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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 24, 1976)
Ot ^ THE BATTALION FF DAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1976 ^ - • Incident amusing, irritating Parking on campus irustrating Editor: On Wednesday, Sept. 22, about 10 people in the lobby of the Cyc lotron Institute building observed an amusing but irritating incident take place in the parking lot. Two campus policemen were in the process of ticketing cars illegally parked in staffspaces in Lot 5. As one of the policemen was completing a ticket, the driver of the car, a shapely young blonde, arrived on the scene. It appeared that she began to explain the grievous circumstances which had caused her to park illegally. Her argument must have been persua sive, because the officer folded up the ticket and put it in his pocket. It is interesting to speculate on the outcome of the same incident had the driver of the car been unattrac tive or, even better (or worse), male. — Mike Hughes i i i ' •i . ■! I i ■1 i ; £ i ! iif i : Cbe Battalion Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editor or of the Thr Associated Press is entitled e\clusi\cl\ to ,l ' < ' " M ' lo1 " "lliid writer of the article and arc not necessarily those of the University m " s dispatched credited to it .n not ot i>i"isi rin 1 , || ,1,,.,. administration or the Board of Regents. The Battalion is a non-profit. ' self-supporting enterprise operated by students as a university and Second-ClasMxistaKe ^lid at Colle K e Station, Tcvis community newspaper. Editorial policy is determined by the editor. M CaMBtLlt T i. r ri. U x. prti ir’Y The Associated Press, Southwestern Journalism Congress LETTERS I OLICY Editor Jerry Needham Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are Managing Editor Richard Chamberlain subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The editorial Campus Editor Lisa Junod staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does not guaran- City Editor Jamie Aitken tee to publish any letter. Each letter must be signed, show the Sports Editor Paul Arnett address of the writer and list a telephone number for verifica- Photography Director Ke i v ' n ' enn ® r News Editor L ‘oyd Lietz llc,n ’ ' Asst News Editor Debby Krenek Address correspondence to Listen Up, The Battalion, Room Features Editor Tammy Long 217, Services Building, College Station, Texas / 7843, Assistant to the Editor Dan Fontaine Reporters Carolyn Blosser, Lee Roy Leschper, Represented nationally by National Educational Advertising Ser\ic- Paul McGrath, Martha Mugg, Le Ann Roby, Lynn Rossi, Dan es, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. Sullins Photographers Carl Key, Cathy Ruedinger Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester; $33.25 per school year; Members of the Student Publications Board are: Bob C. Rogers,. $35 oo per full year All subscriptions subject to 5% sales tax. Advertis- Chairman, Joe Arredondo, Tom Dawsey, Dr. Gary Halter, Dr. John U ing rates furnished on request. Address: The Battalion, Room 217, Hanna, Roger Miller, Dr. Clinton A. Phillips, Jerri Ward. Services Building, College Station, Texas 77843. r ~. . . Director of Student Publications: Gael L. Cooper By CHARLENE ADAMS Yesterday I appeared before the Traffic Appeals Panel in the MSC presumably to “appeal what I con sidered to be an unjust ticket. How ever, I was informed by Mr. Larry D. Pollock, Area Co-ordinator for Student Affairs, that it was not the duty of the Panel to decide the “just ness” of a ticket, only the ticket s “validity.” In view of these Merriam-Webster definitions: appeal: To call upon another to decide a question or vindicate one s rights. just: Righteous or equitable in ac tion or judgment; impartial; or leg ally right. valid: Founded on truth or fact; capable of being justified; having legal strength or force, I quickly realized the futility of arguing my case. Instead, I amused myself with a philosophical discussion with Mr. Pollock concerning the University’s practice of issuing more parking permits than spaces available. Selling more parking permits than available spaces is a fraudulent prac tice and a felony by law, right? WRONG! Good of TAMU is techni cally covered by paragraph 5, page 1 of the Texas A6-M University Vehicle Regulations which states: “The registration of all vehicles operated on the campus, except visitors’ vehicles, is required but registration in itself is no guarantee of a parking space near the place where one works, resides or attends class.” TAMU is also covered in practice because the unsuspecting students buy their