Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 21, 1979)
fl ese retj chanje, ^ecor| s j 1 do n’tlJ ° f w ’Ken U ’ s elec|J The Battaoon Vol. 72 No. 117 12 Pages Wednesday, March 21, 1979 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 ica i r Force begins •eprimand inquiry ss mysell 'yolyj By LIZ NEWLIN Battalion Staff The Air Force began an official investi- ‘Tdp: | on here Tuesday concerning a letter of :e ' rimand written to a Texas A&M Uni- sity professor. :ol. Kenneth Durham, commander of Pf Air Force ROTC detachment here, t a letter of reprimand dated Feb. 26, 9, to Capt. Joseph McNabb, assistant man lessor of aerospace studies. ’he letter said McNabb failed to obey I rham order to “stay out” of a cheating dent involving a contract cadet. The I et was accused of cheating in his aero- ice studies class, and the Air Force re- ced his contract earlier this semester l. o,,, jr an investigation. dcNabb then learned of other cheating usations against the student in the Col- year ar in tit year. m recori VD goes largely untreated in Brazos County Have VD? Think you might? Abou t 45 people a week check their suspicions at the Brazos County Hejth Department, which offers three separate one-hour clinics a Jifjjk Doctors there say they’re afraid only a small percentage of the VDjin the county is being treated, thoi|gh. See page 10. lege of Business Administration. The dean of the college, which is also the student’s home college, had not been told of any cheating incidents. Stepping outside normal academic channels, McNabb told the dean and other University officials. That’s what upset Durham. McNabb has replied that he acted as he felt he should. The Air Force investigator, Col. William O. Walker, is here to determine the facts and report them to the comman der of Air Training Command at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio. The commander, Gen. John Robert, will then decide the case. Walker said. Walker is normally an assistant deputy commander for technical training at Lack- land Air Force Base in San Antonio. He declined to discuss the case Tuesday night. “Listen, sweetie,” Walker said, “I’d like to tell you the whole nine yards, but I am here with a confidential inquiry into the matter you are aware of. “My charter is to get all the facts and report them to the commander.” He was assigned to the job because he is a “disinterested, unbiased officer.” “I don’t know anyone involved,” he said. Walker said he couldn’t say any more because a student and Texas A&M’s Air Force detachment is involved. He did say he expects his inquiry to last “another couple of days. ” The Battalion will be notified, he said, when the inquiry is complete and final ac tion has been taken. John Hancock? These students are signing up to ride in the Cystic Fibrosis Bike-a-thon sponsored by Keathley Dormi tory. Bikers will ride through the Texas A&M cam pus on Sunday, March 25 from 1-6 p.m. Sponsor sheets are available in the MSC. The students are from left: Zak Marzec, Mike Taylor, Lisa Lackey, Dorothy Cooper and Keith Wilson. Battalion photo by Robert Cook | inance chief es revenue cut Sex discrimination cited Columnist blasts Corps United Press International AUSTIN — The chairman of the Senate nano; Committee said Tuesday the 1979 ;gislature probably will have to scale >wn|ts spending plans. Sen. Grant Jones, D-Abilene, said he ipecti Comptroller Bob Bullock to revise d reduce his estimate of the amount of venue the state can expect for the next 'o years. convinced the comptroller is going have to come up with a new estimate ducing it,” Jones said. “We re going to :e some very difficult decisions.” The budget drafted by the Legislative I -idget Board would spend all but $119 illior, of the revenue Bullock had esti- ted the state could expect to receive in e next two years. Jones said sales tax revenue already is dow anticipated levels, however, and id other state income may not increase expected in an economic down-turn. Hb economists I read all seem to be- ^ve |ve re going to have a slow down. The mint is how soon and how severe,” neslsaid. The Senate Finance Committee endorsed a 5.1 percent pay raise for state employees and public school teachers and indicated the salary increases will have higher priority than adding any new posi tions in state agencies. Senators also called for a detailed exam ination of salaries paid administrators of state agencies and top level management from the governor down. Gov. Bill Clements’ proposal for a $7,000 increase in his $71,000-a-year salay drew criticism from several legislators, in cluding Sen. Carl Parker, D-Port Arthur. “That’s considerably more than 5.1 per cent,” Parker said. Jones, who several weeks ago suggested the Legislature consider adopting a one- year budget in place of the traditional two-year spending plan, said