Weather i
Partly cloudy and mild
Thursday and Friday.
Northeasterly winds 6-12
mph. High both days
mid-80s. Low tonight 63.
€bt Battalion
Vol. 68 No. 114 College Station, Texas Thursday, May 1, 1975
Inside
North Dorm Construction p. 5
UT Track Meet p. 7
Backlashes p. 8
Corps changes
^vhip-out policy
By DON MIDDLETON
Staff Writer
“I do not exaggerate at all when I
tell you that the future of the Corps
is in your hands,” said Gen. Or
mond R. Simpson, assistant vice
president for student services, ad
dressing a meeting of newly ap
pointed Corps of Cadets comman
ders, sergeants and sergeants-
major.
The retired Marine lieutenant
general expressed concern over the
loss of numbers the Corps has been
experiencing the last few years.
Simpson stated that since 1965,
when membership in the Corps was
made voluntary, the total number of
cadets per year has declined by
one-third.
This year alone 370 cadets res
igned from the Corps, including 29
percent of the freshman class. Total
enrollment is now below 2,000.
“The strength of the Corps is less
than it has been in 50 years,” said
Simpson.
“The Corps is suffering from self-
inflicted wounds,” Simpson stated,
“and not from external forces at all.
No one is more concerned about the
Corps than President Williams. The
Corps has no greater friend. He is
determined to insure that the Corps
will survive and prosper.”
Simpson further stated, “Our
concern is not because of great
things done in the past. The reason
The new wooden floor of the high school gym was
flooded by the rain following the high winds of the
tornado. School officials called it a total loss. One
student commented, “I am sure glad basketball season
is Over.” Photo by Alan Killingsworth
Court upholds ruling
in phone rates case
Citizens begin rebuilding process
Calvert damage evident
By ALAN KILLINGSWORTH|
Staff Writer
The citizens of Calvert, Texas
spent Tuesday night waiting for the
sun, wondering exactly what had
happened to their town.
It was that evening that a tornado
ripped a 300-yard path through
their city. Six people were injured.
“Everybody heard it coming, ” M.
L. Evans said. “It sounded like 40
fighter planes flying over the town.
And then, it was here.”
Reports were that the wind was so
strong during the five minutes it
lasted, trees were doubling over
and touching the ground. Winds
were estimated at 300-400 miles per
hour.
Early yesterday morning, the
town looked just a little more ex
cited than it does on any other day.
Most of the people were walking
around looking for the place where
they could offer a hand in cleaning
and salvaging through the mess.
Trees and branches were scat
tered through the street and the
sound of chain saws buzzed across
the town. Then there were those
who just didn t know where to start.
Aid started arriving early Wed
nesday morning. People from towns
surrounding Calvert brought
machinery or even a tray of sand
wiches. The National Guard arrived
Tuesday night and had been patrol
ling the area for looters. No one
knew who called the Guard but they
all seemed to appreciate their pres
ence.
Both Calvert schools were hit
hard by the storm. The tornado
started at the elementary school and
ended at the high school.
The cafeteria of the elementary
school had been set up as a shelter
for what the volunteers could sal
vage. Books were stacked on the
stage and an occasional truckload of
desks and chairs from the destroyed
wings were unloaded for safe keep
ing.
The new high school gym floor
was about three inches deep with
water. One of the high school stu
dents mumbled, “I sure am glad
basketball season is over.”
The basements of the schools had
been set up as a headquarters for the
local Civil Air Patrol (CAP). The
student members had stayed up all
night helping people and setting up
the only communication system that
Calvert had. They were out of touch
with the outside world for six hours.
The student patrolmen, looking
tired and trying to get down the
roast beef that people had brought
for workers, stood in front of school
and talked about what they had
seen.
“Everyone inside! yelled a CAP
officer. “They’ve spotted another
one just west of here. Move along.
Let’s get in the basement.”
Some of the children in the hall
way started to yell about going
home. They moved to the basement
until they got the “all clear.”
The work never stopped.
With the threat of another tor
nado came rain. What little that
could be salvaged had to be stored
in a dry place, and crews were con
tinually moving things from one
place to the next when they saw that
the roof was not holding.
“We have lost everything,” said
Jack Unger. “It wasn’t insured and
we ll have to move on.”
Unger owned 100 Texas Place
where Calvert had its arts and crafts
show this week. More than 6,000
had attended. The building was
demolished.
Unger was in the building at the
time the storm hit. He and his wife,
Gracia, were walking through the
show area when the roof started to
lift off the structure. They ran for
the stair case, trying to find safety
from the flying bricks. Rafters fell
from the ceiling and mortar covered
Unger and his wife. .
