r
Cbe Battalion
Copyright (c) 1975, The Battalion -g
Vol. 69 No. 23 College Station, Texas Thursday, Oct. 9, 1975
Possible legal conflicts
Bond issue undecided
By PAULA GEYER
Battalion Staff Writer
The A&M Consolidated School
Board decided Wednesday night
not to hold their $5.5 million bond
issue on Nov. 4, general election
day, because of possible conflicts
with the Civil Rights Act of 1975.
The date for the election will he
decided on Oct. 20 at the regular
meeting of the School Board.
The bond election is not being
called in conjunction with the gen-
end election because of complica
tions resulting from using the same
facilities and judges.
Any question over the outcome of
the general election would involve
the bond issue election, Pete Tart,
bond attorney for the school board,
said.
Tart said questions could arise
over the new Civil Rights Act of
1975, which requires counties with
over five, per cent population of
Spanish-Americans to publish elec
tion notices and ballots in both
Spanish and English.
He said to avoid any complica
tions with the election, it wmdd be
advisable to call the bond election
separately taking all “necessary pre
cautions."
Board member Bruce Robeck ob
jected to proceeding with the bond
issue without citizen input.
Robeck s concern came after
input from citizens during the meet
ing.
Vi Burke, president of the South
Knoll Elementary Parent-Teacher
Association, suggested that the
board appear at meetings at South
Knoll and other schools to discuss
the bond issue.
The bond issue, if passed by the
voters, will involve a possible rise in
the tax base of the district.
The tax rate for the district is now
$1.77 for every $100 of valuation of
property.
The 33 cents of this, which now
pays interest on existing bonds,
would rise to 52 cents, Steve Elliott
of Russ Securities Corp. in San An
tonio told the board.
Elliott said this cost was based on
selling the bond issue to investors at
two separate times instead of all at
once.
He said selling the issue in two
parts, one of approximately $3.5
million and the other $2 million,
would keep the costs of interest
lower.
After about 1978 the tax rate
would decrease, Elliott said.
“The 20-year bond issue consi
dered here is very conservative,”
Elliott said, citing the district’s good
credit rating.
The bond issue plus the outstand
ing bonds in the district come
nowhere close to the 10 per cent of
all assets to which law entitles the
school district, Fred A. Hopson,
School Superintendent, said.
He said the assets for the district
are approximately $123.5 million
dollars with outstanding bonds to
talling about $2.5 million.
In other business the board ap
pointed Charles Hensarling as
board member to replace O. C.
Cooper who resigned several weeks
ago.
School board discusses bond election
Pub board hears no surprises
Nancy Donaldson, president of A&M
Consolidated school board, and Lambert
Wilkes, board trustee, listen to citizen
input on bond issues at the meeting of
the school board last night.
Photo by David McCarroIl
By JIM JAMES
Battalion StaiT Writer
The surprise at the monthly
Student Publications Board
Meeting was that there was no
surprise.
Stephen Goble, former man
aging editor of The Battalion,
had asked for and was granted
permission to he on the agenda.
Goble’s plan was to establish
a greivance committee compris
ing members of the Publications
Board. This committee would
bypass the editorial authority of
James Breedlove, Battalion
editor.
He also was expected to ob
ject publicly to the Battalion’s
operations and product.
When Goble was recognized
at the meeting, he declined to
make a statement since support
among Battalion editors did not
exist.
In a break with tradition, the
Aggieland funding was changed
from lump sum financing to a
budgetary system. Gary Bal-
dasari, editor of the Aggieland,
complained that last year he
went four months without being
paid. He said a budgetary sys
tem woidd be far more equita
ble to all concerned. The move
was unanimously approved by
the board.
Jack Holm, Battalion photo
editor, while approving a salary
schedule for photographers, ob
jected to what he termed un
fairness in salary. He contended
that photographers should get
parity salary with reports.
Bob Rogers, head of the
Journalism Department and
board chairman, said that the
fact that photographers could
sell their photos compensated
for any salary discrepancy. The
board requested that Holm
submit a formal proposal to the
board and voted to table their
decision until that time.
