The Towerlight, September 27, 1984

tl19840927-000 "SGA gives it up After three weeks of debate, the Student Gov't Association votes to give the marching band money to join the football team in football . . . page 2 Sexual debate Eleanor Smeal and Judith Lin-dahl debate sexual crime Sunday in The Union. Article .. . page 8 commentary by Richard Vatz . pg. 4 Joe Bob arrives Drive-in movie critic Joe Bob Briggs reviews ""Texas Chainsaw Massacre."" . .. page 15 Judge upholds state in pension dispute Teachers unions to appeal ruling By Elise Burns A United States District court judge ruled in favor of the state of Maryland on September 15 which supported the state's power to re-vise its pension plan system for state teachers and classified em-ployees. Several employee organiza-tions brought suit against the state, charging the state with breach of contract. Originally, all state teachers and classified employees were given a pension plan with unlimited cost of living adjustments by contributing an annual fee of 5 per cent of their earnings. Effective in 1980, was a new two-part pension plan for new teachers and employees. This plan gave new employees the choice of either a higher annual fee or a lower cost of living adjustment that pre-viously offered. Employees already under the old system remained in this same unlimited pension plan. Employees organizations did not actively oppose the state's plan un-til 1984, when the Maryland Gen-eral Assembly revoked all em-ployees from the unlimited pension plan. Employees could keep the un-limited cost of living adjustment, but pay an increased fee of 7 percent of their annual earnings or continue paying 5 percent annually, but have a maximum of 5 percent cost of liv-ing adjustment. For those previous-ly under the unlimited pension plan, earnings up to date would be left un-touched, and then these employees would be offered a third alternative. They could pay no fee but have a 3 percent maximum cost of living ad-justment and half the usual benefits. The Maryland State Teachers' Association, one of the groups which brought suit has thirty days to make its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals. It will also request an injunction from the court suspend-ing the enforcement of the decision until after the appeal. President of the MSTA, Janice A. Piccinini, said, ""The battle is far from over. We are extremely disap-pointed by the lower court's deci-sion. We believe that the court is in error and the decision will be over-turned by the U.S. Court of Appeals "" We cannot believe that con-tracts made by the Maryland Gen-eral Assembly are so worthless."" Judge James R. Miller, Jr. granted a summary judgement at See PENSION, page 2 Alumni hope to pep Up homecoming By Terie Wolan Homecoming has been a fairly lame event around Towson State University the past few years, but an effort is be-ing made to change that. David Kehne, assistant director of alumni services, said an effort is being made this year to breathe new life into homecoming. Kehne said last year, when he spoke to students at different Mary-land colleges, ""there was a feeling that homecoming had lost its impor-tance. Alumni were not returning in hoards and students .. . weren't in-teracting with alumni."" Pep rally/bonfire Although the football game will be played Saturday afternoon, homecoming events begin Friday night. In addition to the traditional pep rally, featuring the University band, and cheerleaders, there will be a bonfire starting at 9 p.m. on Bur-dick Field. Kehne said in past years, pep rallies didn't draw people onto the campus and as soon as the rally was over, the students left. He , hopes the bonfire will draw out Fri-day night. `A lot of freshmen come from schools that have bonfires as a tradition, so we hope this will give them a common bond,"" Kehne said. At the bonfire, student banners will be displayed and judged, with fifty dollar cash prizes to be award-ed for the best resident and non-resi-dent banners. Kehne said with a category just for commuters, he hopes those students will stay on campus for the event. The alumni office has made ""a real effort on behalf of the alumni,"" Kehne said, to bring them back to the University. Kehne asked cur-rent students to encourage alumni to support homecoming. ""Almost everyone who's a student here now knows someone who graduated,"" said Kehne. ""If those students could persuade a graduate to sup-port homecoming, it would help. If we got back only 25% of the grad-uates of the past few years, we could pack the stadium."" Alumni open house Another new aspect of homecom-ing is the College and School recep-tion, an open house for alumni and students. All the colleges of the Uni-versity will have a room in Van Bok-kelen Hall Saturday morning, 10 a.m. to noon, and alumni and stu-dents can meet and visit faculty