he Battalion
68 No. 90
College Station, Texas
Thursday, Mar. 11, 1976
enate considering bill
endorse ward system
I By DEBBIE KILLOUGH
| and LILLIAN FOREMAN
le A&M Student Senate is considering
IIi ! it would endorse the ward system
he April 3 College Station municipal
tins.
in ,it-large system of election is now
In the city which allows residents to
In each council seat. A ward system
Ipermit residents to vote on only one
II seat, representing the district in
| the voter resides.
lollege Station voters approve the re-
lum calling for a ward system, the
I campus would become a separ ate
din College Station.
I proposal was introduced by Jerri
|, senate vice-president of external af-
s.
k says the system would provide bet-
Ipresentation for the citizens of Col-
|Station, encourage a well-balanced
louncil and promote student involve
ment in the decision-making process of city
government.
The senate will vote on the bill March 24.
In other action, a University System
Student Board proposal was passed unani
mously by the senate.
The Texas A&M University System
comprises A&M, Prarie View A&M,
Moody College of Marine Sciences and
Maritime Resources and Tarleton State
University. Each school will have two rep
resentatives except for Moody which will
have only one.
The seven delegates will represent their
respective student bodies before the A&M
Board of Regents to voice student opinions
and views. Every student senate of the
respective schools will have to approve the
proposal.
Also approved was a Departmental Hon
ors Program for undergraduate students,
subject to the approval of the Academic
Affairs Council.
Accelerated students making a grade of B
or above would be eligible for the program.
A student’s curriculum will change under
the Honors Program. There will be an
additional essay that will be submitted to
his department .
The Honors Program will also be desig
nated on the student’s transcript and dip
loma.
The Football Distribution Resolution
was discussed by the senate, but because of
See related editorial, page 2.
what some senators termed “loopholes,”
the voting was postponed until the next
meeting.
The proposed resolution includes a
reinstatement of the senority system with
various changes. One of the senators said
these changes are needed because there
will be 22,809 student coupon books avail
able next year. The expected enrollment
for the fall semester is 27,500. For this
reason, no guarantee of spouse or date tic
kets can be made.
The senority system will be based on the
first two numbers of a students ID number.
For example, tickets for a student with an
ID number beginning with 73 (seniors) will
be distributed on Monday prior to the
game. Tickets for students with an ID
number beginning with 74 (juniors) will be
distributed on Tuesday.
In another proposed change, transfer
students, including graduate students,
would be classified as freshmen under the
ticket distribution system.
The senate unanimously passed the
Radio Board Revision Proposal which will
allow the broadcasting of paid political ad
vertisements and student editorials on stu
dent radio.
Scott Sherman, former station manager
of the student radio said the advertise
ments would bring extra revenue for the
station, and a greater involvement of stu
dents in politics. Editorials will not be
given by the station, but by students only.
Sidewalk music
The Bryan-College Station Chamber Orchestra en
tertained passersby Tuesday by the MSC fountain.
The group was practicing for its performance that
evening in the Rudder Auditorium.
\tudents
\llowed in
egents’
eeting
jiit' Texas A&M System Board of Re-
s will meet March 23. The meeting
nsat8:30 a.in. in the meeting room of
Regents Quarters, adjacent the
norial Student Center,
udents may attend and speak at Board
■tings unless the Board goes into execu-
| session. The Board can call an execu-
J session only to discuss personnel or
[ain contractual matters,
me agenda for the meeting, which will
■kdd the day after students return from
ling break, has not yet been released.
Phil Gramm . . .
‘Inflation, like pregnancy,
dependent on only one cause’
. . . U.S. Senate candidate
By DENISE EDMONDS
The problems threatening the U.S. free
enterprise system are inflation, unem
ployment, and the energy crisis said Dr.
Phil Gramm, U. S. Senate candidate.
