Pi
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Viewpoint
JL Wednesda
Wednesday
January 25, 1978
jj The administrative
Now is a very good time to be an administrator at Texas A&M University.
It’s a good time because the University System Board of Regents is hand
ing out promotions like a new father handing out cigars.
Those promotions started with Texas A&M’s own recent version of the
“Domino Principle.’ A former United States Secretary of State made plenty
of hay on his own version of this theory, related to Southeast Asia, but that’s
J another story.
Texas A&M’s Domino Principle is this: Create a new administrative or
ganization, with vacancies at the top, and in promoting administrators to fill
those positions, more vacancies will be created farther down in the adminis
tration. When those vacancies are in turn filled from lower-level adminis-
a trators, a wave effect is created. Vacancies and promotions ripple down
X through the organization until many administrators change jobs,
c It all started last May when the board of regents appointed then-President
s Jack K. Williams chancellor of the Texas A&M system and created a separate
University president position. Dr. Jarvis Miller, then director of the Texas
Agricultural Experiment Station, was appointed president by the board of
regents in July. The regents also appointed three vice chancellors, including
then-Vice President for Academic Affairs John C. Calhoun.
, Those changes were geared at separating the University and the system
into adminstrative units that could better handle the enormous conglomer
ate the system has become. But there the dominos started falling.
In August the board promoted Dean of Science Mack Prescott to the
academic vice presidency Calhoun had vacated. At the same time the re
gents appointed then-assistant Vice President for Business Affairs Howard
Vestal to the business vice president post which had been vacant for about a
year through retirement.
Then in November the regents approved two new vice presidential posts,
for engineering and agriculture research and service units. At the same time
they appointed Neville Clark, assistant director of the Agricultural Experi
ment Station, to become President Miller’s successor as director of the
experiment station.
‘domino principle’
Tuesday the board filled in a few of those holes while making more va
cancies. Dr. Thomas Sugihara, director of the University Cyclotron, was
named to succeed Prescott as Dean of Science. Ed Davis, director of man
agement services, moved into Vestal’s old position as assistant vice president
for business affairs. Dean of Engineering Fred J. feenson filled the new vice
president of engineering post. Businessman William G. Locke took over
Clark’s old job as assistant director of the Agricultural Experiment Station.
So where does that leave us? At least three positions — vice president for
agriculture, director of the cyclotron and dean of engineering — will need
to be filled. Maybe the director of management services job too. And the
administrators who fill those jobs will have to vacate some other posts which
will have to be filled with someone else.
Those dominos will be falling for some time to come. L. R. L.
The pressure against negative reporting
By WILLIAM RASPBERRY
WASHINGTON — The press confer
ence, called to announce a small HEW
grant to the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s PUSH for
Excellence program, was breaking up,
when Clarence Mitchell Jr., begged leave
to say a word or two.
For the next five minutes, Mitchell,
head of the Washington office of the
NAACP, delivered himself of a stirring.
C ommentary
impassioned and eloquent plea that mem
bers of the press not deal “negatively’
with the announcement.
We all listened attentively — Mitchell
commands that kind of respect — but I’m
not sure any of us understood just what he
meant for us to do.
Suppose one of the reporters in the
room knew, or subsequently found out,
that Jackson’s program, designed to pro
mote self-discipline and academic excel
lence in the public schools, wasn’t working
very well. Did Mitchell mean that such
information should be suppressed?
Suppose it was some reporter’s view,
with evidence to back it, that Jackson had
started a number of programs and not fol
lowed them through. Would it be “nega
tive” reporting to say so?
Suppose it struck some of us that
$20,000 was a piddling grant in the context
of the national program Jackson had out
lined. Should our stories not reflect that?
I don t know what Clarence Mitchell
meant. And yet I know, as they say, where
he was coming from. He was reacting, I
think, to a fairly recent tendency of the
press to be suspicious of the official an
nouncement, no matter what its source,
and to approach every spokesman, in gov
ernment and out, as an adversary.
The tendency, at least in its recent re
nascence, is a part of the legacy of
Watergate. The handful of reporters who
probed behind the official reports of a
“third-rate burglary,” who questioned of
ficial explanations, who assumed an adver
sary relationship with the government,
uncovered the major political story of our
time.
Since then, every reporter fancies him
self something of an investigative reporter
— partly because of the possibility of un
covering a major story but mostly, I think,
out of fear of the embarrassment of being
had. Official versions — whether police
blotters, press releases or the answers
given in news conferences — are treated
as inherently suspect.
And it sometimes happens that in our
zeal to achieve a balanced report, covering
warts and all, we find ourselves reporting
the warts as though they were the main
story.
That’s especially true of the bigger,
more influential outlets. If the Virgin Birth
should happen today, only the small-town
papers would report it as a miracle. The
big-city dailies would sprinkle their stories
with the requisite disclaimers — “The
mother, who claims to be a virgin, said...’’
— and then quickly assign reporters to
interview prominent obstetricians, former
neighbors and old boyfriends.
