Page 2 THE BATTALION
TUESDAY. NOVEMBER 20, 1973
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Bait Commentary
Best Grading Yet
Texas Southmost College, a school about which few people have
ever heard, has an innovative grading system this year under which a
student can reject low grades for class and laboratory work.
The purpose of the program is to place responsibility directly on
the student to decide for himself whether or not he wants to retain a
particular grade on his permanent record. The plan could be
implemented at our University with adequate study and preparation by
student leaders and administrators. This is provided that we can get the
Registrar’s Office to mail grade reports to only the right people—as we
were told before midterm that this would be done.
The Brownsville college’s new system gives students the right to
petition for rejection of specific semester grades and request the
substitutes of a “non-credit” notation that will not lower a student’s
overall grade point average.
Students must petition for rejection of a grade within 14 days
after the end of semester. Also, students can enroll initially for
non-credit status or petition for it later. We have something similar to
this with the pass-fail system. However, students can’t have the grade
later if it is good and their minds change.
Another plus for the new system is that students can enroll in
elective courses without the threat of a low grade lowering their grade
point average.
In graduate school or in medicine and law, a single grade
requirement can exclude a student from admission. The TSC system
will allow all students to take a subject again without having the earlier,
lower grade on his record. For instance, why should a student be
saddled with grades he or she may have received under the duress of a
family tragedy?
Under the system we have, if a student fails or withdraws failing
from a course, the hours are figured in with the rest of his grades, even
if they were unnecessary electives for a degree. Students have to enroll
in the course again to erase the F or WF notation.
For vet students and those with medicine and law goals, this
non-credit system would surely be a feather in their cap if they changed
their minds along the way in planning for their futures. They would, of
course, have to answer all other qualifications to proceed.
The development of the idea should be watched by our
administrators and students—it could have valuable effects on the
futures of our graduates and post-graduates.
Lease Line—
Rent Increase Announcement
Should Follow State Laws
the special clause in your lease re
quires the landlord to give you
30 days notice before raising the
rent. The lease is a legal contract
and is binding on both parties,
so your manager has no choice but
to follow its stipulations.
Since the Federal Government
itself has no equivalent laws con
cerning housing, its subsidized
housing comes under the jurisdic
tion of state and local laws. It is
just as though an individual from
another state-owned apartments
in Bryan-College Station. That
non-resident would still be re
quired by the city to uphold the
local housing codes.
If you find the new rental rates
will be too high for you, you
would be wise to take advantage
of that one-month notification
clause. You can notify your man
ager that you plan to move out at
the same time at which you are
notified by her that your rent will
increase in one month. This way,
you will completely avoid the in
creased rental rates, and you will
have one month to find a new
place to live. i
Question: My roommate an I
are freshmen, but because of the
limited dorm space in the fall and
the shortage of apartments in this
area at the beginning of school,
we were allowed to live in South-
gate Village which is actually fed
eral housing for low-income fam
ilies. Our lease will expire in Jan
uary and the manager has told us
that we can stay there but she
will have to raise the rent. Is
there any way we can keep our
current low rates ?
Answer: No, legally, after the
lease expires, the landlord can
raise the rental rates.
Southgate Village should be
commended for being so respon
sive to the University’s needs and
for making exceptions to allow
several groups of unmarried stu
dents to live there as the local
apartments became filled to ca
pacity. The Spring semester
should see this area with about
90 per cent of the apartment oc
cupied, versus the near 100 per
cent occupancy of this semester.
It should not be necessary to have
Southgate Village still allow un
married students to live there.
The space would be more appro
priately and more justifiably fill
ed by low-income families and
should at least be made available
to them.
Battalion
By BARB SEARS
The following questions come
from cases which the Fair Hous
ing Commission is currently hand
ling.
Question: My husband and I
have been living in Southgate Vil
lage which is federally subsidized
and thus has reduced rent for low-
income people. I have recently
gotten a job and the rent will
subsequently be adjusted. The
manager said she would begin
charging the increased rent on
Dec. 1, although the lease states
that when the tennant leaves or
when the landlord raises the rent,
there must be one month’s no
tice given. Considering this, can
the manager then raise rent in
two weeks ? Is the federal govern
ment required to follow state and
local laws ?
Answer: The manager cannot
legally raise your rent on Dec. 1.
Texas law requires that the rental
rates of written leases be main
tained throughout the period de
signated on the lease, but allows
rent to be raised in oral contracts
following one month’s notice. In
your case, and in the case of uni
versity married student housing,
Cbe
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of
the editor or of the writer of the article and are not
necessarily those of the University administration or
the Board of Directors. The Battalion is a non-profit,
self-supporting enterprise operated by students as a
University and Community newspaper.
LETTERS POLICY
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words
and are subject to being cut to that length or less if
longer. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit
such letters and does not guarantee to publish any
letter. Each letter must be signed and show the address
of the writer.
