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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 24, 1974)
Picnic promoters broke even, Vance estimates By GERALD OLIVIER County Judge Bill Vance esti- lates that promoters (of which he is [me) will break even on this year’s /illie Nelson Picnic. Final reports are due from the accountants on Wriday, Vance said. ™ Some costs are already known the promoters paid in excess of p40,00.0.for the entertainment pro- Weather [partly cloudy and hot today and tomorrow. High both days 100°. yw tonight 74°. Winds from the south 10-15 m.p.h. vided. Cleanup operations for the estimated 35,000 in attendance cost $8,000 and security was $24,000. Vance has come under attack over his involvement in the picnic. Both Bryan and College Station city councils, the Chamber of Com merce and the First Baptist Church Board of Deacons have passed re solutions regarding it. The picnic has been called indecent, immoral and a bad reflection on the image of Brazos County. County Attorney Roland Searcy said cases amounting to an entire month’s load were initiated by his office as a result of the picnic. Sixty persons were charged with DWI, 25 were charged with possession of less than four ounces of marijuana, and five were charged with possession of a controlled substance (uppers, downers). Searcy said no accidents with other autos resulting from drunken driving were reported. A recent poll in “The Eagle” showed public opinion to be three to one against the picnic. Vance said the poll was meaningless for two reasons: a lack of student response due to low circulation among col-. lege students and an increased in clination among those opposed to the picnic to answer such a poll. ‘The Eagle’ was very biased,” said Vance. “They made up their minds beforehand that they didn’t like it and set out to justify that posi tion. Either, you’re going to open your doors to large crowds of people or not. The Chamber of Commerce was in favor of the speedway in the first place. They have been very in consistent. The resolution they pas sed was a farce.” As to the image of Brazos County, Vance said, “I don’t think it hurt. I don’t think it had one lasting detri mental effect.” ow gets county land possible strip mine Dow has leased land in the Steep Hollow and Reliance communities for possible mining sites. One source, associated with Dow, said Brazos County acreage bought by Dow and competitors is in the five- figure area. €bt Battalion Vol. 67 No. 405 College Station, Texas Wednesday, July 24, 1974 Prince said strip mining, a pro cess where the top soil is removed from the underlying coal, is the cheapest and most feasible method of obtaining the coal. “The lignite in Brazos County is too shallow to mine underground,” said Prince, Strip mining has come under at tack by environmentalists who label it as senseless destruction. Prince said Dow will enter the project with intentions of returning the land to its original condition. Three strip mining bills of varying force are now before the House of Representatives. One, proposed by Rep. Ken Hechler, D-W. Va., would prohibit all strip mining in 13 months. A second bill, introduced by Rep. Morris Udall, D-Ariz., would place strong controls on strip mining. The bill would be the na tional standards to be imposed on strip mining. It would levy a thirty cents per ton tax on coal for the pur pose of reclaiming old strip mines. The third bill, sponsored by the administration, would impose much looser restrictions on strip miners. The major source of Texas coal is the Wilcox Fault. The fault runs the length of the state, with some of the richest and most accessible deposits occuring in Brazos and Robertson counties. Dow is one of nine or ten companies competing for the right to strip mine in this area. Studies of land contours, surface restoration, shallow water and equipment will delay mining at least five years, said Prince. Dow plans to use lignite as a pos sible replacement for natural gas as an energy generating fuel, said Pr ince. Prince said Dow has three al ternatives for the production of energy from lignite. One is to build a power plant in Brazos County and wire the energy to their plants on the Gulf Coast. A second answer is to build the plant on the coast and ship the coal to the plant. The third is to sell the coal to a private firm which would produce energy and sell it to Dow. Prince stressed that any of these plans wotdd bring money into the Bryan-College Station area. $6 million Construction bonds sold Permanent University Fund bonds totaling $6 million were sold Friday by the TAMU System Board of Directors to Continental-Illinois . National Bank and Trust Company of Chicago at an effective interest rate of about six percent. Revenue from the bond sale will be used to help finance future con struction at TAMU and other parts of the system. Following the sale, board mem bers were briefed by W. C. Freeman, vice president and com ptroller, who outlined additional revenue needs for proposed new construction and discussed in creases in building use fees neces sary to raise such funds. The board voted to meet Aug. 29 in Dallas to consider the sale of as many as three issues of building use fee bonds. The board members were given data showing how much additional revenue could be generated if build ing use fees at the system’s three academic units were raised to $4, $5 or $6 per semester credit hour. TAMU and Prairie View A&M Uni versity currently charge $2 and Tarleton $1.50. Freeman noted the current rates are below the average for public in stitutions in Texas. LIGNITE DEPOSITS of Brazos County shown by shaded area. (From Geological map by Texas Engineering Station, drawing by Brad Ellis.) A PREVIEW of bull riding, one of the events scheduled for the Third Annual Bryan Breakfast Club Rodeo Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the A&M rodeo arena. A special cow saddling event for the local businessmen will highlight the show which begins each night at eight. CS Council awards 701 planning contract Pinnell-Anderson-Wilshire and Associates were granted a contract for the implementation of phase three of the 701 Plan by the College -.Station City Council Monday night. I The $6,000 contract will allow com- 1 pletion of plans for parks and recrea- I tion capital improvements and plan ® implementation. Conditional approval was given to zone-change requests on several tracts in an A. P. King development near Easterwood Airport. Problems with waste disposal at the proposed | development were the reasons for the conditional approvals given. The city has no sewer lines in this area at the present time. The conditions dictated by the council were the negotiation of an agreement with TAMU to cooper ate with the city in sewer waste ex- Unified education lobby group sought changes and the city’s ability to pro cess increased waste loads. A five acre tract owned by the First Baptist Church of College Sta tion was rezoned apartment from single family. The church plans to sell the land and relocate in a resi-, dential area. With a 5-2 vote the council passed a resolution saying the council “de plores that the July 4th picnic was. imposed on the community, and that any public official would help sponsor the activity.” Councilmen Jim Gardner and Homer Adams voted no on the resolution. The council unanimously ap proved a resolution complimenting the city staff and city manager North, Bardell for their work during the picnic weekend. By JUDY BAGGETT Texas college and university pres idents met with student govern ment presidents Friday night to promote cooperation in lobbying ef forts on the new constitution. According to student lobbyists and three major Texas newspapers, college administration lobbyists pressured constitutional convention delegates until the delegates stop ped listening to administrative de mands. Now, the administrations have turned to the students for help. The meeting was called by Jack Martin, president of the Texas Stu dent Association. It was held at the chancellor’s house at the University of Texas. At the meeting, Frank Fleming, head of the UT student association, presented a resolution endorsing a proposed constitution which would allow building use fees until 1985. A 1985 deadline would be dangerous, said Tom Taylor, TAMU student government executive director, if administrations tried to get as much revenue as they could before that date. “They would charge as much as they could get away with,” said Taylor. “I wouldn’t sign it (the resolution) in a cat’s dream.” “The administration is trying to use us and we re not going to let it happen,” said Carol Moore, member of the National Student Lobby Board of Directors. “The building use fee is just a license to build and put it all off on students.” “I think the worst thing happen ing is building use fees,” said Ed Martin, University of Houston stu dent government president. Martin 1 said, “a lot of the delegates got turned off with the administration lobbyists.” BASEMENT COMMITTEE concert in the Rudder Center mall on Friday and Saturday provides free showcase for local talent. (Photo by Doug Winship) New regulations Class attendance no longer required MOTOCROSS RACE in College Station Sunday sponsored competition in lOOcc, 125cc, 250cc and open (over 360cc) classes along with an over 30 class. (Photo by David Kimmel) By KATHY YOUNG Students now have the right and all the responsibility to go to class. The Academic Council met July 10 and passed a new class atten dance policy which states: “The University views class attendance as an individual student responsibil ity. In doing so, the intent is not to deny the importance of class atten dance but rather to make the stu dent aware that regular class atten dance is in the interest of his educa tion.” The instructor is responsible for giving adequate notice of major tests. Students must see that their obligations are met. The instructor decides if an ab sence is authorized and authorized absences include: participation in an authorized University activity, confinement due to illness, a death in a student’s immediate family, and participation. in legal proceedings that jrequire a student’s presence. If a'studeht misses class becadse of an authorized absence the in structor must present the student with alternatives to make up the work. If the absence is unau thorized, the instructor can refuse to let tK<* student make up work. If tbd Student feels the decision is un fair he may appeal; first to the head of the instructor’s department, then to the dean of the instructor’s col lege and then to the Academic Ap peals Panel. Each instructor will be expected to keep attendance records and if a student is absent for unknown reasons and for some time then the xiistructor will check with the student’s department headland dean of his college. In other changes to the Univer sity Regulations, the council ap proved 12 hours of pass-fail courses for juniors and seniors with a minimum 2.5 GPR. Students with a 2.5 GPR are now entitled to register in excess of 19 hours with the ap proval of the academic dean. An important addition to the reg ulation that governs both student and professor is the new rule which prohibits the use of tobacco, food or drinks in instructional classrooms and laboratories. The current dress and grooming code remains, which states that “members of the faculty and staff have the authority and responsibil ity to maintain reasonable standards of student dress and grooming within their respective classrooms, laboratories, offices and other areas of public presentations for which they are responsible.” The council also endorsed a non thesis option for Master of Arts and Master of Science degrees. The Council also added 11 new art courses in painting, sculpture, art and civilization. Eighteen new veterinary courses were added deal ing largely with medicine, surgery and pathology. Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Biology, Fi nance, English, Oceanography and Range Science, each dckfed one graduate course, the geography de partment added two graduate theory courses. Environmental de sign now has a course in communi cation and one irr the history of building. Bioengineering added a biomedical instrumentation course while Educational Curriculum and Instruction added a graduate course entitled “Supervision of Student Teachers.” A sophomore mathema tics course, a marine Transportation seminar and a marine engineering course on diesel engine technology %1J yvere included in the new courses. Courses required were either de leted, substituted or changed to a different semester in the following majors; Industrial Education, voca tional Industrial Teacher Education Option, Industrial Arts Teacher Education Option, Applied Mathematical Sciences, Bioen gineering, Biomedical Science, Building Construction, Environ mental Design, Landscape Ar chitecture, and in Veterinary Medicine Professional Curriculum. New degree programs were re commended for Radiation Protec tion Engineering, and Health Edu cation.