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Vol. 71 No. 131
8 Pages
Friday, April 7, 1978
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Inside Friday:
Letters to the editor: on abor
tions, Battalion endorsements
and consideration seats, p. 2.
Rain and hail may trigger tor
nadoes, p. 3.
Ags play host to TCU, p. 7
Delays, closed polls
cause election extension
By ANDY WILUAMS
Battalion Staff
Delays caused by the use of voting machines and the
failure of many polling places to open on time led to the
extension of the general campus election until 1 p.m.
today, said student body president Mike Humphrey.
Only about 1,200 people voted Wednesday, said
Mike Gerst, a member of the Texas A&M University
election commission. Humphrey added that about
4,000 votes are usually cast on the first day of a campus
election.
Humphrey said this was the first large campus elec
tion in which voting machines have been used.
The election was extended through an executive mo
tion made by Humphrey at Wednesday night’s student
senate meeting. The senate unanimously approved the
motion.
Humphrey noted that although a senate bill forbids
the passing of legislation on an election within 14 days
of that election, the bill says nothing about executive
action.
Mike Barry, head of the election commission, said
that he now agrees with Humphrey s action, although
he had considered it to be unconstitutional at first.
Humphrey said that the use of voting machines had
proved to be slower than the former method of voting
with paper ballots.
He said that students now have to wait in two lines to
use the machines, whereas they used to be able to pick
up a paper ballot, mark it and return it.
Barry said that the computerized forms make tabula
tion of the ballots much easier and faster. Next year, he
said, he hopes to have forms which students can mark
with a pencil and which can be read by computer.
These forms will be similar to those used in
achievement tests.
Barry said that polls opened late Wednesday largely
because people didn’t show up to man them.
“Getting the polls manned should be no significant
problem,” Humphrey said of Friday voting. He said he
planned to ask the Corps of Cadets to help.
Polls will close at 1 p.m. so that the forms may be
taken to San Marcos and tabulated on a computer
there.
The Texas A&M University computer cannot read
the forms.
P&Z hears sorority house dehate
p An, IIMiliimn.»i ■
Battalion photo by Diana Van Cleave
Fightin Texas Aggie swingers?
Who says B.Q.’s aren’t swingers? Charles L. Phipps, agricultural
economics major, and Richard M. Pleasant, recreation and parks
major, are entertaining themselves on the swings in Thomas Park in
College Station. Both are juniors and members of the Fightin’ Texas
Aggie Band.
1
n^oiieg
By FLA VIA KRONE
A College Station Planning and Zoning
Commission hearing on the construction
of a sorority house project and the rezon
ing of a one-and-a-half acre tract of land
drew an overflowing crowd to city hall
Thursday night.
The commission heard animated debate
on the question of granting a conditional
use permit to Marcal, Inc. for the con
struction of a sorority house project to be
located between Munson Avenue,
Dominik Drive and University Oaks
Drive.
There are currently nine sororities at
Texas A&M, all of which occupy the
Sausalito Apartments at 1001 Harvey Rd.
Three of those sororities, including Zeta
Tan Alpha, Chi Omega and Kappa Alpha
Theta, plan to build sorority houses.
However, Don Martell, representing
Marcal, Inc., said he had received applica
tions for three additional sorority houses to
be built. He said that Marcal, Inc. was
planning to eventually accomodate all nine
sororities on the 17.5-acre tract of land in
question.
The area is zoned for high-density
apartments which allow for as many as 40
units per acre. Martell said the ten-
bedroom sorority houses, which would oc
cupy about one and a half acres apiece,
would each house about 18 people.
Lane Stephenson, 1202 Dominik,
pointed out to the commission that the
sorority house density per acre of land
would be lower than the density for a
single family dwelling. Stephenson said
the sororities would make “good
neighbors” and that he would prefer a
sorority house over an apartment complex
in the neighborhood.
However, some are residents have cir
culated a petition opposing the project.
Rezneat Darnell, 900 Gilchrist, said that
he favored sororities but was concerned
that they might become the center of
“high jinks’ in the neighborhood. The au
dience broke into laughter when Darnell
told commissioners of his experience with
sororities during his younger days.
“When I was a student we would visit
these sorority ladies and seranade them
and all sorts of things, Darnell said.
“Since I was one of the ringleaders, that’s
one of the reasons I’m concerned. ”
Mary Evelyn White, Chi Omega chap
ter adviser, assured commissioners that
national Panhellenic regulations prohibit
alcohol or drugs in the houses.
Commissioner Wayne Etter also ex
pressed concern that there might not be
sufficient parking for sorority members
and their guests during parties or other
peak traffic periods.
The commission finally approved a con
ditional use permit for the project after
stipulating that the developer reserve a
four-acre tract on University Oaks Drive
to handle overflow traffic should the need
arise.
The commission also tabled a motion to
rezone a one and a half acre tract located at
the southwest corner of the intersection of
Holleman Drive and Anderson Street.
