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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 1975)
Weather Considerable cloudiness today, tonite and Thurs day. 20% chance light driz zle today and tonite, gradually clearing tomor row. Northerly winds 10-15 mph. High Wednesday 57°; low tonite 34°; high Thurs day 52°. Che Battalion Today in the Batt Food stamps Parking Inauguration Vol. 68 No. 60 College Station, Texas Wednesday, January 22, 1975 House Speaker speeding raises -j mantic h-size .. .94c 3 t AUSTIN (AP) — Speaker Bill Clayton said Tuesday he will use an unorthodox procedure to speed up House action on a Senate-passed bill giving state employes a $93 mill ion pay raise. He said he would post the re quired five days’ notice of a commit tee hearing over his own signature while he continues to make up his mind on committee assignments. Speed is important because the bill is supposed to be in effect by Feb. 1. While House rules say notices of committee hearings are to be posted by the chairmen, Clayton said the speaker has the authority to post a hearing notice. The Senate’s bill, passed 31-0 Monday, would give state workers making under $10,500 a 14.2 per cent raise, those between $10,500 and $20,500 a $10.5 per cent in crease and employes earning over $20,500 a year a 5.5 per cent raise. Clayton said he hoped for a University removes directory Directories of student informa tion have been removed from the housing office lobby until their legal standing has been clarified. Judge James A. Amis Jr., univer sity attorney, said Tuesday that they were removed pending a decision by a university committee studying the effects of new amendments to the Family Rights and Privacy Act. The act states that the university must give public notice as to the information being collected for the directories and must allow ample time for the person to decline right of release. House hearing next Monday. Several days may be needed to complete action, since the House might reject the Senate’s approach and try one of its own, which would require Senate concurrence for the bill to win final passage. One problem mentioned by law makers and state agency officials was that the different rates of in crease could produce situations where an employe suddenly would be making more than his super visor. Clayton said he is “still working on a Thursday deadline” for making committee appointments. Legislative action Tuesday con sisted mainly of bill introductions. Sen. Jack Ogg, D-Houston, held a news conference to discuss his bill providing fines of up to $200 for smoking in elevators, theaters, lib raries, museums, hospitals or buses, except in specially desig nated areas. “Although I am personally con vinced that smoking is injurious to a smoker’s health, it is certainly his prerogative to smoke. However, non-smokers also have the right not to inhale the smoke of others that is also dangerous, offensive and impo lite to them,” Ogg said. Sen. Walter Mengden, R-Houston, introduced a bill per mitting local school boards to estab lish periods of silent prayer or medi tation at the beginning of each school day. The stack of bills introduced in the House neared 200. Included were these measures: —HB55, by Rep. Abraham Ribak, D-San Antonio, permitting political party state conventions to be held any time from mid-June to 42 days before the general election. The current requirement that con ventions be held the third Tuesday in September created a conflict for Jews last year because the Democ ratic and Republican conventions were held on Rosh Hashanah, a high holy day. Building fee bill lone Senate topic A resolution concerning the re cent building use fee increases will be the only item presented at a spe cial meeting of the Student Senate, Thursday. The Senate will meet in room 204 of the Harrington Center. Tim resolution, sponsored by Don Henson, agriculture graduate student, will attack the recent fee increase by the Board of Directors. Henson said the resolution con cerns the manner in which the fee was implemented. The resolution asks the board to give advance notice of any increase in fees. Last September, the board in creased the building use fee from two dollars to six dollars. The in crease was not announced in The Battalion until December. This in crease was heavily criticized by stu dents. Steve Eberhard, student Gov ernment president, said he will an nounce appointments to five Senate positions at the Thursday meeting. The appointments will be made for sophomore from the College of edu cation, junior from the Corps, junior from the College of Liberal Arts, undergraduate from off- campus and representative from the university-owned apartments. The next regular meeting will be on January 29. yf Austin AUSTIN (AP) — Two of Univer sity of Texas Chancellor Charles LeMaistre s children have received special parking privileges while at tending the university, the Austin American-Statesman reported Tuesday. LeMaistre’s sons, Bill and Fred, ave driven cars with parking per- m 'ts generally limited to UT system Personnel and UT-Austin adminis trators, the newspaper said. The permits allow a car to be parked in the center of the campus, directly behind the