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The Battalion
Vol. 72 No. 1 Friday, September 1, 1978 News Dept. 845-2611
14 Pages College Station, Texas Business Dept. 845-2611
itivan.
. Classes feeling
reshman crush
By LIZ NEWLIN
Battalion Campus Editor
freshman crush descended upon
isA&M University this fall. Alxmt 300
i” no one expected showed up, and
iral departments are feeling the pres-
be plan for extra freshman visiting in
mistry 101 classes is simple: in case of
all students on the floor lie flat,
r. Rod O’Connor, director of the
bian chemistry program, says extra
ents in his class have another advan-
iVhen I’m down there lecturing, they
mind me like an ant hill. When one
ts to ask a question, he doesn’t have to
•his hand. Instead, he just pulls on my
iser leg.”
lesaid Chem 101 has the same number
ections it did last year, even though
pllment in the class has increased 11
cent.The limits in the sections have
ji increased to near capacity of the lec-
halls, he said. All students enrolled in
classes do have a chair, he said, if they
Itodass on time.
BConnor said the “squeeze” always
pens during the second year of the
getingbiennium, when enrollment in-
ises but funds do not.
Ither departments that normally serve
tfirst-year students also are feeling the
ease in the Class of ’82, the largest
hman class ever.
he English Department added 10 sec-
s of English 103 and increased the
tin all the other sections by one stu-
t. Dr. David Steward, department
d, said he learned of the extra
hmen over the summer and started
anding the department, but it wasn’t
n enough.
Ilonday many freshmen found their
Ltsh 103 classes were “closed. Most
■hmen are required to take the com-
liton and literature course, and many of
Im were very frustrated when they
Ind they couldn’t take it, he said. So
■re their advisers, he added.
■I was afraid that there would be
freshmen who couldn’t take 103,” Stewart
Id. By Wednesday, however, enough
people had dropped the course that all the
freshmen who needed the class got it.
More sections also were added in
freshman courses in biology, math, educa
tional psychology and environmental de
sign graphics. Political Science 205 and
206, generally sophomore classes, also
added some sections.
Dr. Keith Bryant, department head in
history, said he has plenty of space in His
tory 105.
“I guessed pretty high,” he said. “It was
just an estimate and we managed.
Dr. Carlton Maxson, acting head of
mathematics, said all freshmen who
needed the courses have been placed in
the now-larger secKons.
The most spectacular jump in enroll
ment was in Math 103, trigonometry.
Maxson said 48 percent more students are
taking it this fall than last. He said he
didn’t know the reason for the rise, except
that maybe students feel they are weak in
trig and want the review before taking cal
culus.
Dr. Ned Walton, assistant dean for the
College of Engineering, said most of the
engineering students take Math 150 to re
view trig and algebra, but some of the in
crease in Math 103 may be due to
freshman engineers.
This summer at freshman conferences,
new math tests were given to all students
to determine if they needed to strengthen
their math skills.
John Greer, environmental design de
partment head, said four sections have
been added in environmental design
graphics, a course most engineering and
pre-architecture students must take.
“I need more teachers, ” he said, “which
I’m trying to get.’ All students who
needed the course are in it.
Some sections also have been added in
Biology 113.
“We’ve been expanding,” said Dr. Mar
lene Churchwell, assistant professor of
biology. The department scheduled every
possible lab time before school started and
has been opening the sections as needed,
she said. “The projections we had were
very close.”
Battalion photo by Mark Benson
Handle with care
Demonstrating the Shorin Ryu Style of Karate, Jimmy Kiebler
(left) and Ed Crawford perform the Yaki Soku — an Okinawan
training exercise. The two, both 3-year yellow belts in the sport,
rehearsed additional exercises in demonstrations earlier this
week in G. Rollie White Coliseum. The club meets three times
a week and invites everyone to join, “especially women.”
.Night of Power’
Moslems celebrate holiday
By ANDY WILLIAMS
Battalion Staff
iixteen people at Texas A&M Univer-
joined the rest of the world’s 700 mil-
i Moslems Thursday in celebrating a
htol peace and security,
lie group met in Rudder Tower for a
gious service in the “Night of Power,”
evening the Moslem holy book, the
:an, says is “better than a thousand
nths.”
lie evening commemorates the date
first section of the holy book was given
he prophet Mohammad by Allah,
he group is finishing observance of
nadan, the ninth month of the Islamic
aryear. Adviser of the Moslem Student
'anization Dr. Abdel Ayoub says that
lughout the month, Moslems who are
sick, members of the armed forces, or
Idren abstain from “intakes of any kind”
ingthe daylight hours. He said this hi
des water and tobacco as well as food.
