SMC Empath, 1981 February 17

              Students Voice Opposition
to Residence Life Policies
P h o to C o u r te s y o f The E n te rp rise
SMC Freshman Kim Blye was one
of fifty students who demonstrated
last week against dorm policies.
b y Trish Meissner
On Thursday, February 5,
students voiced their opinions
on Residence Life and other
school policies. The students
united as a group to work
together with administration on
issues some students feel have
not received enough attention in
the past.
The purpose and reason for
this meeting, as quoted by David
Dyjack, is as follows:
“We would like to get students
to gather together as a unit to
work in conjunction with col­lege
administration to obtain
positive changes in campus life.
Lack of faith in SGA and lack
of communication with Residence
Life brought all this on.”
At 11:00 a.m. a group formed
in the gym of about fifty stu­dents.
This group consisted of
both commuters and residents
with representatives from various
school organizations such as Stu­dent
Government, The Empath,
IRHC and WSMC. Mr. Dyjack,
a senior, presented a list of
policies students felt needed al­terations.
These grievances were
directed to Beth Steinway and
Phil Gulley. This list consisted
of:
1. Incident reports — at present
students do not receive a copy
of the incident reports filed
about themselves.
2. ARA — The meal plan could
be optional to residents or at
least semi-optional (a partial
plan).
3. Dorm Contracts — these con-r
= 3
Lr-u-d
6/3
The Student News Publication of St. Mary's College of Maryland
Volume 1 Number 2 February 17, 198 1
Administration
Balanced 80-81
b y L y n n Meagher
Administrators of St. Mary’s
College have a positive outlook of
the deficit for 1980, regardless of
the economy’s rising inflation
costs.
Ward Mead, comptroller, ex­plained
that 52.8% of the revenue
received by St. Mary’s is in taxes.
“The rest is in tuition and what
little federal income we receive
from the college work study,”
he said. Mr. Mead estimated the
work study income to be less than
1 % .
“The last 2 -3 years we’ve seen
some dramatic money increases,”
Mr. Mead commented. “We have
to cope with inflation like any
business,” he continued. Mr. Mead
said the college receives no money
rom the state for services either.
~o keep pace, we have to raise
iition, more importantly room
ihd board,” he added.
we ve seen some
dramatic money
increase,” Mr. Mead said.
Predicts
Budget
increases1
An average of $1,000 a day is
spent for heat and electricity.
The bill for the year is expected
to total between $316,000 and
$318,000. This is an increase of
at least 30%.
To help maintain the budget,
St. Mary’s College tuition will
again increase the following se­mester.
“Next year is our biggest
"next year is our
biggest increase"
Jack Andrews, S.M.C. Vice
President for Administration and
Development, commented on the
budget for this year, “We plan to
come out exactly even, but we
had to restrict to do that.”
"We plan to come
out exactly even"
Mr. Andrews agreed that the
high raise in tuition and room and
board is that the college is trying
to “catch up” since they didn’t in­crease
prices on a more gradual
basis during the past years.
Other reasons for the increase
stem from inflation, future reno­vations
of buildings and the
decline in student enrollment.
According to Mr. Mead, “En­rollment
has fallen but the rise
in cost has offset the two.”
"upkeep ... costs
more and more"
Money is also needed for
upgrading teaching facilities. ‘The
upkeep of what already exist costs
more and more,” Mr. Mead said.
“We spend thousands of dollars
each year just tuning pianos,” he
added.
For the year 1981-1982 S.M.C.
received $100,000 less than what
was asked for on the budget.
“We’re pleased we got such a
small amount of cut,” said Jack
Andrews.
"a small
amount of cut"
As prices increase to maintain
within the budget, money is
shifted from other areas to pay
for the increase in costs. “Our
Board of Trustees is very good in
keeping us out of the red,” said
Chuck Namath, Parliamentarian
of the Student Government Asso­ciation.
The deficit of S.M.C. remains
to be within reach as Mr. Mead
concludes, “Financially, we’re in
pretty good shape.”
INSIDE:
New Archeological
Digs - page 4
Top Albums of
1980 - page 7
tracts could be by semester
rather than yearly, so students
can leave dorms mid-year.
