The Battalion
Vol. 71 No. 104
8 Pages
Thursday, February 23, 1978
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Inside Thursday
The ides of April and tax loopholes,
p. 6.
Luckenbach waits for Mud Daubers,
College Station for candidates, p. 2.
Intramurals program grows, p. 8.
I
iners reject union offer,
VA orders western coal
United Press International
toal mine operators Wednesday night
rejected a union proposal that could have
jemled the 80-day-old coal strike. It also
iwas revealed that TV A — the nation’s
largest and most fuel-desperate utility —
quietly has ordered hundreds of thousands
({tons of coal from Wyoming, which is
unaffected by the walkout.
M spokesman for Kerr-McGee Corp. in
Hlahoma City earlier announced the lirst
shipment of 10,()()() tons moved eastward
Friday via Burlington Northern Railroad.
But, a Kerr-McGee spokesman in Gil
lette ducked the issue.
Tm really not supposed to say any
thing, he told a UP! reporter. “I know my
superiors are sorry they said anything
about this in the first place.
Initially, it was reported the shipment -
branded “scab coal by United Mine
Workers strikers — was to be moved by
Burlington Northern and Chicago &
Northeastern railroads, but a C&N
spokesman in Chicago said Burlington de
cided to handle it alone.
He refused further comment and said
he doubted if Burlington would discuss
the TVA deal “because of the very real fear
of violence.
In Indiana, Gov. Otis R. Bowen issued
unloaded M-16 rifles to his National
Guardsmen in “Operation Chimney
Sweep and again demanded that Presi
dent Carter intervene in the strike and “do
it now.
A striking miner said Garter should
"keep his nose out of this and “go back to
Georgia and pick peanuts.
Mudents can collect insurance
\butfeiv will be able to qualify
By PAIGE BEASLEY
Battalion Stall
■Students looking for full-time jobs can
■ a claim for unemployment insurance
airfits that are nontaxable. However,
lost students will not qualify, because
class schedules limit their availability for
work so many have not had previous full
time jobs.
“Benefits from unemployment insur
ance are not subject to income tax, said
Charles Gillespie, manager of the Texas
w mi Vf
festivities begin at 7 p.m.
(jrriqhci
Employ ment Commission in Bryan. Un
employment insurance compensates for
wage loss and provides a form of financial
aid.
Qualifications ev eryone must meet, said
Gillespie, are first to file a claim, be able to
work and be available to work.
“A person who limits availability to
part-time employment would not be eligi
ble, he said. “The hours depending on
the type job. Secretaries normally work
from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., while some restaur
ant and factory employees work later
hours.
“Someone who quits their last job to re
turn to school is penalized on a claim until
they have subsequent work, Gillespie
said. “When someone quits their last job
to go to school, they remove themselves
from the labor force. In effect, they have
said Tm not available for work, Tm going
to school.
Claimants must have received at least
8500 in wages for employment duriiig
their base year, which is the first-four of
the last five completed calendar quarters
immediately preceding the date of the
claim, he said. A person must also register
for work and continue to report to an em
ployment agency until he has a job.
A claim could pay $15 to $84 a week,
depending on individual earnings, Gilles
pie said. The greater the previous earn
ings, the greater the amount received
from unemploy ment insurance.
A person may receive payments for a
maximum of 26 weeks, Gillespie said. This
figure is subject to change in accordance
with changes in state and federal unem
ployment rates. Persons with minimal
work history receive fewer payments than
persons who have worked for longer
periods of time.
All Night Fair returns Friday
By GAIL SMILA
The third annual All Night Fair is back
1 the Memorial Student Center will be
ve with entertainment this weekend.
The fair, which is sponsored by the
SC Council and Directorate, will be
lid at the MSG on Friday and Saturday
jm 7 p.m. to 3 a.m.
This year's special attraction is Denim, a
nd that Rebecca Taulman, fair director,
ys is “not really country and western,
t really hard rock, and not really pop.
enim is scheduled to play for a dance
finch will be held from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.
De
Fifty-nine booths will be set up at the
fair where students can play anything from
darts to roulette to computer games — and
much more.
Also included in the festivities are a
magician, simulated games of “Name that
Tune and “The Gong Show,’ and prehis
toric bowling, where bowlers will be
dressed as cavemen.
Three to five thousand students are ex
pected to attend the fair this year. The
price at the door is 50 cents and 10 cents
per game or, for those who don’t pay at the
door, the cost is 25 cents per game.
