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Viewpoint The Battalion Friday Texas A&M University September 22, 1978 Too much privacy? You may find it hard to believe, but if you were thinking of giving a job to a former federal employee named John Ehrlichman or Spiro Agnew and you wrote to the Justice Department to ask if they had ever run afoul of the law, the government would refuse to tell you because to do so would “constitute an unwarranted invasion of privacy/ Everyone knows, of course, that Ehrlichman was sent to prison for a Watergate-related crime and that Agnew resigned the vice presidency to avoid criminal prosecution. But CBS correspondent Fred Graham went to the trouble of having the Justice Department formally refuse to disclose the information about them, as well as other well-known persons, to demonstrate the absurdity of its privacy regulations in more typical situations. Justice Department rules, for example, forbid it to disclose if any indi vidual — say, a contractor bidding on a government job — has a past record of arrests, indictments or convictions, even if the government itself arrested, indicted and convicted him. Such is the extreme reading the Justice Department has put on the Pri vacy Act of 1974, which was passed by Congress partly in reaction to Water gate, partly in reaction to the threats to individual privacy that were per ceived in the 1960s. Twenty-three states also passed privacy laws. But do we really want a system in which the voters may not know that an embezzler is running for public office? he asks. Or in which a girls’ school will not be told that a convicted rapist has applied for a job as a night watchman? The answers are pretty obvious. Birmingham Post-Herald Just a housewife By DAVID S. BBODEB MERRICK, LONG ISLAND—She is a 33-year-old woman with two kids and a husband who is holding down two jobs to pay the bills. No, she tells the inquiring reporter, she does not want her name in the paper. “Just say I’m a hardworking housewife, ’’ she says. And damned angry. What she—and others like her—say on this late-summer Saturday tells you all you need to know about why it is not going to be much fun to be running for public office this fell. And probably not much of an election. THIS IS THE DAY before the good news arrives from Camp David, but her expectations are minimal. Two years ago, she voted for Jimmy Carter, “because he sounded like he’d be good.” But not again, she says. “This time. I’d like someone who doesn’t talk so high and mighty before he gets in and does more of a job after he’s elected.” The trouble is, she does not see anyone out there who looks any better. “I don’t know anyone that people really like and trust,” she says. "I don’t think I’ll even vote this year. Everyone my age is just fed up with it. The middle-income people just want to move out of the coun try; it’s that bad.” As she stands on the front stoop of her house in this middle-class town on the Letters to the editor south shore of Nassau County, the frustra tion she feels comes pouring out in waves—each one angrier than the one be fore. Her husband is a splicer for the tele phone company, but now he’s taken a sec ond job as a janitor in a nearby church, to try to keep pace with inflation. “WE RE HARD WORKERS,” she says, “and we’re not getting anywhere. I don’t want anybody to give us anything. I’d just like to see things straightened out.” She is worried about pollution. “I really am afraid of what it’s going to be like for the children,” she says. “The air is getting worse, no matter what they say. And the water is full of chemicals, more of them all the time.” And, like almost everyone else inter viewed in her neighborhood, she is angry about taxes. She and her neighbors are convinced that “the middle-income people pay for everything, while the rich people have their loopholes and the poor get it all on welfare.” She is sure that taxes could be cut a lot “by somebody who was well-organized and not out for himself.. .All of them prom ise it—but how can you trust them?” she asks. The town of Merrick, she and her neighbors tell you, has had a tax revolt of its own. The town budget has been voted and damn mad down twice, forcing austerity measures in the schools. “AND WHAT IS the first thing they do?” she demands. You know the answer, because you have been told at almost every door. But, in her anger, the words come tumbling out without a pause for your reply. “They take away the buses,” she says, forcing every family to find its own means of transporting its youngsters to and from school. School athletic teams have had to cancel their schedules, because the buses are not available. And families with both parents working are paying $20 a month per child for places in improvised private carpools. “You know that’s political,” she says.. “They could have saved that money a lot of other ways, but the people who are in there (the school administration) want the people to suffer because we voted down their budget. That’s the kind of thing politicians will do.” For her—and others in this town— Carter and Camp David and Congress are a long way away. Carter, she says, “is try ing to help Egypt and lsrael work out their problems. But I don’t see him doing much for us.” Does the civil service reform he finally pushed through Congress promise relief from wasteful bureaucracy? “I haven’t really paid much attention to that,” she says, and her neighbors seem equally indifferent. WOULD SHE VOTE for Jerry Ford over Carter if the choice came up again? “I doubt it. He never seemed to get much done. ” Ronald Reagan? “I don’t know, but he’s awfully old to be starting out as Presi dent.” Ted Kennedy? “Maybe, but I heard him saying he didn’t even want to run. Who would, the way things are?” The dearth of new leadership, she im plies, is part of a general problem—the decline in quality and workmanship and professionalism in American life. “Look at that car,” she say, pointing to the station wagon in the driveway. “We bought it new three years ago and we have replaced almost everything in it. You would not believe the repair bills. Nothing works. Appliances. Cars. Anything