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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 16, 1971)
I Che Battalion Mild with clouds Vol. 66 No. 110 College Station, Texas Friday, April 16, 1971 Thursday — Clear to partly cloudy. Winds southerly 15-25 mph. High 74°, low 52°. Friday —< Partly cloudy. Winds northerly 15-20 mph. High 71°, low 66°. 845-2226 ‘Position a privilege,’ Williams tells crowd Backed by the Seal of A&M, Dr. Jack Williams became the 17th president of A&M ^ inaugural ceremonies today. (Photo by Larry Martin) By HAYDEN WHITSETT Battalion Assistant Editor Calling his inauguration a sym bolic marriage to a university with which he had been living in sin, Dr. Jack K. Williams became the 17th president of A&M today. “I seek the guidance and as sistance, and the good wishes and fervent prayers, of all who love this university,” Williams said. Though he has filled the presi dency since Nov. 1, 1970 it wasn’t until this morning that he became “legitimate.” The tall, brown-haired educator stood behind the podium dressed in the robes of his office, listen ing was an audience ranging from the Governor of Texas behind him on the stage to freshmen in the surrounding audience. Dr. Williams gave his speech after being invested with a gold medallion by Clyde H. Wells, president of the board of direc tors. The medal, struck just for the occasion, bears the seal of the university on the front side and an inscription on the reverse. Over 272 colleges and universi ties and 105 learned societies and professional organizations were represented. He called himself richly privi leged to become president of A&M even though there is “today some thing less than green envy for university presidents.” Smith says Williams a man for the future President Williams is a man who can rise to the challenge of today’s education but one also capable of preserving valuable traditions, Governor Preston Smith of Texas said today at the inaugural ceremonies. “Dr. Williams, as the new Pres ident of Texas A&M, inherits ad- War memorial rededication set for Sunday A rededication of World War I memorials on the Memorial Stu dent Center parade ground will be held Sunday in conjunction with Parents Day. The 1:45 p.m. ceremony will be conducted by Xi Delta chapter members of Alpha Phi Omega, national service fraternity. It will follow the Ross Volun teer Company’s special drill and precede the 2:30 p.m. Corps of Cadets review. APO President Bill Cronrath of Hazlett, N. J., will describe the chapter project and read the names of 55 Aggie exes who gave their lives in the “war to end all wars.” As each name is called, an APO member will insert an American flag at each of the markers. In renovating the memorials with Physical Plant Department personnel and Robert H. Rucker, the university's landscape archi tect, APO members found that three additional markers were needed to go with the original 52. New markers attached to me morial oak trees planted around the field in 1920 were designed and paid for by APO. They are mounted on spring-loaded bolts embedded in the trees which will allow for normal tree growth. They replace 52 ground mark ers erected in 1930. The old mark ers had generally deteriorated and fallen into disrepair. Some were missing and memorial plates on others had been removed. APO’s Gen. James Earl Rudder Pledge Class received Board of Directors permission in February to move 15 markers on Lamar Street to the drill field proper and to re-dedicate markers sur rounding the field. University National Bank "On the side of Texas A&M.” —Adv. ministration of a school in which all Texans take great pride,” Smith said. He reviewed Williams’ life as “an educator, administra tor and as a leader. “I can think of no better cre dentials for the man to whom the State entrusts the education of. the 15,000 students at College Station, as well as the admini stration of Texas A&M’s impres sive and far-reaching complex of educational and research facili ties,” he said. He began his speech by speak ing of the late President Earl Rudder who “guided Texas A&M through one of the most chal lenging decades in the history of education.” “Everyone who loves Texas A&M will want it recorded that General Rudder’s service to this Institution will long be remem- bei-ed and cherished,” Smith said. Williams, he said, is very well qualified to follow in Rudder’s footsteps. “What is called for today is an administrator who rises to the challenge of the complex and dif ficult task of space-age educa tion—but one who is also capable of preserving the traditions which have proved themselves to be val uable,” Smith said. “Such a man is Dr. Williams, an educator, and administrator, and a leader.” Others intimately connected with A&M spoke of Dr. Williams and his future as president. Dr. Haskell Monroe of the His tory Department said that faculty New president Muster speaker President Jack K. Williams will be the featured speaker Wednes day for the university’s traditional Muster. The annual campus Muster, one of more than 500 held around the world by Texas A&M students and exes, will honor Aggies who died during the past year. The Texas Independence Day event set for 5:30 p.m. in