Vo Monday Bonfire holiday;
class skips cited as
Monday before Bonfire will not
be a class holiday as has been the
case in past years.
The change is based on com
plaints from instructors and their
various deans that too many stu
dents cut class during the semester
and that the free day given at the
beginning of Bonfire week is just
another day that class is missed.
A rumor has been circulating that
if we beat t.u., Monday, Dec. 2,
would be a student, faculty and staff
holiday. No decision has been made
yet about the Monday following the
Aggie-Texas game.
In a memorandum circulated by
Dr. John Koldus, vice president for
student services, some changes in
the Bonfire activities were an
nounced.
reason
In order to prevent some of the
accidents that mar the Bonfire effort
each year, caution in the working
area has been advised by the ad
ministration and this year the height
of the stacks will be controlled. Mr.
J. B. Mainord, assistant director of
student affairs, is in charge of super
vision and coordination of Bonfire
activities.
Thought for today:
How can you be two places at
once when you’re nowhere at
all?
Firesign Theater
Clive
Battalion
Vol. 68 No. 48
College Station, Texas Friday, November 22, 1974^
MSC Traffic To Replace Ping-Pong
Board to decide
allocations, fees
Come next spring, table tennis buffs won’t have a
place to play in the MSC. These tables will be
removed when the hallway they are located in is
opened to pedestrian traffic. See story below.
Bv BARBARA WEST
Staff Writer
A $40,000 ctvntract extension with
the interior design firm for the Uni
versity Center will be considered at
Tuesday’s TAMU System Board of
Directors meeting.
The extension would supplement
$362,000 in previous fee appropria
tions given to William Pahlmann
Associates Inc.
The Board will also consider a
$91,000 appropriation for Centen
nial expenditures.
Production of a 28% minute
documentary film on TAMU will
claim $65,000 of the sum and the
remainder is earmarked for six
8-foot vvoodcarvings which will give
asymbolic exposition of A&M’s his
tory.
In addition to the new appropria
tion, expenditures of $126,000 from
the Association of Former Student’s
★ ★★
Annual Fund Program, sales, spe
cial gifts and $221,000 from the
1974-77 operating budgets are
planned for the Centennial ac
tivities.
The board will make recommen
dations for appropriations to cover
construction and design expenses.
They will request $410,000 for relo
cation of utilities services now
blocking construction of the new
West Campus.
At present, building sites are ob
structed by an electrical substation,
water and sewer lines and overhead
power lines. These must be relo
cated before construction can
begin.
A resolution for the sale of $15.9
million in bonds will be raised be
fore the board. This money will be
used for construction, enlargement
and equipping utilities facilities.
The bonds will be backed by stu-
★★★
dent services fees.
Several bid recommendations are
slated for review and acceptance
when the Building Committee of
the board meets Monday. Among
the projects for which bids have
been submitted are street renova
tions, landscape development,
parking facilities west of Kyle Field
and room modifications in the
Biological Sciences Building.
Starting in December students
may have to pay twice as much for
transcript copies, if the TAMU Sys
tem Board of Directors pass a resol
ution at the request of Edwin H.
Cooper, dean of admissions and re
cords.
The reasons for the request were
the increase in minimum wage and
increases in the cost of paper and
chemicals needed to copy the re
cords.
★★★
Holidays
to close
MSC
Memorial Student Center
(MSC) services and facilities will
be closed during the Thanksgiv
ing holidays.
The students, faculty and staff
holiday includes Nov. 28-Dec. 1.
MSC facilities will close at 5
p.m. Wednesday. All areas
served by university personnel
will shut down until classes re
sume Dec. 2, according to San
ders Letbetter, University
Center business manager.
The Aggieland Station post of
fice lobby will remain open for
box mail delivery and pick up.
Access during the holidays will
be by the MSC south entrance,
on Joe Routt Blvd. across from
G. Rollie White Coliseum.
Board sets budget, policy
By BARBARA WEST
Staff Writer
The nine-member board of direc
tors will gather on the A&M campus
Monday and Tuesday.
These eight men and one woman
are the governing board for all
branches of the TAMU System.
They hold the purse strings and are
responsible for decisions of major
importance in all phases of univer
sity operations.
Most of the board members have
strong backgrounds in business and
finance, but there are members
such as President of the Board
Clyde H. Wells who are known for
their knowledge of agriculture.
Most students would consider the
amount of money handled by the
board phenornenal. This year’s
A&M system budget, totaling close
to $200 million, was broken down
into allocations for each part of the
system and into various categories
within each part. Texas A&M
proper received the largest portion
of the funds with $107,214,818.
The members of the board are
appointed by the governor and con
firmed by the State Senate. They
serve six-year terms which are stag
gered so that three terms expire
every odd-numbered year when the
legislature convenes.
The board meets for five regular
MSC pool hall replaces new bowling lanes
Students start own paper
Walk off UTPB ‘Windmill’
sessions per year, as stipulated in
the by-laws. Earlier this month a
special meeting was called to accept
a gift of $436,380 to the Agricultural
Experiment Station. It was the fifth
special meeting called this year
along with the previous four regular
sessions.
With the Nov. 25-26 meeting, the
board’s business for 1974 will be
completed unless another special
session is called for.
By DARALYN GREENE
Staff Writer
Students at the University of
Texas of the Permian Basin (UTPB)
are getting their own newspaper.