A section of the roof flew off and I|
wrecked a truck on Highway 6.
Gracia Unger suffered abrasions
and was hit by a flying brick.
The Calvert City Hall was full of
action. The mayor, Cooper Wiese,
was trying to organize salvage oper
ations. He hadn’t contacted Gover
nor Briscoe nor had he thought of
asking for aid. He said he thought
that Calvert was doing pretty well
on its own.
When asked if there was any
panic by the citizens after the tor
nado hit, he replied, “The people in
Calvert don’t panic. If they were to
strike oil in Main Street, maybe four
people would turn out to see what
was goin’ on.”
He said “excuse me” and left look
ing just a little more excited than he
would on any other day in Calvert.
AUSTIN, Tex. (AP) — A lower
court decision, which the Nassau
Bay city attorney says takes away a
city’s right to regulate telephone
rates, has been upheld by the Texas
Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court Wednesday
found no reversible error in sepa
rate court decisions forbidding two
cities from regulating “extended
metropolitan area service” phone
rates.
Last month Dick Gregg told the
Senate State Affairs Committee the
Houston Court of Civil Appeals had
ruled that his city could not regulate
Continental Telephone Co. because
the company used the extended
metropolitan service.
The cases affirmed by the Sup
reme Court involved Nassau Bay
and Alvin, suburbs of Houston.
Both cities receive services that
allow customers to call neighboring
communities without being charged
long distance rates.
In both cases the Supreme Court
agreed with lower courts that the
service amounted to intrastate long
distance phone calls and thus was
not within the regulatory power of
the cities.
The Houston appeals court said in
the Nassau Bay case a “city has no
inherent power to regulate rates
charged by a public utility” and
added that all the city’s regulatory
power must come from the legisla
ture.
In the same case, the court said,
the phone company “is free to set its
rates in the exercise of its business
judgment and discretion so long as
the rates are not unreasonable and
extortionate. ”
Runoff elections held today
Student Senate runoff elections
are being held today from 8a.m. to 6
p.m.
Students can vote at the MSC,
Library, Fowler Hall lounge and
the Guard Room in the Corps area.
Those senate positions being con
tested are as follows:
College of Education
(sophomore) — Debbie McWil
liams, Sharon Watkins, Mike
Forehand and Binnie Bendele
College of Architecture and En
vironmental Design — Tom Kol-
laja, Kim Bush, Randy Hohlaus,
Doug Gates
College of Agriculture
(sophomore) — Bryan Crittendon,
Jim Wilson, Shelley White, Greg
Parks
Undergraduate off campus (12
positions available) — Steve In
gram, Kay Zenner, Joanne Arnold,
Debbie Boyd, Brad Brown, Karen
Gilmer, Mike Garrett, Dave John
son, Tom Donahue, Athena
Dalyrimple, Marcy Roman, Jimmy
Arnold, Dick White, Joy Drum
mond, Jess Pettit, Randy Blair,
David Hill, James B. Galbraith,
Shari Mauthner, Jim James, Robert
Graham, Jay Janica, Clayton Smith,
Greg Grubb, Saralyn Thompson,
Mark Schrier, James Radack, Pat
Pamplin, John Swicegood, Joe Wil
liams, Joe Anders Jr., Gordon
Pederson, Thomas Lane Allen,
Chuck Chimpo.
The Walton-Legett-Milner-
Hotard race is being contested bet
ween Paul Mueller and Raymond
DuBois.
Fontana Ford Co. in Calvert suffered exten
sive damage when the twister dipped out
of the southeast damaging several buildings
in the downtown area. Photo by Alan Killingsworth
Tariff delayed;
controls lifted
Dallas seeks state suit
Couples who had their
pictures taken at the Junior
Ball may pick them up Mon
day, Tuesday and Wednes
day in the Memorial Stu
dent Center. They are av
ailable at the main desk in
the Student Programs Of
fice.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi
dent Ford announced Wednesday
he is delaying a new oil tariff hike for
about 30 days but will take execu
tive action to remove all price con
trols from domestic crude oil over a
two-year period.
Federal Energy Administrator
Frank Zarb told newsmen at the
White House that a $l-a-barrel in
crease in oil tariffs, scheduled to
take effect Thursday, would be
postponed in the hope that the
House will vote on an energy pro
gram acceptable to Ford before it
recesses for Memorial Day on May
21.
