr. Robin Hatcher. The committee ""weeds through data submitted by the groups and compacts the information into the required 200 page pamphlet to present to the Middle States Associ-ation evaluation team. The committee hopes to complete a rough draft of the pamphlet by next fall,"" said Dr. Hatcher. A copy of the rough draft will be presented to the community who will be able to react to the evalua-tion during subsequent hearings. A final draft is projected for January 1979. In spring of 1979, an eight to ten person MSA evaluation team will visit the university for three days. They will ""wander around and talk to students, faculty and administra-tors, look for inconsistencies in the pamphlet"" and ""discuss their impressions with each other,"" said l Hatcher. nen eresident Fisher will get an oral report from the team about their observations and suggestions for improvements in the university. A �ew weeks later, a written report will be sent to Dr. Fisher. Ultimately, the Commission on Higher Education decides on the reaccreditation on the basis of the MSA team's findings. Students can contribute to the evaluations and Stdering Committee member Mickey Wilson thinks they should. ""It's a once in ten year opportunity,"" she said. Students should take the opportunity to get involved in the departments' self-study."" Dr. Joseph Cox "