Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 7, 1975)
■ :d ■'—^ '■— v >tH case ^ % ' VVV ^W ^neand2^ llc t'upano, li w asha(oii, Cain(^ JSi “el. bills ^ VWWvv, 'ED Call 77MS; iawffilo* < 8th, 8 Hi Xt NT rk pus all city rneftl rices E tions Center iitile enter- it, singers, o offering! the forma- jid." If™ o audition, ind 11-’ ime. Cal lemorial Ask for m 2J[> r approv es. Musi or more lime. ® a* ^vW^ vVV ' /WS^VA* 46-2932.3W of Chemistn 5-3873. 3W ) cl all day »■ m ickup, ill kinds. ® Still . phone® jn Paid Advertisement athletic oatmeal PART I By TONY GALLUCCI Former Sports Editor Following is the oatmeal that was to run on Friday Oct. 24 when members of the Board of Regents and the Governor were to be in town. But editor James Breedlove removed the copy from the paper. Subsequently I was fired. While several situations detailed in the two- week-old column are no longer valid, the point is still there, and the situation has not improved. Not only is Breedlove incapable of handling the job of editor of The Battalion but also is apparently unconstitutional. Uncon stitutional in that he represents an arm of the University by his selection as well as his al legiance and therefore constitutes prior cen sorship. (Battalion requirements for editor as setup by the University were suspended by the administration long enough for Breedlove to apply and be selected. Qualified applicant LaTonya Perrin was passed over, and a stranger to the staff and board was pushed into the job from the outside.) Twice I asked for a retraction last week on the story concerning my firing. Twice, Om budsman Roxie Hearn refused because saying I left 35 inches empty when I had proven to her acceptance that I had not. And then she wrote a column criticizing a headline because it “told nothing about the story’s content.” Roxie is a journalism major. In a continuance of the story of the missing truth are several new developments. Dr. Bryan Cain, a regular on the Batt Picks, refused to make a selection this past week in protest over my firing. Sports Editor Paul McGrath sent down the column with a similar statement enscrawled in place of the picks. It didn’t make the paper. A letter to the editor sent by me to try to clear up some falsities concerning the firing story has not been run and apparently there is no intention to. Jim Crawley, a former campus writer, ap proached Breedlove with information con cerning the Board of Regents with the under- • standing that the information was strictly con fidential. Breedlove told Crawley the infor mation was not newsworthy, asked for copies and then took the information to Williams, betraying Crawley and his confidence. PART II Have you ever wondered what you would do without the Battalion? Probably not, and even if you did you probably came to the conclu sion that your life would change lit tle if any. It (The Batt) is just a con venient thing to pick up here and there, skim across to get the gist of me news and maybe see an inside story once in awhile. And if you thought it cost you nothing, forget that. Your share comes out of your Student Service fees. What is this getting to? Your "campus” newspaper run by stu dents, financed by students and ad vertisers is being slowly assimilated into the journalism department. Never heard that before? It’s a rather loosely guarded secret. The idea is to make the Batt a lab newspaper; in effect, a toy for over- zealous journalism profs to get trainees material in print (At least superficially anyway). Any student pub board member will tell you it’s because the University can’t fund anything unless it’s educational and this way the paper will be used as an educational tool. But remember, students are footing part of the bill, the people who pay to put their ads, pictures and coupons in foot the rest. So “university-funded educa tional tool looks like a farce. The real reason behind this? My guess, based on experience, rumor and obvious blunders is that the Administration is tired of being made to look like fools. The pre- Breedlove administrations of this newspaper were hell-bent on pro tecting students rights to informa tion concerning use of their money. The Mike Rice-Rod Speer-Greg Moses students rights eras of this newspaper were the scene of kickback