ome Ags attend Blinn in hopes of ‘easier’ classes
i students are some of the 200 who attend both Blinn Junior College
in Bryan and Texas A&M University. They must get special permission
rom Texas A&M deans to attend the college. The deans cite schedule
onflicts or the hope for easier classes as reasons for the dual enroll-
fient. Blinn’s main campus is in Brenham. Battalion photo by day Cockrfll
By ROY BRAGG
Battalion StafT
Blinn College’s Bryan branch has be
come a kind of “second campus” for Texas
A&M University students for a variety of
reasons.
About 200 Aggies enrolled simulta
neously in courses at Blinn and Texas A&M
last fall.
Students and academic administrators
say the reasons range from scheduling diffi
culties to hopes for easier work in the Blinn
courses.
“One student said that (he) can get a
course out of the way easier by taking it at
Blinn,” said Dr. Carlton Stolle, assistant
dean of the College of Business Adminis
tration.
“Typically, I have observed that students
who have had a hard time with courses here
have managed to pass them at Blinn,” said
Dr. Diane Strommer, associate dean for
student affairs in the College of Liberal
Arts. “In some areas, they might find cer
tain courses easier than at A&M.”
The majority of Blinn’s courses, like
those of other junior colleges, can transfer
to Texas A&M.
Before enrolling at Blinn, a Texas A&M
student must have written permission from
his academic dean.
Strommer said she does not give liberal
arts students permission to enroll at Blinn
while attending Texas A&M because she
feels a student should be a part of either
university’s program — but not both.
About 400 engineering students re
quested permission for dual enrollment for
this semester, said Dr. Ned E. Walton,
assistant dean of the College of Engineer
ing. Two hundred of the students were al
lowed to do so.
Students who have legitimate reasons for
the dual enrollment usually receive per
mission, Walton said. Students ask to
enroll at Blinn to remedy time conflicts and
or to take classes not offered at Texas A&M
that semester.
Math 307 and Math 308 are among the
most popular courses chosen by engineer
ing students, Walton said. The most popu
lar courses for agriculture students at
Blinn, Lard said, are in history, govern
ment, biology and math.
Walton said he “plans to get tighter” on
allowing dual enrollment.
“I want (students) to be in the main
stream of our campus, not piddling around
over there,” Walton said.
The Bryan campus had a total enrollment
of 998 for the fall semester according to
William Perry, dean of admissions for the
Brenham campus. Enrollment at the main
campus in Brenham for the fall semester
was 1,522.
About 180 foreign students are enrolled
at the Bryan campus, said J.B. Carrington,
dean of the Bryan campus. The majority are
from Lebanon, Israel, Iran and Pakistan.
Most foreign students take English lan
guage courses — especially designed for
them — in order to meet the entrance re
quirements of most senior colleges, said
Anna Hoyle, an English instructor at the
Bryan campus.
Blinn’s entrance requirements are not as
strict as Texas A&M’s, Carrington said.
Students enrolling at Blinn are required to
have a combined SAT score of 500 and a
high school diploma.
he Battalion
Joi 72 No. 88
0 Pages
Friday, February 2, 1979
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Carrington said that many students
enroll in Blinn attempting to make up miss
ing high school credits required for
entrance to Texas A&M.
Blinn will not enroll a Texas A&M stu
dent without the required letter of permis
sion, Carrington said. All students who
enroll at Blinn are checked to see if they are
also enrolled at Texas A&M.
Tuition at Blinn is $4 per credit hour.
This is the same as Texas A&M, but the
minimum tuition at Blinn is $25 as com
pared to $50 at Texas A&M.
Texas law forbids students who are
enrolled at two state colleges to pay the
minimum tuition of both schools, Car
rington said. For example, a student who
has paid the minimum tuition at Texas
A&M and takes additional courses at Blinn
is only charged $4 a credit hour for the
courses at Blinn.
Former Blinn students
disagree about school
Former students’ opinions concerning Blinn run the gamut — some are critical
of the school’s operation while others say that it was well run while they were
there.
One advantage in attending Blinn, somzudents said, is that classes are smaller.
“The instructors go out of their way to help you,” said one former student. “It
was more like a high school-level class, but they were more apt to help.”
However, a former Blinn student now at Texas A&M University disagrees. She
said classes at Blinn were not as disciplined as classes at Texas A&M.
“It was more rowdy than at A&M,” she said, adding that the older students
caused the disturbances.
“In most of the classes I was in,” she said,” there were lots of people from
Bryan.” The people in the classes had known each other since high school and
were used to kidding around in class, she added.
Former Blinn student Rik Moen, from Bryan, disagreed. “There was no prob
lem with discipline in the classes I was in.
