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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 22, 1974)
et 'S," Mot; set mty 't aniitij nents!(( said, goes idick ; st tnot; where t ints»lj tion. 1 "psychh ing tW, nan," ^ ganged^ y siajj ed very^j ;e a lute said hit. Supreme Court has last chance to halt jury report WASHINGTON WP). — A fed eral appeals court has moved the House Judiciary Committee a step closer to access to a secret grand jury report on President Nixon’s role in Watergate. In an opinion Thursday the court rejected requests that it re verse U. S. District Judge John J, Sirica’s order sending the grand jury report to the committee. The appeals court delayed de livery of the report until 5 p. m. Weather Fair and mild Friday with a high of 64°. Colder Saturday; high tomorrow Monday to give attorneys time to take the case to the Supreme Court. President Nixon did not oppose sending the report to the House, a fact cited by both Sirica and the appeals court. But attorneys for H. R. Halde- man, former White House staff chief, and Gordon C. Strachan, a former Haldeman aide, opposed sending the report to the House on the grounds its contents pro bably would be made public and result in publicity that could make it impossible for them to obtain a fair trial. Haldeman and Strachan were among seven former administra tion or campaign aides indicted March 1 for allegedly trying to block the Watergate investiga tion. The grand jury gave Sirica its sealed report and a satchel filled with evidence at the same time it returned the indictment. Lawyers for Haldeman and Strachan said they were unde cided on whether to ask the Su preme Court to overrule the ap peals court. Judge George E. MacKinnon dissented in part from the deci sion, saying he believed the grand jury exceeded its authority in turning over the sealed report and satchel of evidence, and recom mending that the House commit tee be given access to the entire grand jury proceedings, but only after the trial is completed. During the oral argument, Phil ip Lacovara, counsel for the spec ial prosecutor, said the material given Sirica by the grand jury focuses on the President’s role, and that “incidental references” to Haldeman and Strachan “do not go beyond the allegations in the indictment.” In other Watergate-related de velopments: —American Bar Association President Chesterfield Smith said Nixon’s refusal to hand over all Watergate evidence to the Judi ciary Committee amounts to ob struction of justice. —-Two members of the Judici ary Committee said equal tele vision time should be given for a response to Nixon’s comments about the committee. —Rep. Wilbur D. Mills, D-Ark., said Nixon should voluntarily file amended tax returns and pay any additional income tax for past the NCii March % I (H ude Stoi — suth Hu sophoir.! !cott Joij; Ga., Hi; »m Midlij unior itg i Yates, j. lara, Cali!; mior (if. ce Vanfc i Saratoji ihman fm 1 Bill C® n SanJ® is: medle;. )ld recori l973). day—3$ 3wdle,Mti 1.2 by Pm imann, Ea l medlej- ■. (Old' redder e—53,38 \ •: 53.8 k -52,96 3.1 by Cod ce —1:611 ord: 11 )• j -1:511 ird: 1: (8Ji te — 2:131 1: 2:18,16l! -1:59,3 k ord: 2:661 973). relay-3:ll' er, Prenfe : 3:14.061! eaden, Pret Che Battalion years. Mills is vice chairman of the joint congressional committee that is looking into Nixon’s tax affairs. —A House subcommittee ap proved a draft report concluding that the government has spent $17 million on President Nixon’s homes, including some funds not requested by the Secret Service. Committee Republicans and the White House denounced the re port. Today in the Batt Election filing list p. 3 UT students supported p. 4 Vol. 67 No. 366 College Station, Texas Friday, March 22, 1974 Support of Nixon declining By The Associated Press President Nixon’s popularity has dropped to all-time lows in two polls, with only 25 per cent approving of the way he’s doing I 1 •x i i i Battalion survey\ 4 \ > ink FlamingOS’ Candidates for student government or other leader- jg I S i§ •s page 7) anked Brif 16th-ranl« to Columli to seveit- ition to Td Houston tl« in the Bb rney. 'eral top #■ ig co-fouitl louston, ft and Floriii as been sed' ingles. Dot- not been b in the ton-’' d SMUas top doubls i former!! is defendii? v partner!: ptimistic, ‘1 Courson ar! tier doublfi the tourni’ lot to us,’ help us wta ound." are hostiif athwest Con both teams ;M should b a winning le way we'n win 7-0, if lose 4-3, it's igins at about 5:66 rsity courts, Candidates for student government or other leader ship positions often reach only part of their constituency during the campaign period. Consequently, often students go to the polls uninformed as to a candidate’s positions on vital campus issues. In an effort to reduce this problem, The Battalion requests each candidate for student office to answer an 11-point questionnaire posted in the Battalion office, Room 216 of the Reed McDonald Services Building. Due