Battalion jobs open
Applications are now open for
photography and reporting pos
itions on the summer and fall
Battalion. Interested persons are
asked to fill out an application at
the Battalion office, Reed-
McDonald 216.
The Battalion
Vol. 70 No. 101
16 Pages
Wednesday, April 6, 1977
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Weather
Fair and mild today, tonight and
tomorrow. Southerly winds at 10
m.p.h. today, becoming light and
variable during the night time
hours. The high today is expected
to be 79, with the low tomorrow
morning of 51. Temperatures to
morrow are expected to reach 82.
No rain is in the forecast.
Senate passes
self-review bill
Only two out of six pieces of legislation
passed the final meeting of the 1976-77
Texas A&M University Student Senate
last night.
A committee to examine the usefulness
of all other committees within Student
Government was approved by the Senate
in a 33 to 14 roll call vote.
The resolution gives the Committee on
Committees from May 1977 to April 1978
to complete its task.
There will be three central members.
One will be agreed upon by the five vice
presidents, one by the judicial board and
the other by the student body president.
The bill also allows the committee to
expand to as many as eight total members.
By March 1, 1978, the committee must
report which student government com
mittees should be discontinued.
The Committee on Committees will be
reviewed by the last committee it handles^
The Senate also passed a resolution ref*
questing that the administration consider
converting Peniston Cafeteria into $
lounge area for day students.
The resolution passed by voice vote.
Four other bills failed to pass. Thejs
were:
_Lowering the grade point requiremenf
for yell leader elections from 2.5 to 2.0. :
-Establishing a special committee to ex
amine the catalogue numbers of course
work at A&M.
-Recommending to the Residence Half
Association that dormitory students be al
lowed to convert office space into cooking
areas.
-Allowing two members of the judicial
board to supervise all election ballot
counts.
All failed by voice vote.
It’s moving artwork
Carter acts on promise
Carter signs bill
for reorganization
The art of motion is revealed in many fountains. Here the water falling
from the one in front of Zachry Engineering Center forms a pattern
against the background of campus buildings.
Battalion photo by Richard Wallace
Bookstore funds to be allocated for fall
By ANNETTE CUELLAR
Allocations of Texas A&M University
Bookstore funds are under consideration
for fall of 1977. The funds are to be distrib
uted between eligible school organiza
tions .
“All the eligible organizations make re
quests of how much money they think
they will need for the coming year,” said
Dr. Carolyn Adair, director of student af
fairs .
The finalized budgets won’t become ef
fective until September, she said.
There are five major categories of eligi
ble organizations including academic,
international, honor and service, military
and recreation.
Of the five categories appoximately 300
clubs are eligible. Not all apply and
others, by failing to check their boxes in
the Student Programs Office, aren’t in
formed and fail to submit a budget, said
Adair.
“Last year the book store profits added
up to about $100,000,” Adair said. The
entire amount was divided among differ
ent organizations. The amount of money
each club receives is not equal. It is based
on the activities they have planned for the
coming year and how much of their own
funds are used, Adair said.
Additional money comes from the As
sociation of Former Students and the De-
Amended bill first in big spending
velopmental Office Parent Fund. This
fund is derived from letters sent to parents
of A&M students asking for contributions
for student organizations.
To divide the money, a council adviser
is selected for each major category. The
council adviser reviews the requests of
each club, said Adair.
Later, the council advisers meet and
“slice the pie ”, Adair said.
“Each club doesn’t necessarily get what
it requested,” she added.
The bookstore funds are designed
mainly to get the different clubs started at
the beginning of the year, Adair said.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Fulfilling a major
campaign promise. President Carter today
signed his government reorganization au
thorization bill and said he would start “a
searching examination” of the bureaucracy
with an overhaul of his own office.
The White House Oval Office ceremony
was a climax to outsider Carter’s two-year
presidential campaign in which he re
peatedly assailed the overgrown, ineffi
cient federal bureaucracy.
“We have no master list or hidden
agenda” for reorganization targets, the
White House said in a statement.
But, it said, Carter “has identified sev
eral areas for early action, including
energy, oil spill pollution control, con
sumer affairs, civil rights, advisory com
mittees and the President’s Executive Of
fice.”
“As I have stated on many occasions, my
administration is determined to reor
ganize and streamline the executive
branch of our governments,” Carter said
in a statement at the signing. “The reor
ganization program will make a searching
examination of the entire federal struc
ture.”
