Towerlight, March 23, 1979

tl19790323-000 "VOL. LXXII No. 21 ""Ct 133 ettig PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS OF TOWSON STATE UNIVERSITY Weekend Weather: Highs in the 60's today. Cloudy and rain likely tonight and tomorrow. Lows in the 40's. March 23, 1979 Blood drive 516 pints of blood were collected in the bi-annual Red Cross blood drive held Monday through Thursday on the third floor of the Union. Phil Ross, safety coordinator, said that 485 pints were collected during the October drive. The Red Cross blood drive is held every semester for students, faculty, and staff to donate their blood. As a result of the program, donors are entitled to free blood coverage for the rest of the year for themselves and their families. TL Photo by Dave Hunike Committee axes proposals Scholarship reform dies by Patrick Casey could be further from the truth. I turn down more ap-plicants than I give scholarships to, so in that sense I could be a liability."" Smelser also believed reform legislation would have failed even with committee support. He claimed ""between 28 and 32"" of Maryland's 47 senators opposed the measure. Smelser added, '""I'hose senators who would care to have someone else responsible for their scholarship can do Senators can turn their money over to the State Scholar-ship Board for distribution if they don't wish to handle it themselves. However, the money would not necessarily go to someone in that senator's district. Dr. Kenneth Shook, head of the State Scholarship Board, took a neutral stand on reform legislation because, ""there is a good deal to be said for retaining the Senatorial in that you are getting contact with students on a local level. ""I can certainly live with the Senatorial as it is now because I feel that it's running well."" Supporters of reform were irritated with Shook's posi-tion, and Pringle charged Shook with playing politics, backing away from reform to placate Smelser, who helped Shhok, former financial aid director at Western Maryland College, get his job. ""There's nothing to that at all,"" said Shook. ""I don't play the back-room politics."" Proponents of scholarship reform, filled with optimism when the Assembly session started, now seem resigned to the system as it stands. ""I don't think the Senate of Maryland will ever do anything with the Senatorial Scholarship program,"" said Fred Spigler, staff specialist with the State Board for Higher Education and a leader of the drive for scholarship reform. ""I don't think I'll ever try it again,"" he added with disgust. ""I don't think it will ever be introduced again,"" said Hohenstein. ""We've done our duty trying to alert the State to the problem."" The State Board for Higher Education, which had back-ed reform legislation, seems ready to withdraw from the fight as does its student advisory board. Efforts to alter Maryland's Senatorial Scholarship system died last night as the Senate Finance Committee was expected to reject two reform measures. The committee's action may also have killed the decade-long effort to change the awarding of Senatorial Scholarships, which critics charge are used widely for political patronage rather than to serve student financial need. SB 767, which would have merged the Senatorial pro-gram with Maryland's General State Scholarship pro-gram to give the State Scholarship Board control of scholarship funds, was favored by scholarship reformists, who were certain they could at least get the bill out of committee. Five of the eight Finance Committee members had co-sponsored the legislation. But two of the co-sponsors switched sides before the committee vote, pushing reform efforts toward an early defeat. SB 639, a compromise measure that would have forced the State Scholarship Board to choose scholarship winners from a list submitted by each senator, was also rejected. Reformists believe it was pure politics that dashed their hopes. ""My belief is that it was pressure from other senators that killed the bill, said Walter Hohenstein, chairman of the Higher Education Committee for Scholarship Reform. ""I'm disappointed by the fact that the bill was decided by politics, not principle,"" said Ken Pringle, chairman of the student advisory board to the State Board for Higher Education and the leading student proponent of scholar-ship reform. ""It merited a full debate that would put the Senate publicly open as to where they stand. The citizens of Maryland have been done a grave disservice."" Judy Munaker, vice president of the Maryland, Delaware, DC Association of Financial Aid Officers, said ""We're really disappointed . . . the job of the legislature is to make laws, not give out money."" But Sen. Charles Smelser, D-4th Frederick, a leading opponent of efforts to alter the scholarship system, said, ""Some people think this is a political thing . . . nothing Alcohol abuse still a problem at T by Theresa Gilmore ""The only change in the alcohol con-sutription on this campus that I have seen in the past few years is that stu-dents have changed their preference from cans to bottles,"" said Mary Lee Farlow, director of residence halls. That statement sums up the feeling around campus concerning recent trends in alcohol consumption and be-havior associated with it. ""We still have a serious alcohol problem here at Towson,"" said Charles E. Maloy, director of the Counseling Center. ""But I also believe that it is no greater than in the corn-munity as a whole,"" he said. Gene Dawson, director of Universi-ty Police, agrees with both Farlow and Maloy. ""We've had just as many calls related to alcohol this semester as in any other. In February alone, 87 percent of all calls pertaining to vio-lent behavior were alcohol related,"" he said. Although the accusing finger has been pointed mainly toward the Pub in the past, Farlow says that the Pub is by no means the only place on cam-pus students drink too much. ""We have widespread drinking in the dorms,"" she said. ""The drinking was never more in evidence than during the last storm we had (when school was closed three and a half days straight),"" Farlow said. ""We had some of the most de-structive acts of vandalism I've ever seen,"" she said. ""Students were destroying fur-niture, ripping phones out, and put-ting fists through walls. I've never seen anything like it,"" she said. Farlow has noticed