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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 1976)
Battalion Vol. 68 No. 82 College Station, Texas Thursday, Feb. 26, 1976 SG proposes $16.50 for football tickets Floating Illusionist Photo courtesy of Steve Coble || Levitation was one of the illusions Andre Kole brought to Rudder Auditorium last night. Spon sored by the Campus Crusade for Christ, Kole discussed the supernatural and the Bible during the show. He said the last few centuries have seen an increase in the severity and frequency of wars, earthquakes and famines; signs the Book of Matthew links with the Second Coming. In 1974, Texas A&M University students paid nothing extra for football tickets to Aggie home games. The cost was covered by student service fees. In 1975, students paid $10 in addition to the student service fees to see home games. In 1976, an estimated 20,000 A&M stu dents may have to pay an additional $16.50 for season tickets. This bill was passed at last night’s student senate meeting, and is subject to the ap proval of the Athletic Council and Presi dent Jack K. Williams. The approved proposal was one of three athletic funding options presented to the senate by Bill Flores, vice-president of fi nancial affairs. The three options were as follows: 1. $15 optional ticket price with $120,000 student service fee subsidy. (No reduction in student service fees.) 2. $16.50 optional ticket price with $90,000 student service fee subsidy. ($1.60 reduction in student service fees.) 3. $21 ticket price with no student service fee subsidy. (Approxi mately $4.80 reduction in student service fees.) Flores said the goal of the senate in ap proving this plan is to gradually adopt a policy of a separate users fee. This fee would only be required of those students who wish to purchase season football tic kets. The optional $16.50 for season tickets plus the service fee would net the athletic department $420,000 to help cover the in creased costs of not only major sports such as football, baseball and basketball, but also women’s athletics and the payments on Wofford-Cain Hall. The approved proposal is a compromise between the athletic committee’s request (option three) and the student fee allocation committee’s (option one). Raj Kent introduced a bill to change the present on-campus bookstore’s policy per taining to used-book sales. The present pol icy of the bookstore is to buy books back from students at 50 per cent of the new- book price and re-sell them at 75 per cent of that price. This policy gives the store a net profit of 25 per cent. The plan proposed by Kent is to buy the books at 60 per cent of the new-book price and sell them for 65 per cent of that price. This gives the bookstore a 5 per cent profit. This plan was passed by the senate and will be recommended to the Bookstore Advisory Committee. Approximately 34 per cent of the profits made by the bookstore are returned to stu dent organizations on campus. The largest single argument against adopting this pol icy was that the student organizations would lose this money if a reduction in bookstore profits was made. Kent argued, however, that of 110 organizations on cam- S uperintendent pus only 16 receive more than one-fourth of their funding from the bookstore’s profits. Profits would not be significantly re duced because much of the income of the bookstore comes from the upstairs portion containing gifts and supplies, said Duane Thompson, vice-president for rules and regulations. In other business covered by the senate it was announced that Phil Williams will be taking over for Scott Sherman as manager of the student radio station. It was also announced that Aggie Muster will be held on April 21, at 5:30 p.m. on the east side of the Systems Building. The featured speaker will be Charlie Scruggs, vice- president and executive editor of the Prog ressive Farmer magazine. Fouzi Ben-Ali was appointed as graduate off-campus senator to fill one of several vac ancies. Also, the first reading of the Stu dent Radio By-Laws was made and discus sed briefly. Whether or not to add a monetary stipend to the Thomas S. Gathwright Academic Excellence Award was discussed and postponed until the next meeting. Due to the lack of time, a special meeting was called for March 3 for action to be taken on the proposed revisions of the student body constitution. — Randy Dusek and Louis Hejtmanek \ike path studies ■^B-CS groups hope for federal funds County schools gone By T.C. GALLUCCI c following article is third in a series dealing with I studies to establish a bikeway system in the frCollege Station area. Part three covers a plan nitted by the A&M Wheelman Committee and the lironmental Action Council. Remember Anne? She’s the green-eyed |e-year old who has to ride her bike day to school. People feel sorry for [because she has to travel nine blocks in rning rush hour traffic. And she has to lit without the aid of safety bicycle lanes. feme people in the