Tradition bites dust —
abandoned cap saved
By STANTON RAY
Battalion Reporter
Some days you simply can’t start a good
tradition at Texas A&M University, no
matter how hard you try — even if you do
something not just twice, but four times.
But some members of Company D-2, the
Dog Company, sure gave it an Old Army
try some years back.
It seems that in 1973, Will Anderson
and nine of his cronies from D-2 decided
to start a tradition called the “Flying Bit
ers.”
They commenced by signing the lining
of a fish-year biter (the Corps’ name for
one of its kinds of caps), sealing it in a
brown jar, and sending the bravest
member of that group up the 165-foot light
pole at the south end of the east side of
Kyle Field. He secured it with black elec
trical tape and came down.
Not satisfied with doing it once, the
men retrieved the cap each year until they
graduated. Each time, the hat was re
moved and replaced with a new one, and
the old biter moved to the top of the next
light pole to the north.
The group planned to retrieve the jar at
its five-year reunion, but the renovation of
Kyle Field forced a change in plans.
When Anderson, a journalism graduate,
heard what was happening at the stadium,
he sent a letter to the Department of
Communications explaining about the jar
and the hat. He asked that, if recovered, it
be turned over to the department’s former
secretary, Pat Cote, who now works in the
educational information services depart
ment.
In the meantime, the stadium lights
were taken down and put on the ground
behind the soccer fields across Wellborn
Road. One afternoon a workman discov
ered a curious brown object taped to a
stadium lamp. He took his find to his boss,
asking, “What the hell is this thing I
found?”
John Holloway, his boss, said it was the
“damndest thing” he ever saw.
Knowing that it had something to do
with the Corps, he handed it over to Sam
Martin, chief of inspection in the
facilities-construction division at Texas
A&M, who handed it over to The Battal
ion, who handed it over to Pat Cote.
Company D-2 now on campus was
notified of the recovery, but it has little
knowledge or interest in the matter.
Attempts were made to contact Will
Anderson and his chums, but they were all
in Germany, or in parts unknown, or on
ships headed for Pago Pago or somesuch
places.
Anyway, when Will “Spaceman” Ander
son, Kit Haydon, Bart Jennings, Howard
“Rotgut” Lund, Phil “Fig” Newton, Roger
Poole, J.T. Thornton, Kerry “Big K”
Wright, Super Mev and Toad return to
Texas A&M in 1981 to retrieve their jar
they’ll still have some climbing to do. But
the single flight of stairs to Cote’s office
does have a handrail.
Battalion
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Emergency!
College Station erupted in
disaster Sunday — but people
were trained, not maimed. See
page 6.
Effect of Bryan Civil
Service vote debated
race, included 25- and 50-mile races for cash.
The 25-mile race took about 45 laps, and the 50-
mile race about 75. Steve Tilford from an Ames,
Iowa, bicycle club won. Local businesses sponsored
prizes totaling about $1,000.
Battalion photo by Clay Cockrill
air receives highest honor
\t annual MSC awards banquet
Ronald Woessner, a senior forestry
[major, and Paul Haensly, a senior double
in math and physics,
^Rnents of the Thomas H. Roundtree
Award, the highest award given to mem
bers of the Memorial Student Center
Council and Directorate who have shown
outstanding leadership abilities.
Bfle awards were given at the organiza
tion s 28th annual awards banquet Satur
day evening at the MSC. About 400
people attended, including students, par
ents and school officials, who heard a
keynote address by Dave Maddox, a
former student and a 1969 Roundtree
Award recipient.
Woessner has served the organization as
vice president of administration and
Haensly as vice president of finance.
dmpus voting to decide
134 positions, one issue
Polls will be open from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. today and Tuesday for Texas A&M
Jniversity’s Student Government elections.
Voting will be held in the Memorial Student Center, the Commons dor-
uitories, the Corps Guard Room, Kleberg Center, Sbisa dining hall, and at the
[three bus stops (east of the MSC, south of the Oceanography and Meteorology
luilding, and by the Reed McDonald Building).
Students must show their activity cards and ID cards to vote.
The races include those for student body president, five executive vice presi
dents, three senior and two junior yell leader spots, class officers, and others.
