Vol. 71 No. 6
10 Pages
Thursday, September 8, 1977
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Bardell asks energy cut
in wake of power failure
Battalion photo by Ken Herrera
uesday night’s blackout had some students studying by flashlight, some
y candle light, and some not worrying about their homework at all.
By DARRELL LANFORD
Battalion Staff
City Manager North Bardell is asking Col
lege Station residents temporarily to turn
their thermostats up to 80 degrees in the
wake of a power failure that plunged 40
per cent of College Station into darkness
Tuesday night.
The request was made to ease the heavy
burden on Bryan and College Station
power plants.
Two of three transformers, located on
Highway 30, failed at 6:18 p.m. Tuesday,
knocking out power in the entire south
side of town from south of Jersey St. to the
east bypass to Wellborn. Electricity to
parts of College Station was restored by
9:30 p.m.; full service by 11:30 p.m., Bar
dell said.
The city manager said the failure appar
ently was caused by line voltage problems
that kicked the circuits on and off in two
transformers until finally the circuits
burned out.
Damage is estimated at $35,000 to
$45,000.
McGraw-Edison and Westinghouse
personnel are inspecting the transformers,
Bardell said. Electrical employes worked,
nonstop from 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to 3 p.m.
Wednesday to correct the problem at the
power station. Bardell estimated it may
take a month to return the station to nor
mal service.
He said the power plant had been de
signed for contingencies, but when two of
the four- by eight-foot transformers failed,
the third one also had to be taken out of
service to keep it from overloading.
College Station is still drawing electric
ity from Bryan to supplement the loss
from the blackout.
No unusual amount of criminal activity
was reported during the blackout, Bardell
said. There were, however, traffic prob
lems caused by people milling about and
inoperable traffic lights.
Communications problems arose when
blackened televisions and noiseless radios
could not be used to tell people what the
problem was, or that it could lie corrected
soon.
Al Provacek, manager of Piggly Wiggly,
said yesterday, T didn’t know what to do.
I was completely in the dark. ” He said the
store closed at 7 p.m., as soon as all the
customers could be checked out.
Flashlights and hand-cranked cash regis
ters had to be used, he said. He reported
no spoilage of frozen goods.
Teriy Ripperda, manager of Safeway,
reported no significant amount of spoilage.
“We were veiy, very lucky,” he said. He
said he was fortunate that compressors in
the air-conditioning system didn’t burn
out.
Margaret Beauchamp, administrator for
Sweetbriar Nursing Home, said there
were veiy few problems at the home. An
auxiliary unit supplied power for the
lights, she said. A fishing lantern and a
flash light were also used to apply medica
tion. She reported no complaints from the
residents, only laughter about how it was
like the old times.
Tucker wins top spot
in Student Senate
udge couldn’t disbar Yarbrough
United Press International
A state judge Wednesday reluctantly
Id resigned lawyer Donald B. Yar-
ough could not be disbarred. But it said
at Yarbrough must settle his eompli-
1 financial obligations before seeking
nission to the State Bar of Texas.
Ige Bert Tunks was clearly displeased
the Texas Supreme Court — on which Yar
brough served briefly as a justice tailed to
clearly say under what circumstances they
accepted the surrender of Yarbrough’s law
license Tuesday.
Yarbrough resigned from the Supreme
Court on July 15.
Tunks, a former civil appeals judge
called out of retirement to hear the 100-
chools pressured
y new re
United Press International
ixing buildings for easy access by
idieapped students and workers could
Isome fiscally shaky private colleges or
er push up tuition, school officials
deral regulations mandating, if
pessary, ramps, elevators and wide
pays, are the number one concent
ng many college administrators as
campuses come to life this fall,
e costly alterations seem to be called
nder section 504 of the Federal Re-
ilitation Act of 1973. This bans dis-
lination against persons with physical,
tal or psychological disabilities.
e504 regulations went into effect this
mer. But many presidents and admin-
itors of both public and independent
Is consider them too sweeping and
ibitively costly.
r. John Phillips, President of the Na-
al Association of Independent Col-
s and Universities and former United
es Deputy Commissioner for Higher
ication, calls the regulations laudable,
ut he says they are unclear about how
chieve the goal.
gulat
ton
Council approves
land purchase
ijfor baseball fields
T
ihe College Station City Council Wed-
Sday approved the purchase of a
,,1500 tract on Eleanor St. for the con-
§s liction of two baseball fields on the 1.67
tract.
