The Battalion
Vol. 70 No. 73
6 Pages
Thursday, February 10, 1977
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
ve hours of Senate, business incomplete
Non-mandatory midterm grade bill fails
By RAY DANIELS
1:03 a.m.
Big discussed alcohol on campus,
1 class attendance, and discontinu-
Jmidterm grades, the Texas A&M
tity Student Senate is adjourning.
I of the hours since 7:30 p.m. roll
Ire spent considering University
u'-il Jons revisions by section. Before af-
'‘S- I,Jgstudents, most of the bills must be
5
ey
pd by the administration,
lete deletion of the rule prohibit-
ession of, or consumption of liquor
us was requested by Joe Marcello
cience). A member of the Senate
lyears, he was reinstated to his posi-
lier in the evening,
ello said he felt on-campus stu-
leserved the same rights in their
sin any private residence. During
I, Vice president of Rules and Regu-
Susan Rudd offered an amendment
liquor only in “non-public areas”
pus. Although most senators felt
already being practiced with re-
i dorms, they felt the rule should
other bills dealt directly with
ics.
first of these would have deleted
juirement of midterm grades now in
es book. Rudd quoted a survey
g over 60 per cent of the students
midterms, did not receive blanket
Jthen, and got grades based on two
tests.
Farthing (Jr.-Science), explained
enough students had been inter-
and the poll was not valid for the
student body. Farthing adminis-
e poll.
The deletion was defeated, so midterms
will continue. Had it passed, the Univer
sity would have had the option of not send
ing out the grades,
The other bill requested a non
mandatory class attendance policy. The
motion passed.
Grade point requirements for class offi
cers were debated last night.
For several years, according to veterans
of the senate, there have been attempts
made to set an optimal grade point ratio
for class officers. The requirements have
ranged from 2.0 to 2.5.
Last night Michael Springer (Soph.-
Corps) tried to have it changed to 2.0 from
the current 2.5 by amendment. This
failed. The section was amended to 2.25.
Motions were made to amend the
amendment to 2.0, to 2.15 and to table the
point. All were defeated, and the 2.25
amendment passed intact.
Spring elections will be unaffected.
Then came the problem of the vice pres
idents.
Currently there are five vice presidents
in charge of student services, rules and
regulations, academic affairs, external af
fairs, and finance. They chair committees
in each area and also help execute legisla
tion.
By this dual function, their actual status
as members of the legislative or executive
branch of Student Government is vague.
Last night, a bill was considered to take
away the Senate voting and bill-
sponsorship rights of the vice presidents.
The bill, sponsored by Joe Beall (Soph.-
Engr.), would have placed them in the
executive branch. They are currently
members of the executive committee, but
not defined as members of that branch.
The bill was defeated, but one section of
the rules bill dealt with the same question
in another way. That bill was passed, and
it officially moved the vice presidents into
the legislative branch, but did not change
any of their duties.
It was close to 11 p.m. when the alcohol
on campus issue came up, and the
senators were beginning to thin out.
Quorum for the Senate is 39. Fourty-five
of the Senate s 70 members were still
present during an 11:40 p.m. roll call.
Most of the members were visibly tired,
and some of the formality of the meeting
was lost. One senator slept with her head
on her desk.
Even though the Senators stayed long
enough to finish the rules revision bill,
they had to leave behind several other
items of business. One bill they did get to
was on emergency. A bill on emergency
will be read and acted upon in the same
meeting. Normally the process involves
two meetings.
The bill was to support the muscular
dystrophy benefit dance by Omega Phi
Alpha. Student Government will sponsor
two couples at $5 each.
Other bills the Senate did not have time
to act on included one requesting an ex
tension of the visitation hours, and a
keep-off-the-grass resolution for the MSG.
There were several smaller sections to
the rules revision bill pertaining to pets,
pass/fail grading, and Student Govern
ment’s description of itself.
John Oeffinger (Grad.-Lib. Arts), asked
that Student Government be described in
the rules book as “a Student organization
with the responsibility of representing all
full- and part-time students.” This is a
change from a “representative governing
body” for all students.
The section on pets suggested that the
married student housing manager collect a
deposit on pets. Currently, pets are not
allowed in married student housing or any
of the other University housing. It was felt
the apartments were suitable for pets, and
the deposit could ease worries about dam
age.
A provision for taking required physical
education courses on a pass/ fail basis was
included in the rules section.
The addition was asked for by Jeb Hen-
sarling (Off-campus-undergrad.), whose
bill calling for such a practice was passed
by the Senate last week. The bill is await
ing approval by curriculum studies com
mittee of the University.
lO-KOi
10.50],
Cons
ctricity may be resold
Renters may pay utilities
Battalion photo by Kevin Venner
A nice break for your daily routine
160i,j By DARRELL LANFORD
City of College Station is looking
plan that would allow apartment
s to pay their own utility bills
aM tan have the complex administra-
^ /them.
sponse to a number of apartment
queries, College Station’s City
r, North Bardell, is studying a
it would circumvent a franchise or-
forbidding the reselling of elec-
apartment projects have master
that measure electricity bought
nsformers, Bardell said. Electric-
d by each apartment cannot be
computed, he said, so the utility bill is
preset, possibly higher than it need be to
offset possible electricity price raises.
