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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 1979)
Battalion Friday, April 6, 1979 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 Business Dept. 845-2611 A park is a park? The “park” on Holleman and Anderson streets in College Sta tion is really a vacant lot, and it seems the owner wants the city to buy it. See page 7. Bill limiting state school sales could close MSC bookstore : green and white of Texaco was replaced by the maroon and white ot Aggieland March 29. Mike Fletcher and Jack Pryor do the honors re painting Bill Walden’s Texaco station. Battalion photo by Colin Crombie exaco gives m; station repainted By SALLY DREYFUS Battalion Reporter Never underestimate the power of Aggies. I “The Texaco station on University Drive has been repainted maroon and white once again. ^tudents wrote letters to the division sales office in Dallas complaining of the red and green colors the station was painted, William T. Chesser, supervisor for maintenance and operations for the Dallas division said. Lynn Ashby, columnist for the Houston Post, said in his column March 29, You’d think Texaco would have more important items on the agenda than trying toforce one station in a college town to repaint, thus losing its uniqueness - and several good customers - in the process. Get with the program, Texaco. And so they did. The station was painted maroon and white March 29. Chesser said the whole situation was just a misunderstanding. “We never had any intention of changing the color. It was just a miscommunication with the paint extractors. We just didn’t look into the situation.’ f^hesser and Walding both said they think Ashby’s article helped in getting the station repainted. BSure Ashby’s article had something to do with it, but we had already decided tolrepaint it before the article,” Chesser said. ■The station looks a lot better maroon and white,” Walding said, “The first time ml' station was painted maroon and white, I fanagled a tea-sip into painting it. He was the area rep.” aValding said there was no way of pinpointing whether or not the green and red station affected sales. ■Gas sales are down anyway, ” Walding said. “We were out of gas over a week last month.” HRValding said he did want to thank “you people and Texaco.” ■This situation is a little unusual,” he said. “It shows people can get results out of a big company. They’ll listen to their customers.” •ter turnout may be increased With easier ballot, more booths By JEAN LONGSERRE Battalion Reporter Voting in student elections usually means searching for voting booths and standing in long waiting lines, but this .year things will be different, said Bill Jentsch, student election commissioner. jTast year students had to stand in line bfflse the computer voting machines,” jentsch said. “The ballots had to be put on the-machines and students had to punch ^ jtoles by their choices.” Jentsch said the JWcedure caused long lines and as a re sult, lack of voters. ^Election ballots this year are similar to khiovement tests and are in book form. a voter does is mark, with a number !s|encil, the candidates he wants to vote for, Jentsch said. Jentsch said the votes will be tabulated by computer in the Teague Center. Last 'ear polling booth were closed at 1 p.m. •ecause ballots had to be taken to San Marcos to be tabulated. The polls will open Monday and Tues- a4at 9 a.m. and close at 6 p.m. "We are having eight voting spots this fear Jentsch said. “Last year there were I Bseven.” Joting will be held in the Memorial Student Center, the Commons, the Corps Gukrd Room, Kleberg Center, Sbisa and 8t jill three bus stops. Only one polling place was located at a bus stop last year, ■he new system should make it easier forltudents to vote,” Jentsch said. Tolls will be manned by volunteers from Onjega Phi Alpha and Alpha Phi Omega, the University service sorority and frater nity Jentsch said unmanned polls should Bbe a problem. Jptsch said the ballot will include a re- fertndum concerning graduation with »rs. Voters will decide if the grade Wit averages for graduating magna cum Be, summa cum laude and cum laude should remain 3.9, 3.7 and 3.5 or be low ered to 3.75, 3.5 and 3.25. Jentsch said students need their activity card and and identification card to vote. By KEITH TAYLOR Battalion Staff Texas Aggie T-shirts won’t be sold at the Texas A&M Bookstore on campus if a bill in the Texas Senate passes. And student organizations would probably lose at least $120,000 in funds from bookstore profits. The bill, now in the Texas Senate Edu cation Committee, would prevent state university bookstores from selling goods not related to educational purposes. That means the campus bookstore could not sell goods such as mugs, sporting goods and toiletries. The bill would also close the candy shop on the first floor of the Memorial Student Center. John Raney, an off-campus bookstore owner in College Station, proposed the bill to Sen. O.H. Harris, R-Dallas. Off-campus merchants say they feel the bill would be a victory for free enterprise, but the campus bookstore management feels it would cut services and inconve nience students. “When you think about it, government should not be in the business to make a profit.” Raney said Wednesday afternoon. “That should be left to private enterprise. Why don’t they (the University) go into every kind of business in the world? Then what would you have — socialism.” Raney and Judson Loupot, another Northgate area bookstore owner, feel the sale of non-educational goods by the bookstore is unfair competition by the state against private business. “All we’re asking is they could be in