he is afraid lawmakers might overspend. “Here’s the danger that we might spend all of the unexpended balance the first year and establish a spending pattern that would require us to come up with additional money the next year. Then we re facing a hell of a tax bill, ” Jones said. By DIANE BLAKE Battalion Staff Problems of discrimination of women in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M Uni-, versity have come to the attention of a na tionally syndicated columnist. In an article appearing today columnist Jack Anderson wrote that American women may have been liberated by the court but some male chauvinists are “dragging dead opossums” across the path of progress. “Apparently feeling that their macho image was threatened by the admission of women five years ago these overgrown small boys resorted to childish harass ment,” the article said. “Dead armadillos and possums were thrown through the windows of the women’s dorm at night. Barnyard manure and vials of foul smelling liquids were also tossed into the women’s quarters. Even threats of physi cal violence were made on occasion.” Women in the Corps have acknowl edged that these kinds of incidents happen between the men’s outfits, “but the men have different motives when they do it to us,” said Sharon Mabry, commanding offi cer of W-l, one of the two women’s units. “They do it to the men in fun,” she said, “but they’re trying to run us off. ” Other women said that other units get this treatment but npt as often. Anderson wrote specifically of problems faced by one of the female cadets, Melanie Zentgraf. Zentgraf, he said, at first found the dis crimination hard to believe, but in her sophomore year “tried out for the tra ditional all-male color guard, an honor that her academic and military standing easily entitled her to. But she was rejected by vote of the men. “She was similarly rebuffed on three more tryouts before she finally gave up.” Anderson also wrote that when Zentgraf wore riding boots during Elephant Walk once last year — a privilege traditionally reserved for seniors “she was surrounded by 20 outraged male cadets and forced to take the boots off. “The 21-year-old San Antonio woman resigned as first sergeant shortly after the incident. T couldn’t be effective as a leader after that,’ she explained. ‘My word was nothing. ’ Anderson said that Zentgrafs grades have dropped “under the relentless hec toring of the male cadets” and that she is considering transferring to another school. Anderson’s article quoted Col. Kenneth Durham (identified as head of the ROTC, but actually head of only the Air Force ROTC), as saying that “there was sex dis crimination there” and saying women had never been admitted to groups such as the cavalry and Ross Volunteers. At the end of the article, Anderson meft- tions the formation of Corps study com- mmittee, with Zentgraf as a member, that has been formed “to negotiate a cease-fire in the battle of the sexes. ” One of the advisers at the Trigon said he thought one of Anderson’s investigators had handled the story and was never on campus. The adviser also said that he be lieved the story would be “another hot potato, ” and that staff in the Trigon would be very hesitant to say anything about it. Neither Anderson nor Col. Durham couldn’t be contacted for comment. Bill Dugat, next year’s cadet Corps commander and head of the special com mittee, said the group is studying dis crimination problems that both men and women in the Corps face. Capt. Fred May, adviser to the group, said a report on the situation with recommendations is scheduled to be done by the end of March. N.Y. lawyer heads Carter investigation United Press International WASHINGTON — Attorney General Griffin Bell Tuesday appointed a Republi can New York lawyer as “special counsel” to finish the sensitive investigation into loans from the National Bank of Georgia to the Carter family peanut business. Paul J. Curran, 46, who was a U. S. at torney in New York from 1973-75, will take over control of the investigation from the Justice Department. The appointment of Curran followed disclosures that multimillion-dollar loans to the Carter peanut warehouse in Plains, Ga., from the bank headed by Bert Lance were not fully secured and that the Carter business was at one point allowed a $500,000 check overdraft. Those revelations about the loans — made between 1975 and 1977 before Jimmy Carter became president — have raised questions about whether any of the money might have been illegally diverted to Carter’s presidential campaign. At the White House, press secretary Jody Powell said President Carter wel comed the appointment of a special coun sel. “For most of us here, we hope it will provide reassurance the matter will be handled in an impartial manner and of course as expeditiously as possible consis tent with their