Developer J.W. Wood wanted the land
rezoned from single-family residential to a
townhouse district to accomodate a ten-
unit townhouse project that he plans to
build there.
Antone Court residents, whose homes
would border the proposed project, said
that the two-story townhomes would de
crease their privacy and create traffic and
noise problems.
Commission members tabled the rezon
ing question, advising Woods and area res
idents to work out a compromise agree
ment.
Pain makes Christianity likable,
Notre Dame theologian claims
Station officials
by high bills
By FLA VIA KRONE
High utility bills continue to mystify
SCOifkg 6 Station city officials and anger res-
ents who are unhappy with the city’s ex-
Urr •Janation for those high bills.
(£ UP' Complaints about the high cost of elec-
icity are coming from the residents of the
/ UU. 0 Sirango, Sevilla, Southwest Village and
OFF (Hllowick apartments, all of which are lo-
lTr i|ed within a mile of each other near the
rsection of Anderson Street and Hol-
an Drive. City Manager North Bardell
s that no complaints have been re
eved from residents of single family
ellings or from other apartments in Col-
;e Station.
|The residents, most of whom are Texas
&M University students, are questioning
higher than average bills they received
the billing period from Dec. 12 to Jan.
Residents say they were absent from
ir apartments during the billing period
ich coincided with the Texas A&M fall
ester break. They insist that they shut
their electric power during that time,
t a March 23 city council meeting,
Iter Kahanek, representing residents of
Durango Apartments in the 1600 block
Anderson Street, said all but two of the
plex’s 84 units were vacant during the
ing period yet, utility bills there ranged
m one-third to two-thirds higher than
rage.
Stan Caplan, another Durango resident
o says he has four years experience in
air-conditioning business, says that the
e of electric strip-heaters used in the
plex can short out, drawing electricity
[en when the thermostat is turned off. A
ip-heater consists of an electric coil
unted inside an air duct that heats air
wing through the duct.
Because I knew that these heaters can
ort out, I disconnected the wires before
eft for vacation,” Caplan says. “Then I
u plugged everything, including the hot-
" iter heater, refrigerator, clocks and
a pliances. Yet, my bill says we consumed
G6 kwh in the five days that we were
hre, costing us $19 more than average.”
Another Durango resident, Kay Pea-
»dy, says she received a bill that is $60
gher than her average utility bill. “We
id 8900 kwh on our meter when we re-
| rned from vacation and that is for the
ven months that we have lived here,”
abody says. “Our bill says we consumed
124 kwh while we were gone, or about
e-third of the total amount of energy
ve used since we’ve lived here.”
Complaints are not confined to the Dur-
go Apartment residents.
Lynette Warthen, a Willowick Apart-
ent tenant, says her bill for the period
as $104.46, about $69 higher than aver-
;e. Lynette says that while the air-
GS
conditioned in her two-bedroom apart
ment has not worked properly since she
moved in last August, her apartment was
vacant and the heat shut off at the thermo
stat during the billing period.
Ron Wilkins, a Sevilla apartment resi
dent, says that he was gone all but one
week of the billing period but received a
bill two-thirds higher than average with a
kilowatt-hour consumption double that of
normal. “I just can’t understand how I
could consume that much,” Wilkins said.
All of the residents say that their meters
agree with the city utility records.
City Manager North Bardell offers sev
eral explanations for the high bills. “First,
the billing period in question was about
one week longer than our normal billing
period,” Bardell says. “Second, January
was one of the coldest months in Brazos
County history.”
January was a cold month. According to
Wayne Hamberger of the office of the
Texas State Climatologist at Texas A&M
University, the temperature dropped
below freezing 12 times between Jan. 1
and Jan. 19, during the billing period.
Frisbee tournament
to be held Saturday
at main drill field
The Disc Association of Texas A&M
(DAAM) is throwing a frisbee festival and
tournament this weekend at the drill field,
north of the Memorial Student Center.
Participation is open to anyone who wants
to enter, regardless of ability.
The tournament will have participants
from all over Texas and from as far away as
Louisiana.
Professional frisbee experts Danny
Mclnnis and John Hatfield will also be
participating in the tournament. The two
experts gave frisbee demonstrations on
campus Thursday.
Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. Satur
day. A fee of $2 per person is being
charged.
Saturday’s events include frisbee golf.
Double Disc Court (DDC) and maximum
time aloft. Frisbee golf is similar to a
round of golf, but incorporates throwing a
frisbee to targets such as posts or trees.
DDC is a two-person team sport similar
to tennis. Players try to throw the frisbee
into the opposite court without having the
opponent catch it. This weekend’s festival
is the first time DDC has been a featured
event in a Texas frisbee tournament.
Sunday’s play includes another round of
frisbee golf, freestyle preliminaries and fi
nals in freestyle and DDC. Trophies will
be awarded at the end of Sunday s events.
However, Hamberger says that December
was not abnormally cold. The temperature
dropped below freezing only four times
during the entire month.
