\
|The Battalion
Wednesday, June 6, 1979 News Dept. 845-2611
College Station, Texas Business Dept. 845-2611
Weather
Mostly cloudy with a 50% chance
of rain today. High in the mid 80’s
and a low of 70. Winds will be S.E.
at 5-10 m.p.h.
onsol to submit special
ducation plans to TEA
By ROY BRAGG
Battlion Staff
A five-year plan for special education in
te A&M Consolidated school district will
| lubrintted to the Region 6 education
mtt r in Huntsville Thursday.
j,Al. school districts in the state are re-
to have such a plan to submit for
■oval to the Texas Education Agency
•EA).
The plan, approved by the school board
ijnclay night, was originally due June 1.
. Bdue date for Consolidated was pushed
more
iorm fees
By ROBIN THOMPSON
Battalion Staff
■>4 Hirting this semester, dorm residents
BfHio longer required to pay dorm ac-
IjJ ■ fees. This means that if a student
Blnot want to attend activities like par-
H Bnd mixers sponsored by his dorm, he
B B Bi t have to pay for them.
S Bcording to the 1978-79 housing guide,
R.'Bnts are required to pay activity fees
ffore receiving a room key.
But a petition presented at the April 4
IB Bing of the student senate revealed
Pi B r equiring the collection of such fees is
E/ Regal.
me^T Brhara Thompson, president of the Re-
Bce Hall Association, said in an inter-
B dudng the spring semester that the
;s have been collected in the past to pay
Bctivities such as social functions,
Bkers, Sunday suppers and service
Jtcts.
Hi wever the senate bill states that
BBIHlatory fees may not be legally spent
' the purchase of food and alcoholic bev-
B e bill also states that the collection of
Jk B activity fees was never approved by
^ItTexas A&M University Board of Re-
Apparently when the fees were im-
B ente d no one checked into the legal-
Tf(Charging them, said Ron Sasse, as-
_jte director of student affairs.
|riu! students are working on trying to
Bn explanation of where fees are going
l§here won’t be any confusion in the
■ he said.
Be said that previously students who
Bi to pay the fees were not issued a
key and were taken before a judicial
jompson said the fees, which range
$5 to $7.50 per semester, will still be
but will not be mandatory.
If a person doesn’t want to pay, he
In’t have to,” she said.
|{jhe said the dorms are planning to issue
jfers to be placed on the back of ID
for admission to and participation in
i activities.
inform students of the change,
npson said there will be a mailout to
nmen before they come in the fall and
Iten material available when people
Ik in.
| Sksse said that each semester the dorms
ate individually on whether to have a
|ram and charge activity fees,
pence was the only dorm last year that
Tnot programmed, he said.
forward to Thursday so the district trus
tees could review the plan at their regular
meeting.
The plan is split into eight chapters and
outlines the school’s responsibilities and
goals for the 425 students enrolled in the
special education program.
The program aids physically, emotion
ally or mentally handicapped students,
Perkins said.
The Special Services program at Con
solidated served 11 percent of the district’s
total enrollment during the last school
year, said program director Phyllis Per
kins.
Students are referred to the program by
teachers or admistrators at their resective
schools.
If the parents approve the recom
mendations, the student is evaluated by a
screening committee from the school.
If the committee decides special educa
tion would be beneficial, an Administra
tive Review/Dismissal committee (ARD)
consisting of educators, citizens and par
ents from the smae school is formed. This
group develops an Individual Learning
Program (IEP) for the student based on
the students individual needs.
The IEP can involve a combination of
alternative learning methods such as spe
cial education, remedial training in
needed areas, medical aid, or physical or
psychiatric therapy.
There is no cost to the student or his
family for the special training.
Every year, students in the program are
re-evaluated by their ARD for eventual
replacement into regualr school cur
riculum, continued special instruction in
their IEP or development of a new IEP.
Parents who do not agree with the pro
gram prescribed for their child may appeal
through a district ARD, the school board,
the TEA or several other channels.
The process for admission to special
education is outlined by state law.
The five-year plan, Perkins said, calls
for a small increase in staff and a large in
crease in facilities and plans in the existing
special education programs.
The plan also recommends the school
board establish a policy for implementing
new special education programs.
