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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 26, 1963)
te in tlie sk ie relay te hn Collins,: Anderson ar; so run in f» rd dashes, Rice seris| 1 more gan has a ti .nd the 'Vrk. Che Battalion Volume 60 COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 1963 Meeks Tells Tales.,. See Page 4 Number 102 rade A it decision On Rings ^ The ring committee decided president. Harlan Roberts, recent- al. Sq.i k Gallic loaves i iursday to give the Classes of K and ’66 a choice of rings in sse of a college name-change. “This was a request made by he sophomore class and a petition y the freshman class, indicating heir desires,” J. B. Hervey, chair- nan of the committee, said. FOUR STUDENTS and five taff members composed the nine- letnber group, whose earlier de- ision would have allowed this rear’s freshmen and sophomores to Urchase only the new ring with University inscribed on it. Serving on the committee with lervey, Executive Secretary of he Former Students Association, *as H. L. Heaton, Director of Ad- aissions; D. E. McCrorey, Assist- int to President Rudder; Benny Zinn, Director of Student Affairs, Wd E. E. McQuillen, Executive Director of the Development Fund. Also, Charles Blaschke, president the senior class; Paul Di’esser, fcor class president: James Love, Wing president for the sophomore dass, and Bill Milliken, freshman 'wmwm. After AH That Work! James Love (right), vice president and acting president of the sophomore class, and David Slaughter discuss a resolu tion written by the latter to the ring committee. The opposition note was to have been approved at the Thursday night soph meeting, but became unnecessary after the ring committee altered its decision. Committee Alters ly elected student body president, substituted for Dresser in Thurs day’s session. PREVIOUS to Thursday’s de cision, the sophomore class had de cided to submit a resolution, sub ject to approval by the sophomore class, to the responsible officials, informing them of the objections of the class. In light of the new decision, the sophomores publicily announced their support of the college admini stration .in reference to the name change bill at a class meeting in Guion Hall Thursday night. Opposition to the ring change stemmed fi’om the decision by the ring committee that all rings or dered after Sept. 1, 1963, would bear the new name in the event that name-change bill is passed. OBJECTIONS on the part of the sophomore class were submit ted in petition form to Love. The class meeting at Guion Hall was short due to the ring commit tee’s new decision. The sophomore class was well represented, said Love. filing For Fonr CSC Offices Begins Today; Ends May 3 Students interested in holding Me of four class positions on the Senior Fete Will Feature HpelineHead V. C. McGee Jr., president of Die Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co., be the principal speaker at annual Association of Former Students Banquet held for all mem- kfs of the Class of ’63 graduating May, August or February. The banquet will be held at 6:30 kto., Monday, in Sbisa Dining Hall Annex. This is the third year the •ssoeiation has treated seniors to | Dree steak dinner. L. F. Peterson, Fort Worth oil •ton and president of the associa- ton, will also speak at the supper. “It is hoped that each member ^ the graduating class will attend special dinner to be given for in order that they can be ’fticially welcomed as members of, Bnd better informed about, our as- ’nciation,” Hervey said. All seniors will be required to •W their complimentary tickets. Civilian Student Council for 1963- 64 may begin filing Friday in. their counselor’s office. The Council voted in its Thurs day meeting to open the filing. POSITIONS AVAILABLE on next year’s council are represent atives for the sophomore class, junior class, senior class and four th and fifth-year and graduate students. Prospective candidates may file in Room 203 Counseling and Test ing Center, Room 1-H Puryear Hall or Room 28 Milner Hall between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. before May 3. The CSC also made a recom mendation Thursday to the elec tion committee of the Dormitory Presidents Council that names of candidates be placed on dormitory ballots. Dormitory elections are scheduled for May 6. COLLEGE regulations specify that candidates for the positions must have and maintain a 1.25 grade point ratio and must not be on probation. Candidates who are elected and CSC area representatives, appoint ed or elected by the housing units, will attend the remaining two meet ings of the CSC. A freshman class representative will be elected next fall. Board May Give Answers To Coeds This Weekend Directors Conduct Closed Meetings COEDS DEFENDED Moore Answers Houston Ex On ‘Selfish Interest’ Charge (Editor’s Note: The Battalion received the following telegram a^ a reply to the form letter opposing coeducation that has been distributed by T. L. Smith Jr., ’98, from Houston.) Editor, The Battalion: I am in receipt of your form letter concerning the future of Texas A&M College and wish to commend you for your continued interest in A&M, however mis guided your interest may he. A&M long and well has serv ed as the most outstanding of our state-supported collesres and uni versities. I am confident of its future so long as it strives to ful fill the fundamental purpose of our state-supported educational system — to give our youth, re gardless of sex, the best educ ational opportunities possible. Le gend, tradition and selfish pride cannot be served where such would impair fulfillment of that purpose. I also am acutely aware of the rising cost of quality educational facilities and faculty. Time and again I have voiced opposition to addition of more schools to the state system. These addi tions, I feel, serve to dilute ra ther than maintain and upgrade the quality of existing institu tions, including A&M. Our edu cational system costs are borne solely by the taxpayers, who de