The plan would allow apartment owners
to buy electricity at the transformer and
then sell it at the same price to residents
with apartments equipped with individual
meters.
Apartment owners would have to cover
meter installation costs and rewiring ex
pense, Bardell said.
“The cost is prohibitive,” Linda Russell,
manager of Taos, Scandia I and Royal
Gardens apartments, said. Russell said it
would cost $150 to wire and install a meter
in each apartment.
“The majority of the people are here
because they don’t want to pay for
utilities,” said Lance Shotwell, manager of
Monaco and Posada Del Rey aprtments.
“As far as I am concerned, it is the city’s
expense to install individual meters,” he
said.
Bardell said the meters would cause
some confusion for the city.
“The student body is transient,” he
said. “We will have to turn the meters on
and off and go through problems.”
Bardell said 60 per cent of the city’s
utilities bills sent out each year are af
fected by population turnover. He esti
mated the number would jump to 80 per
cent if apartment meters were indi
vidualized.
The MSC main lounge was filled with laughter
last week as students relaxed in front of one of the
Videotape Committee’s monitors and watched
comedian Robert Klein perform. The committee
is in charge of two other monitors which are
located upstairs in the MSC serpentine lounge
and downstairs in the snack bar across from
the bowling lanes. The monitors are in their
third week of operation and feature a tape with
the musical group, Beatles, this week.
Gramm says ‘Inflation is theft’
i
losixecution by poison injection affirmed
United Press International
lAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma would
le the first state to execute con-
d prisoners by poisonous injection
abill approved by the Oklahoma Se-
I Dawson, D-Seminole, said his
iould institute a more humane
1 of capital punishment,
son’s bill provides:
e punishment of death must be in-
continuous, intravenous admin-
on of a lethal quantity of an
lort-acting barbiturate in combina-
[ith a chemicl paralytic agent until
pronouncd by a licensed physician
ling to accepted standards. ”
Senate passed the bill, 25-21, yes-
The affirmative vote was only one
than a majority, however, and the
measure may be brought up for reconsid
eration.
Present law, passed last year, provides
for death by the gas chamber but permits
use of the electric chair until a gas
chamber can be built. The state has never
built a gas chamber, and prison officials
said the electric chair is in such poor con
dition it needs $62,000 in repairs. The last
excution in Oklahoma was in 1966.
Dawson said the injection method
would be less costly, more humane and
stand a better chance of Supreme Court
approval should there be a test case on the
method of execution.
Dawson said the bill leaves details of
fulfilling the execution to the corrections
department. He said officials had indi
cated it might be possible to rig an exten
sion of five tubes extending from the con
demned person through a wall. He said
five persons could trigger the start of the
solution, but only one tube would carry the
lethal dose.
“That way none would know who did
it,’’Dawson said.
Sen. Gene Stipe, D-McAlester, failed
to pass an amendment limiting the injec
tion to five minutes.
“If they can’t get it done in five minutes,
they ought to turn him loose,” Stipe said.
Sen. Phil Watson, R-Edmond, said
psychiatrists have said some persons
commit murders as a route to suicide
through execution.
“If we make capital punishment more
humane, it might encourage them to
commit murder as a means of achieving
suicide,” Watson said.
By C.L. HEDRICK
The inflation process in America is theft
in its most destructive form because it is
not evenly dispersed to all Americans, Dr.
Phil Gramm, professor of economics at
Texas A&M University, told an audience
last night.
Inflation hurts retired persons worst of
all, he said, adding that without cutting the
budget, inflation can be stopped. If the rate
of growth and spending by government can
be slowed down, by 1980 the country could
have a balanced budget, he said.
America has a $180 billion deficit because
the money printed and spent was not
earned, borrowed, or taxed, Gramm said.
Gramm, who opposed Lloyd Bentsen for
a U.S. Senate seat in the last election, gave
three reasons for unemployment. He said
rapid growth in the number of people seek-
Airlines give Hobby $500
United Press International
AUSTIN — Lt. Gov. William Hobby has
acknowledged he received a $500 cam
paign contribution from a man identified as
Warren Woodward, but says he did not
know at the time the money actually came
from American Airlines.
American has named Hobby as one of
many persons to whom illegal campaign
contributions were made from 1964
through 1973. The airline said Woodward,
a lobbyist, gave $500 to Hobby in 1972.
“Certainly, I had no idea these funds
may have come from American Airlines,”
Hobby said yesterday. “My records indi
cate that Warren Woodward, a long-time
personal friend who formerly worked for
American Airlines, bought five tickets to a
fund-raising dinner held in Austin on Aug.
25, 1972.
American officials also reported making
illegal contributions to Sen. John Tower,
R-Tex., twice in 1971 for a total of $350.
ing employment, due to the post-WWII
baby boom and the increasing number of
women now working are the primary rea
sons. Gramm said the investment slow
down in the economy also produced un
employment.
