The Battalion
Vol. 72 No. 52 Monday, November 13, 1978 News Dept. 845-2611
12 Pages College Station, Texas Business Dept. 845-2611
Great Issue's speech canceled
The scheduled speech of
former U.S. Secretary of the
Treasury William Simon has
been canceled.
Simon was to give a talk Tues
day entitled, “Consideration of
the American Economic Pic
ture.” The Memorial Student
Center’s Great Issues Commit
tee, sponsor of the speech, re
ported that Simon is unable to
be here because he is working in
Indonesia.
Views vary on contract
used to remain at A&M
Battalion photo by Mike Baile;
‘Look-out below!'
Rising out of a 10-foot hole, the center pole of the bonfire stands 65 feet
above the ground. Dirt is packed around the base of the pole and four
guylines secure the top. The crew has begun stacking wood around the
pole, which was raised Friday. Battalion photographer Michelle Scud-
der was barred from the bonfire site Friday when she attempted to
photograph activity around the pole. Bonfire officials said tradition pro
hibited females from entering the grounds close to the stack. After dis
cussion, they agreed to admit all photographers at the site if they are
accompanied by a redpot and wear a safety helmet.
Annual Walton Bonfire Marathon
Flame comes from UT stadium
Editor’s note: This article and the related
story below are the first part of a two-part
series on students at Texas A&M Univer
sity who run into academic difficulty and
want to change majors. Tuesday’s article
will explore why students tend to pick the
wrong major in the first place, and why
they are reluctant to change.
By UZ NEWLIN
Battalion Stall
The odds are better than they used to
be, but chance still has a hand in deciding
a student s fate when his grades are had.
A 2.0 grade point ratio on a four-point
scale is needed to graduate and, in prac
tice, to change majors. With good grades,
a student at Texas A&M University may
change to any major he wants with no re
striction (except those in the College of
Business, which requires a 2.5).
But if a student is making poor progress,
he’s under his academic college’s control.
Usually that control is transferred by the
college to an associate dean of student af
fairs. Nine officials — one dean from each
of the eight colleges and one administrator
in biomedical sciences — oversee students
who want to change majors but lack the
proper grades.
Until a few years ago, no alternative
existed for students who wanted to change
majors but had poor grades. Now it’s pos
sible — if the deans are agreeable — to
use a contract. The contract, introduced
three or four years ago, is an informal
agreement between the associate dean of
the student’s current college and the as
sociate dean of the college the student
wants to enter. It describes the courses
the student will take the next semester
By UZ NEWLIN
Battalion Staff
Deans views vary on the contract sys
tem that allows students with low grades
to change majors.
And that variation is important, because
the contract is controlled by deans. The
contract is an informal convention used by
deans to allow students with low grades to
take courses in another — perhaps more
suitable — major and possibly raise their
grade point ratio so they can transfer into
that other college.
Contracts are not mentioned in the Un
dergraduate Catalog or University Rules
and Regulations. The deans are simply
bending the rules a little to help students
stay in this University.
For example, a student flunking out of
agricultural economics decides he is better
suited for history in the College of Liberal
Arts. He and an associate dean from both
colleges sign an agreement that he will
take courses suggested by the history de
partment and post a particular GPR that
next semester. The courses he takes will
lead to a degree in history, not agriculture,
even though he is still officially registered
in ag eco.
No accurate or complete count is kept of
the number of students on contract; judg
ing from records that are available, proba
bly about 1 percent of Texas A&M’s some
30,000 students are in the program.
The associate deans of each college and
the administrator of one special under
graduate program, biomedical science,
explained how they regard contracts and
how they use them;
Agriculture: Dwayne Suter says his col
lege uses quite a few contracts and calls
them “good for the college and the stu
dent.” Often, he said, fi eshmen just don’t
know their interests and talents and can
lose confidence if they “bomb” the first
semester. New college students also are
often “lost a significant part of the first
semester,” which can contribute to bad
grades, especially if they are misplaced
and what GPR he must post to remain in
school. Generally, if he makes the required
GPR, the student may transfer to the new
college. If he does not achieve the GPR,
one of two things usually happens; he will
get an extension of the contract for another
semester, or he will be dropped from the
rolls of the University.
The contract — dependent on the par-
ticular dean’s attitude — is still chancy,
but it is the only out for those students.
Even with contracts that can allow stu
dents to eventually change majors, no
program at Texas A&M is set up specifi
cally for students with low grades. And
that’s where the real chances seem to
come into play.
Many leading American universities
allow a student to change majors if
reasonable evidence of success in the
new field can be shown....Generally,
if a student qualifies to remain in his
university, he may change his major.