Zarb said the Federal Energy
Administration, at Ford’s direction,
will begin hearings immediately on
an administration plan to remove all
price controls on domestically pro
duced crude — a process he said
could be completed prior to the
congressional recess.
Zarb said the present controls
would be lifted at a pace of about 4
percent a month over a two-year
period.
Once the FEA hearing process is
completed, he said, Ford would an
nounce a specific decontrol program
that would go into effect five days
later unless Congress voted in the
interim to reject it.
Ford is hopeful, Zarb reported,
that the House will vote before it
recesses on an energy plan that
would meet his objective pf curtail
ing oil imports by two million bar
rels a day by the end of 1977 through
the use of “reasonable market
mechanisms.”
Zarb said the dollar-a-barrel tariff
hike would take effect in about 30
days unless Ford decided sooner
“there is just no hope” of getting the
type of legislation he seeks.
DALLAS (AP) — Dallas school
superintendent Nolan Estes said
Wednesday he will ask the 40
largest school districts in the state to
join the Dallas district in a suit
against the State of Texas asking for
relief from the “inequitable system
of state aid to education.”
Estes said the situation in the
legislature, “never has been more
chaotic and confusing.” He said he
has little faith the lawmakers would
act in the five weeks remaining in
the session to enact a new school
financing system.
He suggested the school board
travel to Austin next Wednesday in
a last-ditch effort to get action from
the legislators.
Estes also urged Gov. Dolph
Briscoe “to veto any band-aid re
form bills’ which do not change the
property tax assessment formula. ”
He added he would ask Dallas
civic groups to join the teacher or
ganizations in an appeal for support
of a new education bill.
“I am not sure parents realize we
are talking about cutting school pro
grams for kids and lowering school
programs to mediocrity if the re
form measures are not passed,” he
stated.
He told a meeting of the school
board that without changes in the
state’s funding system, taxpayers
will have a choice between higher
local taxes or cutbacks in educa
tional programs next year.
I’m here tonight is I believe the
Corps of Cadets makes a great con
tribution to its members, and an
even greater contribution far out of
proportion to its numbers, to
A&M.”
In an effort to counter the current
trend, Corps leaders have been
busy since the beginning of the
semester conducting seminars and
gathering information from all
members of the Corps in order to
decide what areas warranted
change.
The first of the changes to be im
plemented is the manner in which
cadets introduce themselves, or
“whipping out ”.
“Whipping out should be a
friendly gesture, a way to meet fel
low Aggies, and not the belligerent,
mechanical action it’s developed
into the past few years,” said De
puty Corps Commander-designate
Bill Helwig at an earlier meeting of
next year’s commanders.
Corps Commander-designate Joe
Chandler stressed that the change
in the whipping out policy was “not
the, panacea for all the ills of the
Corps,’ but the first of many
changes vital to the future of the
Corps.
Reaction to the change has been
mixed, with some cadets voicing
strong approval while others be
lieve that the new way of whipping
out will kill the Corps faster than the
old way.
Under the old rules, a freshman
was required to approach an up
perclassmen from the right side,
walk in the same step and perform a
series of stiff motions while speaking
in a loud voice.
The new policy allows approach
from any side and a friendly exten
sion of the hand while speaking in a
clear tone of voice. All cadets whip
out in the same manner, the words
changing from to class to class.
Simpson expressed strong ap
proval of the change and of the en
tire program in general.
“What I’ve seen happening here
in the last six weeks is the most en
couraging thing I’ve seen in a long
time,” Simpson said.
Rights Act
bill defeated
in tie vote
(AP) — A proposal allowing states
to free themselves of coverage by
the Voting Rights Act was defeated
Wednesday by a tie vote in the
House Judiciary Committee.
But Rep. M. Caldwell Butler,
R-Va., said he would offer the prop
osal again when a bill extending the
Voting Rights Act through 1985
reaches the floor.
“If you accept the theory that the
Judiciary Committee is more liberal
than the floor, the tie vote indicates
that the proposal will pass on the
floor,” said Butler after the action.
The proposal, an amendment to
the Voting Rights Act extension,
was supported by the committee’s
Republicans and most members
from Southern and border states.
The proposal would allow the
states to obtain a federal court order
exempting them from the act if they
have achieved a 60 per cent voter
turnout of whites and minorities in a
presidential election and have not
been guilty of voting rights infrac
tions for five years.
Kyle Field Astroturf Removed
The worn and faded astroturf on Kyle Field
is being replaced. Workmen are ripping up
the old turf with the help of special machines.
The new turf will be ready for the 1975 foot
ball season.
Photo by David McCarroll