front of the System Administration Building includes the traditional roll call of the deceased, in which a comrad answers “here.” Muster was initiated in 1903 by A&M’s Corps of Cadets, which felt a special observance celebrating the independence of Texas was needed. The campus ceremony historically includes a reading of “The Last Corps Trip,” a 21-gun salute by the Ross Volunteers firing squad and special rendition of Taps. John Sharp, Student Senate student life chairman of Placedo, will preside at the 40 : minute program. “We thought it would be very appropriate to have Dr. Williams as the Muster speaker,” Sharp said. Though the newly-inaugurated president ranks as the “newest Aggie,” his activities since taking office last November have won wide support at A&M, Sharp added. “Dr. Williams has been very effective with students especially,” the Student Senate officer remarked. “Everybody seems to respect him a lot for the relatively short time Dr. Williams has been at A&M.” Special campus Muster guests will include Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Earl Rudder, wife of the late Texas A&M president. Also on the platform will be Civilian Student Council president Mark Olson of Canyon and Corps Commander Van H. Taylor of Temple. The program will begin with “Texas, Our Texas” played by the Texas Aggie Band and the invocation by Morris K. Patteson, Cadet Corps chaplain of Lampasas. Student Senate president Kent Caperton of Caldwell will explain the Muster tradition. “The 12th Man” by the Singing Cadets, Dr. Williams’ address and “The Spirit of Aggieland” will follow. Head yell leader Keith Chapman of Haskell will read “The Last Corps Trip” and call the roll of the deceased, including students, Brazos County former students and military personnel. A 21-gun salute and Silver Taps conclude the ceremony. “I have had,” he said, “from friends notes of commiseration on my promotion and various expres sions, written and verbal, which range an emotional scale from condolences to abject pity.” Expressing a more cheerful view of the subject, he disputed the opinion of one university president who said a job should be filled by a “friendless orphan, a bachelor, one skilled in tight rope walking and bronco busting.” Instead, Williams asserted that “these may well be halcyon days for those who move into univer sity administration.” “Never has the product of ed ucation been in higher demand. Never has the role and scope of education been subjected to a more detailed analysis. To be ac tive in educational administration these days is to share in the heady excitement of moving against unexplored territory,” he said. Williams said that “the atmos phere of education is heady with the smell of change.” For some perfume, for others, brimstone. “Today’s students are weary of archaic methodology and mean ingless minutiae which too often crowd the pages of our academic rule books,” he said. Along with the changes, Wil liams foresees a return to sta bility in on-campus governance. He said that in the future there will be “more efficiency, more firmness and dispatch in deci sion-making on the part of col lege administrations.” It is the duty of the university, he said, to be competent in the business of education. Williams called the days of building burning, indecency of speech and act, and um*easoned harrassment of administrative and faculty personnel to be coming to an end. A “return to reason in on-campus conduct” that is “long overdue” is in the future. “Police in strength will be call ed without hesitation, those iden tified as leaders of felonious con duct and as inciters of riot will be moved off campus, and the in junctive process will be applied to prevent their re-entry,” he said. Williams said he was speaking of “activists and protesters, not referring to those who offer le gitimate petition against rules and regulations which are an- anachronistic or to thise who par ticipate with legal base in the giant effort to end war, poverty, and the inhumanity of many against his fellowman.” He counted among A&M’s as- (See Position, page 3) members have become expericend judges of administrators and that they have found Williams to be remarkably talented. “We are gratified that our new president has shared many of the same experiences as we of the faculty,” Monroe said. “It is grati fying to us that this new leader has never lost his primary con cern for teaching. “We have come to expect from him, tireless work, an air of open ness, and an atmosphere of trust,” he said. Leslie L. Appelt, president of the Association of Former Stu dents said President Williams “could meet the demands of every possible interest of the nearly 55,000 alumni of Texas A&M.” He said that culturally, aca demically and administratively Williams is well qualified. He also stated that those who fear the end of the Corps or an unsuccess ful athletic program have nothing to worry about, saying that Wil liams would be a strong supporter of both. Wayne E. Thomas, Chairman of the Coordinating Board for the Texas College and University System, said that to lead a uni versity is a great honor and an awe-inspiring responsibility. “A president,” he said, “must respond to many