scandals, censorship fights, and exposure of gross spend ing on the MSC and the “wall . It was a last resort when the Administ ration of this University dissolved offices and created others in an at tempt to put this paper under some sort of control. In the last of the Moses reign, the University erected a large blue phallic symbol, symbolically close to what the students consider the bowel of the campus (Sbisa) and to what the upper echelon administra tion of the University considers the Bowel (The Battalion). Even now I must face it as I type this story. President Jack Williams made himself perfectly understood when he stated that a lone candidate would not be editor as long as he was president. LaTonya Perrin was the only candidate for the position, and „ an advancee of the Speer-Moses school. Application deadlines were **1 extended and the Pub Board found that James Breedlove was their choice for editor, despite his not qualifying under Texas A&M Regu- lations for the position. Perrin was the only one who qualified under the rules who applied except for I myself. I later withdrew. Breedlove is the former PR Director for the _L^U MSC, a group which complained loud and clear last year about their |1 coverage or rather lack of it in the iSSI Batt and started issuing its own II newsletter, the Diameter. Incompetence of the present administration has led to numerous complaints, mostly from myself. Steve Goble was hired for the job of managing editor for this fall, but later quit because he was expected to handle the manure of the news paper without any authority. He was also disturbed by a distinct con flict of interest elsewhere on the staff which he wanted solved. It was left as was. The conflict of interest case later dissolved when the party withdrew from school, a disease common among Batt-staffers. Breedlove has shown himself to me to be partially lacking in the will or desire to improve this newspaper or settle the conflicts that have ari sen. His lackadaisical attitude mer ited him a bad name amongst employes early, but when Goble tried to make this apparent to the forces that he he was left standing nearly alone by the principles. They tended to be journalism majors with more than a perfunctory interest (or fear) in this job and the department they must rely upon for grades. Breedlove has gone to extreme difficulty to write such meaningful editorials as ‘let the whales die peacefully, let’s read cockroach books, and please don’t paint the campus’ and still backed down by offering restitution to roach profs. The other major problem here is the ghost position of Director of Student Publications, occupied by one Gael Cooper. His job according to article 76 paragraph 3 of the Uni versity regulations is to “counsel and advise all student editors . . . but •. . . shall (not) determine the content of publications. ” In an effort to curb abuses by the photography department of the paper I reserved the right tq distri bute photo passes to athletic events to photographers whom I found to be trustworthy and skilled. This was precipitated by last year’s color photoduplication of passes for the Texas-A&M game in Austin and considerable talk of silk-screening field pass ribbons for home football events this year. It was met (as ex pected) with great disapproval by Jack Holm the Photography Direc tor. Eventually Cooper came onto the scene and because of my con trol, apparent or realized, he dis banded the photography depart ment of the Battalion and the Aggie- land and made it a separate entity. Or so he thought. The office is still at the Batt and it is Breedlove who pays Holm s salary. I still have the passes, which Cooper would like. If Cooper should get the passes or get his own passes, I will refuse to honor them and we may do without pic tures here. This situation comes up once a week and you might have noticed I used freelance donated material from the Kansas St. game. I am sure that Sports Information Director Spec Gammon would rather issue passes to me and be assured of some pictures than issue them elsewhere and get nothing but extra photographers on the field and no photos in the paper. Next problem. That of expenses. This is probably most crucial be cause it could affect the future of sports coverage in