The theme of this year s fair is “Travel
Thru Time With Us and those planning to
attend are encouraged to wear appropriate
costumes. Prizes for the best costumes will
be awarded at 11 p.m.
Booths, operated by recognized univer
sity organizations, will be judged at 10
p.m. Winners will receive a 16-gallon keg
of beer. Profits from the booths will be put
in the organizations' activity funds.
The fair is expected to make $1,800 at
the door. The money will cover the cost of
producing the fair and paying $750 for the
band. Any money left over will be put into
an account to help pay for next year's fair.
Battalion photo by Louis Hejtmanek
One step at a time
In Indianapolis, where mandatory elec
trical cutbacks threaten to turn off the ci
ty’s outdoor lighting, darkened streets
raised the specter of a crime surge.
In both Indiana and Kentucky, the
strike landed in the mail box, forcing the
U.S. Postal Service to trim electrical con
sumption by 25 to 50 percent, with a cor
responding cutback in services starting
Friday.
In Chicago, lights were dimmed in the
world's tallest building — the 110-story
Sears Tower — and the landmark Wrigley
Building’s bank of spotlights was doused.
As the strike dragged on, unemploy
ment spawned by industrial layoffs soared
by 8 percent in West Virginia where busi
ness losses now total $25.2 million and tax
losses have topped $3 million.
Northern Alabama cities joined In
dianapolis in turning off street lights and
four striking miners were arrested in Be
aver, Pa., for forcing truck drivers to
dump non-union coal beside the highway.
Members of United Auto Workers Local
22 in Cadillac, Mich. — remembering
when John L. Lewis of the UMW came to
their aid during a bitter strike of the 1930s
— rallied to return the favor, donating
truckloads of food and clothing to carry the
miners through.
"They are bad off because they hav en t
had a paycheck since before Christmas,
said Local 22 president Frank Runnels.
"Their retiree s benefits hav e been cut off
and all their insurance benefits have been
dropped.
He said donations also hav e* come from
unions other than the UAW.
Not all states were in critical shape.
Georgia, where virtually all home heat
ing is done with natural gas, has a three-
month supply of coal available for 11 states
in critical shape.
Across the West, where populations ai t*
less concentrated and where the UMW
wields little influence, the strike made few
inroads.
Wyoming, source of TYA s immediate
hope, has v ast deposits of coal, but few of
the mines are unionized.
Battalion photo by Fat O'Malle;
‘A Streetcar named Desire"
Blanche Dubois (Linda Nystedt) introduces herself to her brother-
in-law, Stanley Kowalski (Bill Weldon) in a scene from the Aggie
Players’ current production. The play runs Feb. 23-25 and March
1-4 in Rudder Center Forum. Please see review, p. 5
Senate approves nominations,
recommends regulation change
Marathon runner Tom LaHouse steps and
stretches while preparing for a race. He warms
up for 30 minutes before each marathon.
LaHouse, a senior geophysics major from Syra
cuse, N.Y., is planning to run in the Texas A&M
University spring marathon in early April.
By LIZ NEWLIN
Battalion Staff
The student senate approved the new
student body president’s nominations for
filling vacant positions of the executive
branch and two vice presidents after a 25-
minute closed executive session Wednes
day night.
Senators also recommended a change in
University Regulations concerning grade
requirements for student organization and
club officers. The recent controversy about
grade requirements prompted the former
student body president, Robert Harvey,
and a vice president, Vicki Young, to resign
lastweek. Neither posted above a 2.0 grade
point ratio for last semester, but their
cumulative GPRs were above 2.0.
The amendment suggested by the senate
adds “post” to the grade requirements, ap
parently clarifying the previous rule that
officers must post a 2.0 GPR for each
semester they are in office. The change still
must be approved by the University com
mittee on regulations.
Harvey and Young contended that
neither the regulations nor the student
body constitution were clear.
Mike Humphrey, new student body
president, decided not to retain all of Har
vey’s five-member executive staff, which
resigned last week at Harvey’s request.
Humphrey nomiated three new people,
keeping only recording secretary Nancy
Bunch and director of information Dan Sul-
lins.
Humphrey chose, and the senate ap
proved, Kirk Marchand as executive direc
tor, Chris Farmer as judicial board chair
man, and Lisa Maxwell as controller.
