The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Wednesday
March 7, 1979
Don’t reprimand
upholding ethics
A student cheats on exams and is caught by a professor, who turns him
in to the head of the department for disciplinary action. Dissatisfied with
the “punishment,” the prof tries higher channels.
Acceptable procedure — in the Texas A&M University Rules and Reg
ulations.
But, in this case, it wasn’t just a professor but a military officer who
teaches classes at Texas A&M. He disapproved of how the cheating inci
dent was handled, and pushed for further discipline.
Now that professor is facing censure because he went beyond military
officials to inform University officials about what happened.
Capt. Joseph O. McNabb has been told he’ll receive a written repri
mand in his permanent record.
McNabb saw something that, as a professor and former Texas A&M
student, he thought deserved further disciplinary action. Now he’s being
punished with a permanent mark against him for “overstepping his
bounds.”
The cheating affair was poorly handled. It appears that the whole inci
dent was not really the result of a massive cover-up — instead the prob
lem was stopped at lower levels, complicated by poor decisions and kept
from higher authorities.
Such a reprimand is no small matter in the military. It effectively ruins
a person’s military career — his chances for promotion, assignments and
special programs.
A person who’s solely an academician wouldn’t receive such punish
ment. Pushing a point, as McNabb did, might offend some Adminis
trators, but no letter of reprimand would be put in a personnel file.
Capt. McNabb deserves commendation, not reprimand. His concern
for the reputation of this university and its standards are admirable.
University officials should support McNabb and not allow his actions to
be punished by the Air Force.
He is a good example of ethics in action.
K.T.
The rhetoric of losers?
By IRA R. ALLEN
United Press International
WASHINGTON — In the museum of
campaign rhetoric, there’s a whole new
wing devoted to Jerry Brown — the in
ventor of platitudes that circle left, then
right on tantalizing political winds.
A couple of stalwart Washington liberals
with presidential ambitions — Sens. Adlai
Stevenson, D-Ill., and Lowell Weicker,
R-Conn. — seem to be grasping the con
trails of Brown’s instant cliches, harping
and carping at President Carter’s leader
ship ability.
They are worth noting because they are
three entirely different personalities with
different backgrounds and different ap
proaches to politics. Yet all three sound
Politics
Biting the hullet with
hoth sides of the mouth
By DICK WEST
WASHINGTON — A book store man
ager once told me she frequently had cus
tomers ask for “a small Bible with large
print.”
Those specifications, with soipe
modification, pretty well 5um up congres
sional reaction to President Carter’s
stand-by plans for dealing with the
threatened oil shortage.
Judging from statements I have seen.
Congress favors gasoline restrictions that
don’t curtail the use of automobiles.
Since I couldn’t begin to quote them all,
let us consider the president’s proposals
through the eyes of Congressman Consen
sus. (That’s Herman Consensus, not the
Clyde Consensus you probably were
thinking of.)
First, the Consensus view of gasoline ra
tioning.
“If you’re talking about a rationing sys
tem that conserves vital fuel, helps hold
down the price, makes America less de
pendent on imports and reduces our
foreign trade deficit while strengthening
the dollar abroad, I’m in favor of it.
“But if you’re talking about a rationing
program that imposes hardships on com
muters, adds to the government pa
perwork burden, interferes with our tra
ditional freedom of movement and forces
poor, elderly widows to walk 10 blocks for
their weekly groceries, I’m against it.”
I said, “I’m glad to see you’re on top of
the problem. Congressman. How do you
feel about the prospective closing of
gasoline stations on weekends?”
Consensus raised a hand to his heart.
“If you are talking about weekend clos
ings that keep family members closer to
home, cause people to rediscover the joys
of neighborhood get togethers, reduce the
traffic death toll by taking cars off the
highways and contribute to the fight]
against air pollution, I’m in favor of them. ” j
“That’s good to hear, sir,” I said.
Consensus clinched a fist.
“But if you’re talking about weekend
closings that deprive good citizens of much,
needed recreation, bankrupt amusement
parks, create unemployment at resorts and
prevent city dwellers from escaping the
urban environment to renew their spirits
with refreshing drives to the country, I’m
against them.”
I said, “I can see you have thought the
problem through.”
I didn’t get a chance to ask Consensus
about mandatory temperature levels for
public buildings. He was, he explained,
late for an appointment with a Bible
salesman.
frustrated by what they see in Carter. And
all three are talking about it in terms that
sound alien to the tradition of pithy
American political sloganeering.
You don’t hear them talking in two-word
slogans like the “New Deal,” “New Fron
tier,” “lost prestige” or “the missile gap.”
Brown talks about “rejuvenating the
productive capacity of America.” Weicker,
says “the rhetoric in 1979 is nothing any
one will be elected on in 1980,” but talks
insistently about the need for “new leader
ship.” Stevenson is talking of “new
realities” and the need for America to be
come “a nation of builders and producers.”