the market place in the same manner we are and they can’t do it as long as they are provided with money from the taxpayers of the state of Texas,” he said. “How can they compete with us fairly?” Howard Vestal, vice president for busi ness affairs, said the bill would probably not help the off-campus merchants. “I don’t believe most visitors will go off-campus to buy these things,” he said. “It is impulse buying.” He said most gift item sales are to visitors on the campus. The Northgate merchants say visitors would go off-campus to buy the goods. Charles Cargill, director of business services, which runs the campus bookstore, also opposes the legislation. “It is doubtful the store could survive if the bill is passed, ” he said Tuesday after noon. “The bill would completely elimi nate any contributions to the students. The bookstore cannot exist on the mark-up on books alone. “There has not been anything in many years that could be as financially disastrous to the students or the taxpayers as this bill. “The campus organizations would have to get their money somewhere else. Stu dent service fees are possible, so this could cost the student more money.” A proposal already in the student gov ernment would raise the limit on student service fees from $20 to $23, Profits from the bookstore help finance 150 student organizations, including the Texas Aggie Band, the Residence Hall As sociation and the bonfire. In fiscal year 1978 (ending Aug. 30, 1978), the bookstore showed a profit of about $400,000. Campus organizations got $100,000 of the profits. Fiscal year 1979 will not end until Au gust, but Cargill said the store has already allocated $120,000 for campus organiza tions. The rest of the profits were turned back into a reserve fund used to support the inventory of the store. “That $120,000 is a spit in the bucket compared to what you are already paying in student service fees that goes to the same projects,” said John Raney. He said the students are essentially forced to pay this money when they buy goods from the campus bookstore. With a campus population of about 30,000, the bookstore share for each stu dent is about $4. Raney and Loupot said the campus bookstore has many advantages that give it an unfair edge in competition. They said the University bookstore does not have to pay the taxes that they do as private busi nesses. Loupot said up to half of his gross profits are used to pay taxes and utilities. Raney added that the campus store does not have expens ve capital and does not have to pay interest on loans. Raney asked, “Do you know that Con gress passed a law about two years ago, the Postal Reorganization Act, that allows in stitutional bookstores to receive (by mail) their books at library rates, which is almost one-half the cost of fourth class book rate I have to pay for my books?” Cargill said he knew of no law that al lows tbe campus bookstore this advantage. According to the Newspaper Enterprises Association World Almanac, the postal service law allows a special rate for the exchange of books between col leges and libraries. Raney and Loupot also say the location of the bookstore creates an unfair advan tage, but Cargill said the location provides the students a convenient service. Cargill said he does not feel the campus bookstore is unfairly competing with off- cam pu s' m erchant s. “If we went off-campus, then we could be accused of competing with them, but we are on campus,” Cargill said. “We don’t advertise anywhere except in The Battalion. We are an auxiliary service. “We look at the campus as a family and we are an internal part of it. Our motive is service and there is obviously a need.” The Texas A&M Bookstore does have an advertisement in the Yellow Pages. Vestal said the Texas A&M administra tion has sent a position paper that opposes the bill to the Legislative Budget Board, which evaluates bills for the Legislature and estimatzyeir economic impact. “There is no real purpose for this bill except a profit motive by those instigating it,” Cargill said. Texas A&M University’s polarized ion source is hard at work in the Cyclotron. Officials say that an No possibility of accident here accident similar to the one near Harrisburg, Pa., could not happen here. Battalion photo by Bob Cook A&M’s nuclear reactor safe By RHONDA WATTERS Battalion Reporter It would be impossible for an incident similar to the accident on Three Mile Is land to take place at Texas A&M Univer sity’s nuclear reactor, said a coordinator at the Texas A&M Nuclear Science Center. “The reactor here is used for teaching purposes, research and the production of isotopes,” said Dr. Rion Causey, a profes sor in the nuclear engineering depart ment. He said that the reactor is not a power reactor and does not have high enough temperature and pressure to be a potential danger. Causey explained that the danger in reactor plants comes from the reaction of steam with the zirconium barrier on the New Batt, Aggieland editors picked fuel rods, releasing hydrogen gas. The Texas A&M reactor has no steam system, so there is no possibility of an accident such as the one on Three Mile Island. Ken Walker, reactor coordinator for the Texas A&M plant, said that although no one is really sure what happened at Three Mile Island, preliminary indications show the problem was due to human error. He said that it'seems that someone had turned off a valve. Walker said he blamed the media for creating a situation appearing to be worse than it was. “It (the accident) caught us by surprise ... but in my opinion it was not even ‘almost’ catastrophic.” He also em phasized that there were no deaths from the accident and no immediate known