this paper. After gaining a large raise by moving up to this somewhat dubious position, I, out of my own pocket paid the ex penses for travel to Kansas St. and LSU. It left me $20 short of my paychecks. In the past there had never been any trouble with pay ment of expenses, but because a photographer rented a car to help photograph yell practice at LSU we have undergone punishment at the sports desk. Not being able to travel on negative money, the Tech and TCU games almost went unco vered. The athletic department was very gracious in providing for us for those trips and we are ever indebted. But something very hypocritical has happened. We have violated a major journalistic ethic by accepting freebies in order to see that the home crowd got a story in THEIR newspaper. The pros call this graft, and they teach it as a no-no in the local journalism dept, but yet they will not adequately cover the sports dept, to do the graft-free. Cooper has looked me in the eye and en couraged accepting freebies. Again there is the lack of staunch ness required in an editor. It’s a let us handle it here affair. Breedlove offered me a raise to cover my ex penses that were not being reim bursed. The IRS would enjoy that. They might also enjoy comparing wages to working hours. Notice how many fewer pages there are this year to read than last. Well the ads were tightened up to make up for production costs. From a tape of the last Student Pub Board meeting this is what I understand. The Batt is run 75% ads as often as possible (that is a Postal Dept. Max). Break-even point is about 52%. The Batt lost over $3,000 in Sep tember. The Batt turned a profit last year of $24,000.' They can’t tighten ads anymore. It’d be illegal and there would be just ads, no stories (almost that anyway). The surplus, built up over the years, amounting to $70,000 was used to purchase a computer (Cooper’s baby) which doesn’t work and no one knows how to use (except pos sibly Cooper). If it comes time in the near future to have your senators vote on whether to make the Batt an op tional item, vote no. Why? First you probably never knew it was there anyway, it probably won’t reduce your total student service fees, if you pay for it on an optional basis it is still not feasible to deliver per sonal copies everyone will still get them at distribution points while you pay, if nobody pays — no paper — at least student-voice wise and when advertisers learn the papers are not getting distribution they will slough off. Consequence: no paper. When something goes wrong with YOUR paper voice your opinion. This University is here for the stu dents, not the Board of Regents, the president or the director of student publications. Remember they work for you, you have a right to know. The sports department is trying to keep you updated on the greatest athletic year in A&M history. We’re being hindered in our effort. Vive le first amendment! PART III This is paid for by members of a committee of A&M students for freedom of the press. While the fol lowing people do not necessarily agree with the sentiments expres sed in the above editorial, they nevertheless support the idea of a free press even in an educational situation and acknowledge prob lems with the structure of the Bat talion as related to efficient opera tion of said newspaper and its rela tionship as a member of the ‘free press’. Sanford Russo—Campus Editor, Jack Holm—Photography Director, J Paul McGrath—Sports Editor, Lee Roy Leschper, Jr.—Campus Wri ter, Gary Baldarsi—Former Bat talion Photographer, Norine Harris —Former Battalion Writer, Cathy Randall—Former City Writer, Jerry Needham—Former City Writer, T. C. Gallucci—Former Production Manager, Mike Gagner —Freelance Photographer, Andy Hollingshead—Freelance Photo grapher, Will Anderson—President of the Society of Professional Jour nalists and Former Assistant Editor, Judy Baggett—Secretary of the Soc iety of Prof. Journ., Steve Gray— City Editor, Charles P. Edmondson—Sports Writer, Gery J. DiMarco—Former Reader, Don Hoff—Campus Writer, Tony Gallucci—Former Sports Editor, Peggy Ingram—Former Campus Writer, Steve Goble—Former Managing Editor, Jim Crawley— Former Campus Writer, Greg! Moses—Former Editor, Jerryj Geary—Former Campus Editor and Campus Writer, Jim