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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 8, 1977)
Weather 3lear to partly cloudy today with ftinuing night and early morning Ld/ness. Fair and mild tomor- Sunday partly cloudy and Winds 8 to 15 mph. High WjtMoclay and tomorrow in the low 80s, tonight about 50. The Battalion mT: Vol. 70 No. 103 6 Pages Friday, April 8, 1977 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 Attendance policy studied By SUE MUTZEL Battalion Staff A revision of the current class atten dance policy was recommended by the Texas A&M University Academic Council yesterday. The present University rules and regu lations state that an instructor may include class attendance as a factor in determining a student’s grade. Beginning next fall, the student s semester grade would be based partially on “performance and/or participation” in class, according to the recommendation. Und er the recommendation, class “at tendance” cannot be used, but class “par ticipation” can be used in determining the student’s grade. “Participation will have to be defined by the teacher,” said Fred McClure, student body president. “In effect they’re saying that you have to participate,” University President Jack K. Williams said. “In order to participate, you have to be there.” Williams must give the final approval to all revisions recom mended by the council. The council did not recommend one proposal asking that the University be able to take disciplinary action against a stu dent for a criminal offense, even if the stu dent had been charged for the same of fense in an off-campus court. “I don’t think it is a reasonable change,” President Williams said, arguing against the recommendation. “We don’t like to chase our adults around town fussing at them for whatever they do off-campus,” he said. Also proposed to Williams was a revi sion prohibiting alcoholic or intoxicating beverages in public areas on campus, but allowing them in the dormitory rooms. This proposal recognizes the privacy of a student’s room and the right to consume these beverages there. Other changes recommended and ap proved include: _Changing the deadline for turning in final grades for graduating students from 10 a.m. on the Monday preceding com mencement to 4 p.m. Friday, one week prior to graduation. _Degree candidates must complete at least 12 hours of 300 and 400 level courses in a major rather than 12 hours at any level. ^.Undergraduate students with GPRs of less than 3.0 cannot take a course load in excess of 19 hours without the approval of their dean. -Animals on campus must be leashed at all times. A proposal allowing undergraduate stu dents classified as juniors or seniors to take up to 12 hours of undirected electives and up to 4 credit hours of required physical education courses on a satisfactory/unsatis factory basis was referred back to a com mittee for further investigation. The Texas A&M University Academic Council welcomed Dr. Jack K. Williams back as chairman at yesterday’s meeting. It was Dr. Williams’ first time to head the council since he resumed full administrative duties as President of Texas A&M University. Williams said that it was good to be back before the council. Battalion photos by Kevin Venner BFONDf jllege Station firemen were called to the Texas A&M University cam pus yesterday after the gas tank of a shuttlebus dropped to the ground at the corner of Ross and Ireland streets. Rodney Zalobny (left) and nobert Krupa stabilize the hose which was used to spray water into the fuel. The dilution of the gas prevented a possible explosion and enabled workers to raise the tank and move the bus. Power contracts cause disagreement i Freud ENT jeen made up. )R® (H® jol. Parsons to take job s security, traffic director ODYSSEY' citing Battalion photo by Kevin Venner By DARRELL LANFORD Battalion Staff is Commandant Thomas Parsons will ecome a University Police Depart- nt administrator. Dr. John Koldus, president of student services, said :rday. JJ. Parsons will retire from the Army in | l pnd assume a newly-created position 1 as Director of Security and Traffic, esponsible for University Police ad- Stration, Parsons said he will work with ange planning, discuss parking prob- nd monitor security devices, said he will be on the traffic appeals and will handle other student com- dus said the University’s rapid Khforced the creation of the post. He ■he director will deal more with or- fetion and administration rather than everyday functions of the police de ment. ioldus said O.L. Luther, chief of cam pus police, will report to Parsons, who will report to Koldus. Presently, Luther re ports directly to Koldus. Koldus said that Luther has very little time to spend on problems other than those concerned with everyday operation. “Col. Parsons will be responsible for all aspects from security systems to planning and implementation’” Koldus said. “He shares my philosophical concern for students in providing student services,” he added. “No one on campus shares his life with students more than he does. “He has the talent and ability to or ganize, plan and get the job done,” Koldus said. Parsons said Koldus asked him this summer if he was interested in the job. He had been looking for another job with the university before the offer. “The opportunity has come up, so I’m leaving the service,” Parsons said. He said although he would miss his pres ent job, he is looking forward to a new challenge.” )-9:35 SHOW” ilection results run late ults of student elections will not be ibleuntil after 2 p.m. today, Student ernment Election Commissioner Geri bell said this morning, en tabulated, she said the results will jsted in the Student Programs office, 216 of the Memorial Student Center , and the Student Government bul letin board on the first floor of the MSC. Plans were for the results to be tabulated by six this morning, but Campbell said that only about