Viewpoint
The Battalion Thursday
Texas A&M University April 27, 1978
The overreaction syndrome at A&M
By LIZ NEWLIN
Battalion Campus Editor
Newspapering, like other joys pursured
by commoners, generates situations where
the wrong action is the easiest to take.
Overreacting to a news event often comes
naturally — to both reporters and sources.
A recent example of overreaction on
both sides of a story yielded a front page
article in Wednesday’s Battalion. The re
port, “Misplaced for two years: Confiden
tial records burned,” described the dis
covery and destruction of some 5-year-old
student files containing grade slips. Ap
parently the record were overlooked dur
ing an office move and forgotten. Records
are routinely destroyed when they be
come outdated.
A student called The Battalion Monday
afternoon and asked for this reporter. He
said that some student records were stored
rather carelessly in a closet in the student
lounge between Crocker and Moore resi
dence halls. He added that he had told an
assistant area coordinator (counselor) of
the records, but nothing had been done.
After supper I went to the lounge and
nonchalantly pulled back a folding plastic
door with a rusty, make-shift padlock and
pulled out a cardboard box with the tag
“Closed personnel files.” Inside the box
were manila folders with biographical data
on the outside and grade slips on the in
side from 1972-73.
After securing photographs of the mis
placed records and returning them to the
Commentary
closet, I went to the Battalion office to
begin an investigation. The story was hot
and I didn’t mind calling University offi
cials at home.
The first few calls yielded background
information and a refusal to talk from the
man whose name was on the files.
No significant overreactions — yet.
By this time. Dr. Charles Powell, direc
tor of student affairs, had been called (not
Another set of tapes
By JIM CRAWLEY
This is the season of the political
endorsement. The newspapers, unions,
farmers, teachers, and almost every other
group of three or more people are lending
their support for candidates in state and
county primaries.
The reasons for this increased interest in
the politics of Texas and the various coun
ties are as varied as the groups making the
endorsements.
Politics
SOME GROUPS make the
endorsements in an effort to persuade
their members to vote for “their” man.
Others put their name behind a candidate
because of similar philosophies. Some
groups back a candidate because they
don t want to support a loser and they
deem it necessary to announce their sup
port for some candidate. Finally, there are
those political endorsers who believe they
are fulfilling a public service. Usually
these groups just provide information on
the various candidates.
Newspapers are probably the best
known and most widely followed
endorsers of political candidates. News
papers have endorsed candidates since the
early days of the printed word. The fact of
the matter is, these early political
endorsements often caused problems for
the early press in England.
Newspapers in early America were
often papers which supported only one
faction of people. Into the 1800s American
papers were usually sponsored by one
political party. The press of that era was
extremely biased compared to today’s “ob
jective press.
NEWSPAPERS ARE NOT the only
ones in Texas that make political
endorsements. Teachers are a formidable
group that dabbles in politics by endorsing
candidates.
This year is a perfect example of the
teachers’ plight in making a political
endorsement. The Texas Educators Politi
cal Action Committee (TEPAC) is the
political arm of the state teachers’ associa
tion, TSTA. The group interviewed each
of the candidates for the gubernatorial pos
ition early this year. The interviews were
taped so the committee making the deci
sions could refer to them in later dis
cussions. Those tapes have involved
TEPAC in a battle of political intrigue.
After consulting the tapes and their
notes the TEPAC committee decided At
torney General John Hill was their man.
Dolph Briscoe wasn t amused. So Briscoe
brought his full political power to bear on
the teachers’ committee.
After Briscoe publicly complained that
Hill had made the teachers expensive
promises,including increased pay and
benefits, during Hill’s private session with
the committee, the governor let loose his
friends in the Texas legislature. Members
of a House subcommittee on educational
financial accountability have asked that
subpoenas be issued for the tapes of the
closed sessions with the teachers.
DURING THE ENTIRE controversy
Hill has urged the committee to release
the tapes, indicating he has nothing to
hide from the voters of Texas. But the
committee has emphatically maintained
that the tapes are confidential and the
state has no light to listen to them. The
“legislators for Briscoe” contend that since
the teachers are paid by the state, they are
“quasi-public". So the legislators want the
teachers to hand over the tapes.
Briscoe hopes that the contents of the
tapes will be embarrassing to Hill. If Hill
had promised his support for increased
pay, which could increase taxes, then
Briscoe could use the tapes against Hill in
the increasingly close race between the
two.
The issue here is not one of the teachers
being free to endorse a candidate of their
choosing. The real issue is whether any
group should be held liable for their politi
cal endorsements. Is it oJ<ay for legislators
backing a certain candidate to investigate
any group with tenuous connections to the
state because that group is supporting an
opposing candidate.
