11, 19{(
COPIES
Che Battalion
Volume 61
GQJLLEGE STATION, TEXAS TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 1966
Number 282
Editorial
Student Senate:
Student Senate To Hear
fr^r^v' 1 Faculty Rating Program
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Texas A«feM , s student body has another opportunity
this spring to determine the fate of its local government.
With Student Senate elections less than one month
away, it is time to consider improvement and strengthening
of that organization.
The Senate has received no small amount of criticism
this year — and in the past — for its complacent attitude
in dealing with student problems. Most of the attacks
have been on the organization’s sins of omission rather
than commission. Its failure to investigate major areas
of concern — parking problems, campus bookstore revenues,
student-faculty-administrative relations and difficulties, fee
increases, student government reorganization—has contri
buted to the growing attitude of student apathy toward
local government engulfing our campus.
In six months the Senate’s only noteworthy action
has been its involvement in the political clubs issue, through
which it has proven capable of sensibly handling local
problems. Although two years elapsed before Senators
took any stand in the area, their resolution advocating
sanction of political organizations was indeed creditable.
Aside from this activity, however, the Student Senate
has been decidedly more social than political, more passive
than active.
The reason is twofold: Student Senate is not endowed
with any great power, and elections are conducted lacking
positive programs and debatable issues. The latter must
be solved before the Senate can gain any stature with the
university and its student body.
Present campaign procedures have little merit. Candi
dates request support on basis of what they wear, not
what they believe. Corps versus civilian has prevailed at
the polls — a two-party system of sorts, but not a capable
one. The only prevailing criteria for election is that a
Lake To Present
Plans Thursday
SOPH SWEETHEART
Sally Lindsey was selected
as 1966 Sophomore Sweet
heart at the Sophomore Ball
Saturday. The 5’5” blue
eyed blonde was escorted by
Steve Melzer. Miss Lindsey
is a student at Baylor.
candidate does or does not wear a uniform, and the out
come is decided by whether the Corps or civilian body can
muster the largest aggregation to the polls.
Issues are never debated. Letters to the editor advo
cate “better, stronger government” and go into detail oh
a candidate’s social record, but never do they describe his
plans to strengthen government, his stands on current
issues or his attitudes toward university policy and student
life.
For example, during the recent special election to
fill thee Issues Chairman position, both candidates possessed
positive programs and indicated solutions to campus prob
lems. But these issues were not aired by the candidates
except in private conversation; their campaign posters and
letters consisted only of endorsement by campus leaders,
eye-catching cartoons and broad generalizations. They
advocated “stronger government” and urged a Corps-civilian
cooperative effort in electing them, but never did they define
their objectives.
Texas A&M needs a two-party student political sys-
Premarital
Sex Relations
Forum Topic
By DANI PRESSWOOD
Battalion News Editor
Student Senate Issues Chair
man Sim Lake said Monday he
will propose a resolution to adopt
a program of faculty evaluation
by students at Thursday night’s
Senate meeting.
Such a program would provide
a means of students evaluating
individual faculty members to
help professors improve their
teaching techniques.
Lake said the resolution, if
passed by the Senate, will be
sent to the Executive Committee
for consideration. He will re
quest that the Committee report
its progress to the Senate.
“We are going to ask that a
student - faculty committee be
formed to study plans employed
at other universities and report
back with the best plan for
A&M,” he remarked.
Dr. Henry Bowman, of the
University of Texas, will speak
on “Sex in Human Relations—
Premarital” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday
in the YMCA.
According to Lake, faculty
evaluation programs are present
ly in operation at several major
universities, including the Uni
versity of Wisconsin, Harvard,
Yale, University of California,
Princeton and Michigan State.
tem, not one that elects its representatives on basis of
military or civilian affiliation.
Presenting the third 1966 Mar
riage Forum, Bowman will dis
cuss premarital sexual relations,
ideals and standards of sex mo
rality, how standards may be
established, whether present day
standards make sense and the
“sexual revolution.”
“We polled from 30 to 50 A&M
faculty members on this and they
are overwhelmingly in favor of
the concept of student evaluation
of faculty members,” he said.
Lake explained that the pro
posal is based on the premise
that faculty members desire to
improve their proficiency.
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Until such a system is developed and until issues
become the primary concern of office-seekers, student gov
ernment here will continue to squander time, disenchant
its constituents and inadequately serve campus needs.
A feeble attempt was made by several students last
spring to organize such a party, but it fell into the old trap
of advocating “stronger government” and urging Corps-
civilian cooperation. It lacked specific positive programs
and appeared more concerned with adequate representation
of cadets and civilians than with current issues. It urged
election of party candidates because they were party candi
dates, not because the party promised a progressive plat
form. Yet with all its weaknesses, the old University Party
offered hope. Had its limited success been followed by
an attempt to persuade successful party candidates to fol
low a particular united political path, A&M would have been
on its way to a party system. However, after the election
the group didn’t conduct a convention and it has not held
a policy meeting all year. Its intentions were obviously
aimed at electing one particular slate of officers, and it was
therefore no more beneficial than the prevailing cadet-
civilian procedure.
