Page 2 THE BATTALION THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 1977 Opinion/Commentary/Letters Bert Lance in position of pow New dormitory policy unjustified Editor: This letter is in reference to your article of January 25 on the new housing policy. The Administration at A&M has finally reached the ultimate in poor planning. The A&M On-Campus Housing system itself is a model of mis-management, with its preferen tial treatment to some students, policies of letting students violate dorm commitments far too late, and late notification of female students on dorm status. These, however, are trivial compared to the latest outrage. We refer to the new policy of letting 70 per cent of all dorm vacancies go to freshmen, while up perclassmen, regardless of how long they have waited, receive only 30 per cent. This new policy is grossly unfair for several reasons. First, the new method of accepting housing re quests 15 months prior to admission is a distinct advantage over the method most upperclassmen were forced to use. The reason for this new policy is that there are “so many variables involved in admis sion procedures.” These variables are precisely the reason we were denied dorm space. These factors are being used to punish up perclassmen and to aid incoming freshmen. Second, this policy dis criminates openly against up perclassmen. The policy more or What happened to seniority? Editor: School officials in the past have voiced overwhelming support for the good old Aggie traditions. Why don’t those same hypocritical stu dent affairs officials take a good, hard look at their latest contradic tory act, and try to work for the majority of students? Instead of the respect and privileges which are due, in good Aggie tradition, to upperclassmen, the school is now beginning to re voke the rights of upperclassmen. I am referring to the new policy which will give incoming freshmen priority over upperclassmen for dormitory rooms. As an out-of-state student, my quest for a dorm has not been easy. Now with this latest barrier to over come, it might be easier to pitch a tent on Mt. Everest and commute! After my application was ac cepted, I was sent a dorm card. But I also received a letter explaining thre was no dorm space. Now what do I do? Oregon is not exactly Hous ton, so I can’t just run up and check out apartments! Well, I ended up coming down anyway, since I needed a place to stay. Now I’m on a waiting list and I’ll now have to wait for the incoming freshmen to get rooms. In essence, I will have to wait at least 2Vfe years for a dorm! So here I am now, way out in the middle of nowhere, having to brave the wilds to make it to school daily from my apartment. It’s not handy to use any of the school facilities: the library, the fieldhouse, or the din ing halls. Life is complicated by living off campus, to say the last. Yet this, my freshman year, will be no comparison to next year and its hassles. I’ll have more hours and harder classes. I won’t have time to be waiting for a shuttle bus, to run back and forth between home and school in between classes, or to mount a safari if I want to go to the library. The point is: sure it’s rough being a freshman. But it’s a lot rougher being an upperclassman. So let the freshmen start where all good Ags do — at the bottom, and work their way up. It seems unjust to revoke the rights and privileges of all of the upperclass majority for just a few in the freshmen minority! —Eric Long less says that our contributions, both monetary and academic, mean nothing! The fact that we are al ready Aggies and have waited pa tiently one year or more, counts for nothing in the face of these freshmen claims, who have never attended A&M. Extremely galling to us was the following, “.. . . to the point where no freshman would be al lowed to live on campus.’’ This abso lutely takes precedence as the weakest excuse ever on record. Where was this concern last year when we tried to get on campus? “Upperclassmen have precedence, you’ll get on campus next year,” people in offices told us in soothing tones. We were shunted out to make our own arrangements. It is evident that A&M has a sig nificant housing problem. Limited dorm space and an autrocious lack of reasonably priced apartments are only a few sides of the dilemma. We agree with the policy’s aim, not, however, with the drastic im plementation. Perhaps 30 per cent next year, 50 per cent the next, and so on. Nowhere, however, can we see justification for the 70 per cent mentioned. As much as we under stand the problem, we cannot agree to the complete sell-out of some 6,000 students already on the wait ing lists. _Karla Lacey, ’80 —Pam Laxson, ’80 —Lynnette Spurrier, ’80 Readers’ forum Guest viewpoints, in addition to Letters to the Editor, are welcome. All pieces submitted to Readers’ forum should be: • Typed triple space • Limited to 60 characters per line • Limited to 100 lines Submit articles to Reed McDonald 217, College Station, Texas, 77843. Author’s name and phone number must accompany all submissions. WASHINGTON—Six days be fore the change in administrations, a distinguished scholar of the presi dency got a phone call from a rela tive stranger and found himself in what he called “a rather lengthy but not very sophisticated” discussion about tbe duties and problems of a particular White House staff job. The only thing that made the call memorable was that it came from the young man who that very day had been announced as the holder of the job, one of seven senior assis tants to President Carter. That incident is cited as a neces sary caution to the reader about any judgment on the figures in the Car ter high command. The most impor tant thing about them is also the most obvious — they are new at their jobs. Nonetheless, it is interesting to set down some of the initial impres sions the new people have created, if only as a reference point for the inevitable future upheavals. Among the Cabinet members, those who draw special praise from their associates in the administra tion are two of the new faces. Secre tary of Commerce Juanita M. Kreps and Secretary of Labor F. Ray Mar shall. Neither occupies what can be called a “power position.” But Kreps has quietly assembled an ex ceptionally able team of associates, including Jerry Jasinowski, Carter’s chief campaign adviser of eco nomics, and two of the most astute politicals in the Democratic party, Anne Wexler and John Stewart. Marshall has shown himself so ef fective in the early economic dis cussions that some are predicting that he may emerge as the George Shultz of the Carter administration. Shultz started with Richard Nixon as an unknown academic stuck away in the Labor Department, and then went on to achieve great power there and in Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget. At the White House, Hamilton Jordan begins as the first among equals, if only because he and press secretary Jody Powell have been with Carter