injuries. Causey said he thought the incident was a “newsworthy” event and felt it merited much of the heavy coverage it received by the media. “I don’t think it has all been blown out of proportion,” he said. Causey added that the lack of confirma tion of stories was very confusing and caused much of the public alarm. As for the effect of the incident on the future of the nuclear industry, Causey said that he thinks nuclear energy is too eco nomical to be discontinued. He said that there is a referendum in Chicago calling for a moratorium on the building of future plants, but he feels Chicago voters will vote in favor of nuclear energy, primarily because 40 percent of the city’s power comes from nuclear plants. In Austin Saturday, citizens will vote -to see whether they want to hold onto their 16 percent interest in the $2.07 billion South Texas Nuclear Project, which is building a plant about 70 miles southwest of Houston. Bringing the incident to a local level, Causey said that “something interesting will be to see how many freshman enter nuclear engineering in the fall.” He said that parents of incoming freshman could possibly influence their children against going into the nuclear field as a result of the incident. By RUSTY McDONALD Battalion Reporter Liz Newlin has been selected fall editor of The Battalion, Karen Rogers summer editor of The Battalion and Pat O’Malley editor of the 1980 Aggieland. The three were elected Thursday eve ning by the seven-member Student Publi cations Board, an advisory group made up of three students and four faculty and staff members. Newliq and Rogers were elected unanimously while O’Malley won with five votes. Newlin, a junior communications major from Tyler, plans for more consistent and in-depth coverage of the campus and re search done at Texas A&M University. She said in her application that she wants to put the emphasis on Texas A&M stu dents in the weekly Focus entertainment section and have more participation in the editorial page by both staffers and readers. Newlin was editor of her high school newspaper two years and has won several awards for reporting and editing. She has worked for the Tyler Courier-Times- Telegraph and the Bryan Eagle. Her awards include Outstanding Junior for the College of Liberal Arts, a first place in Spot News Reporting from the South western Journalism Congress (’79), presi dent of the campus chapter of Women In Communications Inc. and a President’s Endowed Scholarship. Rogers, a senior journalism major from Houston, plans to have more in-depth re porting in The Battalion along with more Carter unleashes prices he hopes to cut energy use LIZ NEWLIN feature stories. During the summer of 1978, she served as an intern for the Houston Chronicle covering the civil courts and writing gen eral assignment features. Rogers has had two years exprience on the campus newspaper as both a staff member and as a city reporter. Her honors include a first place in headline writing at the Southwestern Journalism Congress (’79) and membership in Sigma Delta Chi, the society of professional journalists. O’Malley, a junior industrial distribu- PAT O’MALLEY tion major from Houston, is presently co editor of the 1979 Aggieland. As editor he plans to keep the job of head photo grapher, which he says cuts out time and money by reducing this step in the pro cess. O’Malley has been a free-lance photo grapher for publications in Houston, Dal las and College Station. In high school he was a photographer, sports editor and editor of the yearbook. He has also been on the 1977, 1978 and 1979 Aggieland staffs. \ United Press International WASHINGTON — President Carter to the American people: Drive less and pay mo^e per gallon — it will hurt you in the wallet, but eventually it will make the country energy-strong. Carter to Congress: Don’t let your con stituents bear all the pain — declare war on the petroleum lobby and slap the big oil companies with a windfall profits tax. The president, despite some evidence to the contrary from Europe, is gambling the political and economic impacts of end ing U.S. oil price controls will be more than offset by the conservation benefits of higher fuel prices. And he is challenging Congress either to ease the sting of his decontrol move with a windfall profits tax or to bear the onus for letting oil companies reap an unearned bonanza. It is a large gamble. And Carter is well aware it will provoke a fight. “I’ll give it to you straight,” a somber president told Americans in a formal, na tionally televised address Thursday night. “Each of us will have to use less oil and pay more for it.” Gradually removing price controls from U.S. crude oil between June 1 of this year and Sept. 30, 1981, will drive gasoline prices up anywhere from 5 to 20 cents a gallon by 1982, depending on who makes the estimate, and boost the price of every other product — nitrogen fertilizer and synthetic fabric to auto tires and plastic — tbat is derived from petroleum. Administration officials said their esti mates showed higher prices in the long run would curb energy use, reducing U.S. oil imports. But in France, where gasoline pump prices have soared in recent years from 80 cents to more than $2.50 a gallon, con sumption is at record levels. Reaction came swiftly. It split generally along geographical lines — praised by those from oil-producing states and damned by others. “It’s a declaration of war on the North east,” said Democratic Rep. Toby Moffett of Connecticut, which is heavily depen dent on oil. But Republican Sen. Henry Bellmon, from oil-rich Oklahoma, said Carter s plan was “the first step in the right direction and should have come sooner.