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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 9, 1978)
riving The Battalion Vol. 71 No. 185 8 Pages Wednesday, August 9, 1978 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 Inside Wednesday: Anthropology class studies ruins of Indian campsites - p. 3. Teen-agers tortured with thousands of ants - p. 5. Eddie Mathews reflects on baseball career - p. 7. “TTN Prairie View wants more minorities in ag program By DOUG GRAHAM Battalion Staff Prairie View A&M University is working to get more minority students to study agriculture. More minority students tire needed in the agricul tural sector of the economy, Dr. A.I. Thomas, presi dent of Prairie View, said Tuesday. Agriculture has become “unfashionable” for minority students, Prairie View officials said. Prairie View A&M, founded in 1878 and made a black land grant college in 1890, is located about 31 miles northwest of Houston. Its coed enrollment of 5,112 students includes only 128 agriculture majors, said Dr. Freddie Richards, dean of agriculture. By comparison, about one-sixth of Texas A&M’s 30,000 students are agriculture majors. Richards said black students don’t want to go into agriculture because it has been pictured as unfashiona ble by the media. Prairie View has no “walk-on” ag riculture majors, he said. “We’re in recruitment; either somebody sends them, or we go out and grab them.” Black students have to be shown the advantages of agricultural careers, Richards said. This is especially hard since there has been a decline in the number of black agriculture teachers in high schools. That decline has occurred since the 1964 Civil Rights Act, he said. Prairie View, because it is mostly black, is good place to teach hlack students agriculture, Richards said. The University will receive up to $1.4 million in research giants through the National Agricultural Re search, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977. Richards said the school would receive another $900,000 from the extension service, bringing the pos sible total up to $2.3 million. Richards said Prairie View and Texas A&M Univer sity will both still work with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service and Agricultural Experiment Station under the act. But Prairie View has a bit more au tonomy now, he said. Assistant Director of the Texas Agricultural Experi ment Station, Dr. Dudley Smith, said Prairie View has research facilities that are on par with experiment sta tions statewide. Prairie View needs to improve its research facilities, but the improvements needed are not unusual, Richards said. Richards said he intends to upgrade facilities and conduct research with the federal hinds Prairie View will be receiving. He said Prairie View needs to build better research facilities, but that that will take time. “I’m not looking at tomorrow,” he said. “I’m looking to the far future. I’m looking at what can be done 10 years from now. ” He said that Prairie View will need to expand just as Texas A&M did 20 years ago. “You can’t start out full thrust,” he said. “You have to gear up.” Richards’ research director. Dr. O. C. Simpson, said “there’s an urgent need of facilities, both in labs and offices.” “It’s really bad,” he said, referring to the facilities. Simpson said he has several programs he wants to implement, all of which comply with the various guidelines specified under the act. One goal outlined by the act is to help low income farmers. Another is to increase energy efficiency in agriculture. The pork projects, greenhouse projects, and poultry brooder house efficiency studies Simpson envisions all fit those criteria. Simpson said that if his programs are approved, then the federal money can be used to build the new structures in which he wants to house them. This fills the federal requirement that the grant money be tied to specific projects, Richards said. Prairie View officials have discussed beginning con struction on those facilities by 1979. Simpson said that he has other plans for using the money if the facilities plan falls through. “I could spend $1 million in a week to improve the chemistry labs for agronomy,” he said. Richards said he and his staff are aiming, “not for bigness, but to be first class in what we can do.” A quality agriculture program is the only way to show minority students what agriculture has to offer, Richards said. Thomas reiterated that point. “We want to prepare high quality minorities to enter all fields of agriculture,” the Prairie View president said. But the big problem will be getting minority stu dents interested in agriculture, Richards said. “It’s a challenge to show a kid that agriculture is supportive and good,” he said. Briscoe praises tax relief acts jJjI United Press International SYTICAN CITY — Cardinals of the pan Catholic Church in their scarlet )es are beginning the solemn and secret ■s that will lead to the choice of a suc- ssor for Pope Paul VI as spiritual ■[herd to 700 million people. Church officials said the first of the Iparatory meetings to lay the ^ indwofk for the convening of the Sac- - iCollege of Cardinals were held Tues- Lunder the supervision of French Car- al Jean Villot, the Vatican secretary of Ah, my love... Octavio (Greg Hosteller) dreams of his sweetheart, Hyacintha, in the Monday night performance of “The Way of All Scoundrels.” This zany comedy, directed by Rick Landmanm, can be seen Thursday through Saturday nights at the StageCenter theater located on South College at Villa Maria. Hosteller is an employee of KAMU-TV. Battalion photo by Karen Toolcy United Press International AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Dolph Briscoe said Tuesday night he was pleased the special legislative session had passed mea sures providing tax relief to Texans and setting a limitation on state spending. Briscoe applauded the Legislature for having “labored very hard and I congratu late them on their product.” The Legislature passed legislation re- Cardinals begin rites Conclave meets in late August ne late pontiff himself ruled that such lo-contest Hvorces meetings be held daily following his death until the conclave of cardinals formally be gins the actual election process. Under 800-year-old rules amended by Pope Paul to tighten security, the conclave will begin at the earliest on Aug. 21 and no later than Aug. 26. By tradition, Cardinal Villot, as head chamberlain of the Vatican, will preside over day-to-day affairs of the church until the 263rd successor to the Throne of St. Peter is chosen. Taking on his role Monday, Villot fol lowed sacred church custom by closing the late pope’s apartments in the Vatican. The cardinal took from Paul’s hand the fisherman’s seal ring bearing an amethyst depicting St. Peter, the