THIS SORT OF political blackmail cuts
into the foundations of the political
enterprise called the United States of
America. Groups of people, except those
employed by the government, have the
right to support any political candidate or
philosophy they chose. Even the excep
tion pertaining to governmental em
ployees is circumvented by the practice of
their unions or associations endorsing a
particular candidate or issue.
This newspaper has made political
endorsements in the past and will proba
bly make them in the future. Since The
Battalion is connected to a state institu
tion, a future legislator might try to sub
poena the files of this paper to find out if
some candidate made some esoteric prom
ise. Taking this one step further, they
might even try to censor the paper in an
effort to stop the paper’s endorsement of
an opposing candidate.
This may sound far-fetched, but tomor
row is another day full of surprises.
Letters to the editor
Aggies
Editor:
This letter concerns the cheating that
takes place at Texas A&M; specifically, in
our classes.
For pre-veterinary students, grades
create a very competitive situation; some
students are not able to compete fairly.
When these “students” cheat on tests,
they decrease the honest student’s chance
of getting the grade he deserves. In one of
our classes, the make-up exam is IDEN
TICAL to the regularly scheduled exam.
We have noticed that some students use
“friends” that are taking the regularly
scheudled exam by having them pocket a
second copy of the exam. An easy “A” re
sults for these cheaters.
While the above case reflects the naiv
ete of the professor, there are other cases
of cheating in our classes where anti
cheating measures are enforced. For
example, one of our tests went overtime,
and students for the next class started com
ing in. There was confusion with so many
people in the room at once. Amidst the
noise and bustle, five or six students man
aged to trade answers.
We speak of cheating not only in our
major, for we believe dishonesty exists in
ALL courses of study at A&M. We wish
there could be effective measures taken to
stop cheaters and their parasitic tactics.
They make a joke of the Texas A&M Code
of Honor and discredit our university.
One solution is to effect a STUDENT-
ENFORCED HONOR SYSTEM. Such a
system is used successfully at the Univer
sity of Virginia. It involves a student-run
judicial board. Any offender is reported by
the accusing student to the board. A hear
ing is held to determine if the accused stu
dent is guilty.
Cheating is a serious problem at Texas
A&M, and we challenge the Student Gov-
do cheat
ernment and administration to do some
thing about it.
—Michael W. Riggs, ’80
Patrick D. Choyce, ’80
By any other name . .
Editor:
I wish to say, “Here! Here!” in reply to
the excellent letter by Ruthanne Taylor in
the April 4, issue of the Battalion concern
ing the importance of women’s right to
abortions.
The soundness of her logic brings to
mind an earlier era when similiar advances
in the laws of freedom of choice were
enjoyed by the citizens of a certain Far
Eastern civilization: A man, having gone
through the necessary rituals to obtain a
wife and having found her presence and
dependency inconvenient to his plans, an
embarrassment to his position, or in gen
eral a restriction to his freedom to pursue
happiness, he was allowed by law to ter
minate her life.
The humanity of this law is immediately
evident because the society was so struc
tured that the life of an unattached woman
could not have been sustained by herself
and she would have been left to a slower
death by starvation or abuse. Of course
keeping an unwanted mate only led to
abuse within the household and stresses
which would have diminished the quality
of life for all concerned.
I believe the whole issue was sum
marized best by a far-sighted physician
who said that arguing whether abortion is
an act of killing or not is unproductive.
Rather we should spend our energies com
ing to a more mature and realistic way to
look at killing.
— T. Barrett
by the Battalion) and was waiting for me
on the telephone.
Powell sounded very upset on the
phone. He threatened to file criminal
charges against me if the Battalion pub
lished the story in Tuesday’s edition.
I’m not very good at taking notes when
my hands are shaking, so I didn’t record
the exact quote. It was something like — If
you publish the story tonight, I’ll file
breaking-and-entering charges against
you.
I didn’t write the story on the 5-year-old
records that night. I did not sleep much,
either.
The article did need more work, and we
probably would have waited another day
anyway. The story was already two years
old.
The interviews on Tuesday were much
less frightening and more informative and
the complete account of the misplaced
records was published in Wednesday’s pa
per. Powell still says that, at the least, I
have fractured University Regulations, but
he says he won’t take any action against
me. I’m glad.
Overreaction was easy on the night of
the “discovery.” I wasn’t sure what I had
found, and neither were the adminis
trators. So we became suspicious of each
other.
