THE TOWERLIGHT - Baltimore Student Media

PAW PRINTS
Forty bins added
to Tower B as part
of University-wide
recycling project
More than 40 recycling bins were
placed in Tower B over the weekend
as part of a new recycling program
for on-campus housing.
“[This program is] to determine
if the University should move forward
with putting recycling bins
n every floor of the residence
alls,” Pam Martin, communicaions
specialist in administration
nd finance, said.
This experiment places two bins
on each floor of the building – one
for bottles and cans, and one for
paper products. The recycling outlets
will be placed in the trash chute
room on every floor.
According to Martin, the administration
feels strongly about the program
because students have been
proactive in regard to recycling.
Some residents have set up their
a multi-prong approach to getting
information out.”
According to Herring, about
6,000 individuals have signed up
to receive the text messages.
Lindsey McCurdy, a junior
political science and economics
major, signed up for the
text message program because
her boyfriend attends Virginia
Tech. With professors demanding
phones be turned off and
sometimes confiscating phones,
students may not be receiving
vital text messages.
Provost James Clements said
e was not aware that profesors
were taking phones from
tudents.
“If we’re using this as an emerency
management system and
ext is a primary form of that,
you would want your students
urrently on the campus and in
lasses to know,” he said.
Some students aren’t sure
ow to receive the University
lerts on their phone.
“I don’t even know how [to
ign up for the messaging sysem],”
freshman occupational
herapy major Lauren Crawford
aid. “I remember they menioned
it at orientation, but I
on’t remember them telling us
ow to do it.”
Herring said the contract for
he campus-wide siren system
as been awarded and the comany
is working to complete the
nstallation. That system would
e another method of alerting
tudents.
Clements said he would bring
own system of recycling on the
floors of their buildings by making
makeshift bins of their own
and taking recyclables down to the
larger bin in the main lobby, Martin
said.
This program begins on Feb. 18.
If the students of Tower B react
positively and use the bins, the
recycling efforts could be expanded
to all the residence halls.
--Carrie Wood
Pedestrian path
moved closer to
Millenium Hall
through April
Starting Feb. 18, the pedestrian
path leading around the West
Village housing complex to the
Towson Run Apartments will move
south, closer to Millennium Hall
until April.
The first phase of the West Village
will include two residence halls and
will include about 670 beds.
The path was originally locat-
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= New Buildings
= Student Pathway
= Construction Area
Towson Run
Apt.Millennium Hall
ed further north near Enrollment
Services and then it was shifted
more to the middle as construction
progressed.
“I think what we expect is, it’s
going to move one more time in
April to the north location, and it
will stay there until the permanent
path [is built],” David Mayhew,
PHONES: Texting in class
From cover
the issue of professors restricting
cell phone use to the attention of
Towson President Robert Caret
and chief of police Bernie Gerst.
All three sit on the University’s
Emergency Crisis Management
Team.
“I will also discuss it with the
academic deans and the academic
chairs to get their views,”
Clements added.
Professors find text
messages distracting
to lecture
Professors say they have good
reason for objecting to the electronic
message craze.
“It interrupts the class and it
sometimes breaks the train of
thought in the lecture,” senior
management lecturer Donald
McCulloh said. “If a professor is
really moving along, it’s a disruptive
influence.”
Such a disruption comes from
what some teachers claimed to
be generational upbringing.
“I think that this is a generation
that was raised on multitasking,”
Ann Rothschild,
assistant family studies professor,
said.
But English lecturer Steve
Heaney didn’t blame students
and society.
“It’s more of a diversion,” he
said. “Students just get bored in
class during a lecture. So if you
keep students active, you won’t
have any of that.”
Some students said texting
occurs in some classes more
than others.
“It’s not in every class, it’s
Temporary
Pedestrian walkway
West Building East Building
New Temporary Walkway Location
director of architecture engineering
and construction in facilities management,
said. “When the housing
opens [the path will] be constructed
with lights and benches.”