One of those new programs also men
tioned in the plan is the initiation of
emergency medical treatment plans for
multi-handicapped students. Such stu
dents are prone to choke when eating,
Perkins said.
Another new program mentioned in the
five-year plan calls for a change in the use
of the “crisis room” at various schools.
The crisis room, Perkins said, is a class
room where emotionally disturbed stu
dents are placed for counseling until they
can be placed back into the regular class
room envirionment.
Presently, students placed in the room
are withdrawn from their normal instruc
tion. Under the proposed change, the
teacher irt the crisis room would continue
the student’s instruction in addition to
counseling.
Perkins said the plan also recommends a
vocational plan similar to the existing one
at the high school level be instituted in the
junior high.
The Special Services program in the
A&M Consolidated distrcit is funded by a
mix of federal, state and local funds. Last
year, $362,000 in state funds and $17,000
in federal funds were used to administer
the program.
Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
The rains take their toll
Rain water rushes from the Bryan Municipal
Lake on South College. The lake, like most
local bodies of water, has been swollen by re
cent thundershowers.
Discrimination issue still in dispute
Veterans preference laws OK: Supreme Court
■K
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Supreme
Court, over two dissents, Tuesday upheld
veterans preference laws, despite claims
that they discriminate against women.
The 7-2 opinion reinstated a Massachu
setts statute which gives an absolute pref
erence over all other applicants to qual
ified veterans seeking state civil service
jobs.
The decision bolsters veterans prefer
ence laws across the country, since the
court upheld the state statute believed to
be the most susceptible to constitutional
attack.
The sensitive issue divided some admin
istration officials and has been closely
watched by veterans’ and women’s groups.
The court conceded the law — the most
extreme form of veterans preference in
any state — has a severe impact on public
employment opportunities for women.
But it said the Bay State legislature had
not intentionally discriminated against
women — the standard necessary for find
ing a constitutional violation.
“Nothing in the record demonstrates
that this preference for veterans was origi
nally devised because it would accomplish
the collateral goal of keeping women in a
stereotypic and pre-defined place in the
Massachusetts Civil Service,” Justice Pot
ter Stewart wrote for the majority.
Veterans preference laws “present an
awkward — and many argue, unfair — ex
ception to the widely shared view that
merit and merit alone should prevail in the
employment policies of government,’’
Stewart wrote.
“After a war, such laws have been
enacted virtually without opposition. Dur
ing peacetime they inevitably have come
to be viewed in many quarters as undemo
cratic and unwise.
“The substantial edge granted to veter
ans” by the Massachusetts law “may re
flect unwise policy,’’ he said. But he con
cluded that challengers in the Massachu
setts case have “simply failed to demon
strate that the law in any way reflects a
purpose to discriminate on the basis of
sex.”
Stewart noted that the status of being a
veteran is “not uniquely male.”
“Although few women benefit from the
preference, the non-veteran class is not
substantially all female,” Stewart said, “to
the contrary, significant numbers of non
veterans are men, and all non-veterans —
male as well as female — are placed at a
disadvantage.”
Justice Thurgood Marshall, in a dissent
Ricardo Cartejoso, a junior in mechanial en
gineering, peers over the should of Greg An
drews to catch a glimpse of his summer
schedule while standing in a registration line
at G. Rollie White Coliseum. Late registra
tion continues today and tomorrow though
there is $10 late charge
Battalion photo by Clay Cockrill
joined by William Brennan, said the Mas
sachusetts law “so severely restricts public
employment opportunities for women
(that it) cannot be thought of as gender-
neutral.”
Marshall said Massachusetts could use a
wide variety of other means which have a
less severe impact on women.
Nearly all states have some form of vet
erans’ preference. Forty-one states and
the U.S. government award preference
points to veterans seeking public employ
ment, and thus generally give them an
extra edge in competition instead of an ab
solute, lifetime preference.
Even so. President Carter has proposed
revising federal preferences to make them
less unfair to women.
A handful of states — like Pennsylvania,
Utah, South Dakota and Vermont — and a
few federal programs provide a heavier
advantage for some veterans for some jobs.
But Massachusetts’ 1896 statute, unlike
any other in the country, places all appli
cants who pass the civil service written
exam on an “eligible list.” Wartime veter
ans are hired first in order of their compo
site scores, then surviving spouses or par
ents, and finally all others.