After a reading in Arabic from the Ko
ran, Ayoub reminded the congregation
that the night represented the light of
Allah coming to man to eradicate the
“darkness of ignorance. ”
Ayoub asked the students in the audi
ence to remember as the seme$ter begins
that “Islam is work” and “work is wor
ship.”
For the benefit of non-Moslem obser
vers, Ayoub explained that Moslem is not
alien to the predominant faiths of America,
Christianity and Judaism. “We believe
these are three evolutionary stages of the
same religion.”
He said that Judaism had served to lay
down the “basic laws"; Christianity had
provided one who led an ideal existence
and taught men to love each other; and
that Mohammad had clarified and made
more detailed the laws of the first two be
liefs.
“They were there, and they did their
part,” Ayoub said of Moses and Jesus.
Dr. Mir Khan of the research staff in the
Soils and Crop Sciences departments
warned the audience of judgment day in
another sermon.
“A day will come when we will all be
accounted for,” Khan said. Their worthi
ness will be judged on the quality of their
performance of the five pillars, he told
them.
The five pillars of Islam, Ayoub said, in
clude openly expressing a belief in God as
One and Mohammad as his prophet; mak
ing the prescribed prayers each day, done
in five sessions; observing the fast of
Ramadan; giving alms; and, if a Moslem
can afford it without causing undue dis
comfort to himself or his family, making a
pilgrimage to Mecca (a Hajj).
He explained that the prayers consist of
a certain series of positions, a “rakha, dur
ing which the worshipper recites from the
Koran while standing, bowing, standing.
Two Moslem women (above) await the finish of
prayers at religious services held in the Rudder
Tower last night. At right, Amer Sheikh recites
from the Moslem holy book, the Koran, as he faces
Mecca. The group was celebrating the “Night of
Power,” remembering the occasion Allah gave the
first verse of the Koran to Mohammad. The women
would have participated in the prayer if they had
not had children to watch. A daytime fast which
Moslems have observed throughout the month will
be broken early next week when the cre.scent of the
new moon is sighted. Battalion photo by Ben Po
kneeling, and standing again. They are al
ways performed while facing the city of
Mecca.
After a brief debate over which direc
tion Mecca lay in, the men in the congre
gation concluded the service with a group
prayer, called a “jama’a.” Ayoub explained
that the three women present did not join
them because it was necessary to perform
the ritual washings of the body before
prayer, and that it would have been im
practical for them to do this while taking
care of their small children.
r
v
M.A.D.
Are there any good Republicans in Texas? Calvin
Guest, Texas Chairman of the Democratic party
doesn’t think so. Check it out on page 8.
y
Nicaragua near
open civil war
United Press International
MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Youthful
anti-government rebels set off homemade ,
explosives, hurled firebombs and took pot
shots at national guardsmen, adding to the
civil war atmosphere across Nicaragua
Thursday.
As the fighting spread, a general strike
called by businessmen seeking Somoza’s
ouster grew in strength. Airline
employees in Managua, including Pan
American, voted to begin a walkout today
that could shut down the international air
port.
At least 25 bomb blasts shook the capital
city of Managua Wednesday night, and na
tional guardsmen under the control of
President Anastasio Somoza Debayle were
pelted with firebombs.
In Masaya, about 20 miles from the cap
ital, snipers opened fire on patrolling
guardsmen, injuring at least one.
A band of 500 armed rebels, most of
them students, occupied two-thirds of the
city of Matagalpa Wednesday and held
government troops at bay with homemade
bombs.
At least five people were killed in a bat
tle Tuesday night and Wednesday bet
ween poorly armed anti-government
forces and guardsmen equipped with
machine guns, mortars and helicopter
gunships.
But residents of the city of 50,000 said
the toll was much higher, judging from the
number of bleeding bodies that lay still in
the streets with flies swarming over them.
Residents offered food, water and shel
ter to the rag-tag bands that are trying to
bring down Somoza’s regime.
Many of the rebels were as young as 14,
residents said.
“We re not communists,” one man who
identified himself as an English teacher
told a reporter. “Tell your American pres
ident not to give Somoza any more
money.”
The students, emboldened by last
week’s successful invasion and escape from
the National Palace by Sandinista guerril
las, declared a “Free territory of
Matagalpa” and controlled the city’s
Municipal Palace and most of the
downtown area.
Nicaraguan observers said attempts by
the students, backed by local residents
and businesses, to establish their own in
dependent civil authority moved the na
tion close to open civil war. The fighting
posed the most serious threat ever to the
Somoza family rule, which has spanned
four decades.