to space limitations only “yes”, “no” and “no position at this time” responses will be recorded. his job according to a Gallup £: The results will appear in The Battalion April 2. ig Poll, and 26 per cent according to a Louis Harris survey. The Harris poll said 71 per cent gave Nixon a negative rat ing, while 3 per cent were not However, Harris said that when people were asked if Nixon should resign, the verdict was 47-44 opposed, with 9 per cent undecided. The Gallup poll indicated that 64 per cent disapprove of the way Nixon is performing, with 11 per cent undecided. Harris said the percentage of Americans who think Nixon should resign has not varied sta tistically in more than three months. “It is apparent,” he said, “that the public would prefer to wait for the results of the impeach ment proceedings now under way before the House Judiciary Com mittee rather than have the President voluntarily resign from office.” Harris said the all-time low in Nixon’s popularity reflected the public’s reaction to the spate of indictments against his former close aids in cases connected with the Watergate affair. flunks first review By MARY RUSSO “Pink Flamingos” are winging their way toward the Memorial Student Center Directorate Coun cil. The MSC Executive Committee rejected Thursday night the showing of that film by the MSC Arts Committee. The film has gone through the two initial steps in the newly es tablished movie review system. Hal Gaines, student adviser, has refused to order the film. It was taken on appeal before the Exec utive Committee the prescribed 30 days before scheduled show ing and voted down, 7-6. A final decision will be ren dered on the fate of the film Monday when the MSC Council meets at 6:00 p.m. in the Stu dent Programs Office, MSC sec ond floor. The Execs voted in trie follow ing manner: for showing the film were Bill Davis, Chet Ed wards and Mike Hatch; against showing it were Dr. Tom Adair, Jane Logan and Keith Tyler. Don Webb broke the tie by voting against the film. This will cause it to be presented to the Council, the final avenue of appeal. “Because of a lack of manage ment on the part of the Art Film subcommittee,” and “because they’ve accumulated a debt of $341.15, we are suggesting that the series be put under Aggie Cinema,” said Don Webb, presi dent. “Kathy Rodenberger, newly ap pointed Arts Committee chair man, doesn’t have the knowledge of budgeting or how to run a film series, and Aggie Cinema does, therefore, the subcommittee will learn more from this group,” said John Wayne Stark, MSC director. “One of the main purposes of the MSC is to teach students how to set up programming, something like a classroom situation,” said Stark. The Art Film sub-committee recommended that it should be come an autonomous MSC com mittee but this was ignored, ex cept by Bill Davis. Davis, presi dent-elect of the MSC Directorate, suggested that this might be a consideration at a later date when the series debt is settled. “I called other schools where ‘Flamingos’ will be shown by their student unions, UT Austin and University of Houston. At UT a lecture will be given before the film is shown, explaining how it should be viewed as an art film,” Davis said. “This would be a good film to find out if the A&M students feel See related story, page 6 this type of film is art,” Davis said. “Maybe the campus just isn’t ready for this kind of art. The community isn’t and A&M really affects the community’s en tertainment outlets.” At this point Chet Edwards recommended that a questionaire be distributed after the film had been viewed to record student re actions. Dr. Tom Adair suggested “Pink Flamingos” be canceled and that any decision-making be postponed until a criteria be set for deter mining the worth of art film pro gramming. “The film is representative in its field of expression. It is an exercise in bad taste showing cer tain things in our culture as be ing arbitrately classified as be ing tasteless,” Tim Manning, sub committee chairman said. “The purpose of the series is to give students a representative se lection of art films. ‘Flamingos’ is one in the movement of low bud get films, getting away from the big flashy Hollywood produc tions.” said Ruby Vavra, assist ant chairman of Art Films. Again the film was challenged, not for its art value, which the committee finally agreed was an indefinable term, but on the films’ quality. “We’ve got to consider if the showing of this film is part of the MSC’s purpose,” Webb said. “It’s like when there is a Town Hall presentation that a group of students don’t like, the MSC is ac cused of bad programming. Any film that portrays life can be called art, but quality has to be part of MSC programs.” N le ► VICE :tion is ment" ^.ve. Senate backs Bill of Rights for students By LATONYA PERRIN A Student Bill of Rights was suggested to be listed in the University Rules and Regulations and the Student Handbook Thursday night. The