4. Single room requests — now
these requests are given out
according to seniority with
considerations on grade point
average and health reasons.
In addition to these four
points, a sheet was circulated
to the students there for them
to add any other suggestions or
comments. A discussion followed
concerning the initial issues and
consequent problems. Among
those raised were:
1. Saint Mary’s College Garden
Apartments — The poor condi­tions
and lack of transporta­tion
is a real problem, par­ticularly
for new students.
What can be done about it?
2. Alcohol policies — There
is no limit to quantity,
yet kegs ■ are not allowed
in student rooms.
3. Dorm Expulsions - What can
be done about students being
kicked out of the dorms so
late in the semester that there
is no time for an appeal?
Mr. Gulley made no definite
statements on that day, but
promised these grievances would
be looked into and that Beth
Steinway and himself would meet
with a smaller group the following
Thursday. This group showed
representation from all residence
halls and the Garden Apartments.
On the 12th, this group met in
the i Dean’s office to discuss any
decisions made by administration
and the probability of future
changes.
The next issue discussed
was the meal plan. It was decided
that the residence halls do not
have the proper facilities to
accommodate students to cook
their meals in the dorm kitchens.
If the meal plan were optional,
it is estimated that many people
would choose not to be on the
plan, which would cause financial
problems for the school and
overloading in the residence hall
kitchens. A second Co-op is
out of the question.
The availability of partial meal
plans (i.e., paying for only 10
meals a week) has definite pos­sibilities.
ARA’s present contract
will be up August 1, 1981 and
negotiations for a new contract
will be going on the next several
weeks.
On the question raised on
single room requests, the present
system was only clarified. A
single room is given out initially
by seniority and when an over-
' load of requests come in, then
the ties are broken according to
health reasons and grade point
average. It was said that this
point could be pursued later if
enough interest is shown for a
different system.
As for the problems with
Garden Apartment life, the only
feasible solution will come when
the apartments are excluded as
part of the college’s housing
program, which could go into
effect soon if the transformation
of Calvert Hall into a dorm
takes place.
The policy of having no
kegs in the dorm rooms also will
remain the same. Kegs of beer
will only be permitted upon
request in the all-purpose rooms.
“Room parties will probably
lose control with kegs,” stated
Phil Gulley.
The Dean of Students states
he will bring all these issues
up in the next executive board
meeting, but that he will not
necessarily support them.
As for solid responses to these
student suggestions, only one was
made. The incident report policy
has been slightly amended. Now
when a student has a report
written about them, it will be
mandatory for the student to read
the report and sign it before it
is turned over to Residence Life
staff. This will enable the student
to see in print exactly what will
be filed on them.
The other queries focused on
in this meeting involved residence
hall contracts. It was asked that
the contracts be semester-long
rather than year-long. Gulley said
that the effects of semester-long
contracts “could be disasterous.”
At present, if a student wishes to
leave the dorms mid-year, he can
submit a request between Novem­ber
1 and December 1. If space
in the dorms can be filled by an
incoming student, then they will
be released from their contract.
Owens awaits indictment
Petrocelli Hit-and-Run
Investigation Ends
b y Phil M u rra y
On the evening of January 31,
after an extensive eight-day in­vestigation,
Detective Bowers of
the Maryland State Police arrested
Bernard Xavier Owens in Scot­land,
Maryland, for leaving the
scene of a fatal accident. The
accident in question was the
hit-and-run that occurred on
January 24, fatally injuring John
Petrocelli.
Detective Bowers, who had
been working 18 hours a day on
the investigation, said that he was
“very grateful for the cooperation
and helpfulness of SMC students”
who were questioned or who
called him on their own initiative.
The arrest was made based on
both circumstantial and physical
evidence, including the car that
Mr. Owens is suspected to have
been driving when he allegedly
hit John Petrocelli.
Mr. Owens, age 51, is a life­long
resident of St. Mary’s Coun­ty
and was an employee of the
St. Mary’s City Commission.
Owens is presently out on bond
and awaiting indictment for pos­sible
charges of manslaughter or
homicide