Deregulation of petroleum prices would
relieve the energy problem, Gramm said.
Deregulation would induce the people to
sell tbeir products now instead of waiting
until prices go up, he explained.
Asked if he would consider running for
the Senate again Gramm said that would be
like asking a new mother if she would like
to get pregnant again. He added that it
would be “awfully sweet to run against
Bentsen again.”
In his speech, sponsored by Young
Americans for Freedom, Gramm said he
believes that voters should consider a
politician’s stand on the issues rather than
which party he represents.
uice prices may be higher
\USDA predicts record orange crop
United Press Internationa]
WASHINGTON — Consumers
ill can expect a record orange har-
rtst this season with juice prices
erhaps slightly above a year ago
despite the devastating January
freeze in Florida, the U.S. Agricul
ture Department (US DA) says.
Experts warned, however, the
harvest is still in progress. Current
Battalion art by Steve Korte
freeze damage estimates may have
to be raised later if warm weather in
Florida permits dropping and dete
rioration of freeze-damaged fruit,
they indicated.
The department’s Crop Report
ing Board yesterday announced on
the basis of Feb. 1 conditions, the
1976-77 orange crop was estimated
at 248.6 million boxes, down 11 per
cent from a 278.6-million-box pre
freeze forecast based on Jan. 1 con
ditions.
Despite that decline, which in
cluded a 14 per cent cut from
January orange prospects in
Florida, the national estimate re
mained record-high, 3 per cent
above the previous peak crop of
242.6 million boxes in 1975-76.
A department economist said
after the crop report that it
foreshadowed continued adequate
to plentiful consumer supplies of
orange products at retail prices that
may be only slightly higher than a
year earlier.
Department experts previously
had said that despite some increases
in vegetable and citrus prices be
cause of this winter’s cold weather,
they’ve made no changes in fore
casts of a “moderate” 3 to 4 per cent
1977 food inflation rate. The fruit
and vegetable increases will be
offset by a bigger-than expected
meat supply, they said.
Citrus specialists said orange
losses to the freeze so far have been
minimized because cool weather in
late January damaged fruit on the
trees, allowing farmers to harvest it
for juice processing. If temperatures
climb into the 65 to 75 degree
range, more fruit could drop and be
lost, they said.
Another survey to update esti
mates of freeze damage will be
made Feb. 15, officials said.
The citrus report said grapefruit
production was forecast as of Feb. 1
at 69.9 million boxes, down 11 per
cent from a month ago and slightly
below last year. Lemon production
was estimated at 26.6 million boxes,
unchanged from last month and up
from last year’s 17.8 million boxes.
While Florida orange prospects
dropped from 213 million boxes in
January to 183 million by Feb.
1—with Valencia orange forecasts
slashed 21 per cent and other types
9 per cent—the overall Florida crop
remained 1 per cent above a year
earlier.
Research donations
reach all-time high
J
Support for research at Texas A&M
University reached an all-time high for the
first five months of a fiscal year, Dr.
Robert R. Berg, university research direc
tor said recently.
Aid totaling $33,924,895 has been
awarded A&M projects since Sept. 1,
1976. This is $3.46 million more than had
been awarded this same time last year.
Texans paying
higher prices
for Texas gas
AUSTIN—Comptroller Bob Bullock
Tuesday said a study of natural gas prices
by his office showed that Texans are pay
ing more on the average for their own
natural gas than residents of other states.
Bullock said that his Division of Planning
and Research found that 68 per cent of the
natural gas produced in Texas during fiscal
1976 was sold in Texas, while 32 per cent
was sold out of state.
Nearly three-fourths of the interstate
sales were for 40 cents per thousand cubic
feet or less, while only about 40 per cent of
the Texas sales were at these lower prices,
Bullock said.
He added that the analysis also showed
that while Texas is the major gas produc
ing state, it is also the largest user —
consuming more than two and one-half
times as much gas as the number two user,
California.
The $33.9 million exceeds all 12-month
grant totals before fiscal year 1973-74. The
total was surpassed only in the final two
months of 1973-74, in the last two months
of 1974-75 and in the closing six months of
1975-76 when research reached a record
$47 million.
During January, College of Geosciences
projects received $602,675. Other aid in
cluded $420,221 shared by the College of
Engineering, Texas Engineering Experi
ment Station and Texas Transportation In
stitute; $242,370 shared by the College of
Agriculture and Texas Agricultural Exper
iment Station and $103,005 for the Col
lege of Science.
Also received were $14,000 for projects
in the College of Liberal Arts; $7,000 for
the College of Education; $6,300 for the
College of Veterinary Medicine; $4,200
for the College of Business Administration
and $2,800 each for the College of
Architecture-fenvironmental Design and
the College of Medicine.
Weather
Cloudy with intermittent rain today,
tonight and tomorrow. Winds from
the southeast at 7 to 10 miles per
hour. High today near 61, low to
night near 47, high tomorrow about
65.