serve that our youth get the most for the family tax dollar. Hunderds of families who do not have the means to send their daughters off to school have asked why their children should be deprived of educational oppor tunity at nearby A&M. I feel these young women, as well as young men, are deserving. If seeking educational opportunity for them is to have me accused as an “agitator,” then I humbly enter a plea of guilty. The great ness and complexities of our time require that each girl as well as boy be afforded the opportunity for a quality education to ade quately prepare them for the challenges of tomorrow. If the youth of Texas — not the Class of ’98 or my Class of ’40 — who must meet the demands of the space era. It is regrettable that the thoughts of any graduate of Texas A&M should become so twisted that he could selfishly at tempt to draw a parallel between coeducation at A&M and the rac ial difficulty experienced in Miss issippi and Alabama. It is be neath true dignity to infer that the citizens of Bryan have any thing less than the best interest of A&M at heart. I submit that Bryan citizens long have been the staunchest supporters of A&M. They readily have made sacrifices for its advancement and, I am confident, will continue to give A&M . . . and its students a responsive and responsible en vironment. Aggie Blood Drive Hits Record High Seven hundi'ed sixty-five A&M A&M is sponsored by the Student students queued up here Wednes- (See Blood, Page 3) day and Thursday and produced a school record of 605 pints of blood for the Wadley Research Institute and Blood Bank of Dal las. For various reasons, 162 Ag gies were rejected by the Wadley bank. The new mark betters the Ag gies’ old record of 392 pints in 1960. It also sets a one-stop re cord for the institute. LAST YEAR the students came up with 212 pints, and when the institute began its annual visit to A&M in 1959, they gave 200 pints. Mrs. Ella May Coleman, blood reserve account chairman for Wad ley, said the institute’s bloodmo- bile averages 38 trips per year to various collection locations in Tex as. “A&M is frequently our top volume stop,” she said. “The hoys seem so eager to give, and we get such splendid co-operation from everyone here.” Wadley meant to spend just one day at A&M this trip, but the students turned out in such large numbers that the bloodmobile crew had to call for more supplies from Dallas. Dr. David E. Soules, as sistant director of the institute’s blood bank, arrived at the college at 1:30 Thursday morning with the supplies. THE WADLEY INSTITUTE col lects blood for transfusion sup plies, blood disease studies, plasma making and for training blood re search' personnel. About 25,000 pints a year are handled by the agency. Mrs. Coleman said Wadley focus es its research on leukemia, hemo philia and other important blood ailments. The blood collection program at In hope that after some soul searching that all graduates of A&M will give unselfish support to that fine institution and sub scribe themselves to the funda mental objective of giving our youth the best educational oppor tunities possible, I am, sincerely: William T. Moore ’44 State Senator, Bryan Coed A&M Grad Not Concerned By RONNIE BOOKMAN Battalion Managing Editor An Aggie who graduated in 1925 just can’t get upset about reports that the Board of Directors is plan ning to approve coeducation on a day-student basis at its official meeting Saturday. “It just really doesn’t matter to me personally,” she said. That’s right — SHE said. MRS. L. B. LOCKE of 1103 Edgewood in Bryan is probably the only woman in A&M’s 86-year his tory to have been granted a diplo ma, according to the college archives. Mrs. Locke is not listed in the directories of the association of former students, and she prefers it that way. She explained. “I guess I’m just shy. I didn’t do anything special, it was just that I needed to go to school and my mother couldn’t afford to send me anywhere else.” MRS. LOCKE, the former Mary Evelyn Crawford, a Bryan girl, is now married to L. B. Locke, a staff employee of the Association of Former Students, who oddly enough, never completed require ments for an A&M degree himself. Mrs. Locke remembers that she wasn’t awarded her diploma in The A&M System Board of Directors is expected to announce a stand on coeducation at its regular quarterly meeting Saturday morning on campus. All nine members of the Board are presently on campus and conducted closed meetings Friday, both on coeducation and other agenda items. The Board’s official agenda does not provide for dis cussion on admitting women to the college, but Board Pres ident Sterling C. Evans has told the press that “since the matter has received such wide publicity, we definitely will discuss it.” A subject does not have to be on the agenda to provide for discussion. At its last meeting, The Board approved a college name-change even though the matter was not on the agenda. NEWS OF A possible coeduca tion decision has been circulating throughout the state since mid- March and has caused System officials to provide for a large press delegation at Saturday’s meeting. According to most reports, the proposal before the Board will he to admit women to the graduate school next September and to undergraduate classes on a day- student basis soon afterward. All nine members of the Board told The Battalion in March that no vote on coeducation was being planned for Saturday’s meeting. They also denied that the coedu cation question was discussed at the January meeting, but usually reliable sources said such a discus sion did take place. OPPOSITION to a possible Board decision .has been led by T. L. Smith, ’98, from Houston, president of the Association of Former Students’ Sul Ross Group. Smith has been conducting an extensive letter-writing campaign to former students’ club presidents and was due to personally appear before the Board in closed session Friday afternoon. He also planned meetings with cadet officers Friday morning. IN ADDITION, juniors