Political organizations — conceived with a uniform
purpose and program, meeting at regular intervals to discuss
policy and procedure, striving to fulfill its objectives, serv
ing as a watchdog on the party in power, proposing a slate
of officers dedicated to the best interests of the students,
determining student opinion — could offer student govern
ment a path to follow, practical political experience for
candidates and voters, and solutions to campus problems
heretofore untouched by Student Senate.
Student government cannot continue to function with
out some common incentive, and Corps versus civilian
rivalry has not provided it. We suggest another method.
It couldn’t do any worse.
A UT sociology professor,
Bowman is a nationally recog
nized authority on marriage and
family life.
“An improvement in the level
of ability of students should be
accompanied by an improvement
in the level of the faculty,” he
noted.
He is author of several books
concerning marriage, including
“Marriage for Modems” and “A
Christian Interpretation of Mar
riage.”
“By an improvement in the
faculty, we by no means purport
to imply that the general level
of instructors at A&M is not
of high caliber and above re
proach,” he continued.
He is named in Who’s Who in
America, Who’s Who in Ameri
can Education, Who’s Who in the
South and Southwest and in
American Men of Science.
“But, as in every large group,
there are exceptions to general
rule and this is true among the
faculty at A&M.”
His articles have been pub
lished in professional and popu
lar magazines, scholarly journals
and in collections of readings on
marriage and the family.
Lake points out that such an
evaluation program was em
ployed here in the early 1950’s
but was discontinued for lack of
proper execution.
Bowman served as president of
the National Council on Family
Relations from 1958 to 1959. This
organization consists of 3,000
members whose professions are
concerned both directly and in
directly with marriage and the
family.
He added that A&M’s Commit
tee on Development of Teaching
Techniques in 1964 suggested a
similar program be reinstated,
but the suggestion was never
followed up.
In 1963 the U. S. State Depart
ment assigned Bowman to Aus
tralia and New Zealand to lecture
on marriage education and coun
seling.
“Presently the only way the
administration has of knowing
the standing of professors is
when some dissatisfied student
comes in with a gripe,” Lake
said. “This presents an unfair
representation.”
Lake, who has been investi
gating the possibilities of this
Luedecke Addresses JETS Conference
Space Exploration Limitless
RY
L
A space program management
e xpert said here Friday the
United States is hardly out of its
backyard in the exploration of
0,1 ter space.
Maj. Gen. Alvin R. Luedecke,
deputy director of the Jet Pro
pulsion Laboratory at the Cali
fornia Institute of Technology,
spoke of the Moon, Venus and
Mars—all many millions of miles
from Earth. Then he pointed to
Jupiter, hundreds of millions of
miles further, intimating that the
sky’s the limit.
The 1932 Texas A&M engineer
ing graduate discussed the space
program first to 700 high school
students at a Junior Engineering
Technical Society conference and
later to the public.
He reviewed problems faced by
the 4,100 persons in his organiza
tion.
“The terminal phase of trajec
tory is most critical,” he said.
“Any kind of failure in this area
lose the mission.”
“Secondly,” he went on, “we
are trying to develop a system
for landing relatively heavy
spacecraft in a vacuum. We can’t
create a vacuum here to test the
craft in the right environment.”
Luedecke noted the Jet Propul
sion Laboratory plans to put a
Surveyor spacecraft on the moon
during the second quarter of this
year. Launch dates are classified
information.
The Surveyor is to be powered
by an Atlas-Centaur booster
system, he said.
The Eldorado native reviewed
future JPL interplanetary ven
tures by the U. S.
“A fly-by mission of Venus is
planned in 1967,” he said. “Mars
is due for a fly-by mission in
1969, and in 1973—via our Voy
ager Program, we plan an orbit
ing mission in which we will land
a capsule on Mars.”
“I don’t think anybody is seri
ously thinking right now of put
ting a man on Mars,” he con
tinued. “We have enough to do
man on the
undertaking for two months, said
some departments on campus are
currently using a faculty evalua
tion program.
“These are already being used
by many instructors that are
really interested in improving,”
he said.
From research conducted by
Lake and senior David Miller,
exists supporting evidence from
the March, 1964, issue of “The
Journal of Higher Educaton.”
The journal states that “each
professor needs to be aware that
the way he teaches is not less
important than what he teaches.”
Lake says his argument is best
summed up with a statement
from Fred J. Kelly’s “Improving
College Instruction.”