Weicker’s call for “new investments, a
tax structure that encourages business and
lets it make profits so as to employ more
people” is understandable from a Republi
can, even one in the party’s liberal wing.
But Brown’s and Stevenson’s c&mments
on the subject, almost identical, are sur
prising — almost shocking — for their
seeming betrayal of the liberal tradition
(and fathers) that fostered them.
Brown wants to create “a climate of in
vestment necessary to maintain America’s
technological lead” and sees a constitu
tionally mandated balanced budget as a
way of doing it. Stevenson worries that
“we’re losing our competitive position in
the world” and need to “increase supply”
to strengthen the economy.
Republicans never heard it so good.
In their public pronouncements of late,
all three keep talking about leadership,
implying Carter’s lack of it and their ability
to provide it. Nothing about how to solve
inflation, unemployment, thp Mideast im
passe, SALT, Sino-Soviet jitters. Just
leadership, which most Americans really
don’t worry about from day to day.
Stevenson calls Carter’s leadership
“embarrassingly weak.” Brown says the
presidency, like other institutions, suffers
from “a great lack of public confidence.”
Weicker, ever blunt, says we should not
only stop throwing money at our problems
“we should start throwing leadership and
talent at them.”
That triple-barreled barrage is aimed at
a man who promised to give us a govern
ment as good and decent and honest and
compassionate as the American people.
Brown, Stevenson and Weicker, and
others who express the same viewpoint,
seem to be saying Carter is either deficient
in goodness, decency, honesty and com
passion, or that the American people are.
From a linguistic viewpoint, the three
may deserve condemnation for fuzziness
beyond the call of politicians. Take
Brown’s promise, for example, to study
the problems and “come up with appro
priate initiatives.”
From another viewpoint, forget what
they really mean and tune out the words.
You will hear a sound common among los
ing politicians and small children.
Whining.
Readers’ Forum
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Letters to the Editor
Car towing is no way
to attract customers
Editor:
Your recent article concerning the tow
ing away of vehicles, and quotes fi-qm
Sparkey Hardee (“Hit ’em hard at first”) is
very upsetting to us here at Mr. Gatti’s.
Yes, us at Mr. Gatti’s. The undersigned
makes a living with a large percentage of
TAMU student trade. All of us who work
here owe jobs (which are putting us
through Texas A&M) to the fact that we
have a student community.
It is inconceivable to me that any busi
ness would tow away a customer’s car — or
any student’s car — for that matter, and
charge him $45 to get it back.
It is even harder to understand a busi
ness turning its “problem” over to any un
scrupulous person(s) who have no feel for
the community relations we enjoy here in
Bryan-College Station with Texas A&M
University.
I don’t know if lawsuits are the answer,
but I certainly do know that increasing the
tow rate to $75 is not. From all of us here
at Mr. Gatti’s — gig ’em Aggies!
—Ron Smestuen, owner
Mr. Gatti’s of Bryan and College Staton
It just takes one
Editor:
The letter by Greg Jacobs on Feb. 26
was amazing. Who would have dreamed
that one person could be so proud of his
ignorance. I almost let it pass without com
ment, but I couldn’t stand the thought
that these ludicrous arguments may have
convinced even a few non-science majors
in addition to your editorial staff respon
sible for the cartoon beneath the letter.
Silliness, sir, has no place in nuclear phy
sics. ^ _ .
One of Mr. Jacobs’ unbased arguments
concerned discharge of contaminated
water from a nuclear rector. A very real
problem in designing reactors is neutron
activation, whereby neutrons emitted
from the primary coolant induce radioac
tivity in the discharged coolant, without
actual physical contact.
Mr. Jacobs often refers to the dangers
from fission by-products as being like radi
ation from a bottle on a laboratory shelf.
The major danger with radioactive wastes
is their escape from containment and inva
sion of air, water, and food. How can one
set up shields around Strontium-90 within
bone tissue or Iodine-131 within a thyroid
gland?
Plutonium-239, an extremely lethal
product with a half-life of24,000 years, re
quires 480,000 years before its radiation
become innocuous. I strongly suggest
that Mr. Jacobs refrain from swallowing
even a spoonful of waste after 500 years,
let alone a half pound.
Mr. Jacobs also appears to believe that
radiation below a certain intensity is com
pletely harmless. Envision, if you will, a
room covered from wall to wall with
machine guns, each of which are firing bul
lets in randomly varying directions.
And let’s say their half-life is one hour
— after each hour one half of the firing
guns stop. Now, suppose there is a $20 bill
on the floor. At what time do you want to
enter the room, find the bill, and try to
leave before being struck.
Theoretically, a radioactive mass never
loses it ability to cause cellular damage. It
only takes on collision with the right
chromosome to produce incurable cancer.
