The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, April 27, 1971, Image 1

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    ' - •*" » • • r. . . •
Vote Wednesday in Sbisa, the guard room, MSC
Che Battalion
Partly
cloudy,
warm
Vol. 66 No. 115
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, April 27, 1971
WEDNESDAY—Cloudy. Winds
southerly 10 to 15 m.p.h. High
86, low 72.
THURSDAY — Cloudy, after
noon rainshowers and thunder
storms. Winds southerly 15 to
20 m.p.h. High 84, low 69.
845-2226
# iiMrl
Roger Miller, left, and John Sharp discuss election issues in the Battalion offices Mon
day night following their interviews. (Photo by Hayden Whitsett)
Campaign issues similar,
VP candidates agree
By MIKE STEPHENS
Battalion Staff Writer
Admitting that many of their
campaign issues were very sim
ilar, with the major differences
being in the order of priority
given the issues, the candidates
for Student Senate vice-presi
dent, Bill Hartsfield and Mike
Essmyer, discussed their plat
forms in an interview with The
Battalion Monday night.
Both candidates have served
on the Senate this year. Past
achievements of Essmyer include:
Senate parliamentarian, chair
man of the Aggie Sweetheart re
vision committee and the Campus
Chest drive and member of the
Senate public relations commit
tee and the Constitutional Revi
sions Committee. Essmyer is
married and a member of Squad
ron 13.
Hartsfield was recording sec
retary for the Student Senate
this year. He was chairman of
the pass-fail committee and mem
ber of the constitution revision
committee and the student serv
ices fees watchdog committee.
Hartsfield is a junior math major.
How do you feel towards wom
en’s housing?
Essmyer: “Many male students
want to move off campus. A logi
cal solution to the problem would
be to let women move on cam
pus and males off if desired.”
“A&M definitely needs women
housing to improve social life.”
Hartsfield: “On-campus hous
ing would be safer for the wom
an student.” “Women deserve a
place to live on this campus. The
university is discriminating un
less women are allowed to live
on campus.” “One of my major
issues is to allow each residence
hall, including women, to set
their desired hours for visita
tion.”
If elected, what would be your
stand on the proposed constitu
tion change?
Hartsfield: “I think the Stu
dent Senate needs to have a
change in structure in order to
be more effective.” “There
should be an executive branch,
judicial branch and legislative
branch. This would allow the
Student Senate president to con
centrate on his job of taking
problems to the administration.”
Essmyer: “I don’t feel the
constitution is the important
issue. It is a paper document and
without students working for it,
it is nothing more than paper.”
“We have to take the needs of
the students and try to do some
thing about them.” “I feel that
the committees should start do
ing something about the little
things and get something done
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:
instead of just debating.”
If elected, what will the first
issue you take action on ?
* Essmyer: “I would improve the
living conditions and the social
life of students. “The student
must have the correct atmosphere
to study.” I’d like to see ice
boxes and beer in the dormitories
as soon as possible.”
Hartsfield: “I’m hoping for a
computer registration and the
ability to withdraw passing any
time during a semester getting
looked into as soon as possible.”
Both candidates have issued
platforms and each lists their
major goals which they promise
to work for.
Hartsfield: A computerized
registration system that will
allow students to select their pro
fessors and class schedules. A
shuttle-bus system for off-cam
pus students. Improvements in
laundry service and to allow each
residence hall to set their desired
hours for visitation by women
students.
Essmyer: To open lines of com
munication between students and
the administration. Establish a
shuttle-bus system for day stu
dents. Establish a Better Busi
ness Bureau and a day nursery
for married students. To work
for further student representa
tion on faculty and administra
tion committees.
Valid fee slips
needed to vote
Voting for the spring general
elections will start at 8 a.m.
Wednesday, and the polls will re
main open until 8 p.m., announced
Dale Foster, vice-president for
public relations of the Election
Commission.
“A valid fee slip for the cur
rent semester is all that will be
required to vote,” said Foster.
“With the elimination of the ac
tivity card as a requirement to
vote, this will be the first year
that every student at Texas
A&M will be allowed to partici
pate in the electoral process.”
Miller, Sharp state
their
By SUE DAVIS
What the election issues boil
down to, Roger Miller says, is
that “student government has
been sadly lacking. What it has
to have are student leaders who
are able to communicate with
administrators, and, more impor
tantly, student leaders who are
not afraid to stand strongly for
student opinions and who won’t
back down when working with
university officials.”
