The Towerlight, September 29, 1983

tl19830929-000 "The Towerlight Vol. 77 No. 4 The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source ala!! true art and science. �Albert Einstein PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY TOWSO.N, MARYLAND 21204 September 29, 1983 BSU members question black faculty, administrators' departure By Chuck Jones Members of Towson State's Black Student Union (BSU) are con-cerned that the University is ""try-ing to systematically remove blacks from the University,"" a spokesman for the organization said. William Marshal, a member of the BSU, said there may be a con-spiracy within the University to ""bump out"" black administrators and cited Tyrone Lewis- and Astra Brantley as examples of the admin-istration's ""removals."" Adrienne Burrows, president of the BSU, said the departure of four black administrators�Julius Chap-man, Harriet Griffin, Lewis and Brantley�over the last year was cause for concern among the Uni-versity's black students because the BSU was not informed about the staff changes. Burrows said the BSU fears that the faculty and administrators may not have left the University volun-tarily and said that the organization should have been kept informed of the changes. ""They [the administration] don't realize that we think it would be important"" to know about the changes in the administration, Bur-rows explained. ""This makes us think they are putting something over on us."" She said University President Hoke L. Smith told her that some of the administrators who left the University were asked to resign their positions and added that Smith said he did not feel the stu-dents should be involved with ""personnel problems."" One of the administrators who resigned, Tyrone Lewis, did so because of communication prob-lems, Dorothy Siegel, Vice-Presi-dent of Student Services, said. Siegel said Lewis, former Assis- (Tyrone) Lewis,' former Assistant Dean of Stu-dent Activity Develop-ment resigned under protest because a misunderstanding led (Dean Dorothy) Siegel to assume that Lewis did not want the position of-fered him. tant Dean of Student Activity Development, resigned under pro-test because a misunderstanding led Siegel to assume that Lewis did not want the position offered to him. Letters and memos between Siegel and Lewis show that the position Lewis held within the University was temporary and the permanent position of Assistant Dean of Minority Affairs�at salary grade 16, step four ($24,891)�was under review by the State of Maryland. Siegel said that the position was approved by the State, but at salary grade 15, a lower-paying level. Subsequent memos show that Siegel had asked Lewis whether he would accept the position at salary grade 15 . Siegel said Lewis did not respond in time for the appoint-ment deadline, so Dean Thomas Knox was returned to his position of Associate Dean of Minority Affairs, a position he had left to fill in for Julius Chapman, another adminis-trator who had left the University. In a memo from Lewis to Siegel dated June 24, 1983, Lewis pro tested kis ""termination"" and stated that he believed that he was being forced to resign because of poor job performance. He claimed that he received no notice of job perfor-mance dissatisfaction and added that ""one serves at the pleasure of [President Smith]."" Also in the memo, Lewis referred to a meeting on May 19 between himself and Siegel in which his future position was discussed. According to Lewis' memo, four days later, on May 24, Siegel tele-phoned Lewis saying she needed his resignation on July 5 in order for the personnel office to ""process me out."" The memo also showed that Lewis had no intention of resigning Budget trimmed, Forensics Union seeks to improve national ranking By Tina Barbera and Tames Hunt As the 1983-84 season nears, the Towson State Forensics Union is seek-ing to improve the high national rank- Mg they earned last year. It is a goal Which may be hampered by a substan-tially trimmed budget. The Union, which was ranked 11th nationally last year in its inaugural season in the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) is facing a budget cut from almost $14,000 last Year to a little over $4,500 this year, a move which will curtail the number of meets the team will be able to travel to. Dr. Brenda Logue, the Union's moderator since 1970, explained that travel is necessary to expose the Union's members to ""diverse and ac-complished teams."" Logue said that many of the best teams, such as Brigham Young and Tulane Univer-sities (both of which the Union com-peted against last year) are in the western part of the country. ""We have to travel to be com-petitive,"" Logue said. Kelley Ray � treasurer of the Stu-dent Government Association, upon which the Union depends for its budget � said the Union's budget was cut, along with almost every other organizational budget, because the SGA's funds this year ""are extremely tight."" She said that this will not prevent the Union from making supplemen-tary budget requests during the year and added that she was meeting with University officials this week to seek additional funding for the Union. ""(The Union's) high ranking enhances the University's image,"" Ray said, ""there is a chance (the University) might decide to fund them."" Regardless of the cutbacks, Logue expects the Union � which was also ranked first in the Northeast, to at least maintain last year's standing. The Union presently has 25 members, including six rookies and veteran standouts Wanda Coppola and Steve Mister, all of whom are presently sharpening their skills by competing among themselves. Among the teams the Union is scheduled to meet this year are: Ship-pensburg (Pa.) State College, Penn State, the University of North Carolina, Western Kentucky, South Utah, Vanderbilt and either Emory or Notre Dame Uiversity. Each semester, CEDA chooses a single topic that each team must debate at every meet. The teams then prepare for the debate by spending hours in the library researching and preparing a file on the topics. (This semester's topic focuses on whether the country's higher educa-tional system has sacrificed quality for institutional survival.) The first few meets are particularly important Logue said, because they are the teams' best guage of their per-formance and the effectiveness and accuracy of their research. There is no experience required to join the Forensics Union, Logue said, and she recommended it to those in-terested in improving their verbal communications and writing skills. Blood letting for the uninitiated By Debbie Balasus For many centuries, physicians practiced bloodletting, the draining of blood from one's body to restore the natural balance of body 'humors' and thus improve one's health. As the years passed, however, the use of bloodletting declined and was aban-doned. It wasn't abandoned entirely, though. Today there is a similar