A conservative Democrat, Gramm took a
leave-of-absence from teaching economics
at Texas A&M last May to challenge in
cumbent Lloyd Bentsen. Bentsen is up for
re-election in the May Democratic pri
mary.
Speaking to a capacity crowd last night,
33-year-old Gramm explained the problem
of inflation. “The occurrence of inflation,
like the occurrence of pregnancy, is de
pendent upon numerous factors but has
only one cause,” he said.
Gramm also said that inflation occurs
when the demand of goods and services
grows faster than the supply of goods and
services can grow.
Gramm has been teaching economics at
A&M since receiving his Ph.D. at the Uni
versity of Georgia in 1967. He has taught
courses such as money and banking, and a
graduate course in national income
analysis.
Consumers are suffering from high
prices because the federal government has
printed new money to make up for abun
dant governmental spending, Gramm said.
“We can stop inflation, ” Gramm said. He
said that if we can reduce federal growth
and spending 3 per cent each year from the
present 9 per cent annual rate of increase,
we could reach a balanced budget by 1980.
Decreasing federal growth and spending
means some things will have to be cut—like
foreign aid, Gramm said.
The time has come, he said, for the U.S.
to call on its allies to help halt spreading
communism.
The President’s program dealing with
unemployment has not been very effective,
he said
With 7.6 per cent of the labor force un
employed, Gramm said that welfare and
unemployment should be combined.
Those who are not eligible for welfare
should work, and those on welfare should
work if a job is found for them.
“When someone’s got something for no
thing, some poor tax payer is getting no
thing for something.”
Gramm said the need for new jobs is in
the private sector, for public consumption
needs. “You don’t put a man to work by
spending, you must invest,” said Gramm
referring to the federal government not in
vesting in industry.
Gramm said that balancing the budget,
and putting the Americans back to work can
be accomplished by lowering interest
rates, slowing federal growth and spend
ing, and freeing capital. “If we’ve learned
anything in the ’70 s, it’s that big business
doesn’t work,” said Gramm.
Gramm said that big business should be
controlled by lessening the government
regulations which will allow the small effi
cient businesses to compete.
The problem s the U.S. have had with the
Arabs concerning oil should be solved by
more production of domestic oil, Gramm
said.
Gramm’s answer for increasing domestic
oil production is to open the continental
shelf for drilling in Louisiana and Califor
nia, to strip mine, and to extract petroleum
from sand among the many possibilities.
r
Index
The A&M Young Democrats
elected new officers. Page 3.
Vice-President John Koldus has
officially recognized a second Iranian
students organization. Page 4.
The University Traffic Panel ac
cepted a bike path plan on campus.
Page 4.
Many A&M students at one time
lived on campus in tents. Page 6.
THE FORECAST for Thurs
day and Friday is mostly cloudy,
warm and windy. 20 per cent
chance rain today increasing to
40 per cent Friday. High Thurs
day 76; low tonight 62; high to
morrow 74.
V
Northgate parking lots resembles junkyard
By CE COWART
Off-campus parking in Northgate
jlooks like a junkyard.
Cars are packed in vacant lots, in
alleys behind buildings, even in res
idents’ yards. The entire Northgate
area north of University Drive, be
tween Wellborn Road and College
Avenue, is a prime parking lot for
Texas A&M students and faculty.
This is creating a problem for
businessmen, churchgoers, and
Northgate shoppers.
The people who seem to be caus
ing the inconvenience are dorm stu
dents who leave their cars in the
same spot for days at a time, students
who have all-day classes and don’t
wish to park on campus, or apart
ment dwellers who weren’t provided
enough parking spaces by their com
plex.
The parking problem at Northgate
has become a sore point to the busi
nessmen, residents, churches,
apartment complexes, and the Col
lege Station Police Department.
One businessman said it was in
considerate of students to hinder
businesses with illegal parking.
One realtor said, “The City Coun
cil is afraid to anger the students or
the University, so they d rather
dump the problem on we busi
nessmen.” Nearly all of the busi
nessmen refused to be identified.