from the start and David S. Broder Battling the hureacracy Editor: It is indeed unfortunate that Car ter’s plan to reorganize the bureau cracy of government does not extend into the university bureaucracy as certainly A&M’s bureaucracy would do well with a similar revamping. Although my only exposure with them has been my own recent has sles with the Housing Office it would seem these university bureaucrats are well-seasoned at “passing-the-buck.” Probably other Aggies have left these offices feeling just as frustrated as myself. Recently I made a request to leave the dorm for both academic and health reasons, with a refund of my payments. The chairman of my section has notified the Housing Of fice it would be desirable for me to move from the dorm because of fraternization with undergraduates for whom I am the teaching assis tant. Certainly I do not intentionally give anyone any advantages but others may think it, so such situa tions should be avoided. Presently I am under medication for a nervous condition with the re sult being that I need more rest be cause of the debilitating effect of the medicine. In the dorm situation this was not possible and I ended up hospitalized last semester. I have letters from my physicians support ing my move from the dorms on these grounds as well. Certainly this is a legitimate request yet the Hous ing Office and Review Board were unwilling to back down on their rul ing either because they have no power to or just didn’t want to. I should be the first to point out that all of the people I met in my bureaucratic battles seemed pleas ant and sympathetic so it may well be their hands are bound by regulation. Battalion Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editor or of the writer of the article and are not neces- sarihj those of the University administration or the Board of Regents. The Battalion is a non-profit, self- supporting enterjfrise operated by students as a uni versity and community newspaper. Editorial policy is determined by the editor. LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does not guarantee to publish any letter. Each letter must be signed, show the address of the writer and list a telephone number for verification. Address correspondence to Letters to the Editor, The Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, College Station, Texas 77843. Represented nationally by National Educational Advertising Services, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester; $33.25 per school year; $35.00 per full year. All subscriptions subject to 5% sales tax. Advertising rates furnished on request. Address: The Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, College Station, Texas 77843. United Press International is entitled exclusively to the use for reproduction of all news dispatches cred ited to it. Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved. Second-Class postage paid at College Station, Texas. MEMBER Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Congress Editor Jerry Needham Managing Editor James Aitken Assignments Editor Rusty Cawley Features Editor Lisa Junod News Editor Debby Krenek News Assistant Carol Meyer Photography Director Kevin Venner Sports Editor Paul Arnett Copy Editor Steve Reis Reporters George Maselli, Paul McGrath, Lynn Rossi, JohnTynes, Lee Roy Leschper Jr., Mary Hesalroad, Jan Bailey Asst. Photo Editors Tracie Nordheim, Mike Willy shared every step of the journey that made him President. Jordan has already displayed con siderable skill at bureaucratic in fighting. From the staff he assem bled as campaign manager, he has placed one man as the gatekeeper for presidential appointments, another as the traffic cop for papers headed for the President. He also has, at least at the outset, a bigger chunk of the White House adminis trative tasks than anyone else, and is the liaison to the Democratic Na tional Committee, where yet another campaign aide of his has been installed as executive director of the party. What remains to be seen is whether Jordan — who is, by his own admission, indifferent to gov ernment policy — can avoid being elbowed out of the way as Carter turns more and more to the sub stance of issues. Jordan has strengthened his hand by adding the able Mark Siegel, a political sci ence Ph.D. who served four years as executive director of the Demo cratic National Committee, to his own staff as a policy planning dep uty. In policy areas, Jordan and his deputies will inevitably come up against the competing claims of Stuart Eizenstat, the domestic pol icy assistant; Jack Watson, the sec retary of the Cabinet; Robert Lip- shutz, the presidential counsel; and the specialized advisers on energy, the economy and national security. But in many respects, the man who may overshadow anyone in the Cabinet and on the White House staff at least in this first stage of the administration — is Thomas B. (Bert) Lance, the director of the Of fice of Management and Budget. At the moment, Lance is at the ceuter of two of Carter’s top-priority projects, the revision of President Ford’s budget proposals for next year and the drive for Congressional authority that would let Carter begin his promised reorganization of the executive branch. He occupies that position in part because OMB is the President’s right arm on budget and manage ment matters — and in part because Lance personally is the closest thing to “another Jimmy Carter” in the Carter administration. It is that combination of institu tional and personal power that makes some Washington veterans put their money on Lance as a po tential “strong man” in this adminis tration. OMB is an agency of 650 em ployees — 200 more than are on the Slouch entire White House staff reputation as the elite of service. As head of OMB I a right - a nd duty-to^ spending, the legislative,, and the operations of even! agency. He has the right qualifj the job. The 45-year-old fil inch 240-pound millionJ combination of banker andl cian, a man who can couj money and votes. (c) 1977, The Washingtonpj ternatic men’tB :utive y jversib Get into some \ great pants! TOP DRAWER Culpepper Plaza Certainly, however, a committee should be established to deal with legitimate requests so university policy may be overturned due to ex tenuating circumstances. —Kevin C. Vaughn Sun Theatres 333 University 846-9808 Super-Grody Movies SSSSSSSS2 HAIRl STYLING SALON presents Lawrence & Marci A Duo Hair-Styling Team 822-1183 Embrey’s Jewelry We Specialize In Aggie Rings. Diamonds Set — Sizing — Reoxidizing — All types watch/jewelry Repair Aggie Charge Accounts 9-5:30 846-5816 JirpTnamba Eddie Dominguez ’66 Joe Arciniega ’74 Greg Price 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 SQUARE DANCING IS FUN Learn to square dance with the Aggie Allemanders. Classes begin Monday Jan. 31 in 226 MSC 7:30-9:30. For information Call: Robert 693-9869, Bob 845-5970, or Vicki 846-7597. 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