publics, students, alumni, parents government and the citizens at large. He must have knowledges and skills rooted in the past but his mind and skills must be applied in the present, and his mind and heart must be dedicated to the future.” Inauguration letters shown in G. Rollie Formal inaugural greetings from colleges and universities throughout the nation are now on display in the lobby of G. Rollie White Coliseum. The colorful documents, bear ing the official seals of the vari ous institutions, were prepared in honor of Dr. Jack K. Williams’ inauguration Friday as 17th pres ident of Texas A&M University. Greetings were received from 132 institutions. They are exhibited in the coli seum display case by geographi cal areas. The University of Virginia holds the distinction of having printed its greetings in Latin. A&M President Dr. Jack K. Williams (center) and his wife Margaret (right) greet well-wishers Thursday night during a reception held following a preinaugural concert in Bryan Civic Auditorium. Mrs. Clyde Wells, whose husband is president of A&M’s board of directors, is on Williams’ right. (Photo by Larry Martin) Drug usage increase caused by buying urge: psychiatrist By DOUG GIBBS Battalion Staff Writer Consumer orientated America is responsible for the increase in the use of drugs today, psychia trist Dr. John T. Holbrook said Thursday night. Holbrook’s lecture was the first of three to be presented by the Student “Y” association concern ing drug abuse. “We’ve got to buy things,” he said. “Madison Avenue has done a good job on us.” Holbrook lectured classroom style using a blackboard to an audience of 15 persons in a small portion of the nearly empty MSC ballroom. He presented a capsule version of a talk on the psychological affects of drugs he gave at a police academy in Dal las. Afterwards, he' 1 answered questions. Addiction is the main problem associated with drug abuse, Hol brook said, including the pro longed use of such things as alcohol and sleeping pills, which he termed seditivism. “In frontier days, Americans suffered a lot. Today, it’s not cool to suffer, today’s culture isn’t supposed to have pain,” Hol brook said. Describing himself as having the “middle class hangups” of cig arette smoking and liquor drink ing, Holbrook cracked “every body has become an expert on drugs. Being a physician,” he said, “gives me a privilege to pro ceed with ignorance.” He broke up drugs into five groups: Sedatives, tranquilizers, stimulants, hallucinagins, and a group called by him mind alter ing drugs, including hashish, and belladonna. Most Holbrook called good drugs with a good function, ex cluding the mind altering ones, which he said have no medical use. Holbrook said the whole story hasn’t been told on any of the drug groups yet, but especially the hallucinagens. Corrections to some of his chemical formulas came so quick ly at one point that Holbrook said, “there are some chemists present here trying to eat my lunch.” He refused to comment on whether marijuana should be legalized, but compared it with the prohibition of alcohol. “Legalizing alcohol has only produced a nation with the larg est incidence of alcoholism in the world,” Holbrook said. “It’s not really a question of legality or illegality.” Comparing alcohol and drugs, he said the difference between the effects of the two is the pre dictability of drugs, due to ignor ance about the quality and amount of any one portion. Holbrook was prompted by the audience to describe the physical characteristics of a person on drugs, and students began look ing at one another, inspecting. Holbrook said under Texas law there is no such thing as a privi leged conversation between pa tient and doctor. However, he said he would not turn in a pa tient that had admitted some thing criminal to him under the influence of a drug. “I must remain ethical,” he said. “A doctor can’t afford the luxury of morality.” SCOPE sets creek cleanup Saturday morning in Bryan 1 Discarded tires, an antiquated rusty washing machine, cans, bot tles, and debris will be the ob ject of a search and destroy mis sion sponsored by Student Coun cil of Environment and Pollution (SCOPE) this Saturday at Bur ton Creek. Burton Creek, the object of the cleanup campaign, flows out of Finfeather Lake, into Country Club Lake, behind Manor East Mall Shopping Center, to Tangle- wood Park and Carter Creek. “Burton Creek is polluted from the water quality standpoint,” said Steve Esmond, Chairman of Water Pollution Committee of SCOPE. “The thing that makes this cleanup so important is that it flows through town and these people have to live with it.” The cleanup will begin at 8:00 a.m., April 17, at the east end of the Manor East Shopping Cen ter parking lot, behind Britt’s. Anyone who is interested in par ticipating is requested to help, according to Esmond, “at any time during the morning.” All participants are requested to wear long sleeved shirts, long pants, and gloves. All debris will be sorted. Alu minum cans and glass will be re cycled. The rest will be disposed of in the city sanitary landfill. Burton Creek Cleanup is a preliminary event leading up to Earth Day, April 22. 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