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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 20, 1978)
Vol. 71 No. 140 12 Pages Battalion Thursday, April 20, 1978 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 Inside Thursday An Aggie Muster kit, p. 8. How to live longer, p. 7. Aggies look to Tech series, p. 10 anamanian chief owed intervention United Press International NAMA CITY — Chief of State Gen. Torrijos, vowing to “destroy the ca- ifU.S. troops ever invade Panama, s army was poised to “intervene in S. Canal Zone had the Senate re el the Panama Canal Treaty. pile the stern tone of his statement, Ijos appeared buoyant as he went on iouwide television minutes after the ite in Washington Tuesday. As Torrijos met with reporters later, 000 ’anamanians celebrated the treaty’s lition in a downtown Panama City plaza iil< only blocks away 600 leftist students ild a protest rally. ■hese treaties are going to bring a mas- ire and blood to our people, chanted the fcts, who want control of the canal now ■not in 1999 as the treaty provides, ■rijos is nothing but a puppet of the garchy." Some Americans living in the Canal ini expressed anger or resignation over enate voted, but others expressed re- fliecause the treaty’s adoption defused fears of violent attacks on U.S. property. Torrijos told reporters there would have been trouble if the Senate had not ap proved the treaty or amended it in a way unacceptable to Panama. “The armed forces had decided that if the treaty had been rejected or not acceptable to Panama, they would have intervened in the Canal by Wednesday morning,” he said. Torrijos also vowed Panama will destroy the strategic 51-mile canal if Washington ever tries to make use of a treaty amend ment giving it the right to intervene militarily in Panama to keep the canal open. “If we are invaded, we will destroy the canal,” he said. “We are capable of destroy ing it. The National Guard has the capabil ity of destroying it and we don’t intend to lose that capability. “Yes, the U.S. troops can intervene, but when they get here, they’ll find that the canal has been destroyed. Therefore, their intervention would not be to defend the canal. program for gifted -)tudents questioned With the sun comes the sunbather, and finding a secluded place to lay out becomes a bit of a problem. Pat Collier, a junior chemical engineering major from Houston, found his place in the sun at the drill field. With spring fever hitting so many Aggies, classes have become noticeably thinner these last few weeks. Battalion photo by Jean Henkhaus 9 zes! fiy ANDYkLWALLS Curriculum Committee of the A&M lidated School Board met Wednes- Bnight to make a recommendation on Tlier to reinstate the Gifted and Tal lied Program for students. John Reager said the proposed program Id face some obstacles. The major prob- Iwould be providing enough space in ; schools for special classrooms for the ted students. Because of this limited Reager suggested "cluster group- I the students. Jnderthis method, approximately three five above average students would be ledin a classroom with 20 to 25 average i below-average students. This would lide a heterogenous atmosphere and a petetive incentive to learn, pointed out first-grade teacher. leveral teachers from South Knoll icntary School supported the cluster method. One parent said that other stu dents would learn more from having a gifted child in the class. Although many people supported the proposed program, several parents ex pressed concern of a label being placed on children. One parent said that other pro grams in school would be sacrificed for the Gifted and Talented Program and that well-paid teachers should bring out the best in every student. Dr. H. R. Burnett, assistant superin tendent of instruction, said the gifted and talented students will be selected on the basis of a test and teacher recom mendations. A suggestion will be made to the Board of Trustees to begin the screen ing of students for the program after the first six weeks in first grade. The program will include elementary, middle and high school students. Student Lane as By ANDY WILLIAMS Battalion Staff Johnny Lane was elected speaker of the student senate at Wednesday night’s meeting of the new senate. Campus elections were held April 5-7. Lane won on the first ballot with 34 votes. The three others who received votes were: Jeb Hensarling (20), Stan Stan field (5), and Jerry Risner (1). Laura Brockman was elected speaker pro tempore of the senate with 46 votes. Jerry Risner received 6, Jeff Mason, 4, and Scott Farthing, 1. senate elects new speaker Lane was president of the Texas A&M class of 79 this school year. Lane spoke against the use of parlia mentary procedure by the speaker to sway the senate or delay its action. He also said he would work for a return to “respectabil ity” for the senate in the eyes of the stu dent body. He emphasized his knowledge of parliamentary procedure in his speech to the senate before the vote. Lane assumed the office from previous senate speaker Bobby Tucker just before the election of the speaker pro tempore. First readings were heard on seven bills. George Black introduced a bill which would classify students by the first two di gits of their ID cards in drawing for foot ball tickets. These digits are the last two numerals of the year the student entered Texas A&M. Students with the lowest numbers will be allowed to draw earliest. Another bill would require the athletic department to show on closed circuit tele vision any sporting event at which 100 students or more were denied seats be cause of a sell-out. Debate will be held on these bills at the May 2 senate meeting. The newly elected student body presi dent and five vice presidents addressed the senate. Bobby Tucker, student body president, said he would be accepting applications for the next two weeks for appointive pos itions within student govenment. He said he was purposely “moving slowly” to give everyone who wished to a chance to apply. Kevin Patterson, vice president for stu dent services, said that the problem of whether to continue the intra-campus shuttle bus would be a major issure before his committee next year. J.C. Colton, vice president for academic affairs, said that his committee would study Q-drop policies. Pre-registration begins Monday I9‘ Anyone for Hangman? John Fallisgaard, an undergraduate in electrical engineering plays a game of Hangman with one of the computers to be exhibited in Micro Expo ’78 on Saturday. This particular model sells for around $750. The Expo will feature speakers from all over the United States to speak on a variety of topics concerning computers. Exhibits of computers for different