Other business included the
1975 fiscal year finance report-
s: Aggieland profits, $32,594;
Battalion profit, $24,053; Cam
pus Directory, $3,025 and the
Southwestern Veterinarian,
which is no longer part of stu
dent publications, lost $2,712.
The decrease of copy space in
Campus
Texas
TH E FIR ST FIVE ROWS of parking in lot 40
have been reserved for the use of male dorm
students with 60 or more credit hours. This
means that juniors and seniors are now allowed
to park in the southern most five rows of what
was called the “fish parking lot” on the southeast
side of campus.
•
ALPHA ZETA, A&M’s agricultural fraterni
ty, has begun its annual turkey sale in order to
raise money for scholarships. The price is $1.40
per pound and the turkeys weigh between 8 and
10 pounds each. For more information, call
845-2951 or 846-2107. Orders will be taken
through Friday.
•
OUTDOOR RECREATION Committee is
sponsoring a canoeing and camping trip to the
Brazos River. The trip will take place the
weekend of Oct. 11 and 12. The group will canoe
from the dam at Lake Whitney to Reddells
Camp. The pre-trip meeting will be Thursday,
at 7 p.m. in room 504 of the Rudder Tower.
Sign-up deadline is Thursday at 7:00. The limit
ing number for the trip has not been decided
yet, but come by the ORC cubicle in room 216 of
the MSC (Student Programs Office) and sign-up
anyway.
•
VACANCIES EXIST in Graduate Student
Council in College of Science, Geosciences and
Veterinary Medicine. Applicants should contact
Joe Marcello in room 216 of the Memorial Stu
dent Center. Applications close Oct. 13.
•
A LINCOLN — DOUGLAS DEBATE, Ex
temporaneous speaking and persuasive speak
ing contest on American history and values will
be held Oct. 30. Application can be made in the
English Department located on the fifth floor of
the Harrington Tower. Application deadline is 5
p.m. Oct. 17.
A&M ECONOMIC PROFESSOR, Phillip
Gramm has announced for the U. S. senate
seat held by Lloyd Bentsen. He predicts
he will unseat Bentsen. (Story, Page 4)
•
THE FACULTY senate at North Texas State
University approved Wednesday a resolution
supporting the University of Texas faculty se
nate in its opposition to the method used to
select a new UT-Austin president last month.
The North Texas group voted 18-11 to send
the statement to the UT faculty senate, which
opposed the selection of Dr. Lorene Rogers.
•
AVOIDANCE OF RULING on new death
penalty issues was made by the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals by reversing the murder con
viction of Jerry Joe Bird. Bird won the right of a
new trial because of improper argument by the
prosecutor.
•
COST ESTIMATES for the Texas offshore
pipeline now exceed $453 million. This is the
third major project to be announced for the area
in three months.
National
City
THE COLLEGE STATION CITY COUN
CIL will meet tonight at 7 at City Hall. Among
items to be considered is a contract with Sherrill
Ambulance Co. of Bryan, a report from the city ’s
charter revision committee chairman and for
mation of a Civic Center Committee.
•
THE BRAZOS VALLEY DEVELOPMENT
COUNCIL will meet at 7:30 p.m. The BVDC
will discuss the future of the Crisis Line of the
Emergency Medical Services, consider applica
tions by Bryan and College Station for further
community development funds and an erosion
control program for the Brazos Valley.
A PREVIOUSLY secret Symbionese Libera
tion Army manuscript says Patricia Hearst was
kidnaped in an attempt to force the release of
two captured SLA “soldiers” and to expose the
wealth of the Hearst family, the San Francisco
Examiner reported Wednesday.
•
A NEWSPAPER guild official said Wednes
day disciplinary action is under consideration
against Washington Post editorial and advertis
ing employes who have continued to work de
spite a strike by three craft unions.
