Dog Day Afternoon
The balmy, unseasonal weather of the past few
days gave Bruce Woodin, a graduate biology stu
dent, and his dog Useless a day to play in the sun.
Woodin summarized the situation by saying, “He’s
not my dog, I’m his.” Photos by Kevin Venner
The Battalion
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7
{ 25
United Press International
MOSCOW—In an unprecedented
ak with protocol. President Carter sent
ersonal letter to dissident Andrei
harov, pledging to fight for human
|hts in the Soviet Union and other
countries.
arter’s letter, sent through diplomatic
nnels and handed over by an officer of
American Embassy, appears likely to
(her strain relations already cooled by
pledges
the State Department’s public defense of
dissidents.
Proudly displaying the White House
stationery at a news conference Thursday,
the Nobel Peace Prize-winner said the let
ter was a “great honor” and the first he has
received from an American president.
Describing human rights as “a central
Concern of my administration,” Carter
wrote Sakharov:
“You may rest assured that the Am-
to dissident
merican people and our government will
continue our firm commitment to promote
respect for human rights not only in our
own country but also abroad.”
Carter also pledged to use his “good of
fices” to seek the release of what he called
“prisoners of conscience.”
In the past the Soviets have denied
keeping political prisoners and have
labeled similar statements directed at
ONA discusses corporate action
lives and livelihood of millions of
ople, a Continental Oil Co. (Conoco)
1 Upper,II scutive said in a speech sponsored by the
ident Conference on National Affairs
CONA) in Rudder Theatre yesterday.
Dr. M.L. Sharrah, senior vice president
research and engineering of Conoco,
ake on “The Individual in the Working
orld.” He emphasized the role of busi-
in world affairs.
Philosophers and theologians can give
the vision of a better world,” he said,
oliticians and government leaders can
ganize national effort. The military and
police can maintain law and order. But
the job of business to provide goods and
rvices that enhance the quality of life.”
Sharrah expounded on topics concerning
dividuals and the corporate environ-
ent. ■ •
Profits and growth by big business are
iplored by many people, he said.
“Profits in America have been too low,
rather than too high,” Sharrah said. “They
have not even kept pace with inflation,
with the net result that business has not
been able to spend enough in new plants
and equipment.
“The profit motive also is a very efficient
way of distributing goods and services, the
most efficient way we know of,” he said.
Attitudes towards science, he said, have
changed in recent years.
“Science no longer commands the un
questioning respect it did in the past,” he
said. “Only a few decades ago scientists
were considered miracle workers.
“The achievements of science now are
taken for granted. The end result is that the
public becomes suspicious of our institu
tions when they cannot immediately de
liver the expected technology,” Sharrah
said.
Because of the complexity of modern
technology, “high technology has created a
feeling of helplessness and resentment on
the part of the general population, ’’Sharrah
said.
“Technology is to be used, not feared,”
he added.
“Familiar areas of growth—more cars,
more food, more lumber—face an uncer
tain future,” Sharrah said.
“But I can say with confidence that
growth will take place. It is an integral part
of the social organism. Only its direction is
hidden from us.”
Ethics is another part of the corporate
environment, he said.
“A corporation is no better, and no worse
than the people who constitute it, ”.
“In the post-Watergate period, corpora
tions have made efforts to tighten their
ethical practices through self-policing,
self-investigating, and corporate codes of
ethics,” he said.
“A corporation is a servant of the
people” he said. “If it serves well, it will be
accepted. If it fails it will be rejected. We
should leave that ultimate decision to the
people.”
Moscow “unwarranted meddling”
internal affairs.
Sakharov said in his cabled reply to Car
ter that “defense of fundamental human
rights is not interference in the domestic
affairs of other countries but one of the
most major international affairs, which
cannot be separated from the basic prob
lems of peace and progress. ”
Sakharov is a nuclear physicist who has
been refused permission to travel abroad
on grounds that he possesses state secrets.
He mentioned in the cable Carter’s offer
to receive him at the White House.
“Unfortunately, at the present time I
cannot foresee the possibility of such a
trip,” he said.
Sakharov specifically asked Carter to
intercede on behalf of a jailed biologist,
Sergei Kovalev, who he said has cancer.
Also, for four members of a dissident
group monitoring Soviet compliance with
the human rights provisions of the interna
tional Helsinki security accords, who were
arrested this month.
In Washington, White House Press
Secretary Jody Powell announced Thurs
day that Carter “very likely” would meet
personally with expelled Soviet writer
Vladmir Bukovsky.
Powell said Bukovsky was scheduled to
see Vice President Walter Mondale. “We
are in the process of working it out. ..so he
can see the President,” he added.
Bukovsky will be in Washington next
week.
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Committee to review
appeals procedure
A committee on student review and ap
peals procedures has been formed at Texas
A&M to determine whether the academic,
disciplinary, fiscal and traffic appeals
panels are adequately doing their job.
The committee began its investigation
Tuesday when Dr. Thomas Adair ap
pointed four subcommittees to study each
area of appeals.
“The purpose of the committee is to re
view present student appeals procedures
and make recommendations for changes in
their process, ” said Adair, chairman of the
committee.
Adair said yesterday that the subcom
mittees will try to find out what happens
when a student wants to make an appeal in
one of the four categories.