If a student’s adviser is not well in
formed or doesn’t care about the student,
the student can be in academic trouble
and not know it. Or if his college’s as
sociate dean does not like contracts, he
could be dropped in a semester. In addi
tion to this, the student at Texas A&M is
not forced to take a reduced course load to
ease making good grades or required to
take courses that will help him make good
grades.
This situation is not common in large
universities.
Many leading American universities
allow a student to change majors if reason
able evidence of success in the new field
majors. The contract prevents penalty for
a bad choice, Suter said.
Architecture: Gordon Echols says con
tracts are too binding. Instead, he allows
majors to “step out” of the college for a
semester and take other colleges’ courses.
If his grades rise enough, the student may
then transfer. Echols says the college is
lenient on those who don’t make the re
quired 2.0.
Business Administration: Carlton Stolle
says he doesn’t deal much with contracts
since his college requires a 2.5 GPR for
admission. He does work closely with stu
dents who have “almost” the 2.5 in choos
ing courses that will raise their GPR. Once
students get in the college, he says, they
have little trouble staying in with a 2.0. “I
don’t like the idea of the contract, person
ally,” he says, “and the college doesn’t be
lieve in it. If we have a 2.5, we ought to
live with it.”
Education: Philip Limbacher says con
tracts are “about as fair as anything.” He
emphasized that Texas A&M works hard
to allow students to stay in the University
or re-enter if they have taken college work
elsewhere. Like other deans, he said the
decision to extend a contract another
semester for incoming students rests with
the student’s original college. “In general,
if the attitude is there, we ll extend it.”
Engineering: Ned Walton says he will
not initiate a contract for a student to
transfer to another college. But he will
allow students to take courses that apply to
a degree in engineering and a degree in
something else, removing him from tech
nical engineering courses. “We run it pret
ty tight,” he says. “We do not let him get
very far behind. If he is behind, we boot
him out. It he does not make it in two
semesters, his head is not on tight enough
to make it in any major.”
Geosciences: Joseph Sonnenfeld says
contracts, negotiated through depart-
can be shown. Potential for success is usu
ally measured in terms of interest and abil
ity test data and performance in specific
courses, said Dr. Arthur Tollefson, direc
tor of the Academic Counseling Center at
Texas A&M. Generally, if a student qual
ifies to remain in his university, he may
change his major.
In the few places where contracts do not
exist or are hard to arrange, a student can
end up in what Tollefson calls an academic
“debtor’s prison.” Usually the student has
made a mistake in choosing a major and is
flunking out. But because he’s Exiling, he
can’t change his curriculum to something
that is easier for him.
“It’s an impossible situation for the stu
dent,” he says. The college student is
forced to continue in a curriculum when
he has shown he has a lack of talent or
which he originally chose for less than pro
fessional reasons — glamor, money, job
opportunities or “because daddy did it.”
Many educators, Tollefson says, still
think a student should remain in the major
he first chooses. “This idea is still preva
lent — that students don’t change their
majors. This is contrary to fact.”
Some institutions have more formalized
systems, Tollefson says, where students
are regularly allowed to enter another field
of study on probation. At Texas A&M, the
deans control the flow of students.
From a professional point of view, Tol
lefson says, Texas A&M’s policy “is not
very sophisticated in relation to known
phenomena and principles of student de
velopment. ”
Tollefson says the associate deans who
are responsible for contracts are student-
ments, are on the way out in his college.
“We try to get to them in the first semes
ter,” he says, instead of trying to salvage
them later. He says he works with new
students to help them find an area in
which they can excel or advises they trans
fer. “If they don’t make it on contract,
they’re out.”
Liberal Arts: Diane Strommer helped
develop contracts with Dean Beckham of
sciences, and they use them most fre
quently. “For the student, I think it has
the advantage all written agreements
have. It guarantees a deal and gives the
student something to realistically ap
praise,” she said. About other colleges,
she said, “I think they use them to differ
ent extents. I think they’re all willing to
use it as a receiving college.” But a dean
can block the use of a contract is he wants
to. The deans reported no such occasions,
but the possibility exists in the informal
system.
Science: John Beckham says he is trying
to get away from contracts, especially in
the fall semester, by catching misplaced
majors before they get into serious
academic difficulty. “The number on con
tract is dropping because we encourage
earlier change.” He said other colleges,
particularly agriculture, are cooperative in
taking “borderline” students.
Veterinary Medicine: Alvin A. Price di
rects the biomedical science program,
which is used by many students as pre
professional training for veterinary school.
