The Towerlight, September 19, 1975

tl19750919-000 "nt Towerlight survey reveals Book prices by Marj Mayers $1.00. The basic French text French: In response to a number of student complaints concerning rising prices of required college texts at Towson State, Towerlight conducted a comparative shopping test with identical texts at the Johns Hopkins University. Towerlight did find a significant difference of a dollar or more between books found in both stores. In the case of the Morrison and Boyd text, Organic Chemistry, a book commonly used by chemistry, biology, and related medical majors, a book which sold for $20.95 at Towson's bookstore, cost only $19.95 at Hopkins, a difference in price of tr,t a Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing by Brown cost $12.10 at Towson while selling for only $11.50 at Hopkins, a difference of $.60. The German textbook, Zur Diskussion by Sevin cost $7.50 at Towson while only $6.95 at Hopkins, a difference in price of $.55. However, Towerlight did find a few standard works which were the same price at both schools. According to Al Duke, manager of the Towson State bookstore, ""Hopkins bookstore is owned by the Follett Company,"" a national organization which owns and operates a large number of VOL. LXVIII, NO. 3 TOWSON STATE COLLEGE SEPTEMBER 19, 1975 Fisher's faculty address labels public school grads as 'illiterate' President James L. Fisher, in his fall address to the faculty, declared that ""increasingly, colleges and universities in Maryland are enrolling public school graduates who are functionally illiterate -- persons who can scarcely read and write...and that this condition will not be obviated until the public schools get around the serious, unvarnished business of introducing standardized achievement testing in reading, writing, and computation, and then holding teachers accountable for the process."" Fisher continued, ""Ours is neither the authority nor the direct respon-sibility to solve these problems of the public schools. Our function is to assume in this spreading morass of anxious mediocrity a role of compassionate strength and intelligence...hopefully a role that will oblige and encourage others to attend rationally to this growing and -unfortunate condition. At Towson this may mean 'the introduction (If more comprehensive standardized testing on our low...Let no one of us, for long, fall victim to either the market place or the fallacious notion that granting the credentials amounts to having accomplished the test."" Market place demands Fisher said that his main concern for Towson for the coming year is that, ""we may succumb too much to the encroachments of the professions -- the demands of the market place."" He did not imply that serious attention to the market is not a legitimate and necessary concern, but he sugge.ted that this year Towson ""proceed from the Position that a university experience is not for every person and that there are requisites of both achievement and ability that must be met before admission to the college."" He reminded the faculty that ""our prime function is to provide an en-vironment from which a student, of any age, can create for himself/herself the beginnings of a liberal education."" ""A liberal education implies a set of standards or requirements that must be accomplished by all who receive our collective and official endorsement."" He added, ""Finally the greater value of liberal education is to establish the breadth and depth of leadership of human society, without which the fear and hedonism of anarchy will surely prevail."" He reminded the faculty that while Towson is the most attractive school in the state in terms of student applications and that because of this demand for admission, Towson admission standards are the highest of any public college or university in Maryland, that Towson needed to ""continue and yet say 'whoa' at the same time."" Lack of fundamentals He presented a picture of too many recent university graduates -- persons adorned in the regalia of the academy speaking a language which at first ap-pears educated and rational but on closer examination is revealed as a montage of impressive words and concepts held together without even a rudimentary knowledge of either the concepts or the fundamentals of English grammar. Fisher proceeded to present an analysis of higher education in Maryland: ""We are recently from a period of public anger born of our schizophrenic 60's which was politically translated into the 'new accountability' we now face. ""It is all but common knowledge that in Maryland, public higher education is replete with virtually unchecked mismanagement, unnecessary and costly program and personnel duplications, inflated and unrealistic enrollment projections, and hidden and unaccountable decisionmaking within the bureaucratic maze, all of which contribute to an annual waste of millions of tax dollars."" ""The unchecked growth of the bureaucracy in Maryland is every bit as serious as the federal bureaucracy,"" said Fisher. ""For instance, since 1973 our college administrative staff has increased by five people or 6 per cent with an enrollment increase of over 20 per cent. ""During the same period the control agencies that regulate decisions that affect Towson State College added approximately 350 staff, or a ratio of 70 to 1. More specifically, the State Department of Budget and Fiscal Planning increased its staff by some 84 per cent; the Maryland Council for Higher Education by approximately 60 per cent; the Department of General Services by roughly 32 per cent; and the Board of Trustees by 22 per cent. And yet, I can declare publicly, thereby inviting any critical test, that in no way has either the program or the efficiency of Towson State College been enhanced by the addition of any of those State personnel...It's as if the State is running down hill too fast to stop and take a look at itself."" Political machinery ""This condition is compounded by the State's approval of additional ex-penditures of absolute millions of dollars to support academic programs Without any rationale other than political pressure. Whether or not these programs are necessary, useful, or in the general public interest are questions that