Suspecting my intentions, they became
evasive and I thought they were hiding
something. We fought fire with more fire,
and we all almost got burned.
I was looking for answers, not trouble.
Reporters generally seek information, not
scandals. News sources need to under
stand that asking questions is a reporter’s
job. Journalists don’t want sensational
headlines when they’re not justified. But
sometimes sources’ reactions to questions
make a small story seem very important.
Under stress, mole hills appear to be
mountains. And reporters and sources are
always ready to fight for mountains.
This story was not a mountain. And it
certainly didn’t merit the administrative
panic it caused.
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fro
A call for tolerance
By JEFFREY L. NAUSS
I would like, at this time, to shed a new
light on some of the comments made by
the departing Battalion editors. I would
like to bring in the concept of values.
Mr. Arnett, in his final editorial, made
the statement that it is all right at TAMU
to be an individual as long as it conforms.
There is a certain amount of truth in that,
but what about applying the concept on a
larger scale? Is Texas A&M University al
lowed to be unique (or individual) as long
as it conforms with other universities in
the area?
Reader s Forum
I can see where it might be good to
allow women to be yell leaders or have a
woman’s drill team for basketball games.
There is value in allowiing the women to
participate in such university activities.
However, there is also value in not hav
ing such commonplace representations of
the school and in maintaining certain as
pects of this university as they were 20
years ago. And, for many people on this
campus, there is no contest as to which is
the more valuable.
Change is good, things cannot stagnate
forever. One good example is that previ
ous to 1963, there were no girls or non-
regs on this campus at all; and the school
was also dying.
Now, Texas A&M is a university, not a
college, 13th in the nation in National
Merit Scholars, leading the state in total
research, a world leader in agriculture and
engineering and still producing large
numbers of military officers. Opening the
doors for A&M was a matter of survival,
there was no.othqr satisfactory alternative.
However, the changes proposed on sev
eral occasions by many people, including
the editors of the Battalion, are not dealing
in the survival of the University. They are
merely value judgements and I feel confi
dent in saying that this campus holds the
recent system to be more valuable than
any other proposed system. Perhaps some
day there will be half male-half female yell
leaders and perhaps a second band repre
senting A&M at various activities, and on
that day this Former Student will be sad
dened. But that day will come only when
the student body is ready to change its
systems of values, not before.
In the meantime, A&M will be differ
ent, unique, and conservative (if that is
being without change) and people who
wish to try to change the system will find
that they will be swamped by protest. The
protest will come not so much because the
students are narrow-minded or even ig
norant, but because they have a different
set of values, one that they will jealously
defend, probably as much as a tea-sip will
defend Earl Campbell.
I think all Aggies, both those leaving
this school and those who will be back next
year, need to keep this in mind and be
more tolerant of both two percenters and
short-haired C.T.’s who have different
values. If someone wants to change the
system or even leave it as it is, I am sure
that person is doing so to improve this
university in his eyes. I wish everyone
good luck in their fight; but if they should
lose their fight, the school has spoken and
gotten what it wants, whatever that may
be.
Nauss is a biochemistry graduate student.
“NOW I REMEMBER YOU. I’M NOT GOOD ON NAMES BUT I
NEVER FORGET A DATA CARD!”
Top of the News
Campus
Cadets to participate in review
Final Review for seniors in the Texas A&M University Corpse!
Cadets will be held on the Memorial Student Center drill field Mayj
at 3:30 p.m. Approximately 1,900 cadets are expected to participate
in the final tribute. Undergraduate commencement ceremonies wilI
be May 5 and 6 in G. Rollie White Coliseum. Graduate student
commencement is scheduled for 3 p.m. May 5 in Rudder Au
ditorium.
Student senate positions open
Four positions are currently vacant in the student senate. These
include both a senior and sophomore position in the College ofEdu
cation, a graduate in the College of Engineering, and an at-large
representative from the University Apartments. The deadline for ap
plication is Tuesday, May 2, at 5 p.m. Applications may be obtained
in Room 216 of the Student Government Office.
Deadline for summer calendar
The deadline for submitting dates and events for the Summer
All-University Calendar is Friday. Forms are available in the Student
Activities Office, Room 221 of the MSC. Dates for the fall calendar
are also being accepted at the time. The deadline for entering events
on the fall calendar is July 26.