fisherman of Galilee who became the first pope. Acting according to tradition, Villot smashed the ring with a silver hammer. The pieces will later be melted down to cast a new ring for Paul’s successor. Only the 115 cardinals under the age of 80 have the right to vote for election of the new pope under rules promulgated by Paul in 1975. But as princes of the church, all 130 living cardinals have the right to attend the preparatory meetings. pealing the state’s sales tax on residential utilility bills and increasing the inheri tance tax exemption. But the governor said he was more pleased with legislation establishing truth-in-taxation prodecures, limiting state spending and re-defining the tax base and tax relief for agricultural land. “Adoption of these proposed constitu tional changes, in my opinion, more firmly entrench the policy of fiscal restraint which has enabled our state to enjoy over the past years economic prosperity that has been the envy of other states, ” Briscoe said. The governor said the $1 billion tax re lief the measures are expected to give to Texans was sufficient. “I think that’s very meaningful,” he said. “But even more important, we have added something new — by providing for a spending limitation that it is tied to growth of the state. That’s something we’ve never had before and I think it’s very good. ” Briscoe would not take credit for the passage of the measures, saying it was the Legislature which had performed well. “The credit of that product goes to those in the House and Senate and to the speaker and lieutenant governor. They are the ones who worked very hard to achieve that product.” f heap now By MARK WILLIS Battalion City Editor Divorce Services of Texas can free a rson from marriage problems cheap. The service advertises divorce for $95 IS filing fees and accepts Mastercharge Visa. It is a filing service for non- ntested cases only and should not be ffiised with a legal service, though plans corporate legal services are being con- red, Marvin Ross, a spokesman for the said. he Texas Bar Association has tried to us out, but has failed,” Ross said, he firm is actually located in Los 'eles, Calif. The Texas branch is here in le only, as are divisions in many states mghout the country, ecause the firm is not a legal service, it not deal with contested cases or cases [ere community property is involved. We help people who are poor or on pre, and women who need to file for lid support,” Ross said. “These people ve no property to speak of and simply ed nexpensive way out of a bad situa- >n.” he company, owned by Van Vidber of >s Angeles, advertises in papers oughout the state, but gets referral Siness also. The Texas Department of man Resources provides the firm with ^ ny cases, Ross said. We do have friends in the state that I we provide a positive service,” Ross 1. “In fact, we save the state a great deal noney.” Ihe company has a toll-free number for vice and information seven days a A A bundle of joy Kristi Smith (right) shares the enjoyment of holding and touching a new-born puppy with her curious on-looker, Yasmeen Kamal. Both girls from the Bryan-College Station area express feelings of love and care for the poodle puppy. Battalion photo by Jerry Reeves Rest time Hot summer weather brings out the butterflies especially around area lakes. For the most part butterflies are flighty little insects, but they do land once in a while for a breather before taking off on their way. Battalion photo by Mark Penny Kansas cattle rustling is high-profit crime United Press International TOPEKA, Kan. — Record beef prices have taken a slight down turn, but so far it has not been enough to discourage the Old West method of cattle procurement — rustling. William Albott, director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, says rustling has increased noticeably in the past few months, apparently since beef prices have increased. “There’s no way to gauge how much,” Albott said. “We don’t have all the reports in, but it has been a noticeable increase. “In watching the crime trend, you’d have to say the one factor (in the increased rustling) is that it’s more profitable than it was a year ago,” he said. The 1978 Kansas Legislature granted the agency a second agent to deal only with cattle thefts in western Kansas. The KBI already had one agent, based in east ern Kansas, assigned to that line of work. The new agent will make it possible for better coverage of the vast, sparsely- populated western Kansas prairie. The KBI was originally formed in 1939 with a two-fold purpose — going after cat tle rustlers and chasing bank robbers of the Bonnie and Clyde variety who were springing up in the Midwest. Albott said the cattle thieves then and now have simi lar motives. “Back at that time cattle rustling was very profitable,” he said. “Of course, the thieves, they are pretty smart. The only time they get involved in something is when there’s a profit in it. They don’t steal anything they can’t sell.” Forty-two head of cattle were stolen near Hays in June in what authorities are calling the largest livestock theft in recent years. He said normally about 10-12 head are stolen at a time, just the number that will fit in a flatbed truck with stock racks. Any more would require a tractor-trailer unit, which is more conspicuous and more, time-consuming to load. Albott said some stolen cattle are sold at sale barns in the state, some out of state and some are collected at a point within the state for shipping out. In some cases, he said, the rustlers even have butchered the animals and sold the meat. He said about 25-30 percent of cattle rustlers are caught. “One of the problems is it’s an unidenti fiable product that they get,” he said. “They get it butchered and the evidence is gone. You may know, but to prove it is something different.” Sadat, Begin, Carter to meet in peace effort United Press International WASHINGTON —- President Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Is raeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin will meet Sept. 5 at Camp David in a major effort to reach a Middle East peace accord. “The president is pleased to announce that President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin have accepted an invitation to come to Camp David Sept. 5 to meet with him to seek a framework for a Middle East peace agreement,” press secretary Jody Powell told reporters. Powell said Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, in Alexandria, Egypt Tuesday for a meeting with Egyptian officials, informed Carter that both Sadat and Begin, whom Vance met during the weekend, “have welcomed this meeting.” The September summit will be the first, face-to-face meeting between the two Middle East leaders since their Christmas Day talks at Ismailia, Egypt.