[ Editorial )
Campus employes lose rights
Numbers game
(Listen up, Oct 29)
Editor:
The two of us feel that an explana
tion is in order for the recent hassle
students have had in trying to get
phone numbers from the Housing
Office.
There are a lot of students here,
and they invariably want a lot of
phone numbers. These have been
getting more and more difficult to
obtain. When we first started work
ing for the Housing Office, there
was someone there 24 hours a day.
Now, due to financial reasons, the
office is only open for 35 hours a
week, beyond normal working
hours. Also, we have been in
structed to tell anyone asking for a
phone number call the Centrex
Operators, who have all the phone
numbers we do after about the sixth
week of school.
Now, we get a lot of hacked-off
people calling back, saying that the
phone rings 30 times and nobody at
Centrex answers. This is because,
unlike our regular phone that gives
a busy signal, they have a couple of
people at a switchboard with a lot of
lines. So if they get busy, they just
have the calls pile up on empty
lines, letting them ring till they get
to them or till the party gives up.
My solution is to just put the phone
on my desk, let it ring and read a
book till someone answers.
And so students, just because our
administration, with the usual
foresight, is phasing out our job,
there’s no reason to get mad at us. I
suggest there be an increase in the
number of Centrex operators.
By the way, Centrex is “7 from
on campus, “845-321T from off
campus.
Greg Marchand
Elmer Banes
Two students resigned upon request last week be
cause their employer in the Housing Office did not like a
letter they wrote for the “Listen Up column. (Letter is
reprinted above.)
Housing Office Manager Glenn H. Jennings cited
two complaints with the letter: it violated university
procedure for filing complaints and the letter’s comment,
“our administration with the usual foresight was sarcas
tic.
The “university complaint procedure” Jennings
talks of is simply an employe making a complaint to his
immediate superior or department head, who passes the
complaint up the ladder. However, the one implied
complaint in the letter concerns the lack of Centrex
operators — a problem not related to the functions of the
Housing Office.
Even if the complaint did concern the Housing Of
fice, is it legitimate to force a resignation for “violating”
the preferred complaint procedure? Becoming a campus
employe should not severely limit one’s means of expres
sing dissatisfaction.
The students were also condemned for making a
sarcastic remark against the administration. Here again,
Jennings implies that an individual gives up the right to
make public sarcastic comments against Fearless Leader
when becoming a campus employe.
It is clear Jennings had no justification to force the
students’ resignations, other than to protect the image of
the university through a limit on freedom of expression.
If Jennings does not re-hire the students involved,
his supervisor. Vice President for Student Services Dr.
John Koldus, should step in and right the wrong.
Cbe Battalion
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This University denies them suf-
because I have been an Aggie Player
for three years.
The University has now gone too
far, however. When the Aggie
Players decided to produce
Marat/Sade this semester, they
were given the option of having the
play censored by Dean Maxwell of
Liberal Arts, or of not performing
the play. The play is not going to be
performed, because the censoring
compromised the artistic integrity
of the play.
In 1969, Marat/Sade was the
most widely produced play on col
lege campuses in this nation. It is
even produced in high schools, and
has been for several years.
Section 51.402 of the Texas Edu
cation Code defines Academic
Freedom as the “entitlement of a
faculty member, as a faculty
member, to full freedom in the clas
sroom is discussing the subject
which he teaches and, as a citizen of
his nation, state, and community, to
full freedom in speaking, writing,
and acting as such, without institu
tional censorship or discipline in
either event.”
I have obtained legal advice in
this matter, and have been advised
that the censorship of this play ap
pears to he in conflict with both the
Texas Education Code and the 1st
Amendment of the Constitution of
this country.
This is an issue that cannot go
unnoticed. As James Russell Lowell
said, “They have rights who dare
maintain them.”
John Oliver Tyler, Jr., 75
S.G. V. Pres, of Rides and Regs
on a Friday night.
which brought only a mumble, then
a smile and assurance that the Judi
cial Board would be seeing me soon.
I informed her I’d never heard so
much s—, and very politely slam
med the door.
Many times I’ve asked myself,
“why do females get weird when
they wield a little power? Are we
that power hungry, ladies?”
If RA’s are here to help why didn’t
she listen when I tried to explain?
No, her mind was made up and no
thing short of the Judicial Board
would suffice.
Why me Lord? I’ve never had to
face the board before. I just hope
they’ll listen and not try to tell me
what they don’t know. Is the word of
an RA more credible than that of a
mere student?
Susan K. Whitaker ’76
TCU Chi Omegas send greetings
to the Dog Company juniors.
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Gestapo RAs
Editor:
I’m writing this just after the ex
perience so that I will take some
action and not let this pass. I have
for some time considered the style
of female RA’s to be like that of the
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