practice. It is performed by nurses, (from the Red Cross, no less) and it is called bloodgiving, the draining of blood from one's body (no more than a pint at a time) to improve someone else's health. And now you have the opportunity to keep this practice thriving by giv-ing your blood when the Red Cross bloodmobile comes to Towson State from Oct. 3-6. For the uninitiated, bloodgiving is a fairly simple four-step procedure and is described in beautiful detail on pamphlets provided by the Red Cross. But, in case you don't have one, here goes: You, the donor, register with the Red Cross, first making sure that you are between the ages of 17 and 65 and weigh at least 110 pounds, then sup-plying them with your name address and other pertinent data. Next, a nurse will take your medical history and a very small sample of blood from your ear lobe to test the iron content of your red blood cells. Then, if everything is in order, you move to the donor room where you lay yourself out on a flat, reasonably com-fortable cot. The blood is then drawn by the nurse who inserts a small, hollow needle connected to a bag into a vein in your arm. The entry of the needle creates a brief sticking sensa-tion in the arm, but the remainder of the procedure, which lasts from four to 10 minutes, is quite painless. Dur-ing this time, a unit of blood (a little less than a pint) will be drawn from your body. (The average adult has anywhere from 10-12 pints and can regenerate the lost pint in 60 days, so you really won't miss it. You may, however, feel a little diz-zy after surrendering your blood, so your final step will be the rest area. There, smiling attendants will ply you with pretzels, cookies and juices to help your body rapidly adjust to its loss of fluid and you can read pam-phlets describing what happens to your blood after you part with it. until he had found another job. Siegel said that National Asso-ciation for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was called (Julius) Chapman (former Associate Dean of Minority Affairs) was offered the position of Executive Vice-President of Voorheese College in South Carolina and ac-cepted the position over a year ago. in at Lewis' request to ""ensure fair treatment of Lewis"" in the matter. The final memo, from Siegel to Lewis, said that Siegel informed Lewis that he was no longer employed by the University. Siegel added that part of the misunderstandings were because Lewis was having personal as well as legal problems, which stemmed from a pending charge of assault and battery on a student. Lewis' trial is scheduled for today. Another administrator Burrows charged was forced to resign was Julius Chapman, former Associate Dean of Minority Affairs. Patricia R. Plante, Vice-President for Academic Affairs, said that Chapman was offered the position of Executive Vice-President of Voorheese College in South Carolina and accepted the position over a year ago because it was a step up and gave Chapman more responsibility. Burrows also alleged that Harriet Griffin, former Director of Financial Aid, was fired. However, Katie Ryan, Director of University Rela-tions, said that Griffin resigned because she was dissatisfied with her job and because the University was not satisfied with her job performance. Ryan said that Griffin's resig-nation stemmed from problems involving federal aid money that was to go to the students. She explained that student funds were sent back unused to the government. Because of misman-agement, Ryan said, ""funds were riot utilized that should have been."" When asked if Griffin was dis-satisfied with her job or if the University was not satisfied with her job performance, Ryan replied, ""It was mutual."" One other black faculty member Burrows charged was fired is Astra Brantley, formerly a member of the Advisory Commission for Minority Affairs. Herbert L. Petri, chairperson of the psychology department, ex-plained that Brantley's position as (Financial Aid Director Harriet) Griffin's resignation stemmed .from problems involving federal aid money that was to go to students. an administrator in the department was a temporary position and added that she was only on contract to the department for one year. Petri said that when the contract ran out the psychology department decided not to renew her contract. Petri added that he was not at liberty to discuss the reasons her contract was not renewed. It's getting harder to park in the Union lot by day... Photos by Bob Tarleton because most of the spaces are taken the night before... ...as this picture (bottom) taken at 2 a.m. shows. President Hoke Smith told the SGA Tuesday that construe-tion on a parking garage in this lot may begin in December (Article, page 4) Despite good intentions, By James Hunt It was a classic case of good versus bad: good intentions versus bad preparation. The good intentions were on the part of the Student Government Associa-tion, which last week announced that the presentation given by Ralph Schoenstein, the first speaker in the SGA's Annual Speaker Series, would be free to students. The bad preparation (or poor publicity, or perhaps both) was also on the part of the SGA, and may have been the reason why only forty people bothered to take the SGA up on its free offer Sunday night. Said Jim Clark, vice-president of the SGA, ""this just sort of crept up on us."" Nonetheless, the show went on. Schoenstein, the author of 11 (soon speaker flops to be 12) books, including the I Hate Preppies Handbook, spoke for about 45 minutes to the audience scat-tered among the empty seats in Stephens Hall. His talk was about evenly divided between a reflection on the life and hard times of a professional freelance writer and thinly disguised plug for synopsis of his soon-to-be released book ""Alma Matters,"" a book (genre: humor) about college life. His reflections on the life of a freelance writer were at times in-sightful. He commented on the dif-ficulty unknown authors have gaining acceptance by publishers while, for well known authors: ""Jane Fonda, Miss Piggy, G. Gordon Liddy,"" Schoenstein said, "" the book business has become open admissions."" of long books and, directing a veiled jibe at James Michener, said, ""If Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea were to be published today he would have had to begin with a 200 page history of the Antilles."" At other times, though his reflec-thins degenerated into a Rodney Dangerfield 'I-don't-get-no- respect'-type schtick read uncon-vincingly from a prepared script. Schoenstein's presentation on how to prepare for college life was little bet-ter. It was, for the most part, lifted directly out of his book and was neither informative, insightful, nor particularly funny, judging by the near absence of reaction from the au-dience (there were a few nervous tit-ters and an occasional mocking jeer), who seemed as underwhelmed by his talk as he was by their turnout. "