Council members also heard extensive
iuinents from several residents who op-
ied the approval of a final plat that
uld allow a segment of land, named
lleman Court, also known as Woodson
ights, to be divided into seven lots with
foot frontages.
They said sewage and drainage prob-
is would result, and that the houses
ilt wouldn’t be equivalent in value to
“ other houses in the neighborhood,
ey also accused the developer of tric-
in gaining approval of development
A representative for the developer as-
fed residents and the council that no
eeption was involved.
In other action the council:
Approved a final plat resubdividing Lots
through 21; Southwood Section 5.
Approved a final plat resubdividing Lots
2 and 3, block 3 and Lot 1; Block 4 of
| oh’s Park Addition.
Heard goals repori from Elrey Ash, city
igineer, and North Bardell, city man-
“Complying may be incredibly burden
some,” he said.
“We somehow need to get across to the
federal government that some cost sharing
with colleges must accompany passage of
regulations like this,” Dr. Phillips said in
an interview.
Dr. John Kemeny, Dartmouth College
president, said the regulations appear to
require colleges and universities to spend
enormous amounts, even though the
schools have no additional sources of rev
enue.
“This will be a particular problem for
private universities that cannot go to state
legislatures for additional help,” he said.
Barbara Pearson, Director of Affirma
tive Action Programs at the University of
Southern California, agrees.
“When you consider that colleges and
universities already have their backs to the
wall because of spiraling costs, it would
seem appropriate that federal funding or
low interest loans be provided to assist in
complying with the regulations,” Ms.
Pearson said.
Dr. A. G. Unklesbay, the University of
Missouri’s Vice President for Administra
tion, noted that there is no way to predict
enrollment of handicapped persons.
“Thus, many institutions may he re
quired to prepare facilities that almost cer
tainly will never be used, he said.
He feels preventing discrimination
against handicapped persons could have
been accomplished through already exist
ing federal programs.
“Fifteen years ago the University of
Missouri’s Columbia campus was selected
as a regional center for handicapped stu
dents, he said.
“With federal assistance we build
ramps, sidewalks, street crossings and
provided elevator busses for wheelchairs.
But now, the 504 regulations require that
all four of the university campuses be
made accessible.”
He estimated this will cost his state’s
university system more than $10 million.
In estimating the cost at Johns Hopkins
University in Baltimore, President
Stephen Muller said:
“If we are talking about ramping and
installing elevators in all the buildings, the
cost would be somewhere around $1 mil
lion.
“We just don’t have the money to do it.
Tuition probably will be pushed up as a
result of the new expenses, many college
officials said.
The regulations are viewed as vague by
the Rev. Daniel C. O’Connell, president
of St. Louis University in Missouri.
“The problem is that the regulations are
far too sweeping, he said. “If you carry
the regulations to the extent of making ev
erything available to everyone, it reaches
absurdity. ”
count disbarment lawsuit against the
Houston attorney, maintained his jurisdic
tion in the case by taking it under advise
ment.
“The defendant is not a licensed attor
ney in Texas. However, to say this action
is tantamount to disbarment is somewhat
puzzling to me,” Tunks said from the be
nch. “In his application ot reinstatement,
he must make restitution to those who suf
fered pecuniary loss. Thia case is moot. ”
Yarbrough will be allowed to reapply for
his law license in five years, but with
Tunks’ admonishment in the record, fi
nancial aspects of some 16 civil lawsuits
involving thousands of dollars must be re
solved.
“I don’t see how any other interpreta
tion can he made except all charges involv
ing pecuniary loss are to taken as true.
This is a veiy unsatisfactory case,” Tunks
said.
“We will continue this case indefinite
ly,” Tunks told the lawyers.
Bar prosecutor Frank Bean said the case
was, still active. Waggoner Carr, Yar
brough’s attorney, said the issue was
moot.
