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Vol. 68 No.
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, December1974
Senator ousted from office
Judicial Board creates 8-1 precedent
By JAMES SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
The Student Government Judi
cial Board debated into the wee
hours of the night Tuesday over the
(ate of Mary Ellen Martin, sopho
more senator from the College of
Education.
The appeal was filed against Mar
tin by one of her constituents, Vir
ginia Stiles, a sophomore from the
College of Education. Martin was
charged with violating Article III,
Section II (c) of the Student Body
Constitution, which states
“Senators must at all times be
members of the constituency they
represent.”
Martin, an Education major, had
adopted a double degree plan in
psychology and education, and
transferred her records from the
College of Education to the College
of Liberal Arts.
Curt Marsh, student vice presi
dent of finance and counsel for the
plaintiff, argued that by transferring
her records to the College of Liberal
Arts, she no longer represented her
constituency in the College of Edu
cation.
John Tyler, student vice presi
dent of rules and regulations and
counsel for the defense, replied that
Martin was still taking the same cur
riculum as she had when her re
cords resided in the College of Edu
cation.
Long lines of questioning filled
the session. Sharp debate ensued
between both counsels and the Jud
icial Board over the relevance of
much of the questioning, especially
the cross examination of the defen
dant, Martin.
Tyler charged Marsh with leading
and badgering the defendant during
his cross-examination. Marsh con
tinued his cross-examination until
the Board declared it irrelevant to
the case. The Board recessed briefly
to allow Martin time to get her
.mid-semester grade report. The
grade report showed Martin to still
be enrolled in the College of Liberal
Arts after she allegedly had
switched back to the College of
Education.
Both summations were an effort
to clear the confusion surrounding
the case. The Board recessed for de
liberation for approximately 20 mi
nutes before deciding to uphold
Stile’s appeal against Martin by a
vote of 8 to 1.
Photo by Douglas Winship
Mary Ellen Martin answers questions thrown
at her by the Judicial Board before her re
moval from the position of sophomore senator
from the College of Education.
Congress outvotes
Ford vet bill veto
WASHINGTON (AP) — Con
gress overrode by solid margins
Tuesday President Ford’s veto of a
22.7 per cent increase in most GI
education benefits for seven-million
Vietnam-era and four-million
post-Korea veterans.
The House voted first 394 to 10.
The Senate then voted 90 to 1, with
only Assistant Republican Leader
Robert P. Griffin of Michigan sup
porting the veto. Both margins were
far over the required two-thirds ma
jority.
It was the fourth time Congress
has overriden a veto by Ford since
he became President.
However, in another vote Tues
day, the House failed to override
Ford’s veto of the disaster relief bill.
It was the fourth time his veto has
been upheld of 15 bills he has vet
oed. Congress did not contest seven
of the vetoes.
And a Twentieth Century Fund
task force recommended that vete
rans benefits be eliminated for
peacetime veterans. The fund
proposed that an individual fund be
created for each eligible veteran so
he could draw on it as needed rather
than be tied to the limits of a
monthly check.
The higher veterans payments
are retroactive to September and
Veterans Administration officials
said the back payments probably
would be in the hands of the vete
rans now in school in about 15 days.
The first regular check with the in
crease will go out Jan. 1, they said.
Ford vetoed the bill, saying it was
inflationary and suggesting an 18.2
per cent raise. He also objected to a
new $600-a-year loan program for
veterans and an increase in entitle
ment for undergraduate study from
36 months to 45 months.
Ford had predicted his veto
would be overriden.
The bill increases monthly pay
ments for fulltime institutional
training from $220 to $270 for a
single veteran, from $261 to $321 for
a veteran with one dependent and
from $298 to $336 with two depen
dents. The rate for each dependent
over two is raised from $18 to $22.
The loan program will be estab
lished in the Treasury as a revolving
fund to be administered by the VA.
The loans will be available to vete
rans who can’t get help from other
federal programs.
The bill allows Reservists and Na
tional Guardsmen to get credit for
education benefits for their six
months initial active duty for train
ing if they later serve on active duty
for 12 months or more.
Today.
Building use fees increase
to pay for campus projects
Building use fees will increase
200 per cent next semester to help
fund a construction program on
campus, W. C. Freeman, executive
vice president for administration,
confirmed Tuesday.
Fees will go from $2 to $6 per
hour to support a $25 million bond
issue for the next 30 years. The Bat
talion erroneously stated on Nov. 26
that the fees had previously been
$2.50.
The $25 million bond issue was
awarded to First National Bank in
Dallas and its associates in invest
ment. Five bids were received.
Also financing the construction is
money from the available fund and
money left over from previous bond
issues.
The available fund is money from
the permanent university fund. The
permanent university fund is an en
dowment fund set up by the Texas
constitution. The fund receives in
come from West Texas land it owns.
Oil and gas royalties from the land
also go into the fund. The land is
leased for cattle grazing.
One third of the available univer
sity fund is given to Texas A&M and
two-thirds is given to the University
of Texas.
Bonds pledged by the university
can’t exceed six and two-thirds per
cent of the permanent fund. The
limit was reached last semester.
Fees had to be raised because the
university reached the limit and ran
out of money, Freeman said.
The construction program in
cludes plans for a soil and crop sci
ence building and an animal science
building on the west campus.
Seventy cents of the current $2
building use fee is pledged to other
bond issues, such as the library and
the student fees bond issued in
1972, Allan Schlandt, systems com
ptroller, said.
Thursday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.
Run-off set for freshmen
Photo by Steve Krauss
Yell leader Steve Taylor leads tye War Hymn
one—handed after recently finding out he had
broken it several weeks ago. He slipped while
playing table tennis in his senior boots.
