:: ;i ' *r'. • ‘ ,y ; :• ■■■' -■,• ,■ :j]
Battalion
Partly
cloudy.
Saturday — Cloudy in the
morning, partly cloudy in the aft
ernoon. Northerly winds 10-15
mph. High 77°, low 58°.
warm
Sunday — Clear, northerly
winds 10-15 mph. High 76°, low
47°.
Vol. 67 No. 105
College Station, Texas
Elections held
Friday, April 7, 1972
845-2226
one
day,
enate decides
iy Hayden
lor'
Whitsett
club’s
think,”
ive
t to
In their last meeting, the senate had voted to
select the sweetheart from TAMU coeds only. Pro-
e student general elections will be held one tests from Texas Women’s University, where all
(only rather than the two originally planned, the previous sweethearts came from, brought the issue
lent Senate decided Thursday night. back up.
r^rSTom Autrey, parlimentarian, proposed that elec- Tony Best (Sr-Eng) told the senate that a
h s ins be held only on April 13 rather than April 13 petition calling for a referendum has been circulated
outs id 8 as previously planned. and collected 1,500 signatures. He said he believed
■The general election results will be tabulated by that 1,500 more could be collected “without much
Iputer while the living area results will be counted trouble.”
■and Opposition to the move developed when Spike
_ tolls for the election will be open from 8 a.m. to Dayton, treasurer, brought up an opinion poll taken
3C p.m. Fee slips and activity cards will be during spring preregistration in which 53 per cent of
■ qu ed. the participating students favored having a TAMU
All Corps members and civihan students in the coed only.
area will vote at the guardroom, David Moore, The referendum depends upon 20 per cent of the
ion commission chairman, said. All other student body signing the petition before the election,
mpus students will vote in their respective dorm The senate also recommended that the Rules and
ges, he said. Regulations of TAMU (the Bluebook) be changed to
" hBsn't ■ Qff-campus students will vote in the Memorial allow alcoholic beverages to be possessed and
5 doneiBj en t Center, the Library, Sbisa Dining Hall, and consumed on campus.
X m I apartment areaS- Locations of the apartment “We are really concerned with only the guy’s
ping places have not been decided upon, Moore room,” he said in making the proposal.
Best disliked the proposal, saying that he felt it
The senate also decided to hold the elections would disrupt study conditions in dorms. “There will
alphabetical listing of candidates on the ballot, be a party every night,” he said,
the past, but following elections will have a Debi Blackmon, freshman senator, said that at
ry to decide ballot position. other universities with like policies there had been a
Autrey felt that a lottery should be used in this few initial blowouts but would eventually settle
ion but Moore said that to retype the computer down.
s to be used for ballots would possibly delay the The motion passed 45-22.
tions. • Also passed was a resolution calling for letting
“We’re running about 40,000 cards in 19 differ- political candidates campaign on campus as long as
groups,” Moore said, “The master cards for these selection of speakers was done on a bipartisan basis,
re already been prepared.” To change the master The law that has been interpreted in the past as
s would create problems for both the commission prohibiting political candidates from speaking on
the Data Processing Center, he added. Icampus is “fuzzy,” according to Fred Campbell
Reviving part of a past meeting, the Student (Jr-Sci).
■' re
lA!
f 5
k,"Mio
RoiAan
STUDENT CAMPAIGNERS are doing their part, along getting thicker as all the 267 candidates jockey for a small
with construction workers, to help blockade the campus, piece of land to stake their claim to student politics. (Photo
The signs, for the April 13 general elections, are thick and by Mike Rice)
Coalition government Cong’s aim
also decided to hold a referendum on the
<YL£
FIELD
day
:int
ON
N
Sweetheart question if 20 per cent of the
lent body, about 3,000, signed a petition request-
such action.
John Sharp, senate president, said that President
Jack K. Williams has written a letter to Texas
Attorney General Crawford Martin asking for a
i ruling.
PARIS (A*) — Claiming major
victories in the offensive in South
Vietnam, the Viet Cong’s chief
delegate to the Paris peace talks
said Thursday the over-all aim is
to set up a coalition government
in Saigon.
Mrs. Nguyen Thi Binh also
insisted the United States return
to the peace table. She and the
North Vietnamese delegation re
iterated charges that the United
States had sabotaged the peace
talks.
Mrs. Binh claimed at a news
conference that S o u t h Vietna
mese and American forces in the
two northern provinces of South
Vietnam had suffered heavy de
feats during the offensive that
began there March 30. There are
no U. S. combat forces known to
be in the battle area.
