 "Photo: Rachel Fauber/ The Towerlight")
Tragedy fell upon the surrounding community on Monday, April 20 as a New York father took the life of his wife and two daughters, one a Loyola College sophomore.
William Parente, 59, murdered his family before taking his own life at the Sheraton Baltimore-North hotel, less than a mile away from Towson University on Dulaney Valley Road.
The family was in town visiting their daughter at college when the tragedy occurred.
A cleaning crew at the hotel found the family that Monday afternoon. The bodies of the women were lined up on the king-size bed of the 10th floor room. William Parente was found dead in the bathroom from an apparent suicide.
Autopsy results revealed that the mother and daughters died from blunt force trauma and asphyxiation.
The FBI in New York is looking into possible illegal financial handlings conducted by William Parente as a lead in the investigation.
-- Ashley Rabe
Recent Towson graduate Daniel Ho Coverston was found dead in his apartment at The Fairways on February 14.
An autopsy performed on Coverston’s body the next day revealed that he had died from a gunshot wound.
Further investigation from the Baltimore County Police Department found that Coverston had undergone eye surgery earlier in the week and was in the recovery process. He had asked an acquaintance to periodically check on him but when the acquaintance went to his apartment door on the 14th there was no answer.
Coverston, 22, was a trainer in Towson’s athletic department.
Following his death, friends, family and many students in the athletic program wrote messages of sympathy on his online Facebook profile.
“No words can express how much you meant to us… always making us smile and sharing laughs. I’ll always remember the memories that we shared. Thank you for being a great person and a great friend. Love you Dan… rest in peace,” posted Ashley DeVilbiss.
--Daniel Gross
Juicycampus.com founder Matt Ivester called his Web site a form of free speech for college students. Over 500 campuses were added to the site that attacked and spread rumors about individual students. Towson joined it prior to the beginning of the year.
Towson President Robert Caret compared the increasingly popular and controversial message board to a graffiti-covered wall of a public restroom.
At the end of November and beginning of December, Caret met with administrators about the site that caused an uproar on college campuses across the country. He chose not to block it from the University server. Former SGA president Kristen Guy said that those in
Fraternity and Sorority Life were most affected by the site. JuicyCampus.com went out of business and shut down from lack of funding, according to Ivester.
--Alissa Katz
Six members of Towson’s speech and debate team went to Austin, Texas to compete in the national speech and debate tournament.
They were split up into three teams of two, including the defending national champions. Senior members Dayvon Love and Deven Cooper led the team to their second national tournament, the first in 11 years.
Love won Top Speaker and Debater of the Year awards.
However, the team could be facing alternative staffing and measures due to a shaky budget. According to Beth Skinner, co-director of the speech and debate program, this is a hindrance to the team’s young talent.
--Alissa Katz
In the middle of March, the University of Maryland received increased attention regarding the first amendment rights issue of students and the administrative powers of the school.
In an attempt to have an on-campus screening of a pornographic film, “Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge,” University administrators declined their event after the Maryland State Senate threatened to cut state funding to any University that screened XXX films on their campus.
The Senate urged the University System of Maryland to come up with a stance on the issue for these scenarios on campus.
With that, the USM asked each institution in the Maryland system to send in their stance on the issue so that they can make a judgment based on the responses.
Towson’s Student Government Association then passed a resolution to support the students at UMD and take a stance that screening pornography on campus was an expression of their amendment rights.
Senator Lauren McDade with the help of 2008-2009 SGA director of legislative affairs Sarah Elfreth drafted the supporting resolution.
--Daniel Gross
Two tickets formed in hopes of becoming the 2009-2010 Student Government Association executive board: Tigertown P.R.I.D.E. and Positive Change.
When the election results were in there were about 200 more voters than last year’s election, ending in a very close race.
Those elected for executive board positions were SGA president Jon Graf, vice president Ben Steinberg, treasurer Ryan Murphy, attorney general Jillian Koller and chief of staff Tierra Fields.
Koller won over junior Ryan Lodge with just eight votes. Most of the other positions came in very close as well.
The election results ended up in a split ticket executive board, Graf, Steinberg and Koller from Tigertown P.R.I.D.E and Fields and Murphy from Positive Change. Both tickets ran a strong campaign geared toward getting their entire ticket elected.
Still, Graf along with the 2009-2010 executive board say they are optimistic about the work they can accomplish together in the following academic year.
--Daniel Gross
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