in the Corps of Cadets have circulated a questionnaire on the coed question and will be prepared to present the document to the Board if it is asked for. formal commencement exercises back in August of 1925. She said: “I got a call one day from the registrar’s secretary. She told me to come over to her apartment and get my diploma. Until then I didn’t care anything about the formal exercises. I was so glad to hear that I did get a diploma that I would have crawled over to that apartment.” MRS. LOCKE attended school for one year at what is now Texas Woman’s University and one year at the University of Texas. Then she finished her college work at A&M. She is a solid Aggie booster who “never did care much for the Tea- sips.” Her academic work was in Eng lish with a minor in French. She attended A&M for one regular ses sion and, she thinks, two summer sessions, under a rule that allowed the relatives of professors to go to school here. Mrs. Locke, whose brother C. W. Crawfords still teaches engineering at A&M, said there were about 15 or 20 other girls going to school here at that time. Under present regulations wo men are allowed to attend only summer school here. Top 10 Stories For 62-63 Just a year ago, the present staff of The Battalion took over the papers reins for what turned out to be an enjoyable, but often hectic nine months. That staff will step aside Monday for a new regime, but only after a year of many big stories, some of which will have a lasting impression on the college’s future. Trying to rank these stories according to importance is prac tically impossible, but we feel the top ten would look something like this THE YEAR’S TOP TEN 1. Name-Change 2. 'Coeducation 3. Publicity 4. Maritime Academy 5. Financial Problems 6. Expansion and Building 7. Landmarks Gone 8- Campus Gatherings 9. Student Referendum 10. Dining Hall Changes Final action on the name- change and coeducation questions hasn’t been rendered, but these two stories seem to stand out as the year’s top two. A bill asking for a college name-change to Texas A&M University lacks only the third and final reading to pass the House and then go to the state Senate. The bill was requested at this year’s first meeting of the A&M System Board of Di rectors, where three new direc tors—Dr. A. P. Beutel, L. F. Peterson and Gardiner Symonds —assumed posts on the nine- man board. These new directors are also playing a big part in the co education decision expected from the board this Saturday. Rumors have covered the state that the directors may make a decision on coeducation, but all nine members have denied that a ver dict is upcoming. The answer to that question will be delivered at the board meeting Saturday morning. As is always the case, the college received more than its share of publicity—mostly bad. The year was hardly underway when Time Magazine published its infamous article. This was followed by riots after the Uni versity of Texas basketball game in Austin, then the resignation of basketball coach Bob Rogers. Only solace was a lengthy story published just two w r eeks ago by The Associated Press. Another story not yet decided is the fate of A&M’s new Texas Maritime Academy. The House cut all state funds asked for the young branch, but the Senate put the TMA back on its appropria tions measure. A conference committee will decide the acad emy’s final status with the 58th legislature, with the committee’s verdict expected in the very near future. The legislature also holds the key to A&M’s financial status for the next two fiscal years. All budgets proposed in Austin have called for increased college funds, but none have provided as much as the college asked. Stu dents have also felt the cost squeeze—the Board of Directors has already improved an increase in room rent, while chances are good that state tuition will also be raised. Every year offers new build ing and expansion, and this year was certainly been no ex ception. New dormitories and a library expansion have been approved to start within the next year, the college has decided to house civilians at the Research and Development Annex, a new post office and the Plant Sciences Building have been opened and the new Architecture Building is rapidly nearing completion. Despite this expansion, two old landmarks have been eliminated. First, the college museum was closed when the Plant Sciences Building opened; then President Earl Rudder’s pre-1900 home was destroyed by fire in late January. Future plans for the old museum building have not been disclosed, but the Board of Directors has approved the con struction of a new home for Rud der. Gatherings of some sort are held almost every weekend, but two stood out above all others this year—the Century Study Convocation and SCONA VIII. Vice President Lyndon Johnson and NASA chief James Webb headed a top-flight list of speak ers for the conferences, both of which attracted around 10,000 people. At the Convocation, the Board of Directors also pre sented its ‘Blueprint for Pro gress,’ designed to guide the col lege for the next 15 years. Almost forgotten, but cer tainly in the spotlight this week end, is the student referendum held last May on coeducation, a name-change and the reten tion of a compulsory Corp of Cadets. In the poll, requested by the administration, students approved coeducation and a name-change, and were in favor of abolishing the compulsory Corps. Ranking tenth in our list is the collection of steps taken to im prove college dining hall condi tions. During the winter, plans were completed to offer civilians cafeteria-style meals next year; while the Student Senate launched a series of menu-plan ning sessions to improve dining hall service for the Corps. Like many of the stories, much more is to be heard from these steps. Not making our list, but rank ing as big stories were the re quirement of the Graduate Record Exams, a series of thefts in Law and Puryear halls and proposed ROTC changes that col lege officials have predicted will not affect A&M.