She in effect denied a sugges
tion that the Viet Cong might
establish a provision government
seat in the northern part of
South Vietnam, saying that such
a capital had long ago been set
up in a “liberated zone” of South
Vietnam.
Nguyen Van Thieu and repre
sentatives of other forces favor
ing peace, independence and
neutrality.
“What we want and what we
are doing is to liberate all of
South Vietnam from American
aggression to permit a govern
ment of national concord, which
will be formed, to install its seat
in Saigon itself.”
Mrs. Binh told reporters she
hoped that the Viet Cong peace
plan will be accepted by the
United States at the Paris talks.
But since the United States sus
pended the conference indefi
nitely March 23, she continued,
the “national liberation forces
of South Vietnam” were obliged
to step up military action to
achieve their goal.
The government of national
concord, which is a key point in
the Viet Cong peace plan put
forth last July 1, would include
the Viet Cong, members of the
present Saigon administration
after the departure of President
The news conference was
called on the day the Viet Cong
and the North Vietnamese had
proposed resumption of the peace
talks. The United States and
South Vietnam rejected the pro
posal, claiming the Communists
were still not ready to negotiate
seriously. .
President Nixon suspended the
talks, saying he was trying to
break a 314-year filibuster by
the Communists. Since then the
United States has indicated it
will not resume the talks under
military pressure.
Elsewhere, Red China restated
its support for North Vietnam
and said the Communist-led
thrust into South Vietnam dealt
a major blow to the U.S. Viet-
namization program.
A broadcast of an article in
the official Peking People’s Daily
declared: “No matter how
frenziedly U. S. imperialism may
struggle, it can by no means save
the U.S. aggressors and the Sai
gon puppet clique from their
doomed defeat.” 1
Civilian Weekend tickets
vill be on sale April 10
Tickets for this year’s Civilian
eek-Weekend activities will be
sale from April 10-20 at the
isa newsstand.
Sales will begin at 9 each week-
y morning and continue until
p.m.
Dorm students who have a
ring hall activity card will re
ive one free Las Vegas Night
:ket. Others must purchase a
cket at $2 in advance and $2.25
the door.
A&M students with a student
tivity card can get a free gen-
al admission ticket to the “Rare
arth” concert. A&M date tickets
11 for $2.50 and all others for
will be on sale at the Sbisa news
stand while both general admis
sion and reserve tickets can be
purchased at the Student Pro
grams Office.
Students with a fall dorm ac
tivity card can receive one free
ticket to the Civilian Sweetheart
Presentation Dance. Students
without this card must pay $3.
Advance date tickets for all stu
dents will be $1. The cost at the
door will be $4.50 per couple.
Only general admission tickets
Dorm students holding hall ac
tivity cards must present them
for Las Vegas Night and dance
tickets during the advance-sale
period. The cards will not be hon
ored at the door.
Private use of marijuana
permissible, expert claims
We unanimously agree that
marijuana use is not desirable,
but when placed in perspective
with the other problems of soci
ety, it is wrong to criminalize
users of the drug, said noted drug
abuse authority Dr. J. Thomas
Ungerleider Thursday night.
Ungerleider, a member of the
13-man National Commission on
Marijuana and Drug Abuse, pre
sented the commission’s findings
at a Great Issues program in the
Memorial Student Center Ball-
use of the drug be decriminalized
when used in the privacy of the
home. But use in public, sale of
or cultivation of marijuana should
still be illegal, they emphasized.
Anyone caught with it in
public would have it confiscated
as contraband, the commission
added.
“We found that at least 24
million Americans have tried
marijuana at least once, more
than 40 per cent of the college
students have tried the drug and
most users use it less than once
a week,” Ungerleider noted.
Dr. J. Thomas Ungerleider
The commission, following a
one-year study, recommended the
TAMU reactor
Kinirar ^
H
for education purpose
A bluish glow in the bottom of a calm pool of water is
actually the slow, controlled unleashing of the most power
ful forces known—those that form the atom. (Photo by
Mike Rice)
By MICHAEL RICE
Staff Writer
Swimming in A&M’s nuclear
reactor cooling water may not be
everybody’s idea of fun, but for
Tom Godsey it is one of life’s
little pleasures.
“Though we don’t get the op
portunity to do it often, swim
ming in the 33-foot-deep pool is
a warm and invigorating exper
ience,” said Godsey in a recent
interview.
He emphasized, however, the
only time a person is allowed in
the pool is when underwater
maintenance must be conducted
or for installation of an experi
ment. In either case, the reactor
is shut down completely and the
unit is moved to the opposite end
of the pool.