John Sharp believes that the
biggest problem the Student Sen
ate has is “the fact that the stu
dents do not know what we (the
Senate) are doing and the sena
tors have not tried to find out
what the students want. This has
destroyed the effectiveness of the
Senate. Students should be
taught how to use the Senate
effectively.”
Roger Miller and John Sharp
are candidates for Student Sen
ate President. Both are now
members of several committees;
Sharp is Student Life Chairman
and on the Executive Committee
as well as other committees.
Miller is a member of three
university committees, Presi
dent Williams’ Advisory Coun
cil and the first student member
of the University Student Publi
cation Board. Sharp has estab
lished the Legal Rights Commis
sion, the Landscape Reform Com
mittee and the Student Publica
tions Committee and was the first
student member of the University
Disciplinary Appeals Panel.
Miller says that the idea for
the Student Publications Commit
tee was his and that he wrote the
resolution for it. He says that
it was placed under Sharp’s Stu
dent Life Committee. He also
states that several students came
to the Senate with the idea for
the Landscape Reform Commit
tee, which was also placed under
the Life Committee.
The Legal Rights Commission
was established in ’69-’70 when
Sharp was not chairman of the
Student Life Committee, Miller
said.
Miller, a civilian, first became
interested in student government
through his student union when
he was a freshman. He was
elected senator his sophomore
year.
Cadet Sharp became involved
when he heard people ask what
was going on in the Senate. He
came to the conclusion that “the
Senate is where people take ego
trips and it is not oriented to the
student.” He decided he wanted
to change that.
The Office of the Dean of Stu
dents has “very encompassing
powers,” Miller says, because
A&M still adheres to the “in-
loco-parentis” doctrine, where the
university functions as the stu
dents’ guardian. “On too many
occasions, the Office of the Dean
has been insensitive to problems
and prospectives of the student
body. It exercises far too much
control over the life of each in
dividual student outside the class
room. The government must
change and give the student pow
er to decide what to do with his
life outside class.”
“The ‘in-loco-parentis’ doctrine
is ridiculous and should be strick
en from the campus,” Sharp says.
“The Supreme Court abolished it
issues in race
three years ago, but this has not
yet reached the A&M campus.
Anyone in the higher echelon of
the Senate who has had dealings
with the Office* of the Dean,
knows it is hard to get any
thing.”
This year the Senate had to
circumvent the Office of the
Dean, Sharp said.
This year the Senate tried to
pass new a constitution which
provided for “living area repre
sentation and incorporated sev
eral progressive changes,” Miller
commented. “This constitution
was blocked at the last minute
by a small group of individuals
who did not have the best inter
ests of the entire student body at
heart.
If the student government is
going to be effective, it must be
restructured so that senators are
allowed to live with their con
stituents, Miller says. It must
also allow the one-man, one-vote
principle, he adds.
Sharp was one of eight people
who drafted the new constitution
over the Christmas holidays. He
believes it was “the best, most
reasonable, most workable doc
trine” they could come up with
in that period of time.
Later Sharp contacted several
other universities to see how
their student associations worked.
He discovered that the one at the
University of Texas lasted only
four months because money was
not allocated properly.
“If we are going to have an
effective constitution that is go
ing to last at least 10 years, we
are going to have to make sure
that there is adequate student
input in activities throughout the
campus,” Sharp says.
Things which should be done
by the student government next
year, Miller says, is “making
sure the students’ voices are
heard throughout the university.”
This is especially important in
choosing the Dean of Women
and Dean of Students, when this
becomes necessary, he said.
The students should know ex
actly what the student govern
ment can do for them, Miller
says. The field he calls “goods
and services” has been neglected
in the past, Miller feels.
“This is a field I intend to do
a lot of work in,” Miller stated.
He especially will work for day
care centers for children of mar
ried students, student commodity
discounts with local merchants,
and a gasoline co-op, run by and
for students.
Sharp has established a Stu
dent Better Business Bureau as
a committee in the Senate, to be
gin operation in the fall of ’71.
This will help students who have
problems with local merchants.
If elected, Sharp plans an “ex
tensive public relations program
to show students how to use
their Senate effectively.” He
plans to establish book and gaso
line co-ops.
A shuttle-bus system will have
to be enacted in a few years,
Sharp commented. He also feels
that students should be allowed
to live off-campus, eat where
they want, not have to pay for
meals they do not eat, and have
noncompulsory university laun
dry.
Milller believes that the Sen
ate must examine all issues in
volved in the Bonfire question.
If an activity that retains the
spirit and tradition can be found
to replace the Bonfire, he is in
favor of the change.
“The simple fact of the matter
is that we are presently destroy
ing thousands of trees a year,”
Miller says. “We must make
every effort to find an acceptable
alternative without sacrificing the
spirit of the present tradition.