you buy new—forget it. Look at all the cars they’re recalling now. “They just don’t make anything good any more,” she says. Including the politi cians? “Them more than anything. I tell you, people like me are tired of hearing the same old speeches, and then nothing hap pens.” You bid her goodbye, and you think to yourself: How would you like to be the politician who comes to her door seeking a vote? (c) 1978, The Washington Post Company Professors defend tenure system Editor: We support the positions of Chancellor Williams and President Miller in speaking for the continuation of the tenure system for university professors and in opposing the proposed bill of Speaker Clayton, which would substitute renewable con tracts for tenure. We believe that tenure is superior to alternative systems for several important reasons. Tenure status is not granted carelessly nor is it, when achieved, an irrevocable lifetime guaran tee of a job. Tenure is given only to those who have successful records of teaching and research over a number of years, and it is retained by those who continue to be capable professionals. Tenure allows the protessor to engage in long-range, and thus potentially more re warding, projects; a contract system would encourage limited research efforts that could produce results fairly quickly. Te nure assures the continued attraction of a distinguished faculty, including those of a Slouch senior professional rank; a contract system would make it virtually impossible to at tract quality faculty to a university whose policies are so out of line with the national norm. Above all, tenure, not a contract sys tem, provides the more encouraging envi ronment in which to conduct free and open research and has proven to be the most effective protection against en croachments on academic freedom, with out which no professor and no university can accomplish their ultimate purpose, the discovery and teaching of truth. C. E. Harris, Jr., President Texas A&M Chapter Texas Association of College Teachers Paul A. Parrish, President Texas A&M Chapter American Association of University Pro fessors by Jim Earle Profs do care Editor: As a faculty member with a very small involvement in “typical” research, I would like to respond to Mr. Robert Schindler’s letter of September 20. While I cannot speak for other depart ments, I can say unequivocably that the Department of Chemistry does care pro foundly about good teaching. Last year, for example, teams of senior faculty visited the classes of non-tenured faculty to pre pare evaluations and suggestions for im provement. The Department Head and the Personnel and Tenure Committee give careful consideration to the quality of teaching, as evidenced by the recent promotion and tenure of one of our First Year Chemistry faculty with only a small list of “typical” research publications, but significant evidence of good teaching and instructional innovation. Chemistry faculty devote countless hours to help sessions and professor- tutorial work. I could not name a single member of our faculty who fails to exhibit a sincere concern for students. This does not, however, interfere with a very active research program that has gained interna tional respect. I don’t think that this committment to both quality research and quality teaching is limited to the Department of Chemis try. I have heard, and believe, statements from Vice President (J M.) Prescott, Pres ident (Jarvis) Miller, and Chancellor (Jack) Williams to the effect that the primary role of our faculty must be good teaching, in conjunction with significant scholarly ef fort. It is the requirement of that scholarly effort — the extension of our frontiers of knowledge — that sets a true university apart from a “college.” But it is the em phasis on quality teaching and caring about students that sets Texas A&M apart from many other large universities. Many of the complaints that I have heard over the past twenty year that “teaching is not rewarded” really mean that “meeting classes” is not rewarded. It shouldn’t be! We have an obligation to do more than that. As a university faculty we must extend those frontiers of knowledge in the areas of pure and applied research, and in the equally challenging area of in structional innovation. It is in this respect that, I assure you, the Texas A&M ad ministration does indeed reward teaching. Rod O’Connor professor & director of first year chemistry programs Answer please Editor: Regarding the letter by Oussama Qawasmi, ’79 (Battalion, Sept. 21). I would like to know, what was the pur pose of the letter? Was it to slander every thing from the “U.S. Foreign Diplomacy” to the mideast framework for peace? Or was it for the author to spout meaningless drivel on topics he obviously knew little about? If he can answer these questions it would be greatly appreciated. Owen D. Massey, ’79 Chivalry lives Editor: Hopelessly enveloped in quicksand, my auto slowly gurgled toward certain death last weekend at the Bryan American Leg ion Hall. But the desperate call of a damsel in distress was answered by a score of statesmen - THE FIRST REGIMENT. These brave soldiers risked their lives extracting my engulfed carriage with super-human strength. The heros aban doned their comrades, companions, ladies and longnecks to heed my cry. What gal lantry! Not only was the social gathering a total success but it was proven once again, by the Corps, that chivalry is not dead! To some this letter may seem a bit dramatic but these gentlemen, it seems to me, truly helped an Aggie in need. In simple terms fellas, THANK YA! Martha Lambert, ’81 Clair Hodgin, ’81 Clarifications An article in Wednesday’s Battal ion about a blackout in the Corps area incorrectly referred to Corps Commander Bob Kamensky as Bob Kennedy. A typographical error in a letter to the editor Thursday may have left the impression that the writer said he ranked “right up there with True Confessions.” Instead, the writer was referring to Today’s Student. Monday’s Battalion contained a story that said the University’s lib rary map collection contains 600,000 maps. The correct figure is 60,000. “GET THIS! THERE’S A LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM AN AGGIE WHO SAYS HE HAS NOTHING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT!” Top of the News Campus Jdf any Book collectors’ contest set ial du I Texas A&M University students have until Oct. 20, to enter Sixth Annual Student Book Collectors’ Contest, sponsored by the Friends of the Texas A&M University Library. Rules and entry forms are available across from the Circulation Desk or from Mary Kuder librarian in the Resource Development Division, both on the firs) floor of the Sterling C. Evans Library. Prizes totaling $875aretolie awarded. For more information, contact Deborah Brown, 845-2551, or Don Dyal, 845-1951. ian, ity i chit ron ved glad< of th an king Voter registration deadline near Cei e sh buih Deadline is Oct. 6 for registering to vote in the Nov. 7 election Applications for registration can be made by manor in person at the office of the county tax assessor-collector in the Brazos County Court house. Mail-in forms are available at local banks, the Texas Votinj Systems office, located at East 29th and Washington Streets. The League of Women Voters is distributing pre-stamped application forms. Members will attend the next Bryan-College Station New comers Club meeting, Texas A&M Social Club and the Texas AdtM Newcomers Club to answer registration questions and to hand out forms. the id b mid- ne r du bi pie n died then isanc c rop lose State ding, Davis trial moved to Houston District Judge Arthur Tipps rescheduled the murder-for-hire case of T. Cullen Davis to District Judge Wallace Moore’s courtroomiu Houston. Tipps doubted an impartial jury could be found totrythe millionaire defendant in his hometown. Prosecutors felt Davis might draw sympathetic jurors in either Fort Worth or Amarillo due to last year’s sensational trial in Amarillo, where Davis was found not guilts of murdering his step-daughter. gt, )l Nation Oil fraud arraignment held A federal grand jury in Florida has indicted seven men for the alleged illegal conspiracy to manipulate the price of fuel oil soldtothe Florida Power Corp. during the 1974 oil crisis. Paper transacta inflated the price to double its original cost. All seven pleaded inno cent at Thursday’s arraignment and were allowed to remain freeoo bond until their December trial. Un ALU [d tl tonna and i Belli threa ion in [ealth lay t pal Ve nventii led L< Haley’s copyright roots untangle IXs' I Ims ot li Miss pate 1 the o Dallas U.S. District Judge Marvin Frankel dismissed the copyright in fringement suit of Margaret Walker Alexander against Alex Haley author of the best-selling work "Roots. ” She claimed Haley copied from "Jubilee,” a book she based on her great-grandmothers hfe. published in 1966. Frankel said the alleged similarities were 'devoid of factual or legal substance.” Strikes end with new contracts Police officers and firefighters in Biloxi, Miss., and Wichita, L voted to end their respective strikes. Striking firemen will receivti! reinstatement according to their contract. It also guarantees!® percent raise by the first of the year and an additional three per®' raise in September 1979. The police accepted similar conditions,hot all disciplinary action for the 162 strikers was left to the courts. amber’s ireau. World Peace protesters evicted Israeli army troops in Jerusalem Thursday began evicting religion radicals with restraint from an unauthorized settlement theyestak- lished on a mountain in the occupied West Bank of Jordan to protest the Camp David peace accords. This marks the first time since Prim Minister Menachem Begin took power 16 monthes ago thathisgos- emment has used force to evict radicals from unauthorized settle ments. This underscores the government’s intention to abide bylk Camp David peace accords, which prohibits new settlements in the occupied territories for the duration of the peace talks. Mideast accord support sought Secretary of State Cyrus Vance is in the midst of a Middle East tow ordered by President Carter to try to gain the support of moderate Arab countries for the Camp David accords, but left the door openti join the peace moves later. In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the United Aral Emirates also expressed strong reservations, saying the peace doc# ments “did not offer just and final solutions” to the Arab-Israeli con flict. In Damascus, Syrian Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddait ruled out any future reconciliation with Egyptian President Anwai Sadat. A Palestinian spokesman said guerillas will make militai)’ strikes at American interests in the Middle East. Weather It will be partly cloudy today, tonight and tomorrow with a 30% chance of rain. The high will be 80 with the low in the lower 60s. Wind will be 10 to 15 mph. The Battalion 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 l?e 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. Represented nationally by National Educational Adver tising Services, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. 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 Tuesday through Thursday. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester; $33.25 per school year; $35.00 per full year. Advertising rates fur nished on request. Address: The Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, College Station, Texas 77843. United Press International is entitled exclusively to the use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited to it. Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved. Second-Class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. MEMBER Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Congress Editor K Managing Editor Liz5* Assistant Managing Editor ..KarenS Sports Editor David City Editor f Jamie'* Campus Editor Andy"1 News Editors Carolyn Bfc Debbie Parsons Editorial Director .. Lee Roy Lesdip e Staff Writers Mark Patterson, A Vails, Scott Pendleton, Petty, Michelle Scuddet, Marilyn Faulkenberry Cartoonist DougO 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-/ , supporting enterprise operated by 0 as a university and community news? Editorial policy is determined by the