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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 7, 1984)
v. t'-ensus \ 1 tor sociiXi he newj er to the 0 agan’s conference | ou ld haven impact of s 1 P ro grams. •'eves then 'xt year. les ses, wei, os on pove oi y right n« 1 lie Dattalion Serving the Gniversity community l/ol 79 No. 181 USPS 045360 8 pages College Station, Texas Tuesday, August 7, 1984 GSS will apply for recognition By KARI FLUEGEL Staff Writer Members of Gay Student Services will file for recognition by Texas A&M University as an official on- campus organization sometime this week, Marco Roberts, GSS presi dent, said Monday. The action follows a Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling made Friday stating that Texas A&M will have to recognize the group as a campus organization. The ruling, made by a three- judge panel, reversed the 1982 deci sion of U.S. District [udge Ross N. ... But someone has to do it Photo by CHRISTINE COCHRAN Galveston cleanup crews shovel up the last of the oil spots aged to clean up the worst spots on Saturday. Despite the oil near Stewart Beach Sunday. The workers said that they man- globs, there were still many tourists and sunbathers. • Service, JOES-Wesi: April Sterling, who had ruled that the University had not violated a pro tected constitutional right by deny ing recognition to the group. GSS was denied recognition by Texas A&M in 1976 on the grounds that homosexual conduct was illegal in Texas and that it would be inap propriate for Texas A&M to recog nize an organization likely to “incite, promote and result” in homosexual activity. That argument became moot when a federal judge in Dallas struck down the section of the Texas Penal Code forbidding sexual acts between adults of the same sex. Texas A&M also argued that GSS was a social organization and that the University does not recognize so cial groups. Sterling upheld the Uni versity’s claim that the group was a social organization and that Texas A&M had legal justificaton to decide what type of organizations were rec ognized on campus. But the Court of Appeals stated that: “At (the) heart of the First Amendment is the freedom to choose, even if such choice does not accord with the state’s view.” The ruling also said: “TAMU’s re fusal to recognize Gay Student Serv ices as an on-campus student organi zation impermissibly denied appellants their First Amendment rights.” In a press conference Saturday, Roberts said, “At this point, we’re elated about the decision rendered. We are even more pleased that the decision was unanammous. “All GSS has asked for is the bene fits that are granted to all other cam- E us organizations and now we have een given the right to do so.” Texas A&M has not yet received a copy of the formal ruling, said Ted Hajovsky, general counsel for the Texas A&M University System. He expects to get a copy of the ruling later this week. “Having not as yet seen the formal ruling, we prefer to refrain from commenting at this time,” Hajovsky said in an official statement. “As soon as we have received a copy of the ruling, we will study it in great (See GAY STUDENTS, page 4) that <•' ijency is i >w at 135 8 degrees I ; continei jtect the ng the 1 II clean up speeding Galveston beach erosion 1 be in ?• j of the to 0, it w' 11 ] es for toj torms coisij icific. :e coverage r orecastin| 1 the Pad oices that said. g time rricane w ■ement«« United Press International GALVESTON — Bulldozers and steamshovels kept a steady hum along Texas’ beaches near Galveston Monday, scraping a gooey coating of oil that washed ashore and raising a new concern from officials — ero sion of beaches. Galveston County Judge Ray Hol brook said the cleanup operations to clear the beaches where oil spilled from a ruptured tanker began wash ing ashore Friday could cause se rious problems with erosion begun by last August’s Hurricane Alicia. “The problem is on the west end spii heaviest. They are grading the sand there to get the oil up but they are taking a lot of sand with it. That sand will have to be replaced,” he said. Holbrook said he will consider a class action suit on behalf of the landowners along the west island to restore the beaches if there is a greater risk of erosion after the cleanup. Erosion was already a con cern on the beaches, where sand was swept away last summer by Alicia. Coast Guard spokesman Jim Kosch said it would be two weeks at least before the 55-mile stretch of coast stained by the spill is cleared. The Coast Guard flew over the shoreline early Monday and re ported no signs of additional oil floating in the Gulf. Kosch also said it could take up to 12 days to unload the Alvenus, which broke apart off the coast at Cameron, La., July 30, dumping nearly 2 million gallons of thick Ven ezuelan crude into the Gulf of Mex ico. The oil slick drifted southwest for five days before hitting the beaches It’s not too late to apply for August graduation )N By PAM BARNES Reporter Although the deadlines for Au- ;ust graduation have passed, Assis- nt Registrar Don Gardner says it’s tot too late to apply. “I’m sure there are a few people ho missed the deadlines,” Gardner ‘Some people have paid their fees, but they haven’t officially ap plied for graduation. There’s still time this week to apply, but the stu dent won’t get a diploma on time.” Gardner says the clear list for graduating seniors will be posted outside Heaton Hall August 16, at 8 a.m. and seniors will have until 5 p.m. that same day to clear any prob lems. A red dot next to a senior’s name means he has a fiscal or an academic block that must be cleared, Gardner says. If it’s a fiscal block the student can’t recieve an official transcript, he says, but if it’s an academic block, the student may not graduate. Gardner says that letters are sent to blocked students a couple of weeks before