Many suggest, the city should pass
more ordinances controlling on
street parking and that violators
should be towed away. It took three
years to get one area street changed
to oneway traffic.
One man commented, “Students
would park in Skaggs front door if
they could. ”
Skaggs-Albertsons in fact has
hired an off-duty officer to patrol its
parking lot.
Residents are concerned that the
parked cars are damaging private
property and endangering their
lives.
Residents have complained to the
police about cars parked up off the
curbs and in someone’s yard. Since it
is illegal to park on certain streets
most cars park in vacant lots where
they can’t be ticketed. Private own
ers of the lots may have the cars
towed away at the owner’s expense
($25-$30).
One 12-year resident of the
Northgate area recalled an incident
that happened about three years ago.
Staff photo by David McCarrolJ
VACANT LOT PARKING
Cars are often parked haphazardly on empty lots.
The street she lived on permitted
parking on both sides and it re
mained full all day. One day a small
trash fire started in the backyard of a
neighbor. The police and firemen ar
rived at the scene at the same time.
The police were coming from one
direction and the fire trucks from the
other, but there was only enough
room for one vehicle to get to the fire
because of the parked cars.
The police solved the problem by
backing down the street and letting
the fire trucks through. The fire was
put out with a minimum of damage to
the yard, but precious time had been
wasted. The neighbor commented
that if the house had been on fire,
someone probably would have died
by the time help arrived.
The Northgate businessmen and
residents generally think the Uni
versity has a parking problem and
consequently, the students are
forced to park in the streets. Police
men say the parking problem at
Northgate is caused by the Univer
sity but that it was falling into the
laps of the police department.
The police department has a full
time officer, Kathy Black, who pa
trols the Northgate area, specifically
to check parking violators.
She said, “I give out an average of
30 to 40 tickets a day,” Black said. In
January alone, 556 tickets were col
lected from the in Northgate area
alone. The month of February
brought in 643 tickets from the same
area. The fines are $3 for each viola
tion.
Some students have used their CB
radios to spot the officer giving out
the tickets or to find parking places in
the crowded on-campus lots.
“It is possible to get a ticket every'
hour or two during a day or over a
period of days,” said Officer Black.
She noted that a number of students
had asked her where they could
park, or complained that they
thought they had parked on Univer-
sity property. Black said the only
areas she does not ticket are the pri
vate lots that belong to the residents
and churches.
The churches notify violators that
they are on private property by giv
ing them warning notices. The
churches have the right to tow off
anyone who is not on business with
the church or who has a special
sticker. Most of the church lots have
signs posted or are in the process of
putting up signs.
The churches are asking students
to refrain from parking in the desig
nated lots during Sunday services or
on days when special meetings are
held. The church officials say they
sympathize with the students. But
one official made the comment that
the problem is beginning to look like
a monster—it’s getting out of hand.
The Campus Theatre is offering
the Circle Drive-In as a parking lot
for $5 a month. Stickers will be pro
vided for students who wish to pur
chase the permits. The Drive-In has
375 spaces that are marked but is
able to accommodate more cars.
Some reasons given by students
for parking in the Northgate area are:
—The charge for on-campus park
ing is too high. It costs $27 for a dorm
or day student parking for the
academic year or $15 for either fall or
spring semester.
—There aren’t enough parking
spaces on campus.
—The parking in the Northgate
area is closer to classes.
—The tickets given by the College
Station Police are cheaper ($2) than
those given by the University Police
($5).
“There are 500 to 600 available
parking spaces on campus any given
day at any given time,” said Virgil
Stover, University Traffic Panel
Chairman. Most of the lots are the
same distance to class as from the
Northgate area.”
He attributes the parking problem
to the many vehicles unregistered
with A&M and to the rapid growth
rate.
“We have the problems of a large
city, but our thinking is still small
city.”