have never been seriously examined by either the political or educational machinery of the State,"" Fisher noted. Stating that the most encouraging promise of reform came over two years ago when the Governor appointed the Rosenberg Commission on Education, he said that the report ""has about it a tension and structural flabbiness that was not obviated by five pages of minority opinion attached at the end of the document...While on the one hand it has about it the general aura of enlightenment, on the other, it is a transparent bag of special interests, Politics, and costly bureaucratic people-shuffling."" Fisher supported the recommendation of the creation of one board and a commissioner for higher education, stating that ""we would finally have to confront higher education in its full context and thereby finally address the glaring weaknesses, inconsistencies, and waste that exist between the com-munity colleges, the state colleges, and the university -- in other words we would finally have someone in the State concerned about and able to maintain the greater public interest."" He also supported the concept of separate boards for each institution of higher education that would make possible institutional uniqueness. ""The continuation of a tripartite system under such an arrangement would simply be adding another layer to an already suffocating bureaucracy."" The section on ""additional Recommendations"" included in the report, Fisher said, ""is gratuitous and clearly beyond the charge given the Com-mission by the Governor. ""It's like my asking a consultant group to study the biology department and then receiving and accepting recommendations on the athletic program."" Foggy thinking ""One must question as foggy or shallow-thinking the recommendations calling for the creation of councils which may serve only as additional and costly layers in an already burgeoning State bureaucracy; the appointment of a joint board chairperson with a tie-breaking vote and apparently without credentials."" ""Indeed, the very creation of a joint board itself appears to be the result of not knowing what else to do to reconcile differences between the upper and lower educational systems; and the creation of a research and policy analysis center at the University of Maryland portends a dangerous university monopoly,"" he noted. ""Recommendations calling for the establishment of institutional goals, a permanent planning staff, and the Eastern Shore Regional University, all represent a direct usurpation of the authority and responsibility of their own proposed board of higher education."" Fisher also spoke of Towson's progress in the areas of Affirmative Action and desegregation and called for even greater commitments during the coming year. TSU? In reviewing Towson's quest for university designation, Fisher said of the Governor's veto: ""If I hadn't had previous dealings with him, it would have been as a bolt from the sky. He told me in a private meeting in his office on March 10, 1975 of his complete support for university designation, and he said essentially the same thing in a public press conference on March 20, 1975. ""We were not even included on a list of bills that he was considering vetoing that were scheduled to be heard on May 15, 1975. All he did was veto the bill and leave for Russia the next day, promising throughout to return my calls which he has yet to return...The prime question of university designation remains, and at this moment the issue seems to me to be between the legislature and the Governor."" The Albert S. Cook Library is pleased to an-nounce the extension of weekend hours. Beginning Saturday, September 18, the library will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. This brings to 81 the total number of hours the entire library is open for service during the week. LIBRARY HOURS Mon.-Thurs. Fri. Sat. Sun. 8 a.m.-10 p.m. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. 1 p.m.-9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday nights, the Reserve Room on the second 'lour is ()pen 1111LI1 1111(111Ig111.. mong highest bookstores throughout the country. Larger discount Duke further explained that, ""because of their size, Follet orders far more � books than Towson and therefore receives a larger quantity discount than Towson."" He went on to say that the publisher sets a suggested retail price and the bookstore buys in large quantities, paying the retail price and subtracting a special discount for the volume order. The books are then shipped by freight from the publishers to the store, thus involving a motor freight charge. In order to cover the shipping costs, the store sets a fixed average rate of 50/0. The suggested retail price of the book plus the 5�/o flat rate established for the freight determine the price of the books. In the case of Random House, in Westminster, Duke noted, the 50/o rate would be a bit high. However, in the case of a shipment from the Chicago Press or further west, the 5�/o rate would be quite low. In the end, the 50/0 cost seems to work out as a good compromise, ""much like overhead or one of the costs of doing business,"" Duke added. Deadline set As a self-supporting operation, the store must take into consideration the policy of return privileges from the publishers. Thus, the final date for returning books for a cash refund is Friday, September 19. This date was chosen because, as Duke explained, the store buys a certain number of books from the publishers with a deadline for returning the books in order to obtain refunds. The publishers must receive the books by the deadline date. The final return date for the store is the end of September, one week after the September 19th final refund date for students, which Duke maintains ""is cutting it very close."" However, he pointed out, Towson's two-week policy is the longest in the Baltimore-Washington area, some schools allowing only three days. Text shortage The most common problem seems to be a shortage of texts and the subsequent rise in the number of individual orders. He feels the primary reasons behind the shortage seem to be the expansion of course enrollment, the opening of additional sections to accommodate the overcrowding, and the greater