The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, January 30, 1975, Image 1

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    New coffeehouse to open
By ROXIE HEARN
Staff Writer
The MSC Basement Committee
has finally found a place for its Cof
feehouse, not in the basement, but
on the first floor of the MSC.
The new facility, actually a re
juvenated storeroom, is located
near the steps leading to the post
office.
It opens this weekend, and
utilizes approximately 2,(XX) square
feet of space, including a choice of
general seating, balcony seating or
separate booths.
All work involved in the renova
tion has been done by students, says
Cheryl Hall, committee chairman.
The Basement Committee, one of
the oldest Committees on campus,
was originally in the downstairs por
tion of the old MSC.
When renovations began on the
center, the committee was dissol
ved for about two years.
Last spring, Hall became in
terested in reviving the group and
succeeded in getting two free per
formances on the academic cour
tyard organized.
During the summer and fall, the
Coffeehouse remained outside,
while committee members con
tinued to work for an inside facility.
“Our first problem was trying to
find a room,” said Hall, “and then
CORRECTION
The Book Mart closed on Fri
day, January 24. The Battalion
reported that it will close Fri
day. It was last Friday not this
Friday.
Cbe
Battalion
Vol. 68 No. 65
College Station, Texas
Thursday, January^, 1975
M.
finding the money to decorate it.”
As a result, the decorations have
been the product of “reaching out
everywhere to grab things,” she
said.
Supplementary funds from the
Student Service fees of the Univer
sity have been requested, but so far
there has been no answer.
Refreshments served at The Cof
feehouse will include coffee, tea,
hot chocolate, soft drinks and pop
corn .
Hall admitted that she would like
to see liquor served in The Cof
feehouse. “I think it’s a much better
deal for the students to have a
cheaper place to go, she said.
Entertainment this weekend will
be provided by a series of guests
including blues, folk and classical
singer Glen Meyers, Rita Browning
of Houston, the American Standard
(formerly Three Rivers), Steve
Smith, and George Ensle and Greg
Vaidestino.
During its grand opening, The
Coffeehouse will be open from 7:30
to 12:00 p.m. and admission will be
25 cents.
At other times Coffeehouse hours
will be 8:00 to 12:00 p.m.
House passes raise
for state employes
AUSTIN (AP) — The House pas
sed a $93 million emergency pay
raise hill Wednesday to help the
125,000 state employees catch up
with increases in the cost of living.
Senators are expected* to give
final approval to the measure
Thursday and send it to Gov. Dolph
Briscoe, for whom it represents a
victory.
Briscoe must sign the bill by mid
night Friday to put the raises on the
state employees’ February 1
paychecks.
As approved by the House, the
hill would provide these increases:
—13 per cent for “classified” em
ployees in salary groups 2-12 — ; now
making $4,920 to $12,000 a year —
and for non-classified workers mak
ing less than $876 a month.
— 9 per cent for classified emp
loyees in groups 13-21, who now
make $10,512 to $23,220, and for
non-classified workers earning from
$1,267 to $1,935 monthly.
. — A flat $114 a month for non-
classified employees making bet
ween $876 to $1,267 per month.
— $174 per month for anyone
making more than $1,935 monthly.
Most state agency employees are
covered by the position classifica
tion plan. Those outside the plan
include state college and university
employees, state police officers, dis
trict court and appellate judges,
state hospital superintendents and
agency executives whose salaries
are individually controlled by the
legislature through line item ap
propriations.
The House Appropriations
Committee, rewriting a bill that the
Senate unanimously passed last
week, had approved a $108 million
increase Tuesday. But the sponsor,
Rep. Fred Head, D-Troup, bowed
to pressure from Briscoe and laid
out a scaled down version for
Wednesday’s debate. The $93 mill
ion provided by the bill is the same
amount as in the Senate measure
and conforms to Briscoe’s demand.
House members accepted Head’s
substitute, 100-38, then passed the
bill, 135-3.
