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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 1974)
Revision would chop 14 from Senate VICKI ASHWILL leducing the Student ..Senate m 94 to 80 persons Is the pro- \ial the informal constitutional yl'ision committee agreed upon Sptiday afternoon. HEper three hours of heated de li concerning the restructure of plegislative branch, the 15- anber panel, including one non- mtor, reached its decision. The proposal, the first of three ee ' itions to be revised, will be pre- ' ited to the Senate Feb. 6 for estions. Rules and Regulations Chair- sA rson Curt Marsh said the main ) Brc.»' behind the proposal was to Jobif Ut caps on the present system” n( ] ; , prevent its growth in the fu- re. am mem t >er Senate would be inposed of five voting members pie executive branch, five ‘ eshmen senators at-large, 40 liege representatives and 30 liv- °or f area representatives. Vaysffixact details of how many sen- j>rs will represent any specific irve ijlleges or living areas have not mil) en worked out yet. e c_ Presently 50 senators are "Bed on the basis of college presentation. On-campus repre- ptatives are elected by districts i yl°'|roximately on the basis of a 5 AsiBto 500 ratio. The Corps of vote, Wets is an exception in which rs. ScJ * a i “'our movies incidti ct this week | MSC clubs each of the sophomore, junior and senior classes have at least two senators with additional seats elected at-large after 3,000. Off-campus representation as well as the freshmen senators are apportioned on the basis of ap proximately one per 500 students. Committee members discussed the pros and cons of three types of representation: total college representation, total living area representation or a combination of the two, as it is now. John Tyler (Corps) said the liv ing area representation is the best system but the off-campus students would be hard to repre sent due to their spread-out living area. Tyler also noted that the process of election would be sim pler if done by college. “You can’t guarantee that under any situation there would be good representation,” said Marsh, “but persons from the same colleges are much more re sponsive to their constituents when he thinks like they do.” External Affairs Chairperson Barb Sears said the off-campus students needed to be represented better, either by using a caucus or a ward type system. “There are no off-campus poll ing places,” said Sears, noting the lack of off-campus student parti cipation in elections. “Why not put polls in the parking lots so day students will find it easier to participate?” Student Government President Randy Ross previously proposed a system to the committee simi lar to the one it agreed upon. In Ross’s system the maximum amount of voting members was 70, leaving five executives, five freshmen senators and 60 other senators. These 60 senators would be di vided equally to represent the col lege and living areas on a 30-30 basis. Ross also said that the Senate operated under the college system two years ago but under the sys tem the Corps was guaranteed a majority of the seats. Marsh said, “The Corps has changed over the past several years out of the reality that they are not the only persons on cam pus. Also, civilian students are becoming more and more involved in the colleges. “Total college representation would now be a different situa tion,” continued Marsh. “The only reason we went to both college and living area system was to eliminate the Corps vote.” Committee members discussed the possibility of requiring stu dents running for office to get an unspecified amount of constitu ents’ signatures, possibly 15 for senators, before they can compete for the office. Marsh said the reasoning be hind this was to eliminate the “dead weight” from the Senate. Senatorial responsibility was also discussed in the meeting. Members concluded that a senator should become informed and re lay his views on other Senate in formation to his constituency. Weather Fair and mild Tuesday; cloudy and mild Wednesday. Today’s hi 62°. Wednesday’s hi 65°. Cbe Battalion Vol. 67 No. 338 College Station, Texas Tuesday, January 29, 1974 Grade contesting procedure set up Students who feel they have been victimized by unfair grading now have a way to do something about it. Due to action taken by the Academic Council last Thursday, students who feel they have received prejudiced grading can appeal the grade. The Academic Council also approved the development of a cooperative doctoral program in education with Stephen F. Austin State University. With the grade appeal procedure, a student who feels his grade reflects a “capricious, arbitrary or prejudiced