I! •
Page 2
THE BATTALION
College Station, Texas Tuesday, September 18, 1973
Gives Right to Private Action
CADET SLOUCH
New Law Allows Easy Court Acces
‘Here he comes again to kiss his date!”
By Brad Bryant
After a history of poor protec
tive consumer legislation, Texas
finally has an effective and
workable act of legislation cited
as the Deceptive Trade Practices
and Consumer Protection Act.
Passed May 21 of this year, the
act gives the public consumer
easier access to the courts and
specifies more illegal deceptive
trade practices than have been
listed in the past. Among the
newly defined illegal deceptive
practices are odometer roll-backs,
chain-referral sales, misleading
warranties, and selling participa-
tion in a multi-level, pyramid
sales plan.
The most important allowance
in the act is the right of private
action for damages suffered as
a result of false, misleading, or
deceptive acts on practices, and
providing a class action possibil
ity for similar damages. In order
to keep businesses out of decep
tive practices, the act provides
that a prevailing consumer in a
private action may recover three
times the damages plus attorneys
fees. However, to prevent un
founded court actions, the court
may award reasonable attorneys
fees to the business defendant
plus the court costs.
The importance of this act to
students is that it gives students
some bargaining in handling con
sumer complaints. Whereas be
fore, individuals virtually posed
no threat to businesses, individ
uals can now bring court action
against deceptive trade practices
and collect damages threefold
plus court costs.
Court action is not necessarily
the recommended immediate
course of action. The new act
provides student groups enough
bargaining power and reasons to
negotiate on a low level of con
flict. The Business Relations
Committee of the Senate is work
ing to set up a complaint han
dling procedure by which com
plaints can be negotiated through
student and business cooperation.
When asked if negotiation fails,
the chairman of the committee,
Brad Bryant, replied that the
committee works also as a refer
ral service, separating various
complaints and referring them to
various agencies and the attor
ney General’s office. He also
added that the committee has
vowed to stick to each complaint
until their resolution. Curt Hen
derson, a committee member,
agreed with Mr. Balmain of the
Brazos County Better Business
Bureau that consumers, too, are
unfaithful and sometimes try to
deceive businessmen. This also
must stop.
and Henderson
passage of the
^ Both Bryant
agreed that the
'Deceptive Trade Practices Act
will enable them and the Busi
ness Relations Committee to work
with more negotiative ability in
resolving both student anil^
ness complaints.
If you have a complaint ij,
area and, in some cases,
town businesses, you may cos
these Business Relations [,
mittee members: Bryant,
3674, Carol Silverthome, j
7171, Henderson, 845-2982, J
Keltner, 845-3481.
w.
One day
4c per
1
Registere
good ladies
good produi
Also working the BRC »f gelding $50
the Legal Rights Comnij
guided by Gwen Flynt.
Listen Up—
Campus
Laundry Takes Annual Fall
Classroom Manners
On a campus that once featured excellent student-pro
fessor relations, a bad situation seems to be developing. In
more than one instance this semester profs have screamed
at students, and there have been many occasions that irrita
bility was shown and general rudeness was the rule. This
situation is worse for the fact that some profs may threaten
to throw a student out for showing well-deserved resent
ment.
The attitude of professor infallibility in the classroom
is ine frequently held by students, especially those who sel
dom meet the instructor on a one-to-one basis. Students de
serve respect as human beings, if for nothing else. There is
no more excuse for rudeness in the classrooms than on the
street. Everyone has times of anger at work, but to direct
irritability at someone who doesn’t know how to fight back
is to be a bully.
There are also profs that expect agreement on every
issue. Students that disagree are often subjected to being
told they know nothing about the subject, or that “this is
their classroom and if the prof says it is true it is true.”
There is no excuse for an educator who stops educating
and starts ruling.
Another bad aspect of this is that it hurts the learn
ing process. A student who fears an outburst or dislikes
the prof’s manner will have a hard time learning in the
classroom. After all, this campus is for the benefit of the
student, not the prof. Students certainly are adults in the
eyes of the law and should receive the respect that professors
reserve for each other.
—Julia Jones
UCB Now Reality
President Jack Williams announced Monday to numer
ous campus leaders that the advisory committee helping to
govern the New University Center will now be called the
University Center Board, as suggested by the Battalion
(Re: Input Problems Repeats, Sept. 11).