five persons out of the 15 or 20 expected showed up to count ballots during the night. The Battalion will carry complete elec tion results on Tuesday. By GARY LOVAN Bryan is trying to stop Gulf States from providing electric service to the City of College Station until the present utility contract between Bryan Utilities and Col lege Station expires on Jan. 25, 1979. A resolution was passed by the Bryan City Council Tuesday, giving Bryan city attorneys the power to file a complaint with tbe Public Utilities Commission against College Station and Gulf States Power. The resolution states that “ Gulf States is prohibited from rendering services, di rectly or indirectly, to College Station without first having obtained from the Public Utilities Commission a certificate of convenience and necessity.” The Bryan resolution asks the commis sion to enter a two-part preliminary order: (a) set a hearing and order Gulf States to show why it should not be ordered to stop selling power to College Station; and (b) order Gulf States, upon completion of such a hearing, to stop implementing the plan. Bryan further requests that upon a final hearing, the commission enter its order in two parts: (a) declaring Gulf States is pres ently without authority to extend wholesale electric service to College Sta tion; and (b) prohibiting Gulf States from extending or otherwise providing electric service to College Station. Louis Odle, City Manager of Bryan, said he didn’t know how long those pro ceedings might take. Odle said Bryan has notified College Station of the complaint that will be filed and that the feedback from College Station has not been too favorable. “They said they were surprised and didn’t feel like they were in breach of their contract,” he said. College Station contracted with Gulf States to provide 20 megawatts of power to College Station beginning this summer. “It was our original thinking that they (College Station) would begin to pick up all of their new growth from Gulf States and maintain their present load require ments of 30 megawatts with Bryan Utilities until the expiration of the con tract and then phase Bryan out gradually,” Odle said. He said Bryan is willing to negotiate the purchase of a partial load requirement by College Station after 1979 to facilitate the changeover. According to previous reports, there are several areas of disagreement in the pres ent contract between Bryan and College Station. One area is the debt-service fee Bryan charges its customers. Odle said that since College Station buys approximately 27 per cent of Bryan Utilities’ total power, the city should also pay 27 per cent of the debt-service fee. College Station officials earlier said that because they do buy such a large quantity of power, they should be exempt from paying the fee. If not exempted, they should at least be given title to the part of the Bryan Utilities’ system they helped pay for by way of the fee. Odle objects to that because College Station is not buying the facilities, the city is renting them just like the rest of Bryan Utilities’ customers. He said the rest of the customers are charged the fee and are not given title to any of the facilities that money pays for. Another area of disagreement is the fuel cost adjustment charges. College Station officials previously said that Gulf States’ fuel cost adjustment charges were much lower than Bryan Utilities’. This was used as one reason for changing suppliers. Odle said that may be true now, but three years ago the fuel cost adjustment of Bryan Utilities was one-third that of Gulf States’. One year ago Bryan’s was three times higher than that of Gulf States. “We just flip-flopped positions. Two years from now what will the situation be? In five years? I don’t know and neither do they,” be said. Another reason College Station gave for changing suppliers was Bryan could not provide all the power College Station would need in the future. College Station estimates they will need approximately 55 megawatts of power by 1979. Odle said that Bryan will be able to provide that amount. He said that of the 105 megawatts the new Roland Dansby Power Plant will provide, 54 of those megawatts will be used to provide electric services to College Station in 1979. If College Station is allowed to continue with its present plans, Odle said the re sulting excess power could possibly be marketed within the Texas Municipal Power Agency but that they don’t have a ready buyer at the present time. The power agency comprises the cities of Bryan, Denton, Garland, and Green ville and the Brazos Electric Cooperative. Bryan residents will probably have to pay higher rates for utility service if Col lege Station is allowed to continue its plans, Odle said. That is due to the fact that there will be fewer people paying for the amount it costs to run the system, he said. Odle also said that if College Station changes suppliers, Bryan will lose approx imately $1.5 million a year in revenues. The major area of disagreement in the present contract is two different interpre tations of the content of the contract, Odle said. “The contract states that the City of Bryan shall provide all the services the City of College Station requests,” he said. Under their interpretation, Odle said that College Station could “request” any where from zero to one-hundred per cent service. “But if we have to plan and provide for the possibility that they might request 100 per cent service through 1979, then they have an obligation to take that 100 per cent and expend the funds necessary to do it,” Odle said. “There is also some merit to the argu ment that they couldn’t even quit us in 1979. This Public Utilities Commission complaint doesn’t really address itself to a cutoff on Jan, 25, 1979,” he said. North Bardell, City Manager of College Station, was not available for comment on the complaint. ill gives veto power to Board oordinating Board hill approved Billion’ (PG) April I 4 United Press International ISTIN — The Senate has tentatively roved a bill expanding the authority of /'crazy Lai' ^ tate College Coordinating Board, de- ' Ecomplaints the measure would give Bard virtual veto power over buildings lived by the legislature. m bill by Sen. Oscar Mauzy, D-Dalias, Bf state supported colleges — other ithe University of Texas and Texas R University — want to put up build- jcosting more than $500,000, they must Eave the approval of the coordinating I, even if the funds have been appro- |M' 0/^ t°u might as well not have a local board _ > _ i ^ ri »-.