“The bottom line of the opinion is that
Mr. Yarbrough is no longer a member of
the bar and any efforts to remove him are
moot, ” Carr said. “There is no indication it
will go any further.”
Yarbrough voluntarily surrendered his
law license in Austin on Friday'. It was his
first move in an effort to withdraw from
the disbarment suit on which lawyers have
been working the past year.
Carr said Yarbrough could not afford a
prolonged lawsuit.
The bar sought to see the suit tried to
conclusion to silence Yarbrough’s re
peated protestations of innocence and al
legations of a legal conspiracy against him.
Yarbrough now faces trial in Travis
County on criminal charges of perjury and
forgery stemming from some of his busi
ness dealings in recent years.
Trial on that matter is set for October.
Bobby Tucker, newly elected
Speaker of the Student Senate,
took charge of the meeting
Wednesday night after his
large-margin victory.
The Student Senate elected Bobby
Tucker Speaker of the Senate during
Wednesday night’s meeting and voted
down the appointment of a comptroller for
Student Government.
Tucker, a junior Agriculture Education
major, is a former national president of the
Future Fanners of America and received a
large majority of the votes.
Joe Beall received the next highest
number of votes to become Speaker Pro-
Tern.
The appointment of Stewart Kingsbury
to the position of comptroller was rejected
by a nine-vote margin primarily because of
conflicting views on how the new position
would affect the vice-president of finance’s
duties.
The comptroller would have been re
sponsible for creating a system of account
ing for Student Government funds which
total about $50, (XX).
Mennonite community
faces deportation
United Press International
SEMINOLE — The crops are in the
ground and the 7,500-acre farming com
munity is practically established hut the
dreams of more than 500 Mennonites who
fled persecution in other countries may
dissolve with deportation this month.
Their temporary visas have almost ex
pired and immigration officials say the 526
members of an evangelical Protestant
Christian sect founded in Friesland in the
16th century must leave the United States
by Sept. 22.
Their only chance of remaining would be
Opponents call pact "treason
Carter signs canal treaty
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Carter
signed treaties relinquishing the Panama
Canal in the year 2000, but opponents
called it “treason” and rallied today to the
battle cry “We built it, we bought it, we
own it!”
In a glittering ceremony Wednesday
night preceding a state dinner for the pres
idents, prime ministers and diplomats of
27 hemispheric nations, Carter and Gen.
Omar Torrijos affixed their names to the
two treaties turning Teddy Roosevelt’s
canal over to Panama.
Carter’s bold diplomatic gamble pro
duced the treaties. But signing them does
not put them into effect. It takes Senate
ratification and House implementing legis
lation to do that, and the task won’t be
easy.
Rep. Mickey Edwards, R-Okla., on the
steps of the Capitol Wednesday, called
treaty negotiator Sol Linowitz the “Bert
Lance of international negotiation as 200
protesters waved the banners, “We built
it, we bought it, we own it!”
Even Democrats conceded the path to
ratification will be thorny.
Ronald Reagan urged rejection of the
treaties, saying their “fatal flaw” is the fu
ture assumption of reliable, trouble-free
canal operation.
In testimony prepared today for a Sen
ate Judiciary subcommittee, he said the
1903 treaty with Panama gave the United
States “a firm, unshakable legal basis for
building, operating and defending the ca
nal.”
“To this day, it is those rights of sover
eignty which undergird our ability to op
erate and defend the canal. We cannot be
kicked out summarily on the whim of
some Panamanian government.”
Television beamed the ceremony live,
by satellite, throughout Latin America as
Carter and Torrijos signed the blue-and
red-bound treaties that constitute the his
toric agreement. The two men smiled and
embraced warmly after they signed.
Torrijos, in a concession to the rocky
road Carter faces, said the future of the
treaties depends on “the statesmanship” of
the U.S. Senate.
“We are here to participate in the sign
ing of treaties, which will assure a peaceful
and prosperous and secure future for an
international waterway of great impor
tance to us all,” Carter said.
“But the treaties do more than that.
They mark the commitment of the United
States to the belief that fairness, not force,
should lie at the heart of our dealings with
the nations of the world. ”
Mobilized in support were Lady Bird
Johnson, whose husband Lyndon placed
his administration on record for turning
the canal over to Panama; and former
President Gerald Ford, whose support of
such a move nearly cost him the GOP
nomination to Reagan last year.