academic evaluation” should first discuss the matter with the instructor. If no satisfactory resolution is reached, the student can appeal to the department head. The department head will be guided by the principle that it is up to the student to present the proof of prejudiced evaluation. From here, the student or the instructor may appeal to the dean of the college. If no resolution can be reached, the student or the instructor may file a formal appeal with the University Academic Appeals Panel. “The grade appeals procedure is really to help out the students,” said student body president Randy Ross. “But it must be emphasized that the burden is on the student to show proof of unfair grading.” The college of education and the graduate college of TAMU and the school of education and the graduate school of S. F. A. will develop a cooperative doctoral program in education that will increase the number of elementary and secondary school people having access to the doctorate from S. F. A. “This is another way in which TAMU is attempting to help smaller colleges that can’t get doctoral programs on their own,” said Ross. “It is also good for A&M’s image.” Optional athletic fee rejected minaiE ols Wil Bp Ingmar Bergman film, ;on. IKg Touch,” begins this week’s he Aiijiuge 0 f movies from MSC com- the rujittecs. i onlftlie Touch” stars Elliott ■d, and is the only English /dsotibage by Sweedish di- senta::f tor ’ Bergman. The film is the ypjjB of five of Bergman’s to be l<wn this semester by the Arts Series, and shows tonight e “BOO and 9:30 in the University ■ter Theater for $1.00. ‘^^■Slaughterhouse Five” is the ontrOlBnesday night presentation of ice ttn*Cepheid Variable Science Fic- olve ti® Committee. Based on the iel by Kurt Vonnegut, this ie is both a war story and the mtion of life by a man who j icome “unstuck” in time and |£! is the events of his life in ran- 4iJ >m sequence. The film shows in University Center Theater inesday night at 6:00 and 8:15, $1.00 Iriday and Saturday nights the ;gie Cinema presents “Some- nes a Great Notion” with Paul swman and Lee Remick, directed 1 BPauI Newman. This is the r \ »ry of an Oregon lumberjack liily, and shows in the Univer- | Center Theater at 8:00 both — ights for 50 cents. Ken Kesey Li rote the book. ^ At midnight Friday the Arts ilm Series Midnight Movie will the rock-western “Zacharia.” ritten by the Firesign Theater, s film features performances Country Joe and the Fish, >ug Kershaw, and the James ing. It shows in the Theater at dnight Friday for $1.00 BOB DYLAN returned to the performing arena in a much ballyhooed concert tour with the Band. He played two shows at Houston’s Hofheinz pavilion Saturday night. See story, page 3. (Photo by Kathy Curtis) By ROD SPEER An optional athletic fee plan was voted down 7-4 with one abstention Monday night by the Student Service Fee Committee. The plan, presented by com mittee members Tom Taylor and John Nash, proposed a $1 or $2 user fee for football games that See related story, page 2. would reduce Student Services Fees to $17.50 or $16.25 per semester from the current rate of $19. Under these programs the Athletic Department would receive $192,800 from services fees based on last year’s attend ance. The committee agreed to recom mend giving Athletics $195,000, which is $25,000 less than it re quested but $26,000 more than it received last year. “Athletics does a good job and a user fee would reflect that,” said Taylor at a preliminary hearing Friday night. The committee had to cut $88,991 from amounts requested this year, which exceeded the $735,358 available from Student Services Fees. “If we have to cut somebody, it should be athletics,” said Nash. He argued that a student’s utility from athletics would be about the same despite a large cut since “a student would still see the same number of games.” He added that similar cuts would drastically hurt the programming of some thing else. “A $20,000 cut from athletics would only be one and a half per cent of their total budget,” noted ICON A drops ‘Chicago Seven 9 lawyer Kuntsler talk still willing to come iy GREG MOSES William Kunstler, controversial ad defense lawer for the “Chi- ■o Seven,” was scheduled to !ak to the Student Conference National Affairs here Feb. 16. it he was canceled. Consider this order of events: H Jan. 21 the executive commit- a of SCON A voted to schedule instler as the speaker for the licial priorities topic. The next y TAMU President Jack K. illiams met with the SCONA airman Steve Kosub and, ac- rding to Kosub, explained that ntrihutions to SCONA might be tdangered if Kunstler was al- iWed to come. After the meeting sub vetoed the executive com- ttee’s decision and