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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 3, 1977)
The Battalion Vol. 70 No. 10 Pages 85 Thursday, March 3, 1977 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 ^Students dissatisfied with appeals ruling :;7¥ r-J' By RAY DANIELS ^roy Mahaney has wrestled with the academic appeals pro- ofTexas A&M University for almost three months. He still lot satisfied with the results. le, along with five other students that include the academic president of student government, were appealing their ides for a Spanish course last semester. The appeals system is a farce,” Mahaney said Monday. In case, the first levels of appeal, the department head and the in, took no action on his grade. When the six students appealed their grades to the Univer- Academic Appeals Panel they got a ruling finding the pro- sor innocent, but allowing tne students to make up the jorexams they missed. Missed exam scores would be added their averages and their final grades recalculated. No one ever addressed the charges we made,” Mahaney d. His charges included documents demonstrating capri- us grading of major exams, lack of a syllabus for the class and litrary proportionate weights for the midterm and final ide. The appeals panel ruling was a one-page letter to the six dents involved. It stated: No arbitrary, capricious or preju dicial action on the part of the professor was discovered. The other two sections of the letter dealt with allowing make-up exams to be taken and averaged into the grades. The chairman of the appeals panel. Dr. William P. Fife, explained: “The panel doesn’t analyze the reason for accepting or rejecting the appeal. We consider all the material presented by both sides and give an answer without going into all the detailed reasoning that we did. ” “At the hearing we thought we would present our beef and there would be a rebuttal,” said appellant Stan Stanfield. Mahaney was presenting the case for the group and was inter rupted at every stop, Stanfield added. “He had no opportunity to set up a coherent line of thought, and anything that Fife did not want said did not get out,” said Stanfield. Fife explained that the written statements of the students had already been examined by the panel and the oral session was mostly to clear up the facts. “If Mahaney thought we were interfering with his train of thought I would have been glad for him to mention it,” said Fife. “Now is a hell of a time for him to say it,” Mahaney said Monday. “A double standard operated in that proceeding . If I made a statement, I had to corroborate it. If the prof or the department head made a statement it was taken as fact and they didn’t have to corroborate it.” When the students filed their appeal, they were required to turn in the forms Wednesday before classes started this semes ter. After this they were to receive copies of statements by the professor and the department head pertaining to the case. Mahaney said he received those statements on the day before the appeal. The faculty had copies of his material for several weeks. Guidelines given to all students in the appeal process indi cate that the hearing may be delayed until the students are ready, Fife said yesterday. “In this case, the students asked to have the meeting,” he said. “I am committed to making sure everybody gets a fair shake,” said Fife. “I’m too old and too far down the road to have any vested interests. I’m not afraid of anybody, and I’m not trying to sweep anything under the carpet. ” “It began to look like we would loose the appeal, so we decided to try and drop Spanish 206 from our degree plans,” said Mahaney. He and Stanfield said that during the appeal they felt none of the instructors could fairly teach them Spanish 206. The students had heard the department head had read the appeals to the faculty and mentioned their names. Dr. Anne M. Elmquist, head of the modern languages de partment, said she did have the appeal documents with her at a faculty meeting and did describe the case to the faculty. By doing so, she said she hoped to avoid any future prob lems. She said she mentioned at least some of the students names. Because of these events, the students said they felt that the department as a whole was prejudiced against them. Mahaney said he did not feel that way any longer. When the students presented their petition to drop, it was stopped by Dean William D. Maxwell of liberal arts. “He said we couldn’t prove that the instructors were prejudiced,” Mahaney said. The students appealed the grade to Academic Vice President John C. Calhoun. According to Mahaney, a proposal that the (See APPEAL, Page 7.) ■..^Representatives adopt Strict ethics code United Press International WASHINGTON — Stung by sex, roll and expense account scandals, the use has adopted its first strict code of ics to force members to reveal their fi- ices, abolish “slush funds” and limit cer- outside earnings. 'inal approval of the reform package le last night after more than eight irs of debate that included strong op- lition from Republicans and some mocrats and ended with an appeal for sage by Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill Jr., Hass. The vote was 402 to 22. fthe Senate approves much the same e next week, as expected, a special use committee will be created to estab lish ways to enforce the new codes and to draft federal laws providing penalties for violations. The ethics code was passed despite op position. Vigorous criticism was leveled at the provision requiring congressmen to limit “outside earned income” to 15 per cent of the official $57,500 salary — or $8,625 a year — as of 1979. Yet the restriction was okayed by a sur prisingly large 344 to 79 margin after O’Neill called it “the heart and soul of this package.” Many members indicated they were afraid to vote against it after the re cent 29 per cent raise which boosted con gressional salaries $12,900. Hit hardest will be an estimated 50 members still in private law practice. Re publicans and Democrats alike called it unconstitutional and unfair because the code carried no restrictions at all on “un earned income” from investments, such as stock dividends, family-owned farms and businesses. “I know some of you will be called on to give up more than others/’ O’Neill said in one of the first tests of his leadership. “But this House requires discipline and discretion on the part of its members and it