Briscoe met with Head, Speaker
Bill Clayton and about two dozen
House members Tuesday, and the
implication was that he might veto a
bill that exceeded $93 million.
Several attempts to concentrate
the raises in the lower racks of state
employees — including one provid
ing $100 a month across the board
for all workers and another setting a
$114 per month minimum increase
— failed.
Rep. Mickey Leland, D Houston,
arguing for bigger raises for the less
well paid employees, taunted Head
The emergency pay raise bill ran
into a constitutional storm which
may threaten to delay final ap
proval, reported the Houston Post
today.
Senate experts discovered the
House-passed version of the pay
raise violates a constitutional pro
hibition against mixing legislative
and appropriations matters in the
same bill, a source said later.
He said, as a result, the pay
measure will have to be split into
separate bills — one authorizing the
pay increase and one appropriating
money to pay for it — on Thursday.
Both Houses will have to vote anew
on the proposal.
about the meeting with the gover
nor.
“Have you been intimidated by
the governor’s threat not to sign the-
bill?” Leland asked.
More leases filed
for strip mining
By STEVE GRAY
Staff Writer
The Dow Chemical Co. of Hous
ton has leased nearly 3,000 acres of
land in Brazos County since last Au
gust for possible strip mining.
That figure was reached earlier
this month when Dow filed three
leases totaling about 428 acres with
the county clerk’s office. The land is
near Reliance, about five miles
northeast of Bryan.
Estella Cargill leased out about
193 acres and Bobby Cargill leased
about 196 acres. A smaller tract of
about 40 acres was leased by Henry
Melansky.
A1 Prince, project manager for
Dow, said last summer the company
views coal as a major source of fu
ture energy.
Studies ofland contours, surface
restoration, shallow water and
equipment would delay mining in
the area at least five years, accord
ing to Prince.
Dow has also leased land in
Robertson, Freestone and Limes
tone Counties to drill for lignite
samples. The company presently
has no strip mining operations in
these counties or Brazos County.
Dow’s purchases ofland for strip
mining provoked a study by the En
vironmental Action Council (EAC)
in Bryan last October into the en
vironmental effects of strip mining.
Experts on the subject, including
Dr. Chris Mathewson, an A&M
specialist in engineering geology,
have told the EAC that strip mining
has proved to be safer than under
ground mining because of the
danger of combustible lignite. The
potential threat of explosion in un
derground lignite mines resulted in
the passing of the Federal Em
ployers Safety Act, which encour
ages strip mining, Mathewson said
in October. He pointed out that
strip mined lands could be com
pletely reclaimed in a few years.
However, Dow Chemical is not
required by its leases to reclaim its
land, says Coulter Hoppess, a Bryan
lawyer who has worked on the
leases of at least five owners. Dow
has agreed to “pay a pre-negotiated
damage to the surface” and will
smooth and seed the land, but
“that’s a far way from reclamation,”
he said.
“I have not been intimidated by
anybody. I have fought as hard as I
could to get as much as I could for,
everybody. Head replied.
Senators also addressed problems
of government workers, past and
present.
They approved and sent to the
House a bill enabling persons to re
ceive retirement benefits from
more than one state retirement sys
tem. A state university law profes
sor who later became a judge could,
if he qualified under both, receive
pension checks from both the
teacher retirement and judicial re
tirement systems.
Senators tentatively approved,
with a final vote still pending, a bill
setting up a uniform group life and
health insurance program for all
state employees except those work
ing for colleges and universities.
With the state paying a minimum of
$15 a month in premiums, the plan
would cost the state about $10 mill
ion a year.
Today.
In recent questionnaire
Student center criticized
Inside
Weather
Mostly cloudy and warm
Thursday with occasional
light rain continuing
through Friday. Winds
from the south 10-18 mph.
High today 76°; low tonite
64°; high tomorrow 74°.