parking permits in good faith and do not even get copies of the Texas A&M University Vehicle Regulations until after they have purchased the permits! I have carefully presented this background information to explain the following. Mr. Pollock told me, and I quote, “The University Regu lations are perfectly clear on this one important point. You do not pur chase ‘parkingpermits’; you pay ‘reg istration fees’. All this ‘registration fee’ entitles you to do is operate a motor vehicle on campus, according to the University Regulations. ’ And the University Regulations booklet is the highest authority in such matters, is it not? That is what the University Police say and should they not know? They are the ones who issue the tickets for the violation thereof. Therefore, although this might shock you all, no one has a parking permit, according to the University Regulations. Therefore, although this might shock not only Mr. Pollock but also Readers' forum the University Police, every single ticket issued by the respected and venerated University Police is leg ally null and void because it states in plain print “A&M permit, “current A&M permit, and “loss of permit. But what kind of permit? Answer that question with another question. What were you doing when you got the ticket? Right! Parking! If this is not enough, just look at the regis tration fee” stickers on your windshields, where they say in bold, black print “PARKING PERMIl. I rest my case. In this bicentennial year of hom age to our forefathers who made this country a country and not just a British colony through their rebel lion, wouldn’t it be fitting for the TAMU student body to cast aside their indifference and lethargy by showing their dissatisfaction with the absurd and frustrating parking situation by, say, removing every parking ticket they can get their hands on and mailing them to the University Police? What would this accomplish? Hopefully it would cause frustration for the University Police comparable to that which they are causing us. What could they do about it? They could reissue new tickets, assuming that the same offenders repeated their offense, but what are the chances that the originally ticketed offenders would ever all be finally caught? They could not simply mail the tickets to the offenders, because the offenders must be caught in the act, signified by the actual ticketing of their vehicles on the date and at the time of their offense! In other words, all they can do is catch you removing the tickets from the cars! I am certain that the powers that be would never uphold the prectice selling nothing for $36.00 a year. And surely they have more courage than to hide behind their own special “Catch-22.” The University’s practice of sell ing more permits than spaces avail able is a common one and is logical since all of the cars with permits will never be on campus at any one time. But it could be that the U niversity has overextended itself in this prac tice. Howard Perry, associate vice president for student services,ssii this morning that “we have not this point put a limit on thenmkt: of permits issued. There is spa? available for everyone. Granlet they’re not the most convenie? spaces. Most of them areinll* periphery lots -- like the tv across Wellborn Road and 1 behind Kyle Field.” Even though the parking tion is frustrating, and the Units sity seems to be dragging its feelii solving the problem, I must]* out that your suggestion aboclri moving parking tickets fromcanj in violation of the law and wfl probably only impede progress* solving the problem. Perry said some minor merits will be made next wee!ad that the Traffic Panel will meet* Oct. 6 to make some recou. mendations on boundary , merits to Dr. John Kolduspicepi*. ident of student services — EJilj Slouch by Jim Earle It s ndir dmii 'am leml ed il see? ialSl strati iron; /enti le ci lis tl ■ere tfthe The TAT bout of lorot ersit; :w w al raw 1 undr ageth “Before we begin, are you sure you don’t have a sick grand' mother, a dental appointment, a ride leaving early, ora 1 in your family?” / Sun Theatres 333 University (Above Loupot’s) 846-9808 Super-Grody Movies Double-Feature Every Week Special Midnight Shows Friday & Saturday S2 per person No one under 18 Escorted Ladies Free $2 With This Ad BOOK STORE & 25c PEEP SHOWS ! Pack’s Plaster & Ceramics Fall Sale Monday-Saturday Sept. 27 — Oct. 2 20% off on all unpainted plaster, candles, candle rings Vz price on all box purses, hardware, prints & all kits Monday - Sat. 9 a.m.-9 p.m. After Sale: Regular hours: Tuesday, Wed., Thurs. 5 p.m.-9 p.m. Saturday - 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday - 2 p.m.