Bryan-College Sta- community have expressed concern j Anne and children like her. These [>ple, in the form of the U niversity Traffic el, the League of Women Voters, sev- urban planning students, the A&M eelman Committee and the Environ- Mntal Action Council, decided to take ac- ftioi] to provide bike paths in the area. They jducted studies, presented them to D. ■ Williamson, Supervisory Planning En- Jieer for the Bryan District, and now are liting to see if the plan will be eligible for | million dollars of federal funds. JThe Environmental Action Council and le A&M Wheelman Committee proposed [system compiled by Timothy L. Rose, a ember of both organizations, j Members of the groups took a traffic funt on Sept. 30, 1975, of pedestrians and ^cycles entering and exiting the A&M Impusat 11 major entrances. The League [Women Voters took a similar survey two eeks earlier concentrating on traffic near leA&M Consolidated schools. J The study, which took place between J30a.m. and 6 p.m., revealed a total vol- ne of 10,070 bicyclists and 9,075 pedest rians. Rose said the count was made on a Tuesday but traffic is heavier on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday since more classes are scheduled on those days. The 11 entrances monitored were: New Main Drive, South Bizzell, Throckmorton, South Houston, Joe Routt Drive, Old Main Drive, North Houston, Ashbury, Ireland, Spence and North Bizzell. The count does not include bikes and pedestrains heading out University Avenue toward the veteri nary complex. Rose estimated that the traf fic missed at the unmonitored entrances would not affect the total counts by more than 5 per cent. Specific recommendations and problems noted by the two groups were: New Main Drive/Bizzell intersection — Bicyclists have difficulty negotiating chang ing lanes to turn. South Bizzell/Jersey/Timber intersec tion — Automobiles cut in front of bicycles on their turns. Bicycles cannot trip the light signal from Timber and have long waits. Throckmorton/Jersey/Dexter intersec tion — Bicyclists do not stop when exiting either Dexter or Throckmorton. Most drivers and bicyclists fail to signal turns. South Houston/Jersey intersection — Traffic patterns are totally disordered since nearly all bikes must turn. The bicyclists neither signal nor stop. Old Main Drive/FM2154 intersection — Traffic is light, but the unpatrolled 40 mile-per-hour speed limit makes it danger ous. By JOE SCARMARDO . When Dec. 31, 1978 arrives, Brazos County School Superintendent Jack Streetman will probably be out of a jol>—or what there is of one. The Texas Legislature last June ap proved a bill which will discontinue fund ing of county school superintendent offices in counties which no longer have a county school district. The last Brazos County schools, Kurten and Fairview Elemen- taries, were closed by the county in 1968. Streetman’s remaining duties include approving school district boundary lines and authorizing purchase orders for school buses and related equipment. Those duties will be transferred to the individual school districts, Bryan and A&M Consolidated, when the county office is discontinued. “There are practically no duties left,” Streetman said. Streetman, who was elected in 1974, said all rural students living outside the city limits of Bryan and College Station now attend schools in those cities. However, a few go to the Navasota school system. W. D. Bunting, a former Brazos County school superintendent, said the position is not automatically abolished by the legisla tion. But, the nearly $29,000 received an nually from the state would have to be re- Jack Streetman placed with local funds if the office were to continue, he said. County Judge Bill Vance has said the county commissioners are not considering continuing the office and will abolish it when funding ends. Because of his few duties, Streetman was appointed as coordinator of the Bryan School District’s adult education program when he was elected in 1974. Several states, instead of phasing out the office of county school superintendent, have abolished all school districts within the county and placed the administration of both city and rural schools under the juris diction of the county itself. North Houston/University Drive inter section — Since there is a 5:1 ratio of bikes using the street compared to the sidewalk, there needs to be a better way for the bikes to cross University between College Main and N. Houston. North Bizzell — The entrance to parking lot 50 where crosswalks have been placed is congested from 7:30-8:30 a.m. with over 400 pedestrains and 225 bicycles. An alter nate entrance is suggested. Since twice as many bicycles than pedestrians use the pathway, a separation of the two groups is needed. A guarded crosswalk at the Col- Index A&M offensive football co ordinator announced that the Aggies will discontinue using the Wishbone-T. Page 6 Traffic signal installation at the intersection of Jersey Street and Wellborn Road should be gin in the next month. Page 5 Academic Affairs Committee considered proessor evaluations and honors courses. Paged The history of women at A&M, is recounted in ‘The first 100 years.’ Page 2 Weather THE FORECAST for Thursday and Friday is continued fair and mild with the high both days, 77. The low tonight 45. Southerly winds will be at 5-8 mph. All Faiths Chapel lacks state funding lege View apartments exit and University Drive is needed to protect the 2,200 pedestrians and bicyclists crossing there daily. It is also recommended that a break in the curb be placed on the sidewalk along Bizzell heading north by the Zachry build ing so bikes do not have to travel against the traffic. Jersey and University — Due to heavy traffic, a bicycle path should be constructed along the north and south sides of campus. These recommendations have been filed with the Planning Department and will be compiled with others into a final draft that should be submitted to the public during the first of March. Tomorrow, part three will cover the system and data compiled by three Urban Planning graduate stu dents, Robert L. Bright, Chuck Fuhs and Steve Richardson. $126 in bookstore profits bring John Birch programs By TIM SAGER Students for Responsible Expression (SRE) is using $126 of last year’s bookstore profits to present films and speakers booked through the John Birch Society. The films come through the society’s American Opinion Bookstore in Houston and the speakers through the American Opinion Speakers Bureau. SRE was approved as a student organiza tion and granted the bookstore money al though it does not charge dues. Collection of dues from organization members is re quired of all recognized student organiza tions. Dr. Carolyn Adair of the Board of Stu dent Organizations Approval said that this was an oversight and that the SRE would be required to collect dues from its 12 mem bers before spending the bookstore funds. SRE plans to end the year with a surplus of $148, according to reports filed with the Student Finance Center. All of the bookstore funds are scheduled to be spent, however, or they would revert to MSC con trol. Terry Hunt Tooley, president of the SRE, said a substantial number of the club’s members are also members of the John Birch Society but the two groups are not officially related. By SANDY RUSSO The All f aiths Chapel has no funds for maintenance. A decision made by the attorney general of Texas in the 1950’s makes it question able for the University to maintain the building with state funds. When the chapel was donated to the school by the Former Students Association, it was given for the purpose of religious activities. The attorney general’s decision says no building with its sole purpose being re ligious activity may be funded by state funds. The former students gave the chanel to A&M in 1957 with no provision made for maintenance. Although the ruling was al ready on the books, said Buck Weirus, di rector of the Association. Although there was a chapel fund ac cumulated over the years, it could not han dle any major repairs to the building, said Logan E. Weston, administrator for the chapel and campus religious director. The University has done day-to-day main tenance on the building since 1957. Such things as replacement of light bulbs, sweep ing, mopping and general cleaning is done by University maintenance crews. Major repairs to the building didn’t be come evident until two years ago when the University conducted maintenance surveys on the chapel. The first repair was replacement of the carpet at a cost of $1,000. The $1,000 was collected by the Former Students. The roof was leaking and repair funds for this came from chapel fund and dona tions collected by Weston. There still are major repairs to be made. The air conditioning system is obsolete, with parts becoming unobtainable, Weston said. Repair to the system is prohibitive because the University maintenance shops are making parts as they wear out in the system, he said. To put the chapel on the University chilled water system, which supplies air conditioning for most campus buildings, would cost about $50,000, said Howard Perry, associate vice president of student affairs. The air conditioning will hold for an other 10 years, Weston said. Weston, in trying to build a maintenance fund, has started charging from $10 to $20 for chapel rental. He schedules wed dings, the major revenue producer, as much as six months in advance to maximize us age of the chapel. Weirus suggests that the Association re consider the restrictions on the use of the building so the University can hold classes in it. At least it would be legal for the University to maintain the building that way, Weirus said. The All Faiths Chapel has been a familiar part of the A&M campus for twenty years. Since it was built there have been no funds available for Staff photo by Douglas Winship maintenance. Repairs have been on an item to item basis with funds being donated by former students and others.