By JIM PETERS
Staff Writer
More than two-thirds of the re
spondents to a Battalion question
naire said they do not think the new
Memorial Student Center is a com
fortable facility.
(The survey appeared in the De
cember 10 and 11 editions of the
Battalion).
A majority of the 379 respondents
pointed to the interior design of the
MSC portion of the complex as a
major problem.
To the question: “Do you like the
furnishings in the MSC part of the
complex?” 92 per cent (313) replied
no.
Conversely, however, 70 per
cent of those surveyed said they did
like the furnishings in the Theatre
Arts section of the $28 million Uni
versity Center.
Seventy-seven per cent said they
disliked the overall design of the
center.
“The general tone is stiff', formal,
unfriendly. It reflects the real pur
pose — to impress out-of-towners
and the alumni ... an extension of
the Rudder Convention
complex ... a cold, cheerless,
drafty mausoleum built as a ‘show-
place’ rather than a place for
students . . . they’re obviously try
ing to impress someone
else . . . little thought for the needs
of students and faculty.”
While a few criticized the ar
chitecture of the new MSC building
(sterile, airport terminal, a waste of
space) many more said they thought
it has “good styling” and is “attrac
tive.” “But the interior decoration is
another matter,” one student
opined. “The furnishings look like
something a very poor man would
buy to impress people if he won the
Irish Sweepstakes. A modern
bordello ... an eclectic mix of
cultures ... an insult to our good
taste ... its humiliating to have
visitors see it and laugh ... it
makes A&M out to be a school of
tasteless country
bumpkins . . . promotes hick
image . . . the biggest Aggie joke
yet. ”
Among pieces of furnishings in
the MSC repeatedly mentioned
were: the etched glass windows
(“nice but out of place”), the 56
brass lanterns in the student lounge
(“apparent bastard offspring of Vic
torian carriage lamps”), the Mexi
can pigskin provincial furniture in
the brown bag area (“gawdy, flimsy,
should be covered with brown
bags”) and, of course, the infamous
South American steerhide (a.k.a.,
“Longhorn sofas, cowleg, horse-
hide, goatskin, eowfur, beefhide,
Bevo”) benches.
“Hideous . . . god-awful . . . not
for sitting . . . (expletives deleted)
,. . . an insult . . . ughh! . . . down
right ugls . . . almost camp . . .
they’re multiplying . . . too expen
sive ($468 each) . . . nice . . . west
ern as a plastic cow . . . don t fit, . .
plain pimpy . . . etc. . . . smelly
... tacky . . . when I first saw them
I had hoped that they were part of
the western exhibit and would be
gone soon . . . should run off.”
A frequent complaint expressed
about the MSC furnishings was
their extravagance and specifically
the use of antiques.
“Antique furniture belongs in a
museum or a private collection, not
in a public facility . . . someone has
turned our student center into his
(SEE CENTER, p. 3)
All together now
The San Antonio Symphony entertained young children from all over Brazos County Wednesday.
University Center
funds explained
The majority of the questions raised by respondents to a University
Center survey concerned the construction and furnishing cost for the com
plex and the interior designer’s salary.
Student building use fees will account for $3.73 million of the $28
million University Center, records indicate.
The amount will be paid in average annual payments of $255,000 over
the next quarter century. (About $6/semester per student.)
Tuition fees will retire $3.1 million of the complex cost over the next 25
years. (About $5/semester per student.)
State monies from the Permanent Available Funds will pay $16.7
million, while the remainder will come from the interest on university funds
and donations (the latter for construction and furnishing of the Former
Students’ Wing.).
The expense of furnishing the complex totaled $3.3 million, with an
additional $402,600 being earmarked for the interior design firm’s (William
Pahlmann Associates) fee and expenses.
A breakdown of the construction costs for each section follows:
Theatre Arts and Conference Qenter $10.5 million
Memorial Student Center $10.9 million
Board of Directors’ Annex $1-4 million
Former Students’ Wing $490,000
Landscaping $668 ’ 000