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fast
46-1726
Che Battalion
1
Vol. 69 No. 40
Copyright (c) 1975, The Battalion
College Station, Texas
Friday, Nov. 7, 1975
Board denies appeal
By LEE ROY LESCHPER, JR.
Battalion Staff Writer
] Justice at A&M has a time limit, the Stu-
ent Government Judicial Board decided
ast night.
The board denied Rick Adams appeal on
isqualification as a freshman presidential
andidate.
Adams had been disqualified for being
n scholastic probation at the time of the
lection.
Adams filed the appeal against Susan
’rice, Student Government Election
]oinmission chairman who had disqual-
ied him.
Adams said that he was not scholastically
eligible and had not been notified that his
amewas removed from the Oct. 30 ballot.
Board members voted six to two to deny
re appeal.
The majority opinion said Adams would
ave been justified in demanding to he rec-
jnized as a candidate prior to the election.
Her the election, he lost that justification
ecausehe had not acted quickly enough.
The opinion read, "There is no question
rat the registrar s office was in error in
lacing Adams on scholastic probation,
'urthermore, there is no question that
)N THE
46-9513
statements by Thompson (student senate
vice-president of rules and regulations) re
garding personal notification of disqualifi
cation and publication of a list of candidates
in the Battalion led to Adams’ errors in
judgment.
"However, the Election Commission did
meet all their obligations as specified in the
Election Regulations. Furthermore, it is
clear in section 1,F of the Election Regula
tions that the ultimate responsibility lies
with the candidate to cheek for errors in the
list of candidates.
A minority opinion was prepared by the
two dissenting board members. It read:
"We felt Rick should never have been
taken off the ballot because his grades were
only mid-term grades, and not final grades,
as is the criteria for disqualification for
scholastic probation in (section) 2,A,3. In
instructing the candidates the Election
Commission stated they would publish the
names of the candidates in the Battalion,
and personal notification of disqualification
would be given. These elements override
the direct responsibility of Rick Adams to
check for errors that woidd only appear in
the list of candidates. He did make suffi
cient effort to see the list.
Price said a list of both qualified and
disqualified candidates had been posted in
the Student Activities office of the MSC
Oct. 26, four days before the election.
Adams contended he could not find the list
in that office the next day.
Several board members questioned
Price on the basis used in disqualifying
Adams.
The Election Commission sent a list of all
freshman candidates to the registrar’s of
fice, Price said.
Adams was among those reported to the
commission as on scholastic probation,
Price said. “About fifteen candidates were
reported as posting below a 2.0 overall, she
said.
Adams submitted test scores and records
proving he was not on probation.
Thompson emphasized that, according
to University regulations, even if the regis
trar’s office is in error in reporting a stu
dent’s eligibility, the error must be called
to the attention of the commission chair
man prior to the election.
It remains the responsibility of the indi
vidual candidate to determine prior to the
election that no error has been made con
cerning his eligibility.
Duane Thompson, Price s counsel for
the case, supported Adams’ claim of
scholastic eligibility in presenting the case
for the Election Commission.
Reading from University regulations
concerning freshman elections, Thompson
quoted:
"All freshmen not on scholastic proba
tion are eligible to run during the fall
freshman elections. They must possess a
minimum grade point ratio of 2.25 at the
end of their fall semester, or they will au
tomatically be removed from office.
“This means exactly what is says,
Thompson said. “It says at the end of the
fall semester. Mid-semester grades have no
basis for qualification for freshman elec
tions, unless he has already gone up here
for summer school and has established a
GPR.”
Concerning Adams notification of dis
qualification, Thompson quoted again from
University regulations.
“The Election Commission shall post a
list of candidates for office for the purpose
of correcting errors three class days prior to
election day. If a candidate does not appeal
any error in the list 24 hours before the
election, he loses his right to appeal, he
said.
The jingle of flattened bottle caps was
heard on campus this week as Corps
Freshmen maintained the tradition of
Fish Spurs. Aubrey Gaddy of N1 dis
played these spurs consisting of coat
Ching-ching
J 1
:?(4ln:
i
h
Conviction voided
Court favors Gandhi
Campus
m
THE PENNSYLVANIA Ballet will per-
orm Tuesday at 8 p.m. in the Rudder Au-
litorium. Student tickets will be $6.40,
5.40, $4.40. General Public tickets will he
8, $6.75, $5.60. Tickets and further in-
brmation may he obtained at the MSC Box
)ffice.