And it would happen even if the re
porters thought the story to be true. They
would be afraid to death of a letter to the
editor accusing them of falling for the old
“virgin birth gag.
One of the worst things that can happen
to us is to be accused, correctly, of swal
lowing a false report. And so we are careful
to include any negative stuff we know in
order to convince our audience that we are
“objective.
Clarence Mitchell calls it “negative re
porting.
He’s right, altjjdjugh I have no jdjea what
to do about it. j
With some storres — 1 those based on as
certainable fact —- it doesn’t matter. Raise
all the doubts and caveats you will, the
good thing either happened or it didn’t.
But some stories depend ilot so much on
facts but on our willingness to suspend
disbelief, to look at things from a diferent
point of view so that the good thing can
happen.
Jesse Jackson’s efforts are clearly in that
category. His notion that ghetto young
sters and their families can be encouraged
to embrace academic excellence is true
only if it is permitted to be true.
The way we report the story can have a
major bearing on how the story turns out.
Maybe that s what Clarence Mitchell was
trying to say to us the other day.
(c) 1978, The Washington Post
Letters to the editor
Veterans need ticket consideration, too
Editor:
I am writing in response to Gus Wilson’s
letter in the Friday Battalion.
I have read the Battalion almost every
day since I came here last fall as a transfer
student and have read many letters on the
subject of football ticket distribution. I can
empathize with any junior or senior who
has been sitting in the endzone for three
years.
But for the record I don’t feel Mr. Wil
son’s idea is all that fair, at least for those
in the same boat as I. I don t wish to sound
pretentious but not everyone is lucky
enough to come right out of high school
and come to A&M. In my case I felt the
best way financially, and about the only
way . for me, to get a college education
would be to join the service and take ad
vantage of the GI Bill educational benefits
which were in effect at that time. So I spent
three years serving my country, and know
ing I would be a few years behind others of
my age, I went to night school and man
aged to enter A&M as a sophomore.
Granted, I haven’t “frogged it here for
one year but I feel I put in my dues. I’m
sure there are other vets on campus in the
same situation.
As for attending football games at all,
last fall was the first time I have even at
tended a college game much less an Aggie
game, which by the way is an experience
in itself.
If the senate sees fit to adopt Mr. Wil
son’s idea I 11 have no complaints for my
self, as I don’t usually go to many games
anyway. But there are probably many vets
who love to go to games. He asked for
responses and I am complying with his re
quest.
I hope this letter will give some ideas to
Mr. Wilson and the senate.
—Allen A. Vajdos, ‘80
Thanks for nothing
Editor:
To an anonymous “good Ag. ”
This is to express my sincere gratitude
and appreciation for the kindness and
courteousness which you bestowed upon
me late last Friday eve. It is persons such
as yourself that so greatly reflect that rich
tradition of thoughtfulness.. .one which
sets students on this campus apart from
any others in the world.
For it was you who, after unintention
ally smashing into the left back side of my
1977 brown-on-brown Cutlass Salon (so
deep is my admiration and respect for you
that I toiled to save a small sample of the
paint you so graciously deposited in the
now existing crevice which is presently the
back of my car), drove innocently away,
without so much as a small note of apology
or where I would be able to contact you to
discuss our precarious dilemma.
How I only wish that I were able to
meet face-to-face the fine and upstanding
citizen responsible for this atrocity, and
properly reward you for your actions. I
only pray that someday you too will be
able to attain that level of responsibility
which would lead you to take credit for
your deeds.
—James D. Thompson III, ‘80
Ladies deserve more
Editor:
It seems that women’s athletics has once
again run into the “brick wall as far as
publicity and support is concerned. We
are referring to the Texas A&M Women s
Basketball team, our “supposed” yell
leaders and the Battalion.
After Thursday s game in which the
women played Southwest Texas, yell
leader Joe Reagan s statement that the yell
leaders were busy with studies is a poor
excuse for a set of students who are part-
time yell leaders. We totally agree with
Coach Wanda Bender when she said that
the three Corps members that led the
yells at Thursday’s game did a good job.
It’s good to see somebody care. It wouldn’t
bother us as much if school was even three
weeks into the semester but “bogged”
with studies on the fourth day of school is a
weak and flimsy excuse for not caring.
The Battalion doesn’t have a clean slate
either. In Monday, Jan. 23, edition of the
Battalion, there was an article about A&M
men’s basketball team’s loss to Texas Tech
but there wasn’t even one word about the
women’s game against Tech. Although the
women lost, there are many of us who
would still like to read about it.
Over the Christmas holidays, the wom
en’s basketball team played a tourna
ment in Kansas. In that tournament one of
the A&M players. Von Bunn, a guard, was
named to a 10-man All-Tournament Team,
an honor she obviously deserved.
Last fall, there were many accom
plishments made by the women’s teams at
Slouch
by Jim Earle
A&M, that went unnoticed by the Battal
ion.