main building. Most students have permits that allow parking at the edge of the campus. Mike Quinn, LeMaistre’s assis tant, said the chancellor had re ceived four of the special “O” per mits, three for cars that LeMaistre owns and drives and one for a car that the university system leases for his use. ■.. but can they pass? AUSTIN (AP) — The son of Uni versity of Texas Chancellor Charles e Maistre has been given a failing Ifrade in a biology course at the boy’s request, assistant dean Jerry Moseley said. An instructor accused the chan cellor last week of pressuring her to give William LeMaistre a make-up ln al examination after she had turned in an “F” for the student. William got a “C” after taking the make-up at his convenience. But Moseley said Monday, “All appeals for a grade change based on the make-up final exam have been withdrawn.” The teacher, Martha Guentzel, resigned after giving the make-up. University regents are investigat ing the matter. —HB58, by Rep. Jim Kaster, D-El Paso, to move the primary elections from the spring to August and September. —HB65 by Kaster, calling a non-binding referendum for the November 1976 general election on whether Texans want a state lottery. —HB68, by Rep. Jon Newton, D-Beeville, repealing the sales tax on natural gas and electric bills of residential users. —HB79, by Rep. Dan Kubiak, D-Rockdale, setting up a presiden tial preference primary, with dele gates prorated to candidates accord ing to the' percentage of the vote they receive. U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, D-Tex., who might be a candidate, has expressed support for a Texas presidential primary. —HB84 by Kubiak, exempting Texas from daylight saving time. —HB97, by Rep. Benny Bock, D-New Braunfels, requiring $6 two-year licenses for canoes. —HB107 and 108, by Rep. Richard Reynolds, R-Richardson, raising the oil tax from 4.6 per cent to 6 per cent of market value and the natural gas tax from 7-Vk per cent to 9 per cent of market value. —HB136, by Rep. Mickey Le- land, D-Houston, allowing the crea tion of Health Maintenance Organi zations, with regulation by State In surance Board. —HB144, by Rep. Chris Miller, D-Fort Worth, requiring the State Agriculture Department to issue a list of poisonous nursery plants. Nurseries would be required to post the list near their sales counters. —HB163, by Rep. John Hoes- tenbach, D-Odessa, repealing the Sunday closing law of 1961, which forbids sale of certain articles on both Saturday and Sunday. —HB175, by Kibak, setting up a Texas Public Utilities Commission, with three elected and six appointed full-time members to regulate gas, electrical, communications and cable television industries. Busy beavers buy books msmm Photo by David Kimmcl Cash registers hummed from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. in the MSC Book Store yesterday because students and employees alike were again faced with the hassle of buying school books. If students would buy their books earlier, this rush could be avoided. Things you might have missed Local events grind on over holidays After four weeks in Hometown, U.S.A. students lose touch with the news events in the college commun ity. Presented herein are short summaries updating some signific ant off-campus news stories — City Ed. Traffic lights The burlap has been removed from the new traffic signals on Texas Avenue. The lights, scheduled for comple tion over a year ago, are operating independently of one another and synchronization of the system is due shortly. As a result of the new signals, one of the old lights will be installed at the intersection of Jersey Street and Bizzell. All major construction on the site is complete, City Manager North Bardell said. All that remains is the installation of the supporting arms and controller, he added. Bardell predicted the signal will be operational within two weeks. Drug charges As of Dec. 18, the day on which the final Battalion of the semester was published, 11 persons, includ ing three A&M students, had just been charged with the sale and pos session of various illicit narcotics. That afternoon District Attorney Tom McDonald Jr. notified the De partment of Public Safety Narcotics Service in Houston that none of those arrested would be prosecuted since the grand jury had not yet re viewed the cases or studied lab re ports of confiscated drug sub stances. Chancellor’s kids park with VIP’s W-1 gets uniforms Photo by Chris Svatek Disbelief and smiles met Sharon Gibson and other W-1 Maggies as they appeared in their new sum mer uniforms. By BARBARA WEST Staff Writer Uniformed women will soon become part of the A&M campus. Some of the uniforms for the female members of the corps have arrived and are being issued. The uniforms, which are of the same material as the men’s summer un iforms, are a special order of a design made to complement the male cadets’ uniforms. Col. Thomas R. Parsons, commandant, says that the design evolved from ideas of corps personnel. Parsons says there is little difference in the men’s and women’s un iforms “except for the skirt.” The women’s un iforms are not belted, and class will be disting uished by the uniform braid. Freshman girls will wear no braid, sophomores