the clear list is posted. This early warning gives students a chance to clear up any problems, Gardner says. Gardner suggests that all graduat ing seniors check with the fiscal de partment, the library and the cam pus police to be sure that they don’t have any parking tickets or drop- add fees that haven’t been paid. He says it’s a good idea for all se niors to check the clear list on the 16th to be sure that they aren’t blocked. “You never know,” Gardner says, “there are a lot of things that can foul up at graduation time.” Colleen Cook, head of library cir culation department, suggests that all students return any library books before they pack to leave. “We get returned books from all over the world,” Cook says. “We usually don’t have to, but if a recur ring problem of overdue books is caught, the fiscal department will be notified and the student may be blocked.” Morris Maddox, assistant director of administration with the Univer sity Police Department, says that many graduating seniors come into the police station and check to see if they have any tickets. He says most find that they don’t but that it’s a good idea to check anyway. Gardner says that some students have had trouble transferring cred its in time for graduation. He says that an official transcript must be on file before the student can graduate. “For example,” he says, “if stu dents took classes somewhere else the second summer session, they probably won’t have enough time to get their transcript here in time to graduate this August.” Gardner says if seniors do receive letters about their blocks, they should bring them into the degree check office in Heaton Hall and have the problem cleared up. He also suggests that all students plan ning to graduate in the fall appfy for graduation early in the semester. Graduation will be August 18, at 9 a.m. in G. Rollie White Coliseum. The procession will form at 8:30 a.m. in room 351 of the gymnasium, and roll call will be at 8:45. Computer phobia lessening — some By BONNIE LANGFORD Reporter (Editor’s note: This is the first of a hree-part series on computer use.) Computers aren’t scary anymore, that doesn’t mean the foreboding mages of HAL, the killer computer the film “2001,” have aisap- >eared, nor has the fear of losing a to a machine that works for less money, without coffee breaks, gone mvay. It does mean people are start ing to breathe easier around com puter technology —just a little. For now, however, computers are newed with a combination of fear, iwe, distrust and reverence. As George Wright, an engineering technology instructor here, says, it will change: “I remember when I was in col lege, television was the big thing. People said we would all be taught by TV’s in the future. Today TV’s tre used as teaching aids, but they haven’t taken over. The computer’s newness will wear off, and they will be as accepted as cars and telepho nes.” Despite a newness in the public’s eyes, computers and computing aren’t new, they’ve been around since the beginning of numbers and counting. And they were plagued by fears and problems then. The first mechnical aid for computing was the abacus. It was invented more than 2,500 years ago, but was never popu lar outside the Orient. Part of the popularity problem was from the man who introduced the abacus to Europe — Pope Sylvester II. He was belter known for his wickedness and dealings with the occult. In 1614, John Napier advanced computing aids further with his slide rule, which until recently was an en gineer’s best friend. But it was 1642 before the first mechnical ■adding machine was invented. Blaise Pas cal’s idea used wheels and gears like a car speedometer. However, the machine had problems. It was ex pensive, delicate and inefficient, and not marketable. Over the years other machines were created that added to Pascal’s invention, such as the one Gottfried von Leibniz invented that added, subtracted, multiplied and divided, and did square roots. Not until 1801, however, did a breakthrough for modern computers appear. Joseph Jacquard developed a card reading device for weaving; the system worked so well that it was adopted for Charles Babbage’s analytical en gine. Unfortunately, his machines were correct in theory, but the tech nology of his day was too primitive. Early funding from the British gov ernment was discontinued, which, combined with Babbage’s unpopular image — he was notorious for his at tacks on the Royal Society and his campaigns against street music — kept him seeking ways to raise money, and people to understand his work. One of the few people who under stood Babbage’s machines was his as sistant, Lady Ada Lovelace. She was a mathematics genius who devised a form of binary arithmetic for his ma chines that is still used today. A bi nary code, or machine language, uses ones and zeros — since the ma chine only recognizes “on” and “off.” For example, the number two is represented by the code 010. But even Lovelace’s published explana tions of Babbage’s work didn’t push technology further. A large push for technology fi nally came in 1879. It was then that an American census office em ployee, Herman Hollerith, began to ponder the problem of processing data. More than seven years were needed to complete the 1880 census, and by then it was too late for the data to mean much. (See COMPUTERS, page 4) 1 n Today’s BattaIion Local • Cadets can make up one to two years of training in an Army ROTC compression program that takes only six weeks. See story page 5. State • A Texas town — containing the schoolhouse where Lyn don Johnson learned how to read and write — is up for sale. See story page 5. • Groups protesting the sale of Penthouse and Playboy magazines in 7-£ievens picketed 400 7-Elevens. See story page 8. National • Ling-Ling, the National Zoo panda, gave birth to a stil lborn cub. See story page 8.