James— Former General Manager of Stu dent Government Radio, P. Doug las Winship—Former News Editor, John D. Middleton—Columnist and Campus Writer, Jack Hodges—City Writer. ©1975 GALLUCO Paid Advertisement Remember 18-14? THE BATTALION FRIDAY, NOV. 7, 1975 Page 5 Ponies ride into Aggieland By PAT EDMONDSON Battalion Sports Writer Relaxed after both a mental and physical rest, the Texas Aggies hit the gridiron Saturday for a meeting with the Southern Methodist Uni versity Mustangs. The Ags were idle last week, a move made before the season by ABC Sports in order to televise the Arkansas-A&M con test in Little Rock, Dec. 6. Origi nally, the Razorbacks were to host the Aggies last week in Fayetteville. Saturday’s game will be the 58th between the two schools in a rivalry begun in 1916 with a 62-0 Aggie win in Dallas. Texas A&M leads the series 27-24-6 and holds a 13-11-2 mark in Kyle Field. The fourth-ranked Cadets carry an unblemished 7-0 record into the game. They moved up a notch in the respective polls after California’s upset thrashing of John McKay’s Southern California Trojans. Memories of last year’s rain- soaked 18-14 loss to Ponies the loom in the minds of players, coaches. and fans. It was at this precise mo ment last year that the Aggies had moved back into the familiar number four slot before the Mus tangs virtually shattered all A&M hopes of a Jan. 1 trip to the Cotton- Bowl. In last year’s decision, the Mus tangs jumped out to a 16-0 lead in the first half on Oscar Roan’s 14 yard run on a fumble recovery. A 21-yard field goal by Ted Thompson and a 20 yard run by quarterback Ricky Wes son tallied the scoring for the Mus tangs. A&M’s Jerry Honore scored two touchdowns to close the gap at 16-14, but a safety added two points to the SMU cause, securing the 18-14 margin. SMU is 3-5, coming off a last- minute challenge before bowing to the Texas Longhorns in Dallas. Until their match with Texas Tech, they had alternated every other game with opponents. They opened with a 14-7 narrow win over Wake Forest, followed by decisive wins over Houston, 26-16, and the TCU Horned Frogs, 28-13. Their losses came to nationally ranked Florida, 41-14, West Virginia, 28-22, Rice, 28-17, Texas Tech, 37-20, and last week’s fall to Texas. Once again, the Aggies find themselves leading the nation in de fense. The Maroon Maulers have been susceptible to an average of only 62.7 yards a game rushing. This is quite an impressive figure in that the nation’s football teams are av eraging more than 200 yards per game rushing. An ironic sidelight is that defen sive tackles Jimmy Dean of A&M and Toxie Beavers of SMU will not see action because of injuries. Both played on the same high school team at Brazoswood. Dean cut a tendon in his left thumb in a dor mitory accident while Beavers suf fered an ankle injury in the Texas game. Filling in for the injured Dean will be David Bairington, a sopho more from Ft. Worth who has seen limited action. Steve Spitzen- herger, a sophomore from Spring Branch is expected to see action at the same position. Beavers will he replaced by Dane Rasmussen, a freshman from Pam- pa. The powerful SMU offensive at tack will be led by heralded running back Wayne Morris, who tacked on 202 yards in last week’s loss to Texas. Also present in the Mustang huddle will be the versatile quar terback Ricky Wesson, who has thrown for six touchdowns and rushed for 458 yards. David Bostick the converted fullback to linebacker will likely see action at both offense and defense. Leading the Aggie backfield will be quarterback David Shipman. Shipman is healthy now and should be at full strength. The former all- Stater from Odessa Permian has been ailing lately from a slightly pul led hamstring received in the Baylor game. Freshman George Woodard makes his second starting appearance at fullback, flanked by halfbacks Skip Walker and Bubba Bean. The offensive line will consist of ends Richard Osborne and Carl Roaches, tackles Dennis Swilley and Glenn Bujnoch, guards Frank Myers and Bruce Welch, and center Henry Tracy. The defensive line will be led by ends Tank Marshall and Blake Schwarz and tackles Edgar Fields and David Bairington. Starting linebackers will be Ed Siminoni, Garth Ten Napel, and Grady Wilkerson. Pat Thomas, William Thompson, Lester Hayes, and Jackie Williams will provide the secondary cover age. A crowd in excess of 50,000 is ex pected in Kyle Field. Field seats have been sold out since mid- October, and South endzone bleachers and standing-room tickets will be sold at the G. Rollie White Coliseum. Kick-off is slated for 1:30 p.m., and the game will be aired over KTAM radio. Frank Fallon and Dave Smith will provide the com- mentary. Women volleyballers go to Arlington for tourney SPECIAL, r^uUrly *2.