The Battalion
Vol. 70 No. 69
8 Pages
Thursday, February 3, 1977
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
andatory attendance policy deleted
By MARY HARDIN
bill reinstating the 1975-76 Atten-
; Policy was introduced to the Student
itelast night by Susan Rudd, vice pres-
| for rules and regulations.
present regulation includes pas-
I stating that instructors are expected
laiutain a record of class attendance and
■dual instructors may include class at-
jdance as a factor in determining a stu-
it’s grade.
/ile proposed bill deletes these passag-
be former nonmandatory attendance
was in existence for two years,”
Rudd said. “Student Government was not
aware that the faculty was not satisfied with
it.”
Other proposed revisions were:
Allowing students with an overall grade
point ration (GPR) or 3.0 or above to take
an excess course load without obtaining
permission from their dean.
Prohibiting all kitchen appliances in re
sidence halls with the exception of coffee
pots, hot pots, popcorn poppers and blen
ders.
Class officer candidates must have a
minimum overall GPR of 2.5.
A bill proposing a division of the execu
tive branch from the legislative branch of
Student Government was introduced by
Joe Beall, soph.-Engineering.
Beall also introduced a bill proposing
that the Memorial Student Center put up
signs asking for protection of the grass sur
rounding the MSG.
John Oeffinger, Grad.-Liberal Arts,
pointed out that only the MSG building is
memorialized, not the surrounding grass.
It was also pointed out that most of the
students do feel that the grass is a memo
rial.
Robert Harvey, Sr. - Engineering, pres
ented a bill to repeal the controversial Con
fidence - No Confidence Resolution on the
basis that it has not been implemented suc
cessfully.
TheP.E. Revisementbill, introduced by
Jeb Hensarling, Undergrad. - off-campus,
was passed by the Senate last night.
This bill states that required P. E. may be
taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.
A bill removing one senator from the
College of Science because of decreased
enrollment and adding one senator to the
new College of Medicine was also passed.
The bill was passed despite arguments
from Randy Levine, Grad.-Science.
Levine was concerned with the loss of a
senator from the College of Science.
On-campus sales tax
brings in $109,000
to College Station
By KIM TYSON services that can’t be direct!
A wrench in his plans
ngs just weren’t going right for Tom Morales and a fellow worker,
bunds Maintenance employes, yesterday. The two were installing a
et sign in front of the Commons and Morales’ partner dropped a wrench,
tool bounced a couple of feet and then dropped into a drainage? ditch
t>w them. The two workers recovered the wrench about 20 minutes later
Battalion photo by Jim Crawley
By KIM TYSON
Last year Aggies munched potato chips,
slurped ice cream and bought political sci
ence books, among other things, netting
approximately $109,000 in on-campus sales
tax for College Station.
What does the city give Texas A&M
University students for their tax money?
According to North Bardell, city man
ager, that money went into College Sta
tion’s general fund, providing services to
students both on and off campus. He cited
fire protection, police, traffic control,
health inspection, parks and recreation
and garbage disposal as larger services in
cluded.
“The primary service on campus is fire
protection,” Bardell said, who added that
the city had recently paid $153,000 for two
new fire trucks.
R. C. Diebel, controller of University
accounts, explained that under state law
the University remitted $546,817.86 in
state and city sales taxes last year. These
taxes were from board, and merchandise
purchased at the bookstore, cafeterias and
creamery on campus, Deibel said. Of the
five per cent tax, a one per cent tax was
collected for College Station.
Diebel also said A&M provides many of
its own services to on-campus students,
including power, water, sewage and police
protection.
However, Gary Halter, College Station
councilman, said the city provides many
services that can’t be directly measured.
“A student who lives on campus doesn’t
stay on campus all the time,” Halter ex
plained.
He and Bardell cited extra traffic control
and police service around the perimeter of
campus as examples.
“We have spent approximately $10,000
just in parking signs alone around the
campus,” Bardell said.
Off-campus students receive all city-
services, Bardell added. He said this in
cludes street repair, health inspection,
garbage disposal and building inspection.