Construction is also continuing
on Emerson Drive in front of
Millennium Hall. The road will
eventually be extended behind
Enrollment Services
Illustration by Jenn Long and Matt Laumann/The Towerlight
The pedestrian pathway that leads around the West Village housing complex to the Towson Run
Apartments will move closer to Millennium Hall beginning Feb. 18. The path will move again in April.
only in the boring classes…Like
night classes, the two hour and
40-minute classes. Those are the
ones I usually text in,” McCurdy
said.
Professors have also found
creative ways to stop cell phone
usage in their classes. Associate
professor of economics Tom
Rhoads has infamously answered
students’ ringing phones in front
of the entire class.
“[It will] largely be to embarrass
the student,” he said. “I’m
an economist and I act on the
basic of incentives.”
McCurdy said she had a professor
with another creative solution
to cellular interruptions.
“I had a professor who said if
you were expecting something,
that you could turn it on silent
and bring it up front, and if you
told him ahead of time you could
come get it, and I thought that
was fine,” McCurdy said.
Other professors have simpler
solutions.
“I don’t let them do it,” assistant
English professor Dana
Phillips said. “I haven’t had a
problem with it.”
Blake Yospa, a sophomore
sports management major, sees
both sides to the argument.
“You’re not respecting the
teachers’ wishes. Most of the
teachers say on the syllabus
they don’t want to see the cell
phone. They don’t want you to
have it out. They want you to
keep it turned off,” Yospa said.
“But I think that’s a little farfetched
to believe [that] every
student would have their cell
phone off.”
TRIMESTER:
Third term
gets approval
From cover
“We are going to start this summer, so
they are trying to determine what we
need to launch now,” Clements said. “We
need to get started fairly quickly, because
it’s the middle of February and some
summer course packets have already been
sent out.”
Clements hopes to have the programs
laid out be the end of the month.
The pilot, which received $170,000
of state funding, will not replace the
traditional 5-week and 7-week schedule.
Instead, the 10-week session will be
available to students in specific programs
determined by the task force. According
to the University’s written proposal, the
pilot will target programs that support
workforce needs in Maryland and those
that require extensive lab time.
The primary goal of the pilot is to make
more efficient use of space on campus
during traditionally slow times of the
year, Clements said
According to the proposal, the
University has averaged 2,075 full-time
equivalent students during the summer
term over the last three years.
With the addition of the 10-week summer
term, they hope to grow enrollment
by 2 to 4 percent or 42 to 84 FTE students.
The task force will also be charged with
determining how the trimester program
will affect faculty workload. According
to Clements, the program will provide
faculty members additional flexibility in
scheduling their courses throughout three
terms as opposed to splitting their time
only between the fall and the spring.
Towson Run and will empty out
onto Towsontown Boulevard.
Work on Emerson Drive is scheduled
for completion in August
2008, but Mayhew said the road
will not open until the West Village
Commons Building is complete tentatively
scheduled to open in 2010.
--Sharon Leff
SUNSHINE:
URG to send
sick child to
Disney World
From page 7
some sort of fundraiser,” Goldstein
said. “It wasn’t just that they were
selling a couple things because they
had to. I really saw these building
council members truly put their
hearts into it. I saw so much passion.”
The URG executive board is also
working to create a campus-wide
fund-raiser. They plan to table in the
University Union during the next
few weeks.
They will be selling small paper
suns for a dollar each in order to
raise money. Students will write
their names on the suns, which will
be displayed around the URG office
in Tower C.
Goldstein has chosen to head this
project because of a personal experience
she had with the Sunshine
Foundation.
“I have a cousin who passed away
from cancer a few years ago, and
the Sunshine Foundation sponsored
his wish,” Goldstein said. “To see
firsthand the difference that the
Sunshine Foundation made for him,
and having this wish granted for
him, was just an absolutely amazing
experience for him and for our
entire family.”
Goldstein has received support
from the National Residence
Hall Honorary and the Student
Government Association, but has
mostly focused on the efforts of the
building councils.
The Towerlight February 18, 2008
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