The Board will work closely with Chuck Cargill, center
director, so that students, faculty and outside interest groups
will get a fair shake. Though, the bulk of the change is in
the name, that in itself will make it a more effective body
and one to be looked to for important and effective problem
consideration.
Editor:
As a female transfer student
living on campus, I have found
little here to complain about, but
there is one institution that bor
ders on absurdity—the outdated
laundry.
When I was issued my laundry
ticket, I looked for items that ap
plied to me on the list. What did
I find instead ? Shirts, slacks,
jackets, socks, gym shirts, gym
pants—almost identical to the
male students list.
Since females are now an es
tablished and, hopefully, welcome
addition to the campus, it seems
that the laundry system should
meet our needs.
Here are just a few examples
of conflicts with the laundry:
I sent a pair of cut-offs to be
washed, and I was informed that
they must be listed as “gym
pants” unless I wanted to pay an
extra fee.
My suitemate was returned cer
tain lingerie items recently, and
on her ticket lingerie was marked
out and replaced with drawers.
Really now!
I also asked about procedures
for laundering dresses and skirts,
(since there is no place for either
on our tickets.) We must pay to
have dresses laundered by a sys
tem we have already paid dearly
for.
Now that washing machines
are provided by the dorm, we
could be washing for 50^ a week
instead of including laundry cost
on our room and board plan.
The number of clothing items
we are allowed to send in per week
is ridiculous also. Who wants to
wear only two pairs of slacks dur
ing a seven-day span?
Please let there soon come to
the laundry the realization that
male and female clothing is not
the same. The rest of the campus
population seems to recognize this
fact already. Catch up laundry!
Velesa Lewis ’76
might try to make our university
more unique by requiring that all
students ride a horse to class or
dismissing school for a month
after every winning football
game. The question is not just
whether refusing to develop a fine
arts program will help preserve
our “uniqueness,” but how such
a development relates to the over
all goal of providing a better edu
cational opportunity for students.
The laundry fee for women is
$10 less than for men, in consid
eration of differences in clothing.
Lingerie and delicates should be
washed by the owner as a result.
The University Laundry Commit
tee has not been named, but will
have adequate student voice to
help you. Appointments should
be made before Oct. 1. —Ed.
★ ★ ★
Editor:
Curt Marsh is out of sympathy
with the proposal to begin a fine
arts program at TAMU because
it would jeopardize our “unique
ness” and make us “just another
big university.” If uniqueness
were a good thing in itself, we
Mr. Marsh realizes this and in
fact argues that introducing a
fine arts program will dilute our
financial resources and “make
A&M just another big university
that does a good job at nearly
everything but with excellence in
nothing.” I suppose this could be
right and that a fine arts program
could be the straw that breaks
the camel’s back and causes all
of our programs to degenerate to
a level of mediocrity. But some
how this seems unlikely, and I
presume President Williams also
thinks it is unlikely. It is a mark
of a great university that it is
not simply good in one or two or
three areas but gives students as
many opportunities for growth as
possible.
students and faculty to pi
their interests in the arts, 1)
university does not provide!
opportunities they simply4
exist. Unless we want to i4s
“uniqueness” with a kind of
ficially induced narrownesi
think we should do all we®
encourage the administrate
plans to develop a fine arti)
gram.
Ed Harris
Department of Philost|
★ ★ ★
Editor:
This letter is in reference:
situation that is apparent to
as a student at A&M; thei
sional antagonism betweent)«
vilians and the corps mem!«
Such a conflict is unneccs
and works only to the detiii
of the student body as a li
4 p.i
Need chc
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ware, gent!
Call 846-28
Looking
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ridden off
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Also, Gr
If A&M is to flourish, tit! Water fa
dent body should be uniW 816 5(M
stead of divided.
It is a shame that A&M,i ,
standingly known for its p I BATTj
fellowship and tolerance ii | -
scene of this sort of pettyi
mosity.
We are not located in the cen
ter of a metropolitan area which
provides ample opportunity for
Therefore, I suggest that
student body should attemp
become more unified with
another.
Susan
BH3BB6S1
tiAUZXeTTMS 'jKEttrt
Cbe Battalion
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of The Battalion, a student newspaper at Texas A&M, is
th ‘ ' d “" “I th ' •r i, ‘ r °! ,he . ""ck and arc not
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the Board of Directors. The Battalion is a non-profit, —
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Members of the Student Publications Board are: MIKE RICE
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