THE TICKET Allocation Referendum
rill be held on Nov. 11. All students are
ligible to vote. The run-off for freshman
reasurer will also he held Tuesday. For
Jrther information call 845-3051.
THE ARTS & CRAFTS Fair will be held
riday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday
rom 9 a m.-noon, in the Rudder Center
^ A LTL ABNER DANCE will he held at
4 Grove at 8 p.m. Saturday. Admission
$ Hill be $2 per couple.
The Fat and the Lean, a 15-minute film
by Roman Polanski, is also being shown.
The film uses classical mime and modern
appurtenances to create a mood. Discus
sion, led by Dr. Richard Costa, will follow
the films. Tickets can be purchased in ad
vance at the Rudder Box Office for $1.
THE POLITICAL FORUM COM
MITTEE will begin an active week Mon
day with a debate on the football ticket
distribution system. The debate is to be in
the Rudder Auditorium at 8 p.m.
Tuesday, the Political Forum will pre
sent State Representative Bill Sullivant at
12:30 p.m. in room 601 of the Rudder To
wer. Sullivant will speak about the role of
the Texas lobbyist.
Donald Morris will speak on the CIA
Wednesday at 7 p.m. in room 225 of the
MSC. The Political Forum speaker was a
CIA agent for 17 years.
shotgun slaying of a Chapel Hill housewife
on Sept. 14, 1974.
Yesterday, Corley’s attorneys continued
their defense arguing that Corley is men
tally retarded. However, prosecution wit
nesses testified that he is not mentally re
tarded, he is sane and knew what he was
doing on the date of the offense.
National
Texas
BLEACHER SEATS will he on sale for
heAggie-SMU game. Ticket prices are $7.
Also a small amount of knothole seats will
available Saturday morning for high
|chool age and under.
The excess tickets surfaced because
A&M students have not turned out en
Basse to purchase tickets like they have for
:? ■previous home games.
|
" THE TAMU HORSEMEN’S Associa-
|ion will hold an Intramural Horse Show
[Sunday at 10 a.m. in the Aggie Arena. For
nformation call Helena Biasatti at 846-
27.
VIRIDIANA, a film directed by Luis
unnel, will be shown Monday at 8 p.m. in
he Rudder Theater. The film tells of a
voman who tries to do her Christian duty
rut fails and attacks religion and morality'.
REP. JOE WYATT, D-BLOO-
MINGTON, chairman of the House Ways
and Means Committee, said in Austin at a
special tax seminar for his committee that
the 1977 legislature might he able to fi
nance state government for another two
years without new taxes.
SECRETARY OF STATE MARK
WHITE said yesterday in Austin that
Philips Petroleum Company has agreed to
give him a complete statement of facts con
cerning its corporate political contributions
in 1970-1975.
However he said, after their meeting
yesterday, that the two Philips representa
tives had not admitted any corporate con
tributions that might be prosecuted.
EDWARD ELDON CORLEY’S capital
murder trial s final arguments are to be
heard today. Corley, 30, of Tyler, is
charged with the kidnaping, rape and
LYNETTE FROMME, accused of a
presidential assassination attempt, has
spent three days in some unorthodox spar
ring with the judge over selection of a jury
to decide her fate. But the judge says he
expects to get the jury seated and opening
arguments underway before the end of to
day’s court session.
Fromme displayed some unorthodox
legal tactics in the Sacramento trial yester
day in questioning prospective jurors. She
tried to empanel one juror who said he was
prejudiced against her, gave a tongue-
lashing to a state engineer, made numerous
unsuccessful challenges and clashed ver
bally with the judge all day.
HUSTLER BOBBY RIGGS will race
experienced distance runner Bill Emmer-
ton across the floor of Death Valley on Dec.
15. Riggs will get a 50-mile head start in the
100-mile race.
Associated Press
NEW DELHI — Prime Minister In
dira Gandhi won her battle in the courts
today to void the conviction on charges of
corrupt campaign practices which led her
to resort to emergency rule four months
ago.
After seven weeks of arguments and four
weeks of deliberation, a five-member panel
from the 13-man supreme court unanim
ously upheld the legality of retroactive
amendments to the election law which Par
liament passed to extricate Mrs. Gandhi
from her legal difficulties.
The amendments declared that the ac
tions for which Mrs. Gandhi was convicted
last June 12 were no longer illegal. The
court struck down another sweeping mea
sure Parliament approved to help Mrs.