They received warm applause when
Carter introduced them at the signing
ceremony. Also present were Henry Kis
singer, secretaiy of state under Ford and
Richard Nixon; and William Rogers, who
held the post in Nixon’s first term.
The treaties cannot become effective
until two-thirds of the senators present
and voting approve.
The treaties also must be approved by
Panamanian voters.
an extension of their temporary visas until
the U.S. Department of Labor decides
whether to issue worker certifications, al
lowing them to eventually gain permanent
resident status.
Mayor Bob Clark, who says the Menno
nites have answered a “crying need” in
Gaines County for skilled craftsmen and
farm labor, has called a meeting tonight
between the Mennonites and representa
tives from the immigration and labor de
partments and Texas Employment Com
mission.
Clark said the Immigration Service in
formed the German-speaking Mennonites
by letter that their visas were expiring and
they must leave the country by Sept. 22.
“They wouldn’t be able to harvest their
crops, they would have to leave everything
behind and some sold their life possessions
to move here in the first place.”
Clark said the Mennonites, who have
.been asked to provide an interpreter for
the meeting, dq not understand the letter
nor do they know if they will be able to have
their temporary visas extended until labor
officials decide whether to issue worker
certifications.
A spokesman for the Labor Department
said its representative at the meeting
would seek to determine if the sect will
take jobs that could be filled by U.S. citi
zens.
Mennonites as a religious sect oppose
the taking of oaths, infant baptism, military
service and the acceptance of public office
and favor plain dress and plain living. They
are farmers and also teach their children a
skilled craft.
Pres. Miller inauguration
October 4 at G. Rollie
Inauguration of Dr. Jarvis E. Mil
ler as the 18th president of Texas
A&M University is set for Oct. 4,
the 101st anniversary of the institu
tion’s formal opening, announced
Chancellor Jack K. Williams.
Dr. Miller succeeds Dr.
Williams, who assumed the chancel
lorship of The Texas A&M Univer
sity System when the Board of Re
gents moved last spring to establish
separate administrations for the
main university and the overall
statewide teaching, research and
public service institution.
The inaugural ceremonies, which
are open to the public, will be held
at 10:30 a.m. in G. Rollie White
Coliseum. The formal convocation
is expected to attract hundreds of
delegates representing colleges and
universities from throughout the na
tion and several foreign countries,
as well as representatives from
learned societies and professional
organizations.
Related activities begin at 8 p.m.
Oct. 3 with a concert in Rudder Au
ditorium, followed by a Memorial
Student Center reception honoring
the new president and his family.
The concert will feature student
musical groups from on campus.
The concluding activity will be a
Corps of Cadets review at 1:15 p.m.
following the inauguration.
Classes will be dismissed on the
day of the inauguration, noted Dean
of Admissions and Records Edwin
H. Cooper, chairman of the
faculty-staff-student committee
planning the inauguration.
Other members of the committee
include Gen. O. R. Simpson, assis
tant vice president for student serv
ices; Leatha Miloy, director, Educa
tional Information Services; Steve
Pringle, assistant to the president;
Robert G. Cherry, assistant to the
chancellor and secretary to the
Board of Regents; Lane Stephen
son, assistant to the chancellor for
public information; Richard E.
(Buck) Weirus, executive director.
Association of Former Students;
Robert H. Rucker, professor. Hor
ticultural Sciences. Also Mary
Helen Bowers, assistant to the dean
of admissions and records; Donald
D. Carter, associate registrar;
Charles Cargill, university center
manager; Dr. Haskell Monroe, as
sociate vice president for academic
affairs; Dr. C. W. Landiss, head.
Health and Physical Education; Dr.
C. A. Rodenberger, assistant dean
of engineering; Dr. Jenny Kitching,
assistant director of home eco
nomics, Texas Agricultural Exten
sion Service; Dr. Robert G. Mer-
rifield, head. Forest Science;
Robert Harvey, student body presi
dent; Mike Gentry, cadet colonel of
the Corps and Vicki Young, vice
president of student services for
Student Government.