A freshman president, vice presi
dent and secretary-treasurer will be
selected in a run-off election Dec. 5.
Students with an I. D. and activity
card can vote from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Thursday at the MSC, the
Academic Building or the newstand
in front of Sbisa Hall.
In the run-offforpresident will be
Mark Toppert and Brandon Col
eman.
Cbris Southworth will be in the
run-off for vice president.
The secretary-treasurer run-off
will be between Susan Kelly and
Charlie Brown.
Included in the election will be a
referendum ballot on six proposed
amendments to the Student gov
ernment constitution. Five of the
amendments involve minor changes
in wording and the other amend
ment concerns changing the
minimum grade point ratio (GPR) of
all student government officials and
appointees, except senators, to 2.5.
The minimum GPR for senators will
remain 2.25.
Powers Cllt... Bep. Mills losing control
Inside
Shuttle buses p. 4
Symphonic band p. 5
Fire p. 5
Weather
Partly cloudy and mild
Wednesday and Thursday.
Southeasterly winds 7-12
mph. High today 63°; low
tonite 39°; high tomorrow
67°.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House
Democrats dealt another strong
blow Tuesday to the powers of Ways
and Means Chairman Wilbur D.
Mills just hours before he was hos
pitalized with an undisclosed ail
ment. There were indications he
might be removed from the post en
tirely.
The Democratic caucus voted to
increase membership on the panel
from 25 to 37, with 12 of the new
total to be assigned to Republicans.
The increase could shift control of
the committee, under fire for not
moving faster on tax reform and
health insurance, to liberals.
Mills whose conservative leader
ship of the tax-writing committee
had made him an institution unto
himself, was admitted to Bethesda
Naval Medical Center later in the
day. He had not attended the
caucus meeting.
Sources close to the hospital said
they understood that doctors had
not yet diagnosed Mills’ condition
but that he appeared tired.
A day earlier, the caucus had
ended the role of Ways and Means
Democrats as nominators of mem
bers of other committees. Instead,
they put the caucus steering com
mittee in charge of that function.
Tuesday’s action was followed by
an announcement from Rep.
Richard Fidton, D-Tenn., a
member of the Ways and Means and
steering committees, that he will
push for replacement of Mills as
Ways and Means chairman by Rep.
Al Ullman, D-Ore. Fulton said he
was confident the move would suc
ceed.
T do this with great reluctance,’’
said Fulton. “Wilbur Mills is a good
friend, and whatever his behavior
has been in recent weeks, it should
not be forgotten that for 34 years he
was a most able and valuable
member of Congress.’’
Mills, of Kensett, Ark., stirred a
new furor over the weekend by re
newing his public friendship with
Annabel Battistella, a stripper who
performs under the name Fanne
Foxe.
Mrs. Battistella said she will fly to
Washington on Wednesday to visit
Mills.
“If the doctor says it is okay, then
I will go see him, ’’ she said Tuesday
night in New York.
She said Mills called her Monday
night and told her “he was feeling
lousy,”
But backers of some of the
changes over the last two days in
sisted they were based more on
political reasons than Mills’ per
sonal behavior.
The new Democratic caucus
chairman, Rep. Phillip Burton of
California, said he hoped the expan
sion of the Ways and Means mem
bership would bring “decent and
comprehensive tax reform and a de
cent health bill.
Burton said he would not vote for
ousting Mills from the chairman’s
job. And a spokesman for Ullman
said he was not actively seeking the
post but “would certainly like to be
chairman” if Mills fails to retain
enough support to stay on.
Speaker Carl Albert turned away
questions at a news conference
about possible action by the Demo
cratic leadership on Mills’ role.
He said, however. Mills has been
“sick a lot” and continued: “I don’t
think Wilbur Mills has fully reco
vered ... I am not talking about
anything else, just his physical con
dition.”
The caucus voted that Democra
tic members of Ways and Means
will be nominated by the steering
committee for ratification by the
caucus, with provision for additional
nominations by the membership at
large.
It directed Democratic leaders to
provide on all committees a party
ratio giving Democrats control by
two to one plus one member over
Republicans. An exception is the
House Ethics Committee, which
under its charter is evenly divided.
Moving to provide more oppor
tunities for junior members, the
caucus strengthened limitations on
the number of subcommittees on
which a single member may serve.
Inquiring Battman
Is the furniture in the MSC brown bag area a wise choice?
Survey taken in MSC brown bag area
u *
Pbotos by Douglas Winship, Survey by Jim Crawley
Rosine Mills
Senior
“In a way it isn’t because
it’s not as sturdy as the ones
before. Also, they’re pretty
comfortable.”
Hi
Paul Walters
Graduate
“It might be OK, but it
won’t last very long. It looks
like a nouveau riche. A&M
is a grand nouveau riche.
They’ll buy anything.”
Dan Bruce
Freshman
“It was an improvement
over the old furniture, but
it’s not very comfortable.
No one really minds be
cause it-s a rec room and
it’s casual.”
Susie Hammond
Senior
“No, it’s hideous and it
certainly doesn’t seem to
fulfill the function it’s
supposed to. It’s supposed
to be furniture to go with
the students. The colors
are outrageous.”
Robert Long
Freshman
“The furniture is rather
ungainly and not well
constructed. Some of the
chairs look comfortable,
but it’s a rough, coarse
materia] and it’s hard.”
Tom Shula
Senior
“No, I don’t like it. I think
they went overboard. I
liked the old chairs and
tables better.”
Leo Tucker
Freshman
“I think so, it’s a relaxing
type atmosphere. It’s a
hassle going through
school most of the time, so
you want to relax some. I
think this sets it up.”