“Our real purpose is to find out if these
appeals panels are accomplishing what we
want them to,” said Ron Blatchley, as
sociate director of student affairs and
chairman of the disciplinary subcommit
tee. “We want to find out if the present
procedures need changing or need
additions made to them.”
The subcommittees are to report theif
findings to Adair by next Friday, Feb. 25.
“The committee is just gathering infor
mation right now,” Adair said. It will be
several months before the committee will
be ready to make any recommendations;
he added.
W. C. Freeman, executive vice presi
dent for administration, has asked Adair to
submit a final committee report before the
end of the semester.
“I doubt if we ll beat that deadline by
very much,” Adair said.
—Susie Williams
Top officials get pay increases
United Press International
WASHINGTON — In the end, it was a
vote to adjourn the House for a three-day
weekend that finally ensured a $13,000-
a-year raise for Congress and top govern
ment executives that will take effect Sun
day.
Recommended by Gerald Ford before
he left office, the increase will raise annual
pay for an estimated 2,496 top-level gov
ernment employes including federal
judges, Cabinet members, the vice presi
dent, congressmen and two former presi
dents by an average 28 per cent.
The raise takes effect automatically
Sunday because neither the Senate nor
the House voted against it.
The Senate, recessed all week, earlier
tabled a resolution disapproving the pay
hike, thereby avoiding an up or down vote
on the raise. The House completed busi
ness yesterday and adjourned until
Monday without bringing up the disap
proval resolution.
Salaries for the vice president, chief jus
tice, speaker and Senate president pro
tern will be increased from $65,600 to
$74,000; Cabinet members and Supreme
Court justices from $63,000 to $66,000;
majority and minority leaders of Congress
from $52,000 to $65,000; members of
Congress, deputy and assistant secretaries
and appeals court judges from $44,600 to
$57,500; federal judges and level-3 execu
tives from $42,000 to $52,500.
Emotional
Expression
Americans believe it is wrong to
express their emotions, Dr.
Nathaniel Branden told a SCONA
22 audience in the Rudder Theatre
yesterday.
Our culture finds virtue in ignor
ing pain or fatigue, but that repres
sion only succeeds in damaging
one’s health, Branden said. Re
pressed anger, hatred or fear
causes tension, he said, which re
sults in body signals such as
headache or indigestion.
If you ignore these symptoms, it’s
suicide,” Branden said.
He explained that people con
stantly view themselves from either
a positive or negative viewpoint.
Powerful self-esteem depends upon
one’s sense of reality.
“What goes on under our skin is
what life’s about and when we don’t
pay attention to that, we are not
living,” Branden said.
Branden is executive director of
the Biocentric Institute of Los
Angeles.
Battalion photo by Tracie Nordheim
Students would get larger refunds
for class drops if senate passes bill
Students at Texas A&M University will
get more money back when they withdraw
from a class if a bill before the Texas legis
lature is passed.
The bill, introduced in the Senate by
Jack Ogg, D-Houston, provides for the full
refund of applicable tuition and fees to a
student who withdraws from a class within
the first two weeks of the semester. How
ever, the student must remain enrolled at
the university.
The bill also sets a schedule for the re
fund of tuition and fees to students who
withdraw from the school completely. The
proposed schedule allows a greater refund
than the present A&M policy.
The present schedule allows a 60 per
cent refund if a student withdraws within
Holleman Drive scheduled
for major improvements
Residents of Holleman Drive may soon
find heavy machinery working along the
street as the result of a major road im
provements program by the City of Col
lege Station and the state highway de
partment.
Holleman Drive will be widened be
ginning at the intersection of Wellborn
Road and extend eastward for almost a
mile.
A 40-foot curb and gutter section is part
of the planned improvements. Additional
improvements include upgrading the
existing tw'o-lane street, storm sewers and
sidewalks.
The project was established by the
1977-78 urban system of the State De
partment of Highways and Public Trans
portation on Jan. 20. College Station ac
cepted the recommended provisions Feb.
10.
Nick Turnham, public affairs director
with the state highway department, said
he does not know when construction on
the project will begin.
“It depends on how long it takes the
highway department to determine the
necessary rights-of-way and how quickly
College Station acquires those rights-of-
way,” Turnham said.
Funds for the project total $373,300.
The Federal Highway Administration will
provide $278,300. College Station will
provide the remainder to finance the curb
and gutter section, storm sewers,
sidewalks and rights-of-way.
the second five class days of any Spring or
Fall semester. The new schedule would
allow an 80 per cent refund for the same
period.
“It seems only fair that a student should
not have to pay tuition for a course he does
not take, if he chooses not to take that
course early enough in the semester,” Ogg
said in a press release issued Tuesday.
An almost identical bill was vetoed by
the governor after being passed by both
houses in the last session of the legisla
ture.
Ogg said he thought the governor’s
main objections had been eliminated with
the addition of a special provision. The
provision states that if a student received
his tuition through a scholarship, the tui
tion would be refunded to the source of
the money rather than to the student.
Weather
Fair and warm today. High today
near 80, low tonight near 50. Con
tinued partly cloudy and slightly
cooler tomorrow, with high in low
70s. Winds: Southerly today,
10-15 m.p.h.; northerly tomorrow,
12-18 m.p.h.