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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 12, 1975)
Che Battalion Vol. 68 No. 72 College Station, Texas nvci) ''l* i'OMUU.S Wednesday, February 12, 1975 Wards said to be ‘unfair’ to minority representation By STEVE GRAY Staff Writer At least four College Station City Councilmen appear to he at odds on whether or not local voters should elect councilmen by wards. Last Wednesday the council ap pointed a nine-member city charter revision commission to consider changing to a system of electing council members by wards as op posed to the present at-large method. A similar commission was formed last year to study the change but no such revision was made in the city’s charter. One of this year’s commission members, Councilman Jim Dozier, said Thursday he does not endorse the ward method of election be cause it would discriminate against minority group members in the city. “The only purpose a ward system would serve is to insure minority group representation. But in Col lege Station the minority group members like the blacks and Mexican-Americans are just not re ally concentrated in any one area of the city. They could not get any more effective representation than they do now if we changed to the ward system of election,” Dozier said. Dozier said that some council- men have now and in the past advo cated conversion to the ward system because they were afraid of students taking over the city council, includ ing the mayor’s seat. “I don t think they could ever take over the entire council because most students are just not that in terested in city politics. They are more interested in getting an educa tion, even though students were the ones who first suggested that we change to the ward system, Dozier said. He said students had suggested that the city create a ward on the campus in order to get a student elected to the council. “The fact is that most of the stu dents live off-campus and they would not be fairly represented by a student councilman elected from a campus ward, ’ Dozier said. Councilman Larry Bravenec said Monday he is also opposed to the ward system of election. “I don’t think the city is large enough to warrant adopting a ward system. We have a rather open form of government, Bravenec said, “and if we adopted such a system it might split the community and stu dents alike on various issues. I think if the students really hustled they could get a student elected to the council.” Bravenec defeated Gloria Mar tinson, an environmental design major, in last year’s council elec tion. Bravenec said the matter is not one for the council to decide but the voters may determine the issue if the commission recommends changing to the ward method of election. Two other city councilmen, Homer Adams and Don Dale, said Monday they favor revising the citys charter to convert to the ward system. Adams said he supported the ward system when it was in effect just a few years ago. “The students are the ones who asked for it (the ward system),’’ Adams said, “and I don’t want to see the city council taken over by stu dents.” Adams said he believed this could happen under the present at-large system whereas the ward system would restrict the number of stu dents that could be elected from a campus ward. “I really don’t think the students on the campus should be allowed to vote in the city elections because they are not actually College Station residents,” Adams said. Adams did say, however, he would not be opposed to students living off-campus voting in city elec tions because council decisions would affect city residents. Dale said he feels the city needs the ward system to boost confidence of the voters in their city council- men. “I fought real hard for the ward method of election when it was re ferred to the voters a couple of years ago, Dale said. “I can see how peo ple might feel better if they had Spring fever in February Photo by Tom Kayscr After three days of rain and cold temperatures, this couple takes advantage of some dry grass. All over campus, people could be seen Tuesday in short sleeves and cut-offs ... in February. Placement business good A&M grads in demand despite recession By SAYEEFUL ISLAM Staff Writer Name one place where business has gone up even though the nation is suffering a recession. The answer — the A&M placement office. Last year 188 corporations and other organizations came to this campus to interview prospective employes. This spring the number will be 233. When asked why there was an increase in the number of recruiters visiting the campus when significant lay-offs are occurring in almost every industry, Louis J. Van Pelt, director of placement at the Place ment Office, said there are a number of reasons. “First, most of the companies that come here are fairly big and they can weather recession better than smaller ones,” Van Pelt said. “Sec ond, most of the recruiters have been here for a long time. They are here because they know A&M pro duces good graduates.” “There has been a reduction in the number of campuses that re cruiters are going to hut A&M has not been affected at all, he said. Van Pelt said that even though A&M is undergoing a change in image, most companies realize the change is for the better. " Another great asset to the placement service is the faculty,” says J. Malone Southerland, coor dinator of Educational Placement Services. “Many faculty members know people in hiring positions and will often refer employers to talented graduates.” As far as the job market is con cerned both of them agree that the place to be now is engineering. In petroleum engineering, for exam ple, they say there is no placement. Everyone has at least one job offer ing. Not far behind is chemical en gineering and following, mechani cal engineering. “The next best place to be is ag riculture. The employment situa tion there is very stable,” Souther land said. “The fact that agriculture and engineering are the majors of almost 40 per cent of the student body makes our job much easier,” said Southerland. “There are,” both agreed, “cer tain fields where the job field is ‘soft.’ “As far as the teacher surplus is concerned,” Southerland said, “the situation is very complex and cer tainly not as bad as pictured. “As a matter of fact,” he said, “there is a definite teacher shortage in mathematics, industrial arts, sci ence and special education.” “The situation is better than the national average in the southwest and better still in Texas,” he said. Among the soft areas he listed zoology. Southerland and Van Pelt urged students in ‘soft’ fields to see them and present their particular speciality. “It is our business, they said, “and no amount of business is ever enough.” The placement office works on a budget of about $65,000. Ther cleri cal staff, they agreed, were short of hands but they could not say defi nitely if they needed any profes sional help at the moment. The sys tem devised at the placement center has impressed many. T visit almost 40 schools in the south and the southeast and the facilities and service here are prob ably the best,” said Charles A. Reinke, Jr., regional coordinator for Mobil Oil. Van Pelt said one company asked if they could interview even when they had no openings just to keep the name of the company in the stu dents’ minds. “I gave them a clear ‘no’ ”, he said. KAMU plans to air all SCON A speakers KAMU-TV will air the national cast of speakers who make presenta tions during SCON A XX at TAMU. The speeches of six of the guest lecturers will be presented during the late evenings of Thursday, Fri day and Saturday. The speakers will be preceded Wednesday night by a KAMU pro duction, “1974, The Year in Re view” which will record the year’s impact on the university and com munity. Thursday at 10 p.m., B. Bruce- Briggs will present “America: The Third Hundred Years followed at approximately 11 p.m. by James Grant on “International Resource Allocation in the Future.” someone from their own neighbor hood elected to the council. Councilman Jim Gardner said Thursday the whole issue is a toss- up ; “I have mixed feelings about it right now. Some councilmen are af raid that students will someday take over the council because of the at- large system we have now,” Gard ner said. “I don’t agree with that because students in the past have not made any really serious effort to get a whole group of students elected to the council. If the ward system were adopted they could probably get, at most, one or two elected.” 'm 1P| m mm'!'*-'' a I Photo by Glen Johnson Parking in the grass No, the parking situation is not so bad that Cream ery customers have to park in the grass. Actually, the direction sign is moved out of the street ev ery evening after closing time. Student fees, scholarships Lobby sets new priorities By ROD SPEER City Editor The Texas Student Lobby has turned its legislative priorities to ward holding the line on student fees and freeing $10 million of state hinds for college tuition grants and scholarships. The Lobby, an arm of the Texas Student Association, set priorities for this year’s lobbying efforts at a TSA convention in Austin last weekend. In the realm of student fees, the lobby voted to attack a bill now being considered in the Texas Se nate which would take the student health fee out of the student activity fee; (A&M has already separated that fee.) The student government leaders that make up TSA and TSL argued that removing a service co vered under the activity fee would set a bad precedent, encouraging more of the same. They contended this would defeat the purpose of having the $30 ceiling on the service fees. University ofTexas Student Body President Frank Fleming sup ported the health fee separation. He said campus health care will de teriorate or even be abolished if the charge for that service cannot keep up with inflation. In addition to denouncing the separate health fee, the lobby, with the A&M delegation concurring, voted down proposals to support a raise in student activity fees to ac count for increases in health care costs. A bill establishing a limit on the building use fee was also of concern to student lobbyists. Sarah Wed- dington of Austin has brought be fore the House a bill which would make a $6 ceiling on the fee, while El Paso representative Ronald Col eman has introduced legislation proposing a $50 limit on what an individual student has to pay for building use. Because of controversy in the legislature over the constitutional ity of the proposed bills, the lobby decided to wait before backing any resolutions. The lobby, which shares the same board of directors as TSA, will push legislation raising aid to the economically disadvantaged for higher education by $10 million, an interest shared by A&M delegates. The lobbyists cited an estimated $90 million difference in financial aid requested from the state and that supplied as a cause of concern. TSL director Sandy Kress, a former UT student body president, called on all schools to send letters of support from school presidents and student governments to the governor s budget office. A&M delegate Joe Marcello re commended the lobby support fre eing graduate teaching assistants from having to pay into the Teacher Retirement System, a mandatory 6 percent deduction from their salaries. Kress said the lobby staff would need more information on the sub ject before presenting the issue be fore the assembly. Today. Inside Interest rates p. 5 SCONA section p. 7 Over the Wall p. 9 Weather Beautiful. Partly cloudy and mild today, tonight and tomorrow. High today 69; low tonight 46; high Thurs day 74. J Friday at the same time, Dr. Mil- ton Friedman leads off with “The Future of Capitalism. ” The second portion will feature Congressmen Alan Steelman of Texas and Sam Steiger of Arizona speaking on “Long-Range Land-Use Planning.” Friday’s 10 p.m. showing is Dr. Victor Ferkiss talking about “The Future of Government: The Evolu tion of Federalism” and lastly, Joseph F. Coates on “Role of Tech nology Assessment in Future Plan ning.” Also Saturday, there will be an open house and tours from 6-7:30 p.m. marking the fifth anniversary of KAMU-TV. The station is located south of Kyle Field. Grand opening Photo by Glen Johnson Tuesday marked the opening of the new Arts and Crafts Center in the basement of the MSC. Everyone interested in art should go to the center and give their tal ents a chance to be expressed. Here, Diana Kimmel shows Patsy some clay.