canceled lustier. “We decided it was not in the interest of TAMU,” said sub. “SCONA is a function of MU and Kunstler is not the >st popular man at this time.” SCONA is financed by pledges >m alumni and businessmen so- oday in the Bait ass Transit p. 2 le freewheelm’ p. 3 i vs. Frazier p. 6 University National Bank On the side of Texaa A&M.” Adv. licited by SCONA representatives. This year’s budget of $24,000 is made up of small contributions of $100-$200, according to Kosub. “This is so we can be independ ent in our programming,” ex plained Kosub. “It was strictly a personal de cision,” Kosub said of the veto. “Last semester I was led to be lieve by members of the SCONA committee that Kunstler was qualified to speak on the judicial system. I don’t think now that Kunstler could contribute to the program.” John Nash, SCONA planning chairman who met with Williams and Kosub, said, “We made our decision (to remove Kunstler from the agenda) right after the meet ing with President Williams.” President Williams refused to comment on the matter. Kosub said no formal invita tion was sent to Kunstler. Kun stler, nevertheless, had the speech marked on his calendar. “These things have happened before,” said Mrs. Kunstler in a phone interview. Kosub notified her by phone that Kunstler was dropped from the agenda because of a change in the program. She said she asked Kosub to ex plain the nature of the change but did not get a satisfactory answer. Mrs. Kunstler then asked if there was any pressui*e and if the decision was political. Kosub an- Jk William Kunstler swered “no” to both questions. She then requested a formal let ter. “When this has happened in the past one of two things occurs,” said Mrs. Kunstler. “Either Mr. Kunstler has flown down free, or the students organize under an other campus organization and sponsor him.” She explained Kun stler could no longer afford to give free lectures. “I’ll do anything the students want,” said Kunstler. “If SCONA cancels me, I’ll come anyway. If the students get a place for me to talk and raise the funds, I would be very happy to come.” * * * William M. Kunstler seems to thrive on controversy. In 1961, he answered a plea by the American Steve Kosub Civil Liberties Union to help the southern black “freedom fight ers.” Although he wasn’t enthusi astic about the project at first, he became impressed with the cour age of the civil rights protesters and decided that “only by per sonal involvement can one justify his existence either to himself or to his fellows.” After 13 years of estate, marriage and business law with a few ACLU cases, Kunstler moved into more sensational cases and the limelight of criminal law. Kunstler has an impressive list of clientele including Martin Lu ther King, Stokely Carmichael, Adam Clayton Powqell, the Berri- gan brothers, H Rap Brown, and the “Chicago Seven.” He is now defending the Indians of Wounded (See SCONA, page 4) David White, committee chair man. Rules and Regulations Chair man Curt Marsh suggested giving all groups funded under Student Services “the absolute maximum” except athletics. Taylor, an economics major, was critical of the committee’s role in distributing student funds. “We are working under the assumption that we know what is best for them (the students),” he said. “If the benefits of the particular services were great enough,” he added, “they wouldn’t need us; private businesses would handle the services.” “We should work to institute some kind of user fees for as many services as possible,” said the moustachioed senior. “We can then tell which services are wanted from the response.” Taylor said Great Issues and Poliitical Forum “would dry up” without help from student serv ices. He said that would not be a bad idea “if students felt we’re giving them a lot of bull.” “I don’t like people subsidizing my football ticket,” he continued, arguing for an optional athletic fee. Larry McRoberts countered saying once the student athletic charge is taken away from the mandatory fee students could no longer prevent a price hike. “A user fee would hurt the groups that must attend football games, such as the band and the Corps,” said Ron Miori. “Athletics is to some extent a public good, but the goer gets more benefit,” argued Nash. McRoberts suggested holding a referendum to determine student interest in an optional athletic fee program. Last year 3,026 students signed a petition calling for a similar referendum for the 1973-74 Stu dent Service Fees, hut school ended before action was taken. White reported that Athletic Business Manager Wally Groff said he had no objection to a 2-car accident brings death for A&M grad A Texas A&M graduate was killed in a two-car