University Senate

The faculty at Coppin State University overwhelmingly expressed no confidence in the institution's president, Reginald Avery, in a vote taken Monday, according to letters obtained late Thursday by The Baltimore Sun. Fifty-five faculty members indicated that they are not satisfied with the leadership of Avery, who has been the school's head since January 2008. Thirteen faculty members opposed the no-confidence vote during the all-faculty meeting. "[Avery] has brought neither a clear vision of mission to CSU, nor established a coherent or viable strategic plan, nor wisely allocated resources," wrote Nicholas Eugene, the leader of the university's faculty senate, in a letter dated Wednesday to William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the state's university system.

When some University of Maryland, College Park students return to class for the spring semester, they could be attending lectures, taking quizzes and completing group projects without leaving their dorm rooms. The university is participating in a pilot program that combines massive open online courses with traditional classroom instruction. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently awarded $1.4 million to nonprofit research group Ithaka S+R to study how the state's university system could incorporate the increasingly popular online courses "There are two things we're seeking: new strategies that will improve learning outcomes and lower costs," said University System of Maryland Chancellor William E. Kirwan.

It was incorrectly reported in yesterday's editions of The Sun that Towson State University would be able to offer scholarships only in men's and women's basketball if the school went to a proposed Division I-AAA in football. In fact, schools in Division I-AAA would be able to offer scholarships in all sports except football. Also, Billy Hunter has been athletic director at Towson State since 1984, not 1979 as reported.The Sun regrets the errors.The storm clouds are gathering again over the Towson State football program, nearly 11 months after the university senate voted down a proposal to drop the sport.

When Robert L. Caret became president of Towson University in 2003, he knew that the institution where he had begun as a professor in 1974 was set for a boom in student population. What he did not know was how Towson would look or how perceptions of it would differ after those thousands of students arrived. "What does Towson become when it grows up?" he says, remembering the question that loomed largest for him as a new leader. Eight years later, with Caret departing to take over the University of Massachusetts system, he says the answer has taken form, even if it's not complete.

The calendar says 1991, but it sounds like 1990.A year ago today, an open forum at Towson State found supporters of football denouncing president Hoke L. Smith and athletic director Bill Hunter for a proposal that would dismantle a program the critics said received little support in the first place.Hoping to save football were a handful of members of the Football Alumni Association, formed last year to raise funds for scholarships that would help Towson State be more competitive in Division I-AA.

"You don't have to be big to play soccer," says 5-foot-4, 140-pound Billy Ronson, who has been demonstrating precisely that with the Blast for six years. "What counts is your desire."Ronson, who leads the Blast in scoring with 29 points on 10 goals and 19 assists in 15 games, yesterday was named the team's Player of the Quarter. He had a franchise-record six-assist performance on Oct. 27 in the 13-9 win over St. Louis in the home opener."I don't think about what I'm doing different," says Ronson, who is 34 but still has to show ID sometimes to buy alcohol.

PHILIP LARKIN:A WRITER'S LIFEAndrew MotionFarrar, Straus & Giroux524 pages. $35A bookish boy with an overbearing father and a flighty mother who left him with an enduring horror of marriage grows up in Coventry, England. Myopic, solitary and stammering, he learns early to cultivate an inner life of the imagination. After Oxford, he becomes a librarian, rising to head the university library at Hull. He never marries, although he manages to carry on affairs with three women -- two of them co-workers -- at the same time.

The fight for survival of Towson State University football went into overtime yesterday.Faced with a University Senate vote that could have virtually determined its fate, the program received a reprieve when the Intercollegiate Athletic Committee withdrew its recommendation to suspend the sport.After John Connolly, chairman of the IAC, said his group "would appreciate a month to return to this body with a final recommendation," the senate passed the motion.The matter will be on the senate agenda again Dec. 3 after the IAC meets with a coalition of former football players and parents of current players who are trying to raise funds to relieve the athletic department budget deficit that has threatened the continuation of football.

A PROPOSAL to extend husband-wife benefits to most employees of the University of Maryland System comes before UM's board of regents Friday, and it will be a case of the earnest democratic process confronting the steel-edged reality of politics.The "domestic partner benefits" measure was recommended by a 5-2 vote this spring by an ad hoc university committee. It held hearings, conducted interactive video sessions with constituents and considered 250 pieces of correspondence. (Many more letters have flowed since the committee's recommendation in April.

Athletic director Bill Hunter said he is "willing to shoulder some of the responsibility" for the threat to football's survival at Towson State.But he said he is encouraged by the recent developments in the situation and believes "we may have enough consensus that an alternative comes out."Hunter was one of the principal targets at last week's open forum, where alumni, community members, former players and parents of current players voiced their concerns about how the problem seemed to arise out of nowhere.