“Everyone listened to the lectures,” Moen said, adding that the classes were
not very difficult.
“The classes were not very well taught,” he said. “I really didn’t get anything
out of it. ”
Ags now tied for
first
The University of Texas lost to
Arkansas Thursday night, put
ting the Aggies in a tie for first
place. See page 9 for details.
M
home ini vows to expel
akhtiar, foreigners
United Press International
HRAN, Iran — Ayatollah Ruhollah
meini stood on Iranian soil for the first
in nearly 15 years Thursday, de
led the government be handed over to
ndsaid foreigners must be expelled to
nt the return of the shah.
am-ifications
cow country
e new Chinese “Year of the Ram is
ear of Communist China,
e Premier Teng Hsiao-ping arrives in
s today to “Taiwan” on with barbecue
odeo, after a three-day visit in Wash-
1.
portant decisions have already been
on weapons sales, trade and defend-
le world against (Russian) aggression.
|t the most important question may
[‘'Will he eat ribs iwht chopsticks?”
ttalion reporters, will cover the his-
visit in the Bayou City and supply the
Ils.
More seriously, articles in Monday’s
filion will examine the real implica-
of Teng’s visit to America and the
parent re-opening of “The Middle
gdom,” China.
“I beg to God to cut the hands off all
those foreign advisers and helpers in Iran,”
the 78-year-old Khomeini said, in an ap
parent attack against Americans in Iran.
His snow-white beard in stark contrast to
his flowing black robes, Khomeini stepped
from the Air France plane at 12:32 a. m.
EST and was swept up in an embrace by
Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani, the leading
Shiite clergyman of Tehran.
Premier Shahpour Bakhtiar, whom
Khomeini has vowed to unseat, was not at
the airport to greet the mullah, but 2 mil
lion jubilant Iranians swarmed through the
streets of Tehran, hoping for a glimpse of
the high priest of Iran’s Shiite Moslems.
Shortly after landing at Tehran’s
Mehrabad Airport, Khomeini’s aide told
reporters the holy man had decreed the
current government “should step down
today (Thursday) and hand over power.”
Millions of Iranians shouting “Salute to
Khomeini” and “Allah is great” surged
around the airport. A security force of
50,000 men tried desperately to separate
the mob from the Air France Boeing 747
that brought Khomeini from his suburban
Paris retreat.
A blue Mercedes drove him to the main
VIP lounge building, where the ayatollah
was mobbed by hundreds of admirers. The
mullah’s bodyguards, fearful the crowd
would crush him, kept the cheering horde
from crossing the barriers set up at former
monument to Persian kings, renamed “In
dependence Square” when the shah left.
In a brief address to clergymen at the
airport, Khomeini continued to preach the
message that drove Shah Mohammed Reza
Pahlavi from his throne and Iran on Jan. 16.
“This is only the first step. Our struggle
continues after deporting the main crimi
nal, the shah,” said the bearded leader of
the Shiite Moslem sect who has vowed to
topple Bakhtiar’s regime and set up a gov
ernment based on the strict tenets of Islam.
Referring to the shah whom he hated and
eventually forced out of Iran, Khomeini
said, “He is still trying to find some way to
come back.”
Khomeini said the shah — who left last
month probably never to return — or
ganized the Iranian army “so that it will
only obey foreign advisers.
“Therefore,” he said, “our final success
will be when all foreigners leave and stop
ruling our army.”
The ayatollah called for unity among Ira
nian opposition groups, saying, “We all
should understand that our success has
been through unification.
“We must be careful that we are not
divided as the shah is still trying to do,”
Khomeini said.
Iranian television, which was broadcast
ing the arrival live, suddenly cut off trans
mission and showed a portrait of the shah,
followed by the National Anthem.
Will he see his shadow?
United Press International
SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. — The great
groundhog war resumes today and a
snowbound world is awaiting the re
sults.
Jimmy, the Sun Prairie groun
dhog, and Punxsutawney Phil,
Pennsylvania’s answer to him, will
emerge from their burrows to make
their annual weather predictions.
There are two groundhogs that
hammer this out every year,” said
Don Rouser, manager of the Sun
Prairie Chamber of Commerce. “It is
our contention there is so much coal
dust out there in Pennsylvania, he
can’t even see the sky.”
Jimmy will make his prediction in
the basement of the Erich Lenz
home and, at least so far as Sun
Prairie residents are concerned, that
icon we’ll know how much winter we have left to bear, even if this
rather still groundhog at the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural Science
[can’t tell us. The museum is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday-Friday. But
; there’s still the question: “How much ground could a groundhog grind
Battalion photo by Clay Cockrill
will be the official word as to whether
spring is just around the corner or six
weeks away.