State
Ship picketed as union debates ™
Labor and management leaders debated Wednesday what to do
about four picketers whose protest of a “Soviet invasion” has pre
vented the unloading of a Russian ship for the past three days. A
spokesman lor the union officials said union leaders were trying to
persuade dock gangs to cross the picket line. “It’s a strong effort being
made, one spokesman said. We have the responsibility. But we just
can’t get our people to go behind the picket lines. You can’t forces
man. Meanwhile, shipping officials may be seeking court action to
move the Soviet ship, Magnitogorsk, to New Orleans with cargo
intact. The ship was to unload 20 West German buses at 7 p.m,
Monday. The buses are part of a 300 bus-package purchased with 80
percent federal grants for use in 11 American cities. Last month the
National Maritime Union (NMU) picketed a bus shipment aboard the
Skulptor Golubkina protesting the use of Soviet ships for a federal
project while American ships lay idle. However, NMU officials have
since accepted a U.S. Department of Transportation commitment to
study exclusive use of American shipping for such projects and said
they had nothing to do with the new protest.
nation
Carter plans base cutbacks
Congress has been notified of the administration’s intent todoseor
“realign” 85 military bases, including a Texas Air Force base, thereby
eliminating several thousand civilian jobs in order to save $336 mil
lion annually for other defense programs. Although a formal an
nouncement listing the affected bases was expected from the adminis
tration Wednesday, defense officials tried to cushion anticipated op
position by giving advance notice Tuesday to congressmen and
senators whose areas will be involved. The list which was originally
scheduled for action last fall, concentrates on training installations as
an area that could best be cut back. Delayed until early this year, the
list was ordered by President Carter held up again until the Panama
Canal treaties cleared Congress. Defense Secretary Harold Brown
will set up guidelines for the proposals in an effort to produce greater
savings than were achieved in the base cutbacks proposed by the
Ford administration. The new plan includes a primary list of candi
dates for closure as well as alternative proposals for achieving some of
the savings, which are to be channeled into “other priorities,” in the
defense budget, officials said.
World
Vorster accepts Western plan
Prime Minister John Vorster has announced his acceptance of a
Western plan for independent black rule in Namibia in hopes of
removing the threat of economic sanctions and end the year-long split
with the United States and Britain. The acceptance, announced on
Tuesday and apparently planned to coincide with the U.N. General
Assembly debate on the Namibian question, meant Namibia could
become independent by the end of the year if the plan is also ac
cepted by the militant South West African Peoples Organization
(SWAPO). Sam Nujoma, leader of SWAPO, told reporters, “it is his
(Vorster’s) problem. We have made our position clear. African dele
gates at the United Nations pointed out that there were still differ
ences over some aspects of the Western plan as Vorster accepted it
The delegates did indicate, however, these could probably be worked
out in subsequent negotiations. The controversial issues include Vor
ster’s insistence on retaining Walvis Bay, and the condition that the
present police force will maintain law and order during the transition
to independence. If accepted by Nujoma, the Western plan would
spell the end of 58 years of South African rule in Namibia.
Weather
Partly cloudy and warm today and tonight. Mostly cloudy
tomorrow with a chance of thundershowers. High today near
80, low tonight mid-60s. High tomorrow mid-80s. Winds from
the southeast at 10-15 mph. Thirty percent chance of rain
Friday afternoon.
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 Regents. The
Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting enterprise oper
ated by students as a university and community newspaper.
Editorial policy is determined by the editor.
LETTERS POLICY
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are
subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The
editorial staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does
not guarantee to publish any letter. Each letter must be
signed, show the address of the writer and list a telephone
number for verification.
Address correspondence to Letters to the Editor, The
Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, College
Station, Texas 77843.
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The Battalion is published Monday through Friday from
September through May except during exam and holiday
periods and the summer, when it is published on Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays.
Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester; $33.25 per
school year; $35.00 per full year. Advertising rates furnished
on request. Address: The Battalion, Room 216, Reed
McDonald Building, College Station, Texas ^
United Press International is entitled exclusi'^!
use for reproduction of all news dispatches credit
Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein ^
Second-Class postage paid at College Station,
MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress
Editor Kitf
Managing Editor Karen*'
Sports Editor David®
News Editors Carolyn Blosser, Debbie A
City Editor Gan|
Campus Editor Dz^
Assistant Campus Editor Andy^
Editorial Director Lee Roy
j Photo Editor J. Wagntf * 1
! Staff Writers Mark Patterson, Paige ^
Andrea Vails, Michelle Scudder, Setf
Photographers Susan Webb.
i Cartoonist Dotig^l
Student Publications Board: Bob G. Rogers,
foe Arredondo, Dr. Gary Halter, Dr. CharlesMcC 1 ^
Dr. Clinton A. Phillips, Rebel Rice. Director of
Publications: Donald C. Johnson.