^ oil qj £|4os SRT By CAROLYN BLOSSER Battalion Sports Writer Texas A&M’s women’s volleyball team will compete in the twelve- team U.T. Arlington Invitational Friday and Saturday at Arlington. The tournament will be played a new way this year. Instead of the usual double elimination, the teams have now been divided into two six-team divisions, with each play ing every member in its division once. The two teams with the best won-lost records from each division will then go on and play in the finals. Coach Laura Kitzmiller likes this new type of tournament play be cause it enables teams to play more against each other, thus preventing early elimination. On Friday, A&M will start off by playing Texas Tech at 4 p.m., fol-> lowed by games with the University of Texas at 6 p.m. and Texas Wo man’s University at 8 p.m. A&M will conclude their divisional games Saturday, playing Sam Houston State University at 9 a.m. and Texas Wesleyan College at 11 a.m. The championship game will be played at 6 p.m. that evening. Coach Kitzmiller sees this tour nament as an important preparation for the state tournament coming up the following weekend. “I don’t really care how we place in this tournament, said Coach Kitzmiller. “I care specifically how well we play. We re kind of using this tourmament as a warm-up for State next weekend. If we can re main well-organized and play with some confidence, I think we ll do all right,” she added. The Aggies boast a very young and strong team with the emphasis being on team work. Three of the starters, Tracie Chandler, Dianne Douglas, and Ann Higgins are all freshmen. Higgins played at Lee High School in Midland last year and made all-State. Sophomore Jo Ann Nichols and juniors Mardi Alexander and Rita Kuntz make up the rest of the start ing team. Alexander is a transfer student from Southwest Texas State University. Kuntz, the head captain of the Ags, is best known for her overpowering serve, a definite asset in the Aggie attack. Looking ahead, the women have some very crucial tournaments com ing up. The Texas Aggie basketball team will have a scrimmage Saturday morning at 9 on the main floor of G. Rollie White Coliseum. The public is invited, and there will he no charge. If you covet the best, you can afford to have it. HP-21. This scientific calculator weighs a mere 6 ounces and slips effortlessly into your shirt pocket. Though smaller than most, it solves a remarkable range of problems. All the basic arithmetic and scientific functions... including logarithmic and trigonometric calculations. Choose degree or radian mode. Polar/rectangular coordinate conversion. A separate addressable memory with full register arithmetic. Automatic decimal point positioning capability with selective round-off. It even spells (“E-r-r-o-r”) when you’ve asked it to.do the impossible! Includes accessories and of course, Hewlett-Packard’s uncompromising quality. Now $99.95 HP-21 From HEWLETT-PACKARD, manufacturers of the most advanced, quality calculators in the industry. LOUPOT’S N0RTHGATE ACROSS FROM THE POST OFFICE © 1975 Application Calculators Incorporated University Calculator Center ® AGGIES! Douglas Jewelry offers Student ID Discounts! 15% off of *50“ or more 10% off of under *50“ CASH PURCHASE ONLY 212 N. MAIN 822-3119 DOWNTOWN BRYAN AGGIELAND ’76 FALL SEMESTER DEADLINES NOVEMBER 14 listhe LAST DAY TO RESERVE PAGES in the AGGIELAND ’76. NOTE, THAT ONLY RECOGNIZED UN IVERSITY CLUBS AND ORGANIZA TIONS WILL BE PERMITTED TO PURCHASE PAGES IN THE AG GIELAND. DECEMBER 1 is the LAST DAY T0£AI FOR PAGES THAT HAVE BEEN RESERVED IN THE AGGIELAND. DECEMBER 19 is the LAST DAY FOR SENIOR & GR ADUATES MAKE-UPS AT UNIVERSITY STUDIOS. IF THERE ARE ANY DUESTIONS CALL 845-2611 between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.