‘« , T|ents,” Sen. A. M . Aikin Jr., D-Paris, ” (yesterday. “If we put money in the ll Callft iro P na t‘ ons bill to build a building, I li Times don’t want the coordinating board to have anything to do with it because it’s none of their business. “I don’t think you ought to have to come down here and kowtow to the coordinating board.” Another vote will be necessary before the bill is passed to the House. In other action, the Senate refused to consider a bill limiting authority of county commissioners to restrict land use to the minimum required to comply with federal flood control guidelines. “This is just another one of the narrow, special interest bills for the Texas Associa tion of Realtors so they can build anywhere they want — in the middle of creeks so people can be flooded out,” said Sen. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin. The Senate also refused to consider a bill by Sen. CarlosTruan, D-Corpus Christi, to authorize a $10.5 million-a-year program. The bill set up a screening program to find and treat medical problems of poor chil dren under 6 who do not qualify for welfare or medicaid assistance. Senators approved a bill to give trial judges discretion to block appeals by indi viduals who admit they are guilty, but then try to contest their conviction. Sen. Gene Jones, D-Houston, said large numbers of defendants plead guilty but then appeal their cases. His bill would require defendants who plead guilty to have court permission to appeal the case unless the sentence handed down exceeds the punishment recom mended. ^ood needs to double in 25 years c quau« D Don Lewi* RADIO whbi (X)“£i United Press International llBBOCK — A Texas Tech professor Balled on agricultural researchers to e than double the world food supply in Bext quarter century, saying it will be only way to feed a large and hungry Ration. In the next 25 years we’ve got to learn pduce as much food as in all history,” R. Bertrand said yesterday. “It’s a pretty sobering thought because very few of us believe we can double food production on existing land. “We re going to have to gamble if we re going to meet this need. But agriculture is the biggest gambler in the world.” At a meeting of American Society of Ag ricultural Engineers, Bertrand said the most reliable way to meet the need brought on by over population was to in crease the yield of existing land and crops. “Yield increasing technology is really the key to putting more bread on the table in the future,” he said. He said the way to bring about the technology needed was through “strong and vigorous agricultural research pro grams,” adapting the research to the field and educating farmers worldwide. Three approaches used to find existing life on other planets There are three approaches currently being used to find out if life exists on other planets, said Dr. Carl Sagan, a prominent space scientist, in a speech yesterday at Rudder Theatre. One approach is to look more closely at the origin of life on earth he said. If it is easy and relatively fast for life to be created on earth, there is a possibility of life on other planets he said. He described experiments at Cornell University in Dr. Carl Sagan which gases were exposed to ultraviolet light. A brown substance was formed that contained amino acids, the building blocks of life. “I don’t wish to overstate the experiment,” Sagan ex plained, “We haven’t started out with a tube of gases and ended up with something crawling out of the test tube, but it is important to note that these amino acids were made from simple organic materials that are abundant in the universe.” A second approach is to look at other planets to see if there is life on them now. "The life wouldn’t have to be walking around carrying ray guns to be interesting to scientists,” Sagan said. “A simple microbe on another planet would be extremely important.” The Viking probes on Mars have found evidence of chemical reactions in the soil that are similar to respira tion and photosynthesis, he added. “However, we must be very cautious about deducing life on Mars from such information,” he said. “The third approach is to see if smart guys on other planets are trying to contact us through interstellar com munication.” * According to Sagan, the easiest, fastest and least expen sive way to communicate is by radio. He said that the earth’s most elaborate radio transmit ter in Puerto Rico is actually rather primitive. But it could still receive messages sent from hundreds of light- years away. One light year is the distance traveled by a ray of light in one year, approximately six trillion miles. “If we make contact with another planet,” Sagan said, “their lifestyles, technologies and appearance would be so different from our own that it would teach us very much and broaden our perspectives. ” “If we don’t make contact, we would have learned something of the uniqueness, rarity and preciousness of our life.” Sagan said that the earth is not sending messages to other planets but is simply listening for any messages that may reach us. “However, television transmissions are escaping. Somewhere, about 30 light years away, intelligent trans missions such as “Howdy Doody” and Milton Berle are still traveling through space. Let’s hope anyone who re ceives these messages won’t judge us too harshly.”