an increase in the violence and destructive behavior in the dorms since fall, 1977 and she believes it is still on the increase. ""And this concerns me a great deal,"" she said. She attributes this kind of behavior to more free time for students. ""Stu-dents don't have causes anymore the way they used to in the sixties, and as a result, they have much more free time,"" she said. ""And, as far as I can tell, too much free time leads to bore-dom, and too much boredom leads to drinking."" ""We are trying to come up with as many different programs as we can so that the residents will always have something to do, but sometimes it seems as though we can't keep up,"" she added. Charles Maloy said that the Coun-seling Center is doing the best it can to combat the problem of alcohol abuse on campus. ""We have conducted numerous alcohol awareness pro-grams, and we have three different alcohol tapes on the Cope Line,"" he said. ""We get about 20 calls a month on the Cope Line for the alcohol tapes,"" said Maloy, ""and we take this as an indication that students are develop-ing an awareness about the problems related to alcohol."" Maloy is also concerned with what the University says to the community about alcohol. ""We have full page ads in the course schedule booklet adver-tising beer,"" he said. ""But society as a whole even views the drunk as somethng to laugh at�look at what a success Foster Brooks has been. Billy Carter is another example. He's become a sort of folk idol�people think it's macho to have a beer in hand,"" Maloy added. Dean Dorothy Siegel, vice president of student affairs, also feels that society as a whole is reflected here, with the alcohol problem included. ""We do not feel that the way to solve the problem is to take the alcohol off the campus because learning to cope with these problems is part of the total eduational process,"" Siegel said. ""We feel that we should be a model as to how liquor should be consumed in society,"" she added. ""We discour-age any type of environment where the drink itself is the entertainment."" Siegel pointed out that University policies require that ""food and plenty Campus politics: Where are they? by John Bennett Whatever political activity there is on the Towson State campus is almost completely unnoticable, according to students and members of politically oriented campus groups. Many of the political groups have trouble reaching stu-dents, who, for the most part, don't seem to care about political issues anyway. ""Many students are content to just sit and let the rain fall on their heads,"" said senior Lynn Dowell. The stu-dents don't have a sense that they can accomplish any-thing as individuals, she said. Some of the political groups on campus struggle to keep up their memberships. The Young Democrats and the Col-lege Republicans, two traditional campus political groups, have virtually ""died through lack of interest,"" said former Young Democrat Vice-president Mickey Wil-son. She said at one point members of the two groups had to join both so that they would be able to keep their char-ters, which require a minimum of 15 members. Wilson said that there was a spirit of interest in the Young Democrats during the recent SGA elections, but at present there is ""no active membership"" in the group. She said in the past there had been ""about 15 to 20 active mem-bers."" I5oug Mayne, of the Towson State Chapter of NORML reported that his group has a membership of 30-35, but on-ly a handful are consistenly active. NORML sponsors movies and occasionally has an information table in the University Union, and recently took part in a statewide rally in Annapolis to lobby for the decriminalization of marijuana, said Mayne. Mayne agreed that students today aren't very active politically. ""When was the last time you saw a demonstra-tion,"" said Mayne. ""Nobody takes over buildings any-more."" However, Mayne said he believes activity is picking up a little. He said the low point of student political involve-ment came in the mid-seventies, and now there is ""a bit of an upswing."" Andre Powell, formerly of the TSU Gay alliance, attrib-uted student apathy to ""the times."" ""People are calmed down, they aren't too political anymore,"" said Powell. The Gay Alliance sponsors coffeehouse and speakers, but is more educationally and socially oriented than political-ly, said Powell. The active membership of the Gay alli-ance is about 20. continued on page 3 Shows of political activism are largely ignored by stu-dents at Towson State. Some campus political groups must struggle to maintain even a minimum membership. What causes this apathy? TL Photo by Dave liumke of alternative drink"" be supplied at any events supplying liquor. ""These standards are met at the Pub,"" she said, ""but we still have problems there. The C.A.'s have reported a raucous kind of behavior immediately following the Pub."" Dawson agrees with Siegel about the problems at the Pub. ""I've had of-ficers injured who were trying to break up a fight over there,"" he said. ""Most of the problems occur out-side, immediately after the pub closes,"" he said. ""People speed out of the parking lot, ignore stop signs, and run the red light at the corner."" ""We actually have to take the gates off certain lots instead of just raising them because if we don't, I can guar-antee that they'll be broken complete-ly off,"" Dawson continued. ""But I must admit that things have improved a little bit this semester,"" he concluded. continued on page 2 In This Issue All-American A member of Towson State's swim team has captured the ultimate honor for a collegiate athlete. Miguel Ferrer has earned that title: All-Ameri-can. Find out about his cap-ture of the ultimate prize. page 10 Curtains Down Two new plays enter the local theatre scene: Faith Healer at the Mechanic and Measure for Measure at Center Stage. But neither Shakespeare nor James Mason can save Balti-more's big two theatres from disappointing performances. page 7 Fra tsfrolic Towson State's fraternities are planning a bash that should set your head spinning. Geet week invades the cam-pus next week. Check out the activities page 4 Campus scene Find out what students, facul-ty and administrators are do-ing at other campuses across the nation. The college world can be crazy; find out about it In CAMPUS LINE, every week page 2 "