Both the former executive director, Geri
Campbell, and former judicial board
chairman, Stan Stanfield, said before they
resigned that they would accept their old
jobs if offered. Stuart Kingsbery, former
controller, said he would not accept his old
post, but he did say his assistant, Maxwell,
was qualified.
Humphrey began explaining his changes
to the senate, but he was intermpted by a
request to close the meeting to the public.
The senate unanimously approved going
into executive session.
Humphrey did give senators some of his
reasons for not re-appointing the old staff
members during the open meeting.
He said he “tried to be objective ’ in
nominating an executive director and judi
cial board chairman to serve the six weeks
before a new student body president is
elected.
“The thing that bothered me about Stan
(Stanfield) is that at times Stan has not been
the most fair person,” he told senators. He
said Stanfield had good ideas about reform
ing the board into a more effective branch,
but that sometimes his personal feelings
interierred.
“Chris (Farmer, new' chairman) is better
able to lay his feelings aside,” Humphrey
said later.
Fanner, who was recently accepted to
medical school in Houston has been a
member of the board three years.
This year the executive director became
a “closer partner writh the president,
supervising five student coordinators who
oversee all executive committees.
In the past, the director ran all executive
committees alone, which includes commit
tees on Muster, parent’s day, the blood
drive and book mart.
Marchand is currently operations
sergeant for the Corps of Cadets and will be
operations officer next year.
The job has been expanded, Humphrey
said, to “be more of a partner with the
president.
Senators approved Humphrey’s choices
for vice president of student services,
William Altman, and vice president for
academic affairs, Mike Flores.
Seven senate positions are vacant due to
resignations. Humphrey said he hopes to
submit nominations for the seats at the next
senate meeting, March 8.
In other action, senators heard first
readings on several bills, including student
fee allocations and movement of the con
sideration section in Kyle Field.
Senator Scott Macaluso also announced
an investigation of problems students have
in math courses at Texas A&M.
Nation in confusion,
gas producer says
By ANDREA VALLS
The nation is in a cross-current of con
tradiction and confusion because of gov
ernmental regulations of the petroleum
industry, said Michel Halbouty, an inde
pendent oil and gas producer, at the
Bryan-College Station Chamber of Com
merce Banquet Wednesday.
“As long as the petroleum industry is
imposed upon by governmental regula
tion, we will never solve our energy prob
lem,” he said. “Energy is the lifeblood of
an industrialized nation. Without it, our
nation is impotent.
Halbouty said the nation is approaching
a time of turmoil because of governmental
restraints placed upon the industrial sec
tion of the nation. The energy solution lies
in the hands of the American people and
industrialists because the bureaucrats in
Washington are not familiar with the fun
damentals of the petroleum industry, he
said.
The laws passed by the legislature erode
industrialist s liberties and increase regula
tion, said Halbouty.
"Millions of jobs are in jeopardy because
of the regulation of the petroleum and
natural gas industry.”
Halbouty said America is witnessing a
mass elimination of people’s rights be
cause of government oil regulation. No
thing has been done since the 1973 oil
embargo to increase Americas energy
situation with oil and gas, he said.
“We have received only barrels of paper
work from the legislature, not barrels of
oil, ’ he said.
He added that under Carter's recently
defeated energy plan, nothing provided
for an increase of the oil supply. The plan
did provide for restraints on wildcatters
(independent oil drillers) to drill for oil,
therefore limiting the nation to less.oil re
serves than we are producing, he said.
“Our nation has no choice except to im
port oil under these conditions, he said.
Our nation cannot hope to be self-
sufficient when wildcats are restrained
from oil exploration.”
“We are moving towards socialism
much faster than Russia moved tow ard
Communism, said Halbouty.
He attributed this to apathy on the part
of American people to speak out against
governmental restraints. He added that
the United States is no longer a nation
dominated by strength, but by legislated
restraints and regulations restricting per
sonal and industrial free will.
The restraints will lead to inflation and
decline of our military strength, he said.
“IfI was in the Soviet Union and w anted
to destroy the United States, I couldn't
think of a better program to use than the
one that America is presently using.
Halbouty received his Bachelor ol Sci
ence, Master of Science, and Professional
Degree in Geological Engineering from
Texas A&M University, lie recently
established a $150.000 scholarship hind at
Texas A&M. The University Geosciences
Building was reeentK renamed lioni liiin