“There are some 37,000 people in Col
lege Station, and approximately 25,000 of
them are students,” Bardell said.
Having almost 22,000 Aggies off campus
creates service problems, he added.
“Growth, one of College Station’s pri
mary problems, is definitely generated by
the University,” Bardell said.
He added that having off campus hous
ing produces utility service problems.
“And of course the enrollment at the
University directly controls the need for
housing,” Bardell said.
Last Friday, the College Station City
Council passed an ordinance that will
encourage more housing developments.
Councilman Halter said there is a defi
nite reliance on A&M by the city.
“Obviously, if the University wasn’t
here,’ Halter said, “College Station
wouldn’t exist.”
Battalion photo by Steve Reis
Setting the rules straight
Susan Rudd, vice president for rules and regulations in the Student Senate,
answered questions regarding revisions in the Texas A&M Rules and Regula
tions handbook last night at the Senate meeting.
Committee to be awarded
for professor investigations
ay-care a problem for Ab-M students
By GLENNA WHITLEY
indaHoward wants to go toTexas A&M
versity, but she has two small problems
lersons, Daniel, 2, and Tim, 7.
iimisold enough for elementary school,
Iwho will care for Daniel while Mommy
in class?
Many students have this problem,
lysitters or daycare centers are answers
it many, but they also can cause prob-
^ii I took Daniel out of a day care center
t' v -7 ause he was unhappy, Howard said,
ley seemed to be specialists in child
:ipline, not child care.”
Having adequate child care is a pre-
juisite for my returning to school. I
jhk there’s a real need for a coopera-
IQftlyand creatively run child care cen-
r*
ter’which would serve university
families,” she said.
Daniel and Donna Graham hire a
babysitter for nine-month-old Brian be
cause day care centers are too expensive.
Daniel is an electrical engineering stu
dent, and Donna works on campus. They
live in a sparsely furnished apartment in
married student housing.
Graham said that they spent $80 per
month for a babysitter while the day fcare
center charged $100 per month.
Is there an alternative for students with
children?
One answer is a University child care
center.
“A center was set up three years ago but
closed in one week due to lack of funds, ”
said Janet Nute, a mother of three who
worked a year ago in an effort to revive the
center.
She explained that hundreds of forms
were filled out by persons interested in
the center, indicating a definite need.
Nute quit the volunteer work to care for
her own children. Dr. Charles C. Godwin
of the Educational Curriculum and In
struction Department yesterday said,
“Funds have been sought without success.
We applied to foundations and other
agencies, but money is not available.”
Dr. Godwin couldn’t cite the specific
amount of money needed, but he said that
the Unitarian Fellowship has been chosen
as the future location. He also said that
renovation must be done to meet required
standards.
A doctoral student in Educational Ad
ministration said that part of the problem
was the Student Senate’s lack of initiative.
D avid Gardner, 26, was the vice-
president for the University of Houston’s
student government in 1972 when such a
center was set up there.
“The school said that there wasn’t a real
need. So we set one up and funded it to
prove there was a need,” he said. They
used part of the student government’s
budget of $100,000, but Gardner couldn’t
remember how much.
Once the program became successful,
the university took control, he said.
Fred McClure, Texas A&M student
body president, said he sees a definite
need, but that private donors seem to be
the only answer to the funding problem.
By RAY DANIELS
Your professor may be under investiga
tion.
A committee secretly selected by deans
and heads of student organizations has
been specially assembled for the project.
Those under investigation were re
ported by their departments heads and
peers. Personal data, letters from as
sociates, and even a picture are supplied
by the executive committee of their col
lege.
After several meetings, the committee
will make a judgement. In May, those
selected by the committee will receive
Distinguished Achievement Awards spon
sored by the Association of Former Stu
dents.
A certificate, $1,000, and a gold watch
will be awarded at the faculty convocation
in May, as awards in teaching, research,
continuing education, student relations
and administration.
The selection committee members are
7 J Briscoe says government
to blame for energy crisis
E
United Press International
DALLAS — Gov. Dolph Briscoe says the
eral government is to blame for the
ural gas emergency existing in the East,
the only lasting remedy is energy de
lation.