-5 p.m. Dance every night Music by RAMRODS COUNTRY SHOW La Fiesta Ballroom 1601 Groesbeck Ladies Free 8:30 till 12:00 AMO THtR-ELFO tHA T coVW l Feeu i aaakje- 'A R. x E Fow> fN 0 AA. R- <-AR.XE.f2> ReS PC.KSEL ? co e *—l_j X. _ __ _ —i c A K e FL FbR-D A R. T E Fo«.b POT, -q ERJLVj FANTASTIC. GrVWfcPLAM, HuH! V. co H Y f^ocK-V, YOU suiPffc/e-y t-t-OuJ co u c-b You - t+E-H , Kf-H R T E Bikers, walkers battle for space A&M has become the battle ground between bicyclists and pedestrians this year. Every hour on MYVF days and every hour and a half on T days, you can see the faces of the warriors. You can look into the glassy-eyed homicidal stares of the speed man iacs on two wheels. You can hear the curses from pedestrians thrown at the backs of disappearing bikers. There is a problem here. Top of the Tower Texas A&M University Pleasant Dining — Great View SERVING LUNCHEON BUFFET 11:00 A.M. - 1:30 P.M. Each day except Saturday $2.50 DAILY $3.00 SUNDAY Serving soup sandwich 11:00 A.M. - 1:30 P.M. Monday - Friday 81.50 plus drink Available Evenings For Special University Banquets Department of Food Service Texas A&M University “Oualitv First” Chief Luther of Campus Security made a conservative estimate of 10,000 bicyles on campus. Since there are only 28,000 students, more than a third are on wheels. Not only is the campus becoming too crowded to handle 18,000 pedestrians and 10,000 bicyclists at one time; but no one is courteous enough to make it work. Pedestrians saunter down the middle of the sidewalk dreaming about their own little world. When they hear the whirr of an approach ing bike, they shift; first one direc tion, then the other. Trying to sec ond guess pedestrians is like playing Russian Roulette with a loaded re volver. Or if they aren’t drifting alone istef right nppo iulti-: lort ( Hov imht Alvi re mi nd-wl ited a nd sa irm B ode r on A: Evai iorti ie un: lie in fety 1 id no nmar Evai ek oi nion. cilitie ance, lallot syst I KB V A Steve Reis ii down the middle of the mall, pedest rians move in groups of five or six. It’s as though they are courting disas ter. Large groups make better targets. And if a hiker flies by too fast and infringes on someone’s personal space; disaster! Curses and epithets are hurled like poisoned darts at the backs of those $%&$$ speed de mons. So dreamy-eyed walkers come waddling out of buildings or around blind corners without bothering to look for oncoming traffic. And they have the audacity to blame the bicy clist. But the bikers are not snow-white innocent babes in arms either. They flash across campus as though they owned the place. They treat the Academic Mall like a race track for a demolition derby. Bikers seem to pick out small girls and seniors in the Corps as victims. The former are too small to retaliate CLASS OF ’78 Spurs And Chains Available PACKAGE DEAL. $ 198 95 PRICE AFTER SEPT. 30 GOES UP TO $ 218 95 Combat Boots Available In All Sizes Victor’s of College Station 201 COLLEGE MAIN 846-8611 and the latter are worried like W about their new boots. In crowded areas, between clas es, both walkers and bikers seenk can be more inconsiderate. Thoseit wheels steer their vehicles ofdooi into solid walls offlesh, hoping-. opening instead of dismounting)# walking their bikes. Those on feet mill aimlesslyaW blocking the walkway for other rail ers as well as bikers. But night is the real horror Out of the blackness, silef speedsters come without warm? and without headlight. Ifhesh chance to meet a pedestrian, walker will be sideswiped beforelu realizes he’s been attacked. And not only walkers conde* those on two wheels; car driversi also. Stop signs, one-way sired signs, yield signs and sidewalk mean nothing to bikers. After all they own the campus. They make left turns in front cars and other hikers as welfunli thieves, there is no honor araoi bicyclists. What to do. Should bike tires* slashed and handlebars Should the campus cops patrolde university looking for flagrajj violations of human rights? Sboil pedestrians be banned from pus? Maybe consideration is thekev Then again, maybe if there isan out war, the better man will win Survival of the fittest and all AUTHENTIC CHINESE FOOD LUNCH SPECIALS $1.95 and up Served Every Fri., Sat. & Sunday DINNER: Tuesday thru Sunday Closed Mondays HONG KONG RESTAURANT 3805 S. TEXAS AVE. Between Burger King and 7 Eleven Store 846-8345 WED. & THURS. SPECIAL TACOS 3 for 89C 2323 S. Texas 693 4295 (Between K-Mart & Gibsons) PEPE LOPEZj TEQUILA ! The Spirit of Mexico. ■ Available in White and GoIrL M ■■■■■■■ Ftepe Lopez Tequila —80 Proof-Brown Formm Distiller s Import Co . N Y, N Y ©1976