It really doesn’t matter what anyone
thinks or says, women’s athletics at A&M
is here to stay, and win or lose, the women
tried and deserve some recognition and
support.
—Rita Aguilar, ‘79
Carol Berry, ‘81
‘EVEN THOUGH YOUR CIGARETTE IS NOT IN THE
BUILDING, I’M NOT SURE THAT YOU’RE COMPLYING
WITH THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW!”
Top of the News 11
Campus
Arts Society offers body class
WAS
Soviet
lear p 1
it eiu
torthw
he a
The Dance Arts Society is offering a men’s body control and
movement class from 7 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday nights. All classes
stress muscle control and spend time on exercise. Registration is
tonight at 7:30 p.m., room 226 G. Rollie White Coliseum. One can]
also join after classes have begun. Membership fee is $15 a semester
For more information, call Marion at 693-3692, or Cindy at 845-6216
(8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) or 846-8516 (after 5 p.m.).
State
Selection begins in Torres trial
Jury selection has begun in Houston for the trial of four feed
poliemen charged with violating the civil rights of a Mexican-
American prisoner, who was beaten and drowned while in their cus
tody last May. Former officers Terry Denson, Stephen Orlando,
Louis Kinney and Joseph Janish could receive life sentences if con
victed on the federal charges arising from the death of Joe Campos
Torres.
Torres, 23, was arrested on a barroom complaint May 5. His body
was found floating in Buffalo Bayou near downtown on May 8. Be
cause the alleged violation ended in death, the defendants face possi
ble life imprisonment if convicted. U.S. District Judge Ross Sterling
announced the jury will be sequestered for the trial, which is ex
pected to last at least three weeks.
k
Yarbrough tapes can be heard
A jury considering perjury charges in Austin against former Su
preme Court Associate Justice Donald B. Yarbrough can hear tapesol
a May 16 conversation in which Yarbrough discussed forging an au
tomobile title and plotting the murder of a business associate, a judge
ruled Tuesday. Prosecutors plan to use the tapes to show Yarbrough
met secretly with John W. Rothkopf at an Austin motel — a meeting
he denied during testimony to the Travis County grand jury — and to
show he intended to deceive the grand jury by lying about the meet
ing. Yarbrough’s defense attorneys admit he lied to the grand jury,
but contended the tapes should not be admitted as evidence because
they involved discussions of other offenses including forgery, conspi
racy, attempted murder, tampering with evidence and aggravated
assault.
Nation
Aides renounce Hughes will
Howard EckersJey, a personal aide to the late Howard Hughes,
yesterday in Las Vegas, Nev. joined three other Hughes’ attendants
in renouncing any inheritance from the Mormon will to demonstrate
his belief the document is a forgery. Eckersley signed the declaration
in the presence of a Nevada jury which will decide whether the
Mormon document will be used to divide the industrialist’s fortune.
Under terms of the will, Hughes’ aides as a group would receive
one-sixteenth of his estate, or at least $10 million for each aide after
taxes, according to current estimates of Hughes’ wealth.
No one hurt in airline crash
A Delta Airlines jet carrying 47 passengers and a crew of five
skidded off a runway near Alexandria, La. and into a field yesterday at
Esler Regional Airport, but none of those aboard were injured.
Crews from nearby England Air Force base worked to free the DC-9
from four feet of mud and muck where it finished its slide, about 400
feet off the main runway. Delta canceled all flights through today and
used buses to transfer stranded passengers to Baton Rouge and
Shreveport. Royale Airlines maintained operations. The mishap was
the second such incident on the same runway in less than a year. A
Texas International flight from Houston with 17 passengers and a
crew of three hydroplaned off the airport’s main runway March 3, but
no injuries were reported.
Parky 6 untrustworthy witness'
nent
With House leaders demanding Tongsun Park’s testimony, Rep
Bruce Caputo, R-N.Y., the only congressman to hear his story so far,
today called the Korean rice dealer “an eminently untrustworthy
witness. Caputo, a member of the House ethics committee inves
tigating charges of Korean lobbying on Capitol Hill, predicted that a
good defense lawyer will “eat Park alive” in court. But also said he felt
some sitting congressmen “quite definitely” were tied into an
influence-buying scandal and will face disciplinary action if Park’s
testimony holds up.
Weather
Cloudy with occasional light rain during the morning. De
creasing cloudiness, windy and cold this afternoon. High
today near 50, low tonight mid-20’s. 20 percent chance of
rain this morning. Winds from the north at 15-25 mph.
The Battalion
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the
editor or of the writer of the article and are not necessarily
those of the University administration or the Board of Re
gents. The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting
enterprise operated by students as a university and com
munity newspaper. Editorial policy is determined by the
editor.
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Address correspondence to Letters to the Editor, The
Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, College
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Editor Jamie
Managing Editor Mary Alice Waxfr
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City Editor Karen W
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Reporters Liz Newlin, ^
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U
Photographers Susan Webb, Ken H?"
Cartoonist DougCtf-
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