The bill signed by Carter today gives
the President authority to transfer, com
solidate or abolish many — but not all —-
government agencies subject to veto by
either house of Congress within 60 days, if
the veto is not voted, then the change aur
tomatically becomes law.
White House Press Secretary Jody
Powell said recommendations on reor
ganizing the Executive Office of the Presi
dent would go to Carter in early June.
The office has grown from a small staff
concerned largely with budgetary matters
during the Franklin Roosevelt administra
tion to its present 18 units.
Carter said Bert Lance, director of the
Office of Management and Budget, who
performed a similar chore when Carter
was governor of Georgia, would direct the
reorganization.
House to look at highway funds
United Press International
AU STIN — Sharply increased funding of
the state’s highway program, pinpointed
three months ago as one of the major issues
facing the 1977 legislature, apparently will
be the first of the big spending programs
approved.
“I’m ready,” speaker Bill Clayton said
when asked if the House would go along
with Senate changes in the $528 million
highway construction and maintenance
bill.
Rep. Jim Nugent, D-Kerrville, House
sponsor of the plan, said he would ask the
House today to agree to the Senate
amendments, sending the bill to the gov
ernor for his signature.
Gov. Dolph Briscoe endorsed the Se
nate compromise, although it was consid
erably below the $825 million in additional
highway funding he recommended in
January.
“I support it. It’s not in the amount I
originally recommended, but I think it is
good sound legislation and will provide
funds to maintain our investment in our
highway system,” Briscoe said.
The House also planned to give final ap
proval today to two bills increasing the
punishment for prostitution and making it
easier for police to prosecute pimps.
The bills, by Rep. Stan Schlueter,
D-Killeen, would increase the penalty for
prostitution from the present $200 fine to a
$1,000 fine and up to six months in jail. It
would also permit prosecution of a pimp
who arranged for a prostitute’s services,
even though he did not directly receive
payment for the services.
“A $200 fine merely condones prostitu
tion,” Schlueter told House members. “If a
pimp has to put up $1,000 plus stand the
potential of having his girls in jail for six
months, he’s going to get them off the
street.”
Rep. Jim Kaster, D-El Paso, jokingly of
fered an amendment yesterday to make the
punishment for prostitution death by ston
ing.
“If it was good enough for the people in
the Bible, it’s good enough for us,” Kaster
said. “After all, if we outlaw prostitution
what are the legislators going to do.”
Egypt’s Sadat wants military aid;
discusses request with Brown, Carter
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat is not “in a position to say
anything” about U.S. military aid to his
country, but there’s little doubt he told
President Carter he wants it.
Although Israel has made no secret of its
opposition to any U.S. arms shipments to
Egypt, the matter — which Sadat said he
raised — was addressed yesterday at the
White House. Press Secretary Jody Powell
said the discussions were “general,” and no
commitments or decisions were made.
Sadat’s visit with Defense Secretary
Harold Brown before seeing Carter, and
his visit to Congress, also underlined his
arms request. He slated meetings today
with Agriculture Secretary Bob Bergland
and aid director John Gilligan, and pre
pared to meet reporters as well.
Egypt’s air force is composed mainly of
Soviet-built MIG jets, and it’s been having
trouble getting the Russians to provide
spare parts and maintenance.
The United States, on the other hand,
has sold Egypt no arms since the two na
tions resumed diplomatic relations a few
years ago. Last year, Cairo was allowed to
purchase six C130 transport planes, and
officials say Egypt now wants to buy 40 F5
jet fighters, a large number of antitank mis
siles and more C130s.
In Jerusalem, an Israeli official said his
country knew nothing of “Sadafs shopping
list,” but, “we consider it possible and to
some degree likely that the Carter adminis
tration will approve an arms deal with
Egypt.”
After first admitting to reporters he had
broached the subject yesterday, Sadat re
treated, saying, “Really, I’m not yet in a
position to say anything.”
For Carter’s part, he was “very pleased”
with the “personal friendship” he estab
lished with Sadat, whom he’d never met
before Monday.
“We talked about military, economic
and political matters,” Carter said as he saw
Sadat to his waiting limousine.
Spring graduates not required
to attend formal commencement
Polls open today
Polls open today for Student
Government elections. Exercise
your right to vote for the candidates
of your choice to represent your
views at Texas A&M. The polls are
open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Sbisa,
Zachry, Krueger-Dunn Commons
and bus stop. Guard Room, Memo
rial Student Center Lounge and the
Throckmorton bus stop, and the
Reed-McDonald bus stop. Polls are
also open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at
the vet school. The elections run
today and tomorrow.