job,” Powell said. Bell, who was under mounting pressure from Republicans to take the matter out of Justice Department hands, insisted the department could have handled it. He said Curran was named in the “best interest of the administration of justice and the pub lic’s perception of the fairness and impar tiality of justice. ” Heymann said the post of special coun sel is “practically” the same as a Watergate-style special prosecutor. Bell said he preferred the term special counsel because “you assume if you use the term prosecutor that you’re going to prosecute someone.” He said that had not been determined yet in the current inves tigation. The day-to-day operation of the warehouse was handled by Jimmy Carter’s brother, Billy, during the time the loans were made by the Georgia bank headed by Lance. Billy Carter took the 5th Amend ment when called before a grand jury, and Lance faces possible indictment by a grand jury later this month. Jimmy Carter owned 62 percent of the warehouse, but that stock was put into a blind trust when he became president. Loans by the Atlanta-based bank were used by the Carter family to build a new warehouse, purchase a peanut sheller and buy peanuts from southwest Georgia farmers. The loans began in 1975 and eventually extended the family a $6.5 mil lion line of credit. The peanuts were used as collateral for two different NBG loans. But the prob lem, reports have indicated, is that at times there were not enough peanuts in the warehouse to provide sufficient collat eral for the loans. ible offers no guidance on modern homosexuality, prof says By JANE LYON Battalion Reporter .iHF 6 Bible does not give direct /^■" ance on the question of jMwsexuality as society faces it to il’ ii ^ ctor Furnish said in a P a lel discussion of gay rights at A&M University Tuesday theological, legal, and sociolog- !. j^ w the question was pres- ented by Furnish, Dr. William Si- 01 and Steve Eberhard in the jHBF am ’ presented by the Univer- f V s Great Issues committee. irnish, professor of the New n s lir,en t at Southern Methodist Theology, presented his discussion first as “an advocate of the Bible,” saying that people should respect its view on the subject. In his study of the Bible, Furnish said he saw homosexuality in the general context of sin and evil, and not as an individual situation. He added that the Bible expresses ideas for the ancient world that can no longer be expressed for society. He concluded by saying that the old stereotypes of homosexuality would have to be abandoned. In the ancient world, he said, homosexuality was one of the many vices associated with the de bauchery of the idle rich. But he said now it was known that homosexuality may manifest itself in many different ways and levels of society. Eberhard, a graduate of Texas A&M and former student body pres ident, dealt with the legal aspects of gay rights. Also a graduate of the Harvard Law School, he worked on the case of a man who sued to remain in the Air Force in spite of his self- proclaimed homosexuality. “The problem in this area is that most of the laws relating to the homosexual rights are made at the state or local level,” Eberhard said. “There’s very little federal law on homosexual rights.” Eberhard named the First Amendment and the Equal Protec tion clause of the 14th Amendment as probably the best grounds for de fense against discrimination against homosexuals. “I certainly do not propose to take on the issue of whether homosexual ity is in fact moral or immoral,” Eberhard said, adding that he thought each individual should de cide for himself on this issue. In his opinion, Eberhard said, the legislatures will eventually deter mine the fate of homosexuals and that it will be a long time before the Supreme Court would sanction any legal acts of homosexuality. He said currently 36 states and the District of Columbia have laws prohibiting sodomy, 14 have none, and California recognizes homosex ual marriages. Under current law, he said, a homosexual may not be dismissed from public employment solely for being homosexual. The final discussion was pres ented by Dr. William Simon, pro fessor of sociology at the University of Houston, who discussed causes and consequences of homosexuality in society. “We really don’t know (the causes),” Simon said. “Dozens of theories are available, ranging from biological determinism, genetics . . . to psychological reasons.” He said prohibitory talk does more for recruiting to homosexual ity than anything else directly con cerned. In a population of 220 million, in the United States today, Simon said a conservative figure of 5 million to 8 million were known homosexuals. Simon also stated that some of the consequences of discriminating against or repressing a segment of society is to prevent it from con tributing to that society creatively.