“Jimmy’s track record is excel
lent,” Lenz said. “He has been right
17 years out of the last 20.”
The current Jimmy — the fourth
since the Chamber started the event
in the early 1940s — has been on the
job the past 10 years and, unlike
most groundhogs, he doesn’t use his
shadow for predictions.
“Erich — the keeper of the groun
dhog — will interpret Jimmy’s ac
tions,” Rouser said.
“Jimmy comes out of his burrow at
7 a.m.,” Rouser said. “Erich helps
him along. Then we watch his actions
and what he does. Sometimes he just
turns around and runs. He may try to
hide under a rug, or sometimes he
plays the ham and poses for pictures.
“After studying all this, Erich
makes his announcement,” Rouser
said.
The burrow is inside a barn and
the reason Jimmy does his act inside,
Rouser said, is because the Depart
ment of Natural Resources will not
allow the animal outside during what
could be cold weather.
He said the department, 11 years
ago, decided it was unkind to wake a
sleeping groundhog before spring
was at hand.
The festivities were to start at 6
a.m. when Lenz, Rouser and anyone
who cares to drop in gather in the
Lenz basement for doughnuts, fruit
juice, coffee and “moose milk.”
The moose milk, Rouser said, was
strictly for adults.
Icefall
This frozen stream of water exemplifies local the Harrington Education Building, iced over
weather over the last few days — either cold, or Tuesday night and never thawed Wednesday,
cold and wet. This drainspout, on the east side of Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
Lawyers agree: Read lease
to avoid problems in renting
By MARK HERRON
Battalion Reporter
Village Green tenants suffered inconve
niences last fall when the apartment com
plex was not completed by the expected
date. After being forced to find other hous
ing for awhile, these students have been
reimbursed and housed, said apartment
manager Lucille Nehrenz.
Gaines West, former legal adviser for
Texas A&M University, said most of the
students could have avoided these prob
lems if they had taken time to read their
lease.
West was referring to a clause in the
Village Green lease that said the tenant
could break the lease if the buildling was
not completely finished within three days
of the lease’s beginning date.
Last November, West and displaced
students met with B.F. Knapp, owner of
Village Green, to negotiate reimburse
ments for the students’ inconveniences.
“This had all the earmarks of a dangerous
situation, but the problems were settled
with a minimum of dispute,” West said.
Knapp said the money that students
spent for hotel bills while waiting for their
apartments to be completed was applied to
the rent they owed.
For example, one student said her bill,
after a two-month stay in the Aggieland
Inn, was $1,620. That amount was almost
the equivalent of seven months rent (of a
single bedroom apartment) at Village
Green, so the student will not pay rent
until March.
“We did everything we could to make
the students happy,” Knapp said.
Derek Grootemaat, a sophomore from
Tulsa, Okla., said he took part in the
negotiations, but “the financial reim
bursement I received wasn’t worth the has
sles I went through.”
“I’ll never sign another lease on an
apartment that’s not built,” he said.
One student, who asked not to iden
tified, said she and her roommate signed a
lease last spring. Their lease began on Aug.
15. The two students did not get to move
into their two-bedroom, two-bath apart
ment until December.
The women lived in the Aggieland Inn
for a month at a cost of almost $1,000. This
proved inconvenient, they said, because on
weekends of Texas A&M home football
games, they had to find another place to
stay. Their rooms had been reserved.
Another inconvenience was having to eat
out for every meal. “That alone cost quite a
bit of money,” another student said.
One of the students said she became ill
from the instability of her living conditions.
She moved home to Cleveland, Texas, a
town 85 miles southeast of College Station,
dropped her course load from 18 to 6 hours
and commuted three days a week for
classes.
“It was finals week before I could move
into the apartment,” she said.
Winkler Construction Co. of San An
tonio was the general contactor for the Vil
lage Green complex. A spokesman for the
company said the delays in construction
were caused by a shortage of labor in the
College Station area and a lack of sheet-
rock.
When signing a lease for an unfurnished
apartment, West, now a staff attorney for
the Texas A&M System, said the student
can usually propose additional written
agreements with the apartment manage
ment.
For example, West said, the student can
propose a reduction in rent if the apartment
is not finished by a certain date. This will
give the apartment owner an incentive to
complete the buildings on time.
New student Legal Adviser Jim Locke
said that sometimes wording on leases can
be confusing, even to apartment managers.
Locke invites students to come to his
office and discuss their leases before sign
ing them.
“Most potential problems can be avoided
by reading and understanding the lease,”
he said. “If you sign your name to the lease,
it better be the way you want it.”
Some Village Green tenants learned the
hard way.