and administrators from their college. ""It's an excellent chance for stu- Dumont will focus By Jean Kane Dr. Dick Dumont, professor of so-ciology, joined President Hoke Smith's staff this fall as hs ex-ecutive assistant. Dumont completed his under-graduate work at the University of Maine at Orono, and graduated in Vol. 78 No. 4 Published weekly by the Students of Towson State University Volleyball sets up for season Towson, Matylan(/ 21204 September 27, 1984 The Towson State women's volleyball team defeated Rider College in five games Tuesday night at home. Roxanne Lohmeyer's setting lead Tiger offense. (left) Cindy Boyce sets up to serve. (right) By Jerry Trout dents to meet with faculty and ad-ministrators out of the classroom and encourage discussion about the colleges,"" Kehne said. Parade The homecoming parade, has been reestablished after a twenty-year absence. Debbie Blewitt, chairperson of the parade committee, said ""we're trying to get students interested and motivated to go to all the spor-ting events and we're instituting this spirit at the beginning of the year."" When Blewitt first approached ad-ministrators with the idea of having a parade, she said ""they were a little skeptical,"" but she said so far the students have surprised her with their enthusiasm. Currently, Blewitt expects two floats will be constructed by residents on the older side of campus and four floats from residents living in the Glen Residence Complex. Blewitt esti-mated 200 residents are involved in the parade, plus other campus or-ganizations. Prizes will be awarded for the best overall floats, $200 for first place, $100 for second place, and $50 for third place. No homecoming queen The biggest change in this years homecoming is that the homecom-ing queen contest has been axed. In the past, the contest was criticized as being sexist. Besides the feeling that it was sexist, Kehne said there was a lot of dissatisfaction with the contest. ""A lot of students didn't realize how much the homecoming queen did for the school, what an important role she played. But that role loses its importance if the students don't see it as important,"" said Kehne. Another problem with the home-coming queen was in the past, ""the queen was usually decided by a small group of students voting, and the only contact with the student See HOMECOMING, page 10 Commuters and residents still feuding over parking By Sandi Van Horn Although the parking garage is open this semester, controversy continues for both residents and commuters over the parking situa-tion. Residents are parking in the garage which is actually reserved for commuters. In turn, commuters are parking in resident areas when they are unable to park in their own areas. ""When I come in at 7:30 a.m., it is inconvenient to drive around to find a space because the residents are in here,"" said Lee Weldon, a junior mass communication major. ""If everyone would keep to their own parking lots, we (the commuters) would be a lot happier."" The previous complaint is com-mon among commuters and has ini-tiated some action to resolve the problem in two important ways. The first step being taken is to crack down on the students involved with buying parking stickers illegally for residents. These people are causing the problems for commuters by tak-ing up spaces in the garage. According to David Allen, Park-ing Services Manager,there are 570 spaces available for residi nts on campus, but there are 600 cars reg-istered by residents. This means that there is an overflow of 30 cars being parked in commuter lots, es-pecially the garage. ""I estimate that fifteen to twenty percent of the resi-dent cars were registered by means they were not supposed to,"" Allen pointed out. In other words, residents have falsified records to purchase stickers for freshmen and sopho-mores who are not supposed to have cars on campus. These students, when tracked down, will be dealt with by the Office of Judicial Af-fairs. It is stated in the University catalog that when a student has violated a school code, he will be brought before the board for consid-eration of his case. The second step being taken to solve the parking problem involves the University Police patroling the garage. When the garage opened, students were given a grace period during which they could get ac-customed to the garage. According to Lieutenant R. Wheatley however, this period ended Monday, September 24; and the police are now patroling the garage. ""During my shift from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.,"" Wheatley said, ""we are writing an average of 75 tickets a day."" Wheatley stated that tickets are being written mostly for unreg-istered vehicles and residents who are using the garage illegally. Wheatley added that the police are ticketing commuters who are in resi- See PARKING, page 2 The