tl20030918-000 "ml Thwerliftft Baltimore's #1 College Paper - Published Twice-Weekly - www.thetowerlight.com Thursday, 9/18/03 Recruits find place with rush 5 Magazine talks women's issues 5 Music faculty to showcase tunes 13 Singer charms in `Temptations' 14 Departments Opinion 2 News 5 Campus briefs 8 Police Blotter 8 Arts 13 Backstage pass 15 Cuisine 16 Sports 20 Punt, Pass, & Pick 19 In this corner 20 Classifieds 17 Campus 'steady' after cutbacks Cailin McGough The Towerlight Six months after the state cut $37 million from the University System of Maryland budget, Towson adminis-trators say they are holding steady while trying to minimize the impact to students. In March, USM Chancellor Brit Kirwan said he expected to see immediate effects from the cuts including approximately 750 layoffs system-wide, significantly higher tuition, larger class size and limits on future enrollment. As of June, the USM predicted only 400 layoffs would occur, USM spokesperson Chris Hart said. He added that exact numbers are diffi-cult to calculate system-wide, espe-cially because many of the positions eliminated were vacant. Towson has been under a hiring freeze since November 2001, when a state edict forced the USM to issue the directive. Singles caught in 'Crossfire' Tuesday Saul Stooganka/7718 Towerlight Senior Jerry Jones dances with friends at University Residence Government's `Cupid's Crossfire' event. Isabel cancels afternoon classes Crisis team outlines emergency plans for campus as hurricane approaches coastline Sarah Breitenbach The Towerlight By Wednesday afternoon Towson University was prepared to handle whatever Hurricane Isabel has to offer the Baltimore area. After a meeting of the crisis man-agement team, the University announced that classes would be canceled after 12:30 p.m. today and all day Friday. Col. Bernard Gerst, director of public safety for the Towson University Police Department, explained that classes would be canceled, but said the University would not be fully closed for busi-ness until further notice. The team, which consists of uni-versity vice presidents, directors and department representatives, was called together to discuss how TU would manage the storm. Gerst said that the University put together the team in order to cover all areas of TU that might be affect-ed. In the event that residence halls need to be evacuated, students will be asked to take one to two days worth of clothes and something to sleep on and proceed to Burdick Hall, Gerst said. He explained that Burdick would be best for the situation because of its capacity to hold a large volume of students, with recreation and locker room use. Assistant vice president and director for housing and residence life Jerry Dieringer said that it is unknown whether or not it will be necessary to remove students from the dorms. See PLAN, page 7 At this point there have been no layoffs at Towson. However, in the fall issue of Towson magazine, President Robert Caret commented on the economic situation, mention-ing layoffs as a possibility. ""Of course, there are negatives, positions that may not be filled, God forbid, layoffs, or programs that could be eliminated or curtailed... We may be stretched. We may need to realign ourselves to prepare for when the downturn is over,"" Caret told the magazine. In March, senior vice president and chief fiscal officer David Harnage confirmed in an e-mail to faculty and staff that Towson would not consider furloughs as a budget reduction tech-nique. Rather, the University pursued other tactics to reduce spending, par-ing down budgets and eliminating vacant positions. Paul Parker, vice president for stu-dent affairs, said all of the divisions within the University have taken a very significant reduction. ""The vice presidents get together and we look to see what our entire reduction is for the University, and we develop an approach for reaching that number,"" he said. ""...We try to make decisions based on what's best for the University overall, and not just what's best for our own divisions."" Parker said his division elected not to fill some positions, and had to withdraw funding for 14 graduate assistants. ""We also had to substantially decrease all travel funds in the divi-sion. Individual departments and units are going to have to reduce and even eliminate some programs,"" he said. Most vacant positions have been frozen, Parker said, and ""only when we get some additional funds will we talk about thawing those positions out, so to speak, and rehiring."" This could have ramifications on the level of services available to stu-dents, such as limited appointment space at the counseling center, he said. ""There's an account I have that I allocate to various departments to help support social, cultural and edu-cational programs that will have to be either eliminated or reduced,"" he said. Programs could include things like the September celebration, Healthfest or HIV awareness educa- See CUTS, page 7 Today High 69 Low 64 Friday High 73 Low 62 Saturday High 75 Low 54 Sunday High 73 Low 58 Monday High 75 Low 61 "