One bullet.
— Steve Peppers
graduate student
Show will go on
Editor:
To the students of TAMU:
The Basement Coffeehouse Committee
would like to correct some misinformation
printed in our advertisement in The Bat
talion on Monday and Tuesday. It said
that the musical group Morning was to
perform two shows, one Monday and one
Tuesday.
The Monday show was canceled and re
scheduled for Wednesday, March 7 (to
night) at 9 p.m. Tickets will be available at
the door.
The Basement Coffeehouse Committee
is responsible for the error,' not the Bat-
talion or any of its staff members. We hope
we have not caused anyone any inconven
ience.
— Ava King
MSC Basement Committee
Top of the News!
CAMPUS
Budget bid deadline March 30
Recognized student organizations wishing to request funds I
bookstore profits must do so by 4 p.m. March 30. Budget request!
forms should be returned to the Student Finance Center. For morel
information, contact the Office of Student Activities, 221 MSC, i
1133.
STATE
Fuel adjustments cut bill pushed
The Texas Association of Community Organizations for Reform 1
Now gave support Tuesday for a bill prohibiting utility companies I
from automatically charging consumers under the fuel adjustment!
clause. The bill would require gas and electric companies to re-j
negotiate their rate contracts to recover higher fuel costs. Underl
current law, utility companies can recover their higher costs for fuel]
by adding on a fuel adjustment charge to consumers’ bills.
El Paso rabies epidemic feared
Public health officials said Tuesday they are bracing for a possible p a
rabies epidemic in El Paso, similar to a 1973-75 outbreak that in- TA
volved 380 animal cases in the region. Stray and occasionally rabid thi*
dogs are crossing the Rio Grande near the point where Texas,
Mexico and Mexico merge, officials say.
Texas fake $ suspects charged
Three Texas men arrested in an alleged $2 million counterfeit
money and check case broken by the Secret Service last month have
been bound over to a federal grand jury in Providence, R.I. They
were arrested Feb. 23 in what officials called “the biggest funny
money bust in the history of New England. ” The men were arrested
in a Warwick parking lot raid that turned up $1 million in bogus bills
and $250,000 in phony travellers checks. Agents said they later seized
another $1.1 million in counterfeit money and checks.
“E
:rafe
6 foa
Cranberry named ETSU regent
Th
Dr. James H. Cranberry of Lubbock, the 1974 Republican guber-
natorial candidate, has been appointed to the Board of Regents of
East Texas State University by Gov. Bill Clements. Cranberry was
nominated to succeed Cam F. Dowell Jr. of Dallas for a term extend-
ing to Feb. 15, 1985.
NATION
Exxon to start gas rationing
Exxon USA Tuesday announced allocations of gasoline to its |
dealers, blaming the cutback on reduced supplies of crude oil result
ing from the Iranian situation. Exxon USA said Tuesday that effective
last Thursday the company began allocating gasoline volumes to its I
dealers, resellers and other wholesale customers at 100 percent of]
March bases. Exxon joined Texaco, Shell, Mobil, Amoco, Cities Sen-
ice, Atlantic Richfield, Sun Oil and Continental in reducing gasoline |
supplies.
Striking cops fined $600,000
A New Orleans Civil District Court judge fined the Teamsters-™
affiliated Police Association of Louisiana $600,000 Tuesday for con
tempt of court in connection with a 15-day strike that canceled Mari!
Gras. Judge Richard Garvey fined the union one day after freeing|
seven of its leaders and all 1,100 strikers from individual contempt)
citations.
Hi
Raging rig fire snuffed in Gulf
The raging fire on a drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico 45 miles i
the Louisiana coast was snuffed out Tuesday and searchers located!
bodies of several missing crewmen. Three bodies were found in the!
Gulf Monday within hours of the fire’s start and as of Tuesday, five|
bodies were reported still missing. A coast guard spokesman said:
stream of natural gas continued to spew from the Penrod 30 rig aftei|
the blaze was put out by a surge of water. He said the gas caused no|
water pollution and dissipated in the air.
"1!
What alimony ruling could meanl
A Supreme Court decision on alimony probably will not affect wo
men’s ability to obtain alimony, but it could hasten the trend in stati
law toward equal treatment of men and women in child support anl
custody cases. The court Monday overturned an Alabama law that
said a husband could be required to pay alimony, but exempted i
wife from the same obligation. A Women’s Legal Defense Funl
spokesman said that because most men earn more than most women
when cases are judged on their merits, women will continue to
alimony. Eleven states other than Alabama have similar alimony la«|
but most of the others have neutral sex statutes on alimony.
WEATHER
We will have fair skies and warm temperatures today with a
high of 76, low tonight 47. Winds will be South Southwest at
5-10 mph diminishing to less than 10 tonight. No rain in the
forecast.
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