is a sacrifice we must make. America demands a strong code of ethics.” Democrats overrode a Republican- backed effort to strike down the prohibi tion on privately financed unofficial office accounts, called “slush funds,” which are kept by an estimated 40 per cent of the members. Rep. Bill Frenzel, R-Minn., said he fa vored the ban but opposed the “wasteful” addition of $5,000 to the current $2,000 taxpayer-funded allowance for official ex penses. Almost all members favored the finan cial disclosure provisions. Other provisions of the code bar gifts worth more than $100 from lobbyists or foreign nationals; prohibit use of official funds to pay for post-election foreign travel and use of the congressional mailing privilege. Spring rapidly approaches Battalion photo by Richard Wallace Blossoms on the peach trees near Texas A&M President Jack Williams’s house are one of the first signs that spring is on its way. The peach blossoms and daffodils which are beginning to dot the campus bring with them an outlook of warm temperatures and fair weather for the weekend. House reinvestigation underway Author links conspiracy to JFK death Co«s IP C0«! a Battalion photo hy Steve Reis Strong feelings expressed Several residents in Hart Hall got together to express their feelings on the issue of gay student recognition by the University, which has come under controversy. The sign is hanging from the third floor of Hart Hall. Weather Cloudy and mild with a 70 per cent chance of showers today de creasing to 50 per cent tonight. Winds southeasterly at 15 m.p.h. gusting to 28 m.p.h. and becoming northwesterly tonight. High today in the mid-60s. Low tonight in the mid-50s and high tomorrow in the low 70s. Wind warnings in effect for area lakes. Election filing ends; three unopposed Filing ended yesterday for College Sta tion City Council and the A&M Consoli dated School Board elections, April 2. Incumbents Anne Hazen, Larry Ringer and Gary Halter are running unopposed for the three council seats. Rodney Hill and Johnnie Junek have filed for place 2 of the school board elec tion; incumbent Elliot Bray and James Bassett for place 3; incumbent W. D. Fitch for place 4; and William B. Lancas ter, John Reagor and incumbent Elizabeth Naugle for place 5. By JOHN TYNES and DEBBIE LIGHTFOOT There is strong evidence indicating a massive conspiracy in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, author Carl Oglesby said yesterday during a three-day seminar at Texas A&M University. “We have never been closer to finding out who killed Kennedy than we are to day,” Oglesby said, “but we also have never been closer to losing that opportuni ty- in a speech sponsored by the Political Forum Committee of the Memorial Stu dent Center, Oglesby said the Kennedy assassination should be reinvestigated in depth to consider evidence that has been uncovered since the last study done by the Warren Commission. He said he was encouraged by the es tablishment of a new investigating com mittee by the U.S. House of Representa tives in 1976. He added, however, that the committee is facing a crisis because of internal dissension and that the whole study may come to an end. Oglesby is author of “The Yankee Cow boy War: Conspiracies from Dallas to Watergate.” He spoke on the “Politics of Conspiracy.” Oglesby showed a series of slides illus trating evidence of a conspiracy to kill the President as opposed the presently ac cepted theory of a single assassin. The evidence included a detailed study of the trajectory of a particular bullet that, according to the Warren Commission’s report, passed through Kennedy and hit Texas Gov. John Connally. Oglesby showed that it would have been extremely difficult for the bullet to follow the path neccessary for the injuries it inflicted to both men. Also among the evidence was a short movie including part of the Zapruder film, taken by Abraham Zapruder as the presi dential motorcade passed through the area of downtown Dallas where Kennedy was shot. The film seems to indicate that Ken nedy was shot from some point in front of the car instead of from behind the car, as the single assassin theory requires. Oglesby also showed slides indicating that Lee Harvey Oswald, who is believed to have shot Kennedy, may have been framed. One photo shows Oswald standing in front of a house holding the weapons that were supposedly used to kill Kennedy. Oglesby showed how the picture could have been altered to put Oswald’s face on another person’s body. He also pointed out that the shadows on Oswald’s face are different from the shadows on the ground behind him. The Warren Commission possibly feared international consequences if it had proved a conspiracy actually existed, Og lesby said. “If Warren believed there might have been a conspiracy, he might have been convinced that it was a conspiracy rooted in Castro’s revolution,”he said, noting the Kennedy administration’s activity in the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro. He added that the Warren Commission may have been worried that the Soviet government, which was backing Castro, might step forward on Cuba’s behalf if Castro were accused of Kennedy’s assassi nation. Although Kennedy has been charged with being involved in the CIA plans to invade Cuba in 1961 and assassinate Fidel Castro, he actually limited the Bay of Pigs invasion, Oglesby said. Kennedy would not agree to the assas sination of Castro or the use of B26 bom bers during the invasion, Oglesby said. Oglesby said that an espionage program continued to be operated by the CIA from bases in Florida and Louisiana even after the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962, and Kennedy’s promises to the Soviet Union not to allow any more military ac tivity in Cuba. Kennedy’s attempts to stop these opera tions, and indications that he was planning to withdraw troops from Vietnam as early as 1963, made it appear to many “cowboy” isolationists that he was undermining the United States’ position in the world, Og lesby said. His apparent concessions to com munism and the elitist, eastern tone of his administration antagonized some “cow boys,” and may have given them a motive for his assassination, Oglesby said. Carl Oglesby and Jim Kostman gave a presenta tion on the question of the John F. Kennedy murder of 1963 in Dallas. The program, spon sored by Political Forum, highlighted the errors and flaws of the Warren Report. Battalion photo by Betsy Kelley