The Post unit of the Washington-Baltimore
Newspaper Guild voted 270 to 251 Tuesday to
reject a proposal to honor the picket lines. It was
the third time the guild had voted to continue
working since union pressmen went on strike
last Wednesday night. The Post has continued
to publish, except the first day, with printing
done elsewhere.
•
STUART SPENCER, recently named politi
cal director of President Ford’s 1976 presiden
tial effort, ran a campaigning school in the 1960s
which taught politicians tricks such as phone
tapping and spying, according to the Scripps-
Howard newspapers.
Spencer, a Los Angeles political strategist,
denied the accusation, which Scripps-Howard
said came from political consultant Raymond V.
Humphreys and three unnamed sources who
also attended the campaign courses.
the paper was noted by Jeff
Dunn, student board member.
Gael L. Cooper, director of stu
dent publications, said it was a
matter of economics and stem
med from reduction in advertis
ing revenues and an increase in
printing costs.
★★★
Steve Goble, former manag
ing editor of the Battalion, made
charges Wednesday against
Battalion Editor James Breed
love.
Goble’s comments came after
the regularly scheduled Stu
dent Publications Board meet-
hig-
“He doesn’t communicate
with his staff, in fact the times
I’ve been there he doesn’t ap
pear to be doing a damn thing,
Goble said. He also said that the
editorial staff is inexperienced
and reporting is superficial.
Goble further charged that
the paper had no direction or
sense of purpose. Goble said he
believed that this stemmed
from lack of editorial leader
ship. He also said news cover
age was inane.
Breedlove denied any lack of
communication saying that his
door is always open.
“I spend about 60 hours a
week working with the paper as
do the other editors,” Breed
love said. He added that the
editors might be inexperienced
but that students, including
Goble, cannot be considered
professionals.
Senate debates, passes
football ticket proposals
By JERRY GEARY
Battalion Staff Writer
For nearly an hour last night, the
Student Senate was muddled in par
liamentary procedure and debate.
When the discussion was over,
more football ticket proposals were
passed, including a football ticket
referendum proposal.
The referendum would ask the
students whether they were pleased
with the present system of allocat
ing football tickets or would they be
in favor of reverting to last year s
seniority-based first-come-first-
served basis. The referendum
would take place Oct. 30; in con
junction witn freshman elections.
The originators of the bill, Steve In
gram (off-campus undergraduate)
and Susan Gray (Keathley-
Fowler-Hughes), had planned the
senate to be responsive to the out
come of the vote.
After an hour of heated discus
sion, the senate had amended the
bill to a nonbinding survey to take
place at spring preregistration.
In other senate action, the date
ticket resolution was passed. It pro
vides ticket distribution under the
present system with the provision
that all students with season
coupons be guaranteed a seat
Moving the tracks ...
Relocation costs
cause problems
somewhere in the stadium.
A blood credit allocation bill was
approved. It provides any credits
left from last year be distributed
evenly between the Brazos Valley
Red Cross and needy patients (as
deemed by Wadley Blood Bank) suf
fering from cancer and blood dis
eases.
Also passed was a Senate budget
revision bill and several election
regulation revisions.
Since the present football ticket
allocation program has caused a
great deal of controversy, Steve In
gram and Susan Gray introduced a
referendum that woidd allow stu
dents to voice their approval or dis
approval of the present system.
Ingram said he had planned it “to
be a referendum that was binding.
And from the election outcome, the
Senate was to keep the present sys
tem or revert to the old one.
But Ingram was told the referen
dum would not be binding and, in
fact, was a survey. Joe Marcello in
troduced an amendment changing
the wording of the resolution from
“referendum” to “survey.
Then the fireworks started.
Susan Gray said the referendum
would “show the students that the
senate is working for the students
and not for the administration. ” The
administration proposed the ticket
distribution change last year.
Jerri Ward, vice-president of ex
ternal affairs, and Troie Pruett,
vice-president of student services,
then said if it was a referendum, the
senate would have to do what the
students say.