Godsey described the Nuclear
Science Center, which is located
at the end of the Easterwood
Airport runway, as a research
organization which “maintains
and operates the nuclear reactor
to produce radioactive particles
for research.”
The center was designed in the
late 1950’s and site operations
began in 1962. All operations
people working for the center are
licensed by the Atomic Energy
Commission, which enforces
stringent rules on reactor opera
tions.
The heart of the facility is, of
course, the reactor core. Sus
pended from a movable bridge in
the blue-water pool, the reactor
is powered by fuel elements con
taining uranium-235 and emits
a bright blue-white glow while
in operation.
The nuclear facility is con
trolled by placing boron rods in
side or outside the core. When
inserted within, the boron rods
become highly radioactive, yet
when pulled out they will lose
all their radiation.
The reactor facilities are used
by researchers and students from
colleges and universities in Tex
as and three neighboring states.
Godsey said 85 per cent of the
work done at the center is for
educational purposes with the re
maining 15 per cent going to
private individuals or businesses.
Godsey, a licensed reactor oper
ator, described himself and his
fellow staff members as busdriv-
ers for researchers.
“We know what is going on as
far as reactor operations are
concerned,” said Godsey. “We get
the researchers to wherever they
are going but we don’t know why
they’re going there.”
Public opinion has attacked
the use of nuclear reactors be
cause of the pollution given off.
Godsey said their complaints are
only valid for thermal pollution
which is also given off by coal
burning plants.
“Coal-burning plants release
much more radiation into the at
mosphere than do nuclear reac
tors,” Godsey said. “People
shouldn’t attack reactors until
they know all the pluses and
minuses.”
There is a danger of nuclear
poisoning that can occur at the
reactor but a person would delib
erately have to violate reactor
procedure for that to happen.
“For what it’s worth,” said
Godsey, “if I were to know in
advance that I would live to be
70 years old while working here
at the reactor, my chances of
dying from radiation poisoning
increased by ten to the minus
fifth degree each year.”
If Godsey reaches the age of
70 he would have lost only two
and one-half days from his life
which he considers will be “total
ly insignificant” by then.
As radioactive materials are
brought on the A&M campus
there is one office that knows
(See Reactor, page 2)
The commission was authorized
by Congress to study the growing
use of drugs and their abuse in
this country, Ungerleider said.
“We were widely criticized at
first for the extremely conserva
tive nature of the commission;
all of the members were on record
previously as being against mari
juana use,” he noted.
But the conservative nature
did enable us to see many law
agencies’ information which we
might not have been able to see,
Ungerleider stated.
We conducted many hearings
around the country in big cities,
he said, and talked to people in
public as well as in private homes.
Many so-called ‘captains of in
dustry’ have different views in
private that they are afraid to
express publicly.
Our survey was the most in
tensive ever made, Ungerleider
stressed. We talked to over 3,000
people face-to-face and got some
interesting facts.
One of the great problems we
found is the great amount of
mythology which surrounds the
use of marijuana, he said. “Fifty
to sixty per cent of adults thought
that people could die from an
overdose of marijuana,” Unger
leider said.
The commission found no evi
dence of any physical or psychi
atric dependence in users and no
brain or genetic damage. But
there is a temporary intoxication
of the senses, Ungerleider noted.
The commission’s report has
been presented to President Nix
on, but no immediate action is
planned. Nixon did sponsor the
Uniform Drug Law a year ago
which makes first offense arrests
for any drug a misdemeanor,
Ungerleider said.
The commission recommenda
tion is a lot like the prohibition
plan used for liquor in the 1920’s,
Ungerleider said. This is a way
to discourage use, but to solve
the current problem of criminali
zation of users.
O’Hair, renowned atheist.
slated for church program
Madalyn Murry O’Hair, a noted
American atheist, will speak at
the College Station Unitarian Fel
lowship at 7 p.m. April 9.
O’Hair is best known for her
participation in the court case
that culminated in the Supreme
Court order prohibiting Bible
reading and prayer recitation in
public schools.
She is an attorney, has written
three books on atheism and has
brought several federal suits con
cerning separation of church and
state.
Because of her beliefs O’Hair
has been denied the right to travel
outside the United States. She
was not issued a passport on the
grounds that she did not believe
in a higher power.
O’Hair’s talk is open to the
public and infant care will be pro
vided by the Fellowship.
Banking is a pleasure at First
Bank & Trust.
University National Bank
“On the side of Texas A&M.”
—Adv.