Address correspondence to Listen Up, The Battalion,
Room 217, Services Building, College Station, Texas
77843.
Members of the Student Publications Board are: Jim
Lindsey, chairman; Dr. Tom Adair, Dr. R. A. Albanese, Dr.
H. E. Hierth, W. C. Harrison, Randy Ross, T. Chet Edwards,
and Jan Faber.
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The Battalion, a student newspaper at Texas A&M, is
published in College Station, Texas, daily except Saturday,
Sunday, Monday, and holiday periods, September through
May, and once a week during summer school.
MEMBER
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Mail subscriptions are $3.50 per semester; $6 per school
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sales tax. Advertising rate furnished on request. Address:
The Battalion, Room 217, Services Building, College Station,
Texas 77843.
The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for
reproduction of all news dispatches credited to it or not
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origin published hferein. Right of reproduction of all other
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EDITOR MIKE RICE
Assistant to the Editor Rod Speer
Managing Editor ' Greg Moses
News Editor T. C. Gallucci
Sports Editor Kevin Coffey
Ass’t. Sports Editor Ted Boriskie
Listen Up
BAC Actions Called Cowardly!
Editor:
I am a black graduate student
in the department of biology, and
I would like to express my dis
gust with the vicious statements
and cowardly actions of the rep
resentatives of the Black Aware
ness Committee. I am not a mem
ber of the BAC and know little
about their activities, however it
is clear that they did a poor job
of research in gathering informa
tion for their ill-advised press
conference.
I have been a student at sev
eral universities (both black and
white), have been a member of
the faculty at three Black col
leges, and have served as a grad
uate teaching assistant at TAMU
for two and one half years. While
one might argue that the policies
and environments of other insti
tutions are irrelevant to the prob
lems here, I feel that they pro
vide excellent parameters for as
sessing success. With regard to
channels of communication and
overall academic environment, I
believe TAMU to be far superior
to any of the institutions with
which I have been associated.
I feel that the committee’s al
legation that TAMU is “a racist
institution” with “an unsuitable
environment for the education of
tomorrow’s leader” to be irre
sponsible and unexcusable. The
time has long since come when
the “BLACK BROTHERS” stop
holding todays administrators ac
countable for yesterdays oppres
sions. I would like the univer
sity community to know that the
statements of the BAC in no way
express the unanimous opinions
of the black student body.
David W. Washington
★ ★ ★
Editor:
I find it interesting that this
paper considers it a personal in
sult that the black student lead
ers did not take the time to find
out what Dr. John Koldus and
the rest of the system could do
for them before they held their
news conference. Considering
the University’s past reaction
time to black ideas, I would say
the BAC was justified in pro
ducing all the stimulus it could.
This paper and the rest of the
University should be taking as a
personal insult, the fact that the
leaders of BAC did not feel the
system would help them unless
pressured, not that they did not
bare themselves to it. And, if the
BAC does not ring with organi
zation, I would not be too critical;
it resounds with ideas (which
from reading your paper would
appear to be more than the Stu-
CADET SLOUCH
by Jim Earle
fcf
tfr
dent Government does).
The demands of BAC, as i
ported in the Battalion, see;!
pretty much justified, although|
do concede that some of tlitj|
ideas about quotas smack of i
merical chauvinism. Over all,
think that what the BAC hasdj
manded should be adopted; i
ed, not with the attitude of sul
cumbing to radical demands l;|
with the idea of moving
into the mainstream of control
porary thought.
John D. McFarlin
★ ★ ★
Editor:
On behalf of the Student
of Texas A&M University, 1 wisil
to express my deep disappointl
ment in the performance of tiJ
Rice University Band durinl
half-time at last Saturday
game. I felt that the perform
ance was in extremely poortastfl
for a University hosting a Southf
west Conference game.
Randy Ross, Presidrot|
TAMU Student Body
£
/jo\/ 73
“With every new blister, I
of an environmentalist!”
find myself becoming more
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AMU
1
Copies of this were sent til
Rice University President, Nor I
man Hackerman and StudeJ
Body President, Douglas Appling,
Hackerman offered his apologiesl
to Dr. Jack Williams Monday rii|
telephone. We expect that “Tl
Mob” w on’t be doing what it ddl
Saturday to the Aggies f<n|
awhile. —Ed.
Typing do:
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1693-4483.
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★ ★ ★
Editor:
I was astonished by the be-j
havior of the Aggies at the AiM [
Rice football game and for thtl
first time in my life, ashamed to j
be an Aggie. Granted, the Ricfl
band’s show could be in poortaitfl
(I do not say it was), but fori
Aggie supporters to cheer madlyl
when a fool attacks members oil
the Rice band, and later to al l
tempt to mob the band, is wone|
than immature—it is sick I
(See Listen Up, page 3)
Experience
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