All 10 staff reporters and four stu
dent editors walked out Tuesday
from the UTPB Windmill to start
their own off-campus paper. The
move was in protest of UTPB Presi
dent Amstead’s move of the campus
newsletter from the mass communi
cations department to the univer
sity information service.
Amstead’s action was prompted
following publication of a controver
sial letter to the editor in the Nov. 8
issue of the Windmill. Student
Editor Joel Asbery was reassigned
following the letter’s publication.
. Editors of the new student paper!
will be Lark Edminster and Karen j
Storey. Joel Asbery will be technical;
adviser. Asbery was voted in as
editor but declined the position. “I
decided I would be more of a hin-i
derance than help to the paper.
The four-page tabloid will appear
the week after Thanksgiving, with
1,000 copies to be distributed. The
paper will be distributed free since
advertising will pay for its costs.
“If we can sell enough advertise
ments we will expand it at a later
date, ’ Asbery said, when contacteTl
Thursday night.
The paper does not have a name
as of yet, but the staff will vote on it
soon. Several are being considered,
including “University Free Press.
When asked about students’ reac
tions to the new publication, As
bery said, “They’re in favor of it.
It’s about time they had their own
paper. President Amstead has said
little about the paper.
Amstead did say the students res
ignations were meaningless. They
were no longer members of the staff
because the director of the univer
sity information service, Sarah
Crowe and her staff became the staff
when the newsletter was transfer
red.
Asbery, after he was first reas
signed following publication of the
controversial letter, said he hoped
to avoid a legal battle over
Amstead’s actions.
“President Amstead, my attorney
and I met today and called a truce,
Asbery said Thursday night.
Today.
Inside
Shawn Phillips p. 3
Great Issues p. 3
Bookstore Profit p. 6
Weather
Partly cloudy and warm
Friday and Saturday.
Southerly winds 8-14 mph.
High today 79°; low tonite
59°; high Saturday 83° and
20% chance of showers.
New MSC
President of council says
not designed for students
(Photos By Chris Svatek )
By JIM PETERS
Staff Writer
The Memorial Student Center
(MSC) was not designed to suit the
needs of students, said Bill Davis,
president of the MSC Council.
Davis cited the exclusion of stu
dents from the planning process of
the facility as the cause.
“At almost every other university
students have a hand in the plan
ning and design of their student
union,” but no such committee was
set up here, Davis said.
“As a result, we’ve ended up with
a lot of things that don’t relate to a
campus . . . and are not conducive
to a good student union.”
His primary traget was the lavish
furnishings throughout the com
plex, but he also criticized the oper
ation of the center which leaves stu
dents “out of touch. ”
“The center should be union
oriented, as opposed to business
oriented,” Davis suggested.
Whereas the operation and
maintenance of the old MSC was
controlled entirely by the MSC
Council and Directorate, much of
the new MSC’s operations are hand
led by the University Center Board.
(Only the student programs offices
and the Browsing Library are now
under the auspices of the MSC
Council.)
An offshoot of this neglect for stu
dent planning is the growing shor
tage of space in the center, even as
construction continues on a portion
of the building.
The Student Programs Office
does not have enough room to ex
pand, Davis said, and “we’ve had to
limit the number of cubicles
granted. ”
Other problems of insufficient
space centers around the Bowling
and Games area in the basement of
the Center.
Originally, there were to have
been twelve bowling lanes, along
with a separate section for ping-
pong, billiards, and various other
games.
It was noticed, however, that the
Singing Cadets organization did not
have a location on the building’s
blueprints.
So the planners decided to trans
form the “game room” into a vocal
music area. The ping-pong tables
were moved into the hallway, while
the pool tables had to be shifted into
a space where four of the bowling
lanes were to have been.
As a result there are only eight
lanes on campus, the same number
that it had in 1947 when the original
MSC was built.
In that time the student body has
tripled in size.
“It’s a shame the frustration the
students have when they come in
here to bowl and find only the eight
lanes,” lamented Jan Gray, man
ager of the Bowling and Games
area.
Students, she pointed out, must
share the alleys with physical educa
tion classes that use them. Bowling
leagues are directed to facilities in
Bryan.
That frustration, though, pales
next to that of the Basement Com
mittee which in inclement weather
used the “brown bag area, adjacent
to the bowling lanes, for their ac
tivities.
Guitar strains and folk singing
were often drowned out by the
noise of tumbling pins, Gray noted.
This weekend the Committee
moves into its makeshift, albeit
permanent, headquarters in a stor
age room behind the post office.
When the rest of the MSC opens
this spring the hallways containing
the ping-pong tables will become a
heavily traveled thoroughfare. The
tables, because of a lack of room will
be placed in storage, says Univer
sity Center manager Richard
“Chuck” Cargill.
In the event of a scheduled table
tennis tournament, Cargill said, the
tables can be set up in one of the
banquet rooms on the upper levels.
Included in^the portion of the
MSC being “modified” is a new ser
vice desk and front lobby area. The
temporary desk at the east entrance
to the MSC will become an informa
tion center.
This temporaiy desk was mod
ified often.
The formica counter tops had to
be replaced with a smooth surface
when persons cashing checks had
trouble writing on the original,
rough surfaced countertops.
A hinged door in the countertop
proved too heavy to lift. A display
case for candy and cigarettes is
empty, blocked from access by a
safe and intersecting counter.