The Towerlight, September 14, 2000

tl20000914-000 "Thursday www.thetowerlight.com Published twice-weekly by students of Towson University 9/14/00 'Dr. Laura' show sparks protests 3 Morgan takes Ed.D program 5 For James, blues is reality 13 Spalevic's travels bring him to TU 19 Departments News Police Blotter 7 Nation 7 A&E 11 In a Theater Near You 12 Wrasslin' Weekly 17 Sports 19 East Break 19 Op/Ed 16 Student activities changes to focus on involvement David M. Baker The Towerlight Students walking through the Union may have noticed a few changes in the Student Activities office. For one thing, the name is now Office of Student Involvement and Transitions. But what might not be so obvious to the casual passer-by are the changes going on inside. The changes, which involved hiring new personnel and shift-ing others to new positions, come as the result of a July deci-sion to combine activities, ori-entation and commuter services under one roof. Dr. Teri Hall, the new assis-tant vice president of Student Involvement and Transitions and former Student Activities director, said the changes were made with the students in mind. ""[The idea is to] wed those three areas because each of those three areas seek to get students connected to Towson in some way,"" Hall said. Hall says the department's overarching goal is to provide students with a sense of conti-nuity from orientation to grad-uation and beyond. ""I think it helps with the flow of students in a way that we didn't have before,"" Hall said. ""We focus on students very ini-tially as they come to Towson through TU CARES and through orientation and get them connected there. [Now] , we can flow right into Student Activities and the organizations getting involved. And then we also have the ... programs and the services available for stu-dents once they move off cam-pus. So I think there's a kind of a nice flow for students as they go through their career at Towson."" See ACTIVITIES, page 4 'Angela's Ashes' author coming to Towson Center Gasper Tringale Scnbner Author Frank McCourt, whose memoir ""Angela's Ashes"" was a New York Times best seller and became a feature film, will give a lecture at the Towson Center tonight at 7:30 p.m. See the story on page 11. America East, CAA could merge Presidents to meet Sept. 26 to discuss expansion; conference could add up to six teams Adam S. Reisinger The Towerlight With American University, the University of Richmond and East Carolina University prepar-ing to leave the Colonial Athletic Association for various other conferences, America East may invite the six remaining CAA teams to join what would become the largest conference in the country. The departures of the three CAA schools would leave the CAA precariously close to falling below the six members needed to receive an automatic bid to NCAA championship events, which has left those schools looking for new confer-ence alignments. America East will hold a meeting Sept. 26 where the pres-idents of the 10 member univer-sities are expected to vote on expanding the conference. University President Dr. Hoke L. Smith said he's in favor of the possible expansion, but isn't sure how the vote will See EXPANSION, page 22 MERICA EAST Today High 81 Low 62 Friday High 74 Low 52 Saturday High 68 Low 47 Sunday High 70 Low 49 "