Briscoe, speaking to business leaders
lesterday, said federal regulations had
pted the crisis.
( I hope that the majority of the nation
rill see that deregulation of new natural
is the direction we must move, he
rid “The natural gas shortage in the East
nd elsewhere is a most serious national
Nergency.
i Federal regulation by the Federal
rver Commission has resulted in a na-
hal disaster of major proportions. The
weather
Cloudy and cool with intermittent
rain with partial clearing tomorrow
afternoon. High today in mid-50s.
Low tonight in upper 30s. High to
morrow in low 50s. Winds will be
from the northwest at 10-15 m.p.h.
only way to get more natural gas is for the
federal government to get out of the energy
business.’’
Briscoe testified for deregulation last
week in Washington. He said President
Carter’s emergency energy plan was at best
a “stop-gap measure.”
“We must develop a more long-range
energy policy,”he said. “We have to work
for a national policy for drilling of new
natural gas reserves.”
Briscoe also said it was time for Texas and
other gas producing states to gain the re
spect due them from the nonproducing
states.
“Texans have paid higher prices for their
energy, and the result has been active drill
ing programs in this state that have re
sulted in adequate supplies of natural gas, ”
he said.
“In the past years we have done our part
in supplying the rest of the country with its
energy needs. We have done our part even
though Texas consumers must pay more
than northeastern neighbors.”
But Briscoe said in the future his main
concern would be protecting Texas con
sumers.
“I think we now have the right to de
mand that the other states do their part to
help the country meet its energy needs,”
he said.
Are you sure youll he okay?. . . I’m late for class
David Songer, a graduate student in Agricultural
Development, has just been injured by a speeding
bicyclist and the bike rider does not seem too con
cerned. Well, the biker, Mike Sherrill, a senior
electrical engineering major, is a friend of Songer
and is shown above while helping the grad student
make a film for a documentary film course. Journ
alism 425. The movie is produced and directed by
Songer, who also stars as the innocent victim.
Battalion photo by Tracie Nordheim
secret so the awards will be a surprise,
said Richard “Buck” Weirus. Weirus is the
executive director of the Association of
Former Students which provides the
funds for the awards. The awards are a
regularly budgeted item and come from
the unrestricted gift fund of the associa
tion. Attendance at the convocation is
largely faculty, but student'oi anizations
are included in the stage party and the
event is open to the public.
Fourteen awards are available in the
five areas; the number and type given is
up to the committee.
Not all of the awards are always given
Weirus said. “The watch and the stipend
are a small part of the award,’ said Dr.
Murray Milford, recipient of a 1972 teach
ing award. “It’s the recognition that is im
portant.”
This is the first year that staff and ad
ministrators have been considered for the
award. A bill passed by Student Senate
last semester recommended the addition
and Former Students approved the move.
Surplus may
he returned
to taxpayers
United Press International
AUSTIN, Tex. — The chairman of a
House committee conducting hearings on
more than $350 million in proposed tax
reductions said legislators should return
part of the $2.9 billion budget surplus to
taxpayers.
Rep. Joe Wyatt, D-Victoria, chairman
of the House, Ways and Means Commit
tee, said Wednesday he favors abolishing
the state sales tax on residential utility
bills, and revising the state inheritance tax
to allow larger exemptions.
Hearings on two bills dealing with the
sales and inheritance tax reductions were
scheduled at 2 p.m. today, after most
legislators headed home for the weekend.
Wyatt said he hoped his committee
could act quickly on a tax reduction bill, so
lawmakers would know how much of a
projected state revenue surplus would be
depleted by the measure.
Exempting residential utility bills from
the sales tax as Wyatt proposed would re
duce consumers’ bills by $210 million in
the next two years, and revising the in
heritance tax would reduce the state
surplus by an additional $20 million. A bill
by Rep. John Wilson, D-La Grange,
abolishing the sales tax on both residential
and commercial utility bills would save
consumers $344 million and reduce the
projected $2.9 billion surplus a corre
sponding amount.
“In view of the surplus and projected
revenues, I feel we should return this
money to the Texas taxpayers,” Wyatt
said.