“We should continue with the
bonfire, so long as the trees
which are burned are going to
be destroyed anyway,” Sharp
says. “If a better use for the
trees is found, then perhaps we
should look for other Bonfire
material.”
“There is no excuse for Texas
A&M not to provide housing for
women next fall,” Miller stated.
“It now has an equal responsi
bility as a university to each stu
dent regardless of sex. There are
available facilities on campus
which would be more than ade
quate to house women next fall.
Since the board decision last
month, I have been actively
working to see that this issue is
reconsidered.”
“I definitely think that if this
is going to be a university that
lets women become coeds, we
should follow state statutes and
provide adequate housing,” Sharp
said, “this is no longer a ques
tion of individual opinion.”
'
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REACTING TO HER SELECTION as Civilian Student Sweetheart Saturday night is
Claudia Jackson, a sophomore at Tarrant County Junior College. The 20-year-old blond
was representing Schumacher Hall. (Photo by Randy Freeman)
Police state facing U. S.,
black historian declares
By DOUG GIBBS
Battalion Staff Writer
A police-type state is one of
the alternatives facing America
if we don’t improve the situation
for blacks, Dr. Letita Brown said
Monday in the Memorial Student
Center.
The black historian was pre-
New commandant named
CELEBRATE! CELEBRATE! was the word at the Three
Dog Night concert Saturday night. Most people rated the
concert as great. A crowd that danced in the aisles and on
chairs for most of the performance seemed to enhance the
praise. (Photo by Randy Freeman)
Army Col. Billy M. Vaughn,
brigade commander and II Field
Force staff member in Vietnam,
has been named to head the
A&M reserve officer training
program.
Vaughn will succeed Col. Jim
H. McCoy as commandant of
cadets and professor of military
science.
The new commandant’s as
signment is effective Aug. 23.
A 1948 A&M graduate, Vaughn
was deputy corps commander as
a senior cadet and 1st Regiment
liaison sergeant as a junior. The
Troy native was graduated with
a degree in accounting.
Vaughn, 42, currently serves as
brigade commander in the 1st
Cavalry Division. The former
Command and General Staff Col
lege instructor also has been II
Field Force operations and in
telligence officer on his present
Vietnam tour.
He was a 1st Cavalry Division
battalion commander and deputy
operations officer of the I Field
Force during a 1966-67 tour in
Southeast Asia.
Vaughn is a graduate of the
Command and General Staff Col
lege, the Armed Forces Staff Col
lege and National War College,
the latter in 1966. He completed
Army aviation training last year.
The 23-year veteran lead a
platoon of the 24th Infantry Divi
sion in 1950-51 and commanded
a 1st Infantry Division company
in 1955-56. During four years in
the Pentagon in the early 196ds,
Vaughn was Department of the
Army personnel officer and Con
gressional officer. He served on
the U. S. Army Infantry School
staff in 1967-69.
The officer and his wife Clean
have three children, Virginia 19,
Taylor 17 and Patricia 15.
sented as the last in the Great
Issues Committee’s Black Issues
Seminar.
“The only way to stop hostility
is to do a large amount of polic
ing,” she said, “and I don’t think
anyone wants that.”
Through examples, Dr. Brown
attempted to show that Ameri
cans have traditionally placed
blacks in an inferior position to
the point of making violation of
their rights a tradition in itself.
Dr. Brown told students that
many people believe the move
ment for civil rights started in
the 1960’s, but in reality it start
ed earlier. Among the more radi
cal early movements cited were
the “back to Africa” and “get a
gun” appeals.
She then named what she con
sidered one of the first civil
rights leaders and asked if any
one knew him. No one did.
“Don’t have much Black His
tory taught here, do you,” she
commented. Laughter, clapping,
and more laughter followed. “I
said that jokingly,” she added.
Dr. Brown cited the emergence
of two basic trends today among
blacks. First, a political central
ization, caused by rapid techno
logical developments in such
areas as communication tech
niques. Second, a general democ
ratization, with emphasis on the
masses instead of classes.
The federal government was
blamed by Dr. Brown for not
implementing early civil rights
bills, and at times, for underwrit
ing them.
But what of the future ?
“We’ve had a change in the
locale of blacks. The percentage
of blacks in many large cities,
Washington, D.C., for example,
is high. In general, blacks are
moving into the inner city, and
whites are moving out, creating
a ring of suburbs. A prolonged
situation such as this can only be
explosive.”
University National Bank
“On the side of Texas A&M.”
—Adv.