applications will be on the 6th floor of Rudder Tower from 10-6 Saturday. Battalion photo by Mara Anna Davis By BETH DZIKOWSKI Pre-registration tor the tall semester at Texas A&M University will begin at 8 a. m. Monday and will continue through Friday afternoon. Fall class schedules are available at Heaton Hall (the old Exchange Store). Schedules will be available at the Rudder Tower information center after Friday. Registration for the first term of the summer session is set for June 6, and classes begin June 7. Summer class schedules also are available in Heaton Hall. Th ere will be no pre-registration for sum mer school. Only students currently enrolled for the 1978 spring semester will be allowed to pre-register next week, said Willis Ritchey, associate director of registration. Each student must obtain a registration card packet at the office of the head of his major department. He will fill out a course request card, which must be approved by an adviser in his department. Once a student’s course request card has been approved, he should go to the exhibit hall in Rudder Tower to complete the pre registration process, Ritchey said. No fees will be collected for the fall semester during pre-registration. The fis cal department will mail a bill to the stu dent’s permanent address in mid-July. Fees must be paid by August. The fee receipt and class schedule will then be mailed to the student, Ritchey said. Classes for the fall semester will begin August 28. Ritchey said he expects about 16,000 students to pre-register. Students with physical disabilities who need help with any phase of pre registration should contact the Texas Re habilitation Commission at 845-4781. Pre registration for these students is scheduled for today. JOHN LANE New constitution wins approval in small turnout The revised student body constitution won approval Wednesday by 32 votes and goes into effect immediately. Only 170 Aggies cast ballots — 0.07 percent of the student body. The new constitution created a new pos ition. The student body president will select an executive vice president. The vice president, who must be approved by the student senate, will automatically as sume the presidency if the office becomes vacant. The speaker of the senate also has ex panded duties. He will appoint and direct the new senate internal affairs committee. This committee will appoint students to fill vacancies in the senate. Under the old constitution, the president recommended students for empty senate seats. The president and members of the se nate must also meet the University Rules and Regulations grade requirements. Those standards state that a student officer must post 2.0 grade point ratio each semester. Provides food and energy Expert advises return to sea Search continues for Italy's ex-premier By BENEE’ PEVOTO Can man ultimately return to the ocean and make it his mode of life? Yes, according to Dr. John P. Craven, Dean of Marine Programs at the University of Hawaii. Cra ven spoke on the environment of oceans, Wednesday at the Rudder Tower. “The ocean is only a place and everything we do on land, we can do in the ocean,” said Craven. He said it is only a question of being able to transform our culture back to a predominantly ocean culture. “We must have ocean law, ocean living, ocean art, ocean poetry and ocean music,” said Cra ven. “Energy costs a lot more on land than it does on the ocean, ” Craven said. As expen sive as energy is, we must change to a low energy sociefy, he said. Craven said, the main debate between researchers and environmentalists is that the ocean is a fragile environment in danger of dying and that we should stay away from it in order to preserve it. Researchers be lieve the ocean is a resource vital to our world and should be exploited for the bene fit of our nation. Nuclear fall-out and heavy metal depo sits entering into the food chain would be the biggest problem if man were to make the ocean his permanent home, Craven said. He said that the ocean is capable of purifying light waste disposal. The ocean has good opportunity for food, shelter, and clothing. Craven added. Studies on an “Aquapolis,” or “water city” are in progress at the University of Hawaii. Craven said that although the ocean is a main source for food and energy, it should not be exploited for economical and social benefits. Craven received his bachelor’s degree at Cornell University, his master’s from California Institute of Technology, and his doctorate from University of Iowa. He also earned a law degree at George Washington University. Craven is an original member of the Na tional Advisory Council on Oceans and At mospheres. He also served on President Nixon’s Special Advisory Committee on Marine Sciences and as past National Pres ident of the Marine Technology Society. Craven is also the Hawaii State Marine Af fairs Coordinator, and Director of the Law of Sea Institute. As the chief scientist of the Special Projects Office at the United States Naval Bureau of Weapons, Craven re ceived the “Distinguished Civilian Service Award” for the United States Department of Defense. United Press International ROME — Officials searching for kid napped ex-Premier Aldo Moro today de nied a police report that a body had been found in an ice-covered lake where a pur ported Red Brigades communique said his corpse had been dumped. An anonymous caller claiming to repre sent the Red Brigades said the political leader, kidnapped March 16, was “exe cuted” only Wednesday and charged that the earlier message was “false. ” Searchers said police jumped the gun on “traces” of something being found at the search site and mistakenly said that a de composing corpse had been found in Duchess Lake and quoted search officials as denying it was Moro’s. “This is the Red Brigades,’’ the anonymous caller told the Italian news agency ANSA in Rome today. “Com munique No. 7 is false. Moro did not die as announced by Rome newspaper II Mes- saggero. But he was executed yesterday at 6 p.m. (noon EST). A communique will follow.” ANSA said it had no way of checking whether the message was genuine as the caller hung up immediately. In Turin, a second message was deli vered to ANSA saying that Moro would be freed after the release of “Communist prisoners.” The message, signed by the Red Brigades but not yet authenticated, said the government had exactly 48 hours to make up its mind. There has been widespread speculation that Tuesday’s communique saying Moro’s body was in the mountain lake was false. Some of the speculation said Tuesday s communique was aimed at sending police on a wild goose chase while the Red Brigades took some action, such as moving the ex-premier from one hideout to another.