University Senate

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.

Fox rabid; dog's owner sought A rabid fox was found dead near where a dog was attacked by a fox in a northern Harford County park last weekend, and officials are attempting to find the dog's owner. Harford County Health Department officials said an unidentified man was walking a dog near the boardwalk in Eden Mill Park in Pylesville on Sunday when a fox attacked the dog. Officials later found a dead fox nearby that tested positive for the rabies virus. It was the first recorded case of rabies in a fox in Harford County in a year, according to Bill Wiseman, a Health Department spokesman.

President Robert Caret is leaving Towson University in April, and the University System of Maryland Board of Regents and Chancellor William E. Kirwan, with the advice of an ad hoc presidential search committee, will choose our new president. Two of the key themes of the chancellor's new 10-year plan for the university system are "transforming the academic model to meet the needs of the 21st century" and "achieving and sustaining national eminence through the quality of USM's programs, people and facilities.

It's not exactly a welcome mat they are putting out for Mark L. Perkins at Towson University. Instead, the man who will become the school's president next month is the subject of e-mail, anonymous letters and rumors that question his management skills and taste in real estate. "I think there may be two or three folks who potentially want to put me in a nonpositive faction," said Perkins, who is chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay until July 1, when he will take over at Towson.

A University of Maryland commission concluded that the school cannot adequately support 27 teams and recommended eliminating eight of them to create "a leaner, stronger athletic program. " The teams, which compete in six different sports, are: men's tennis, men's track and field (indoor, outdoor and cross country), men's swimming and diving, women's swimming and diving, women's water polo and women's acrobatics and tumbling, formerly called "competitive cheer. " The 17-member commission suggested Maryland has had to spread itself thin with so many teams -- five more than the average for the Atlantic Coast Conference's public universities.

Aiming to prevent members of the University System of Maryland Board of Regents from political involvement that could conflict with their higher education duties, a legislative committee yesterday approved legislation to restrict their fundraising activities and forbid them from running for office. The House Environmental Matters Committee voted 12 to 8 in favor of the bill, a measure that Republicans say is aimed mainly at Richard E. Hug, a regent who has long been the top fundraiser for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. The committee vote follows news reports on the potentially questionable lobbying activities of two board members.

Razing city's gems is no way to salvage its sagging fortunes Every Baltimore resident who loves the city should see the havoc done by the wreckers to the 1904 Merchants and Miners Transportation Co. building on Redwood Street before an injunction could prevent further damage. It's a heartbreaking sight ("Late-night injunction stops demolition of downtown site," Sept. 20). Mayor Martin O'Malley once said: "Historic preservation is good business." And indeed it is. Yet, Marriott Corp. is intent upon destroying two buildings that represent the architectural and cultural heritage of Baltimore in the early 1900s.

Maryland higher education is passing through a robust period of competition for state dollars, the best students and highly qualified faculty. While this competitiveness is most obvious in new methods of teaching and learning, it has also become a fact of life in the development of new graduate and undergraduate programs. Towson University, where I teach, has developed several new, exciting programs. While the Maryland Higher Education Commission has approved many of them, it has denied several because of objections by Morgan State University.

KIEV, Ukraine - Leaving their law books behind, the law professors and students of Lviv University began traveling here last week from western Ukraine by train, bus and car. Day after day, they have marched along the capital's snowy streets, banged empty oil drums and shouted themselves hoarse. And in that way they have shaken the country's government and challenged many of the old assumptions about how the country should be run. "How do you like our revolution?" law professor Roman R. Posikira shouted, throwing up his hands as he wove through the immense crowd of flag-waving protestors in Independence Square.

Credit Busch for confronting fiscal realities House Speaker Michael E. Busch has been under fire for his bold legislative moves to address Maryland's fiscal deficit and fund the Thornton school-aid plan ("Doubts grow on slots-tax compromise," March 28). But the speaker's plan confronts the state's long-range fiscal problems - in stark contrast to those of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and others, which dismiss any major options except legalizing slots at racetracks. The speaker's plan would amount to a tax increase of about $100 a year for the average family.