will have black braid, juniors will wear white, and seniors will have standard, gold and black senior braid, says Parsons. The entire standard uniform issue for a woman in the corps, in cluding summer and winter dress and acces sories, will cost in excess of $450, according to fig ures supplied by Walter C. Dandridge, who is in charge of uniform handl ing. The school buys the uniforms and issues them to the students In the corps, who pay a handling fee. Students are also responsible for loss or destruction of garments. By the end of the week, McDonald and the head of the DPS Narcotics Service, Capt. Jack Cur tis, had made amends and issued a joint statement. It said “all past and future narcotics offenses which have been indicted by the Brazos County Grand Jury on the basis of lab re ports will be prosecuted,” which means the 11 are back facing their original charges, although they have not received indictments. The grand jury did not meet in December due to holiday conflicts but will hold its January session next week. Beer is back Beer is back on the shelf at the Skaggs-Albertson store in College Station following the end of a 60-day suspension of the store’s beer- and-wine license by a state district court on Oct. 30. Some Skaggs-Albertson stores ac ross the state had their permits can celed while others received suspen sions when the state Alcoholic Be verage Commission accused the chain of setting up dummy liquor corporations to circumvent a state law regarding the holding of liquor permits. Boyd Hall, manager of the local store, said the College Station store “has no legal problem now” and will have wine in stock shortly. United Fund The College Station United Fund drive remains $4,000 short of its 1974 goal of $30,000. The drive has reached 85 per cent of its goal, drive chairman Bill Land- iss said Tuesday. The local campaign, which began Oct. 1, will distribute funds to 13 charity organizations in College Sta tion. The 1973 goal was $29,000. According to Landiss, another publicity campaign urging persons and businesses to contribute will be launched in about another week to get the $4,000 needed to meet the goal. Landiss said he expects the fund drive to be completed near the end of February. The Bryan UF drive was com pleted just before Christmas. The Bryan drive netted about $660 over the 1974 goal of $131,690. The 1973 campaign raised just over $93,000. Discrimination Nothing further has developed in the sex discrimination suit filed against the A&M Consolidated School District by the U.S. Secret ary of Labor on Nov. 27. The district is charged with violat ing the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1948 since September 1971 by pay ing male faculty $300 a year more than their female counterparts. Male teachers had “many extra hours of work’’ not required of female faculty such as policing and ticket collecting at athletic events, said Fred Hopson, school superin tendent. Jack Woods, legal counsel for the district, has filed the district’s deci sion to contest the charges but no date has been set for the trial. GTE faces suit A civil suit filed Aug. 15 by a local former district judge against the General Telephone Company of the Southwest and two Bryan police of ficers will be tried during the first week in May in federal district court in Houston. John M. Barron, now a local at torney, of 2522 Willow Bend in Bryan, charged in the suit that (See HOLIDAY, p. 3) Jury duty added to female rights WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 Tuesday that women cannot be automatically excused from jury duty. It was another victory for the women’s rights movement. The court’s decision reversed a ruling 13 years ago in which it said a state could require that women vol unteer in order to serve as jurors. Since then, two-thirds of the membership of the court has changed and the justices have ruled favorably on a number of women’s rights cases. “It is untenable to suggest these days that it would be a special hard ship for each and every woman to perform jury service or that society cannot spare any women from their present duties,” Justice Byron W. White said for the court. The lone dissenter, Justice Wil liam H. Rehnquist, said some of the reasoning relied on by the majority “smacks more of mysticism than of law. ” In its only other decision of the day, the court held unanimously that Congress has the power to reg ulate sales of liquor-on property owned by white persons on Indian reservations. It also held that Congress could delegate this power to tribal au thorities. The case involved the Blue Bull, a bar operated by a non- Indian on the Wind River Reserva tion in Wyoming. The women’s rights case involved the appeal of Billy J. Taylor, who was convicted on a kidnapping charge by an all-male Louisiana jury. State law at the time required women to volunteer if they wished to be jurors. The law has since been repealed and now no state has such a requirement. The court said the requirement violated Taylor’s right to be tried by a representative cross section of the community. Rehnquist, in his dissent, said the majority had failed to show that Taylor was unfairly treated by the way his jury was selected.