This year Texas A&M University’s
spring graduates have the option of not
participating in formal commencement
ceremonies, announced Dean of Admis
sions and Records Edwin H. Cooper.
Cooper emphasized that degree candi
dates electing not to receive their dip
lomas at the May 6-7 ceremonies in G.
Rollie White Coliseum must notify his of
fice no later than May 4.
He said the decision to make participa
tion optional was prompted by the record
number of students expected to receive
degrees this spring and, more specifically,
the difficulty in accommodating the guests
who will be present to view the cere
monies .
Tickets will not be required for admis
sion, Dean Cooper added. He said
closed-circuit television viewing will be
provided in Rudder Auditorium for any
overflow crowd.
The Friday evening (May 6) ceremonies
will be for all students receiving graduate
degrees and for undergraduate degree
candidates from the Colleges of Architec
ture and Environmental Design, Educa
tion, Geosciences, Liberal Arts, Science
and Veterinary Medicine. Ceremonies the
following morning will be for under
graduate degree candidates from the Col
leges of Agriculture, Business Administra
tion, Engineering and Marine Sciences
and Maritime Resources.
Principal speaker at both ceremonies
will be Dr. Kenneth H. Ashworth, com
missioner of the Coordinating Board,
Texas College and University System.
German war documents studied
for solutions to energy problem
By KIM TYSON
World War II documents confis
cated by the United States from
Germany may help solve some of
today’s energy problems.
Under a grant through Texas
A&M University’s Center for
Energy and Mineral Research, a
team of A&M staff and students are
studying how the Germans trans
formed lignite, a soft coal, into
synthetic gasoline.
The lignite in the United States
alone could provide more energy
than the Middle East, said Dr.
Richard Wainerdi, director of the
project.
At the end of the war, the United
States captured and stored over 175
tons of German documents as the
spoils of war. The bulk of these rec
ords has never been studied,
Wainerdi said.
“German chemistry was very
good during the 1930s and it sup
ported in large measure a synthetic
gasoline which sustained the war
time German army. That was done
by converting lignite into gasoline,”
said Dr. Arnold Krammer, a history
professor working on the project.
Krammer has gone to the Na
tional Archives in Washington,
D.C. and various depositories
around the country studying and
microfilming pertinent documents.
They now have over 300 docu
ments. Krammer’s fluency in Ger
man, his chemistry background and
his knowledge of German history
qualified him for the job.
Dr. Arnold Krammer, Dr. Robert Calvert and Dr. Richard Wainerdi
(left to right) examine microfilmed German documents that they hope
will help them Solve the energy crisis. Battalion photo by Kim Tyson
The rest of the team consists of
Dr. Robert Calvert, an oral histo
rian, and Dr. Kurt Irgolic, a
chemist.
Calvert interviews old German
scientists for leads to other docu
ments. Irgolic translates chemical
formulas they find.
Two history students, Barbara
Moyer and Terry Hunt Tooley, as
sist in the research.
Krammer pointed out that Ger
many’s secret was not the formula
for obtaining synthesized gasoline
from lignite, but the process they
used to make it efficiently and eco
nomically. Friedrich Bergius won a
Nobel Prize in 1931 for discovering
how to turn lignite into gasoline.
Tooley, a senior history student,
helped prove that production of
synthetic gasoline is feasible. He
found that Germany’s use of slave
labor in production was inefficient
and not required for cheap produc
tion.
The $250,000-a-year project
began in October 1975 and is ex
pected to be completed in three or
four more years, Wainerdi said.
Three oil related firms, Dow Chem
ical Co., Diamond Shamrock Corp.
and Union Carbide Corp., supply a
large part of the money, he said.
Krammer said no one thought
much about researching this process
until 1973, when gasoline prices
started to increase.
With the Arab oil embargo and
U.S. reserves declining, the process
may soon be necessary. Wainerdi
was unable to estimate how much
the lignite gasoline would cost per
gallon, but said he is sure oil prices
will continue to increase and even
tually make lignite a cheaper alter
native.
Krammer said he hopes to finish
finding most of the documents by
the end of this semester so German
linguists can begin translating them.
Their goal is to establish a center
for anyone interested in learning
the lignite-gasoline process, Kram
mer added. He said an area of the
Sterling C. Evans Library will be
used for the documents and a do
nated computer terminal will be set
up so that others can withdraw in
formation .