number of students coming from other colleges to buy their books at Towson. Duke maintained that students often came down from I-Person Registration in the multi-purpose rooms and bought their books im-mediately after enrolling in a newly-created section of a previously closed-out course, or a course for which enrollment numbers had been ex-panded. As a result, students who enrolled earlier by mail arrived when classes began and found their texts sold out. The store is handling an unusually large amount of special orders as a result of the shortages. ""At the beginning of the third week,"" Duke -.pointed out, ""we took over 200 special orders in one day. Now that's very high."" Publishers contacted Anticipating problems during the rush, the bookstore ordered a teletype to contact the publishers directly with orders in hopes of off-setting the shortage. There have been some complaints about the store's hours, particularly questioning the opening time of 10 a.m. ""The day school students have a legitimate argument,"" Duke agreed, ""but they fail to realize the large contingent of night school students involved."" In an effort to accommodate late-arriving night students, the store remains open until 10 p.m., twenty minutes after the last night class ends. Store hours To open the store at 8 a.m. and close at 10 p.m. would create a 14 hour workday and, Duke indicated, overwork his staff. He seemed to feel the 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. time system was more equitable all around. Overcrowding occurs by Kathy Kraus Commenting on this year's fall registration, Mr. William Reuling, Associate Registrar, noted that the procedures adopted for registration functioned smoothly, but that overcrowding of students in courses had occurred. ""We did overload in some classes,"" says Reuling. ""We have had to raise the minimum and maximum number of students per class designated by the Department Chairpersons. On the average, class enrollment was set at 25-30 students per class at the onset of registration. These limits had to be raised to 35-37 to accommodate student interest."" The Associate Registrar noted the declining student interest in Teacher Education and an increased call for health, mass communication, and business administration, thus overloading those departments. He commented that the reduced financial position of the college did not allow for permanent hiring of full-time demands. yto meet increased course Reuling remarked that the few extra students in a class may not make a significant difference when you consider those who never show up and those who decide to drop the class. He emphasized that English composition and speech classes were kept small because of the nature of the course. Although no real complaints about class size have been received from fadulty and students, teachers have expressed some personal views on the matter. Miss M. Kahl, chairwoman of the history department, remarked that ""lower division classes are crowded."" Student i A young man, posing as a student, visited several sections of the campus on Monday, and got more than the information he apparently was seeking. He managed to collect car keys, credit cards, 40 TSC football passes, a TSC athletic ring and $8.70 from the helpful, but unwary, people he met. The first suspicion that he was up to no good came at 3:30 p.m. when security received a call from a staff member in the College Center saying that her car keys were missing from her desk. A search was conducted but the suspect could not be found. However, campus police received another call from the same office at 5:30 saying the suspect was back. When Officer Robert Wheatley responded and asked for iden-tification, the young man began removing objects from his pockets, including the missing car keys which were immediately identified by the victim. ""We would like our students to take written exams, not mere multiple-choice questions,"" she commented, ""but then teachers would have too much paperwork. We've raised the limits, on the average, to 37 students per class this year. No classroom discussion is possible with such large numbers."" She feels that with over thirty students in most history classes, the best job cannot be done. ""The spread of students is above our ideal."" Speaking for the department of business administration, Mr. A. Holt feels that ""beyond 18-22 students per class, small group interaction is lost. But this model number is not in effect at the majority of colleges. In most institutions, 30-40 students per class is the rule and Towson is within this rule."" In the mass communications department, Mrs. Stone notes that enrollment limits for all MCOM courses were raised. ""Even the emergency sections are crowded. Teachers are concerned because they feel the students are not receiving the individual attention necessary in performance classes such as speech, writing skills, and production skills."" The students haven't grumbled yet, for the reason that most of them are happy to have even gotten into a course. ""There is, no place anywhere,"" observes Dr. C. Breuss of the health department. ""Classes are overfilled. The faculty is unhappy, but not up in arms. After all, that's why they're here - to accommodate the student."" Dr. Breuss stated that some people who wanted to become health majors could not do so because of the overcrowding in the required basic courses. mposter The suspect, a 17 year-old from the Cherry Hill area, was arrested and searched. He also had in his possession articles which were later discovered missing from offices in Burdick Hall and a small quantity of suspected marijuana. He was turned over to Baltimore County Police Juvenile Division and . later released to his parents pending juvenile proceedings. He also stated there have been 13 such offenses reported since Sep-tember 2. In addition, there were four grand larcenies, one auto theft, two in-stances of trespassing in the residence halls, and one assault. Mr. Dawson went on to say, ""Most students and staff think this is a quiet safe place until it's too late. I don't want to scare anyone, but they must be careful."" He encourages anyone who sees suspicious activities on campus to call the campus police. "