(See HIGH, page 5)
Physical pain and the suffering it brings
make the Christian doctrind attractive, for
it’s much better to suffer because of some
thing we did than to suffer for no reason at
all, a Notre Dame theologian claimed at
Texas A&M University Thursday.
Suffering, which comes in bad and
worse degrees, makes us what we are and
molds the individual, said Dr. Stanley
Hauerwas. But modern medicine
threatens to reduce suffering to a biologi
cal and therapeutic level that makes us
wonder if the physical pain and suffering
are even part of “us. ”
“This is the most complex issue I have
ever tried to deal with and medicine is
clearly in the middle, said Hauerwas, a
Pleasant Grove native.
He said he believes that modern ways of
sustaining life and the increasing shelter
ing of young children from death increases
the living’s own inabilities to cope with
death.
“Often, we keep people alive because
we are not able to deal with what their
death will bring — guilt, for example.
“Death scares the hell outta me. I’m
going out fighting and angry. And I think
that all this stuff you hear about Christians
passively accepting their death is a lot of
crap,” he added.
Ironically, the purposelessness of suffer
ing makes existential dogma as attractive
as Christian beliefs, Hauerwas said.
“At least there’s someone else saying,
This is absurd. It makes no sense. ”
Medicine should seek to morally bind
the suffering and the non-suffering people
of the community together, to make them
realize that suffering is part of life.
“There shouldn’t be anything ignobling
about suffering,” he said. “Poverty will
screw you up as much as money. Suffering
is seldom a school for character, but is
rather a test of character.”
By making us think of suffering as physi
cal pain which can be cured on the biologi
cal level, medicine threatens to rob of us
our autonomy and the individual identity
suffering gives us, Hauerwas explained.
“Physical pain is mental, but pain is not
always suffering,” he said.
“The question is not whether we should
suffer, but how much and for what. Any
morality that does not require my death at
any given moment is a false morality. ”
The demands of morality, he claimed,
can’t be satisfied if we aren’t asked to meet
hardships and limits set by the morality
itself.
Poverty
Most elderly Brazos County residents are afflicted
By PHYLIS WEST
Try eating, paying rent, buying
medicine and other necessities on
an income of about $3,000 a year.
Many people 60 and over not only
try, but must survive below the
poverty level in Brazos County, says
Barbara Bowerman, director of the
Area Agency on Aging.
Most elderly residents live only
on their Social Security; and the
checks average $200 monthly, says
Holly Rees, supervisor of the Social
Security Administration.
“Eighty percent receive insignifi
cant income,” says Rees.
David Edwards, professor of gov
ernment at the University of Texas,
says that persons over 65 are much
poorer than the average population
across the country. Edwards wrote
this in an article which appeared in
Intellect magazine.
“The dream was that Social Secu
rity would take care of their needs,
but it doesn’t nearly do this,” Rees
says. “The theory is Social Security
as the foundation of economic sup
port. But the need for supplemen
tary income proves this theory
wrong. ”
Supplemental Security Income, a
federalized welfare program created
in 1974 for people over 65, adds to
Social Security benefits. A pamphlet
entitled “SSI for the Aged, Blind
and Disabled,” says an individual’s
maximum benefit is $177.80 a
month.
But Rees says the average SSI
payment is $100 per person in the
U.S. However, only one person out
of five qualifies.
“A person must have limited re
sources and income to qualify,
Rees says.
Limited resources include up to
$1,500 in savings, a reasonable
home worth up to $25,000, and a car
used for obtaining food, shelter and
medical supplies. Personal items,
such as jewelry, are deducted, Rees
says.
Limited income is supplemented
the
lias
to bring the elderly up to
minimum level that Congress
set.
“For most purposes, the SSI level
is below poverty level, continued
Rees. Most states, except Texas and
Southern states, supplement assi-
tance benefits.
According to social security pam
phlets benefits from teacher’s re
tirement, veteran’s and worker’s
compensation, pensions, annuities,
gifts and other income are de
ducted. But other non-deduetable
ways to supplement income include
food assistance programs, weatheri-
zation programs. Medicare and
Medicaid.
Besides food stamps, which are
set individually according to need,
the Brazos Valley Community Ac
tion Agency offer “Years for Profit”
and “Meals on Wheels, which are
senior citizen nutritional programs,
as reported in an agency fact sheet.
Years for Profit has the most par
ticipants, said Melba Johnson, sec
retary for the two food programs.
“Initially, there was a long wait
ing list, and we were real choosy,
she said. But now people are
encourage to participate in the pro
gram, she added.
The program serves 668 meals
daily, five days a week, in all seven
Brazos County programs. In the 12
centers, 30 to 80 people are served
three meals a day. Eligibility is de
termined by financial and emotional
need.
The cost involved in preparing
the meals this year is $2.74. Pre
viously the cost was only a dollar,
Johnson explained. People oxer 65
are not asked to pay.
“The meal menu is prepared by a
nutritional council, said Johnson. A
sample menu for a week shows
meals similar to those served in high
school cafeterias.
(See MANY, page 6)