Debate closed and the senate al
tered the bill from a referendum to a
nonbinding survey by a vote of
37-22.
After the vote, Missy Miller ii|
troduced an amendment to chang
the survey date from the Oct. 3
freshman elections to spring pn
registration. Several senators e?.
pressed the fear that the freshme
woidd be the only ones to vote Oj
the survey.
Miller said “Since it is a new ti<
ket system, if we moved it to prq
registration and thereby take j
away from the heat of the footba
season, the students could sit bad
and take a look at it.
After Millers amendment par
sed, the senate considered tw
more amendments, which resulte,
in some confusion over parliamei
tary procedure. The two amencv
ments attempted to make the prop
osal a binding referendum to tak
place in the spring. They failed an!
the senate finally adopted the sui
vey approach to take place durin
preregistration.
Discussion on the Date Tickt
Resolution centered around a
amendment by Donny Payne of th
College of Business. Payne
amendment called for all student
with nonstudent dates to sit on th
track and in bleachers during sol
out football games.
Payne said his amendment ha
nothing to do with seniority. “It’s
matter of student rights versu
non-student rights. I
On the other side of the stand:
Bill Flores said, “Just because a sti'
dent is married and has a non
student date doesn t mean h^
should sit in the bleachers.” Con!
cerning the fate of the freshman i
the bleachers, Flores said, “J
freshman is going to get the worj
seat anyway.
By JERRY NEEDHAM
Battalion Staff Writer
This is the third in a series of articles con
cerning the railroad situation in College Sta
tion and Bryan.
The foremost problem of reloca
tion appears to be the costs in
volved.
Hoy Richards, who is involved in
rail research at the Texas Transpor
tation Institute (TTI) at Texas A&M
University and is also presently in
volved in a track-relocation project
in Brownsville and Matamoros,
Mexico, said Monday that reloca
tion would cost in the area of $20
million to $30 million.
Richards said this would involve
moving 18 to 20 miles of tracks and
would include spurs to industries in
Bryan.
“Until the public is willing to
come up with those dollars, I don’t
think anything can be done,’’
Richards said.
He said that his experience in
track relocation leads him to believe
that the best way to get relocation
underway would be to form a
county-wide taxing authority —
much like a water district or transit
authority.
He suggested the taxing authority
be composed of delegates appointed
by the local governments in Bryan,
College Station and Brazos County.
Richards said the money col
lected through this authority could
be used to hire a consulting firm to
make preliminary assessments con
cerning relocation. With this plan,
he said, the local governments
would have a goal and know exactly
what needs to be done.
Richards pointed out that such an
assessment by a consulting firm
woidd cost approximately $25,000
to $30,000 and the preliminary en
gineering studies would cost bet
ween $300,000 and $400,000.
Local governments, he said,
could then approach Southern
Pacific and say “This is what we
want to do” and ask the railroad
company to work with the cities and
the county to implement the plan.
“I can tell you from experience
that the railroad company will be
cooperative, Richards said.
A transit authority similar to the
one he proposes is being used to
hind a track relocation in Nebraska.
The funds generated by the author
ity are matched with state and fed
eral funds.
“Until a definite plan is de
veloped and money is made availa
ble, there is just going to be a bunch
of rhetoric,” Richards said.
From the time planning is started
to the time the project is completed
would probably involve 10 to 12
years, he said. This would include
the arrangement of funding and
submitting environmental impact
statements to the Environmental
Protection Agency.
The grade separation at Univer
sity Drive and the railroad tracks
was talked about for 20 years before
it was finally done, Richards said.
An alternate solution to the prob
lem suggested by Richards was a
partial lowering of the tracks along
the proposed west campus.
He said this would provide a
noise buffer and make access easier
to the west campus.
Tuesday: The railroad company’s
, side of the story.
Photo by Clen Johnso
Tracks pose problem
These tracks will soon sep
arate the Texas A&M west
campus from the existing
east campus. A joint effort
towards relocation by the
local governments appears
to be the only solution to
the problem.