He uses contracts for students who want to
leave the program, and also uses a similar
program during the summer for students
who want to enter the program: they take
courses and if they make a specified GPR,
they are allowed to enter in the fall. He
says that sometimes, the best thing to do
for a student is to bar him from Texas
A&M until he has made better grades at
another institution. “The student may
need time to get things in order and turn
things around.”
oriented and concerned, but their indi
vidual philosophies still influence their
decisions.
“Colleges being very protective of stu
dents is perhaps beneficial to college as a
whole, but it is devastating to students
who choose the wrong major or others who
are in other colleges and want to change
into it,” Tollefson says.
The director said that many universities
have some kind of systematic method to
help students re-direct their efforts to
goals that are more suitable for them.
Tollefson started one program for stu
dents in academic hard times at Ferris
State College, a technically oriented col
lege of about 9,000 students in Big Rapids,
Mich.
“Colleges being very protective of
students is perhaps beneficial to col
lege as a whole, but it is devastating to
students who choose the wrong major
or others who are in other colleges
and want to change into it,” says Dr.
Arthur Tollefson, director of the
Academic Counseling Center at Texas
AOM.
Dr. Matthew Klein, assistant dean for
student academic affairs at Ferris, de
scribed the School of General Education
this way:
All students who have below a "C” aver
age, a 2.0 GPR, are put in the school.
They may not transfer out until their
grades rise above a 2.0.
About a year (two of Texas A&M’s
semesters) is given for students to raise
their grades. Each student in the program
is assigned a tutor who is paid by the col
lege. Students, also participate in peer
counseling and educational counseling.
The student in the School of General
Education must take two courses: a study
skills course for freshmen and a career ex
ploration course to learn how to match
interests with skills.
They also are encouraged to become in
volved in student development services,
which includes a reading skills course.
Klein said that even with the mandatory
2.0 requirement, some students are still
slipping through.
“There is a significant percentage of
students who have some educational prob
lems we aren’t reaching,” Klein said. “We
think it’s due to grade inflation. And we’re
fraught with ability levels going down. The
ACT (a college admissions test) standard
score we use for freshmen may also be too
low.
“We befieve unofficially and informally
that we should raise it,” Klein said.
Ferris State College also tries to help
students with counseling before they get
into academic trouble, he said. And if their
grade point ratio falls below 2.0, they’re
automatically put in the School of General
Education.
Texas A&M offers counseling through
regular academic advisers, the General
Studies Program and the Academic Coun
seling Center. A study skills course, Edu
cational Psychology 101, also is available.
Students may receive extra help from de
partmental and private tutors and at the
English Annex on Ross Street.
But the student must get the help on his
own.
By MARK PERRIN
Battalion Reporter
At 2 a.m. Sunday, the flame that will
eventually start the Texas A&M Univer
sity bonfire on Nov. 30 will be ignited at
Memorial Stadium in Austin.
This will begin the fifth annual “Walton
Bonfire Marathon,” a 115-mile run by
Walton Hall residents from Memorial
Stadium to Kyle Field.
Mike Griffin, in charge of the run, said a
torch will be lighted at Memorial Stadium
and the flame from that torch will be used
by the yell leaders to start the bonfire.
He said the runners will not carry a
lighted torch, but the flame will be trans
ferred to a candle and will be kept buring
until the yell leaders light their torches
from it.
“It will still be the original flame that
was started in Austin,” Griffin said. The
candle will be brought back to Texas A&M
by car and will be kept in the dorm room
of Giffin and his roommate, Mike Collins.
Between 25 and 30 Walton Hall resi
dents are expected to participate, Griffin
said. The marathon will be run as a relay,
with each participant running a half mile at
a time. Each person will run about for
miles, he said.
Griffin said the run will take about 1
hours. The group plans to arrive in Co
lege Station between 2 and 3 p.m. Sur
day. He said the torch will be carrie
along Texas Highways 71 and 21 and wi
go through Bastrop and Caldwell.
He said the runners plan to enter Co
lege Station on FM 60 (University Drive
Griffin said the runners will meet at th
School of Veterinary Medicine and run I
Kyle Field together. Anyone is welcom
to run with them from the vet school, h
added.
Deans control changing majors
if students' grades below 2.0
C hili-Bang-Out
pull of fun
They tugged and tugged and fi
nally pulled the other team over the
middle line in the Tug-of-War. It
was just one of the activities at the
Chili-Bang-Out Saturday, spon
sored by the Recreation and Parks
Club, “Rompin Stompers“. The
winning team was presented
T-shirts. One exotic chili was the
Ostrich and Bear Chile cooked up
by the Wildlife and Fisheries Soci
ety.
Battalion photos by Beth Brueker