There are 134 positions open, though not all of the races have candidates.
The ballot will also include a referendum concerning graduation with honors.
Voters will say whether they prefer the current standards, which require grade
point ratios of 3.9 for summa cum laude honors, 3.7 for magna cum laude, and 3.5
>r cum laude, or lower ones of 3.75, 3.5 and 3.25 respectively.
Voting this year will be done with pencils in booklets similar to achivement test
[forms. Officials hope this will make the process quicker than last year, when
[students used voting machines.
A sample election ballot appears on page 8 of today’s Battalion.
Twelve students were awarded Distin
guished Service Awards for work beyond
what their positions called for. They in
clude: Teresa Beshara, director of projects;
Gina Casas, Aggie Cinema chairman; Ray
Daniels, MSC Council and Directorate
president; Corey Gaskill, chairman of
travel; Brooks Herring, chairman of Town
Hall; Steve Hageman, director of funds;
Steve Horn, chairman of Great Issues;
Patrice Jones, OPAS chairman; Lynn
Knaupp, vice president of programs; Ann
Marie Landis, director of public relations;
Jane McGregor, chairman of Political
Forum; and Daryl Taraba, chairman of the
Student Conference on National Affairs
(SCONA).
Distinguished Service awards were also
given to non-students who made contribu
tions to the organization. Dr. Larry
McCullough, an adviser for the Arts
Committee and Great Issues, and Robert
Wimbish, a representative of former stu
dents, were given the awards.
The J. Wayne Stark Award for special
projects was given to Rhonda Reger for
work as chairman of the summer dinner
theater.
Awards for outstanding work for a first
year member went to Dorothy DuBois,
Brian Gross and Roger Messersmith; sec
ond year, Dan Ayre, Wayne Helton and
Sara Morse; and third year Rebecca Taul-
man and Cindy Williams. Additional
awards were also given to outstanding
committee members, including outstand
ing service and meritorious service for
each committee.
By DOUG GRAHAM
Battalion Staff
The new Civil Service Act status the
Bryan Police and Firemen won during
Saturday’s elections will not be all good,
said Bryan’s city manager, Ernest Clark.
He said the act can mean higher taxes
and loss of local control over the two de
partments.
The reason it will escalate costs is be
cause of Sec. 26 of the law which states
employees will receive 15 days of paid sick
leave a year, and will get paid for all their
accumulated sick leave if they quit.
“Were saying rather than being an in
centive to stay, it (The Civil Service Act) is
an incentive to leave: we are paying
people to leave. In 1978 13 firemen left
their department and 11 officers left the
police department. Under the act, their
leaving would have cost us $13,500. ”
Yet, he said the Bryan City Council will
abide by the 57-vote margin of victory.
The won 1,495 to 1,438.
Police Det. Wentrcek, however, said
City elections
fill board seats
Ann Jones and Herman Brown were
elected to the A&M Consolidated School
Board in Saturday’s election.
Jones ran against Mary Fellenz for Pos -
ion 1; Brown against James McNamara and
Oran Jones for Position 2.
All three College Station City Council
positions were filled by unopposed candi
dates.
Incumbents Gary Halter and Larry
Ringer filled Places 1 and 3. Tony Jones, a
College Station builder, won Place 5.
In Bryan, the Civil Service Act for
police and firemen passed by 57 votes With
50.97 percent of 2,933 votes cast.
Incumbent Wayne Gibson defeated
Sparkey Hardee for Position 5 on the
Bryan City Council. Unopposed incum
bents Joe Hanover and Peyton Waller will
fill Postions 1 and 2 on the council.
Richard Smith, the incumbent mayor of
Bryan, was re-elected without opposition.
James Stegall, the Position 6 incumbent
on the Bryan School Board, defeated
Ronald Holmes. Unopposed Travis Bryan
was re-elected to school board Position 7.
the net effect of the vote will be to increase
the number of career police officers in
Bryan.
The reason, he said, is that police offi
cers in Bryan will have a greater sense of
job security.
Before the election he said, “Right now
the only notice they have to give us is a
three weeks’ notice, by law. With the Act,
we ll have a grievance process for hiring
and firing.”