Gandhi, a constitutional amendment that
declared the prime minister’s conviction
was null and,void.
Her opponents conceded that the ruling
in favor of the election law amendments
automatically overturned her conviction
Consol bond issue
and ended the four-year-old legal case
against her. But the adverse ruling on the
constitutional amendment was still a set
back to her.
Immediately after the court decision,
Mrs. Gandhi emerged from her residence
to address 5,000 cheering supporters who
had gathered outside.
The 57-year-old prime minister, who has
ruled the country since 1966, warned that
India faces “internal and external dangers.
“Unity is the need of the hour, she de
clared. Carrying Congress party flags, the
crowd shouted over and over: “Indira
Gandhi Zindabad Long Live Indira Gan
dhi!”
J. P. Goyal, one of the lawyers who
helped guide the long legal battle against
Mrs. Gandhi, commented, “She won, but
everyone now knows she won only with the
help of retroactive laws passed for her be
nefit. ”
The prime minister was convicted in Al
lahabad, her home city, on two counts of
illegally using government officials to aid
her successful 1971 campaign for Parlia
ment.
The guilty verdict carried a mandatory
ban on Mrs. Gandhi’s holding elective of
fice for six years, requiringher to surrender
the leadership of the government since the
prime minister must be a member of Parli
ament.
Mrs. Gandhi appealed, and a supreme
court justice on June 24 stayed the sen
tence but denied her the right to vote in
Parliament until the appeal was decided.
Her opponents announced plans for a civil
disobedience campaign to force her resig
nation, and two days later she declared a
national emergency, jailed many of her op
ponents and suspended most civil liberties.
The Congress party’s big majority in Par
liament passed the- amendments affecting
Mrs. Gandhi’s case in August, several days
before the supreme court was to begin
hearing arguments on her appeal against
her conviction. The court then delayed the
appeal hearing while it considered the val
idity of the legislation.
Assessment to be compared
World
MOKE THAN 100,000 MOROCCANS
spent a cold night in the Spanish Saharan
desert, 2 and one-half miles from the
Spanish army’s front line of barbed wire
and armored cars barring their way.
The Spanish Army has claimed that it has
planted 20,000 mines behind the barbed
wire but many Moroccan officials thought
the Spanish were bluffing. It was not
known when or if the march would resume.
By PAULA GEYER
Battalion Staff Writer
The A&M Consolidated School Board
decided Thursday to include a comparison
of the A&M Consolidated district to other
school districts in the state bond issue in
formation to be mailed to voters Tuesday.
The comparison will show how much as
sessed value the A&M Consolidated dis
trict has compared to other districts of
comparable size.Currently A&M Consoli
dated has an assessed value of $123.5 mill
ion which is $30,000 of valuation per child.
Also to be included in the booklet “Time
to Know will be maps of the schools in
College Station with the proposed new
buildings.
A map of the proposed new school to be
located at 1300 Jersey St. will also he in
cluded.
The $5.1 million bond issue, if passed,
will include plans for a new school, a voca
tional facility for the high school and physi
cal education buildings for College Hills
and South Knoll Elementary Schools.
The proposed $1.4 million vocational
facility for the high school will free 10 clas
srooms currently used as vocational
facilities to be later used as classrooms.
The proposed elementary school to be
built on the old Middle School location at
1300 Jersey St. will cost $1.8 million dol
lars.
This building would provide 25 more
classrooms for kindergarten through fifth
grade.
The physical education buildings for Col
lege Hills and South Knoll Elementary
hangers and 79 bottle caps per spur.
The spurs are worn in anticipation of
the football game with the SMU Mus
tangs.
Staff photo by Steve Goble
Schools will cost $350,000 and $327,000,
respectively.
Other items also included in the bond
issue are four additional classrooms for Col
lege Hills Elementary School and six clas
srooms for the Middle School.
Food service expansions for both the
Middle School and the High School are also
included.
The administrative offices for the district
would also be remodeled or rebuilt under
the bond issue.
Other intormation to he released by the
district for voter information will be a chart
of projected enrollment, a story explaining
the 14 cent property tax increase per year
for two years and a chart explaining district
indebtedness.
Strauss certain of Ford-Reagan battle
Political Forum
Robert Strauss, Democratic National upcoming national elections. Strauss
Committee Chairman, spoke in the was brought to the campus by the Pol-
Rudder Theatre Thursday night on itical Forum.
tbe future of political parties and the staff photo by Glen johnson
By JIM JAMES
Battalion Staff Writer
Robert Strauss, chairman of the Democ
ratic National Committee, has no doubts
that Ronald Reagan will challenge Gerald
Ford for the Republican presidential
nomination.