resolution called for the protection of the basic The complete student Bill of Rights passed by the Senate is printed on page 6. freedoms guaranteed to all Americans and due process, said Brad Bryant, senator from business. Optional laundry service has been recommended by the Student Government. The plan presented by John Nash, senator from Puryear-Law, allows for a fee no higher than it would have been under the man datory system. There will be no over-the-weekend serv ice under the proposal. Curt Marsh, chairman of the rules and regulations committee, introduced student life revisions. The revi sions are to make the student life regulations conform to the new constitutional amendments, said Marsh. The Senate voted after a few questions. The vote ing an Amtrak stopping point in College Station. There will be a station in the Bryan-College Station area and College Station is the main center of travel for the area, said Barb Sears, chairman of the external affairs com mittee. A resolution to suggest conduct probation as the maximum penalty for the first offense of streaking was introduced by Chris Lawson, senator from veteri nary medicine, and tabled. “The administration is studying their methods of discipline and I feel that we should wait for the results of that study before we make recommendations,” said Randy Ross, president of the Student Government. Steve Eberhard chairman of academic affairs in troduced a bill to change the pass/fail system. The new policy would allow anyone with a 2.5 GPR to take (See SENATE, p. 6) BILL DAVIS (above) blows a smoke ring during the MSC Executive Committee meeting Thursday as Rudy Vavra (be low right) contemplates the fate of the film “Pink Flamin gos.” Deliberating at right are (from left) Don Webb, Mike Hatch, Dr. Tom Adair, J. Wayne Stark and Jane Logan. In the foreground, facing away, is Arts Films Series ad viser Phil Kropf. (Photos by Alan Killingsworth) Film review discussed ‘Quality’ versus ‘censorship’ By HANK WAHRMUND The president of the Memorial Student Center Council says a review process for art films is necessary to try to guarantee a high standard of programming. MSC Arts Film Committee chairman Tim Manning sees Pres ident Don Webb’s statement as favoring a form of censorship. “I see censorship as having two levels. The primary level at which we (the committee desig nated to select art films) order a film. The secondary level is when a person decides to attend or not to attend a film showing. He has ‘censored’ that film. “The third level—which I call outright censorship—is when a third party chooses to review a film or screen it and decide for the students what they can and can’t see,” Manning said. “Students should be allowed to see what they want in the way of art films, and I think that since our committee was set up and we were selected to do just that, we should be able to do it, with out a review board above us,” Manning said. “I wouldn’t call what we do as a review and screening board censorship, really,” Webb said. “What the board does is study information sent out by the film companies and view previews of the films in question and decide what really represents artistic film and what doesn’t. “Let me point out that I was first opposed to any form of re view or censoring, but now think a review is necessary because we shouldn’t show films without lim its,” Webb said. “Any film can be labeled art istic. What we are concerned with is the criterion of quality,” he emphasized. “One film now in question is ‘Pink Flamingos’ which is kind of freakish. It has abnormal sex ual behavior and I don’t think most Aggies would want to see it. One scene has a transvestite eating dog excrement. I don’t think that’s an art film,” Webb said. “It definitely isn’t quality. “People seeing that kind of a movie sponsored by the MSC would blame not just the Arts Committee but the MSC as a whole. Mr. Stark (MSC Director) has to answer for that and in turn answers to Dr. Koldus (Vice President for Student Services) who has to answer for anything the university does,” Webb said. He said too many people have emphasized that the committee is reviewing a film (“Pink Fla mingos”) and have not appreciat ed the 30-odd films they didn’t review. He said the Arts Com mittee has given no leeway in the matter, preferring to ideal istically believe they’re right and the Council is wrong. However, the Arts Committee agreed Thursday to brief the au dience before the showing of an art film as to the basic nature of it. Manning said. That way the viewers wouldn’t have to watch a film they were opposed to, he said. “We also hope to develop a questionnaire to be completed by our audiences to help us in future selections of art films,” Manning added. Manning hopes A&M students will support the Arts Committees’ efforts toward showing art films without prior approval of any (See FILM, p. 5) University National Bank “On the side of Texas A&M. M Adv.