accident south of College Station during the heavy rainstorm Saturday morn ing. Dr. Robert Hideo Hayashikawa, 30, of 700 Dominik Dr. in College Station, was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Joseph Hospital in Bryan shortly after 1 a.m. He received his doctorate in Bio-chemistry last December and was working for M. D. Anderson Clinic in Houston. A Department of Public Safety spokesman said that Hayashikawa was driving north on Highway 6 when his auto collided with the car driven by Roy Y. Torres, 17, of Navasota as it traveled south on Highway 6. Torres and a passenger were treated and released. The body will be flown to Hilo, Hawaii, Hayashikawa’s home town, for funeral services. Calla way-Jones Funeral Home is di recting the funeral arrangements. user fee, adding that it had the potential to raise more revenue. Taylor and Nash’s proposal will be submitted to the Student Senate at its Wednesday meeting as a minority report. The fee allocations recommended by the committee are listed in the chart below. The committee also agreed to recommend that the $14 Health Center fee remain the same. Taylor and Ernest Hernandez voted against the hospital fee proposal while Ron Miori ab stained. The intramural department’s request for $99,569 was cropped to $70,000 by the committee. Mc Roberts led the attack on the intramural budget suggesting the $15,000 request for women’s ath letics be reduced to $5,000. He also felt the number of officials at flag football games could be reduced from the proposed three to two. Carol Moore advocated giving intramurals the full $99,000, say ing women's sports should be treated on an equal basis and sports clubs should be subsidized somewhat through student serv ices. The addition of two buses was included in the Shuttle Bus bud get request of $60,000. The com mittee decided one additional bus was adequate and recommended $52,000. The student lawyer program found the most support among committee members, as they agreed to okay all but $304 of the $23,304 requested. “Since it’s our program let’s give it all the support it needs,” Marsh said. Memorial Student Center Pro grams and Student Government also found much support among committee members as the group recommended large fee increases for both. The committee voted to give MSC Programs a $52,000 in crease and give SC nearly double what it received last year. Student Publications requested a $37,000 increase but the com mittee saw a need for only $20,000 over last year’s budget. White said he was told by Jim Lindsey, chairman of the Student Publi cations Board, that an expected advertising rate should net The Battalion at least $20,000 in in creased revenue in the next year. Student Services Fees Dept, requesting Received Requested Recommended funds this year last year this year this year Athletic Dept. 170,000 220,000 195,000 Intramural 50,000 99,569 70,000 MSC Great Issues 13,500 14,150 14,150 MSC Political Forum 9,000 9,500 9,500 MSC Student Program 198,331 255,629 250,000 MSC Town Hall 32,500 37,500 34,608 Shuttle Bus 42,000 60,000 52,000 Student Government 9,000 18,060 17,600 Student Handbook 4,500 4,737 4,500 Student Lawyer 15,500 23,304 23,000 Student Publications 45,000 81,900 65,000 $589,331 $824,349 $735,358 Amount Available $735,358 Presnal will seek nomination again The race for area State Repre sentative has become warmer as Bill Presnal announced his inten tion to run for re-election against Lloyd Joyce in the May Demo cratic Primary. The incumbent has served six years as representative for the 28th Legislative District, com posed of Brazos and Robinson Counties. His seniority is out ranked by only 20 members of the 150 representatives of the House. “Seniority is vital to the people in our district,” said Presnal, who feels that seniority will be a val uable criterion for the next Legis lature. “Brazos and Robertson counties are represented by sen ior ranking members in each of the other legislative bodies, both in Washington and in Austin. The citizens of these two counties de serve no less in the State House of Representatives.” “This will be especially so should Texas adopt a new consti tution. Many new laws will re quire re-writing should we be operating under a new Constitu tion,” he continued. Presnal feels that drafting the Constitution is his primary pur pose. He is presently serving on Bill Presnal the Education Committee now drafting an education article for the Texas Constitutional Conven tion. “Our first responsibility is to get the constitution drafted and in doing all we can to represent the people in it,” Presnal said. He concluded, “I will carry on a vig orous race as soon as I get this out of the way.”