parking garage was supposed to ease the parking crunch, but even at night, it's filled with residents illegally parking there. Residents say commuters are parking illegally in their lots. And more students find ;15 reminders. on planning, renovation 1963 with a B.A. in Psychology. He then went on to earn his masters and Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Most of his career has been spent teaching at the Universi-ty of Vermont, Bates College in maine, Alfred University in New York, and most recently at Ten-mid Dick Dumont, the new assistant to President Hoke Smith, will be working on several projects this year, among them planning for the movement of professors and classes during the renovation of Stephen's Hall. �, nessee Tech, where he was chairman of the sociology department and a professor of sociology. He made the decision to come to Towson State as an administrator for several reasons. ""In recent years, I have become increasingly involved in administration both at Tennessee Tech and at the state level in Tennessee, and the position at Towson seemed to be the next logical step,"" Dumont said. He continued, ""I was very impressed with the institution when I came for an interview. I think it's a quality institution with a very good atmos-phere for learning and teaching. I like the liberal arts base. I feel corn-fortable where there is a strong com-mitment to liberal arts. As the year begins, Dumont feels that the main area of concern to the University community is the upcoming planned renovation of Stephens Hall, the oldest building on campus. The project is in the planning stage now, � and will take three or more years to complete. Scheduled to begin in the fall of 1985, the project will involve reloca-tion of all the classes, plus the re-maining faculty members and ad-ministrators in the building. Another of Dumont's concerns will be to improve the University's planning capability. He explained, ""My main area of responsibility is the development of an improved in-formation system."" In addition, Du-mont will be involved in the conver-sion of the computers in the Admin-istration Building. Dumont has set several goals for his first year at the University. ""First and foremost, I want to learn as much as I can about the environ-ment in which I am operating so that I can become effective at my job. I will be meeting people, read-ing reports, and learning the poli-cies and procedures,"" he said. He is also interested in providing assis-tance in the renovation and plann-ing procedures. He will also be pro-viding assistance to Smith in his ac-tivities. Dumont offers the following ad-vice to students on how to succeed at the University: ""It is most impor-tant to recognize the extraordinary opportunity that you have to be in such a stimulating environment, one which provides a fertile setting for the development of your poten-tial. Sample as much of it as you can."" Board suspends athlete again, he may appeal ruling By Adam Eisenberg The University judicial board which rescinded its five year suspension of Sheldon E Nelson last week after determining that a pro-cedural error had occured at its first hearing, has once again suspended Nelson for five years in regard to an alleged incident which occured in the Glen dorm complex on September 2. Nelson was arrested on September 4 and charged with seconnd degree sexual asault. He was subsequently suspended by the University on September 10 in regard to the alleged incident. Due to a procedural error which occured during Nelson 's notification of the first hearing, the board voluntarily rescinded its initial suspension, and notified Nelson of a new hearing which was held last Thursday. The board ruled that Nelson violated the student code of conduct and once again suspended him from the University for five years. Nelson has until tomorrow to appeal the board's decision before the suspen-sion goes into effect. Nelson still retains his student status at this time, and was allowed to play in last Saturday's football game against New Haven, Connec-ticut. Should he appeal the judicial board's decision by Friday, Nelson's status as a student will remain valid until the decision goes through the entire appeals process. Ryan said students who are ap-peal suspensions usually retain their student status, unless the board feel, the student is a threat to himself or the community. Even if Nelson does not appeal the decision, two appellate commit-tees will review the decision before University President Hoke Smith makes a final decision in the case, due to the seriousness of the board's decision. Katie Ryan expects the appeal process to take approximately two weeks. Nelson is expected to appeal. The Maryland States Attorney's Office has investigated the assult charge and will bring its case before a grand jury on October 8. "