National Guard troops in Matagalpa
were commanded personally by President
Somoza’s son. Mayor Anastasio Somoza
Portocarrero.
Hurricane moves
toward east coast
United Press International
MIAMI — Tropical storm Ella turned
into a hurricane Thursday and may pose
threats to the mid-Atlantic coastline by
Friday.
The National Hurricane Center said in a
special advisory that an Air Force plane
sent to investigate Ella Thursday after
noon found that highest winds in the storm
had increased from 60 to 80 mph, with
gales extending out 100 miles north of the
center.
A storm is rated as a hurricane when its
winds reach 75 mph.
At 2 p.m. Ella was reported centered
near latitude 29.2 north, longitude 68.9
west, or about 900 miles east of Jackson
ville, Fla. It was movng toward the west
northwest at 15 mph and was expected to
remain on that course Thursday night.
“Although there is no threat to the Un
ited States tonight, if Ella continues to
move on its current course warnings may
be required over portions of the mid-
Atlantic states Friday,” forecasters said.
The weather agency also warned that
“there is evidence steering currents are
changing and Ella might recurve towards
the north and northeast in 24 hours. All
coastal interests from the Carolinas north
wards should stay in close touch with fu
ture releases on Ella,” the weather agency
warned.
Ella developed from a tropical depres
sion late Wednesday to become the fifth
tropical storm of the season late Wednes
day.
Tropical Storm Bess lashed the Mexican
coast with gale winds and heavy rains just
two days before Cora formed off the Afri
can Coast. But Bess spent its force as it hit
the coastal mountains and there was little
damage.
Earlier this week, Tropical Storm Debra
was born in the Gulf. It threatened coastal
areas from New Orleans to Galveston, and
finally went ashore in Louisiana Tuesday.
Tornadoes spawned by Debra claimed one
life, and another person drowned.
Prof will oversee
postal negotiations
WASHINGTON — Negotiators for the
Postal Service and three unions, who
failed to settle their contract dispute under
the threat of a national mail strike, will try
again beginning today under guidance of a
Harvard University professor.
James Healy, a nationally known labor
relations expert, will open a 15-day con
tract bargaining period between the two
sides and will oversee the talks through
the Labor Day holiday weekend, a
spokeswoman for the Federal Mediation
and Conciliation Service said Wednesday.
The talks will run until Sept. 16, if
necessary.
Under an agreement that averted the
illegal walkout threatened for midnight
Monday, Healy was named mediator for a
novel 15-day bargaining-arbitration period
to which both sides agreed.
The talks at mediation service head
quarters need not run until the 15-day
period expires, the spokeswoman stres
sed.
“If there is an agreement prior to then,
the mediator can put it out for ratifica
tion,” she said. “Also, if he decides after
four or five days of dealing with these
people that there isn’t going to be an a-
greement, he can render a decision (under
his arbitration authority) prior to the 15
days.”
Healy, 62, an industrial relations profes
sor at Harvard, has served on and off since
the World War II years as a mediator and
arbitrator in major disputes spanning most
areas of industry.
The 280,000-member American Postal
Workers Union, the 180,000-member Na
tional Association of Letter Carriers and
the 40,000-member National Post Office
Mail Handlers union all rejected a pro
posed three-year contract offering an over
all 19.5 percent wage and cost of living
increase.
Postmaster General William Bolger said
the Postal Service could afford no bigger
money package and favored submitting
the dispute to binding arbitration, where
it was possible the “no layoff” clause could
be eliminated. The unions demanded re
newed negotiations instead.
Citizens want recall
election on tax issue
United Press International
HOUSTON — A group of citizens has
threatened to force a recall election if the
City Council does not schedule an election
on property tax limitation proposals.
The group believes it has enough signa
tures to put to a vote.
The Tax Protest Group is confidently
awaiting validation of a petition to force a
vote on a proposition limiting property
taxes to 50 cents per $100 assessed valua
tion.
The proposed city charter amendment
also would limit increases in property
taxes to 10 percent annually. The current
rate is $1.58 per $100 paid on an assess
ment ratio of 53 percent of true market
value.
Polk said if the council does not honor
the group’s demands next January — the
earliest possible time under state law for
an election — his organization might re
sort to an attempted recall election.
Polk said 43,187 persons had signed the
property tax limitation proposals and there
were 44,765 signatures on a petition for a
proposed ordinance holding property
taxes at the 1977 rate pending reassess
ment of the entire city.