The grievance process is important be
cause of a clause in the civil service act
which says no policeman or fireman can be
fired except for reasons relating to derelic
tion of duty, criminal behavior, behavior
unbecoming a police officer, or poor job
performance.
Indefinite suspension without pay, the
equivalent of being fired, said Wentrcek,
is no longer possible under the new law.
Wentrcek added that officers were
afraid to speak out on issues because of
possible retribution.
Clark said he did not know why the
police felt they were afraid to speak out,
but stated that the both the city and its fire
and police departments may lose some
freedom under the act.
Under the act, which can be adopted by
any city in Texas with a population of
20,000 or more, certain senority systems
are set up. To be eligible for promotion,
employees must be of certain rank and
pass an examination. Clark 'said that re
cently a driver in the fire department had
been promoted to a training officer, but
that under the civil service act, the de
partment could only promote from one of
the three available fire captains.
“I don’t want to make Civil Service
seem that bad, but I see pitfalls and re
strictions. We’ll make it work. The offi
cers, I think, are going to be surprised at
what will have to take place.”
Wentrcek said that the senority sys
tems, vacation (15 paid days each year),
and the appeal process in discipline, will
contribute to more career police officers in
Bryan.
3
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V.,
id,
ind
ustin to keep share of nuclear plant
United Press International
USTIN — Despite a barrage of ad
verse news from the Three Mile Island
Hclear power plant accident, Austin vot-
e* decided to stay in a similar project in
South Texas, and a spokesman for the
victorious campaign Sunday said it was
fpfcbably a bellwether for most American
cities.
■About 55,415 voters, or 34 percent of
H)se registered, turned out in the state
capital Saturday to approve Proposition 1
ola complicated ballot, which would au
thorize issuance of an additional $216 mil
lion in bonds to keep the city’s 16 percent
■re in the South Texas Project, under
construction 160 miles south at Bay City.
Elhe vote was 28,430, or 53 percent, for.
and 25,037, 47 percent, against.
“If the anti-nukes could not win in Aus
tin, with its past voting record, there are
very few cities I think they could win in,”
said John Rogers Jr., who managed the
winning campaign in the college town.
“This community has 40,000 students
and a very sophisticated voting electorate
which keeps up with the issues very well. ”
Speaking for the losing side, Richard
Duncan, chairman of the Austin Citizens
for Economical Energy, said the vote was
not a clear referendum on the issues of
nuclear energy because of a misleading se
ries of four propositions on the ballot. One
of the propositions offered a coal power
plant as a more expensive alternative, if
the nuclear proposition failed.
“Frankly,” said Duncan, “we feel it was
a political move to make the nuclear plant
look cheaper by comparison. It was just
another confusing election. We have been
asking the city council for a straight vote
on nuclear energy, and have never gotten
it.”
Austin owns a 16 percent share in the
STP nuclear plant which is under con
struction in Bay City. Houston, San An
tonio and Corpus Christi also own shares
in the plant, which is similar in design to
the Three Mile Island plant. The first unit
in the nuclear project is scheduled to
begin production in 1982.
The city paid $160 million for its original
share. Cost overruns and additional ex
penses, however, had forced citizens to
decide if they wanted to spend an
additional $216 million to issue revenue
bonds to maintain their proportionate
share in the nuclear plant.
Four propositions were offered on the
ballot — the first called for the issuing of
$216 million more in bonds to stay in the
project; the second called for selling out.
Proposition 3 and Proposition 4 were of
fered as contingency plans should Proposi
tion 1 fail. They would have authorized
selling of $593.9 million in bonds for con
struction of a new lignite coal generating
plant in Fayette County.
The vote on Proposition 2, to sell all of
Austin’s share, was 25,500, or 49.1 percent
for, and 26,437, or 50.9 percent, against.
Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper
Secret ingredient?
The big alligator gar Larry Zweifel is showing off didn’t go into Zweifel’s
“River Bottom Chili,” although at least one armadillo sweetened his chili
pot. Zweifel and cooking partners Mike and Shawn Riley were compet
ing in the Bryan-College Station Jaycees Chili Olympics Saturday.