He also said Reagan will be an extremely
tough challenger. “I think he (Ford) is in
deep trouble. I think the odds are one out
of three or four that Reagan can unseat
him.
Strauss addressed 350 persons in the
half-filled Rudder Theater in a Political
Forum presentation, Thursday night.
Strauss said that he knew for a fact that
Ford and his advisors find Reagan a formid
able opponent.
“Number one is that Reagan is exceed
ingly articulate. Number two is that the
Republican Party is extremely conserva
tive, as is Reagan. Number three is the way
the primaries are set up,” said Strauss.
“They begin in New Hampshire where
Reagan is very strong...then after Mas
sachusetts you drop down to Florida which
is one of Reagan s two or three strongest
states. Then he d take Ford on in New York
where the president isn’t very popular.
“That presents some real problems for
the president. He’s got to do everything to
keep Reagan out of this race. That had a
great deal to do with this weekend’s action
(Rockefeller s decision not to seek the
vice-presidential nomination), Strauss
said.
He said that Ford was not trained by
background or experience to be president
and had had a negative record as a con
gressman.
Strauss criticized Ford’s handling of New
York City’s financial problems, urging a re
turn to the old RFC program.
He added that much of Ford’s actions
were being conducted on political grounds
to the detriment of the nation.
Strauss indicated that the Democratic
Party s mass of candidates would not thin
out.until after April 6, 1976, the date of the
New York and Wisconsin primaries. Then,
he predicted, a handful of candidates, one
to the right, a couple of moderates and a
liberal, probably wovdd be the serious con
tenders for the rest of the race.
We 11 probably pick a candidate on third
ballot. He added that if the convention
was still deadlocked a brokered conven
tion (where the decisions are made by party
leaders) was possible.
It doesn t matter if the candidate is a
little to the right or to the left,” said
Strauss.” What does make a difference is
where he stands on unemployment, infla
tion, health care for the elderly, and educa-
Strauss says Bentsen
still a strong contender
Edward Kennedy won t accept a draft for
the presidency and Lloyd Bentsen’s cam
paign isn’t running out of steam, said
Robert Strauss, chairman of the National
Democratic Party.
“I’ve seen no disintegration in Bentsen’s
campaign. He has money, hasn’t run any
where and is making friends all over the
country; but the same could be said for
Henry Jackson and many others,” said
Strauss.
He also said unless there was a stalemate
at the convention he did not believe the
convention would turn to an unannounced
candidate.
“I think the American people would be
outraged, unless we re deadlocked, if we
turned to a candidate who hadn’t been
through the primaries.
As for Ford’s policies Strauss com
mented, “Between Barry Goldwater and
Ronald Reagan, “They’re having one hel
luva time determining White House poli
cy .. . they’re keeping the president
busy.”
Strauss called dropping Rockefeller “a
cold blooded political move designed to
stop Reagan. ” He avoided a question con
cerning his position and difficulties which
might arise, if George'Wallace should re
ceive the Demo nomination.
tion. The man who speaks to these .issues
will be elected. Ford hasn’t and I don’t
believe he deserves to be elected.
Strauss, relaxed throughout most of his
speech, became emotional when he ad
dressed philosophical issues. One ol those
times was when he spoke on Watergate,
which he said would not be an issue in 76.
“Nixon spent two years telling America,
‘Don t hold me responsible, everybody
does these things. This is the standard of
morality in America s politics. This is hog-
wash, he said.
“The average man and woman in the
political system is good, but people be
lieved what they were told — and it took its
toll. The shame is that it will take a lot of
speeches here and all over the nation to
undo that damage.
About 70 per cent of the speaking time
was spent answering questions from the
audience.
He has answered a question in North
Carolina, which he repeated for the A&M
crowd.
“You know it seems to me, a black
woman in the North Carolina crowd had
said, “that when anything goes wrong, us
poor folks gets hits the first and gets hits the
hardest. Is that right? And if it’s right, why
is it that way?
“I would have given $500 to have been
off stage, said Strauss,“and let some other
damn fool answer her instead of me. It
seemed like an hour before I spoke. I told
her we don t have equal justice and we 11
never attain it. But that doesn’t mean you
don’t try for it and try to make an inch or
two of progress every day.