“Evidence is overwhelmingly
in favor of having ratings by
students,” it reads. “To teach
effectively is to lead, to inspire
and to guide the learner ... To
test the students is to test teach-
MRS. A&M
Cathy Nicholson was named Mrs. A&M for 1966 at the
Mrs. A&M banquet and ball Saturday in the Memorial
Student Center. She was chosen from a field of 28 fi
nalists. Her husband is a senior civil engineering- student.
MSC Council Chooses
3 Committee Chairmen
Junior Bill Hindman and soph
omore Larry Hearn were elected
Monday night as councilmen-at-
large for 1966-67 by the Mem
orial Student Center Council and
Directorate. The council also
selected three MSC committee
chairmen.
George Long, junior economics
major, was named chairman of
the Travel Committee, while Jer
ry Stevens, junior majoring in
business, and Chuck Glass, soph-
Filing Closes Friday
For Graduate Council
Filing deadline for Graduate
Student Council candidacy is Fri
day, Associate Dean R. W. Bar-
zak has announced.
University elections are sched
uled March 24.
The Graduate Student Council
has 12 elected members with sev
en from each of the colleges and
the Institute of Statistics. Five
at-large members are chosen by
the current council.
omore aerospace engineering ma
jor, were chosen to head the
Leadership and Public Relations
Committees, respectively.
Hindman is majoring in civil
engineering and has an overall
grade point ratio of 2.17. Hearn
is majoring in mechanical engi
neering with an overall GPR of
1.9.
In other business, the council:
—Heard committee reports on
the MSC Building Studies Com
mittee. The Building Studies
Committee is studying future
needs of the MSC.
—Accepted the Tom H. Roun
tree award. Rountree, class of
1952, was killed in an auto acci
dent in 1953 and his parents gave
the council authority to give an
award in his honor to a student
with “outstanding leadership.”
—Authorized the proposed Per
sonnel Committee to organize and
begin functioning in the next fis
cal year.
—Accepted the proposal by the
Public Relations Committee to
put out a bimonthly publication
about MSC news.
—Heard a report from Pete
Belinsky on the Talent Commit
tee. He reported that the Inter
collegiate Talent Show was video
taped by the Texas A&M Edu
cational TV and the tapes will be
aired by several stations in Texas.
Student Insurance
Warning Issued
trying to put
moon.”
About the Russians’ recent
“soft” landing on the moon, the
general commented: “I have no
doubt that they made a “retard
ed" landing . . . I’m sure they put
a capsule on the moon.”
The general visited the con
struction site of A&M’s $6 million
Cyclotron and was briefed on
progress by A&M Research Vice
President A. D. Suttle Jr. and Dr.
John A. McIntyre of the Cyclo
tron Institute.
Luedecke was general manager
of the Atomic Energy Commis
sion when the 5-man commission
voted to support the construction
with $3 million.
Clark C. Munroe, A&M’s per
sonnel director, has issued a
warning to students about a life
insurance offer “designed for stu
dents of Texas A&M.”
“This program, like all other
life insurance offers, is issued
without A&M’s endorsement,”
Munroe pointed out. “The pro
gram may be excellent — but
students should not buy it under
the assumption that the universi
ty has approved the policy’s
terms.”
Munroe noted that some stu
dents had received a brochure
describing the special offer and
had questioned him about the
policy.
He explained that the only “of
ficial” policy for students was
student accident insurance with
Federated Security Insurance
Company, issued each September
for 12 months. This program
has the endorsement of the Stu
dent Senate and is administered
through the personnel office, he
added.
Tickets On Sale
For Saroyan Play
PAGEANT ROYALTY
King Cotton Roland Smith of Lawn, extreme right, is shown
with eight members of his court who will participate in the
32nd annual Cotton Pageant and Ball April 2. From the
left in the background are Jim Polonis of San Antonio;
John Cosper, Edna; James Supak, Coupland, and Tom
Blanchette, Beaumont. In the foreground from the left,
are Jimmy McAfee of College Station; Jimmie Brown, Agua
Dulce; Larry Schwertner, San Angelo, and Weldon Bol
linger of Sealy.
Advance tickets for the Aggie
Players’ production of “The Time
of Your Life” are now on sale in
the College Station - Bryan area.
William Saroyan’s Pulitzer
prize-winning play will be pre
sented in Guion Hall March 21-
26. It will be the Players’ sec
ond major production of the sea
son, following “Death of A Sales
man” which was presented in
November.
Tickets may be obtained from
First Bank and Trust, Bryan;
Carroll’s Corner, North Gate;
Bank of Commerce, College Sta
tion; A&M Student Programs Of
fice, Memorial Student Center;
Gibson’s Discount Center, Red
mond Terrace Shopping Center,
and the Fallout Theater in the
rear of Guion Hall.
Tickets are $1 for adults and
75 cents for A&M students with
ID cards.
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