The law was challenged by Helen
Feeney, a widow and mother of four from
Dracut, Mass., who worked for the state
Civil Defense Agency from 1963 until she
was laid off in 1975.
When she considered entering the mili
tary during World War II, her mother re
fused to give her the parental permission
Windfall tax
could be bad
for Texas
United Press International
AUSTIN — Land Commissioner Bob
Armstrong Tuesday said Texas could lose
more than $100 million in royalty income
if Congress imposes a windfall profits tax
on oil.
“As absurd as it sounds, the federal gov
ernment would be taking dollars out of our
permanent school fund and university
funds to pay a windfall profits tax on our
royalty oil income, unless the law clearly
exempts us,” Armstrong said.
The land commissioner said he con
tacted top state officials and the California
land commissioner to push for adoption of
an amendment removing states out of the
windfall profits tax bill. The House Ways
and Means Committee begins work on the
President Carter proposed bill on Wed
nesday.
Armstrong said he would try and contact
Department of Energy officials and top
Carter administration aides.
Armstrong said oil decontrol would pro
duce an additional $245 million in royalties
for Texas during the next five years, but
the windfall profits tax would require the
state to give half the royalties to the fed
eral government.
“It simply doesn’t make sense to equate
a state performing governmental service
with a corporation,” Armstrong said. “Ev
ery dollar we get from oil royalties will go
to education, not into someone’s pocket.”
which was required for young women
while young men were being drafted into
the armed services.
When male veterans who scored lower
than she did on promotional exams were
awarded better civil service jobs on sev
eral occasions, she decided in her mid-50s
to do something about what she viewed as
a continuation of military sexual discrimi
nation.
She went to court.
Exterior design
blamed for
building collapse
United Press International
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A city engineer Tuesday said the controv
ersial exterior design of an arena that housed the 1976 Republican
national convention may have created wind drafts as high as 125 mph
and caused the building to collapse.
City officials, however, said there were more questions than an
swers to Monday night’s collapse of the massive Kemper Arena roof
and that national building consultants would be summoned for fur
ther opinions.
About 15 to 20 maintenance and security workers were inside the
5-year-old, $23.2 million building when a torrential rain and wind
storm struck the city. Moments later the arena roof dropped 95 feet
into a pile of rubble.
All the workers escaped injury.
City officials first indicated the 4-inch rain that accompanied the
storm was the probable cause of the roofs failure. But later city
engineer Don Hurlbert said the high wind was the most likely con
tributing factor.
“The way the building is designed and where it is built, the winds
have to climb and rise up to get to the arena,” Hurlbert speculated.
“Because of that they speed up about 50 percent. So if you’ve got a
75 mph wind, it could be 125 mph at the arena.”
Wind gusts during Monday night’s thunderstorm were clocked at
74 mph. Several windows were blown out in other buildings in the
Kansas City stockyards.
Hurlbert, however, said it might be several days before an actual
cause could be determined.
“We re going to try and reconstruct what happened,” he said. “We
need to find out what kind of breaks we had at the various steel
junctures.”
Bill Dunn, the president of G.E. Dunn Construction Co. of Kansas
City, the general contractor on the building, said to his knowledge
there had never been any structural problems with the building al
though tests had been conducted because of problems with high
winds.
“They put a model of it in a wind tunnel,” he said. “They had
problems with the wind swirling around some of the doors. But they
built some buffers and as far as I know that took care of the problem.
“It is an unusual building and the unusual shape of the building
causes some unusual problems in aerodynamics. But I think all that
we would be doing on trying to figure out the cause would be coming
up with conjecture.”
The building’s design had been controversial from its inception
because all of the support beams and structures were built on the
outside of the building — instead of the conventional inside supports
— for an unobstructed view of the arena floor. Yet, in 1976, the
building was given one of six national honor awards for design by the
American Institute of Architects.
“There are a lot of things we don’t know the answer to, but we re
going to bring in some national consultants to try and answer them,”
said Berkley. “We re very optimistic about the future of Kemper
Arena and it’s a facility that we will be putting back into use.”
Authorities said they had not been able to determine an exact
damage estimate but mayor Richard Berkley said initial reports indi
cating the damage would top $1 million were “probably on the low
side.”
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